Now, let's just pretend that we are in the United States of America and you've seen one another and you're greeting one another for the morning. What would your greeting be to Sky? What would you say? Hi, hi and hello, good, all right. Now let's say that they were a little bit closer in a relationship to one another, and there's another form of greeting, and that would be a handshake. And so you'd come a little bit closer, not too close, but just extend a hand to a handshake, okay. And then if you're even, stay closer, and then there's an even, another form of a greeting, and that would be a hug. So, Sky. No, no, no. Okay, so I guess if I were to say maybe a kiss on the cheek, that's like completely out of the question. Okay, all right, thank you, Victoria. That's good. All right, I want to speak to you this morning about a word, and the word is inappropriate. Inappropriate is a word that we use to express a lack of judgment or care or competence in the words or the actions of another. Certain words are inappropriate at a funeral home. For example, when are you going to be looking for a new husband would be inappropriate to say to a widow. or certain forms of clothing are inappropriate under any circumstances. I remember that when I was in high school, my father took me on vacation and I had just received an array of new clothing and so I took it all and I wore it all at the same time. I had a blue seersucker suit that I had just gotten and my aunt hemmed it for me and so I was all set to go with that. I had received a white cowboy hat and I had a blue, royal blue Hawaiian shirt with big orange flowers on it and a pair of sandals. And so when I went out to eat that evening, I wore my seersucker suit, my Hawaiian shirt, my cowboy hat and my sandals. It was fine to me, but for the rest of the world that is inappropriate. And then when we speak in the spiritual world, certain behavior is inappropriate for those who profess to know Christ and that behavior is classified as sinful. Now often we endure and we tolerate inappropriate words and behavior because we consider the source and we say they don't know any better. We call them ignorant. And sometimes that's true, but our text today is going to prove that inappropriate behavior is not only born out of ignorance, but is sometimes born out of a wicked and a deceptive heart. In Luke chapter 22 verses 47 to 53, Jesus is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives sometime after midnight. He encounters three cases of extreme and I would even say ultimate inappropriate behavior and he responds to each of these with grace and truth. Allow me please to read the text and then we will go to the Lord in prayer. Luke chapter 22, beginning to read, at verse 47. And while he was still speaking, behold, a multitude. And he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them and drew near to Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said to him, Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss? When those around him saw what was going to happen, they said to him, Lord, shall we strike with the sword? And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus answered and said, Permit even this. It's another way of saying enough of this. Permit even this. And incidentally, this whole situation, Luke is a doctor and he's the only one who mentions that it was the right ear of this particular individual. John tells us that his name was Malchus, middle of verse 51. And he touched his ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests, captains of the temple, and the elders who had come to him, have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs? When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize me, but this is your hour and the power of darkness. Father in heaven, I most definitely need your assistance and the power of your Holy Spirit as I bring this word today. I remember the words of your son that said, without me you can do nothing. And Lord, I acknowledge that without the help of Almighty God this morning, I can do nothing. But Lord, I believe that thy word is truth, and I believe that the power is in the word. And so, Father, this morning I ask not that I would be clever, Lord, I ask not that I would be entertaining. Father, I just ask this morning that I would be true and faithful to your word, and that your spirit would accompany the preaching of the word in such a way that hearts would be pricked, and that lives would be changed, and that sinners would be converted, and that Your name would be glorified and so father as the word is preached. I place it in your hands Asking for your help in Jesus name in Jesus name Amen This morning I'm going to give you three cases of very inappropriate behavior that our Lord addresses in these verses that are before us. And the first one is in the case of Judas, verses 47 and 48. And while he was still speaking, behold, a multitude. And he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them. and drew near to Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said to him, Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?" I want you to get the picture. The prayer meeting has just ended in the Garden of Gethsemane. Peter, James, and John, along with the other eight disciples, have just woken up from their nap. the entourage with torches, the arresting posse has made their way toward Jesus. Luke calls them a multitude. And from the other four Gospels, we know that that multitude consisted of the assistant to the high priest, that is Malchus, along with the temple police, along with 600 Roman soldiers, along with the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders, also known as the Sanhedrin. And in the front of this group, we see a fellow by the name of Judas leading the pack. So why was Judas the one that was up front? Well, the reason is because earlier that evening, the Lord had dismissed him from the Lord's table from the Passover celebration. And in line with the Lord's instructions, what he did, he did quickly. And what was it that he did? Well, he ran to the Sanhedrin, to the Jewish ruling council, and he told them, that he would lead them in the dark to a private place where Jesus could be found. Now, why did he want to do this in the dark? Well, he wanted to do it in the dark, in a private place, because the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council, feared the people. And so, while Jesus was praying, the figurative lynch mob was making their way up the Mount of Olives. Judas knew this place very well because he knew that it was Jesus' habit to go there and he knew that it was Jesus' habit to pray there. Just like this morning, as I look out at you, I see that most of you are sitting in the seats where you normally sit. I can tell if someone is in church just by knowing if you fill the spot where you usually sit. Well, Jesus knew that that's where Jesus usually went. Jesus knew that's where Jesus probably would be and sure enough he was there. Also, Judas knew that he could get close enough to Jesus without being detected or without even being questioned because after all he was one of the twelve disciples and arguably he was the most trusted among the twelve disciples because he's the one that kept the money. On the 22nd of November, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy and he was taken to the jailhouse there in Dallas, Texas. Two mornings later, on November 24th, a man by the name of Jack Ruby, live on television, shot Lee Harvey Oswald as he was being transferred on that Sunday morning. Why was it that Jack Ruby was able to get close enough to Lee Harvey Oswald with a gun in order to shoot him that morning? The reason why is because Jack Ruby was very, very familiar to the people in the Dallas jailhouse. He was a character that was in and out. He was around. He was just a face that appeared to be there a lot. And so he slipped past all security. Of course, there were no metal detectors. He slipped past all security with a gun and was able to execute Lee Harvey Oswald that morning. The reason Judas was able to get close enough to Jesus and to kiss him on both cheeks is because he, like Jack Ruby, was a figure that was familiar to the other disciples and they never even raised an eyebrow. And so he uses the darkness and he uses his familiarity and he uses the knowledge of where Jesus would be and he uses his cunning and his craftiness to get in close proximity to Jesus and no one even questions it. And it works to perfection. He works out a very, what Jesus would call, inappropriate signal with those who are actually going to apprehend and incarcerate our Lord. Judas essentially says, the one I kiss, that's your man. And this was very, very clever because upon greeting a rabbi, one would normally kiss them, first on one cheek and then on the other, perhaps even more repeated than that. He had received his 30 pieces of silver and He was given that to either devise or to carry out this plan. And as sting operations go, this one was flawless. First of all, I want you to point out that Jesus is the only one that points out this behavior as being inappropriate. Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss? You see, a kiss, which Sky was unwilling to give to Victoria, in any culture is a sign of kindness and of love. But to use it as a means by which to identify someone that you intend to have arrested, tried, and even murdered is especially cruel, and it is deceptive, and it is inappropriate. And Jesus points out the inappropriateness of this when he says, Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss? There are a lot of things that Jesus could have pointed out, but he focused upon the kiss. He's basically saying, not only are you selling me up the river, but you are using apparent warmth and love and kindness as a means to do it. Now, friends, we all have enemies. Some of your enemies are very, very outspoken. Some of your enemies pretend to be your friends. Let me tell you this morning, it is much worse to get a knife in the back than it is to get a punch in the nose. How many times previously had Judas pretended to be a friend of Jesus? How many kisses had Jesus received previously from Judas? Well, they were together, just about every day for three and a half years. I'm sure that Jesus had received hundreds, arguably even thousands of kisses from Judas in the past, so this was nothing new. It was the kiss, though, of an enemy. J.C. Ryle puts it this way. injure the cause of the gospel under any circumstances is a great sin. But to injure it while we pretend to show kindness is the blackest of crimes. And friends, I want to tell you that Judas has had many grandchildren over the years who have carried out the deception of appearing to love Christ but really, really being a Judas at heart. Let me give you a couple of examples of this. Turn in the Old Testament to the book of 1 Kings chapter 21. You say, well, why don't we just put the words on the screen behind you? Well, because I feel that you're getting a little lax in your sword drill skills and feels good to handle the Bible and to look at it with your own eyes. And so turn to it. First Kings chapter 21. The setting here is the wicked King Jezebel. She wants this man Naboth killed so that she can have his vineyard. And notice how she uses deception and she uses the name of the Lord to carry out her deception. First Kings 21, 9, and 10. And she wrote in letters saying, proclaim a fast. What is a fast? A fast is a religious observance whereby we cease from eating food that we might honor God. And she says, proclaim a fast and seek Naboth with high honor among the people. Here comes the knife, verse 10. And seek two men, scoundrels, not just any men, but we want you to get some scoundrels before him to bear witness against him. And they, of course, are lying. And here's what they're to say. You have blasphemed God. Oh my goodness, they have just taken the name of God in vain. They're bringing God into this and accusing this man of blasphemy and the king, and then take him out and stone him so that he may die. You see, she sets it up in religious trappings and then she says, arrange for this man to be killed. And we have seen many people throughout the history of the church age who have taken the name of Jesus and they have used it to promote wicked ends. I think about the Spanish Inquisition where they tortured, and they burned suspected heretics, and in order to justify their wicked acts, they claimed that it was being done out of an act of zeal for the love of the truth of God. That's ridiculous. We can even bring it into our day, into pop culture. About three decades ago, the movie Paper Moon came out. It was a movie with Tatum O'Neill. If you haven't seen it, it's actually a pretty good movie. But the gist of the movie is this. There's a father and a daughter, and they're going around in rural America during the time of the Depression, and they are selling Bibles to unwitting widows whose husbands just passed away. at a hiked up rate and they are pretending to be coming in the name of the Lord. That's all well and good, that's funny, it's actually a pretty good movie, but the gist of it there is that they're using religion in order to carry out their deception. But I'll tell you what's not funny. When you turn on your television now and just about everything that's on your television now in the name of Jesus is basically a kiss of Judas that is being done in order to get into your pocketbook in the name of the love for the Lord. Now I'm not saying unequivocally across the board that everything that you see on your television is that, but listen to it closely. You will not hear the gospel and you will hear them asking for money. This is a kiss from Judas. But the saddest thing which we see in our day is a warning which we see from the book of Jude in which he tells us that these people worm their way and work their way into local churches. Please look in the next to the last book of the Bible, Jude. It's only one chapter and look at what he says in verse four. He says, for certain men have crept in unnoticed. Now let's just stop right there. When the man Judas comes, he is not detected. He is not noticed because he's putting up a good front. Well, these same people come into the local church for certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation. Ungodly men who turn the grace of our Lord into licentiousness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. The point being is that, like Judas, these people make their way in unnoticed. And it is inappropriate behavior. Jesus points out that to do such a thing is wicked, but to seal it with a kiss is completely completely of the evil one and filled with evil and deception and inappropriate. And so I ask you by way of application, your worship of Christ this day, is it born out of sincerity or is it born out of deception? If it is born out of deception, please know what our Lord said to Judas concerning him. It would be better for this man if he were never born. The second inappropriate action we see in verses 49 to 51 comes to us from Peter, back in Luke chapter 22. and comes to us from Peter. Now, Luke doesn't tell us that it's Peter, and neither does Matthew, neither does Mark. John is the only one that does that, and there's some speculation that John does this because Peter is dead at the time and he can't be incarcerated for taking a sword and trying to cut off someone's head. That's just speculation, but we do know that it was Peter, and in Luke 22, verses 49 to 51, we read these words. When those around him, that is disciples, saw what was going to happen, that is that he was going to be arrested, they said to him, that is to Jesus, Lord, I don't know why they called him Lord because they weren't going to obey what he said anyway, Lord, shall we strike with the sword? Then one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. This action of Peter to Malchus was completely, completely inappropriate. I want to give you three reasons why it was inappropriate. First of all, it was inappropriate because it was out of line with the teachings of Jesus that he had given all along. What were the teachings of Jesus? The teachings of Jesus were love your enemies, turn the other cheek. And so Jesus in his hour in the garden sees one of his disciples turn with a sword and take a swing to cut off the head of the servant of the high priest. It's completely out of line with what Jesus said on the Sermon on the Mount concerning loving his enemies. For that reason, it's inappropriate. Secondly, it's inappropriate because it is prayerless. It is prayerless. Now, if you think about it, talking to God and making a request of him is a prayer. They asked him a question. The question was, Lord, do you want us to strike with the sword? But they did not give him an opportunity to answer the question, did they? It is completely a mockery of God for us to enter into a prayer meeting with our minds already made up, as if we are going to go into the prayer meeting and inform God as to what we're going to do. Shall we strike with the sword? And no longer did the D of the word sword come, and all of a sudden, Malchus's ear was on the ground. Prayerlessness, impulsiveness, firing one up to God as just sort of a mockery, Lord, We just want to thank you for leading us in this direction, and we want to know what you want us to do. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Now let's go do it. That's not prayer. That is a mockery of God. And also, Peter's prayerlessness, that previous hour was showing up. Jesus said, can you watch with me one hour? Peter decided to take a nap and now his nap is catching up with him. Let me say by way of application You can go for a short period of time fooling people concerning your prayerlessness. But when the hour of trial comes, your true prayer closet habits will be revealed. They will be revealed. And in this case, the fact that Peter took a nap, it was a glaring weakness that was there for everyone to see. But the main reason, and this is the main point of the sermon this morning, the main reason why the actions of Peter at this particular point were inappropriate is because he demonstrated through whacking this guy's ear off that he did not understand the mission or the purpose or the meaning of Christ's coming. Or in other words, he did not understand the gospel. And he acted the way he did because he didn't understand the gospel. Think about it. Why was Jesus in that garden? Or let's look at the big picture. Why was Jesus standing on this planet? He was standing on this planet because we are sinners and because he came from heaven to earth. And he was born of the Virgin and fulfilled the law of God and was exactly where he was supposed to be. And now he's standing in that garden, ready to give himself up willingly, ready to go with the lamb to the slaughter without opening his mouth. And here, one of his disciples is taking out a sword and he's cutting off someone's ear when Jesus is freely giving himself up at this point. Let me illustrate to you this morning that Peter was not, at this time, just trying to send out a little message. Peter was trying to end this man's life. Phil, if you can help me with this. Luke mentions that it is right ear. Right is mentioned in the scripture assuming that most people are right-handed. Peter has the sword. He was not trying to cut off his right ear like this or like that. He was coming, okay, across the neck and he was wanting to end this man's life by either cutting his throat or by decapitating him. As he did, Malchus ducks, and as Malchus ducks, Peter catches the ear. Now I don't know whether it was dangling or whether it came the whole way off, but the point is He was making an attempt to end this man's life. You say, well, why is that significant? The reason that it's significant is it is so incredibly inappropriate. Can you imagine what would have happened had this man been decapitated there? Could the Lord have healed him? Certainly he could have and he probably would have. But let's just say that he did. If he did, can you see a full garrison of Roman soldiers there? One of the disciples has just pulled out a sword and he has cut off someone's head. Do you think that the soldiers would have been standing back there saying, hey, hey, okay guys, settle down, come on, break it down, let's let's let palm heads prevail? No! Bedlam would have broken out. The clubs and the swords that they would have had, they would have been, there would have, there would have been an absolute bloodbath right there. I don't know how it all would have worked out, but I can tell you this. It would have been outside of the will of God for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, to die in a garden in a sword fight. None of the scriptures would have been fulfilled concerning the cross and concerning how he was supposed to die. Peter, your actions are inappropriate. You are not listening to the Word of God, you are not praying, and you are not focused on the gospel. And I want to say to you this morning, that your life would be a lot different and a lot better if you would simply hear and obey the word of God, pray and wait for the answer, and focus and focus upon the gospel. Focus upon the gospel. Which brings me to the third set of inappropriate behaviors, and that is from the Stanhedron, from the Jewish ruling council, and that's in verses 52 and in 53. Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the captains of the temple, and the elders who had come with him, have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs? But when I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize me, but this is your hour and the power of darkness. Jesus is basically saying, I never ran away from you guys. I made public appearances all week long in the temple. I am not running away from you as if I have anything to be ashamed of. I'm not running away as though I were a criminal. You could have had me at any time. Why are you waiting till now? Why are you doing it in the darkness? Why are you doing it in a place of seclusion? Why are you doing it in the middle of the night? Why do you have 600 soldiers with you here? Why do you have the temple police? Why have you hired Judas to do this? Why are you so underhanded and being so deceptive? And why is this such a big ordeal here in the middle of the night? This is very inappropriate. And the answer to that is this. The reason they did it the way they did it is because they were cowards and they feared the people. Look at what it says in chapter 20, verse 19. And the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on him, but they feared the people." The reason they were acting as they did is because they were cowards. There's another reason that motivated their... inappropriate behavior and that's what Jesus says at the end of verse 53. He says, this is your hour. In other words, your appointed time has arrived and God is giving you your chance to do with me as you wish. Listen once again to the words of J.C. Ryle who says, the hands of the wicked cannot stir one moment before God allows them. and they cannot stir one moment after God commands them to stop. What that basically means is you can do wicked things, but you cannot start doing your wicked things until God says go, and you cannot continue to do your wicked things after God says stop. And Jesus many times said, my hour has not yet come, but now this is his hour. And so he says to these men, this is your hour. You're free to do as you please with me. And that was the will of God. But know this, that just as surely as your hour comes, your hour ends. And Jesus' hour came on Sunday morning when he erupted from the tomb. And concerning these people, his hour came in A.D. 70 when Jerusalem was destroyed and 1.1 million Jews were killed by the Roman armies. Your hour may be in the distance, but know this, your hour will come. and we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Which brings me to the third aspect of their inappropriate behavior, and he ties it in with the Prince of Darkness. Look at the end of verse 53. Once again, he says, this is your hour and the power of darkness. In essence, as Jesus is saying, I know who's behind all of this. You men acted freely, and you will be punished accordingly. But you are working in concert with the prince of darkness, the devil, with Satan. Never have sinful acts of men and the wicked designs of the devil been at odds with one another. It is your hour and the power of the darkness, and these are inseparable. Now perhaps it's too soft to say that the actions of Satan are inappropriate, but I think you get the point. And that is that any time you see people acting sinfully, inappropriately, driven by cowardice or any other motive, Satan was in the planning room. So lest you think I'm too soft on the subject of sin and I've used the word inappropriate, well, in each case, what was inappropriate here was sinful. I'd like to close this morning not by concentrating upon the three inappropriate acts of Judas and Peter in the Sanhedrin, but I would like to close this morning by looking at the appropriateness of what the Lord did. First of all, he allowed Judas to kiss him. Earlier in the service, when I even mentioned that there would be a hug, Sky was gone. Victoria was left standing here by herself. I hope your feelings weren't hurt. What if the instruction had been given, you need to give her a kiss. There was a gravitational pull where their bodies actually could not come together. Now you're standing in the garden. You've just finished sweating great drops of blood. You've just poured out your soul for an hour before the Father. You have realized His torment, and you have prayed and said, Father, if there's any way, take this cup from me, and you receive no answer. You stand up. You wake the other disciples and all of a sudden Judas is making his way toward you. He's walking past the eight, he's walking past the three, he's drawing close to you. Do you possess the ability right there to allow your cheeks to be kissed? I don't know about you, but everything within me. Let's just even assume I don't have the power of Jesus. If I have the power of Jesus, Judas is a pile of ashes right there. But even if I don't have the power of Jesus, as he comes close to me, am I going to allow myself to be embraced as a fool? Am I going to do that? Or am I going to shrug? Am I going to get back? Am I going to turn? What does our Lord do? Our Lord goes as a lamb led to the slaughter. And He allows one cheek to be kissed, and then the other cheek, and He gently says, Friend, why have you come? Are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss? Hallelujah, what a Savior. Why did Jesus allow Himself to be kissed? Get the point. It's because of the Gospel. Because by allowing Himself to be kissed, He is then identified. He's clearly identified, and as He is identified, the other disciples are protected. As the other disciples are protected, He is isolated as the man. And He, by giving His cheeks, not only to have His beard jerked out, but by giving His cheeks to be kissed, He's giving Himself up for our sins. The Gospel teaches you how to live your life. Perhaps you're living with someone right now that's a Judas. you're living with someone that's deceptive. Maybe it's your husband, maybe it's your wife. Perhaps it's your children or a brother or a sister, but you're living under the same roof with someone right now that cannot be trusted. At any time, that knife might come into your back. I am not saying that you shouldn't expose the person for their behavior. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't confront them. But what I am saying is, our Lord Jesus Christ can identify with you and you must show love and kindness to that person and allow God to be the one to take judgment and you don't take judgment into your own hands. Our Lord gave his cheeks to be kissed so that he could be identified, so that he could be arrested, so that he could be tried, so that he could be crucified, so that he could rise again, so that you could go to heaven. Hallelujah. What a savior. Appropriate. He stood there and allowed himself to be kissed. Secondly, what did he do that was appropriate? He healed the right ear of Malchus. I'm not sure how this worked. I'm not sure if when Peter took a whack at it that it came completely off and fell on the ground and Jesus picked it up and put it back on. I'm not sure if it was dangling and Jesus just lifted it and reattached it. I'm not sure if Jesus just, you know, perhaps he just touched it and there was a like a mark there, but it's all healed up, but there's no ear. I think that'd be really hard for him to explain when he goes home that night and his wife says, what happened to your ear? It's a long story, but it's all healed up. I think he had an ear that worked when he left that place. Who was Malchus and what was Malchus' job? Malchus' job was to go and to be the representative of the high priest, to have Jesus arrested, to see that this thing was carried out. Malchus' intent is to see this man dead. It's a violent wound. It's an open wound. It's a bleeding wound. And from Malchus, what do we see? We see no gratitude. We do not see him repent. We do not see him say, thank you. We don't even see him leave the party of the arresting. He continues with it. Yet the Lord healed him. This is the gospel. Turn to Romans chapter 12, verses 19 to 21. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves. We can just stop right there. We're not going to, but that is the point. Do not avenge yourselves. but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. What are we to do? Therefore, if your enemy hungers, feed him. If he thirsts, give him something to drink. For in so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. I'm not a shepherd. I've never been around sheep that much. I don't know really how it works. But I heard a story one time about a shepherd or one who was in charge of slaughtering sheep. And I guess the sheep are, the analogy in Isaiah 53 is Jesus being led as a sheep to the slaughter, not opening his mouth, is a really accurate one because I guess from those that have been around. Sheep are so stupid, they will see their brothers being slain right in front of them, and they won't even know enough to resist when it comes their turn. And I think it works something like this. I've been told this, although I've never seen it firsthand, is that the person will get behind the sheep and will pinch the sheep in with his legs and then take the sheep's head and lift it up and then take a knife and come across the throat of the sheep, and that'll be pretty much it. It'll bleed out, and it'll be dead. Well, a story's told one time of a shepherd who lifted the sheep's neck and came across the throat, and although he cut the sheep, the cut wasn't a fatal one. And as he's lifting the sheep up, he feels the blood on his hand, and then he feels something else. The sheep turned his head and began to lick the blood off of the man's hand. The man said, I could never kill another sheep after that because although I was there to take the sheep's life, the sheep was showing nothing but kindness and love to me. Whether that's a true story, I don't know, but it's a beautiful illustration of our Lord in the garden healing the ear of Malchus. I remember when I was a little boy, my mother and my brother and my sisters had gone away somewhere and my dad and I were left there at the house. I think I was in second grade, might have been first grade, but I do remember it was a Friday night and my father and I were the only ones in the house and I wanted to make something special for my dad and so I went up into my little bedroom And I got out some scissors, and I cut out some hearts. And I drew my father. First of all, I drew him a picture of a hamburger. I remember that. And then I drew what looked, even though I didn't know what an eye chart was, it was similar to an eye chart. It was just some random letters. And then I drew a little heart that said, I like dad. And then it came to the last one, and it said, And I wanted to say, Dad is my friend. And I'm not much of a speller under the best of circumstances, but certainly I wasn't back then. I yelled out to my dad. I said, how do you spell friend? And he said, F-R-I-E-N-D. And so I wrote F-R-I-E-N-T. Nothing has changed. I'm not that good at spelling. And I got to the end and I said, I'm sorry, Dad, I didn't get that. How do you spell it? He said, you spell it B-E-D. Get in bed. I've been telling you to get in bed. What are you doing in there? And he opens the door, and he walks in. And I hand him the hamburger and the iChart. And I like Dad. And Dad is my friend. And he took them. and he walked downstairs and he closed the door and he got in the bathroom by himself and he told me this later and he said he just wept and he wept and he cried and he cried because I had been trying to show kindness to him and he had been grumpy and grouchy and short with me and he took those little hearts that weren't even in the shape of a heart and he folded them and he put them in his wallet and he kept them in his wallet for the rest of his life. You know what? We have a Savior. He's just trying to show us kindness. He gives us sunshine every day. He gives us rain. He puts food on our table. When we get sick, He heals our diseases. He gives us air to breathe. He gives us laughter. He gives us friends. He gives, and He gives, and He gives, and He gives. When our ears get cut off, He puts them back on. He gives, and He gives, and He gives, and He gives. And He loves, and He loves, and He loves, and He loves. And what do we do? We sin, and we sin, and we sin, and we sin. But where sin abounds, grace abounds much more. What a Savior. in the dark with his body, soaking wet with sweat, having just poured his heart out before God, getting ready to go in and to face the judgment of the damned, to reach over and to heal Malchus's ear, his enemy, to heal his ear. Friends, I have a point of application for you today. It's a real simple one. Everybody has an enemy. Whether your enemy is somebody you work beside or whether your enemy is someone who lines up behind you or in front of you at wall bombs or whatever, the person who brings grief to your life may live right next door to you. They may sleep in the same bed with you. You may have never met them before. They may be your closest friend, but yet at the same time, your worst enemy. Here's what I want you to do this week. Here's your application, very practical. Think of Jesus, think of the gospel. I want you to show an act of kindness to that friend, which is practical. I want you to go out of your way and to do something for the person that you consider to be your enemy. Why? Because that's what Jesus does for us and because that's what the gospel says. Now, I hope nobody will come over and wash my car this week considering me to be your enemy. But can you go and find someone? that's your enemy and show them love because of the gospel. The final appropriate thing that our Lord did is concerning the Sanhedrin. He allowed himself by this posse to be arrested. I'll refer you to the words of Matthew chapter 26. Turn to that as our final text. Matthew 26. Look, first of all, in verse 53. He's talking to Peter here. I told him to put his sword away in the previous verse, and he says, Or do you think that I cannot now pray my Father, and He will provide me with more than twelve legions of angels? Well, let's do the math. 12 legions of angels equates to 72,000 angels. We know from the Old Testament, 1 Kings, 2 Kings chapter 19, verse 35, that one angel killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. One angel kills 185,000. Jesus says, I could have 72,000 angels here like that. Peter, I don't need your sword, okay? Let's put things into perspective. Friends, if our Lord had at his disposal 72,000 angels, but he died alone for you and me, Please consider the next time you are betrayed. Consider the next time you are lied to. Consider the next time you are hurt. Consider the next time you have a knife put in your back. And you say, I cannot stand this pain and this deception and the way that I'm being treated. Look to the cross, look to the savior, look to the gospel, turn the other cheek. He submitted to the will of God because he loved you and because he loved me. And he should receive all of our praise and he endured the suffering and he fulfilled the scripture and he died for our sins. And he acted appropriately. And so I say to you today in closing, the appropriate action that we should take when dealing with our enemies is to love them and to be kind to them and to not retaliate and to not seek revenge, but to show kindness to those who show harm to us. Why? Only one reason, because of the gospel. Father in heaven, I pray today. First of all, Lord, I pray if there's anybody that does not know this gospel, Lord, I pray that today they would understand that Christ died for sinners and that he rose again and that they must admit that they are sinners and believe in their heart that Jesus died and rose again and confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord. Father, for those of us that know the gospel, Lord, it's wonderful that we know it, and it's wonderful that it has saved us, but Lord, we need the power of your Holy Spirit to live this. For Lord, we confess before you that we cannot live in front of our enemies in a loving way, and not just endure, but show kindness to them. Father, we need the help of your Holy Spirit. And so we pray that you would change our hearts, help us to love our enemies. Father, may all men know that we are disciples by our love. Please, Lord, give us love for one another. Give us love especially for those that would be, those who would be out to hurt us. Help us to do it, Lord, being mindful all the while that that's what Jesus did, and that's what Jesus did for us. For it is in his name that we pray, amen.