The sermon by Mike Davenport, titled 'Plucking Out Eyes and Cutting Off Hands', is based on Matthew 5:27-30 and explores the teaching of Jesus on the radical measures needed to avoid sin, specifically adultery, which he equates with lust. The speaker emphasizes the importance of the preacher's authority, identifying Jesus as the preacher with the ultimate authority. The sermon discusses the need for Christians to adopt a rigorous approach to dealing with sin, which includes understanding the enemy, fearing the Lord, abiding in the Word, and putting on the armor of God. Davenport argues that ignoring the seriousness of sin and not taking action against it can lead to eternal consequences. He stresses that true believers should strive for purity and righteousness, using the grace of God to help mortify sin daily. The sermon concludes with a call to respond to the gospel's demands and to rely on Christ for salvation and sanctification.

Well, if you would, please turn in the scriptures to Matthew 5. Matthew 5. Matthew 5, 27 through 30. You have heard that it was said to those of old you shall not commit adultery But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for Her has already committed adultery with her in his heart If your right eye causes you to sin Pluck it out and cast it from you For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish Than for your whole body to be cast into hell And if your right hand causes you to sin Cut it off and cast it from you for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell let us look to the Lord in prayer oh gracious God we pray that you would help us to tremble at your Word, to tremble in your presence, for you are the thrice holy God. May you come down as you did before Isaiah there in the temple And Lord as we see you in all of your holiness.

May we cry out like him? Woe is me for I am undone I am a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King of glory Lord we we thank you for grace. We thank you for Christ and Lord here we raise an Ebenezer hither by your grace we have come and yet we hope by your good pleasure safely to arrive at home so Lord help us to take up the sword of your word and to do battle against the remaining sin that remains with us. By your spirit to put to death the deeds of the body in Christ's holy name. Amen.

Well, you may be seated. We come once again in our series of the Ten Commandments to the Seventh Commandment, You shall not commit adultery. Now we have considered previously what is forbidden in this commandment and what is also required, that is positive actions. Well today we come to the unsettling and uncomfortable, maybe for some even shocking exhortation found in verses 29 through 30 of our text. You see, Jesus is not above using fear as a motive in moving his people into ways of obedience.

Such is the gravitational pull of this sin, such is the binding nature of it, That more than simple commands are necessary to keep God's sheep in the narrow way the title of the sermon is plucking out eyes and cutting off hands and I will seek to deal with the subject under the following three headings first the credentials of the preacher. Now be assured the language I have chosen is not intended to point to the preacher standing before you today. I am by means of this point directing you and your attention to the preacher, capital P, whose words we have here before us in this text. As we once again come to this portion of this chapter before us in Matthew 5, we need to remember the context and who it is who is speaking. You see, the people had heard the teaching of the scribes and the Pharisees concerning the law.

They had received their interpretation and application of the law. But this man, this man, no one ever spoke like this man. Look at how this very passage commonly called Christ's sermon on the mount. Look at how Matthew closes this account of Christ's teaching in chapter 7 verses 28 through 29. And so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings that the people were astonished at his teaching for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

This recognized authority can be witnessed in the very words of Jesus before us. He says you have heard that it was said to those of old but I say to you you see Jesus is declaring that there is a new voice and that there is a new audience But rest assured this is not new doctrine nor new teaching. Jesus is merely demonstrating what we've already seen from the words of the psalmists that God's law is exceedingly broad. Jesus is also declaring his right understanding and faithful interpretation of the law that he himself gave to Moses on the mount. The application Jesus is bringing these applications are applications that the scribes and the Pharisees should have brought.

It was their duty to teach the people these very things that Christ is teaching them here and now. But why did the Pharisees not teach the law as it should have been taught? Well, I think Paul answers that question for us in Romans chapter 10, where he says the Jews being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God. You see the law in their eyes was all about them. It was about their own righteousness, what they could achieve.

Brothers and sisters, if you strive for a self-righteousness in regard to the law, you will see really quickly you fall short, but if you try to establish your own self-righteousness, you will lower the bar. You will. You will seek to lightly apply the law to your life even as the scribes and the Pharisees did. Consider what Jesus has already said here in Matthew 5. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, breaking by minimizing the application and falling short and and not only transgressing that's going against it, but teaches men so, it teaches men so, teaches them to break it or to minimize its application these shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever does and teaches them I would say as Christ taught them and applied them He shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven for I say to you says Jesus that unless your righteousness exceeds exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees Who sought for their own righteousness in the law that they taught?

You will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. We cannot afford to minimize any words of Jesus. We cannot afford to pass over them without serious thought. We must pause. We must ponder.

And we must be persuaded. The apostle Peter preaching there on Solomon's porch in Acts 3 22 and 23 warned his listeners for Moses truly said to the fathers the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren him that is Jesus you shall hear in all things whatever he says to you and it shall be that every soul who will not hear that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. And so beloved here we have in front of us the words of that prophet. Do not refuse to hear him. Neither only hear him and turn away to your own ways and wisdom, but neither be that one who hears them and intends to obey, maybe going away from this place intended to do what you've heard today, but then go your own way and allow that seed that has been sown to be choked out along with all good intentions with it.

You know the voice of God that that cried out from the heavens and was heard by Peter James and John They're on the Mount of Transfiguration That same voice if it were to be heard audibly at this very moment would cry out today as it did some two thousand years ago. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Hear him. Hear him. Well having considered the credentials of this preacher, consider secondly with me the call to purity, the call to purity.

This call to purity is issued by means of a call to deal with the sin, to deal with it. Even the sin that is in fault, that is in our hearts, the sin that those around us may not even be aware of. Christ calls us to action, to action. We're not simply just to pray that God would act on our behalf. We are not to let go and let God.

What are we called to? What action are we to do? The action of mortification, of mortification, to always be about the business of killing sin. Now, we'll never put it to death in this world. We'll never be done with it in this world, but it's to be done daily.

Killing sin. Well the first thing we must do to answer this call to purity is to understand our enemy. We must understand our enemy. Satan desires to take advantage of us says the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 2 11 but we must not be ignorant. We must not be ignorant of his devices.

We also must not be ignorant of our own hearts. The Lord declares to us in Ezekiel and Jeremiah 17 9 that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it who can know it the writer to the Hebrews in 313 issues a warning about the hardness of heart that actually comes through the deceitfulness of sin. Sin can so deceive us that our hearts become hard. You see if sin is allowed in as a guest, you can be sure that in some amount of time he will become a tyrant. Sin will become a tyrant.

Charles Spurgeon noted something in his journal that he had come across in his reading. And it's a story that I hope that God will impress even upon the youngest of minds in our midst. And so you children, I want you to remember this humorous fable but not just because of its humor. I want you to remember this story in understanding what sin wants to do to you and how sin operates. Okay, so remember the story, but remember why I told it.

Okay, I'm going to talk to you about a miller. A miller. A miller is one who works at grinding grain to use by use of some sort of millstone, whether it be a handheld millstone or some of the large ones that Pastor Scott has at his house. Okay, that's the miller, the guy working grinding the grain. So the Arabs have a famous fable about a miller who one day was startled by a camel's nose thrust in the window of the room where he was sleeping.

So imagine this man was sleeping and all of a sudden this big nose comes through the window. The nose of a camel. It is very cold outside, said the camel. I only want to get my nose in. The nose was let in.

Then the neck and finally the whole body. Presently the miller began to be extremely inconvenienced at the ungainly companion he had obtained in a room certainly not big enough for both. If you are inconvenienced, you may leave said the camel. Ask for myself. I shall stay where I am.

Spurgeon goes on to point out that there are many such camels knocking at the human heart. Many such camels knocking at the human heart. John Owen in his marvelous volume on the mortification of sin, volume 6 of his works, reveals how sin seeks to harden our hearts little by little. He says this, quote, sin aims always at the utmost. Every time it rises up to tempt or entice might it have its own course it would go out to the utmost sin in that kind.

Every unclean thought or glance would be adultery if it could. Every covetous desire would be oppression. Every thought of unbelief would be atheism might it grow to its head. It is modest as it were in its first motions and proposals much like that camel just just the nose. But having once got footing in the heart by them, it constantly makes good its ground and presseth on to some farther degrees in the same kind.

This new acting and pressing forward makes the soul take little notice of what an entrance to a falling off from God is already made. It thinks all is indifferent well if if there be no further progress and so far as the soul is made insensible of any sin so far it is hardened but sin is still pressing forward and that because it has no bounds but utter relinquishment from God and opposition to him. That it proceeds towards its height by degrees making good the ground it has got by hardness is not from its nature, but its deceitfulness. Now, nothing can prevent this but mortification. Mortification that withers the root and strikes at the head of sin every hour so that whatever it aims at it is crossed in.

There is not the best saint in the world, but if he should give over this duty of mortification would fall into as many cursed sins as ever any did of his kind." So understand the enemy. But not only does this call to purity require an understanding of the enemy, but secondly it involves fearing the Lord. It involves fearing the Lord. This is a a filial fear. It's it's not the fear that Paul refers to, that initial fear that the Spirit brings upon an unbeliever, a fear of judgment, a fear of wrath falling upon them.

Romans 8 teaches us that those who have come to Christ have no condemnation and are not brought under that spirit of bondage again, but it's a filial fear, a fear born out of a relationship to Christ as Savior, a father what a son would fear in his own father. It's a fear that that actually draws us nearer to God rather than drives us away into hiding. If you children remember Adam and Eve when they first sinned and they heard the voice of God calling out to them. You see, they had cut off their relationship with God and what did they do? Their fear drove them into hiding.

But this is the fear that David had of his God when there in Psalm he gives a whole Psalm over to how he had broken the law of God and he sought to draw near to God to be made right, but he knew what his sin had done and he did not want to be left in that condition. Well, Solomon in Proverbs 8.13 and 16.6 declares the following first in Proverbs 8.13, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. It is to hate evil. You see the fear of the Lord impacts our attitude, our attitude, our disposition towards evil. It causes us to genuinely hate evil.

We see that in Romans chapter 7, do we not? The Apostle Paul talks about how often he finds himself doing the things that he hates. That he hates and finds himself so slow in doing the things that he loves how did he come to hate these things that he was doing He hated them because he feared the Lord. He feared the Lord and the fear of the Lord had taught him to hate evil. But Proverbs 16 six, we also read that by the fear of the Lord, one departs from evil.

He departs from evil. You see, the fear of the Lord not only impacts our attitude, it impacts our actions. We don't just say, I hate that and go and do that. It impacts our actions. Will we fall short?

Absolutely. In that text, Romans 7, Paul so often found himself doing those things that he hated, but he prayed for the relief that would come through the cross of Christ, that Christ would give him victory over those things. You see, it impacts our actions as well. It's by this fear that we actually depart from evil. You see, this is the type of fear that Joseph exhibited when Potiphar's wife sought to seduce him.

The scriptures tell us that her advances came day after day, one day upon another, and yet each day Joseph mortified any sinful passions that may have sought to stir themselves. And his response to the temptation was guided by his fear of God. How do we know that? Well, he actually said, how then can I do this great, great wickedness and sin against God and sin against God? And we read of the day when she caught Joseph in her grasp and he fled leaving his outer garment in her hand.

But you know what? She didn't have a hold of his soul. She had his garment. She didn't have his soul because he feared the Lord. He feared the Lord.

Are you, my friend, guided by such a fear of God? Do you know what it is to hate evil and to depart from evil? Or let me ask it in this way, Are you presently hating evil? Are you presently, this hour, departing from it? Understanding the enemy, fearing the Lord, and now in this call to purity consider third abiding in the word Abiding in the word that is Saturating heart in mind with the word of God and then walking according to it Psalm 119 one through four and verses 9 and 11 say this, blessed are the undefiled in the way Who walk in the law of the Lord?

Blessed are those who keep his testimonies who seek him with the whole heart They also do no iniquity They walk in his ways You have commanded us to keep your precepts diligently. How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word. Your Word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you." By saturating our hearts and our minds with the Word of God, we come to know not just the Word of God but the God of the Word. We come face to face with His glory and His attributes by saturating our hearts and our minds with the Word of God.

We discover the evil of our own hearts and our own propensity to go our own way. By saturating our hearts and our minds with the Word of God, we discover what his will is for us what brings him glory and also what dishonors him it reveals to us not only how we can glorify him but how we can enjoy him how we can enjoy our God and his word instructs us in the previous points that we've considered of knowing our enemy the Word of God teaches us how to know our enemy and it also teaches us how to fear him how to fear him note also that the psalmist declares the word to be the source of cleansing from past sin and also the preventative of future sin. Did you get that? How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word.

But also your word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you." God's word is an important element in this call to purity, this call to mortify the deeds of the body. The fourth duty in this call to purity is putting on the armor of God. Putting on the armor of God. You are No doubt all very familiar with the text in Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 and 11. And since Christians are called to warfare against the world of flesh and the devil, then certainly, certainly we need to be equipped for such an undertaking of waging war.

What military sends their men out to war without giving them what they need to engage in that war. Paul writes, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord. Don't just be strong. The world may may tell its occupants unconverted, dads may tell their sons be strong. The Bible says be strong in the Lord and not in your power but in the power of his might.

Put on your armor? No, put on the whole armor of God. That you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. You see we don't fight in our own strength. It is the armor of God that we are to take up.

And then Paul goes on to describe the armor in verses 14 to 18. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace above all, taking the shield of faith with which you shall be able to quench all all the fiery darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end, with all perseverance. We don't have time to open up each one of these pieces of armor, but I propose to you that each one is essential in our duty in waging war against the flesh. We need all of these. We need truth.

We need truth. We need righteousness. Not just the working out of our righteousness as converted men and women, but we need the righteousness of Jesus Christ to protect us, to say, how can I do this great sin against my God, the Lord who is my righteousness? We need the gospel of peace, the gospel of peace. We need faith.

We need salvation. We need the Word of God. We need prayer. And we need watchfulness. Paul states this same duty in a similar fashion in Romans 13-14, but focuses on the inside in a battle that seems more inward than outward.

He says there, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. I think that's what Christ is getting that make no provision. If your eye is making provision, if your hand is making provision, stop! Put on Christ! Make no provisions for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.

Now we must seek rightly to understand what Christ is prescribing here in Matthew 5 29 and 30. Will the cutting off of a hand or the plucking out of an eye, will they ever truly put sin to death? Well, since most of us have two hands and two eyes, Christ would have probably said cut off both hands and pluck out both eyes. So what's he getting that? You see it's a matter of the heart.

It's a matter of the heart. But there are gates that go down to our heart. Throughout the entirety of the scriptures the Lord ties our hearts in our way of life to these small members of our body There are many there are many going all the way back if you think about Deuteronomy and how God wanted that law to apply, put it as a front lip between your eyes and bind it as a sign upon your wrist, your hand. There was the attachment of these things. And it goes all the way to the end, to what we've been hearing in the Book of Revelation about this sign that is to be on their hand and on their foreheads.

I'm just going to give you one such passage, Proverbs 4, 20 to 27. There Solomon writes, my son, give attention to my words and climb your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart. You see what he's doing.

He's giving them words to live by. He's hearing them. He's seeing them. And he says, let them be in your heart. Let them be the gates through which the richness of the principles of God's Word are coming to find rest in your heart.

Why? For they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh. In other words, it makes a difference what you're hearing and what you're seeing. Keep your heart with all diligence, all diligence. Why?

For out of it spring the issues of life. But how's this young man to do this? How is he going to keep his heart? Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you.

Ponder the path of your feet and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or to the left. Remove your foot from evil." So in referencing Christ's exhortation to pluck out an eye and to cut off a hand, Matthew Henry comments, quote, and if this plucking and cutting must be submitted to at the fault of which nature startles, Much more, much more must we resolve to keep a constant watch over our own hearts and to suppress the first rising of lust and corruption there. To avoid the occasions of sin, to resist the beginnings of it, and to decline the company of those who will be a snare to us, though ever so pleasing, to keep out of harm's way and abridge ourselves in the use of lawful things when we find them temptations to us, and to seek unto God for His grace and depend upon that grace daily, and so to walk in the Spirit as that we may not fulfill the lusts of the flesh and he says this and this doing this will be as effectual wool as cutting off a right hand or pulling out a right eye and perhaps as much against the grain to flesh and blood.

You see it is the destruction of the old man." End quote. The old man doesn't want to die. He doesn't want to be told no. So as much as the plucking of an eye and the cutting off of a hand is repugnant to us. We can't imagine that bringing ourselves to that we must not let the old man make it repugnant in our sight to put him to death.

We need to go to extremes. That's what it's calling to. Pull out all the plugs. Why? Because Christ calls us to purity.

Christ calls us to purity. We come now to the third point in our text, the consequences of passivity. The consequences of passivity. During the final game of the 1985 season, 49ers linebacker Ronnie Lott injured his left pinky while tackling a Dallas Cowboys running back. The San Francisco 49ers won the game and finished the season with a record of 10 and 6 and they qualified for the playoffs.

However, Lots pinky that he injured in that last game required surgery and eight weeks of recovery With the playoffs looming just one week away He faced a decision Lot knew he was an integral part of the 49ers defense, so missing the playoffs was not an option. Instead of invasive surgery and rehab to follow, Lot decided to amputate his pinky. Doing so allowed him to participate in the 1985 playoffs. Sure enough, Lot was out there next week against the New York Giants in the wild card game. Now this incident occurring in my first year of college came to my mind as I was preparing this sermon.

And so I searched up online to make sure I understood the story right because I'm reaching back kind of far. But I came across this article that I just read to you. This was an article written, it was written just last year, last March or May. And then in the article the writer wisely goes on to give his 2020 hindsight assessment of lots actions and he writes this unfortunately the 49ers lost to the Giants 14 to 3 in that very next playoff matchup and he writes if if if the 49ers had made a deep playoff run or a Super Bowl appearance, this might have justified Lott's decision. However, the loss to the Giants begs the question of whether Lott's decision was worth it.

You see, the consequence of Ronnie Lott's not having had the amputation would have been the loss of participation in that first playoff loss and the potential loss of participation in the three games after that in the pursuit of a championship trophy if they had won that game. Well as it turned out his amputation It gave him only the participation in one game. The season ended then and there. But dear ones, the stakes are higher than the momentary loss of some super bowl glory, there's more at stake. There are consequences, consequences of passivity.

If we took that example, the consequences are greater to just, oh I'll seek to hit the field again later, I'm just going to sit back and just take the this way out of having an operation and all the rehab that goes into it I'll live to fight another day. We don't have that. The stakes are higher. As we come to this third and final point it's necessary to stress once again the points that have gone before it with the facts of the credentials of the preacher Along with his call to purity firmly fixed in your minds consider that the very one who has prepared hell for the devil and his angels And for all of those who will not believe in Christ, that one declares that it is more profitable for you to go the rest of your days here in this world without a body part Than to have your whole body intact Cast into hell forever Later in his gospel Matthew quotes Jesus once again concerning the comparison of the here and now to eternity? Christ said, and do not fear, do not fear those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.

And can we not apply another of Christ's declarations and truthfully say, what will it profit a man if he saves every single member of his body and yet loses his own soul and what will he give in exchange for that soul an eye a hand? In exchange for his very soul? My friend, hell is real. Hell is real. It's not a joke.

It's not a scare tactic to try to get you to do the what the Bible wants you to do. Jesus had much to say about hell. In fact, I think he spoke more of hell than he did in heaven. When's the last time you stopped to simply think about hell? You pass by people every day that are going there, every day.

And my friends, for some of you as it stands right now, that's where you're headed. When's the last time you stopped to think about hell? The isolation, the isolation of hell, The continuous torment of hell, the suffering of body and soul, the fire that is not quenched, The consuming worm that does not die. Outer darkness, weeping, and gnashing of teeth forever, and ever, and ever. Endeavor, endeavor, endeavor.

No creature comforts, no season of relief, no decrease in intensity, a place devoid of God's mercy, devoid of God's grace, a place devoid of His patience and long-suffering, all of which things you enjoy on a daily basis here and now. You're enjoying it right now. You're enjoying it right now as you sit in a padded seat and comfortable clothing with air all around you, comfortable food that shortly will be consumed and taken in and enjoyed. You taste them all now. You'll be devoid of them for all eternity.

It's a place rather where God's justice, His holiness, and His wrath will be eternally satisfied with the just and righteous unending punishment of all those who hated him. This text warns us of the consequence of passivity when it comes to dealing with our sins. The consequence is not a loss of rewards. It is not a lesser place in the kingdom of heaven. The consequence, Jesus says, is an eternity in hell, absence from the kingdom of heaven.

From the kingdom of heaven." Describing those in the world as adulterous and evil generation, Jesus called the people to himself with his disciples and also said to them, whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life, to save his life, he didn't even say hand or eye. Whoever desires to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life, for my sake in the Gospels, will find it. He will find it.

She will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul or what will a man give in exchange for his soul The apostle Paul described athletes like Ronnie Lott and their passion to win in 1 Corinthians 9, 24 to 27. He then applies these realities to the need for Christ people to exercise such measures in the pursuit of a greater prize. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.

And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. In the case of Ronnie Lott, radical. But it's the prize that he had his eyes on Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown But we we for an imperishable crown. Therefore Paul said, I run thus not with uncertainty. Thus I fight not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body.

I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest When I have preached to others as an apostle appointed by Jesus Christ, I myself should become disqualified. In similar fashion, once again drawing the attention to the analogy of a race, the writer to the Hebrews exhorts his readers to lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us And then let us run with endurance the race that is set before us if we do not lay aside needless weights If we do not deal with the sins that ensnare us particularly We will fall short of that finish line we will fall short of that finish line. We will fall short of that finish line. My friend, do you desire to save your life in this world? Do you desire to save your life?

To hold on to your own desires, your own passions, to pamper the flesh and your pet's sins. Listen to the heart-searching words of John Owen, quote, Let not that man think he makes any progress in holiness who walks not over the bellies of his lusts he who doth not kill sin in this way takes no steps toward the journey's end He who finds not opposition from it and he who sets not himself in every particular to its mortification is at peace with it not dying to it." End quote. The view of our sinfulness and the heinous nature of our sins is what led us, dear believer, to the cross of Christ to begin with. It was our sin and the heinous nature that led us there to begin with. And dear ones, our view of our own sinfulness and our specific sins, our view towards it does not change.

In fact, I would argue that our view of its sinfulness and of our own sins in particular, it actually increases. Because the fear of God teaches us to hate evil. The fear of God teaches us to depart from it. We hate it. It is that which nailed our precious Savior to the cross.

Remember what we saw in 1st Peter 2? When we become a believer, Christ is made precious to us. We see those sins that drove us to Him in the first place are the ones that as we sin again, it's against our precious Lord, not against Him who our soul hated before we came to Him. It's against our precious Lord and Savior. So our views of that sinfulness of sin increases.

And as Christians, with that growing sense of our own sinfulness, as we draw closer to our Savior, that light becoming brighter, seeing the sins ever more clearly, We still go to him afresh for our sanctification Even as we went to him that first day for our justification As John Owen states it quote the choicest believers who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin are yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin. Those who have been justified, you see, they are no longer under the condemning power and so they make it their business to not be under that indwelling power of sin as well. The Apostle John writes in the third chapter of his first epistle, we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is and Everyone who has this hope in him Purifies himself purifies himself everyone who has this hope does this just as he is pure. The Bible is clear sin not dealt with in a biblical fashion leads to hell. The Bible is also clear that sin dealt with in a biblical fashion leads to life.

Romans 8 13, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. It's not just a warning of judgment that Christ gives there in Matthew 5. There's a hope for eternal life to any who by the Spirit puts to death the deeds of the body. But please don't miss that important phrase, in a biblical fashion.

In a biblical fashion. Paul sets before us the great contrast, and that contrast is strengthened by his qualifying prepositional phrases according to the flesh and in the spirit. If you live according to the flesh or if by the spirit, If you are seeking to put to death the deeds of the flesh apart apart from the spirit you will also die and I quote John Owen once again mortification from a self-strength Carried on by ways of self invention unto the end of a self righteousness is The soul and substance of all false religion in the world end quote, okay. I might ask you need to go out to Just you know tighten the belt on your pants and pull up your boots and get out there and just put to death the deeds of the body and your strength. Go do it.

That's what all the religions out there will teach you. And friends, that's what a religion inside the walls of a church like this can teach apart from Jesus Christ. If by the Spirit, if by the Spirit you must go to Christ, you must rest in the Spirit. And there was these consequences they don't rest solely upon this one commandment even though Christ issued the warning of the consequences after declaring the exceedingly broad nature of the application of the seventh commandment I would propose that the consequences lie with everything that Christ taught not only in these three particular chapters of Matthew but what we see throughout the entire scriptures. Yet it is beyond the reach of denial that it applies to these three chapters in Matthew 5, 6, and 7 because Christ Himself closed His teaching with these words recorded in chapter 7, 24 to 27.

Look at them with me. 7, 24, therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken them to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock but everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them It's not that he ignores building anything. Oh he goes and builds But he'll be like the foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain descended The floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell and great Was his fall Dear brothers and sisters we have been given God's Word and His Holy Spirit and these weapons of warfare to fight against remaining sin. I would remind you of the words we have in Titus 2 that God has given us saving grace, but that grace teaches us something.

It teaches us something. If you say I've got saving grace Then my dear ones you've got sanctifying grace Because the same grace it saves teaches us. What does it teach us? It teaches us to deny Ungodliness and worldly lusts It teaches us to live soberly righteously, and godly in the present age, all the while looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who was on a mission. What was that mission?

He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from, From every lawless deed and to what? To purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. Do you know anything experientially of this grace that does so much more than just simply save. Some of you are here today and don't know Christ. You don't know Christ.

You don't have within you what's needed to do these things. You don't have the Word of God hidden in your heart. You don't fear God. And you certainly don't have access to the armor of God. You've not responded to the demands of the gospel to leave your sins, to repent of your sins and to come to Christ in faith, believing Him.

What J.C. Ryle in his commentary on this passage said that Ignorance of the real meaning of the law is one plain reason why so many do not value the gospel and content themselves with a little formal Christianity. They do not see the strictness and holiness of God's ten commandments, for if they did, they would never rest till they were safe in Christ." So that's my prayer for you today, my unconverted friend, that you would be so impressed with the strictness and the holiness of the law of God that God Himself in the flesh would say, sin is bad, My grace is good, cut off right hands, pluck out right eyes, that the strictness and holiness of God would demand such a thing and that you would be impressed by that and that it would unsettle you where you are and that you would find no rest until you find that rest in Christ. That your sin would be such a burden to you that you would come to him. He is gentle and lowly of heart.

He will give rest to your weary soul. Come to him today, today, just as you are. Come to Him. You will not be disappointed. Let's pray.

O gracious God, we thank you for the clarity of your word. We thank you for the authority of Jesus Christ. We thank you that he is a faithful shepherd and that he has told us what we need to hear. Lord, give us ears to hear and hearts to obey all of these things and most of all give us grace to rest our souls safely in the never dying work of our dear Savior who loved His people and gave Himself for them. In His name we pray, amen.