Jesus on Anger and Lust

Jesus on Anger and Lust: Matthew 5;21-30

1. So.. What kind of righteousness “Exceeds that of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (v20)? What would that look like? His listeners knew what the Phar and Sad did, how they acted, etc. They knew all about earthly kingdoms. But what about this Kingdom of Heaven? What would that look like? WHAT IS THIS SUPER-RIGHTEOUSNESS?
2. Jesus starts with “you have been told... but I say...” in six examples of a better righteousness. It is like the Mosaic law set a spiritual high-jump bar at 10 feet. We all look at the law and say “Wow, that’s higher than I can jump... I think I’d better practice and train harder so I can jump it.” There are even expert high-jump trainers (Pharisees and other legalists) who profess to ALMOST clear the high-jump bar. But Jesus comes along and takes that 10 foot bar and moves it to 100 feet! We look at it and say, “WOW! I can’t even come close to jumping that! I need an elevator or airplane or something!” and THAT is just what Jesus is looking for! “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” We must recognize our inability to jump the bar.

Anger

3. Murder is wrong. Jesus starts where everyone can agree. That is a constant in pretty much EVERY culture around the world. And even if it is legal in certain cases (dictators make their own rules after all) it is still recognized as morally, ethically wrong.
4. BUT! If it’s wrong to murder in real life, Jesus says that murderous hate is just as bad, because it is impossible to murder without malice. Anger, bitterness, hate... they are the seeds of murder in God’s sight.
5. Hmmm. I’ve never murdered anyone. And I can’t think of anyone I hate right now. I think I can clear this bar...
6. But Jesus then says, “Anyone who calls a brother a derogatory name is in dangers of the fires of hell!” Oh, now that bar is at 100 feet. I do this all the time.
7. The main point: My attitude toward my brothers is so important that it can endanger my soul.
8. My salvation is not dependent on my works. But if I harbor bitterness or anger in my heart, my fruit says, “I’m not a cherry tree.” I am not showing my awareness of how God made peace and forgave me.
9. Anger and giving: Jesus said, Don’t give an offering to the church if you have an angry heart. Since one’s anger/bitterness of heart toward another person endangers their soul and brings a rift between God... God isn’t interested in my offerings. I would extrapolate that God’s turned-away-back also applies to one’s “offerings of praise”. Don’t expect to get much from worship services if you are bitter to another person.
10. Verse 23: Am I responsible for someone’s grudge against me? Conditions: I have to “Remember” they have a grudge. I have to be aware of their grudge. Frankly, it’s REALLY hard to know someone hates you and NOT hate them back. Be realistic!
11. Our duty: Seek peace and pursue it! Blessed are the peacemakers! Funny how God’s word always comes back to the same points. When should you take care of this? RIGHT NOW! Before the ushers march down the row. I have seen this in THIS church.
12. Rom 12:18 We are to seek reconciliation as far as it depends on us... but it won’t always work. Sometimes it’s our fault; we’ve wronged others. Sometimes we are hated unfairly (I, personally, am almost ALWAYS hated unfairly!) but we should “Be the bigger person” and take the first step.

LUST

13. “Don’t commit Adultery” Jesus’ listeners would have understood and agreed. Our culture is not so moral. We don’t even use the word Adultery any more.
14. “Unadulterated” means un-mixed or absolutely pure. So what does “Adulterated” mean?
15. V28: Jesus raises the high-jump bar even HIGHER! What man could ever claim perfection in this??
16. Lust is sexual desire that dishonors God and ourselves and the other person. But it can be other kinds of desire. If sexual lust isn’t your problem, what about sugar or money?
17. Ok, so my sin- debt is fully described. I am completely bankrupt. Jesus can save me and allow me entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven. But the high-jump bar is 200 feet in the air, why should I even TRY to jump it? I mean, my salvation is through grace not works, right?

John Piper’s thoughts:

I spoke to the student body of Wheaton Christian High School. I took as my topic, "Ten Lessons for Fighting Lust." Lesson number 6 was, "Ponder the eternal danger of lust."

My text on that point was Matthew 5:28–29 where Jesus says, "Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell." I pointed out that Jesus said heaven and hell are at stake in what you do with your eyes and with the thoughts of your imagination.

After the message one of the students came up to me and asked, "Are you saying, then, that a person can lose his salvation?"

This is exactly the same response I got a few years ago when I confronted a man about the adultery he was presently living in. I tried to understand his situation and I pled with him to return to his wife. Then I said, "You know Jesus says that if you don't fight this sin with the kind of seriousness that is willing to gouge out your own eye, you will go to hell and suffer there forever."

He looked at me in utter disbelief, as though he had never heard anything like this in his life, and said, "You mean you think a person can lose his salvation?"

So I have learned again and again from first hand experience that there are many professing Christians who have a view of salvation that disconnects it from real life, and that nullifies the warnings of the Bible and puts the sinning person who claims to be a Christian beyond the reach of biblical threats. And this doctrine is comforting thousands on the way to hell.

Jesus said, if you don't fight lust, you won't go to heaven.

18. In “the truth project” Dr. Tackett said “Do you believe that what you believe is really real?” His example was: We believe that God is everywhere, sees all, knows all. But would you watch that/read that/look at that ____ if Jesus were in the room? There is a disconnect between faith and deeds that proves our faith insincere.
19. John 6:29 - The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent. Belief/faith IS works. Our belief is the seed, sinless living is the fruit.
20. Saving faith is sin-fighting faith. The same obedience to faith that saves us from death saves us from lust/anger/covetousness/worry/etc.
21. Eph 2:8... and this faith is not our own, it is the gift of God.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. This is God's demand and this is God's gift. It is all of grace. That's why the only fight we fight is the fight of faith—the fight to rest so fully in the grace of God—to be so satisfied with the glory of God—that temptation to sin loses its power over us.

The battle against lust is the battle against unbelief.

22. What: Murder is bad. Anger is bad. Adultery is bad. Lust is bad.
23. So what: We must fight it.
24. Now what: How do we fight lust? (or anger, or greed, or worry, or whatever)

The Knowledge of God

In verse 1Thess4:5 Paul says, " . . . not in the passion of lust like heathen [i.e., the Gentiles] who do not know God." Do you see what that implies about the root of lust? Not knowing God is the root cause of lust. Paul doesn't mean that mere head knowledge about God overcomes lust.

Satan and his hosts have some very accurate knowledge of God and Jesus, but that is not the kind of knowledge Paul has in mind here.

The knowledge he has in mind here is knowledge of God described in 2 Corinthians 4:6—"the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (see Galatians 4:8;1 Corinthians 2:14; 2 Peter 1:3–4). It's the knowledge of God's greatness and worth and glory and grace and power. It's knowledge that stuns you, and humbles you. It's knowledge that wins you and holds you.

It's the kind of knowledge that you don't have when you say ho-hum during the Hallelujah Chorus or grumble on the rim of the Grand Canyon. Hearing they do not hear and seeing they do not see. It's not that kind of knowledge. It comes like it did for Lydia when the Lord opened the eyes of her heart. At one moment you think you will burst with its fullness, and suddenly there is a chasm of longing for more. It's the knowledge we call faith—the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen.

It's a knowledge that is so real, so precious, so satisfying to your soul, that any thought, any attitude, any emotion, any addiction which threatens to hinder this knowledge will be attacked with all the spiritual zeal of a threatened life. This is the fight of faith that rages in the godly soul when lust lures the mind away from God.

The Pure Shall See God

I close with an illustration from an article in Leadership (Fall 1982). It was unsigned, but written by a preacher who for ten years was in bondage to lust. He tells the story of what finally released him. It is such a resounding confirmation of what I am trying to say that I want to quote the key paragraph.

He ran across a book by Francois Mauriac, What I Believe. In it Mauriac admitted how the plague of guilt had not freed him from lust. He concludes that there is one powerful reason to seek purity, the one Christ gave in the Beatitudes: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

The thought hit me like a bell rung in a dark, silent hall. So far, none of the scary, negative arguments against lust had succeeded in keeping me from it . . . But here was a description of what I was missing by continuing to harbor lust: I was limiting my own intimacy with God. The love he offers is so transcendent and possessing that it requires our faculties to be purified and cleansed before we can possibly contain it. Could he, in fact, substitute another thirst and another hunger for the one I had never filled? Would Living Water somehow quench lust? That was the gamble of faith. (pp. 43–44)

It was not a gamble. You can't lose when you turn to God. He discovered this in his own life, and the lesson he learned is absolutely right:

The way to fight lust is to feed faith with the knowledge of an irresistibly glorious God.

Do you know God this morning? Are you growing week by week in the knowledge of God's greatness? Do you meditate on his Word day and night? Do you ponder the pictures of his Son in the gospels? Do you read solid books about his character and his ways? Do you look at everything in your day as his creation? Do you pray for a sensitive heart that can be ravished by the revelation of his glory?

I call you to make those commitments now for the sake of your own soul and for the glory of God.

Selah: stop and think about that