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Sermon
The Gospel of Matthew

Lust, Divorce, and Oaths

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January 26, 2025
Matthew 5:27-37
Steven Lee
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

Sexual Purity

Killing Sin & Holiness

Transcript

0:18Well, good morning. It's good to be together as we now open God's word. If you're new here, my name is Steven and I'm the pastor for preaching and vision here at the North Church. And we're working through Jesus Sermon on the Mount. So he's teaching his disciples the way of the kingdom and the standard of righteousness that it requires. And so keep your Bibles open to Matthew five, and then would you join me as I pray and ask the Lord for help?

0:51Father in heaven, would you give us eyes to see, and ears to hear your authoritative teaching through your son Jesus this morning? Give us your spirit, cause your word to come alive in us. Give us faith for what we cannot see. Give us a passion for your purity and cause your Holy Spirit to breathe new life in us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. I wonder if any of you have ever thought or spoken one of these phrases that are several. Everyone else is doing it. Why not me? It's not that bad compared to that guy. It's just a little white lie. It won't hurt anyone. I'm only doing this to protect my family.

1:53I deserve it since I've had a long, tiring day. Well, it it, it was really their fault. They were asking for it. God knows my heart. He understands why I did it. And you know what? They'll never notice. It's harmless. I'm not hurting anyone at all. Each of those statements are the words that we either say aloud or we say to ourselves when we want to justify our own actions. Kids do this all the time. I kicked Sally, I kicked my sister because she took my Legos. But adults are much more sophisticated in our self justification, aren't we? Well, that's just my personality. It wasn't fair to begin with. I didn't mean to hurt you.

2:46Self justification is one of the ways that we like to explain our actions when they're inconsistent with our beliefs and with our values. We lower the bar, we rationalize our mistakes, or we try to minimize our failures as best as we can. I wonder if anyone can relate this morning or maybe it's just me. This tendency to self justify is precisely what the Pharisees had done with God's law. They had created this elaborate house of cards that justified and minimized their failures so that it would look like we're keeping the mosaic law. The law that Moses gave us perfectly we're we're doing all 613 stipulations.

3:40No problem. But this is not just a Pharisee problem. We're all very good defense attorneys when it comes to our mistakes and our failures. Isn't that right? And Jesus graciously topples this house of cards this morning and he shows his disciples the true way of life for his kingdom citizens. So this is a hard word this morning, but it's also a life giving word. This morning in our passage, we examine the next three teachings that address lust, divorce, and oaths or promises. And in each of the three, Jesus is correcting the false teachings and the traditions of the Pharisees. And he exposes the tendencies of our hearts towards legalism or finding loopholes in the law in order to justify ourselves.

4:38And so each section, as we've seen we saw last week, we'll see next week as well, has the same pattern. You have heard that it was said. And then Jesus explains what the Old Testament taught. And then he says, but I say to you, he illuminates the Old Testament and reveals its intended purpose, its aim, and interprets it as its authoritative interpreter. And what he does in the midst of that is he exposes the Pharisees corrupted interpretation and practice. So Jesus has been teaching his disciples that his kingdom citizens are to be righteous. Your righteousness needs to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.

5:26But in each of these sections, he's showing us that this is not just external behavior, but this is a matter of the heart. The heart is in focus. Jesus demands nothing less than even perfection. In verse 48, he says, you therefore must be perfect. And what Jesus is doing here is he's using the law like an MRI or a PET scan or a CT scan to reveal the tumors of our self-justification, our legalism, how we look for loopholes to lessen the demands of God's law. And in these three sections, he reveals sin and points to the solution that we need. So our plan is to just look at each of the three sections, the Old Testament teaching, the Pharisees tradition, and then Jesus teaching.

6:22And each of these three sections, as you can tell, are massive. We could do several sermons on each of the three. So it's no surprise, but we're not gonna be exhaustive. We're not gonna say everything that can be said about each of these three topics today. Now, I'll try to send a few resources in my email later this week and we're probably gonna, we will come back to these topics later on in Matthew as well. So first we look at lust verses 27 to 30. Look with me down at verse 27. It says, Jesus says, you have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. This is a quote from Exodus 20, verse 14 from the 10 Commandments or Deuteronomy five verse 18.

7:07This is the seventh commandment from the 10 Commandments, and it's pretty straightforward. Don't commit adultery. It's almost surprising in that, how could the Pharisees possibly misunderstand this one? Well, the Pharisees tradition focused mainly on not coveting someone else's wife. As long as you don't steal someone else's wife, commit adultery, you're good. So I imagine the Pharisees thinking went a little bit like this. I don't murder. That was from last week. I check the box on the sixth command. I don't commit adultery. Check the box on the seventh command. We're doing pretty good. Two outta 10 so far, guys.

7:49And to this, Jesus says, think again verse 28. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Lustful desire is adultery of the heart. And it has already transgressed, it's already broken. The seventh commandment, you're already lawbreakers. Jesus is saying, and you're already condemned. Jesus teaches that we sin not only with our bodies, but with our hearts.

8:32Jesus just doesn't have men in view here. He, he is addressing this to men. But women can be equally guilty of lusting or enticing others to lustful intent. The point is not male or female. The point is that Jesus sees our hearts, both men and women. Jesus follows this up with two so-called solutions. I call them so-called solutions because I think Jesus is being hyperbolic and they drive home a very important, important point. Look with me at verse 29, first half of 29, if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. And then in verse 30, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

9:18As someone in our small group recently said this morning, I don't see a lot of people here with one hand or with pirate patches and one eye. So what's Jesus saying here? Well, the right side was seen as the stronger side. So I think it's pointing to the severity of these sins and how serious we are to take them. The strong eye or the strong hand, though the right hand, is probably a euphemism for the male organ as well, which makes Jesus words even more startling and shocking this morning. And Jesus has already made the point. This is a heart problem. Matthew 1519, for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, and sexual immorality.

10:11The heart is the issue. And with both of these solutions, he gives the same ground. See, the second half of verse 29 and second half of 30 for it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. It's better to be disfigured and disabled than to perish in hell. In other words, your battle against lust is deadly serious this morning. If you don't fight sin, if you persist in unrepentant ongoing sin, it will lead you to fall away from the living God and serve as proof that you were never saved.

10:52The Pharisees thought we're good. We've checked the box as long as we don't act out on those lustful desires. And Jesus says that lustful desire is deadly and it can condemn you to hell. And the solution is to violently and decisively flee lustful temptation violently and decisively flee lustful temptation. Jesus is not teaching mutilation, but he's teaching mortification in the words of John Owen, Puritan, writer, be killing sin or sin will be killing you. Or we can look to the words of Paul Colossians three, five put to death. Therefore, what is earthly in you? Or Romans eight 13, if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

11:51And some did in fact misunderstand Jesus' words, origin, uh, ancient Christian emasculated himself. He became a eunuch for the kingdom. What he got right is that sexual lust is not to be treated lightly. Jesus is calling his believers to take serious and ruthless measures to flee sexual sin. And this is not an out there problem. This is a in here problem. We all have hearts that are prone to wander.

12:26One of the most destructive forces today is the poison of pornography. 61% of US adults report viewing pornography. That is a shocking and startling statistic. It affects men and women, young and old Christians and non non-Christians. It's pervasive and it's destroying families. Marriages debilitating young people. It exacerbates loneliness and depression and desist desensitizes its users to violence and degradation. If that was not bad enough, one of the pastors turned me on to this statistic. It said that 62% of Christian respondents to this survey agree that a person can regularly view pornography and live a sexually healthy life, that they are compatible.

13:27This is a massive, massive problem. The world lies to us, and we lie to ourselves that it's just a look. It's not a big deal. It's not hurting anyone. I need sexual satisfaction. I can't stop. And so the word from Jesus this morning is a serious word. The people of God mysteriously and ruthlessly flee from sexual sin. I I it's like Joseph fleeing the grip of Potiphar's wife. He just needs to run the other direction. Uh, think of it this way, if you find some mice droppings in your kitchen, you know, on the countertop, on your floor, in the pantry where you keep all your snacks, and then you actually see mice running around like at night and they're eating up all the crumbs on your floor, do you just leave them to devour those crumbs?

14:24Oh, well I don't, I guess I don't have to sweep. The mice are gonna get it right. No, they're leaving their droppings everywhere. You hire pest control and you set out traps and you destroy those rodents with a vengeance. Yet why do so many allow the rodents of lustful thought pornography and fantasy run amok devouring their purity and their families and their marriages? And so this word this morning is a call to take serious our sin. Well, what do you do if this is a problem for you this morning? And so these statistics say 61% or 62% of people have this problem. I'm gonna put all the applications under this broader banner of walk in the light together.

15:18We wanna walk in the light together. We want to expose these deeds of darkness by bringing them into the light. Ephesians five 11, we gotta recognize first that this is a heart problem and we need to bring it out into the light and we need to recruit others to help us in this fight. One John one seven says this, but if we walk in the light as Jesus is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from our sin, we bring this festering mold that is in the heart, into the light, into this disinfecting light of Christ. And we can with others fellowship together in fighting this sin together.

16:08And this means repenting to God. And and for some of you it means repenting with a friend. So, so that they can help you, maybe a spouse bringing this into the light to say that this is a real problem for me. And this is gonna look different for each of us based on our particular struggles. But let me touch on at least a few specific applications. I sent some in my email earlier this week, but I I just wanna mention a few. First, for some of us it means cutting off the source, mortify the flesh by what you take in with your eye. So take drastic and extreme measures to fight for purity. This means getting an internet filter, an accountability partner or getting rid of your devices or seeking out counseling or reading One of the books that I sent earlier this week.

16:59And we do know that it's a matter of the heart, but part of taking it seriously is not letting it just come right in and saying, well, I'm gonna guard my heart while watching all this stuff. No, cut it off. A, a word to our dads and moms, safeguard your home for your children. Please. You wouldn't allow a sexual predator into your home. And yet so many of us give our children unfiltered access to the internet on their phones and tablets and computers. Yes, they're gonna have to learn how to use those things. Oh, but safeguard your home. Take extreme measures to do that. The statistics of when kids first come across pornography is just staggering.

17:51Second, beware of self-justifying behavior. That's what the Pharisees were doing. Well, at least I don't commit adultery. At least I don't act out on that. At least I'm not looking at the really aberrant stuff. No, this is no time for self-justifying behavior, indulging in other forms of sexual sin that you feel like might not be as serious. This is not a passage where we're supposed to feel superior to others, but we all confess where we fall short and we need God's grace. Jesus demands the very level of perfection that none of us live up to. Third meditate and think about praiseworthy things.

18:38Philippians four, eight, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable. If there's anything of excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, what are we supposed to do with those things? Think on those things. Think about these things. Are you filling your mind and heart with the glories of Christ? In our pastoral meeting, pastor Dan shared that his go-to weapon in a moment of temptation is to sing a hymn delighting in God's grace. When temptation assaults, you sing a a hymn that you've memorized, that revels in how good God is.

19:31Were to break the bondage of the grip of illicit sexual sin with a stronger, more superior, more compelling pleasure. Thomas Chalmers called this the expulsive power of a new affection. You gotta dislodge and displace those lesser desires with this greater desire. And we might say, well, what's that greater desire that can dislodge the grip of sexual temptation? It's that we've been loved by an holy God. We we cry. Holy, holy, holy. Isaiah fell down as he got a a vision of this God. Woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell among the people of unclean lips. And God cleansed him. He brought this coal and touched his lips.

20:18And we have something so much better than Isaiah. We have been brought into the very holy of holies, cleansed by the blood of Jesus out of his great love. He came into this world died. The death that we deserve gives us the righteousness that we desperately need, brings us into union with himself so that Jesus says, I'm gonna bind my future with my people forever. And so it should be unthinkable that we would join Christ to a prostitute or pornography, but instead we have been washed clean by the blood of Jesus. If you're trusting in Jesus this morning, he calls you holy and beloved children. Isn't that amazing? He knows what you did last week.

21:13He knows what you did 10 years ago and still because of the blood of Jesus. He says, holy and beloved children, oh, be conformed increasingly to the holiness of my father. So avoiding adultery is not enough. We're to wage war against a sexual sin that threatens to devour our souls, to bring it into the light and fight this fight of faith with others. I'm gonna have to go a lot faster if we're gonna make it through the next two. Divorce, 31 and 32. Verse 31 reads, it was also said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. So Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 24 verse one.

22:02And in verse one through four, Jesus is giving his, excuse me, Moses is giving the Israelites the instructions on how divorce and remarriage would work and a man could initiate divorce with his wife if there was found some indecency in her. That's the word used in the ESV. So divorce, as you can imagine, was a debated issue in Jesus' day. The Pharisees had two main schools of thought. They interpreted what indecency meant. And so there was the more conservative school that indicated this is a conservative school of the Pharisees. It indicated that divorce was permissible for sexual immorality or for immodesty, which included going outside with hair unfastened.

22:52That was the more conservative school. Then there was the more liberal school of thought that taught that any cause was sufficient for divorce, including if your wife had burned the dinner or if you find a prettier woman. This is essentially no fault divorce. Like our culture today, Jesus teaches in verse 32, but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. So in the first century, a divorced individual would almost always remarry. A divorced woman would in most circumstances, remarry as her soul means of support.

23:36And so Jesus is saying that the new marriage, whether as the divorcee or the one marrying her is adulterous, except in the case of sexual immorality, divorce marriage causes adultery. Jesus doesn't agree with either school of thought. What he's teaching is ultimately that divorce is not God's will 'cause. God's will is never for people to engage in adultery. It's one of the 10 commandments. The law was pointing to the sanctity of marriage as a life long union. Jesus is not trying to dissect who's the aggrieved party and who initiated the divorce. He's not getting into all that. He's saying marriage as designed by God was and is a lifelong union.

24:29And the Pharisees, they're looking for loopholes in the system. Well, if, if this is this in decency, well if this is grounds for divorce, is this grounds for divorce? Well, what if it's this? And Jesus is saying, stop talking about the grounds. Divorce should never have been. It's rooted as a lifelong union. It's rooted in the creation order. This is why in Matthew 19 five, Jesus says, A man shall leave his father and mother hold fast to his wife and become one flesh. And then he says, 19 six, what therefore God has joined together. Let not, let not man separate. So this raises the question, well then why was divorce allowed in Deuteronomy?

25:12And that's precisely what the Pharisees in Matthew 19 pick up on. They say, why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away? And Jesus says, this is because of the hardness of your hearts. It was a concession to the fallen nature of mankind. But this was never its original intention or design. And we see again, it's a heart problem, isn't it? Because divorce is such a pastorally sensitive issue. Let me just provide a few clarifying words this morning. I don't have time to answer every question about divorce remarriage, but again, I'm gonna try to send some things out.

25:53Second, if you're currently pondering a divorce, maybe it's in the back of your mind, your spouse doesn't know, maybe you've talked about it together, maybe someone's filing right now. Please seek out the help of one of your pastors. We want to provide biblical counsel so that you don't make a regrettable decision. Third, many though many of the elders believe that divorce is permitted for adultery or abandonment, like this exception clause that breaks the marriage covenant, we don't commend or encourage divorce. I, I don't believe that is a good solution. We believe God can redeem and restore broken marriages to testify to his grace.

26:39Even when there has been sexual immorality and adultery at work in a marriage. Your first instinct isn't to say it's done now, but rather, what might the Lord do in this to redeem it for his purposes? Now, what are we to do again? The broad banner of our application is walk in the light together. Divorce is a problem of the heart, and the reality is that we are all hardhearted to some degree looking for loopholes outta to get out of this covenant union. And so we need to bring our self-justifying and sinful inclinations into the light by confessing our sins to the Lord and to others, walking together with others to help you in your hard marriage.

27:27And, and so what does this look like? First, don't ponder or pursue divorce to escape your marriage. That's some of the best advice I got in my premarital counseling is don't ever use the word, just don't talk about it. Don't see it as a solution. It's not a tool in the tool belt. Just don't go there. Second, if your marriage is struggling this morning, maybe it's been months or even years since you've participated in marital intimacy or you've had any tender words towards one another, uh, We, we want you to seek help. Uh, we know marriage is a painful reality for some. And we have counseling that's available.

28:12We have a Foundations for marriage class that Pastor Brian's putting on that's coming up. We can refer you to others if you don't wanna talk to anyone from within the church. The pastors are available, the elders are available. Third, if you've engaged in an unbiblical divorce, my exhortation to you is repent and sin. No more adultery and divorce are not unpardonable sins, and yet they are serious and they can be covered by the blood of Jesus. One John one, nine. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Isn't that glorious? Good news.

28:59Fourth, if you've been abandoned or cheated on or divorced, unbiblically, Jesus is faithful to meet you even in this sorrow and sin and suffering. And then lastly, if you're currently in a difficult marriage that involves adultery, abandonment, abuse, cruelty, or criminal misconduct, we do wanna walk with you and help you. We don't want you to walk that road alone.

29:33Our desire is that the church, God's people would be marked by healthy marriages that would testify of God's grace at work, that we would reflect God's good design, that we would be salt and light. And so husbands and wives fight for and protect this glorious covenantal union that God has given you. It's a big deal. 33, 33, 37 oaths. Now we come to verse 33. Again, you have heard it said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform the Lord perform to the Lord. What you have sworn, this is not a quote of any specific Old Testament text, but it's kind of a combination of several texts from Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, for example, numbers 30, verse two says, if a man vows a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word.

30:35He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. So in other words, keep your promise, keep your oath, keep your vow. And I think those are all more or less synonymous. And I think this includes the background of not taking God's name in vain. And, and in the Old Testament, we see sort of living enacted metaphors of this, don't we? Uh, there's this kind of obscure passage in judges where jeha vows to the Lord, like, I need victory in this one battle. And if you give me this victory, whatever comes outta my house first, I'm gonna sacrifice that to you, Lord. He gets the victory. He comes home and his only child, his daughter comes out and he ends up sacrificing her.

31:23It it's a horrific story. And it's to illustrate this very principle. Don't make vows that you can't keep, that you shouldn't keep. Don't make those types of promises. So the Pharisees had created this elaborate and sophisticated system of oes and vows where if you sway by the temple, it, it was not binding. But if you swore by the gold of the temple, it is binding. That shows up in Matthew 2316 to 22. Like that's things that they actually taught. They created this system of rules and loopholes to cleverly evade, to not be true to the word, to ultimately deceive and to lie. And this happened all the time when I was a kid, right?

32:06People would say something outrageous on the, on the playground, and then they would be like, I swear to God. And then later they'd be like, oh, I had my fingers behind my back. You know, it's, uh, I was just kidding. Happens all the time. But we're a little bit more sophisticated now as adults. But Jesus teaches verse 34, do not take an oath at all. Not by heaven, not by earth, not by Jerusalem, not even by your own head. Why? Because all of it relates to and belongs to God. You are not the master of your own destiny. Heaven. It's God's throne earth. It's God's footstool Jerusalem. It's the city of the great king.

32:46Your head, it belongs to God. You can't even control the color of your hair or whether you have hair at all. You all belong to God. You are not the master of your own destiny. So making oaths or promises in in the Pharisees day was used to deceive. And Jesus says in verse 37, here's the solution. Let what you say, be simply yes or no, anything more than this comes from evil. In other words, tell the truth at all times. If you're focused on loopholes and oath making, you're following in the very footsteps of Satan, of the evil one. What were the very first recorded words of Satan?

33:33Did God really say, did God really say he's looking for the loophole there? Well, he didn't quite say that, did he? Jesus is not saying that oaths are entirely banned in the Bible. God makes oaths. Paul makes oaths. He says, I testifies. God is my witness. Jesus testifies under oath when he is under trial. We make wedding vows. We have membership. We have a membership covenant to be a member here at this church. Parents make child dedication promises. Doctors take the Hippocratic oath in a courtroom. You put your hand on the Bible and you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. While our culture says that lying is no big deal, Jesus in fact teaches us.

34:14Matthew 1236, on the day of judgment, people will give account of every careless word that they speak. Every single careless word that you speak will be brought into the light. And so don't speak careless words, let your yes be yes. And your no be no. So again, how do we apply this? We walk in the light together. All of our words are going to be exposed in that day of judgment. Jesus sees every word that we speak, every promise that we make, every lie that we tell. And so let our yes be yes and are no, be no confess dishonesty to God. Confess to others when we've lied, when we've veiled the truth, when we've intentionally misled, recruit others to help you If you have made it a pattern to deceive or to lie.

35:05And, and for some of us, like some of your jobs, it's almost expected that you're just gonna fudge the truth, fudge the numbers. And it's gonna be challenging what that looks like when you let your yes be yes and your no be no. But applying this passage is so much more than just not lying. It's speaking words that would actually edify and build up others and encourage others in their faith. Paul writes in Ephesians 4 29, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear. So yes, we should try to let our yes be yes and our no be no.

35:49But how much better would it be if all the words that we spoke would build up and edify and encourage others? That is to be what characterizes the people of God. So, so let me try to land this plane a little bit. The law is held up like a mirror here in these three sections, and it reveals the deceptive nature of our hearts. Adultery is serious, but so is lustful desire of the heart. Divorce is serious, but it begins with the hardness of our own hearts. Making, keeping oaths and promises is again, a matter of the heart. And yet, the discouraging sad reality this morning is that Jeremiah tells us all about our own hearts.

36:36Jeremiah 17, nine, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can undertand it? Our human nature is to self justify. We pervert the law. We look for loopholes and legalism to excuse our li consciousness. John says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. And so what this section of teaching does is that Jesus shows us that we need his surgical precision in order to remove the tumors of self-justification that are at work in our hearts. But we need even more than that. We need a complete overhaul. We need a heart transplant where he takes out a heart of stone and places in a heart of flesh so that we can love the standard that's been put before us.

37:33Because our natural human inclination is, well, did God really say? Well, it says this, but maybe this is a little bit of a way to thread that needle, a little bit of a loophole. And we need this heart transplant. So by faith, we now love the standard that the Lord puts before us. And so if you're not trusting in Jesus this morning, that's our exhortation and encouragement to you. You can't fix your broken disordered heart. You need Jesus to take out that heart of stone, to put in a heart of flesh so that you would love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and that you would love his standard and that you would love to obey.

38:18And if we are believers this morning who have had that heart transplant work done, praise God, we can, by the power of the Holy Spirit this morning and the enabling grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can walk in the light as he is in the light. Those who love the darkness are not of God, but God's children love to walk in the light. It it, it's like those cloudy days. If we get for two months in January and February, march, and then finally the sun comes out and Minnesotans just can't get enough of it, they just go outside and their shorts and t-shirt, it's 46 degrees and they're like, it's summertime.

39:02I, I'm ready to be in the light. That's what Christians do with our sin and our brokenness. And we say, oh Lord, I I'm so wretched if I was left to my own, but I bring it into the light and I need your disinfecting power to wash me clean. I need the blood of Jesus once again. Oh, how good it is that we have Christ. We don't work to wash ourselves because we're already cleansed by Him. In, in, in John, when Jesus washes his disciples feet on the night that be he's betrayed. He goes to Peter, right? You guys know this. And he's like, Peter, I gotta wash your feet. And Peter's like, nuh, that's what slaves do.

39:48You're never gonna touch my feet. And, and and Jesus says, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part in me. And then Peter's like, okay, well then gimme the full deal. Like wash all of me. And what does Jesus say to him? Those who have already been cleansed only need their feet washed. You're already clean. You've been washed by the blood of Jesus. He calls you holy and beloved chosen child of God. And yes, we need to repent and keep repenting whenever sin creeps in. But our primary identity is not a wretched sinner. Our primary identity is that though we are those who have been washed by the blood of Jesus.

40:33So why would we go play in the mud pits again and, and get soiled with sin? Oh, let's wash, let the the light of Christ disinfect us. Let the water of Jesus wash us clean and come to him when we need to repent. Once again, this is really good news. If you're a child of God, you're being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. We can really obey this morning. I'm not calling you to do something you can't do this morning. When we resist lust with decisive violence, when we deal with the hardness of our hearts, a as we feel that towards our spouse or when we're tempted to lie, I'm calling believers in Jesus who have been washed by the blood of Christ, who have the indwelling spirit, who've been brought into union with Jesus, that Jesus dwells within you by the power of his spirit.

41:32You can walk in this newness of life. It's not impossible. You can be pure before God. And he fills us with this new affection that uproot and displaces sin. And for some of us, it feels like we're just going up and down in our battle, in our sanctification battle, like two steps forward, three steps back, kind of reality. And, and, and some of you judge how you're doing based on some of those different struggles. I said something I shouldn't say. I looked at something I shouldn't look at. And yet the reality is that if you look back over the course of your life, I, I think this is what the Lord is doing.

42:15Yeah, we still have our ups and downs, but we're becoming more and more like Jesus. We're looking more like his son. And, and in that day of judgment in the courtroom of God and the accuser comes and, and all eyes are on you, what do you have to say for yourself? We will end that day, not speak a single self-justifying word. What will we say instead? My only hope is Jesus, not I, but Christ in me. Let's pray. Oh, father, would that be our heart's cry. My only hope is Jesus, when the race is complete, my lips will repeat. Yet not I, but Christ in me. So conform us into the image of your son. Make us more and more holy like Jesus.

43:19Help us to love this standard and then help us to exercise faith in putting to death the deeds of the body and becoming more like Jesus. We pray this in your name. Amen.

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Sermon Text

Matthew 5:27-37

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