Elder Dorai Manikam
07-02-2021
The
Sermon on the Mount is about right living—living with God, living with one
another, and living with one self.
How
do we live in a pandemic situation where everything seems to be spinning out of
control? We want to restart and reset and yet as the days go by, these things
seem to be going further and further away from us. What is it that we need to
right and what is it that we need to be right so that we can navigate through
this situation?
The
Sermon on the Mount is not only about right doing but it is also about right
being in accordance with the Kingdom of God.
In
Matthew 5:20, Jesus says that our righteousness needs to exceed that of the
Pharisees and the scribes. Otherwise, we will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.
It
is also not only in our outward doing but also our being in the heart. For
example, He says, “You shall not murder” but at the same time He says, “But if
you have anger in your heart, you are subject to judgment.”
The good news is
this: By ourselves, we cannot attain these standards. But Jesus came to change
our hearts that we might walk in His standards. He didn’t just come to teach us
but He came to make us and to give us a new disposition and a new heart that we
might keep these standards.
Matthew
5:27-37
New
International Version
Adultery
27 “You have heard that it
was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed
adultery with her in his heart. 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.
Divorce
31 “It has been said,
‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality,
makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman
commits adultery.
Oaths
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.
Romans
8:1-2
New
King James Version
Free from Indwelling Sin
8 There is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk
according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the
law of sin and death.
When Jesus comes into our lives, He gives us the Holy
Spirit. This Law of the Spirit is the Spirit of life.
A three-fold structure in each discourse:
1)
The thesis – “It was said,” – The Law
2)
The antithesis – “But I tell you,” – The
Spirit of the Law
3)
The Kingdom imperative – Clear command or
directive – The Law of the Spirit
LUST
A.
Law – “You shall not commit adultery”
B.
Spirit of the Law – Adultery at heart – Lust
C.
Law of the Spirit – Remove yourself from the
cause or place of temptation
Matthew
5:28
The
Passion Translation
28 However, I say to you, if you look with lust in your eyes at the
body of a woman who is not your wife, you’ve already committed adultery in your
heart.
You shall not covet another man’s wife. (Exodus 20:17)
Lust is the root cause of adultery.
Lust is an unlawful desire of carnal pleasure. It is an
unlawful desire to possess and dominate for one’s carnal pleasure.
Sex within marriage is good but sex outside marriage
becomes unlawful.
However, Jesus says if you have lust in your heart
towards a woman, then you have already committed adultery and you are subject
to judgment.
Matthew
15:19
New
International Version
19 For out of the heart come
evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony,
slander.
“Can the
legs follow where the eyes go?
Can the heart
follow where the legs go?
Can the
man go where the heart goes?
Can the
man forget the path of righteousness and go astray?”
-
Translated from an Indian song
“Don’t look! Behave as if you had actually plucked out your eyes and
flung them away, and were blind and so could not see the objects which
previously caused you to sin.
"Don’t do it! Don’t go! Behave as if you had actually cut off your
hands and feet, and had flung them away, and were now crippled and so could not
do the things or visit the places which previously caused you to sin.”
- John Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, The Bible Speaks
Today, p. 89.
1
Corinthians 6:18
New
International Version
18 Flee from sexual
immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever
sins sexually, sins against their own body.
In Genesis 39, Joseph fled from Potiphar’s wife.
It’s the new life in Christ by the Holy Spirit that
enables us to do this.
We live in a very sensual culture. There are a lot of
things that stir lust in our eyes such as pornography which is so rampant. The
root cause of pornography is lust. Pornography portrays women as sex objects.
But I want to say this: Women are made in the image of
God and they are worthy of respect and honour. Therefore, we need to evaluate
the worldview that we carry. And that worldview has to be shaped not only by
the Word of God but the Spirit of God needs to give us that power to see that a
woman is made in the image of God, not as a sex object.
Philippians
4:8
New
International Version
8 Finally, brothers and
sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or
praiseworthy—think about such things.
Job
31:1
New
International Version
31 “I made a covenant with my eyes
not
to look lustfully at a young woman.
Law of the
Spirit – Remove yourself from the cause or place of temptation
DIVORCE
A.
Law – “Anyone who divorces his wife must give
her a certificate of divorce.”
B.
Spirit of the Law – Cause adultery
C.
Law of the Spirit – Be reconciled and be
faithful in marriage
Deuteronomy
24:1-4
New
International Version
24 If a man marries a woman
who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about
her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends
her from his house, 2 and if after she leaves his house she
becomes the wife of another man, 3 and
her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives
it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, 4 then her first husband, who divorced her,
is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be
detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Do not
bring sin upon the land the Lord your
God is giving you as an inheritance.
Jesus says that “anyone who divorces his wife, except for
sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a
divorced woman commits adultery.” (Matthew
5:32)
Matthew
19:3-12
New
International Version
3 Some Pharisees came to
him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his
wife for any and every reason?”
4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the
Creator ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a
man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two
will become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two,
but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
7 “Why then,” they asked,
“did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send
her away?”
8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to
divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from
the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who
divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman
commits adultery.”
1
Corinthians 7:10
New
International Version
10 To the married I give
this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. 11 But if she does, she must remain unmarried or
else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his
wife.
Law of the
Spirit – Be reconciled and be faithful in marriage
Marriage is a picture of the covenant between God and His
people; marriage is a picture of Christ and His church.
SWEARING
A.
Law – “Do not break your oath, but fulfill to
the Lord the vows you have made.”
B.
Spirit of the Law – Do not swear an oath at
all.
C.
Law of the Spirit – Tell the truth – All you
need to say is simply “Yes” or “No”
Leviticus
19:12
New
International Version
12 “‘Do not swear
falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am
the Lord.
Zechariah
8:17
New
International Version
17 do not plot
evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all
this,” declares the Lord.
God hates swearing falsely. We swear just to make our
words as if they appear true. But swearing doesn’t make it true. Again, it
comes from the heart. “For out of the heart come[s]… false
testimony.” (Matthew 15:19)
Peter denied Jesus three times.
Matthew
26:72-74
New
International Version
72 He denied it again, with
an oath: “I don’t know the man!”
73 After a little while,
those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them;
your accent gives you away.”
74 Then he began to call
down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!”
Immediately a rooster crowed.
Zechariah
8:16
New
International Version
16 These are the things you
are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound
judgment in your courts;
Mean what you say and say what you mean. Ask ourselves,
“Why do we lie? Why do we want to deceive? Why don’t we speak the truth?” While
the root cause could be deception, the deception is rooted in one form of fear
or another. That is why we need Jesus Christ to change our hearts.
John
18:37
New
International Version
37 “You are a king, then!”
said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came
into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth
listens to me.”
Law of the
Spirit – Tell the truth – All you need to say is simply “Yes” or “No”
SUMMARY
The Kingdom imperative for:
-
Lust is to remove ourselves from the cause of
temptation
-
Divorce is faithfulness in marriage and
reconciliation
-
Swearing is truthfulness or truth speaking
Consider:
-
Outward ramifications of adultery, divorce,
swearing
-
Inward ramifications of lust, unfaithfulness
and deception in the heart
Sin in our hearts will victimise us! There is a betrayal
of trust in our own hearts! You will not be at peace with your own self! You
cannot live with your own self!
But thank God for Jesus Christ! He comes and changes us!
Closing Remarks:
1)
It is by the Kingdom imperative that we live
in the surpassing or greater righteousness.
2)
It is by the Kingdom imperative that makes us
the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
3)
Jesus by giving His nature to us through the
Holy Spirit enables us to keep the Kingdom imperatives.
The Good
News is that Jesus came to change our hearts!
“Jesus
Christ did not come to teach us only. He came to make us what He teaches we
should be. The redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into any man the
disposition that ruled his own life, and all the standards God gives are based
on that disposition.”
-
Oswald Chambers
What if we
have failed? For these are high standards and we frequently fail. These are
pardonable sins. Just as Peter was pardoned and restored may we come before God
and confess our sins. The heart is the issue. May the Lord cleanse and purify
our hearts of anger, lust, unfaithfulness, and false testimony and restore us
to His disposition by His Holy Spirit.
WHOLENESS
OF THE SOUL
Galatians
5:16-26
New
International Version
16 So I say, walk by the
Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh
desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the
flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do
whatever you want. 18 But
if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh
are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and
witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition,
dissensions, factions 21 and
envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that
those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and
self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those
who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and
desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in
step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and
envying each other.
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