Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. The Lord is continuing His Sermon
on the Mount. I've said before concerning this
passage of Scripture. Boy, if there's anything we can
rest in, in preaching a rite is preaching what he preached.
So here he is today, and we're going to deal with a portion
of his message, verses 38 to 42, and he's dealing with the
law. As I've said before, he gives
sets forth the letter of the law, and then he's going to give
us the interpretation, the spirit of that law. So if we want to
know what does the law have to say concerning our responsibility
and God's demand for righteousness, just listen to what he has to
say. Just listen to what the Lord has to say and may the Spirit
of God give us some understanding. Now, though the law was given
according to God's wisdom, God's will, God's pleasure, it was
given that peace may be established. I'm going to show you what I
mean here. His law was never given as a
rule by which his people would be able to obey and therefore
satisfy God. You know that. You know that. Therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is
the knowledge of sin. What does that mean? The law
shows us what sin is and our inability to keep it. Now the scripture starts this
morning in verse 38, and the Lord said, You have heard that
it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Now just hold your place right
there and turn with me to Exodus 21. Exodus 21. Exodus 21 and
I'm going to read verses 22 to 25. Exodus 21 verse 22. If men strive and hurt a woman
with child. Now let me tell you what he's
talking about. A couple of guys get into a squabble. Get into
a fight. Maybe one of them wife tries
to intervene, tries to help. And let's say she's with child.
The Lord is giving an example here. If men strive and hurt
a woman with child so her fruit depart from her, she loses the
baby. He shall and yet no mischief
follow. I mean she wasn't gravely injured
or anything but she lost the child. She got in the middle
of that squabble and her baby was aborted. And yet no mischief
follow, he shall be surely punished. According as the woman's husband
will lay upon him, he shall pay as the judges determine. And
if any mischief follow, then I shall give life for life, if
later she dies. What if she does later die? This
is what's going to happen, give life for life. What if something happened? What
if she lost an eye? What if she got in there and
one of them punched her in the eye? Poked her eye out. What do you
do? Well, it's eye for eye. What
if you knock her tooth out? Tooth for tooth. Hand for hand. Foot for foot. Burning for burning. Wound for wound. Stripe for stripe.
That's what the law says. But I want you to notice when
the law was speaking, when God gave the law through Moses, I
want you to look back now at the latter part of verse 22 that
we just read. It says, I'll read the whole
passage, if men strive and hurt a woman with child so that her
fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow, he shall
be surely punished according as the woman's husband will lay
upon him, and listen to this, and he shall pay as the judges
determine. What does that mean? Well, that
means that he does not have the right No individual has got the
right to execute vigilante justice. You knocked my wife's tooth out,
I'm going to knock your tooth out. You punched her eye, I'm
going to punch your eye out. No, the scripture says that the
judges are going to determine. Look at Exodus, just turn back
to the beginning of Exodus 21, look at the first verse. are
the judgments which thou shalt set before them." What happened
was that the Lord had set up judges. There were rules and
regulations and these judgments were to be heard by and justice
was to be administered by the judges. It wasn't just, you know, we're
going to take this matter into our own hands. We're going to
handle this thing and we're going to get this thing resolved. You know what that would be?
Chaos. Can you imagine? Every time somebody
did something to somebody else and they said, I'm going to square
this thing up right now. We're going to get this thing
over with. I'm going over to his house. And I'm going to do
just exactly to Him what He did to me. Romans 12, 19, Paul says,
Dearly Beloved, Avenge not yourselves, nor rather give place unto wrath,
for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith
the Lord. The Lord said, You don't take
these matters into your own hands. You don't, you don't, you don't
go and have some retribution. I'm gonna get a piece of him
just like he did me. No, no, no, no, no. James, James
chapter 4. James 4 verse 11 and 12. Here's what the Spirit of God
declared through the apostle James. James 4, 11 and 12. Speak not evil one of another
brethren, he that speaketh evil of his brethren. and judges his
brother, speaketh evil of the law." What's he saying? You're
saying that the law doesn't have any authority here. The law doesn't
know what's best. I know what's best. And now he
said, you're judging the law. But if thou judge the law, thou
art not a doer of the law. You're a judge. And there's one
lawgiver who's able to save and destroy. Who art thou that judges
another? Who are we? Who are we? We're going to take care of this
thing. Now, listen. We're all guilty. We're all guilty of this. Somebody
said, well, I've never done it. Oh, yeah, we all have. If we thought it, we did it.
We're saying that God's word is not sufficient. We're saying
that God's word, God's law, is not the standard by which I'm
going to walk and live. That's what we're saying. When
we're commanded, you know, don't... Well, what was happening was,
the Jews had taken upon themselves to look at the letter of that
law, And they said, now this is how it's going to be handled.
Somebody knocks off somebody's arm, I'm going to go get you. And the Lord says now back in
Matthew 5, you've heard that it hath been said, eye for an
eye and tooth for a tooth. And that is what the law says.
But that law was given to the judges. That law was given and
every one of these things that we're going to look at has got
an indescribably wonderful spiritual application. Now let me just
go ahead, I'm going to go to the end of this message right
now and I'm going to tell you what the conclusion is and then
I'm going to just come back and we're going to build right up
back to it. This law, the law that the Lord is going to be
quoting right here, is truly God's Word. It is God's Word
and it doesn't deviate. It's holy and just and good. Now you know, and I know, that
we cannot, by the deeds of this law, we cannot satisfy God. We know we can't. Because we're
not going to keep it perfectly, every jot, every tittle, and
never in word, thought, or deed deviate. You know we're not.
So therefore, these words right here, is declaring unto us something
that we know we cannot do. So now I'm going to jump right
to the end right now. Let me tell you the spirituality
of this law. All of these things that the
Lord is dealing with right now concerning this law that was
given to God's people. This was given to Israel. This
wasn't sent to the Syrians and all This was sent to God's people. So spiritually, this law was
sent to us to teach us what we cannot do. And the spirituality
of this law is taken by the Lord Jesus Christ. This law, because
He has assumed our responsibility before God as a surety. This
law then is given to Him. is given to him. He said, I came
not to destroy the law. What did he come to do? Fulfill
it. Fulfill it. So here's the law. Here's the law given to him. You say, well, that was given
to God's people. That's correct. And the Lord said, I'll stand
for them. I'll answer for that. I'll answer. I'll live for and
die for them. So understand what this is talking
about. Here is a demand by God to God's
people that they can't keep. But Almighty God is before the
foundation of the world. He's purposed. I'm going to save
you and you're going to be holy and without blame before me in
love. How's that going to come about?
Christ is going to have to take this law and Christ is going
to have to answer every demand for righteousness. He is. So knowing that, when we read
these things, understand that the Lord Jesus Christ, having
assumed the responsibility of that law right there, has taken
upon Himself that responsibility to answer His Father on the behalf
of his people, the elect, his sheep, his bride, and he will
answer. Now, understanding what he's
doing right here. Now here's what the scripture
says. You've heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye,
a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you that ye resist not evil. Whosoever shall smite thee on
thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." Here's the message. The Lord said, you've heard it
said, I say unto you, don't in a moment of passion or anger
strike a returning blow of judgment. This is what he just said. I
say to you, that ye resist not evil, or someone that is doing
evil to you. Don't resist them. That's what
he said. Don't resist them. Whosoever
smites you on the right cheek, turn to him the other. Now here's
what's happened. When Adam was in the garden,
that was mankind. Adam, God gave him a wife, Eve. And what God told Adam was this. You can eat of all the fruit,
all these trees, but one. But one. In the day you eat of
that fruit, you're going to die. You've disobeyed. You've struck
out at me. You've counted my word as nothing.
You're going to die. And Almighty God is declaring
right here that we were the ones. We were the ones that struck
out Him, struck toward Him, went after Him by disobedience. He
said, I'm saying to you, don't resist with force right then
the evil that's been done to you. Did God have a right in
the garden to destroy mankind? What would have been the right
thing? Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. What's the right
thing? As soon as Adam disobeyed, what's
the right thing to do? Kill him. The soul that sins
is going to die. Throw him in hell right now.
What did the Lord do? Oh, the long-suffering and the
mercy of Almighty God. What did Christ do? He was made
the offender. Justice is going to be done.
That sin is going to be paid for. That sin is going to have
just retribution. That which was done to Almighty
God by man in the garden deserves death. And Christ Himself came into
this world, lived before God, made flesh, made sin, and bore
the guilt of that infraction right here. I say unto you, resist
not, don't resist right now the evil. Whosoever smites thee on
the right cheek, turn to him the other. I mean you can't hardly
read that passage of Scripture and not go to when he stood before
Pilate. Almighty God demands absolute
justice. He said, I say to you, resist
not. And if any man, verse 40, will
sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy
cloak also. The Jews wore two principal garments
and they understood this parable. He was making an analogy. They
had an interior and an exterior garment. The interior here was
the coat or the tunic. It was made commonly of linen
and encircled the whole body extending down to the knees and
over that commonly worn upper garment The Scripture has told
us that there was a garment, there was a protection overneath. That was the cloak. And they
were necessary. They were necessary for a man.
Covering, protection from his nakedness, the elements. And
if Christ had set forth a better example of our thoughts, Thievery. Now this is the way we are. I'm
going to show you what he's doing here. He says, if any man will
sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, give him your
cloak also. One might ask, how could anyone
be so unkind and so self-centered and so insensitive to want to
sue a man for his clothing to take away what belonged only
to him. How could anybody, how could
anybody be like that? But let me ask you something,
looking at the spirituality of this law. I mean, if we're just
looking at a court case here, you know, docket number 321 today,
some man got sued for his coat and his cloak, you know. If that's all it is? But what
we're looking at is our attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ.
We were the ones that resisted. We were the ones that slapped
Him in the face, in the garden. We were the ones that resisted
Him. And because of the mercy of Almighty
God and the long suffering of God, Christ himself bore this,
bore the guilt of it, and paid the penalty. But suing a man
at the law for his clothing? What's he talking about? Since
Adam's fall in the garden, man, in his wicked thoughts and supposed
free will, thinks that he possesses the ability and the right to
lawfully, I mean by keeping the law, to produce a covering for
himself before God. Now you know that. I've said
before there's so many different denominations and this denomination
says all you got to do is do this. This one says this and
this one says this. And all of them are works. All
of them are works. But what are they trying to do?
What are they doing by their works? What they're doing is
they're attempting by a dead heart, dead understanding, to
take away from Christ what God says only the Lord Jesus Christ
can produce. They're going to take, they think,
by keeping the law. We're going to go and by law
I'm going to establish something that only belongs to Him. That's
what man says. I'm going to sue Him and I'm
going to do it by law keeping. And we all did that. You mean
even God's elect? All of us. All of us thought
that. There was a time that we all thought the same thing. But
again, in mercy and compassion, while we truly desired to rob
Him of His glory, while we were thieves and robbers before, thinking
that we could take from Him righteousness. The Scriptures declare that Christ
alone is the one that satisfied God. This is my beloved Son whom
I'm well pleased. You hear Him. And man by nature says, no, I
can produce that. I'm going to take it. I'm going to do what I know I
can do and the law is going to rule in my favor. He's not going
to get all the glory for righteousness. I am. I am. To take or to think
that we can take His coat, His honor, His glory, that foolishness
deserved eternal judgment and damnation. That's what it deserves. Because we're calling God a liar. While we acted the part of the
thief against Him, He who bore the guilt of what we were doing.
Oh, there was a time in my life I thought I was so holy by everything
I did. I taught Sunday school and I
read the Bible. I prayed every night. You know,
I did this, that and the other. Sickening, sickening. And I've
established righteousness. I gave my heart to Jesus. I walked
down the highway. And because I did that, what
am I doing in my thinking? I'm going to sue Him for His
clothing. I'm going to take Him to court. And God's going to
rule in my favor. Instead of judgment that we justly
deserved, He did for us what we thought at one time we could
earn by ourselves. He took His own garments of righteousness. When we demanded it, He in regenerating grace showed
us the foolishness of our thoughts. And while we thought that we
could sue Him and do it lawfully, do it right, and earn it ourselves,
He gave us what we didn't deserve. He gave us His own righteousness.
You thought, you thought. If any man will sue thee at law,
take away thy coat, you give him your cloak also. Oh, what
mercy. What mercy. And whosoever shall compel thee
to go a mile, go with him twain. This was a, I found out, was
a Persian practice that was well known by the Jews. And it was
understood by the heroes, a king for the accomplishment of his
own will, had messengers strategically placed, and they as couriers,
they were posted at certain distances to carry
out the command of the king. The king said, I want this, that,
and the other done over there and this and over here. It kind
of reminded me of the Pony Express, you know, where they go a certain
mile and they change horses. But these were couriers. He was
going to go and this one right here took care of this one. But
these servants of the king were given authority. They were given
authority to compel or press into service at their own discretion. at the courier's discretion. The king gives them a command.
I want this taken care of. Yes, sir. Now you do whatever
it takes to get it done. At your own discretion, they
could compel or press into service anything or anyone that they
deemed necessary in the accomplishment of their task. Well, again, we being born dead
in trespasses and sins, walking according to the dictates of
the prince of the power of the air, him being a liar from the
beginning, a murderer from the beginning, thinking by our distorted
dead minds that we had the authority and the right to dictate even
above God's authority. It's one of those things where
who gets the glory? The Lord or me? We thought that
we had the right and the will to do whatever we deemed necessary
even demanding above God's Word for the establishment of our
salvation. Satan, the prince of the power
of the air. Here's a king. I looked this
up. I mean this was actually what
he was talking about. He was talking about that Persian rule where a king could
dictate, this is what I want done. Well the prince of the
power of air will lie to man. Lie to man. Tell him, this is
what you need to do. All you got to do is go a mile.
Go one mile. And you'll accomplish it. You'll
get it done. And man by nature thinks that
he can dictate to whatever, even above God's word, what he deems
necessary. Oh, but in our blind stupidity,
when we were dictating to God, you're going a mile with me.
This is what I demand. This is what I deem necessary. This is arrogance, Neil. This
is arrogance. This is arrogance. You're going
to go exactly what I demand for you to do. And the Lord, in His mercy, He
said, whosoever shall command thee to go a mile, you go with
him too. You go with him twice. I don't even know the demand
of the distance. in satisfying God for it. I don't
know. I don't know. If God were to
have left me in my own ignorance to go as far as I thought necessary,
and I thought I'd reached it. I thought I'd done it. I've done
all that I needed to do. I've gone as far as I need to
go. If He compels you, presses you to go a mile with Him, You
go two miles with Him. You go the distance. Now unto
Him that is able to do exceeding, exceeding abundantly above all
that we ask or think. I don't even know what the law
demands. And here I am dictating to God my will. Thanks be unto God that He bore
Even in my ignorance, all of the ignorance and rebellion and
sin against Himself, in the person of His blessed Son, bore all
of it, all of our ignorant sinning against Him. We smote Him on
the cheek, sued Him at law, demanded His presence go with us so far
so we could accomplish and said, I made it. I made it. I did it. It was by my good choice, my
will, my purpose. Oh, but look at the last verse
for this morning, verse 40. Give to him that asketh thee,
and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. Here our Lord sets forth in closing his indescribable mercy and generosity
to his people. Give to him that asketh thee. That word, asketh, is the key
to that verse. That word, asketh, is a root
word that has a meaning or tense of urgent need. You know, there's
a sense in which man, by nature, he'll ask what he wants. What
he wants. This is what I want. I'm asking
you for a new car. I'm asking you for this, that,
and the other, so I can consume it, you know, by my own flesh. But no, this word, you give to
him that needs you. You give to one that has urgent
need. And from him that would borrow
of thee, and only from thee, and you're the only one that
can satisfy, don't turn him away. You give freely, don't turn away
one that truly has found himself by my grace in dire straits. O blind Barnabas, Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. That Syrophoenician woman came
to the Lord, Lord, my daughter is grievously ill. That dying thief that I speak
of that comes to my mind so often, Lord, when you enter into your
kingdom, would you remember me? Lord, don't leave me to myself.
Lord, don't turn me away. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. All of these demands, right here,
were given to show God's people, you can't do this. You can't
do this. You won't do it. But Christ,
the one who came to fulfill the law, He bore all the rebellion
that we had against God's demand for righteousness. He bore it
all. I'll take their debt. I'll be
the one that slapped God in the face. I'll be the one that thought
that he could earn righteousness before God Almighty. I'll be
that one. That's a substitute. And Almighty God put away our
guilt. And in Christ, we fulfilled this
law. He fulfilled it. He did it. And
we have, too, in Him. We are now without condemnation. There's no guilt. There's no
guilt. We've obeyed. We've obeyed. And
He's robed us in that righteousness that we thought we could sue
him for. Isn't that disrespectful? May
God bless this word to our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen. All right, let's take a break.