An Eye For An Eye

In your Bibles with me, if you would turn to Matthew's Gospel chapter number 5, Matthew chapter 5, and we're going to look and read verse 38 down to verse number 42. Join me in that passage of Scripture, Matthew chapter 5, verse 38 through 42. Praise God, He is worthy.

Amen. Jesus says in verse 38, ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and every sibling said, Amen, as they fight with their siblings. Verse 39. But I say unto you that ye resist not evil, that whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. If any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.

And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. Father, we are so joyful to be able to be together and sing praises to the name above all names, to know that our eternity is set with God because of Christ. I pray that your word would accomplish your desire in the hearts of your people. Sovereign here today, we ask it in Jesus' name, and God's people said, Amen.

You may be seated this morning. You think about the word vengeance and revenge, what comes to your mind? Being vengeful, being someone who is filled with a desire to revenge yourself of something.

We have now made superheroes out of those who seek vengeance and the Avengers and all the Marvel movies that seem to have penetrated our culture. I would ask you today, how do you respond to somebody who has wronged you, somebody who has created some kind of an injustice against you? What do you do when you have been disrespected and when somebody has assaulted your dignity? How do you respond to those who maybe seek to sue you or take you to court?

How do you respond to those who make some kind of a frustrating request, who ask you to do something you couldn't believe they would ask you? How do you respond to those who are in need and seek your help? Well, this passage before us today gives us the answers to such questions. In Matthew chapter five, Jesus said in verse 13 to 15 that we are to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth, and I like what J.C. Ryle says about this passage in his commentary. He said, You have here the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and his rules for our conduct one toward another. He that would know how he ought to feel and act toward his fellow man should often study these verses. He said they deserve to be written in gold. They have exhorted praise even from the enemies of Christianity.

Let us mark well what they contain. And so I call you today these words that should be written in gold that they would also be impressed upon our heart but not just in our heart but in our living. In verse 20 through 21, Jesus had told the people of his day unless their righteousness had exceeded the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees that they would not enter into heaven. That they needed a foreign righteousness, one that they could not create on their own. They needed God given righteousness through Jesus Christ. And Jesus told them that they needed the righteousness of God, that they need to be pure in heart. And here in Matthew chapter 5 verse 20 down to the end of the chapter verse 48, Jesus gives six different areas of teaching that differ from what was being taught by the scribes and Pharisees of his day.

The religious leaders and the most influential religious leaders of his day. And he was showing them how their religious leaders were leading them astray all the while telling them they were teaching them the word of God. Did you know you can be taught the word of God by people who can also lead you astray? There are churches all across this country, those supposedly in Christian churches, and they're being taught false things from the word of God because the ones teaching them are doing it for self-serving purposes. They're teaching from an area of pride and arrogance and self-fulfillment. And so Jesus here comes and he gives six different areas and we've looked at four of them already. But they had externalized their religion in the day of our Lord where Jesus says religion is not something you just wear externally.

It's something of the heart. It's the inward man that needs to be transformed. Anybody can look good on the outside, but only a true believer can love God with all their heart and love others as themselves and truly be broken in spirit and humble and poor in spirit and contrite in heart. Those are the ones that God says will enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Those who are true citizens are those who are truly repentant on the inside and that shows up on the outside. But in their day it had turned into just some external show of piety and the external show was done to receive the praise of men and not for the glory of God. Now here we find one of the most familiar statements in the Sermon on the Mount which has unfortunately been misunderstood probably more than any other statement in this sermon and it's also been misapplied. I've heard people say things like this, well you know we don't believe in that Old Testament eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth stuff. Well I've heard people say you know I'm just kind of that eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth kind of guy.

And in both situations I think how sad they both have missed the teaching and understanding of what this means. And so this morning I want to look at exactly what an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth means and how we can apply this monumental teaching that deals with personal vengeance, something we all have to reconcile in our life and Jesus gives us such clarity here. And so what's the origin of this eye for an eye teaching?

Where did it come from? It's mentioned three specific times in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy as well as Leviticus and Exodus. In Exodus chapter number 21 they come to the Mount Sinai after God leads the people out of Egypt and he institutes a penal system, a system of jurisprudence and a judicial system of laws that would govern the nation.

And in that he lays out a very important teaching there and he says to them in verse 22 in that most important establishment of a governing system for the Jewish people. He said if men strive, and notice what he says, and hurt a woman with what? So this is a pregnant woman and God calls that not a clump of cells, he calls it a what? Child. So who do you think is right? Do you think American culture determines when a child's life begins or does God?

Okay, so I agree with you, God is the one who determines that right? So he says a woman with child so that her fruit depart from her, that means the woman gives birth and yet no mischief followed. The child's born healthy, the woman is hurt from somebody who's fought with her and the child's born healthy but no mischief follows, nothing happens to the woman or child from that.

She just has a child that's born early. It says he shall surely be punished according to the woman's husband who will lay upon him and he shall pay as the judge is determined. So there would be a system of judgment, verse 23. And if any mischief follow, if anything worse happens to the child or to the mother, then thou shalt give life for life. The Bible defines life as being in the womb whether the mother or the child dies, you would give life for life, capital punishment is taught in the Bible.

It says eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. So here God is establishing the penalty system for those who would commit a crime. He is declaring that punishment is necessary to deter wrongful actions.

Crimes must be paid for by the criminal. And so the principle of an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth is what has known and it's a Latin phrase, lex talionis, and the word lex means law and talionis means retaliation and it's the law of retaliation. And this is an old law, even going back 2000 BC in the writings of the Babylonian king Hammurabi, they found these kind of statements. This seems to be very clearly a law that's in the heart of men because most systems around the world are built upon lex talionis. Now this law basically taught that the punishment was to equal the crime. It has been referred to as tit for tat, also quip pro quo, which was also Latin, which means something for something.

We've heard enough about quip pro quo in the last few years, so we're probably sick of that statement. But what was the purpose of this law? What was the purpose of this law, the eye for an eye, tooth for tooth? Well, there was basically two purposes for this law that God established. First of all, it was to curtail further crime. It's important to understand that punishment is a deterrent to criminal activity. God says when you apply law and punish criminals, Deuteronomy 19 verse 20 says, Those which remain and shall hear and fear and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.

So what happens is when criminals see they're punished severely, they don't want to continue in criminal activity because they don't want to be punished. Anybody have an older sibling? Yeah, they went through it and you're like, you know what, I'm not going to do that. I realize how mom and dad responded, but then by the time you get to the last child, they can do whatever they want. Not that I'm bitter about that, as a third of four children, no, but a little brother gets away with anything, amen. He's probably listening to this sometime and he'll text me, but that's okay, he was spoiled. We call him Joseph sometimes.

We have family get-togethers, oh dad, you made him another coat of many colors, how wonderful. Yeah, it's wonderful, it's great. And so I think it is important, I would mention this, that as punishment deters criminal activity, capital punishment, which some people have pushed against, you need to understand capital punishment actually saves a lot of human lives. People say, well, the Bible says thou shall not kill.

Well, again, that's a misunderstanding. The Bible teaches do not commit, the word kill there is a Hebrew word, it refers to premeditated murder. When you have, there's a difference between just punishment that puts somebody to death for crime and premeditated murder based on human wickedness. So in 2003 there was a study done by Emory University that tracked data in 3,000 counties for 20 years. And it found that each execution on average resulted in 18 fewer murders in each one of the counties that had instituted capital punishment. Eighteen murders less in each one of those counties.

Then data was retrieved from 78 to 97 by the Federal Communication Commission, economist Paul Zimmerman, in all 50 states. And it demonstrated that each state's execution annually deterred at least 14 murders for every execution. Fourteen more lives were saved. I can tell you, Chicago's a wreck. And it's going to get worse. I don't know if you've heard, I just read recently that in Illinois they're getting away from their bond situation because of systemic racism.

So now, starting January 1, they're going to be letting out people, they can't detain them for more than three months. So second-degree murderers, burglars, all these situations are going to be let loose. It is a horrific, and so in some of these states where their violence is just out of control, they just continue to make it easier on the criminals. It's an incredible thing to me. And so, praise God this world is not the only home we have, right man?

Temporary place. But also, it's not only set in place to deter future punishment, future, I should say, crime, but it also is to prevent excessive punishment. Eye for an eye, tooth for tooth was a merciful application of justice upon people. You need to understand, as Augustine said this, for who would easily be satisfied with repaying as much injury as he received. Nobody gets hit and says, let me just hit you equally back. No, they want to hit them twice as hard. Nobody gets hurt and wants to hurt them equally. They want to hurt them twice as bad. And so that's the selfish overreaction that retaliation produces in the heart of man. So, lex talionis was a merciful limit that said you could only punish them up to and equal to the crime that they committed.

You could not surpass that. So whatever they did, you could only mete out punishment that equaled that crime. And so it established a standard which the public magistrates could determine the application of that punishment to that criminal. Now some people have wrongly believed that the God of the Old Testament was like this mean God and then the God of the New Testament was like really gracious. I remember as a young teenager feeling that way like, boy, I'm so glad that we're not under the Old Testament, mean God, now we're under Jesus and he's real nice to us. And that's what I had thought.

And perhaps that was your thinking and maybe still is at some level. I just want you to understand that is a completely false understanding of scripture. It's even gone so far in some groups that they believe the Old Testament God is different than the New Testament God.

That's not true. It's the same God. You know who sent Jesus? The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Do you know who's the merciful one? The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So it is not a different God in the Old Testament from the New Testament.

You need to understand this. God never taught to be hateful and retaliatory toward people who have offended you or to your enemies. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 25 verse 21, it says, If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat.

And if he be thirsty, give him water to drink. So in the Old Testament it told us to do that. Proverbs 24 29 says, Say not I will do so to him as he has done to me.

I will render to the man according to his work. You don't take judgment into your own hands according to Proverbs 24. And then Exodus 23 4 and 5 says, If you meet your enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shall not.

It says thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. You know, I see that Mark is wearing his Steelers shirt today. What that means is today we are not friends, right?

Okay. No, I love Mark. I just don't like his jersey. I just don't like his jersey. And so, But if I was outside and his, his ox was walking down the field and I said, You know what?

He's wearing that Steelers jersey today. I'm just going to hit that ox on the back and let him run off. Let him go to Jamestown, you know, find his ox somewhere else. You know, the Bible tells us if you see someone that you're at odds with, that you would do him a favor.

You would go out of your way, take your energy and seek to minister kindness to them. And that's what the Bible is telling us in the Old Testament. Now, in ancient Israel, the right to carry out the principle of lex talionis was restricted to the judges and the court systems. It was not given to the individual. The Old Testament never allowed individuals to take the law into their own hands and apply it personally. And this law also, you need to know, was not necessarily received in a literal sense.

The Jews understood that sometimes you could not literally carry this out because if you did, you would create sometimes an injustice. For example, if I had only one eye and I wrongly hurt someone else and they lost an eye, if they took my other eye, I would be completely blind, which would be a greater judgment that I would face than what I inflicted because they could still see. And also, if you hurt somebody with, and they lost half their eyesight, how could you, half of their eyesight taken away? You just couldn't do that, you know, hit you on the eye.

How are you, 20, 20 still? I mean, how do you work that thing out? So what would happen is the judge would review the information, they would see what had happened in the crime, and then they would apply right justice to that. So you need to understand that that's how that would work out. So this provided, again, for a just and fair legal system, and lex talionis is what is also the basis for the jurisprudence, the jurisdictions, and the penal system of our country, as well as really all countries, all the nations of the world. And so let's see how Christ clarifies this in verse 38 through 42. Both in our Lord's day and our day society is filled with people who have really a passion for revenge.

Vengeance is incredible. It's inside of our natural tendencies. We want to be both judge, jury, and executioner to carry this out. But the standard, I think it's important to know, this lex talionis was to be applied in eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, was to be applied only in court systems. We don't want that to be applied inside of a person to person system. Also, you don't want to have mercy and forgiveness inside of court systems like you do in person to person relationships. We don't want the courts to be forgiving. We don't want the courts to be real merciful. We want them to uphold justice.

Let me explain why. So you take somebody, say they got drunk and went in and stole something and got out and got in their vehicle and in their intoxicated state ran over a mother who was pushing her child in a stroller and the police catch him and take him before. And he says, you know what, judge, I was intoxicated. I shouldn't have done that. My dad had passed away and I got drunk and I got out of my mind. I don't even remember what happened. And the judge says, you know what, this is the first time this has ever happened in your life. You had gone through a hard time. You know what, we're going to let you off the hook.

We're just going to forgive you. Would anybody else think that that would be a great injustice besides me? We would all cry out and say that man has wronged that family. Their justice needs to be upheld. You need to punish that man for what he did. Just because he went through something doesn't mean he'd go out and commit crime even if he felt like it wasn't his responsibility.

He did something that took lives. And so you want a judge to uphold justice. In the same way, you need to understand God never forgives us without judging our sins. Sometimes people say, well, how do I get to heaven? And they'll say, well, just ask God to forgive you.

That's not going to get you to heaven. Asking God to forgive you gets no one to heaven. If you go into God and say, God forgive me, and he just said, oh, I forgive you of all that sin and didn't deal with your sin, how would God be any more just than that corrupt judge? We would cry out injustice to an earthly judge.

How much more should we cry out injustice to our heavenly judge? God must judge the sin or else justice is dead. And so for you and I to be forgiven, God has to judge every single one of our sins.

And guess where he judged them? He judged them on the cross. And Jesus Christ took my sins on the cross, as Roger so well read this morning out of the book of Isaiah. Jesus was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Jesus Christ died for our sins, and to those who would come and repent and trust Jesus Christ and confess, he is Lord, he is my Savior, he is my righteousness. The Bible teaches God imputes to you the righteousness of God and transfers your sin upon the account of Christ who died in your place. Anybody thankful for mercy this morning, amen?

So that's how that works itself out. And we have to understand that you don't tell somebody, hey, you just need to ask Jesus to forgive you. No, you need to confess your sin and confess Jesus is Lord, that he would take your sins and you rejoice in his death on the cross. You believe he died to pay for your sins as he did. Now, what did Jesus Christ say about this law? Well, many think that when Jesus came, he did away with an eye for an eye, but that's not the truth. Jesus came to clarify it. He didn't come to destroy the law. He said in verse 17 through 19, he says, I've come to fulfill the law. So in verse 38 through 42, Jesus is not changing the law here.

He's explaining its true meaning. And so in Jesus's day, the Pharisees through their rabbinic tradition had perverted this Old Testament law and they were using it for their own benefit. They were using it as a way of repaying their own personal lusts and passions. If somebody hurt them, well, an eye for an eye and they would take it back out and they were teaching this. And so people were unforgiving, they were vengeful, they were vindictive, they were bitter and hateful, and they were taking judgment into their own hands. And so Jesus comes and he says, you've heard it been said by an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth. This teaching, in other words, has been being corrupted in verse 39, but I say unto you that you resist not evil. That statement, you resist not evil, literally means you do not resist an evil person, which means to set against or to oppose an evil person is someone who is opposing you, seeking to harm you. They've done something wrong against you. He says, don't resist somebody who is in some way attacking you.

And he gives the four different examples here in verse 39 through 41. Now, what Jesus is telling us here is that we are not to be the ones who are personally paying back someone who has done something wrong to us. We're not to take judgment into our own hands. This also includes having an unforgiving and vengeful spirit, being upset and offended easily with others, being argumentative and contentious. I would ask you the question, are you quick to get angry with others? People who choose to be angry have chosen to lose their joy for the illusion of control. The reason we get angry is because people aren't living up to the expectations that we think.

I expect someone to drive 55 in a 55. And if they don't live up to that, then we can get frustrated because we are trying to control something we have no ability to control. And so the illusion of control invades the human heart, and when people don't meet up to that, control always produces two issues, anxiety and anger. If you live with anxiety and anger, you're living in the illusion of control. You don't control anything.

You don't control anything outside of yourself especially, and we can barely control ourselves. And we're trying to get our boss to act a certain way, our children, our parents, our spouse, our elected officials, our neighbors, our neighbor's dog, our neighbor's cat, our neighbor's other dog, or whatever it is. Stop barking.

Would you stop barking? You're driving me. You know, we get into these kind of things. So we try to control things we can't stop, but instead of saying, you know what, maybe God wants this person to drive 35 in front of me instead of 55. Maybe God's trying to teach me some patience. Maybe I just need to let off and stop trying to get so in control of all these other issues.

I would ask you, do you get offended easily? Jesus is calling us not to resist evil. Stop firing back at this stuff. Charles Spurgeon rightly said, non-resistance and forbearance are to be the rule among the believer. They are to endure personal ill usage without coming to blows. They are to be the anvil when bad men are the hammers, and thus they are to overcome by patient forgiveness. The Lord our King would have us bear and forbear, conquer by mighty patience. Do you have mighty patience or mighty impatience?

I think we've all struggled with the latter. Now we know Jesus is not saying don't stand up against evil here because even he stood up against evil. Jesus Christ made a court of whips and drove evil men out of the temple, turned over the money changers tables in John 2 as well as at the end of his ministry. We see John the Baptist standing up against wicked King Herod and speaking out against the evil of his life. We see Paul rebuking the Jews who reject the gospel. We see believers called to resist the devil in James 4 and 1 Peter 5. So Christians are to resist evil to stand up against what is wrong. So what does Jesus mean here?

What is he trying to tell us? Well Jesus is speaking about standing up against evil for the sake of our own personal offense. That you would be standing up for your personal rights and yourself. That you would take matters into your own hands.

You become the judge, the jury, and the enforcer of the law. This is the same thing that Paul taught in Romans chapter number 12. Listen very closely what Paul says here in Romans 12. We have those verses verse 17 down to verse 21. Paul says recompense to no man evil for evil, providing things honest in the sight of all men.

If it be possible as much as lieth in you, as much as you can live peaceably with all men. And then he says in verse 19, dearly beloved, let's all read verse 19 together. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourself, but rather give place to wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. So when we turn judgment over to God and say God I'm going to put them in your hands, it's not, I'm not the God of their life.

I'm not the ruler of their life, you are. It says therefore what you can do now in verse 20, since justice is taken care of by God, since God's going to issue justice upon them. Therefore if your enemy hunger gives him something to eat, if he's thirsty give him something to drink. Well where did that come from?

It came from the Old Testament. For in so doing thou shall keep calls of fire on his head. He's going to be so overwhelmed with what on earth, because you know what happens when somebody, you ever get mad at somebody and treat them real bad and then they get spiritual on you and treat you real good? And how miserable, your spouse ever do that to you? You're ready, you've got a whole charge, I mean you have put the arguments together. I mean you are just jury execution, you're going to win this debate. And you're getting ready to unload and they look at you and say, honey I just want you to know I'm so sorry, you know it's your right.

I just want you to know I love you and I just want peace in our home. And you're like, ugh. And all that stuff just had water thrown on it and you're like, ah!

You know, smoke's now in my eyes, all the flames I had going on inside of me, you just threw water on it. And you know what it does, it's just a soft dance or turns away wrath, doesn't it? How much better our whole life would be if we worked at being gracious more than working at being angry. And he says in verse 21, be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with what? Yeah, and so the Bible's clear, the civil government was created by God in a way to judge the law breaker and the evil doer. And you need to understand that the law is a blessing to those who do what's right. You know the only people who don't like strict laws?

Law breakers, people who are defending the criminals. Romans 13, 13 says the rulers are not a tear to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then be afraid of the power? And so the Bible tells us that laws were designed to punish evil doers, 1 Peter 2.14 says.

And so governing bodies are designed by God to be that group that would carry out the judgment against those who commit crimes. It's a blessing our church is going to be hosting a meal for our law enforcement. We have about 100 folks in law enforcement going to be here Thursday and be able to provide a meal for them. And our church is providing that and thank you for those who are helping with that and they're having their awards ceremony here. You know it's a blessing when law enforcement reaches out to Lighthouse and says, hey, you guys have been so friendly to us.

Would you be able to host that? And we say absolutely. In a world that wants to put you down, we praise God that you serve in that capacity.

Amen. Because I can tell you on 9-11, it wasn't pedestrians running up into the buildings. It wasn't pedestrians. It was men in blue and men and firefighters that were doing that and police officers and EMTs, they were running in and they lost their lives by the hundreds.

We thank God for those. And the same people who want to get rid of police officers, what do you want to do, call in some kind of pacifist to try to settle this dispute when your neighbor comes over, your alcoholic neighbor and tries to break in your home? Could you come over here and give us some kind of a, maybe a psychologist come out and kind of give us some, calm this guy down.

I don't know if he's off his Medicaid. No, you want somebody to come out that can allow them to be able to get to the level that's needed to keep you safe. Amen.

And so it's always, I'm on a rabbit trail here, I'm trying to get off of this. But the same people who say we don't need law enforcement are the same people who have 15 bodyguards around them armed. The hypocrisy is off the charts, so let me just keep going before I, anyway. But governing systems typically are placing things there that would seek to protect the people and they do that normally. And I believe Christians in churches should be involved in seeking to appoint men and women that are godly in those positions. Exodus 18 21 says, Moreover, thou shall provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetous and place them over such to be rulers. And it talks about the legal system should be set up with godly people. Now those in leadership are also to be prayed for, honored and obeyed in all things, unless their laws would conflict with God and his word, which those should be pointed out when that happens.

But otherwise, we need to respect those people in leadership, reference those in leadership, and to pray for those in leadership. So Jesus taught that we are not to be the ones who resist evil, the evil person, and not to take out personal vengeance for our own sake. So when a Christian says they're going to pay for what they did, I'll get back at them, they're not going to get away with this, what you do and what I do in those situations is we place ourselves as judge over them. We become the avenger and God says to us, dearly beloved, and he says it in such a kind way, dearly beloved, avenge not yourself because sometimes we can be hurt, sometimes it can be very difficult, sometimes the pain of the injustice can be very hard, but don't avenge yourself, give place to wrath, God will repay that. But I would ask you today, friend, are you filled with vengeance towards someone else? Has bitterness got a hold of your heart?

Do you live every day with anger and frustration towards someone who did something to you? Always remember how great God's mercy has been to us. Should we who have been the greatest recipients of mercy be the slowest to show mercy? Should we who have had judgment removed by the blood of Christ be those who are so quick to cry out for judgment upon others?

I think it shouldn't be. And so let's look at one last thought today in these closing verses, the application of the law. How is this to be applied in verse 39 through 42?

Jesus gives four specific areas and I believe we'll all gain wisdom and application from this as we seek to turn to the word of God with our attention. It says in verse 39 that you don't resist an evil person. Don't do that. Do not be caught up in what you can do to retaliate personally. They do something wrong to you. Don't be the one who takes the law into your own hands. You don't do that. And he gives four different situations that we could be inflicted by that were to respond in a right way. He says, whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. Well, that's easy. We don't even need to talk about that, so let's go to the next one.

That's not easy, is it? There was a, J. Vernon McGee was writing about this and he said there was an Irishman he knew that got smacked in the face and he said the man turned to cheek and he got smacked again. And he said he got up and beat the man to a pulp to which he asked, why did you do that? He said, well, God said, turn the other cheek, but he didn't tell me what to do after that. So I just, you know, I don't think that man was understanding exactly what Jesus was trying to say here. Now, is Jesus teaching that if someone hits you to let them continually beat you to a pulp? Does the Bible teach that we're to be abused and allow that abuse to continue?

Sinclair Ferguson wrote, he said, I personally have seen this lived out. He said, I knew a man who was present when his daughter and son-in-law were attacked physically by some thugs over a legal dispute and the man did nothing to help or protect them. And so, unfortunately, this has been misapplied by people to teach pacifism, that you're not even allowed to bear arms in military campaigns, who have even said Christians should not serve as police officers or anything else because we're to turn the other cheek.

Well, people who say such things show a lack of understanding what the Bible's teaching here. Now, the Bible says in verse 39, whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the left. The word smite there comes from a Greek word, it's spelled R-H-A-P-I-Z-O, rapizo, and it means to hit with an open hand. It's a slap. You could translate it, if any man slaps you on the face is the idea, whether an open hand on the front side, or even more was a backhanded slap, was even more disgraceful.

And there's also a word in the Greek that was to punch someone, and it's kolopfitso, and it means to strike or punch with a closed fist. You need to understand that among the Jews, an open hand slap was the most disgraceful thing you could do to somebody. Even the slaves spoke of in their day, they would rather be whipped and thrashed on their back rather than someone smack them in the face. A smack in the face was among their day one of the most disgraceful, humiliating things we recently read about and saw Will Smith, the smack that went around the world, right, where Chris Rock was, you know, I think Chris Rock probably handled that better than a lot of Christians would have. Somebody slapping you that hard in front of the whole nation and then just kind of blowing it off and not retaliating.

I tell you, there's a lot of people in the world that would have sued Will Smith and done everything they could, and I'm not promoting Chris Rock, I don't watch those kind of guys, but I just thought that was interesting. Jesus said against such an insult, he said we need to turn the other cheek. The idea is not to let someone smack you on the other cheek and to allow you to continue the abuse. What he's saying is if your pride is assaulted, if your dignity is assaulted, if you're disrespected, you need to have the heart which would turn the other cheek and not seek to retaliate. Instead of the natural reaction would be to hit them back and impose your will upon them, that you would take that insult, you would take that disrespect upon you and you would allow those insults to be heaped upon you and you would turn the judgment over to God instead of bringing judgment and that you would resist that evil person yourself. Jesus did this in John 18 when they slapped him on the face when he was before the high priest. Jesus says if I've spoken evil, he says bear witness of the evil, but if well, why do you smite me, why do you smack me? Jesus didn't say keep smacking me on the other face, on the other cheek.

He didn't turn his other cheek in that sense physically. He was questioning them how can you, who are supposed to represent the law, violate the law by slapping me? And so he questioned them and he sought to stop that. And then you have Paul, so Jesus handled it correctly where Paul handled it in a wrong way. In Acts 23, Paul is before the Sanhedrin which is the Jewish ruling body and Ananias is the high priest. And Paul says in Acts 23, and notice what he says, the words are up here.

He says, and Paul earnestly beholding the council said, men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. And he's getting ready to give his opening speech to the court and the high priest didn't like what he said so he says, hey, slap him. And a guy comes up and smacks Paul right on the face, right on the mouth and Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. How do you feel if somebody slapped you right in the mouth?

Yeah, we'd want to slap him back and that's the wrong, that's not the right answer, that's the wrong answer, right? Then said Paul unto him, look what Paul says, God shall smite thee thou whited wall. In the Greek rendering of that, that's like borderline using a cuss word with God's name. That is a severe, like bringing God in to curse you.

That's like God, this is like a swearing statement, a very strong statement that was crossing the line. He says, for a sit is thou to judge me after the law and command is me to be smitten contrary to the law and it shocked the people in attendance. They said, revile is thou God's high priest? And look what Paul said, he said, I wish not, I didn't know brethren that that was the high priest, for it is written, thou shall not speak evil of the ruler of thy people. Even when injustice came, he said, I didn't have a right to speak evil of him. And we sit in our comforting homes and we like to speak evil of the rulers of our people. I can tell you, friends, that's not honoring God. And you can justify that and I can justify that however we want. And we've all violated that, I would assume, at some level.

But we need to be slow to do such things. I think David represents such a spirit towards Saul that was with such a humble spirit and turned him over to God. And so, but we naturally react and say, well, who takes vengeance? And God says vengeance is mine, I'll repay that. Did you realize why most fights happened? I remember all the fights in high school and all that stuff that went on and unfortunately the fights that I would get into. And, you know, it was never like typically like to protect someone. You know, you're being mean to that person, I'm going to beat you up. It was not that, it was somebody disrespected me.

Somebody said something. You know, they disrespected me or they were flirting with her and, you know, that's your girlfriend. And people feel disrespect, so what do they do?

They go fight. That's the kind of silliness that men go down to. How do you respond to attacks on your dignity?

Jesus says here we're to have a humble, non-retaliatory response. And people say, well, that's just weakness in men. Is it weakness? Because Francis Bacon wrote this, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but when he passes over revenge, he is superior to his enemy.

And I would agree with that. Anybody can get in a fight. And if you've been in fights, you know that works. But to pass over a transgression, the Bible says that's the crowning glory of a man. Jesus could have wiped the earth out, but instead he resisted. That's what meekness is. You know what meekness is?

Power under control. You have the ability, you could impress your power and your will upon a situation, but instead, you know, I'm going to resist that, and I'm going to show mercy and forgiveness. I'm going to turn judgment over to God. Vengeance is not mine.

Vengeance is his. God, you bring judgment, and I'll, in turn, be gracious to this situation. No one but a Christian can respond like that with the Spirit of God in them.

And even as Christians, that's a struggle in all God's people. Secondly, we see how to respond to attacks against our possessions. This has to deal with selfishness and greed in verse 40. He said, If any man will soothe thee at the law and take away thy coat. Now the coat talks about the shirt of a man. Most men in these days had a couple different shirts, and it says, Let him have thy cloak also. The cloak was the more expensive outer garment.

It was also used at night to be the blanket for someone. And so what this means is if somebody does something, and say you've wronged someone or there's some kind of fallacy in your relationship, and they feel like you owe them something, and they take you to court and seek to sue you at that, and you know what our natural response is? Well, they're not going to get a penny out of me.

I'm not going to give them nothing, and I'm going to get my lawyers, and boy, it's just fire on fire, and that begins to happen. What he's saying is if somebody feels like you owe them something, and you owe me your coat, he says don't just give them your coat, but give them your cloak also. What this is saying is don't just repay what's owed, but pay over the top. Give them extra. Get the debt settled.

Get it taken care of. I hate to even share this because I don't want any self-gloring, but I just remember a situation like this happening in my life, and I had not planned on telling this, but I remember when I was a young man, and my wife, we didn't have hardly anything. It just so tied us up. My brother started church. We lived out in a house that I renovated, and just we burned wood for years because we just, I mean, just as cheap as you can live and everything, and I never had to borrow money, never had to do any of that stuff, never put money on credit cards.

God always provided. We're always faithful to give, and God just took care of us, but one of the things I had to do is I had to burn wood because I didn't have the money for the propane and all that, so I remember the neighbor had a bunch of woods, hundreds of acres, and I had like three acres, and I said, hey, you care if I get some wood? He's like, yeah, go ahead, and one morning I was out cutting some wood, and he come out screaming, cussing, I mean 50,000 cuss words. I thought this guy's crazy, and I had a chainsaw in my hand.

I thought I may not have to back him off. This guy lost his mind, and he said, you're cutting the wrong pile of stuff, and he's just going nuts, and he's like, I was going to use those for fence post things, and he's like, you owe me 20 bucks, and he's just so mad. He went inside, and I was like, yeah, I'm sorry, and so I went up, and I got the $20. I went down to say, hey, and he wouldn't talk to me. He just took the money and slammed the door, and I was like, have a good day, neighbor.

20 bucks is a big deal, you know, and so I went down there. We ended up leading his daughter, Christ, one day out on the street, and I would go down there, and try to talk to him. He just would not talk to me, so like literally like a month before we moved to Xenia, I was at a bowling alley, and I was bowling with some of my buddies from the church, and he comes in. Didn't know I was there. He was right next to us.

I looked over, and it was within three minutes. He had packed his family, went all the way down to the other end of the bowling alley, so before we left, and I went over and talked to him. Hey, good to see you, da-da-da, and he's like, this is like so uncomfortable for him, because he's like, oh, man, you know, this guy yelled out and cussed out, and he's just hard, but I went up to the, and I don't say this to lift myself up, but I just felt like, you know what, that guy knows I'm a Christian, and I'm gonna do everything I can to repay that, and I went up, and I said, however much they owe, I want you to put it on my account. I'm gonna pay for their family's bowling, and whatever else they need to do, and I never spoke to him against, and I probably will never see him the rest of my life, but I want that man to know that I'm not just gonna repay you. I can tell you, friends, I've been in enough fights in my life that I would want to grab that man and beat him to a pulp physically.

When I drove home, I thought, I'll light that guy up. You know, I mean, the natural man inside of us is like, ugh. Every man knows what that's like. The women are like, why would you want to fight? Men are like, you have no idea. You have no idea how hard that is to restrain.

I'm being honest with you. I drive by, like, I'll light him up. He said, oh, Lord, forgive me. And it took, like, years of just getting my heart clean and just, but I can tell you, what Jesus is saying here is don't just pay them back, but pay them back more than what they ask for.

Go over the top. You know what, you know what my desire, wouldn't it be great one day that he says, you know what, I want to know the Lord Jesus Christ my Savior. What mattered is a few words. I know I've said things to people that were rude and mean in my younger years, and praise God for his mercy.

So thirdly, he teaches here how to respond to frustrating requests. Look at verse number 41. He says, and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Now in those days, Rome dominated that part of the world and under Roman law, because they dominated the world, a soldier could just walk up to you and say, hey, I want you to carry my luggage and my gear for the next mile and you would have to carry it for them. So say you're out working on your property and they say, hey, Jewish guy, come here.

And you're like, man, you're in the middle. You don't like these Romans anyway. And they'll say, hey, according to law, you don't have to carry my luggage for the next mile. You know what Jesus said, if they cause your patience to be challenged, if they cause you to do something and it's a very frustrating request, Jesus says, don't just go with them one mile, but go with them two miles. This is where the statement go the extra mile came from.

Going the extra mile isn't about like, hey, go work out and go the extra mile. What he's saying is when somebody asks you something that so sets you off, so frustrates you, it says don't just fulfill their request, but go the extra mile. Sometimes those in authority over us ask more of us than we feel is expected and we get mad and say things like I can't believe they would even ask me to do that. When is the last time someone asked you to do something you thought I can't believe that?

How bold of them, how audacious. How would your heart be different if Jesus was actually the one asking you? You know the Bible in Colossians chapter three gives us the instance of the role, it talks about the role of the father, the role of the children, the role of the parents I should say, the role of the children, the role of the husband and wife. It talks about the role of the employer and employee and at the end of it, it concludes by saying in Colossians 3 23 and whatsoever you do, do it heartily as undoubtedly as you do. And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not to men. What it's saying is in each one of those horizontal relationships, you're actually serving a vertical relationship with God. Our horizontal relationships are how we serve God.

As a Christian, the service we give others, we give to Christ. I'm gonna talk to you for just a moment those that are still in the home. You're living with mom, you're living with dad, you're maybe a teenager or preteen or post teen or whatever you are. Sometimes they can ask you, you know what, hey honey, I need you to do the dishes or I need you to take out the trash or I need you to vacuum the living room.

They give you some kind. You know a lot of times we would do as teenagers, you probably do the same thing. Well, that's not fair.

I did that last week. Now I know mom, you guys, you and dad, you work all week 40, 50, 60 hours. I know you put the roof over our head. You pay for the water bill and I don't do any payment for that and you guys do all this stuff. You provide food, you even make the food, you do the dishes like 70% of the time. You do all this stuff but you're asking me to do the dishes once this week. This is unfair.

Justice has been violated. I mean we blow the top in this same kind of kid is like, you know what, I'm gonna get out on my own. Yeah. Might wanna start with doing the dishes. But you know what?

Young person listen to me very closely as a pastor and as your friend. The next time your parent asks you to say, hey, can you do the dishes, you need to look at them and you need to see it as though Jesus were the one asking you because that's exactly how God sees it. It's exactly how he sees it. You need to say, you know what, I'm not only gonna do the dishes today mom but I'll actually do them tomorrow and if you need more than that, you say, well that'd be ridiculous. Is it?

Is it? How far did Jesus go for you and I? Next time husband that you get frustrated with your wife and feel like she's not met some expectation or wife to your husband and maybe they ask a request of you that you get frustrated, next time you need to say, you know what, my love and my service and my devotion to my wife and my love and service to my husband is as I'm doing it to Christ. Do you understand there is no separation between the carnal and the worldly and what is Christian? There is no secular and sacred with God. It's all sacred. It's all sacred. When you go to work and your boss says, hey, I remember showing up on job sites, I did construction for like six years and I'd show up and they're like, hey, I need you to move all this stuff over here and first thing in the morning I'm like, you've got to be kidding me.

Where's the other peons around here? I need to hire a new guy to do this stuff and we can get frustrated by some request the boss gives, how dare they ask me? You know what God says, wait just a minute there. You're so bound up with them, you're still serving men. You're not serving men, you're serving me. Christian, you need to understand every moment of our life we have a chance to serve Christ. You don't serve Christ on Sunday and serve the world on Monday, you serve Christ every day of the week. What a joy, what liberation that gives us. I'm not in submission to the frustrating requests of my boss or difficulties in a marriage or parents or children relationships. I get to serve Jesus in all of that. That's exactly what he's telling us here.

Go the extra mile. Stop fighting for your rights and start giving up your rights to begin to minister grace into those situations. You know what the people said when they were 25 in heaven? They said when did we see you in prison and visit you? When did we see you thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you hungry and feed you? When did we see you naked in clothing?

When did we do any of that? And Jesus says as much as you've done it to the least of these, while you were serving on earth other people when you were doing these things and you thought it just had a horizontal consequence in heaven, you're ready, but there's some Christians who are so earthly minded they have lost sight of the heavenly purpose. We need to leave here today so motivated by heavenly mission, heavenly purpose that we say I get to go out of here and when I go to Walmart and I see somebody walking in I'm going to hold the door as if Jesus were walking in. I'm going to go, hey, you went in front of me at the gas station?

Hey, go ahead and pull in. You go to the one lane open and there's all these people come or you go to the 20 item checkout and you're thinking you got more than 20 items. I got two and you're going to, you know, and they got like a hamper full of stuff and it's like, you know, just one, two. I've been in some situations I'm just like you've got to be kidding me. And then Jesus says, you remember that stuff you preached?

I'm like, yes, but I want to hear about it right now. We serve Christ and all of that. Let me give the last thing and we'll be done. Verse 42, he says, give to him that asked the end from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. And what Jesus is saying here is we need to be those who are not possessive and greedy, but we need to be generous people. When somebody comes along and says, hey, I really have a need.

We need to be those who seek to fill that need. Now, I would like to say this also that this in no way speaks about enabling lazy people. If somebody doesn't work if they're lazy, oh, man, you know, I'm just you have a job well, you know, playing video games a lot later.

Almost mastered this last game though. Listen, I don't even want to get on a rabbit trail of grown men playing video games that needs to be put away. But I don't want to be self-righteous because I don't struggle with that. But I just want to say men that should be a very last resort that should not be a high priority in your life ever. So there's a time to put away childish things. That's one of them and all the I don't need that. I'm going to provoke this all the wives are like Amen. Just lay it on a preacher.

So but everything needs to be in moderation. But here we have where the Bible teaches if a man doesn't work it says in 2 Thessalonians 3 10 even when we were with you this we commanded you that if any would not work neither should he eat if a man comes a I you know, can I can you can you give me some food or I'm hungry. I need money. And if they're unwilling to work, you know, it's good to do so. Hey, you might need to miss a couple meals. Well, I'm starving though you you'll work then you'll get hungry enough.

You'll go work. Listen, I can give you a fish but I'd rather teach you how to fish. You rather give you a job, you know, and I remember I helped a guy one time got him some food. He's homeless and I took him down to a place on my dollar and I was going to put him up in a hotel and I said, hey, I got all this lined up. I said, but tomorrow could I get you I said I said I'm going to go in there and see if we can't help get you employed and I said and then you could make enough money to live here get you some food and he looked at me and said I don't want any of that stuff. He said I'm not going to work.

He said I don't work for 10 years and he got mad and got out of the car and walked off and I said well then give me my hamburger back. We don't listen sometimes giving is taking but what I'm talking about with this is not the panhandler the person is trying to Duke you I'm talking about the person who says man I'm really falling in a bad situation really in a difficult and listen some people fall into that in our country and they get in a tough pinch say man do you have 20 bucks I need some gas money I'm working I'm trying to I need some money get back and forth to work you know what you need that you need to say you know what you have it on you be able to give that to them and in your heart if they say hey I'll pay you back give them the ability to do that I think that's there's nothing wrong with that but in your heart say in your mind if they come to me in a week and they say you know what I don't have that money you need to be willing to gift that to them they come back later hey I just really struggling can I get it to you next week say listen friend I was in your situation I would I would want somebody to be gracious with me too that's what means to love others as yourself I'm gonna treat them like I would want somebody to treat me go ahead and keep that and let me know if you're you're in need in the future but I would like to you know help you in any way I can you know what I'm asking to you listen I think also if somebody comes along says hey you know my mower broke down you just got your new mower last year and they're like hey you know can you mow my yard or can I borrow your mower to mow and you're just thinking you know I just got the blade sharpened and I just got that mower been saving up for that thing and you're just like and then preacher preached on this and you're like yeah go ahead and mow and then they're over there mowing and the next thing you know they hit the gravel with the blades and it's like they're struggling like oh you know what you can do is even say I'll just mow it for you you know I just clean this whole thing up you know I don't want bitterness the crowd over here so you got mole holes all over your yard my blades are gone but but inside of your heart friends what we need to have is a spirit that says if I have the ability to help somebody in need let's stop being so white-knuckled on our possessions and say I'm willing to release that to God in his service because ultimately it all belongs to God amen and so in conclusion an eye for an eye tooth for tooth that's not something we're against that's something we're for because that brings right justice to a society it doesn't allow over punishment it allows the punishment to equal the crime that's what jurisprudence and justice should be and Jesus didn't do away with the law he explained it when our pride is attacked we should be those who respond with turning the other cheek in our heart that we don't we don't get caught up in arguments and fights and quick comebacks because we're gonna clothe ourselves with humility we don't get caught up with with arguments if somebody if we wrong somebody don't just pay him back but paying back more make sure they're taken care of and then when somebody asks you to do something that you're frustrated by be patient and go the extra mile need your requests be generous and for us to do all of this we need to apply Romans chapter 14 verse 18 we have that verse let's all read this together for whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live or die we are the Lord's that's how we live we leave here today and say God my life belongs to you my life belongs to you let's all stand this morning the altar is open today and maybe if God spoken to your heart you need to come and take a moment and spend in prayer maybe there's something in your heart you say you know what God's words spoke to my heart today and I just want to respond to you God and maybe you need to come and spend a moment in prayer at the altar I just want you to come and say I want you need to come and spend a moment in prayer at the altar I'd invite you to do that. Do business with God today. Maybe today you have somebody on your heart that you just need to come and pray for. You just need to come and lift their name up to the Lord that maybe they need prayer. Maybe there's some some struggle that, health struggle, why don't you come and turn that over to the Lord.

God be with these situations. But I would also like to ask this, maybe you're here today and and you're bound up with questions about what would happen to me after I died. If you were to stand before God and God said why should I let you into heaven you're just not sure what you would say. I just want you to know today friend that you can know that. If you stood before God and he said why should I let you into heaven you're not sure what you would say.

Today we have men and women that are down front. They'll pull you aside in a room here off the sanctuary and they'll show you from the Bible how you can know when your life's over you'll be in heaven. I'll be down front. I would encourage you to come and I'll bring you to one of these dear folks. They would love to talk with you if you have questions about salvation, how to get to heaven, any of that. Father I pray today that you would bless this invitation, work in hearts, not only in these minutes but also as we leave today in Jesus name. Amen.