So Matthew 5 tonight, the title of the message is the law of
love. And we're going to have a look
at the principles of the Kingdom.
I don't know if you've ever asked this or wondered this.
If you were to just go out onto the the street and ask the
average person whether they could list, rattle off, identify
any of the 10 commandments or even all of the 10 commandments,
how they might go, How might we go, you know, trying to recall
and remember identifying the 10 commandments, let alone living
the 10 commandments. And if you were to ask the
average person what they think to be the most important law to
abide by and unto them, I think it would differ according to the
individual, particularly living in this postmodern world in
which we do, where, you know, people have their own version of
what is right and their own version of what is wrong.
I remember having a conversation with a fellow that I worked with
a number of years back who purported to be a Christian.
And we're just talking about things at the Bible.
And then he said this, oh, I forgot, you're one of those
fundamental Christians. You take the Bible literally.
I said, well, what do you take it as?
Well more as guidelines and just sort of general principles that
I can effectively pick and choose what suits and
accommodates. So we've made yourself the
authority. You might as well write your own
book. You didn't take that too well.
Speaking of books, there's a novel called The Kite Runner
written by a guy called Khaled Husseini.
It's his best selling work. And one of the main characters,
Baba, declares that the worst sin, According to him, is a sin,
is the sin of lying, you know, And that in doing so, you've
stolen somebody's right to the truth was his deduction of it.
The irony, of course, if you're familiar with the story and the
hypocrisy of that, is that he is doing exactly that, lying to his
son about a situation. Now to the Jewish mind, the time
of what we're reading here in Matthew 5, remember it's the
Sermon on the Mount. Take some 10 minutes for us to
read it, but picture multitudes gathered for likely hours, if
not in two days, as Jesus is teaching effectively his
disciples and then the multitude who are listening in and
gathering around. And to the Jewish mind that
Jesus is speaking to the law is everything.
And the Pharisees that we've been reading of and the
Sadducees were the experts on the law, they were the ones who
studied it. They were the ones who taught
about it. They were the ones who made
determinations about it, the ones who enforced it upon the
populace. In fact, on one occasion, we'll
get to it. I've jumped ahead and I'll read
it for us in Matthew chapter 22. They're trying to catch Jesus
out as became their little hobby as Jesus popularity grew.
And they asked Jesus the question, Jesus, what is the
greatest commandment? Matthew 22, verse 34 to 40.
I'll read the passage for you. It says when the Pharisees heard
that he had silenced the Sadducees, and they gathered
together, and then one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question,
testing him and saying, teacher, Rabbi, you think you know all
the things about the law and you teach about it.
OK, which is the great commandment in the law?
Verse 37 Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your
mind. This is the first and great
commandment Jesus said. The second verse 39 he said is
like it you shall love your neighbour as yourself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
So we get back to Matthew 5 here.
So when Jesus has been preaching and we've looked at the
Beatitudes and last time together we looked at Jesus
declaration to his disciples where he said you are the salt
of the earth, you are the light of the world.
The people were trying to figure out who this man Jesus was and
something that they did a lot and frequently with Jesus.
Is he like John the Baptist or is he some kind of new
revolutionary that we should find a little more about?
What does he think about the law?
Does he think about our religion?
Jesus directly addresses. Maybe the question was asked in
the crowd. We're not given that.
Maybe, as we see often, Jesus is able to discern and ascertain
the hearts of the people gathered for about to move into
a portion of Scripture where Jesus will utter these words.
You've heard it said, but I say unto you, he teaches with this
authority that they're perhaps wondering or querying, where is
this authority coming from? So Jesus directly addresses
their questions in Matthew 517 through to 48 and specifically
verse 17 in Matthew 5. He says don't think, do not
think that I have come to abolish to do away with or to
destroy the law or the prophets. Now there's a lot wrapped up in
that, but Jesus was effectively talking about what we know and
understand of the Old Testament. To simplify it, someone I have
not come to abolish them, but to fulfil them.
Verse 17 and the question is for Phil, how, how Jesus are you
going to do that? How is that possible?
What do you even mean by that? Fulfil here means to complete,
it means to perfect it means to fill full with meaning and all
that these law and prophets were pointing towards.
Jesus claims tonight as we study, to be the one who
perfectly embodies and authoritatively explains all
wrapped up in the Law and the prophets.
All that the Law and the prophets were pointing towards
and to is Him. He is the fulfilment thereof.
In times past. The Bible tells us that the
prophets spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
But Jesus speaks with divine authority.
You have heard it was said, we will read tonight.
But I say unto you, and he is not destroying the Old
Testament. He is not destroying the 10
commandments. He is not destroying the law and
the prophets. Rather, he is revealing the true
heart and the goal that all was being pointed to.
Now the great principle that I want us to see running through
this entire section is this is that the law of the Kingdom?
He's been Speaking of Kingdom of Heaven.
Remember, repent, Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and he's been
talking about in the beatitudes. Blessed are and for theirs is
the Kingdom of heaven and on through.
So he's been talking about the Kingdom of heaven and its
citizens, who they are, their their character and their
conduct. So understand this section here.
The great principle running through it is that the law of
the Kingdom is the law of love, love for God.
This is the greatest commandment Jesus said, and love for others.
The second is like unto it as the fulfilment of the law.
Now as citizens of the Kingdom of heaven, Jesus is speaking and
to you and I tonight we are called to display the character
of the King and our king Does the Bible tell us for God is
love. That's what guides and motivates
this and ought to in US. And let's explain it.
Let's read. We'll break it into two chunks
rather than reading the entire text together, but we'll come
and deal with each component. Verses 17 through to 20 now and
two effective main points for us and the second we'll have 6 sub
points that we look at the various principles in that.
But firstly, the King's authority is come to fulfil the
law. He said not to abolish it.
Matthew 5, verse 17 reading out of the new King James, do not
think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.
I did not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 4 Assuredly, I say to
you, till heaven and earth pass away. 1 Jot, or one title will
by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
You know Jesus here. What's a jot?
What's a title? These were even just the
smallest. If we were to think of it in
English, we might call it punctuation.
Well, marking said that this is how important, how valuable
every component of the law and the prophets is.
Jesus says is that not even 1 minuscule amount of punctuation
will pass away until it has all been fulfilled in me.
Whoever verse 19 therefore breaks one of the least of these
commandments, teaches men so should be called least in the
Kingdom of heaven. Whoever does and teaches them,
he shall be called great in the Kingdom of heaven.
Now look at this, because this is going to shake and rattle the
minds of the audience gathered. For I say to you, verse 20, that
unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the
scribes, they studied the law, they wrote about the law and the
Pharisees. I mean, they, if anybody gave
the law its due diligence, it was the Pharisees.
You will by no means enter the Kingdom of heaven.
So let's consider this. Jesus says I have not, don't
mistake me. I have not come to abolish, to
destroy, to dispense with the law, but I've come to fulfil it.
And He did so by perfectly obeying it in his life and His
living. Every word, every deed, all of
his conduct, Jesus followed, adhered to the Law and the
prophets. But in doing so, He also went
beyond that and revealed the greater, deepest spiritual
intent of the Law and the prophets.
He accomplished everything in it.
And everything that the Law and the prophets were pointing
towards is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, especially our
redemption. And verse 20 again shocks the
audience. Unless your righteousness
exceeds, goes above that of the scribes and the Pharisees and
man, they're righteous in everyone's estimation in the
world at that time, you will not enter, you'll never enter the
Kingdom of heaven. And the Pharisees, again, they
were meticulous when it came to the law on the outside,
painfully so. You can read and you can
research how it was that they had become sticklers for
following all sorts of aspects of the law and how they sought
to impose that upon others, or at least their interpretation of
the law and the prophets. But what they were doing was
they were missing the spirit of the law.
This is what Jesus criticised and attacked them again and
again for. So when the audience gathered
here's unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and
the Pharisees, you know what they're doing, they're thinking
it can't be done. We're doomed.
Who then can enter the Kingdom of heaven?
And Jesus has been talking about the Kingdom of heaven and
blessed are those and all of that.
And now it gets to this and and the audience is just, you can
imagine their jaws dropping to the ground.
There's no hope for us. It's true also of us if we're to
think of all that is written in the law.
If you've ever read through the Pentateuch first five books, and
particularly the Levitical law in Deuteronomy and on, and then
through the prophets and let alone the 10 commandments, and
you think there is no hope for me?
There is no hope for you. There is no hope for anyone for
our righteousness to exceed that of the scribes and the
Pharisees. So what does that mean?
Well, it means this. It means that the good news of
the gospel, of what Jesus is coming to teach and to bring is
that our righteousness comes not from within ourselves, but it
comes from outside. And our righteousness comes by
faith in God. The Bible says who is righteous.
And faith, the Bible tells us, comes by hearing, and hearing by
the word of God, and that for righteousness to exceed that of
the scribes and the Pharisees is to love God.
For Jesus said, If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And what is the commandment we read at the beginning?
Jesus said, a new commandment. In fact, I give unto you, You
love one another as I have loved you.
And then he said this. And by this shall all men know
that you are my disciples, my followers, citizens of the
Kingdom of heaven, If you have love one for another.
Thus, you see, love is the key as we read through these verses.
And Jesus ultimately fulfilled the law of love and displayed it
to his Father in the way that he lived to his disciples, to you
and I with his obedience to death upon the cross, with his
fulfilment of the redemptive plan that the law and the
prophets were pointing towards. And He commends to you and I to
us the same tonight. True righteousness that exceeds
the scribes and the Pharisees therefore comes by faith, trust,
dependence upon God on what Jesus has accomplished, and it
flows from love from God and for God in our lives.
Again Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my
commandments. John 14 verse 15.
And So what we see and what we're starting to see and what
we should understand is again, the narrative of the Old
Testament as it was with the people of Israel, as it is with
you and I, that God saves, that God rescues, that God restores,
and then that God empowers to live.
And His law is the guidelines, the governance that not
enforces, that directs that living for you and I.
It's interesting in Exodus, as we're studying through it, that
God redeemed Israel out of Egypt, out of their slavery, out
of their bondage, and brought them through.
And as he was taking them in the wilderness, it's then that he
gave them the law. In other words, it's interesting
that God has said to the people of Israel, as is the case for
you and I as gospel recipients today, I've saved you.
I've loved you with an everlasting love.
I've, I've pulled you out of your slavery for us to sin for
them out of Egypt. And now I am making you my
people. And in light of the love that
I've given to you, now let me give to you my law.
And the way that we live is a response to the salvation that
we've received from God, from his love.
And now he gives in the verses to come illustrations of this
love and how it was to be enacted for those who are
citizens of the Kingdom of heaven.
Action toward others and Jesus will go to the heart of the
matter in each of these subjects because the Pharisees are all
about external actions and appearances of abiding by the
law and the prophets. But Jesus will go to the heart
in each of these situations and reveal the attitude of love that
needs to be the cause, the motivation of these actions.
So now let's consider secondly for us the principles of the
Kingdom that we'll cover from verse 21 through to 48.
And if you're taking notes, they'll be broken down with the
relevant verses. And what we're going to see is
Jesus now give 6 powerful contrasts in his words, where
he'll start with, you've heard it said, but I say unto you.
And as he does so, what he's doing is he's showing how the
law of love moves from external rule keeping and appearances to
internal heart transformation. Let's look at the first in
verses 21 to 26, the principle of reconciliation to do with
anger and murder our relationships to others.
Verse 21, Jesus says he begins with the first you have heard
that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder one of
the 10 commandments and whoever murders will be in danger of the
judgement. But I say to you, verse 22, that
whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be
in danger of the judgement. And whoever says to his brother
Raqqa shall be in danger of the council.
The word Raqqa there means empty headed, stupid, dim witted to
use that label to give to somebody else.
I'm not sure if the elevator goes all the way to the top with
you. We might say to someone, but
whoever says you fool should be in danger of Hellfire.
Therefore, if you bring So in light of all that I've said,
Jesus goes on verse 23. If you bring your gift to the
altar, if you come to worship, come to the temple and there
remember that your brother has something against you.
Leave your gift there before the altar and go your way.
First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer
your gift. Agree with the adversary
quickly, verse 25, while you are on the way with him, lest your
adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over
to the officer and you'll be thrown into prison.
Surely I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till
you have paid the last penny. And there is so much in these
verses that we're going to read tonight.
And part of my struggle through the week was how am I going to
break this up? And what I'm going to do is give
us a more of an overview and encourage you hopefully to whet
the appetite a bit to dig in more deeply as a student.
Because like I say, we're going to spend a long time in the
Gospel of Matthew. But I don't want to be spending
ten years in the Gospel of Matthew.
And we could certainly just out of a few of these verses have 3
sermons coming out of what we've just read.
But we're looking at the principle.
So here's what Jesus is giving effectively A manifesto for for
Kingdom of heaven, citizen living righteousness exceeding
that of the scribes and the Pharisees and to do with murder.
And and they were going around the scribes and the Pharisees
thinking they're pretty good. They've not murdered anybody as
we would do today. Jesus gets to to the heart of it
said the Lord said you shall not murder.
You've heard it said of old. Now Jesus connects anger and
contempt and hate towards a brother and puts us in danger of
judgement by having so of calling someone Raqqa empty
headed, a fool. It's very serious in this.
Not to be flippant, not to just throw these things out and to
harbour these attitudes and these actions towards others and
think, well, I'm not murdering, I'm not killing anybody.
So I'm, I'm, I'm obeying the law and the prophets.
But Jesus is not goes to the heart.
It's more than that. It's more than just an outward
appearance of not actually doing the deed, but if you've thought
it, it's as good as done. This will be the the heart that
runs through many of these examples that Jesus gives.
And we read such of these things and we might go, well, what of
anger then? Am I able to have anger because,
you know, I get angry over injustice and when I see
unrighteousness and when I see people mistreated and harmed.
And we kind of considered that and looked at that in our study
through 1st and 2nd Corinthians, if you remember, and always
going back to to anger. Did did Jesus display anger?
Yeah, he did. It was righteous anger.
He certainly didn't call people Raqqa.
He did use some pretty strong language towards people, but his
anger was against those who would pollute and pervert and
destroy and in so doing 'cause people to be put off the things
of God. And then he goes on and talks
about seeking reconciliation. Quickly.
Be ready to do so. If you're coming to worship and
you recognise that there's some animosity or hostility between
you and a brother, just drop the gift.
Go and reconcile. Sort that out.
Deal with it. Because overall, Kingdom love
deals with heart attitudes before they become actions.
How can I lift my hands and worship under God when there's
this, this tension and oh, I need to seek forgiveness and we
need to be right and we need to sort this out.
It's the law of love and the principle of reconciliation,
connecting anger towards murder. Second, principally, perhaps
knowing our day and age in which we live, deals with lust, deals
with adultery 7 to 30 and this principle of purity, you've
heard that it was said to those of old, verse 27 you shall not
commit adultery. And the scides and the
Pharisees, they were quick to bring those that they'd caught
in the act of adultery. But Oh no, we, we would never.
But I say to you, Jesus says verse 28, that whoever looks at
a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with
her in his heart. Then he goes on 29 If your right
eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you.
It is more profitable for you that one of your members perish
than for your whole body to be cast into hell.
If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from
you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members
perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell.
Wow, there's some heavy verses we're going to be reading
through tonight and Jesus specifically on this one said,
you've heard it said of all you shall not commit adultery.
Then Jesus says, all right, let me connect it to something all
the more powerful. Looking lustfully upon somebody
is, with intent, committing adultery in the heart.
Let me understand, Jesus isn't saying that they're the same
thing as some have mistakenly figured and gone.
Well, I've looked, so I may as well do.
That's just stupidity. Now, the point is that both are
sin. Let me try and explain this a
little bit further. The greater adultery starts with
the feeding of the lesser. That's what we saw with David,
right? With Bathsheba, sin begins in
the imagination, a Bible commentator, DA Carson noted and
said imagination is God's given gift, but if fed, he goes on
dirt by the eye, the imagination becomes filthy.
And Jesus takes this idea that OK, you think scribes,
Pharisees, their righteousness, they've not committed adultery.
But let me tell you that it's a heart matter.
But if you've looked lustfully upon another with the intent,
with the desire for adultery, for fornication, you've as good
as committed the crime of adultery.
And then he says we must therefore deal radically with
that and violently with such temptation.
And he uses the hyperboles of plucking out the eye and
chopping off the hand. If we were to do that literally,
we know that we would still have the capacity to sin in our mind,
would we not? And in this, what Jesus is
declaring is the sacredness of the the human body and
particularly the female form, recognising that they're a
daughter, they're a sister, they're a betrothed, not an
object to be disregarded and used and abused in that way.
Because again, Kingdom love, the law of love, the law of the
Kingdom, it guards purity at the level of desire.
God help us all in this regard. Then he.
Builds and goes further the principle of fidelity and now
moves into marriage and deals with divorce and verses 31 and
32. Furthermore, it has been said
whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of
divorce. But I say to you that whoever
divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes
her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a woman who is
divorced commits adultery. Again, we could spend so much in
these verses, could we not? We we dealt dealt with it
somewhat in our study of First Corinthians, Second Corinthians
and we we looked at marriage, we looked at singleness, we looked
at divorce. But for our purposes tonight,
the principle of fidelity, understand that in Jesus day for
the audience gathered there are effectively 2 schools of thought
when it came to divorce. A fellow called Rabbi Shamay and
his teachings was that divorce was only due to and as a
consequence out of sexual immorality and that would be
evident through the scriptures. And there was another school of
thought under a guy called Rabbi Halal, where, to summarise,
divorce was effectively open to interpretation and up for almost
anything. You can understand what was the
most popular back then. And Jesus here in his teaching,
upholds a high view of marriage, the covenant relationship, while
acknowledging the hardness of the heart in respect to this.
And for us as the church, over the years, there's been a lot
with respect to this topic of marriage and divorce.
And the Church must neither treat divorced people as lepers.
We're all sinners in need of God's grace, but nor slip into
the world's casual, flippant attitude towards divorce.
A citizen of the Kingdom of heaven is different when it
comes to the sanctity, the purity, the fidelity of the
marriage relationship. Verses 33 through to 37 looking
at the principles of the Kingdom, the principle of
integrity to do with our oaths and our truthfulness in what we
declare and what we speak in what we utter.
Again. Jesus says verse 33, You have
heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not swear
falsely, you shall perform your oath to the Lord.
But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for
it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is His footstool,
nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make
one hair white or black. But let your yes be yes, and
your no, no. Whatever is more than these is
from the evil 1. In other words, keep it simple
in this regard. Let your yes be yes.
May it be that what you declare, what you say, what you utter,
what you speak, that it's trustworthy?
That people can. Depend upon you to not only be a
speaker, but a doer of things and a fulfiller of those.
And let your no be no, don't swear by heaven, don't swear by
earth, don't pinky swear, don't on my mum's grave and and all of
those things that people say to try and enforce that.
No, I'm really telling the truth this time.
May it be so that of you as a citizen of the Kingdom of
Heaven, that people know that when you speak, you speak the
truth, and that love motivates and guides and governs that.
And our word then, as believers should be so reliable that no
oath is needed. For back then, as is the case
today, people will say what they need to say in a moment when
it's convenient, and then act all together different when it's
convenient. We've all been burnt by people
like that. We've all experienced that and
maybe many of us have done those very things where we have said
things just to sort of get by and in that moment think, Yep,
that's what they need to hear. But then later I've got no
intention of following through with those actions.
Jesus says let you yes, be yes, you no be no.
Kingdom citizens are people of truth known for meaning what we
say and saying what we mean. And then there's the principle
of non retaliation to do with insults and generosity.
OK, if I'm going to be like that, then I'm going to be open
for all sorts of insults. Jesus anticipates that there's
38 to 42. You have heard that it was said
an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Now that law came out of and the importance of justice being
fulfilled, but also not an overreaching hand of justice to
we just go absolutely ballistic on somebody and go above and
beyond. Well, you wronged me, so I'm
going to give it back to you and then some.
But I tell you, Jesus said verse 39 not to resist an evil person,
but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to
him also. If anyone wants to.
Sue you and take away your tunic.
Let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you, maybe
there were some Roman soldiers standing nearby.
I'll explain that in a moment why I say that?
And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too.
Give to him who? Asks you and from him who wants
to borrow from you. Do not turn away.
Let's look at these verses principle of non retaliation to
do with insults, generosity, an eye for an eye was the saying
it's the law profits. There's a limit on vengeance
when it came to justice, but Jesus calls U.S. citizens of
heaven personally to non retaliation in this instant.
Turn the other cheek. He said, go the second mile,
give generously if somebody asks.
And this isn't passive weakness, but active overcoming love
towards others who would seek to insult us, to use us, to abuse
us. And it's very oh man, it rubs
against the grain, doesn't it? Naturally for how we want to
respond in such moments. Let me explain all those things
that I just said quickly in in reading.
I said there may have been Roman soldiers in the audience.
Well, a Roman soldier in those days could and would make any
person that they came across carry their armour or their
baggage. But there was a a limit to that
in the law up to a mile. And Jesus says blow his mind, go
to and then whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other
to him. Also, what does Jesus mean by
this and what it's meant by the slapping on the right cheek?
Understand it's a cultural insult.
Most of them back then, as the case today were right handed and
if you were to slap somebody across the cheek with your right
hand, you would be slapping their left cheek, wouldn't you?
To slap somebody on the right cheek is to take typically your
right hand and to backhand slap them across the face.
Intended to be an insult rather than a lashing out in, you know,
a bit of a conflict or a biff maybe we might say it was a an
intentional backhanded slap. So what do you do in such
instances where Jesus says turn the other cheek, but you could
return that backhanded slap with interest, couldn't you could
turn and run, probably me, you could stand and take it and off
of the other cheek. And what Jesus is saying here
patiently bear because of the law of love at work in you such
insults backhanded slap across the face and offences and to not
resist an evil person who insults in this way.
I meant to do that you know to do that as a citizen of heaven.
Like I say, it goes against everything within us right.
You know what we do when we all right turn the other cheek.
Here's what we're doing. Here's what we're saying and
here is the connection is we are trusting in God to defend, we're
trusting in God to avenge for God said in his word, vengeance
is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.
Here's here's the difficulty in that when we're desirous of
justice for a wrongdoing in such regard, and we take matters into
our own hands. Oh yeah, justice comes eye for
an eye, tooth for a tooth, but we've robbed God of that which
belongs to him. Vengeance is mine.
I will repay, says the Lord. Either justice will come by God
from the throne to them on Judgement Day, or justice will
come should they seek repentance and forgiveness, just as all of
us. And justice will be poured out,
judgement will be poured out rather on Jesus who died on the
cross. But in turning the other cheek,
it's a trusting for God to take care of it and to take care of
you. And it's a it's a difficult
thing that we need God's help in this regard to obey and to
follow. Now, as an aside, let me deal
with this. Is it wrong to think that Jesus
means evil should never be resisted?
Do we see that in the Scriptures?
Jesus. Demonstrated in his life, and
we'll see it as we go through the Gospels, that evil should
and must be resisted. Such as when he.
Overturned the tables in the temple and other examples.
So I think it wrong to think that here Jesus is meaning all
physical attack cannot be resisted or defended against.
We're not to be doormat in this regard, but when Jesus speaks of
a slap on your right cheek, it was culturally understood as a
deep insult, not a physical attack in the way that we might
think of it. It's also wrong to think that
Jesus means there's no place for punishment or retribution in
society. Jesus here is speaking towards
the personal relationship, not to the proper functions of
government in restraining evil. That's what Romans 13 speaks of
in verses 123 and 4. So we have our right and and
Paul would appeal as a Roman citizen for justice in that
regard. But I am hearing this in turning
the cheek when personally insulted.
I can do that but also understand that the government
has a responsibility to restrain the evil man from physical
assault and attack and that's not something that we're to
abdicate of our access to as citizens of earth as well being
citizens of heaven. On this Berkeley said Jesus here
is saying that the true Christian has learned to resent
no insult and to seek retaliation for no slight.
And when we think of Jesus, remember he said I have not come
to do away with the law and the prophets.
So when we think of Jesus life, when we think how Jesus himself
was insulted, Jesus himself was spoken evil against, think of
the things that were said of Jesus.
Oh, he's a glutton, he's a wine Bibber.
I mean, you know what his mother did, right?
He's a blasphemer, he's a madman.
Even his family tried to have an intervention.
And how we see that Jesus lived this principle himself.
It's a high. Calling, yes, it's a calling of
the citizen of heaven and unless your righteousness exceeds out
of the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus said, and now the
audience, you can see, just as we are feels the weight of this
and it's all leading to a point that we'll get to Israel.
Hurry up and make it all right. I'm making it the last verses,
verse 43 to 48, the final principle, principle of enemy
love. You have heard that it was said,
you shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse
you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who
spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of
your Father in heaven. But he makes his sunrise on the
evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the
unjust. For if you love those who love
you, what reward have you? Do not even tax collectors do
the same? Wonder if he gave Levi a little
wink at that? And if you greet your brethren
only, verse 47, what do you do more than others?
Do not even the tax collectors do so?
Therefore, verse 48, you shall be perfect just as your Father
in heaven is perfect citizens of heaven, the family of God,
children of God doesn't not stand a reason that there's a
family resemblance. Jesus himself said that that you
may be sons of your Father in heaven.
Verse 45 shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy
was the human addition, but Jesus commands and says love
your enemies. This is the divine addition.
And pray for those who persecute you.
Why? Jesus answers that and says why?
Because this is what your heavenly Father does.
This is how he acts. He sends his reign and the just
and the unjust and the evil and the good.
Then he builds upon that and says you think it's pretty good
to love others just because they love you.
The tax collectors do that. He says, let's, let's blow some
minds of people here. Nothing would annoy enemies more
than for you to reflect God's character to them and love them
back when they've meant hatred towards you because Kingdom
perfection is being like the father and you, you hear that
And we we hear all of this through these verses and we're
going can't do it. How is that even possible to
love someone like that? And so Jesus says, how do you do
this verse 44 Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute
you. Ask God for help.
God help me and not only God help me, but I I pray for them.
They've persecuted, they've abused me in this way and oh God
bless them. And Jesus sums it all up with
this staggering command. You therefore must be perfect,
verse 48, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
And again, the audience and you and I in reading this, and it's
impossible, but if anyone could fulfil this, do not think I've
come to do away with the law and the prophets.
But Jesus said I've come to fulfil, to fill full the law.
It was Jesus never harbouring hate, never having lust in his
heart, never having deceit in his words, never having
retaliation to insults, never failing to love enemies.
Such a person would possess the righteousness that exceeds that
of the scribes and the Pharisees, would they not?
And that is Jesus, the fulfilment of the law.
Only one man has ever, could ever lived in this fashion, in
this way. It's Jesus himself.
Now again, in reading this, we're exposed as guilty sinners
all the way through who cannot, could ever achieve this on our
own. The righteousness scribes and
Pharisees can't do it, reflecting God my Father in this
way. Oh, man, being perfect as he is
perfect. Oh.
Everybody. Listening, who had any ounce of
self righteousness would have the rug pulled out from under
their feet in hearing these words, would they not?
Just as many of us have been feeling probably the heaviness
and the weight of these words of Jesus tonight.
You know what the result is, and I think would be the result of
the audience gathered is that they would be running back in
their mind to Jesus words when he uttered the first of the
beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Oh man, I am. I've got nothing.
God, I'm desperately in need of a saviour of help, my
righteousness. I thought I was good.
I thought I could maybe even attain the level of the scribes
and the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but I can't.
God help me. And Jesus says blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
And again and again through this, remember what we're, we're
learning, what we're discovering out of this is it's not God
helps those who help themselves. It's God helps those who cannot
help themselves. And that is why we need
righteousness apart from the law.
Romans chapter 3, verses 21 to 22 indicates this.
And it is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus
Christ that now makes this law of love possible in US.
And then the law as truly interpreted drives us to Christ
and the law, his law of love is written on our hearts overall.
Again, we, we can't help ourselves.
God, it is he who helps us. And because God helps us, we are
loved, we are made righteous. We are the salt of the earth,
the light of the world. We are blessed.
This is what I want to bring home because in all of this, in
chapter 5, this is what one Bible commentator, WH Griffith
Thomas, he, he beautifully points out in this entire 5th
chapter of Matthew and he says it, it shows us what the
citizens of the Kingdom of heaven are to be.
And it's summed up in one word. He says blessed.
I love that citizen of the Kingdom of heaven is blessed.
And the term blessed, he points out, is often found through the
Scriptures, but three strategic places he points out that when
put together, they constitute the full revelation of how
Christ blesses us, his people, both on earth and in heaven.
Blessed appears again and again in the Psalms, doesn't it,
showing how blessedness comes through a right relationship
with God. Then blessed appears in the
Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes.
Blessed are the poor in spirit. What we've been distorting the
the character and the and the conduct of the citizens of the
Kingdom. And finally we we see blessed
again and again in the Book of Revelation pointing to the
consummation of all things and so on earth.
This blessing is the blessing of grace.
It's not earned by perfect law keeping because we can't do it,
but received as a free gift of God's grace through the finished
work of Jesus Christ. And the Beatitude described the
happy condition of those who are poor in spirit, who are mourning
over sin, who are meek, who are hungry for righteousness, who
are merciful, pure in heart, the peacemakers persecuted for
righteousness sake. So this blessedness then is the
present position and possession of every believer who walks in
the grace of the king who fulfilled the law of the Old
Testament, the prophets of Moses, of the 10 commandments to
the full. I've not come to do away with
the law, he said. But I am the fulfilment of it.
And then in heaven it's a a blessing of future glory, the
full unbroken enjoyment of God's presence but evermore with him,
the complete realisation of the Kingdom of what Jesus has been
talking about and the reward of faithfulness and the blessedness
that begins here on earth through grace is perfected in
glory in heaven. So what are we to do with a text
like this? Tonight has the law love exposed
your heart tonight and it butchered me through the week.
Areas of. Anger and of lust and bitterness
and lack of integrity and unwillingness to love enemies.
May it 'cause you and I tonight to come to the only One who
perfectly fulfilled the law and to receive His righteousness by
faith and then by the power of the Holy Spirit He grants to us.
Let the law of love shape every part of your life, of your day,
as a response to who He is and to what He has done.
Then you've insulted me. But because of who God is and
because of what God has done to me, I'm going to respond
differently to you now. May we live as blessed citizens
of the Kingdom of heaven, reflecting the perfect love of
our Heavenly Father. Let's pray.
Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you for your people
tonight. And we confess that in reading
such a text as this, that it challenges us and it makes us to
recognise that in ourselves there is nothing that we have to
offer. We are truly poor in spirit.
So we're so grateful and thankful for who you are as the
perfecter of our faith and the fulfiller of the law and the
prophets and that we can come to you and in your righteousness by
faith in that we are made right. And now we can live in a
different way as citizens of heaven.
May love that has been received from you flow out of us on to
others and check and arrest our attitudes and our our mindset
and situations such as we read of tonight.
Help us in this way. Lord God, may we know the
blessing of you and every day and every moment in thought, in
Word indeed. We thank you for your mercy, we
thank you for your grace, we thank you for your love towards
us. We are so undeserving.
We bless you and we honour you now in Jesus great name.
Amen. Amen.
Just to know you.