Father, thank you for your word. We would not know you unless
you made yourself known. And we would not know good from
evil unless you told us. And in the face of our Savior,
we see all truth. We see the only way and the only
life. Our souls are guilty. We are guilty. And we need a
Savior. And we find in the Lord Jesus
Christ a full and sufficient and perfect Savior. Thank You
for Him. Thank You for giving Your Son
to us who were by nature Your enemies in our minds and by wicked
works. Lord, we pray You'd be with us
at this time. We pray that Your Word would go forth in power
this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Turn to Romans chapter 12, if you would please. Romans chapter
12. This is a preliminary. I want
to read this in advance of where we're going to be studying today.
In verse 1, we'll just read through the whole chapter. I beseech
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which
is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this
world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. For I say through the grace given
to me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself
more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly,
according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.
For as we have many members in one body, and all members have
not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ,
and everyone members one of another. Having then gifts differing according
to the grace that is given to us, Where the prophecy, let us
prophesy according to the proportion of faith. Or ministry, let us
wait on our ministering. Or he that teacheth on teaching.
Or he that exhorteth on exhortation. He that giveth, let him do it
with simplicity. He that ruleth with diligence.
He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil, cleave
to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to
another with brotherly love, in honor, preferring one another,
not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord,
rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant
in prayer, distributing to the necessity of saints, given to
hospitality. And now these next few verses
especially overlap with where we're going to be in Matthew
5 today. Bless them which persecute you. Bless and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice
and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward
another. Mind not high things, but condescend
to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.
Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in
the sight of all men, if it be possible, as much as lieth in
you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not
yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. For it is written,
vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if
thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. For in so doing, thou shalt heap
coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but
overcome evil with good. Now, these words are very much
of a repeat in some ways, and a corollary to what we find in
Matthew chapter 5. You want to turn back to Matthew
5. We're going to pick it up here at verse 38. And I have to confess that this
is some of the most difficult teaching, perhaps, in all of
Scripture. And for that reason, we want
to especially ask God's grace that we wouldn't impose our own
views on it, but simply let the text speak to us as the Master
did to those who heard Him. Verse 38 of Matthew 5. You have
heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth
for a tooth. But I say unto you that you resist
not evil, But whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek,
turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee
at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak
also. And whosoever shall compel thee
to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee,
and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not away. You have
heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor
and hate thine enemy. But 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 so
But be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is
in heaven is perfect. Amen. I've entitled this message,
Love Your Enemies, although I have to admit I struggled over the
title to capture everything that's in here. I'm sure that that's
probably the most obvious title that should be applied to this
when we first read it. But I want you to think with
me what is written here. First, the scriptures start out
here. In fact, I should have read a
little earlier. Let's go back up and read verse
33 through verse 37. It proceeds, we hadn't covered
that yet. It says here in verse 33, again, You have heard that
it hath been said of them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear
thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say
unto you, swear not at all. Neither by heaven, for it is
God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is His footstool. Neither
by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt
thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair
white or black. But let your communication be
yea, yea, nay, nay. For whatsoever is more than these
cometh of evil. Okay, so I'm sorry for reading
that out of order, but that was part of what I wanted to try
to cover today. In these scriptures, we see the
Lord Jesus Christ teaching his disciples. And in these teachings,
we find what I would consider to be hard words because they
are opposed to our natural thinking. Not just our thinking, but everything
that we naturally are is in conflict with what these words say. And
I think as we go through this, you'll see it. And so, we have
to ask at the outset, how can these things be? I remember when
the disciples heard Jesus tell the rich young ruler, go sell
everything you have and give it to the poor. when he asked,
what shall I do that I might have eternal life? And Jesus
told them, after he went away, Jesus said, it's harder for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich
man to enter heaven. And the disciples were amazed,
and they said, who then can be saved? And so maybe another title
for this message is, who then can do this? Who then can be
saved? Because when I read these verses, I have to be honest. I find everything that the Lord
Jesus Christ commands here, I have failed to do. And I fail to do. Not only have I failed to do
it, but I continue to fail to do it. And if I forget everything
else, or if I lose the message of everything else in here, I
have to say this, that I'm so thankful that the Lord Jesus
Christ has come to save His people from their sins because I find
these words convicting me of my sin. But before we get into
those broader outlines, I just want to try to go through some
of these verses with you so that we understand what's being said
here. Because I think these things are so opposing to what we naturally
think that we don't even understand the plain meaning in some cases
of what's being said here. So look at verse 33, Jesus said
to them, now the audience is not only the scribes and Pharisees
and the disciples, but everybody who heard him, but clearly the
scribes and Pharisees had twisted the law and made it fit their
needs so they could look better among men and justify themselves
before men. And all that they did, we know
they did to be seen of men. That's us by nature. And so when
Jesus says in verse 33, You have heard that it hath been said
by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt
perform unto the Lord thine oath. What he's saying here, the words
forswear means don't perjure yourself. Don't say you're going
to do something and fail to do it. It's that simple. but perform
unto the Lord thine oaths." And so he says, so that's the first
thing. Don't say you're going to do
something and fail to do it. Verse 14, but I say unto you,
swear not at all. neither by heaven, for it is
God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither
by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king." Don't even
swear, he says, by your own head. Because you can't make your hair
grow out white or black. You can't change the color. Sometimes
we change the color of our hair nowadays. I don't know if they
did in those days. But nowadays, we can change the color. But
we can't change the way the hair comes in, can we? Can't change
one thing. We can't even control the smallest
things about ourselves, the color of our hair. How much more so? How much less, then, can we not
control things that influence whether we can keep our word
or not? Can we control providence? Can
we control things in this world? Can we make promises and keep
them? Not unless we can control all the events. Not unless we
are God. Look at James chapter 4. He says
this. In James chapter 4, beginning
at verse 13, he says, Go to now, you that say, today or tomorrow
we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy
and sell and get gain. Whereas you know not what shall
be on the morrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor,
like a puff of steam. that appears for a little time
and then vanishes away for you ought to say for that you ought
to say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that but
now you rejoice in your boastings all such rejoicing is evil so
see it's clear that we can't control the world and therefore
for us to make a commitment and swear to it in order to try to
validate what we're saying in the ears of those who hear us
is to go beyond what we're capable of keeping when we should not
promise in that way. It's really, if you think about
it, to do that is really to claim that we have control of things
over which we have no control. And so we humbly say, if the
Lord will, we'll live tomorrow. If the Lord will, we'll do this
or we'll do that. We are the servants of Christ.
1 Corinthians 6 verse 19 and 20 says, you've been bought with
a price. Therefore glorify God in your bodies. In body and soul,
in life and in death, I belong to my faithful Savior. What can
I do? more than what God will allow
me to do. He gives life. He gives me grace. He gives me
breath. He gives me all things, and I
have to acknowledge that. And to take more upon myself
is to say, I am autonomous, and God is not sovereign. But our
confession is that God is sovereign. He does whatsoever He pleases
on earth, in heaven, on earth, and among the people on earth. And that's our God, and that's
who we trust, and so we don't say these things presumptuously. Not only do we not say things
that we can't keep, but notice, we don't call on God's name,
or God's person, or things that are holy, the holy things of
God, in order to substantiate or validate our words. We don't
say, I swear to God. or God is my witness, those kinds
of things. What we're trying to do when
we say that or when we say those things is we're calling on God
himself to validate what we are about to say. But who are we? Who are we to make God our servant
to undergird or come behind or substantiate our word? We fundamentally
are here to honor God and His glory. Not to take His name in
vain in order to honor ourselves before men. You see, that's what
it means to take God's name in vain. It means to take His name
for the purpose of propping up myself in the eyes of others. To make myself seem more important. Or, sometimes we use the expression,
oh my God. But these kinds of things are
of evil. Because what we're saying is
that when I express wonder or amazement over something or dissatisfaction
with something by saying, oh my God, we're really saying that
God is my witness that what gives me pleasure and what dissatisfies
me is God is even a servant to those things. When you think
about it, we're treating God's name as an everyday, ordinary
thing. Even you see this commonly. People will take things that
belong to God and apply them to ordinary common things as
if the holy things of God can be used as hyperbole in order
to emphasize what they want emphasized. I heard a person on the cooking
channel saying about the food they were preparing, it's divine,
it's glorious, it's perfect. And many other things like that.
We use words like awesome, excellent. But these things really only
apply to God. We should not use holy words
as hyperbole to our personal advantage before men. Because
what do we do that for? We do that in order to gain the
recognition among men that we have We have good judgment about
something, or to draw attention to this thing in order to gather
people around. And it's just foolishness. It's evil speaking. So the Lord
Jesus says, don't do that. God's name is holy. God is in
the heavens. And look at Ecclesiastes chapter
5. Here's a commentary on those words. Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Let's see if I can find it. It
should be right after Proverbs. He says in verse 1 of Ecclesiastes
5, with thy mouth, and let not thine
heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven,
and thou upon earth. Therefore let thy words be few
You see that? For a dream cometh through the
multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by multitude of
words. When thou vowest a vow unto God,
defer not to pay, for he hath no pleasure in fools. Pay that
which thou hast vowed. Better it is that thou shouldst
not vow. then that thou shouldst vow and not pay suffer not thy
mouth to cause thy flesh to sin neither say thou before the angel
that it was an error wherefore should God be angry at thy voice
and destroy the work of thine hands you see you see how serious
it is don't talk casually about the things of God. Don't bring
the things of God into your ordinary conversation in order to bolster
your appearance before men. That's what scribes and Pharisees
do, and that's what we're inclined to do. We're inclined to make
God's holy name and character, His throne, His footstool, all
that He does, His works, subservient to our arrogant pride. That's
what we're inclined to do. And so Jesus says, don't do that.
But then he goes on and he says in verse 37, let your communication
be yes. for yes, and no for no. For whatsoever is more than these
comes of evil. Just say yes when you mean yes,
and say no when you mean no. And don't mix the two. Don't
say yes, but I kind of mean no too, or no, but I kind of mean
yes. That's called being a double-minded
man. We do that, and it's especially
done when people or devils deceive. We take words that mean one thing,
we redefine them to mean something else, and then we use them in
the same language in order to obscure the truth. In order to
obscure the meaning. So we say, yes, salvation is
all of grace. But, grace requires you to do
your part. That's yes and no talking. Yes,
my salvation depends upon God, but his election looked forward
to what I would do, to see how I would behave. That's yes and
no speaking. There's many ways we do this.
People, especially theologians, do this all the time. They'll
take a well-known passage of scripture, they'll redefine the
words, fundamental words, like works and faith and grace, and
then they read it, and they mean one thing, but you mean something
else. And they think that now that
they're talking the same words, even though we have different
meanings, that we have the same, that we're at one. And that's
totally false. That's yes and no speak. God
says, let your yes be for yes, and your no for no. And more
than this is of evil, especially don't intermingle God's Word
to substantiate what you're saying. You bow to God, you take His
Word, and you honor Him. And so, verse 38, let's go on
with this. This is what the Lord said, and
these are hard things because we naturally find ourselves committing
these errors, don't we? Don't you find this? It's so
easy for us to take God's name casually and
to not think of it with the reference that it deserves. Have you ever heard someone cursed
with Allah's name? No, it's always Jesus, right?
Jesus Christ this, God damn that. That's the way we speak. It's
in order to take God from heaven And in my speech, make him subservient
to my cause, instead of me bowing my knee and put my face in the
dust and honoring him and his name and his character and his
throne, even his footstool, which is earth. We can't even change
the smallest of things. Who are we? Who are we? We're
nothing. And so God is teaching us this.
The Lord Jesus Christ is trying to show us this, humbling us. But look at verse 38. You have
heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth
for a tooth. Naturally, if you poked out my
eye, I would want to take revenge. In fact, I might want to poke
out both of your eyes. But in the law, God says, no,
just one eye for one eye. One tooth for one tooth. That's
just, isn't it? It is just. But Jesus says, but
I say unto you that you resist not evil. But whosoever shall
smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Now
that just goes against my nature, I'm sorry. I was taught when
I was growing up by my brothers, that's not the way you interact. If you do that, you're just gonna
be pummeled and beat on and considered a sissy and all these other things.
Stand up. My dad would even probably whip
me if I went to school and let someone else beat me up. So what
do these words mean? What if, remember the recent
incident where someone went into a church, into a Bible study,
and shot and killed some of the people there? What do we do? What's our response to these
things? Well, look at Romans, a couple of scriptures. Romans
chapter 13. Let's make sure we get the outer
governing principles in place before we go too far here. Romans
chapter 13 says this. In verse 1, let every soul be
subject unto the higher powers. And he's speaking about civil
authorities. For there is no power but of God. The powers
that be are ordained of God. And you can see the wisdom in
this, because he goes on, he says, "...whosoever therefore
resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God." If we
disobey the criminal justice system, what happens? Well, you're
going to get arrested. You're going to be put in jail.
You're going to be tried and sentenced. If you're guilty,
you'll be punished. God is saying, that system, even though flawed,
is by His ordination. In order to do this, verse 3,
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.
Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is
good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister
of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is
evil, be afraid. For he beareth not the sword
in vain. Now what do you use swords for?
not for slapping, not for spanking, but for killing. And God has
said that He ordained the powers that be to administer this justice
in our system, our civil lives. And it's a good thing. Don't
you see the wisdom in it? God said in the Old Testament,
If a man taketh man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.
These things are good and proper and ordained by God as servants
of His holiness in order to administer order on the earth. Look at 1
Peter chapter 3. A similar thing is said there.
1 Peter chapter 3. He says, verse 13, Submit yourselves
to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. And that's important. That's probably the most important
phrase in that sentence, I think. Whatever we do, we do it by faith. What we do, our attitude, our
words, and our actions, are done as if we live as a servant of
God. So that everything we do, in
our understanding, in our faith, we're looking at it as if we're
directly doing it as to the Lord Jesus Christ. So when we submit
ourselves to the ordinances God has put in place in our civil
justice system, then we're doing it not because we necessarily
think that that law is perfect, but we know that God administers
that law as an under authority under His administration, and
so we obey it in reverence to His name. and to his person,
and in love to him. So he says, submit yourselves
to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. If you know
that you're serving the Lord Jesus Christ, in everything you
do, then can you not do it with a joyful heart? Can you not do
it with contentment? Don't you know that the Lord
Jesus Christ does only wonderful things and only does good for
His people? And don't you, can't you trust
Him that He'll take care of every, all of your needs and see to
all of your, especially your spiritual needs? What is your
life if it's not in His hands? And so He's telling us to do
these things for the Lord's sake. Whether it be to the king, as
supreme, or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by Him,
for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that
do well. So, He's showing us by these
things, now back to Matthew chapter 5. He's showing us by these things,
at the outer level, God has ordained a civil system whereby our lives
are ordered in everyday things. And these courts, these systems,
are put in place, even though they're flawed and sometimes
severely flawed, in order to punish evildoers and to give
praise to them that do well. And God is the one who judges
those systems. It's not our duty to go around
and try to redefine or fix those civil systems. As children of
God, our duty is to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of
which we are citizens, the heavenly kingdom. And so our end goal
in mind is not the affairs of this world, but it's the heavenly
kingdom, and the souls of men, and the eternal salvation of
those souls, and the glory of God. Those are the things we're
interested in. And we see with eyes of faith
things that cannot be seen by every ordinary man. God has given
that to us. And so, when we're in this world,
we leave those matters. If someone were to break into
my house or if someone were to rob me or do bodily harm to me,
submit those cases to the civil system and let them be dealt
with in that system. Murder, for example. It's not
my place to either judge as a judge to administer a sentence against
them, or to excuse them. It's not my place. God's law
is His law. Justice is God's. His throne
is for Him to uphold. He's the judge and He will do
right. So many things that we cannot
really get involved in because God is the one who does judge
those things and He will do right. It's so Relieving to me to know
that I can just let the Lord take care of whether the president
is doing his job or not, or Congress. I can't fix those things. All
I can do is pray, Lord, you have put these systems in place, and
with all their flaws, they're in your hands, and you have to
administer them. And so we pray to that end, that
the kingdom of heaven, the gates of hell will not prevail against
us as we bring the gospel message to this world. And men's souls
will be saved and delivered out of the king, the prince of the
power of the air who rules in these kingdoms of men to do evil. But God rules over them and brings
about His will. So we pray to that end. But anyway,
now back here in verse 38, it says, you heard that it was an
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say resist not
evil. What I think he's speaking of here is what I would call
private retaliation. Private retaliation. Someone
pokes me in the eye. Someone takes my coat. Someone hits me in the face. What do I do? These are physical
things, right? Well, We just have a natural automatic
nervous system that jumps back, don't we? Don't jump in my face,
I'll show you what I can do. You know, that's the way we do,
right? But the Lord Jesus Christ has said some things here that
for us are against the grain. It's like rubbing the scales
of the fish the wrong way. It just doesn't feel good. Because it's so opposed to our
natural thinking and our natural... We've got these built-in auto-response
systems that just violate what God is saying here. Because these
things are not natural to the natural man. But, guess what? They are entirely consistent
with the grace of God. Now think about this with me
for a minute. Why are we concerned about retaliation? Why are we
concerned about protecting our honor? Why are we concerned about
protecting even minor incidents where people speak against us? Why are we so concerned about
that? Just think about that for a minute. I think the answer
is multifaceted. First, we are self-protective. Mostly, we're protective of our
own pride. Only by pride cometh contention,
cometh strife. We just read in Romans 12, give
place to wrath. What does that mean? It means
if somebody comes at you with an angry attitude, with angry
words, even angry actions toward you and all these things, what
are you supposed to do? Just step back. Let it go. Just
let it go. Why? Because I'm just gonna let
that karma somehow deflect off into the vast universe? No, because
you serve the Lord. When you let it go, you are looking
beyond the immediate response of that individual and the circumstances
to something much bigger and longer and more important. What
is that? The salvation of their souls. The salvation of their souls.
Always keep that in mind. And the glory of God. And not
only that, but when we walk by faith, God receives glory because
we're trusting His Word. To trust God's Word is to give
glory to God. When we take what God has said
and we say, Lord, I know that's true. I know that's true. I don't
see the evidences of it, but I'm going to depend on You. I'm
going to wait for You to act. I'm going to trust you in all
things. I'm going to commit the keeping of my soul to a faithful
creator. I'm going to roll upon Jehovah,
as it says in Psalm 22, 8, that Jesus did. I'm going to do that.
I'm going to leave my case with you, with this goal in mind,
that that person, or that circumstance that's coming against me, is
either there just to try me, because I'm at fault oftentimes.
A lot of times I've raised the stink myself. People are reacting
to something I've done. And so I deserve it. At least
in part. Maybe even more. And so I'm getting
blowback for whatever I've done in the past. Just let it go. Let it go. Or maybe I'm being
persecuted for righteousness sake. So what? God's the judge. God will take care. He will avenge
His own. But I'm really seeking, as so
many cases, the good of that person. Now, I want you to think
with me on these things. Someone comes and they curse
you, or someone comes to do you harm, or whatever it is. Think with me what God has recorded. Can you think of a time in Scripture,
especially in the New Testament, Where someone takes out their
dukes and they take action themselves to defend themselves and to bring
recompense against another person. I can't think of one case. Not
one. You would think if that was important
it would be there. But it's not. In fact, you find the opposite.
Think of this. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 16.
I want you to look at some of these with me. 2 Samuel chapter
16. People like to go to the Old
Testament to substantiate things that are opposing to this, but
I'm going to take you there to support it. 2 Samuel 16, he says
this in In chapter 16 verse 5, And when King David came to Behuram,
behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of
Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gerah. He came forth
and cursed still as he came, and he cast stones at David,
and at all the servants of King David. And all the people and
all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. And
thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out, thou bloody
man, thou man of Belial. The Lord hath returned upon thee
all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast
reigned. And the Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of
Absalom thy son. And behold, thou art taken in
thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man." You see, David
God made David king. Saul was not a just man. He pursued David to death. He hated, he envied, and he wanted
to kill David. When David was made king, David
did not kill Saul's household. David did not take things into
his own hands. And here's this man. First of
all, David's own son, out of his own bowels, was trying to
kill him, was seeking his life. And now comes a man out of the
house of Saul, cursing him and throwing stones and saying, all
the sins, I mean all the blood of the house of Saul, let it
come on you. God curse you. That's what he's
saying. Go to hell, David. That's what
he's saying. In the name of God. That's what
Shimei was saying. Throwing stones and acting like
this. And David, you know, if you were the king, if your son
had chased you out of the throne, you've got all these guys around
you. Strong people. They can do whatever you command,
just a nod. You just have to give the nod.
And so that's what happened. Verse 9, Then Abishai, the son
of Zeruiah, said to the king, Why should this dead dog curse
my lord the king? Let me go over, I pray thee,
and take off his head. And the king said, what have
I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? So let him curse, because
the Lord has said to him, curse David. Who shall then say, wherefore
hast thou done so? And David said to Abishai and
to all his servants, behold, my son, which came forth of my
bowels, seeks my life. How much more may this Benjamite
do it? Let him alone. Let him curse. Now, this is what we were talking
about. Whatever you do unto the Lord,
he says, for the Lord hath bidden him. Who controls these men,
these wicked men? God does. And he says, the Lord
has bidden him. And then this verse, what an
incredible statement of faith. He says, it may be that the Lord
will look on mine affliction and that the Lord will requite
me good for his cursing this day. Here was a man who rose
up in anger because he was Saul's household. And he was vindictive
against David because David now is king. He's carrying the same
spirit that Saul went to his grave with. Trying to kill David
who only did him good. And Shimei has the same attitude.
And so he's returning to David. He's returning evil for David's
good. Because David fought the Lord's
battles. He killed the Goliath. He killed
the Philistines. He protected Israel. He did all
these things at great risk to his own life. And even his own
hurt because Saul sought his life. And now Shimei is doing
the same thing. And David says, maybe the Lord
will look on my affliction and return good to me for his cursing. Isn't that amazing? Because men
return evil for good, but God returns good for evil. And so when evil is done to us,
what does faith teach us therefore? It teaches us to wait on the
Lord, and to commit the keeping of our soul into His hand. That's what faith does. The first
thing we want to do is to rise up in self-defense because that's
the way we naturally think. It's my life. I've got to protect
it. Everything I do is for me. So I have to establish my own
name and my own reputation and maintain it and my appearance
before people. Baloney! Let me be humbled before
men in order that the cause of God in truth might be raised
up and established through my humiliation. That's what the
Lord does. Look at what God has done here,
right in the midst of this. David was obviously feeling the
pain, but recorded in scripture for our benefit, we see this. And now we're reaping the benefits.
The blessing has come to David. and is coming to us because he
did this. And this is just one of so many different examples.
Look over at 1 Samuel 26. 1 Samuel 26, I just love these
things in scripture. God has put them there. Here,
Saul was chasing David all over the place. And Saul and his men had pitched
in this place called, whatever it was called. It doesn't matter
so much what it was called. But what happened is God caused
Saul and all of his army, 3,000 men or so, to fall asleep. And
so David wanted to go down. Look at verse 5. It says, "...David
arose, and came to the place where Saul had pitched. And David
beheld the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the
captain of his host. And Saul lay in the trench, and
the people pitched around about him. And then David said to Himalek
the Hittite, and to Abishai the same guy we just read about,
the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, Who will go down
with me to Saul to the camp? And Abishai said, I'll go down
with thee." He was a fierce guy. So David and Abishai came to
the people by night, and behold, Saul lay sleeping within the
trench, and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster. But
Abner and the people lay around about him. Abner was his captain. They're all sleeping. And Abishai
said to David, God has delivered thine enemy into thine hand this
day. Now therefore, let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear,
even to the earth. At once, I will not smite the
second time. David said to Abishai, Destroy
him not, for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's
anointed and be guiltless? David said, furthermore, as the
Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him or his day shall come to
die or he shall descend into battle and perish. The Lord forbid
that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointed.
But he goes on, But I pray thee, take thou now the spear that
is at his bolster, and the crews of water, and let's go. So David
took the spear and the crews of water from Saul's bolster,
and they gathered them away, and no man saw it, nor knew it,
neither awaked, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep
from the Lord was fallen upon them. Then David went over to
the other side, and stood on the top of the hill far off,
a great space being between them. And David cried to the people,
and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, Answerest thou not, Ebner? Then Abner answered and said,
Who art thou that criest to the king? And David said to Abner,
Art not thou a valiant man? Who is like thee in Israel? Wherefore
then hast thou not kept thy lord the king? For there came one
of the people in to destroy the king thy lord. This thing is
not good that thou hast done. As the Lord liveth, you are worthy
to die, because you have not kept your master and the Lord's
anointed. And now see where the king's spear is, and the crews
of water. That was at his bolster. And
Saul knew David's voice and said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice,
my lord, O king. And he said, David speaking to
Saul, he said, Wherefore doth my Lord thus pursue after his
servant? For what have I done? Or what
evil is in mine hand? Now therefore I pray thee, let
my Lord the King hear the words of his servant. If the Lord have
stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering. But if
it be the children of men, cursed be they before the Lord. For
they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance
of the Lord, saying, Go, serve other gods. Now therefore, let
not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the Lord.
For the king of Israel has come out to seek a flee, as when one
doth hunt a partridge in the mountains. Then said Saul, I
have sinned, return my son David, for I will no more do thee harm,
because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day. Behold,
I have played the fool and have erred exceedingly. And David
answered and said, Behold the king's spear, let one of the
young men come over and fetch it, and the Lord render to every
man his righteousness and his faithfulness. For the Lord delivered
thee into my hand this day, but I would not stretch forth my
hand against the Lord's anointed. And behold, now David takes the
whole thing and he argues this in an open declaration. Saul
was guilty and David spared his life. And so David thinks about
this, he says, look at this in verse 24, he says, And behold,
as thy life was much set by this day in mine eyes, so let my life
be much set by in the eyes of the Lord, and let him deliver
me out of all tribulation. Deal with me, a guilty man, O
Lord! according to the mercy I need
just like you have given grace to me to show mercy to Saul who
was after me you see these things remember Stephen in Acts chapter
7 proclaiming the truth of the gospel doing God's will and men
angry because the gospel stung their conscience and he rose
up in hatred against him and they picked up stones and they
threw them at him and were killing him with the stones and what
does he say? Lord, Lord Jesus, lay not this
sin to their charge. What kind of grace is this? How
could a man do that? Why would he do that? Because
like the Apostle Paul said in Romans 9, he says, I wish that
I could be accursed for my brethren according to the flesh. You see,
the heart of Christ, the heart of his servants, they see the
terror of hell. They know what they've been delivered
from. They know that God has been merciful to them personally.
That when they were enemies, God reconciled them to himself
by the death of his own son. And they see that. They know
their guilt. They know their imperfections and all that's
in their heart. And yet God has had mercy on
them. And they see that, and they know they want for others
what God has given them, this to know the Lord, to have their
sins forgiven, to glorify God for His mercy. And so even Stephen,
in the pursuit of the salvation of his people, When they were
taking his life, he says, Lord, don't lay this into their charge.
Continue the work, glorify your name, bring honor to yourself
in saving these wicked men by your mercy and your grace. That's
what Moses did. That's what our Lord Jesus Christ
did in Luke 23, 34, when he said, Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. When the Lord Jesus Christ says,
resist not evil, Resist not evil. Love your enemies. Do good to
them that hate you. Bless them which despitefully
use you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute
you. Bless them which curse you. All these things. It goes against
every natural reaction we have. It's in our instincts, in our
DNA to strike back, to get vengeance. But God says, Vengeance is mine, saith the
Lord, I will repay. We leave civil disobedience in
the hands of God's ordained ministers of civil justice. Because we
do it as unto the Lord. But in matters of personal retaliation,
we do not pursue it. You see, a Christian, a believer,
has no enemies. People that he hates. although
there are enemies he has who hate him. This is the way God
teaches us. If we have things that we harbor
in our heart in hatred toward others, get rid of it. Get rid
of it. It is of the flesh. It's entirely in opposition to
the grace of God. Forgive even as you've been forgiven. And so we see these things here
and we know that that in ourselves, we're a million miles from this.
Don't you know that? Don't you feel it? Lord, I'm
so thankful that you said, I did not come to destroy the law and
the prophets, but I came to fulfill. Why did the Lord Jesus Christ
come to fulfill the law and the prophets? He didn't do it for
himself. Although he did it for the glory
of God. And indirectly that means he did it for himself. Because
he wanted only the glory of God. But the reason he did this was
for his people. He came to do what we could not
do. That is grace. Who can do what
He said to do here? Who can love their enemy? He
did. Who can turn the other cheek? He did. Who can bless those that
cursed Him? He did. Who can forgive those
who crucified Him? He did. Who can give His life
for those who were hostile to His Father and to His own person?
Took His own name and cursing on their lips? He did. You see,
He gave, He restored what He didn't take away. Psalm 69, 4.
He gave his life for those who took his life. The shepherd for
the sheep is offered. The slave has sinned and the
son has suffered. Remember those words from that
song? Ah, dearest Jesus. This is great grace, isn't it?
I'm guilty. Why do these words cause me such
anguish? This sermon causes me to supplicate
before God more than anything. Why? Because I know I'm guilty. Because I know these things are
impossible, naturally, for me. And I know that Christ alone
has perfectly done what is described here. There's only one person
who could preach this sermon without hypocrisy, and that's
our Lord Jesus Christ. We have to point to Him, don't
we? He's the one who alone fulfilled this. And I also see that the
Lord Jesus Christ is my surety. He made me sure to my Father
and He made me sure to God's justice. He brought me to God
by His own death and He provided all justice demanded in satisfaction
to both the love of God and the justice of God. My surety stood
up and fulfilled the law for me. I see that, and I see that
it is my Master's heart, and the heart and mind of my Savior
and my Lord, and so I want to honor Him. I see even here, like
Jesus said, this is the heart of your Father in Heaven. He
reigns on the just and the unjust and does good. He gives food
and all kinds of things. He makes glad the heart of man.
God does that, and I know that I want to be like my Father.
I want to be like my Master and my Savior. And I know that by
His grace, even now by His grace, that I can never hope to do anything
that he's said here unless he gives me that in my heart, unless
he gives me a new heart. Look at, look at, remember what
David said in Psalm 51.6, he says, Thou desirest truth in
the inward parts. Look at Philippians 2. Just a,
just a couple verses to go here. Philippians 2. When we go to preach the gospel,
when we live our lives with one another, in many things, as James
said, we offend all. We're naturally easily offended,
and we naturally easily offend others. But the heart of our
Savior is to take wrong. Remember what he says, 1 Corinthians
6, why don't you rather take wrong? than to pursue your brother's
cause to the courts. Look at Philippians chapter 2,
verse 7. I'm sorry, verse 12. Wherefore,
my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling. What did Jesus say in Matthew
5, 48? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven
is perfect. How can you be perfect? How can
you possibly hope to be perfect? And yourself, cannot. There's
only one way you can be perfect, and that's if you already are
perfect. In Christ, we are made perfect. By one offering, he
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. What the law
could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending
His own Son has done. The law made nothing perfect,
but the bringing in of a better hope, the new covenant did."
And so he says, work out your own salvation. What God has made
true about you in heaven, and what God has implanted in you,
giving you the divine nature and the regeneration and new
birth, work it out. live out the grace God has implanted
in you and pointed you to by faith in Christ for it is God
which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure
nothing causes me greater cause for supplication than to know
when the Lord Jesus Christ did good to his enemies and I want
to protect myself and make a name for myself that I'm in opposition
to everything he's about that causes me great grief And nothing
makes me cause for more supplication than to know He expects me to
follow in His steps. And yet I fall so far short,
it's as if I haven't even gotten on the road. And yet nothing
causes me greater cause for admiration and adoration than to know that
the Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled everything for me, honored His
Father, magnified His law, established everlasting righteousness as
a substitute and surety for His people, and He's perfected us
forever, forever. in his sight. What a glorious
gospel, that the one who teaches these things, in whose heart
these things reside, and in whose words and practice they were
all worked out perfectly to perfection, now teaches those who follow
him, follow me, follow me. And we say, Lord, And so far,
I need your grace. Forgive me even now, even at
this time. Give me the faith to believe
your word and walk in it because I am just a dead dog sinner and
I can't do anything about it unless you do it for me. And
we stand amazed, don't we? That the Lord Jesus Christ would
be so gracious. And when we think about that,
it moves our heart out of ourselves to see eternity and say, Lord,
Help that person who comes against me, who's maybe just spoken against
me and maybe ruffled my feathers a little bit internally. I'm
so sensitive. I'm always wearing my feelings
on my sleeve. Let it go, Lord. Help me just to let it go and
pray for them. God, help us to love our enemies,
to love one another, and so be the children of our Father. Lord, we pray that you would
give us grace at this time. to understand what the Lord Jesus
Christ has done, how he laid down his life for his people,
his sheep, he counted those who in their minds and in their wicked
works were hostile to him as his own dearly beloved people,
and looked beyond our fault and saw our need, saw us there on
the auction block of our of our wickedness, and lewdness, and
adultery, and idolatry, and purchased us, and saved us, and washed
us in His own blood, presented us to Himself spotless and holy,
and help us, Lord, to have a heart like His. Give us the heart of
our Savior. Help us, Lord, to trust Him,
to commit everything to Him, knowing You're in control, absolute
control over everything, and help us not to be high-minded.
and to think of ourselves as important. We're not. We're the
servants of God. Take glory to yourself in our
lives, dear Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.