http://bible.com/events/49046169
Church of the Nazarene – Harrisonburg
Tough Sayings of Jesus Part 2
If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away…
Tough Sayings of JesusThe desire of this series is not to take some difficult sayings of Jesus and turn them into not-difficult sayings of Jesus. They will be difficult before and after this sermon series. The purpose of the series is for us to more deeply understand the Lord’s purpose in saying these difficult things and how we are to think and behave accordingly.
Often these sayings are tough for us because they shine light into the dark corners of who we are, they take us places within our hearts that we would honestly rather not go…they show us our great need for Him.
However, it is important that the church teach the whole truth of the Bible – the ideas that are pleasant and those that are terrifying and make us uncomfortable.
Today we look at Christ difficult declaration, “Cut off your hand…”
Matthew 5:27-30
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 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. 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.
John Stott
What he was advocating was not a literal physical self-maiming, but a ruthless moral self-denial. Not mutilation but mortification is the path of holiness he taught, and ‘mortification’ or ‘taking up the cross’ to follow Christ means to reject sinful practices so resolutely that we die to them or put them to death.
Matthew 18:7-9
Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
Note the words ‘eternal fire’ in verse eight.
For most of the history of the church, some have asserted either some form of ultimate universal salvation for everyone or ultimate annihilation of the lost.
But for the entire history of the church, the vast majority of Christians and the vast majority of the church’s most eminent and reliable theologians have affirmed that what Jesus and the apostles taught about hell is eternal, conscious punishment.“
The devil doesn’t care if you read your Bible or go to church, as long as you don’t apply it to your life.”
Sin is gruesome and deadly – not laughable and light hearted
Galatians 5:16-24
So, I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 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. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 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. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
The moment you think sin is acceptable, cut that thought off!
1 Peter 4:1-2
Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.
HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD
John Stott continues: Jesus was quite clear about it. It is better to lose one member and enter life maimed, he said, than to retain our whole body and go to hell.
That is to say, it is better to forgo some experiences this life offers in order to enter the life which is life indeed; it is better to accept some cultural amputation in this world than risk final destruction in the next.
Of course this teaching runs clean counter to modern standards of permissiveness.
It is based on the principle that eternity is more important than time and purity than culture, and that any sacrifice is worthwhile in this life if it is necessary to ensure our entry into the next.
We have to decide, quite simply, whether to live for this world or the next, whether to follow the crowd (the culture) or Jesus Christ.
Today is the day, choose to obey God whatever it cost.
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Proverbs 14:27
The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death.
1 John 1:8-10
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
Hebrews 12:1-4
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.“
St Ignatius of Loyola notes that, ‘Sin is unwillingness to trust that what God wants is our deepest happiness.’ Until I am absolutely convinced of this, I will do everything I can to keep my hands on the controls of my life because I think I know better than God what I need for my fulfillment.”