Introduction
Matthew 18:7–9 ESV
7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! 8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.
I am going to focus on the portion I just read out from verses7-9, but I will also be going through verses 12-14, and it goes like this,
Matthew 18:12–14 ESV
12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
There is a serious tension that will run through my sermon this morning. A tension between your utter dependence or faith in God’s finished work of salvation, and the undeniable need for you to work out your sanctification.
Let me hash that out for a moment. We know that we are not saved by our works, but by the finished work of Christ.
Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
So let us establish that at the outset. We are not saved by our works, but by the finished work of Christ.
But, then you have verses like the one we saw last week,
Matthew 18:3 ESV
3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Or,
1 John 3:9 ESV
9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
Or
1 John 1:8–9 ESV
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Or
1 John 1:7 ESV
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
And many more that seem to suggest that our work of killing sin is a necessary component of realising the eternal life promised in the finished work of Christ.
Or from John 15 where Jesus affirms that we can know true Christians by their fruit, not their confession. Also, the same author John wrote about the apostasy of confessing Christians saying in
1 John 2:19 ESV
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
So, which is it? Are we saved by the finished work of Jesus, period? Or are we saved only if the finished work of Jesus is evidenced in our fruit bearing. Where should our assurance be placed?
The doctrine of the Assurance of Salvation teaches that as Christians we can be assured that if we truly believe in Jesus and the redemptive work of his Gospel, then we have eternal life.
Romans 10:9 ESV
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Yet, in the same letter by Paul we read in
Romans 8:13 ESV
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.
So, which is it?
- Those who say that their assurance is only in the finished work of Jesus often run the risk of negligence when it comes to killing sin and the Bible sternly warns us that ignorance of sin leads people to hell.
- And those who say that their assurance is primarily grounded on the transformation of their lives, the evidence of their conversion, on their fruits, run the risk of being deceived by their performance. It is often very easy for them to slip into a work-based belief of salvation.
- Whereas, those who say that our assurance must be based on both, also run the risk of importing a work based salvation which teaches that our salvation is Christ + reasonably good works. This is a heresy.
So, what do you do?
I run with this tension through and through in this sermon because here’s the challenge. I want to show you that our assurance of faith is not anchored in our works but in the finished work of Christ. It is possible for a believer to trust in Christ and struggle with good works and die and go to heaven. But I also want to show you that if you don’t make war with sin in your life then you are not saved.
Now each of you are going to have to spiritually discern where you stand. Take this subject seriously, examine your own lives and get to killing sin daily.
In my short 7-and-a-half years of preaching in this church, I do not believe I’ve been more strongly rebuked myself by any other sermon preparation than this one. I say this to give you a sense of the seriousness with which we are called to respond the truth we find in this passage.
We are going to deal with the subject of fighting sin. I have preached on sin before, many times from many passages. I do not believe, to the best of my conscience, that I’ve ever held back from declaring the truth regarding the horror of sin and our need to resist it. Why then do I say that I feel most rebuked by this sermon preparation?
Perhaps it is bias, God using the circumstances in my own life, or his grace in helping me see with greater clarity from this passage that there is an urgent need for a greater seriousness and outspokenness regarding the matter of fighting sin. Fighting sin in my own life and in encouraging you to fight sin in your own life.
The question that kept ringing in my mind is this, “Have I preached seriously enough and often enough regarding your need to be holy? Have I heralded with enough force your need to fight sin and put to death the deeds of the flesh?”
If I haven’t (which I think is the case), could it be because I’m not serious enough about it myself?
Brothers and sisters, after preparing to preach this sermon, I stand before you humbled and sorrowful, standing on no pedestal when I now preach to you from God’s word. I speak to you as a sinful man, a broken man of God, to sinful, broken men and women of God.
What is preached today is just as much or even more, the greatest need in my own life. Oh how I pray that this one hour will be etched into our memories forever as that hour when we became serious Christians!
Recap
- The Five Discourses
- The Sermon on the Mount (5-7)
- The Mission Discourse (10)
- The Parabolic Discourse (13)
- The Discourse on the Church (18)
- The Discourse on End Times (23-25)
- The Fourth Discourse – of the Church
- Childlike Dependence on God
- Little Children’ here not referring to young Christians
- Sin
- v7-9 – handling personal sin and temptation
- v15-20 – handling sin within the church
- v21-35 – about unforgiveness and sin
The majority of what Jesus said in the the discourse on Church had to do with sin.
- Childlike Dependence on God
Exegesis
Matthew 18:7 ESV
7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!
- Woe to the world for temptations to sin!
- The word ‘woe’ is a sorrowful interjection. That is not a merely ‘matter-of-fact’ word there. It is an exclamation! It is a curse, a condemnation announced from Heaven’s Mercy Seat! That’s the same throne we run to for mercy that issues this resounding condemnation.
Can you imagine the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world, the One in whom all our hope rests, the one way, one truth and one life; can you imagine the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ looking at you and saying, with sorrow, “I curse you”?
- The word ‘woe’ is a sorrowful interjection. That is not a merely ‘matter-of-fact’ word there. It is an exclamation! It is a curse, a condemnation announced from Heaven’s Mercy Seat! That’s the same throne we run to for mercy that issues this resounding condemnation.
- to the world – It really matters which side of this woe you’re on. If you’re on the side of the salvific grace of God, this woe will not be soul destroying, but if you’re not under the saving grace of Jesus, this woe will rip your soul to shreds for an eternity with all God’s wrath poured out upon you that drowning in the ocean with a millstone around your neck is “better”.
Paul said that it is far better for a Christian to die and be with Jesus. Conversely, it is far worse for a non-Christian to die and be with Jesus. The believer ought to have hope for what is to come, but the unbeliever ought to dread his future.
But let me warn you O Christian, that the assurance you have of your salvation is that you are committed to not be a stumbling block to others. You are salt and light of truth, not the sugar of temptation.
John 17:14–15 ESV
14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
What is the significant qualifier or characteristic here of those who are in the world and not of the world? That they are kept from the evil one.
Your position with regard to sin in your life is of great significance when it comes to the matter of your assurance of salvation. It does not matter if you hold to an intellectual hatred or rejection of sin as being evil, if you are not in the business of killing it.
You can talk about it, sing about it, preach about it, counsel and give your advices on it, but if you are not out there every day of your life sorrowful over it and killing it, then you are fooling yourself.
What a rebuke this is to me! How intentional am I about this war against sin in my own life and in the life of those I care for?
- for temptations to sin – Note that Jesus’ ‘woe’ in this verse is not against the general state of human sinfulness but against men who propagate sin through tempting.
- The word temptation therefore, can mean both the alluring or promoting of sinful behaviour, and also the prevention or obstruction of righteous activity. It is a sin to allure a young man into the world of alcohol without training him in wisdom and self control, you are encouraging sinful behaviour. But it is likewise a sin to hinder a young man from going to a healthy church because of your insecurities.
- The Christian does not stand in the way of sinners.
Psalm 1:1 ESV
1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
He is actively promoting righteous behaviour and condemning sin. When Paul tells Timothy in1 Timothy 4:12 ESV
12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
he is telling him to fight sin in his flesh to set an example to others in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity. I am amazed at how often and how seriously the new testament repeatedly instructs us to make it a matter of our mission in life to kill sin in our flesh.
If you are at a point in your life where you feel that you are more or less stable in your Christian walk, what do you base that moral analysis on? How much of that stability is making room for sin to grow unhindered and unseen. - The spirit that is at work in the sons of disobedience is not the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 2:1–2 ESV
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—Listen to Peter’s exhortation in
1 Peter 5:8 ESV
8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.He would know, wouldn’t he? Jesus had warned him once that in Luke 22:31
Luke 22:31 ESV
31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat,and Peter still was not watchful enough.
What does living the Christian life look like with such a verse? This isn’t a passing phase. Our senses are to be sharpened by Scripture that we may be ever watchful. Life is a battleground of sinful dangers.
- For it is necessary that temptations come – The word ‘necessary’ here can be misleading in the English translation. The word here specifically means ‘unavoidable’. So the necessary here is referring to ‘of necessity’ or ‘ is unavoidable’. The temptations in a corrupt world are of necessity because that is the unavoidable reality of corruption. Temptations must and will come in a world of sin.
Here is how the Bible depicts the reality of sin and salvation. I get this from John Piper. Jesus came into the world as God’s propitiating sacrifice killing sin once and for all on the cross, and the Spirit of God saves God’s elect by causing them to die to sin (killing sin in their own lives), and then we now walk by the power of the Spirit commanded by God to put to death the deeds of the flesh, to kill sin continually in our lives.
Running through and through in this redemptive work of Christ from beginning to end is a war against sin. Jesus came to kill sin, we are saved by the killing of sin in us, and we are to live on in the faithful mission of killing sin.
Colossians 3:5 ESV
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
1 Peter 2:11 ESV
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
Galatians 2:20 ESV
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
1 Corinthians 9:27 ESV
27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
Philippians 3:2–3 ESV
2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—
Sin, then is a defeated foe that still must be put down. How is this sin that Jesus killed by his death, killed in us by our death in Christ when we are saved, still attacking God’s people? In my limited vocabulary I had no other name that came to my mind but Zombie.
I do not mean this as a smart pun or a joke. But this is the nature of the remnant sinfulness in the life of the Christian. Like zombies, the undead, sin pursues the Christian and it would indeed be the apocalypse of your soul if you let it.
It is that horrible. And you are called to fight.
- but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! – The inevitability of temptations in this broken world does not excuse the one from whom the temptation comes. This is Jesus saying that temptations are an inescapable reality in this world but such is not excused or overlooked.
Jesus curses the one from whom temptations come.
If we now see the need to fight sin in our lives, let us see just how that fight looks.
Matthew 18:8–9 ESV
8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.
- Jesus uses the metaphor of the body to show what the fight against sin is supposed to look like. So, if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, or your eye causes you to sin. It does not say if your foot is used to sin or that you use your hand for sinful activity. The word isn’t ‘use’, it is ‘cause’.
If you watch pornography gouging out your eye does not take away your lust. You’ll just become a lusting blind man. The eye does not ‘cause’ you to sin. Jesus is using a metaphor here of the body and is highlighting the cause of sin.
Looking at a beautiful woman is not the cause of sin. God made man’s eyes and God made beautiful women so that your eyes might delight in the beauty of God’s creation. Heaven is neither full of blind men nor full of ugly women. The problem, the cause of sin comes from deep within the treasures of the human heart.Matthew 12:34–35 ESV
34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.Matthew 15:18–19 ESV
18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
Matthew has already established in this Gospel account already that the issue is not with the members of one’s body but with the heart.
So, the best way to understand what Jesus is saying here is if the hand or the foot or the eyes of your heart cause you to sin, cut it off, tear it out.
- Consider the imagery here. Jesus wants to highlight the righteous barbaric approach to fighting sin. You want to go to the root cause of what is causing you to sin and hack it down. You are the one commanded to cut it out.
- Eternal life is worth killing sin at its root. It is better to enter life lame or crippled or partially blind than to be able to walk and see in hell. Consider then the mentality of the Christian who fights sin. Is he thinking, “I am saved by the finished work of Christ. It is done! So sin can no longer touch me or condemn me anymore”? Or is he saying, “I am saved by the finished work of Christ. Eternal life is mine! I will have this eternal life at all costs. It is more precious to me than my hands, my feet and my eyes.”
Matthew 18:12–14 ESV
12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
- This whole discourse on sin is centred around the dual emphasis of little children & child-like Christians. The kind that are the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven. Their greatness is not measured therefore by their stature but by the greatness of God’s care for them.
- Leaves the 99 and goes after the one who went astray. For the Christian, it is not the curse of Christ that follows him in the wilderness but the good shepherd.
Searching – if he finds it – are all humanly relatable language that depict the fallibility of man, but there is no ‘if’ with the infallible God. He has no need to search.
This is why Jesus came. To take the sinner gone astray and restore him to the fold of God. - For the Christian, he does not battle sin by his own power but by the power of God’s Spirit. God is his safeguard.
