Well, we're going to turn to God's Word and read the Scriptures. We're continuing our study this morning in the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount, and we're in Matthew chapter five, and reading from verse 33 to the end of the chapter. Matthew chapter five, verse 33 to the end of the chapter. I do want to just make a brief comment before we read the passage, and that is concerning the law, concerning the law of God. In many ways, Jesus was expounding the law in the Sermon on the Mount. I just think it's important by way of reminder that we remind ourselves of the three uses of the law whenever we read either the Ten Commandments themselves or Jesus then teaching various aspects of the law. As you know, the first use of the law is that it serves like a mirror. It reflects the holiness of God and his standard of righteousness, and as such, It convicts us of our sin. It shows us our need, our desperate need for the one who came and died for our sin, the one who is our righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And then the second use of the law is that it really serves to restrain evil. It serves as a way of ordering society. This is the way in which God wants the whole world to live, that the world would reflect. something of who he is. And then the third use of the law that when we have come to Christ, this then regulates our lives as Christians. This is how Jesus wants us to live, that we might reflect who he is and that we might be distinct in the world. Very important that we remember all of this, that this teaching is not Jesus saying, do this and you will inherit eternal life. Jesus is not teaching us a works-based system of religion, but he is expounding the law, and it has all of these uses. This is his teaching, teaching his disciples in the way that we now live, having received his grace in the gospel. And so we read Jesus' words. Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than this comes from evil. You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Amen. And may God bless to us the reading and the preaching of the Word this morning. I'm pleased to have this portion of Scripture open before you as we study it together this morning. Let's briefly pause and pray. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we have this liberty to open up the pages of Holy Scripture, your We thank You that it is Your delight to bless Your people through this ordinary means of Your grace. We pray, O Lord, that You would grant us attentive minds and humble and open hearts, that we would receive from Your hand the good food of Your Word, rich fare for our souls We pray, O Lord, once more that you would sanctify us in your truth and that you would continue the glorious work of conforming us to the image of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for the ministry and the power of your Holy Spirit that you'd bless your word to us now. For we ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. One of the most important and yet challenging aspects of our calling as Christian men and women is the responsibility that we have in Christ and having received of God's grace in him a responsibility to then live distinct lives of righteousness in what is a fallen and unrighteous world. to be men and women who walk in the light, to be men and women who walk in love, to be men and women who walk by the Spirit in a world that walks in darkness, in a world that is so often filled with hate, and in a world that is led by the desires and the leanings of a sinful flesh. And probably nowhere is this high calling that God places upon all of our lives as believers, probably nowhere is that high calling put more to the test than it is when it comes to our relationship and our dealings with other people. It is as we interface with, it is as we relate to other men and women made in the image of God that we discover, don't we, we discover often to our shame, just how far or not so far we really have managed to travel along the road of sanctification, how well or how not so well we're really doing when it comes to the great purpose of loving the Lord our God with all of our heart and our soul and our strength and our mind and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Well, here in this portion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is effectively setting before us three particular ways in which this Christian distinctiveness ought to be seen and ought to be growing throughout the course of our individual lives as we grow in Him, as we grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord. You notice that in verse 48, he basically concludes this entire section of his teaching by saying, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Now, he's not saying there that we are suddenly expected to be perfectly sanctified. How could that possibly be the case when we know that sanctification is a lifelong process? It's something that will only be complete and comprehensive when we arrive at that future state of glorification, which is yet to come. But what he's saying there is that although that is the case, as long as you are at home in the body, Yet nevertheless, this is to be your daily ambition in life. This is to be your chief desire as you seek to reflect, as you seek to be conformed to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. What does that mean? Well, it means many, many things. We've already seen some of what that means in previous weeks. But here in this particular section, Jesus points us specifically to three things. First of all, he points us to the importance of our speech and what we swear to. Secondly, the importance of our actions and how we respond to those who mistreat us. And thirdly, the importance of a right attitude, particularly in the context of persecution. Our speech in verses 33 to 37, our actions in 38 to 42, and our attitude in 43 to 47. And so first of all, to the subject of our speech, the taking of oaths and what we swear to. This first little section from verse 33 to 37 is a little bit tricky, but the first thing that we need to be very clear on here is that where Jesus says in verse 34, but I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, and so on, Jesus was not saying there that it's always wrong to take an oath of some kind on this earth. In fact, Jesus himself submitted to an oath later on in Matthew chapter 26 when, remember, Pilate said to him, Pilate said, I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. And Jesus responded effectively under oath by saying, you have said so. We also see something similar later on in the book of Romans with the apostle Paul, where he appears to take an oath in what he says under God. And so Jesus was not prohibiting here or denying the legitimacy of all oath-taking in the world. That wasn't his intention. The problem was, Well, there were really two errors that Jesus wanted to address in this particular context. The first error was that some of the Jews, owing to their legalistic tendencies, some of the Jews were basically saying that unless you swear according to a certain form of words, then what you promise is not actually binding. The implication being someone could make a certain promise with no intention of ever keeping that promise, and yet they were effectively justified, at least in human terms, they were effectively justified because they hadn't used this certain prescribed formula, this set of words, when making the promise. The second error was that what others were doing was they were effectively saying, Well, even if I do use this carefully prescribed formula of words when I take this certain oath, as long as I don't make any direct reference to God, then what I swear to isn't all that important. And you see, this is why Jesus speaks here of heaven as the throne of God, the earth as his footstool, and Jerusalem as the city of the great king, meaning his king, in the way that he does. He's effectively saying it doesn't matter whether your oath is taken with direct reference to Jerusalem, the earth, or even heaven above, because ultimately, all of these spheres are under the authority of the all-seeing, all-knowing God. whether you make direct reference to him or not. Hence, verse 37, let what you say simply be yes or no. What is he saying? He's saying in a world where there is so much falsehood and deception, even ironically when it comes to the subject of what actually constitutes an oath, He's saying your duty is to be straightforward and clear and simple and honest, regardless of the context, as you remember that in everything you do and in all that you say, you are accountable to Almighty God himself. Now you think about it, what is the deeper issue here? What is the deeper issue at stake in all of this? The deeper issue is that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. What we say and what we swear by with our mouths is ultimately a manifestation of, it is a reflection of, what is taking place on the inside. And so, this is one area of life in which we are called to be perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect. Because God is a God of truth, because it is impossible for God to lie, one of the few things it is impossible for God to do. So therefore, one of the ways in which we demonstrate the distinctiveness of our belonging to this God is by doing likewise, is by speaking truth in a world of falsehood. And there is much falsehood. The second thing Jesus says concerns our actions, particularly here, our actions in response to those who treat us as believers in a harsh or an unfair or unjust way. He said, you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. Then he goes on to give this series of brief illustrations three of which—the first three of which—involve being badly treated by another person. And so, what is he saying? Well, the point of this eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-tooth principle that comes to us in the Old Testament and Exodus 21 and elsewhere, the point of this principle or rule was simply to say that the punishment that someone received for a certain crime, the punishment had to be equitable. the punishment had to fit the crime. That's the point of the principle or the rule. But you see, what some of the Jews were doing was that they were, again, twisting this God-given principle or rule, and they were using this law to justify retaliation when someone happened to do something wrong to them. The law says eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and so if you do something to me, I'm gonna do something to you. You think about it, that's the pattern of this world, isn't it? That's the pattern of the whole world. You do something to me, I'm gonna do something to you. At a national level, you make a policy that affects our country, we're gonna make a policy that affects your country. in the classroom, you scribble and mess up my notes, my jotter, I'm gonna mess up and scribble on your notes, your jotter. On social media, you say something nasty about me, I'm gonna say something nasty about you. But what does Scripture say? Well, not only does it say, do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, 1 Peter chapter 3, but actually, Jesus goes even further than that here in this passage. And really the crux of what he's saying lies in this word resist in verse 39, as in do not resist the one who is evil. The word for resist there is specifically a legal term. It's a legal term, and it really has to do with taking another person to court. or claiming one's rights. And so what Jesus was really saying when he went on to give these three different examples of everyday life, the first of which involved personal insult by way of a backhanded slap on the cheek, the second of which basically involved the material theft of a tunic, the third of which involved a personal form of subjugation, being asked to assist the Romans at that time by carrying something for them a certain distance, which is something the Romans would often do. Jesus was saying, in response to these different scenarios, when these things happen to you, when these things are done to you, do not respond by claiming your personal rights. Instead, you are to respond to such evils with grace. You are to demonstrate your freedom under God by turning the other cheek, by giving away your cloak, a religious garment that was basically sacrosanct at that time, and by going the extra mile In other words, the principle here is this, that when it comes to our individual lives as believers, we're not to seek retaliation or retribution, nor are we to be quick to take someone to court because we can. because they have wronged us personally in some way. Instead, we are to put on display the fact that we are servants of the Lord, that we are those who are operating according to higher standards and better principles than the standards and the principles and the patterns of this fallen world. We do not instantly demand our rights. Why? because Christ is our Savior, and he gave up his rights for us. We do not do to others what their sins against us really deserve. Why not? Because in the gospel, God has not treated us according to our sins against him. In other words, do you see our very lives are to be a reflection of the pattern of the gospel itself, not just in what we say, but also then in the way in which we respond, particularly when we are treated in an unjust way. Now, someone might respond to all of this. Someone might say, well, then how does all of this apply to these various recent court proceedings involving Christian men and Christian women? The case involving the Asher's Bakery, for example. Kenneth Ferguson and the Robertson Trust, we've been praying about these things. the legal claim against the Scottish government on the closure of churches this past year. Does Jesus' teaching here mean that all of that was wrong? Well, no, it doesn't. No, it doesn't. What's the difference? The difference is that all of these cases were brought to court because the main issue at stake was not one of personal injury or injustice. No, the main issue at stake was the very freedom of the gospel itself, the right to exercise one's faith, the good of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that just as the apostle Paul went all the way to Rome in order to appeal to Caesar, not just for his own vindication, but for the sake of the gospel, So in the same way, there will be circumstances where Christians may need to make such appeals to the law for the future good of the church, for the preservation of the Christian faith in a dark world. But nevertheless, the point, the challenge still remains. that our first response, our first inclination when we are personally wronged, when we are treated in an unfair way, is to do the opposite of what our flesh wants to do. It is not to retaliate. It is not to seek revenge. It is not even to claim our rights. It is instead to go the extra mile or so to speak by demonstrating the pattern of the gospel itself. It is to shock the one who is doing wrong to us. It is to shock them, to show them There's something different about this man. There's something different about this woman. I was not expecting that response. How will we do this? How will we do this? How will we cultivate this? This brings us to our final point this morning, and that is the subject of our attitude. First our words, then our actions, finally underneath it all is our attitude. And really the key, the key to everything that Jesus says in the remainder of this chapter lies in verse 43. where he says, you have heard it said, you have heard that it was said, wrongly that is, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Do we love our enemies? not in some flimsy, superficial way that this world defines and speaks about love, but in the way of the love of a holy and almighty God. Do we love our enemies? A very challenging question, isn't it? So what do we need to remember? If we are to do this, if we are to love our enemies, clearly we need the daily grace of our Lord. We need to pray for the fruit of the Holy Spirit to be strong in our lives. But what do we need to remember? Well, Jesus highlights three things here in this passage, three crucial, essential truths that will help us to be men and women who love and pray for those who persecute us. First of all, we must remember that it was while we were still God's enemies that Christ died for us. Look at what he says in verse 45, "'But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.'" Now, clearly, he can't be saying there, "'Do this, and you will become sons of your Father in heaven.'" That would be to point to a works-based system of righteousness. So what is he saying? He's saying when you love your enemies and when you pray for those who persecute you, you are effectively putting on display, you are demonstrating to this world the fact that you are one who has received the unmerited favor and the free grace of God himself in the person of his dear and beloved son. Loving those who we feel do not deserve our love reflects the fact that we ourselves have been loved by God when we most certainly did not deserve his love. How quickly we can forget this basic truth, can we not, of our Christian lives? fall into thinking that, I am a believer. I'm here in church this morning because I'm special. God didn't love you because you're special. God loved you despite the fact that you were totally depraved. And we need to remember this. We were those lost and we were far off in the far country. We were in rebellion against him. And yet, he extended mercy to us. The second thing we must remember is that God continues to show his love to our enemies every single day in this world. Jesus said again in verse 45, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Think about it. Every single day, God demonstrates patience and kindness in his common grace to men and women who hate his law, to a world that tramples his laws underfoot to a world that is intent on blaspheming his holy name. And Jesus is basically saying, if this is how God treats those people today, if he is patient and long-suffering towards those who are dead in sin and who hate the gospel, Oh, so then must ye do likewise. The third thing we must remember is that if we only love those who love us in return, then all we're doing is following the same pattern that is rife in a fallen and unregenerate world. We are no different. We are not distinct. We are not lights in the darkness. Jesus said in verse 46, for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? This is what everyone else does, he says. This is what everyone else is doing. Are you just the same as them? Are you the same, or are you changed? Are you changing, being sanctified? And you think about it, what kind of scenario did Jesus, was he anticipating here? What did he have in mind specifically and particularly? I mean, what he's saying here applies at all times and in all seasons of the Christian life, but at the same time, there is a specific context that he has in mind and where this teaching becomes so much more critical for us to keep in mind and to live by, and that is when it comes to persecution for our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Jesus was very realistic, wasn't he, about the difficulties that will be faced in this world by his people. Jesus did not sugarcoat the Christian life. He didn't present it as some sort of merry-go-round. We're in great danger in the West in this regard, because we've had so long, we've had such a long season of relative peace, and we've fallen into thinking that that is the norm. But it's not the norm. Jesus said, if they persecute me, they will persecute you also. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And yet, what is he saying here at the end of Matthew chapter five? He's saying, when that hour comes, not if that hour comes, when that hour comes in your life, this is your opportunity to be distinct in a fallen world, to put on display the riches of my Father's grace in the gospel, to show the world another way by loving those who hate you, by praying for those who persecute you. It does not mean, it is not a call to water down the truth, to avoid the issue of the day. We must stand for truth. We must address head-on the issues of the day according to the Word of God. but nevertheless, it is a call to respond to those who do the persecuting with loving Christ-centered hearts and with a desire to pray for them, that they too would taste and see the goodness of our God, that they would be brought to a conviction of sin, they too would repent of their sins and that they would come to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. And you think to yourself, you know, as you consider this teaching, although we've just been thinking about together and this big challenge, this call to respond to that evil, that hostility, oppression, persecution by loving those who do those things and pray for those who come against us in those ways, you think to yourself, where do we see the greatest example of this? We see it in the life of the very one who is doing the teaching, don't we? It's very interesting if you turn in your Bibles just very briefly back to Isaiah. Isaiah in chapter 50. Isaiah chapter 50 from verse four. Isaiah 50 from verse four. Just look at what is prophesied there concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. It says, the Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning, he awakens. He awakens my ear to hear, as those who are taught, the Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious. I turned not backward. And then it says this. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting, but the Lord God helps me. Therefore, I have not been disgraced. Do you see? The Lord Jesus Christ, the one who knew no sin, he is the one who loved his enemies so much that he was willing to be beaten, to be spat upon, to be nailed to a wooden cross. so much so that as he was hanging on that cross, what did he pray? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Why? So that we who were once his enemies could be reconciled to God through him. and so that now in Him, we who are now reconciled by grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone, that we might now learn to reflect the beauty and the perfections of His righteousness in all our dealings with this fallen and so often hostile world. So, dear friends, may God give us the grace that we might do so, that we might take these words of the Lord Jesus to heart this morning, and that the Holy Spirit might impress them upon us, seal them to us, and sanctify us through them. Let's bow together in prayer. Let us pray. Our Father and our gracious God in heaven, we thank you so much for your Word of truth. We thank you particularly this morning for this teaching of our Lord Jesus. We thank you, Lord, for that first use of the law that we were thinking about earlier on in our service. For we see in these words, we see the reality of our own sin. We confess that our yes hasn't always been yes, that our no hasn't always been no. Confess that we have not always been those who have turned the other cheek, those who have loved our enemies, those who have prayed for those who persecute us. So we thank you and we praise you for the one who never sinned. We thank you that Jesus Christ is our righteousness, that he is our great advocate at the right hand of the majesty on high, representing us in righteousness, always interceding for those who love him. We pray that you would forgive our sins in his name. And we pray that in him and by your Holy Spirit, you would give us the grace to live distinct lives, to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. O Lord, our God, we pray this morning for Western nations in particularly. Lord, we think of governments in the West, most of which, perhaps all of which, appear to be enemies, enemies of the church and enemies of the gospel. And so we pray for them even now. in Canada, in North America, here in Scotland, the United Kingdom, throughout Europe, O Lord, we pray that you would bring our leaders to a fear of God, that you would pour out your Spirit in such a way that terrible and wicked laws which have been put in place in recent years might be reversed and overturned. We pray, O Lord, that even if that is not to be so, we pray, O Lord, that you would bless your bride that you would cause her to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you would enable her to be distinct, salt, and light, led by the Spirit in this evil age in which we live. Grant each one of your saints throughout the earth a real zeal for the gospel, We pray that you would increase your word. O Lord our God, we know from your word that the end is coming. Lord, it is sobering. It is solemn, yet also wonderful to think that we have such little time to play our own little part in making Christ known, in standing for your truth, in praying for your glory to be made manifest. Help us, O Lord, we pray, to be truly sincere and committed to that great and wonderful end. We want to pray this morning, our Father, for your persecuted people, in very difficult places. We remember again the Indian pastor who was severely burned with acid for refusing to stop praying. Remember the church in Myanmar where those villages have been ransacked. We remember this 16-year-old Pakistani Christian who's been abducted by Muslims O Lord our God, we pray for these individuals and situations. We pray for your intervention. We pray that you would grant a strong faith to those who are being persecuted. We pray that you would help them to love their enemies. and to be faithful witnesses to your grace in the gospel and to your eternal truth, the truth of your Word. We pray, Lord, that you would drive back these forces of evil and darkness. We pray that you would stay the hand of the evil one. Lord, we pray for the prosperity of your bride. pray for the furtherance of your gospel. Father, we do want to pray this morning for those amongst us, those known to us who are unwell at this time. We remember our brother Billy and his ongoing tests. We remember Emma and Rebecca. We pray for Joanna Phillip and Charlene McCutcheon who are unwell at this time. Father, others too, and O Lord, we pray that You would bless them in their affliction. We pray that You would restore them to good health. We pray that You would draw near and grant the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ, a peace which surpasses all understanding. Lord, help those who are suffering. Help those who are weak, who are unwell in body, in mind. Father, we thank you for the Lord's Day. We thank you that this is your gift to your people, and this is your blessing to us. May we use it well and in ways that are honoring to you, and may it continue to be a blessing to us as we spend the remainder of the day in worship and praise and fellowship and prayer. For we ask all of these things, In Jesus' wonderful name, amen.