Love Your Enemies, Part 2 (Matthew 5:43–48) [Audio Only]

I invite you this morning to turn with me again to Matthew Chapter 5 Matthew Chapter 5 and we are examining verses 43 to 48 this is such a key passage so filled with truth and importance for our lives that we're going to spend a few weeks on it I believe God has some very special and important things to say to us to me through this let me read for you verses 43 to 48 of Matthew 5 and you follow as I read ye have heard that it hath been said Thou shalt love thy neighbor and

hate thine enemy but I say unto you love your enemies and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the sons of your father who is in heaven for he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth reign on the just and on the unjust for if ye love them who love you what reward have ye do not even the tax collectors the same and if you greet your brethren only what do ye more than others do not even the Heathen so be therefore

perfect even as your father who is in heaven is perfect as you know if you've been with us for any time Matthew presents Jesus Christ Christ as king each of the gospels focuses on a different element of the Life of Christ a different facet of his very character and Matthew's point is that he is the king the king of the universe the monarch of the Earth the king of Israel the anointed of God and Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience primarily because he wants them to realize that the very one Jesus of Nazareth whom

they rejected is none other than their Messiah the one of whom they said we will not have this man to Reign Over Us is none other than the anointed king Matthew's purpose then in all of the pages and chapters and verses of his gospel is to present the kingliness of Christ we have seen how he has done that already in the first five chapters he began by discussing his Royal birth coming at the end of a royal lineage he discussed his adoration by Persian king makers known as the Magi who recognized this one as king

he talked about his baptism in which God approved of him as the anointed when he said this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased we see Matthew present his kingliness as he presents his defeat over the reigning monarch of the earth Satan as Satan comes three times against Christ and all three times he is defeated and finally vanquished we see his kingliness and his Miracle power as he has power over the physical world to heal to raise the dead to give sight to the Blind and hearing to the deaf and voices to

the dumb and feet to the lame and all of these things are Matthew's efforts to present the Majesty of Jesus Christ finally as he comes to Matthew Chapter 5 and 6 and 7 he presents the stand ards of the king's Kingdom if he is a king then what are the rules of his kingdom what is the manifesto of the monark what are the standards by which those in his kingdom live and we have the incomparable Sermon on the Mount presenting those very standards and the key note that I wanted you to remember all through this

is that the standards of the kingdom of Christ are not the standards of the world in fact Jesus sets them in contrast with the system of his day he shows how inferior Judaism is to the true standards of his kingdom and we've already talked about the fact that the Jewish people had taken the Divine standards of God and lowered them to their own level and then by keeping their substandard rules identified themselves as righteous with a righteousness they themselves had invented another words they lowered the standard and accommodated themselves to it Jesus comes and lifts

it back again he doesn't change the Old Testament he doesn't set it aside he reaffirms it and says your standard is here God's is up here and so in our study of chapter 5 we have seen how he has done that and he's done it by a series of six contrasts he contrasted first of all in verse 21 and following their view of murder with his then their view of adultery with his their view of divorce with his their view of swearing with his their view of retaliation with his and finally their view of love

with his and here we are at the Apex really people because the Apostle Paul was exactly right under the inspiration of the spirit when he said the greatest thing is love and Jesus saves this for the ultimate contrast Jesus saves this for the final statement that the epitome of the disparity between the standards of his kingdom and the standards of his day can be seen in the difference between the nature of loves of the two that's the final contrast yours verse 43 you have heard that it has been said which is a simply an introduction

to those rabinal teachings passed down to them your system has said Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy but I say unto you love your enemies now you see there the disparity don't you between a low-level substandard religious ethic and that which is Gods now as we've studied the texts all through Matthew 5 from verse 21 on we have simply stated there are three features in each that are the major thrust the Jewish Viewpoint the old Testament Viewpoint and the Viewpoint of Jesus let's go back and review very briefly the tradition of the

Jews verse 43 and you'll remember two weeks ago that I said that it all starts out good Thou shalt love thy neighbor that sounds good and that's always the way it is with any system that wants to infiltrate the truth any system that wants to become a substitute for the truth must contain a ption of the truth therein lies the deceit therein lies the subtlety that's why we find in Ephesians 4 that spiritual babes are tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of Doctrine because whenever there is an encroachment upon the truth

by Satan he invariably wants to maintain something of that truth to provide a common ground to lead people into the perversion and so it all starts out so well Thou shalt love thy neighbor but as I told you there are two problems they left out something and they added something they left out Thou shalt Love Thy Neighbor what's the rest of it as thyself and they added and hate thine enemy they left out as thyself because of Pride and they added hate thine enemy because of prejudice they didn't feel they wanted to love anybody as

themselves and they wanted the right to be justified in their vitriolic hatred toward everybody who wasn't a part of their little group so conveniently they dropped something and conveniently they added something and thus they came up with a perversion of God's standard and that's precisely what Jesus attacks and what Jesus is saying to these Pharisees and scribes and those who agreed with the system is that your system no matter how intellectually convinced you are your system is inadequate to redeem you you are not God's people you have not met the standard you are sinners and

consequently he offers himself as the Savior knowing full well that no one comes to a savior that he does not know he needs and so really it's a message about Sin they thought that because they didn't murder they weren't sinful they thought that because they didn't commit adultery under their definition they weren't sinful they thought because they divorced and made sure they did the paperwork they weren't sinful they thought that because when they swore by the name of God they kept their word they were okay and they thought because they retaliated equivalently that they were

all right but Jesus says You' missed the point if you you hate somebody that's as good as murder if you look on somebody that's the same as adultery if you divorce for non biblical grounds that's evil and if you don't keep your word no matter what you swear by you've sin and so he undercuts their whole security and here he says you think you love and what you love is everybody in your little group that agrees with you and then you have license to hate everybody else and you're not even willing to love the ones

you love the way you love yourself which leaves room for your self-indulgent pride that's the Jewish Tradition now we move from that to the second point that we're looking at and that is the teaching of the Old Testament from the tradition of the Jews we see implied behind this the teaching of the Old Testament what did the Old Testament teach did the Old Testament say anywhere hate your enemy no did it say love your neighbor yes what is the sum of the teaching of the Old Testament well we kind of got started in it last

time let me just remind you of this there is a statement in the Psalms in Psalm 139 where David says I hated them with a perfect hatred that is the only justifiable hatred in the Bible that is the only justifiable reaction to an enemy in the Bible and it is based upon on the Same Heart attitude the same mentality as Psalm 699 where David says the reproaches that have fallen on you have fallen on me Zeal for your house has eaten me up for example the Bible says it is wrong to be angry but there

is such a thing as righteous indignation true Jesus said we are not to be angry with one another and yet Jesus made a whip what's the difference Jesus never got angry with people who personally offended him but Jesus got angry with those who defile the glory of God we have the right to react in indignation when God is Dishonored but not to react in retaliation over personal injury now the same thing is true in regard to this kind of thing with our enemies with hatred we should have a perfect or a righteous hatred for those

who are the enemies of God and David said I hate them with a perfect hatred and right after that do you remember what he said and God he said search my heart try me and know me know my thoughts that there is no Wicked way in me in other words God I hate them with a perfect hatred and if you search my heart you will know that my motive is your glory not my own personal injury there is a place for that there is a place for Zeal for the Holiness of God and the sacredness

of his truth and his person and the Old Testament will tolerate that but it will not tolerate any kind of evil attack any kind of bitterness or anger or resentment or hostility toward someone who brings against us a personal injury we have no place for personal hatred out of Pride or Prejudice no matter what has been done to us you see the Jews Define neighbor in a very narrow way but the Bible defined it in a very big way the word neighbor is the issue the Jews said neighbor is the one who believes the way

we believe and you remember I told you how they they cursed the Rabel mob who didn't know the law and they despised the ignorant galileans who were they from that isolated place it was just their little group but hate your enemy never came from God's truth in the Old Testament they put it as an accommodation to their Pride and Prejudice what did the Old Testament really teach about loving your neighbor how broad is that term let me show you look with me at Deuteronomy 22 Deuteronomy 22 we're going to spend a few minutes in the

Old Testament because I want you to see that God hasn't changed his perspective Deuteronomy 22 now here we're dealing with some of the levitical law some of the codes for Israel's Behavior avior and this is a very practical and simple one Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or his sheep go astray and withhold thy help from them Thou shalt in any case bring them again to thy brother in other words if your brother has an animal that gets loose and goes astray you want to immediately come to assist the point being you meet another

person's need all right verse two if your brother be not near unto thee or if thou know him not maybe it's somebody you don't even know you don't have any idea who it is and you you shall bring it then to your house and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it and thou shalt restore it to him again let's say you find a stray a couple of sheep or an ox somewhere and you really don't know to whom it belongs at all you take it feed it care for it as long

as it's necessary be sure you do that until the person comes and says say I lost a couple I've got them right here and then you take him and give them back in like manner shalt thou do with his ass and so shalt thou do with his rment if he loses his cloak and with every lost thing of thy Brothers which he hath lost and thou Hast found now that's a general principle about lost and found when somebody loses it you don't own it because you found it you just keep it until he comes to

get it and then you give it to him now notice that this is a meeting somebody else's need verse four Thou shalt not see thy brother's ass or his Ox fall down by the way and withhold thy help from them Thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again sometimes the burden would become heavy the animal would become tired and he just fall down well one fellow would have a little tough time getting that animal back up again and so you were to come to his help now you say what does this have to

do with anything it's talking about your brother here all right turn to Exodus chapter 23 and we go even earlier in the writing of Moses and we see the same principle in Exodus 23:4 only this time it takes on a completely different identification Exodus 23:4 if thou meet thine enemies Ox you say ahuh there's my enemy's ax loose or his ass going astray Thou shalt surely bring it back to him again now notice same exact Principle as Deuteronomy 22 only Deuteronomy 22 used what term for the individual brother how big a term is brother how

big a term is it the syllogism of this simply says that brother has to include what enemy that's the point verse five if thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under its burden and wouldest forbear to help him Thou shalt surely help with him somebody who hates you and his animal falls down the normal reaction is serves you right buddy hope your animal dies and you've got to put the whole load on your wife you know that retaliatory Spirit he says no you go and help even if it's your enemy in other

words the standard ever changes the term brother is big enough to include whoever happens to have a need do you see the point that's where we determine the meaning of neighbor neighbor is as big as need that's all and when the Bible says love your neighbor it simply widens up the whole thing as Psalms tells us the Commandment of God is very broad to Encompass anybody who has a need no matter how they feel about you that's the issue now we're not talking about Nation against nation in war we're not talking about a criminal justice

process we're talking about the daytoday routine of Human Relationships look further with me will you at Job 31 Job 31 verse 29 and job has has some people telling him that he's a sinner he has some diseases and some problems in his life and he is really being used by God as an illustration he hasn't really done any sinful thing to bring this upon him but all of his counselors think he has and so they're forever telling him that he's a sinner and job starts to Muse and respond a little bit to this issue and

one of the things that he says is in job 31:29 he's trying to tell them that he really hasn't done some sin to deserve this he said and here's his illustration if I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me or lifted up myself when evil found him in other words boy I had a great time I just loved it when he fell into evil the implication is if if I did that then I would have sinned I mean you'd have a right to accuse me if I had ever rejoiced at the destruction of

somebody that hated me now that touches a nerve of human behavior because when there is somebody who is your enemy and they fall into problems the first reaction is that you love it you just love it and the worse the problem the better you like it that's human nature job says but I didn't do that or I would have sinned neither have I suffered verse 30 my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul I've never allowed out of my mouth any evil thought toward someone and boy we do that a lot a

lot with our epithets and our curses and our condemnation job says I didn't do that either I never rejoiced when they fell into Calamity I never wished them evil verse 31 if the men of my tent said not all that we had of his flesh we cannot be satisfied in other words we've never longed for the flesh of an enemy we've never been dissatisfied enough to want more injury or harm to come to someone no you see the attitude of job and by the way job was in the patriarchal period so this really takes you

clear back to the earliest years of God's dealing with man and the attitude from the very start was one of love and forgiveness not wishing evil even on an enemy go further with me into psalm chapter 7 the 7th Psalm verse three and David in a sense is praying a similar prayer oh Lord my God if I have done this if there be iniquity in my hands what kind of iniquity David if I have rewarded evil unto him who was at peace with me in other words if I was unkind to my friend y I

have delivered him who without cause is my enemy in other words if I have sinned by being evil to one who was good or if I have sin by being evil to one who was evil to me David really pinpoints two things it's wrong to be evil toward those that are good to you it's even wrong to be evil toward those that are evil to you if I have done that he says let the enemy persecute my soul and take it let him tread down my life on the Earth and L my honor in the

dust he's justifying himself to God here and he's saying God I've looked at my heart and I have never given back evil for good and I have not given back evil for evil either you see the Old Testament never justifies hating an enemy that's a sin job recognized it as a sin and so did David in the 35th Psalm so that you'll understand further what God's heart is on this verse 12 David says of his enemies they rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul in other words it it just it hurt

me on the inside they gave me back evil for good my enemies did but as for me now look here's a righteous man when they were sick my clothing was sackcloth now what did sackcloth speak of well it spoke of remorse and sorrow and mourning didn't it when a Jew put on sackcloth and Ashes he was in mourning he says when I was good to them they were cruel to me but when evil fell upon them I I mourned over them my heart broke over them this is the spirit of Jesus who hangs on the

cross and looks at those who spit on him and says father what forgive them they know not what they do this is the heart of Steven who lays beneath the bloody stones that are crushing the life out of his body and cries out to God lay not this sin to their charge this is the magnanimous unbelievable inhuman Supernatural forgiveness that comes here from the heart of David who has been given evil for good and yet when his enemies suffer his clothing is sackcloth and he says I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned

into my own bosom in other words David says I fasted and I mourned and I prayed for my enemies when they fell into calamity verse 14 I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother notice that and here David brings together in our thoughts Deuteronomy 22 and exodus 23 and he says my enemy is my brother my enemy is to be my friend at least in that sense I bowed down heavily as one who mourneth for his mother now I'll tell you something people when a man can weep over his enemy like

he weeps over his mother in Calamity he has learned a dimension of love that is far beyond the human level and that's the teaching of the Old Testament in my adversity verse 15 they rejoiced and they gathered themselves together and they had a party and they tore at me and they ceased not they nashed upon me with their teeth but that was never my heart toward them oh this is such a basic truth look at Proverbs for a moment 17 5 in Proverbs 175 it says this who so mock the poor reproacheth his maker and

then this and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished when you rejoice over evil fallen on someone you'll not be unpunished that is a sin even though that person be an enemy Proverbs 24:29 say not this is the command say not I will do so to him as he hath done to me don't say that don't be a retaliatory person don't strike back at your enemy that's the opposite of what we know is the Golden Rule and then finally in Proverbs 25:21 we find I think we find the sum of it all

Proverbs 25:21 listen carefully very simple very profound if thine enemy be hungry give him bread to eat and if he be thirsty give him water to drink beloved can I say this to you your enemy is your neighbor that's what the Old Testament teaches your enemy in a human sense is your brother not in a spiritual sense in a human sense is your brother maybe you need some illustrations let's go back to Genesis chapter 13 and see how the Old Testament honored this kind of attitude toward an enemy Abram and lot had a dispute there

were too many of them and their animals to occupy one plot of land and verse six says that they had so many flocks and so many tents and herds and all of this that the land was not able to Bear them they couldn't dwell together in the same place for their substance was great so that they couldn't dwell together and there was a Strife between the herdsman of Abram's cattle and the herdsman of Lot's cattle so here you have enemies you have a a minor Warfare how is it to be handled bitterly antagonistically watch Abram

and you see the virtue of the man verse eight and Abram said unto lot let there be no Strife I pray thee between me and thee and between my herdsman and thy herdsman for we're Brethren is not the whole land before thee separate thyself I pray thee from me if thou wil take the left hand then I'll go to the right right or if thou depart to the right hand then I'll go to the left now listen people that is an amazing reaction Abraham ended the fight right there because he said lot you take whatever

you want and I'll just take what's left you pick out the best and you take it that's how to treat an enemy give him the very best that there is and so lot checked around lifted up his eyes in verse 10 beheld the plain of Jordan well watered everywhere before of course the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah it was like the garden of the Lord the land of Egypt as it comest unto Zoar which is a very fertile area of Egypt so lot chose all the plain of Jordan and Lot journeyed East and they separated

themselves the one from the other Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan and lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent toward Sodom but the men of Sodom were Wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly now we could talk a lot about the stupidity of lot pitching his tent towards Sodom and how it eventually got closer and closer until he was in Sodom and finally he was out of Sodom and Lot's wife was a pillar of Saul but the point that I want you to see here is the fact that Abraham

treated an enemy as the Bible would want us to treat one he loved him as he loved himself instead of seeking the land for himself he sought the best for his enemy the Bible Honors that kind of virtue 1 Samuel chapter 24 offers us another illustration and I'm taking time to develop this because I think it's such an important point and we'll really we'll draw it down to some practical things next Lord's day as we uh conclude but in first Samuel 24 I want you to notice the first six verses it came to pass when

Saul was returned from following the Philistines that it was told him saying behold David is in the wilderness of inti now Saul was busy chasing David David was a threat to Saul's Throne a threat to his security Saul had been trying to kill David trying every way he could to find David and murder him and so they said David is in the wilderness of eni go and find him that's where he is and you can get him there so Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and these are the crack troops the best

guys the Sharpshooters you know the SWAT team off they went to find David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats and by the way I've been to enti and it is a treacherous and rocky area he came to the sheep coats and by the way sheep coats were little stacks of rocks that they would put at the front of a cave to act like a fence to keep the sheep in and there was a cave there and Saul went in to cover his feet now that is a Hebrew expression for visiting I

don't know how else to put this the men's room what they did uh was they just went in and and um I don't know how to describe this delicately but I'll give it a shot anyway they had these long robes and they went in and they would just kind of get down on their hunches and they would put their robe around them covering their feet that's literally what they did they had sort of a portable um commode and so Saul went into this particular cave by himself to deal with that particular necessity and while he

was there there David and his men were in the same cave interesting circumstance and they were along the sides of the cave while Saul was in the middle and the men of David said to him behold the day of which the Lord said I mean they said this is it David I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand they said the prophecy has come true here he is of all things we are in the middle of nowhere in the wilderness of enti and in walks our enemy to cover his feet he is there literally a

sitting deck well what happened the men of David saw said unto him this was the Fulfillment of the prophecy do unto him as it shall seem good unto thee he's your enemy get him David this is your moment you you know your God's anointed get rid of this evil man this enemy so David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe stealthily he snuck up behind him and took a snitch out of his robe you say well that David isn't what we had in mind well we're not taking pieces of His Garment bit by

bit we'd like to do away with him but just to show you the sensitivity of David's heart it came to pass afterward that David's heart smote him because he had cut off Saul's SK he was convicted about that and he said to his men the Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master the Lord's anointed to stretch forth mine hand against him seeing he is the anointed of the Lord you can feel that way about an enemy after all he's a creation of God he's beloved by God and David restrained his servants

with these words and permitted them not to Rise Against Saul but Saul rose up out of the cave and went on his way David also arose afterward and went out of the cave and cried after Saul saying my Lord the king oh man can you imagine the jolt that must have been to Saul and when Saul looked behind him David stooped with his face to the Earth and bowed himself amazing he paid homage to this evil enemy and David was a Godly Man as was Abram you see virtue behaves toward an enemy as we would

behave toward a friend because an enemy is a neighbor I want to show you one other illustration second Samuel 16 and again it's David 2 Samuel 16 verse five and this is a this must have been oh just I can't recreate eight the terrible anxiety of this moment in David's life David was a terrible father you've got to be a terrible father to end up with an Absalom but he did and absum his son whom with whom he was far too lenient turned out to rebel against him Absalom came against his own father wanted to

usurp his throne absolum not only came against David politically but absum frankly broke David's heart and finally David just cried out with tears rushing down his face absum my son my son my son when he heard of his death but absam is after David and David is running fleeing from his own son David who is the king and in the midst of all of this verse 5 of 2 Samuel 16 says and when King David came to bahur behold there came out a man of the family of the House of Saul whose name was shim

the son of Gara he came forth and he cursed continually as he came this is a profane man and he cast stones at David and all the Servants of King David and all the people and all the Mighty Men on his right hand and on his left he just started throwing rocks at all of them and cursing fouly David and thus said shimmy when he cursed come out come out thou bloody man and thou worthless fellow David apparently was inside the troop a little bit and he was screaming at him to come out the Lord

hath returned upon thee all the blood of the House of Saul you know why you're getting what you're getting you know why absum has turned against you because you dethroned Saul because you took Saul's place and remember this was a fellow from Saul's family now you're getting your due David you bloody man and the Lord had delivered the kingdom into the hand of abelam thy son and behold Thou Art taken in thy Mischief because thou art a bloody man you want to know something there was just enough truth in that to make it painful because

later on when David wanted to build the temple God said no because you have hands full of blood he hadn't murdered Saul but he had fought many battles and bloodied his hands then said abishai and Bish was a loyal to David Son of Zarah why should this dead dog curse my Lord the king now apparently dead dog was a bad thing to call somebody I mean that's probably the worst epithet a bishai could think of this dead dog you find frequently in the Bible that pagans are called dogs even in Peter you hear Peter refer

to dogs looking up their vomit and he has in mind apostates who go back to their to their evil ways and to call somebody a dog was a terribly derogatory term but to add the the the term dead dog is really strong but we even say that boy so and so is a dead dog we use it in a little different term but this is where it came from why should this dead dog curse my Lord the king let me go over I pray thee and take off his head this was a pretty primitive time

and that's what normally would have happened the king said what have I to do with you you sons of zeroah so let him curse because the Lord have said unto him curse David who shall then say why hast thou done so what David is implying here is maybe the Lord told him to do this you see David is feeling the guilt of his failure with Absalon and David is facing the realization of his bloody hands and he's saying how do you know but that God has not asked him to do this David said to abishai

and all his servants behold my son who came forth of my own body seeks my life how much more now may this benjamite do in other words look I could care less about this guy the pain is from absum what he adds to the thing is minimal to me don't bother with it let him alone and let him curse for the Lord has bidden him and I'm sure this is David's feeling whether the Lord did or or not I don't know but he feels that he must have it may be that the Lord will look

on mine Affliction and the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day and as David and his men went along the way shimy went along on the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and cast dust and the king and all the people who were with him became weary and refreshed themselves there but David's heart was right at that moment he loved with the love the Old Testament taught the Jews were dead wrong in Jesus day the Old Testament didn't teach to hate your enemy that was their

evil prideful Prejudice teaching that neighbor encompassed even an enemy go back with me for a moment to Matthew and let me share this with you chapter 5:1 earlier in the sermon Jesus had said similar terms blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake how should you react how should you react verse 12 retaliate no what Rejoice be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven

that's what David said perhaps the Lord will requite me someday for a right reaction to this cursing in whatever human relationship you're in that's what God is after that right reaction maybe you've got conflict in your marriage maybe You' got conflict in your family between the children and the parents maybe you have conflict on the job maybe you have enemies at home and you have enemies at work and people who speak against you maybe a a brother-in-law or a sister-in-law or a brother or a sister another part of your family speak evil of you or

your children and it's so easy in our human world to get these things going and these enemies and we become bitter and we begin to be hostile and instead of reaching out in love to the people instead of seeing them as our brother and our neighbor as the Old Testament does we begin to see them as the enemy and we miss the point of what Jesus says and we fall to the low level of Pharisee religion that's not to be so the Old Testament was very clear and Jesus is an absolute agreement with it can

I introduce the teaching of Jesus to you in verse 44 and I'll just introduce it today and we'll go into it next time we saw the tradition of the Jews in verse 43 we saw the teaching of the Old Testament implied behind verse 43 but perverted and now the teaching and the truth from Jesus himself this is is the Lord's corrective to the error of the Jewish system and he gives five principles to correct the faulty love of the Pharisees and the scribes Five Short statements sequential statements that Ascend to the very highest statement of

all they have a beautiful flow and ascent and we'll see that next time he says five things let me just give them to you love your enemies pray for your persecutors manifest your sunship exceed your fellow men and imitate your God and people when we find finally ascended to that fifth principle you are going to see perhaps in a way you've never seen before what Jesus meant when he said you're to love your enemies it is the most powerful statement I believe in the New Testament about the meaning of love let's just take that first

one for a moment Before I Let You Go verse 44 but I say unto you love your enemies Jesus speaks with authority here he is the lord of the law he is the Son of God one of the things we learn in Greek is that Greek verbs change their form depending upon what pronoun is used for example you don't need pronouns like I you he she it they them your Etc in Greek because the verb form indicates which pronoun is proper it's in the ending of the verb so whenever the pronoun is put put in

front of the verb it is put there for intensification it would have been enough to just have a verb form I say unto you I say uh could be several verbs could be say Lego I say unto you but if it is egoo Lego it is mean it means I say unto you and the emphasis is not on the saying the emphasis is on the Sayer and so Jesus by using the emphatic pronoun is intensifying the fact that he speaks authoritatively I say unto you setting himself up as one who can speak over against their

system no matter who their teachers have been no matter how long a list of renowned and well-meaning and well-known and astute rabbis there have been I say unto you and so he is the lord of the law and what does he say the first principle as we move up the steps love your enemies love your enemies and the idea we learned from the Old Testament is that your enemy is your neighbor to illustrate that look with me at Luke 10 Luke 10 verse 25 a lawyer came to Jesus he said what do I do to

inherit eternal life he said unto him what is written in the law and he said Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy strength with with all thy mind and thy neighbor what as thyself now the question is the lawyer says all right if what you want me to do is love my neighbor as myself fair question verse 29 who is my what neighbor who is it you want me to love my neighbor who is it Jesus said let me tell you a story a certain

man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and that is down I mean it's really down you go from a mile high to below sea level in a very brief time down to Jericho and it was a very dangerous road robbers and Highwaymen along it and this man going down fell among Thieves who stripped him of his reignment wounded him and departed leaving him half dead they beat him up and robbed him and left him on the road for dead by chance there came down a certain priest that way when he saw him he passed on

the other side now a priest was a man who represented God to the people a man who stood in the place of God a priest was one who connected people with God a priest of all the people in society should have been one to behave as God behaved he was God's representative and the priest came along and he saw the man and he said that man is not in my group and he went to the other side of the road who wants to touch him he's not my neighbor he's one of the Rabel Jewish people

who's probably not even belonging to my religious party he was followed a little later by a levite one who was of the great heritage of the levitical priests as well and when he was at the place he came and looked on him and passed by on the other side and he said he's not in my group either and off they went but a certain Samaritan and that word conjures up all kinds of thoughts because the Samaritans basically were a race of people originally they were Jewish people who intermarried with the pagans who infiltrated the northern

kingdom they became half breeds and the most despicable thing to a pure breed Jew was for somebody to defile the uniqueness of being a Jew by intermarrying with a pagan can you imagine the Jew wouldn't even enter a gentile house the Jew wouldn't even eat with a gentile utensil the Jew wouldn't even eat food cooked by a gentile they wouldn't even go into a gentile house because they believed the Gentiles aborted their babies in those houses and they were desecrated places they believed the wildest and craziest things about the Gentiles and they despised them when

they came back to their own country they would Shake the Dust off their garments because they didn't want Gentile dust dragged into their land and when they went from the south to the north they would go across the Jordan up the east side and cross over at the top so that they wouldn't have to go through Samaria they didn't want to defile themselves with that polluted land land and here came a Samaritan an enemy who would look at that bleeding Jew and say why good for him it's about time some of them got their doe

the way they've treated us but the holy Pious priest and levite didn't see him as a neighbor and the despised and hated Samaritan did and he went to him and bound up his wound verse 34 and poured in oil and wine and set him on his own Beast brought him to an inn and took care of him and on the next day when he departed he took out two daeni and gave them to the host and said take care of him and whenever whatever thou spendest more when I come again I will repay thee boy

he was magnanimous wasn't he he got involved and he bound up his wounds and he loved him and cared for him put him on his beast and led the Beast to the end and paid the fair at the end and said I'll pay the rest when I come back if it's more which now says the Lord of these three think thou was neighbor to him that fell among the thieves he said he that showed Mercy on him then said Jesus unto him go and do th likewise you want to know something people who's your neighbor

your neighbor is anybody who needs you that's it anybody in my path with a need constitutes my neighbor not because they believe what I believe or think what I think or belong to my group God loved us when we were enemies and he died for us and it's that very love that we are to have for others I'm going to close with this story in the year 1567 King Philip II of Spain sent the Duke of Alva now the Duke of Alva was Notorious for his bitter hatred of everybody who embraced reformed Christianity it was

the time of the reformation and people were turning from Catholicism to biblical Christianity and believing in Christ in a proper way and they hated those people in fact the time of the Duke of ala was known as the reign of terror in Spain and the Council of ala was called the blood Council because they slaughtered so many people who embraced the reformed Faith but the historians tell us about one man a man named Dirk willamson who became a Christian a Protestant Christian and thus was condemned to death in a torturous manner somehow he made an

escape and he began to run for life it was near the end of winter and there was still some patches of snow on the ground and as he ran and ran he finally came to the inevitable a lake the lake was frozen but not frozen very hard because winter was nearly over and yet he had no choice because he was being chased by one lone soldier and so he decided he'd run across the lake and the historian says that as he ran the lake ice began to crack and creep Creak and Shake under his feet

as he pounded across but he didn't stop because he wanted to avoid the terrible death that awaited him if he were caught he stretched his legs further and further in his strides until at last in one gasping leap he lunged himself and landed on the solidarity of the shore and as he began to take his next step he heard a cry of Terror from behind him and he looked around and the soldier who had been chasing him had fallen through and was clutching the ice for his life no one was near to help the soldier

but Dirk but the soldier was his enemy what would you do the historian tells us the Dirk went back picking his way over the crackling ice rescued his enemy and brought him to safety that's the heart of the matter isn't it that's the spirit of Jesus Spirit of stepen of Abram of David how about you let's pray together thank you Father for our time this morning for the goodness the grace of God that gives us a love that is humanly impossible we can't love like this and We Know It And so how grateful we are

that Romans 5 tells us the love of Christ is shed abroad in our hearts if it weren't that you gave us this love we could never Love in This Way help us to love in the spirit to love with a love that is your love loving through us when we come to those moments when we would consider an enemy an enemy when we would lash out against them may we at that moment stop and beseech the spirit of God to fill us with love that we may love as you love us and may we be

known in this world as they who love and by our love may the world know we belong to you so grateful are we father for what you've taught us and for what awaits Us in the Majesty of the remaining passage and Lord too we can't help but be excited even as we look forward to tonight as we share around the life of this man Daniel who was all that a man could be in an evil Society we pray that this day might be a life-changing day for us as we learn to love and to stand

in this evil day in Christ's name 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 website at gty.org John MacArthur and grace to you 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