We read in verse 11 of Psalm
35, false witnesses did rise up. They laid to my charge things
that I knew not. That is, things that were not
in my thoughts, my words, or my deeds. Things I knew not. They rewarded me evil for good
to the spoiling of my soul. Now we know this is written concerning
Christ. Go with me to Matthew 26. The word here says, false witnesses
did rise up against me. Matthew 26.59. Now the chief priests and elders
and all the councils sought false witness against Jesus to put
Him to death. but found none. Yea, though many
false witnesses came, yet found they none. And at the last came
two false witnesses, and said, This fellow said, I am able to
destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days. And
the high priest arose, and he said unto him, Answerest thou
nothing? What is it which these witnesses against thee? But Jesus held his peace. But
Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered
and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell
us whether thou be the Christ the Son of God. What a statement. To whom he
is speaking this. Jesus said unto him, Thou hast
said, Nevertheless, I say unto you hereafter, shall you see
the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming
in the clouds of heaven? Then the high priest rent his
clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy. What further need
have we of witnesses? Behold, now you have heard his
blasphemy. What think ye?" And they answered
and said, He is guilty of death. Then did they spit in his face,
and buffeted him, and others smote him with the palms of their
hands, saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, who is he that
smote thee? Now in thirty years of being
in the faith, thirty plus, I've never seen any of God's true
preachers, and never seen God's true people, A professing believer, be he
a preacher or otherwise, never seen them reject a professing
believer who was in error over doctrine. Not once. But I have seen men who separated
themselves and accused God's preachers and God's people of
preaching false doctrine. who warn other believers not
to have anything to do with God's true preachers and God's true
people and spread all sorts of slander against them. I've seen
that. And nothing hurts and frustrates
a believer like being accused of something that we did not
do. It's common for believers to be falsely accused of saying
something we did not say just when we're simply declaring to
somebody the truth of Christ. What you're saying, and they'll
come up with some outlandish thing that we're not saying,
nobody ever said. And then they'll go about speaking
lies and saying things that just simply are not true. But remember,
When that happens to you, remember this, it happened to our Lord
Jesus Christ. It happened to our Lord Jesus
Christ. And remember this, we did it to Him. We did it to Him. When we were dead in sin, we
did the same thing. Throughout His life on this earth
and at last on the cross, the Lord said in verse 12, they rewarded
me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul. They rewarded me
evil for good to the spoiling of my soul. He only did good. Christ walked this earth and
He healed the sick. He gave the blind sight. He gave
the deaf hearing. He made them to hear. He made
the lame to walk. He cured the lepers of their
leprosy. He went about and He fed multitudes
with a few fish and loaves. He preached the gospel and He
saved the souls of many. He only did that which was good.
And yet we rewarded Christ with reproaches and persecutions and
at last with the shameful death of the cross. So brethren, we
shouldn't think it a strange thing as though some new thing
has happened to us if we're rejected for preaching Christ, If somebody
you love that you're trying to bear witness to pushes you away
and slanders you and accuses you of saying things you're not
saying, you shouldn't be surprised. They did it to prophets that
Christ sent throughout the ages and they did it to Christ Himself.
And we did the same thing while we were dead in our sin. So our
subject tonight is what to do to enemies. what to do to enemies. Now we learn what to do to our
enemies by how Christ dealt with us when we were enemies in our
minds, hating Him and persecuting Him. That's our main point. We learn what to do to our enemies
by looking at how Christ dealt with us when we were enemies
in our minds persecuting and rejecting Christ and the gospel
and those that preached it. First of all, Christ treated
us as our near kinsmen. Verse 13, he said, ìBut as for
me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I humbled my soul
with fasting, and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. I behaved
myself as though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed
down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother.î He says there
in verse 13, ìWhen they were sick,î how sick were we? How sick were God's people that
Christ came into this world to save? How sick were we? We were
spiritually blind and deaf. We were spiritually lame from
our mother's womb, unable to work righteousness, unable to
justify ourselves. We were spiritual lepers. diseased with the leprosy of
sin. We were dead in trespasses and
in sins. And for that reason, this describes
us. In Colossians 121, we were alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works. In our minds, in our thoughts,
Christ was our enemy. Not the Christ of our imagination,
the true Christ. The true Christ. God the Father
who chose a people in Christ, He was our enemy. Christ, God's
own Son who came forth and laid down His life for His particular
people, that Christ was our enemy. The Holy Spirit of God who must
irresistibly give His child new life and give us the gift of
faith before we can ever believe on Christ or ever be made willing
to, that Holy Spirit we hated. enemies in your mind by wicked
works. And yet when we were sick, Christ's
clothing was sackcloth. He said, but as for me, when
they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. Sackcloth was a rough
garment made out of camel's skin. They would wear the hair inside
facing inward and the rough skin would be out, facing outward.
And it was a sign of mourning and of humility being brought
low. Whenever we were sick, unable to do one
thing, called the ungodly, called in Romans 5 the ungodly, without
strength, Christ Jesus came down from heaven's glory, with all
His glory as the Son of God, in need of nothing, and He came
down to where we are and He clothed Himself in the sackcloth of humanity,
in the likeness of sinful flesh. He humbled Himself and came down
to where we are. And He says here, He says here,
when faced by his depraved people who hated him by nature, Christ
said, I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned
into my own bosom. Now in a fast, it's really simple
what a true fast is. It's really simple if you just
think about what a physical fast is. In a fast, the flesh is starved. Now get that. In a fast, when
you fast, you don't eat. The flesh is starved. Christ
said, I humbled my soul with fasting. And in a fast, in a
true fast, you feed your spirit. You feed the inner man. And Christ
said, and my prayer returned into my own bosom. Whenever you
found Christ fasting, you found Him praying. Though He knew no
sin, when He was faced with His enemies, Christ was touched with
all the feeling of our infirmities and He was tempted in all points
just like we are when He was faced with enemies. He was experiencing
in His flesh, though He knew no sin, He experienced all those
same weaknesses of human flesh that you and I have due to sin,
though He had no sin. And so Christ fasted. He would go away and He would
fast. That means He didn't lean on the arm of the flesh. I would
say it like this. I would say He mortified the
flesh, but He didn't have any sin to mortify. So I'll say it
this way. He made certain we understood
He wasn't leaning on the arm of the flesh. And while He did
that, He fed His Spirit in prayer to the Father. That's a fast. That's a true fast. So rather
than react like our sinful flesh reacts, you know, when somebody
opposes you and you're trying to declare the gospel to them
or anything else and they oppose you and they act like they're
your enemy, you know how our sinful flesh reacts. But instead
of that being Christ's reaction to His enemies, when we opposed
Him, because He fasted and He fed Himself in spirit, in prayer
with the Father, The fast that He chose is to do to His enemies
that which is holy and righteous. Go with me to Isaiah 58. I'll
show you what I mean. Because He fasted, this is the
fast He chose. In other words, this is the fruit
of Him fasting. This is what He did. Because
He didn't lean on the arm of the flesh, because He depended
upon the Father and He fed his spirit in prayer with the Father. This is what he did. Isaiah 58,
6. He says, Is not this the fast
that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo
the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that
you break every yoke Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry,
and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house,
when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, that thou hide
not thyself from thine own flesh? That's what he did. That's how
he reacted to those he came to save who were his enemies. And
even how he reacted to those, fleshly speaking, how he reacted
to those who were not his elect. He said in verse 14 of our psalm,
I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother.
I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother. By fasting
and prayer, he mourned over us as his friends and as his brethren. And he mourned for his people
like a son mourns for his mother. That's altogether different from
how we typically react when somebody makes Himself known as an enemy
of ours, isn't it? That's not how we usually react.
How do we usually react? Go back there to Isaiah 58. Verse 4, the Lord said, Behold,
ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of
wickedness. You shall not fast as you do
this day to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such
a fast that I have chosen just a day for a man to afflict his
soul? Is it to bow down his head as
a bulrush and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him without call?
Is this a fast and acceptable day to the Lord? Look down at
verse 9. He says, ìIf thou take away from
the midst of thee the yoke, and the putting forth of the finger,
and the speaking of vanityÖî See, those are the things we
do by nature. afflict and point the finger
and exact. And my Cambridge Bible says here
where it says, and you exact all your labors, in verse 3,
it says, you exact things wherewith you grieve others. Religious. Religious laws and rules and
regulations. You bring folks under it and
discipline them. See, the difference is when men
did that, they were trying to affect obedience in the hearts
of those who were their enemies. They were trying to exact labor
upon them and exact a yoke upon them and make them bow down and
make them worshipers of Christ. Christ said, ìThatís not the
fast Iíve chosen.î The fast our Lord chose, He went away, He
didnít depend on the arm of the flesh, He depended on the Father.
Remember He said, ìAll the Father giveth me shall come to me.î
No man can come to me except the Father which is in heaven.
Draw him and I'll raise him up at the last day." He said, everyone
he's given to me, the Father is going to draw them to me.
And so he went away and he fasted. He wouldn't lean on the arm of
the flesh and he fed that inner man, fed upon the promises of
God. And so He came forth and He loosed
the bands of wickedness and He loosed the heavy burdens and
He let the oppressed go free and He broke every yoke by going
to the cross and laying down His life for those the Father
gave Him. He broke all the yoke of the
law. He delivered us from the curse of the law. He delivered
us from it. And then while we were yet in
our sins and we despised Him and we rejected Him and we were
the enemies hating Christ and hating His people and hating
His preachers and hating His gospel. Christ Jesus came and
He made that gospel effectual to us and He dealt His bread
to the hungry. And He brought us, the poor that
are cast out, He brought us to His house. And when He saw us
naked, He covered us in His own righteousness. And Christ hid
not Himself from His own flesh. And now you can go back to Colossians
121 and you can read this good news. You that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to
present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. That's how Christ dealt with
us when we were His enemies. That's the fast He's chosen.
Brethren, Christ is the brother indeed that's born for adversity.
He's a friend in all situations. Even now when we're in our flesh
and we start acting as though we're just nothing but a sinful
wretch, we've never even heard the gospel or been born of God.
He still comes and deals with us the same way and comforts
us and brings us back to His feet. So what do we do to enemies? What are we to do to enemies?
Go with me to Matthew 5. What are we to do to enemies?
Matthew 5. Let's heed the word of Christ
our Master. Listen to what He said. Matthew
5, verse 43. We're not under the law of Moses. We're under the rule of Christ
Jesus our Master. And here's what He tells me and
you to do. Watch this. Verse 43. You've heard that it
has been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.
The Pharisees preached that because they omitted some of the law.
The law stated if you see another man's donkey and he's bowed down
under a heavy load, you go and help get the load off of him
and help get the donkey up, even if he's your enemy. But they
omitted that part. And they preached, you love your
brethren and you hate those that are not your brethren. Well,
you don't know but that one of those people that right now are
not your brethren that hate this gospel and are opposing you,
they just might be one of God's elect. And so Christ says to
us, I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse
you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which
despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children
of your Father which is in heaven. For He maketh His Son to rise
on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just
and on the unjust. For if you love them which love
you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the
same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more
than others? Do not even the publicans do
so? Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which in heaven
is perfect. You see, He's telling us we should do more than people
who are unbelievers do. Unbelievers! You find a lot of
unbelievers who are kind to their enemy. He's telling us we should
go above and beyond. But he says most of the time
here, an unbeliever, he just loves those that love him. He
doesn't love his enemies. So you should do more than that,
he's saying, because you never know one of them might be God's
elect. That's what he's telling us. And you're not going to bring
them to Christ by whipping them with the gospel and trying to
force them to believe and trying to yoke them into submission.
We're going to have to... We got an old nature and we got
a new nature. And this old nature is warring
against the new nature and the new is warring against the old.
That's what the scripture says. And we're very diligent, you
and I are, about feeding our flesh. We are very diligent about
feeding our flesh. Just like we are diligent about
feeding our physical flesh, we are diligent about feeding our
old manna flesh. When we miss a meal, what happens? Our flesh reacts. You get hungry. You got to feed that flesh. Well,
sadly brethren, the same is true when it comes to feeding our
sinful flesh. Isn't it? Think about it. We need to feed the Spirit as
we ought. We ought never go days without
feeding the inner man. We ought set aside time to fast. And what does that mean? By that
I mean starve the lusts of our flesh. How do you do that? By
feeding the inner man. By feeding on the gospel of Christ.
That's preached. And by studying the Word, studying
what you've heard, and by going in your closet and pouring your
heart out to the Father. This I say then, Paul said, walk
in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Walk in God the Holy Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust
of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Holy Spirit and the
Holy Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary the one
to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would.
But if you be led of God the Holy Spirit, you're not under
the law. I want you to think about this in terms of when we're
slandered by those who oppose Christ and oppose the gospel.
What do we tend to do? We tend to act in a fleshly way
and a sinful way and get angry with them, get upset with them.
And you know what we're doing when we do that? We're not fasting,
we're gorging the flesh. We're feeding the flesh by that. But we should fast, we should
starve the flesh by feeding the Spirit in the Gospel and in the
Word and through prayer. Christ said, it's not this the
fast I've chosen to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo
the heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free and break every
yoke, deal your bread to the hungry and bring the poor that
are cast out to your house. How do we do that? Through this
gospel. through this gospel, declaring
the gospel. That's what Christ did when He walked this earth.
He preached Christ! And He waited on the Father to
make it effectual in the hearts of His people. You know what
we're to do? We're to preach Christ and wait on Christ to
make it effectual in the hearts of His people. Fasting is a total
reversal of our normal pattern. That's what it is. Instead of
feeding the flesh, you feed the Spirit. It's just what it physically
sounds like. You starve the flesh, starve
the old man and feed the spirit. I'll give you another illustration.
When we're asked to do something for our brethren, that will require
sacrifice. And by sacrifice I mean we're
going to have to change our plans or go out of our way to do it
or whatever. When we say, I can't do it. I can't do it. Now, I understand if you really
do have some pressing plans, you know, but if you could really
do it, but you just don't do it. You know what we're doing
by that? We're gorging the flesh. We're feeding the flesh. No, I can't do it. But, fasting
is starving the flesh and walking in the Spirit. It's doing that
which goes against our sinful flesh. Yeah, I'll come help you. That goes against every... You
notice that if a brother or sister asks you to help, your first
inclination is, I can't do that. That's your flesh. When in your
inner man you know if this was my son or daughter I'd do it
for. Well, it is in Christ. It's my brother, my sister, my
mother, my father, my son, my daughter, depending on what age
they are. That's who they are. And the
inner man knows this is what I want to do for them. Follow
that inward man. Feed that inward man. Do what
that inward man would do. And don't do what that fleshly
man would do. Starve him. That's a fast. That's a fast. That's the fast Christ has chosen.
When you see the naked, cover him and hide not thyself from
thine own flesh. That's what we're doing. When
we don't help a brother in need, we're hiding ourselves from our
own flesh. Remember, when your flesh flares up, I know what
I'm talking about and I know what's in you because I know
what's in me. And when our flesh flares up, if we're going to
try to give in and feed that mangy mutt, just remember this,
Christ redeemed us from our flesh and from the curse of the law
by walking in the Spirit and bringing us to His house and
covering us in His righteousness and feeding us His bread and
He keeps doing it to this day. And that's how we're delivered.
And we never know when you're dealing with somebody that hates
the gospel and they're railing on you and they're saying all
kinds of things about you, you never know that might be one
for whom Christ died. The Lord may be giving you the
privilege of bringing them to His house to hear the gospel
preach where He's going to quicken them and give them life. So,
do as Christ did to us. Deal gently. Deal gently with
them. Now secondly, and I'll be very
brief on this, when we're faced by an enemy, look to Christ and
commit all to Him just like He committed all to the Father.
That's truly what it is. When you fast, when I fast, Christ
said, I fasted and I prayed. And that's truly what fasting
is. You're not leaning on the arm of your flesh, you're going
to the Lord and casting the whole cause and committing it all into
His hand. He said in verse 15, Psalm 35,
verse 15, ìIn my adversity they rejoiced, and they gathered themselves
together. Yea, the abjects gathered themselves
together against me, and I knew not. I was not guilty of any
of the things they charged me with. They did tear me, and they
ceased not. With hypocritical mockers and
feasts they gnashed upon me with their teeth. But see what he
did. See what Christ did while all
that was going on. Lord, how long wilt thou look on? Rescue
my soul from the destructions, my darling from the lions. I
will give thee thanks in the great congregation. I'll praise
thee among much people. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 2. What was Christ doing there?
1 Peter 2 verse 19. This is thanksworthy. This is
thankworthy. If a man for conscience toward
God. Here's what matters. Conscience
toward God. You endure grief suffering wrongfully. Remember Christ said, I did nothing
wrong to these people. And He's saying to you, make
sure that you haven't done anything. Make sure that you're suffering
wrongfully. This is thank-worthy. For what glory is it if when
you be buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently?
But if when you do well and suffer, you take it patiently, this is
acceptable with God. For even hereto were you called,
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example
that you should follow His steps, who did no sin, neither was guile
found in His mouth, who when He was reviled, reviled not again."
That's what it's talking about when it said there was no guile
in His mouth. When somebody reviled Him, He didn't turn around with
a mouth full of guile and revile them back. He held His peace. Remember? When we read, He held
His peace. Look, when He suffered, He threatened
not, but committed Himself to him that judgeth righteously.
Now it may get bad. Our situation may get bad with
our enemies. But it won't get this bad. Who
His own self bear our sins and His own body on the tree that
we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes
you were healed. We're not going to have to bear
a cross. Not that cross. Our cross is going to be light
but for a moment compared to what Christ bore. But He reviled
not. He committed it to God the Father
who judgeth righteously while He suffered the cross. That's
what our Psalm is talking about. And by doing so brethren, by
His stripes we're healed. And not only that, you were like
sheep going astray but you're now returned to the shepherd
and bishop of your soul. So now, just like Christ committed
His cause to God our Father, remember how this Psalm 35 started
out? Plead my cause, O Lord, with
them that strive with me. Plead my cause, O Lord, that's
Christ speaking. Committing it all to the Father
that judges righteously. And God our Father faithfully
delivered our substitute when He had finished redeeming all
His people from the curse of the law. When He had finished
declaring God just and the justifier, God the Father delivered Him
because it was the righteous thing to do. And delivering Him,
He delivered all His people in Him. And so you know what Christ
is doing by this gospel right here tonight? You know what he's
doing with his gospel every time it's preached and it's blessed
in the hearts of his people? You know what he's doing with
his gospel? He's doing what he promised the Father he would
do. I'll give thee thanks in the great congregation, I'll
praise thee among much people. That great congregation is his
church. That much people is his people he redeemed. And every
time you hear the gospel preached, We not only have a witness to
God's faithfulness in that God the Father and Christ raised
Him from the dead, but we have a witness in that He speaks into
our hearts and makes us behold His faithfulness and makes us
give Him thanks and praise Him along with Christ. And that's
bearing witness in our hearts that God is faithful. Because
He raised Christ and Christ came and declared this thankfulness
in your heart and brought you to thank God. That shows you
God is faithful. He raised Him. When God's purpose
was fulfilled, He took Him off the cross. And brethren, when
God's purpose is fulfilled with our enemies and what we're suffering,
commit it all to Christ. And when His purpose is fulfilled,
He'll deliver you out of the trouble just like He did Christ.
So commit it all to Him. I remind you this, I pointed
this out last time I preached from this psalm. When you hear
Christ interceding in the first person in this psalm, And He
says there, ìLord, how long wilt thou look on, rescue my soul
from their destructions, my darling from the lions?î Weíre so one
with Christ that when youíre the one suffering at the hand
of your enemies and Christ is in glory at Godís right hand,
thatís what He can pray in the first person because youíre that
one with Him. Though itís your soul thatís
being destroyed, He can say, Rescue my soul from their destructions. And this is what He'll intercede
for us. So commit it all into His hand. So, what to do to the
enemy? First of all, fast. Starve the old sinful flesh and
feed the inner man in spiritual things. As prayer returns into
my bosom. You know, it's hard to pray to
God. and truly be praying to God and be mad at somebody. That's hard to do. It's hard
to have a mouth full of thanksgiving to God and a begging of mercy
and a begging to be kept and at the same time have a mouth
full of guile against somebody that's opposing you. So starve
that old fleshly man that's full of guile by going to the Father
and asking the Father for mercy and for grace and for wisdom,
to give you the words, to teach you, instruct you in the way
that you should go. And declare the Gospel and wait
on the Lord to make it effectual. This is the fast He's chosen.
And secondly, since you and I both know we can't do this of ourselves
apart from Christ our strength working this in us, rather than revile again, commit
your cause to Christ that judges righteously. Cast it all into
His hand. That's what we're doing when
you starve that old fleshly man that wants to rear up and wants
to revile back and instead you go to the Lord and begin to call
upon Him, you're committing it all into His hand. He's going
to judge righteously. You know if we try to do it,
we try to judge, we try to figure out what to do, we're going to
mess it up. You know that. But He never does. He will judge
righteously in this earth for you and me who believe Him and
trust Him. Committed into His hand. And then lastly, when Christ
has delivered you, do what He did. Give Him all the thanks
in the great congregation amongst your brethren. Praise Him before
much people. That is, give Him all the glory. Give Him all the glory. If we
can do what I've been declaring to you, it will be Him alone
that gets all the glory. Because you and I can't do this. I'll tell you how sure we can't
do this. I was writing some of these notes down today. Just
finished writing the notes. I wrote the notes, starve the
flesh and walk in the Spirit. And Will asked me for something
to eat. And I was so pressed for time
today trying to get my message. And you know what I did? I immediately
walked in the flesh. I immediately popped off to Him
in the flesh. We need Christ to make us do
this. But this is what He's talking
about doing when He says, do good to your enemies, love your
enemy. They might be one He saved, one He redeemed. And when it's
all said and done, give Him all the glory because it's all of
Him. to all of Him. Amen.