The Christian's Highest Level of Worship

Please be seated. We'll now have the main message. The sermon, again, our pastor Randy Delosyn.

Verse 28, where it says, But let a man in a woman, or woman, let us examine ourselves, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. Here in a section that's going to deal with the Passover, we're told of a need for us to examine ourselves. And again, as I said last week, we don't examine ourselves and then walk away, even if we find ourselves in a situation where we think, boy, this has been a really bad year spiritually. It's really been a bad year spiritually more than ever you need to be at Passover service. But remember, Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread are right together. We examine ourselves as to our need, we see that need, and we come to Passover. But let's add something else over here in 2 Corinthians 13. And we covered this last week. I'm going to go through it. We've got a number of visitors here. I'm going to do a little bit of reviewing from what we covered last week. Here we see another part of the picture, 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5.

Notice the triple injunction here for all of us, verse 5. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. So we are to examine ourselves, we are to test ourselves. Do you not know yourselves?

So a three-fold request here. Examine, test, and know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you.

Obviously we do this during the Days of Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. We see our need, we know that we're sinful people, we need to be forgiven, we come to Passover. But we also realize that Christ, after He has forgiven us, He wants to live a new way of life. He doesn't want us to sit around in our sins. He wants us to be overcomers. He wants us to be repentant people. And so therefore we've got the Days of Unleavened Bread, where we continue to examine ourselves, we continue to test ourselves, we continue to know ourselves so we can be unleavened the way God would have us be. Now last week, again a little bit of a review, last week I asked the question, what attitudes are foundational for the Christian? In the spirit of wanting to have a proper self-examination this year, I've turned to Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7, which is the Sermon on the Mount. And in that Sermon on the Mount, Christ gives us a lot of food for thought in terms of examining ourselves. And the very first thing that Christ gets into on the Sermon on the Mount are the Beatitudes, the beautiful attitudes. So last week we went through those eight attitudes with a thought of examining our own thinking, the way we use our minds, our hearts as Christians. Last week he saw that the Beatitudes present a standard of conduct for all of us as believers. We saw the Beatitudes present in a contrast eternal values with physical values. We also saw last week that the Beatitudes contrast a superficial faith like the Pharisees had with a true faith that Christ wants in every one of us. We saw last week that the Beatitudes actually, even though there are eight Beatitudes, there are actually ten different steps in blessing as we studied the Beatitudes last week.

We saw the Beatitudes, they began and they ended with a discussion about the promise of the Kingdom of God. The Beatitudes started with our point of greatest need, was being poor in spirit, and went from there to the point of our greatest identification with Christ where it talked about us being persecuted for Christ.

Then we looked at the eight Beatitudes themselves. We saw last week that the first four of the Beatitudes outline a deepening relationship we can have with God. Those first four Beatitudes talked about humility, conviction, teachability, and spiritual motivation. We saw the last four of the Beatitudes depicted our relationship with others the way God would have it be. Being merciful, moral integrity, peacemaking, and standing for God no matter what the cost. So here we've got eight things. I said ten steps of blessing. We also saw last week that if we are thinking the way God would have us thinking, if we're following these beautiful attitudes in our life as Christians, then a ninth blessing is that we are then the salt of the earth. We have a role to play as Christians on this planet. Number ten, we also saw that if we are obeying and following the beautiful attitudes, that number ten, we are the light of the world. So you've got the eight Beatitudes, then you've got salt and light. Now that brings us to Matthew 5 and verse 6. This is where we ended last week. I want to read and go through the rest of the fifth chapter here. Verses 17, 18, 19, and 20 are a buffer. They are an introduction to what I want to cover with you today.

Last week we talked about attitude. This week we're going to talk about action. As a matter of fact, my points, if you want to write something across the top of your paper if you're taking notes, this would be the theme of the sermon today. That the Christian's highest level of worship is to worship God in spirit and truth. The Christian's highest level of worship is to worship God in spirit and in truth. So let's begin where we left off. We covered through verse 16 last time. We'll start here in Matthew 5, verse 17. Do not think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

Now the Greek word translated fulfill can have two different, two very different meanings. Most theologians in the world would say, well, this means that Christ came and he completed the law. He finished the law. We no longer need the law because Christ came and he fulfilled it. It's now done. It's out of the way. We're New Covenant Christians, therefore we follow the commandments of Jesus. Now in our Church of God culture, we feel that this means that this word fulfill means that it's filling to the full. Two very different meanings. How do we understand this, not from a cultural point of view or a worldly point of view, but from God's point of view? How do we understand this? This has a great bearing in the sermon that I want to give today. Barnes' commentary, when he's talking about this first section of verse 17, says that to destroy means to abrogate, to deny the divine authority of, to set men free from an obligation. Now let's take that meaning and plug it into place here in verse 17. Christ says, do not think that I've come to destroy, to free you from obligation to obey the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy or abrogate, but I came to destroy. Now does that make any sense? No, because that's not the way that verse should read. Christ didn't contradict himself in the same sentence. He didn't come to destroy the law, but he came to properly fulfill it. Show the meaning of the law, the fullness of the meaning of the law. Now put a marker here, as we're going to be doing all day today. Let's turn over to Romans chapter 15. And see where the same word, the word that we saw in verse 17 there, fulfill. Let's see how it's used in another location. Same word. Romans chapter 15 verse 13. Romans 15 verse 13. Now may the God of hope fill you. And the word fill is that same word we saw in Matthew 5.17. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing, that you may abound hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now this is an ongoing process. This is not something where we receive God's Spirit of baptism and then it's a static thing the rest of our life. This is an ongoing process. It's not done. It's not a completed thing. It's not, well, let's move forward. We've got that accomplished. We'll move forward to new ground. No, this is an ongoing thing. So it doesn't mean it comes to an end. So a proper meaning of...we turn now back to Matthew chapter 5. A proper rendering of that, of Matthew chapter 5 verse 17, where Christ says, I didn't come to do away with the law or the prophets, but rather I came to uphold them in everything that I say and do. I'm not going to turn there, but in your notes you might want to jot down Isaiah chapter 42 and verse 21. Isaiah 42 and verse 21. And the King James says, he will exalt or magnify the law and make it honorable. I think you're now starting to see the connection between the Beatitudes, the beautiful attitudes, that we saw at the first part of Matthew 5 and what we're going to start covering in the latter part of chapter 5. Yes, we're going to look at attitudes, but we're going to go much more in depth spiritually than the people of the Old Testament were ever able to do. You know, the story of the Old Testament is the story of people who had the spiritual law of God, but they were physical, they were carnal. They were not able to properly keep that law, not even in a letter. They needed help, which they did not have. Now we've got the help. We've got God's Holy Spirit that can help us obey God's perfect and righteous law. Okay, here in Matthew 5, verse 18.

So once again, you can't look at verse 18 there and say, well, Christ is simply doing away with something. He says, no, not even the least little thing is going to disappear from the law. Verse 19.

So these laws are to be obeyed and taught.

To be obeyed and taught, not to be thrown away. Now verse 20 is the real catcher here because this launches it to the subject I want to cover with you today. Matthew 5, verse 20.

The scribes and the Pharisees were living by the letter of the law.

Christ says, you've got to be more righteous than them. What does that mean exactly? Well, that's the focus of the sermon today. Our righteousness comes from God. What God does in us, not what we do of ourselves like the Pharisees did. There's a contrast there. We invite God into our lives. We have His Holy Spirit. God's going to work through that instrument in our hearts and our minds to effect a change. This is not pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. The righteousness God wants is to be God-centered, not self-centered. God-centered. Thirdly, the righteousness God wants for us is based on reverence for Him, not approval of men.

Fourthly, the righteousness God wants for us goes beyond just a letter of the law. It is as important as that is. I'm certainly not pooh-poohing that. We want to obey the letter of the law, but it goes beyond that to the richness and the fullness and the beauty of the Spirit of the law. That's why I said, as my theme statement today, the Christian's highest level of worship is to worship God in spirit and in truth. So in verse 20, when Christ says, I want you to be more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees, Christ is talking about not the numbers of laws, but how we are to keep the law in spirit and in truth. Along those lines, let's turn to a scripture that tells us just that. John 4, verse 23. But the hour is coming, and now is when the true worshippers, notice true worshippers as opposed to false worshippers, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, the Father seeking such to worship Him.

So this Passover season, we want to look into the heart and the core teachings of Jesus Christ, the Sermon on the Mount. We want to know, how do we worship in spirit?

Christ gives us, in the remainder of Matthew chapter 5, Christ gives us six different examples. And it's interesting that when you look at each of those six examples, you've got one of the commandments of God being highlighted.

Now, if Matthew 5, 7 is instructing us that the law is done away, then why does Christ, in my Bible, it's all red lettering, why does Christ, for the rest of that chapter 5, take a commandment and blow it up in terms of expounding it, explaining it, going into detail on it? Why do that? Well, the law is not done away.

And Christ is showing us a better way for keeping the law, not just of the letter, but of the letter and the spirit. So, example number one, we find in chapter 5, verses 21 through 26. Example number one of the highest level of worship to God.

And as I was meditating on this and thinking about how to label these, in my thinking it shows a respect for human life. A respect for human life.

Let's take a look, let's read and comment a little, then comment more in depth in a moment. Matthew 5, verse 21.

Matthew 6, verse 21.

God's law is given to protect life. It's a beautiful law. Life is to be respected. Life is to be cherished. Life is never to be taken by us as human beings. It's not our place. God gives life. God takes life away. That's why we have an anti-war stance. That's why we have a stance where we don't believe in the use of deadly force. It is not our right to take a life. That's why we don't agree with abortion. It's not our right to take life. That is God's right to take life. When He chooses, not what we choose. But there's something in the internal structure of this section that I want to point out. It's not just a matter of don't take somebody's life. That's Old Testament. Now, we shouldn't do that. We want to make sure we maintain the letter of the law. We're not throwing that out. But notice here in verse 22, we see something very deep.

But I say to you that Hoover is angry with his brother. Anger! Jesus Christ is saying, look, you should never get to the place where you'd want to murder anybody, because that shows you let anger get out of control.

So Christ says, let's move this back several steps. You know, you might kill somebody accidentally, but in terms of premeditated murder, you're angry when you do that. So Christ says, let's take several steps back. Let's make sure we deal with our anger. You see, in God's mind, and this is what we want to think about during the Passover season, in God's mind, anger is as bad a sin as the actual murder.

You know, if we're hating somebody, we're not talking about righteous indignation. If we are hating somebody, then it's just the same in God's eyes as killing somebody. And also, anger is a motion that can very much get out of control.

It can lead to violence, it can lead to murder, but even not, even if it doesn't go that far, it can lead to tremendous emotional hurt, increased mental stress, spiritual damage. Next September, not the one that just passed, but next September, I'll have been a minister in this church for 30 years. Thirty years! All the five of which I've been employed by the church. In the years I've been in the ministry, I've seen a number of people who have allowed anger, they've not been physical murderers, but they've allowed anger to ruin their lives. And, brethren, you and I need to make sure we work on that.

It can take us out of the church, it can ruin our relationship with God, anger is something that has to be dealt with. As a matter of fact, as we take a look at this whole section here, verses 21 through 26, based on Christ's own warning, we can't assume anger is going to go away of and by itself. It just doesn't. And time doesn't heal all wounds. People want to use that old platitude. I've lost track to the number of people, normally people who have been abused in their life. I've lost track to the number of people who have come to me to talk about a father, or a brother, or an uncle, or somebody in their life that abused them. And that person is long dead. In a number of cases, there's no way for any reconciliation.

But I've also had, in a number of cases, a number of women come to me and say, Mr. Del Santo, this is eating me up. I've got to talk with you, I've got to talk with somebody, I've got to get this poison out of my life. And when I talk about this attitude of forgiveness, to get rid of the anger, forgiveness doesn't mean we condone whatever was done to us. We say, well, that's okay. It wasn't okay. We were hurt. We were deeply hurt. We were grievously hurt.

So we're not condoning sin or anything of the nature.

And many times we can't be reconciled. There are times people simply don't want to be reconciled to you. They've hurt you. They don't care that you're hurt.

But you and I have to diffuse the poison, the anger that's inside of us.

And Christ said, don't be angry. This doesn't go anywhere positive spiritually. Don't be angry.

Put a marker there in Matthew 5. Let's go over to 1 Corinthians 14.

We don't forgive others because of what it does for them. Like I said, people don't care what it does for them. They don't care what you think about them. They don't care that in many cases they don't care that they hurt you. Given an opportunity, they may hurt you again. No, we forgive people because of what it does for us. It drains the poisons.

1 Corinthians 14-32.

And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.

Now, there's a principle there. The spirit of the Christian is subject to the Christian.

When we're angry, we can find ourselves easily getting out of control.

And we don't want to be out of control. We want to have our spirit in subjection to God at all times.

Not flailing around out of control.

Now, if you go back to Matthew 5, again, I keep a mark there because we'll be going back and forth. But there's something else for us to remember about this particular point.

Very important point.

Verse 23, Matthew 5, 23.

Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and then remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

So we see an important principle here from Christ's own words, especially here in the Passover season, which pictures forgiveness of one another.

That our relationship with God is dependent upon our relationship with other people.

Our relationship with God, and Christ says Himself, look, if you've got this anger and it's building up in your heart and mind and it's poisoning your attitudes, and you can't talk to that person, well, you better try.

You better try.

First John chapter 4.

First John chapter 4 and verse 20.

If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

It was interesting, earlier today, after I gave this sermon in Ann Arbor, somebody came up to me and said, I do need to go to my brother.

And we discussed how that could be properly done. And again, I reiterated some of the points here.

That you may not be reconciled, because it takes two to reconcile.

But at least, you know, you know that you need to go to your brother, and you need to do what you can do.

I think it was Peter. Peter said, if it's at all possible, live peaceably with one another.

So you go as an emissary of peace. Now, if the other person wants to shut you down, shut you out, not have anything to do with you, well, you've done your share of the load. And before God, you can sleep well at night. You know, you think about it, you pray about it, you ask God for the proper words, the wisdom, the proper timing, and all those good things. You go to your brother, and if they want to shut you out, well, that's then on them. But you made the attempt. You made the best possible attempt you can make.

When you've done that, you can sleep well at night knowing that you fulfilled what Christ said here in Matthew chapter 5. Now, Matthew 18 is a beautiful section of Scripture, but for Matthew 18 to work, you need both parties being willing to sit down and talk. And sometimes the other party doesn't want to talk.

There's nothing you can do. You can't drag people and have them sit before you and talk. That's going to do no good. So example number 1, verses 21 through 26, shows respect for human life. Don't be angry. Don't have the attitude of taking life, because that's what anger does. It takes your life, and it takes you a direction you don't want to go.

How many people just kind of sit around the home, and they're thinking about how they've been hurt, how they've been injured, and they waste away their life thinking about the grievances against them, which might be very real, but God doesn't want us to be meditating on those things. The Apostle Paul went through a tremendous amount of hardship in his life. As I made mention, I gave a sermon here, and I'll be giving it here on March 9th. What do you do after the worst day of your life? What do you do? How do you respond?

I gave it a couple weeks over in Ann Arbor. I want to give it a couple weeks here. Paul had a lot of worst days when you go through his life at different points. So, one point would be, boy, this is the worst that's happened to this point. Then you get to an exploit, boy, this is worse than the other one. And as we go through that sermon in a couple of weeks, I'll go through some things in my life, some things in Mary's life. Sometimes it's not a matter of a day. Sometimes it's a matter of, like in Mary's case, through a hellacious period there in 1999, for about a five-month period. So we'll talk about that down the road. We want respect, human life. Okay, we go back now to Matthew 5, verses 27-30. We've got a second example that Jesus Christ used. And this is respect for the God family and the human family. This is Matthew 5, verses 27-30. Let's take a look at that. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. So again, here's another one of the commandments, the seventh commandment. If Christ was saying in verse 17, throwing the commandments away, why does He keep on going back to the commandments and expounding and explaining them, and showing them the more relevance of them? Keep that in mind the next time somebody comes to you and says, well, the commandments are done away because of Matthew 5, 17. Well, here we've got a whole chapter. In my Bible, it's all red lettering. Christ expounded and explaining the laws of God. Verse 28, but I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust after has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It's more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It's more profitable for you that one of your members will perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. So, here with this particular example, I believe Christ is talking about a respect for the family. You know, lusting, adultery, that sort of thing, that's death to a family. Whether it be the husband, the wife, or anybody inside of the family. It is death to the family. And God is creating a spiritual family. We are the bride of Christ. We need to be very concerned about the family structure in our thinking. Philippians chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4. People think, well, you know, it's kind of an Old Testament way of looking at life. Well, people don't see what I'm thinking. They don't know what I'm thinking. I've got my private little thought life. It's not private to God. God knows exactly what we're thinking. And we get into certain frames of mind and they just twist us. They warp us. They do something else. As I was meditating about this and thinking about this for the sermon, one of the greatest gifts that God gives to us as Christians, it's a beautiful gift, is the gift of meditation, the gift of reflection. But if our hearts and minds are attuned to Satan's way of thinking, wrong, perverted thinking, then we're perverting something that could be very good. We don't want to reflect on evil. We don't want to reflect on those things that are breaking of God's law. We want to reflect upon God's law, the beauty that God has given us to think of. But here in Philippians 4, let's look at verse 7.

As I mentioned earlier today over in Ann Arbor, here Paul is writing to a group of people in Philippi. Philippi was a little Rome. Throughout the Roman Empire, they enjoyed putting up cities that were a showcase for all the rest of the empire to look at. Philippi was one of those cities. The Roman Empire would take their soldiers who were retiring, some of them, and they would retire them to Philippi. They would get their retirement, they would get a plot of land. The people of the citizenry there of Philippi had extra privileges, extra voting rights. And outside of the city there in Philippi, there was something else. There was a garrison. That garrison was there to guard Philippi. And when Paul writes to them, to guard your hearts and minds, that thought of guarding, they probably would think about, Oh yeah, we've got this garrison. That garrison guards us as citizens. But we need to guard our hearts and minds spiritually. So Paul knew very much what he was doing in terms of writing to the people and getting them to think about a concept. Rather, in this past overseas, and as you and I are reflecting upon our life in Christ, we need to ask, how successful are we in guarding our hearts? How successful are we in guarding our minds? Back there in Matthew 5, verses 29 and 30, where it talks about, you know, our eye offense, pluck it out of our hand, offense, chop it off. Unfortunately, you're probably aware that over the course of human history, people have actually done that. They've taken that literally, in various parts of the Middle Ages and so on. People just simply thought this was a literal understanding of what we should be doing from the Scriptures. And nothing could be further from the truth. God doesn't want us to name ourselves like this. But on the other hand, again, pass over an unleavened bread. They go together. And here you see in verses 29 and 30, if I can use the word, God wants us to be ruthless getting sin out of our lives. Take no prisoners. Whatever there is in our life that is bad, vigorously de-leaven our lives. Don't hold back. Don't think, well, it's just a little thing. It isn't just a little thing. What do Paul say to the church in Corinth? A little leaven leavens the whole lump. One bad apple in the barrel. You know all the stories.

And so here Christ is saying, you know, get with the picture here. If you've got something, just like, don't be angry. If you get angry, you can have the spirit of murder. And here he's saying, look, if you see even the least little vestiges of something that shouldn't be there spiritually, get on it. Don't wait. Don't take a vacation. Don't poopoo it. Don't turn your back on it. It's like an explosive device. It'll come back to haunt you.

Okay, the next section here, the Christ goes through a third area where we see a high level of worship to God, is verses 31 and 32. And once again, we're looking at what I feel is a discussion about the Seventh Commandment. Verse 31, for furthermore, it has been said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.

But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery. Whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery. Now, there are a number of ways I can go about discussing this verse. There are a number of sermons you can give discussing these two verses. But what we want to look at here, what Christ is getting at here, it's a matter of commitment. A matter of commitment. And this is what we check off in our life as PAMs Overseason. How committed are we? We are to be committed to our physical family. We are to be committed to our spiritual family, to our physical bride, our physical husband, our spiritual groom, Jesus Christ. To the body of Christ. Divorces, very hurtful, very destructive. Revelation 19. Let's take a look at this. Revelation 19. Because here we are looking at the Bride of Christ. Revelation 19.7-8. Revelation 19.7.

Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife, this is us, the church has made herself ready. And to her was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

So here we see that the Church of God, the New Testament, the New Covenant Church of God, and all the people in the Old Testament who were people of God, they made it a point to get out the least of the things that would hurt them, and of course the major things that would hurt them. They made themselves ready spiritually. Because of that, they were granted to wear this clothing that was symbolic of righteousness.

Christ wants to marry a like creation to Himself.

Christ labored greatly to do the work of God. Christ labored mightily to make sure that He did not sin. He was quite capable of sinning. He didn't. He wants His bride to be the same way, of the same mind. Christ lived righteously. We need to live righteously.

Christ died on the staros, the cross, if you will. And He tells us as Christians that we must bear our own cross, a symbol of death. Just as Christ died, we are to die. We are to walk away from the things that would cause death in us spiritually.

And certainly, from a physical perspective, let's turn to Ephesians 5. I say that this third example of Christ is talking about commitment. Obviously commitment to Jesus Christ, but also commitment to our families, our physical families. That pictures so much what we need to be learning in life. Ephesians 5 and verse 25.

Husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her. You know, a tremendous example of a husband's love, an agape type of a love, selfless, giving to the wife. That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word. That he might present herself a glorious church, not any spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

But that she should be holy without blemish. Now those verses are obviously talking about Jesus Christ working with the spiritual church. But there's also a principle here about a husband and a wife working with one another. Especially the husband here, working with his wife, doing everything possible to help her out spiritually. Verse 28. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. So here we're looking at a relationship we are to have in our physical families where we are to be loving and nurturing.

Loving and nurturing. Cherishing. So this third area was about commitment to Jesus Christ. Commitment to our families. Now go back to Matthew 5. We look at the fourth area, the sixth. Fourth example of the highest level of worship to God. We see it in verses 33-37. 33-37. And that is that we are to speak truth in integrity. Speak truth in integrity. That deals with commandment number three.

Commandment number three. Let's take a look at this. Matthew 5. Verse 33.

No, no, for whatever is more than these is from the evil one. In Jesus Christ's day, people were wont to make oaths, vows. God took all of that very seriously. Unfortunately, people back then didn't. They didn't. Because they weren't, Christ says, look, a true Christian whose word is good, who doesn't lie, he doesn't need to back up his words with some oath. His truthful word is enough. What Christ was reacting to was the fact that in so many cases, the religious leaders had developed this elaborate system to allow them out of an oath. They were like lawyers. If they didn't use God's name, then they weren't bound by the oath. If they swore by Jerusalem or the earth or wherever, but not using God's name, then they weren't bound. It wasn't a binding oath. Christ says every word that comes out of your mouth, you are responsible for. You own it. You set it. You own it.

So Christ is telling the people here, make integrity your standard. Your standard. Watch what you speak. Watch how you address people. Watch promises you make. Here in our church culture, there's any number of things we say that we need to be careful about. I'll pray for you. Well, are you going to pray for them? Do you really pray for them? It's nice to say those words, but do we do it? You've got to be very careful what we say we do. Our word is our bond. I just want Scripture here in Ephesians. Let's take a look at Ephesians 6.

Ephesians 6.

Here we're going to take a look at the Christian's armor. The Christian's armor. Verse 13. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. And so you've got a number of things that you and I are to put on as Christians, as the armor of God. Because Satan is going to come after us. He's going to do battle with us. And we need this armor. Notice the very first thing that is made mention of here in verse 14. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth. The very first thing we put on is truth. And also note in the analogy here that you are to gird your waist with truth. And the concept here is a soldier in battle. Having various pieces of things that he would take into battle that's going to allow him to be successful. You may not think about it, but if you're going into battle back in the days when Romans, and this would be in the Roman age, a part of the Romans armor was simply a sash or some sort of a belt that they'd wear around the middle. Because so many things tied up in that area of the Roman soldier's gear. If he had a shirt that was hanging fire here, they could grab that and use it against him. Everything had to be tucked in. In that sash, in that belt, he might have his sword. He would have his sword stuck in there. All sorts of things that would tie up right there. And also that's an area that needs to be protected in your midsection. So they have that leather belt there. But it all revolves around truth. Truth. Not just seeing how we can get out of what we've said earlier, but real truth. Can we go back now to Matthew 5? Let's move along. We're looking at the fifth example of the sixth here. These next two examples are very similar in meaning.

They also deal with what Christ called the greatest commandment, and that is to love our neighbor as ourself. They're in Mark 12, to love our neighbor as ourself. Here, this fifth example shows that we need to walk in love under the most difficult circumstances. It's easy to walk in love when the circumstances are easy, but we need to walk in love when the circumstances are most trying, most difficult, hardest. Matthew 5, verses 38-42. Verse 38, you have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Now, believe it or not, brethren, that was actually a merciful thing. Because in God's mind, He was concerned that people would say, Well, you gouged out my eye. I'm going to gouge out the eyes of everyone in your family.

You knocked out my tooth. Your whole family's going to be toothless. And so in God's mind, He says, I don't want to see this violence escalate. And so He says, an eye for an eye and a tooth. And again, God was working with these people on a very physical basis. So it gave guidelines as to what would be against what would be an escalating anger within people. Verse 39, but I tell you not to resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other also to Him.

Now, does this mean that you and I just go out into the world and we let people murder us and do all sorts of things to us? Let people just walk into our house? Oh, take this! I don't want that anymore. Is that what we do? Has the church not had an attorney all these years that you can think of? Is there something wrong with protecting ourselves? Of course not. You know, Eric was talking about jury duty. You know, I've been called up myself, and to me it's very simple. You know, when the judge, and thankfully I've not had to actually talk to a judge, but we are told to judge righteous judgment. We're going to be people of judgment. And yet in our court system, they will not let you know all the facts. The individual is before you, might have a sealed back history. You don't know the facts. They may be a certain age you don't know the facts. Because of legal technicalities, you don't know the facts. And because you don't have all the facts, you can't make a righteous judgment.

And so what I would tell a judge is, well, Christ told me to judge righteously, but I can't know all the facts. I don't know the person's heart. Because I don't know those things, my conscience tells me I can't sit on this jury. Now, you can force me to sit on the jury, but I'm not going to help anybody deliberate. I'm not going to help them come to any conclusions. And by that point in this discussion, the judge says, get this guy out of here. He's a religious nut.

But that's the truth. We can't, in that system, we can't man-system, Satan's system, as good as mankind can do, which is our legal system today, as good as the American system is. It's still not God's system. And we couldn't do, we couldn't participate, I feel, because we could not judge righteously.

But verse 39 here, the idea here, it comes off of verse 38. God does not want us to retaliate. That's the whole concept here. Get away from this idea about vengeance, retaliation, an eye for an eye. But that doesn't mean we can't protect ourselves. Let's take a moment and look at this. Acts 16. Let's take a look at the life of the Apostle Paul.

Can we, as Eric, I think, pointed out correctly, can we use the legal system? Do we just walk away from it entirely?

Acts 16. Here we've got the background to the start-up of the church in Philippi. You know the story. Paul was imprisoned with Silas. They were Romans. Paul was a Roman. They were beaten. They were tried without... They were not tried, assuming they were beaten. They were sent to jail without any trial. And you don't do that to a Roman citizen. Paul was a Roman citizen. When the magistrates found out what they had done, they realized, Paul, this is going to be really hard for us.

Let's secretly get this guy out of jail. Let's do this at night, secretly. But notice what Paul says here. Chapter 16, verse 37. Acts 16, verse 37. Paul said to them, they have beat us openly, uncon-demned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now that they put us off secretly, know indeed. Let them come themselves and get us out. Now, Paul wasn't lacking in humility. He was standing on rights that he had. And you have rights as a citizen of this country. And there's nothing wrong with you using your rights as a citizen of this country.

Chapter 22 of the book of Acts. Acts 22. And verse 25. As they bound them with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman, and uncon-demned? So here Paul's quoting their law. Here Paul's saying, Obviously, Paul was not in the mood to, Well, you know, I'm going to turn to the other cheek here. Beat on me as much as you want.

I'm into pain. No, Paul didn't say that. He said, Look, I'm a Roman. There's certain due process that I am afforded as a Roman citizen. Now, there's something else here as well. As this Roman centurion could have been beating on Paul, that was a sinful act against Paul. Paul may have, because he was such a converted man, he might have been thinking, Well, you know, I don't want that.

I don't want to get beaten. But I certainly don't want this guy to sin. If I say the right thing, maybe he'll not start beating on me and not sin. So you've got that. Chapter 25 of Acts. Acts chapter 25, verse 8. When he answered for himself, Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar, have I offended in anything at all. Paul is here at a trial, his own trial. He's defending himself. Bethesda's wanting to do the Jews a favor, answered Paul, and said, Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem, and there be judged before me concerning these things?

So Paul said, I stand before Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews I've done no wrong, as you very well know. For if I am an offender, and I have committed anything deserving of death, I do not object to dying. But if there is nothing in these things that which these men accuse me, no one can deliver me to them.

I appeal to Caesar. Then Bethesda's wanting to be conferred with the council, and answered, You have appealed to Caesar? To Caesar you shall go. Basically, he's going to the Supreme Court. He's going as far as this can go. So he is using their legal system in an appropriate way. He's not trying to punish anybody, but he certainly has the right to protect himself. So, a lesson to be learned there. Let's take a look now at the very last thing, over here in Matthew chapter 5. We'll go back there. And again, this is very similar to what we just went through.

We were talking about walking in love under the most difficult situations. Here in this last grouping of Scriptures, verses 43 through 48, Matthew 5, verses 43 through 48, we're looking at walking in love with the most difficult people. Not just the most difficult circumstances we talked about a moment ago, but the most difficult people are enemies. And again, the law being expounded here is the greatest of them all, loving your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 5, verse 43, You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbors and hate your enemies. Well, I daresay if you took your computer and did a word search for hating your enemies, you're not going to find God saying that.

People might have construed that when God allowed them to go to war against various sinful nations. Verse 44, But I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who spitefully use you, and persecute you. Now, I've not made it a point with all these areas to go back to last week's sermon, but here is such a clear example, verse 44.

The beatitude about persecution. You know, we are to have this attitude that, you know, if God allows that, that's what's in the cards for us, so be it. But then, here is the action. We're not going to hate those who are persecuting us. We're not going to be so angry we're beside ourselves. Because that just takes us someplace spiritually. We don't want to go. Verse 45, That you may be the son of your Father in heaven, as he makes his son to rise unto evil and the good, and sends his reign unto just and the unjust.

You know, we're God's kids. God sets us an example. He, as God, sends rain and sunshine on every human being. Christ died for every human being. And God wants us, as his sons, as his daughters, to love every human being. That doesn't mean we put ourselves in harm's way. It doesn't mean we condone what they do in terms of their sinful actions. But we don't hate them.

We realize, as the old saying goes, we are to love the sinner and hate the sin. Realizing that at some point in the future, God is going to open their minds to the truth, they will become converted, and they'll be our brothers and sisters for all eternity. Verse 46, For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors the same?

And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Brethren, God has called us to be different.

We are the salt of the earth. We are the light of the world. There needs to be a difference between us and the rest of the world as Christians. If we just go around hating and being angry and vengeful, eye for an eye, we're just like the rest of humanity.

God has called us to be different. Verse 48, Therefore you shall be mature, just as your Father in heaven is mature. This word, perfect, is teleos. It can be translated mature or full grown. We are to be mature or full grown. And this is truly a high level of walking with God to walk just as Christ did. Not just with the difficult situations, but also with the difficult people. Christ came, He did no sin. He preached love. And He was crucified. And as it says there in 1 Peter 2, He didn't lash out, He didn't threaten, He didn't have any evil in His heart when that was taking place.

Now that, of course, He's God in the flesh. I think you and I would have a lot of issues if that was happening to us. But it does show us the direction we want to go. It shows us the direction we want to go. It'll be like the rest of the world. Philippians 2 Philippians 2 verse 5 Where it says, Let this mind be in you which also was in Christ Jesus. That's the mind. That's the mature mind. That's what we want to be meditating on and thinking on and going through and through our thought processes at all times.

How did Christ live? What did He do? People always say, I don't know what to study. Well, study the four Gospels and see how Christ lived His life. Read what's happening around Him. But just watch what He does, what He says. There's a lot of things that Christ did that people would say, Well, I don't know. Is that really right? The woman who had the demon-possessed daughter, and she heard this great healer had come to town, and heard that he had cast out demons. He was a great preacher of love, and so she makes it a point to seek Him out.

She seeks Him out. She goes right to Jesus Christ. She says, I need my daughter, and needs help. And what did Jesus Christ do? He looked at her and walked away. He didn't say a word to her. He walked away. The disciples looked at it. She looked at the disciples, and the disciples looked at it with kind of disdain. They said, would you please tell this lady to get out of here?

And so her eyes are scanning the disciples and Jesus Christ one way or another. But we also know something. Jesus Christ loved that woman. Jesus Christ died for that woman. And Jesus Christ had a plan for that woman at that very point. He wanted to see what her response would be. If He did, turn His back and walk away. She kept after Him. She kept after Him. So there's so many interesting lessons that we can apply to our lives.

Because how many times have we thought, we've gone to God, we've got a difficult situation, it sounds like He's turned His back on us. No. He didn't turn His back, really, on that way, woman. He just wanted to see what she was into, which she had the fortitude to keep on going. So, so anyhow, that's it for this sermon. We've gone through now two of the sermons covering the sermon on the Mount.

We're not going to go through every word nor every idea here in these three chapters. We've got three more sermons to go, three more major subjects to cover. Hopefully, these will be helpful for all of us as we prepare for the Passover and Days of Unleavened Break.