Love Your Enemies — Don McClure

Matthew 5 verse 43. You have heard that it hath been said thou shall 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 she may be the children of your father which is in heaven for he maketh his son to rise on evil and on the good to sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

For if he loved them which love you what reward have ye. Do not even the publicans the same. And if you salute your brethren only what do you more than others do not even the public. And so be therefore perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect.

Father we thank you for your word and Lord. We thank you for what is becoming to mean to us Lord this wonderful sermon. We pray father that as we study it that it would just be written indelibly upon our heart Lord that it would be Lord a message that we would be determined we want to live more than anything in the world.

So we ask that you would continue to take it and write it upon us teach it to us father. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Well here in Matthew chapter 5 which we're finally finishing up this chapter I think the rest of the sermon should go probably not any faster but anyway theoretically it should but beginning of course just quickly by reflection it's all based in the Beatitudes.

The Beatitudes and the Transformed Life

And the Beatitudes are this wonderful place to where a transformed life begins to occur transformed by Christ. It's where Jesus begins to take over our heart and our life. It's how we really give him the place of lordship of mastery of supremacy within our life.

It requires that we are poor in our own spirit that we mourn over our own sin that we come meekly before God that there is something within us where we have lost affection for our own our own life our own heart our own life.

We find herself there before God. Lord is there any way you can replace me. Is there any way that you can do anything for me. And there that produces a meekness within us that hopefully now is goes on to a hunger a hunger for God hunger for God that hopefully will never ever end our entire lifetime.

Oswald Chambers once said the great objective of all of life is to be lost in God. And I think that's such an awesome sort of a thing to think about. That's the destiny of life. We are created in his image and we fell away.

And now it ought to be the great pursuit of our heart. Lord I want to be lost lost in God lost in his being in his love and his life and his power. That's what's happening in the Sermon on the Mount. When I'm finally desperately tired of my own nature want God to come and to fill me with himself.

And then comes his merciful merciful heart is merciful spirit begins to make me a peacemaker pure at heart and then makes me a peacemaker. And then he goes on and he now looks at us after he's through this he says you're the salt of the earth he says but however at the salt has lost its savor its hand forth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under the foot of men.

You are the light of the world. And a city that's set upon a hill cannot be hid. He says your life is to be salt is to be light. When you now exemplify to the rest of the planet the rest of the world around you that real life is found in losing it and whosoever would save his life will lose it.

But whosoever will lose his life for my sake the same shall save it. And in losing my life I discover his and the discovery of his letting him take over my life and fill my life then comes about making me the salt of the earth the light of the world.

Jesus’ Teaching on Anger and Lust

And then he goes on and he tells us some of these wonderful things that he that as we have been through other areas all under our own skin we're now in our own heart in our own life. He reveals the fact that he is really on the throne the fact that he has really taken over.

There's some wonderful things that begin to occur. Somebody there that went out outside of Christ outside of his throne and anger I it's so easy to be angry to be upset to be furious at people. But there Jesus he said you have heard that have been said by them of all time thou shall not kill.

And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger the judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother is in danger of the judgment. And there he looks there and he says they're the wonderful thing.

Now you don't have to worry about not just killing somebody. Those things used to maybe be fearful things before you were in Christ but now you can even be set free from being angry if I'm on the throne of your heart the throne of your life.

Anger is something that is going to dissipate it's just going to go another wonderful area of a transformed life and evidence of it is lost. He says you have heard that have been said by them of all time thou shall not commit adultery.

But I send you that whosoever looks at a woman to lust after in his heart has committed adultery with her already there within his heart. But that is something again when Christ is on the throne when I have really there when I'm tired of my heart my life my nature when I'm poor in spirit I mourn over it I become meek.

He fills me with himself the power to to see a transformed life a transform experience is beginning to happen. I can find myself there having the anger go and having this heart my own nature my own heart that can be so hostile so angry that can be so covetous so lustful so looking at the rest of the world around it and desperately wanting it.

Christ’s Lordship in Relationships and Truthfulness

Another thing that's an evidence of somebody there on our own nature just our own flesh. We make commitments but we can't keep them. And we wish we could. We long to few people really want to you know give themselves to other people and into real human relationships and fail with them.

But we do. And but then the the Old Testament they are the Jews kind of accommodated because he said you have heard that if a man gives his wife a writing a divorce his wife let him give her a writing a divorcement.

But I say unto you that whosoever puts away his wife saving for the cause of fornication causes her to commit adultery. And there he's looking there and he says don't worry if I'm on the throne if I'm king I'll give you the ability to make your relationships work.

You don't have to be afraid of losing them. You don't have to be afraid of your own weakness of your own nature. Only respect your own nature enough to stay clear of it and let me be enthroned let me be king.

And he goes on he says again you have heard that it hath been said by them of old time thou shall not forswear thyself but shall perform to the Lord thy knows. But I say to you swear not at all. And there he looks there let your yea be yea and your nay be nay.

The wonderful thing now is he says listen if I am king if I am the Lord of your heart the Lord of your life if I am enthroned within you your yea will be a yea. Your words will be true. You won't have to manipulate and deceive.

And and you know try constantly to twist things around for your own advantage. You can just simply begin to open your mouth and say and say and speak the truth. And here he's looking. These are all evidences under the skin of a Christian you might say it within the heart of a child of God.

Overcoming Self-Interest and Retaliation

Another area that's transformed within us is the area of our own self-interest. And when he goes on he says you have heard that it hath been said you know an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you that you resist not evil and whoever shall smite you on the cheek turn to him the other also.

And then he tells us going. And he goes on and he says things of our own interest our own pride that can so be so strong within us. But there it begins to be transformed. And he says if somebody sues you at court for like your coat give him your your cloak also.

And he says if somebody compels you to go a mile go with him to give to him that ask us don't turn anybody away. And all these things of my own life my own pride my own stuff my own coat you know my own time my own having to go a second mile and go out of my way for somebody and or to be interested in other people so much so as I would want to give to somebody.

And here Jesus said the most wonderful thing happens to the child of God. He says these areas are transformed and to me as I believe I've said before as we've looked at that through this sermon these I believe are the greatest battles of the Christian.

The Battle Beneath the Skin

These right here in chapter 5 are some of the greatest and most fundamental areas that if ever a Christian ought to find themselves in prayer there where the real the greatest battles are in the Jesus said in the world you'll have tribulation.

And I know that that's obviously many forms of tribulation. But my personal conviction is the deepest tribulation that anybody ever has is the tribulation within our own heart the trials within our own soul over our anger or over our lust over our ability to maintain and keep relationships or to keep our word or to deny ourself.

Those are the great battles those things we have every day and constantly going on around us. And when we as a Christian realize God this is the battle these are where I want to begin to draw a line and God I want victory in these areas.

Jesus I want you so enthroned within my life that my anger can be taken away can be taken out of my heart that my lustful heart can be tamed and you can be enthroned and you can be king and you can take these things away.

One of the things I think so often you know we have clinics and we have courses and we have all these you know one two three four step plans to one thing or another. But here Jesus he has essentially one-step plan of anger management and he has a one-step plan of you know pornography and or of lust and he's got a one-step plan of rebuilding relationships.

And the one step is he says enthrone me let me be king. And there's where we fight the battle there because and we don't fight that battle we're constantly under our own energy and our own strength trying to put down a nature that we're feeding and we're building up instead of denying and wanting to see it it buried.

And now here he looks at the last in these areas of things under her own skin he's in the next chapter he's gonna shift gears. But here now he talks about in her own skin of hating and of hating our enemies and something there another you know in the battle that we so often have within us when now you know he turns and he tells us you have heard that hath been said thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.

You know you've heard that you know that you love the people around you and you love your neighbor. But it's just fine to just simply determine who your enemies are and then it's okay to hate them. And Jesus you know he turns there and he says it.

Loving Enemies as a Test of Christ’s Reign

But I say and do you love your enemies here now he turns and he tells them four things that he wants to see us do. But first I suppose it's important this even to define a little bit you know what our enemy is you see because Jesus there these things here in in the rest of chapter 5 after the Beatitudes they're kind of divine revelations or revelators almost of our own heart.

If I say Jesus is my Lord and yet I can't control my anger. If I say he's Lord of my life and lust is going on I see say he's Lord of my life and relationships continue to fail. I say he's Lord of my life and I can't keep my word I say he's Lord of my life.

And yet I cannot deny myself and I find all of these things are people. Things if you've noticed they're getting along with people relating to people. These are things that really show if I've experienced the Beatitudes or not.

And if I've experienced the Beatitudes I'll be able to look at these things and realize Jesus these are the battles that I want to see you win. And these are the areas of my life you're working in transforming me bringing me back into your image if I'm if I'm not in the Beatitudes if I'm not you know letting my life be transformed by the Lord of these battles will just rage uncontrollably.

I'll go from one to another to another. I can go you know right from anger to to lust to broken relationships to broken commitments to get out of my way and can my pride flares up. And they're just symptomatic of who is on the throne of who is really Lord.

And if I'm in fellowship and I've been through the experience of the Beatitudes I understand them. I have his power the power of his presence the power of his Holy Spirit to succeed and have victory in these areas.

And and if I don't I won't if I don't let him be king. And I think one of the things as well that Jesus here points out is that the problems in our life there are never ever ever outside our skin. The problems here.

Jesus is saying in this chapter the problems in my life are under my skin. They are not people. So often we look there and said you know a life would be wonderful if it wasn't for you. You know or something in the end were this person or that if I didn't have to deal.

And it's always something out there if that if that could be fixed and a lot of people spend a tremendous amount of time and energy and effort praying about and struggling with and you know worrying about and trying to manage everything outside their skin.

But here the real issue is that when somebody realized there's no enemy outside my skin the enemy is under my skin. And if Christ is enthroned there if he is really King he'll take care of all the battles outside and he'll demonstrate the victory that he has as being King and Lord by giving me the victory over these things I realize that there's no enemy there's no weapon formed against me that'll prosper.

There's nothing that'll ever come across my path if I'm right with him that'll take me down. And so if something is taking me down rather than that's the problem or that just reveals who's enthroned that reveals who is who's the king.

And essentially the bottom line is is that the only person that can do these things in chapter 5 or 6 or 7 essentially there is somebody that is letting Jesus be King letting him be enthroned. You see Jesus is great project with all of us every single one of his blood-bought children all of us is the replacement of self with the Holy Spirit.

When Adam fell and the self essentially rose up pride took over. I will I'll have I want I can do I will do get out of my way and watch me. This whole nature was created. And here the thing that Jesus when he comes into our life now his plan is is to put that to death and to replace it with the one that was to be there in the first place the Holy Spirit.

And he spends wonderfully patiently our entire life dealing with self. That's his real project. I believe above all other projects that he has. Oh he wants to use this in our life and bear fruit and be salt and be light.

And he wants us to serve him. And he's got wonderful plans for our life. But his great project with us personally is to transform us back into his image back into his nature back into his character. And unfortunately we spend so much of our life not realizing that and just concerned still about our own self.

Even as a Christian you know we spend so much time and energy looking out for self or else looking out for other people who might make self angry. You know who do attack myself or offend myself or hurt myself or not not nice to myself.

Then all of a sudden this whole thing comes up and I'm in trouble. George Mueller once wrote about himself. There was a day when I died utterly died died to George Mueller and his opinions preferences tastes and will died to the world it's approval or censure died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends.

And since then I have studied only to show myself approved and to God let me read that again. It's awesome to me. There was a day when I died utterly died to George Mueller and his opinions preferences tastes and will died to the world it's approval or censure died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends.

And since then I have studied only to show myself approved and to God. I don't know about you but how I wish I could write that in my diary is he didn't his. How I'd how I would love you know that and then not get struck with lightning after I wrote it you know.

Or have my wife read it and just think she picked up the comic books you know or something there and listen to her laugh. But wouldn't you love that to have something there where you could write that and put your name in it and see there was a day that I died.

I died to myself. I died to my nature. I died to my will. I died to my preferences. I died to having to have anything approval or censure or anything at all. I died to it. And since then I'm only alive to study to show myself approved unto God.

What a wonderful thing. And here Jesus tells us another way that you can determine if you're if you died another way to determine effectively if you've really given up. And he says you have heard that hath you know been said thou shall love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.

But I say unto you love your enemies. Now here first of all I suppose enemies I might say fall essentially into two categories. One to me is essentially kind of philosophical or political or national or military or you know distant enemies I suppose kind of like the you know Philistines were or the Moabites or the Edomites national enemies or political enemies or moral enemies just in not with a face on them but just whether it's the Saddam Husseins of the world or it's you know the Adolf Hitler's or you know the Republicans or the Democrats or whatever you know these big forces out there that I hate them or the abortionists or whatever else that we look at and say these are enemies you know or something that some would look at in one way or another and call them that.

And and that could certainly be and is of course. But then there's personal enemies. And there's enemies of those that have personally abused or manipulated deceived ripped off hurt conned somehow or another.

What they have done is they got into our heart and into our life. And in the process of it they did something that we looked at them and you are an enemy. And I suppose this is this is the whole gamut of them.

This is whether when we're looking at the huge picture of the world or we're just looking at somebody that individually we find ourselves our own nature says I hate them I just hate them. And here Jesus when he sits on the throne he looks at us under our skin and he tells us he says now love your enemy love your enemy.

And of course this may seem impossible and without him it is but it's also something that many times to us in a natural thing we still look there and we we look at this and say I love my enemies. How this is terrible.

Love as Obedient Action, Not Emotion

And I think one of the reason is is that we we don't understand love. First of all I think love is not a feeling. Love is not an emotion. Love is a behavior. It's it's it's it's simply a behavior at the deepest sense at all of it.

I believe it's something there that we're looking for this overwhelming force that's just gonna sweep over our heart you know this called love this mushy gooey you know sweet sort of a thing something that kind of wells up within us just carries us off and we're saying God yeah I gotta love my enemy you know or something.

Or we've got this picture sometimes of love of being. You know a man and a woman running towards each other in the midst of a flowery field with an orchestra playing romantic music and birds flying and dropping rose petals on them and they am run and meet in the middle and melt in each other's arms and we say that's love.

That isn't love. It isn't love at all. Now I'm not saying that it isn't potentially a reward of love or a response to love you know or a something that can come from it. But that is not love. And sometimes I think we are looking there like God give me this this emotion or giving this feeling where I can just go to them and it just compels me.

And I don't hear the music playing. I don't you know here there's no flowers around a run through the field or something as if we're waiting for some sort of an experience where I'd love them. Love isn't that at all that isn't love.

Love is quite different than that love essentially it's a behavior. I said love is giving your life for somebody. That's what love is really all about. Love is dying on a cross for somebody. Love there is finding there in a sense not so much an emotion not so much this great big feeling.

That's there. It's a behavior where somebody lays down their life for somebody regardless of what feeling or what emotion may or may not be there so many people. Sometimes we're just praying you know earnestly God give me love give me love for my husband give me love for my wife give me love for my children.

Have you seen these children God give me love you know or something. And we're crying out to you know wanting this this feeling there where I can just run you know to them and embrace them and and then we end up you know in despair you know sometimes there and he never.

God's not giving me love. I'm praying for love. I'm asking for love. But the thing is I'm so glad Jesus didn't sit in the garden the night before he was crucified and wait for some sort of a feeling before he could go die for us.

His feelings were quite the contrary. He sweat as it were great drops of blood. And he says father I would that you would remove this cup from me. All of his feelings told him hey let's go the other direction everything internally within him for what he was about to have to go through at the cross.

But at the same time love compelled him. He behaved in love. He did the work of love. He laid down his life. Not because he felt like it. Love was not a feeling it was a behavior. It was something there that it was driven within his heart.

And when we find out there I think that that God looks at us. We're saying God give me love. And God says no I gave you blood you you let it bleed you let it. You know what it is to give yourself for somebody to lay down your life for your husband or for your wife or for your children or for the people at the office or the other people you don't get along with or whatever it is that you may be having difficult times with.

This is one of the greatest tests of if Jesus is on the throne of our life loving our enemies like this it really reveals ultimately who is really enthroned if I am so completely given to him through the Beatitudes if I have so surrendered my life that I mean business I really want to say I died one day.

I calculated it out I planned it out I longed for it I prayed for it and I died. And I meant business. I gave my life in full surrender to him. And the evidence of it or one of the ones here as we look at tonight is the fact that now I am experienced a behavior.

I have the capacity maybe not the feeling but the capacity the behavior to be obedient and say Lord I'll lay my life down. You want me to hang upon a cross for somebody. You want me to you know to shed of my own blood or my own life to you know for them.

That's the business you know of what it is here. And that's what Jesus actually did for us. Paul actually writes in Romans chapter 5 you want to know what the other side of the things the Bible says for if when we were without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

And then he goes on a couple verses later and he says God commends his love for us. And that while we were yet sinners here the Bible looks at us. And he says you want to know what he would God was dealing with when Jesus said I love you.

As he looks at people who are without strength who were ungodly who were sinners. And then in verse 10 he says for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son will much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life.

But here when Jesus was sitting there and giving of his life in obedience in love for us who wasn't a feeling he could look over at the other side of the equation unless and at us and say well here's somebody that's there they're without strength they are ungodly they are sinners.

And they are all-out enemies of my throne in my kingdom and what I'm all about. And yet he died for us. That's love that we were enemies. The Bible says in Christ died while we were enemies. And when he's drawn and thrown in my life he says now you can do it now I want to do it through you.

These were all things that Jesus did for us when we were enemies. And now when he's enthroned he says I I want you. When people can come to you and and they may be are everything opposed to you. They don't get along with you they don't like you.

They'd like to take you down. They're enemies of you. He says love your enemies. And here that when we find that this is is the great issue in life and I'm sure some here you've been deeply hurt you've been offended.

There are people I'm sure that you look at and you would say this person I hate them if ever as any if ever I had an enemy it would be this person now they abused or they ripped off or they deceived or what they did to my life what they have done to it and the the scar that is upon it and somebody there that also sometimes we look at people that do that and what even makes us angrier is they willfully did it they planned it out.

They literally wanted to hurt us. They wanted to take us down. Maybe we were young and innocent and even worse yet they didn't care what the abuse was and something there that in the natural man if anything would bring out hate.

These are the things so often that would do it. And I'm sure that there's some here and yet at the same time the things that qualified somebody to do those things the fact that they themselves they were were people who were ungodly and they were sinners and they were without strength and they were enemies of God and enemies of the nature of God and the character of God.

Thus they were corrupt human beings. Socially corrupt morally corrupt terribly you know corrupt and yet then in as bankrupt as somebody could be. And and yet sometimes we look at them and say they didn't have to do it.

They did this willfully to me and that they did it personally to me. And that makes it worse. That's why I hate them. But you see the thing is is sometimes what's interesting I've noticed about us. We look at somebody and we think they're capable of better.

They're notice that you'd maybe the person that you maybe hate or you you would call an enemy. They're oftentimes somebody they were capable of better and they chose to do what they did to me. They didn't have to do it.

It wasn't an accident it was planned and it was willful. And these are the types of things that happen to people. But so often if we were you know if we looked at somebody and we realized there though they maybe look like they're mentally capable and they look like they're you know emotionally stable or something.

But in reality they are spiritually so dark and so far from God they aren't. They look healthy. But inside there is cripple as a human being could be. And when we would realize that sometimes we look at somebody realize that a lot of people terribly crippled inside they look fine on the outside you would but would you ever go up to a person that if they were crippled in their wheelchair and you're up of a flight of stairs would you say come here come here.

I want you up here. And if somebody sat there what's it. What are you doing to them. They got. They can't get up there. But you know they wouldn't look at that person and think there's something wrong with them.

They'd look at something you and say something wrong with you. Well there's a lot of people that are far more crippled than that. It's internally it's their own heart it's their own life. They can't live right.

They don't know how they have done what they've done because of their far-off relationship with God. And for us to look there and realize all right they have done something that qualifies them to be an enemy.

But God you now tell me to love them. You now tell me that you want me to be able to look at them as somebody who is without strength and is ungodly and is a sinner. And though an enemy of mine you have put a life within me that now I can reach out to the very person that is their chief victim.

And I can be the vessel through which you can transform them and help them get out of that chair that they're in out of that crippled state. This is what he's saying love your enemy love them in there.

That when then when there's a love that comes along that it doesn't feel like maybe doing something. But I look at them and I know what it is. Lord I'll give my life for them. I don't know how I feel about it.

But I'll give my life. I'll give my. You know I'll be obedient. I'll die for them. I'll rise from the dead. I'll come back I'll return good for evil. And here Jesus said this is something that if you do this whatever they may do with it's not the issue this will reveal to you.

I'm enthroned. This is almost the crowning blow. You know in a sense of the crowning story in Revelation where Jesus can say I am King. He then goes on secondly and he says into them. He says bless them that curse you.

Blessing Those Who Curse You

Now there's somebody that you know that comes along. And how now he begins there that there's people that you know to love your enemies. I says bless those that curse you. It's kind of like there he gives counterattacks to attacks.

You know somebody comes along and so you went and did something for him and you loved him. And they didn't do anything. They just came back and cursed you. This is a fine you know how do you do. You know I love you.

And then I really you did everything wrong to me. You hurt me you offended me. You were an enemy. And here I am. I'm coming to love you. And what do you do you say get out of here. I don't need your love you so-and-so.

And then they curse us. And you know tell us. You know whatever else they want to tell us. But you know the interesting thing now too now he says now I want you to go back and bless them. The curse you to bless as you we've already seen through the Beatitudes means to make joyful huh.

Boy you may want to look there's not only not now now Lord you know. And now you not only want me to love him now you want me to go make him happy. You know sort of a thing come on what in the world is with you.

You want me to do all I can to make their life joyful. I don't understand this. But he says precisely that's what I want you to do. I want you now through the then because that's exactly what he did for us.