Matthew 5:31-48

So, verse 31, and in my outline I've included this as kind of a subsection under adultery, because I believe that's the way it is, because if you look at the end, that's the last word of verse 32, the end of this section. The whole thought is adultery, links it all together, and it has to do with lust also. Because, let's put it right out before we even discuss it, divorce is a way to legalize lust in many, many cases.

Find somebody that suits you better, no problem. Get rid of the first one, and you can fulfill your lust with the second one. The Lord says, not that easy.

He says, that's not God's standard. That wasn't how God ordained it. It hath been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement.

Now that was actually, again, it was something that Moses was authorized to authorize. That was a protection for the wife. It established the fact that she was free, otherwise she had no rights.

If he just put her out without a writing of divorcement, she really didn't have any options. Nobody knew what her condition was. Did she abandon him? Yeah, in which case she was not eligible.

So she could go and be another man's wife under the law with his writing of divorcement. But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery. And we all know, especially any that have been in any oversight responsibility, that there have been volumes and volumes written on this.

It has been debated and discussed for centuries with no consensus. And we're not going to try and settle it here today. The root point that we are to get from this is that divorce as such does not justify the gratifying of lust.

You cannot just swap lives by getting a divorce. It's not that simple. And we have the reason behind that, the teaching behind that in chapter 19 and Mark 10.

God made them male and female, and for this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. What God hath joined together, the Latin out man put asunder. We can all agree that God never intended divorce.

Period. That's categorical. Does anyone approve of divorce? Absolutely not.

It's not God's intention. And that is the consistent teaching of all the word of God. The question comes up, of course, with the exception that's only in Matthew.

And that does not deny the rule that God desires one man, one woman for life. We're going to, and I'll just throw this out while we're here. The next section is going to be, let your yea be yea and your nay nay.

Have you listened carefully lately to the vows that those of us who are married took at marriage? Before God and these witnesses, pledge to love, honor, cherish, in sickness and health, for better or for worse, until death do us part, or until the Lord come. If your yea is going to be yea, there's no way to wiggle out of that. Unless we're going to allow the exception, but just to take the principle without worrying about the exceptions.

Just on that very basis, divorce is wrong in an unjustified divorce. We're going to just limit it to that, as far as that statement. You have pledged before God and witnesses, and how can you just decide down the road that, Oh, I didn't mean, I have my fingers crossed, like we used to say when we were kids.

No, you can't do that. It's the own will of God and everything will be done to save that marriage. About the time you thought of every incident that you could think of, four or five ones you never dreamed of that came in, so that kind of fogs up what you thought.

Yeah, how many times have we faced that? Thought you finally had enough of it together that you could make a general rule, and then, so, just to summarize what's generally felt here, this was a binding legal contract as far as our marriage is in this land, and also a vow before God. You can get the legal contract set aside like most any, you're guaranteed to do such and such a service for someone for such and such money. It comes down the road and you decide, I can't do it for that much, and you go to the fellow and say, okay, let's break this contract and write a new one.

Well, that's all right among men, and the laws of the land allow that. God's saying, you also made a vow before me, and I'm not letting you off. But now when fornication has taken place, this is like you promised to provide such and such for so much money, and all of a sudden you don't provide the services.

Then the contract is broken, both before God, or it's broken before God. The vows have been broken. The contract can be.

Now, I will always insist, and I think all of my brethren would insist, that when it's among believers, there's really, we ought to be able to work this out. Can we ever say there's a time where I can't forgive? How much have we been forgiven? What if God had said, you know, that's enough, I can't forgive. So, there needs to be a working out.

Fornication does not demand divorce in this verse. It's not commanded. It seems to be an option, but not commanded.

Is the standard that the Lord Jesus is putting out here in verse 32, whosoever shall put away his wife, as He says unto you, is that a higher standard than what was given by Moses back in Deuteronomy 24? The relationship to the marriage here. He is saying something here in contrast to what Moses said. Right.

Yeah, I'm feeling that he's limiting it. That's, I mean, and you and I have both read volumes on what Deuteronomy 24 is saying, and the Jews themselves couldn't agree on what it was saying, and I haven't been able to make heads or tails out of it. And all that I've read about, it is just kind of a gray area.

What does that mean, some manner of uncleanness? Well, let's forget about Moses then, because we're now living under the law of Moses. Let's look at what the Lord Jesus said. The high standard that He presents is what we should be adhering to, especially we that are in the church.

He's just saying, whatever Moses allowed, and the ways you've interpreted it, that's passed. But I'm saying that to you, and He's also saying something about infidelity in this verse. So it's all very valid for us today.

No marriage should ever be entered into with anything other than total commitment for life. And I don't think anyone would disagree with that. I would hope not, because that is God's intention from the beginning.

Well, I'm not trying to make a statement as to legitimize infidelity, because I don't believe that's right among God's people. I don't even think God desires that among the unsaved. No.

But grace and forgiveness would certainly be the higher course, even if it does occur. There's something that isn't right here, but comes up every time this subject comes up. It's not just divorce, but it's divorce and remarriage, and divorce and remarriage and assembly fellowship.

So in the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy 24, the Bill of Divorcemen always had in view remarriage. Do we agree on that? Naturally speaking, that's going to be the result. Because without remarriage, at the end of this chapter, verse 32, if they don't ever remarry, there's no adultery committed, if it's not for fornication.

But if it's for reasons other than fornication, then verse 32 is enforced, adultery. So we have sin leading to adultery and adultery, how do we say this, sin leading to divorce and divorce leading to adultery, or adultery leading to divorce and then divorce leading to adultery. I'm sure you've been asked again and again, what about the innocent party? I've had to say, in this example here, there's no innocent party.

Because it doesn't say who's committed the adultery, I guess it's assumed to be the wife, but every person involved here commits adultery. I'm not sure I agree with that. Cause of her to commit adultery.

What's that? Cause of her to commit adultery. Well, that's down the line after she remarries. Right, right.

I'm just saying, at that point, now she becomes an adult. Except for fornication. And her new husband becomes an adult here.

And so, as far as the innocent party, that might have been at one point, but the Lord is saying that once this proceeds to its normal course, then everyone. So, one of the lessons is this, our sins affect a lot. And of course, in connection with divorce, you know the sadness of so many broken homes.

What confusion is in the world today because of divorce? I've heard people say, well, there's no statement of exception in our Bible, but the Lord's saving here, fair and strong, make it pretty clear that it is the thought of exception. So, I think we can depend on that. Yes, and that's restated again.

And there are many, obviously many would limit Matthew being a Jewish background, that he's in the betrothal period. I think there's enough written on that to kind of discount that as a valid objection to this. It's a good policy whenever your assembly is settled on it and remove it with the assembly responsibility and forget about dictation from anybody without that assembly.

Really, they have no input into it. And that needs to be our conclusion on it, that we have the Scripture here and it's going to be for the government of each assembly to decide on what their policy is and they'll answer before God for that, but not before their brethren. That's why it's no coincidence that the Lord Jesus talks of the seriousness of health right after this.

So, an ounce of prevention is a pound of cure. I don't know, is that how it goes? But for all those who contemplate marriage, the oath is very serious. It should not be entered into lightly.

Do not let culture decide how it should go. We know God's will in this. So it's an oath that you're making, a vow that you're making, that you should decide, I'm living with this person and choosing this person for the rest of my life, and why am I doing that? Is it for me or because I love that person and want to seek the highest good of that person? So it's something to be considered before it's even entered.

So if we think about it before we even enter it, it may be a thought. Should we hold a stigma against those who have been divorced? I don't know. John 8 is our example of the Lord Jesus.

He does say, Now go and sin no more. I think just be another man than yourself. Accept and turn to Satan.

But very often we have a sense of latter-term Phariseeism in our thinking when we come across someone, Oh, you're divorced. Oh, that's too bad. Now they're a lesser Christian.

Something is they're a lesser in whatever. Is that right? No. I don't think so.

But for the grace of God, there's a why. Does 1 Corinthians 6 override when we're talking about someone who was divorced for whatever reason and remarried previous to being saved? I'll read this to you. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Be not, this evening, nor fornicators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. Statement. And such were some of you.

But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and of the Spirit of God. I would think it would. Enter into it.

As chapter 7 had already outlined, I think chapter 7, the precepts of 1 Corinthians 7 were written so that some didn't go back to Nehemiah and get their example there and say, alright, we've got to get rid of this strange woman. Explain what that is in Nehemiah. In Nehemiah, when they came back into the land, they transgressed the commandments, of course, in marrying strange wives, wives from heathen nations.

And when Nehemiah found out about it, he had an inquisition and they got everyone to swear to the fact they were going to have to put away these strange women. 1 Corinthians 7 says, No, if they be pleased to dwell with you, you don't be the cause of the breakup. And so, I would take it that it's never, it would be never right to try and sever another established relationship on the thought of going back to one that still stands in God's sight.

It would be confusion. So, following up on what Brother Kevin has said. Sorry.

Because, well, no, I was going to say something to Kevin there, but you're welcome too. Before you enter into a marriage, make sure that you are prepared to live with this person. Make sure you know them so that you're willing to live with them.

And say you decide down the road, I made a wrong decision. Well, then seek grace. And God will give grace because he's established marriage.

And there is no temptation taking you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful. He'll make a way of escape.

He'll make you, if you start doing what we have down, pray for your enemy even if you get to the point where you think your partner is your enemy. Pray for them. Love them.

Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. There's no exception to that. Love your wife.

I'll be helping those that are married if that's what they would want. We should be once found loving them and helping them and guiding them. And praying for them.

Praying for the marriages of the people in your assembly, your family. So the woman that might not be the right woman for me to marry, after the day I say I do, she is the right woman. Kent said going down the road, you should go down a different road, Kent.

You don't go down the road thinking I married the wrong person. No, that's one of those It's almost like, fuck your eye out, cut your hand off. Don't go there.

We don't have a choice now. Love them. If it happens, there's repentance in those that it's happened to and there is forgiveness and there's restoration because that's what God does.

Can there be unity among assemblies for there is differences in interpretation? We can agree to disagree. I think Jim Hicks had a point he mentioned about autonomy essentially. And I think we can see that today here and that's the way it should be.

I think there's been some fear about taking up this chapter in the Bible reading because for fear of getting into a fight over divorce. No, we can agree on the absolute essentials that God never intended divorce and don't ever, ever enter into marriage with any thought of divorce. Once you're married, you're committed for life.

Exceptions should never come in between believers anyhow. So, it's nice to live with that ultimate view, but as we all know, things happen. And then we have to deal with it and each assembly's going to have to decide how they're going to deal with it and in the fear of God.

But yes, Nathan, there should be. That should not be a cause of division. I think the corollary there too as to what Jim said is it's the elders of that particular assembly and I think it needs to be supported in all of the assemblies and all the folks that are around to understand that the principle that it needs to be there is their respect for that decision that was made and not oh, did you hear and then you hear this and then by the time the third person hears it, I mean, you get these games of telephone play and pretty soon it's, well, you know, it's obvious they made the wrong decision and then it's not going on firsthand knowledge.

It's not going with the people that are closest to it and so I think the key thing there on the corollary on that is it's not only that the local assembly needs to support that decision, it needs to be that all the rest of the assemblies and all the God's people support and recognize that the principle is that the leadership of that local assembly is responsible and has to be supported. What's difficult sometimes and it shouldn't be, but it is is if the oversight of that local assembly is not unified on their view of this and so there needs to be study, not sticking your head in the sand and saying, well, we've always done it this way. There needs to be looking into the Word of God and discussion in that overseeing body about what does Scripture really say? What does this mean? And so because there needs to be unity in that oversight of what's decided and if there isn't, then there can be a problem in that assembly because that's pretty well known before long just in the rest of the assembly.

So that's probably as important, if not more important. We all know we need to respect each other's assembly. We guard that vehemently.

I'm not responsible in Black River and they're not responsible here or whatever. And they're responsible and we respect what they do and they decide. But it can be tougher if it's disagreement with other people.

I think I'd say honestly, I have absolutely highest respect for people who differ in their view. And if you get publications out of Scotland in particular, you know that they disagree. But I really appreciate the President's Truth magazine and the writings from assembly testimony.

I've heard some say, I don't need that anymore. They don't agree with my views on it. I have the utmost esteem for those men.

I stand on this matter as oft times treated as a barometer of spirituality and there could never be anything so far off. Yeah. Then they become like the Pharisees and tithe mint and ruin and come and leave the major matters of the law, judgment and... Then we go from this section to what previously was thou shalt not kill.

So we disagree on the subject of divorce or marriage. So we're going to attack their character and kill them in their character and think that we're the spiritual ones. We're always better if we can make somebody else look worse.

That's Phariseeism. It is. Alright, verse 33.

Again ye have heard that it hath been said that of old time thou shalt not forswear thyself but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. I think it's a little different than the actual commandment thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. It's more the thought of I will do this or God do such and such to me.

The Lord do so to me and more also if I don't follow through on this. Where does that come from? I think it says whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. In studying this I've just realized sometimes I'll say to tell you the truth.

In other words most of the time I don't but when I say to tell you the truth you can really believe what I'm saying. Does that add anything to my credibility? Obviously not. It makes you wonder.

And that's exactly what the Jews were doing. They wouldn't use the name of God because if you made your vow in the name of the Lord then thou shalt perform your oath unto the Lord. But if you made an oath by the temple or by your head or whatever well then that might be true or it might not but at least if you did follow through you weren't going to get sent to Gehenna.

But the Lord is saying if you swear by anything you're really swearing by God because the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And the Lord quotes it's a lovely little illustration of the Lord's knowledge of the Old Testament where he takes part of the verse here and splits it up and takes part of the verse in one quotation and another part in another. Neither by heaven for it is God's throne.

That's a part of a verse. Nor by the earth for it is footstool. Another part of a verse.

Neither by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great king. Another part of a verse that he's quoting from the book of Psalms. And so he's just saying that whatever you are to swear by you're swearing by God.

So he's just saying cut it out. If you say yes it means yes. If you say no it means no.

The word shalt not forswear is in an active voice which means that you swear falsely and you know you're swearing falsely. So you're the one who's acting and you're making a false promise and you know it's a false promise. And he says don't do that.

They'll show you not to do that. And you're going to perform and you're going to carry out as a debt that's paid of the Lord all that you promised the Lord. You carry that out.

And we have no control so we can't call down or require heaven. We have no control over that. We have no control over earth.

We have no claim on that. We have no claim on a city. We don't even have a claim on our head.

We can't tell our head what to do. Our hairs. We have nothing.

But we can do one thing. We can keep our word. We can do that.

And if we don't keep our word then our oath is not going to have one eye open to that. The other aspect is there's a there's a diminishing return on people that do swear by this and that. You have that portion where they're saying it's okay to swear by the temple as long as you don't swear by the gold of the temple.

They have it all backwards. The gold was there to illuminate the fact that God was there. The temple was the value was the fact that God was there.

Not the gold. The gold was second, third, fourth, fifth in nature as far as value. But they were holding that gold because that's what you couldn't swear by.

And they were wrong because they had a diminishing return on that. When I hear people say I swear on my children or on my grandparents or on somebody's grave the first thought that comes to my mind is, wow, you don't really value that very much, do you? You know, because in some cases you could be doing something that you don't even think it's wrong. But you're so confident in your and then you turn out to be wrongful and you've got to give that up and you've got to give up your parents' grave or your children.

You know, you don't want that. So it shouldn't be done at all. What I do is linked with who I am.

And so in verse number 19 we'll start to show doing teaching. So here's the doing. So he's doing his work.

And now because of who he is he's able to teach. His doing and teaching so when a person says, yay, yay and follows through and keeps their word that individual's character is now being displayed. That's who they are.

You can trust them. Let's bring that into the home. Parents, your children are pretty well grown now, but if you say yes that should mean yes.

If you say no, that should mean no. You don't need a lot of abusive language or anything. If you do this or such and such, just no.

And then that has to mean no. And we know children. But, we want to go ask daddy.

Daddy will usually cave in, at least in our home. A wise dad will ask, what did your mother say? Because she's got to stick to her word. And that was allowed.

I think that principle, the principle of vows, a woman at home under her father's jurisdiction, if she made, or a woman in her home with her husband, if she made a vow and her husband said, no, that won't, he could overrule it. But if he didn't overrule it, then it stood, and if he disallowed it later, then he became guilty. But, so parents, be truthful with your children.

If they're not supposed to do it, then stick with it. Think before you answer, perhaps so you don't have to keep undoing, because once they find out that it can be reversed, the decision of the judges is not final, they'll use that. Over Thanksgiving, we had a lot of family home, and we were sitting down one night, and I said, I asked, I said, well, why don't you tell me what you think I did wrong in raising you? And one of my daughter-in-laws said, which I didn't raise her, one of my daughter-in-laws says, I don't want to stay up that late.

But I have a little problem. I was not like that. I was the one that was kind of, you couldn't tell.

But I have problems with doing what you say. I'm going to count to five. I always thought, what's wrong with three? But when you get to four, you start over with one again.

Now that isn't being, and then you do that three or four times. Grandpa's about going crazy by this. But anyway, you need to be truthful and carry out what you're saying, because they want to see consistency in what you say.

It's just like it is in the marketplace if you can't believe someone you have no stability. Children need that stability. Sometimes as parents, you probably give them the wrong answer, but sometimes for the principal's sake, we need to stick with it, whether we decide.

There are times when you need to just fess up and say, no, I gave you the wrong answer. I'm going to reverse it because I didn't consider this. Be honest.

But also, otherwise, I mean, I listen to it all day long in the drugstore. Children misbehaving and I'm going to do this or that. It never happens.

Count to 25 and start over again. It gets ridiculous. And the children are just tearing around.

They don't even hear it. That's what happens. A question.

Is breaking your word, yay, yay, nay, nay, is that less than not killing? Thou shalt not kill. Or thou shalt not commit adultery. Is that less than losing? To break up a promise, to break our word, to let a conversation or a communication or a word be yay, yay, nay, nay.

The person can't be trusted on the same level as killing and adultery. Breaks the same law, doesn't it? You can bring similar confusion. So I'm saying, what I'm saying is we just dump on people who do one of these things.

But then we cover ourself when we do not keeping our yay, yay, nay, nay, nay. Somebody pointed out the first two have hell mentioned at the end. Adultery and murder.

This doesn't. But they both come from the... There's more than these that come from evil. They all come from the evil one.

So there is no difference. When you come to Revelation, there's no difference as far as the unbeliever. All liars.

I don't know that this section is particularly about dealing with swearing oaths, but it grieves me to hear we were talking about by gee something or other, whatever. That is basically taking the name of the Lord in vain. This seems to be the performance of vows, oaths in that sense, but that is a commandment that has not been set aside.

Thou shall not use the name of the Lord thy God in vain. So let us... We don't need to say that. Why whatever.

That does fit in here. Just say the statement. I don't need to say to be perfectly honest with you.

I just need to tell you. I'm not that computer literate, but aren't there like LOL, I know that one. Aren't there ones that are swearing? Well, like OMG and so forth like that.

Yeah, pretty much when you get one of those, you spell it out in your mind and your mind is right. Basically it takes the Lord's name and makes nothing of it. Or it's of no value other than just the expression.

Yeah, this swearing here, though I really can't speak to it, is invoking. It's invoking the character and authority of God in this promise. I promise.

And God is my witness. Isn't it kind of bringing God on our side saying now it's what I say and God against you. I mean, isn't that what it's doing? That's what I kind of got the picture.

You know, basically God is my witness. No. I think we should bear this out.

In old days, it was all commonly taught that you should not put your hand on a Bible and take an oath in a law court. I do not believe that's the subject here. I do not believe that's forbidden.

But, God swears by himself. The Apostle Paul, God also bearing me witness. The Apostle Paul on these three different occasions calls God as his witness.

The Lord Jesus answered under oath. So, I don't think that's the thought here. He's swearing the truth.

Right. Here he's swearing falsely. Yeah.

If you put your hand on the Bible and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, you better do it. That's right. Are you saying this is saying the same thing that James is saying then? I think so.

When I was a juror, they have another way around that. I affirm. I understand that.

You're saying the same thing, but you're not using the word. Verse 38, Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. That's accurate.

But the way the Jews interpreted it, I suggest that they misinterpreted it. They took this as justification for a vengeance. The nation of Israel to this day, Palestinians send a missile over.

They send a squadron of F-16s over. It's just get them back ten times as much as they got you. Actually, this was a limitation of judicial vengeance.

I think that's what I have here. The law addressed the limits of judicial vengeance. The punishment was to match the crime.

If someone put someone's eye out, you could take their eye out. If someone cut someone's hand off, you could take their hand off. If someone knocked out a tooth, you could knock out a tooth.

But that was the limit. You couldn't go beyond that. The Jews were taking that as I can let them have it.

Once they've done something against me, I'll do double against them. The Lord is not only just counteracting that, but He's saying go to the other extreme. I think I want to just insert right here.

We all agreed that this is in regard to personal rights. Say there's anyone here who's a police officer. In the loudest sense, there would be a police officer.

Is this how they're supposed to treat everybody out on the Hillelah? Turn the other cheek? Look the other way? No. We're talking about our personal rights in this section. I think that will help us a lot in rightly understanding this.

The law cannot... The law doesn't function under grace. Once in a while it exercises grace, and we've seen it in our family. It's a lovely thing to receive grace, but the law doesn't function that way.

The law doesn't function according to what we're going to read here. The law is more bound by what it says. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Punishment must match the crime. That's sort of a marbled cross because that grace came by the law. And in our feeble minds, it should have been that the law prevented grace, and yet it wasn't so because the Lord Jesus came, fulfilled the law, and in fulfilling the law, gave the grace.

Resist not evil. Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. There are practical ways that we can apply that.

Have you ever gone to a store or a service facility or whatever and they messed it up? I'm never going back there again, and more than that, I'm going to tell all my friends so they don't go. Or could we just, next time we need it, turn the other cheek? Take it back again. Very likely they just had somebody didn't know what they were doing.

When I hear a knock or a squeak or whatever, I have no clue what it is, and they probably don't either sometimes. And they just try to do something to help you out and it doesn't work. Well, that's not necessarily a reason to cut them off.

We should practice what we taught here. What about the Lord Jesus? I think we have the best examples of these precepts in the Lord Jesus. Resist not evil.

Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not.

Amen. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. The idea of resisting is to set oneself against the Lord Jesus.

When he was smitten, he said, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of evil. But if thou wisest, mightest thou be. He didn't set himself against that man to just destroy him.

He asked him a question and touched his heart. That would only provoke more anger. But if you do not set yourself in that resisting, in that sense, of I am going to overcome you by more evil, you're going to lower the temperature of that situation.

It's using wisdom, Paul. It's wisdom. Sometimes we think it's righteous anger if we're being sworn at or blasphemed against.

And maybe we want to, but perhaps that's not our place necessarily with the Lord Jesus. It's been helpful to me, because there's a lot of people that come to you and they're just way off the wall, man. They're just beating you over the head.

And I keep thinking to myself, you don't know the whole story. You don't know all that's going on. You just let them vent.

You let them beat you up. And you walk away beaten and bruised and there's a little bit of spittle on you maybe. But you don't escalate the situation.

So you don't believe in road rage, huh? What's that? You don't believe in road rage. Don't say the word road rage. Doesn't a kind word turn away wrath? Pardon? Doesn't a kind word turn away wrath? I had an experience.

At the end of our driveway for 27 years was a yield sign. I think because of my children they put a stop sign. It's still hard to stop there because of the yield.

But anyway, and I sometimes, I'm sorry, I sometimes don't stop. Probably more than not. More than sometimes.

Anyway, I thought I looked. I didn't look. And I get out into the road and there's a truck right behind me.

I mean right behind me. I go, ah! So I get to the stop sign up in Seneca and I go, I got to say something to this guy. I don't know who it is.

I get out, I go back, I go, I am really sorry for cutting you off. He said, oh, that's okay. It wasn't as close as it looked.

I just ran up behind you to scare you. But, you know, he did. I'm going to remember that truck.

But just saying that to him and apologizing, he wasn't upset. Verse 40, if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And that's going above and beyond.

In the Old Testament, the coat is the inner garment of lesser value, lesser importance. They were forbidden even to keep an outer coat, the cloak, overnight as a pledge because they needed it to sleep in. So it was basically an inalienable right that you kept your cloak.

But the Lord said, let him have it all. I remember an illustration I heard as a new believer speaking on Philippians 4, verse 5, Let your moderation, your forbearance, or your yieldingness be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

There had been two neighbors that had fought for years over their lying tents where it should be. Each claimed some of their neighbor's property. And so a believer came into the situation and bought one of the properties.

And so the neighbor came over right away and said, You just bought yourself a pile of trouble. And the man said, Where do you think the fence should be? Let's put it there. Take a little more if you want.

And, you know, nothing dampens the spirit of one who wants to start a fight than just giving in. And that would defuse a lot of situations just as you've already heard a soft answer turneth away wrath. But grievous words stir up strife.

That's mine. My rights. You can't have that.

All that's going to do is just escalate. You didn't give the end of the story? Yeah. I guess I've told it to you.

The neighbor said, Oh, leave it where it is. All he wanted was a fight. And if he couldn't have a fight, then the land didn't matter to him.

And there's a lot of people like that. Have you ever moved a fence six feet? It wasn't worth it. Verse 41, Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain or two.

I understand this was an old Persian or Babylonian law or brought into Roman law apparently as well. But if a soldier or any government officials is going down the highway and needs a backpack, he can just take any citizen and just say, I command you, I compel you to take this burden for me. And he can only compel him to go a mile.

The Lord is just saying, throw in an extra mile. Don't do the minimum. Go beyond.

And the only other time this word compelled is in the New Testament in connection with Simon of Cyrene. It compelled him to bear the cross. So these things are contrary to the world's standards.

We're to be a light. And these things will shine. We're going to get this down further.

If we do the minimal, what are we any different than anyone else? We love the people that love us. And we're good to the people that are good to us. Scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

That thing. Even Republicans, even the rank, we can do that. But if we're the children of the sons of God, we expect something different.

So verse 42. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow thee, turn not thou away. Alright.

So if I ask any of you for something, you've got to give it to me. Willingness to meet a real need, isn't it? Not necessarily to make other people feel obliged. I think all of these teachings need to be balanced with the whole Word of God.

The one law that I found infallible in regard to Scripture is the law of total mention. And if you take this into the book of Acts, they minister to every man according to their need. It's always according to me.

And as one commentator put it, and I like this, sometimes what they need is just some good advice. And I was just talking with a parent recently, today in fact, that a child who has had jobs and gives them up and moves back home and then expects to be toted here and toted there and given money for this and given money for that. What do they need? They need advice.

They need a little nudge, whatever. That's what they need. That's what will do them good.

Two things that are requirements to scripturally giving, it has to be the glory of God and it has to be for the benefit of the person receiving what you're going to give. And very honestly, many times that's what we need most is some good sound advice. Throwing some money at it is sometimes just like pouring fuel on the flames.

But if there's a genuine need, if we see our brother had need and don't minister that need, how dwelleth the love of God in us? So not standing up for our personal rights may cause us some pain. I get the smitten on the cheek. It may cost us, it may cost us actually some money because we're going to be giving away our cloak.

It may cost us some effort to go two miles instead of one. And it may cost us some goods or some time because if there's someone who asks us for something, we have to give it to them. So if someone comes and says, hey, can you help me with this? Would this fit here? I'm too busy.

I'd like to help. I'll call Brother Jim down Bloor. He's got all kind of time.

The need is right there in front of you. You have the time to meet the need. Proverbs, say not unto thy neighbor, go and come again.

Tomorrow I'll give when thou hast it by thee. I mean, yes, there's times when you don't have a chance. But as we have therefore opportunity to let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Discipleship is costly, Luke 14. Salvation is free, and thankfully so. Discipleship is costly.

And so you see the Lord in all four of these. And the point is, we're only talking about temporal things. They say if it isn't going to matter in a hundred years, why be concerned? My family knows that if somebody swings around something and nicks the wall, I'm all uptight.

Really, you know, is it worth cutting off someone's head verbally for something like that? Or is it really that important? Well, it's going to get even harder here. You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. Now, those last words have no basis in Old Testament Scripture as far as just the way they're written.

Luther points that out. The first part's in bold letters. That's a quotation.

The last part was kind of an interpretation that they had built into that. Hate thine enemy. Just someone at Ontario spoke this morning on Luke chapter 10, the Good Samaritan.

And right away they asked the question, Well, who's my neighbor? And the implication is, you know, my neighbor's the guy next door to me that I like, that's related to me. But the fellow in the second house down, he's not really my neighbor. I don't need to do anything for him.

And the statement of the Scripture was, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Hate thy enemy was something that, well, then by process of a reasoning, then if I'm supposed to love my neighbor, I should be able to hate everybody who isn't my neighbor. And they could justify that somewhat by the commandments about how they were to treat the Canaanites in the land.

Utterly destroy them. Thou shalt not seek their peace forever. There's lessons in that, how we should deal with the flesh.

But that wasn't God's intention that you could hate, that he was commanding that you should hate your enemies. But didn't their behavior towards those they were conquering, that was a judicial situation between God and man now, using Israel as the tool. And you see that when they disobey, the same thing happened to them.

It's not on the individual basis there. In fact, it was commanded that if you see the if you see the ox or the ass of your enemy going astray or falling down under his load, they were commanded to help. Help with that situation.

Take the animal back or help lift it up from its burden. That was for their enemies. So it specified that they were to treat their enemies with the same kindness they would treat their own people.

So when this Pharisee knew Psalm 139, and it said, Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee? And am I not greed with them to rise up against Thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. Are we talking about the same thing Josh just said? Judicially, these were the enemies of God, not my own personal enemies.

We have that same failure in our society today. There's many people that believe that there shouldn't be a death penalty. And they think it's illegal or immoral.

But it's the result of the nation's law being broken. And it's a judicial issue, it's not an individual issue. It's still wrong to commit murder.

It's just not murder in that scenario because it's the laws of the land that require that person's life to be taken. Yeah, I don't think we pointed it out clearly in verse 35. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

That was judicial allowance. But the Jews took it into their own hands. If my neighbor treats me bad, I've got the right to do to him at least as much as he's done to me.

But no, that was to be taken to the judges and they were to handle that. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I will repay him.

Something I just noticed, in verse 43, we are encouraged to be practicing the love of God in our lives. In verse 38, we are encouraged to practice the grace of God in our lives. In the previous section, dealing with the Law and the Prophets, we're practicing the truth of God in our lives.

So here is, in His kingdom, there's the truth of God governing, there's the grace of God governing, and there's the love of God governing. Because He says, Love your enemy, and bless them in your kingdom. So that is God's love.

We curse Him, what He did to us. This cursing here, I think, is imprecatory. It's calling down judgment.

Deuteronomy 23, really three through four, the context of those that were excluded from the congregation, An anamite or a bovine shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord, even to their tenth generation, unto the congregation of the Lord forever, because they met you not with bread, but with water in the way. When ye came forth out of Egypt, it was because they hired against Baalim, the son of Beor, Hethor, Mesopotamia, to curse thee. Verse 5, Nevertheless, the Lord thy God would not hearken to Baalim, but the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because thy Lord, God thy God, loved thee.

Just as He loves us, we should be loving Him. So that love should govern how we treat each other. Instead of being so judgmental and hard and cruel and beating each other up and become the beating, we're all bruised and beaten from each other's attitude, we come with a sense of, hey, God has loved me in spite of what I did and what I am, and now we're going to be each other, and we see each other in the grace of God, in the realm of the truth of God, and we're enjoying the love of God.

And that's where we have the capstone, not to jump ahead, but verse 48, Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect. This isn't sinless perfection, it's His love and kindness toward others in the context that we're considering now. You see, it's awful hard to conjure up love against an enemy and to bless them that hate you.

But I think oftentimes the third statement is a help with both of the two before. Pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. If you get down in the presence of God and start praying, generally you'll realize how much you've been forgiven and realize sometimes how petty this is.

Before you quit to go to your brother and say he's trespassed against you, get in the presence of God and sort it out. Is it really that serious? I mean, that's the principle. If you can't get over it, then you need to go see him.

But I would say 90% of the problems could be worked out on our knees and we would never need to go because a lot of times it's wounded vanity. I wasn't respected like I should have been or whatever. That's unworthy and that's just going to fuel the fire usually.

It's taking the me out of the equation. You're going to him and what's he doing? He's changing your heart. Right, so if you pray for them, you're going to find that you can bless them.

You can pray for them, God's blessing on them, and then you can love them. I wonder if in Luke 23 when the thief, the malefactors on either side, they heard the Lord repeatedly say, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Because they were casting the same in his teeth.

If that didn't eventually cause that man to realize this person is not like us. He's not like us at all. And so it changes perspective.

Why? In a sense because Jesus is praying for them. Pray for them and persecute them. They're despicable to use you and persecute you.

I just toss it out for a suggestion. Verse 45, that ye may be or may become in likeness the children, and that's the word for sons, which has to do with likeness, sons of your Father which is in heaven. And then he's going to illustrate that.

On good things we're proud when someone says he's just like his dad. Some things we're not so proud when we say he's just like his dad. But God is very happy.

That's what the Lord says. That's the goal. You want to be seen to be a son of God, a son of your Father by what you do.

Because your Father maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good. He doesn't just bless those that bless him. He blesses those that curse him.

And he sends his rain on the just and on the unjust. It's the goodness of God that leads men to repentance or ought to. And so God is good to the people who don't appreciate it, curse them to his face, and he still waters their fields and gives them abundant crops.

We ought to take care of it. When the workplace of someone is being despitefully treated or used and made fun of for not cheating when they should be cheating or operating rightfully, and the person in that workplace situation takes that individual into prayer and even mentions, you know, I will pray for you that you will see the reason why I do what I do. And just acknowledge, I'm going to pray for you in spite of how you treat me.

That attitude now, it takes the fuel out of their persecution. And now it changes their attitude toward it. It will.

It may not change it right away, but it's going to change. Here's an individual who's not against me. He's not rising up to stand up for his rights and he's going to fight me.

I resisted the evil. And now here's an individual who actually has the individual's good in mind. And that's the way the Lord was.

We cast everything at him, and yet he came out in good to us. And eventually we were broken. Finally, we did all the sinning and he did all the loving and saving.

Verse 46, If ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? In other words, that's not worthy of reward. That's just doing what's right, proper. The implication is, if you go beyond that, there is reward.

We should be looking for heaven's reward, not the praise of man. We're going to get that in the next chapter. There's something in our relationships we've been talking about, mostly other people and how we are calm toward them.

In our relationships, when we feel wronged or made light of, or whatever it is, whether it's your wife, your kids, your co-workers, whatever, God brings us into relationships to mold our character. And every time you feel a certain way, just examine your relationship to God and more than likely, you'll find that either in the past or you are currently treating God the same way that you're being treated. And maybe someone's not respecting you like they should, by relationship.

Well, maybe I'm not respecting God like I should. And it's something to really focus on your own self. I don't mean that in a proud way, but to learn really how I'm treating God in everyday life.

And it's really humbling and it's really easy to forgive someone when you take it in that light. A thought comes to mind that I forgot earlier, but like verse 39, resist not evil. I'm sure on the other cheek.

Our tendency right away is to run away from a situation, get out of it, get another job, move, whatever necessary, but go along what you're saying. These things don't come into our life by accident. And if God is going to teach us grace and patience and love by these adversities, we shouldn't be quick to get out.

We don't want to necessarily run away. Now, there are times, if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. There are times when that's the best course.

But let's not be quick to do that. Let's humble ourselves, take it to God. What can I learn out of this? What can I profit? If you salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? You're not even a publican, so.

I hope we do all salute our brethren. I hope there's nobody that you're looking the other way when they go by every time just so you don't have to shake hands with them or acknowledge them. What a shame.

That's just decency. That's just what the common sinner on the street should do. We're called to be higher than that.

That's not the character of our Heavenly Father. So, we claim to be a son. We are misrepresenting our Heavenly Father.

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect. Well, that can't mean what it says. My dear say, how are we going to interpret it if we don't interpret it just what it says? Does it say that we can be, but reach that standard? No, it doesn't say that.

But that's the goal. Beware of us being like the Pharisees and saying, well, it can't mean that, so it must mean you do the best you can and it will all work out. That's what the religious world is doing.

Well, no one's perfect, so God's going to have to grade on the curve. He's just got to be. As children, they have certain character traits of their parents.

And our Heavenly Father is truly our Father. And we should reflect His character. Perfect is not the idea of flawless.

It's the idea of completeness. So, in the complete realm of righteousness, in that spiritual, moral realm, that's where we're going to be perfect. Where does the power come from to do that? I think Jim brought this out earlier.

We have this power in us by the indwelling Holy Spirit, but also by the filling of the Spirit. Keeping that communion with the Father, that's where the power comes from. In that communion, we can overcome these things.

How do we know what our Father's character is? Look at the Word of Jesus. That's the perfect illustration of it in shoe leather, if you will, but in the Scriptures. So, the more we can saturate ourselves with the Scriptures, the more we're going to know the character of our Father, the more we're going to be able to emulate that character by the Spirit of God.

That should be our goal. That's why this verse is put here. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Know your Father and live as He illustrates. May I make an application, a stretchy application to 46 and 47? It says, For if ye love them which love you, what reward do ye have? Have ye? And do not even the publicans the same. And if ye salute your brethren only, what will ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so.

So, when we're at an all-day meeting or at a conference or someplace, and our brethren from Ontario are all there and our brethren from Blue River and from Mount Sterling, and we go through the lunch line and we go sit in our own little groups. That to me is a hindrance to fellowship. You need to broaden your horizons a little bit.

You need to stretch out and show love and compassion and concern and get to know people from other places. It's not hard, really. So, I'll be watching you guys.

I was going to say, we're so down-seating this evening. Well, and then maybe when someone's shy, maybe someone is really shy about introducing, then that's our responsibility, You're not shy? Well, beloved brethren, it's been wonderful. I think we had misgivings whether we could get through the passage.

God has given help. We haven't gotten derailed. We've handled a lot of truth.

I hope we're convinced it is truth and that we'll seek grace to put it into practice.