Resist Not Evil

Introduction: The Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees

0:03 It seems like it's hard for me to keep that command because each Sunday morning for almost a year I've had to begin by saying, let us turn to Matthew chapter 5.

0:15 I trust it's not a vain repetition, but that we come to the word of God with expectancy, trusting the Holy Spirit to speak to us afresh as we open the book of God this morning. We are drawing to the end of this section in Matthew chapter 5, verses 21 to 48, in which our Lord Jesus gives us six parallel statements contrasting the prevalent teaching of the scribes and Pharisees with the true intent of God's holy law. In one sense, all that our Lord is saying is an expansion and an application of verse 20, For verily I say unto you, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, and of the Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Our Lord is delineating, describing, laying out before us that greater practical godliness which will be the pattern and practice of His own followers. So different from the scribes and Pharisees who forever stand as a symbol of external religion without the reality of inward experience. If you want to know...

1:39 If you want to know what you'll be like if you become a religious person without becoming a reborn person, then just study the Pharisees. For here's the perfect example of religion without the transforming experience of the Spirit of God within the human heart. If you want to know what it's like to become a religionist who's merely concerned with being in the right place, saying the right words, doing the right thing, but having no concern about the attitude of your heart, then just study the Pharisees and you have a perfect picture of what it's like to be a religionist who's merely concerned with external conduct, but not at all concerned with the attitude of the heart in its relationship to God. And I would remind you that when all is said and done, the basic purpose of the Bible is to teach men and women how to know God through Jesus Christ in vital heart experience. For the first time, this commandment is that we love Him with the whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. And so we're studying these statements of our Lord and we are now into the section bounded in verses 38 through 42.

2:57 This section on the eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And we're entitling the section, The Christian and Personal Revenge.

Mosaic Law vs. Pharisaical Perversion of 'Eye for an Eye'

3:09 Last week, we simply, we studied the first verse of the section. He hath heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And we tried to see just exactly what did Moses teach. And we saw that Moses did teach an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but only in terms of the responsibility of judicial courts.

3:32 Moses was giving legislation for the handling of legal problems in Israel. And in order to check, the tendency to revenge more than we've been harmed, he said to the judges, you're never to require 32 teeth for one tooth, two eyes for one eye, but your punishment meted out by the court is to be equal to the crime. Eye for eye, not less, not more. The purpose of this was to punish the evildoer, to restrain evil by example, and also to restrain the tendency in the human heart to take revenge, to take revenge beyond what is just.

4:14 And as we concluded last week, we tried to lay hold of this basic principle that has never changed, that God is dealing with sin in the world in two ways. By His grace, the operations of His Spirit, He is dealing with sin by changing men's hearts and giving them an inner constraint to please God and to avoid evil. But at the same time, God is also dealing with sin with His law. His grace works in men by an inner constraint.

4:51 His law works upon men by an external restraint.

4:58 And this is God's purpose and program today. In the world, God is saving men by the grace of Christ and giving them a love for holiness and honesty and gentleness and Christ-likeness. But at the same time, God has appointed human government to administer His law. Romans 13 we studied and 1 Peter 2, that God has put into the hands of human government the sword of punishment in order to restrain evil and to cause fear upon men.

5:32 Now, moving from the true intent of the Mosaic instruction, what had the Pharisees done? They had taken these precepts, three times mentioned in the Old Testament, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and they had made it not just a guide in case you wanted to press something into court, but they changed it into a command.

5:58 They so taught this that the people in their day figured, well, God commands us to take revenge, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, and they made it a personal matter. God gave it simply for the courts. They took it as a personal matter. And in taking the law, into their own hands, they had broken the very purpose for which God gave that precept.

6:20 God gave the precept to the courts in order to restrain the tendency of man to strike back. He had no right to strike back on his own. He had to simmer down long enough to take the proper legal channels, and by then he might have simmered down enough to forget the whole thing. It had a tendency to restrain evil.

6:36 The Pharisees so interpreted as to give a license to evil. It's amazing how the human heart will, risk the word of God to justify its own sin, isn't it? If the Bible teaches we're saved by grace and not by works, then people say, then I'll live as I please.

6:55 If the Bible says, if you are saved by grace, you will work, then other people say, well, my works must add to the salvation. The human heart is continually perverting the word of God, and only a heart taught by the Spirit can handle the Scriptures without destroying itself. But thank God, Jesus promised, wherever anyone wanted to be taught of the Spirit, he would be taught, and the Scriptures would become a guide to him. So much then for what Moses actually taught, what the Pharisees taught, now what did our Lord teach?

Christ's Command: Resist Not Evil

7:30 Let's look carefully at his words, beginning with verse 39. But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to me, to him the other also. And 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 too.

7:57 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow thee, turn not thou away.

8:05 You will notice that the outline of this passage is very simple. All that our Lord meant to teach on this subject of the Christian and personal revenge can be summarized, in this command, notice the command, resist not evil. And then four illustrations, the smiting of the cheek, the suing at the law for a coat, the compelling to go a mile, and giving to those that ask of us. So what is our job this morning?

8:33 Our task is to try to understand what this command meant, and then we're going to look at those four illustrations, and try to find what was behind each one of those illustrations. Do you see what our task is? Now I want you to work at this with me. I don't want to pour out eight or ten hours of mental labor and spiritual labor and exercise and just put it here for people to come and pick at it.

8:59 I want us together to try to discover what God is saying to us in this passage. You need to know what your attitude is to be when someone wrongs you, for we are constantly living in a world where wrong will be done to us. What is to be my attitude as a Christian in this area of personal revenge? Well, first of all, let's look at the command of Christ.

9:23 Our Lord said, I say unto you, resist not evil. In the original, there's the little word the, what we call the article. Resist not the evil one. And it seems to be a clear reference to the person who would do us evil.

9:39 Christ is not saying don't resist evil generally, but he's saying don't resist the one who would do you evil. And that's obvious. It's from the following verses. Notice then how for he says, For whosoever shall smite thee, and if any man will sue thee, and whosoever shall compel thee.

9:55 He's dealing with my attitude toward the person who would wrong me. And he says that I am not to resist the evil man who would wrong me. Now, what does the word resist mean? It's used about a dozen places in the New Testament.

10:15 Let me give several examples. In Galatians chapter 3, in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 11, Paul said, I came down to see Peter, I'm paraphrasing, and he said, I withstood him to his face for he was to be blamed. You remember what had happened? Some of the Jewish Christians had come there to Galatia, and Peter was mixing with the Gentiles until these Jewish people who said, we Jews have got a niche on Christianity, sort of like us.

10:42 We feel we Americans, we sort of got a niche on real Christianity. And when these Jews came down, Peter got scared. He said, oh boy, if they see me hobnobbing with these Gentiles, they might not like it. So he cut himself off from the Gentiles and began to just side with these Jewish Christians.

10:57 And so when Paul heard about this, he said, I came down, and I withstood him to the face. You get the picture? Paul stood up to Peter and said, Peter, you're wrong. You're doing something that's wrong.

11:08 I oppose you in the Lord. Now, that will give you a little idea what the word withstand means. Another place it's used, in Romans chapter 1, in Romans chapter 9, in verse 19, Paul asked the question, who hath resisted the will of God? Who has ever stood up to God when God has said, I'm going to do this?

11:28 What man has ever stood before God and said, oh no, you can't do it? No one, of course. But you get an idea what the word resist means. Then it's used again in James 4, 7.

11:39 Resist the devil. What is to be my attitude toward the wiles of the devil as he seeks to draw me to his side? I'm to resist him, stand up against him in the name of the Lord. Now, do you see what the word resist here means?

11:52 When Jesus said, don't resist the one who would do evil to you, he is saying, don't stand up to that person to actively oppose him. Oh, that's not natural. No, but that's what the command is. He says, you people have been taught by the scribes and pharisees that the law of God justifies your retaliation.

12:19 If someone blows, gives a blow on your cheek, stand up to him and give him a blow on his cheek. If someone makes a demand of you, stand up for your rights and make a demand of them. Ah, he said, no, no, this is not my purpose for you. My purpose is that you do not resist the one who would do evil to you, that evil person who wrongs you.

12:42 Don't resist him in order to satisfy a spirit of revenge. Don't retaliate to vindicate yourself. This is what our Lord is saying. Now, he's not saying that whenever someone sins against us, we're not to do anything about it.

12:59 No, he tells us what to do in Matthew 18, doesn't he? Verse 15, If thy brother sin against thee, go, tell him his fault between thee and him alone. I'm quoting now. So I don't want anybody to go out and say I don't agree with the pastor.

13:12 I'm quoting the Bible, God's word. Matthew 18, verse 15, And if thy brother doesn't hear thee, take with thee two witnesses. And if he doesn't hear them, take him to the church. And if he won't repent, what does it say to do?

13:24 Cast him out from your fellowship and count him as a heathen man and a publican. Wait a minute, that's standing up to the person who wrongs me, isn't it? Here Christ says, don't resist the person who wrongs you. Now he says, if somebody sins against me, I'm to tell him his sin and if he doesn't repent, I'm to bring witnesses and if he doesn't repent, I'm to bring him to the church.

13:44 How do you reconcile the two? How do you reconcile? How do we reconcile the example of Christ? It sure looked like he was resisting evil when we read in John 2 and in Luke 11 that he went into the temple and he made a scourge and he drove out those that were turning the temple into a house of merchandise and it says, he forbade them to pass through with their wares.

14:09 Apparently he stood at the gate of the temple and he took the part of an aggressor and anyone who tried to come into the temple with his wares to turn it into a house of merchandise, he said, dance. It sure looks like he was standing up to those that were doing evil, doesn't it? What about the example of the apostles? We could take many examples.

14:28 Now is there a contradiction? No, none whatsoever. What the Lord Jesus is forbidding is that standing up to someone who wrongs me out of a motive of personal revenge and merely to vindicate myself. If the fellowship of the church is involved, if the glory of the church and the glory of God is involved, then I have an obligation to stand against evil and those who would perpetrate evil.

15:03 Christ did it when he drove them out of the temple. Our Lord taught us that where the fellowship of the church is involved, we can't allow open sin in the church. It must be dealt with even to the place of cutting off the sinning brother if he won't repent. What our Lord is dealing with is this deep-seated problem that lies within every one of us.

15:26 This natural desire of our Adamic flesh to strike back merely because we have been wronged. The almighty I within us has been offended. And we stand up to the one who wrongs us not because God's glory is involved, but because our glory has been involved. Not because God's purpose has been frustrated, but because our purposes have been frustrated.

15:55 Isn't this the problem? And this is exactly what our Lord is dealing with. So his command is, don't resist the one who would do evil to you in terms of personal revenge for personal wrongs simply to vindicate myself. Alright now, we move to the four illustrations that our Lord gives of this principle.

Illustration 1: Turning the Other Cheek (Contempt to Person)

16:21 And as we do, I want us to try to find a common denominator that lies behind every one of these examples. Will you try to do this? I won't tell you what that common denominator is, or I may, I don't know, I won't make any rash promises. But I trust you'll see it before I tell you.

16:40 Now let's look at the first example. Notice. Whatever he says is going to illustrate this initial command, don't resist out of a motive of selfishness and personal revenge. Alright, example number one.

16:54 Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. Now what's involved in this illustration? Generally, if I were smitten on my right cheek, it would be because someone who was right-handed slapped me with the back of his hand. Like the Irish say, I'll give you the back of me hand.

17:13 It's a slap of what? Contempt, isn't it? Why did the Lord specify right cheek? I think he had this in mind.

17:21 Here's a place where someone does something, in contempt of my person. They give me the back of their hand. If it was to be the right cheek, I'm left-handed. I have to use this hand, the right hand.

17:32 And they'd smite me on this right cheek. It's an act of contempt which abuses me physically. So it's an insult to my person. Isn't that what it is?

17:46 And when someone insults my person, what's the reaction of my flesh? Come on now. If he gives me an open hand, I want to give him a closed fist. Isn't that the result?

18:00 Come on, let's be honest. Isn't that the result? Isn't that the normal reaction? If someone would use upon me a slap of contempt, I want to use a fist of retaliation.

18:12 This applies in the area of words. If someone says something to me which expresses contempt with a sentence of sarcasm, I want to give back two sentences with a little more biting sarcasm. If someone has ignored me in contempt of my person, then what's my natural reaction? I'll fix him.

18:34 I'll ignore him with double venom. Now our Lord is dealing with this. The principle is this. Notice it.

18:42 Whosoever shall smite thee, whosoever shall act toward you, your person, in an expression of contempt, He says, turn to him the other cheek. What did he mean by that? Suppose someone should come and today say, Who are you? Who do you think you are?

19:03 Preacher of the Bible. What do you know about the Bible? Slap me on one cheek. If you were to see this.

19:08 Now try to picture it. Suppose someone should burst through that door right now. And then I should turn the other cheek. What would it be an indication of?

19:17 It would be an indication of the very opposite of what's natural to the human heart. By turning the other cheek, I'm saying, I'm not going to vindicate myself and take vengeance upon you. I will expose myself to your contempt. I believe vengeance is God's.

19:35 He will repay me. So the turning of the cheek would be an outward expression of a certain attitude of the heart. Namely, my heart is free from the desire to take personal revenge. You see it?

19:50 Now that's the principle that our Lord is driving us. That my heart is ever to be free from retaliation when someone shows contempt to my person either by a physical act or by words or by attitudes or by a look or by anything. Now this must be qualified. It doesn't mean literally to turn the other cheek in every case for Christ didn't do this.

20:19 I want you to look at a passage in the Gospel of John that indicates this. John chapter 19. I'm sorry, John chapter 18. Notice what happened when our Lord Jesus was on trial.

20:31 John 18 and verse 21. John 18, 21. Why askest thou me? Ask them that heard me.

20:43 What have I said unto them? Behold, they know what I said. Verse 22. And when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Answerest thou the high priest so?

21:00 And Jesus turned the other cheek. No, he didn't. What did he do? Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil.

21:09 But if well, why smitest thou me? Christ didn't turn the other cheek, did he? Why? Why didn't he?

21:20 Here he told us if anyone smites you on one cheek, turn the other. Why didn't Christ do it? He did. He turned the cheek in spirit, for he went on to let them take him and put him to death.

21:31 Here was a matter where the laws of the land were being broken. They had no right to smite him upon the cheek. As a Jew being tried by Jewish law, they had no right to strike him. And our Lord Jesus here contended not for his own personal dignity, but he was contending for the upholding of the laws of the land.

21:51 He said, If I've done well, by what legal grounds do you smite me? He didn't say, Don't you know who you're smiting? He didn't vindicate himself. He was upholding the law.

22:03 So the Lord is not giving a literal injunction here to turn the other cheek, for he himself did not do it. He is not prohibiting us from the preservation of our lives. You remember Paul one time escaped from a certain town in the middle of the night going down over the wall in a basket? You remember our Lord when they wanted to take hold of him in Luke chapter 4 after he preached in the temple?

22:26 It said he passed through their midst. They wanted to put their hands on him and throw him over a cliff. The Lord is not forbidding us from the protection of our lives. If someone comes who's a maniac and is on a killing spree and would come and take hold of my throat and choke me to death, God doesn't expect me to just fall limp in his hands.

22:45 God would expect me to throw him off and do all I could to capture such a maniac. But what our Lord is talking about is the problem that every one of us face every day. Most of us have never faced a situation where our lives were in danger. If so, we have a right to defend ourselves.

23:04 Our Lord is not talking about the places where we're in a legal situation and we must seek to uphold the justice of laws of the land. He's talking about those many situations that we face every day where someone does something that we feel is in contempt of our person. And the natural reaction of Adam is strike back. Our Lord is saying no.

23:30 You must by your attitude and actions declare that your heart is free from the spirit of revenge and retaliation. For you see, if this is just to be mechanically obeyed, someone could come and smite me on one cheek and I could grit my teeth and with hate in my heart, I could turn the other cheek. The Lord's not talking about that. He's going home to the heart, beloved.

23:53 If it was simply something of turning the other cheek, this would be an easy command. But what the Lord is saying, you've got to have a heart like mine, free from revenge. And oh, before that, I bow and say, Lord Jesus, how unlikely I am. May I seek to give an illustration or two of this by way of application?

24:15 Billy Bray, some of you have read about his life. Have you ever read about Billy Bray at all? He was a Cornish miner. He was a profligate, wicked, cursing miner.

24:26 And he was a pugilist of no mean report. That's a prize fighter. And he could handle his dukes pretty well. And one day Billy got saved.

24:37 God wonderfully saved him. Thank God he didn't just, quote, make a decision. He got saved. Something happened to him.

24:43 Something happened to him. So much so that old Billy, they called him Happy Billy. Let me give you one or two things about him that may whet your appetite to read about his life. Billy was so filled with joy, they called him Happy Billy, that the very day his wife went home to be with the Lord, he literally, in the room where she passed on to be with the Lord, he danced around for joy and said, She's done with the doubters.

25:05 She's gone up with the shouters. Filled with joy. One time people say, Billy, what are you always shouting and praising the Lord for? Why don't you be quiet?

25:12 He says, Ah, if you put old Billy in a barrel, he'll shout glory, glory out the bunghole. He couldn't quiet him. He was just all the time praising and glorifying the Lord. Well, Billy went back down into the mine.

25:25 And in the mine was a work companion of Billy's who knew that Billy could handle himself. But he also knew that Billy had been converted. And he said, I've got my chance. He never would have dared pull this before Billy was converted.

25:37 He'd had his head handed to him. So he'd come up to Billy and without any provocation whatsoever, he punched him. And he knew what Billy could do to him. He knew that Billy, inside of a couple of minutes, could have laid him out flat there in the slate at the bottom of the mine.

25:49 But what did he do? Billy turned to him and said, May God forgive you, my friend, even as I forgive you. Now, he didn't stick his chin out and say, Hit me 20 more times. But he did turn the other cheek.

26:03 You see? He got the spirit of this. He was letting this man know, I'm not going to retaliate and vindicate myself. I'll let God do the vindicating.

26:14 You know what happened? That man came under such agony of mind and conviction that three days later he got saved. Why? Because he saw Jesus in a man.

26:27 You say, Why do you say he saw Jesus? Because my Bible says in 1 Peter 2, the best commentary on Jesus and the best commentary in the New Testament on this, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. What is reviling? It's contemptuous speech.

26:49 They came to him and said, Ha! You claim you're the Son of God! Come down from the cross! Save yourself!

26:56 When they reviled him, what did he do? There was no verbal response. It says when he suffered, that was physical abuse, it says he threatened not. But committed his cause to him that judges righteously.

27:14 And then Peter says, You and I are called to follow his steps. You love it? That's God's standard for us. Resist not him that would do evil to your person, who would by an act of the body or of words or looks who would show contempt to us.

27:38 Can you see what would happen if we by the grace of God and by the power of the Spirit began to apply this principle in our homes? You husbands and wives, what's the root of most of your squabbles? It's because you feel your husband or wife has done something or said something that was beneath your dignity. Hmm?

28:02 I haven't got what I deserve. I'm man of the house, don't you know, wifey dear? And so when they show an act of contempt by what they failed to do, maybe we ask that our dinner be ready at 6 o'clock sharp, and through carelessness it wasn't ready till 6.20, that's an act of contempt to my pedship.

28:28 And what did you do as a husband? You took vengeance into your hands. What about you wives? You feel it's a man's world?

28:38 Doesn't a wife deserve an easy hour or two at least once a week? I don't have a day off. He's got Saturday and Sunday off. Can't he help with the dishes?

28:48 And so he shows an act of contempt by walking right by your messy kitchen and going in and sitting down and folding his legs and reading the newspaper. He's shown an act of contempt to you as a wife, and what have you done? You know what the flesh does? It retaliates.

29:04 The Lord says, this is not to be the pattern of His truth. You've got to die this hour. You've got to die to that spirit that says, vengeance is mine and be willing for the vengeance to be His to whom it rightfully belongs. May I give another illustration of this that sticks in my mind?

29:25 Perhaps you've heard the story of the young man, Christian, who went into the service. And he determined that no matter what it cost, he was going to let these fellows know what it was to follow Christ. And so he would kneel every night by his bunk there in the barracks and pray. And the fellows would taunt him, make fun of him.

29:43 And one night, one of the men took his muddy boots and threw them at him and hit him. There in the dark, the next morning when the man got up and threw the boots, he found those same boots polished and shined and sitting at the bottom of his bunk. That's turning the other cheek, isn't it? You see what the Lord's driving at?

30:07 Those situations where we're actually in legal proceedings or where we have to defend our lives, those are rare, dear ones. Those are rare. And in those cases, this truth is balanced by other truths. But in the great majority of cases that put friction in the home, what causes fights between you as brothers and sisters and brothers and brothers in your home?

30:27 What causes scraps? Come on now, what does? You feel hurt. He's insulted me.

30:34 Almighty me. Oh, if you young people could begin to learn, it's not your business to repay, let the Lord repay. When your brother or your sister wants to start a scrap, what does it mean to turn the other cheek? It means that you walk out of the room.

30:53 You see what this would mean in churches? Someone feels, I haven't been given my rights. The pastor's ignored me. Well, the board has ignored me.

31:01 They've shown contempt to me. I'll show them. And so churches are split. Why?

Illustration 2: Giving the Cloak (Infringement of Legal Rights)

31:10 Simply because we haven't paused long enough to hear what the Lord is saying. Now let's move on to the second illustration quickly, shall we? I don't think we'll get through all four. Some of you are scared, so you'll have us here till three o'clock.

31:23 Let's look at the second one. And if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. Now what's involved in this? Well, we're not Jews and we don't live in Palestine, so it's not clear to us on the surface.

31:46 We need a little word of explanation. You remember, you read in the Old Testament about the mantle of the prophets and the mantle fell from Elijah to Elisha. This mantle or outer garment was like a heavy blanket. Sometimes it was made of goat skin or some other kind of heavy material.

32:02 And a man would wear this mantle like a shawl draped over his shoulders for warmth. And some of them even wear it in the hottest of summer. And they say, what keeps cold out will keep heat out too. So they'd wear it in the heat of summer.

32:16 I was doing some reading from someone who spent some time in the Palestine area. And this coat was used as a blanket at night. So if you had someone over to your house, you never had to worry about having enough blankets for your guests because this outward shawl, this coat, would be his blanket. And there was actually a law set forth in Exodus 22 verses 26 and 27 that if you took a man's outer garment, this thing that the Lord calls a cloak, if you took it as a surety for something, we call it collateral in our day.

32:50 Someone says, what's the term we use in little things? I forgot what the term is. But someone says, look, you borrow my car, let me hold your wallet for security. Then when you come back, you get your wallet, you give me my car back.

33:01 Well, a man might do this with a coat. He might borrow, say, my lawnmower. And I'd say, all right, you give me your coat until you bring my lawnmower back. Well, the Jewish law actually stated in Exodus 22 that you couldn't keep this coat overnight even if you took it as surety, if you took it as pledge for something.

33:16 Because this was so important to a man. It was his warrant. Now, notice what Christ said. If any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, he couldn't legally sue me for my outer garment, so he sues me for my undergarment, my tunic.

33:30 Would it be like my shirt? Now, Christ says, if he sues you for the one, what should you do? Ah, stand up and say, I want your coat. Give me your colson.

33:43 What's he driving at? What do you think he's driving at? He's dealing with these situations where someone is touching my legal rights. Don't I have a right to my outer garment as well as my undergarment?

33:56 Christ is talking about those situations where someone is touching my legal rights. And what's the normal reaction of the flesh when anybody touches my legal rights? As good Americans who believe in the dignity of the individual, we plant our feet on the ground and we draw the line and we say, here our mind begins. Isn't that the reaction of the flesh?

34:22 Come on now, isn't it? Let me make it practical. Your brother or your wife or husband spends too much time in front of the mirror in the bathroom and you want to get in there and shave or crimp your hair. I've got a right to as much time as they've got.

34:38 They just trample on my rights and so you've got a family fuss. This is a very practical deal. I'll work like this for him. I'll fix him.

34:53 I'll just give him a bare minimum. Hmm? My rights. The reaction of the flesh wherever my legal rights are touched is to fight tooth and nail for every last shred of my rights.

35:07 Now what does Christ say should be the principle that animates his people? Notice carefully. If any man would come and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. What's he driving at?

35:18 He says don't manifest the spirit of reaction that is based on defending your rights. Make it known that for the sake of peace and testimony you for your rights. Isn't that what would happen if a man comes and he's trying to get a reaction out of me? He says all right, Buster, I'll get you.

35:36 I've got a crooked lawyer on my side and I'll get your coat. And I turn to him and say don't fight too bad for it here. Take my coat. By pulling off my outer garment, what am I saying?

35:48 I'm saying look, you're not going to get me into a scrap about legal rights. Now this isn't talking about a major issue where the provision for my family or the possession of my home might be involved. The Bible says I have to provide for my own. And if some crooked real estate man or some crooked lawyer or some other guy would try to rob me of my home and put my family and me out in the street by crooked means, God's not talking, the Lord's not talking about that.

36:16 The cloak is a rather incidental thing. And again, most of us never have a problem with people trampling on our legal rights when it comes to something big like our car, our home, our business. I imagine there's probably not a person here who's ever had any kind of a problem like that. But what about those many situations day by day where what we figure are our legal rights are demanded of us in the home, in the school, in the relationship we have to our government, in the relationship we have to our employers, this is what God is talking about.

36:54 As someone has said, the Christian is not to be concerned about the personal insults or personal defense, but when it's a matter of honor and justice, righteousness and truth, he must be concerned and thus he protests. This is what Christ did. He stood for legal rights when they smote him on the face and they had no right to. Why?

37:16 Not to defend himself but to uphold the law. Paul did the same thing in Acts 16 where they had imprisoned him illegally as a Roman citizen and they came down and said, look, we're in a mess here. You guys get out of town. Paul says, oh, not on your life.

37:30 You tell the people who put us here, they come down and get us out. He said, I'm going to uphold the law and those who've broken it are going to be ashamed. Now Paul wasn't vindicating himself. He was vindicating the law.

37:44 But when it comes to this matter of self-vindication, may I speak very practically this morning, this is one of the great problems in the whole civil rights issue. I've gone on record from this pulpit and will continue to do so, that any Christian who has any hard attitude to any man of any race or any color contrary to love and to perfect openness and willingness to fellowship with him, that Christian is living in gross sin. And I thank God that as a fellowship we've had no problem here along this line that I know. And I also believe that every person in a minority group who's being persecuted wrongly has a right to take the proper legal action and move through the proper legal channels to try to alleviate injustice. I believe that with all my heart. But you know what's behind the great mass of those who are involved in civil rights issues? Ours!

38:44 And we're going to have them at any cost. And I tell you, the frown of Almighty God is upon it, just as much as His frown is upon those professing Christians in the North as the South who've shut their church doors to Negroes, who've shut their hearts to fellowship with them, employers who've refused to acknowledge their dignity as creatures of God. The frown of God is on it and the curse of God is on it. But I must be faithful to the word and say the curse of God is upon much of those clamoring for rights for the only motivation is, I want my rights.

39:22 See, this is what Christ is talking against. No, this is the problem in our homes. My rights as a husband, my rights as a wife, my rights as a son or daughter. Don't I have rights, rights, rights, rights, rights?

39:38 Can you think what would happen for one week in a home where the father and mother and the children were dead to this matter of my rights and simply sought by the power of the Spirit to manifest the attitude which said, if you're going to press me for my rights, you'll get no retaliation from me. Do you think what a home would be like? Let me get more specific. Someone sins against us and we say, I've got a right to have an apology from you and until you apologize, I don't think you're going to get next to me.

40:21 Hmm? That never happens to you? See how searching this is? This has an application to the government, has an application to our work.

40:43 Wherever my legal rights are touched, the flesh rebels and says, I'll stand for my rights, Christ said no. Forgo your rights for the sake of testimony, for the sake of the honor of God. Now we move hurriedly to the third one and we'll close with this. The second mile, what's it mean?

Illustration 3: Going the Second Mile (Imposition on Personal Liberties)

40:59 What's it mean? Notice carefully. Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him two. The word twain simply means two.

41:10 It was the right of government in a time when our Lord spoke and the Romans of course ruled over Palestine, that if a group of soldiers were coming along with some of their supplies and they saw you, they'd say, look, we want this taken from this point to that point, you carry it. You didn't have any choice. You remember it says that when Jesus was going out to be crucified, they compel one, Simon of Cyrene, to bear his cross. He just happened to be in the area and they said, you, Buster, come here.

41:39 We got a job for you. Now, when the government came and said, now look, you've got this, you've got to do, what's the reaction of the flesh? Come on now. You put yourself in Simon's place.

41:49 Here you're just out for an innocent afternoon at the market and some Roman soldier lays hold of your shoulder and says, look, buddy, I got a job for you. And he places a rough cross on your back and says, now get. I'm paraphrasing. What would your reaction be?

42:04 He'd say, who in the world are you guys? Ah, yeah, I know you've got the right to do it. All right, I'll carry it. But I'll carry it only the last foot of the mile that I'm required.

42:16 And you just try to get me to carry it one foot more. Wouldn't that be the reaction of the flesh? He'd say, all right, if the government makes me do it, I'll do it, but I'll do just right up to what they require and not an ounce more. And all the while I'm doing it, I won't do it with a glad heart.

42:32 I'll do it grudgingly. Now, that's the natural reaction. And if that isn't your natural reaction, either you don't know your heart or you're just plain a liar. Because that's the reaction of the flesh in every one of us.

42:44 Now, what is the principle that's involved here? Jesus said, if he compels you to go one mile, go a second mile. What would that involve? Now, get the picture.

42:53 Here a Roman soldier has come and he's put a burden on your back and he says, look, you carry that for the next 5,280 feet. And lo and behold, when you come to the mile, you turn to him and you say, yes, sir, where do we go from here? I'll carry it the next mile. What would this indicate to the Roman soldier?

43:09 He'd turn and say, look, this person is actually doing this willingly and he's actually doing it with the kind of spirit that doesn't begrudge this requirement. What makes him different? In the next mile, he might be able to tell him about his Christ who's changed his heart from a self-centered heart that always says, if my personal liberties are touched, watch out. That's the problem here.

43:39 The slap on the face, my dignity, my person. The cloak, my legal rights. The second mile, my personal liberties. And the Lord Jesus is saying, make it known that you will gladly submit and relinquish your personal liberties to constituted authority.

44:03 I want to repeat that. I will gladly submit and relinquish my personal liberties in respect of constituted authority. May we apply this to our taxes? The Bible says, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.

44:23 Tribute to whom tribute is due. Now what's your attitude when you have to make out your income tax check? If you have to give more? Or when you get some back, what's your attitude?

44:35 Come on now, be honest. What's your attitude to taxes? Hmm? Is it all right that tight-fisted uncle sitting up there in Washington?

44:44 I'll give him what he asks but not a penny more. And where there's any benefit of the doubt, he doesn't get it, I do. And so you trim corners on figuring out your income tax. Whoso will compel thee to pay your 20%?

45:02 Make it obvious that you pay it gladly and when there's a benefit of the doubt, give that extra 1% benefit to uncle. That's what the Lord's talking about. My attitude to taxes. Students, not only at the Bible school and colleges, but you fellows and girls in grade school and junior high and high school, God's put your teachers over you.

45:23 They say, I want a certain amount of work. We call it that ugly word. I don't know if I should use it in church. Such a bad word.

45:30 Homework. Homework. Now what's your attitude to homework? I'll tell you what the attitude of some of you is.

45:38 Alright, that teacher trying to spoil my fun, clog up my afternoons. I'll do what he requires but only the bare minimum. Hmm? That's your attitude?

45:51 And so you just scratch off the assignment carelessly, sloppily and grudgingly and then you hand it in. You think you can have any kind of testimony to a teacher like that? You parents say, give it to him, Pastor. Alright.

46:09 I want to turn the tables. How about you parents and your attitude to your employers? Hmm? And they require things that go beyond what you thought was involved in your original contract and they begin to infringe on your personal liberties.

46:24 They promised you certain amount of days off and lo and behold they aren't keeping their promise. And they said that you'd have X number of Saturdays free or something else and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in and they've come in You're throwing Jesus out because He carried it this far. Not only in His words, but in His life.

47:46 Anybody touch your personal liberties this past week? What was your attitude?

47:53 You were on your knees in your room praying and your roommate come busting through the door. He had no business being there. He promised to be out that time. What was your attitude?

48:04 Anybody want to try to live the Sermon on the Mount in your own strength?

48:08 Anybody here today can face this standard and say, boy, that's just for me. That suits me just fine. And, beloved, this reveals that the basic problem of the human heart is a little four-letter word. S-E-L-M.

The Example of Christ: Self-Emptying and Self-Giving

48:26 And self wants to defend itself and stand up for its rights and stand up and fight tooth and nail for its dignity. But I would turn your eyes in closing this morning to one of whom it is said, and I'm quoting two phrases from two verses, and I want you to listen carefully to them. In Philippians, it says that the Lord Jesus emptied himself. In Galatians 2.20, it says, he gave himself.

49:02 Emptied himself and gave himself. You know what I'd love to do at this Christmas time for every child of God, for every Christian? If I had the power, I'd like to declare a moratorium on all buying and exchanging of gifts, all the trappings and all the garbage connected with Christmas. I'd like to declare a moratorium on the whole business and ask every Christian to sit in his room for eight hours quietly with an open Bible and meditate on those two words.

49:37 He emptied himself.

49:46 He had inherent right to be the object of the glory and honor and praise of all the angels of heaven, of all the redeemed in heaven. Amen. Amen. He was the focal point of all the worship in that place of glorious burning light.

50:04 It says he emptied himself. He laid it all...

50:10 And he came to earth to do what? In order to give.

50:19 Did he suffer any injustices and indignities to his person? Did he? They looked at him and said, you've got a demon. They spun his face.

50:31 They plucked the beard from his face. And it says he reviled the devil. He reviled the devil. He reviled the devil.

50:36 He threatened.

50:43 Did he suffer any impingement of his personal liberties? Did he? From all eternity he was unbounded by the limitations of a physical body. He was the God who made heaven and earth.

50:56 And now he limits his liberties so that he becomes weary and has to sit down by a well and ask a harlot for a drink of water.

51:07 No place that he can call his own.

51:12 Did he forego his personal liberties? What about his legal rights? Someone who was a lawyer has shown that there were literally dozens of illegalities done to the Lord Jesus in his trial that put him on the cross. But he forewent his legal rights.

51:31 And beloved, if he didn't do it, you and I wouldn't have a Savior. But I stand to proclaim to you that the world will not know about it until they see that self-same spirit breathed into the bosoms of the children of God. You see?

Conclusion: The Selfless Spirit and the Need for Christ

51:56 You can see the obvious application of the last illustration. I'm not even going to deal with it tonight. But in each this morning, in each one of these instances, some living fiber of self is touched. My dignity as a person, my rights, my liberties, my possessions.

52:14 And in every case, Jesus said as a Christian, you must never act motivated by self. But you must die to self and be motivated by the selfless spirit of God. And you must die to self. And you must die to self.

52:25 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why you need to be saved to practice the Sermon on the Mount. And I'm praying that this sermon will show some of you, you've got a decision and a profession, but you're not saved because you've never once experienced this selfless spirit. Your whole attitude has been one of my rights and my dignity and my liberties and my possessions.

52:52 And the rest of us who at least in some measure have tasted it, may God send us down in our faces crying out, crying for mercy that we've been so unlike our Savior and then ask Him to fill us with His Spirit that we might be like Him. Can you think what would happen if just this hundred people here this morning would begin to experience what our Lord has said? Resist not Him that would do evil to you. Turn the cheek.

53:20 Give the cloak. Go the second mile. Give of your possessions. And we must be filled with the Spirit if ever we're to do it.

53:31 And I know it'll happen and I don't know how to avoid it.

53:37 In two minutes I'll pronounce the benediction.

53:40 Some of you go out of here and go right home and you'll have a rip-snorting fight this afternoon with your husband or wife and with your children.

53:47 Beloved, don't you think I know it goes on? And it breaks my heart.

53:54 It breaks it right down here.

53:57 Some of you young people will go right home and before you even finish your meal you're going to have a fight with your brother or sister because you're right. See?

54:06 Some of you before the week is out are going to completely lose any opportunity to testify to your boss or to your teacher because you're going to have to grudgingly do what you've been required rather than gladly submitting to constituted authority and going the second time.

54:23 Now what's a pastor do? You put yourself in my place, will you? Will you? What would you do now?

54:31 Having let this passage rip your own heart open for a good part of a day and a half,

54:39 having sought to lay it out clearly,

54:43 what would you do?

54:46 I think all you could do is what I'm going to do is just to pray that somehow God will help us to realize that this is His Word. And it'll drive us to Christ until we know that He's working in us, that which He's required of us. And that's all I ask as a pastor. But with anything less than that I can't be satisfied.

55:10 Shall we pray?