"THE HEART OF THE MATTER!"

Written and preached by David P. Nolte

MATTHEW 5:21-30

1. NOT ONLY EXTERNAL ACTIONS BUT INTERNAL ATTITUDES MATTER:
1. A person may feign all sorts of godliness; one might pretend quite convincingly to be innocent and pious. But the heart of the matter is that unless we are internally clean, we are merely externally phony.
2. That's why
1. Moses said, "Now the LORD observed the extent of the people's wickedness, and He saw that all their thoughts were consistently and totally evil." Genesis 6:5 (NLT).
2. David asked, "How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults." Psalms 19:12 (NLT).
3. David prayed, "But You desire honesty from the heart, so you can teach me to be wise in my inmost being. . . . . Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me." Psalms 51:6-10 (NLT). And "The sacrifice You want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, You will not despise." Psalms 51:17 (NLT).
4. Solomon taught, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do." Proverbs 4:23 (NLT).
5. And, "Smooth words may hide a wicked heart, just as a pretty glaze covers a common clay pot." Proverbs 26:23 (NLT).
6. Jeremiah recorded, "The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I know! I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve." Jeremiah 17:9-10 (NLT).
7. Jesus said, "God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God." Matthew 5:8 (NLT)
3. What I am about to say will puzzle some, it will anger others and it will find agreement with many. But I am speaking my heart here. You don't have to agree, but please consider:
1. If any of you men are lusting after some woman, if she makes your heart flutter, or if she arouses some passion in you, if you find her so attractive that you have some infatuation or silly crush on her, or fantasize about being together, that's adultery in the heart.
2. If any of you women are lusting after some man, if he makes your heart flutter, or if he arouses some passion in you, if you find him so attractive that you have some infatuation or silly crush on him, or fantasize about being together, that's adultery in the heart.
3. Those kinds of attitudes belong only to your spouse, to direct them to another is infidelity in the heart.
4. Those kinds of attitudes say, "That's beef-steak; you're chopped liver."
5. Those attitudes are the seeds of immorality. That's the heart of the matter.
4. Let me illustrate this inner attitude, inner heart thing: say you take a pig out of the sty. You hose off all the mud and spray on perfume. You paint the hooves nice and red. You put a cute little hat on its head and a cute little skirt around its waist. You might even put just a hint of blush on its cheeks. If you take that nicely dolled up pig to your table as a guest, it will still be a pig - it will snort like a pig, it will eat like a pig, it will act like a pig because it is a pig. Outer stuff didn't alter the heart of the matter. Take a sinner and teach him or her to merely act like a Christian but do nothing to alter the heart and you have done nothing. An unconverted heart still lives an unconverted life.

2. WHAT WE CONTEMPLATE SERIOUSLY ISSUES IN ACTION:
1. There is not a single act we perform that isn't somehow preceded by a thought - conscious or unconscious. Our mind makes some decision about what we will do, even in a knee-jerk, spur of the moment, impetuous act.
2. Jesus taught that, saying, "For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all other sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander." Matthew 15:19 (NLT). Evil thoughts yield evil actions. Someone said, "The thought is the father of the deed." Although actions may speak louder than words, behind the action is our inner attitude.
3. How do your attitudes affect your actions? How does what you contemplate determine your course of action? Let me illustrate how thinking can ensue into act:
1. King David saw Bathsheba bathing as he strolled on his roof top. He had to have thought, "Wow! What a chick! I think I'll invite her over." He did, she came, they sinned, and David ended up an adulterer and a murderer.
2. Jonah was commanded by God to go to Nineveh, a wicked pagan city, to cry out against it. Jonah had to think, "Nineveh? I don't want to go to Nineveh! I hate the Assyrians. They are our enemies. They are mean, cruel, wicked people. I'm not going!" So his thought life led to rebellion, running away from God, a dunk in the sea, a stay in a fish's gut, being barfed onto the beach and he still had to go to Nineveh.
3. Samson resented it that his father-in-law gave his wife to another man, so he took foxes, tied torches to their tails and burned the fields of the Philistines.
4. Someone cuts you off on the freeway. You think, "You maroon! Where did you get your licence, from a box of Wheaties?" The thought leads to anger, anger to road rage.
5. Someone sees a nice shiny Toyota Camry. They think, "I'd like to have that car. Why should he have it? I think I'll just help myself. What's yours is mine and I'll take it!" Thought, desire, car theft.
6. Lustful thinking leads to illicit action. Rebellious thinking leads to defiant action. Angry thinking leads to violent action. Covetous thinking leads to dishonest action.
4. Two young men thought about all the times they had been bullied or taunted or mocked or left out and they contemplated revenge. So on April 20, 1999 Dylan Klebolds and Eric Harris went into Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado armed to the hilt, intent on violence and they shot and killed 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves. Their violent thoughts ensued in violent actions.

3. WE MUST KILL SIN AT THE ROOT, NOT MERELY DESTROY THE FRUIT:
1. If you just yank up a weed, you leave some of the root and the pesky thing will grow back. If you use Roundup, or Crossbow, it will kill the plant at the root so you don't have to keep killing plant after plant.
2. We may stifle all sorts of external displays of anger and lust - but if we allow the root to remain in our hearts, if we continue to be angry and lustful, though we hide it, the sin itself remains.
3. Jesus spoke hyperbolically when He said, "So if your eye - even if it is your good eye - causes you to lust, 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 hand - even if it is your stronger hand - causes you to sin, 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 be thrown into hell." Matthew 5:29-30 (NLT).
1. Now we know that it isn't our eye or our hand, but our heart that causes us to lust and to sin. But His point is: "Get rid of anything, even an eye or a hand, if it is the cause of sin. You can't be too radical in eliminating the cause of sin!" Get rid of the root - and you'll get rid of the fruit.
2. Richard Baxter said, concerning sin, "Keep as far as you can from those temptations which feed and strengthen the sins which you would overcome. Lay siege to your sins, and starve them out, by keeping away the food and fuel which is their maintenance and life. Live in the exercise of those graces and duties which are contrary to the sins which you are most in danger of. For grace and duty are contrary to sin, and kill it, and cure us of it, as the fire cures us of cold, or health of sickness. Bestow your first and chiefest labor to kill sin at the root; to cleanse the heart, which is the fountain; for out of the heart come the evils of the life. Know which are the master- roots; and bend your greatest care and industry to mortify those, i.e, selfishness, pride, fleshliness, lust, fantasy, etc."
4. Perhaps you have seen, or have even been attacked by a seed wart. You know those kind with tentacles or roots that run into your flesh. Some pretty weird cures have been suggested: One suggestion is to tape banana skins on the site. Alternatively you could smear the sticky stuff from the inside of dandelion stems onto the wart. Another suggestion is to use your thumbnail or other chiseled object and press it down firmly into the center of the wart. Hold it for as long as possible, and repeat as often as possible. Another suggestion is to apply duct tape or thuja oil or any herb like garlic, thyme, and oregano. Maybe they work; maybe they don't. But sin is like that seed wart. Different suggestions have been proposed to cure the ill of sin: take a pledge; turn over a new leaf; make a New Years Resolution. But those don't strike at the root. Only surrender and obedience to Jesus kills sin at the root.

If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and calling God a liar. If we take sin seriously, recognize our own involvement, repent of it and confess it, God is ready to forgive us and to cleanse us. The only sin He won't forgive is the sin you won't let go of. The heart He can't purify is the stubborn, resistant heart.  Today, if His Spirit has spoken to your heart, don't harden it, turn it to Jesus. The heart of the matter is that we need a new heart; a clean heart; a pure heart. And He's in the heart transplant business. Let Him change your heart as we sing, "Change my heart, O God."

Pig from Vernon McGee; Columbine from news