The NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - Public Vs. Private Enemies： When To Stop Fighting Back

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00:00:51.580 Please join me in standing for the reading of God's word, our text for today, finishing

00:00:55.580 now the fifth chapter of the gospel of matthew is matthew chapter 5 verses 38 through 48 matthew

00:01:02.300 chapter 5 verses 38 through 48 i'll read our text in its entirety when i finish reading the text i'm

00:01:07.700 going to say this is the word of the lord at which point i would appreciate very much if you would

00:01:11.540 join me in saying thanks be to god one final time our text for today is matthew chapter 5 verses 38

00:01:17.200 through 48 the bible says this you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a

00:01:23.580 tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right

00:01:29.520 cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have 0.85

00:01:36.460 your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the

00:01:42.840 one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. You have heard that it 0.94

00:01:49.100 was said you shall love your neighbors and hate your enemy but I say to you love your enemies and

00:01:55.400 pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven for he

00:02:02.120 makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust

00:02:09.540 for if you love those who love you what rewards you have do not even the tax collectors do the

00:02:16.220 saying and if you greet only your brothers what more are you doing than others do not even the 0.63

00:02:22.800 Gentiles do the same you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect this is the

00:02:29.920 word of the Lord all right please be seated let's go ahead and dive in and our call to worship as

00:02:37.920 we were looking through the Psalms we've been choosing selecting a particular passage in the

00:02:43.600 book of psalms each lord's day to use as our prayer of ascent our call to worship in the

00:02:49.720 beginning of our liturgy and because we've been working through the psalms as you've already

00:02:53.460 heard me say many of the passages throughout the psalms deal with the reality of enemies

00:02:59.320 and yet we have clearly in our text today matthew chapter 5 verses 38 through 48

00:03:04.720 the memorable words of jesus and what he says to all his disciples and how they should regard

00:03:11.540 their enemies. And so there are what we might call an apparent paradox or what is a seemingly

00:03:21.140 a contradiction in the Word of God. Now, within the Word of God, we know that we have no real

00:03:26.460 contradiction. We have no real paradox because the Bible has been written by 40 different human

00:03:32.860 authors over the course of 1,500 years, a collection of 66 books. But at the 30,000-foot

00:03:42.000 view, we can all agree that the Bible really has only one author in the divine sense, that God

00:03:47.600 wrote the Bible. He wrote the Bible, the Holy Spirit inspiring men. And so the Bible, each of

00:03:53.340 these books, contains different genres and different elements of the human characteristics

00:03:58.760 and personalities of the men who wrote the Bible.

00:04:02.080 But because the Holy Spirit is the one

00:04:04.260 in the divine sense who inspired every biblical text,

00:04:07.520 we know that the Holy Spirit did not allow

00:04:09.740 for any real contradiction.

00:04:12.380 So what do you do with text in the Old Testament,

00:04:15.580 in the Psalms, where David says things like this,

00:04:18.680 do I not hate those who hate you?

00:04:22.760 And David doesn't merely say that he hates evil

00:04:25.580 or hates wicked in an abstract way.

00:04:29.920 He doesn't merely say, I hate feminism. 0.96

00:04:34.920 But David would say, no, I hate feminist.

00:04:40.100 David would not just say, I hate Marxism. 0.82

00:04:43.020 He would say, no, I hate Marxist.

00:04:46.020 That there actually is something to hating

00:04:48.840 not only ideology or pernicious false religions or certain sins, but actually hating those who

00:05:02.240 perpetuate and commit those sins, especially anyone who attempt others to join them in sin.

00:05:10.960 We see the scripture that talks about if anyone would lead a little child astray,

00:05:16.960 that it would be better for him to tie a millstone around his neck

00:05:20.900 and be cast into the ocean.

00:05:23.160 Jesus has very harsh, strong words,

00:05:27.040 not just towards entities,

00:05:30.480 not just towards impersonalized, abstract ideas and evil,

00:05:37.520 but towards people, people who perpetuate evil,

00:05:42.200 people who deceive others into joining them in evil.

00:05:45.860 And we see this throughout the scripture time and time again, especially in the book of Psalms.

00:05:52.440 But we also find our text today where Jesus tells us to love our enemies.

00:05:57.860 He tells us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us.

00:06:04.100 And so as we seek as Christians to obey the words of Jesus and to have a whole biblical theology

00:06:10.520 and to not do a weird eisegesis

00:06:18.620 where we're reading things into the text

00:06:20.460 and then also in a selective manner

00:06:23.000 ripping certain passages of scripture

00:06:25.840 out of their larger context

00:06:27.900 in order to assemble them together

00:06:30.700 and to make for ourselves,

00:06:32.280 fashion for ourselves doctrines

00:06:34.540 that would meet our own personal fancies.

00:06:37.380 We don't want to do that.

00:06:38.140 We want to have a whole biblical theology. 1.00

00:06:39.900 I said last week we want to seek to not be biblicist, and one of the ways to not be biblicist in a negative sense is to have an all-encompassing biblical theology. 0.88

00:06:51.380 Systematic theology is important. 0.90

00:06:54.300 There are many who have criticized systematic theology, saying, well, that's man imposing a man-made system on the Word of God.

00:07:04.020 When the reality is that precisely the opposite is actually true.

00:07:09.080 What we're seeking to do instead is you're actually seeking to look through the Word of God, and you're assuming that if the Bible actually does have one divine author, 40 human authors, but inspired by one divine author, and if this author is the Holy Spirit, who is God, and if the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever, behold, I changeth not,

00:07:31.520 then we would we would be right to assume that God would have some sort of system without

00:07:41.280 contradiction in understanding his word so systematic theology is not imposing on the word

00:07:47.460 of God the systems of men but rather assuming that there that God himself has a system a way of

00:07:55.380 thinking, as it were, that is consistent and not in contradiction with himself. And that if we read

00:08:02.100 the Word of God in its entirety, and we do so carefully, that we should be able to draw out of

00:08:08.400 the Word of God, not inputting, not eisegeting, but exegeting out of the Word of God, a systematic

00:08:14.380 way of thinking, a systematic theology. And the reality is that the Bible is complex. It is not

00:08:22.020 contradiction, but it is complex. On the one hand, we have David saying, do I not hate those who hate

00:08:28.380 you? Remember, brothers and sisters, just as a quick example, God will not be punishing for

00:08:35.680 eternity in hell sin, but he will be punishing for eternity in hell sinners. It is not the abstract

00:08:44.060 spirit of lust that will suffer in hell for eternity. It is not murder that will be suffering

00:08:51.740 in hell. It is murderers that will suffer in hell. It's people. It is people, not just sin, but sinners

00:09:00.500 who God will punish in hell, those who refused the only salvation that can be found, the only grace

00:09:08.420 to be found, which is in the Lord Jesus Christ through faith. And so David says, do I not hate

00:09:14.660 those who hate you, not just the sins, but the sinners. And yet Jesus says, love your enemies

00:09:22.320 and pray for those who persecute you. He also talks in our text today about turning the other

00:09:28.660 cheek, that if you are asked for your tunic to give your cloak as well, and if you are asked

00:09:34.780 to go one mile, to go a second mile in addition. So theologians, systematic theologians, and

00:09:43.660 throughout church history,

00:09:44.940 have sought to reconcile these ideas

00:09:47.540 of the Christian having enemies

00:09:49.780 in a godly fashion, at times,

00:09:52.480 even hating our enemies,

00:09:54.300 and yet also reconciling that

00:09:55.920 with the words of Jesus

00:09:56.840 to pray for our enemies,

00:09:58.360 love our enemies,

00:09:59.000 and pray for those who persecute us

00:10:00.920 and being willing to turn the other cheek.

00:10:04.580 Historically, throughout church history,

00:10:06.340 systematic theologians,

00:10:07.580 one of the ways they've reconciled

00:10:09.040 what appears to be two contradicting ideas

00:10:11.260 is by bifurcating enemies

00:10:13.600 into two categories, private enemies and public enemies.

00:10:17.980 Private enemies and public enemies.

00:10:21.280 I'm going to be utilizing Matthew Henry

00:10:23.300 and his commentary in our text today,

00:10:25.400 and then I'll seek to explain a little bit more

00:10:28.300 of the distinction between a private enemy

00:10:30.940 and a public enemy.

00:10:32.240 Matthew Henry, on our text today, he says this,

00:10:35.520 in case of injury, it was a command

00:10:38.240 that everyone should of necessity

00:10:40.640 require such satisfaction,

00:10:42.380 That is, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life.

00:10:46.480 It's one of the things that's mentioned in our text today.

00:10:49.680 In all which places it is appointed to be done by the magistrate,

00:10:54.760 not personally, not as vigilantes, but by the civil magistrate,

00:11:00.200 those who have been appointed to deal out justice in this life,

00:11:05.440 who bears not the sword in vain,

00:11:07.500 But he is the minister of God, an avenger to execute wrath.

00:11:13.260 We find that in Romans chapter 13, verse 4.

00:11:16.700 It was a direction to the judges of Israel what punishment to inflict in cases of maims, maiming,

00:11:26.100 for terror to such as would do mischief on the one hand,

00:11:30.440 and for restraint to such that would have mischief done to them on the other hand.

00:11:37.500 that they may not insist on a greater punishment than is proper.

00:11:42.780 It is not life for eye, nor limb for tooth,

00:11:47.060 but observe rather a proportion.

00:11:50.120 So, what Matthew Henry is saying is that

00:11:53.800 one of the things that we find first before getting to the words of Jesus

00:11:57.240 in Matthew 5, 38-48,

00:11:59.200 Jesus, when he says, you have heard it said,

00:12:01.320 he's referencing Old Testament scripture.

00:12:03.560 But what Jesus is saying, he's not going against the law of Moses.

00:12:07.500 The law of God is immutable, meaning that it doesn't change. It's perfect. God doesn't say this is just in 1500 BC, but it's no longer just in 2024. God's sense of justice doesn't fluctuate.

00:12:25.700 It doesn't change with the culture.

00:12:27.560 It doesn't change with popular opinion.

00:12:29.880 So Jesus is not saying, you have heard it said, tooth for tooth, eye for eye.

00:12:35.080 And that's something that God did say, and it was good for a time, but it's no longer good today.

00:12:42.520 That's not what Jesus is insinuating.

00:12:45.460 What Jesus does all throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7,

00:12:49.980 when he refers back to the law of God, you have heard it was said,

00:12:53.120 is he's appealing back to Moses,

00:12:56.460 Moses as a prophet delivering to Israel

00:12:59.260 the immutable and infallible law of God.

00:13:03.080 And then what Jesus is doing when he says,

00:13:05.100 but I tell you, what he's saying

00:13:07.320 is he's expounding upon the law of God.

00:13:09.460 He's executing the law of God

00:13:11.080 and he's giving, he's not replacing the law of God

00:13:14.340 as though it's flawed and needs to be improved.

00:13:17.140 But what he's doing is he's expounding

00:13:19.560 and clarifying the law of God,

00:13:21.160 getting back to the original meaning

00:13:22.820 that God had in the first place.

00:13:25.480 You've heard me say this many times.

00:13:26.860 I'll say it again

00:13:27.520 because it bears a reminder

00:13:31.280 throughout this series,

00:13:32.520 throughout the Sermon on the Mount.

00:13:35.040 What happened is that

00:13:36.460 God gave the law to Moses. 0.93

00:13:37.900 Moses gave the law to Israel

00:13:39.320 and it was good and holy and right. 0.82

00:13:42.060 But then what happened 0.97

00:13:42.960 is that Jewish teachers

00:13:44.400 throughout the history of Israel, 0.93

00:13:46.440 they came and took the law of God 0.98

00:13:48.500 and they perverted it.

00:13:50.220 So when Jesus comes and he says,

00:13:52.040 you have heard it was said, but I tell you, he's not saying God spoke through Moses in the Old

00:13:57.760 Testament and God was wrong. But I tell you, no, he's also not saying God spoke through Moses and

00:14:05.260 it was right for that time, but it's no longer applicable today. No, he's saying, here's the law,

00:14:12.480 the law of God spoken through Moses. It's holy and perfect and right. It's immutable. That means

00:14:17.320 unchanging. It is infallible. That means it does not err. But this law has been perverted by your

00:14:23.920 religious rulers in your day. And their commentary on the law of God ultimately undoes the law of God. 0.94

00:14:33.480 And so I'm going now to provide God's commentary on God's law. I, Jesus Christ, who am God,

00:14:41.420 am going to give you God's meaning,

00:14:44.240 God's interpretation of God's law.

00:14:46.940 I'm going to not replace Moses,

00:14:50.120 but what I'm going to do

00:14:51.280 is I'm going to dust off the law of Moses,

00:14:54.200 which is God's law, 0.82

00:14:55.740 and get rid of all the perversions

00:14:58.040 and all the abstractions

00:15:00.300 and all the twistings

00:15:02.320 that your religious rulers

00:15:04.320 have done throughout the centuries

00:15:05.800 and get back to what Moses meant,

00:15:08.760 a.k.a. what God meant,

00:15:10.560 a.k.a. what I meant, I being not Joel, but Jesus.

00:15:15.500 That's what's going on.

00:15:17.840 And one of the things, according to Matthew Henry

00:15:20.420 and commentating on our text today,

00:15:21.940 one of the things that Jesus was saying

00:15:23.820 is he was not saying eye for eye, tooth for tooth.

00:15:28.760 You've heard it said long ago,

00:15:29.800 but I say love your enemies

00:15:31.160 and pray for those who persecute you.

00:15:34.160 Jesus is not saying that there should be no civil magistrate.

00:15:37.680 jesus is not saying to give another example that there should be a civil magistrate

00:15:43.480 but that the civil magistrate should be merciful no jesus is saying that private individual

00:15:50.400 disciples of him of jesus christians as individuals that we should be merciful

00:15:56.700 as individuals so this is the distinction between private and public enemies one of the distinctions

00:16:02.940 one way of bearing it out.

00:16:04.860 As individuals, Christian individuals,

00:16:07.720 disciples of Jesus,

00:16:09.060 we should be marked by mercy.

00:16:13.100 But in a public, corporate sense,

00:16:15.980 the civil magistrate should not be known for mercy.

00:16:20.260 You've heard it said,

00:16:22.020 if you want mercy, go to church. 0.55

00:16:27.420 And that's a good saying.

00:16:29.580 The sentiment, the general sentiment there is true.

00:16:31.860 If you're looking for forgiveness, you're looking for mercy, go to church. 0.66

00:16:37.800 Unless, of course, you're looking for forgiveness when it comes to holding a different view of World War II.

00:16:44.180 Then you need to be very, very particular which church you go and look for that forgiveness in.

00:16:49.220 But in general, it's been said, and yes, that was a fair quip.

00:16:54.680 And there will be more in the future.

00:16:57.340 So, that being said, it has been generally said of churches.

00:17:01.060 Today, you have to be very particular which one you pick.

00:17:03.720 But, in general, churches have been known for mercy.

00:17:07.860 And so, the old saying has been true.

00:17:09.880 If you're looking for mercy, go to church.

00:17:11.960 Where should you not look for mercy?

00:17:14.320 From the civil magistrate.

00:17:16.260 The one who God ordained to bear the sword to deal out justice.

00:17:22.600 Again, we have to think in categories.

00:17:24.640 We have to think systematically.

00:17:25.820 we have to think private and public, individual and groups, corporate, and also in terms of spheres,

00:17:32.100 church versus state. The civil magistrate has not been ordained by God for a ministry of mercy.

00:17:39.680 The civil magistrate, that's not its function. That's not its purpose. So when Jesus says,

00:17:46.100 you have heard it was said, this is what he's contradicting. Because he says, on the one hand,

00:17:51.260 you've heard it said, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, but I tell you, love your enemies and

00:17:56.780 pray for those who persecute you. So is Jesus going against Moses, or is Jesus saying to Israel

00:18:02.220 in terms of their civil magistrate that they shouldn't uphold justice, proportional justice

00:18:06.860 for crimes anymore? That now people can commit crimes with impunity? You can go around maiming

00:18:13.180 your neighbor, you can chop off his limb, or you can gouge out his eye, or you can knock out his 0.76

00:18:19.900 tooth, and according to Jesus, a civil magistrate shouldn't do a darn thing about it? Of course 0.63

00:18:26.060 that's not what Jesus is saying. No, what Jesus is saying, you have heard it said, eye for eye,

00:18:32.060 tooth for tooth, but I tell you, what he's contradicting is not Moses. What is implied

00:18:36.840 in the text here is that he is contradicting the explanation and exegesis and commentaries

00:18:44.280 of the Jewish religious leaders of his day on Moses.

00:18:49.040 What they were doing, the religious rulers

00:18:51.360 in Jesus' day in Israel, 0.94

00:18:52.880 is they were taking the law of Moses

00:18:54.740 and saying that private citizens

00:18:57.300 can carry it out themselves.

00:19:00.580 And that's where Jesus is disagreeing.

00:19:03.000 No, no, no.

00:19:03.660 I say to you, private citizens,

00:19:07.760 individual disciples of Jesus,

00:19:10.120 individual Christians,

00:19:10.920 as individual Christians and as households,

00:19:14.280 As my disciples, you don't go and retrieve an eye for an eye

00:19:21.980 or a tooth for a tooth.

00:19:23.740 But instead, you as Christians, you show mercy.

00:19:28.720 And the first place you show mercy is privately behind closed doors

00:19:32.120 in your prayer life by praying for those who persecute you.

00:19:37.420 See, Jesus, what he's contradicting is not Moses.

00:19:40.160 He's contradicting the Pharisees, the Sadducees,

00:19:42.680 and the religious rulers of his day 0.77

00:19:44.880 who had taken Moses

00:19:46.140 and applied what was meant

00:19:47.820 to be carried out by the state,

00:19:50.140 applied that to the individual.

00:19:53.240 They had begun

00:19:54.140 because they were not compassionate men.

00:19:56.600 They were men who very much

00:19:58.260 were out for blood.

00:19:59.140 How do you know that the Pharisees

00:20:01.120 were out for blood?

00:20:03.680 Well, Jesus.

00:20:06.380 They held a mock trial

00:20:07.840 in the middle of the night,

00:20:08.760 produced false witnesses,

00:20:09.960 and with glee and joy watched Jesus' back

00:20:14.800 be ripped apart with a cat of nine tails.

00:20:18.540 And it wasn't enough for them.

00:20:20.660 They needed more. 0.99

00:20:22.540 Some people want a pound of flesh. 0.90

00:20:25.280 But the Pharisees and the Sadducees 0.63

00:20:27.640 and the religious Jewish leaders of that day, 0.98

00:20:30.360 they wanted every inch of Christ's flesh 0.74

00:20:32.920 to be ripped apart.

00:20:35.120 Forty lashes minus the one

00:20:36.740 where Jesus can barely breathe

00:20:38.400 and is barely conscious.

00:20:39.760 That's not enough.

00:20:40.940 Crown of thorns.

00:20:42.560 More.

00:20:44.780 That's not enough either.

00:20:46.140 Nails through his hands.

00:20:47.520 Do it now. 0.99

00:20:48.800 Rip him apart. 0.99

00:20:50.200 They loved it.

00:20:52.200 They loved it.

00:20:54.040 The religious rulers of Jesus' day,

00:20:56.500 they watched him ripped apart

00:20:58.260 with joy and gladness.

00:21:02.800 They hated him.

00:21:05.380 They hated him.

00:21:07.260 You must know that.

00:21:09.360 They hated him.

00:21:12.500 And so Jesus disagrees with them

00:21:15.160 again and again and again in his ministry

00:21:17.860 because they had perverted his law.

00:21:22.940 They had kept all his sheep, his true sheep,

00:21:26.520 from even having a chance at coming to him.

00:21:30.340 They had taken the truth of God

00:21:32.080 and hidden it in a way, 0.61

00:21:34.720 sealed it and covered it,

00:21:36.380 twisted it, perverted it,

00:21:37.740 to where even those who would want to come, they could not come.

00:21:41.040 And Jesus says this explicitly.

00:21:42.780 This isn't me making things up.

00:21:44.620 Jesus says that you go halfway around the world to make a proselyte, that is a convert.

00:21:49.600 And when you do, you make him twice the son of hell that you are. 0.76

00:21:53.100 And not only will you not enter in through the door, 0.51

00:21:55.920 but you also hold all those hostage so that they can't enter either. 0.93

00:22:00.940 You wicked and rebellious generation.

00:22:03.220 Jesus is not 0.97

00:22:06.480 this is the fundamental mistake

00:22:08.340 that evangelicals make

00:22:09.500 when they read the Sermon on the Mount

00:22:10.760 they think that Jesus

00:22:12.560 is pitting up against one another

00:22:15.940 grace versus law

00:22:18.360 and that Jesus when he says

00:22:20.460 I say to you

00:22:21.440 it's gospel

00:22:22.960 you have heard it said long ago

00:22:26.220 Moses it's law 0.54

00:22:28.040 and evangelicals have taken 0.76

00:22:30.140 that one principle

00:22:31.640 over the last, I would argue, 70, 80, 90 years

00:22:34.940 and said, this is for sure what's going on

00:22:40.020 in Matthew 5, 6, and 7,

00:22:41.360 and then taken that rubric

00:22:43.000 and made it the lens for reading the entire Bible.

00:22:47.740 And that mistake right there,

00:22:49.420 there are many others that we could reference,

00:22:51.240 many other mistakes of evangelicals,

00:22:52.820 but that single mistake right there 0.98

00:22:54.560 has ruined the entire world.

00:22:56.980 the entire world has been destroyed 1.00

00:23:01.700 if you wonder like how did we get transgenderism that mistake 1.00

00:23:07.100 how did we get globalism in a full-blown invasion at our southern border 0.61

00:23:13.160 that mistake the conflation of private enemies versus public enemies

00:23:18.880 and all that rooted ultimately in the conflation of the notion the false notion

00:23:24.340 that Jesus is somehow against the law of God.

00:23:30.240 And you see people do this all the time.

00:23:32.360 They'll draw even larger theological perversions out of that.

00:23:36.580 And they'll say that somehow the Son and the Father

00:23:38.860 are at odds with one another.

00:23:41.140 You know, you've got God the Father in the Old Testament,

00:23:43.380 but man, he sure is a stickler for the rules.

00:23:47.380 But luckily we have Jesus, and Jesus comes in.

00:23:50.100 And who does Jesus save us from?

00:23:51.740 well he saves us from his dad now theologically there's a bit of a divine irony there because

00:24:00.160 that's true jesus does save us from not just his dad but father son and holy spirit jesus saves us

00:24:07.920 from god the godhead the triune god he saves us from god why do we need to be saved from god

00:24:16.080 because God is just, and he must punish wickedness.

00:24:20.320 And you, brothers and sisters, are wicked.

00:24:24.740 So we did need to be saved from God. 0.94

00:24:27.600 But we needed to be saved from God, not because God was a bully

00:24:30.540 or dealing out retribution unjustly.

00:24:35.280 No, we needed to be saved from God because we declared war on God

00:24:40.760 by virtue of our sin.

00:24:42.540 and Jesus pays that penalty for our sins

00:24:46.480 so that we can be reconciled with God

00:24:48.180 and reconciled to our fellow man.

00:24:51.320 But that's one of the big mistakes that we see

00:24:53.700 in evangelicalism and in Christianity,

00:24:56.720 even more broadly beyond just evangelicalism,

00:24:59.240 is this idea that the Son is against the Father,

00:25:02.360 that the gospel is against the law,

00:25:04.320 that the New Testament is against the Old Testament.

00:25:07.560 This is not how we do biblical theology.

00:25:10.700 This is not, brothers and sisters,

00:25:12.260 how to read the Bible.

00:25:14.620 Jesus is not arguing with Moses.

00:25:18.520 Jesus and Moses agree.

00:25:21.500 And we know this from other texts.

00:25:23.380 If we pan out,

00:25:24.800 and we don't just do the Biblicist approach 0.80

00:25:26.560 and pan out,

00:25:27.420 look at a whole biblical theology

00:25:28.920 and a whole systematic theology,

00:25:31.320 what does Jesus say?

00:25:32.400 He says, I tell you the truth.

00:25:33.540 Heaven and earth will pass away

00:25:35.180 before one jot or one tittle

00:25:38.640 of the law of God.

00:25:40.820 And he even says all the law of God passes away.

00:25:44.900 Meaning that the law of Moses is just as good today as the day that it was written.

00:25:51.960 That God has not changed.

00:25:54.280 God is not a man that he should lie.

00:25:56.060 God is not a man that he should change his mind.

00:25:58.600 He is the same today as he was back then and as he always will be.

00:26:04.380 justice the measure the standard for right and wrong for morality does not fluctuate based off

00:26:11.420 of culture or time or place or popular opinion and yet many people think it does and many

00:26:20.540 christians think it does many christians today i'll give you an example this one i don't talk

00:26:27.800 about often because i don't want to be overly divisive and i i don't hold a strong you must

00:26:33.580 do this. You guys know this about me if you've been a part of the church for any period of time

00:26:37.140 at all, but it's a good example. Head coverings. Head coverings. You will hear pastors today

00:26:44.680 that will say, well, head coverings might be biblical, but because it's 2024 in America,

00:26:52.040 it's just not worth it. It's viewed as just too countercultural. It's visible. It's right there.

00:27:00.760 It's in your face and visitors, you know, might think that we're Amish, you know, or whatever.

00:27:06.160 And, you know, and it's just, it's just too much, you know, and we just can't do it.

00:27:12.840 And that's that.

00:27:15.840 Some ministers of the gospel have even gone to the point of encouraging wives to disobey their husbands.

00:27:25.820 It has been recently expressly said that if your husband has a conviction that 1 Corinthians 11 still applies to the church today and encourages his wife on that basis to wear head covering in Lord's Day worship, but the pastor of the church doesn't think that head coverings are a thing, then the wife should rebel against her husband and side with the pastor instead.

00:27:55.820 That was just said about a week and a half ago.

00:28:00.160 It's wicked.

00:28:03.520 It's wicked.

00:28:05.220 To tear apart families and marriages. 1.00

00:28:08.780 To encourage women to turn against their husbands. 0.81

00:28:14.760 To choose their pastors over the husband who made vows. 0.99

00:28:19.500 No.

00:28:20.440 Again, we have to be able to think in categories.

00:28:23.860 I've noticed, you know, there are also people who say, well, how come your standard when it comes to men in your church, how come you just don't lay down the law and say, here's a reading list of all the books that are banned at Covenant Bible Church.

00:28:41.640 You're not allowed to read this.

00:28:42.640 But aren't you the same guy who a couple of years ago said that you didn't want your wife to read a book?

00:28:49.640 Correct.

00:28:52.280 Categories.

00:28:53.060 brothers and sisters. That was my point all the way back when I made the statement about Megan

00:28:58.840 reading the book. What did I say? I said, a man in his home as a husband has far more authority

00:29:06.840 than a man behind a pulpit in a church. That was the whole context that was convenient, of course,

00:29:13.680 left out in that clip, as I always get clipped. But the point was, civil magistrate, there's one

00:29:18.780 atmosphere, authority over lots of people. It's a mile wide, but really only an inch deep.

00:29:26.860 Right? If Joe Biden comes and says, hey, we want this and we want that, you can say, hey,

00:29:31.240 thanks so much. Take a hike. No. Get off my lawn. No. No. You don't have jurisdiction over these

00:29:42.920 things. You have this much authority, an inch of authority, inch deep of authority, over a mile

00:29:50.200 wide of citizens. A little bit of authority over a lot a bit of people. Now think of, that's the

00:29:56.340 civil magistrate, that's, now think of the church. A pastor has a little bit more authority, but over

00:30:02.100 a much smaller group of people. 330 million people in the United States, about 200 people in this

00:30:08.260 church but then there's another group it's a very small even smaller than a church very small group

00:30:16.700 of people only an inch wide but about a mile deep in terms of the degree of authority the scope how

00:30:24.040 many people are under that authority only a few the degree of that authority a lot and that is

00:30:31.460 the household, a husband and a father. Now, a husband and a father can still, even there,

00:30:39.280 there is a jurisdiction. There are lines. There are limits. No human authority is an ultimate

00:30:45.140 authority. And there is a way for a husband, even though he has much authority, he can even take,

00:30:51.900 even there, go beyond and take more authority than even he has been given. He's been given by God,

00:30:57.060 husband and father, a ton of authority in his home. But even then, he has not been given

00:31:03.180 limitless authority, so he can go beyond it, and that would be an abuse. And in those cases,

00:31:10.740 in those cases, a wife does have a right, and we could even argue a moral obligation 0.64

00:31:17.440 to, in those cases, to supersede her husband's authority if it is real, serious, especially if 0.73

00:31:25.760 it is physical, life-threatening abuse, she should go above his authority and appeal to

00:31:32.840 the other two spheres.

00:31:34.400 That would be calling the pastor and calling the cops.

00:31:39.560 If her husband is holding one of the children, and I won't give deep, but, and it's, this

00:31:48.380 is a threat, and he's about to do something terrible.

00:31:50.920 You call the police, you call your pastor, you go above his authority and appeal to another authority.

00:31:58.640 And the ultimate authority that we're appealing to always is God's authority.

00:32:03.460 God's authority. Of course you do that.

00:32:06.380 But if your husband tells you to put a thin piece of cloth on your head, you will not die.

00:32:16.340 the children aren't in physical danger

00:32:21.300 1 Corinthians 11

00:32:24.740 here's what we know

00:32:25.580 it might command head coverings 0.98

00:32:28.580 it definitely does not

00:32:31.880 forbid head coverings

00:32:33.680 and if you want to be popular with the normies

00:32:37.880 because you just don't want to go too far

00:32:39.460 be too extreme

00:32:40.160 well that position I got from R.C. Sproul

00:32:42.820 that was literally his argument

00:32:45.540 He said, look, 1 Corinthians 11 is a little wonky

00:32:48.400 because it's talking about for the angel's sake,

00:32:50.140 we should do this and that,

00:32:51.160 and I don't exactly know what that means.

00:32:52.740 Here's what I do know.

00:32:53.940 There's no text in the scripture that says,

00:32:56.700 thou shalt not wear something on your head

00:32:58.380 if you're a woman on the Lord's day in worship.

00:33:00.280 But there might be a text in scripture that says you should.

00:33:05.240 And so Vesta Sproul, R.C. Sproul's wife,

00:33:08.220 her whole life, still to this day, she's still alive,

00:33:11.280 wears a head covering on Sunday.

00:33:12.540 and what I've learned in the reformed world

00:33:16.580 over the last few years

00:33:17.600 is that if Sproul does it

00:33:18.860 then if Sproul said something

00:33:21.300 you're allowed to say it too

00:33:22.300 so yeah

00:33:24.560 they're talking about appealing to authorities

00:33:27.140 often the Bible is not enough

00:33:29.240 you have to appeal to some reformed guy

00:33:31.320 instead

00:33:31.960 so I'll appeal to R.C. Sproul

00:33:33.940 he said it so I think I'm allowed to say it

00:33:37.760 but here's the point

00:33:38.840 the point is

00:33:40.560 there's all these different appeals to authority.

00:33:43.480 Have you noticed where one of the things

00:33:45.240 that you'll see in the Gospels again and again

00:33:46.900 is it says they marveled at Jesus when he taught

00:33:50.020 because he spoke as one who spoke with authority.

00:33:55.380 Have you ever wondered what that meant?

00:33:57.820 They're not just saying that he had incredible rhetoric.

00:34:02.180 It's not like people who were sitting back

00:34:04.400 a few hundred years ago

00:34:05.880 listening to the sermons of George Whitefield

00:34:08.320 or you know listening to Charles Spurgeon and saying we marveled at man the prince of preachers

00:34:15.840 Charles Spurgeon we marveled at his preaching because he spoke as one with authority that's not

00:34:21.280 it that's not what's being said about Jesus when Jesus preached they're not saying the people are

00:34:27.240 not saying we marveled at Jesus preaching because he spoke as one who spoke with authority saying

00:34:31.240 he's such a good preacher he has such good rhetoric or such good oration or the way that

00:34:38.220 You know, it's the passions and the pathos of the preacher

00:34:40.600 that just stir the soul and people would...

00:34:43.280 That's not what they're saying.

00:34:44.960 They're saying something very objective and specific

00:34:47.740 when they say Jesus spoke as one with authority.

00:34:51.880 What they mean is Jesus doesn't cite the rabbis.

00:34:59.060 Every other Jewish teacher in that day, 0.85

00:35:04.440 they would cite Moses

00:35:05.880 and then immediately pivot from Moses

00:35:08.220 to Rabbi so-and-so.

00:35:11.240 So they would read Moses

00:35:12.700 that actually was God's law

00:35:14.540 and then immediately cover it up 1.00

00:35:17.100 with the traditions of men

00:35:19.140 that ultimately perverted God's law. 0.99

00:35:21.580 So they would read the Ten Commandments

00:35:23.960 and say, and, of course, we all know

00:35:26.340 Rabbi so-and-so and Rabbi so-and-so

00:35:28.420 and Rabbi so-and-so.

00:35:29.440 They say that when it comes to the Fourth Commandment,

00:35:31.960 what it really means is da-da-da-da-da.

00:35:33.700 And by the time they got done,

00:35:35.880 the fourth commandment was obliterated.

00:35:39.220 And the sixth commandment would be obliterated.

00:35:41.540 And the eighth commandment would be obliterated

00:35:43.600 to where the law of God was left nowhere to be found at all.

00:35:48.880 And so when the people would say of Jesus,

00:35:50.720 he spoke as one who speaks with authority,

00:35:53.180 what they mean is he did not appeal to other men

00:35:56.720 for his credibility.

00:35:58.740 He would go directly to the law word of God itself,

00:36:02.320 and that would be the only thing he referenced.

00:36:04.860 You have heard it was said.

00:36:06.340 And they'd expect him to say,

00:36:07.920 you have heard it has been said by Rabbi Sohn.

00:36:10.280 But he wouldn't.

00:36:11.620 He said, you have heard it has been said,

00:36:13.680 Moses, God.

00:36:16.000 Okay, and now give us the commentary.

00:36:17.680 Nope, here's my commentary. 0.98

00:36:20.100 There's all these Jewish commentaries on Moses.

00:36:23.780 I'm bypassing all of them. 1.00

00:36:26.020 Because they're all bad.

00:36:30.820 Here's Moses, pure and unadulterated.

00:36:34.060 And here is me, Jesus, my commentary on Moses.

00:36:41.160 And my commentary on Moses does not contradict Moses. 0.80

00:36:46.640 My commentary on Moses contradicts all your religious rulers 0.72

00:36:51.380 who have been trying to pervert Moses. 0.83

00:36:54.480 Does that make sense?

00:36:57.280 And one of the ways, back to our text, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,

00:37:02.080 Jesus says, no, not that.

00:37:04.060 but instead love your enemies

00:37:07.000 and pray for those who persecute you.

00:37:08.880 Jesus is not contradicting Moses

00:37:10.680 who really did say eye for eye and tooth for tooth.

00:37:14.620 Jesus is not contradicting Moses.

00:37:16.720 He's contradicting everyone in the audience

00:37:18.800 knows what he's getting at.

00:37:20.980 He is contradicting all of the perverted

00:37:24.240 interpretations of Moses

00:37:26.040 and one of the chief perverted interpretations

00:37:28.800 of this particular portion of Moses,

00:37:31.100 eye for eye, tooth for tooth,

00:37:32.260 is that the Pharisees and Sadducees and religious rulers of that day

00:37:36.560 had said that the individual private person

00:37:40.300 could take retribution into their own hands.

00:37:45.060 And that's what Jesus is saying.

00:37:46.800 No, no, no.

00:37:47.880 As private persons,

00:37:50.680 especially as my followers, disciples, and Christians,

00:37:54.280 we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

00:37:58.440 Jesus is not saying, in a public corporate sense,

00:38:01.720 especially with a divinely instituted civil magistrate

00:38:05.500 that the state should be merciful

00:38:07.940 and say, oh, you punched out someone's tooth?

00:38:10.260 That's okay.

00:38:11.400 Jesus told us to be nice.

00:38:13.780 Oh, you killed someone?

00:38:15.800 No death penalty.

00:38:18.240 That's okay.

00:38:19.180 Jesus told us to be nice.

00:38:21.840 Oh, you ripped off somebody's limb?

00:38:25.700 It's like nobody does that in our culture. 0.63

00:38:27.340 They've done it to 70 million in the womb.

00:38:31.720 You ripped off somebody's limb, well, you're, you know, just a light fine will do.

00:38:38.020 And certainly not for the mother who made that decision, just for the person who was using the forceps.

00:38:45.820 No, no, Jesus, Jesus is not.

00:38:49.580 He is not saying that just retribution is a bad idea.

00:38:56.280 Jesus is not combating justice.

00:38:59.180 the whole point of the gospel brothers and sisters the whole point of calvary the whole point of the

00:39:04.700 cross is it was god's magnificent divine way of somehow being able to administer to you and i

00:39:12.220 mercy without contradicting justice the cross is where justice is not um bypassed but rather

00:39:21.860 satisfied that's the whole point of the gospel that's the whole christian faith god didn't break

00:39:28.860 the law for love. No, God kept the law at the cost of his own son so that you and I might be welcomed

00:39:36.620 in and experience a love that we don't deserve. God doesn't contradict justice. He upholds it,

00:39:44.080 and he upholds it at the cost of his own son's blood so that you and I might receive mercy

00:39:51.440 that comes with justice,

00:39:53.880 not at the expense of justice.

00:39:57.000 And if we've missed that,

00:39:59.640 then it's not just that we've missed

00:40:01.040 general equity theonomy

00:40:02.500 or the Protestant magisterial position

00:40:05.080 or how to do political philosophy.

00:40:07.060 We've missed the gospel of Jesus Christ.

00:40:10.580 We've missed the entirety of the Christian faith.

00:40:14.680 Jesus does not burst onto the scene

00:40:17.380 to say, God the Father, bad.

00:40:20.140 God the Son, good.

00:40:21.220 Old Testament, bad. New Testament, good. Law, bad. Gospel, good. Justice, bad. Grace, good. No. 0.65

00:40:30.200 Jesus burst on the scene to say, Jewish religious leaders, bad. True Christian tradition, 1.00

00:40:38.400 hiding underneath the pile of garbage, good. And let's get back to it. 1.00

00:40:43.580 and under this tradition you still all stand condemned in fact even more condemned because

00:40:52.660 god's law is perfect and holy and right and it is not manageable by anyone but i will die

00:41:00.560 and take that punishment that you deserve upon myself so that you might be reconciled to god

00:41:06.660 that's what's going on in the new testament that's what's going on in the gospel narratives that's

00:41:11.780 what's going on in the Sermon on the Mount. You have heard it was said, eye for eye, tooth for

00:41:15.360 tooth. But I tell you, it's time now to be nice. No. He's saying, you have heard it was said, eye

00:41:23.400 for eye, tooth for tooth. And you know that your own religious rulers have taken that. And the

00:41:28.820 application that they have presented you with is that as private citizens, you can go around

00:41:35.380 exacting justice and retribution

00:41:38.540 from any private enemy who has offended you.

00:41:43.100 Now, let's go to the turn the other cheek.

00:41:46.640 Notice, turning the other cheek

00:41:48.440 is very different than turning the other eye

00:41:51.620 or turning the other limb

00:41:54.420 or turning the other tooth.

00:41:57.720 There's a dynamic difference between hurt and harm.

00:42:03.800 This is language that my wife and I,

00:42:06.340 we've always used with our children 1.00

00:42:08.240 when we're trying to explain to them spanking. 0.97

00:42:12.520 Because some children have stronger wills than others 0.99

00:42:16.460 and they'll appeal to their own warped, sinful sense of justice.

00:42:25.940 My children have actually never done this,

00:42:27.680 and I won't name the one who has

00:42:29.420 because it's not my right to do so.

00:42:30.580 but there is a child who has said that when spankings occur that it must be that his parents

00:42:37.680 don't love him and when the parents say but god no we do love you and god's word tells us to do

00:42:43.480 then the child said well then god must not love me you know god must be terrible um no no one of

00:42:51.560 the verses in the bible that talks about discipline and particularly corporal punishment in the home

00:42:57.100 with children, a rod.

00:42:59.220 One of the verses literally says

00:43:00.880 that your son, he will not die.

00:43:06.040 In other words, the whole point of discipline,

00:43:09.240 especially when it comes to spanking, 0.99

00:43:10.680 and this is what we tell to our children, 1.00

00:43:12.440 is we say spankings are designed by God

00:43:15.120 to be administered through loving parents

00:43:17.700 for instruction and correction in such a way

00:43:20.760 that physically they hurt but do not harm.

00:43:27.100 That's the whole point.

00:43:28.700 That's why, to give a little bit of practical advice here,

00:43:31.640 when parents ask me about discipline with young children,

00:43:34.280 I recommend something that is thin.

00:43:38.080 Thin.

00:43:39.000 And not a paddle that is thick.

00:43:41.780 Because you want it to sting,

00:43:44.380 but you don't want it to leave lasting harm.

00:43:48.960 A tooth missing is not just hurt, it's harm.

00:43:54.240 A limb missing is not just hurt, it's harm.

00:43:57.100 an eye being gouged out is not just hurt it's harm now but what category is a cheek being slapped

00:44:05.160 put into see that's hurt but not harm when jesus says turn the other cheek he's not saying that

00:44:14.340 retribution in the in the category of justice carried out by the proper authorities aka the

00:44:20.520 civil magistrate is now off the table because i'm jesus and i'm nice and i've gotten rid of

00:44:25.180 justice and the law of Moses. No, he's talking about private enemies giving something that hurts

00:44:30.620 but not harm. He's talking about private grievances and offenses and conflicts that

00:44:39.260 cause embarrassment. So when you have a private enemy who comes and slaps you on the cheek,

00:44:46.460 and this can be metaphorical or literal, but it's a grievance. It's an insult. He's embarrassed you.

00:44:53.420 In those cases, don't exact justice or retribution.

00:45:00.260 In those cases, do your best, if you can, to overlook the offense.

00:45:06.400 In fact, you could even turn the other cheek and allow them to commit the offense again.

00:45:14.500 But in public, with public enemies and public harm, not just hurt, my pride was hurt, my ego was hurt,

00:45:22.960 But no, this is actual harm, bodily harm, like missing a limb, or harm to your livelihood.

00:45:32.380 Like, this current attack is from a collective group in a public sphere in such a way that it doesn't just hurt my pride.

00:45:43.520 But if this is successful, I will not be able to provide for my family, my livelihood.

00:45:52.100 Someone has lied about your business, for instance.

00:45:56.100 Brought a lawsuit against you.

00:45:59.240 And your business will go under.

00:46:01.280 And you know it's slander.

00:46:02.480 It's not true.

00:46:03.580 And you have the ability to defend yourself.

00:46:06.180 Jesus, brothers and sisters, you have to know this.

00:46:08.260 Jesus is not saying that your family must starve.

00:46:12.200 You must tie your hands behind your back.

00:46:15.380 Allow the false charge to go on.

00:46:19.220 Make zero defense.

00:46:21.180 and allow your personal livelihood, your business, to be sued out of existence.

00:46:26.160 That is not what Jesus means when he says, turn the other cheek.

00:46:31.020 Jesus is not saying that Christians, in a corporate sense,

00:46:36.200 insofar as they belong to certain vocations or institutions or the civil magistrate,

00:46:41.820 that Christians, in terms of public enemies, can never levy or offer any kind of defense. 0.75

00:46:49.160 Jesus, in other words, to say it very plainly,

00:46:51.980 Jesus in our text today is not prescribing suicide.

00:46:57.700 But that is how it has been interpreted

00:46:59.680 by the Christian West over the last 80, 90 years.

00:47:04.660 And this is why we are where we are.

00:47:08.320 This is why we're losing.

00:47:11.380 We're not losing because some outside power

00:47:15.120 was stronger than Christendom.

00:47:17.180 No, the West has fallen and is falling because we shot ourselves in the foot.

00:47:25.780 No outside power was a real threat.

00:47:31.580 Not because we're great, but because God was so kind and so gracious towards the West

00:47:37.340 that over centuries, a millennium from King Alfred all the way up until now,

00:47:43.060 God established the Christian West so strongly in the world

00:47:48.760 that no one could take it out except the Christian West. 1.00

00:47:53.600 And one of the tactics of perversion and a twisting of Scripture 0.96

00:47:58.340 that convinced, created a vulnerability in the Christian West 0.91

00:48:02.940 and convinced Christians in the West to commit suicide 0.69

00:48:06.700 was the twisting of our text today, turn the other cheek. 0.98

00:48:13.060 If the Muslims are invading 1.00

00:48:14.500 you should ship over 1.00

00:48:17.040 the Haitians as well. 0.99

00:48:25.840 If the public school

00:48:27.240 is trying to indoctrinate

00:48:28.400 your children

00:48:29.000 well then go ahead

00:48:31.660 after 18 years

00:48:33.280 and send them

00:48:34.200 at great financial cost

00:48:36.300 yourself

00:48:36.760 to a Marxist

00:48:38.300 higher education

00:48:39.480 a university

00:48:40.100 to indoctrinate them

00:48:41.940 some more.

00:48:43.060 that is not what Jesus is saying.

00:48:47.160 He is saying at the private, personal level,

00:48:49.960 when a friend betrays you,

00:48:56.240 insults you,

00:48:58.700 hurts your reputation,

00:49:00.540 hurts, but not irrevocable harm,

00:49:04.540 hurts your dignity,

00:49:06.160 hurts not harm,

00:49:08.040 certainly not ultimate harm,

00:49:09.420 hurts your reputation, your dignity, your ego,

00:49:13.060 as it were, slaps you on the cheek,

00:49:17.640 then you can afford to exercise grace

00:49:20.840 and turn to him the other.

00:49:23.680 But when public enemies,

00:49:25.740 when public enemies attack you in such a way

00:49:30.720 that it doesn't just hurt,

00:49:32.960 but it has the potential to do real harm,

00:49:37.360 that if their attacks that they've levied

00:49:39.900 were to prove to be successful,

00:49:41.860 that you would be unemployable.

00:49:50.520 What I'm getting at is

00:49:52.060 Jesus is not talking about cancel culture.

00:49:56.220 When they come to cancel you, let them.

00:49:59.280 That's not what Jesus is saying.

00:50:01.900 No, when they come, that's not hurt to ego.

00:50:04.660 That is irrevocable harm

00:50:07.180 from people who hate Christ

00:50:09.680 and hate you by proxy

00:50:11.620 and want to ruin you in such a way

00:50:13.920 that it doesn't just hurt your reputation

00:50:15.620 or your ego or your pride.

00:50:17.880 It's not just a private personal offense,

00:50:20.500 but it publicly puts a scarlet letter A

00:50:23.440 etched into your very flesh

00:50:25.920 that will follow you the rest of your life

00:50:27.580 to where you'll struggle to feed your own children.

00:50:30.020 When they come to you in that manner,

00:50:33.580 Jesus does not advocate for turning the other cheek.

00:50:37.580 That is not what's being said here.

00:50:39.800 You can still pray for your enemies when they do things like this and love those who persecute you, even in these instances.

00:50:48.960 But you also cannot turn the other cheek.

00:50:53.760 And instead, you can present a defense and exonerate yourself so that you can protect yourself and those that you're responsible for protecting and providing for.

00:51:07.460 So let me give you another quote.

00:51:09.800 from Matthew Henry. He says this, we must not be revengeful. I say unto you that ye resist not

00:51:16.980 evil. That's the words of Jesus. The evil person that is injurious to you. And yet this does not

00:51:24.200 repeal the law of self-preservation or self-defense and the care that we are to take of our families.

00:51:30.940 We may avoid evil and may resist it so far as it is necessary to our own security.

00:51:37.800 But we must not render evil for evil.

00:51:42.260 We must not bear a grudge.

00:51:44.460 We must not avenge ourselves,

00:51:46.420 nor study to be even with those

00:51:48.680 who have treated us unkindly.

00:51:51.040 But we must go beyond them by forgiving them.

00:51:54.740 The law of retaliation must be made consistent.

00:51:59.460 It doesn't replace the two stand in concert

00:52:03.240 with one another.

00:52:04.880 The law of retaliation must be made consistent with the law of love.

00:52:11.860 So what Matthew Henry is saying and commentating on these words is he's saying when Jesus tells you to turn the other cheek or to go the extra mile or to give your cloak as well as your tunic,

00:52:22.980 Jesus is not telling you that you can't defend your family.

00:52:29.060 What happens if a burglar comes to your home

00:52:33.960 and he's armed?

00:52:36.220 And he says, give me everything you got.

00:52:41.480 Everything of value.

00:52:44.340 Well, if you're on strand,

00:52:45.900 you would look at Matthew 5,

00:52:48.420 you would pick up with, let's see.

00:52:55.160 Verse 42, 0.98

00:52:56.500 Give to the one who begs from you 0.95

00:52:57.960 and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

00:53:00.900 And then you would look your children in the eyes

00:53:02.640 the next morning at breakfast

00:53:03.880 as you sit at an empty table and say,

00:53:05.980 we're going to starve now.

00:53:09.360 And I make no apology.

00:53:11.380 I was simply obeying the words of Christ.

00:53:16.320 Evangelicalism has to be able to do better than this, guys. 1.00

00:53:19.680 We cannot be this stupid. 1.00

00:53:22.300 Surely. 1.00

00:53:22.960 I think we are, actually, sadly.

00:53:24.640 But please, tell me it's not true.

00:53:27.280 Tell me that that is not the state of the church, that that's not the state of the pulpits, that's not the state of our seminaries, our theological professors, our pastors. 0.96

00:53:35.880 Surely, surely we're not this ignorant.

00:53:40.040 And when Jesus says, don't refuse the one who asked from you, that all of a sudden that means that if somebody pulls a gun as I'm going on a walk with my wife and says, give me your watch and give me her purse, that I can't do anything about it.

00:53:54.420 that even after they're gone

00:53:56.400 and the threat is now removed,

00:53:57.800 at least the physical threat,

00:53:58.840 and I've been robbed,

00:53:59.440 that I can't even call the police

00:54:01.160 and report a crime

00:54:02.400 because they demanded of me

00:54:04.500 and I gave to the one who asked.

00:54:07.000 That's not what Jesus is saying.

00:54:10.400 But convincing Western nations

00:54:12.320 that that was what Jesus was saying 1.00

00:54:14.160 is how you get a Muslim invasion. 1.00

00:54:18.960 That's how it happened. 1.00

00:54:20.420 pietistic shallow interpretations of the word of god by ministers then cruddled to politicians

00:54:31.080 and the lines and categories blurred to where there's now one application and one interpretation

00:54:38.460 for everything in the bible eisegesis reading into text things that aren't there and then

00:54:44.240 taking them like fortune cookies stripping them out of the larger context and a whole biblical

00:54:49.560 theology, and now the West has fallen. And by God's grace, maybe it could eventually be rebuilt.

00:54:57.160 But not until we learn a thing or two. Not until we learn a thing or two. So if you have a

00:55:04.240 relationship, a friendship, the words of Jesus, they mean something. So we can't just say it means

00:55:09.020 nothing. It does mean something. You have a relationship. You have a friendship. You have

00:55:12.700 a co-worker. You have this. You have that. And they personally insult you. Don't try to get

00:55:18.780 justice. Turn the other cheek. Let your ego be bruised. Get over it. If you can, overlook an

00:55:28.460 offense. It is the glory of a man to overlook an offense. Let it go. If you can, let love cover

00:55:37.080 a multitude of sins. And that's how we deal with personal private enemies and love them and pray

00:55:47.160 for them. That's what Jesus is talking about. But if it's a public enemy, it's an entity,

00:55:56.300 it's a group, they're trying to ruin your livelihood, not just bruise your ego, but

00:56:05.040 if their accusations are true, everyone will abandon you. You'll lose your job. Your business

00:56:16.240 will be sued out of existence

00:56:17.780 and it's actually a lie,

00:56:20.680 and that's key,

00:56:21.560 it has to actually be a lie.

00:56:23.740 You have to actually be innocent.

00:56:25.880 And then you're sitting on

00:56:27.320 something that could exonerate you

00:56:30.220 and prove that these accusations

00:56:33.000 are in fact slander.

00:56:35.840 Turn the other cheek.

00:56:37.240 In that case,

00:56:38.360 does not apply.

00:56:41.140 Release the Kraken.

00:56:44.400 Okay.

00:56:46.240 We have to understand categories.

00:56:48.320 Public versus private enemies.

00:56:51.260 When to have mercy

00:56:52.240 when it has to do with my own ego being offended.

00:56:56.440 And then when to actually have still mercy

00:56:59.140 but on your wife and children

00:57:00.960 who are the ones who ultimately will suffer

00:57:03.700 if the opposition wins

00:57:06.680 when you're actually innocent

00:57:09.440 and have the ability to exonerate.

00:57:12.700 This doesn't just go with my personal situation.

00:57:16.240 I'm preaching it because it's the word of God

00:57:17.780 and it applies to you also.

00:57:19.680 All of you have situations like this.

00:57:21.620 You need discernment to be able to distinguish

00:57:24.400 between these categories.

00:57:26.800 Is this person hurting my feelings?

00:57:29.480 Are they a private, personal enemy?

00:57:31.720 Let it go.

00:57:33.400 Is this person trying to crush my business

00:57:35.720 and my livelihood?

00:57:37.780 Or are they holding a gun at my doorstep

00:57:39.980 in the middle of the night

00:57:40.720 trying to physically hurt me

00:57:42.000 or harm my family or rob us?

00:57:43.760 turn the other cheek

00:57:46.240 in those instances

00:57:47.300 does not apply.

00:57:50.040 It doesn't apply.

00:57:51.320 When Jesus says,

00:57:52.120 you've heard it said,

00:57:52.900 and he points to Moses,

00:57:54.280 not the Jewish rabbis,

00:57:55.440 but Moses,

00:57:56.540 eye for eye,

00:57:57.220 tooth for tooth,

00:57:58.100 Jesus is not saying

00:57:59.140 that proportional justice

00:58:00.640 properly carried out

00:58:02.560 by the proper authority,

00:58:04.680 the civil magistrate,

00:58:05.760 that that's now off the table

00:58:07.040 because now we just all

00:58:07.980 have to be nice.

00:58:08.720 That's not what he's saying.

00:58:10.340 What he's saying is, 0.93

00:58:11.820 I disagree with the Jewish rabbis 0.98

00:58:13.700 who have perverted the law of Moses 0.97

00:58:15.520 and said now private entities

00:58:17.800 can be vigilantes

00:58:19.120 and deal out their own justice,

00:58:21.400 bypassing the state.

00:58:23.100 No, when it comes to private persons,

00:58:26.400 especially his followers,

00:58:29.200 let's be merciful if we can,

00:58:32.100 especially if it's merely

00:58:33.400 our ego on the line,

00:58:35.460 hurt rather than real harm.

00:58:38.080 Let's pray.

00:58:38.620 Father, thank you for your word.

00:58:39.840 Bless it to your people.

00:58:41.300 All for your glory.

00:58:42.220 In Jesus' name.

00:58:43.700 Amen.

The NXR Podcast - December 02, 2024

THE SERMON - Public Vs. Private Enemies： When To Stop Fighting Back

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