← The Church of Eleven22
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Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Hey, if you got your Bibles, and I hope you do, grab them, we are going to be in Matthew. We are in chapter five. We're continuing our study on the best sermon ever preached in the world. This is the third week of this study. We're calling this season Mountain to Mountain. Because if we remember, Matthew was an insider who by his own decisions, chose to be an outsider. And then God went and saved him. And so we. What Matthew is trying to do is connect his people, the Jewish audience, to understand that Jesus is the greater Moses. Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise that God gave to Abraham. And so just like Moses went up on a mountain and God wrote a law on these stone tablets, Jesus goes up on a mountain, and we're particularly going to see this today. And he wants us to know that this law is not just written on an external stone tablet, but he wants it to be written on our heart. And so what we're talking about here, again, he started with the Beatitudes. He started with the Gospel. Blessed are you when you are poor in spirit, when you realize that you're spiritually bankrupt and you need a Savior. Blessed are you when you mourn your spiritual disconnect from God Almighty. Blessed are you when you were meek, when you turned the reins of your life over to Jesus. And then when that happens, it changes everything about everything about everything. So today he's going to talk about activity. But again, I got to warn us over and over and over, the moment we start talking about how we should live and the things we should do, we can forget the Gospel in two seconds and we can begin to believe that our activity precedes our identity. And if we obey, then maybe we'll be accepted. That's not the gospel. That when what Jesus is going to teach, he doesn't use this illustration. But when you get run over by the grace train, it changes everything about everything about everything. That the reason that we obey, the reason that we act differently is because Christ has changed our identity. And so he's gonna talk about six different things. Okay? And I mean, I don't know what to tell you. It's gonna get rough. It's gonna get real rough. This is not anybody that's like, I just really love the teachings of Jesus. You've never read them? Cause they're brutal. And this is gonna be brutal. And our problem is, I think what Jesus is trying to get to here is we tend to treat sin like it's a behavior problem instead of the reality that it's actually a heart problem. And so Jesus is going to get to the heart of it, because what we do matters. But the motivation behind that matters even more. In Second Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 14, the Bible says this. For Christ's love controls us. I like the way the new international version translates just this one word. It says, for Christ's love compels us. So why do we do what we do? The love of Christ on the inside of me forces me, controls me, compels me to live a different way. Because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died, and he died for all. That those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again. So again, he starts with the Beatitudes. That's just laying out the gospel. And when you are infected with the gospel, we are called to be salt and light. That means that there are no secret agent Christians in this world. That if you are salt, if you are light, we should have an impact on this world. Pastor Trey Brunson shared a quote with me last week. After I was preached three or four times, I was like, that would have been better before I started preaching. But it's such a good quote. It's from Francis Schaeffer. He summed up all of last week this way. He says, our culture, society, government, and law are in the condition they are in, not because of a conspiracy, but because the church has forsaken its duty to be salt in this culture. That's what he talked about last week. Okay. It's kind of neat. We have people listening and watching from all over the place. We have dozens and dozens and dozens of outposts. And one of our online Members of 1122 is a Hollywood actor. I'm not going to tell you who, because the moment I tell you who, you'll just be googling what movies he's in the whole time. You won't listen to what I'm saying. And he sends me this text, this long text, and he says that the preaching of the Gospel from 1122 and the books and the Deepen podcast and the Built for More podcasts have changed his life. God has used these things to completely transform his life and completely transform his marriage. And he was always wrestling with his role in Hollywood. And then he says, now I know that God has me in the darkness of Hollywood to be light, to reach just one more person. That's what we're talking about. All right, so now, Jesus, we're going to talk about you Ready for this? We're going to talk about anger, lust. That's why so many of you are here. Divorce, oaths, retaliation, and loving our enemies. Those are our topics for our time together. Sound fun? No, it sounds terrible. But we got to get a little running start or we're going to miss everything. Okay, we'll pick up some verses from last week. Starting in 17, says this Jesus, remember? He goes, don't think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom. The reason I'm reading you this is because when we get to the divorce part, I have just already made a decision in my mind. I have resolved and pre decided that I refuse to stand before God one day and him go, why didn't you teach that part? And me go, I don't know if you know this, but it's offensive. It's kind of hurtful. So before Jesus gets into the specifics about lust and anger and breaking promises and all the things that we all do, he says, whoever, if you try to water this thing down so as not to offend, if you come to this thing with a highlighter and some scissors, I'm like, well, we don't really like that part anymore. Then you will be called the least in the kingdom. You might have a big Instagram following. Adorable, but I don't want to be the least in the kingdom. He says, therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds the that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. And everybody heard that and thought, uh oh, that's going to be rough. But then what Jesus is going to do is that the actual follower of Jesus, their righteousness actually does exceed that of the Pharisees, because the Pharisees were only concerned with an external and public showing so as to impress people and earn a right standing with God. And that's not it. What Jesus wants is a heart driven response to the love of God that Christ's love compels me not to live for me, but to live for him. That's what Jesus wants. Not begrudging submission to a set of laws, but that the love of Christ would compel us. What he's going to do is he's going to give six examples of actual laws that were in the Bible and then some laws that kind of started in the Bible and then people added stuff to them. You ever known church people to add some stuff to God's law? Can you believe it? And I forget who said this, but I read a commentary. Somebody was talking about this, and he said, what Jesus is about to do is he's about to shine the black light on everybody. You ever go somewhere where there's a black light? I wouldn't admit it. The only place I'll give you a break on would be like, a bowling alley. You ever do, like, Cosmo Bowling or something? And you put on your clothes and you stand in front of the mirror and you're like, I think I'm all set. And then you walk into Cosmo Bowling and the black light comes. You're like, oh, my gosh, what is this all over me? There are stains from where you changed the oil three weeks ago. And there's where you wipe your nose like it just exposes things that the regular light just can't see. Jesus when he unpacks these six things on how we ought to live rightly before a righteous king, he's going to expose some things that we don't often see externally. So this, then, is how we should live as believers. Ready? First one, he's going to talk about anger. You may struggle with anger. All right, I believe you. Because you were like, I mean, I didn't get the girl out. And he's like, heard an amen from his wife. No problem, bro. Me, too. You know how many times I have to. People are like, what's wrong? I'm like, it's just my face. I'm sorry. I don't know, man. I'm okay. Verse 21, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. And they were like, we didn't just hear that. We read it in the Ten Commandments. That's the sixth commandment. Okay, so this is the law of God. You've heard that it was said of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. Nobody's disagreeing with this. Kill somebody, you're going to be liable to judgment. And then here's where he elevates it. He goes Past the stone tablets to the heart. But I say to you that everyone who is able angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. There it is, man. You can say out your amen. Anybody ever get angry? Christians don't get mad, they get frustrated. I'm just frustrated. You're a liar, that's what you are. But we'll get to that. We're coming to that. We'll get to you in a minute. Whoever insults his brother. You ever insult somebody? You know what the Greek word for that is? Twitter. The Hebrew is X. This is what this is. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. And whoever says, you fool so literally in Greek that means empty headed, you will be liable to the hell of fire. I don't know what that means. The hell of fire seems like it'd say the fires of hell. It doesn't. The hell of fire. And so people walking in Christ, what are we supposed to do when we get angry? I've taught on this several times. If you want to get a full hour on it, you can go back and you can check out ones I've done on anger. Ephesians 4, 26 actually commands us to be angry, Be angry and do not sin. Says, don't let the sun go down on your anger because it gives the devil a foothold. Because if you don't deal with your anger, it begins to fester, it begins to ferment. You know what happens when things ferment? They stink and you get drunk on them. And then you begin to get drunk on your own emotions and do dumb things. Not because somebody made you mad, but you got mad on the inside of you. And the devil's like, that's a foothold for me to change that. What used to be you used to just be mad. You thought at your circumstances and now that thing is bubbling up on the inside of you, it turns to bitterness. And that's a bad move, man. James, the brother of Jesus, chapter 1, verse 19, says, Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. And the reason we are is cause the Lord is slow to anger. Literally. The Bible says God's got a big nose. I've taught you this in Hebrew before. Hebrew is like a visual language. And so when James is quoting the Old Testament and it says God, it literally in Hebrew it says long of nose. What that means is, you know how like anger works. Anger begins to build, like in your heart, in your gut, like in here. You feel it, right? You feel like, oh my gosh, what in the world. That was not a past interference. And then it begins to like your neck veins pop out. It's probably why I got growing this beard. You can't see my neck veins. You know, I might be ready to kill you. And then your face gets all flush and then what happens, man? Your nostrils get big, you look at your wife, you're like, whoa, you look like a horse. Don't say that out loud, but you know what I mean? You're like, The Bible describes God. You know, God is love. He has to be stirred to anger. But when that stuff starts building up in him because we mistreat him, we deny him, we reject him, we slap the face of an almighty everlasting God, that anger begins to build. The Bible would say God stretches out his nose so that that anger does not spill out on us quickly. Therefore we should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. The Bible doesn't say no anger. See Jesus in the temple, Jesus got angry, alright? In fact, if we aren't angry and take action about the things that God gets angry about, you might not be a follower of him. There's plenty to be angry about, okay? But it doesn't say no, it doesn't say blow up anger. Because what we have a tendency to do is blame everything on the feeling that we call mad. You made me do this because you made me angry. No, no. Nobody can make you do anything. The only thing that can come out of you is what is in you. But the Bible says be slow to anger. Alright, so what do we do with our anger? Jesus is gonna tell us we do not react cause we just make it worse. To react is just to act like you have been acted upon. Jesus said, that's not what we're gonna do. We're gonna respond like Jesus responded to us. So instead of calling your friend, your brother a fool and being liable to the council of hell, what are we gonna. Or the fire of hell, what are we gonna do? Verse 23. So if you were offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you. Leave your gift there before the altar and go first be reconciled with your brother and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with the accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge the guard, and you'll be put in prison. Truly I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. And there are some folks that are locked up in a prison of unforgiveness. And so he says, settle accounts quickly. Now, listen, this is going to bother you a little bit. Forgiveness is a commandment by God, and it is one way and unilateral REM Regardless of how bad it is. That doesn't necessarily mean reconciliation will happen. Reconciliation requires two people, and repentance is a part of it. But the Bible does say in Romans 12:18, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. And so here's the key. Remember, now he's talking. The Pharisees are there listening. And he's saying, this is not just an external obedience to the law written on the stone that says, don't murder. This is a heart matter. Like, you could live your entire life obeying the law written on that stone tablet and yet be in a prison in your own heart because it's full of anger. And God wants you to reconcile with your brother before you're ready to give your gift to him. This is how you make it make so much sense. God's a good dad, man. He wants his kids to get along. You ever going somewhere with your kids? That's called. By the way. That's called a trip. If you go without your kids, that's a vacation. Can I get an amen? And you're going somewhere. You're going to Orlando, the happiest place on Earth. I ain't met a happy person there my whole life. Whatever. And here's the thing. Everything's awesome. Your favorite song's on the radio. The sun's shining bright. You're making great time. You're doing all the things. And these little jokers in the back just cannot shut up and get along. Anybody having fun? No, man. Then you turn into your dad. The spirit of Joseph Perry, Martin J. I'll turn around. You know, you say all these dumb things. You got that one arm back there trying to. All right, dude. As God is driving the big station wagon of our church, he's like, can y' all just get along? Can you not just hold everything against one another? How about instead of reacting to the situation, why don't you respond the way I respond to you? You see, this gospel is a change from the inside out, not begrudging submission to some world. Here's the thing, man. The world says, if you make me angry, then I'm not responsible for what happens. Right, fellas? You ever have to apologize. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Stop crying. That's not what I meant, but you made me so mad. Oh, man, we don't get to do that. God says this. When you made me angry, you know what I did for you? I sent my son to die in your place. Jesus is saying, this is a heart matter. He transforms us from the inside out. So if you just want to be a Pharisee, then you make a list and you check it twice, all right? But if you want to be like Jesus, we forgive because Christ has forgiven us. All right, you want to make it worse? Let's make it worse. Lust, how we doing so far? Anybody feel better about themselves? It gets worse. It's pretty much just a downhill descent to the very end. So then he goes, all right, number two, while I got your attention, you have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. Somebody like Sweet never cheated on my wife. And this is the seventh commandment. They didn't just hear it, they've read it. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. You're like, wait, what? Yeah, well, what is lust? Is lust just noticing that somebody is attractive? No, that's not it. Lust is the moment we begin to commodify an image bearer of God for our own benefit. Especially for our own sexual benefit. That's what lust is. Lust takes, love serves. Lust thinks about me. Love thinks about others. And he says, when you lust, when you look at another image bearer of God and you commodify them, you treat them as an object instead of a person that Jesus died for, for your own benefit, then you have committed adultery in your heart. Let's just define terms. Adultery, according to the Bible, is any sexual contact with someone that you're not married to. Marriage, according to the Bible, is one man and one woman for one lifetime. I don't care what the Supreme Court says. The supreme king of the universe who made up marriage, his definition is the one that matters. Jesus has the audacity to have us believe that sex is such a big deal that is reserved only for the covenant of marriage. So, ladies, guess what it takes for some dude to touch you? He has to give his whole life to you. I heard a guy saying this this week. You ever notice that what men wear to a funeral and a wedding is the same thing? It's true. Because it's a death. It is, but not the way you're laughing at it. I mean, I get it. It's funny. But no. It is a death to your old self. It is a death to the bachelor of life. It's a death to getting to live. For me, it's a death to a lack of responsibility. It's a death to the boy and it's a resurrection to being a man. This is what it is and that's what it takes. It takes a man to commit his entire life to you. That's what it takes. That's how valuable you are. This is why this is such a big deal. It costs him his life to get to touch the daughter of a king. Now here's what's crazy is that by the letter of the law, a man could obey the Old Testament commandment and treat your wife like a slave her entire life. And you are not fulfilling the law of God. The Bible, the New Testament is to say, husbands, love your wife as Christ loved the church and laid himself down for her. There's a bunch of legalistic Christians and they never actually touched another person. They just didn't lay down their life for their wife to elevate her and love her and nurture her. They just treated her like a sandwich maker and a glorified prostitute. And Jesus is trying to get down to the heart matter and say, listen, this is down here deep in your heart and we live in a world right now that is lying to you, lying to you all day, every single day. And I'm just going to tell you, the corruption is so bad, just put it on the bottom shelf. The Bible says flee sexual immorality. The word for sexual immorality in the New Testament is porneo. Sound familiar? It's where we get our word pornography from. And pornography is poison. This is what Jesus is talking about and it's a real problem. And you think, ah, that's just a picture, that's a person. And if you were taking part in it, you were actually contributing to the abuse, contributing to human trafficking and contributing to the commodification human beings. This is a problem. And ladies, let me just throw this in there. Literary garbage is still garbage. If you're just reading about pornographic stuff, it's going to be poison to you too. It's poison to your marriage, it's poison to your future marriage. It's poison to your relationship with God because it dings the soul. Now, I'm not saying God can't forgive it, but sometimes you'll hear people say, well, all sins the same. Not according to the Bible. The Bible in First Corinthians chapter 6 says, for all sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own self. It just dings your Soul in a different way. So when Jesus is talking about lust and we live in an over sexualized society where it comes after us every single day, we what do we do? Jesus. And Jesus is like, I'm really glad you asked. Here's some advice. Ready? Verse 29. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. That's extreme, isn't it? For it is better that you lose one of your members than your whole body be thrown into hell. Wouldn't you want all of your body minus one eye to go to heaven, then your whole body to take your hell bent eye with it and go. It's a good trade. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than your whole body go into hell. You see, lust is a pathway, not a picture. It has a destination. Because the moment you begin to use image bearers for your own benefit, then you are the Lord of your own life and you're trying to treat other human beings as slaves to you. It's a battle and it's a struggle. And so you say, well Jesus, what do we do? And he goes, yeah, you gouge out your eye and you cut off your hand. And then you're looking for the places where. He didn't mean that. Well he didn't mean that, did he? And you say that's extreme. I think Jesus would say, yeah, and this is extremely important. And you go to extreme measures because the enemy is only trying to steal, kill and destroy. So let me just tell you this, if this is your problem, okay, first of all, dummy, get it out of your bedroom. You got it six feet from your head. It's the first thing you grab, it's the last thing you touch. And in fact, if you don't have, if you're not able to carry one of these smartphones, it's because you're dumb. Get you a dumb phone, go throw this thing in the Atlantic Ocean. But I can't get my emails. It would be better for you to not get your emails and not go to hell than to read all your emails in hell. This is what Jesus is saying. You have to war against this. But here's the thing, here's the thing. Oftentimes, because in 1 Corinthians 6, there's no doubt Paul says flee sexual immorality. Every single time any of us in the room, every one of us in the room who have sinned sexually, it's because we didn't flee. We flirted. That's what we did. We thought, I can handle this. Well, you can't handle this. In Proverbs, there's this old guy, he's going to say, can a man hold fire close to his chest and not get burned? And everybody goes, no, except the man. He's like, no, I can. That's what happened. But you'll never be able to manage this just by getting a new phone and having software and having your small group ask you questions. No, no, no, no. You'll never be able to handle it that way. Until you are captivated by a greater affection for Jesus, then all you'll be doing is mowing over the weeds, and you won't get at the root of the problem. This is a hard issue. All right, everybody feel pretty crappy. Let's make it worse. Divorce. This is fun. He's like, speaking of hell, let's talk about divorce for a little while. Virtually all of us have been impacted by it, right? Here's what he says. It was also said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. That was not a commandment, by the way, In Deuteronomy, chapter 24, verses 1 through 4, what was happening is God didn't want people to get divorced, but men were the only people that could divorce. They could divorce their wives. Wives couldn't divorce the men. And so then Moses came along and gave them a concession and be like, if you're gonna leave her, you have to write her a certificate of divorce so that she can, like, get a job and eat and live indoors and stuff like this. And the men of the time were completely abusing this. We're gonna do a deep dive in this when we get to Matthew, chapter 19. So that'll be a lot of fun. And in Jesus day, there was this contemporary debate. There were these two schools of rabbinical thought. One was by a guy named Hillel. And he said, men, you can divorce your wife for any good reason. You know what two of the reasons listed were? Burning your fish and burning your toast. Some of y' all ladies will be in trouble. Then there was this other guy. I don't know how to say his name. S H A M M A I Shamaya. And he said, adultery is the only reason you get divorced. Now, Jesus is gonna make this a heart matter, like all of these, and particularly in Matthew, chapter 19. He's going to bring it back to God's original intention. He says, don't you know? Have you not read that? God created us Male and female. And that we should leave our father and mother and cleave only to our wife. Be united with her. And what God has joined together, let no one tear apart. And so divorce is not mentioned in the Ten Commandments, but this concession was given because the people were going crazy. And you see, marriage is God's idea, given as a picture. The ultimate reason for marriage has nothing to do with your happiness. All you single people out there, right? The biggest lie my generation bought into was this. You complete me. Married people. You want to give a witness real quick? Listen, man, I love Gretchen so much, I can't even. I don't. I mean, dude, I sent her a text the other night. She was in bed, and I was sitting on the couch watching Georgia beat Kentucky. And I just said, I am. This is what I said. I am so in love with you. And I mean, right this minute. Okay, I was in a good mood. Cause Georgia was winning, but. And I do. I love her. Been married. It'll be 26 years, I think next week or something. Yeah, but let's go. Let's go hit the jackpot on that one code. If I try to heap the responsibility for her to complete me, she does not have the ability to do that. Only Christ can complete me. And anything you idolize, the moment it lets you down, you will begin to demonize it. But the purpose of marriage is actually to put on display for the world what the marriage between Jesus Christ, the groom, and the church his bride looks like. That's the point of it. So he says. So you've heard it said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. Verse 32. But I say that everyone who divorces his wife accepts on the grounds of sexual immorality. So again, we're back to kind of the lust discussion that infidelity is such a big deal. It's so damaging that as a last resort, Jesus will say, you're not sinning if you don't think you can still be married. But it's not the thing that we immediately go to. Now, when you get to First Corinthians, it adds abandonment, and Malachi will add abuse. So biblically speaking, can you get divorced? Well, the Bible would say, if there's infidelity, abandonment, or abuse, then you can. He says, but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the grounds of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Like, whoa, man. One time I was in my early 20s, and I was on mission in Kenya, Africa. And we were with the Maasai tribe, and I was with a bunch of seminarians. And I was the only one they would let come into the Messiah. Or a bunch of warriors. African warriors. They're bad dudes, man. And I was the only one they would allow inside of their compound because they did not perceive anybody else in my class was a warrior. And they are correct. And there was this guy there, man, and he said he was a Christian and he had a couple of wives. I was like, wait a minute, you can't do that. I'm 20, 21, something like that. So I know everything. And you can't. You don't need. I mean, the Bible's not okay with that. One man, one wife. But he just says very Simply, he was 35, his wife were 20 and 15. I was like. And he goes, in your country, you just divorce. At least I take care of all of mine. And I was like, so, what's for dinner? I mean, like, what do you do? All right, the Bible of Malachi is going to say, God hates divorce, not divorced people. But divorce is a picture of Christ's love for his bride. So anytime that thing gets torn apart, there's always some kind of sin involved. And infidelity is such a big deal that God says, all right, if you can't stay married, then I understand. But that's the exception and not the rule, okay? A divorce is a death. You got to think about it like an amputation. If you sprained your ankle severely, the first thing would be, let's cut it off. No, no, no, no. You would try to save it. But in our society, we elevate happy over everything. And so in 1973, we begin no fault divorces. There's no such thing. People are like, well, we grew apart. Well, of course you did. You put Jesus in the middle and you fight like crazy to grow closer to him. And as you grow closer to him, then you get closer to one another. And so listen, man, if you're divorced, God doesn't hate you. No, not whatsoever. And I'm here to tell you that your past does not define you. Only Jesus gets to tell you who you are. And some of you might be like, hey, I'm divorced and remarried. Am I just living in perpetual adultery? No, no, no, no, no. You see, in the kingdom of God, it ain't about second chances. You've heard that. I believe in the God of second chances. I know what people mean. It's just. It's dumb. Because if you Had a second chance at life. Is the problem. You hadn't had enough chances? No. The problem is you and me. Yeah. In the kingdom of God, there's the blood of Jesus. And from now on. So what you should probably do is confess and repent because sin was involved, and there could be some part of it, maybe only 1% of it was your sin, but you should confess that and repent, and you should forgive. And then from this day forward, you should pray like crazy and pursue Jesus like crazy. And if you are remarried, that that marriage puts on display Christ's relentless love for us. And again, the world says, if he or she doesn't make you happy, move on. And God says, no, you pursue love at great expense to yourself. And so he keeps going to make it worse. All right, Speaking of breaking a vow, let's talk about oaths for a little while. Verse 33. Again, you have heard that it was said of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not take an oath by your head. I love this part. Ladies, listen. For you cannot make one hair white or black, and you're like I can for what, three weeks? He says, let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than this comes from evil. Here's what he's saying. When you swear on God's name, I swear to God, or I swear on my mother's grave or whatever, what you're doing is you're elevating yourself like you're sovereign and you make all the calls. When we are under the ruling reign of Jesus, we our yes should be yes and our no should be no. James talks about this. James says in James 4:13. Now listen, you who say, tomorrow, today or tomorrow, we will go to this or that city and spend a year there and carry on business and make money while you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You were a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. Let's be honest about oaths and promises. Has anybody broken more promises to you than you? Anybody ever made promises to God? They didn't Keep. Remember saturated last year? We're down here at the altar making God's promise. How about January? Anybody fail on their Bible reading plan this year? Come on, can we just testify? Don't tell me you made it through Leviticus. I don't believe you. He keeps going. You've heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. You've probably heard that one, right? That's one of the Levitical laws in the Old Testament, God gives to Moses to give to the people. Here's the rule, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Here's what you have to understand. That was a legal rule to run a nation, not a personal rule to be applied. And what was happening there is he was elevating the morality that it would at least be equal retribution because without that law, this was a slave nation that was gonna become the nation of Israel. And he was at least trying to say, alright, if you poke out my eye, I can't kill your whole self. We've got to at least keep this thing equitable. That's what he was saying. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. And then here's a tough one. Ready for this boys? But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. You ready for this? This will be fun. I'm just. Confession. My natural response if somebody slapped me on the face would not be here. You got another chance. That would not be my natural response. So I dug into this. Does this mean that you can't fight back? Well, here's what it means. It depends on what you're defending. What's actually going on here is Jesus is talking about insults, not attacks. That's what he's saying. Like to slap you on the right cheek, a right handed person would have to backhand you. And it was insulting. In fact, you could take them to court and you could sue them and you could get a bunch of money. And so really what Jesus is saying is if you insult me, then I'm gonna stand there like a man and be like, no, you're gonna treat me like a man. Here's the rest of my face. This is different than an attack. Can you fight back? Again, if it's an insult, Jesus says, suck it up. If it's an attack, men stand firm and act like men. Stand your ground. Because you have the job in this kingdom to protect you and those he has put under our stewardship. Paul tells Timothy, those who do not provide for their family are worse than an unbeliever. So how do we respond to insults? Like when people say things online about you and you're like, but it's not even true. Remember this whole sermon kicked off with when Jesus started it. Blessed are you and others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. That's it. Pastor Britt's dad, Pastor Britt calls him Wild Bill. He's with the Lord now. And Wild Bill taught Pastor Britt when he was probably a teenager or something. He says, listen, you don't have to defend you because if the accusation is right, God will use it to convict you and grow you and mold you. And if it is wrong, you can trust God to defend you. Because when we defend ourselves, the question is, what am I defending? I mean, let me just be clear. You attack me or my family, I don't even need to pray for you. I'll introduce you to him face to face. No problem, brother. All right, if you don't like that, pray about it. But when you insult me, even if it was an actual slap, like a backhanded, okay, it would be very difficult. We'd see how it goes. But if I'm just protecting my own ego, really rooted in my insecurity, Jesus is saying, that's not how we act. Verse 40. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, that's like your undershirt, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. In the first century, a Roman soldier could tell a Jewish person, carry my stuff for a mile. And Jesus is like, go the extra mile. You ever heard extra mile service? You know who uses that phrase? Chick fil a? You love chick fil a. You know why they do. They treat you so good, don't they? That's what this is like. I can get a refill. My pleasure. That's what this is. Give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. Now this is not a verse about enabling. This is a verse about who do you think you own? Who do you think owns everything? You see the same ego that would defend themselves against insult. It's that same ego that thinks that everything you have is yours because you're a self made man and you did it. The world says it's mine and Jesus says, no, no, no, it's all his and you can trust him to provide. How we doing so far? Everybody feel good about themselves. I'm telling you, anybody that says that the Sermon on the Mount is just the Christian ethic, oh, gosh, well, I'm in rough shape here. And then he makes it worse because you're like, all right, Jesus, how about a break? How about slow me a softball? He's going, no. Here's what we're going to talk about now. Let's talk about loving your enemies. You've heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Okay, this is where the Jewish leaders jacked it up. The Book of Leviticus says that we should love our neighbor. Nowhere does it say, hate the enemy. And the Jewish leaders would come along and be like, well, who is my neighbor? And what they deduced is that the neighbor was the person that looked like you, thought like you, believed like you, voted like you. So to the Jewish person, they would say, only another Jewish person is my neighbor. This is why the Good Samaritan parable blows their mind. And then they added in, well, if we're gonna love our neighbor, then we hate our enemy. But Jesus says, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you. And you're like, why can I pray about them? God drop a mountain on them. He's like, no, pray for them. So God draws grace on them. The reason why is because that's what God did for you. Here's a great way to think about all of these. And if you've heard this and you're like, man, I'm crushing it. You're screwed. If you hear all these and be like, well, there's no hope for me. Perfect. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for yours is the kingdom of heaven. You're perfectly positioned to, every single day of your life, turn the reins of your life over to Jesus and say, I need you to run my life, because I'm not very good at it. You see, here's the way to think about it. How did God treat me when I did him? The same way. Because I stirred his anger through my rebellion. And what did he do? Smite me? No. He graced me. And I commodified him. Because I can't tell you the number of times I tried to use him to get what I wanted. And you know what he did? He loved me instead. And I was unfaithful. And I gave him every reason to leave me. And guess what? He will never leave me or forsake me. And I've broken my promises to him so many times, I can't count. And guess what? He. Even when I was unfaithful, he's faithful. And with my sin I have slapped the face. I've offended the Almighty God. And guess what he did? He willingly took the pain and the punishment for that sin. And I was his enemy. And he loved me into his family. This is the point. This is not an outside in thing. This is an inside out thing. So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, you want to be godly, then you treat people the way God treated us. That's it. So Jesus has been nailed to the cross and he doesn't say, get him, dad. He says, father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. For he makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same. And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even Gentiles. That doesn't just mean non Jewish people. Don't people that don't even believe in God do that. I mean, even Nazis are nice to Nazis. And yet we are supposed to love people the way Christ has loved us. Verse 48. You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. It started with, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you don't have a shot. And then he tears us apart with six different examples. And then he says, so you must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. And then we get to this point and we go, oh, well, I'm not perfect. Perfect because when you stand humbly before Jesus and say, I ain't got this. I need you to do for me what I can't do for myself, he goes, cool. Cause I lived a perfect life. I died on the cross in your place. And I am offering this to you. This is why even though we have broken laws over and over and over, the Bible says in First John, this is love. Not that we love God, not that we acted right. And he's like, look how good you are. Come on into the kingdom of heaven. No, no, no. Not that we love God, but God first loved us and sent his Son as the propitiation for our sin, that he lived a perfect life. And propitiation means the payment that satisfies that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, it satisfied the law of God, the justice of God, the holiness of God, and for whoever believes in him receives the right to become A child of God. And we are imputed with the very righteousness of God. That's what happens. You see, this whole thing is not simply about right and wrong. If you think about it as right and wrong, you won't make it, man. Because we don't have the willpower to make it. This thing is about life and death. We talked about this in the 1010 life over and over and over. There's a thief and the only thing he wants to do is steal, kill and destroy. So when it comes to anger, he's like, it's not your fault when it comes to lust. Just look, it's not that big a deal when it comes to divorce. He's like, you need to be happy, whatever. He's just going to tell you these things, you got it? And he's baiting you down a road that leads to death and destruction. But we have a good shepherd and he says, my sheep hear my voice. And every single time we hear the voice of the good shepherd, primarily through the word of God. And we do what he says and we take steps of obedience, especially when we don't like what you mean. Pray for my enemy. I want to pray that you kill him. He's like, no, no, no. Then every time we do this, we take steps of obedience in the direction of the abundant life that Christ has for us because we get him. A couple of commentators said this. I didn't want to try to restate them, just say what they said. The purpose of the whole of this discourse so far has not been to provide a suitable ethic for getting along all right in the world, but to challenge those who have accepted the demands of the kingdom of heaven, to live up to their commitment by being different from other people. A really smart guy named Mike Leake said this. Jesus exposes heart level sin not to shame us into self improvement, but to bring us to the end of ourselves and into his mercy. And he reveals the kind of righteousness God requires and then stands before us as the only one who has fulfilled it. Pure in heart, whole in integrity, free from contempt and filled with enemy love. The Gospel gives us what this passage demands and we cannot produce a new heart. We are not accepted because we mastered anger or lust, but because Christ's righteousness is credited to us and and his Spirit begins to reshape us from the inside out. The Sermon on the Mount is not a ladder into the kingdom, but a portrait of the life that flows from union with the King. So here's the deal man. I am not trying to Beat you up. And I'm also not trying to give you a pass. Some of you, I mean, if you're honest about this, okay, you were living in perpetual anger. Cause it just simmers all the time. Some of you are losing the battle to lust because you're not warring against it. And some of you, honestly, you've never owned up to your part of the divorce. And some of you live in constant lies because you just break promise after promise. And some of you hate some people, and then you kind of hate yourself for it. And you don't need to spend any time trying to justify your behavior. We need to be justified by what Christ has done for us so that it can change from the inside out. We need Jesus. We need Jesus. There's so many times when Jesus would encounter people. And the religious people said, no, no, no. These people are outsiders. Like in John, chapter four, Jesus encounters this woman at the well. The reason she was there at lunch, that he came at lunchtime and she was there at lunchtime is because she was shady, dude. And he sits down with her and has this conversation about water. And then he makes this invitation. He's like, listen, man, I got water. If you drink my water, you'll never get thirsty again. She's like, can I have some? And right in that moment, if I was coaching Jesus on evangelism, I'd be like, you don't need to talk about anything else. Close the deal, man. Say, bow your head and raise your hand and do the ABCs and baptize her in that well. Let's go. You got her. And then he goes, go get your husband. She's like, well, I don't have a husband. He's like, I know you got five now. You shacked up with some dude. He ain't your husband. He goes to the deepest, darkest, most painful place in her life where everybody else shamed her for it. And he stepped into it and said, I ain't here to shame you. I'm here to set you free. You know how this thing ends. She gets forgiven. And she's the first evangelist in the Bible. He doesn't discard her. She's the first person to go tell other people that he is who he says he is. In John chapter eight, they catch this woman in adultery. But there's a lot of questions there, like how you catch somebody doing that? And they catch her. They bring her right before Jesus. They throw her up in front. It's like the law of Moses. Here's what it says, that we need to kill Her. What say you? The Bible says he gets down and scribbles on the ground. I think he's taking all the attention off her and to him. And he goes, oh, you want to play the judgment game? Okay, Everybody hadn't sinned. Why don't you go first? And the Bible says, one by one, the rocks begin to drop. I want you to think about this for a moment. She knows what the law says, and I think she's bracing for impact. And quite honestly, some of you have been to that church before. And instead of being smacked with the rock of judgment, she gets smacked with the grace of Jesus. The Bible says that one by one, the men began to drop the rocks and leave, starting with the older guys. Why? Because they're the smartest. And they're like, well, if we're gonna play the judgment game, I don't want the judge of judge that knows everything to, like, start with me. And so they. Peace out. And he looks at her and he goes, who here condemns you? She says, no one, sir. Then he says, then neither do I condemn you. It would not be love if he stopped right there, though. It would have just been a repeated cycle over and over and over of adultery. He says, and neither do I condemn you, but go and leave your life of sin. Listen, man, it don't matter how you start. All that matters is the blood of Jesus, and from now on. And God doesn't discard people. You want to hear a real crazy one? Okay? Like, if you're divorced and remarried or whatever your situation is, or honestly, you. You fail on every single one of these all the time. King David, a man after God's own heart. In the spring, where kings are supposed to be at war, that lazy son of a gun is laying on his couch. A lazy man with extra time is a dangerous man. He starts walking out on his balcony. He sees Bathsheba bathing, and he's like, go get her. They go get her. He sleeps with her, not his wife. She gets pregnant. He's like, I'll figure this out. Go get her husband. Come bring Uriah in. Hey, man, you want to go do a little home visit? He's such a stud. He's like, I will not, because my soldiers are at war. So he sleeps on, like, the dog mat outside. So David has him killed and thinks he gets away with it. So what does God do with him? This will make your head explode. God takes the sickest, most sinful thing, and he does not discard the people, but he redeems it later in that marriage with the worst start you could ever believe in. Crazy man. They have a baby named Solomon. He's going to build the temple. And God uses that very line. And generations later, guess who was born Jesus? The Christ. So if you feel beat up, that is not my point. If you feel conviction of the Holy Spirit, that is a warm invitation to run to him. Because he will not discard you. Because there is more grace in Jesus than sin in you. And the enemy wants me and you to try to justify our behavior. And Christ wants to justify you before the almighty, holy and righteous King. Because this is love. Not that you got your act together and prove to God how good you are. That's not what love is. But God first loved us by sending his son, Jesus to pay the price for you and me. And this is the thing we have to be reminded of every single day. And when we know him and we know his love for us, then guess what? The love of Christ compels me not to live the way the world tells me to live anymore. Not to live for myself and my flesh, but to live for Him. Because his ways are better than our ways. And when we follow him, we walk in the direction of the abundant life he has for us. God's not here to beat you up. God sent his son here to take a beating on your behalf so that you could be lifted up and live in Him. Would you please stand? Let me pray for him, our good and gracious heavenly Father. God, I pray for those the anger is boiling and they have every worldly reason to be angry. God, I pray for those who struggle with lust around every corner and it's chasing us down. And God, I pray for those who have been affected by divorce. And God, I pray for those, all of us, that make promises we can't keep. And I go, God, I pray for those that harbor bitterness against people. And I pray for those who think more is mine. God, that's all of us at all of our campuses and everybody watching everywhere. That is us. And so, God, we need you to do for us what we can't do for ourselves. Not just at our moment of salvation, when we turn the reins over our life to you. But the life of the Christian is that of daily repentance. God, may we daily take up our cross and say, lord, may once again I be crucified with Christ, that it no longer be I who live, that my flesh will be totally and completely nailed to the cross. Because when you were nailed to the cross, the curse of sin and shame was nailed there. And you defanged the enemy. And the spirit of God was placed on the inside of every single believer. And that same spirit that resurrected Christ from the dead lives inside of us. And God, if the tomb is empty, anything is possible, including us living a life of freedom in you. God, would you please help us to quit defending our actions and be justified by yours. Lord, we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Church we're going to respond to the gospel. We're going to sing. We're going to sing. And part of the reason we sing is because what we are telling the enemy is you don't get to tell me what to do. And you fight against me. But the battle is over. We have won. Christ is victorious. And so we're going to sing like saved people. And we're going to bring our tithes and our offerings and we're going to say, God, I love you. And as an act of worship, I bring you my first and my best. And if anybody needs the spirit's help, help this week to try to live out the things that Jesus said that we need to walk in, then I would invite you to pray if you got it all together. Please don't come up here and mess up our altar. But if you need help like me, won't you come? Let's sing, let's bring, let's pray, let's respond.