"We're Going to Have to Operate"--Sermon on the Mount Series

[NOTE: There is a long illustration in this sermon that I read from The Great Divorce, by C. S. Lewis. Due to the length of the section, I did not type it out in this post. Thus, it would be best to listen to this sermon rather than read it. To hear the audio of this sermon, go to http://morningsidecommunitychurch.weebly.com/sermons.html, and scroll to the bottom of the page.]

            They’re the words that everyone dreads when they go to the doctor: “We’re going to have to operate.” We hear those words when all other options have been exhausted, and extreme measures have to be taken. The Lord has graciously allowed us to understand His world enough to make many operations safe and routine, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are still extreme measures.

            In our study of the Sermon on the Mount, we come today to Jesus’ discussion of lust, and His treatment plan for battling this temptation is quite simple: we’re going to have to operate. We must take extreme measures against this temptation, especially when we realize that Jesus simply will not allow us to downplay the severity of the sin of lust.

            Let’s work our way through Jesus’ diagnosis of this sin, then we’ll focus on His prescription for it.

The Diagnosis: Lust is Serious Enough to Make Us Deserving of Hell

            As we read these words, please remember that Jesus is not critiquing the Old Testament in His teaching. He is critiquing the interpretations of the Old Testament that the people had heard from their religious leaders. That’s why Jesus uses the introductory phrase that He does rather than a statement like, “It is written.” So, in v. 27, Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’” That command, of course, is fine as far as it goes; it’s an accurate statement of command number seven of The Ten Commandments.

            But as they had done with murder, the Pharisees—who were the religious leaders of the people—had begun to measure obedience to that command by their actions. As a result, the attitudes of the heart were downplayed, but as Jesus shows us, we cannot minimize the importance of our heart attitudes.

            In v. 28, the Lord states, “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Since God knows what is going on inside our hearts, He condemns the whole process that leads up to an act of sin. He knows when a thought is conceived in my mind, and He knows what I do to either put that thought out of my mind or nurse it along and feed it. Its kind of like the way that we look at weeds. We don’t just hate the leaves and the seeds that they produce—we don’t even want the roots around. In a similar way, God condemns the very roots of sin, which are found in our hearts.

            Now, its important to specify what Jesus means when he speaks of “looking at a woman with lustful intent.” To put it simply, its not the first noticing of another person that Jesus condemns—it’s the second glance, the look that is made with the intention of fanning the flames of lust in your heart.

            King David was not guilty when he noticed Bathsheba from the roof of his palace. As far as we are told, that was just an accident, and as the saying goes, “accidents happen.” No, King David’s sin came when he used that accidental noticing to feed a lustful desire in his heart. He had sinned long before he followed up on that desire because he had already committed adultery in his heart.

            So Jesus has backed us into a corner as far as our lust is concerned. He has cut off our retreat into the easy justifications that we want to use to tell ourselves that a “little look” is no big deal. To God, the very attitude is every bit as serious as any act that it may produce, so he gives it the same condemnation.

Now, in vv. 29-30, Jesus gives us his prescription for dealing with lust, and as I said before, it is simply this:

The Prescription: We’re Going to Have to Operate

            Less invasive procedures will not do; extreme measures must be taken. Let’s read the Lord’s words in these verses [READ vv. 29-30]. We have good reason to think that Jesus was speaking figuratively in these verses because He just told us that lust is a problem of the heart, and simply doing things to the outside of my body will not cure a problem of the heart. So He is not telling us the means through which to deal with lust, but the manner in which we must deal with lust. In other words, He’s not telling us the precise actions to take (“Just start cutting off body parts”), He’s telling us the attitude with which to fight against lust.

            The final outcome of lust is so bad that we should be willing and eager to get rid of anything that becomes like bait in a trap to us. That’s what Jesus means when he says, “If your right eye causes you to sin.” If something has become alluring to you, if it is enticing you to walk down the road of lust, you must put it away. None of this talk of “maybe just a little” or “just a quick glance—no! We’re going to have to operate; it has to go, or otherwise WE have to go out of the situation.

            I’d like to read for you several pages from a story by C. S. Lewis entitled, The Great Divorce. This is a passage that wonderfully describes the way that we must deal with lust and the way that we often try to minimize the need to take such drastic measures. This is a lengthy section, but I want to read it to you to feed your imagination some healthy food.

            You see, the war against lust is fought inside the imagination. This temptation often pits our desires or feelings against our intellect; our intellect knows better, but our desires are so enflamed that it is difficult to resist. In this stalemate between our intellect and our desires, the deciding vote, if you will, is cast by our imagination. Whichever force can captivate your imagination in that moment will almost always come out on top.

            That’s why we must feed our imagination healthy food. That’s why, when God wanted to teach us about the beauty of marital love and romance, He gave us a book of word pictures—a book of poetry in The Song of Solomon. So even though this passage I’m about to read is lengthy, I think it is well worth our time.

            In this book, Lewis writes of a group of people from Hell who are allowed to take a bus ride to the outskirts of Heaven. Keep in mind that he’s not writing to make definite claims about theology; he is simply writing a story. In the story, the people from Hell are referred to as ghosts, and on one occasion, Lewis gives us a very vivid description of the way in which lust must be handled.

[READ from The Great Divorce, p. 106-114. The final line, “Lust is a poor, weak, whimpering, whispering thing compared with that richness and energy of desire which will arise when lust has been killed.”]

            That is what we must remember if we are to gain victory over lust. It is a poor, unsatisfying substitute for true, godly romance—which possesses true beauty and power and satisfaction. It will be tremendous reminder for us if we fill our imagination with captivating pictures of godly romance. It will also be a helpful reminder if we remember the end game of lust as Jesus tells us here.

            The final end of lust for those who never repent and accept Christ as their Savior is Hell. That attitude in our hearts, which we so easily and so often tell ourselves is no big deal, in God’s eyes is deserving of Hell. My friends, if you have never humbly acknowledged that God’s verdict about you is true—that you are a sinner, worthy of punishment from God—I urge you to do so today, because there is hope for you! God loves you and does not want you to receive His punishment, so He carried out against His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, on the cross so that the penalty for your sins could be paid. And after Jesus died, God raised Him from the dead, brought Him back to life to show that all that He has promised is true, and we can receive forgiveness by placing our faith in Jesus as our Savior.

            But even after we make that choice, lust still produces devastating effects. How many people have we known or heard of who have walked down the path of lust and destroyed their lives through an addiction to ungodly material or a sinful encounter with another person? We can not only ruin our lives on that path today, but we may also forfeit rewards from God in the next life. If that doesn’t sound like a serious thing, we need to think again. God’s desire for you as His child is to join Jesus in ruling over the New Heaven and New Earth, just as Adam and Eve were created to rule over this Earth. You may lose the honor of a special role of service to God if you persist in a sinful lifestyle, so it is of the utmost importance that you take a serious stand against lust as Jesus commands us today. Lesser measures will not do; living with the pain, so to speak, will not suffice. You’re going to have to operate, so what is it in your life that has become like bait in a trap to you? It will have to go, but in the long run, you will never regret for a moment that it did.