May it please God to bless us
as we continue our meditation this evening in the fifth chapter
of Matthew. That is, of course, the Sermon
on the Mount. And this evening we'll read the
last verses from verse 43. That's in the fifth chapter of
Matthew. You've heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love
thy neighbor and hate thy enemy. But I say unto you, love your
enemies, bless them which curse you, do good to them that hate
you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. and persecute
you, that ye 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 ye
love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the
publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren
only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so?
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven
is perfect. So we come this evening to the
last ye have heard points that the Lord Jesus makes in this
sermon on the mount. We have already carried out three
of these and now we come to the fourth one. And of course, this
statement that the Lord makes in these verses is really very
difficult for our nature to accept, because by nature we do not walk
in this way. and we tend to think the opposite.
But we are not to follow the Old Testament ruling and that's
why the Lord Jesus speaks to us in this way and tells us quite
clearly what we should do. We have a wonderful example course
in the Lord Jesus Christ himself and it was an example to follow
that however hard the Lord was treated of course he never retaliated
and he always answered kindly in his speech And therefore we
have this statement, you've heard that it has been said, thou shalt
love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. Well, we understand what
that means naturally. And we could think, well, that's
right. But then it all goes on to say these things. but i sound
to you and now there's a very different view 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 you
know we can go back to the Old Testament in Leviticus which
also encouraged people in this way. In Leviticus 19 and verse
18 we read, thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the
children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord. And I suppose
one of the great examples in the Word of God for this is the
case of the Good Samaritan. And you will remember that's
an account in the Gospel of Luke. And we read that a certain Samaritan,
as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he
had compassion on him. And the Pharisees and the scribe
had already passed by on the other side. They didn't want
to get involved. And yet we see this Samaritan
who was, the Samaritans didn't have dealings with the Jews and
therefore it was most surprising that this man should stop and
indeed should have compassion on him. And we can recognize
that the statement that was made here, the Lord said, I said to
you, love your enemies. He would have been really an
enemy. But you see what a wonderful
example we have with this Samaritan. He did all that was necessary.
He poured in oil and vine, set him on his own ass, took him
to an inn, paid the cost of his stay there, and told the innkeeper
if there was any more to pay when he came again, he would
pay it. So we have such an example like
that. and then further on in paul's
epistle to the romans we have another example in the 12th chapter
and the 20th verse where the apostle says therefore if thine
enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink for in so doing
thou shalt He calls a fire on his head. Be not overcome of
evil, but overcome evil with good. Well, it's a wonderful
favor if we are able to walk out our religion in this way. And so the Lord goes on to say
that you may be the children of your father, which is in heaven.
and that is if we turn our way from being involved in any spiteful
conversations because the Lord has said do good to them that
hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute
you. Well again remembering that's
opposite to our nature but what a glorious thing it is if by
the grace of God we're able to follow out this advice and to
set a right example before the world and the people that we
have to deal with and the result is that you may be the children
of your father which is in heaven for He maketh his sun to rise
on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just
and on the unjust. We would think perhaps that that
shouldn't be so. The Lord would, as it were, single
out those who are his people and grant them better weather
in reference to the sun and also with regard to the rain, but
that is not so. The Lord, you see, does the same to both. if for if you love them which
love you what reward have you do not even the publicans the
same so it's easy to love people that love us isn't it because
we're just returning their love and we know it will receive a
good reception But that is not what the Lord is setting before
us here. He's setting before us, therefore,
that if that is not so, people, that we naturally hate. We are
not to hate, but we are to love, and we are to pray for them.
Well, we need much grace, do we not, to be able to walk in
that way in the day and age in which we live, because the opposite
is that which really occurs in our age. And the Gospel of Luke,
we're told about Jesus, a wonderful example, remembering when they
were crucifying him, he'd done no evil he'd only gone about
doing good he'd spoken well and he'd helped people and healed
people and then on the cross he speaks these glorious words
father forgive them for they know not what they do And they
parted his raiment and cast lots. Well, of course, they didn't
really know what they were doing. But the Lord Jesus says, Father,
forgive them. And so if people do that which
is wrong to us, totally unlooked for and undeserved, people perhaps
attack us verbally and speak wrongfully against us, we ought
to heed this wonderful example and say, as the Saviour did,
Father, forgive them, for they know not This, of course, is
following the gracious example of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ. So he goes on having said this
about the reward. For if ye love them which love
you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the
same? You see, not only Christians love each other, but also those
who are of the world. And then he says, and if ye salute
your brethren, only what do you more than others do not even
the publicans so so when we meet people and speak we should not
ignore those people who are not christians who are not of the
same our faith we should speak to them we should salute them
this is the meaning of these words to address them and not
to as it were pass by on the other side It's easy to do this
and it's far more difficult to stop and to perhaps speak to
people and to pass the time of day in kindness and not ignoring
people who perhaps we may not really approve of. And then finally,
the Lord comes and says, be you therefore perfect, even as your
father, which is in heaven is perfect. Well, we cannot, of
course, be perfect. It doesn't mean that we are to
live a perfect life, but it does mean that we should endeavor
to follow the words of the Lord Jesus in a right and a perfect
way by loving our enemies and praying for those who despitefully
use you and not operating in our own way and in our own position
which is contrary to the word of God. So we should be thankful
that we have such a wonderful testimony and a wonderful example
set before us. And so again we read in Luke
6 verse 36, the Lord says, be you therefore merciful. as your
Father also is merciful. And I'm sure we're thankful to
have a merciful God, one who's not dealt with us as our sins
deserve, and therefore we should show mercy to people who have
perhaps offended us and upset us. We should, as it were, turn
the other cheek, as we've commented on earlier. Well, may it please
God to bless us and instruct us with the word of God And may
we live our life for his honour and for his glory, not pleasing
ourselves, but pleasing the Lord God, and following those things
wherein he has left instructions for us. May God bless his word. Amen.