Our text is in Matthew 5, 17 through the end of the chapter. Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, you fool, shall be in danger of hellfire. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery, But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, Cut it off and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Furthermore, it has been said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery. And whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery. Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord. But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Nor shall you swear by your head, which you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your yes be yes and your no, no. For whatever is more than these is from the evil one. You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. that you may be sons of your Father 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 have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? You shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Father, our perfect Father, we pray that you would awaken us, have us to see what it is that Jesus told everyone that day. And we pray, Father, that we would listen and obey. It's obedience that's so hard. Many times we don't mind hearing, but it's very difficult to want to even do it and put it into practice. And so we pray, Father, for the courage to obey you once we understand you. We give you thanks for your word, for the presence of your spirit in our hearts and lives, and for the courage that we can gain by being your children and being with you, walking in your spirit. We thank you for these many gifts and pray that you would awaken our minds now as we listen. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So this is part two of a four-part series on the Sermon of the Mount entitled, The Greatest Sermon, and that's not me, that's Jesus. Last week's message, let's review it. I think we can do that fairly quickly. It was titled, Purpose of Man. It went through the Beatitudes. There are eight of them, and the first seven of the Beatitudes are given as objective standards by which people can evaluate their conduct. They are character and conduct, those seven. And then, if you are living with God, in God's power, and you are evincing that character and demonstrating that conduct, then you will suffer the consequence of number eight. Is that what the text says? No, you don't suffer the consequence. You rejoice in the consequence of being persecuted. And so that is our goal, that is our aspiration, to reach level eight of the Beatitudes. Just think of it as a game, and then half you kids will figure it out. So, Christians have the privilege of suffering for Christ as a follower. And yet, I believe, here in America especially, we don't yet know this, we don't yet live like this. It goes against, and what I said last week, this goes against our culture, against our values and against our personal preferences. We as Americans think that we are above this, think that we don't have to suffer. We ought not suffer. This is America after all. And yet I believe God is calling us to wake up to the fact that the America that we have revered is really no longer the America that we think it is. And it's changed rapidly, we think, we see it. But God knows it's been changing all along. And so he's calling us to a lifestyle that's different than what we might wish for. And we are to train our hearts and minds to experience joy in persecution. And if that makes you uncomfortable, I really urge you to go to Planned Parenthood periodically. They hate you. If you go there to pray and protest, you can enjoy some hate from people that hate Christians, and I really think that we ought to do that. It will make you sensitized to this, and frankly, you have to work through that to get to where we're going in this text, and we'll get there later and explain it. But if you're not going there now, you're not going to be able to deal with it a year from now, or five years from now, or 10 years from now. So I really encourage you to start developing a thicker skin than we might right now have. So today's title is Purpose of Law. We had quite the reading there. It's a lot to read. Law, we can think of it as authority as well, serves a crucial role in our world. It is vital to a peaceful world. Living in a nation with bad law is far, far worse than living in a nation with no law. And there have been examples of that through time. Nations with no law don't last very long because, as is said, nature abhors a vacuum. And where there is an absence of authority, some authority will come in that typically you don't want. that typically will be so much worse than what you just threw out and you thought you could do better. Judges has this refrain in it that I think most of you will be familiar with. It's only stated twice, but it's very pronounced. When you hit that sentence, you know you've read something that the writer of Judges wanted you to understand. There was no king in Israel. Men did what was right in their own eyes. Now this is said as a truth, and when they demanded a king, and Samuel rebukes them for this, he's horrified by this, and God says, they're not rejecting you, Samuel, they're rejecting me. Give them a king. Tell them what that king will do. That king will be a tyrant. But see, that's what the people wanted. because they tired of Eli and his wicked sons running roughshod over them, and they tired of Samuel and his wicked sons running roughshod over them. It wasn't Samuel, it was his sons. Nor was it Eli, it was his sons. So see, what God told us in all of Judges, and Judges, I love that book. It is so bizarro. But that book tells you that we need governance. We need godly governance. It makes us want God to rule us, or it should. And in the absence of God ruling us, wicked men will rule us, because wicked men want to be in those positions of authority and power, and they get there. Regardless of what they say to win your hearts, when they get into power, they show themselves for who they are. Like I said, even bad law is better than no law. When Judah was going, when Israel was going into exile, when Judah was going into exile and Jeremiah is preaching to all these people, he tells them, this is where you need to go to be safe. This is where God wants you to go. Yes, it's judgment. You're being judged. But when you go into that land, get jobs, buy homes, sow crops. He essentially told them to become good citizens. You weren't good citizens here. But I'm encouraging you to be good citizens there, be better citizens there, and God will bring you back. So I think what Jeremiah was saying is, you're going to a land that has a far worse law than you rebelled against here. And God is going to school you there, and then he'll bring you home. Now that's the Old Testament. In the New Testament, Paul admonishes us, all of us, servants obey your masters. Wives, obey your wicked husbands. All of us obey those in authority over you. And so, see, not all of those in authority over us are godly or compassionate, and yet God commands us to obey them. Now, there are times when we have to rebel against that authority because we're forced to do ungodly things, and that's then expected of us to rebel by God. But then, only then will God remove those wicked authorities from us. So, we're all under authority, and yet we cannot expect perfection from those governing authorities. If you expect perfection from your government, what have you made your government? You've made it your God. So if you are dissatisfied with your government to the point where you want to throw it out and get that one that will be so much better, you may actually get one that's far worse. Because you're pursuing perfection, and you ought not be pursuing perfection in civil government. Sure, you have to remedy the recklessness. You have to throw the bums out, as we like to say, when they've shown themselves to be untrustworthy. But we must be careful. We need government, and God will give us government. He may not give us the government that we desire, but He will give us the government that our society needs. So, whether you are against the police and you want to abolish them, or whether you're for the police and you want to see them strengthened, both of those paths lead to more totalitarian government. And if you don't see that, then you just haven't read history. You must know what you're doing, what you want, and where it leads to. We were told by some of our founding fathers that we were a godly people, we were a Christian people, and only our Constitution would work with a godly Christian people. And I believe we're finding now that those words were true. Now, I want to get to our text. That was all just kind of a soliloquy that I had on my heart that I felt I needed to share because it is in the midst of this that this text comes. So, verse 17, Jesus said, "'Do not think that I came to destroy the law and the prophets. I came to fulfill.'" So, Christ's first words concerning the law are entirely supportive of the law. He is not running it down. He had not come to abolish oppressive laws or lawful authorities that were exceeding their authority. He came to fulfill the law on our behalf. He came to fulfill it. He was a law keeper. He even paid taxes that he didn't owe. Remember, he had Peter do that, go catch a fish, pay the taxes for us. We don't know it, but we'll pay it. Why? Because Jesus wasn't going to die on that hill. He had another more important hill to die on for all of our good. Now these next two verses all of us who have been at Dominion more than a few weeks should recognize because Phil brings them up quite a bit. Verse 18. For assuredly I say to you till heaven and earth pass away one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. If only today's Christian church understood that verse and took it seriously. instead of just papering over it or discarding it. Jesus came to fulfill the law for Himself and for His elect. This is the great exchange, right? His righteousness is laid upon us, our sins are laid upon Him, and the elect then have fulfilled the law with Christ, through Christ. But that does not mean the law is then ended, that the law is then abrogated. The law is in existence now. We are under God's law. And many, many Christians now live in rebellion against that statement. They do not like any law over them, and they do not like God's law over them. Now, God's law did not only apply in Old Testament Israel. God's law does not only apply to Christians. God's law has applied to every human being on earth from the Garden of Eden. I've shared that with you before. A.W. Pink has an excellent illustration of that, a table that shows how each of the Ten Commandments is reflective in the Garden. All of this moral law God has embedded in our consciences, and we are to obey it. The Ten Commandments didn't begin at Mount Sinai. They were written on the stone tablets. They were given to the Jewish nation, yes, but they predated that. Verse 19. Whoever, therefore, breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. People nowadays, especially here, but I think really throughout time, people believe they can have the government do and be anything they want it to be. It's a blank canvas. I can just put a blank canvas on the wall and we can get anybody in this country to come up here and write on that canvas. And then if we vote for it or if we don't oppose it, it'll become the law of the land. People think they're free to structure our society any way they want. And what's sad about that is that Christians are included in that statement. Many, many Christians do not wish to have our nation any longer predicated upon God's law. They'll support the Ten Commandments. Oh, don't throw that statue away. But that's just symbolic. Oh, sure, I want murder. to be a crime. I want the penalties for murder to be upheld. But don't talk to me about not allowing me to get a divorce. That's none of your business. I'll divorce if I want to. We have many Christians that in fact do that very thing. And that's wrong. We want our society to uphold marriage laws. We want our society to uphold God's laws. We are getting what it is that we've allowed to have happen over the last decades. Now we're talking about the polyamorous marriages, many people with many people marrying and cohabitating. So we Christians don't get to define away some of these rules, some of these laws that are supposed to guide us in our nation. I believe we began by eliminating the penalties that God has for certain crimes. We can do better than God did. We don't need to kill murderers. We don't need to kill rapists. We can reform them by building reformatories instead of killing them. So instead of building gallows, we build prisons to reform these people. And anybody who's ever studied anything about prisons must accede to this. They have not worked. Prisons don't work. They don't reform anybody. And what it becomes is a school in which criminals can get pumped bodily such that they can come out and wreak greater havoc over society, and they get trained in how to avoid coming back. They've been through the legal system now. They know how to get in and out of it. They know how to cheat it. And so all we're doing is training them how to be better criminals. And that's sad. Now, Theonomists have a high regard for God's law. They want to see God's law. They know God's law will one day rule society. And yet, theonomists, I think it's no surprise that theonomists, the word theonomy, is kind of despised in Christian culture. That should tell us something, that we live in the midst of a time in which people have a great disregard for God's authority. They don't see it, they don't understand it, and when we discuss this issue with them, they just really refuse to accept the fact that God's Word is still binding on us, that God's Word still merits obedience. And we must change that, we will change that. I think, let me share with you a story, I like stories, this is one that I think you'll like. I was a new believer on fire for the Lord. I'd been a believer maybe six months. And I was working out of this radar unit, and there were a bunch of us in this house trailer. And one day, I had been reading Paul in the New Testament, describing how though we might be saved, our works can be burned. And I reflected on that, and I thought, oh, this is interesting. There are these rewards. for being a Christian, for doing what it is God wants you to do. And when you get to heaven, you get these rewards. And I was talking about this. And I thought, I said out loud, I wonder what those rewards are. I wonder what kind of street people will live on in heaven. And I mentioned that, oh, I won't live on Moses' street, of course. And this other guy, his name was Kopecky, he was about to separate from the service, and he was obviously a Christian, maybe a nominal cultural Christian, I don't know, but he was a staunch conservative, this guy. I mean, we're talking about Reagan's America, where he had called the Soviet Union the evil empire, and he was castigated in the press for it. But it was true. I mean, he didn't say anything that wasn't true. And so this man is a staunch conservative. He said the last thing he was going to do when he left California, since he hated California, was get out of his car and take a pee on it. That's what he was going to do when he left California, heading for Wisconsin. And so, see, I thought the name Kopecky was really unique. I had never heard anyone about that name. And then I kind of later looked at Wisconsin, and I thought, wow, like half the people in Wisconsin are named Kopecky or some variant of this. I don't know what nationality that is, but there are lots of people in Wisconsin with names like that. But he couldn't wait to go back to Wisconsin. I shared this with him and he was so offended. He was offended to hear that I believed that there would be a differentiation between people and heaven. Between rewards and heaven. That I couldn't live on Moses Street, I guess, if I wanted to. And I was aghast. I mean, I'd been a Christian all of a few months, and I knew that was silly. He's describing socialism. He's describing the belief that nominal and cultural Christians in this country have somehow developed over the last century, that that's what heaven's like. It's this socialist utopia. Everybody's the same. They all wear the same clothes. They're all happy. They all live on the same street. And I thought, that's ridiculous. That isn't what I read in the Bible. So that has come back to me over the time because I believe that this was indicative of what has happened to Christianity. It's been gutted of the truth. And if people only read their Bibles, they would be disabused of these silly things that they believe. But they refuse to read their Bibles. Instead, they'll argue with people like me that has been reading my Bible non-stop since I became a believer because it is wonderful. It is truth, and it transforms, and it has. So, that is God's law, and He wants us to keep God's law. I have to go on to verse 20. I'm really going too slow. For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. This is hard for them to hear. You remember when Jesus told His disciples that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven, how shocked His apostles were, His disciples were. They thought, surely wealthy people are going to heaven. They are accepting God's blessing here. They're blessed. They were so fooled by earthly blessings as being a symbol of spiritual blessing, and yet For all time, that is a red herring. You have to see that. Wealth can be such a curse. We don't want to do what Tevye did, oh, God bless me with great wealth, curse me with great wealth. We don't want to do that. God will give you the wealth that you need. He gives you the money that you need. You don't want to be wealthy and then become corrupt. Jesus not only did not lower the bar of the law. such that more and more people could achieve it. That's what the scribes and Pharisees were doing. He raised the bar. I don't know that, you know, without a lot of us having gone to public school, many of you have probably not done the running jump. where they put a bar up and they have these pads there and then you run along and you have to jump backwards over this bar. And they have it set up initially like three, three and a half, four feet high. And you have to develop this skill of being able to run, launch off one foot, throw yourself backwards over this bar. Well, once you get coordinated enough to do that, In my gym class, that's what we did when I was a child, they just kept raising the bar up and eliminating. Anytime you knocked the bar off, you had to go stand. It's like a spelling bee, but with jumping over this bar. And so there were just several of us that kept jumping over it, and I wasn't one of the best, definitely. But imagine if the coach had come out there, instead of raising it up an inch one time, took it, and took it from four and a half feet to 18 feet, like a pole vaulter goes over. And yet he still wanted you to run and jump over that bar backwards. It's impossible, right? It's impossible. And that's exactly what Jesus was telling the people that he's talking to. It is impossible for you to be righteous enough to get to heaven. And so they're shocked by this. How does anybody get to heaven then? Well, I'm glad you came. We'll talk about that. So see, he didn't lower the bar. The bar is where the bar is. The bar is way beyond us. We can't jump over it. There are five sections we still have to go through. It's a lot. We're going to go over murder and hate. adultery and lust, oaths and the limitations of we humans, pride and individualism, and love and hate. We still have to get through these, and so I'll try to speed up. Each of these sections begins with the phrase, you have heard. Jesus says, you have heard that it was said. And then he says, but I say to you. So he's stating a mischaracterization of the law, and then he's giving you the correction to that misunderstanding of the law. And the first one we cover is murder, murder and hate. And this is where he said, you have heard that it was said of those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. The Jews had limited the commandment to just this physical act of murder. And we now, especially at this church, we have been teaching on the fact that, well, that's not that narrow, and we've expanded upon it. And so it's hard for us to put ourselves in the frame of mind of someone who would think that narrowly of the commandment not to murder, especially when we can go to James and read this. This is from James 4.1. Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and you do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war." So, see, we in this Christian culture and time with the whole New Testament to benefit us aren't thinking like Jews thought in Christ's day, so it may be hard for us to relate. Jesus contrasts the dangers. He says, but I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Whoever says to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the counsel. But whoever says, you fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. I don't think we have to worry about these things that they're being accused of, the minor variations of these words. The fact is that we are in danger of hell because of a a momentary passing anger against a brother without cause. I lived with a roommate in the service that was like that all the time. He would wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and he just had to be angry at somebody. Thankfully, it was seldom me, but there was another guy in his unit. He would always just start ranting. First thing in the morning, he'd start ranting about this other guy. It was just so odd. It just shows the irrationality of sin, of having to have a scapegoat to beat on, even if you can't physically beat on them. Now, the rest of it goes on. If you bring your gift to the altar, remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there. And so we're talking about, again, what we covered on the Sermon on Forgiveness. We're talking about the fact that you must be restored, you must treat this seriously. This murder began in the heart as this unrequited anger, perhaps even without any substance to it. You have to address that. We are God's children. We must behave like God. God forgives us. But we must forgive others. And if we don't forgive others, it may not be true that God has forgiven us. Let me give you a quote. Hard-hearted people are headed to hell. Hard-hearted people are headed to hell. That's what the Bible says. It says it all over the place. And so if you know someone who says they're a Christian, yet they are hard-hearted, They have this list of enemies that they will not reconcile with. You must suspect that they are not headed to heaven. They may not know God because only forgiving people ultimately are forgiven and going to heaven. The Word says that very clearly. Again, our behavior does not dictate our state. It's not that we're hard-hearted and unforgiving that dictates that we're not saved. It's that because someone is not saved, their heart is not open to God. They're not being sanctified by God's Holy Spirit. And so if you see someone who is on a path with very little or no sanctification, you must suspect that they really don't know God. They are not justified in His sight. Second one is adultery. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." What seems obvious from this is that in the same way that they did not expand upon the murder prohibition to incorporate anger, to broaden it, they did not broaden the concept of adultery either. Hopefully many of you have not worked in a culture lived in a culture where this lustful looking is common But I did I grew up in that type of environment. I can remember as a teenager going to Bowling league night with a whole bunch of our family friends friends up the street Adult children their children stuff like that. It was just a big we probably filled about four or six lanes and I remember I A couple of the young men who were married would kind of have a beer, they're drinking and they're bowling, and then they would just get a little looser with their language. And I remember one of them looking over and seeing a woman and ogling her, and his wife catching him and she rebuked him, and he said, I'm just looking. It's okay to look, right? And she didn't say anything. And from that, I perceived that apparently it is all right to look. And then later I heard another woman admitting that it was okay for her husband to look, and she would say, look, but don't touch. So see, we Christians, we benefit from the Bible and the wisdom of the Bible, the standards, the straight lines that the Bible gives us to declare right from wrong, because culture doesn't have that, they really don't. And if you grew up like I did, without any awareness of the Bible, you are familiar with that, you see it, it's just so common. And so when we're interacting with people in our culture, Many of them have probably not read the Bible at all. Job said, I've made a covenant with my eyes, why then should I look upon a young woman? And that word look is to stare. We could say it is to ogle or to leer. So see, just to see a pretty woman is not sin, but we men know. I was in Target a few days ago shopping for a present, and it was after I'd been in the store for a couple of minutes that I began to realize that I haven't even seen a guy yet. There are just all these young women filling this Target store. And I always just try to avoid them with my eyes and with my body. And so I'm walking along, and there's another young woman. And so I turned on this aisle, there's another young woman, I turned on this aisle. It's like I'm in a maze trying to avoid this. And I just do it out of habit now. And that's, of course, when I'm by myself. If I'm with my wife, then I have to do something else to navigate things. But these are just habits you try to develop to prevent lustful looks. Because you know, as a man, it can go from just a simple, innocent glance to a double take to a lustful look in a couple of seconds. It doesn't take long. And it's just so sad that we are so prone to this. And it's summer, so we have to deal with the reality that that's how people are going to dress in the summer. So I just encourage you to guard your eyes, set up the hedges, and be aware that it can happen so quickly. Guard against it. Guard your minds. Protect yourself. And then there is a kind of a two-parter to this. Verse 31, I included with this because he talks about divorce in the concept of adultery and marriage. Furthermore, it has been said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. They were abusing this. We've covered this in recent messages, and so I won't belabor it. But we know God hates divorce. The Jews had exploited the rules allowing divorce to their advantage, the men had exploited it to their advantage, and yet they were forcing their divorced wives into infidelity, and that's sad. We do the same thing in today's culture, but without, well, there they weren't anathematized for it either, and now we're not either. But, you know, 50 years ago, 150 years ago, it just wasn't nearly as common. So now, the third section is starting at verse 33, and this is on oaths. Again, you've heard that it was said, to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord. But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is His footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your yes be yes and your no be no, for whatever is more than these is from the evil one." Now, I realize that some people refuse to take oaths on principle. They feel that taking an oath, any oath, would be a violation of what Jesus commands them. I don't hold to that view myself. I believe this whole area of oaths and vows is very nuanced. What I do want to point out is regardless of whatever your view is about that, whether if you go into court you can't say, I swear, and put your hand on the Bible, I think we're missing the main point that Jesus is making when we get caught up in that argument. And let me share just some of what I think is really at work here. First, let me share a few scenarios. I was tempted to have a couple of young guys trained to work these out, but I thought that would take too long. It's already gonna be long. So let me just act it out myself. So, you have to imagine two people. I won't try to play both parts, switch a hat. But so, in the first, you have someone tell someone something, and the other person just looks at them like they can't believe that. You know, they have this look of incredulity on their face. And the other guy says, you can hear it coming. I swear to God, that's what he said, or that's what happened, that's what she did. So see, this is typically how people will respond in our society to a look of incredulity. I swear, I swear. So they're wanting to ramp up the proof, at least their commitment to this, that this has really happened. Another one would be kind of lighthearted. This is something I heard again as a child, as a poor lost pagan kid, and yet I heard this more than once. You would hear someone say, hey, are you going to be at that thing tonight? And the other guy would say, yes. Now, sometimes you'd hear, yes, I'll be there with bells on. But other times, the person would say, OK, you better be there. Oh, I'll be there come hell or high water. So they're making a promise about arriving at this event. And they're saying, don't think I'm not going to. I take this seriously. Another one is two men. This is for the Southerners. I swear on my mama's grave that's true. But your mama's not dead. Well, she does have a cemetery plot. So when she's dead, then I'll swear on it. So see, he's lying by even saying that his mama's in the grave. So see, you can't trust that guy. I don't care what he says. The other one, and the one I think that we're very familiar with, movies, books, whatever, is when someone gets angry. They've been wronged. They're upset about something. And the first words out of their mouth are, by God, and then they go on to say something. I'm going to do this, or I'm not going to do that, or he's never going to, you know, there's some bold statement that the guy has no way of enforcing. Perhaps, you know, kings have a lot of power. They might be able to enforce them. But see, the instance I'm getting to, though, is that it's no coincidence that what we call swear words in our society, and they're either obscenities or profanities, otherwise known as expletives, those are called swear words because that's what we're doing. We're swearing something. We're attempting to go beyond our mere humanity in this God-like state of anger that we're in, and we're going to project our will upon this other person. That's defied us. That's made us angry. So, see, there are two aspects of this oath-taking that I think are important, at least that I want to share today. First, going beyond simple yes and no ought not be needed, because your word should be trusted. You should honor Your Word. You should abide by Your Word. You shouldn't have to go farther than yes or no. But people know through experience whether you honor Your Word or not. And so we all ought to honor our Word. If we say we're going to do it, we should do it. If we say we're not going to do it, we should not do it. It's just that simple. The second one is regarding future actions. making some statement, some oath about what's going to happen in the future, it's not your prerogative. You are a finite human being. Only God can make bold statements about the future and then ensure that they're carried out, and He does. He's repeatedly made bold statements about the future and then guaranteed that they come about as it is. So see, God is omnipotent, and He honors every oath He makes, whereas man is, by comparison, impotent. and can only carry out the oaths that God gives him the strength to carry out. So we ought not make them. I can understand if you choose then not to participate in an oath. I myself don't think that is what qualifies because we're talking about a personal interaction versus some interaction with civil authority, but that's my perspective on that. Okay, fourth section, starting at verse 38. I entitled it Pride and Individualism. My Bible heading says, Go the Second Mile. I mean, that's just one of the statements in it. You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other. If anyone wants to sue you, take away your tunic, have him take your cloak also. Whoever compels you to go a mile, go too. Give to him who asks of you, don't deny them. I believe at heart this is about pride in our character, our wanting to defend ourselves, to not be used, to not be a whipping boy, to not be taken advantage of. And so we rise in defense of who we are or of who we think you should think I am. And yet That isn't something that God really rewards. It isn't something that He expects us to have to do. We don't need to do that, being God's child. And actually, to do it makes us smaller and makes us smaller, makes us smaller. Now, what's interesting here, though, is He said, for you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. How could Jesus say that this direct quote from the Bible cannot be true? It's because they're misapplying it. They're using it amongst themselves. The eye for eye and tooth for tooth is in the court of law. It's where there's been some damage done and when you've been found guilty of willfully causing that damage, the damage is done to you too. The same damage, the same thing. It's quid pro quo in terms of legal liability for what you've done willfully wrong. Whereas the Jews were doing it in their own private relationships. keeping a ledger. Many of us do this. We ought not. Again, it gets to forgiving and forgiveness. But who has wronged us? You know, we've got our little tally sheets. Oh, they're up on me in terms of being victimized, so it's my turn. It's my turn. I can get to victimize them now. And the Jewish teachers would support that. They would defend that way of living, and that's not obviously the right way of living. We must be able to forgive people these offenses, because otherwise it's always tit for tat, tit for tat, Hatfields and McCoys, before long there are hundreds of people dead. Oh, who'd have thought it would come to this? Well, God did. You know, He tells us not to do it. He tells you when you're on this path of escalating, the point of no return, He tells you to sit down and count your troops before you're heading off to fight someone two or three times bigger than you. We are to behave wisely. The text in the New Testament that really significantly supports this is in 1 Corinthians 13. I'll read it, verse 5. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil." This phrase, love thinks no evil. In the NIV, it says, love keeps no record of wrongs, again to that illusionary tally sheet We ought not do that. It's not right for us to keep that tally. We must let it go. It's only then that we are behaving like God's child. So, the last point is, I think, the most difficult. You remember the last beatitude, the eighth beatitude, was by far the most difficult for us to adopt, for us to embrace, that one of consequence, that we are to be persecuted for exhibiting godly conduct and character. And I believe the same thing is true here. We come to this fifth point that Jesus is attempting to correct, and it's just impossible. It's like He goes too far. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies." Love your enemies. So now he goes on to escalate this. He makes four statements that I believe are increasing in the difficulty to do what it is that he's asking. Love your enemies would begin in your heart. You're choosing to love your enemy as opposed to hate them. And so you're choosing to think good thoughts about this person who's angry at you, who's perhaps arguing with you or yelling curses at you. Bless those who curse you. That's the next one. And see, now it's been escalated to words. They're cursing us. They're speaking at us. They are our enemies. Now they're yelling at us. And yet we're to speak words of kindness to them, aren't we? We're not to respond in kind. We're not to curse them back. And yet we're to use our words, bless those who curse you. And then the third one, do good to those who hate you. So now they hate me. They're seeking my hurt. And we're to do good to them. They've escalated to the point where they're beyond the cursing. They want to hurt us. I mean, they hate us so much. They want to run us over. They want to hurt us. Pray for those who persecute you and despitefully use you, and we're to ask God's favor on them. Pray for them. These are admittedly impossible for us to do. It is far easier for us to hate them back, curse you back. Now, note the reality of this whole statement, though. They are your enemies. They've declared it to be so. You've acknowledged it to be so. So the fact that you're doing all these things in response to what they're doing doesn't necessarily mean that they will change. They will likely remain your enemies. And can we persist in doing these kind of things? Jesus commands us to do it, but we know that our flesh is incapable of this. It must be done through the Spirit, and it's not our spirit that can really even do it. It must be God fueling us by His grace, such that our spirits can carry this out." Now, Phil shared something interesting with me when I talked to him yesterday, and he said, or the day before, I forget now, but he was telling me about his Jewish neighbor. He had a Jewish neighbor who was an Old Testament lawkeeper, and this man insisted that the Jews did not have to love their neighbors, that that was a New Testament thing, it's a corruption of the Word. Phil shared something with him, well, what about helping your neighbor's cow out of its ditch? The Bible tells you to do that. He said, that's not love, that's kindness. So love is not kindness to that man. So I don't think that we would convince him of this. But I want to share one principle from Scripture, Old Testament, and one instance from the Old Testament. In Proverbs 25, starting at verse 21, if your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for so you will heap coals of fire on his head, and the Lord will reward you." It's interesting, that coals of fire, right? I mean, it could picture the fires of hell. It could picture the fact that if they refuse to respond to your kindness, they're just heaping coals on themselves in the fires of hell. But it also could reflect their own anger. You are being kind to them in response to their cursing you and hating you and persecuting you. And that drives them mad. The coals that we could be speaking of here are coals that they kind of are heaping on themselves because your kind words and your kind acts are falling upon them and burning them like hot coals. They hate you for being kind to them. Why don't you be normal and hate me back? It drives them mad. But see, that is what may lead them to repentance, right? lead them to acknowledging the truth and coming to their senses that God has obviously then given them to see the situation that they're in. Now, that was the principle, and that was quoted in Romans 12 by Paul. And now I want to cite an example from 2 Kings chapter 6. This is Elisha. And let me give you a background. I won't read all of chapter 6. Elisha foretells attacks upon Israel by the king of Aram. And he does this repeatedly, several times. And the king of Aram is very frustrated with what's going on. And his wise men tell him, that prophet Elisha tells the king of Israel what you say in your bedroom. And this angers him. And so he wants to deal with this. And so he sends an army to kill Elisha. And so this army has been sent to kill Elisha. Gehazi, Elisha's servant, sees it. He's terrified. And Elisha prays, God, please open his eyes. Woo, you see these fiery chariots and horses surrounding everything, surrounding this whole Aramean army. Then we read this, starting at verse 19 of 2 Kings chapter six. Now Elisha said to them, this is not, oh, I'm sorry, he's already blinded them too, by the way. He prays to God and God blinds this whole army. And so now Elisha goes to this army and he says this to them. Now Elisha said to them, this is not the way, nor is this the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek. But he led them to Samaria. He led them to the capital city. So it was, when they had come to Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw. And there they were, inside Samaria. Now when the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, My father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them? He repeats it. He's anxious. He wants to kill these people. But Elisha answered, You shall not kill them. Would you kill those whom you have taken captive with your sword and your bow? Set food and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. Then he prepared a great feast for them. And after they ate and drank, he sent them away, and they went to their master." Listen to this. So the bands of Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel. And so this act of kindness by Elisha in responding to their attempt to murder him leads to them not coming for a time. The very next verse says that they came back, but for a time they stopped coming under that king who was shown mercy, whose men were shown mercy. So see, Peace can result from our actions, from our love, the love that we demonstrate. Peace can be the result. Last week we spoke, though, of the consequence of character and conduct being persecution, and it is. And yet, a consequence of our response to persecution in this supernatural way where we're demonstrating kindness and kind words to these people, which is not within our ability to do. You know this. It has to come from God. That can lead to peace and forgiveness. So see, either way, we have one path before us. Our path is simple. We need to do this. And then it's God's determination as to whether it leads to further persecution or peace, reconciliation, salvation of these people. Maybe not. Maybe then God takes them out of the way. We've heaped enough coals on their head to where God takes them out in this world. Law is under attack in our culture. All rebels hate law. with all their being, and they would have no law, and yet we know that that won't happen. But yet we need not fear. We need not fear what's going on in our culture. We need not fear what's going on in the loss of our Christian liberties. We are Christians first. We're not Republicans first. We're not conservatives first. We're not even Americans first, with our tremendous history of freedom. We are Christians. And so therefore, the flag we must rally around is Christianity. And so, to the degree that we have failed to do that is probably a degree to which we're suffering for that loss of identity, that loss of direction, that uneasiness that we feel in our present culture. We need not feel that. We need not fear what's happening. We just need to be faithful to God. Let's pray to that end. Father God, we do thank you. We do thank you for your Word, and we thank you for the power of your Spirit to have it apply in our hearts and to transform us, to transform the way we think, what we think about in our minds, to curb our wicked imaginations, to want to battle with pagans using their own tools. We pray, Lord, that you would have us to think beyond that and to act beyond that and to be faithful towards you and your Word. We pray, Lord, that we would endure under any persecution that you send, and that we would equip ourselves well, that we would reflect well on the body of Christ, that we would bring honor and not shame to his name. We thank you for your presence with us now when we pray, Lord, that we would always abide in your strength and not our own. We ask you now to bless our time together, bless our fellowship. We thank you, Father, for your kindness. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.