The Real Values of the Kingdom: Real Kingdom Goodness 2.0 - Matthew 5:27-37

-We've been talking about the real values of the kingdom as revealed in Matthew chapter 5 the first section of Jesus' sermon on the Mount. We have discovered that God's kingdom is open for business and that he invites us into become his blessing agents. Last time, we learned that having a right relationship with our fellow human beings means more than simply not killing them. Real kingdom goodness comes from the heart and is a reconciler of hearts.

- This week, as we look at adultery, divorce, and oaths, we are going to answer the question: What are the values of the kingdom that Jesus described for his listeners which address sinful, impulsive behaviour?

- We began to look last time at the idea that sin is a problem which is deeper than merely keeping the law or following religious rules and regulations can fix. Sin is a problem of the heart. It is a problem which is bone deep. Sin is a problem which is so deep and pervasive that the only solution is total annihilation. Jesus calls us to repent.

- The human heart must be completely purged and purified of all sin if we are to enter the presence of a holy and just God that is why Jesus had to die. He died because the wages of sin is death and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

- As we think about the Scripture text for this morning, what is immediately obvious to us is that Jesus is speaking first, to sexual purity, in relation to lust and the fidelity of marriage, and second, the integrity of one's word.

- As we begin to consider sexual purity, of course, we realize that we live in a society which has immersed itself in sexuality. We are swimming against the riptide of a totally sexualized culture. We are not just up to our necks in deep water, but we're up to our noses and taking in water with every breath.

- In the West, we are sex obsessed. It's in the music that we hear, the magazines we read, the advertisements we see and hear on the internet, television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and billboards. Our culture is saturated with sex. So desensitized is the general state of our culture today that fashion designers are now turning to children to sell sex as a means of getting people to buy their particular brand of clothing.

- But sex isn't the only thing that sells, the obsession with the overindulgence in food in our culture is running rampant as well.

- In Mere Christianity, CS Lewis wrote, "You can get a large audience together for a striptease - that is, to watch a girl undress on the stage. Now suppose you came to a country where you could fill a theatre simply by bringing a covered plate onto the stage, and then slowly lifting the cover so as to let everyone see, just before the lights went out, that it contained a mutton chop, or a bit of bacon, would you not think that, in that country, something had gone wrong with the appetite for food? And would not anyone who had grown up in a different world think there was something equally queer about the state of the sex instinct among us?" (Friends, Lewis wrote this over 50 years ago.)

- The point is, of course, that we live in a country in which not only is there something wrong with our appetite for food but there is something wrong with our appetite for sex.

- Under the right set of circumstances, that is, between a husband and a wife, sex is a beautiful thing, a celebration of marriage, but outside those circumstances sex becomes an ugly thing, a self-indulgent denigration of marriage. Under the right set of circumstances, such as a Thanksgiving feast, eating is a wonderful thing and a celebration of God's provision, but in other circumstances, eating so easily becomes habitual gluttony, a perpetual act of self-indulgence.

- It is only when we become slaves to our desires that problems arise.

-The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, reminded his readers that the fruit of the Spirit is self-control.

- The message of the gospel for sinful, self-indulgent, selfish people is that in Christ you can gain mastery or self-control over the selfish desires of the flesh. In Christ, you can cultivate a virtuous character which displays and demonstrates love, joy, and peace; patience, kindness, and goodness; faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Jesus calls us to repent.

- According to Jesus, the source of adultery is lust. Lust is a problem of the heart which must be dealt with because lust is at the root of sexually immoral behaviour. If we are not able to control our thoughts, then ultimately our character is affected.

- As followers of Jesus Christ, we must learn to deal with problems at their source rather than merely attempting to treat the symptom by saying, "I didn't." An impure thought life lays the foundation of an impure outer life. It is not enough to say I didn't, rather we must instead tackle the source. We are called to repent.

- The reality regarding lust is that lust breaks the 10th command to not covet. When we lust after someone who is not our spouse then we are coveting, plain and simple. Before lust ever gets to adultery, it's already sin. Lust is not the state of heart of a person who belongs in the kingdom of heaven.

- What is the solution to lust? Or the solution for covetousness, for that matter? What did Jesus say?

- ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to stumble, 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 right hand causes you to stumble, 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 go into hell.

- Jesus used hyperbole, he exaggerated to make his point. How do we deal with lust and covetousness? We deal with them by disciplining the body, by exercising self-control with a repentant heart.

- The purpose of discipline is abundant life. Jesus said, "It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell." According to Jesus, it is better to learn self-control, self-discipline and have life, the life abundant and eternal, than to wind up in hell.

- When we develop the spiritual disciplines required to eliminate lust, then we won't have to worry about the seventh command to not commit adultery because we will have mastered the lust problem of the heart that leads to adultery in the first place.

- We live in a world that treats marriage rather lightly. The example set by the wealthy socialites of our culture and by Hollywood is that marriage is a contract rather than a covenant. Two people enter into marriage for as long as they both shall feel it is a good thing to do rather than as long as they both shall live. Jesus calls us to repent.

- Those who are at home in the kingdom of heaven will have a strong desire to protect the sanctity of marriage and the unity of the family. Healthy marriages and families are the building blocks for a strong society.

- A culture like ours, in which half of all marriages end in divorce, is a sick culture in which families are torn apart and children lack the healthy example that is set by a mother and father who love and care for one another in all of the ways required to demonstrate that marriage is a lifetime covenant and not a momentary contract.

- The intimacy which we crave can only be achieved with the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.

- It is through faithfulness to the marriage covenant and our partner in marriage that we display in this life an intimacy that reflects the intimacy available to everyone in the kingdom of heaven. That is why Jesus says that marital unfaithfulness is the only grounds for divorce. When the covenant is already broken, then the relationship is as well.

- Adultery breaks the covenantal intimacy of marriage, thus severing intimacy in the marriage relationship and divorce formally ends what is already broken. Where there is no adultery, then the divorcing spouse causes their former partner and themselves to become adulterers if and when they remarry.

- God's advice from the prophet Malachi is applicable to us all.

¹⁵ "Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth."

- For a Christian marriage to produce the kind of offspring God is looking for, then both husband and wife, must use the spiritual disciplines required of themselves to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit of God.

- So we talked about the issue of lust and the fidelity of marriage, let's take a few moments and look at the integrity of your word.

- Jesus said, ³³ “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ ³⁴ But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; ³⁵ or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. ³⁶ And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. ³⁷ All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

- 2000 years ago, the rabbis were endlessly splitting hairs over the meanings of the third and ninth commands, not to take the Lord's name in vain and not to bear false witness. They had constant debates about in which situations oaths were binding. Honestly, the rabbis were on a rather slippery slope, according to Jesus, because if an oath is not binding in one case, then it is not binding in any case.

- Oath takers become oath breakers when they do not keep their word. To be a person of integrity, according to Jesus, let your yes be yes and your no be no and keep your word. Doing what you say you will do and not doing the things you say you will not do is evidence that you are a person of integrity.

- Today, we often swear out of habit and we do it to invoke God and to impress others. But all such swearing is vanity and foolishness. When we swear oaths by God or by anything, then we are simply attempting to manipulate the situation for ourselves and sidestep someone else's thinking and judgment so that they will favour us and side with our agenda. Such behaviour displays something other than integrity.

- The swearing of oaths shows our lack of respect for others. Real kingdom goodness shows respect and allows fellow human beings the opportunity to make decisions without being manipulated. Jesus calls us to repent.

- If we want to grow as human beings and allow others to grow as human beings, then we will eliminate swearing from our catalogue of vocabulary and stick with the simple yes and no of integrity. We will cultivate spiritual disciplines which enable us to become people of integrity in Christ.

-Real kingdom goodness pursues discipline over our impulsive, sinful desires.

- As you may have already guessed, I'm going to suggest some spiritual disciplines to use as tools to plant and cultivate the fruit of the Spirit and uproot and eliminate impulsive and sinful desires.

- The first discipline I want to suggest is fasting. Everyone knows that when we hear the word fasting that traditionally means to give up food or water for a certain period of time.

- When we fast as a spiritual discipline for the purpose of godliness, it is especially useful against every type of covetousness. Fasting teaches us that we do not live on bread alone but also by the word of God. Through fasting we learn that God is our Sustainer and our Provider and that he alone is the source of our life and vitality. Fasting humbles us by revealing our need for God and revealing to us the depth of our own sinful desires. it drives us to confession and repentance.

- We also fast in order to devote ourselves more fully to prayer and it is through the discipline of prayer that we experience God's transforming work in our lives and in the lives of others.

- It is not safe under normal conditions to fast from all food and water longer than 72 hours, three days. For anyone who has a special health condition, such as diabetes, it is unsafe to give up food at all. So I want to make a few suggestions about fasting.

-You can fast in a variety of ways. If you have a favourite food, something that you eat on a very regular basis, perhaps even daily, fast from that food and whenever you find yourself thinking about that food, then pray. Or you could give up a meal or two a week in order to spend your noon hour or your supper hour in prayer. You can alter your diet for a period of time, the popular Daniel fast, on which you only eat vegetables, is one example. You can fast from soda pop and fruit juices and only drink water. You can fast from processed and fast food and switch to whole, unrefined foods and use the preparation time for prayer.

- Now, fasting doesn't have to be just about food. You can fast from media like the Internet, television, radio, reading magazines. In some cases you may decide after fasting from these things that you may wish to eliminate some of them for the purpose of godliness and simplify your life a little. Since Toni and I moved to Millville, we found that our lives are simpler without cable or satellite TV. We have plenty of other things to take up our time, both work wise and leisure, that are of far greater benefit to us than watching two or three hours of TV every night. We have also found that a pay-as-you-go cellular phone is a lot more cost effective for us as well as having the added bonus of really being able to get away from the world and be uninterrupted by the omnipresent cell phone.

- I believe that fasting from the media is especially important living in the sex saturated culture that we do because we are so immersed in the sexually charged culture in which we live that if we do not fast from the media than our default, automatic position will be to think as the media tells us to think. And I believe that is something we simply must not do. Jesus calls us to repent.

- Real kingdom goodness pursues discipline over our impulsive, sinful desires.