An Eye for an Eye, Part 2 (Matthew 5:38–42) [Audio Only]

turn with me in your Bible if you will to Matthew Chapter 5 Matthew Chapter 5 the wonderful Rich study of the Gospel of Matthew has become a joy to many of you and I trust in God's Great Grace it'll continue to be so as we look this morning and in weeks and months and perhaps years ahead to all that God has for us here to remind you we are studying the greatest sermon of the New Testament called The Sermon on the Mount preached by our Lord Jesus Christ it is a sermon designed to show men

that they fall short of the standard for entrance into God's kingdom it is a sermon directed primarily at the Jewish audience on the hillside most specifically to the scribes and the Pharisees because they had concocted a human religion they had invented a system of religion that was substandard sort of a quasy Biblical one based on human achievement self-effort and dead works and they believed in their hearts that because they kept these low standards which they themselves had devised that they therefore were just before God now as Jesus confronts the Society of his day and as

he confront fronts the religion of his people first he wants to knock the props out from under this system before they can be desperate enough to see the need of a savior they have to see the inadequacy of their system and so Jesus basically in The Sermon on the Mount shows the difference between True Religion and their system between Divine truth and human wisdom between a substandard religion of human achievement and God's religion of divine accomplishment Jesus then is destroying their confidence in in their self-made Judaism and reasserting God's standard so really The Sermon on

the Mount has first of all a negative intent and that is to show people that they come short of God's standard all you have to do basically is read the Beatitudes and you find in the Beatitudes a very obvious recognition of that they start out with a person who is beggarly in spirit who is mourning over sin who is Meek before God who is hungering and thirsting for righteousness in other words The Sermon on the Mount begins in desperation it begins with an overwhelming sense of inadequacy it begins with the knowledge that you don't have

the resources to attain God's standard and then Jesus moving into chapter 5: 21 begins to show the disparity between God's standard and the system of religion of his day to show them that they are substandard and they need to have a beatitude mentality you see they were smug and sufficient and prideful and ego centered and just expecting God to lock arm in-arm with them at their own level and go walking into the kingdom they had no Contrition no repentance no sense of sinfulness unworthiness no mournfulness and they then had to be broken you see to

come to that place where they would have the heart of the one and the Beatitudes so Jesus then is ende deing to destroy their system he shows them the standard to begin with and then tells them they aren't there and he has a very significant way of doing it all through chapter 5: 21 to the end of the chapter verse 48 he Compares their system with God's truth and he uses a little code it's this you have heard it said that's your system but I say unto you that's God's and he says yours is here

God's is here you think it's enough not to kill God says don't even get angry you think it's enough not to commit adultery God says you shouldn't even think it in your heart you think it's enough to do the paperwork when you get a divorce God says you shouldn't even get a divorce except for fornication you think it's enough that you put an oath behind your word God says everything you say ought to be true so you wouldn't even need an oath and now in our verse you think that it's enough to give equal Vengeance

God says you shouldn't be giving Vengeance at all verse 43 you think it's enough to love your neighbor and hate your enemy God says love your enemy you see the whole point is that their system is substandard and on the basis of a system that only deals with externals that only deals with the outside and never deals with the hard attitude of anger or the hard attitude of hatred or the heart attitude of adultery or the hard attitude of truthfulness and love and forgiveness that kind of a system is inadequate and basically people the sermon

on a mount is is a sermon on sin it's a sermon on sin it is to show us we're Sinners and it isn't only the Jews gathered at the feet of Jesus on the hillside in Galilee that got the message we get it today too don't we we who pride ourselves on the fact we've never killed anybody but we have been angry and hate we who pride ourselves on the fact that we have not committed adultery and yet the thought has been in our minds we who pride ourselves on the fact that we keep our

word when we make an oath and yet there are times when we've shaded the truth and lied we who pride ourselves on the fact that we are very just and fair and yet we've been vengeful we who pride ourselves on the fact that we have such love and yet our enemies don't fall within the purview of that love so very often so you see what Jesus is trying to do is to destroy their confidence in themselves and then force them to the fact that they desperately need a righteousness they can't attain therefore they are in

need of a savior but he can't talk about the savior until he causes their system to be destroyed and leaves them desperate and grasping and hungering and thirsting for a righteousness they cannot attain now as we come to the fifth of his illustrations in verse 38 let's read it the fifth of his illustrations showing their system to be substandard you 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 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 now at first reading it sounds like Jesus wants to make us all into sort of sanctimonious doormats you got to be kidding turn the other cheek if he sues me for my shirt I'm going to give him my coat if

he wants me to go a mile I'm want to go two and anybody who asks me or wants to borrow I have to give give it or lend it I got my rights you know our our old nature naturally retaliates you know that don't you the other day I had occasion to play golf because a a a dear man who wanted to express his love gave me a set of golf clubs he makes golf clubs and he made me a beautiful set with the sign of the fish I thought this is terrific you know 10

Strokes off your game right you got Sanctified golf clubs see so um I thought I got a m I went out there and boy I took out that beautiful five iron with the sign of the fish and I said all right Lord It's Your Club do something with it and uh swung that thing and I hit a long shot but has a tendency I have to hook the ball a little bit and I hooked it into a guy's backyard which wouldn't have been so bad except he was out there and I heard this bellowing voice

nice shot and then an epithet that I will not repeat and so I walked down and I felt a little guilty you know I hoped I had you know hit him while he was lying in his pool or something awful like that you know or gone through his patio window as it turned out was a little slope in his yard it just hit the corner of his yard down by the fence where the fence meets and it was just down in the dirt area he hadn't even done anything to landscape that this hit the hill

and rolled down but he came down the hill and got the ball and he went back up the hill and I said perhaps I could have my ball back thank you he said I play golf too buddy put the ball in his pocket well if I hadn't been preaching this sermon you see I was I was tremendously pressed at that point because I'd asked the Lord for some way to illustrate this message and I thought he wants a golf ball I'll hit him eight more you know that's my that was my first reaction see I'll

just tea up and he can to have all of them and I began to think about it and I thought you know it's kind of a sad thing you know that somebody wants to live life by alienating people how much Lovelier it would be for him to act graciously and extend love to somebody and be loved in return What a Sad fella What a Sad fella and then I thought you know what I need to do is to find his address and um send him a dozen of the same kind of book because I know

he like that one so much but you know I had to override my natural instinct which was just a tea off in his yard you see that is an illustration of what Jesus is saying here Jesus is saying the fact that your heart is prone to retaliation to get even is evidence enough that no system of human religion can deal with the heart of the human problem you see you see you need a savior you need a righteousness beyond your own now that's what he's saying and that's the heart of the matter here let me

show you another illustration you say you shouldn't tell stories like that about yourself well I just want you to know I'm like you are just hopefully I I deal with those things when they come because Satan will tempt us that way but I want to put myself in a good category turn to acts 23 I want you to meet the Apostle Paul he had a similar problem it wasn't in such a recreational activity as golf but it was in a a much more serious case that he confronted himself with the very same Temptation for his

sinful self to assert itself in Acts 22 Paul has been made a prisoner and he's being held by the Romans in the city of Jerusalem but the Romans haven't got any idea why all they know is that the Jews want him held and of course the Jews are very angry with Paul because of his message about Christ it's a very disconcerting thing to have somebody going all over your city preaching that the person you've crucified is none other than your Messiah and there is a new day and a dawning of a new era and the

church age and so forth and so on so they are just livid about Paul and they have managed to get him and he's incarcerated but this particular captain of the Roman army wanting to do his duty rightfully according to Roman Justice knows that he cannot keep a prisoner without a charge and and so he seeks to find some indictment against Paul to justify his incarceration verse 30 the next day this Captain would have known the certainty for what reason he was accused by the Jews so he loosed him from his bands or took his chains

off commanded the chief priests and their counsel to appear and brought Paul down and set him before them so this Captain brings Paul down and says look I can't just hold this guy you're going to have to have some charge against him and he gets the Sanhedrin together and then we see what happened and Paul earnestly beholding the council and the term earnestly beholding means he really looked intently into their eyes eyeball to eyeball now this is a familiar bunch to Paul because this is the Sanhedrin of which at one time he was a member

there are no doubts in my mind that this man knew these people some of them had been fellow students of galeal some of them were fellow Pharisees some of them fellow persecutors of the church and here was Paul looking them with the eyeball to eyeball with that honest unconscious look of Integrity that lifts its head and looks them in the eye and says men and Brethren I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day I don't know anything against myself I don't have anything to accuse myself about I can look you in

the eye and say there's no charge that can be justly laid to my account I'm innocent well that absolutely infuriated ananas who was the high priest and by the way ananas was a wretched individual this is a different ananas than the one Paul PA had met earlier in his life but ananas was a vile man ananas had literally stolen the tithes that belonged to the common order of priests to Pat his own coffers ananas had committed immoralities ananas had committed assassinations of people who were in his way ananas was a vile prostitution of everything representative

in the Priestly office and if anything came his way in terms of punishment it was justly deserved ananas commanded them that stood by him to Smite him on the mouth when Paul said what he said about a clear conscience ananas said to one of his henchmen he used the verb tto which means to give a violent blow of the Fist he said punch that guy in the mouth and so one of the soldiers you know no doubt let Paul have it in the mouth now ananas as I said is a vile man and the system

is an evil system and they have violated Paul's rights he has done nothing this is ridiculous the whole thing and what was Paul's reaction verse three then said Paul unto him God Smite you you Whited wall now wait a minute Paul I think he just lost it when he said God Smite you if you want to put that in the vernacular he said God damn you you Whited woman wall a Whited wall was simply a representation of hypocrisy a wall was a big mud pile that's all just mud some bricks and some mud ugly brown

dirt to make it look good they would cover it with white wash and when you called somebody a Whited wall as Jesus did in Matthew 23 when he spoke to the same group you're saying you look good on the Outside Inside you're dirty he says God in effect damn you you hypocrite you see that was his flesh that that was his normal response before he came to Christ that was the Instinct of the sin principle but it wasn't right it wasn't right it couldn't have been right the people were shocked in verse four and they

they stood by and they said revest thou God's high priest PR what what are you doing you're reviling God's high priest I was amazed too to read that they didn't get so excited when ananas had somebody punch him in the mouth even though he hadn't done anything was it all right for the high priest to slug somebody in the mouth or have one of his henchmen do it but not all right for the man to retaliate double standard right you know what the law said the tradition of the rabbi said this it's a very simple

tradition but very straightforward it says he who strikes the cheek of an Israelite strikes as it were the glory of God he strikes the the Holy One well Paul responded by saying this verse 5 I knew not Brethren that he was the high priest now maybe he didn't have on his high priest's uniform or maybe he was hidden behind somewhere and Paul had never seen him in the crowd that was there Paul says I didn't know that if I had known he was the high priest I wouldn't have done it for it is written Thou

shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people Exodus 22 says that Exodus 22 says that you're not to do that verse 28 and Paul says I was wrong and he condemned himself by the scriptures now I like the response don't you I like the fact that he admitted he was wrong and he even brought the scripture in to condemn himself he apologized but what's interesting to me is everything he said was true that guy was a Whited wall and God would bring judgment on him and this day except for the grace of God

unbeknownst to us he's in an eternal hell God did Smite him but that is not the way we are to respond in personal relationships compare to that John 18 and in John chapter 18 the Lord Jesus is in a very similar situation before a very similar tribunal listen to these two verses John 18:22 and 23 and when he had thus spoken one of the officers who stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand saying answer us thou the high priest so and this guy just punched Jesus the same way that Paul was punched

what did Jesus say Jesus answered him if I have spoken evil bear witness of the evil but if I've spoken well why do you smite me what a different Spirit huh completely different he says if I if I've done evil and I deserve this then tell me if I have not done evil why did you do that you know what he was doing he was forcing the man to think of his deeds before he did them he wasn't thinking of himself he was saying in effect to them you know you want to be sure that

you have reason to do what you do and that that is valid there's no retaliation you see Peter said when Jesus was reviled 1 Peter 2:23 when he was reviled he reviled not again he never reacted that way Paul and Jesus are different Jesus didn't sin Paul did now what about you and me how do we react to those kind of situations are we like Jesus do we say you should think about those things before you do them if I deserve them fine if not why did you do that or do we lash back let's

find out how we are to respond back to m Matthew Chapter 5 now remember last time we told you that there are three elements in all of these six contrasts that Jesus gives first of all the principle of Mosaic law and the principle of Mosaic law is given in verse 38 you have heard that it has been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth it was their traditional teaching but it did come from the Mosaic law it is recorded in Exodus 21 Leviticus 24 and Deuteronomy 19 that statement is biblical

three times in the Old Testament it says an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but keep in mind this was a stipulation for the Law Courts this was for the legal system not a mandate for personal venance in human relationships it's so important that we understand that this is not an issue of personal Vendetta it is to take revenge and Vindication out of personal action that's why God designed Law Courts and judges and rulers and why he gave us laws like this law called anciently Lex talionis Tit for Tat which simply

means equal punishment for the crime the punishment never exceeds the crime that's what it's saying it is to control justice so Justice is fair and equal and this simple law an eye for an ey and a tooth for a tooth beloved is the foundation principle of all all human Justice all human Justice is based upon the fact that the punishment must never exceed the crime it also is a law given by God to restrain Vengeance to take Vengeance out of Human Relationships and put it within duly constituted Authority so that it can be dealt with

properly now listen human relationships and Law Courts are two distinct categories and there are two distinct things in each one for example we do not want courts to act as human relationships act and we do not want Human Relationships to act like Courts for example if a person commits a crime we do not want the court to say oh listen I'm so sorry that you did this and I want to be gracious and merciful you're forgiven forget it just go out and remember that if you do it again we'll forgive you again and if you

do it again we'll forgive you again 70 * 7 will just keep forgiving you now wait a minute we would have absolute Holocaust we don't want a court to act like a human relationship we're not looking for mercy in a court we're looking for justice to preserve Society but nor do we want a human relationship to act like a court if your wife for example does something that offends you you don't say all right bend over you gave me one you get one no no no we don't want Lex talionis at home if somebody wrongs

you your neighbor borrows something of yours and breaks it you don't go over and say all right what do you want me to break you don't operate a relationship like that we must keep a distinction between the law court and the area of Human Relationships in the Law Court Justice operates on an eye for an eye and a tooth for Toth basis in human relationships love and forgiveness operates in one you're dealing with crime in another you're dealing with a human relationship and those are kept distinct now where the Jews missed the point was they

took Lex talionis out of the Law Courts and they put it into their personal lives and this is the way they operated in their relationships with vendettas and vindications and revenges and Vengeance that's not the way God intended it so we saw in our last study first of all the principle of Mosaic law and then the perversion of Jewish tradition they had taken this thing and turned it into a cherished spirit of Vengeance an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth boy you can't do that to me you can't step on my

rights you can't take my rights away or I'll react back to you see now let's see how Jesus approaches it in verse 39 but I say unto you this is the new instruction this is my truth my principle but I say unto you that ye resist not evil now beloved that verse has been so misinterpreted resist not evil well that's it absolute pacifism just go ahead walk all over me hit me abuse me steal all I own no no no go ahead sin we don't care we're not going to resist evil we're just going to

realize that evil is evil is evil is evil and it's going to do its thing no no that isn't what he's saying and people who who take that approach really miss the whole point the Bible talks about resisting some evil for example other scriptures like um James 4:7 resist the devil right 1 Peter 59 resist the devil we must resist evil when it comes in a satanic form I don't say oh here comes the devil again well devil go ahead and whatever no resist the devil resist evil when Peter sinned in Galatians Chapter 2 Paul

didn't say oh well there goes Peter poor fellow sins got him Paul said Peter you're out of line and cut it out and he withstood him to the face in First Corinthians 5 if you find somebody in your congregation who's committing fornication put them out of the church in 1 Timothy 5 if you find an elder who is sinning rebuke him before everybody that everybody will know he's a sinner and put him out if he doesn't respond in Matthew chapter 18 if somebody sinned go to him about his sin if he doesn't hear you take

two or three Witnesses and if he doesn't hear them tell it to the church and if he still doesn't hear put them out of the church we are to deal with sin personally we are to deal with sin in relationships we are to deal with sin in the church and we are also to resist crime why the powers that be are ordained of God Romans 13 says and the government is given to us to protect the good and punish the evil and if we don't uphold that then we don't uphold a god-given institution if we

don't deal with the government properly if we don't say I will uphold the standards of the government then we're denying a god ordained institution if I see a crime I ought to report it to the police if I know where a criminal is I must tell the police not Aid an a bet crime within a society because government and the Agents of government are ministers of God who bear not the sword in vain but serve the Lord and so we do resist evil in a government by our laws in a church by our Purity in

a relationship Ship by confronting people and I think too we have to remember that Jesus resisted evil in John 2 he made a whip and cleaned the temple and in Mark 11 he did it again he didn't just get dormed by everybody and I think too that there's a certain sense of god-given self-preservation if somebody comes to do something to me it's very normal for me to protect myself and my family or my interest or people I love I mean even Proverbs 22:3 says a prudent man foresees the evil and hides himself I mean it's

just obvious that there's going to be self-preservation that isn't what he's saying he's not trying to make us into just uh people who lie down flat and let everything happen they say well what does he mean resist not evil well you understand it from this standpoint look resist means to set against to set against anamy and the evil here is top on a row and apparently it has to do with one who opposes you or one who wrongs you and what he's saying is don't set yourself against one who wrongs you in other words don't

start a feud don't start a Vengeance thing don't get some Revenge going that's that's all he's saying he's not talking about categorical evil and letting it overrun your life he is saying the one who wrongs you is not to be resisted or opposed don't fight somebody who violates your rights this isn't anything that's isolated to The Sermon on the Mount this is a general principle in scripture look at Romans 12:17 you can just listen as I read it says recompense to no man evil for evil don't pay back anybody evil for evil if somebody does

something to you don't do back to them just do this live as much as is possible peaceably with all men be a peace maker not a troublemaker and then I love this dearly beloved avenge not yourselves but rather give place to wrath you say give place to wrath and Vengeance where is its place where do I put it right here it is written vengeance is mine I will repay Seth the Lord you just take it and give it to the Lord don't be vengeful give it to the lord well what about my enemy what do

I do with this guy well if he's hungry feed him if he's thirsty give him a drink what do you mean well in so doing you'll Heap coals of fire on his head what does that mean like the little Irish lady who had a drunken husband and she went to the pastor and she said I given up I've done everything to correct his life I've chased him around with a frying pan and she went on and on and he said oh my dear lady have you thought about heaping CO as a fire on his head

she said my dear Pastor I've thought of some awful things but never that she didn't get the point heaping coals of fire on your head is simply turning back hate with love that brings shame it's very embarrassing you see people get lit up bright red when you return their hate with love that's what he's saying overcome evil with what good that's a tremendous truth now Jesus picks out four little Cameo illustrations out of life and I want you to see these they're really insightful and he picks out four basic human rights dignity security Liberty and

property and by the way if we had time we'd go into the Constitution of the United States which guarantees those things to us we have the right to dignity we have the right to security the right to Liberty and the right to own property and those are four basic human rights okay let's look at the first one dignity we say in our society and it's right I have the right to be honored as a human being I'm a human being I should be dignified I should be respect Ed I should be treated with kindness I

am a person made in the image of God and I should be dealt with so and we hear people say that today I'm a human being I won't be treated like that I have my rights I have some dignity you can't demean me you can't dishonor me I'm a human being that's right you are made in the image of God and you do have a right to some dignity but you know what you're not always going to get it do you know that sometime you're going to be treated like you were some kind of animal

or some kind of worm or something people are going to treat you in a terrible way they may treat you that way in a gas station line or they may treat you that way in a restaurant or your family may treats you that way sometimes the people closest to you treat you in a way and you say what did I do to deserve this and they realize that I'm made in the image of God I have some rights to dignity I should be so demeaned and Dishonored but what does Jesus say about that verse 39

whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn turn to him the other also oh this is really just pregnant with meaning listen to this the Jews said that the most demeaning contemptuous Act was to slap someone in the face I mean to have a fight you know was to treat somebody as an equal but to just see that's just that's demeaning and the Jews said this the most demeaning doubly contemptuous arrogant Act of a man is to slap you with the back of his hand see you're not even worthy of a shot you just

disdain see that's epicus writing he's a Roman slave said a slave would rather be thrashed with a whip than slapped with the back of his Master's Hand it was just a demeaning and it's most interesting to look at verse 39 whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek why do you think Jesus used that because a right hand will always smack somebody on the right cheek when it uses the back of its hand see the right cheek being slapped would mean he was hit granted that most people are right-handed like that in other words when

you are when your dignity is taken away when you are disdained when you are Dishonored when you are demeaned when you are arrogantly humiliated let them do it again before you ever retaliate that's what it means it doesn't mean turn the other cheek if that's all it meant two cheeks and you just give him grind him to pulp you know that's not the IDE idea did people mix they say well hit me on the right cheek turn the left cheek boy now you're going to that isn't the idea you see it's the non retaliating non

vengeful forgiving loving spirit and you don't have enough cheeks to carry on the illustration the point that he's saying is this when you are demeaned and Dishonored and your dignity is tread upon don't retaliate let it happen again people always say well in John 18 boy that Soldier smacked Jesus on the cheek and he didn't turn your other cheek you missed the point you know what he said he said if I've done some evil tell me what it is if I haven't why did you do that and then he turned his cheek plenty of times

because from then on they just plucked it Isaiah 50:6 he said I gave myself to the smiters and to those that plucked my beard and I gave myself to those that spit all over me huh don't tell me he didn't turn the other cheek they spit all over him they rammed a crown of thorns on his head they pulled his beard out they mocked him they beat him they whipped him they spit all over him that's the attitude and then he comes to the cross and hanging there suspended while all of his organs are being

suffocated he says father what forgive them for they know not what they do what Jesus is saying is this when someone Treach you in a way that is less than you deserve when someone takes the right to dignity that you have don't retaliate be slapped again before you would ever think to ret retaliate take as much as they want to give but don't retaliate if you're worried about your dignity beloved someday you're going to be a Son of God in the image of Jesus Christ and you're going to stay that way forever and God's going

to pour out all the goodness of his great grace on you forever and ever and ever so if you're worried about your dignity just hang on you'll get it don't fight for it here because if you do you're going to you're going to disavow the fact that you're a son of God and that you're related to Jesus Christ because you won't be acting in a way consistent with them there a second illustration that I think is very graphic and that as regard to our security to our security Spurgeon said sometimes we have to be the

Anvil while bad men are the Hammers and that's true sometimes people are going to take advantage of us and look at verse 40 If any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat let him have thy cloak all also now you say wait a minute I got a guy trying to sue me I'm going to get him no no Jesus says let him sue you and then give to him what what is he saying here I believe the the idea here is not to just hang around while people if people found

out Christians believe this wrongly they'd start suing us all over the place and take everything we have and we'd all say well I just want to you like my house here's my car right take anything isn't the idea the idea is that there's apparently some justification for this person's suit suit he is suing you for your coat now the coat is the word in the Greek that means your tunic it's your it's the undergarment the normal cloak that you wore on the inside like a shirt only it was a fulllength thing they didn't wear trousers

or pants as men do today women and men weree just an undergarment long and maybe a a poor man would only have three or four of those some people only one of them and what the idea is here is that you've done something and you're being sued at court and there's a there's a place for that so courts have to decide certain disputes and so what happens is you don't have anything to pay except that thing that you're wearing I mean you're down to nothing he's going to get your shirt proverbially right and when he

gets your shirt just to show how magnanimous your heart is and just to show how sorry you are that you ever did anything to cause this trouble give them your coat too now to a Jew this would be absolutely devastating they' immediately jump up out of their seats and say wait a minute we know what the Bible says in Exodus 22:26 and 27 it says the Jewish law allows a tunic which is the word for the cloak an outside tunic to only be given as a pledge but it had to be returned by Nightfall because

it was the blanket they slept on and you have a right to security why you can't strip me naked and leave me out to the elements and it can get cold in Jerusalem don't forget it's a mile high and you know you say well I'm supposed to give my last security this is all I've got in the world is my cloak and they would wear it in the day to keep them warm and they would cuddle in it at night to keep them warm it was their blanket and their coat and that's why Exodus 22

says you can take everything a man's got but his coat you can only take it as a pledge and then you have to give it back at night but Jesus is saying look if somebody has come to court and you have to give him your shirt don't be grudging don't be angry don't be bitter don't be retaliating show them you're really sorry that it's ever happened show them you're so magnanimous that all you've got left to keep you warm your last little bit of security is your cloak but you're willing to give them that too

now that'll shock him that'll show him the love of Christ that'll show them what it means in verse 44 to love your enemies and bless them that curse you and do good to them and hate you and pray for them and despitefully use you if somebody has the nerve and the gall to sue you and take everything you've got and maybe he has some reason for it just to show how your heart is right toward him give him more than he even asked for more than he asked for people can't handle that you know they

just don't know how to handle that kind of thing and you'll show them verse 45 that you are the sons of your father listen can I add another side to this people don't be in a hurry to sue everybody in the first place 1 Corinthians six says you have no right to sue another believer at all and just in general I had a news reporter say to me recently you know I met this certain man who's a minister over here in this area he's on radio and television he is without a doubt the most litigious

man I've ever met that means prone to litigation she said I've never met a man anywhere who was so in a hurry to sue everybody for everything he could get what kind of a testimony is that well what kind of a testimony is that I've got my rights I'm going to sue listen better to be defrauded says the Apostle Paul better to be sure that you're the son of your father and you're absolutely forgiving the assumption here is that the Christian is only involved in a suit as a victim and that there's a reason why

he's being sued and he's supposed to give his shirt the Assumption here isn't that you're going to sue somebody there may be times when the court will have to make a judgment in certain things I understand that but our heart attitude should not be one that goes around seeking to get everything we can get out of everybody there's a third area not only dig and security but Liberty we have a right to Freedom we have a right to be free God has made us independent we all have our own brains we all have our own

feet our own hands our own eyes and ears we can go and do and say and we have Liberty God's given us that we have the right to speak to hear to see to move about to accomplish things God's even made us so unique and individual that no two of us is alike we're like snowflakes and we have an amazing Liberty to be free and and God I think intended that to express all that we are in his creation but you know it's going to be so in the world that people are going to step

on your freedom did you know that a lot of times in my life I'll say oh boy say to Patricia honey I just we have some time and all of a sudden something comes into my life so and so happened this this happened you got to go here you got to go there and you say oh man am I going to give up my whole life for everybody else I got my right I got to have some Liberty Jesus speaks to that in verse 41 whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile go with him

what two this is interesting we we think in America we invented the Pony Express but we didn't we did not invent the Pony Express I hate to tell you this but the Persians did it's another idea we stole the Persians had a great idea they marked off their whole country and they had a very sophisticated Postal System they had they had the little way stations one Day's Journey apart all over the area of Persia it was a big Empire in those days and men would ride horseback From Dawn till sunset or basically that one Day's

Journey and they would stop there' be fresh horses and Provisions for them and then they go the next leg and the next leg well during the time that that was developing the term came to be used araro and an araro was one who was The Courier the Persian Courier moving along in that kind of a path the Romans also picked up the same term and and they used it to refer to couriers now what was interesting was that in the Persian system if something happened to the guy carrying the mail if he was Ill or

if he was injured or something he could conscript a citizen just along the Wayside and force him on the horse to finish the Day's Journey so the araro became The Courier who was conscripted and by the time you get the word down into the Greek of the New Testament it has to do with somebody conscripted by an official for some public duty classic illustration Jesus taking his cross to golgatha to be crucified can no longer carry his cross and so immediately the Romans find a man Simon of sirene they solicit him he comes out and

he has to carry the cross he becomes an agaro he is compelled to do that by the government now that could that would be interesting if it was in our society that way wouldn't it you're driving down the road and you got a very important deal boy you're getting there and all of a sudden those lights start flashing on the police car and he pulls you over and he says sir he says um I don't know what your plans are but I've got this little package for you to take to Sacramento today what Sacramento this

is a gas shortage I got things to do I can't go to sa yes sir you'll be going to Sacramento immediately that's the way it was in Persia I don't suppose people walked on those postal routes very often that's the way it was in the Roman times because they had to face the fact that they could be conscripted as Simon was but there was apparently a little rule that they had at least in jesus' time and that is this that when a Roman soldier and they did this commonly asked a citizen to carry his pack

he could never ask any one citizen to carry it more than one mile or the equivalent and Jesus is saying when somebody infringes on your Liberty and says would you carry my pack one mile and he happens to be a hated Roman and you're a Jew and he happens to be going somewhere you couldn't care less about the opposite direction for you and you're carrying literally the weapons of warfare against your people and this is your avowed enemy and he asked you to go one mile Jesus says go to go to you say well that's

a little hard to do it's right but that's the spirit of your father who is in heaven if God only went the first Mile with us we'd be in real trouble right but he's carried our burden far beyond that don't be concerned with your Liberty any more than you're concerned with your security or your dignity God will give you the freedom of the sons of God God will give you the security of his home in heaven forever God will give you the Dignity of the image of Jesus Christ don't chase the things here that destroy

the testimony that God wants you to Bear there's a final illustration and that's property you know the last thing we hang on to is what we own right somebody said to me yesterday I've got everything I own paid for it paid for isn't that great now if somebody wants it you can give it you won't have any bills what see somebody says you know I need a car can I borrow your car and what happened you have a conversation with your wife it goes like this he wants to borrow the car oh no we just

polished the car as kids muddle over their feet they get those sticky hands everywhere he'll I've seen the guy hit the curb a dozen times we'll have to have it aligned you know and you go through that whole deal we're possessive about things what does Jesus say about your property verse 42 give to him that asks thee you say well there got to be some some more adjectives in that verse what do you mean give to him that asks you yes right if somebody asks and I think it implies a real need I don't think

you ought to help Beggars along because uh you just make Beggars out of them little kids in Israel and other parts of the world who beg have learned they can make a Better Living begging because they play on the sympathy of people than they can working so you should you should be aware of that but when there's somebody who has a need and they ask you got to give it to them there's no not even asking what for you just it's just your heart that God is saying this is the kind of heart you ought

to have and if you don't see this in you then it's a great evidence that your system of religion isn't making it see give to him that ask you and from him that would borrow of thee turn that out way when somebody wants to borrow what you have let them have it you have here the principle of selfs sacrificing generosity God help us to be generous Deuteronomy 15:7 says if there be among you a poor man within your Gates Don't Harden your heart or shut your hand from your poor brother but open your hand wide

and lend him sufficient for his need in that which he lacks when you give to him give him all that he needs not tokenism don't buy off your conscience be generous now Jesus isn't prohibiting justice justice belongs in the courts but in human relations he wants us to be forgiving and loving and if our rights are stolen the right of dignity or the right of security or the right of Liberty or the right of property we don't retaliate we just commit it all to the Lord and we act in love there's a key to this

you know George Mueller had it he said this there was a day when I died utterly died to George Mueller and his opinions his preferences his tastes and his will I died to the world its approval and its censure I died to the approval or blame of even my brethren and friends and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God that's really the key it's a Biblical Spirit isn't it it's the spirit of Abraham who rushed to rescue lot who had so cheated Abraham it's the spirit of Joseph who generously forgave

his brothers and tearfully loved them brothers who had sold him to slavery it's the spirit of David who after being chased all over by an evil angry Saul to slaughter him spares his life on two occasions it's the spirit of Steven who lying and crushed beneath the bloody Stones asks that the sin of stoning him not be laid to the charge of those who did it it's the spirit of Paul after his conversion who writes of love and forgiveness in Romans and Corinthians it's the spirit of Jesus who says father forgive them Anthony according to

Roman history wanted Cicero dead he wanted him dead because Cicero was his political enemy and so he said to his men go kill Cicero I want his head Cicero was the golden mouth orator who had such power because of his great ability to speak off went the soldiers and they returned not long after with the head of Cicero in Glee Anthony took the head to his wife fulvia and said look we have at last the head of our enemy the biographer say that she took the head and placed it in her lap and stared into

its face and laughed she pulled its tongue out ran a dagger through the tongue turned it and had it thus nailed to the door of the very place where he had so many times given great speeches oh the ugliness of Revenge we can't imagine anybody doing that and yet the smallest taint of that within our hearts is the same ugliness that God sees in a deed that heinous it should be said of us as Tennison said of Archbishop cranmer he said of him this to do him wrong was to beget a kindness from him for

his heart was rich of such fine mold that if you sowed therein the seed of hate it always blossomed love let's pray together father instead of fighting for our rights may we live for what is right before you the spirit of humility gentleness forgiveness and love to those who are set against us that we may truly be the sons of our father that people may see in us the wondrous forgiving love of Jesus Christ Grieves our heart Lord to know that so often we preach a Christ of forgiveness a god of forgiveness and then we

live unforgiving lives which must literally destroy the validity of Our Testimony may we as Paul said to Titus Adorn the doctrine of God May our living match our message that people may see in us that forgiving Christ see in us that forgiving God as we even though the rights of dignity security Liberty and property be taken away may we never retaliate with less than love bringing to them a certain amount of shame that they may know that they're missing a dimension of life that we possess and in so knowing seek the only one who can

give it our Lord Jesus Christ in whose name we pray 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 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