The Way To Growth In Christlikeness - Part 6

We were studying the Sermon on the Mount, seeing it as a description of partly a part description of a Christ-like life. All of Christ-likeness is not found in the Sermon on the Mount. It's a much vaster subject than that. But the Sermon on the Mount is a good beginning and it is for those who have, who are disciples. Let me emphasize that Matthew 5, Jesus, when he saw the crowds, which is a big multitude, went up to the mountain and his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and began to teach his disciples. So the first step is to be a disciple and that is to fulfill the conditions in Luke 14, 26 to 33. To love Jesus more than father, mother, brother, sister, and all relatives and all brothers and sisters in the church. Always wife, children, everything. And secondly, to be willing to die to yourself every, not willing, but to take up the cross every day of your life. And thirdly, to give up possession, give up the possessive attitude to material things. Then we come to the Sermon on the Mount because then he will teach us what this means. And we saw here that first of all the Lord spoke about nine right attitudes in Matthew 5, verse 3 to 11. To be poor in spirit, to mourn for our sins, to be gentle, meek, and then to be, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be merciful to others, to be pure in heart, which means we love only God, and then you see God everywhere, to be peacemakers, to pursue peace with all our heart, to be willing to suffer righteousness for righteousness sake, and then to be willing to suffer for Jesus sake. That makes us salt that has not lost its savor, and the light that can shine without being dimmed before the world. And then he goes on to expand the meaning of the law. He goes to the root of the Ten Commandments, and the root of the other commandments in the Old Testament, and he says your righteousness, Matthew 5, 20, must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Exceed means it must go deeper, must go to quality, and not just be superficial. And then he begins to speak about nine areas where our righteousness must not be superficial. The first is anger, that is you, it's the equivalent of murder in the Old Covenant, is in the New Covenant, is anger. If it is thou shalt not commit murder, here it is. Anger can finally lead you to hell, Matthew 5, 22. That's the first wrong attitude that we need to get rid of by the help of the Holy Spirit, and it is possible. We've already seen that, so that there's only one type of anger which is righteous, which concerns the glory of God, the house of God. Any anger that's manifested because people hurt me or treated me badly is sin. And then the next is sinful sexual lust, which can make a man sin in his thoughts. Anger is something people can hear, whereas lusting is something which only God sees in our hearts. Even the devil can't see it. The devil can suspect that you are lusting when you look in a certain way at anyone, but he can't know for sure when you're by yourself and just thinking. But God sees it all, so ultimately Christ likeness is inward, and sexual lust is one area where God really tests man to see whether he has the fear of God or not, because many of these other things are external. And then along with sexual lust comes the lust that makes a man divorce his wife or a woman divorce her husband because they want to find another partner, and then Jesus said that that is also adultery. And now we go on to the next area where Jesus speaks about our righteousness having to go beyond the righteousness described in Pharisees, and that is lying, telling lies or a lying attitude. He says in the old covenant, verse 33, the command was don't make false vows. That means when you put your hand on some holy book and say I swear to God or without putting your hand also I swear to God, I swear by heaven, he said you should never do that. There's no need to do that. You don't swear by heaven or earth, but you can't even make an oath by your hair saying because you can't make your hair black or white, it says in verse 36. In the new covenant there's no such thing as swearing and then speaking the truth, because when a man is swearing in a court of law or sometimes even in conversation, I swear that is true. What he's really saying is most of the time I tell lies. I want you guys to know that, but now I'm speaking the truth. I swear it is true. Now a person who has a consistent testimony of speaking the truth always doesn't need to swear. He says I just speak the truth all the time. I don't tell lies. Now that does not mean that we have to tell people everything they ask, because there's a lot of difference between speaking the truth and telling people everything I know. I don't have to tell people everything I know. Supposing somebody has confided something in me and someone asked me about it, speaking the truth does not mean telling him what I know. No, because then I'll be betraying that trust. That is another sin. I have to preserve that person's trust in me and not tell him anything. And if in such a situation I say I don't know, that is the truth, because as far as he is concerned I don't know anything about it. So lying is not in the letter. People can go according to the letter and say I did not tell a lie. It's a spirit. It's a spirit of lying and it's very closely connected with hypocrisy. Truth is being free from hypocrisy. When it says grace and truth came by Jesus Christ in John chapter 1 verse 17, does that mean that the first person who spoke the truth was Jesus? No, there are many people in the Old Testament, all the prophets spoke the truth. But the word there truth means reality. So if truth is reality, lie is hypocrisy. So in lying is involved all types of hypocrisy and we have to be very careful that that is eliminated from our life completely. Lying is equal to hypocrisy and Jesus condemned the hypocrites more than he condemned anybody else. You never find him condemning murderers, adulterers, thieves, but you find Jesus condemning hypocrites, religious hypocrites, particularly the Pharisees. So lying is a very serious sin. In fact, right at the beginning of the Bible, you see the first sins committed in the Bible are lying. You turn with me to Genesis and chapter 3 where sin begins. The sin does not begin, sin mentioned in the Bible does not begin with eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It begins with the devil who's called a liar. Jesus said the devil's a liar and he's a murderer from the beginning. Here we read in Genesis 3 that the devil came as a serpent and asked the woman, as God said you shall not eat of all the trees of the garden and the woman said yes from the fruit of the trees the garden we may eat but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden you shall not eat from it nor touch it. That was a lie. God never said anything about not touching it. He only said don't eat from it. When we add to the word of God, that's a lie. What God said, you shall not eat from it. That's God's word. But when you try to raise God's standard higher, that's what the Pharisees did. You shall not only not eat from it but also don't touch it. I'm a super holy man. There are Christians like that today who become, they become legalists. They bring people into bondage and you must not allow such legalistic Christians who try to become more holy than God, super righteous, you should not allow them to bring you into bondage. And when God's word says you shall not eat from it, stop there. The last verses of Revelation say if you add to God's word or subtract from God's word, you're sinning. And so that's a serious thing. And then the devil tells another lie there. You surely shall not die. That's a lie. So that's why the devil's called a liar because right from the beginning his first conversation with the human race, he started with a lie. If you disobey God here, you will definitely not die. Even though she knew that God had said you will surely die. That's what God had said in Genesis 2:17. Please compare what Eve said with what God said in Genesis 2:17. In the day that you eat from it, you will certainly surely die. What did Eve do? She left out that surely and just said casually you will die and added you shall not touch it. See this adding and subtracting from God's word is there in the very first sentence that Eve speaks in scripture. Adding, you shall not touch it. Subtracting, you shall die. When the word of God says you shall surely die. You see in these words, the root of all that's happening in Christendom today where people add to God's word and subtract from God's word and it sounds very similar. Many of you who read the scripture may not even have noticed the difference between Genesis 3:3 and Genesis 2:17. You read the Bible carelessly, you don't notice these things and it's exactly like that. If you listen to so many preachers today, you can be deceived because what they sound, what they say sounds so right. I'll give you one example. I remember getting a leaflet once from one of the preachers in India whose habit was to collect money from people like most preachers and in that he quoted a verse, the last verses of Matthew 10 and says, he who gives to a prophet shall receive the reward of a prophet. You can send your donations here. Now that sounds so similar but if you read Matthew chapter 10, Jesus never said anything like that. It's a mixture of a couple of statements put together to fool people and this man who distributed that pamphlet in order to collect money from people knew that most people will not look up that scripture and he also knew that 99.9 percent of Christians are not familiar with scripture. When I read it, I saw immediately that's not scripture. That's a twisting of scripture. It's a deception. That is to be in fellowship with the devil, to twist the word of God. So here we see the first lie and the first sin mentioned in the Bible is a lie by Eve and by Satan by adding to God's word, subtracting from God's word and then saying you surely will not die. Now when God has said something that you will die, the devil says you'll surely not die. How does this apply to us today? We need to see how does this line apply to us today. We don't have a tree of knowledge of good and evil in front of us, a literal tree anyway, but I want to show you another verse and see what the devil says you will not die to a verse in the New Testament where God has said you will die and the devil says you will not die. Listen carefully because you may also be guilty of listening to the devil here. In Romans chapter 8 he's writing to born-again believers. He's taught them all about justification by faith in Romans 5, about overcoming sin in Romans 6, freedom from the law in Romans 7 and he's entering him under and talking about walking according to the spirit life in the spirit Romans 8 verse 4 and onwards and so on and then he says to such brethren he makes it clear he's talking to born-again believers brethren verse 12. Let me tell you something dear brothers born again justified in Christ brothers. Verse 13 if the Holy Spirit is saying if you live according to the flesh you will surely die just like what God said to Adam in Genesis 2 and what does the devil say? No you will surely not die because you accepted the Lord a few years ago and once you're saved you're always saved there's no question of you losing your salvation. You know the number of people who are preaching that lie when the Lord says you brethren if you live according to the flesh you will surely die what death is the Holy Spirit speaking about in verse 13 is it physical death? Everybody dies physically whether they live according to the flesh or you live according to the spirit you will physically die. He's talking about spiritual death what is spiritual death? It's going to an eternal hell separated from God. I don't know of any other spiritual death that the Bible speaks about eternal death. Dear brothers born again justified in Christ even for a time overcoming sin brothers if you now live according to the flesh not talking about if you slip up you slip up somewhere you repent you come back if your way of life is according to the flesh you will surely die but the way to avoid that is Romans 8 13 putting to death the deeds of the body you will live. I want to encourage all of you my dear brothers and sisters don't listen to the lie of the devil here like Eve did. Okay the last sin mentioned in the Bible is in Revelation 22. First of all verse 15 there's a list of people who are you know outside the kingdom of God it's referring to the kingdom of God in verse 14 those who enter by the gates into the city outside the city are dogs dogs is usually an expression of people who live in sexual sin with the same sex among human beings and sorcerers immoral persons murderers idolaters these are all pretty serious sins and it ends with those who love telling lies and who practice telling lies that's the last one mentioned of those who go to hell think of that how serious that is to love telling a lie to practice telling a lie and then the last sin mentioned in the Bible is in verse 19 if you take away from the words of the book of this prophecy that's the last thing mentioned to take away that is to take away the seriousness of something written in God's word when it says you should surely die to say no you won't die or you may but not necessarily that's taking away God will take away his part from the tree of life so we see lying is mentioned in Genesis 3 and right at the beginning and in Revelation 22 right at the end you can say the Bible is written between two warnings against lying the beginning and the end that shows how serious a matter it is and that is why the Bible says about deception deception is a form of lying people try to deceive you by telling you something that is not absolutely true they twist scripture or they take one scripture and ignore another and you don't know the other one so they like the devil told Jesus it is written he will give his angels charge away to protect you and Jesus said it is also written and so that is another form of lying the devil was lying to Jesus when he said if you jump off the temple you won't die because his angels will protect you that's a lie the angels will not protect Jesus there the promise in Psalm 91 is not for a person who tries to tempt God by jumping off the roof of the temple no it's written for those who are in dangerous situations without their choice but Jesus corrected Satan by saying it is also written so scripture the whole truth of scripture is not found in it is written alone it is written and it is also written truth has got two wings and if you don't use both the wings you'll go around in circles with one wing so that is another form of lying where you take one part of scripture and ignore another let me give you an example Jesus is eternally God absolute truth but he also became a man when he came to earth and as much as we accept him as God we must accept the fact that he came to earth as a man free from sin but lived like us tempted like us and overcame if I don't accept this part it's that I'm believing a lie because the Bible says even in 1 Timothy 2 and verse 5 it says that there's one mediator between God and man and that is the man Christ Jesus that means even if he's in heaven in 1 Timothy 2 5 he's called the man not the God man like some people call him the word God man is never found in the Bible God became man it's not that Jesus sees to be God but he so identified himself with the human race that he's called in heaven today 1 Timothy 2 5 the man Christ Jesus is the mediator between God and man that would have been the ideal place to call him God man but you know the Holy Spirit wants to emphasize how much Jesus has identified himself with us this is a great truth and don't miss it because of the lie of the devil I want to mention this one more thing about this danger of lying you see lying is when I don't love the truth I get into lying and here's the danger of not loving the truth in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 it says here in verse 10 and 11 please read 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 10 and 11 together and says if you don't receive the love of the truth and you don't want to be saved from sin God himself will send a deluding influence so that you believe a lie God will allow you to believe a lie amazing God doesn't tell a lie no he's always the truth only the devil's a liar but God will allow you to believe a lie spoken by preachers a lie spoken by the devil a lie spoken by someone who loves you if one of these two things are true in your life one you don't love the truth about yourself when God speaks to you through a message or through some portion of scripture and you see that you're wrong and you don't want to accept it maybe it's a doctrine you have believed for all your life because your parents believed it because your church teaches it and you believe it and then one day you read something in scripture or you read some or hear something in a message pointing you to something in scripture and you see that that is the truth of scripture but you're not willing to accept it because it's uncomfortable you may have to leave your church and they won't accept you if you proclaim that and then you don't love the truth God will allow you to be deceived God will send not only God will allow you but God will send it's what it says here I quote scripture exactly God will send a deluding and deceiving influence so that you believe a lie you believe what is very dangerous not to accept the truth of God just because you want to please your pastor or your church or your parents or you want to hang on to a denomination or something like that the second way of not loving the truth is when God speaks to you in a message and you're convicted that in some area you're wrong and you don't want to face up to the truth about yourself you want to cover it up and make some excuse to say well this is this is why I did that this is why and cover up and you know deep down your heart that what the truth is and you won't accept the truth about yourself again God will allow a deluding influence to come upon you that you believe a lie the second reason why God will allow you to believe a lie is mentioned in verse 10 you don't want to be saved from sin you only want to go to heaven you hear the word of God and you hear the strong preaching against sin and you have no desire to be saved from sin okay God will allow you to believe a lie he'll allow you to believe a lie that even if you have no interest in being saved from sin you only want to be forgiven you'll go to heaven that's a lie because Jesus did not come here only to forgive us forgiveness was the first step to salvation he's not our forgiver he's our savior and forgiveness is a part of salvation and if you don't want to be saved from sin here's a warning God himself will allow you to believe a lie a serious life that you're a wholehearted disciple when you're not that you're saved when you're not going to end up with him for eternity I don't want to be deceived I mean the devil's always trying to deceive us our flesh is deceitful it says in Ephesians 4 our heart is deceitful it says in Jeremiah 17 the heart is deceitful the flesh is deceitful and the devil's a deceiver and the world is full of deceivers on top of all that if God himself is going to send a deceiving influence on me I'm finished there's no hope for me my only hope of salvation is if God is on my side and if you want God on your side against all the lying going on in the world and in Christendom and from preachers who tell lies love the truth whenever you're convicted about sin acknowledge it confess it forsake it and acknowledge it Lord that's right I'm a sinner I sinned there or the truth in scripture which is completely contrary to what you believed all this time accept it say Lord I'm willing to change my mind I don't care who stands against me I'm going to accept your truth you know the number of people who don't take water baptism because their parents or their church doesn't teach it people who don't believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit because their church doesn't teach it okay well God will allow them to remain without it all their life because they believe a lie so it's very dangerous lying is a very very serious sin that's what I was trying to emphasize through in the way it is emphasized in the Bible and one more thing in connection with lying I want to mention from Matthew chapter 12 and verse 36 Matthew 12 36 it says here every careless word that men shall speak they shall give an account in the day of judgment sometimes we can carelessly tell a lie it's not the absolute truth and we know it it's not accidental carelessly tell a lie for whatever reason let me repeat again you don't have to speak the truth about everything that people ask you about you can say it I don't want to talk about it or I refuse to answer that's okay but I'm not to tell lies Jesus said what did we read there in Matthew 5 let your yes be yes and your no must be no dear brothers and sisters if you're in the church you must have a reputation that you will never never tell a lie you may not reveal everything that's fine we should not reveal everything to others many things we have to keep secret there are lots of things that I will keep secret sure if people confide something in me I'll never tell that to anybody not even to my wife if people consult my wife about something medically I tell her don't tell me that's a medical confidentiality keep it to yourself so that's not what I'm talking about but never never am I going to tell a lie because I don't want God to deceive me my yes must be yes my no must be no and it must be like that in your life and my dear brothers and sisters if you have not been serious about this till now think of this promise acts 1730 the times of ignorance God overlooks okay all your past life God's overlooked but now he's commanding everybody to repent of this lying habit okay now we go on to the next bad habit we've seen the habit of lying the second one the fourth one we've seen uh so the anger sinful sexual lust and lying the fourth one is taking vengeance or wanting to take vengeance in Matthew 5 38 to 42 you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth if that guy knocked out one of your eyes you're permitted to take out one eye what God meant was don't take out both his eyes you can take out one it's not a command it's a permission that's why Jesus said you heard that it was said you heard it was said and a tooth for a tooth if he takes out one tooth of yours you knock out one tooth of his don't take out two teeth but i say to you don't do that if somebody takes out your eye forgive him slaps you on one cheek turn the other cheek you need to understand the spirit of it is not a literally somebody slaps you you turn the other cheek Jesus himself never did that when somebody slapped him when he was in the court being tried by his accusers he said if i've spoken right why do you slap me so it's the spirit of it that we need to understand here if someone wants to sue you and take your shirt let him have your coat also don't want to somebody's wanting to hurt you in some way be good to him that's the meaning not that if somebody wants half your property give him your full property don't misunderstand and misquote scripture it's talking about people who want to take advantage of you and harm you in some way don't seek for vengeance but do the opposite love him he wants a little help give him a little more help he wants you to go with him one go go one mile go two miles and here's this statement here i want to say a little more about vengeance there's a command in romans chapter 12 which tells us very clearly about this matter there's an old testament commandment which is quoted here in romans 12 and verse 19 romans 12 and verse 19 it's a quotation from proverbs and it says vengeance is mine i will repay romans 12 verse 19 never take your own revenge beloved let god's anger deal with that man who hurt you because even under the old covenant they were commanded not to take vengeance vengeance is mine i will repay says the lord even in the old testament and the old testament says romans 12 verse 20 if your enemy is hungry feed him and if he's thirsty give him something to drink that's also from proverbs chapter 25 verse 21 if he's in so doing you will heap coals of fire upon his head coals of fire of love that's the meaning of there that if you do good to that man who's trying to do harm to you if your enemy is hungry feed him he's thirsty give him a drink you'll be flooding his head with love your love don't be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good see the world is full of people who have the devil's philosophy that the only way to overcome evil is with more evil all the wars are like that you're going to come fight with me okay my army will come and fight with you it's the philosophy of the devil which the world has accepted human beings have accepted it and nations have accepted it even christian denominations fighting with each other over something or the other i don't believe i should fight with people even over doctrine i must explain doctrine clearly try to prove it to them but not get into an argument and fight never no and if somebody hurts me i must have zero desire for vengeance you know sometimes it is not just a question of taking vengeance not taking revenge if you desire it in your heart you wish some evil for him that will pollute your heart so what should i do you're the one who's hurt me is in some need okay let me do some good to him in other words let me have a good attitude towards him even if i don't see him maybe he's a hundred miles away but let me have a good attitude towards him if he's hungry let me not hope that he will die let me hope that he'll get some food if he's thirsty let me not hope that he will die let me hope that he will get some water even if i can't give it to him myself see this verse in proverbs proverbs has some wonderful uh commandments in fact it's one of the closest books to the new covenant in in the old testament by part of the bible proverbs chapter 24 and verse 17 says don't rejoice when your enemy falls and don't let your heart be glad when he stumbles that's wonderful come on in the old testament don't be happy when something bad happens to your enemy or someone who's hurt you but feel sad about it lord i hope no evil will come to him in fact it's a very good attitude for us to have very good thing for us to practically say that to god i've done it you know i'm a servant of the lord and when you serve the lord you have numerous enemies that the devil raises up against you who are the devil is furious because we preach the whole truth and so he raises up people to oppose us fight us take us to court and do all types of things but we don't wish any evil for them or their families if anything wrong happens there we pray that god will bless them and heal them and protect them and nothing evil will happen to them i've done that for every single person who has harmed me even the smallest little way but there's an ant bite or a lion bite or whatever it is i say lord be merciful to them forgive them i have nothing against them i have no desire for vengeance i say like jesus father forgive them they don't know what they're doing that's a great example i'm not saying that they will all be spared we need to understand clearly because the people who crucified jesus one day they'll have an answer to god in the final day of judgment they're not going to escape it even though jesus said father forgive them he forgave the horizontal aspect of that sin see when somebody hurts me or harms me there are two sins he has committed one he sinned against me as a human being and the other he sinned against god whenever you hurt another human being you're sinning against god now i can only forgive that horizontal part of it like jesus father forgive them from my side jesus as a man on the cross forgive them for they know not what they're doing that horizontal part was forgiven but if they don't repent god doesn't forgive them see they are unbelievers and an unbeliever does something to me he does not have to repent without his repentance i forgive him i must forgive every unbeliever even if he doesn't repent it's only when it comes to a brother it says in luke 17 verse 2 3 and 4 if he repents forgive him otherwise all unbelievers what that means people are not in fellowship with us we have to forgive even if there's no no possibility of their repentance they don't have to repent automatically in fact my attitude has always been if i see someone or i hear someone has done something against me as soon as i hear it i say lord he's forgiven i say it immediately before i hear the details and he's happened somewhere else i found it much safer to take that attitude and when i talk about a brother i'm talking about someone who's in close fellowship with you in your church not someone who calls himself a believer somewhere else you've got to deal with him like with an unbeliever forgiven but if it's a person who's in close fellowship with you in your local church you cannot have fellowship with him if he's got a sinful attitude towards you and you've got to tell him hey listen you've got to set this uh get rid of this attitude that's what jesus taught in matthew chapter 18 and verse 14 onwards if your brother sins go and tell him if a unbeliever sins you don't have to tell him anything just forgive him but if your brother sins it's very clear what he said go and tell him and if he doesn't listen to you you want to save his soul take another brother with you and tell him so that he'll be saved and if he still doesn't listen to him tell the church tell the elders if he still doesn't listen then he's like an unbeliever he'll be lost then once he's an unbeliever i just forgive him because i'm supposed to forgive unbelievers but i can't have fellowship with him i tried my best to fellowship with him first by talking to him taking two three brothers and talking to him and telling the church and he still didn't bother then he's an unbeliever to me and i forgive him immediately because i'm supposed to forgive all unbelievers but i can't have fellowship with him so the command in matthew 18 14 onwards and luke 17 verse 2 onwards is for brothers with whom we want to build fellowship you can't have fellowship if there's something which is not settled between both of you it's very important most christians don't take this seriously they say oh i'll just ignore it you ignore it but are you having good fellowship with each other no it's like a thorn in the foot it'll keep on irritating you and it'll finally get filled with pus and make you sick but we must never desire vengeance the lord says vengeance is mine see it's only if you understand what i'm saying that you will understand the apostle paul's words in second timothy 4 how do you explain this second timothy chapter 4 in verse 14 paul was a godly man perhaps the godliest man of his time who understand understood the teaching of jesus clearly and he says in second timothy 4 14 alexander the coppersmith did mean much harm i'm sure paul forgive him because this guy's an unbeliever lord forgive him i've got nothing against him but the lord has said vengeance is mine i will repay and you cannot stop god's hand and say no no no don't fulfill your word if your word says you will repay no don't fulfill your word god is going to re-fulfill his word whether you believe it or not god's going to fulfill his word but whether you try to stop him or not you can't stop him when god says vengeance is mine i will repay he will repay and so he says the lord will repay him according to his deeds does that mean that paul had a wrong attitude towards alexander not at all paul would have lost his fellowship with god if he had bitterness against alexander even if alexander the coppersmith did any harm to him so we've got to be careful don't try to be super spiritual and say no no god won't punish those who sin against me i want to tell you the truth god will but i don't wish any evil for them not at all alexander the coppersmith did harm to me the lord will deal with him i will not deal with him i will not i will be surely good for him as long as he's here on the earth and i'll tell you why there's another verse which has often come to my heart in this connection in relation to vengeance because vengeance is something that many people have a struggle with they see all of us i'm sure if you look back over your life there are people who have done some evil or harm to you or to your family maybe to your children maybe years ago something that's caused you harm to today maybe cheated you maybe robbed you in some way or made your children suffer some way maybe your boss or the teacher in school or so many things maybe some sometimes children have been harmed in a way that is physically damaged their body what do you do with such cases you have to forgive jesus taught us that but god is a righteous god and i believe that if we forgive our own conscience is clear and but god will still in the final day deal with that person so if we understand this matter clearly then we will be safe and we won't the scripture it's this is written in scripture this is also written in scripture putting both together we get scripture in balance i want to say one more thing and that's in relation to what we read in romans 13 in this question of punishing those who have done wrong in romans 13 it speaks of the authority god has given to governments all over the world to punish wrongdoers because it says here in romans 13 let me read this section every person must be subject to the governing authorities and by the way when paul wrote this letter to the christians in rome do you know who was the governing authority in rome to whom paul was telling these christians to be subject the emperor was nero one of the most wicked emperors that rome ever saw a man who burnt the city and blamed the christians and persecuted christians under whose rule peter and paul were paul was beheaded and peter was crucified that was all under rome's under nero's rulership time and so it's not when we have a good person in power be subject no we believe what it says here in romans 13 one there is no authority except from god and he repeats it those which exist are established by god because the roman christians would have read that and said hey paul you mean this guy nero is also established by god paul would say yes the holy spirit says yes see most of the rulers in the world almost all of them 99 percent of them have no faith in jesus christ are not born again where do you find a born again christian ruling a country have you heard of any like that there may have been one or two but uh most of them even if they're getting to that place as born again christians they lose their salvation pretty soon with all the lies they have to tell when they come into power yeah so it's very rare for born again christians to be in power anywhere so he's talking about all the authorities in the world whether they call themselves christian or non-christian they are not children of god they're nominal christians or many other religions maybe anti-christian okay there's no authority except from god recognize it and they have been appointed by god to take vengeance it says here verse four that person is a minister of god for good so if you do what is evil be afraid for he does not bear the sword for nothing he's a minister of god to take revenge and bring wrath on those who practice evil yeah that's why the police are appointed in different in all the countries so the government has got an authority to deal with people and we just submit to it if somebody has committed a crime we have to hand him over to the government that is the righteous thing to do so that is the number fourth wrong attitude vengeance and we must be very clear that we have zero desire for harm and evil to another person i want to say one more thing in this connection and that is the bible says and this is what has come to my heart strongly many times in second peter three this is a great word i want you to remember this in connection with people who have done evil to you and where you know you can have stirrings in your heart that wish him evil or don't wish him any good if you want your heart to be like the heart of god towards that person who has harmed you read this verse second peter chapter three verse nine the last part god does not want anyone to perish but he wants everyone to come to repentance anyone everyone he does not want anyone to perish including that guy who harmed you and hurt you and did some terrible evil against you or your family or cheated you or did anything he does not want him to perish god wants everyone to come to repentance including that person who did so much evil to you and to your family who cheated you and probably murdered somebody in your family god wants him to come to repentance now my question is is your heart in fellowship with the heart of god when you think of that person the devil brings all types of thoughts into your mind that guy did so much evil i hope some evil comes to him i hope god will finally punish him i hope he'll never get saved i hope he goes to hell for eternity that's not the heart of god and i want to say to you in jesus name if those are your thoughts no matter what evil somebody did to you you are not in fellowship with the heart of god because the heart of god it says here does not want anyone to perish that's an amazing verse what about that terrorist who's done so much evil yeah i believe the word of god god does not want him to perish what he's doing is wrong but i don't know god doesn't want him to perish not at all not at all god does not want him to perish and god wants him to come to repentance you mean that vile terrorist also should come to repentance yes god wants him also to come to repentance amazing so that should be our attitude towards everyone that's been a great help to me when i think of different people through the years who've harmed me i say lord i do not want him to perish i do not want him i want him to come to repentance i don't want him to perish i want him to come to repentance can you pray that prayer honestly think now stop for a moment and think of all the people who have harmed you or your family in some way and say this to god and mean it from your heart and if you don't mean it from your heart say holy spirit of god please help me to mean this from my heart i don't want to live with this wrong attitude that jesus conduct an attitude of vengeance i want him to repent i want him not never to perish even though he's done great harm to me and my family i don't want him to perish i want him to repent i want him to be in your presence for eternity very good prayer to pray then you can be sure that you obey the spirit of have no desire for revenge one more thing i want to say in this connection in matthew 5 verse 38 to 42 where he says you got to do good to the people who've done evil to you in that connection he also says give to him who asks of you and don't turn away from him who wants to borrow from you this is not exactly about repentance but about doing good to people not just being exact how do you interpret this well i'll give you my own testimony in this area when i was a young christian and i wanted to obey god's word exactly i was just a new christian just this is about one year after i was baptized i was 32 years old and i was serious about obeying god's word and i came across these words give to him who asks of you don't turn away from him who wants to borrow from you and i was working in the navy as a naval officer earning a huge salary it was way back in 1963 64 when i was just 24 years old and there were in our church that i used to attend there were some junior sailors from the navy who are much less married people with children and one day one of them came to me and said brother zach can you please give me lend me some money i'll return it to you next month oh i thought of this verse give to him that asks of you and don't turn away from anyone who wants to borrow i say how much do you want i gave him exactly what he asked for so the first of the month when i met him he said oh brother zach i'm sorry i'm still a bit tight for money i'll return it next month but meanwhile can you give me some more so i went back to this verse give to him who asks of you and from him who would borrow from you don't turn away i gave him and that happened again the next month and i don't remember exactly how many months it went like that and then fortunately he got transferred away to some other place he was no longer in the same town and then i heard that after he had gone away that he had begun he had backslidden and he had started drinking alcohol and whiskey and all that and when i heard that i wrote a letter to him i said brother i was happy to help you in your need when you asked me for money i gave it to you according to god's word but now i see that you're giving all that money to the devil by buying alcohol to destroy your body now if you're going to give money i gave you to the devil you might as well return it to me because then i can give it to some other poor needy person here i'm not in need but there are other needy people here so please return the money i i gave you and he got so angry in his reply to me he was somewhere else he wrote a letter to me saying even the priest in the church i was in never spoke so rudely to me oh i said okay i'm not going to ask for that money i forgot about it completely i said okay it's gone then i went to the lord and i said lord i'm a new christian i don't know many things but what did i do wrong when i tried to obey that and i lost all this money which has gone to the devil now and i learned a lesson that day which i've never forgotten i want to share it with you the lord said to me that command is right but you can only give money which is yours you can't take somebody else's money and give it supposing somebody had kept five thousand rupees with you and somebody came to you and said hey zach i hear that you got five thousand rupees with you uh can you give me two thousand rupees from that what will i tell him i'd say hey listen that's not my money let me ask the person who gave it to me to keep and if he agrees i'll give it to you and the lord said do you know that all the money you earn is mine you can't do with it as you like you can obey my command but you're going to ask me first can i give it to this person then give it you can you should have a heart that's ready to give and help those in need but don't do it automatically ask god he's the owner of every cent you earn belongs to god the bible says that in one corinthians 10 26 the earth is the lord's and everything in it all the money on earth belongs to god and so i say lord i learned a lesson after that whenever people have come to borrow from me i go to god first i say lord i'm ready to give this man if you will give me peace in my heart about giving it and i find some wonderful results come when i pray that i'll give you one example there was a man who came to my house one day and pretended to be a full-time christian worker who was in and he said i need to travel to certain such a place and that was a big story i don't want to go into all that but he says i i don't have enough the of the fare to travel by train up to my hometown can you give me at least half of it then i can get another half from somewhere else and so i said just wait i went into another room and i prayed and i said lord what should i do it's your money and i felt the lord telling me give him the whole amount give him the full fare so i went to him and i said you wanted only half the fare i'll give you the full fare for your train fare please go peacefully to your home so he took it gladly and went away a little later i found out from some other people that that man was a professional crook claiming to be a christian worker like many other christian workers professional crooks and i discovered that he was going around doing this in other places so i prayed another prayer i said lord uh i was initially a bit disturbed disturbed because this guy cheated me again i mean i got cheated again uh and the lord said to me forgive him you've lost some money he's lost his soul pray for him what have you lost what you lost is nothing compared just a train fare but he's lost his soul you should be more disturbed about that so i prayed for his soul and i said lord please bring him back to my house so that i can talk to him and believe it or not a few months later i saw him in the street i said hey hello how are you and he came along to my house hoping to tell me one more story and he came and told me another long tale which was all fake and i listened to him for about four or five minutes and he thought he was fooling me and at the end of it i said hey listen i found out all about you and discovered you're a crook you're fake and i can easily report you to the police but i won't do it i want you to do one thing i want you as an act of repentance like zacchaeus did give back to me the money you took from me i don't need it but for your sake i want you to give it back to me and you probably cheated other people i want you to go back and uh give back whatever you have cheated from others otherwise i said i have some evidence here and i'll have to report you to the police if i hear that you're going to do this again anywhere this time i'll let you go and he came the next day and returned the money to me and i told him please don't do this again and i hope he found salvation so that's one example that i discovered that when somebody asks you to some to borrow or something like that you go to god and seek his will say lord this money is yours i can't do what i feel like here and you'll find that god leads you into something wonderful i i sincerely hope that person got saved i hope he'll find his place in heaven one day because he cheated me and because i prayed for him so it's a wonderful thing when you listen to god in all situations man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of god every day in every situation we must hear what is god trying to say to me through this i got cheated here what is god trying to say to me for example if you spent money somewhere and you got cheated say lord what are you trying to teach me it's always good to learn something from our failures and never to wish evil for anyone never to desire vengeance to take vengeance on anybody we must be completely free from that our heart must be filled with good you remember earlier on we looked at that verse which said blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god if my heart is pure i will see god there i will see god in alexander the coppersmith doing me harm okay i will not take revenge let god deal with him i will see god in all the things that happen jesus saw god everywhere you remember when the soldiers came to capture him and judas is carried came along and peter did not see god there he saw judas and took out his sword i think peter was aiming for judas is carried his head because he's a fisherman he didn't know how to fight with the sword and he chopped off some other poor fellows here and of course jesus healed that malchus is here immediately here immediately but look what jesus said put that sword back we're not here to take revenge this cup which my father has given me shall i not drink it so when people have done harm to you don't say an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but follow jesus footsteps and say this cup which my father has given me i will drink it and i will stop those who want to defend me from trying to defend me keep quiet put your sword back and help that person whose ear is being chopped off that's the spirit of christ this is a cup which my father has given me shall i not drink it peter saw judas is carried jesus saw his heavenly father and it was a love letter from his heavenly father he was being taken to die for the sins of the world and that was the greatest thing that was going to happen but the postman the mailman who brought that letter from his heavenly father was a wicked criminal judas is carried so what if the wicked criminal brought the letter the letter came from my heavenly father that's what jesus said i will receive it the cup came from my heavenly father i will drink it and if you can have that attitude in the different situations you face where you lost an eye or a tooth or money or something else where somebody cheated you or fooled you you will find spiritual growth in your own life and you will find progression and growth in likeness to christ let's pray heavenly father as we bow before you we pray that you make these words sink deep in our hearts so that later on one day in our time of need we can remember these things and seek the power of your holy spirit to live according to the teaching of your word we humbly ask lord we really want to be more like jesus in every area of our life help us we pray in jesus name amen