Sermon on the Mount VI

Subtitle: Fulfilling the Torah and the Prophets of God IV

Matthew 5:31-32.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 14, 2024.

We continue looking at the first section of the teaching of Messiah Jesus called the Sermon on the Mount.  He is comparing what the people were being taught by the leaders of his day with what he teaches.

Today, we look at the third section of the Law of Moses that Jesus explains.  The first was about the law against murder.  The second was the law against adultery.  It seems that Jesus moves to divorce next since he was talking about a marriage already. 

Also, I mentioned last time that Jesus focuses on moral, or ethical, laws, rather than on things that were intended to be symbolic, such as the sacrificial system and the dietary laws.  He does speak to these in other contexts.

So let’s look at our passage and talk about divorce.

The law of divorce (v. 31-32)

It is easy for people today to take potshots at the Law of Moses without respecting just how revolutionary it was for the surrounding culture and times.  Jesus is not castigating, or destroying, the Law. Rather, he is taking the religious leaders to task for not understanding the heart of God in the Law.

A case in point is how people laughingly disparage the principle, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” (Exodus 21:24, Leviticus 24:20).  “All that will do is create a world of one eyed, toothless people!”  Of course, this law cannot change the hearts of people, and God never intended it to change their hearts by itself.  The point of this principle is to forbid overkill.  If someone injures me, it is easy to want to do even more back to them.  We see this in Genesis 4 with the story of Lamech.  He justifies his killing of a man who “wounded” him by pointing to God’s grace towards Cain.  “If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,
then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”  Of course, he neglects to mention the curse placed upon Cain.  If you lived in those days, you would have learned to fear getting on Lamech’s bad side.  The whole earth became a place of overkill for infractions upon each one.  It was a revolutionary concept to limit punishment to the same degree of the infraction.  The point is not to be punitive, but to reconcile, to make things right.

In our case, we are looking at a law about divorce.  It allowed divorce, but required a certificate to be given to the woman who is divorced by her husband.  This comes from Deuteronomy 24.  In this passage, the cause for divorce is described as, “…and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her…”  There are actually two phrases that are tied together with a word translated as “because” that further explains the first general phrase.  “She finds no favor in his eyes” is a very broad term that could be interpreted as anything you want it to be.”  However, it is qualified by the next phrase, “because he has found some uncleanness in her…”  Uncleanness is a word that generally has a sexual connotation to it.  It would definitely include adultery, but could also incorporate sexual improprieties with another man that may not have gone as far as adultery.

The certificate of divorce may seem stupid to people today, but it served a real purpose.  The man could not divorce on a whim, but would need to make the divorce public, and issue a certificate to the woman.  The details of what was needed on the certificate, whether there was a witness, or the cause be stated, is not stipulated in the Law, but was left up to the people of Israel to determine.  This added requirement would give second thoughts to a man, and keep him from taking advantage of the Law of marriage.

It would also be a protection to the woman, if she remarried.  It would be proof that she is not worthy of death, but is truly divorced from her previous husband.  Notice that this doesn’t fix anyone’s heart, but it restricts the ugliness to which their actions could go if unrestrained.

It is worth noting that Jesus is asked about divorce by the Pharisees in Matthew 19:1-10.  They ask him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”  This is important because there were two schools of thought on this in those days.

In the first century BC, two rabbis named Shammai and Hillel argued over what was an acceptable cause for divorce.  Shammai argued that the word for uncleanness governed the passage, and so divorce was only acceptable in the case of sexual immorality.  Hillel saw pointed to the first phrase and taught that divorce was acceptable if a wife no longer found favor in her husband’s eyes.  Over time, the school of Hillel developed the idea of no longer finding favor from a woman being a bad cook, to the husband simply not finding her appealing, and instead, finding someone else more appealing.  On top of this, by the first century AD (the days of Jesus), their were far more disciples of the school of Hillel in power.  By the way, Saul of Tarsus and his Rabbi, Gamaliel, were of the school of Hillel.

Jesus does more than just say that he agrees with Shammai.  He does something greater.  He responds in Matthew 19:4-6 by pointing to the Genesis story of Adam and Eve.  It was God whom made us male and female.  When a man and woman come together, it is also God who makes them one flesh.  Jesus then caps the teaching with a powerful command that blows past divorce to the whole purpose for marriage:  “What God has joined together, let not man separate.”  This challenges both people in the marriage with the purpose and actions of God.  Are you resisting and rebelling against God’s purpose and work?

Of course, this gets a shocked response from the Pharisees.  They ask why then did “Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”  Jesus answers that Moses did not command, but rather “permitted” divorce because of the hardness of their hearts (he is particularly addressing guys here).  Picture it.  If a woman is in a marriage where a man wants rid of her, but he can’t because it is against the law, what could happen?  He will grow to resent her, be angry with her, and he will be tempted to be abusive towards her.  He may even wish she were dead.   Some situations can become so cruel, wicked and evil that it is best for all involved to break it off.  Yet, Moses still placed some stipulations on it.

Notice that the lack of repentance and forgiveness is at the heart of such cases.  Whether lust, anger, frustration, or all of the above, if a husband and wife do not deal with the issues of their heart, then it will affect the marital relationship.

The teachers of Israel focused more on the proper way, acceptable causes, and form of a certificate of divorce, rather than on how divorce impacts God’s purpose for marriage.

The teaching of Jesus here highlights a fact of that day.  A woman did not have the right of divorcing a man.  It was something that was done to her.  Thus, Jesus points the man to think about what he is doing to his “ex-wife” when he divorces her.  The husband is putting her in a tough situation.  First of all, a woman’s ability to make a livable wage in those days was extremely limited.  She would most likely be force to find someone who would marry her, depending on her age.  This would often not be her fault, i.e., she did nothing worthy of divorce.  Jesus warns the men listening to him.  “I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.  He is causing her, i.e., forcing her, to be guilty of adultery.  Society won’t think so because she has a certificate of divorce.  So, why does Jesus see it as adultery?  He is referring to a divorce that is not legitimate.  Who determines if a divorce is legitimate?  God does.  Jesus is clear that God was not good with all the reasons they were concocting for getting a divorce.  These men were letting the lusts and vices of their heart mistreat these women.  They didn’t want to marry other men and become adulterers in God’s eyes, but they were forced to by an ex-husband’s hard heart.

Jesus doesn’t comment on the man who divorces here.  But, in Matthew 19, he states that the man who divorces and then remarries is also an adulterer, unless there was marital unfaithfulness by his wife.

This reminds me of Malachi chapter 2.  There, God takes Israel to task for covering his altar with tears and weeping.  He is particularly speaking about divorced wives who were hurt by the divorce and the tough situation that they were placed in by hard-hearted husbands.  In that passage, God makes it clear that He hates divorce.  It should only be a last resort when a partner refuses to stay faithful to the marriage bond.  Even then, God never commands divorce.  If a partner is unfaithful, we owe it to the LORD to attempt to heal the marriage.  Repentance and forgiveness are a hard road to walk out, but it can be done.  That said, once a person has been unfaithful, the percentages are very slim of those who truly repent and turn away from infidelity.

This is a very hurtful and damaging area.  There is no wound worse than finding out a spouse has been unfaithful.  Jesus recognizes this exception to what he is saying.  If a partner has been unfaithful, then they have broken the marital covenant.  The faithful spouse has to wrestle with the reality of whether or not the marriage can be saved.  Many times it cannot.  Notice that, in the case of a divorce, the unfaithful spouse is already an adulterer.  If they remarry, it is irrelevant if the marriage is considered adultery.  However, what about the faithful spouse?  Are they free to remarry?

It is good to remember at this point that though we are no longer under the law of Moses, we are still to seek to please the Lord Jesus.  Paul mentions two more exceptions in 1 Corinthians 7:15, 39.  The first is when you have an unbelieving spouse (not a Christian) who wants out of the marriage.  They want a divorce.  Paul says that God does not hold you accountable to the heart of the unbeliever.  Presumably a person would be free to remarry in that case.  However, if you read the chapter, you would recognize that Paul’s advice would be to remain single if you can.  The last exception was the reality that when a spouse dies, the living spouse is no longer bound to them in marriage.  The widow, or widower, is free to remarry.

So, in the case of divorce, we must always ask ourselves if God sees it as legitimate.  God knows if you tried to save the marriage and the other person would not cooperate.  It is probably best not to be too quick to remarry when you are divorced by a hard-hearted spouse.  You can pray for them to repent and change their mind so that the marriage can be resumed and lived out as God intended.  However, if they remarry, it is then time to move on, and let the Spirit of God lead you in what is next, whether singleness or remarriage.

God’s heart is that we stay faithful to Him, and when we do that, we will bend over backwards to be faithful to our spouse.  If a spouse continues to take advantage of that in unfaithfulness, divorce will become inevitable.  This is where we recognize that marriage is supposed to be a picture of Christ’s marriage to the Church.

We should work hard to reflect this reality to the world through our marriage.  The Kingdom of Messiah calls us to repentance and imaging God. The question is never, have I done anything sinful.  The question is what will I do about it now that Messiah is calling me to follow Him into the Kingdom of God, where we are letting God help us to love one another, instead of sinning against one another.

Read 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.  Notice this, “And such were some of you.  But you were washed…”  Kingdom believers are not looking for an excuse to continue in sin.  However, we are sinners who have been washed by Christ and His Spirit from our sins.  He is setting us free!  We are not looking for an excuse to get a divorce.  We are seeking to follow Jesus, and to image him to the world.

What am I displaying, imaging to the world?  I can’t go back and change what I did, or what another person did.  But, I can be washed and move forward clean before the LORD.

Some people married never intending to be faithful.  However, I believe that the larger number are those who married hoping and expecting it to be something wonderful.  They then find it to be hard work, and sometimes not as fun as we imagined.  We can be tempted to “want someone better.”  Perhaps, we just picked the wrong person.  Surely, the next person I pick will be the right one!

Yet, the truth is that we are kicking against the goading of God.  Marriage is God’s way of getting a hold of our heart, and teaching us to deal with some bad things in our flesh.  We can resist the work of the Spirit through our relationship with our spouse.  We can use the failures of our spouse (they are only human) as excuses to blame the failure on them.  Marriage challenges us to grow up emotionally, and spiritually.  However, not everyone wants to grow up.  Many reject God’s purpose for marriage, and continue down a path of an egoistic, even egotistic, focus.  Growing up is not easy, but it is not only good for us, but good for everyone around us.

It is sad that we can treat the holiest of things in life, like marriage, as merely another way to have a good time.  When we don’t take marriage seriously, we try to have fun with it.  Eventually, it will no longer be fun.  Thus, we have a high percentage of adults who have not grown up emotionally, and especially spiritually.  Let me just say this.  A perfect marriage is one that challenges me to grow up in Christ.  May we surrender to him.

I will finish by highlighting that God does hate divorce, but He doesn’t hate you if you have had someone divorce you, or be unfaithful to you.  Jesus, of all people, knows what it is to have a covenant partner reject you.  He was even put to death by his.  When you look back at a divorced marriage, you will see all the ways that you were not perfect.  You may feel guilt and even wonder if God can love you.  You might wonder how you can move forward.  I will just say this.  Jesus loves you, and knows how you feel.  Give yourself to him and he will pour his healing into your heart.  It will take time, but the Rejected Lord knows how to minister to a Rejected heart.

May God help us to take marriage seriously and shine the example of God’s heart for “Whosoever will” (John 3:16).

Divorce audio

The Sermon on the Mount V

Subtitle: Fulfilling the Torah and the Prophets of God III

Matthew 5:27-30.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 7, 2024.

We continue in looking at the first section of the teaching of Messiah Jesus compared with that of the teachers of that day.  Jesus clearly raises the bar by emphasizing the internal implications of the Law that were being ignored. 

As I have said in the past, this can cause us to protest that it is impossible to do what Jesus says.  However, this is the whole point of his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.  It is also why the Holy Spirit has been made available to those who put their faith in the work and person of Jesus the Christ.

Last week, we looked at the sixth commandment of Exodus 20, “You shall not murder.”  Jesus then moved on to the seventh commandment, “You shall not commit adultery” (our subject for today).

As Jesus took the command against murder and showed the importance of dealing with the underlying anger and contempt for others, so he takes the command forbidding adultery and points us to the lust that underlies such action.

Let’s look at our passage.

The law of adultery (v. 27-30)

The teachers of Israel in the first century focused on the physical act of committing adultery.  They did not call people to any deeper work than this.

One way to think about this over-emphasis on the external is to remember that we were created to image God (Genesis 1).  This idea is not simply about the external shape of humans, nor simply their external actions.  This question regarding who we are imaging in our life lies behind the whole Bible.

If the external is the only thing that matters, then we can put on a really good act and God will be happy; He will be entertained.  Yet, God is not looking for award-winning actors who look like Him on the big screen of life, and yet, in their hearts, they despise His ways.  Perhaps, the acting may seem “award-winning” to us as humans because we cannot see what people think and desire.  Yet, for God, no matter how convincing to other humans such acts may be, it is a rotten fruit that is as far from imaging Him as one end of the universe is to the other.

Our imaging of God was always intended to include and to flow from a heart and mind that loves God and is coming to understand Him.  For fallen humans (I believe that is all of us), this creates a difficult situation that calls for God’s help and grace.

If you see the Law of Moses as your justifier, then you tend to read it superficially (in a way that focuses on externals).  However, if you see it as a mirror that shows us how much we do not look like God and His nature, you will then tend to see the depths of what it is saying and throw yourself on the mercy of God.

This is exactly what King David discovered.  He didn’t say that he would be blessed because he had imaged God so well.  Remember, David, who  had done so well imaging God, would later commit adultery and murder the husband (Uriah the Hittite).  David knew that he would be in big trouble when he stood before God.  Listen to his statements from Psalm 32:1-2.  “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit.”  Basically, he knew that God had to forgive and cover his sin, somehow.  God should impute (calculate, count) David’s sins against him. 

God supplies both forgiveness and covering in Jesus Christ.

In his signature move, Jesus puts his finger on the root of the problem in verse 28.  Adultery is the fruit, the evidence, of lust in our hearts and minds.  The word translated lust here has the idea of a strong, heated desire.  We can easily imagine the driving passion that it involves.  In Greek, the word can be attached to good things, i.e., a strong, heated desire to do the right thing, and it is not limited only to sexual matters.  However, in the majority of situations, it is not good because it is similar to anger.  Strong passions tend to take the course that our flesh wants to take.  This is generally a sinful course.

Jesus is not telling men they should never look at women.  He emphasizes that the man looks at a woman in order “to lust for her”.  This would also be true for women.  In this context, we know that the strong, heated desire is a sexual one.  Lust never stays as an abstract desire.  It pushes to other sins such as imagining and fantasizing.  This is what Jesus means by saying that he “has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

We should note that adultery is a layered concept.  At its base, it is sexual immorality.  God created humans with the capacity for sexual relationship, but intended it for the intimate context of marriage, a life-long commitment between a man and a woman.  Any sexual activity outside of marriage is immoral.  Thus, adultery is a special kind of sexual immorality, a subset, in which a covenantal bond of marriage is transgressed.  This can be the case whether both are married or only one.  A man who lusts for another man’s wife is trespassing upon that covenantal relationship that she has with another.  If he happens to be married as well, he is also breaking his own covenant with his wife.  He is sinning against his commitment with her.

This is why God takes adultery so seriously.  If two unmarried people had sex with one another outside of marriage, it was considered wrong, but was “fixed” by them committing to marriage.  In fact, the man would lose the right of divorce in such a situation.  On the other hand, adultery deserved capital punishment.  This is how seriously God wants us to take the covenantal bond of marriage.

This does not mean that Jesus is saying that lust is just as bad as physically committing the act.  Neither should we see God as some cosmic IRS auditor that reconciles our thoughts and imaginations and holds us accountable for every nit-picking thing He finds.

The average person hears these words and throws up their hands in exasperation.  “That’s impossible,” they say.  Of course, the degree to which our society has hyper-sexualized everything does throw gasoline upon the fires of lust.  Even the idea that sexual activity should only happen within a life-long committed relationship called marriage is being rejected by our society.  This is not just a rejection of God’s law, but a rejection of His revelation about how and why He designed us as He did.

The Creator tells us that He created our sexual aspect to create a powerful bond between a husband and wife.  However, that which is powerful for the good can be just as powerful for the bad when it is abused or disrespected.  God is not just laying down a law.  He is warning us about the devastating path that our sinful flesh pulls us down.

How much pain, suffering and evil is going on in this world that is connected to sexual immorality?  How many rapes, abortions, divorce, wounded kids, sex-trafficking and even sex-slavery happens out of ignoring God’s warnings?  Even those who look at pornography tell themselves that they are not harming anyone.  Yet, the money they give to obtain a magazine, video, or subscription to a website supports all manner of trafficking and harm to society.  You are not only destroying others; you are destroying yourself. 

Our culture not only allows such things, but even worse, it promotes it.  Let us not kid ourselves.  Lust drives much of the evil in this world.

In verses 29 and 30, Jesus gives us two parallel “if” statements.  The first speaks of the “right eye,” referring to the strong or dominant eye.  The second speaks to the “right hand,” referring to the strong or dominant hand.  You will notice that the statements are exactly the same except for the right eye swapped out for the right hand.

Let’s look at the second part of the statement.  There, Jesus emphasizes the danger that lust presents.  Jesus warns his listeners that those who refuse to deal with lust, regardless of whether they committed physical adultery or not, could find themselves in Gehenna.  This is the same thing he did back in verse 22 with murder, speaking about the “Gehenna of fire.”  Jesus is pointing us to a judgment that is from God in which a person’s whole body is put into a fiery place. We see this in the book of Revelation referred to as the Lake of Fire (Revelation 19:20; 20:10, 14, 15).

Of course, there is a lot that is not said here.  In fact, Jesus shouldn’t have to go into to much detail.  The idea that internal lust could put us in jeopardy of the Lake of Fire should let us all know that God is serious about this issue.  This would have seriously scared everyone in the crowd.  By the time Jesus finishes these six case studies in the law, everyone listening to him will recognize that they are in trouble with God.

Is God being unfair?  If we only understood how much evil, pain and suffering is caused through the refusal to nip lust, anger, and other vices in the bud, we would not be so concerned with God’s fairness.  In fact, there is no perfect response to this situation.  We will blame God if He is too judgmental, and we accuse Him when He is not judgmental enough.  We want Him to “do something” about the evil in the world, but we want Him to overlook our own evil, particularly because we don’t want to believe it is evil. 

This world is not full of wickedness because God made it that way, but because people reject the truth of God and go their own way.  God’s way brings life, but our fleshly way brings destruction.  You may think that it feels like life, but that moment always passes and destruction comes in the wake of our actions, whether internal or external.

Now, let’s deal with this idea of gouging out your right eye and cutting off your right hand.  Jesus does not intend for anyone to actually gouge out their eye or cut off their hand.  His statement basically begs the question, “What do I need to excise from my life in order to be free from the damaging effects of lust?”

There really is a genius to what Jesus is doing here.  The religious leaders who love to look at the law superficially, are here given a superficial solution to the internal problem of lust.  If you really thought that God hated lust enough to send you to the Lake of Fire, then you would be drastic in your measures to stop it before it led to judgment.  Jesus knows that losing your dominant eye and your dominant hand cannot remove lust from a person.  Even if you gouged both eyes out and cut off both hands, you can still lust. 

Others will say that Jesus is politely saying that they should cut off the true offending member, genitalia.  However, I believe this hinges on the phrase “If….causes you to sin (literally to stumble).”  That is the condition which causes any thinking person to meditate on what it is that actually stirs up lust in our hearts to the point of stumbling, sinning.

We do not lust simply because we have eyeballs, hands, and even genitalia.  Notice that it is the Creator who gave us these things.  In our desire to deflect responsibility, we can blame God.  “If You hadn’t given us eyes, hands, genitalia, we would never have sinned.”  Of course, such an argument never ends.  “If You hadn’t put the tree in the Garden of Eden… if you hadn’t created us as sexual being, material beings, or even carbon-based creatures, etc. ad infinitum go our attempts to blame God or others for our sin.

There are external things that I need to excise from my life, or at least place severe restrictions on them.  Pornography, or any place or medium in which pornographic activity exists, is a good place to start.  The eyes have been likened unto a gate into our soul.  Jesus will touch on this in Matthew 6:22-23.  What videos am I watching?  What apps do I have on my phone?  For some people, it may be that we ask if we really need a “smart phone.”  It is better to go through life without a smart phone than to be thrown into the fires of Gehenna.  This places a responsibility upon ourselves to recognize that lust does not image God and pulls us towards destruction.  We are often guilty of pouring gasoline on our base desires, and then pretending like it is God’s fault.  Job said that he had made a covenant with his eyes.  He would not look lustfully upon a young woman (Job 31:1).  Yes, if lustful thoughts are stirred, then avert your eyes and move on.

Proverbs 6:32 says, “Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; he who does so is destroying his own soul.”  If I truly believed that Jesus knew what he was talking about, then I would shut down lust quickly before it flares.

I imagine that there were a lot of people there that day, if not all of them, who were extremely convicted by what Jesus was saying.  I think about the woman at the well in Samaria.  She had been divorced four times and was living with a guy when Jesus talked with her in John 4.  Notice that Jesus does not pretend that she is righteous, and yet, he really does care for her soul.  This woman of five marriages and one “shacking up” had probably never had someone truly care for her soul.

The people there that day were not perfect.  They were just like you and me.  They all had something, probably multiple somethings, that Jesus was poking.  Jesus is not just loading them up with guilt.  The whole point is that the Kingdom is here, and they all needed to repent and put their faith in Jesus as the Messiah.  He would lead them in.  I don’t know if the woman at the well was adulterous, or she had a series of men who grew tired of her and divorced her to satisfy their adulterous lusts.  Regardless, she became an evangelist for Jesus that day.  The guys who should have been leading people to Jesus were contemplating how to kill him.  The ones who should have ran away from this “righteous man” are the ones who were drawn to him.  This is part of the mystery of the grace of God and the work of God.  It is not always done by people who had a righteous background.  Let’s just say, they knew that they were horrible actors and so they didn’t even try to act.

God wants us to understand that He isn’t satisfied with us only looking good.  He wants our heart.  By the time you are done with the Sermon on the Mount, you will find yourself in a place of tension.  I want to believe Jesus, but I don’t know how that would be possible.  It is done by faith.  They didn’t know about the cross where Jesus would pay the price for their sins, so that the Father could then remove them from us.  Nor did they understand that the Day of Pentecost would bring the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all who had put their faith in Jesus.  The Spirit of God Himself would help them to take possession of their destroyed souls, like Israel of old going against the giants of Canaan.

They couldn’t imagine just how great God’s love for them was, even in their fallenness.  So, what is our excuse?  We can imagine these things.  We have the New Testament that lays out all that God has done and will do on our behalf.  Is it not high time that we put our faith in Jesus, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and let Him lead us in victory against sin in our hearts and minds?  Yes, of course, it is!

Adultery audio

What Does God Really Want from Me? Part 4

1 Peter 4:1-9.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, February 6, 2022.

What does God really want from Me?  We continue today on part 4 of God’s desire for us.

Last week, we talked about the analogy for spiritual growth given in John 15, the vine of Christ.  We want to connect into the vine of Christ and draw life from him, instead of drawing death from the vine of this world.

Today, we are going to look at some very practical ways in which we can focus ourselves and ensure that we grow spiritually.  Yet, we must remember that all spiritual growth is measured by Jesus Christ.  He is the goal, and the means by which we attain it.

Spiritual growth takes intentionality from God and from us.  God is always faithful to do His part, so the only question is me.  What is my focus on?

Let’s look at our passage in 1 Peter 4.

Live for the will of God, not lusts

In Philippians 2:5, Paul said, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”  In verse 1 Peter is basically saying the same thing.  “Arm yourselves also with the same mind.”  Peter’s version gives a distinct reminder that spiritual growth is also spiritual battle.  Christians need to get themselves ready to think like Jesus did, and Jesus thought about doing the will of God, not satisfying his earthly lusts, and fleshly desires.

Jesus physically suffered for us in order to do the will of God, and we need to do the same.  His life was first filled with slanders, which is emotional suffering.  However, he was also physically abused to the point of death for the will of God.

If Jesus had been living for the lusts of his natural self, then he would not have suffered a death on a cross.  He was put to death because he was following his Father in heaven. 

Do you remember that vine imagery in John 15?  Later, in verses 18-19, Jesus said,

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

To choose to live for God instead of living for your flesh is a hard choice that only those who are connected to Christ can follow through because it requires suffering that is emotional and physical.

In verse three, Peter reminds us that we spent “enough” of our past life living for the lusts of our flesh.  He goes on to list the various things that people pursue in such a life.

Lewdness is a life that is lived without any restraint.  Lusts are those strong desires that our flesh has for the pleasures of this life.  Next, we have three partying terms that often go together.  Drunkenness is drinking too much wine, but often can become a way of life.  Revelries represent the activities of those who get drunk with others and are caught up in all manner of public nuisance afterwards.  Drinking parties is a word connected to drunkenness.  It is seen as a worse stage than the previous word.  Lastly, we have abominable idolatries.  The worship of idols and the things connected to them is a constant challenge in this life.

For the Christian, we know that it is high time that we leave this stuff behind, and begin to follow Christ, to learn from him a new way of life that is truly life.

Peter then recognizes that people in this world will be annoyed that you don’t live like they do.  This judgment can be as simple as speaking evil of you, but can also go to the point, as it did with Christ, that they put you to death.

Being judged by people in the flesh has to do with this life and what we experience from sinners.  Their judgment of us is “thumbs down,” but it is a judgment of fleshly people who can only see our outer man.  Their judgments can only touch our bodies, as Jesus reminded us. 

“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”  Matthew 10:28 (NKJV). 

Don’t let the fleshly judgment of sinners bother you because there is One who is your judge, and it is only his judgment that matters.  In fact, he is also the judge of those who are judging you.  Verses 5 and 6 remind us that those judging us are about to be judged themselves by Jesus.  So, don’t pay a lot of attention to their antics and statements.  Focus on Jesus who is the judge.

Verse 6 continues this point, but is a bit cryptic.  The key is to recognize that the main point is in the second half of the verse.  You may be judged by men through fleshly means while you live on this earth, but in Christ we will live by the judgment of God through the power of His Spirit.  Peter points out that even those righteous men and women of the past who have died had to live with the same tension that we do. 

Think of those righteous people before the flood who were living in dangerous times.  There is a Jewish tradition that Noah’s father Lamech was killed by a wicked man.  They did not have as much information as us, but they knew to live for God rather than for the flesh, regardless of the judgments of the world around you.  They died and went into the grave awaiting God to vindicate them.  As Peter detailed in the prior chapter, Jesus went into Hades, the grave, and proclaimed his victory over sin and death.  This was bad news to those on the bad side of Hades, but it was wonderful news to those in the Paradise side.  They would now be enabled to follow Jesus into heaven and dwell in the presence of God while they await the Resurrection of their bodies.  All righteous individuals of every age must live in this tension of fleshly judgments of this world, and the judgment of God that is not clear to the world yet.  That day will come, and you will shine on that day!

In verse 7, Peter reminds us that the end of all things is at hand.  Remember, in chapter 1, we are told that Peter is writing to Jewish Christians who had been dispersed throughout the region of modern-day Turkey.  They knew that the judgment of God was coming upon the nation of Israel.  It was the end of national Israel until the times of the Gentiles would come to an end.  The way things were would come to an end and not continue into the way things were going to be.

This is a kind of template, or parable, for how the righteous should always live.  The pre-flood world had been warned that a judgment loomed over the earth.  The righteous lived in such a way that recognized the judgment on this world, whether it happens in their lifetime or not.  The righteous remnant of Israel lived this way, until Christ came and things changed.  We too know that this world is under the judgment of God.  The end of all things is near, and we should not view the world with the eyes of flesh.  It will look invulnerable and powerfully persuasive with such eyes.  However, with the eyes of faith, we will see that it is near to destruction and judgment by God. 

Peter tells us that this ought to inspire us to be a person of prayer, a person who spends time talking with God about the world around them, and what is to come.  This is a person who is serious, that is of a sound mind.  They haven’t been caught up in the crazy thinking of this world.  We are to be also watchful.  This word has the idea of sobriety at its root.  Instead of getting drunk with the world, we are awake and at our post in this spiritual battle. 

There is a connection in Scripture between watching and praying.  Jesus used this with his disciples on the night he was betrayed.  He asked them to come and watch with him for a while in prayer.  Yet, they kept falling asleep.  Thus, Jesus revealed the big problem in all spiritual growth.  “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  Your spirit may want to be like Christ, but your flesh doesn’t!  Only a person who wrestles with their flesh in prayer and watches over their soul before the Lord in prayer can overcome in the time of temptation and trial.

Then, Peter tells them to love one another.  We need other believers around us, and we need to be there for other believers.  This world is hammering on our faith, attempting to get us to follow it into what it thinks is its glory.  Our love must be fervent.  That English word gives the idea of heated, on fire.  However, the original word is more the sense of stretching forward, or leaning forward.  Instead of holding back, we are to lean into loving one another.  It is the picture of eagerness in fulfilling the command.

Peter says that this would involve covering a multitude of sins.  This is not the idea of covering up sins, but in making a proper covering for sin.  Peter doesn’t explain, but James does in James 5:19-20.

“Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”

Without other believers around, we would be wandering away from the truth, and that’s the truth!  Keeping ourselves in Christ is the only way to properly cover sins.  That is why Repentance, Forgiveness, and the deeds of faith in Jesus are so important.

May God help us to help each other in this spiritual battle of faith.  In so doing, we will all spiritually grow through intentionally becoming like Jesus!

Grow part 4 audio

The Things that God Hates 6: Feet that are Swift to Run to Evil

Proverbs 6:16-18; 1 Peter 4:1-5; Hebrews 12:1-2; Isaiah 52:7.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 19, 2021.

This morning we are going to talk about feet that are swift in running to evil.  There is a humorous story can be found here online, but I have copied it here for ease (Thanks to Stuart Chase of Sola5.org). 

Four pastors were sitting down to lunch. Having just read James 5, in which James urges his readers to confess their sins to one another (v. 16), one suggested that they practice what they had read. They all agreed, and so the first pastor said, “I have been a little dishonest with the church books, labelling personal expenses as ministry expenses.” The second admitted, “In order to deal with the stress of ministry, I have turned to alcohol and, on more than one occasion, have gotten drunk.” The third confessed, “I have been unwise with my finances and so have had to resort to gambling in the hopes of striking it rich.” The fourth pastor dropped his head and said quietly, “I battle with gossip, and right now I can’t wait to get out of here!”

God hates feet that are swift in running to evil

Though this story is humorous, sin is not humorous, and being eager to sin against others is even less funny.  Proverbs 6:18 highlights today’s topic as the 5^th thing that God hates.  By now, we have looked at the eyes, mouth, hands, heart, and now the feet.  Of course, our feet only carry out the desire of our heart, and generally have to do with taking us places.

With the advent of greater and greater technology, our ability to go to places even when our ability to walk is severely impaired is immense.  Why do I go to the places I go?  Is it to do the will of God?  Or, is it in order to sin, to carry out wicked plans, to do evil?  Most people in our society would not see gossip as something that is evil.  However, the word “evil” simply means something that is morally bad, and injurious to ourselves and others.

Our verse emphasizes eagerness in going to sin over the top of an accidental stumbling, or choosing to sin, but after a long internal deliberation.  All of these are bad, but eager swiftness in sin is particularly heinous.  It pictures a person who is prompted by an evil desire and swiftly runs towards doing it.  All sin is dangerous, but to be rushing toward it, represents something even more dangerous.  It is a soul that is hungry for sin, and can’t wait to do it.  Not only is this an abomination, it is increasing in our land.

Let’s look at 1 Peter 4:1-5.

There are two sides to this passage: that which describes those who are living for their flesh, and those who are living for the will of God.  The lusts of the flesh are obvious and this list is only a short foray into that jungle.  Galatians 5:19-21 gives us a more extended list, and contrasts it to the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  The world is living in order to satisfy the lusts of their flesh, and if we are not careful, we will fall back on this pattern ourselves.

Some people who are not Christians may show great restraint in certain areas, but it is always for the sake of a greater lust that is in their heart.  The Bible pictures the human heart as a seething cauldron of desires.  We learn quickly in life that you can’t get everything that you want, so we are forced to pick which ones we will go after.  Some people are highly skilled at satisfying a large number of lust, and appear to be quite functional compared to others whose lives are full of dysfunction.

Peter pictures this worldly living first as walking.  They are walking in these sins.  These sins are like prostitution is to the red-light district.  They hang out in the places where it is easier to commit their favored sins.  Like a John looking to hook-up, they spend their time looking for opportunity and then seizing it in wicked passion when it comes along, walking in sin.

He then uses the picture of “running in a flood of dissipation.”  It is like water that rages down the mountain side only to dissipate in the desert, sinking into the sand, wasted.  It looked so substantial, but now it is gone and did no good for anyone.  Another way to picture this flood of wastefulness is with a toilet.  We create toilets and sewers in order to keep waste under control.  However, from time to time, a toilet will backup and have an overflow of wicked waste.  Thus, the life of a person who is pursuing the lusts of their flesh is like a toilet overflowing with waste into a person’s life and the people around them.

Peter then says that the world thinks it is strange that Christians don’t walk and run alongside of them in this pursuit of lusts.  It would be like running around a track and, when you are halfway around, you meet a person running in the opposite direction.  You would be perplexed and wonder what that person is doing?  “That’s not the direction you are supposed to run in!”  Perhaps, we should envision instead the person running off of the track, and going off into the distance.  How strange that is, the majority of runners would think.  This is how Christians who follow Christ appear to the world.  This world is a raging sea of great passion and desire, but it is an overflow of wicked things that will be wasted and spent on the sands of history.

Let’s go to Hebrews 12 to focus on what God loves.

God loves feet that run the race of faith

There is a race that has been set in front of us by God, and it is the race of faith.  Of course, this is quite a different race than the one that the world has put in front of us.  That is a rat race, and it focuses on who can please themselves the most.

Christians are those who have awakened from the dream of living for self, and have had their eyes opened to God’s true purpose in this life.  It is a purpose that requires us to trust Him in the things that we live for, and the things that we die to.  You have to do the second in order to do the first.

In John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, the main character Christian had been living in the City of Destruction all of his life.  Yet, he was confronted one day with the truth of where he lived, and what he should be doing.  This passage in Hebrews reminds us that we are a people who are leaving sin and destruction behind, even when close loved ones think we are crazy.

In running this race of faith, we need feet that flee wickedness.  The passage pictures Christians as stripping off the sins and weights that would keep us from completing this endurance race of faith.  We focus first on what we are fleeing only so much as to cast it off.  Once we have cast it off, we need to not look back and pick it up again.

There is a great list of things that the apostles warn us to flee.

• 1 Corinthians 6:18, “Flee sexual immorality.”
• 1 Corinthians 10:14, “Flee idolatry.”
• 2 Timothy 2:22, “Flee youthful lusts,”
• 1 Timothy, 6:11-12, “Flee these things [the wealth of this world] and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

If we are to actually take hold of eternal life, then we must learn to flee the lusts of our flesh, and to do so swiftly.

Of course, our main focus is forward.  We need feet that run after Jesus.  Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith, and must remain our target.  Being with and like him is why we cast off sin.

We focus upon him as a great example of faith and its reward by the Father.  However, we also focus upon Him as the goal we are trying to attain, the one to whom we are wanting to be connected for all eternity.  The Bride of Christ must prepare herself for an eternal marriage with God Himself. 

It is easy to see that parts of this world are not pursuing good things.  However, we must hear the Bible teaching us that only those who go after Christ will find good.  The best parts of this world are still rushing after wickedness, and the lusts of the flesh.  This can only lead to destruction, not eternal life.  It is an abomination to God.

This brings us to the cloud of witnesses, those who have gone on before us in this race of faith.  Though Hebrews speaks to this, I want us to go to Isaiah 52:7 to get an expanded picture of this.

We need feet that are bringing the Gospel to others.  God loves the beautiful feet of one who has used them to scale the mountain, and cross over to the other side in order to share the Gospel with those who don’t know it.  It is our joy to be a witness to others that God still reigns!

Contrary to popular conception, God has not died, and atheism did not kill Him.  The world persists in a delusion, and thereby sets themselves up for an even greater one.  We are on the cusp of the greatest delusion that this world has ever seen.  It is one in which the whole world rushes into what they think is the guarantee of peace and safety.  It will be one in which they will worship a man as god, even though they have spent millennia rejecting the one, true God-man, the Lord Jesus.

In our flesh, we could despise the world and say good riddance, but that is not the heart of Jesus.  Even now, God says, “Who will go for Me?”  Who will use their eyes, mouth, hands, heart, and feet to bring the tidings of great joy to a lost world?  O friend, may we beatify ourselves for our coming Lord, by doing the things that He loves!