to our continuing our study of the Sermon on the Mount and we're gonna pick this kind of we've been chapter 5 for about three or four weeks now and kind of working through what Jesus is is really teaching his disciples at the very beginning of his ministry And the Sermon on the Mount is a wonderful sermon because it starts with Beatitudes, where Jesus introduces the characteristics of those who would follow him. Then it moves into a section where Jesus challenges his readers to... NC State was calling, by the way. I don't know if it came up on the screen. They want some money. No thanks. But anyway, as we move into a section where Jesus is telling his disciples, you are salt and light to the world. And so he gives a very definitive statement. When we read that section together, we talked about how when Jesus says you are salt and light, it's not a statement of you will be if you want to be. It's a statement of objective truth. are now by your very essence of being and following me you are salt and light to the earth world salt to the earth and light to the world and then we moved into a section where Jesus talks about how he fulfilled the law of God and he helps us understand the deep depths of God's law and there was a lot of questions being raised about how the law of God was to be applied to the human life and how Jesus's followers were to follow God's law primarily that which is found in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And so there was some discussion about that. Jesus said, I fulfilled all of that. I didn't abolish it. I didn't get rid of it. I fulfilled it. And then he talks about, in that section, he talks about how sin is really a heart issue and the law's purpose is to expose that heart issue in our lives. Whether or not we follow God's law or whether or not we teach others to follow God's law is an indication of where our heart is before God. If we have a heart to worship God, if we have a heart to live to the glory of God, if we have a heart to bring God glory on this earth and to live our lives in devotion to Him, then we're going to live as He has specifically prescribed for us to live. God says, this is the way that you are to live, and it is right for you to live this way, and this is the way I have intended for you to live. And so if we want to honor Him, then we're going to do that. If we do not want to honor Him with our hearts, then we will do the opposite of that. And by nature, we're sinners, right? By nature, we don't want to do that. We don't want to do what God says. We want to do what we say. And so as a result of that fundamental understanding of the historical Christian faith, so we turn and go our own way. And in doing that, we turn away from God, we rebel. And so Jesus is saying here, you guys spent so much time trying to figure out what you can get away with, when you ought to be understanding that the ultimate goal is for you to live a life that is holy and honoring unto me. And so it's a heart issue. We looked at that. So last week we looked at some particulars with reference to how that plays out in the understanding of murder and anger in our lives and tonight we're going to jump in a little bit further in how Jesus teaches us in this last section of Matthew's Gospel that we are to be different than the world around us. We are to be different than the world around us. You know, one of the things I think that happens sometimes in the Christian church is and our desire, especially in the modern world, and I do this too, and our desire to be relevant and desire to not be weird and desire to connect to other people. We say things like, well, we're really not that much different. There's just not, you know, we like to have fun, we like to do this, you know, we're not, I'm not that much different than you, I just choose to follow Jesus. And when we do that, we're trying to bridge a gap, and we're trying to be relevant and connect to people. And I can appreciate that, and I do the same thing, but the problem is that Jesus says, no, you are different. You're salt to the earth, salt's preserving, has a preserving quality, has a taste quality that enhances the taste, and we have a responsibility to preserve. We also light in the midst of darkness. We're to shine brightly for people to see how great and wonderful our Creator God is. And so we're to shine that brightly. So we are different. And Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5 and following, He says you are to be different. And we're going to pick this up where he talks about in Matthew chapter 5. We're going to talk about how Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5 that we are to be different. And there's two different ways we are to be different than the world around us. He gives three examples of each in Matthew chapter 5. I'll look at those tonight. But we'll look at those briefly and some of it will be reviewed from last week. But we're to be different from the world around us in two particular ways. Different in purity. different in action. So if you are a follower of Jesus and you're a Christian and you claim faith in Christ and you've claimed to be connected to the Lord Jesus Christ through faith, you claim that in that you are born again, you're a new person, a new creation, then you're going to be different than the world around you. And you're going to be different in two specific ways or categories, if you will. The first is purity and the way you live your lives in purity and in relationship with each other. And then the second is in action. How do you carry out your life in relationship with God and in relationship with each other? And so purity in our relationship to God and each other, action in our relationship to God and each other. So examples of purity in Matthew chapter 5 have to do with murder and hatred. So where we are to be different in purity in Matthew chapter 5 have to do with murder and hatred. We talked about that a little bit last week. Also with sexual morality, Jesus challenges us and our responsibility to be sexually moral, and then with reference to divorce. And so how do we protect the family? How do we promote the nuclear family? How do we advance the family? And how do we maintain commitments in life? Those are ways in which we are to demonstrate the different life, different connections, different hearts than those of the world. So we shouldn't expect people in the world to act like us because they don't know Jesus. And we certainly shouldn't expect people in the church to act like those in the world Because those in the church do know Jesus, if they have trusted Him and are born again, then we should expect difference in our behavior. And then there's examples of action. So difference in purity, difference in action. And so he goes and says examples of action, and he uses illustrations. This is where we're going to focus the majority of our time tonight, on swearing oaths. on retaliation and on love and the treatment of our enemies. And so how are we different in the way in which we live our lives in action with reference to swearing oaths, with reference to retaliation, and with reference to love and the treatment of our enemies? And so we kind of work through this. All right, so difference and purity, we'll kind of work briefly through some of these statements for us this evening. And then we'll kind of work that, we'll kind of jump deeper into examples of how we're different in action. Let me get my Bible. And we'll jump in from there. So difference in purity, examples of how we are to be different in purity. There's any number of things. It's not an exhaustive list. Matthew chapter 5, if you're familiar with it, is not an exhaustive list as to how you and I are to live our lives to the glory of God and be different with reference to our understanding of purity. in our world. It's a representative list, and Jesus gives three examples in Matthew chapter 5. The first has to do with murder and anger. This is what he says. I read it, but I'll read it again. I read it last week. Let me read it again. This is what he says. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to counsel, and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. So, if you are offspring If you are offering, excuse me, your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift, come to terms quickly with the accuser, and while you are going with him to court, lest the accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. And what Jesus is saying here is the question of thou shalt not murder is, we think about murder as taking someone's life, and it is. But Jesus says the purpose of the law is actually to get you to preserve and promote and prioritize the good of the life of your fellow man or woman. And so when we hate, when we angry lash out, when we slander, when we gossip about them, when we run them down, we are in essence effectively taking away their reputation and harming their life. So to be pro-life in the biblical sense means that we ought to not just protect babies and humans in their physical nature, we ought to be able to expand and to be able to elevate each other. and the world around us. And so we ought to be promoting the good of people around us. That's different than our world. Our world doesn't think that way. Our world thinks the opposite of that, right? It doesn't matter as long as I don't harm you personally, I can do whatever I want, I'll say whatever I want, however I want. You need to get over it. No, Christians say, no, no, no, it's a heart issue. And I need to honor God with the way I treat you and the way I think about you and the way we resolve differences together. And so that's one way in our purity. Another example is sexual immorality. And this is what he says. You have heard that it was said you should not commit adultery. But I say to everyone who looks at a woman or a man with lustful intent in his or her eyes, already committed adultery in his heart, if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out. And then he goes on and explains, but basically he's saying, alright, with sexual purity, our goal is to not objectify one another, but rather our goal is to see each other as the man or the woman that God created in His image as He intends us to be. And so our goal and responsibility as followers of Christ is to say, you know what, I'm going to be different in the way I'm pure. And purity is not just in sexual acts, but in my thoughts about other people, in my experiences, in what I allow myself to view, etc. And so the challenge for us as his people is to say, all right, we've got a higher standard, because ultimately it's the heart. It's not what goes into the body that defiles the body, it's what comes out. And so he says all of these things are coming out of the heart and so we've got to be different in purity as well because we're new creations, right? We shouldn't expect the world to be this way. We shouldn't expect the world who's living in its own world and its own desire and its own self-fulfillment and its own self-indulgence and its sin to honor each other the way we honor each other to the glory of God because we have been transformed. It doesn't mean we don't challenge the world. It doesn't mean we don't say to people out there, listen, you guys have got to stop acting like this. You've got to stop doing these things. You've got to stop signing off and rubber stamping anything that anybody ever wants to do sexually because it's not good for the human race. But what our standard is as Christians is to reflect the glory of God. and the Christian life, the heart of Christ. And then he says committed marriages. He talks about divorce here. And when he talks about divorce, he says, with reference to divorce, he's talking about no fault divorces. And he's saying the men of the day would get tired of their wife and their children. They would say, I'll give you a certificate of divorce. I'm done with you. And in those days, there was no opportunity for women to have any kind of provision or care. And so they were left off into the streets to fend for themselves. This is still the way it is in many parts of the world. It still has negative consequences in the first world. And they're left to fend for themselves. And as such, their children suffer. and their families suffer and their lives suffer. And what he is saying here is you need to be committed to one another. And we ought to be leading the way in commitment in the Christian church. We ought to be saying, no, we're not going to just write each other off. We're going to care for one another. We're going to build each other up. We're going to strengthen each other. We're going to preserve one another and meet each other's needs. And so we're different in our purity. And then he says we are to be different in action. He talks about swearing oaths, he talks about retaliation, he talks about love and treatment of enemies. So let me pick this up in verse 33 of Matthew chapter 5. The first place we are different in our action is in swearing oaths or keeping our word. This is what he says in verse 33. Again you have heard that it was said, to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black, rather let What you shall say simply be yes or no, and anything more than this comes from evil. And so what Jesus is saying, it was common in those days, especially for religious leaders to try to swear by the temple. Swear by something greater than themselves. We do it, right? So if you're going to go testify at a court of law, It used to be, I don't think this is the case anymore, but it used to be you would say to the effect, something to the effect of, that what I'm telling you is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. Right? So the idea would be, so help me God, so in a sense you would swear on behalf of the name of God that you're telling the truth. That was your oath. And Jesus is saying, that's, for a Christian, shouldn't be necessary. For those who are following me, that shouldn't be necessary. The purpose was to ensure, the reason we swear by something greater, swear by God, swear by the temple, swear by the Bible, whatever. The reason that you would do that is because you want people to know what you're saying is very, very believable and trustworthy. And Jesus says, we ought to be people who could simply say yes or no and be trustworthy. John Taylor has told me many times about when he started the forestry business here in Chester, and he would testify to this if he was here. But he said, you know, when I first started forestry business, you'd go up to somebody and you'd sell wood, buy wood, whatever. He said, a handshake was all you needed and it was done. He said, now it's cutthroat. Now, you've got to do all these different things to get contracts and all this stuff because somebody will come in and undercut you. And you can't trust people with the word. He says, it really bothers me. But as Christians, we ought to be people who say, yeah, I'll be there. I don't need to swear by God. I don't need to swear by the Bible. I don't need to swear by the church. I don't need to be swearing by my children's lives. I don't need to be sharing by, you know, whatever. I'm just telling you I'm going to be there. Therefore, I'm going to be there. And if we don't show up, then that's our problem. It's inconsistent. So Jesus says, let your yes be yes, your no be no. Keep your word. Be known as somebody who keeps his or her word. That's how we're different in the world around us. He says also, retaliation, he continues on. Second area, he says retaliation, verse 38. You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. So Jesus here is saying, all right, somebody insults. Really, the slap in the face in the ancient days is not somebody coming up to you, cold cocking you, and sucker punching you, right? That's what I think, being from Gastonia. You come up and slap me, it's on, right? But that's not what Jesus is talking about. Actually, Jesus would be addressing that issue in my heart as well. But that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about an insult. A slap in the face would be an insult. in those days. Kind of like you've seen... Oh goodness, what's that play? Isn't that play the Hamilton play? Isn't that the Hamilton play? Isn't there a moment, I may be wrong on this, but isn't there a moment in the Hamilton play where Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton are getting ready to go, aren't they getting ready to go whatever they do? Duel! That's right, they're going to go duel. And one of them slaps one of them in the face with gloves or something. Does that happen in the Hamilton play or am I getting confused with Pride and Prejudice? I've had to watch all that silly stuff. Pride prejudice, slap him. Like, slap him with your gloves like Mr. Darcy. What the heck is that? Come on. So anyway, I'll get off side track. So, okay, not Hamilton. Pride and prejudice, I don't know. Anyway, it's a great illustration. Anyway, but the point is kind of an insult. And so what Jesus says here is, listen, if they're gonna insult you, take it. If they don't give you another insult, take it. You know, what have they got on you? Say what? They don't like you? They going to run their mouth about you? They going to talk junk about you? They going to talk trash about you? So be it. Let them. Right? If they're going to sue you, do whatever you need to do in order to keep that from going to court and try to settle that disagreement. Don't sue anybody, but then if somebody's going to come after you, do what you need to do to settle that issue the best you can. If they want you to tune it, give them your cloak. Say, here, that's fine. Take it all. Whatever you need to do, go do it. Live the fight for another day. Be a person of grace and forgiveness. Don't seek retaliation is what he's saying. Don't be all concerned with avenging yourself, seeking retaliation, standing on our legal rights, holding grudges, being vindictive. Don't do that, Jesus says. Be people of grace and forgiveness. Again, that's different than our world. Our world says, you come at me, I'm coming stronger. There's a reason why every time we have political races, they talk about tort reform, right? Because it's out of control. And Jesus says, in the church, I want you guys to be people with each other, but with the world out there, I want you to be people of grace and forgiveness. Just take it and move forward. He's not talking about situations where, you know, somebody is coming at you and attacking you or physically hurting your family. Well, he's not saying that. What he's saying here is in this case, right, if somebody's insulting you, if somebody's running you down because you're standing in righteousness or whatever, so be it. What do they have? What are they going to hurt, right? As my friend Jeff says, don't get into a mud fight with a pig because you're both going to get dirty and the pig loves it. And that I think is true, right? Don't get into that. Don't get into that. And then lastly he says here, I want you to be people of grace and forgiveness. And then lastly he talks about loving your enemies, and this is what he says. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven. For he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same. And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same. You therefore must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect." And so what he says here, this is radical. This is radical Christian teaching. We are to love our enemies. We are to pray for our enemies. We are to seek to do the good of our enemies. We are to seek to not only love those who love us, but we're to love those who hate us. You're no different than anybody if you only love those who love you, right? But to be different, you've got to love those who don't love you. You've got to love the unlovable. And the example he gives is really dynamic and powerful. He says, your Heavenly Father does this. Now we know, right, what Paul says in Romans chapter 5, verse 8, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We were enemies of God, still sinners, Christ died for us. That Christ gave his love for us and gave himself for us while we were sinners. enemy with God because of our sin and our rebellion. But then he also says, your heavenly Father makes the rain to come down on the righteous and the unrighteous alike. He makes the sun to shine on the righteous and the unrighteous alike. Who makes, who controls the sun and the rain? God. And God brings that on everyone whether they love the Lord or whether they despise the Lord. and we are to live in those ways, in that kind of life, that's hard. You know it's hard, I know it's hard. I think Jesus' examples are intentional, because if you think about the examples of purity, anger, lust, those are hard. Those are hard, and at different stages in our lives, they're harder than other times, right? Those are really hard to get under control, really hard to wrestle with, especially in the world we live in. But then you think about keeping your word and being men and women of integrity in the world we live in, where everybody does whatever they want to do, however they want to do it, anything goes, and nobody expects anybody to really keep their word anymore. If you look at retaliation, people insult you, people come after you, people run you down. Well, that's hard to stop back and say, you know what, I'm not going to be vindictive. I'm not going to respond. I haven't gotten this fruit of the Spirit yet. I'm still working on this one big time. And then love your enemy. Those who don't like you. That means we've got to love those who are coming out against everything we stand for in the world in which we live. but we've got to be willing to pray for them, pray for their salvation, pray for their repentance, pray for opportunities to connect with them. And then we can't isolate ourselves, right? Christians historically have been those who have isolated themselves from the world, especially evangelical Christians in the South. We isolate ourselves from the world, but you can't reach people from the gospel if you do that. and we've got the truth of God, we've got living lives that God has intended for us to live, all of his creation to live, we need to go out and tell and show the world how to live. We are to be lights in the midst of the world. So as we wrap this up, we wrap it up with these simple words. Find ways we can promote human life and human dignity and preserve it in individuals and in our society, but certainly in our interpersonal relationships. How do we promote each other, build each other up, encourage one another, tear each other down? Practice sexual morality. Honor and protect the biblical ideal of family. We must talk about being committed and not self-indulgent, but sticking it out in the hard times. Keep our words. I'm going to be there, be there. Forgive those who sinned against us and reconcile with enemies and pray for them. How do we seek to reconcile those relationships? Some cases it may not be possible. Reconciliation takes two parties that want to reconcile. We've all been in a situation where maybe you've tried to reconcile with someone who has no desire to reconcile with you. You have to just chalk that up. All right, I'm sorry. Move on. You do what you're supposed to do. But to the best we can, we ought to be reconciling with our enemies and praying for them and praying for the opportunity to share the light of God, whether it be just in how we live our lives, in the presence of those who are enemies of God and enemies of his church. But I think that's challenging. It's hard, but man, it's pretty simple when you think about it. Jesus wants to be different in our purity, different in our actions, and yes, we are different. We should be different because our minds should be focused on heaven. Last thing I'll say is I saw a great debate, theological debate on Facebook. Sometimes I always get sucked into them because they're just funny, because a lot of times they end up with, you know, something serious ends up with how many angels can dance on the head of a pen, that kind of thing. But I saw this debate, this guy, well-intentioned said, you know, you can be too heavenly minded and no earthly good. Don't do that. That's actually the opposite of what Jesus says. The only way we're going to be any earthly good is to be focused on the glory of God and where we're going so that we can bring light in the midst of the world. We have to be heavenly minded to be earthly good and we need to be out doing good things for the glory of God as we focus on where we're going and hope others will go be with us in the presence of our God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this time together. We thank you for your grace, and we thank you for this opportunity to come before you. We're convicted. We should be when we read and hear this stuff. We are thankful, Lord, that you've made us different through the grace of God and your grace, and you've transformed us. We pray, Father, for opportunities to be different, to show that we're different in love and grace, not with arrogance, but with love and grace, and to show the world how to live to the glory of God, how they were intended to live. for your purposes. We pray that we will be different in our purity and different in our action so that others may see the glory of Christ. For it is in Christ we pray, Amen. Alright, thank you guys.