You have your Bible, let's take those and turn in the New Testament to the gospel of Luke. Moving on in our series about living as a disciple. Luke, chapter six. We'll be reading this morning from verse twenty to verse thirty seven, but just focusing on the last couple of verses there for our sermon, let's seek the Lord's blessing on his word in prayer together. Our father and our God, what kindness that you've shown to us through your son and that we would be able to sing of it together, bound in a fellowship in the gospel of grace. And Lord, as we think on these words of the psalm, we're often tried and sorely afflicted. There are many tears that we face and we hear of death. And Lord, our hearts are troubled. We pray that by these words you would give help and strength this day and that, Lord, as we come to your word as disciples, that we would be ready all the more to walk in lands of life, to honor you, to draw near to you, to thank you and to worship you. Lord, you are our rest and our confidence. You're a refuge and a tower of strength. We pray that by your Holy Spirit, you would bless your word this day that we might go on with your strength, following the Lord Jesus Christ to do his will as a way of showing our great and deep thanks for his salvation. Lord, bless us in these things, we pray in his name. Amen. Hear the word of God, Luke six, verse 20. And turning his gaze toward his disciples, he began to say, Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you and ostracize you and insult you and scorn your name as evil for the sake of the Son of Man. Be glad in that day and leap for joy For behold, your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way. But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also. And whoever takes away your coat, Do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you and whoever takes away what is yours. Do not demand it back. Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return. And your award will be great and you will be sons of the Most High. For he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. And do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Pardon, and you will be pardoned. We'll end the reading of God's Word here at this point. Sometimes we have many things that we have to do in a given day or throughout a given week. And such we put together a to-do list. If you're like me, you absolutely need a to-do list because without it, you might easily forget what it is you have to do. You might get distracted from doing what you're supposed to do. You might otherwise not even think about things that you must do. And so a to do list is very good in getting you going with responsibilities. Maybe you're like me in that regard. Sometimes it's a short list. Sometimes it's a rather long list, but the list is always useful. And that's because there's always something to do. It's the same thing with being Jesus' disciple. It's not very much different. There's always something to do. In fact, what there is to do, you must do it. You must not procrastinate. You must not wait until it's convenient or you feel like doing it. You must do it always as the Lord would command. There's usually something you forget to do. There's usually something from which you are distracted in doing or even something you simply don't want to do. Yes. Even with the commands of Jesus Christ. But Jesus always has something for us as disciples to do. And Luke chapter six, verse 20 through 49 is Jesus to do list for every disciple. For every disciple, it reminds you if you're forgetful, it focuses you if you're distracted, it guides you or teaches you If you're ignorant and it requires you, if you're resistant. We've seen some of this already. We are to love our enemies were to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us, to pray for those who mistreat us. If someone strikes us on the cheek, we don't resist. If someone takes advantage of us, We don't retaliate when evil is done against us. We don't do evil in return. We do the opposite of what was done to us. We never return evil for evil to anyone who does us evil. No, we love. We do good to such people instead. And as I said last week, it's not easy to do that. It's not easy to do that, but it's the right thing to do. And Jesus explicitly says to do this. But if we think the list is just a short list or by these things that we've done it. Well, we have more that we have to think about because there's more that meets this list than we're inclined to think. So what else is there to do on the to do list that Jesus gives his disciples? There are four more things that we'll look at today. The first one is be merciful. The second one is do not judge. Or thirdly, we'll take these under one point, do not condemn. And lastly, there is the command, pardon. You see all that at verses 36 and 37. You'll notice the arrangement has two similar and positive commands on the outside. And there are two similar and negative commands on the inside. Be merciful, do not judge, do not condemn, pardon. That's our to do list, at least for this week and many days to come. But look at first, be merciful. There are a few a few mercy words in the New Testament. This one is a synonym for help that's given to a person in some sort of misery, but it's also about the inner grief. It gets at the emotional, the feeling sense of lament or pity that's beneath whatever mercy is shown. That's the word that's in view here. We might call it heartfelt sympathy. pity, be merciful, have a fellow and feeling sense of real pity so as to help and to relieve. That's what Jesus is calling for. And he calls you to do this to every enemy or anyone who wrongs you. The command could end the section on treating your enemies. But it also could begin a new section that's more undefined and not specifically geared toward enemies. But Jesus wants you to have a sense of pity for any person marked by whatever evil he has done or whatever miserable situation that person is in. Be merciful. It's a command for both our enemies and certainly our friends. Be merciful. And it's significant, maybe your Bible translation bears this out, but it's significant that Jesus command could also be rendered, become merciful, become merciful. What does that assume? Well, assumes that we're not often merciful. That that's the kind of person that we have to more and more become, we're usually more ready to be angry, to be bitter. to be demeaning, that we're quicker to wrong back than we are to do good in response, that we want to get even more than we're inclined to have pity, that we're more intent on justice than we are on mercy. And so Jesus says to his disciples, then, as he does today, be become merciful. As James says, mercy triumphs over judgment. And so be merciful. That's what you should do as Jesus disciple. You are, as verse 31 says, to treat others the same way you want them to treat you. So become merciful, have heartfelt sympathy for people in their misery, in their miserable places. But Jesus goes further than that. He takes it to a deeper level. He doesn't command you to be merciful out of an interest to be so treated by another. He goes further than what he did at verse 31. He says at verse 36, be merciful just as your father is merciful. In other words, you must be merciful, not so that you'll be treated mercifully by another human being, but because You have been treated mercifully by your father who is in heaven. It's not oriented toward man. It's oriented toward God. That's the motivation for why you should be merciful. It's not toward what action may or will happen because of that that has happened to you in the gospel. Jesus has appealed to his disciples own experience. In relation to the mercy of the father, be merciful just as your father is merciful, Jesus is again stating that to fulfill any command that he gives us as a disciple. You must first know the grace of God. You must for your own person, your own life, In your own experience, you must have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, that he is kind to ungrateful and evil men, that he shows mercy on the unworthy. Would you love your enemy? Can you love your enemy? Well, you must know first the love of God and Christ, that while you were still an enemy to God, Christ died for you. Romans 5 10. And in the same way as we come to this point in the passage, would you be merciful? Can you become and be merciful? Well, then you must first know the mercy of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ that while you like that man in Mark 5 were unclean among the dead, cutting and ruining yourself, that Jesus Christ came and did great things for you and had mercy upon you. That's what's underneath the command to be merciful. For this reason, our duties are set forth in relation to God, who has first had mercy to us. Think on the Apostle Paul in the letter to the Romans, chapter after chapter, he's been explaining and preaching and unfolding the gospel of grace. And then he comes to chapter 12, where he's going to launch into all the duties that we have as believers. And how does he start that chapter 12? Therefore, I urge you, brethren. By the mercies of God, I urge you by the mercies of God, if you've known the mercy that's been shown in the gospel, if you've received that through the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. You're the person. Who can be Merciful, you know what it is to have been shown mercy because God is merciful and was merciful to the Roman Christians. Paul can then go on in a matter of verses later. He who shows mercy. Is to do so with cheerfulness. To do what Jesus has listed. you must know the grace of Jesus Christ. If you would be merciful, then you must know the mercy of God set forth in Christ dying for sinners, that they might be forgiven of all their sins. And to remind us of this, we're reminded of the Father of mercies, 2 Corinthians 1.3. Paul appealing to the Philippians that if there is any affection and mercies, compassion, if there is any of that and make my joy complete and be of one mind and so on and so forth in the commands that he gives. Why is this? James gets right at it. And he says to the believers there in Jerusalem, you have seen the Lord's dealings. that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. You've seen the Lord's dealings. Only such a person who has seen and received these things is it you can be merciful as Christ commands. God the Father is full of mercy. He's so full of mercy that Micah says he delights in mercy. What do we sing about? But the fact that His mercies are new every morning. And since they're new each morning, they endure forever. God abounds in mercy towards sinners. And friend, if you've known that, and known what it is to come to the Lord Jesus Christ and say, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And you come to this to do list and the first thing here this morning, it says, be merciful. And you say, I'm going to get right on it. I'm going to get right on it. Do you know these things? Has God been merciful to your soul in the forgiveness of your sins? Have you ever thought on your miserable condition apart from Christ? that if you were left there and God did not show mercy to you, you would have nothing but the wrath of God for all eternity in hell. Have you thought on your own unworthiness? Well, if you have and you've rightly brought that to the Lord Jesus Christ and you've said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. You know what it is to gladly receive the news now. Be merciful. Just as your father is merciful. We see here a vital principle that you and I must remember by which we must live as Jesus disciples, you must always be led, you must always be motivated by the grace of God in Christ in the gospel. Be merciful just as your father is merciful. Did he show mercy to you? Then show mercy to others. You must always be led and motivated in your dealings with others by the grace of God in the gospel, be they enemies, be they friends or motivated by the grace of God and the gospel. We see here this wonderful principle that as the law drove us to Christ, that we might be justified. So the gospel then sends us on ahead to the law that we might pick it up again and be about the things of sanctification, of being conformed to Jesus' own image. Saved by grace, we go by grace. And as the law drove us to Christ to be forgiven, the gospel sends us back to the law that we might keep it as a way of thankfulness to God and love to our fellow man. So what you do with this command, whether you keep it or whether you don't, it shows the truth about your discipleship, the real truth of your being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Martin Luther said the gospel presses for the fruits of faith, showing that a fruit does not follow faith. It is a sign that our faith is a fraud. It's very true when it comes to these commands Jesus gives for our living as a disciple. So the first one then is be merciful. They're not going to be times this week when someone will irritate you. Someone will frustrate you. Someone will sin against you. What's the thing that you must do? Be merciful. Be merciful. A second command is do not judge. Do not condemn, verse 37, usually the things on our to do list, the things that are positively stated, aren't they? Wash car. Vacuum floors. Clean garage, all sorts of those, we put these in the positive. Whenever we make out our to do list, but Jesus list at this point is a bit different than ours. It's different in the way he has put it together, not only in content, but like with the Ten Commandments, a unique to do list in its own right. He put some duties in the negative. Do not judge. Do not condemn. Why is that? Well, think about your own to do list. Which of you comes to your to do list on a sunny Saturday afternoon and writes down, do not watch TV. Do not lie on hammock, do not go on the boat. We don't do that with our to do lists, we put it in the positive. But Jesus here puts it in a negative. And if you would put that on your to do list in the negative, you might get done the very things you're supposed to get done. And so Jesus has put it here in the negative, it enforces the positive. If you are to be merciful, what does that mean then? But do not judge, do not condemn. It helps you toward the positive. In the same way, Jesus says, do not judge, do not condemn. They'll only keep you from being merciful, as you should be doing. But what is Jesus meaning by these negatively put commands? Unfortunately, these words are often much distorted. Very much so what Jesus doesn't mean. When he says, do not judge, he does not mean that all claims, all values, all beliefs people hold are all equally valid and true, despite how incoherent, despite how internally contradictory they are, that you should therefore not judge. He's not meaning that every opinion is true when it comes down to it. That therefore, you should not be about analytical or critical thinking. You should never then weigh and test what people say. He's not forbidding judicial system. He's not forbidding church discipline. He's not forbidding you. To call what is false, false and what is error, error. He's not in any way telling you to be indifferent. to the cause of truth, or silent to the reality of evil and error. He's not saying in those ways, do not judge. Accept everything on equal terms. That's not what he means. The reason why is because of John 7 verse 24. He says, he indeed commands, judge with righteous judgment. He commands us to judge. So what does Jesus then mean? Well, notice that do not judge is followed by do not condemn the two are really one. And so when Jesus says, do not judge, do not condemn. He's putting his finger on judgmentalism. He's putting his finger on forbidding fault finding. All forms of sensoriousness, vengefulness, quarrelsomeness, unjustified complaints against others, holding others in contempt, bitterness over something about them such that you lack encouragement, you lack forbearance, you lack charity, you lack courtesy or forgiveness or even room for change or hope for change. In these ways, he's saying, do not judge, do not condemn. He's pointing out that we often try to take the place of God, who alone is judge, that we might render our verdicts against other people. That's what he's forbidding. That's what he's calling us away from, of which then it might justly be asked, as it was said to Moses, who made you a judge over us? That's what he's pinpointing. But that's not the way of a disciple, and if you're engaged in that friend, you must stop. Do not judge. Do not condemn. If you know God's mercy, you'll be quick to remember once again that mercy triumphs over judgment. It triumphs over. There's always the danger of judging a person without understanding a person. How many times have we done that in our hearts with our words? There's always the danger. of judging a person while impugning their motives. Friend, you and I can never know the thoughts and the intents of another person's heart infallibly. We can't do that. Only God, who is the judge of all men's hearts, can do that, and it's for him then to exercise that prerogative. So never consign someone to judgment. as mere men and women, especially if it's your brother or your sister in Christ. Do not judge. Do not condemn. And even if the person is not a brother or a sister whom you judge, that may be the one on whom Christ shows mercy and removes his judgment. And so if Christ does that, And is merciful as the father is merciful. How much less is it that we should judge and condemn? Once again, mercy triumphs over judgment, and so then be merciful, do not judge, do not condemn. Which leads us back to the positive, to the third or fourth command that Jesus has given. Verse 37, do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Pardon. And you will be pardoned. What does he mean? He's not showing you a way of being justified before God, as if God's acceptance of you is based on your works or your merits. Whether you judge or whether you do not, whether you pardon or whether you do not, he's not showing the way to salvation. He's showing the way of discipleship, and so you can't look at his words and say, well, if I do this, then God will do this to me. If I pardon someone's sins, that's how I get salvation. My sins will then be pardoned. That's not what he's saying. He's saying that the way you treat others. Is the way others, particularly God, will treat you. You notice the correspondence between this and verse 31, how you treat. Is how you're treated, the way you treat others is the way you will be so treated if you judge and condemn, then you'll be judged and condemned. If you forgive, then you'll be forgiven. A disciple is like Jesus. He's merciful. He's now removed from judgment. He's removed from condemnation. He's given to pardon. He's given to forgiving. What has taught him this? What has taught you this? It's the cross. It's the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the way in which we go as disciples. Once again, we're back to we've received what God has given us. We therefore do that to others. The cross has taught us this. What you get from Jesus is what you give to others. You've received mercy, you extend mercy. Christ has withheld judgment and condemnation. You withhold judgment and condemnation. Are you a forgiving person? Are you a person who's inclined to show mercy? Do you grant pardon to others who wrong you? Do you release from debts those people that owe you? Are you such a person? For brother or a sister comes repenting. Are you quick forgiving? This is the way and the life of a disciple. Whether you judge and condemn, whether you're a pardoning and merciful person, you're showing the real nature of your discipleship. That's what you're doing, you're showing. That's the point that Jesus is making. He's not setting forth do this so that you can get this. It's not what he's saying. He's not saying if you do this, then this will happen to you, that what you do to people will be done to you. It's more than that. He's not really saying, well, if you judge someone, you're going to get judged back. Now, he's saying that you live out what is true about yourself. You're living it out, what's true about yourself, if you judge, then you are under judgment. If you condemn, you are under condemnation. If you withhold forgiveness, you're unforgiven. That is what he is saying. But if you turn from judgment, if you turn from condemnation. That shows that you are under mercy. What you do to others shows your real state before God is a very hard point. But Jesus is making this point all the same. He's taught this throughout the Gospels, you remember, in Matthew, chapter six, it's the way he taught us to pray, forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and then following it up. He says, if you forgive others, their transgressions, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their transgressions, then your heavenly father will not forgive your transgressions. It's not a way of justification, it's saying what's true for your state before God. It's in the parable of the unjust slave in Matthew, chapter 18, told, remember, for Peter's own help on this issue, the slave was forgiven a very large debt. And then he goes out to his fellow slave who owes him a lot less than the debt he was forgiven of. And then when the king, seeing that this slave demanded it of the other slave, he was irate. It was very sad, he rebuked him for not showing the same mercy that he was shown. Do you remember how Jesus ended that parable? My Heavenly Father will also do the same to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from the heart. The forgiven forgive. Those who have been shown mercy become merciful. Those who are under judgment and under condemnation judge and condemn. That's what he said. The most endearing of all are Jesus' words spoken to the woman, you remember, who washed his feet with the very expensive perfume. There was that one Pharisee there that was irate that she did that. But Jesus says her sins, which are many. Have been forgiven. For she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. You see that the forgiveness that she had was displayed in the love that she offered. It was the testimony to the forgiveness of her own sins. It's not cause and effect. It's not do this to get this. No, it's living out what is true about oneself. Her love indicated her forgiveness. It was the fruit of her salvation. But it was the man who judged and condemned because he himself was still under judgment and condemnation. So, friend, if Christ has forgiven you. What is it that you have to do? It's to forgive. If Christ has shown mercy to you, what is it for you to do? It's to be merciful. Christ, having suspended his judgment, having suspended the sentence of condemnation in his own death for us at the cross. So with these commands to be merciful, to not judge or condemn, to forgive, we have a real to do list from Jesus. That's what you and I are to be about every day. We'll probably each in some way this week put together some sort of to do list. Might be mentally, it might be on an actual piece of paper. We'll commit ourselves to do these things. We'll in some way nag ourselves that we still haven't done it. We'll lament ourselves that we've procrastinated so long and done these things so incompletely, not having yet finished them. But even so, we'll commit ourselves with renewed hope to get her done. But will you take your discipleship with the same kind of intensity? Is that how you're going to approach your life as a disciple? Are you willing to be bold about open and on paper about it? Will you recognize some negatives to stop or avoid, even as there are positives for you to do? But if you're like me, you know that the list is going to be I'm getting there. I'm working on it. I'm going ahead with it as much as you're committed to do what Jesus would have you to do despite your past failings. Despite your doubtless coming failures. This is a to do list. It's not a done list. It's not a done list. The only one who can see this as a done list is the Lord Jesus Christ. He has done it all. And as often and troubling as you fail in getting her done. Your righteousness is bound up in the righteousness of that One who has gotten it done. And you have to fall back on that as your ground of comfort and hope. It was there that the cross, that Jesus with His red marker, as it were, in blood, done. Next item, in blood, done. It's finished. It's done. And so anything that we have by virtue of to do. Is, but the spirit forming Christ in us to make us walk in the righteousness of that one whose righteousness perfectly we have. That's the way we have to think about our discipleship. This should be the strength as you go as disciples of Jesus Christ. So work at your list. The day is going to come when all will be complete. It'll all be checked off as hard as we've been working on it through our life. Jesus is going to give us those words when our time comes. We've done it in faith. Well done. good and faithful servant. And as much as we on our dying day might say of all the times I've said I'm going to do that and I've not done it. Oh, Lord, how often I intended, but I did incompletely. Yet, Lord, be merciful. Do not judge. Do not enter into judgment with your servant, but pardon. And even on that day, it's still going to be said, well done, good and faithful servant. That motivates us for discipleship, to live as the disciple Jesus has graciously called. So instead of judging and condemning, be merciful and be forgiven. Study the gospel. that you might be a good disciple of Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Our Lord and our Father in heaven. Your commands are perfect. And yet we imperfect in ourselves know that we do not keep as we should. We do not keep as we desire. That good which we would like to do, we find another principle at work within us. that the very evil we hate we do and the very good that we desire we don't do. Father, have mercy on us again and all because of your son, who is our righteousness, who is our peace with you and comfort us by the Holy Spirit, that as much as you challenge us to be doing these things, walking in your footsteps, that Lord, you accept us not in our perfection, but in your own. But even still, we pray that you'd fill us with your Holy Spirit, that we may walk as you did while among us, that we might show our thankfulness with fullness of heart, that we might love and be merciful to our neighbor, even as we've been shown that from you. Lord, as we contemplate and think on the riches of your grace in your son's death for us and the power of his resurrection, Lord, stir our hearts in every opportunity to consciously and conscientiously be thinking of being merciful, becoming merciful, not judging and condemning, but pardoning. Lord, this is what you've brought to us. Help us to bring it to others. This we ask with ready hearts, teachable hearts in Jesus name. Amen.