Audio - Sermon On The Mount 10 of 18

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The Fifteenth Sunday After Trinity
Sermon on the Mount, 10th Sermon
September 8, 2002
 
NKJ Matthew 5:43 " You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 "For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 "And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
 
TEXT: 43 " You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
 
Once again Jesus provides a taste of the Old Testament that the Jews were not practicing or teaching correctly
 
We look to the Old Testament writings
 
NKJ Leviticus 19:17 ' You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. 18 'You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
 
As we see—the Jews even misquoted this piece of Scripture—the original Scripture wasn’t intended to name a specific group that we should love—and the others we should not love
 
Jesus teaches us that when the Lawyer approached Him and tried to trick Him
 
NKJ Luke 10:25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?" 27 So he answered and said, " 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbor as yourself.' " 28 And He said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live." 29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
 
Notice that this expert in the Law doesn’t really understand salvation—he asks “What must I do?”—as if it was not in God’s power—but was something of His doing
 
Then he tries to trick Jesus with the question of who is his neighbor—this of course is Jesus’ teaching of the good Samaritan
 
The focus of our attention this morning is on the teaching of this expert—he—like the other teachers—scribes and Pharisees of the day—limited the interpretation of neighbor
 
If a person was not included in their definition of neighbor—they were not to be loved—but were instead to be hated
 
That is why Jesus chose to teach His disciples on this mountain how it is they are to conduct their lives—and their ministries
 
TEXT: 44 "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
 
The Greek word used for love means to genuinely care about the person’s well-being—to pray for their soul such that God might forgive them for being ignorant of His ways—and unwilling to listen
 
The Jewish scholars and teachers just didn’t understand the proper application of Leviticus 19:18—love your neighbor as yourself
 
That is what Jesus is trying to instill into His disciples—love your neighbor—even if that neighbor is your enemy
 
King Solomon understood the proper application of love your neighbor—the wisdom God gave him gave him a clear understanding—and he wrote under inspiration of the Holy Spirit
 
NKJ Proverbs 25:21 If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; 22 For so you will heap coals of fire on his head, And the LORD will reward you.
 
Paul quoted Solomon’s interpretation in his Epistle to the Romans—and again he did this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit
 
NKJ Romans 12:20 Therefore "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
 
Jesus message to His disciples—and to us—is this—don’t let evil have an effect on you—use good to have an effect on evil ones
 
After all—they are not persecuting us—but they despise the Word of God and His doctrine
 
Jesus told us that would happen
 
NKJ John 15:20 "Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
 
Jesus knew they wouldn’t listen—He knew they would persecute the one bringing the message of salvation
 
He knew the teachers of the Jews would not only keep themselves from salvation—but would also hinder others from gaining understanding of the true Word of God
 
NKJ Luke 11:52 "Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered."
 
We as Christians must treat all of our neighbors with loving kindness—and perhaps your Christian love will open their ears to the Word—and the truth of the Word will set them free
 
When they hear the Word—then the Holy Spirit may enter in and bring them to understanding
 
Because God wants all people to be saved
 
NKJ 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
 
So we pray for our enemies—and for all our neighbors—because it is God-pleasing—because God wants everyone to be saved
 
TEXT: 45 "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
 
Here God sets out for us an example to follow—if we want to be God’s children—we must follow this example
 
God sends His blessings to earth—His rain—and the sunshine—without either of these there would not be life on this planet
 
Does God provide these blessings only to the good people?  Of course not—He provides it to all the inhabitants of earth—without regard to whether they are good or bad
 
By following God’s example—and loving all of our neighbors without conditions—we identify ourselves as sons and daughters of God—brothers and sisters of Christ
 
And we do that by the grace of God—through the Holy Spirit—lest any man should boast
 
NKJ Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
 
NKJ 1 Corinthians 12:3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
 
As we already learned—God wants everyone to be saved—therefore He demonstrates His love for all men—that they would someday come to repentance and be saved
 
NKJ Romans 2:4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
 
We children of God are the only evidence of a Savior that some men see—it is our testimony in words and deeds that bear witness to our Savior and our Lord
 
What an awesome responsibility that is placed upon us—how many opportunities to bear witness have been negated because I didn’t show proper love for my neighbor—even my enemy
 
TEXT: 46 "For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 "And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
 
Jesus finishes this lesson in His sermon with 3 questions that answer themselves—and these 3 questions make it very obvious that the teachings of the Pharisees and the scribes for all those centuries made no sense
 
If someone shows love toward you—and you respond in kind—you have dealt with that person on the lowest moral level
 
The lowest moral form in the time of Jesus was the Jewish tax collector—one who sells out his fellow Jews to the Romans—and does it in the name of profit
 
The Jews despised the tax collector—and with good reason—so to have Jesus compare the morality of the Jews to these tax collectors was to fire a powerful insult
 
Jesus is saying to only demonstrate love toward one who loves you is dealing with the issue of love on the same level as the lowest life-form the Jews knew—the tax collector
 
Jesus closes the lesson with a reference to yet another familiar teaching in the Old Testament
 
NKJ Deuteronomy 18:13 "You shall be blameless before the LORD your God.
 
God is perfect—and we must follow His model—and seek perfection ourselves—and that includes His example of the rain and sunshine on both the good people and the evil people on this earth
 
Part of our stretch for perfection is to love those who don’t deserve our love in the eyes of this world—look at the world as God looks at it—see people for their need for redemption
 
Again we go to Paul for proper understanding and interpretation of the Law and the teachings of Jesus our Savior
 
NKJ Colossians 3:14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
 
There being no objection—next week we will continue to pursue the perfect sermon of Jesus the Christ—His sermon on the mount—part two