Wednesday Night, September 9, 2020 PM

I'll be reading verses 27 through 31, Luke chapter six, verses 27 through 31 this evening.

Let's start with a word of prayer. Father, I thank you so much for gathering us together tonight. I pray that you would bless our discussion of your word.

I pray that you would help us to understand it rightly and apply it thoroughly as we obey our

Savior and sovereign Jesus Christ. We thank you that we can come to your word and have your revelation perfect and true and clear and fully authoritative and sufficient and useful for everything that we have to think about and work on and experience and do in our lives.

We thank you that you have not left us orphans, that as Christ reigns from heaven, he has sent us the

Holy Spirit. We thank you, Spirit, for dwelling us. We pray now that you would clarify the word that is breathed out from God to us.

We thank you for this word which you have given to us and pray that you would work your will in our hearts so that we would be the amen on earth, the will of God in heaven.

We pray these things for the sake of Jesus Christ, amen. So we finished up looking at the woes and the blessings or the beatitudes and the curses in verses 20 through 26 of Luke chapter six.

It has been often observed that there are similarities between this passage in Luke and the

Sermon on the Mount as we know it from Matthew chapters five, six, and seven.

Although this passage from Luke is far shorter, there are some similarities. And this next section is no exception to that rule.

We're going to be reading some things here in Luke six verses 27 to 31, very familiar from the

Sermon on the Mount from Matthew. So some of it's a little bit different, but certainly some material, some truths that were near and dear to Christ's heart, what he wanted to teach his disciples, what he wanted to proclaim to the masses that he understood they needed to hear.

Remember that when Jesus looked at the people, how did he see them? They were like sheep without a shepherd.

He had compassion on them. He was concerned for them. And when Christ had compassion on them, it says that Jesus began to teach them, that that was the way he expressed his compassion, that as soon as he saw the needs of this great crowd, he began to teach them.

And so he teaches them here. So let me read the word for us,

Luke six, 27 through 31. 31, but I say to you who hear, love your enemies.

Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you.

Pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also.

And whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.

Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. Thanks be to God.

I've entitled this lesson, Social Mercy, Social Mercy.

It's interesting the way in which Jesus says to handle wrongdoing and oppression.

He calls for a response that can be summed up by the word mercy.

I think the way that Christ is calling for Christians to handle things is far different than the ways that is more popular today.

And I think that in many quarters in the church in evangelicalism, as we've been talking about on Sunday nights, that Jesus Christ is time and again portrayed as a champion of social justice.

And in fact, it's very hard to reconcile that with his teachings, for instance, right here.

And I bring this up, I just was at a luncheon this last week with Trevor Loudon.

And some pastors and some people from the area. And he's from New Zealand, but he's a world -renowned expert on Marxism.

But he's helping to produce a documentary about the penetration of cultural

Marxism within North American evangelical church. And so he stopped by in Oklahoma City just to talk.

He had some friends here, and so he wanted to come and talk a little bit. And he shared a couple of the stories that I had heard before. But how are we to handle oppression?

Or how are we to handle things if we feel like we have been wronged? What's the proper approach?

How's that supposed to happen? He told a story, one story is from a Southern Baptist church in North Carolina.

And a seminarian there from Southeastern, hot out of the

Wokies classes there in Southeastern goes to his church and he notices that there's a black family and a white family and they share the last name.

What's the first thing you would think of if they share the last name? Any ideas?

Related, cool. Yeah, fun. I can see the family resemblance, ha ha ha.

You know, that's great. Do you all have family reunions? Do you have barbecues together? That's fun. No, a young man out of Southeastern responds to the ways he's been taught.

Obviously the white family at some point owned the black family in history. And so the white family needs to publicly repent and ask forgiveness from the black family for their ancestors owning their ancestors.

Right? This is Southern Baptist seminaries now, okay? And so what happens is this family says, we didn't do anything.

Even if it was true, how do we ask forgiveness for our ancestors? Right? How do you atone for sins of your ancestors?

I mean, are they in purgatory? What now? They have to be a

Catholic, right? That's kind of an odd way to think about that. And even they did a little bit of genealogy history. You know, you can do that.

You have all these different options. You can go do your genealogies and figure it out. And lo and behold, they never owned any slaves in all of their ancestry.

But nonetheless, they were forced to, they say, you have to ask for, and that church no longer exists.

Right? Now, let's say that there was a perceived wrong there. Let's say there was an actual offense.

And let's just say it was somebody just taking offense on the behalf of somebody else. That's a new thing, by the way. Did you know that?

It's a new thing. You can be offended on the behalf of somebody else and then complain about the hate speech or whatever it was, even though it wasn't targeted at you, you still suffered.

Because of the violence perpetrated by somebody else's speech. But anyway, that church no longer exists. Why? That wasn't the way of Christ.

So this is just one example. There's other stories as well. But let's say there was an actual offense. Well, what would

Jesus say to do? What would Jesus say to do? I say to those you hear, love your enemies.

Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. I mean, it'd be really, really, really hard to split a church following those instructions, wouldn't it?

I mean, I don't know how you do it. How could you manage to split a church if everyone was following those instructions?

And so Jesus is not an advocate of social justice.

Eric Mason, who wrote the book Woke Church, just came out with a big time sermon. Basically, it's a blame it, claim it gospel in which you blame certain classes of people for all of your problems and then claim that they owe you all sorts of reparations and then you add scripture verses to prove it.

The point I'm trying to make is that social justice is being advanced in the name of Christ. Now, when

Jesus is talking here in verses 27 through 31, he's talking about what is your personal response as a follower of Jesus Christ.

He's already laid out the way of life and the way of death. He said, here's the way of blessing. Here's the way of cursing, beatitudes, and woes.

So if we're gonna follow Christ and have life in him to know his liveliness in our lives, then what is our response when we are wronged?

What is our personal response when we are wronged? That's an important question. And Jesus gives us the answers and his answer is mercy.

That's different. That's different when we're talking about an individual's responsibility when someone acts the enemy against you versus the responsibilities of a family or the responsibilities of a church or the responsibilities of a state.

For example, my son Benjamin was out mowing. I had him mow for me the other day.

It was great. He's 13 years old. He did the whole job. I didn't have to do anything. Praise the Lord.

And if someone came by and I had this really sad push lawnmower, the bag has been long shredded.

There's no cap on the gas. There's a plastic bag in there. It's the saddest looking push mower. It still works, seven seasons.

And let's say someone comes along and they want that mower and they push Benjamin down and they steal the mower and they run off with it.

How am I supposed to respond? How Benjamin responds in that moment, does he respond immediately in revenge?

He's not in any danger. He did get this thing stolen and he did get a little roughed up. His life isn't in danger, but he's probably pretty mad.

Maybe a little bit scared. So how does he respond? Is he supposed to chunk a brick at the back of the man's head as he's running away?

No, that would be classified as what? That would be taking your own personal vengeance. And so the response for the individual in the moment should be mercy, but as a father, my responsibility as a father in protecting my family will be different than his to some degree, won't it?

And in fact, when this man, if we ever find that his identity, and that he's a member of a local

Baptist church, let's say, what is the responsibility of that church or the elders of that church?

If I say, you know, one of your church members came over the other day and pushed my son down and stole our mower.

Well, that church has responsibilities, right, in terms of church discipline. Bob, did you do this, you know?

Can, you know, have to walk through that whole Matthew 18 thing. And then there's a different set of responsibilities for the state government, right?

So if there's a police officer happened to cruise by and he sees what happens, his response shouldn't be one, oh,

Jesus said to be merciful. That's not, no, he represents the state.

He carries the sword and he's to punish evildoers. So he has his responsibilities as well. So I want us to keep that in mind as we read through here what

Jesus is saying, how Jesus is instructing is our personal response when we are wronged, okay?

How are we supposed to convey Christ to those who wrong us?

And that's really what he's after. And that's why he's a social mercy advocate in verses 27 and 28.

But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

Now remember that Jesus is taking up the mantle of a law giver. He's gone up the mountain, he's come back down the mountain, and now he's teaching.

Just like Moses went up the mountain and came back down the mountain with the two tablets of the law. Jesus has come back down the mountain and now he is instructing the way of God to the people of God.

He has the mantle of the prophet as he's taking up all of the teachings of the

Old Testament and saying, thus saith the Lord, this is what this means. That has been gotten lost in the ends and outs of Second Temple Judaism that is so upset with Jesus right now.

You know, you're not saying things the way we like it. So let's look up Leviticus 19.

Leviticus chapter 19. Dwight is listening for creaking.

Is it creaking or squeaking? What was it? Creaking in the Bible. Leviticus 19 verses 17 and 18.

Says, you shall not hate your fellow countrymen in your heart.

You shall not hate your fellow countrymen in your heart. You may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him.

You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

I am the Lord. Remember when Jesus was asked, what is the great command? He said, well, you love the

Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang all the law and the prophets.

Like the two hinges of the door. The whole thing turns on those. Love God supremely, love others rightly. Well, he's quoting from here.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Okay. Well, what kind of society is

God building there in Leviticus 19, 17 through 18? What seems to be the main point here?

Yes, as far as it depends upon you, live at peace with all men, isn't it? And part of, okay, so love your neighbor as yourself.

Don't take your own vengeance. Don't hate your fellow countrymen.

Now, notice he says, you may surely reprove your neighbor. If the neighbor,

Bob, has an ox, but he does not keep well pinned up.

And this ox is known to be something of a thug. Right? Maybe took a swipe at somebody one time because Bob doesn't keep the thing locked up properly.

You don't hate Bob, but you may reprove him. Say, Bob, you got to keep that animal in check.

Now, let's say that Bob doesn't do it and the bull gets out and it runs over and kills, let's say, your donkey.

Okay. Now, you're pretty upset with Bob, obviously, but you do not go get your scythe and go poke a hole in Bob.

Right? Or his donkey. Why? Because you don't take your personal vengeance.

Whose job is it to take care of evildoers? It's the state. All right, so this is where the instructions at the end of Romans 12, moving on into Romans 13, tell us it's not your job to take personal vengeance.

It's not your job to write personally the wrongs done to you. Our response should be different.

Okay, so this is the kind of society that God is building here. Now, how would, what was the, we have this in Matthew's account.

You've heard it said, "'Love your neighbor, but hate your enemies.'" Well, see, the rabbis took this passage here out of Leviticus and used it to add and say, see, it says, love your countrymen.

It says, love your neighbor. It says nothing about your non -countrymen or somebody who's not your neighbor, so you can hate them.

Right? So they see, they look around and they say, oh, this is what this also means.

And they add to that. So Jesus says, you have heard it said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. I say to you, what does he say?

Love your enemies. He says, love your enemies.

Okay, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

So, a couple of questions, and then we will leave the rest for next time.

Question number one, what would Jesus have to say about the riots? What do you think?

I mean, you just read what he says here. Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you, and go on and read the next part.

Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also, and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either.

Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.

Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. So what do you think he would have to say about the riots? Okay, so the people who are accountable before God to punish evildoers is the authority that God has ordained, which is the state, right?

That's why you pay taxes, scripture says, okay? So they're the ones who should, okay, so let's say if you own a business and the rioters come and they burn it down, right?

Do you pursue a course of finding out who those people were so you can go burn down their houses?

No, that's taking vengeance into your own hands. This is not to say that self -defense isn't biblical.

Jesus was an advocate for self -defense, right? They were traveling from one place to another, made sure that they had a couple of swords in their group.

Said, well, that'll do us. Okay, so he's an advocate for self -defense. That's different than I've been wronged, now

I will go and make it, I'm gonna settle my score with you, okay? Jesus says actually the opposite should happen.

You should love your enemies. Jesus is not demanding here that his followers approve of evil.

Remember the passage he's working out of his Leviticus where he says you may reprove your neighbor, right? They do something wrong.

So he's not saying you have to approve of evil perpetrated by your opponents. He doesn't say that there's no case for law to get involved or that justice is really just letting them do whatever they want.

No, he's definitely against evil doers. What is wicked must be branded as wicked.

But there is to be no spirit of revenge in his followers. There's to be no spirit of revenge in his followers.

In fact, actually the opposite, the answer to a deed of cruelty is actually a deed of kindness. The three

Ds of the enemies are listed for us. How do you know they're an enemy? Well, you'll know them by their fruits, right?

Love your enemies. Well, who's my enemy? Well, they have to hate you, right?

An enemy is somebody who hates you, an enemy is somebody who curses you, an enemy is somebody who mistreats you.

It's like, oh, okay, so that's an enemy. So then what is the three responses to, what does love mean in this case?

Well, he says, well, it says love your enemies. What does that mean? He gives us three responses.

He says, do good, bless, and pray. Do good, bless, and pray.

And I think this point is dealt with at length by Peter in 1

Peter 2, verses 18 through 25, as he talks about suffering for doing what is good, but what is our response?

And our response is to be that of Christ's own response.

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return, right?

We notice Christ on the cross praying for those who were crucifying him.

We see that, right? And Peter says, not only does he tell us that this is our example, but he also tells us that Christ died and was raised to give us the kind of life that we need to be able to do that.

So on the other side of it, well, what would Jesus have to say about the riots?

Well, the riots are being done in the name of doing something about those who are their enemies.

And it's hard to understand the mindset. And here in a couple of weeks, we'll begin to kind of talk about the mindset behind it.

But you have to understand that a lot of these folks have been, I would say, indoctrinated, okay?

Indoctrinated to believe that if anybody says or fails to say, or does or fails to do something in line with what they understand to be diversity, inclusion, and equity,

D -I -E, die, that if you fail to say or say something against, or you fail to do or you do something against,

D -I -E, and especially the speech part, that is violence.

When people are parading through the streets and they are saying, stop killing us, stop killing us, stop killing us.

And someone's like, well, let's look at the statistics and let's see how many people are dying, by whom, and so on. That's not what they're talking about.

That's not what they're talking about. They've been indoctrinated that speech is violence, that when people do not use proper pronouns or people don't use the code of language that has been approved by some sort of consensus that's always changing, but if you fail to speak in the ways that are approved, then you are perpetrating violence upon them, that they are feeling the effects of that violence and they are suffering unto early death because of it.

And they believe this as gospel truth. They have been indoctrinated.

So they perceive a great wrong has been done to them, though they have, it's like, okay, no wrong has really been perpetrated on those accounts.

Wrongs have been done, but not in that regard. But let's say they actually believe, okay, so they believe great wrong has been done.

Great wrong has been done. So then what would Jesus say to them about their personal response to that?

How should they handle that? Exactly, that's what he says, right?

Do you identify people who refuse to use your preferred pronoun, your enemy? Do you view them as your enemy?

Do you believe that because they won't use your preferred pronoun that they hate you?

Do you believe that because somebody saves their money and works hard at their job and maybe starts their own business, that that means that they are oppressing you because they're not sharing their wealth with you?

Do you believe that that is the, again, do you believe that that is a wrong done to you? Do you believe that they have mistreated you?

Somehow, they have mistreated you. If that is the case, then how would

Jesus have you respond? Love, do good, bless, and pray. And it gets even more specific in the next couple of verses.

So the way of Christ, you see, would, I think, totally diffuse, even if it was misunderstood, the offenses.

It would totally diffuse the angry situation, wouldn't it? And actually would provide,

I think, an opportunity for more clarity, especially if we're going to be saying, what did

Christ say about this in the moment? And what does Christ say about these bigger issues that I'm talking about?

And the light of Christ would clarify and diffuse. As it is, someone wrote, in such an atmosphere, it is impossible, in the atmosphere of divisiveness and everybody getting divided up into their groups, in such an atmosphere, it is impossible for hatred to starve.

It has plenty to feed on, right? So we'll talk more about social mercy in action, verses 29 through 30, and social mercy summarized in verse 31 next time.

Any questions or thoughts before we have a time of prayer? All right.