[This sermon is one of a series entitled "Sermon on the Mount, Concentrating on the Beatitudes," which is being preached on Sunday mornings by Pastor Tim Senter.]
"Many have tried to keep others, and God, out of their closet but the closet door is never latched securely enough. What man does not realize is that God does not need to open the door, He just walks through it."
When we did our overview of this section we did a specific review of the Beatitudes and noted the change that should take place in our hearts. We noted the direct connection to the heart overtaken by living the Beatitudes. The meek, the merciful, and the peacemaker never take initiative to defend themselves when wrongfully accused because our Savior did not do so, and He was innocent in all things. We looked at some things concerning the true heart of man and his condition, specifically, that he sees himself as redeemable, having redeeming qualities.
Man sees himself as justified or righteous and therefore feels the need to justify or in some way demand his “rightful” respect, acknowledgment, or retribution. To put it simply, man thinks pretty highly of himself regardless of the truth. Man is involved and enthralled with himself so deeply that he cannot see past his own personal desires and wants. Many think that those who serve others cannot be this way. The problem is that that man’s service to others in the world is still self-oriented. The service is either focused upon an end purpose (to secure their place in heaven) or an immediate gratification (because they like to serve or in some other way gain immediate compensation through the service). Unfortunately for man, he cannot work and merit his place in heaven. If he would only realize that this work was done for him.
We begin by reading our passages in scripture that we will give specific attention to today. Matthew 5:38-39 please. We approach this remembering all that has come before in this instruction. If we do not gather the context and content of the message from before now, and we attempt to extract this as a literal activity, we hurt many and eliminate our testimony with the world. We also alienate our Savior and distort His teaching such that we make it ineffectual for the believer. If we take this scripture out of context, we make the Old Testament barbaric and our Savior merely a teacher that is attempting to abolish the Law of Moses. That makes Jesus a liar.
We reviewed the Laws of Moses when we looked at them for the message last week (click here). Can I encourage you to review that teaching from last week if needs be. We found that ultimately these laws were guidelines to the authorities that were intended to carry out the law.
We must never forget that the lives that Jesus is discussing are those of Christians, believers, saints, and individuals living out the Beatitudes. Believers are the subject of these discussions and of this exposition. If you are a real, true, and heart changed believer in Jesus as the Messiah and His redemption of your soul through the work on the cross, this exposition tells you how you are to live. This sermon given by our great God and Savior, the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth does not provide instruction for a national policy. This exposition does not give the unbeliever anything that they can use either. This sermon is provided for and explains the true active life of a believer only. We must understand that the examples given in verses 21 and following (including those we focus upon today) are descriptions of these believers, their lives, and the lives they should live. This is how a Christian is to live life. These are the attitudes and aptitudes we are to adopt in our life to implement the spirit of the law in our lives. This is not a literal teaching that can develop into some esoteric or manipulated written policy. These examples describe the heart felt, spirit led, and God centered existence of the believer. They bring into action the heart changes described in the Beatitudes.
Just as the believer is clearly described, the unbeliever is equally lost in this teaching. They cannot comprehend the idea of “resist not evil” with respect to a kingdom believer. The unbeliever distorts this to some form of passivism, some sort of self-righteous activity that is a testimony only to ones own goodness or gentleness. The unbeliever does not correlate the whole teaching of God, for they do not and cannot understand God’s Word (Eph 4:18). Understanding the truths of these scriptures, therefore, is impossible for anyone who is not first changed in their heart, tenderized to the things of God. Only a born again Christian, one who has let all the old fall away, and is now living a new life in Christ can comprehend the truths in this instruction. The natural unsaved man, therefore, cannot live a life that exemplifies the Beatitudes because he is not a child of the Kingdom of God. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones puts it:
“Our Lord never asks a man who is but a natural man, a dupe of sin and Satan, and under the dominion of hell, to live a life like this, for he cannot…(and) to advocate this teaching as a policy for a country or a nation is no less than heresy. It is heretical in this way: if we ask a man who has not been born again, and who has not received the Holy Spirit, to live the Christian life, we are really saying that a man can justify himself by works, and that is heresy.”
In suggesting that man can by himself live out a life of Christianity, he further observes:
“We are suggesting that a man by his own efforts, and by putting his mind to it, can live this life. That is an absolute contradiction of the whole of the New Testament.”[1]
An example of this type of mistreatment, misinterpretation, and misapplication in our governmental systems can be seen in our history. The governmental party currently in power calls for peace talks repeatedly. Then, when faced with a scandal, it attempts to deflect the investigation or focus by taking military action against an innocuous target such as a medicine factory in a foreign country where we have not legally declared war. The passivity in appearance is eliminated out of self-interest and promotion. This is the perfect description of a government controlled by “a dupe of sin and Satan.”
These subjects are the focus of discussion today. Not the specific issues identified as examples above, but the controlling spirit of those perpetrating the activity and the subsequent activities resultant from that spiritual control. We will approach this just the same way the Lord did. We will identify specifics, but the specific examples are not the point. It is upon the spirit that controls the examples that we must reflect; just as the specific law is not the point, but the focus is the spirit in the implementation of the law.
Therefore, we will discuss three basic issues dealing with this passage:
- This is the spirit of the Law not some basic guidelines for life ethics that we are supposed to take and implement in our lives.
- This is not the teaching of some great moral man. These teachings tell us how those in Heaven live. Next, we discuss the actual teaching and the application. It is not a cardinal rule issue, it is not just a rule of thumb, and it is not a literal instruction. The spirit of the law – that is the focus.
- Third, we must consider the whole of scripture with respect to our understanding. If we simplify this, or overcomplicate it, to a point that is makes no sense with the remainder of scripture, then we have misapplied and misunderstood the teaching of our Lord. An aspect of this, though, is that implementing the laws of God can seem insurmountable. That is why we have the Savior.
With the connection apparent of these passages, our proposition and focus remain the same. “Man says, “What about me and what I am owed?” God says, “What about you is redeemable? What do I owe you?” “Never repay evil with evil, for a kind word turns away wrath.”
We might also consider that we are not saying that scripture is not applicable to the unbeliever. Woe to the one who would isolate the Christian from the world and say that God and His word have no authority, therefore, over the unbeliever. There is no such teaching here. What does the world do with this teaching though, and what does the saint do with this teaching? That is the issue with resisting evil.
I. Our evil spirit (Verse 39a)
You may notice we are not expositing verse 38 during this study. That exposition and explanation was dealt with in last week’s message. This week, we look specifically at verse 39 and the instruction the Savior has for us in this passage. Therefore, when we read “resist not evil” we must understand that this, again, is teaching a problem that the Pharisees had dealing with the literal interpretation and spiritual application of the Laws of Moses. This is not some license of passivism, but instead a law of spiritual living that applies to the Heaven bound saint who is a pilgrim in this land. Our first concern, though, is what is in us that distorts this teaching to some unrealistic thing that might bring about chaos – the denial that militaries or law enforcement or judicial systems or even governments are required for civilization.
We discuss then the things within us which result in the actions we see so prevalent in man. Are we just? Are we worth redeeming? Are we actually valuable as individuals, for anything? Do we merit some favor? Is our individual self-claim to any justice, redemption, value, or merit worth the breath it takes to speak it?
There are many people who would hear those first questions and say, “That’s what is wrong with your religion, you always want to demean people, you always put people down, you always want to tear down people. Where is the hope? Where is the love of Christ? Where is the great grace of God?” The truth is, if we first do not realize who we are, we have no true concept of what Christ is, what He has done for us, and what we need. The wealthy ask, “What redeemer do I need if I am currently successful and have achieved this success properly in business?” This is the issue with the rich young ruler in Matthew 19. He asks what good thing he can do to achieve eternal life. Jesus answers him by saying he must first keep the commandments of Moses. The rich young ruler pursued a finer point, and asked specifically which ones he needed to keep. This question was probably asked because he knew he had violated some – if not literally, in spirit, certainly. The young rich man assured Jesus he had kept all those that were named in verses 18 and 19, then he asked, “what else am I lacking?” Jesus tells him the one thing he lacks – a true heart bent upon serving God and the things of God. Jesus tells the young man that he does not have a true heart bent upon eternal things and seeking those things that have everlasting value. Jesus tells this young man that he is not a child of the Kingdom of God because he does not exhibit the Beatitudes – he does not live here, as though he were already there.
No one knows what the rich young ruler thought when Jesus told him to rid himself of all his worldly possessions. We can presume that, like so many today, he thought quite cynically that Jesus simply wanted to get His hands on the wealth. That very thing has been the focus of many cults. However, any true and faithful fellowship will never teach that this passage means we must be poor to get into Heaven. It is not the pocket book that must be poor, but the spirit within us that must be poor. This rich young ruler thought he could achieve the ultimate prize because he was able to do it on his own – personally complete the qualifications to enter Heaven. He thought eternal bliss was within his grasp because he had confidence in his own life. This very much describes many of us. However, Jesus teaches it is not you, but what is not inherently inside you that will get you to Heaven.
The evil in us claims repeatedly and often that we are worth it. The evil in us claims repeatedly that we deserve respect. The evil in us demands we be counted as righteous. We are concerned about our character. I have been personally disrespected on a number of occasions and I have to admit, knowing that I am basically a man of character, it rubs me raw to think that someone would even consider me a reprobate. However, when I consider my position, my sins, my life, my being, and my past activities in comparison to the perfection that God requires for entry into Heaven, I am nothing more than a reprobate. I am not worthy of Heaven. I have never been personally worthy of Heaven. I will never and could never atone for the sins I have perpetrated in this flesh. I am a sinner. Only a perfect sacrifice that is acceptable for atonement for my sins can save me and deliver this wretch into Heaven. Folks, that is not some self-loathing diatribe; that is simply the spiritual truth when compared to God’s standard of perfection and His requirement for that perfection to enter His holy Kingdom.
The evil within us demands others see things that truly are not there. I often joke with others by saying, “I know what I am doing, just ask me.” In this same way we find those in this world trying to justify their own personal existence by saying, “I am a good person, just ask me.” They often forget to mention a couple of things. You would never hear them say, for instance, “Never mind the extra marital affair I had. That was because my wife (or my husband) would not satisfy me. After all I have never lied in my business practices.” How about this one: “Never mind that I divorced my spouse because they were telling me to get my life right with Jesus and I just got tired of it. After all, I have never lied to my best friend.” How about this one: “Never mind that I pad my timesheet at work, I put my time in in other ways. After all, that company makes hundreds of dollars an hour off people like me.” I have heard people say words to the effect, “I lose my temper occasionally, but I never hurt anyone that didn’t deserve it. After all, they attacked me first.” What man wants God to do is just consider all the good things he has done and forget the fact that he has sinned greatly in other ways. Never mind that those good things were not to serve God in any way, but only to benefit the person who perpetrated them. It was the best choice to benefit them at the time either socially, emotionally, romantically, religiously, or politically.
The truly sanctimonious one will say, “But I’ve never done any of those things.” To this type of response this pastor must say – look at, apply these teachings to your own life, and quit comparing your life to another man or woman. When you stand before God, you are compared to Him and His perfection. We can either play the fools game that demands the preacher specifically state the sin, and the exact circumstances under which it was perpetrated, or you can get real about your true heart and admit the truth. Only the foolish compares themself to others for the purpose of self-aggrandizement and the imposition of delusions of grandeur.
Does the good out-weigh the bad, though? There is no such truth in all of the scriptures. The bad sits on the scale all by itself until the Savior, the Messiah, Christ Jesus Himself steps foot on the other side of the scale. Man repeatedly says, in effect, “Never mind all that stuff in the closet, stay in the living room, it is nicer.” Many have tried to keep others, and God, out of their closet but the closet door is never latched securely enough. What man does not realize is that God does not need to open the door, He just walks through it.
The evil within us is deceptive, disgusting (or we would not try to hide it), and relevant to life even here on earth as well as in Heaven. You can demand respect all you want to from man, but that establishes no position, no validity, no value, and no righteousness before God. Before God, man is not redeemable. Before God, man has no inherent value. Before God, man is indefensible. Before God, man is unjustified. Before God, the true honor of man is wanting. Before God, the true integrity of man is wanting. Before God, the true trustworthiness of man is laid to waste. For this reason, we need a Savior.
God knows every little sin you committed from the first time you cried for attention as an infant when you needed nothing, to the last time you lied to or defamed someone. The only grace available to you, the only way you can mitigate this evil, the only thing you can do to even attempt to eject this wickedness from your life is to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. When you do and the Holy Spirit enters your soul, you have an ally against the evil that exists within you.
We look then from the evil within each of us that denies the spirit of the law and just attempts to implement the letter, to the application of this spiritual law in our hearts. How does this affect the spirit within us?
II. The evil spirit (Verse 39b)
When we then read, “but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also,” do we then apply this to the very activity in our life? We apply this to our spirit, just as the removal of an eye or tooth for a wrong perpetrated against us is applied. This is not some literal cardinal rule that we apply in our lives. That is a child’s game. The whole failing of our current judicial system is based in the fact that there is no equity in America’s justice. The rule of thumb in this nation is, if you break the law you go to jail. The justice in this nation says, if you break the law, and you are wealthy, then you are too important to the economy and society as a whole to actually serve time for what you do. We have seen this in the attitude and actions of some actors who had to be released from jail in order to make movies. The law of man, the will of his spirit, the desire of man is to not be held strictly accountable for the things he has done. This is the argument for abortion – that those who engage in irresponsible and unmitigated sinful sexual activity not be responsible for their actions. This is the argument of the lawyer who continues to badger and belabor the court with excuse after excuse after excuse why his or her client should not be sentenced appropriately for the crimes they committed. This evil that is in man, that would have us turn the other cheek inappropriately is self-directed because of the evil that is in man. This is not the law being articulated by our Savior here.
Some might say that Jesus has a much larger agenda in view here. Jesus is not talking about the people He is talking to, nor is He talking about the beginning of His sermon, but specifically He is talking of the vicious Roman rule that was being played out upon the citizens of Israel. Jesus was telling the citizens to put up with it. He was telling them to not organize strife. He knew that in AD 70, there would be a huge uprising, and He knew the talk of His enthronement as King of Israel would raise the hackles of the Romans. They would suggest that Jesus was trying to protect His own skin by telling the Israelites to submit to their captors. This line of thought, reasoning, and discussion has nothing to do with either the context or the content of this message. Equally, no nation can point to this and apply this passivity to capitol punishment or war. The statements of the Savior here have nothing to do with politics or governance; they are directly pointed at and focused upon the individual heart of the believer and their activities.
Because of the misinterpretation of these tenets, the prison system then is not the punitive place it should be. Instead, prison is a place of simple life control where the individual cannot get into too much trouble while incarcerated. There are many in our jails that use their incarceration as a free meal ticket. As a cardinal rule, if you are incarcerated you get three squares and a bunk. If you are without a job, and it is cold out, that sounds pretty good – so go get yourself locked up? Others do not necessarily mind jails because they get away from some of the violence in their lives. They are not strong enough to remove themselves from it, but depend upon the prison system to keep them safe. Others look at jail as a time of recreation where you are fed, you can lounge, and you watch all the television you desire. What foolishness on both the part of the criminal to look at incarceration with such disdain, and on the part of the system itself for permitting this serious predicament (incarceration) to become so common place and acceptable. This scripture, therefore, is not some rule to live by that can be distorted to suit our circumstance. There are teeth in this instruction that teaches there is more to this law than just “turning the other cheek” as is often coined in society today. What is that spirit of the law that is being taught?
The teaching is to be aware of your own attitude, your own spirit, the failing in yourself, the evil that is within you, and the redemption from that evil wrought in our Savior. We can talk about these folks in prison, those who have committed adultery, and others who have stolen, lied, or even thought of killing or hurting someone and say, “At least I didn’t do that.” Once again, only the fool compares him or herself to man because the comparison always falls in favor of the voice, never the one absent.
No folks, it is our own personal evil that exists within each one of us that Jesus is saying we must inspect. Your personal sin filled heart is the battleground. Not the evils that might smite you, might cut you short, might speak venomous words, or might falsely accuse you. You are to first inspect your heart. In this case, it is about you, and if you look at it honestly – it is not good, not good at all.
What do we actually do with this teaching then? What can we twist it into? Some of these things we have identified, but we can apply this more specifically to our lives and our spirit. What do we make the law in our evil hearts?
III. What our evil spirit makes the law
The scripture says that man’s heart is, “desperately wicked,who can know it” (Jer 17:9). In Ecclesiastes 7:20 we read, “there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.” We also find Job saying, “Who can say I have made my heart clean, I am pure from sin” (Job 20:9). Romans 3:10 tells us that “there is none righteous, no not one.”
We can look at ourselves and say, “I go to church, I don’t lie, I’m sure I’m going to Heaven.” We can look at others and say, “they went to church, they were always honest, they must be in Heaven, and if I want to be there too, then I guess I must do the same.” We miss the whole point in Nicodemus’ discussion with Jesus in John 3. Nicodemus did not understand the spiritual change that Jesus was advocating for the individual who might go to Heaven. It is not being a Pharisee, which Nicodemus was. It is not being a Jew, which Nicodemus was. It was being a changed person in the spirit. The change is so drastic in the individual that they turn their attention away from the world and how they look to the world, and instead turn their attention on Jesus. The change is so drastic in their spirit that they recognize their position before God. They recognize that compared to God they are wretched. They forget about comparing themselves to man. Jesus was describing this new birth to Nicodemus. This new birth changed a man for, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.”
The self-righteous Pharisees and scribes knew nothing of the spirit of the laws and had no understanding of the circumcision of the heart that is discussed in Leviticus 26:41. To simplify this teaching is to say that you are at least attending church. To simplify this is to say you are at least reading your Bible. To simplify this is to say, “At least I pray once a day,” “I do my devotions every day,” “I acknowledge God regularly,” or “I believe in God.” You believe in God, but do you believe in the Son of God? That is the only thing that gets you to Heaven.
To complicate it is to say I must read my Bible for fifteen minutes every day or I am going to hell. To complicate this is to say if ladies do not wear dresses whenever you walk, talk, or do anything you are damned. To complicate this is to say if you do not pray twice a day, you are destined for eternal torment.
Neither of these sets of teachings is absolutely biblical in themselves. What you must do is you must believe that Jesus Christ the Son of God is God, was crucified, was buried, and arose again the third day to defeat death and provide salvation for all mankind.
Once again, if you are right now thinking you are going to Heaven because you are in church, or because someone else said you needed to go to church, or because you think we know how to get to Heaven, yet you have not changed in your heart for Christ, you are destined for eternal torment. If you are here because you think you need to be, but you do not know the Savior, you are destined for eternal torment. If you are here and are thinking you have a ticket to Heaven because you come here in any way, you are destined for eternal torment. Your being here has nothing to do with your going to Heaven.
Anything that you think or say you do for God that helps this church, helps others, or makes you look better has nothing to do with your salvation. That, folks, is equivalent to your saying, “Well at least I help out at the church.” If you do things for anyone or any ministry and do them not unto the Lord, they are yours not God’s, and they do nothing for you. You should give your whole spirit to the work of the Lord. For anyone and everyone that is here, I pray that that starts here.
In this passage, Jesus is saying that we are to die to ourselves, die to the world, and separate from any and everything that would detract from our service to Him and Him alone. Then we are to take up our cross and follow Him. I encourage you to do that. I encourage you to separate from the world and live only for Christ. Your service to family, your service to any organization, your service to any personal agenda you have on earth is nothing and is dead. Only those things of the Lord are alive, and live eternally. Separate yourself from the things oriented to self, and live for Christ. That is the call, the instruction, and the challenge.
[1] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, One-volume edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976), 243.
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