2005-10-23 Communion Dedication – Baldwin Christian Church 

As we begin in verse 29, Jesus has just explained that not all sin is external; it’s not just the things that other people see us do.  He’s telling us that our thoughts matter too.   If I live my life without ever committing adultery or murder, it counts in the eyes of both God and man, but when my heart is full of murders and envies, even though they remain hidden from the sight of men, they’re fully seen by God.  That’s where we begin in verse 29… 

Matthew 5:29-30

And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. 

What Jesus is saying here might sound pretty extreme, but I think He could’ve gone farther with this.  If I cut off my hand and pluck out my eye, I still have one good eye and hand to cause me to stumble and fall in sin.  I can cut off my legs, cut out my tongue, stop up my ears and nose, and I’ll still find ways to sin against a Holy God. 

The root of the problem is in the heart: 

Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 

I can’t understand why my heart is this way, but the Bible tells me I can keep from feeding it.

Proverbs 4:23-27

                Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

                Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.

                Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.

                Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.

                Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil. 

I can’t necessarily control those thoughts that come upon me from time to time, but I can control whether or not to dwell on them, and that’s what Jesus is saying here.

It’s not the eye’s fault that I’m offended.  It’s not the hand’s fault either.  The eye is just one of the conduits, one of the senses connecting the world around me to my heart.  Whenever my eye is attracted to something, my brain tells it to glance or look, but the command to stare with desire, or to dwell on it, that comes from my heart.  Everything that feeds wickedness in my heart needs to be cut out or cut off. 

1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 

God wants our obedience more than our sacrifices (1 Sam 15:22), but sometimes we do need to sacrifice certain things, or certain parts of our lives, because these things have become harmful to our obedience.  It’s better for us to give up that thing than to lose our whole life. 

Proverbs 27:20 Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied. 

That’s only because they haven’t seen God.