Divorce and vows before God, Matthew 5:31-37

As we continue in our ongoing study of the Sermon on the Mount, we are now in the middle of an exposition which Jesus is giving concerning the law.  Jesus has said that rather than diminishing the law, or abolishing the law, He has actually come to accomplish it and fulfill it.  And in regards to our responsibility to the law, He has said that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees then we cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

So to that point, in regards to how we must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, He gives six illustrations of the law, in which He contrasts the teaching of the Pharisees with His own teaching, which of course is the intent of the law from God’s perspective. 

Last week, we looked at the second law which Jesus interpreted, which is the law concerning adultery. And  closely related to adultery is the next law which Jesus expounds upon, which is the law concerning divorce.  And we will also look at the one which follows divorce, which is the law concerning  vows, which, of course, is closely related to divorce. 

I want to say by way of introduction, that this teaching concerning divorce is not one that many preachers want to deal with in today’s culture.  If the statistics concerning divorce are correct, then even within the church the divorce rate is about 50%.  So at the very outset, I risk offending half of the people here today.  

But the fact that we preach through the Bible verse by verse, expositionally, means that sooner or later we will get to all the doctrines in the Bible, whether they are popular topics or not.  If I were interested in being popular, I would probably find a way to avoid having to speak on this topic.  But if we are to be true to the teaching of Christ, then we must deal with this subject.  I will say this in my defense however, the teaching that you hear today is the teaching of Jesus Christ.  It is not my teaching. My job is not to correct Jesus or reinterpret what He said.  I am going to tell you to the best of my ability exactly what Jesus taught.  So if you have an issue with the subject matter today, then I urge you to take it up with Him, not me.  I’m just the messenger.

Now as I have said previously, Jesus is not disputing the law of Moses, but rather the interpretation of the Pharisees in regards to these laws.  Let’s read again what Jesus is saying. Vs. 31 "It was said, 'WHOEVER SENDS HIS WIFE AWAY, LET HIM GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE';  but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for [the] reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”  So first Jesus says what the Pharisees were teaching concerning divorce, and then He contrasts it with His interpretation. 

Now we know that Jesus was accusing the Pharisees of misinterpreting the law, but perhaps it would be helpful for us to review the law of divorce as Moses gave it.  In Deut.  24:1-4 Moses said, "When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts [it] in her hand and sends her out from his house,  and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man's [wife,]  and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts [it] in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife,  [then] her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance.”

The purpose then of this injunction was to regulate divorce.  The situation in Israel had become one in which men were divorcing for all kinds of reasons, even because the wife may have  burned their breakfast.  They could get a divorce because the wife burned their toast. And in that society, women didn’t have a lot of rights, nor did they have a lot of options.  And so the injunction of Moses was so that there would be some order restored to the sanctity of marriage, and also to provide some protection for the women who were being treated unfairly.

So the law limited divorce to only those cases in which there was some sort of unfaithfulness. He spoke of something he calls uncleanness or indecency.  It means  a moral defect.  It also required that she be given a certificate of divorce, upon the testimony of two witnesses.  So the law made divorce a legal matter, and a very serious one.  It was given to reduce the trivial reasons for divorce which had become the norm in society. 

Another thing that is indicated in the law was that a man who had given a writ of divorce is not allowed to marry her again, if she had been remarried and divorced since their original marriage.  Again, the purpose of the law was to limit the type of divorce that was so commonplace in that society, and to make them realize that it wasn’t something to just wander in and out of, but it’s a permanent thing. So that’s the law of Moses.

Now consider what the Pharisees said.  They taught that Moses commanded a man to divorce his wife under certain conditions. But that was not what Moses had said.  Moses had put certain restrictions and limitations on divorce, but he had never commanded it.  Furthermore, they took the word “uncleanness” and applied it to all kinds of things that were never intended in the original law. The main thing the Pharisees were concerned about was giving the writ of divorce.  They were only interested in the fact that if you wanted a divorce, you had to give the wife a certificate of divorce.  They weren’t interested in the reasons for it, just accommodating it.

So what does Jesus say in regards to divorce?  Jesus says, “but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”  He gives them God’s intention concerning divorce.  Jesus says that there is only one legitimate reason for divorce and that is sexual immorality.  All the other hosts of reasons that were popular were against the law of God, and furthermore to divorce on other grounds did not annul the marriage at all in the eyes of God.  In God’s eyes, they were still married, regardless of what the writ of divorce might say.  So then Jesus says an illegitimate divorce gives place to adultery because God doesn’t recognize the divorce.  It is possible for a person to have a divorce that is recognized by the state, but not by God. If that person goes on to marry someone else, God considers that relationship adultery because He sees them as still married.

Listen, what that teaches us is that marriage is a sacred contract between the two people and God. Whether or not the state recognizes it, or even defines it is irrelevant in the eyes of God. Marriage is determined by God and authored by God and is entered into as a vow unto God, which is binding as long as they shall live.  The only exception is that of immorality, and even that is not commanded by God.  God permits it, but does not command it.

Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 19 and let’s look at another time when Jesus answered this question concerning divorce and I think you will see there the heart of God concerning this matter.  Matt. 19:3-9 “Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, "Is it lawful [for a man] to divorce his wife for any reason at all?"  And He answered and said, "Have you not read that He who created [them] from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE,  and said, 'FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH'? "So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND [her] AWAY?" He said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery."

First of all, notice that Jesus clearly defines marriage as the union of a man and his wife, male and female.  That’s God’s definition of marriage.  Secondly, Jesus said, What God has joined together, let no man separate. So marriage is a sacred union and a covenant between God and man.  And if you break that covenant between male and female, you still have the covenant with God to deal with.

Listen, why does the Lord care so much about marriage?  Why does God hold us to such a high standard in regards to marriage? It’s because marriage is a symbol of God’s relationship to us.  Paul said in 2 Cor. 11:2 that he betrothed us to one husband, who is Jesus Christ. The church, that is the people that are born again, that have entered into the kingdom of heaven, are described in scripture as the bride of Christ. Our reunion with the Lord at His coming is described as the bridgroom coming for His bride.  The consummation of the kingdom at His second coming is called the marriage supper of the Lamb.  So in our salvation  we have become one flesh with the Lord.  He has entered into us. We have committed our life to Him, and He has committed His life to us.  And God will never divorce us.  

In Malachi 2:16 God says, “For I hate divorce.”  The Lord said numerous times in scripture, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  He will never forget His covenant with us.  2Timothy 2:13 says, even “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” 

Now this standard of God in regards to marriage is applied to us, that we might be like God. That is the purpose of our sanctification, to become remade in the image of Christ, to mirror the nature and character of God.  And that is the intent of the law, that we might know the nature of God so that we might be like Him.

The purpose of the law is that we might be holy, even as He is holy. It is to raise our level of love to the standard which God has for us; a sacrificial, unwavering love, a love rooted in forgiveness and long-suffering.  A love that never fails. And so rather than diminish that law as the Pharisees had done, Jesus raises the standard of marriage to the standard of God.

Then building upon that law regarding divorce, which is really a law pertaining to marriage, Jesus then restates God’s law concerning oaths. I think that it especially applies to the vows of marriage, but it also has a much broader application as we will see.  Let’s consider again what Jesus says in vs 33, "Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE LORD.'  "But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,  or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING.  "Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. "But let your statement be, 'Yes, yes' [or] 'No, no'; anything beyond these is of evil.”

Now if we use the same formula as in the preceding exposition of the law, then we would first ask, what did the law of Moses say?  Well, the 10 commandments does not state this explicitly.  What it does say is that “you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”  That certainly applies to the taking of an oath, if you are using God’s name as a guarantee of your word. There is another reference however, which is found in Leviticus 19:12, which says, “You shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am the LORD.  So out of these two commands the Pharisees had extracted their teaching which was “YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE LORD.”

So what had evolved out of this teaching of the Pharisees was that they supposed that as long as they did not swear by the Lord, they could still swear, but swear by things of less importance. They had reduced the law of God to just the matter of perjury.  As long as you didn’t perjure yourself, then you were fine.  They could swear by heaven, or by the temple, or anything that they thought gave their word weightiness.  But the other aspect of this practice, was that they attributed more weight to one oath above another.  If they swore by the temple, then that was not really binding.  If you swore by the altar in the temple  it was not binding, but if you swore by the sacrifice on the altar then you were absolutely bound.  And so out of this interpretation of the law they had come up with a sliding scale in regards to truthfulness and making oaths.

Now how did the Lord contrast the correct teaching of the law?  Notice He says, “but I say to you.”  He is the authority, He is the law giver. And He says, “But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,  or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING.  "Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. "But let your statement be, 'Yes, yes' [or] 'No, no'; anything beyond these is of evil.”

Some people have taken this injunction of the Lord quite legalistically to the point that they do not feel that they can take an oath at all.  For instance, in a court of law they cannot make an oath.  But if we examine the Bible, we find many examples in which oaths were taken and there was no rebuke from the Lord.  For instance, Abraham extracted an oath from his servant when he went to find Isaac a wife. Jacob extracted an oath from Joseph, and Joseph from his brothers. Jonathan asked an oath from David.

One of the best examples is one which we looked at last Wednesday in our Bible study.  The Gibeonites came to the nation of Israel under false pretenses, having disguised themselves as coming from a far country because they knew that God had prohibited the Jews from making alliances with the Canaanites.  So they came under disguise and after hearing them out, the Israelites decided to make an alliance with them. Joshua 9:15 says, “Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live; and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them.”

When after three days they found out that they had been deceived, the Israelites still kept their oath.  In fact, later when the Gibeonites were being attacked by the Canaanites, they sent word to Israel and asked for help.  And Joshua and the leaders of Israel came to their defense because of not only their oath to them, but the spirit of the oath. And God blessed their commitment to that oath.  They could have let them be attacked and perhaps gotten the burden of them off their backs and been free from the oath.  But because they understood the principle behind the oath, they went to their defense.

There are New Testament examples of oaths as well.  It might be argued that Jesus responded to an oath by answering the high priest at His trial. He responded when He was adjured by God to answer whether or not He was the Christ.  He did not rebuke the high priest, but He answered him in the affirmative.  And Paul on a couple of occasions gave an oath, in Romans 9:1 he says, “I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not.” And again in 2 Cor. 1:23, “ I call God to witness for my soul…”  

Another example is given in Hebrews 6:16, this time speaking of God HImself taking an oath. “In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.”

The conclusion that we can draw from this is that oath taking should be restricted, realizing that all oaths are binding, all promises are binding, and that while the need for oaths should be rare, there are times when a solemn oath is not only legitimate, but lends an authority which nothing else can give.  And Jesus clearly teaches that oaths that are given in such a way that  they are not intended to be binding, are really a form of lying.  He teaches that speaking the truth is always a solemn matter and a necessity before men and God.

One of the greatest tragedies in modern society is the breaking of oaths in regards to marriage.  As I said at the beginning of the message, the law of divorce is closely related to the law of oaths, and I believe the Lord deliberately placed them next to one another in His message.  Marriage is a sacred covenant between God and a man and woman.  And the fact that people today so casually break these oaths is a matter of grave concern to God, and it has grave repercussions to His people.  I gave the Gibeonites as an example while ago of a people who came under false pretenses and made a covenant with Israel.  Israel could have tried to use the excuse that they had made a mistake in making a covenant with them.  They could have used the excuse that it was made under false pretenses.  But two wrongs do not make a right.  Even thought that was true, they still considered their oath as binding, even to the point of going to war to keep not just the letter of the oath, but the spirit of the oath.  

And God gave the Israelites a great victory because they kept their word.  God puts a high value on keeping oaths, and He will hold us accountable when we break them.  Many years after this event, King Saul acted unfaithfully towards the Gibeonites.  He had put some of them to death in his zeal for Israel.  Though his zeal for Israel was a good thing, yet God punished Israel for Saul breaking their oath to them to protect them.  It happened many years later after Saul’s death, during the reign of King David. God sent a famine in the land, and it lasted for three years.  David finally came to God and asked why He was sending a famine upon them.  And God answered in 2Samuel 21:1"It is for Saul and his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”  

The point I want to make is this.  The fact that you may have broken your vows, whatever they may be, might have resulted in you having a famine in your life.  David had to go to the Gibeonites and make things right with them.  It wasn’t an easy thing to do.  It required a great sacrifice to set things right.  And that might be what God requires of you concerning your vows.  Some things you cannot undo.  But you can still repent and try to make things right.  

Listen, if you are a Christian today then you are the children of God, citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.  If we have been born again then we have become partakers of His divine nature.  We are to conduct ourselves with fear on the earth, lest we sully the name of Christ. Peter said in 1Peter 1:17-19 “If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay [on earth;]  knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,  but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, [the blood] of Christ.”

God sees our hearts, He hears every word we speak, every promise we make. He witnesses every action that we do. Let us be obedient even as Christ was obedient, let us love even as God loves, and let our conversation be true even as God is true.  Praise God that He keeps His promises.  Thank God that He will never divorce us.  Thank God that we can trust in His word and His enduring love for us.  

Listen, the law was given to be a tutor to show us our sinfulness and our need of a Savior.  I urge you today, if you have not been born again, to confess your sin to the Lord, and repent, and believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, that you might become one with Christ and receive His Spirit within you.  Today is the acceptable day of salvation.  The Lord has paid the price for your sin, and He extends His invitation to enter into His kingdom.  I pray that you will accept Him and trust Him as your Savior today.

The sinfulness of sin, Matthew 5:27-30

As most of you are aware, we have been studying the Sermon on the Mount for a few months now.  And we have come to this particular passage today by the providence of God.  However, we must be careful to remember the context of the message, and not take this passage in isolation.  

The context of the Lord’s sermon is that He is presenting the Manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Jesus Christ is the Sovereign Lord of the Kingdom of God, in which He reigns on earth in the hearts and minds of His people.  And so far in His message Jesus has described the character and nature of His citizens, the effect of His kingdom upon the world, and the righteousness of His kingdom as defined by the law of God.

In particular, Jesus said that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees then you could not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  That is a very significant statement, because the scribes and the Pharisees were considered the most righteous people in Judaism. They prided themselves on strict adherence to the law and being very religious.  And so not only was Jesus saying that they were not righteous enough to enter into His kingdom, but He says in effect that it is virtually impossible for anyone to enter it, if their zealousness was not enough.

So in His sermon, Jesus defines the standard of righteousness that is required, and in so doing  He gives several illustrations in regards to the law to show that the standard of the scribes and Pharisees, and thus the common man as well, is too low.  And He contrasts their interpretation of the law with His own.  We looked last time at the first illustration Jesus gave; the law concerning murder.  In essence Jesus said that simply to avoid the act of murder is not enough, but even if you harbor hatred in your heart then you are guilty enough of the sin of murder  to be thrown into hell.

Today, we have read the next illustration Jesus gives, and that is the sin of adultery. Jesus said in vs 27,"You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY';  but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” 

If we were to make a simple outline of this passage we’re looking at today, we might do so in two points.  The first is the prognosis of sin. And the second point is the prescription for sin.  If you go to the doctor to complain of a pain in your body, something that causes you concern, the doctor will probably run some tests on you and then give you a prognosis.  A prognosis is simply the doctors’s diagnosis of what is ailing you.  And then, if they are a good doctor, hopefully they will give you a prescription that will cure your illness.  Jesus is saying something similar here, as our Great Physician, He has diagnosed our condition, He makes His prognosis, and then He offers a prescription that we might be healed. 

Let’s look then at His prognosis of sin.  Jesus says that the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees concerning the law of adultery was limited to the physical act itself.  They said that if you did not actually physically do the sin then you were not guilty of breaking the law, and therefore you were righteous. But Jesus’s interpretation of the law considers the spirit of the law, not just the letter, and as such He emphasizes the sinfulness of the heart. He says if you look upon a woman and lust after her then you are guilty of adultery in your heart.

They supposed that the purpose of the law was to merely avoid the act.  But as the  apostle Paul explained in Romans 7:13,  the purpose of the law is to show us the utter sinfulness of sin.  So the Pharisees had diminished the scope of the law to just the  physicality.  But Jesus expands the law, showing the full scope of sin in human nature.  

There was a lady once who came to our church for a time.  And one day she very pointedly told me that she had stopped going to her old church because the pastor preached too much about sin.  I understood what she was getting at.  She was hinting that if I kept preaching about sin then she would leave here also.  Well, I haven’t seen her around for about 5 years or so now.  The doctrine of sin is not a popular message in modern churches today.  It’s decidedly not politically correct to talk about sin anymore. 

But without a correct doctrine of sin, then the gospel as it’s presented in the scriptures makes no sense.  You cannot understand the cross without a correct doctrine of sin.  There is no way to understand God sending Jesus to be tortured and crucified, to suffer and die and even to go into Hades.  The cross doesn’t make sense if you don’t have the correct doctrine of sin.  We have to understand that sin is an affront to a holy and righteous God, and He cannot abide with sin and that He will judge sin. 

The only way to understand salvation is from a right understanding of the problem of sin.  The whole idea of being born again, becoming a new creation, is meaningless unless you understand the doctrine of sin.  Then and only then, do you understand that unless you are forgiven, unless the penalty for sin is paid, unless you are given a new nature and a new heart, you cannot possibly be accepted by God.  So if you dislike hearing about the doctrine of sin, then it’s a good chance that you are not a Christian at all. You cannot be saved until you first realize that you are lost.  

And that is the point that Jesus is making, He is showing the exceeding sinfulness of sin.  Not just how bad are those people who commit adultery.  But how corrupted is our sinful human nature.  Your sinfulness is not occasional, it is not just a temporary mistake, but it is inherent to your nature and character.  Proverbs 23:7 says, “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” The gospel teaches us that we are totally, irreparably corrupted and there is no solution but to die and be born again as a different type of person.

The problem with modern religion is,  you invent the kind of god you want, with the kind of standard you can keep, and then you justify yourself.  But that’s not the truth of the gospel. The standard of God is too high.  You fall short. Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  And that is exactly what Jesus is saying here.

The evangelism that says, “Come as you are, God loves you just the way you are,” and does not preach the convicting doctrine of sin that is abhorrent to God and worthy of the judgment of God, is not the gospel.  The person who says, “this is the way I was born” and thus thinks that God is responsible for their condition and therefore they are not guilty of sin, is a person who is outside of the kingdom of God because they have rejected the blood of Jesus Christ which was shed as  payment for their sin.  Listen, we are all born sinners.  We are all natural born sinners. Sin may be natural for us, but that’s our problem, not our excuse. And Christ came to earth and died to deal with our problem.

The Lord makes several points then in HIs message in regards to His prognosis concerning sin.  The first thing He emphasizes is the intrinsic nature of sin.  He says, it’s not just the act of adultery, but the lusting in your heart that is sinful.  Christ’s prognosis is that adultery is the symptom of the disease of the heart which is called sin.  He says it’s not just the symptom that’s the problem, but it’s the disease that kills.

Jesus said in Matthew 15:19 "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.” So the intrinsic nature of sin is that it has corrupted the heart which is the source of all our actions. 

In that regard, it’s important to recognize the deceitfulness of sin.  Sin is something that starts in the mind.  It starts in the imagination. You give yourself a pass because you say you would never actually do that sort of thing, of course.  But you think about it. And out of the heart arises lust, and Jesus says the lust of the heart is the equivalent in God’s eyes of acting upon it.

God sees the sins of the heart as damning, because He understands the corrupting nature of sin.  Paul used the illustration of yeast or leaven in dough as a metaphor for the corrupting nature of sin. He said a little leaven soon corrupts the entire loaf. A tiny piece of yeast in a loaf of bread dough soon corrupts the entire loaf. Therefore, Jesus says in this passage, if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off. If there is one part of you that is inclined to sin, then it’s necessary to cut it off to keep it from infecting the rest of your body. Sin causes that which God has given me for good, such as a hand, to be my enemy.  Paul said in Romans 7, that sin has even caused the law of God, which is good, to become something that causes me to sin. The fact that the law tells me not to do it, causes me to want to do it.  It’s not that the law is bad, but the corrupting nature of sin.

The final principle Jesus gives us in HIs prognosis is that sin is destructive and will lead to death.  He says, “if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, and throw it from you, for it is better that one of the parts of your body perish than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”  Sin destroys man. It destroys the soul, and it destroys the body.  It leads to death.  Romans 6:23 says, “for the wages of sin is death.”  Sin leads to the judgment of God, and the penalty for sin is hell.  Sin is incompatible with God, and in eternity, the soul of the sinner will be cast away from God’s presence forever, consigned to hell, which is the eternal abode of the sinner.

Then Christ’s prognosis leads Him to offer a prescription.  Thank God He does not leave us in the condition of sin, consigned to eternal separation from God.  But next Jesus told us how we are to deal with it.

First of all, it’s important to have the right interpretation of Jesus prescription.  Does He mean we should literally tear out our eye, or cut off our hand in order to keep from sin? If that was the right interpretation, then what about the left hand or the other eye?  We still have the same means of sinning.  And according to Jesus’s own interpretation, sin is a matter of the heart.  So how does cutting off the hand or plucking out one’s eyes stop the heart from sinning?

The right interpretation then must be that Jesus is speaking metaphorically in order to make a point. What He is saying in effect is, even if something is the most precious thing you have, even if it is something that it is essential, yet if it causes you to sin, get rid of it.   He is emphasizing the importance of pursuing righteousness at all costs and the terrible danger that comes as a result of sin.

In the Lord’s prescription then He is teaching us how to deal with this problem of sin. The prescription is that we are to die to sin in all areas of our life.  Paul said we do not walk in the flesh, but in the spirit.  We mortify the flesh on a daily, even hourly basis that we may not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.  We cut it off in the sense that we do not feed the lusts of the flesh, we do not nourish them. As Rom. 13:14 says,  “make no provision for the flesh in regard to [its] lusts.”

 We do not make room for the lusts of the flesh.  And what is not being feed and nourished will soon be dead. 

Now we do that by first realizing the nature of sin, and it’s consequences.  We have already talked about that inherent nature of sin, and the consequence which is destruction and death.  We must understand that even if we do not physically do something wrong, our nature is sinful. It is something which comes out of our hearts.

And we must understand the consequences of our sin. Sin caused Jesus to sweat drops of blood in Gethsemane.  Sin caused Jesus to be whipped until His back was shredded, to be nailed to a cross, and finally to die upon that cross as the consequence for my sin.  As the song we sing says, “it was my sin which held Him there.”  It was my sin which caused Him to be beaten with a whip until He could hardly stand up. It was my sin which caused His death.

Another thing about sin which we must understand is that it affects the eternal destiny of our soul.  The soul will live forever.   At creation, God breathed into man, Genesis 2:7  says, and he became a living soul.  That eternal aspect of the soul is what Jesus was referring to when He said, “it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”  The soul is going to live in eternity, and Jesus says it’s better to lose a part here than to suffer eternally there.

There are many things in life which are good in and of themselves.  I think that is illustrated by Jesus referring to the hand or the eye.  They are good physical things that we can use and enjoy the benefits of.  But Jesus is saying that compared to the value of the soul, they are better to be lost here, than to cause you to lose your soul.  

Jesus said in Matt. 16:26  "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”  Will you give up whatever it may be, no matter how valuable it may seem, if it means that you gain eternal life with God for your soul?

There is a principle that helps us to understand the relationship of our body and soul and spirit.  Man was made in the image of God, and God made him in three parts; spirit, soul and body.  And in that order.  The spirit was to rule over the soul, and the soul was to rule over the body.  But when man sinned, the spirit died and the order of man was inverted.  The soul, which is the mind and heart and emotions and will of a man, became subservient to the body.  And then the lusts of the body rule the nature of the fallen man or woman. 

But when we are regenerated by the power of God through salvation, the spirit of man is reborn.  We are born again spiritually.  And now the divine order is reestablished.  Our body of flesh, or the lusts of the flesh are considered as dead, subservient to the mind or soul, and our spirit which is indwelled by the Holy Spirit, is to rule over the mind and heart.  That is the order of salvation which is the way we were intended to operate in the kingdom of God.  So this cutting off of the body that Jesus is referring to is a way of speaking of the  death to the flesh that must occur in salvation.  As Paul said in Col. 3:5 “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.”

There is another principle which I believe Jesus is prescribing.  And that is the most important thing in life is to prepare for eternity.  I hardly ever hear anyone talking about preparing for heaven.  Most people think of their Christianity in terms of the benefits in  the immediate world we live in.  We are only interested in being blessed physically, materially, and financially because we are Christians. But in reality, Jesus is saying that it’s far better to do without even what’s considered the essentials here, in order to have the blessing of eternal life with God.

Think about it for a moment.  We dress ourselves in fine clothes, with outfits for every possible change in weather or occasion.  We put on gold jewelry, spend tons of money on our hair, or on skin products, or health clubs.  No expense or sacrifice is spared for our physical bodies and yet I cannot help but wonder if spiritually our souls look like they are dressed in rags.  Jesus said later on in this sermon, in chapter 6 vs 19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;  for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  As Christians who are becoming remade in the likeness of Christ, we should be dressed in righteousness.

Another principle in Jesus’s prescription is that we must hate sin and destroy it within ourselves. It is what the Puritans called the mortification of sin.  Jesus said, “If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you.”  Now as I said earlier, mortification of sin doesn’t mean that we cut off our limbs or mutilate ourselves.  But it’s talking about dying to the flesh, considering your body as dead to sin. 

Romans 8:13 says “for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”  Paul breaks that down further in 1 Corinthians 9:27 saying, “I buffet or discipline my body and make it my slave.” He’s talking about beating down the lusts of the flesh.  And in one more example, Paul said in Romans 13:14 which we mentioned earlier; “make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.”  

What that means is that we don’t feed the lusts of the flesh.  We recognize that there is a fire within us; the fire of sin in our nature.  And so knowing that, we stay away from things that will encourage or feed that fire. We need to be careful what we look at. We need  to be careful what we touch.  That’s what cutting of the hand or plucking out the eye refers to.  We may need to avoid certain movies, avoid certain television shows.  Don’t listen to certain radio stations. Don’t go to certain places where we might feed the lusts of the flesh.

 I was doing some driving the other day, and I couldn’t get my regular talk radio shows where I was at.  So I turned to some rock station.  And I couldn’t believe my ears.  They were having a poll of peoples sexual eccentricities. People were calling in and saying all kinds of perverse things,  things that  would have shut down the radio station years ago.  Now I guess it’s considered funny or something.  Folks, for the sake of our souls, we may need cut ourselves off from the sin that is so rampant in our culture.  Cut it off and throw it away.

I must close our message for today, but I would hope that the prescription offered here by the Lord would make you realize that you need the supernatural regeneration of the Holy Spirit, if we are going to have the righteousness that God requires.  We must have received a new nature, a pure heart, as the gift of God though Jesus Christ.  We must be born again and have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit if we are going to have power over sin.  And that is why the Holy Spirit was given to us who by repentance of our sins and faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross have been born again.  Through this salvation we are given the Spirit of Christ that He might be our Helper, our strength, our power to live the life which He gives us.  

As Paul said in Phil. 2:12-13 “work out your salvation with fear and trembling;  for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for [His] good pleasure.” Both sides are absolutely essential; not just in our own strength to mortify the flesh, but in the strength which God supplies, who is at work in us according to the grace of God. Only in HIs power can we walk in the Spirit and put to death the sins of the flesh.  As Paul said in Gal. 5:16 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

That new life in Christ is given to all who will call upon Him as their Savior and follow Him as their Lord.  The invitation to the Kingdom is given to all who will by faith surrender their life to Him.  You have have eternal life for your soul, by the righteousness of Jesus Christ by trusting in Him.  Call upon the Lord today and be saved.  

You shall not murder, Matthew 5:21-26

We have been studying the Sermon on the Mount for a couple of months or more now, and we are continuing today in the passage before us.  However, it’s important to recognize the context of the verses we are looking at.  They must be understood in context with all that has been said before it.

The Sermon on the Mount may also be called the Manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven.  I believe that is a better title because it describes the purpose of Christ’s sermon.  Jesus is presenting the characteristics of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is a spiritual kingdom, and Jesus is the king.  The Jews were expecting a physical king who would overthrow the yoke of Rome and restore the nation of Israel to prominence in the world, from which the Messiah would rule on the throne of David.  But Jesus, the Messiah, comes the first time to establish a spiritual kingdom in which He rules in the hearts and minds of His people.

So at the beginning of HIs message, He gave a list of characteristics of the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. They are what we call the Beatitudes.  And if you will remember, these characteristics come as a result of a transformed heart - their new nature reflected in the behavior Jesus described.

Then Jesus describes the reaction of the world to His citizens. Jesus says that the world will hate them, and persecute them for His name sake, but their persecution will result in a greater blessing. He says that they will be like salt and light in the world, affecting the world by righteousness and truth.  And in response to that testimony of righteousness and truth, Jesus says that the world will glorify God because of their good works.

Starting in vs 17, Jesus begins to articulate how that life of righteousness will be carried out in the world by His citizens.  And basically, Jesus says righteousness will be established in His kingdom by keeping the law.  He says He did not come to abolish the law, but to accomplish the law.  Righteousness is established by the law.  The law is the way of life for a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.  It is how God’s righteousness is manifested.  It is how we manifest that we are the children of God.  It is how we manifest that we love the Lord.

One of the key phrases to this section of the sermon is found in vs 20, “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  The righteousness then of the Christian must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, who were considered the arbiters of the law.  The scribes and Pharisees were in attendance that day, by the way.  And effectively, Jesus just publicly said that they were not going to enter the kingdom of heaven, in spite of their legal expertise, in spite of their self righteousness, in spite of their religious ceremonies, Jesus said that was not enough.  One must exceed their righteousness in order to be a citizen of heaven.

So starting in vs 21 then, Jesus begins to expound the law that the scribes and Pharisees  purported to be keeping.  He takes six examples of the law and expounds them, contrasting what the scribes and Pharisees taught in regards to the law, and what He had to say about it.

Notice He begins with “you have heard that the ancients were told.”  He was not talking about the law of Moses versus the teaching of Christ.   But rather He is referring to the teaching of the Pharisees and scribes.  And Jesus’s response to their teaching is to say, “but this is what I say.”  In other words, Jesus is presenting Himself as the ultimate authority of what the law says, and the correct interpretation of it.

Today we are going to examine the first illustration that Jesus gives concerning the law of murder.  Jesus said in vs 21, "You have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty [enough to go] into the fiery hell.”

The Pharisees taught the law of Moses, but in such a way as to diminish the import of the law.  They did this in this instance by linking these two injunctions together.  Both are found in the law of Moses.  The first is found in Exodus 20, in the 10 commandments, the second is found in Numbers 35:30.  But in connecting them, they managed to diminish the scope of the law of God, and diminish the consequence from God or injury to God’s holiness, and instead just emphasize a civil responsibility.   If you murder, they say, you will be liable before the judgment, meaning  a civil magistrate.  So by neglecting the import of the law of God, to be holy even as He is holy, and the consequence of not doing that, they emphasize instead a lesser consequence; that of offending a human court.  By keeping the letter of the law then, and not physically murdering someone yourself by your own hand, they managed to be able to say that they kept the law but still commit murder in their hearts.

Now if you study Exodus 20, in the original 10 commandments you would find that the word “you shall not kill,” means “murder.”  The word kill would be better translated as murder.  The law does not refer to capital punishment. In fact, God commands the death penalty for the breaking of certain laws.  Neither does the law  refer to war.  Nations are given the responsibility by God to defend their countries.  And God often uses such conflicts to accomplish His purpose of judgment in the world. We just saw that in our study of Joshua and the battle of Jericho. 

Neither do I think that the text of Exodus 20 has anything to do with self defense.  I think that the Bible teaches that we have the right to protect our lives, and the lives of our families, and those about us when we are assaulted and attacked by those who would kill us.  So the commandment is speaking of murder and not to kill in a justified means.

So in expounding this law regarding murder, Jesus is saying in effect, “You believe that it’s wrong to murder because if you do you’ll be in danger of judgment.”  And on that point the scribes and the Pharisees would have agreed, because that is what they taught from their rabbinical tradition. And their belief that they did not commit murder was one way in which they convinced themselves they were righteous. They thought since they avoided murder then they must be righteous, that they had kept the law of God.  

And I’m sure that Christians today could identify with the Pharisees at that point.  But, this is precisely where Jesus wants to expose the error in their theology. Jesus is going to show how their righteousness must exceed the standard of righteousness which was claimed by the Pharisees. So He proceeds from verse 21 to verse 48 to give six illustrations of how our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. 

Jesus expounds the law based on HIs authority to interpret the law, because He is the author of the law. His exposition exposes the self righteousness of the Pharisees.  It exposes their superficial view of God.  And it exposes their feelings towards others. 

First of all, Jesus’ words to them exposes their self righteousness.  They thought they were righteous because they didn’t kill. “Your religious system,” is what He’s saying, “your your tradition says you are not to murder, because if you do you’re in danger of judgment from the courts.  That is the tradition that’s passed down to you.” Their self righteousness was not founded upon the truth of the law, but on a diminished version of the law.

Their interpretation of the law was  you shall not murder l because if you do, you’ll receive the judgement of the courts.  But what about murder as an offense to God?  What about God’s holy character? They had limited the law so that they didn’t even mention God.  They didn’t mention divine judgment.  They said nothing about the heart.  Their interpretation stopped short of all that God intended. Yet because they didn’t murder and didn’t get into legal trouble,  they were self-righteous, self-satisfied and thought they were justified before God.  

So Jesus goes on to rebuke that thinking in verse 22, and says this, “But I say unto you - ”  He is going to give them the right interpretation. "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty [enough to go] into the fiery hell.”  Jesus is saying, it’s not just an issue of physical murder, it’s the source of murder; the  anger and hatred of the heart. 

In Matthew chapter 15:19, we see that murder is a manifestation of an evil human heart.  Matthew 15:19 says, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” Murders, thefts, and the evils that men do, do not happen because of social or financial deprivation.  They happen because of a degenerate human heart.  Murder happens because the heart is evil and desperately wicked, according to Jeremiah 17:9. John 8:44 says the devil is a murderer and the natural man is of their father the devil.  We have murderous thoughts in our hearts because we are children of the devil.  So Jesus is saying that the motivation for murder is an angry and hateful heart and that renders us guilty of murder.

We hear about people that commit murder every day on the news, and I’m sure most of us can’t imagine that we would ever do that.  We can’t understand the type of person that would actually murder people.  And yet we get angry at people.  We may even hate people because of something that we think they have done to us.  We may belittle other people, or even curse them.  We hold a grudge against them. We have bitterness towards such people. And Jesus is saying, that is evidence of the heart of a murderer.

The root of murder is anger.  It’s the motivation for murder, and even if it is not carried out physically, in God’s eyes it deserves the same punishment. In verse 22, He is saying, “You’re in danger of the judgment.  You’re in danger of the council.  You’re in danger of hell fire.” Our Lord is saying  that what is in your heart is what God judges.

Listen to 1 John 3:15.  “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.”  Hate brings you nearer to murder than any other emotion.  And hate is merely the extension of anger.  Anger, hatred, is the manifestation of the heart of a murderer.  And by the way, hatred and anger can even kill the person who possesses it.  It will destroy you from the inside.

Jesus says, “If you have anger or hatred in your heart, you are guilty of murder.”  And He uses three illustrations to reveal this sin in verse 22. 

First one. “Whosoever is angry with his brother, the KJV inserts this phrase “without a cause” shall be in danger of judgment.”  Now that’s the first illustration. I think that there may be some justification for the phrase “without a cause. It may be that there is a righteous anger that is allowed under that phrase. There were times when Jesus took a whip and drove out the money changers and kicked over their tables.  There are times when God’s wrath reaches its  limit and is poured out on a city or a people.   There are times when the vengeance of God goes forth and nations or people are swept into eternity. 

And there are times when a believer has a cause to be angry. Ephesians 4:26 says, “Be angry, and sin not.”  There is a righteous kind of anger.  We have a cause to be angry at sin, but to love the sinner.  (as we sang in the song previously)  We have a right to be angry at sin because it destroys people.  It ruins lives.  Sin causes men and women to be destroyed, to be shut out of the kingdom of heaven and condemned to an eternity without God, an eternity in hell.  We have a right, if not an obligation to be angry at sin.  And yet we must not take our own revenge.  We must leave room for God.  In fact, we are to love the sinner, snatching them like a brand from the burning to save them from the destruction that sin causes. 

I think the type of anger that Jesus is talking about is perhaps best translated by the word ma-levolence.  Malevolence means malicious anger, hatred, wishing evil on another person, wishing harm.  That’s the sort of anger that Jesus is referring to here. So anger, or malevolence is equal to murder in God’s eyes.  Jesus says such is in danger of judgment.  And that judgment is not just of the civil authorities, but that judgment is from God.

Notice the second illustration He uses in verse 22.  “Whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council.”  The Hebrew word Raca is an untranslatable word.  It’s really an epithet.  It’s a curse word. It’s a word of contempt, of derision, of hatred. James 3:6 says,  “the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.” With the tongue we curse men, and Jesus is saying that condemns us as a murderer. 

There’s a third illustration in verse 22.  “Whosoever shall say, you fool, “moros” -  from which we get our word moron “ - shall be in danger of hell fire.” Notice there is a progressive nature to the attitudes that Jesus is exposing.  To call someone a fool, in the sense in which it is meant here, as a form of derision, as word of condemnation, is to take your anger and hatred to another level.  And so Jesus correlates this escalation to a corresponding escalation in punishment; from judgement, to the council, and now to fiery hell.

Notice the word “fiery hell” at the end of verse 22. The Greek word translated “hell” there is the word gehenna, It refers to the valley of Hinnom.  The valley of Hinnom was the garbage dump of Jerusalem.  It was a public incinerator that burned all the time, 24/7, it never went out.  Jesus uses that as a picture of hell.  And He says if you have been angry or if you ever say a malicious word to  someone, or  if you ever cursed them, you are as guilty and as liable for eternal hell as a murderer is because you have the heart of a murderer. 

So Christ’s exposition of the law exposed the self righteousness of the Pharisees. The second effect of Jesus’ exposition of the law is found in verses 23 and 24 which is to expose their superficial worship of God. Worship was a major part of life of the scribes and Pharisees.  They publicly paraded their worship.  They were always in the temple worshiping God, making sacrifices, carrying out the ceremonies of the law.  They believed their worship resulted in righteousness.  But our Lord here condemns that very worship. 

Look at verse 23, “Therefore,” in other words, the “therefore” means since God is concerned with the heart, since God is concerned with attitudes toward others, how you feel about your brother, how you speak to your brother, and whether or not you curse your brother, since God is concerned about the heart listen to this.  "Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,  leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.”  In other words, reconciliation comes before worship. You cannot negate your dispute with a brother by your worship to the Lord.  The sin of anger or hatred or an argument with someone is not overridden by your church attendance and your worship.

Under the Jewish system of worship, If a man committed a sin, he understood that a breach was between himself and God.  The relationship was broken.  It was to be remedied by a contrite and broken heart, and a man was to confess his sin, and a man was to manifest repentance, contrition and brokenness.  And then in order to manifest outwardly that inward feeling, he was to bring an animal as a sacrifice.  The ceremony wasn’t the issue.  The heart was the important thing.  God said obedience of the heart is better than sacrifice.  The sacrifice was merely an outward symbol of a repentant, obedient heart.  And so when the breach came, and the man repented and in sorrow asked forgiveness, and set things right with God, he then brought a sacrifice. That principle is what Jesus is saying here.

Sometimes we sit around and say, “How can we make our church more of what it ought to be?”   People sometimes  say, “How can we improve our worship?  And they think, well, maybe if we had more of a certain kind of music. Maybe if we had other activities, or special music, or better sermons, or whatever they may think would improve the worship service. 

Listen, if you want to improve worship, then everybody who has something against a brother, go home and take care of it.  And come back when you’ve made things right. Take care of the sin in your life, and then we’ll see the power of the Spirit of God in our midst. 

Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”  First Samuel 15:22 says, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offering and sacrifice, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken is better than the fat of rams.” Worship without obedience gets no where with God. Jesus says, leave worship, and get right with your brother first, then you can worship God right and enjoy the fellowship of His Spirit.

Finally, Jesus’s words expose  our relationships with others.  He’s already introduced that in verses 23 and 24.  And now He gives a specific example in 25 and 26.  He says now that you’ve left to get it right so you can worship God,  "Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent.”

Notice first of all the urgency in the Lord’s admonition.  Do it quickly.  Don’t put it off. There is a tendency in matters of reconciliation especially to put it off until tomorrow.  Jesus says, don’t  put it off.  Make friends, or reconcile quickly, lest he follow through with the courts and you end up in prison.  And once you are in prison, you will  not be able to reconcile then. You won’t have the means to repay.

Does Jesus mean that the time will come when the person will die and you’ll be  unable to reconcile?  Does He mean the time will come when God will chasten you and judge you, and it’ll be too late?  Possibly either or both of those things.  He doesn’t really explain it further than that.  But what He is saying is you can’t worship Me unless your relationships are right.  So be quick about it and make things right.  Don’t let them escalate to the place where there will be a civil judgment made and somebody loses in the end. Don’t let anger and disagreements stew and fester until they boil over and there is no more possibility of reconciliation. Don’t let it go to the place where God in, in judgment, moves in.  Act quickly. 

I think even more to the point, Jesus is saying that we must always remember our relationship to God. We must not only be concerned with the brother who we are in disagreement with, but we must think of ourselves before the ultimate Judge, who is God. God has the power over all the courts on each and heaven.  He is the Judge, and HIs laws cannot be nullified and are absolute. He has the right to demand that every last cent is repaid. So what are we to do?  Let us come to an agreement with God as quickly as possible.  Do not delay, do not put it off. 

How do you see yourself this morning in light of the law as Jesus expounds it? Have you seen that you have sinned against your brother?  Have you seen that you have sinned against God? Act now to make peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  His terms are easy, and His burden is light. Make peace with God by acknowledging your sin and confess it, and utterly repent of it without any defense or self justification. Humble yourself and if necessary even make a fool out of yourself to make things right with those whom you have hated or been angry against. 

Then the Lord will say to you, that He will forgive your sin even though you are an undeserving sinner and guilty before God, and in regards to the debt you owe that you can never repay, God  has sent Jesus into the world to pay the penalty for your sin upon the cross so that you might go free. You can be forgiven.  You can have peace with God and man.  Call upon the Lord today that you might be forgiven and receive a new heart that you may be obedient to all that He requires of you.  Don’t delay.  Call upon Jesus today. He has given us an offer of peace.  Be reconciled to God.  And in exchange, God will give you a new heart, a new nature, that you might be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.