An Eye for an Eye, Part 1 (Matthew 5:38) [Audio Only]

Matthew Chapter 5 we're continuing our study of Matthew this is message number 44 in our Matthew series we've had such a wonderful time we've been doing it on Sunday night and just the last two weeks have moved to Sunday morning for our study of Matthew and we come this morning to a very very potent insightful and misunderstood passage of scripture Matthew 5 ver 38 listen as I read through verse 42 ye have heard that it hath been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but I say unto you that you

resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also and if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat let him have thy cloak all also and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile go with him too give to him that asketh thee and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away one element of the Great American philosophy of life is that we all have certain inalienable rights and we're big on rights in fact maybe in our our society

we've never been bigger on rights than we are nowadays we are hyperconscious of our rights we have had movements along the line of civil rights and women's rights and children's rights and prisoners rights we have unions to demand rights for the employees we are very conscious of our rights in fact it's not uncommon in our society to hear somebody say he'll never get away with that you can't do that to me I'll get even the other night I was driving home with my family and we pulled onto the freeway and uh apparently pulled in front

of somebody a little more closely than he thought I didn't think I hit him but apparently I dented his psych and uh so for the next five miles he was behind me flashing on and off his bright lights and honk on and off with the lights that was him demanding his rights to a certain area of the freeway upon which no one was allowed to infringe deep down in the human heart is a retaliatory vengeful spiteful Spirit part of the curse of of sin and it's there in all of us and it comes out in

it in most strange ways I always remember the story of the bride and groom who got in the horse and buggy days and rode off on their honeymoon and the horse boled and the guy said that's one horse boled again he said that's two the horse bowed again he said that's three took a gun out and killed the horse and his wife said that's terrible why you can't do that he said that's one deep down in the human heart is this this retaliatory get even kind of thing and in our society frankly we make Heroes

out of the kind of people who take nothing from nobody who don't stand any Guff they are the strong and the tough and the courageous and the Macho and our society looks down on the meek and the non- retaliating the gentle the forgiving the gracious the merciful person who demands nothing nothing from anybody and we say he's a weakling and a coward I was trying to analyze why America was so in love with John Wayne and why it was such a tremendous loss to the country to lose him and I think it was because John

Wayne in a sense is the national symbol of the Crusty tough take nothing from nobody kind of folk hero that really symbolizes American attitudes that's part of human nature to not let anybody get away with anything until you've told them or let them know they can't do that to you basically that's at the heart of the Jewish miscomprehension of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth give them what they're doe that's the way it was being applied in Jesus time it had become a license for vengeance it had become a basis

for a vendetta it had become a sort of a Biblical permission to have a grudge to strike back but Jesus said if somebody hits you on the right cheek give him your left if somebody sues you and takes your coat give them your cloak if somebody asks you to go to go a mile go to and if anybody needs what you've got give it or loan it that that's antithetical to everything in human society that doesn't cut it with the human heart I've noticed something interesting in our fight for rights inevitably when a fight for

rights takes place in a society the upshot of it is going to be lawlessness because when people begin to live on the basis of their rights then a dominant selfishness begins to take place and when you have a whole lot of people people being selfish they will invariably tread on each other and in a fight for rights what is what is lawful sort of gets pushed into the background CS Lewis found the idea of the need for rights or the struggle to get even so true of the human heart that he used it as the

basis of his argument for moral law in the universe in his book on Mere Christianity everybody has that in them and we have a sense of justice and I believe that's the image of God but in the fall that sense of justice became perverted into a vengeful spirit and it isn't so much the idea that if a person does something wrong we want it to be made right to uphold the law and to maintain a righteous standard so that God who made the righteous standard can be glorified it's that we want to get even and

that's the perversion of a moral rightousness given us in the creation of God instead of that we have just a retaliatory spirit and that's what James talks about in James 4 when he says from whence come Wars and fightings among you they come because you lust because the normal desire for justice is perverted into Vengeance and grasping and retaliation and that's why we have war and so in our society everybody fights for their rights and we're so big on rights right now that we're just setting the law aside we have a vengeful Society if they

don't get their rights I've had parents say to me you know it's just easier to give my kid what he wants than to try to discipline it and basically that's what Society is saying contrast the fight for rights the demand for your due with what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 hear him have we no right to eat and drink have we no to lead about a sister a wife as well as other Apostles and as the Brethren of the Lord and sephus or I only and Barnabas have we no right to

forbear working in other words Paul says I'm a minister of the Gospel have I no right to earn a living doing that do I have to work to earn my living don't I have a right to be paid for my Ministry and then he says don't I have a right to marry if I so choose and take a a sister to be a wife don't I have a right to those things yes nevertheless he says we have not used this right but we endure all things lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ in other

words Paul says my life is all about setting aside my rights you look at Romans 14 and 15 and it says don't use your Liberty to make anybody else stumble doesn't it we have rights but rights can be offensive to somebody else and if pushed far enough our grasping desire for our due and our rights literally obliterates law and this is precisely the issue to which our Lord speaks here in Matthew he contrasts the eth ethics of his kingdom which is forgiveness seeking nothing no defensiveness no self- protection no rights for me with a grasping

retaliatory spiteful Venge ful grudging Spirit it characterizes Society now let's see what he's saying specifically I remember several times in my life the occasion of standing on the Mount of Beatitudes very near no doubt where Jesus gave this great sermon still just a beautiful green Hillside dotted with some trees and sloping down to the shore of the Sea of Galilee little Raves waves just Rippling on the edge of the grass I've stood on that Hillside and I've imagined myself there when Jesus taught I've imagined how beneath his feet stretched out the vast multitude of people

who were hearing the sermon in front of the people gathered close to him were the Pharisees and the scribes who thought they were the best of men and perhaps even closer to him with the disciples and as Jesus speaks in this particular part of the sermon he is speaking directly at the form of religion developed by the scribes and the Pharisees and you see they believe that they had attained self self righteousness on their own Merit they believed that they were able to enter the kingdom of God on the basis of their own self righteousness

that they had attained a standard of Excellence by law by legalism by ritual and they masked the reality of their sinfulness and so Jesus is busy in The Sermon on the Mount ripping off their masks stripping their hypocrisies so that they'll themselves as wretched Sinners you say isn't that rather unkind no the kindest thing you ever do for anybody is show them their sin so they know they need a savior right nobody's going to come to a savior unless they know they need one and so Jesus tears off the mask that they might see the

sin he has already showed them that in spite of what they thought they were murderers in spite of what they thought they were adulterers in spite of what they thought they were Liars as we saw last week and now he's going to show them that in spite of what they thought they were filled with vengeful spiteful grudging Spirits not characteristic of the kingdom of God and they betrayed their sinfulness Jesus is reiterating God's standard to them and saying you fall short now this passage has led to some confusion in many people's minds people have used

this passage to teach lawlessness people have used this passage to teach pacifism they have used it to teach conscientious objection to war they have used it to instruct on anti- Capital punishments they they've used the passage to bring about a disbelief in Justice and civil law I mean this is not untypical in fact Tolstoy the great Russian novelist used The Sermon on the Mount In This Very passage to make his main point there should be no police there should be no armies there should be no soldiers there should be no authorities in society and then

we'd have Utopia maybe he wasn't as great a novelist as most people think that seems ridiculous and it is but this passage has confused a lot of people now we can't get all through it this morning we'll have to finish it the next time we meet together but I want to lay the foundation and hopefully it'll help you to get a start now let's look at the same three points we've seen in all these illustrations in chapter 5 as Jesus exposes the sin of the Pharisees first we have to not the principle of Mosaic law

then the perversion of Jewish teaching and finally the perspective of Jesus so let's look first at the principle of Mosaic law look at verse 38 now he says here you have heard that it hath been said now basically that refers to their tradition but in this case it was an exact quote from the Old Testament an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth now they're trying to play Holy and he's trying to show them their sinful so he picks another illustration and he says all right he says you go on the principle

an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth that's how you operate that's what you have been told by your rabinal traditionalists but behind that it's interesting that that is a real Old Testament quote they had just shifted the emphasis and messed up the interpretation as they so often did with the Old Testament now let me just add this this message this is really a footnote the message I'm going to give you now is is very important because I think as I said earlier concomitant with rights is a with a struggle for rights

is a certain lawlessness and this passage is fantastic in putting into balance and perspective where the law fits in the life of a Believer the Bible upholds Law and Order the Bible upholds that whole area while we can talk about forgiveness and we can talk about turning the other cheek it never is to the detriment of what is lawful and we'll see that as we go so there's a beautiful balance in this and if you see your way clear through this you'll understand that all throughout the Bible God exalts law God made society to be

lawful in fact you read the Minor Prophets and you will hear God over and over inditing Israel for unjust judges for unlawful acts for inequities in their Nation law is an essential thing Romans 13 says that the people put in positions of law are the rulers or the Agents of God that government and Authority is ordained by God very clear now if you want to know why God gave the law listen as I read first Timothy 1:9 to11 the law is not made for a righteous man but for the Lawless and disobedient for the ungodly

and for Sinners for Unholy and profane for for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers for manslayers for whoremongers for them that defile themselves with mankind now that's homosexuality and in a fight for homosexual rights we are obviating the law that God has ordained to preserve a righteous standard always in a fight for rights the law gets scuttled because if you let men have their way the things they want are unlawful because men are evil and so the law is given to stop this the law is given he says for men Stealers that's kidnapping for

liars for perjured persons and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound Doctrine according to the Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God which was committed to my trust now what is it all saying God gave law to protect righteous men against ungodly evil men and at no point in time are we to obviate law I was reading of the writing of Will Campbell this week a sort of a woodsy type preacher who is pretty much a rabble Rouser and his basic statement that interested me was that what Jesus really was saying is

we just need to get rid of all the law no that's not it at all there must be law well you say if we are to forgive if we are to turn the other cheek if we're to never retaliate if somebody sues us we don't fight them we just give them everything we've got and more and anybody wants to borrow we just lend it where does the legal recourse come where's the balance what happens if somebody commits a crime against me do I just say it's all right brother it's all right after all would you

like anything else take anything is that what we do would just turn them loose we just let them all go and just forgive them is that what this is saying or do we uphold the law and punish them is that what it's saying well I hope you want to find out let's look again at verse 38 the statement is this an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth now I've heard people say boy I'm telling you that kind of stuff is merciless that's that bloodthirsty Old Testament stuff and you know some of

the old critics of the Bible used to say there was a different God who wrote the Old Testament that's right it was the god of the New Testament is not the god of the Old Testament I mean the god of the Old Testament was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth I'll get you you know whoever does anything to you get them back if he pokes your eye poke his eye not sure to that get his is that what it's saying you know why people interpret it that way because that's the

way the human heart is but that's not the way God's heart is and that's not what it means in the Old Testament when it says that now let me help you starting in Exodus 20 you have the law of God basically codified systematized and in the 20th chapter of Exodus you have the moral law that's between a man and God a woman and God the moral law but in 21 to 23 of Exodus you have the civil law the moral law is taken care of between a man and God the civil law is taken care

of within the framework of magistrates and judges and courts and duly constituted authorities and God instituted judges and magistrates and and authorities to take care of civil matters now watch this you have three times in the Old Testament where the phrase an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is mentioned all three of those times relate to a civil situation they relate to something occurring within a duly constituted Authority a judge a magistrate Etc an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is not a statement that is in any

way related to personal relationships but in fact that's precisely what the Pharisees had done with it they took a Divine principle of judicature a Divine principle for the courts and they made it a matter of daily vendettas now let me show you why I say that let me give you the three scriptures where this phrases mentioned the first is in Exodus 21 in the civil law just listen as I read if men strive and hurt a woman with child so that her fruit depart from her and yet no Mischief follow he shall be surely punished

according as the woman's husband shall lay upon him and he shall pay as the judges determined in other words you harm a woman with child and we won't go into all of the possibilities there could be harm where she doesn't lose a child there could be harm where she does lose a child but the point is then the husband has the right to seek some damages and the judge will determine in other words this is a civil situation the husband doesn't go and get a club and beat up the guy this is not vigilante approach

this is not personal Vengeance in order for there to be structure in Law and Order and in order for there to be preservation of society you cannot have personal Vengeance and so even in the Old Testament in civil law there were judges to deal with these matters and so the judge determines if any Mischief follow then I shall give Life For Life eye for eye tooth for tooth hand for hand foot for foot burning for burning wound for wound stripe for stripe if a man Smite the eye of his servant let's say you've got a

servant and you get mad at your servant you haul off and belt your servant for some reason or other you knock his eye out or you wound his eye so he can't see or the eye of his maid and the eye perish then let the servant Go free for his eye sake and if he smites out his man servant's tooth or his maid servant's tooth he shall let him go free for his tooth sake in other words within the framework of the civil law God was protect protecting the the weak from the strong he was

protecting the good from the evil by saying there will be just recourse but you notice the term judges there this is civil this is not a matter of personal Vengeance if you're a servant and you're and you're employer knocks your tooth out you don't catch him in an unwary moment and knock his out you would go to the court in Israel and you would say this is what happened it would be confirmed in the mouth of two or three Witnesses and the just due would be given to you you would be set free and so

this would temper the Master's treatment of his slaves if he knew that he struck his slave and his slave lost a tooth he lost a slave that would be a high price to pay you see law is a restraint and when Justice is enacted speedily and equitably it has a great effect on society there's a second use of this same phrase in Leviticus 24 if a man cause a blemish in his neighbor as he has done so shall it be done to him breach for breach eye for eye tooth for tooth as Heath caused a

blemish in a man so shall it be done to him again in other words now Mark this there is to be Equity the punishment is to fit the crime and it is a civil setting now the third one is in Deuteronomy 19 now listen one witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin in any sin that he sinth at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three Witnesses shall the matter be established all right if you have sufficient Witnesses the man has done something you've got

witnesses coming where are they coming this is a court setting this is a tribunal this is a magistrate this is a civil thing if a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong then both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before the Lord before the priests and the judges which shall be in those days and the judges shall make diligent Inquisition and if a witness be a false witness and testify falsely against his brother then shall he do unto him as he thought to have done

unto his brother so that thou put the evil away from among you you know how to get R rid of evil in your Society give just punishment speedily for people who commit crimes even perjury as in this case and those which remain shall hear and fear and henceforth commit no more any such evil among you and thine ey shall shall not pity now notice this there is no place in a law court for pity you see pity is not in a law Court the law demands Justice if Society is to be preserved there must be

Justice the court is not the place for pity I always remember the judge in Pasadena who felt sorry for the rapist and let him go and then he raped and murdered a nine-year-old girl and the judge felt sorry for the little girl the court is not the place for pity it is the place to hold the standard of righteous Law High why because that and that alone will preserve society and put fear in the hearts of men you take a sinful man innitely sinful with a depraved nature and give him his rights and and he'll

run right into chaos if you don't make consequences for his behavior and I'll tell you parents start it with your children if there are no consequences in the behavior of your children they will never learn what it means to live a righteous life never and so he says at the end Deuteronomy 19:21 and life shall go for Life eye for eye tooth for tooth hand for hand foot for foot now listen in all three of those passages you will see that the law was for the Civil courts it even mentions judges magistrates several times the

point is this the law was never to be taken into the hands of an individual God knew that would be utter chaos you cannot have Anarchy in preserved Society so the intent of the Mosaic law was to control sin in this case the sin of anger violence and revenge and in our own you know what we call Rugged individualism boy we want to strike back even in marriage you know we play that one upmanship deal don't we you know you you just feel like she's got the upper hand for a while and you got to

figure out a way to get back on top get even but God had another way to go you say well now wait a minute John you've just said this is Mosaic law and ey for an ey tooth for Toth maintain the standard of Justice yes that's right in the courts in the courts but that is not all that the Old Testament teaches and we'll see that in a few moments but notice this one thing and this is the intent of the Old Testament law the statement an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth a

hand for hand a foot for a foot breach for breach and all those you know what it means the crime must fit the punishment no less and no more it was a restraint on the on the innate Vengeance that's in an evil heart you see an eye for an eye didn't mean boy when you get it give it back it meant that when Justice functions let it never go beyond its bounds if it's only a tooth then only a tooth should be taken or in kind and usually it was money to compensate not an actual

tooth in other words God was limiting the innate evil human heart which always seeks to go beyond how it's been offended for example the illustration of pulling in front of the guy all I did was pull in front of the guy he didn't have to put his brakes on but he just was irritated because he liked looking at the back end of the other car I suppose and so he was irritated but he didn't just pull around and get in another Lane and uh do for five miles blink blink blink blink you know completely beyond

what any thing that I had done demanded you want to know something nobody ever murdered anybody because they got murdered never they go Way Beyond you mess around with my girlfriend Bang You're Dead see it's always Beyond it's always an overreaction and that's why God said an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth no more no less put the boundaries on Justice in the Old Testament it doesn't mean take personal Revenge that isn't the idea at all now this is the oldest law in the world did you know that it's known as Lex

tonus it's the oldest law in the world we found it in the code of hamurabi since sometimes it's called Tit for Tat sometimes it's called quidd proquo Uh it just means equal punishment for the crime TI foret we found it in the quote of hamurabi it says this if a man has caused the loss of a gentleman's eye his eye shall be caused to be lost if he shattered a gentleman's limb one shall shatter his limb in other words bound up in the human heart is a sense of justice but the problem is it gets

perverted into Vengeance now don't miss the point that is a good law that is a good law it's a law to put fear in the hearts of people you know what that law doesn't do anything at all but good for righteous people do you know that it just protects them it protects them people say oh you know we can't have all these laws it encumbers us listen the more strict the law the more protection for the righteous people all they affect negatively are people they ought to affect negatively evil people whose evil is out of

control now let me give you several thoughts first of all it's a just law I'll tell you why it's a just law because punishment should fit the crime that's exactly right let me give you an illustration judges 1 6 and 7 it's not anything more than Justice it's just equal Adon I bizek fled and they pursued after him caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes now that's strange you say what do they do that for he was an enemy they cut off his thumbs and his big toes yes verse 7even and

Adon ibac said three score and 10 Kings having their thumbs and their big toes cut off gathered scraps of food under my table as I have done so God has requited me he was busy cutting off other people's thumbs and toes and so he got his own cut off now there is an illustration of what was done in an Old Testament setting do you know today in Iran when they Catch a Thief what they do to him what do they do cut off his hands they cut off at hands his hands now that has a

tremendous effect on shoplifting now I'm not saying that I want people's hands cut off what I'm saying is people are sinful I'm sinful and if there aren't some rules and there isn't some fear put in put in our hearts we will pursue an evil path do you see it's a just law what's WR a man so said Paul that shall he also what reap judge not lest you be judged as you have measured it out so should it be measured to you secondly it's a merciful law an eye for an eye and a tooth for

a tooth is merciful because it limits Vengeance it does away with the vendettas it does away with the blood feuds you know you've read so many times about a native you know he goes over to the other tribe and he kills somebody in the tribe and what happens the whole tribe comes over and Slaughters everybody in the other tribe no no no no that law says only the person who committed the crime and only in commensurate with the crime should be the punishment it's a merciful law it puts a lid on human Vengeance if a

master of a slave brutally beat his slave and he lost a tooth he'd have to free that slave the courts would free that slave that slave could take his case to court he'd be set free and what that did was restrain an evil master you see it's a merciful you see the law never hurts the good and the righteous people thirdly it therefore is a beneficent law it was designed as I said to protect the weak against the strong the peaceful from the violent our you see our suffering Society gets everything Twisted we talk about

rights so much now that it seems often today that criminals have more rights than honest people people our suffering Society overrun with crime and violence would do well to reexamine the Old Testament law but you see once you deny God and once you let that go everything's gone I believe the pulpit has to be the place to put all this back to to perspective again we have to preach a just character in the heart of God and we have to enact a just lawful discipline in the church and we have to preach an eternal punishment

in hell why so that the world knows there is right and wrong and reward and consequence and I believe when the pulpit went liberal and when the pulpit stopped preaching the character of God and stopped preaching hell and eternal punishment and the church stopped disciplining sin that Society just fell into the flow and maybe we can lay the whole thing in our own doorstep if we've got an feminite generation that wants to abolish capital punishment turn prisons into country clubs relax Justice in a violation of God's law maybe it's because we haven't proclaimed it the

way we should have that's the legacy of liberalism to restrain evil is merciful to restrain evil is beneficent not to restrain evil not to have punishments not to have the things the way they should be is to allow evil to run rampant and everybody pays the price Arthur pink says magistrates and judges were never ordained by God for the purpose of reforming reprobates or pampering degenerates but to be his instruments for preserving Law and Order and that by being a terror to the evil Romans chapter 13 says they are to be an Avenger to execute

wrath on him that doeth evil well he's right there's to be Terror the law has been ignored because God character has been ignored because a sense of Eternal punishment has been ignored because the church doesn't even bother to discipline pink further says that conscience has become comos the requirements of Justice are stifled modlin Concepts now Prevail as Eternal punishment is repudiated either tacitly or in many cases openly ecclesiastical punishments are sheld churches refuse to enforce sanctions and wink at flagrant offenses the inevitable outcome has been the breakdown of discipline in the home and the creation

of a public opinion which is mock is and spineless School teachers are intimidated by foolish parents and children so that the rising generation are more and more allowed to have their own way without fear of consequences and if some judge has the courage of his convictions and S sentences a brute for aing an old woman there's an outcry against him this is the Legacy that we have in our country and so Jesus whatever he says will uphold the Old Testament law he won't obviate it he won't change that if God said the law is a

just law the law is a merciful law the law is a beneficent law and the law has a reason to be Jesus will not change that why because Jesus said not one jot or one TT shall in any wise pass from this law till all be fulfilled and he said anybody who breaks one of the least of these Commandments or teaches anybody else to do that is the least in the Kingdom of Heaven he said I am not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it so what he's doing here when he says but

I say is not obviating the law but saying let me clarify what God meant I speak for God now as I said earlier that's not the whole of the Old Testament law there's so much more law must be upheld Justice must rule there must be a right sense of justice but on the the other hand what should be our attitude in the work of Justice do we hate the criminal do we feel Vengeance and bitterness and spite listen to what the Old Testament also teaches Leviticus 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge or bear any grudge against

the children of thy people that's the same book same author Moses you should never hold a grudge you should never avenge oh if there's a crime committed then you should seek the law to do its work because that preserves society and that exalts God who wrote the law but your heart is filled with forgiveness and your heart is filled with love so that Jesus says love your enemies and do good to those that despitefully use you and persecute you I've stood at my door in my own home under the threat of a man coming in

with a knife to maim one of my children what would I do if he came in and killed one of my children I thought that through pretty heavily in those days when we were going through that what would I do well what Jesus is saying to me to do would be this catch the man hold the man if he was hungry feed him and if he was thirsty give him to drink and if he needed Christ give him the gospel and most of all for give him and love him and then let the do let

the law do exactly what God gave the law to do see they work together one belongs in the courts and the other belongs in my heart an attitude of forgiveness and that's why Proverbs 25:21 says this if thine enemy and we're talking about enemy here we're not talking about the guy over the fence who doesn't cut his weeds and they blow on your yard we're talking about somebody who comes and kills your family see this is serious enemy right if your enemy hungers give him bread to eat and if he's thirsty give him water to

drink I couldn't help but think of that film of Nicaragua where the soldier was standing over Bill Moyer's the NBC correspondent just watching him lie on the ground and blew a bullet into his head that's human Vengeance the Old Testament says if your enemy hungers give him bread to eat if he thirst give him water to drink but it also says if commits a crime take him to court to the judges to give him due punishment for his crime Proverbs 24:29 listen to this say not I will do so to him as he has done

to me don't say that don't say that that's Vengeance Jesus hangs on a cross they've set about to murder him he knows it'll be a little time until they'll murder murder his disciples he looks down the ages and he sees all the heroes of the faith who will die in martyrdom he looks at an ungodly unruly world and he says to them Father what forgive them forgive them now he knew Justice would take its course and he knew if they died without repentance they'd spend eternity in hell and yet his heart was a heart of

forgiveness so when I catch that man in my house who's killed my child I must forgive him in the love of Christ and I must tell him about Christ and I must feed him and I must do that but on the other hand I must let the law take its course because that is to uphold the Divine standard I cannot say I will do so to him as he has done to me now this is precisely the point beloved listen we come to the second thought and I'm just going to mention it and then we're

going to close the Pharisees had perverted this great truth into a personal Vengeance principle boy if somebody gets your tooth get his see and instead of taking it as a limit on Vengeance they took it as a mandate for vengeance their emphasis was wrong they removed it from the courts they made it a personal revenge and they used it to justify Hearts full of hate and Jesus is saying to them you you're not you're not righteous you're not righteous at all if you were righteous you wouldn't be vengeful they cherished a spirit of retaliation you

say well John how do you find this kind of balance where you can uphold the law of God and still in your heart be free to forgive I'll tell you how very simple at least the concept stated simply this the only person who is non-defensive nonprotective non vengeful never Bears a grudge has no spite in his heart is a person who has died to self right what is there to defend what is there to defend if I've died to self what is to defend but if I'm going to fight for my rights then I prove

the point that self is on the throne self is ruling Jesus had died to self in the sense that he had abandoned himself to the father's will and so if he died he died Paul had abandoned himself to the father's will and died to self so that he says if I live I live to the Lord if I die I die un the Lord so whether I live or die I'm the Lord's he he knew what it was to say I Die daily if Paul had lived for himself he would have gone through his life

defending himself against his critics he never did no you see selfishness is defensive it's protective it's vengeful it's spiteful it's reactionary and so if we are to have the spirit that Jesus asks for we have to die to ourselves die to ourselves one of the biographers of William E Gladstone the Great British prime minister said this of Gladstone of how few who have lived for more than years in the full light of their countrymen and have as party leaders been exposed to angry and sometimes spiteful criticism can it be said that there stands against them

no malignant word and no vindictive act this was due not perhaps entirely to Gladstone's natural sweetness of disposition but rather to self-control and a certain largess of Soul which would not condescend to anything mean and Petty end quote well you can be a situ ation like that where the Prime Minister and he was a dedicated Christian where you're criticized by everybody and never have a vindictive response or a malignant word in response you're manifesting the spirit Christ is talking about what about the death of self if someone kills my child if I have died to

self I don't take it as a personal grief I will uphold the law for the glory of God but I'm not going to strike that man back out of personal anger and vengeance of look what you've done to me no the heart of the matter then is to understand what it means to die to self listen maybe this will help when you're forgiven or neglected or purposely said it not and you sting and hurt with the insult or the oversight but your heart is happy being counted worthy to suffer for Christ that is dying to

self when your good is evil spoken of when your wishes are crossed your advice disregarded your opinions ridiculed and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself but you take it all in patient loving silence that is dying to self and when you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder any irregularity any annoyance when you can stand face to faced with waste and Folly and extravagance and spiritual insensibility and you can endure it as Jesus endured it that is dying to self and when you are content with any circumstance any food

any offering any clothing any climate any society any solicitude any Interruption by the will of God that is dying to self and when you never care to refer to yourself in conversation or to record your own good works or itch after Commendation for from others when you can truly love to be unknown that is dying to self when you see your brother prosper and have his needs met and can honestly Rejoice with him in spirit and feel no Envy nor question God while your own needs are far greater and your circumstances more desperate that is

dying to self and when you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and can humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly finding no Rebellion or resentment rising up in your heart that is dying to self ask yourself a question are you dead yet if we are to know the balance between holding up the law of God in an evil society and pouring out a heart filled with forgiveness filled with love and empty of any Vengeance empty of any self it will be when we learn what Jesus meant when he said

this if any man will be my disciple let him what deny himself take up his cross daily and follow me let's pray together I think father of the words of the Apostle Paul whose great prayer was that I may know him and how by being made conformable to his death we learn from the sufferings of Jesus Christ how he responded in his heart forgiving the very crucifiers being reviled he reviled not again only reaching out in love father May that Spirit be in us may we die to self as Christ did in the sense that

he obeyed the father's will even in death may we be willing to crucify ourselves may we not be defensive or protective like Paul in 1 Corinthians 4 may we not justify ourselves God help us to know the balance between holding up your law for your glory and the preservation of righteousness in society and having hearts of forgiveness even to the people who break that law even if they break it against us and wound Us in the breaking teach us to die to ourselves and to live unto you we pray for Christ's glory amen you've been

listening to John MacArthur Bible teacher with grace to you for free access to all of John's lessons and a listing of study Bibles and books available for sale visit Grace to's website at gty.org John MacArthur and Grace to reserve all copyright protection under applicable law our copyright policy is available at gty.org and it includes instructions for and limitations on duplicating this digital file