Daily Devotional For Saturday, September 21, 2024

Yesssss! You made it to the weekend. This is the time to get some rest, relaxation and possibly some recreation. We are making our way through Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount and we are currently in Matthew 5:27-30:

“You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery. (28) But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.(29) So if your eye—even your good eye—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. (30) And if your hand—even your stronger hand—causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell” (NASB).

We looked at this starting yesterday and there are a few more thoughts and convictions we need to think about and feel. When I was growing up, I often heard older men say, “Well, it’s okay to look at the menu even though you’ve already placed your order.” Well, Jesus would say, it all depends why you are looking and how long you are looking. It is not lustful looking that causes the sin in the heart, but the sin in the heart that causes lustful looking. The lustful looking is but the expression of a heart that is already immoral and adulterous. The heart is the soil where the seeds of sin are embedded and begin to grow.

There is a popular proverb I have quoted in sermons: “Sow a thought and reap an act. Sow an act and reap a habit. Sow a habit and reap a character. Sow a character and reap a destiny.” That process perfectly illustrates Jesus’ main thrust in this passage: No matter where it ends, sin always begins when an evil thought is sown in the mind and heart. 

When I think of this proverb, I think of King David. The King’s roof was always the highest, so when David walked out on his roof, he could not help but see Bathsheba bathing on her roof. Bathsheba thought that the king was at war. Why? Look at 2 Samuel 11:1, “In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. They destroyed the Ammonite army and laid siege to the city of Rabbah. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem” (NLT). She thinks David is away fighting in battle, not staying behind because he was tired of fighting battles. The battle David stayed behind and face was a battle he lost and unfortunately iit turned into a destiny of a temporary lost kingship to his rebellious son Absalom. This eventually cost Absalom his life and David more grief for that “look.”

David was not at fault for seeing Bathsheba bathing on her roof. He couldn’t help but see her as he looked around at his kingdom. His sin is that he stared and kept looking and allowed lust to grow in his heart which led to adultery in his heart and then actual physical adultery with her. Sadly, it didn’t end there. To cover his sin, he had her faithful husband who was his personal bodyguard murdered. 

Although men are very vulnerable to lust, so are women. New Testament scholar Arthur Pink writes this in his book on the Sermon On The Mount:

“If lustful looking is so grievous a sin, then those who dress and expose themselves with the desire to be looked at and lusted after ... are not less but perhaps more guilty. In this matter it is not only too often the case that men sin but women tempt them to do so. How great then must be the guilt of the great majority of modern misses who deliberately seek to arouse the sexual passions of young men. And how much greater still is the guilt of most of their mothers for allowing them to become lascivious temptresses” (Source: Arthur Pink, An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, p. 83).

The lustful heart seeks to satisfy its hunger, but the godly heart seeks to suppress its lustful hunger. Consider these verses for thought and as warnings:

• Job 31:1, 7-8, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman . . . (7) If I have strayed from his pathway, or if my heart has lusted for what my eyes have seen, or if I am guilty of any other sin, (8) then let someone else eat the crops I have planted. Let all that I have planted be uprooted” (NLT).
• Psalm 119:37-38, “Turn my eyes from worthless things,and give me life through Your word (38) Reassure me of Your promise, made to those who fear You” (NLT).
• 2 Timothy 2:22, “Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts” (NLT).

Therefore, all of us should make a covenant with our eyes and every other part of our body not to use it in any way that causes us to sin and dishonors Jesus Christ. So, if the issue is an issue of the heart, why does Jesus tell us to “pluck out” our eye. In Jewish culture, the right eye and the right hand were considered the best and most precious assets. The right eye was considered the best eye for vision and the right hand the best and strongest hand for work and toil. Jesus’ point is that we should be willing to give up whatever is necessary, even the most cherished things we possess, if doing that will help protect us from evil. Nothing is so valuable as to be worth preserving at the expense of righteousness.

The point is that we must be willing to sever or cut off ourselves from anything that causes us to lust and sin. Though Jesus is speaking figuratively and metaphorically, self-mutilation will not take care of the sin because the sin is an issue of the heart – not the eye or the hand. To  help us, Jesus used a word that has its own picture. In verse 29, translators differ on their word choice – “So if your eye—even your good eye—causes you to lust . . .” Instead of the word “lust,” some used the word “fall” or “stumble.”

The Greek New Testament word used here that is translated as “lust, fall or stumble” is [σκανδαλίζω, scandalizo]. It is where we get our English words “scandal, scanalize.” Pastor and author John MacArthur writes this on this word:

“It was often used of the bait stick that springs the trap when an animal touches it. Anything that morally or spiritually traps us, that causes us to fall into sin or to stay in sin, should be eliminated quickly and totally. For example, a married person’s “falling in love” with someone besides his or her spouse is wrong. The relationship may be mutually enjoyable and considered to be rewarding, fulfilling, and beautiful. But it is totally sinful and should be immediately severed. What is a pure and truly beautiful relationship between marriage partners is morally ugly and repulsive to God when it is shared between a man and woman if either or both are married to someone else” (Source: John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 304).

God is clear in His Word that we must be intentional in radically dealing with anything that could trap us or cause us to stumble. The Apostle Paul said this is what he did in 1 Corinthians 9:27, “I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified” (NLT).

Simply getting rid of things that could trap us does not totally solve the problem. Why? The problem is the sin of the heart. We have to deal with the heart first. When a person commits actual physical adultery, it reveals that their sinful heart was already adulterous. But when we put up safe guards, that does reveal a heart that wants to be righteous, holy and godly. The sin of the heart is the heart of the sin. 

New Testament scholar William Barclay shows how true this is:

“The outstanding example in history of the wrong way to deal with such thoughts and desires was that of the hermits and the monks in the desert in the time of the early Church. They were individuals who wished to free themselves from all earthly things, and especially of the desires of the body. To do so, they went away into the Egyptian desert with the idea of living alone and thinking of nothing but God.

The most famous of them all was Saint Anthony. He lived the hermit’s life; he fasted; he did without sleep; he tortured his body. For thirty-five years he lived in the desert, and these thirty-five years were a non-stop battle, without respite, with his temptations. The story is told in his biography. ‘First of all the devil tried to lead him away from discipline, whispering to him the remembrance of his wealth, cares for his sister, claims of kindred, love of money, love of glory, the various pleasures of the table, and the other relaxations of life, and, at last, the difficulty of virtue and the labor of it … 

The one would suggest foul thoughts, and the other counter them with prayers; the one fire him with lust, the other, as one who seemed to blush, fortify his body with prayers, faith and fasting. The devil one night even took upon him the shape of a woman, and imitated all her acts simply to beguile Anthony.’ So for thirty-five years the struggle went on.

The plain fact is that, if ever anyone was asking for trouble, Anthony and his friends were. It is the inevitable law of human nature that the more we say we will not think of something, the more that something will present itself to our thoughts. There are only two ways to defeat the forbidden thoughts” (William Baclary, The New Revised Daily Study Bible Series, “Matthew,” p. 172).

I close this discourse with one more story. It is about a young woman during the Civil War, a beautiful, highly educated, and popular young woman who fell into prostitution. At the age of 22 when she found herself dying in a hospital bed in Cincinnati, she wrote the following poem:

‘Fainting, freezing, dying alone,

too wicked for prayer,

Too weak for a moan to be heard

in the streets of the crazy town

Gone mad in the joy

of the snow coming down.

To lie, and to die,

in my terrible woe,

With a bed and a shroud

of the beautiful snow.’

Years later someone added one more verse to her poem:

`Helpless and frail as the trampled snow,

Sinner despair not, Christ stoopeth low

To rescue the soul that is lost in its sin,

And raise it to life and enjoyment again.

Groaning, bleeding, dying for thee,

The Crucified hung, made a curse on the tree.

His accents of mercy fall soft on thine ear.

Is there mercy for me? Will He heed my prayer?

O God! in the stream that for sinners doth flow,

Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow’

(Source: A. Nainsmith, 1200 Notes, Quotes, and Anecdotes, p. 84).

What is the answer? We must harness our thoughts. That is the point of 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (NASB). One of the best ways to harness our thoughts is with Scripture memorization. You can’t always control and stop every thought the devil, his demons and your own heart puts in your mind, but you can change the channel so to speak. How? — memorized Bible verses. King David wrote this in Psalm 119:11, “I have hidden Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You” (NLT).

Questions To Consider

1. Which thoughts tend to trip you or become a  trap for you? How do you normally deal with them? What have been the results?
2. How committed are you to memorizing Scripture verses for areas you are weak, where you can fall or stumble? If you are not, will you commit today to begin memorizing Scripture to help you in your weakest areas? Why or why not?
3. A sinful act does not just occur. It reveals a heart that is already sinful in that area. One has already committed that sin in their heart before they do with their hands so to speak. Do you agree with this? Why or why not?

Scripture To Meditate On: Psalm 119:11, “I have hidden Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You” (NLT).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, I am weak at memorizing Your word so that I can use it to keep me from sin. I know that my personal sins start first in my heart. Therefore, I know I must deal with my heart first. As David prayed in Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (ESV). Jesus, I want Your words in me rather than the words from the devil or my heart or our culture. Convict me to memorize Your words of life so that I can live this abundant life You promised me. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly