Would you take your Bibles, please, and turn to Matthew chapter 5, where if you're just joining us here this morning, we're studying the Sermon on the Mount, which is the signature message and the ministry of Jesus Christ about the Kingdom of God that is at hand. It's a radical message. In fact, the more I study it, the more radical it appears to me. And the more life-changing its statements and its commitments and demands are upon all of us who call ourselves Christians. But today we come to five verses that usually serve as the deal breaker for most people when it comes to following Christ and the Sermon on the Mount. I say that because they are the most difficult verses in this difficult message. Matthew chapter 5 verses 38 to 42. You have heard that it was said, and I for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let it have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles, give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. Commentators across the board say that these are perhaps the most difficult section of the Sermon on the Mount. One said the next section of the Sermon on the Mount contains some of the most challenging and demanding requirements of those who want to live as Jesus Christ apprentices. Another one opined, I think it is perhaps these four statements more than any other in this discourse that caused people to throw up their hands in despair or sink into a pit of grinding legalism. Sinclair Ferguson said of the entire Sermon on the Mount, no ideas are more frequently alluded to than the ones that follow and eye for an eye, turn the other cheek, go the extra mile. They are still colorful expressions in the English language. And for some people, they are the essence of Christianity, but what do they really mean? I have heard these verses used to justify pacifism, to gun control laws, to civil rights movements. And perhaps before we look at what they really mean, perhaps we need to debunk them from all of the false and fivolous and fearful ideas that we have about them. These are not easy verses, folks, they are not easy to preach and teach, and they are not easy to learn and understand, and they are even more difficult to apply. But we do know some things about them. And first of all, these are not verses that say anything about a social or political agenda. They have nothing to do with the state. None whatsoever. Jesus Christ is speaking to individuals about personal relationships. He's not speaking to churches about how they administer church discipline or to governments or schools about how they administer things. He's not even speaking to families, parents, in regard to the discipline of their children. He's speaking to individuals. And if we don't get that straight, then we run into some serious problems. The famous Russian author, Leo Tolstoy, took these verses to teach what he called the command of non-resistance. And in a book he wrote called What I Believe, this is what Tolstoy actually said about these verses. I understand that Christ says just what he means. Resist not evil. These words understood in their direct meaning were for me a key to opening up everything else. It is impossible at one in the same time to confess Christ as God, the basis of whose teaching is non-resistance to him that is evil, and at the same time consciously and calmly to work for the establishment of property or law courts or government or military forces. Christ totally forbids the human institution of any law court because you see they resist evil and return evil for evil. Now if you follow Tolstoy's reasoning as he did, he believed in the anarchy state. No laws, no government, no property lines, no deeds of trust, no agreements, no courts. Others, perhaps not as radical, took the Sermon on Mount to justify their political movements, Mahandas Gandhi did. He thought that Tolstoy went too far. So he went back and studied, he said the Sermon on the Mount and came up with what he said, not a passive resistance or civil disobedience, but what he called the force of truth. In fact, Gandhi said it is the Sermon that has endeared Jesus to me and it formed the basis of his passive resistance of the British Empire to bring about the end of colonialism in India. Dr. Martin Luther King said many times that it was these words in the Sermon on the Mount that was the fuel for his civil rights movement. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to the night that is already devoid of stars. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time, which is the need of mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human beings, a human conflict resolution method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation, the foundation of such method is this message of Christ. Well, there may be a kernel of truth in all that these men are saying, but they are fundamentally flawed in their general interpretation of this part of the Sermon on the Mount. Again, please keep this in the back of your mind for the next 30 minutes or so. Jesus Christ is not talking about the state. He's not talking about war, he's not talking about courts of law, he's not talking to attorneys, he's not talking about gun control, he's not talking about civil rights or tort law, he's talking to individuals. The second thing we have to keep in mind is that if there's one place in the Sermon on the Mount where we will resort to a caricature, it is here. That is a favorite technique of people when the preacher or the teacher or the master says something that we don't like, maybe it's difficult for us, we say, oh, so what you're saying is this and we make it sound so ridiculous. Dr. Martin Lloyd-John warns us against this, clearly he said we are face to face here with the subject, which has often been debated, which has been frequently misunderstood, which has always been the cause of much confusion. There is possibly no passage in all of the scriptures which has produced as much heat and disputation as these very teachings which has not resist evil and to be loving and forgiving. Lloyd-John says in looking at this, we have to remember five things, Jesus Christ, listen, listen, he's not giving us a code of ethics, a set of rules, he's teaching us merely the spirit of the law, he is not replacing God's law on the Old Testament, his law on the New Testament, he's unveiling before us what God's law on the Old Testament always intended in spirit to do for us. Secondly, these teachings can never be applied mechanically or as a rule of thumb, these are principles to guide us and principles are less exact than laws and rules. Thirdly, he says, if our interpretation makes this teaching appear to be impossible, we are wrong because Jesus Christ never asks us to do something that's impossible. Secondly, he said, if our interpretation of these things makes what Christ says look ridiculous, we are wrong because that is blasphemy, Christ is not ridiculous in what he says, Christ is God and God does not say ridiculous things. And thirdly, if our interpretation of these verses causes us to come into conflict with something else in the Scripture, then we are wrong because Scripture never contradicts Scripture, Jesus Christ authored Genesis 1, he preached Matthew chapter 5 and he closed out the text with his own words in Revelation 22. Jesus Christ will not contradict himself for he speaks in and through and all of the Scripture. So what Jesus is saying here has to be accepted as something that is possible, that is rational and squares with the teachings of both the Old and New Testament, both Moses and Paul, who came before him and after him and who both looked to him as the paradigm of truth. No, what Jesus is teaching here, although difficult, is something beautiful and balanced and beneficial to all mankind. How could we summarize it? Well, I think a Presbyterian minister named Earl Palmer, who wrote a little thin commentary on the sermon on the Mount, catches the kernel of truth here. He says what Jesus Christ is teaching is the creative way of self-limitation. Listen to what he said. Jesus had advocated the creative way of self-limitation. This depends upon God's healing and redeeming power to make it work. It is a way that counts upon the completion of the laws great intentions by God to love him and others with all of our being, so that the great power of love overrides the power of retribution and animosity. What Christ puts before us here is the creative way of self-limitation. What a marvelous way to kind of summarize these verses, the creative power, the creative way, the creative life of self-limitation. Look at it again. Read it now with that phrase in your back of your mind, self-limitation. You have heard that it was said, and I, for an eye, had a tooth for tooth, but I say to you, do not resist the one who was evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles, give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you, learn self-limitation. To put another way, learn to put aside your rights to do something good for someone else. Let's look at this particular teaching here like we have all the other corrections of the law in Matthew, chapter 5. First, the false perspective that was taught by their allies, then the true perspective taught by Jesus Christ. The false perspective on revenge, verse 38. You have heard that it was said, and I, for an eye, and a tooth for tooth, well they are correct. Moses said that. This is what Moses wrote. I'd like you to keep your finger for a few minutes and Matthew, chapter 5, and turn back to the Old Testament to Exodus, chapter 21, where Jesus Christ is referring to the teachings of Moses, who the rabbis had taken and twisted once again. Exodus, chapter 21. In Exodus, chapter 20, the first 21 verses, God gives the 10 commandments. And then after that, in the rest of chapter 20, and chapter 21, and 22, and 23, he gives certain case laws, certain ways the 10 commandments are applied to interpersonal social and public issues. And he talks here about lex, tallyonus, the law of retaliation. Exodus 21, verse 22. When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judge determines. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, I for I, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound stripes for stripe. Who was to make that determination as the judge determines? Jesus Christ is speaking about a civil court here in what we call a tort, a personal offense. Listen to Leviticus where he says the same thing. Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. Whoever takes an animal's life shall make it good, life for life. If anyone injures his neighbor as he has done, it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, I for I, tooth for tooth, whatever injury he has given, a person shall be given to him. Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, and whoever kills a person shall be put to that. You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God, the same things repeated in Deuteronomy verbatim in chapter 19 verses 15 to 21. I for an I, tooth for tooth, life for life, in the courts of law. It is what we call today the law of Lex Thalionis, Lex Law Latin, Thalionis revenge or retaliation. The law of retaliation, listen how the dictionary defines it or the encyclopedia. In modern times the sprays still loosely applies in I for an I. Should a person commit a tort that results in personal injury to the plaintiff, they must pay for the repairing of the injury. For example, an I for an I might mean an I transplant. This is called compensatory damages. The term Lex Thalionis does not always and only refer to literal I for an I codes of justice but applies to the broader class of legal systems that specify formulaic penalties for specific crimes which are thought to be fitting in their severity. Some propose that this was at least part of Moses's intent to prevent excessive punishment at the hands of either an avenging private party or the state. The most common expression of the Lex Thalionis is an I for an I. But other interpretations have been given as well. Legal codes following the principle of Lex Thalionis have one thing in mind. They prescribe a fitting counter punishment for a specific offense. Moses's instructions are meant for judges. They are meant for courts of law for kings and those that authority. Exodus, chapter 21, does not refer to personal retaliation or revenge. And Moses's intention was to limit personal revenge by pushing the controversy into a court of law where compensatory damages commensurate with the offense would be applied justly and fairly by the court. There are three things that lie behind Moses' teaching that the punishment must fit the crime, that people are responsible for their actions and reactions and that two wrongs cannot make a right. Now this is how Lex Thalionis works. It makes sense. If I get in an argument and I punch Bruce Cresswell in the face and he loses sight in his right eye, it is not Lex Thalionis. For the court to cut out my right eye, know what the court will do is that they will agree what is a compensatory financial penalty. It might be millions of dollars that I pay for the replacement of something that's irreplaceable in Bruce's life, the sight in his right eye. Now, what if I punched him and I simply broke his glasses? Would I still be charged millions of dollars? Probably not. The fair compensation there is that I pay the doctors bills that I buy new pair of glasses and then I probably do some time in probation learning anger management and how to repent of assault and battery. What if I punched him in his eye began to him and a week later he died? What are compensatory damages then? Well, depending upon the court's assessment of my motive and intent and the deliberate actions that I undertook to hurt him, I may be put to death or be given 15 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter. You see, it's not as easy as it sounds. And it's not always little tit for tat, eye for eye. Let me show you the proof of that. Let's go back to Exodus 21. We stopped in verse 25. Let's begin in verse 26. As Moses extrapolates Lex Thalionis out to a number of different cases. When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye. If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth. The compensatory damage for damaging a slave is not an eye for an eye but the freedom of the slave. When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall not be liable. But, if the ox had been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner had been warned but had not kept it in, and it kills a man or woman, the ox shall be stoned and the owner shall be put to death. But if a ransom is imposed on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his own life whatever is imposed on him. If it gore as a man's son or daughter, he shall be dealt with according to the same rule. If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give their master thirty shekels a silver and the ox shall be stoned. If my ox gets out of the backyard and kills the neighbor son, I could be put to death or I can pay a ransom to buy back my life. Let's go on. When a man opens a pit, and when a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or donkey falls into the pit, the owner of the pit shall make restoration. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead be shall be his. He'll pay for the beast that died, but he'll get the meat off the dead beast. That's fair. Go on. When a one man's ox buts another man's ox, so it dies, then he shall sell the live ox and share its price. And the dead be also, they may share. Or if it is known that the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has not kept it in, he shall repay an ox for an ox and the dead be shall be his. You see how it works? Each of these things, an ox killing another ox, is not as important as a man killing a man. And an accidental death is not as significant as a deliberate murder. And knocking an eye out is a lot more important than knocking the tooth out. And so the whole idea of Moses was to limit excessive retaliation and unjust revenge by individuals against one another. Moses meant only, listen to me, only an eye for an eye, not an arm for an eye, not a life for a life, and a tooth for a tooth, not the whole farm for one tooth. John Stott says, the problem was in Jesus' day that this was being abused. And the revenge that people wanted to justify, personal revenge, they did under the code of the court's law. And that's what the rabbis taught. That you could take matters into your own hands, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. You could demand that in court, you could push for that in court or you could do it yourself. You can imagine the anarchy that would bring. What you see they ignored is that Moses' instructions has two parts, listen to me, prescriptive and restrictive. It prescribed proper penalty for irresponsibility. It prescribed that. But it restricted unjust revenge for innocent mistakes. It was prescriptive in punishment and restrictive in revenge. And the rabbis were ignoring one or both of those principles under the spirit of let's get even. By the way, that is exactly what's happening in our society today. With unrestricted personal lawsuits, outlandish legal verdicts, and exorbitant settlements, we have become a litigious society. So that our tort law is a sham. And we take an arm for a tooth. You know, if you're out here and your little boy is playing in the SOAR program on Saturday, and the coach gets frustrated and grabs him and shakes him and scolds him, now here's what we fear at Christ covenant church. We fear a multi-million dollar lawsuit from you. You're going to sue us, every pastor on the staff, covenant day school, everything we own, you know what? And you'll sue for five million dollars and our attorneys will settle for five hundred thousand. Five hundred thousand because your little boy got embarrassed. What is Lex Tallyonis? It's that the coach apologizes and we fire him. You don't get the whole farm because junior God upset. But that's the world we live in, or just like the rabbis. You do me wrong, I'm going to punish you, I'm going to crush you, to you pay me what I think I'm worth. And Jesus said, I think not. I think not. Your whole thinking he says is inverted and perverted. That is what you have heard. But what I'm telling you is to limit your right to retaliation. Sinclair Ferguson is right. Behind this lies the principle by which every Christian is called to live. Do not make your rights the basis of your relationship with other people. Be prepared to take a lowly position as a humble servant. Be prepared to pay the price of imitating the example of Jesus Christ. Do not make your rights the basis of your relationship with other people. I just had the pleasure this morning of going to the high school and junior high school class. Matt Smith gave a great lesson about how Christianity has improved the lot of women in the world over history. Then I went to Christian Forbes, small group she did a great job teaching these young people about rights and values and responsibilities and roles. And they were saying both Matt and Christian to the young people don't jam through your rights into other people's lives your own agenda. There's something more important than your rights. And that is the value of another human being made in the image of God. And that's what Jesus Christ is teaching. Look what he says in verse 39. You have heard this said, but I say, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles, give him to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. This is what Jesus taught. He said in the sense, the way to solve conflict between you and another person is not to go to the courts and seek revenge and retaliation but for work for peace and reconciliation and restitution at all costs. Overcome evil with good, overcome hate with love, overcome revenge with grace, overcome malice with mercy. And he uses four illustrations which we often don't understand. Here's the first one. It has to do with a personal insult or injury. First example, verse 39. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Now a slap on the cheek is not a punch in the face. A slap on the cheek is an insult. It's not even a assault in battery by our own code of conduct in America. This is not by the way him talking about the government going to war or the courts putting you in prison or retaliating against an enemy who attacks us. This is no prohibition against self-defense or defending your wife in children and property. This is not even teaching about persecution. Jesus mentions nothing about being persecuted for Jesus Christ's sake. He handled that back in chapter 5, verses 10, 11, and 12. This has nothing to do with those things. It's amazing what we have read into these things over the centuries. This has to do with someone insulting me. I say something to a young lady, perfect listen. She slapped me across the face. What does an eye for an eye say? I call cocked a little girl and knock her unconscious for a week. No. I back off and say, I'm telling my mom. No. I looked at her and say I must have offended you. I'm sorry. But could we work this out without you hitting me anymore? You know what? That sounds reasonable to me. He uses a second example. He says, what if someone wants to sue you? If anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. You say he can't mean it. He does. Your neighbor says to you, I'm sick and tired of that fence that's fallen down on my property. I'm doing two, I'm giving you 24 hours or else, then I'm taking you to the homeless association that I'm going to sue you for everything. You say, sir, you're right. I apologize. It isn't eye sore. It's leaning over the property. Let me tell you what I'll do. Not only will I repair the fence, but since it's between your property and mine, why don't we join the pick out what kind of fence it is so that it's not an eye sore to you anymore? But you like it as well. You say you can't be serious. Jesus says. I'll tell you a true story. I lived in a rural beach years ago. I had pine trees all, you know, there's nothing grows in South. Can I say pine trees? It's salt, you know. I think people just eat pine cones down there. That's all. And so I had all these pine and sometimes in the wind would blow, the sap would blow on my neighbor's car. Although the pine trees were from here to the cross, they would blow. So one day I had cut the grass and it was laying down for a nap and my neighbor opened the front door and said, Ross, get out here right now. Well, I went out there and boy, he was in a rage. He was going to do me bodily harm. He was going to take me to the pastor of the church. I said, Tom, I am the pastor of the church. Then he was going to sue me. I said, what do you want? He said, I want you to cut those trees down. I said, I'll tell you what, there's two trees that are offending your car. Why don't we split it? I'll cut one. No, no, that's it. I'm getting the lawyer. Well, you know what? The next week, something called Hurricane Hugo came through Myrtle Beach. It destroyed every tree in my yard except for two. They were just as upright as they'd ever been. When the man came by and he said, Mr. Ross, you've got an insurance settlement and we'll take down all these trees except for those two. I said, I want you to take them all down. He said, you're going to have to pay for those two. I said, I'll pay for them. When Tom heard that, you know what he did? He paid for one of them. And we kept our neighborly discourse going on for years in civility. Third example. Has to do with government interference. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. What's just mean? Well, when Jesus was around, any Roman soldier had the right of called the right of conscription. He could grab any slave or citizen of the Roman Empire who was not in the military and make that person carry his gear exactly one state of one mile. Jesus says when he does that, go with him a second mile. Show him your good nature and your goodwill. Act as a Christian in kindness. You know, maybe use that second mile when he says, I only asked for one. Well, no sir, I'd like to carry it for you two miles. Why? Well, because God loves you and I'd like to talk to you about Jesus Christ. The house that applied us, you know, a few months ago our government sent out something. It wasn't hard for us to do. It took about 15 minutes. It was called a census. A lot of people in church said, I'm not filling that out. They have no right to do that. Oh, they have every right to do that. If they faster you fill that out, they'll increase your taxes and decrease your representation. They may. But not only do you should fill it out, but you should get it to them early. And if a policeman stops you and says, Mr. so-and-so, I need you to pull over and do such and such. Rather than the plain, you should say, officers, or anything else I can do to help. Anything else I can do to help. If you just keep that ticket, I'll do whatever you want me to do to help you. They have a right to impose upon us. And we have a obligation not only to obey them, but to see if we can make their job even easier. Jesus said. And fourthly, the example of charity and mercy. Give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. He says, stop. Give to the panhandler. He'll probably use it for alcohol. No doubt about it. But give to him. And if your brother-in-law borrows your lawnmower and breaks it again, then fix it. And the next time he wants to borrow it, give it to him again. Why? Because Jesus is saying, if you let go of your rights to bring peace, justice, fulfilled civic duty to help other people, things will go a lot easier for all of us. And they will see the kingdom of God in you. Listen to James' voice. These verses teach that a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ has no right to retaliation, no right to things, no right to his own time, no right to his money. In other words, he holds all that he has in trust from the Lord, and he is obliged to use these things as Jesus did to help other people, no right to retaliation for a slap on the cheek and insult. No right to things if they sue you for your tunic, no right to time and convenience if they ask you to go the extra mile, no right to money if they beg and borrow, do not abuse your rights as they are in pursuing unnecessary retaliation. Are these things evil? Well look at verse 39. I guess they are. But I say do not resist the one who is evil. It's evil to insult people. It's evil to sue people when they don't need to. It's evil for the government to abuse us and force themselves and be so invasive into our lives. It's evil to be lazy and irresponsible and always asking people to bail you out financially. But Jesus says overcome that evil with good. That's the one thing I want you to take away from here. That little sentence, overcome evil with good. That's what Jesus Christ is. Why? Because that's what Moses was after. That's why he wrote these things in Exodus chapter 21 to overcome evil with good. That's what Jesus Christ did. But Peter says in first Peter chapter 2 that Jesus Christ when reviled did not reviled in return when struck did not retaliate. Let me ask you something. Was Jesus Christ insulted by you? It was you and me who spit in his face, who slapped him, who taunted him, who beat him up before he went to the cross. Was Jesus Christ in a fair trial? I think not. That was a kangaroo court that condemned him to death. Did he submit to the government that made him carry his own cross and go to pay the penalty of something he didn't? Yes, he did, an unjust judgment. And by the way when we're talking about debt and poverty, what did Jesus mean when he died on the cross and his last word said it is paid in full? Did Jesus Christ pay your debt? Did you borrow from his grace to live forever? It has God the Father ever taken revenge upon you or me. For what we did to Jesus Christ, no. He overcame evil with good. The great God in Savior and his gospel is evidence of that. This is what Paul said. Look at Romans chapter 12. Paul takes this little concept that Jesus writes about here and he divinates almost a whole chapter in Romans on it. Romans chapter 12 beginning in verse 14. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty. Bless you with the lowly. Never be conceded. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the side of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves. But leave it to the wrath of God for his written vengeance is mine. I will replace as the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by so doing you he burning coals on his head, listen to this marvelous truth. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Do not get sucked in to the American ethos of retaliation. Don't you be overcome by that evil. You overcome evil with good. You do what grace demands, not what the law permits. Listen to Brother James. He summarizes it all with these magnificent words. So I want you to speak and act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who shows no mercy, mercy triumphs over judgment. Again, Jesus does not mean that the state has no right to judge us, they do. That the police have no right to arrest us, they do. That the military has no right to strike back and adjust what they do. But we do not. Our rights are set aside for duty. Grace looks for mercy and not for judgment. Love overcomes evil with good. Reconciliation is more important than revenge. We need to focus less on what our civil rights are and focus more on what our Christian duty is and that duty is to overcome evil with good. It's difficult. This is why I say these verses are the deal breaker. And if you're not a Christian and you're sitting here exploring the possibility of joining Christ in his church and you say this is too much I'm out of here, I understand. But you're making a mistake because you're turning around and walking away from Christ in his grace out into the world of retaliation and that is not a good place to live. Jesus Christ remember in this whole message is inviting us into a new way of living. That's what Jesus is after a new way of living, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand repent, change your mind. That's what repent means. Change your mind and believe in the gospel. Come to a new way of living, a radical way that opens up the kingdom to all these people described in the Beatitudes and now begins to work through anger and contempt and lust and divorce and telling the truth and spin and comes down to our personal rights and says you know, Americans say walk softly and carry a big stick but I say be kind and live with much grace. When people do evil to you, you do good to them if it's within your power and overcome evil with good. You say pastor, is that realistic? It is if you believe that God is sovereign and controls all situations for your good. It is if you belong to Jesus Christ and he belongs to you, you've accepted him by faith. It is if the Holy Spirit lives inside of you and gives you his grace on a day-to-day basis. It is if you claim the promises of the gospel and the reality of the love of God in the kingdom of God, listen to Jesus speak through Paul. What shall we say then to all these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, helping you not freely also with him graciously give us all things. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who condemns us, Jesus Christ is the one who died, more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation of distress or persecution of famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No. And all of these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor any other thing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So they sue us, so they condemn us, so the slap goes to a punch which goes to a persecution. And all of these things we will overcome because the love of God in Jesus Christ is not only with us, it is in us and it is invincible and we will overcome evil with good. Jesus had four illustrations. I want to close by asking you four very difficult questions. This will take me two minutes. Question number one. Has someone lied to you, sought to take advantage of you, cheated you, or tried to work the system to their advantage and to your expense? You have a right to say I'm done with you. No way. You cheated, you lose. I want to ask you would you be willing to go to that person and say this? I've reconsidered what you did and despite what you did, I'd like to work with you till we work through this. Will you allow mercy to triumph over judgment? Second question. Has someone threatened you with harm? Are you with serious odds with another soul? Is there someone you call an adversary in your life? You have a right to defend yourself, perhaps you should. But would you be willing to take the third party with you, meet with your adversary and say let's work together until we work this out because I am committed to seeing that your best interest are met as much as possible. Would you be willing to allow reconciliation to overrule revenge? Third question. Is someone making demands upon you that are candidly unreasonable and maybe even selfish? You have the right to your space, into your limits, into your life, you could say no. But would you be willing not only to meet their unreasonable requests but to communicate to them this truth? I care enough about you to give you what you ask and I want you to know I'm always here as your friend to help you on your way. Will you allow your duty to trump your right to resist? And finally, can you think of someone who recently asked you for money? Some financial support or charitable donation? And you thought my goodness, what a bottomless pit this person really is, you have the right to say no, your money is yours. But would you consider giving sacrificially believing what Jesus said is better to give than to receive? Will you practice grace instead of self-interest? I'm just asking because on all these four questions you have the right to say no and that's between you and God and the other party. But I'm asking you to follow Jesus Christ and to overcome evil with good and without trying to lay a guilt trip on you which I am. I want you to end this message by reflecting on this question when was the last time you went to Jesus Christ and asked Him for something and He said no. Mem was the last time because He has overcome evil with His good self and that is what happens when the kingdom of God is at hand. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven and in heaven God overcomes evil with good and He limits His own rights in doing so. Amen. Father, we don't know anything more close to the heart of the gospel than these teachings here of Jesus Christ. What a radical thing. You have done as God to save us from our sins. You had the right, this was the deal, that if we sinned we all died. But you decided to overcome our sin with the goodness of your Savior Jesus Christ, your Son, and to give us life in place of our death. You did not consider your right to be appeased, your right to be just, your right to retaliate, you were gracious to us and mercy triumphed over judgment. There is a time for judgment, a day coming when the opportunity for mercy will end and all that will be left is for you to judge those who have rejected grace in Christ and to consign them to a life of horrible pain. But between now and then we live by grace, not by judgment, we thrive on mercy and not retaliation, we hope for reconciliation or restitution and not for revenge and we look to you to work in our hearts and lives to be those kinds of people as well. Our prayer today is that you give us faith to trust in Christ, to be born again, to be saved, to enter into the kingdom of heaven, to take on the kingdom of motif and ethos in the way of living, to be known among all the people with whom we have relationships as persons who overcome evil with good, and to care about others more than we care about our own rights and privileges. We will need great grace to do this, but this is neither ridiculous nor impossible, all things are possible with Christ. So we ask for this grace and this help in Christ's name, amen.