Read Them Their Rights - [Matthew 5:38-42]

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Well, I always wonder how to start a sermon off, how to get your attention, so, here goes. As a
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Christian, you have no rights. As a Christian, you have no rights, whatsoever.
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Do you think you have a right for a good reputation? Do you think you have the right for a good name?
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To have a good home? Good family? Good neighborhood? Do you think you have the right to be respected?
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To be thought of well? Do you think you have the right for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
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Shockingly, strangely, strikingly, if you're a Christian, Jesus Christ, Lord, King, Sovereign, says there are no rights for Christians.
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Wait, I've got some inalienable rights, don't I? This is America, in the land of civil rights, gay rights, workers' rights.
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Well, that could be, but as a Christian, do you have any rights?
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I mean, what kind of day and age do we live in? I pulled up something from the National Lawyers Guild, and this is for UCLA grad students who may be in the country, legally or illegally, and it's got this whole thing about rights.
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You have the right to advocate for change, First Amendment. You have the right to remain silent,
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Fifth Amendment. You have the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures,
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Fourth Amendment. What if the agents come and question me? You have the right not to let them in your home if they don't have a search warrant.
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And the list goes on and on and on. The culture that we live in, where we hold on to our rights, we demand our rights.
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Who do you think you are to tell me there are no rights? Especially as we live in this culture of self, self, and self.
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By the way, did you see the new, is it Time or Newsweek magazine? The Person of the Year. Did you see it?
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Just hit the newsstands yesterday. The Person of the Year is you. Everybody.
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Just you, all you bloggers, all you other people. We are the People of the Year, the Person of the Year. We've got a new vocabulary to back it up.
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Self -centered, self -seeking, self -love, self -importance, self -satisfaction, self -esteem, self -adagrisement, something close to that.
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Selfish, self -help, self -conscious, self -assured, self -realization, self -reliance, self -expression.
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And we have taken the great two commandments, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself, and we've added an extra one.
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You've got to love yourself. And in a society of self, self, self, Christ Jesus calls people to deny self, to deny self, and to be selfless.
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Let's turn our Bibles to Matthew chapter 5, and let me show you that Jesus calls for self -sacrifice in a selfish world.
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Self -sacrifice in a selfish world. Yes, I understand that as citizens we have rights, and when
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I go to India in three weeks I'll be glad that I'm an American citizen with all the rights and privileges that my passport will allow me because of the state.
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But I'm talking about Christians. How do we think properly in this day and age where we're worried and we're bothered and we're perturbed when somebody steps on us the wrong way?
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Self -sacrifice in a selfish world. By the way, I have to just tell you at the beginning, some passages, you know,
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I preach and I think, God, you've helped me to obey in that area, and so thank you. This is kind of for the congregation.
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This one is a knife that just slays me right in half. And as any good preacher, as I've been slayed this week in my study,
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I hope to slay you because God loves us enough so that we do not stay where we are, so that we become more righteous, that we become more like Christ, that we sin less as the word of God is taken by the eternal spirit and He molds and shapes us by saying, we've got to cut that twig off and we've got to get rid of that little branch.
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And I love it with God's word that it convicts me. Not every sermon is supposed to make me go,
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Wow, I felt so happy. God loved me because I was lovable.
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Wow, God was just so lucky that I said yes to Him the day I got saved.
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Well, we are very thankful that God saved us, that we are chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.
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We are very thankful that Jesus died in our place and God raised Him from the dead. Jesus raised
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Himself from the dead. The Spirit of God raised Jesus. We're thankful for that. We're thankful that we have a home in heaven.
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But there are other things that Jesus gets into our lives and He just won't let us be complacent.
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And the book of Matthew talks about Jesus the king and wouldn't the king do it this way?
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Here's the king and the king has a manifesto and the king has rules or commands for his kingdom.
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That makes sense. And we see in the book of Matthew that Jesus has a royal lineage.
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We see in the book of Matthew that Jesus has a royal birth. We see in Matthew that Jesus is inaugurated into ministry as a royal person.
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As the father says, this is my beloved son in who I am what? Well pleased. We see
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Jesus the royal king attacking, as it were, Satan, the king of this world as he dethrones him, as it were, in the temptations.
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And now we come to the standards of the king given by Jesus in the Sermon on the
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Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. His words, His law,
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His fulfilled law. And we see in Matthew 5, verses 21 through 48, six statements by Jesus that show what
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He demands and what He demands is obedience from the inside, internal righteousness, heart righteousness, not just doing the things on the outside, the externals like the
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Pharisees did and then thought they were so great. I mean, here's the Pharisees' MO. God requires this, internal and external.
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Let's just shave off the internal and just make it external and we can obey the external really easily and we'll feel godly.
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And Jesus is here reminding the people what God has always wanted and He has always wanted real righteousness from the inside and certainly spiritually redeemed people are able to do this.
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Every part of life, Jesus is going to get into. The Jews would think holistically.
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They wouldn't think, well, sacred, secular. They wouldn't think, you know, this is Sunday at church and here's
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Monday at work. Your whole life would be together in this holistic one and Jesus goes straight for the jugular here and these are shocking things.
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Nobody was falling asleep to this sermon. We've seen four.
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You have heard it said but I say to you and just quickly to review in chapter 5 verses 21 through 26,
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Jesus deals with murder and the Pharisees would just basically say, you know what, as long as you don't murder someone, we're fine.
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Jesus drives it internally and says, you know what, but it's about hate as well. Secondly, He says in verses 27 through 30, it's about purity.
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It's fine that you don't commit adultery but Jesus goes deeper and says, you know what, it has to do with your thought life and what you think about.
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Divorce and remarriage in verses 31 and 32. Then we saw last week the truth and oaths.
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Real righteousness and heart righteousness is going to be manifest in a person who says yes and no.
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Not all kinds of fingers crossed behind my back, stick ten needles in my eye, all these kind of swear in a stack of Bibles, no.
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You don't need to do that. You just need to say, yes, this is my word. And now we come to this fifth antithesis.
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Antithesis, personal rights, verses 38 through 42. These are hard sayings. Some say these are the most difficult in all the
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Bible. One man said these are commands for another world.
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Translation, they're too hard to obey now so push them back somewhere else. Do you really believe the
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Bible? Let's see. Verse 38, Matthew 5.
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You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And like he's done in every other case.
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But I say to you, here Jesus gives the fulfilled law. Do not resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also.
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If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also.
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Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him too. Give to him who asks of you and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
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Okay, Jesus, I will be a doormat then. Okay, Jesus, I will be like Gandhi and just peace at all costs.
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I'll be like Tolstoy who looked at these verses, the great Russian novelist, and said in the book
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War and Peace, this is just, you know, pacifism. No police, no military, no government.
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Is that what Jesus is really saying? How does it apply to today? And Jesus is going to call these disciples and I'm going to call you through the words of Christ that we basically hold on to our rights so much and Jesus wants to pry our fingers away from all of our rights as we are now kingdom citizens whose royal law is love, not what
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I deserve, what I expect. Are you willing as a
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Christian to suffer loss just because you're a Christian? Let's find out.
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It always helps if you get a little background. This was not said in a vacuum and I think if you understand the culture, you'll understand what
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Jesus is trying to say. Eye for an eye, do you see that in verse 38?
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And a tooth for a tooth. What's going on here? How many people have ever heard of lex talionis?
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Lex talionis. Tracy has because she's a secretary and she's typed in that word from the commentaries I told her to underline and typed like 19 times.
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Lex, law, talionis, retaliation. An eye for an eye, lex talionis, tit for tat, quid pro quo.
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Boy, it's hard to preach sometimes, isn't it? I make my living by speaking. You see maybe in your own
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Bibles that these are capital letters, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. And basically what would happen is there would be some kind of blood feud, there would be a
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Hatfield and McCoy -like thing. Someone would do something to your tribe and instead of paying them back what they deserved, which was justice, exact recompense, you would have to get them more.
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And here this lex talionis, which is in all kinds of laws, not just Jewish law or Christian law, limits how much retribution can be given.
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The punishment has to fit the crime. Yes, it deters other criminals.
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Yes, it regulates punishment. I think of Lamech in the Bible, for I have killed a man for wounding me, a boy for striking me.
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If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy -sevenfold.
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Genesis 4. You're going to have to get somebody back even more. Who are you to mess with me? And here this law, very just, not more, not less than what has been done to you in a civil arena.
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Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. By the way, just on a side note for you people taking the Greek class upstairs, eye, ophthalmon, is eye, and tooth, we get the root word for daunt.
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It's odonta, daunt, orthodontist, straight teeth. Eyes and teeth.
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And Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, called the Pentateuch, called the
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Torah, have this eye for eye, tooth for tooth thing three times. And I want to just quickly take you through it in a survey fashion.
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Would you open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 21? Let me just quickly show you.
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If you don't want to turn there, I'll just read these. But I want you to see that these come right out of Torah, right from Moses, as he was directed and driven along by the
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Spirit of God to write these things. And all of these have to do with how the government in a civil way should deal with crime.
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None of these are personal. That's a big one. This isn't personal vengeance. This is how the government should take care of things.
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Exodus 21, 22, talking about the rights of a pregnant woman if somebody hurt her child when others were fighting.
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Exodus 21, 22. If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she has a miscarriage, yet there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman's husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judge decides.
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But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life.
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There it is. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
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If any man strikes the eye of his male or female slave and destroys it, he shall let them go free on account of his eye.
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And if he knocks out the tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth. This is civil, this is not personal, that's the focus.
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Justice, equality, proper retribution, not going beyond what has happened to you.
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Similarly in Leviticus 24 and Deuteronomy 19, same thing. It contains vengeance for the vengeful.
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It protects the weak. If there's somebody who has a higher status, if they're richer or more powerful and something is done to them, they don't strike back with more than what
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God would require. Private. Leviticus 19 .18
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says, You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you should love your neighbor as yourself.
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I am the Lord. When it comes to personal vengeance, don't. When it comes to corporate or civil or nationwide for the
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Israelites, here's the law. Justice, equity, and sometimes it's needed.
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How about this? All who went out of the gate of a city listened to Hamar and to his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised.
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All who went out of the gate of a city. Now it came about on the third day when they were in pain from circumcision that two of Jacob's sons,
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Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, Dinah was the one who was what? Defiled.
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Each took his sword and came upon the city unawares and killed every male.
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They raped my sister and so therefore we're going to kill them all. And along come the
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Pharisees. Trot, trot to Boston. Trot, trot to Lynn. Here comes the Pharisees. What do you think they would do with such a law?
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Hey, we've got this law, and instead of saying this limits or restrains some kind of vengeance, we're going to say, you know what?
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It's not having to do anything with civil or the nation. It's all personal. And if somebody does something to me,
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I am required by law to get them back. I've got to get them. Who are you to mess with me, a
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Pharisee? Take the law into your own hands.
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Avenge. Revenge is a dish best served cold. A law that is designed to prevent injustice is used to justify.
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I wonder what Jesus would say about that. What he doesn't say is, you know what?
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If somebody hurts you, take it to the court. No, he's going to give the fulfilled law of the king, and he's going to say, forget the court.
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If somebody does something to you, love them back doubly. You're going to see in these four illustrations a doubling effect.
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What is done to you singular, you should do to them double. In cases one, two, and three. Forget personal vengeance.
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How about love? And now we're going to come to these four shocking statements that are going to rock you.
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Here's what righteousness looks like in a confrontation. Here's what real righteousness from the inside looks like when somebody offends you.
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Now, I know that the illustration is not perfect, but I'm driving along the road, 55 miles an hour.
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I never drive over that, just cruise control. Put a governor on my car so it doesn't go any faster.
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And somebody cuts me off. It's my space, my car, my mom's car.
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What are you doing? Well, I don't think I've done it any time in the last few months, at least a few years.
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Well, I want to kind of pass them back and cut them off. I'll give you a taste of your own medicine, and what if I tamp on the brake a little bit after I'm in front of you and let you see what it's like?
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I mean, it is in our flesh, it is ingrained in us that somebody does something towards us and we want to get back at them.
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Who do you think you are? And now Jesus comes along and says, that may be the way you think.
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That may be your gut reaction. That may be the work of the flesh, but the work of the
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Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit manifests itself in a whole different way. It's not get back.
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It is thinking about things with different perspective. Republicans, Democrats, no.
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We're after who goes to heaven. Prostitutes and policemen, doesn't matter.
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They need to get saved. You've got a dispute with a neighbor, you've got some dispute with some friends, and you don't have to have everything equal.
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And Jesus is going to give these four illustrations that everybody back then would get, we're not going to really get.
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So I'm going to try to explain it, and then give you some principles out of these illustrations that show yielding your rights instead of demanding them.
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And R. Kent Hughes said something that is amazing. He said, thanks to Jesus, we have to let go of our legalistic obsession with fairness.
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Let me say that again. Thanks to Jesus, we have to let go of our legalistic obsession with fairness.
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Was God fair with us? Well, if you want fair, you get justice.
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God was more than fair with us. He certainly justly punished the sin, but He had someone else pay for that, didn't
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He? We are recipients of grace. We receive mercy and love. And so since we receive mercy and love, we want to act like God, and we strike back out with vengeance and exacting payment.
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No. And Jesus gives these four illustrations that are simply amazing. J. C.
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Rowell said a readiness to resent injuries, a quickness in taking offense, a quarrelsome and contentious disposition, a keenness in asserting our rights, all are contrary to the mind of Christ.
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End quote. The King. Four examples. Number one, found in verse 39.
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Four offending situations that should not be responded with the way you think, but the way the
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Spirit of God would direct. Verse 39, the first illustration. And maybe
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I'll put them in command form. Number one, you have no right to retaliate personally to insults.
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If anyone insults you, a Christian, you have no right to retaliate to insults. Verse 39, what
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I say to you, do not resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also.
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Nikita Khrushchev, do you remember that Mother Teresa kind of man?
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Very kind. We communists have many things in common with the teachings of Jesus Christ. My sole difference with Christ is that when someone hits me on the right cheek,
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I hit him on the left so hard that his head falls off. End quote. Somebody punches you, what do you do?
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Well, the better question would be, is that what the text says? Is that what it means? Let's dive deeper.
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And this is one of the thrills of Bible study. You read this for 500 times and you don't get it, and you sit and think about it, and you go, light goes on.
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Don't resist this evil person. Whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also.
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Now, this is for sure not sane as one crazy saint that Luther described as a person who, quote, let the lice nibble him at night because he refused to kill any of them on account of this text, maintaining that he had to suffer and could not resist evil.
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Don't kill any bugs in your house. Of course it doesn't mean that. What does it mean? Most people, and I have a son who's, excuse me, a daughter who's left -handed.
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My father was left -handed. No insult against left -handed people, you freaks. But I'm just kidding.
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I'm just kidding. Most people are right -handed.
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If you want to strike someone or slap someone on their right cheek, you can't do it like this.
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How do you have to do that? Here's my right cheek, here's my hand, and it is a backhanded slap to the face.
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He's not talking about if somebody punches you, you just go, okay, punch me again.
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If somebody punches me, I have a variety of options. Option one, if he's bigger, I run.
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Option two, if he's after my family and he's still bigger, I have to stay and fight to the death. Option three is
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I have to physically subdue the person, maybe with pummeling, so he can't hurt anyone else.
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But here, in the East, we're talking about the most vicious insult.
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It's like spitting on someone. When someone backhands you in the face, in the mouth, typically meaning you don't deserve the front of my hand, you are so inconsequential, you are worthless to me, you are a no one that my front hand doesn't even deserve to touch your cheek, so you get the back of my hand.
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When someone insults you, you are not to insult them back. You are not to hit them back. This is not assault, this is insult.
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And it's twice an insult because it's the back of your hand. Matter of fact,
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Jewish tradition in the Mishnah said if someone did this, you could seek restitution in court.
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The offending party would be required to pay 2 ,000 zuz, a monetary unit, for a front hand slap and 400 for a backhanded one.
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If someone comes and does that to you, you can take them to court and get money for it. And what does
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Jesus say? Sue back for slander?
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Insult for insult? The king's standard of righteousness would be what?
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Forgive, forget, love. God's sovereign, He'll take care of me. The text here strikes our hits.
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It is a sharp slap. We don't respond in kind.
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We don't confront evil the same way. Again, this has nothing to do with confronting evil in the church, confronting false doctrine in the church.
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Jesus resists evil in the temple as He cleans it out. But this is after the bitterness that we could have or the malice or the resentment or the smoldering.
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I can't believe they did that to me. When, after all, we are slaves of Christ. We have no rights.
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We've been bought with a price. Jesus is talking to individuals here.
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Let me give you two illustrations of this, the wrong way and the right way. Wrong way. Paul, looking intently at the council, said,
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Brethren, I have lived up my life with a perfect and good conscience before God up to this day. The high priest,
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Ananias, commanded those standing beside him to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him,
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God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall. Do you sit to try me according to the law and in violation of the law order me to be struck?
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But the bystander said to Paul, Do you revile God's high priest? Paul said,
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I was not aware, brethren, that he was the high priest, for it is written, You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.
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And then there's the right way. The high priest then questioned Jesus about His disciples and about His teaching.
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Jesus answered, I have spoken openly to the world and always taught in the synagogues and in the temple, where all the
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Jews come together, and I spoke nothing in secret. Why do you question me? Question those who have heard what
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I spoke to them. They know what I said. When he had said this, one of the officers standing nearby struck
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Jesus. Is this the way you answer the high priest? Jesus answered him,
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If I have spoke wrongly, testify of the wrong. But if rightly, why do you strike me?
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So Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest. When you're insulted, how do you respond?
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That's what Jesus is after. Defend yourself, defend your honor, your reputation, your career, your name.
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How about when somebody insults you because you're a Christian? A German scholar said this backhanded slap was a heretic slap.
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It wasn't just, I'm insulted and can't use the front of my hand. You are a heretic, so I slap you.
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They insult you because you're a Christian. I think
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Romans 12 gives us some good commentary on the law of love. How we should respond.
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Let's turn to Romans 12 just quickly. This is inspired commentary on the same topic.
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I love that, where we can see the one spirit of God, writing the words of Christ, writing the words of Paul.
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Romans 12, verse 17 and following. There are five things that Paul says here to do to people who are your enemies.
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And you can hear the reverberation of Jesus' words right here in the text. One, don't ever pay back evil for evil.
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You see it in verse 17a? Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Here's the gospel, here's the king, here's what he says.
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Even though you want to, you can't. Later in the verse, it says, respect what is right in the sight of all men.
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Act in a way that people will see the gospel incarnate in you. Number three, found in verse 18, if possible, so far it depends on you, because there may be times where it's impossible, and it might be not in your court anymore, be at peace with all men.
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We are not to be war makers, but we are to be peacemakers, Matthew 5, the Beatitudes would say.
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Fourth thing it says right there in verses 19 and 20, never take your own vengeance.
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Beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God. For it is written and it stands written, vengeance is mine,
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I will repay. Right from Deuteronomy. If your enemy is hungry, feed him.
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If he's thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap burning coals upon his head.
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Love is the issue, not retaliation. And then fifthly, verse 21, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
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How do you get somebody who's your enemy to become your friend? You love them. One man said, nothing has done greater damage to our
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Christian testimony than our trying to be right and demanding the rights of ourselves and others.
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We become preoccupied with what is said and what is not right. We ask ourselves the question, have we been justly or unjustly treated?
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The whole question for us is one of cross bearing. You ask me, is it right for someone to strike my cheek?
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I reply, of course not. But the question is, do you want to be only right?
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As Christians, our standard of living can never be right or wrong but the cross. Let's go back to Matthew and look at the second shocking statement.
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Shocking statement number one, we can't retaliate to people when they insult us. And they will, if you're a good gospel light, people will insult you for what you believe, attack you personally.
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The second shocking statement is found in verse 40.
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You have no right to personal things. You have no right to personal things. No rights.
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How about this, verse 40. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. That's weird.
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Just come sue me, take everything I've got. Jesus isn't talking about that, of course.
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But the people would understand what he was talking about. And listen to Exodus 22, this will help. If you lend money to any of my people who are poor among you, you shall not be like the money lender to him.
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You shall not charge him interest. If you ever take your neighbor's garment as a pledge, you take what they've got on that they sleep in at night, their final garment that you take as collateral for the loan, you shall return it to him when?
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Before the sun goes down because he's got to sleep in it. For that is his only covering.
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It is a garment for his skin. What will he sleep in? And it will be that when he cries to me, I will hear God said, for I am gracious.
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They could not even sue people for both the cloak and the undergarment. They could get one, but they couldn't get both.
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It's like the Latin proverb, if one sues you for the egg, give him the hen also. And the whole point here is, what you could legally keep, be glad to give up.
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It's radical. It's amazing. Matthew Henry said, Christ will not have his disciples to insist upon privilege.
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Everything we have is a gift of God, true? Stewardship from God. And we need to hold on to things loosely.
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Think about the confiscation of the first century church when it was persecuted. They took it all. I think about even in my own life.
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Do I have feuds with neighbors about property lines, squabbles over dogs and land?
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Our dog, about, I don't know, four or five weeks ago, another dog came into our yard, and it attacked our dog.
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It was doing the whole shaking thing, blood all over. I didn't know what was happening. I was taking a shower.
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It was Monday, and Kim was at the door talking to a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses. And I always like to kind of,
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I mean, who could ever create this? You don't need sermon illustration books anymore. You just live. And I hear this, and I thought the dog was attacking the
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Jehovah's Witnesses. I better quick get out of the shower and go see what's happening.
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Next thing I know, Kim's walking in with the dog, and there's blood all over. Now, there was a really nice dog who lived a couple houses down the street, and the name was
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Jazz, and they always play together. Jazz will come over to our house and stand at the door to see if Jetty wants to come out to play, and Jazz, over some food that was in our yard.
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Now, part of it is a testimony to my wife, and her spirit -filled thinking, but it's mainly a testimony to the grace of God, because the people two houses down the street whose daughter's dog did this to us aren't
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Christians. And so I can just imagine, here's my flesh, especially after I got back from the vet, $442, $442 bucks.
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My yard, my rights, my dog. And I imagine just going over to the person,
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I'm going, I'm not paying this money. If my dog did that to your dog in your house, you would owe me, and I think there are probably state statutes to back this thing up.
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We're going to go over there to the house, knock on the door, by the way, your dog did this, here's the bill,
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I expect it within 24 hours or my lawyer's going to talk to you, signed, the pastor.
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And the Lord orchestrated just a beautiful thing where she said, you know what, I want to pay, and can
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I pay just $100 every few weeks? And she came by the other day, and we had her in the house, and said to kids, we're going to pray for her, this young lady needs to be saved, she's living with her boyfriend, and Kim said, you know what, it's
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Christmas time, and don't pay us any money back until after the holidays, I know you probably need that money. Oh, thank you.
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I don't know what the Lord's going to do, but I know A, it's not my yard, it's not my house, it's not my wife, it's not my dog,
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I don't have anything, I've been given stewardship of these things, but we're in that neighborhood for one reason.
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You think we just picked that house because we thought it was the best? We did, but God had us pick that house because He knew there was not hardly any other people there who when they die, they're going to heaven.
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I mean, I like dogs, but it's just a dog. And so Jesus is after this whole idea that is more in me than in my wife, that I can't believe you've damaged me and hurt me, and I'm going to get you back.
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You don't have any rights to do these things. Even with your spouses or your friends or your neighbors, is there a standoff because you're not the first one to give in?
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How can unbelievers act like believers? You're the Christian. Number three, we've seen three shocking statements through verses 41.
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This is the third. We've seen two so far, rather. No right to retaliate personally to insult. Number two, no right to personal things.
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Number three, no right to your own time. Verse 41, whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him too.
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When it comes to the king's manifesto and having righteousness from the inside, there's no time that can even be considered our own.
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What do you mean, forces you to go one mile, go with him too? We did not invent Pony Express. Persia did.
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The Romans used it. And basically it would be this. They'd have these satellites on different roads, and if you had a beast of burden or had your own legs and some
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Roman soldier or anyone else in authority said, can you carry something for me as we transport it down the line, then you were required by Roman law to do that very thing.
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It was a thousand paces. A thousand is mil, M -I -L. That's where we get the word mile from, interestingly. You'd have to go a thousand steps with that officer.
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Can you imagine how Pharisees despised the Romans who were there in their own country?
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And if a Roman person who's maybe as bad as a tax collector comes up and says, you know what? I have to impress you into service.
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I have to grab you and put you into service. You go do this thing. They would hate it. And Jesus says, if they ask you for a mile, go to two.
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I mean, can you just imagine today? You say, you're driving to Framingham.
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It's your day off. And the police car pulls you over. Woo, woo, woo. Cherries come up.
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And out of the car come a police officer and our congressman
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Barney Frank. And Barney Frank says to you, I've got these documents and I need you to drive down to New Bedford right now to deliver them.
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Well, what would you think? You'd think you're in a twilight zone is what you'd think. Well, that's the idea.
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And everything's doubled. You want this cheek? Here's the other. You want this garment? Here's another.
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You want one mile? Here's another. Because it's all the law of love. It's all the law of giving. It's not, I own these things.
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It's there's a redemptive agenda. I've got a mile now to walk with this Roman soldier.
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Two miles now to preach the gospel. When they commandeer you, you just do it and you don't say, well, you know what?
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Who are you to tell me? You don't say, you know what? I'll go two miles and I'm going to do it dragging my heels.
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That's not what Jesus is after. Here's the sovereign hand of God and He's put this person in your life and you're just to go along.
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Not to get along, but to go along because Jesus, the one you call Savior and Lord, calls for that.
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Happy compliance. Do errands for the king. It's just like Simon the
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Cyrene. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus in the praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort around Him.
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They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head and a reed in His hand and they knelt down before Him and mocked
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Him saying, Hail, King of the Jews. They spat on Him and they took the reed and began to beat
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Him on the head. And after they mocked Him, they took the scarlet robe off Him and put His own garments back on Him and led
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Him away to crucify Him. And they were coming out.
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They found a man of Cyrene named Simon whom they pressed into service to bear
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His cross. And if Simon looked at Jesus and said, Shall I carry your cross,
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Master? Jesus would have said, Yes, with joy. Several months ago,
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I had to be on jury duty. And I just thought to myself, Jury duty? I have a hard enough time trying to preach sermons without sitting on some jury duty.
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What if I get impaneled for some murder trial or something? What am
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I going to do? And I thought, you know what, when they ask me who I am, I'm going to say I'm a flame -throwing, fire -and -brimstone,
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Bible -teaching pastor who will, you know, just keep going and going until they finally go, Man, that guy, he'd never, he can't sit on our panel.
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So, you know, they call six people up and there I am in Lemonster and wouldn't you know, number six or whatever, and here
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I am with number six. And I thought, well, maybe they'll call me up to the bench and ask, you know, if I think the Bible's really literal or evolution is for a bunch of moralistic fools or something, you know, and I'll be able to go,
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Yes, I believe the Bible. But I was impaneled. It was a great experience, but my attitude to start was all wrong.
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If the government says, you know what, you are going to be a juror, then our duty should be great.
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I wonder if there could be some unbelievers who were in the jury I could talk to at breaks. I wonder how a
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Christian man or a Christian woman would act in this manner. I think of conscientious objectors when it comes to the draft.
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I think Jesus would say to someone who said, I'm going to be a conscientious objector when the government tells me that you are now in the army.
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They can't say, No, I'm not going. I'm going to Canada. Not with what
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Jesus says here. How about when the government says, April 15th, pay your taxes.
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You owe us taxes. And we have to send taxes to abortion mills. I'll pay, but I'm going to send all my money with wheat pennies.
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I'm going to pay that way. We pay joyfully. We pay happily.
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It's God's money, and God says, These are the people over you and pay with joy. We're on a different wavelength. The world's operating in AM and we're on FM.
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It's not self -ish, it's selfless. How about with your boss? Let me just get into your business for a second.
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That's not my job description. You ask me to do something, and according to this little sheet of paper here, this is what
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I'm supposed to do, and you ask me to do something outside the box. And if I have to do it,
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I'm going to do it with a grudge. Better give me a raise, too, for this. Number four, we've got to finish.
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No right to retaliate to insults. You have no right to personal things. You have no right to your own time. And here we go.
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Number four, stock market's really going up. You have no rights to money. Anything you own, you have no right to.
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Verse 42, Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
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Be generous. Stemming from Deuteronomy 15, if there is among you a poor man of your brethren within any of the gates in your land which the
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Lord your God has given you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs.
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And as the Pharisees did a bunch of nitpicking about how much they would have to give or to loan or to share with someone else,
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Jesus is saying, My people are generous. In Luke 6, Jesus said, And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you?
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For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the
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Most High. Do things for people. They ask you for a loan. You say, You know what, I want to help you. And you never get the money back.
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God will pay you, not necessarily the money back, but God will reward you.
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Generous. Love is our principle. You say,
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Well, what about people who don't work? Well, there are other scriptures. If you don't work, then you don't eat. And if you don't work, and you're able to work, and you ask me for money,
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I'm not going to give you the money because there are other scriptures that apply. When I'll go to India in three weeks, and we have been told by the leadership there, there are panhandlers everywhere, and all these children,
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I mean, they come up and just grab you. The first thing that happens when they come up and start calling me Baba, I mean, I've got all my money just stashed and stuck, and dirty, and just want the money.
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I remember when I took Haley there two years ago, and she would just stare at the young girls by the airport who were just begging for money.
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The leadership there has told us, You know what, we have an outreach to people who are on the streets, but you're not going to do any good to these kids by giving them the money because it just goes right up the chain.
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But if you don't know what to do, it's better to give than it is to say,
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Well, I wasn't really quite sure. If you know a panhandler is going to go get alcohol, then don't give him any money.
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I was in Long Beach one day, and a guy out in front of Subway, spare some change? Went in,
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I bought two sandwiches, two foot long sandwiches, came back out and said, I don't want to give you any money, but here's a sandwich for you.
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No thanks. We have a duty to be good stewards to what
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God has given us. Time, money, everything else. All for the sake of gospel, preaching.
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We want to treat people, well, even if they call us cannibals like they did the early Christians. Even when
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Wilberforce, when he wanted to free the slaves, they called him a cruel husband and a wife beater.
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Fair play should not be in the Christian system. I love 1
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Corinthians 6. It helps me with this so I can yield instead of insist. For you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify
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God in your body. Chapter 7 of 1 Corinthians, For he who is called in the
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Lord while a slave is the Lord's freedman, likewise he who is called while free is Christ's slave.
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You were bought with a price. Do not become slaves of men. Paul had rights in 1
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Corinthians 9. He just bypassed those rights. We're to love other people.
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We are redeemed people. And let me give you these illustrations that will so model
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Matthew 5, verses 38 -42. Abraham runs to take care of Lot even after Lot was wicked.
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He rescues him. How did Joseph treat his brothers after they treated him so ruthlessly?
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He generously forgave them. David two times spares
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Saul's life. Elijah, excuse me, Elisha, he gives bread and water to the
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Syrians who are invading. Stephen, when they were stoning him to death, how did he respond?
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And Jesus himself when he prayed, Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.
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We have been bought with a price. Jesus owns everything. We are on a redemptive plan.
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And we are thankful for revelation like this to teach us the right way. Let's pray. Lord in heaven, what a great
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God you are. And we want to be kingdom citizens. We want to act like it. And Lord, we would ask today that you would help us.
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Even give us good trials this week where we have opportunities to insist and to demand but your spirit would help us to give in and to comply and to treat others with love.
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Thank you for loving us. Thank you for having your son die in our place. Thank you for having him be the model of love.
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And Lord, we are thankful that you weren't fair only. You were just and you were loving. And we want to act that way towards other people.
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Father help us to be a church as well when people slander and insult and defame, that we respond with gifts, prayers and love.