Be Merciful - Luke 6:27-36

Luke chapter six.

You remain standing, please.

And we're going to read out of Luke chapter six, beginning in verse twenty-seven.

Luke chapter six, verse twenty-seven.

And normally Sunday's past, we've uh dismissed the children.

We're going to dismiss them in just a minute, but we're going to do something a little different.

I'll try something out.

But uh right now let's read this passage, Luke chapter six, verse twenty seven.

The Word of God says, But I say to you here, love your enemies.

Do good to those who hate you.

Bless those who curse you.

Pray for those who mistreat you.

Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also, and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either.

Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.

Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you, for even sinners love those who love them?

If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?

For even sinners do the same.

If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you?

Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount.

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the most high.

For he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

Be merciful, just as your father is merciful.

Amen.

Alright, I'm going to ask if the children would come.

Um we're going to meet down here.

Everybody's going to come down here.

Remain standing for just a minute.

We're going to have the kids come down.

And this is what let me tell you why.

We sometimes, you don't have to come up here.

No, don't sit down.

You're good.

Just chill out for a little bit.

But we sometimes we we kind of dismiss them and we don't realize they're still a part of our church.

They're still part of the church family.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to have them all come down here and stand.

You don't have to sit down, you can stand.

And they're going to sit down anyway.

Matt, you have trained them, you have trained them so well.

We could bring up the overhead.

Yeah, that's good.

Thank you so much for that.

Can we show the slide, please?

Here's what we'd like to do.

You have the overhead?

There you go.

What I'd like us to do as a church is this be our prayer for the children, because they're going to go in another room and they're going to be learning about God just like we're learning about God in here.

They're not a different church, we're still part of the same family.

So if you would just repeat after me what you see on the screen, and we'll just we'll have this uh verbal blessing over the children.

Let's let's read this.

Lord, we ask you to bless our children and those who are ministering to them today.

May they know Jesus, love people, and impact the world.

The Lord bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Amen.

You're dismissed.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So what did you think?

We're gonna try that out.

Is that good for you guys?

You're okay with that?

We'll do that for a little while until we do something.

Okay, I'll get it.

A couple of claps here and then a couple of grumps over here.

We're good.

We're gonna make it, we're gonna make it work out.

We're gonna make it work out.

All right, as they're making their transition, I hope you'd still have your Bible in front of you.

Hope you haven't packed it away.

We are in the midst of going through the Gospel of Luke.

We're in the middle of the sermon on the plain.

We are engaged in what Jesus is teaching us.

There are a few differences, variations between this sermon and the sermon in Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount, but honestly, I would tend to lean toward the fact that the same sermon, just from a different perspective, describing the same message.

But either way, it's no deal breaker if you believe differently.

But what he does here, I think, is very important for us as followers of Christ.

So if you've got your Bible in front of you, and I hope I hope you do, I want to take you to the end of the sermon, down to verse 46, and I'm going to show you the conclusion.

And in the Gospel of Matthew, he does the same thing, the wise and the foolish builders, but I want to read this and I want you to think about where he's going with this.

Early on when I started preaching, I asked an older pastor, I was sitting across the desk from him, and I said, you know, how many how many points should you have in a sermon?

And he said, At least one.

Okay, so um what we're doing here with the sermon on the plane is we are getting to a climax, and I want to show you how he's going to finish this sermon, what he's going to say as he's talking about what it means to follow Christ, what it means to be a disciple of his.

So Luke chapter 6, if you're you're there with me, verse 46, this is how he's concluding.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

He says, Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?

Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like.

He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock, and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it because it has been well built.

But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation, and the torrent burst against it, and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.

Now see, I've I've heard this message, I've heard this passage for years, and I I would almost wager that you have heard this as well.

Maybe this is new to you, but I just want you to look at this and I just want you to think about a couple of things of where he's going with his sermon, what his his climax, his conclusion, his invitation is going to be.

Both the wise and the foolish builder, just looking in the passage, both the wise and the foolish builder both hear from Jesus.

They both hear the gospel.

They both understand, they both have have mental cognition, they are able to process the truth that is being spoken to them.

And this is how he's putting it.

He says, verse 47, everyone who comes to me and hears my words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like.

He's like a man building a house.

So both of them hear it.

Verse 49, the bone who heard and has not acted accordingly.

So they both hear it.

It's just they do different things with what they hear.

But there's there's something else.

If you'll notice, as he's giving this illustration, Jesus is the master of, of course, at giving illustration.

And as he's doing this, he's saying, now I want you to, I want you to, in your mind's eye, I want you to think about the wise and the foolish builder.

I want you to think about how one of them built on the foundation of the rock, the other one built on shifting sand, how that's going to have consequences.

But think about this.

Both were builders, they both built a house, they both created a home.

And this is where it gets scary for me.

And I'm I'm gonna be I'll be as transparent as I can.

They both looked the same on the outside, they both acted the same on the outside.

They both had four walls and a roof, or however they built the house.

They both looked the same.

They heard the same message, they build built the same house, and they both the wise and the foolish, they both experienced a storm.

They both experienced the flood.

So it isn't that the gospel is changed.

This is the same truth, it's the same gospel, it's the same revelation from God, it's the same special, specific revelation, truth of who He is.

It isn't changed in terms of what they built and how they built it.

It hasn't changed in the fact that the storm has come and beat against their houses.

What has changed, what the difference was, and Jesus is doing this, he's saying, the question is whether or not you are actually going to put into practice what I am teaching you.

Whether or not you're going to let me do in you what only I can do, whether or not you're going to trust and obey.

You see, the the fool experienced a crash, the wise man did not.

The builder who listened and applied and followed Jesus, he bore the fruit, he experienced the the the blessing of knowing God and having that foundation and that security.

He understood that we all have trials that the storms come.

Calvin once said, sometimes a storm or crisis or calamity betrays what manner of person we truly are.

A true piety is not fully distinguished from its counterfeit till it comes to trial.

And when the storm came, when the waters came, those who had no foundation, those are the ones who crashed, those are the ones who fell down.

Now, I don't know what you were thinking when I was reading this passage, whenever we were going through this sermon, but this is really one of those verses.

These are verses that we think to ourselves that looks good on a postcard, that looks great on a greeting card, that looks great on a billboard, but how do we do that?

Even to the point, I think, I personally, that sometimes we even question our own salvation because we have a lot of feelings toward a lot of people, but love for enemies is not on top of our list.

So what do we do with that?

I'm giving you the end of the sermon as kind of a hope and kind of a direction.

So you'll see what we're after here.

You see, what happens in our walk with the Lord is we think that he's concerned primarily with the state of our house.

Two builders, wise and foolish.

We have some holes in the roof, some shingles need to be replaced.

Lord, would you help me to fix my roof?

We've got a window that's got shattered glass.

Lord, help me to get new glass, help me to make the glass look better.

Lord, there's a crack in the in the in the side, I need to put plaster on there, I need to make that look better.

Lord, we've got an infestation of termites or critters or whatever it is, we've got to get rid of all that.

Lord, make my house better.

Let me make it look better, let my life be better for you.

And Jesus walks into our world and he says, Yeah, we can deal with those issues, those symptoms, and and we do need to deal with leaky roofs and cracked windows and doors that don't shut completely because the house settles.

We get all that.

He says, but if you don't deal with the foundation, if you don't have something in reference to your relationship with Jesus Christ that is more than just legalism or obedience or just doing what you want to do, when you want to do, if you don't have something closer to who he is and what he is about, yes, we can work on the problems.

But if the foundation's not there, nothing else is gonna matter.

You're gonna have a beautiful house, and when the storms come and they do, and when the end comes and it will, you'll have nothing to show for it.

It'll be gone.

This isn't a self-improvement guide.

This isn't how to make friends and influence people.

This is not just so you have a better life now.

This is Jesus holding the mirror of his word up against our hearts and saying, Are you gonna survive this?

Because if the foundation is not there, nothing else is gonna matter.

So let's come back to the first part of the chapter, chapter six, the the first part of the sermon.

I addressed this a few weeks ago.

Go back to verse 22, and let me show you how he's talking about the blessings and the woes, and then we're gonna jump right into this love your enemy.

Whew, okay, here we go.

Verse 22.

He's contrasting those who are blessed versus those who are cursed, those who are abiding in him versus those who are not.

He's saying verse 22, Blessed are you when men hate you.

So there it is.

See, he's gonna flesh out in our passage this morning, he's gonna flesh out this men hating you thing, this enemy thing.

And he's gonna give some examples of how they are our enemies, how they hate us.

He says, When men hate you, ostracize you, insult you, scorn your name as evil.

You understand what he's saying here?

Because of the Son of God, because of the Son of Man, because of Jesus and our relationship with him, there are going to be those who will be our enemies because of our allegiance, because of our salvation, because of our membership, our covenant, our desire to be in the body of Christ, our union with Christ will create enemies.

And he says in verse 22, You're blessed because people are going to hate you, they're going to exclude you, ostracize you, they're going to insult you, they're going to scorn your name as evil, they're going to mischaracterize you, they're going to do all of that for the sake of the Son of Man.

Don't miss that.

This isn't just about the common everyday variety of friends and enemies.

This is not the Hatfields and McCoys.

This is not you trying to figure out which side you're on.

That's not what this is about.

This is your relationship with Jesus Christ.

And the fact that once you abide in him, once you become his sheep, once you become his elect, once you are in him, what happens to you in reference to the world is that the world will be against you because it is against our Savior, because the darkness enjoys the darkness because they don't like the light.

John talks about that quite a bit.

But here we go.

In verse 23, he continues, Be glad in that day, leap for joy.

Understand the contrast.

He just said that we're going to be, we're going to be hated, that we're going to be excluded, we're going to be insulted, we're going to be scorned.

And he says, that causes you joy?

Yes.

Verse 23, be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.

Now this isn't.

Please don't minimize this to being so heavenly minded you're no earthly good.

What he's doing here, he's saying, there's more to this world than what you see.

And there's more coming than you can even begin to anticipate.

The prophets of old, continuing verse 23, the prophets of old, they were they were excluded, they were ostracized, they were beaten, they were hated, they were killed, they were scorned, they were insulted, they were all of that, but they knew that they were living for something greater than the here and now.

And what he's doing here is he's giving that that same hope for us as his followers.

You see, what what this sermon is who it is addressed to is not unbelievers but believers.

And what he's doing is he's kind of he's kind of putting that mirror up against us and saying, this is how we are going to discern our allegiance with Jesus Christ.

And what he's trying to do, and what it accomplishes for me, and I hope it does for us as the church body, is he's giving us that that um, wait a minute, am I am I obedient?

Am I trusting and obeying?

Am I am I following him the way he's called me to?

Because it's so easy in lip service and so hard in practical application.

Uh verse 26 the woe part of the blessing in chapter 6, he says, Woe to you when all men speak well of you, and for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.

This is back to the cursing and the blessing.

And those who were popular in this world will be unpopular in the next.

Those who uh seek man's approval will not receive God's approval.

Those who are rich toward man are poor toward God, those who are rich toward God are poor toward man.

All of that is what he's building up to here in Luke chapter six.

Now, with all of that, let's come to this verse.

Luke chapter six, verse twenty-seven.

But I say to you, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.

But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

What do we do with this?

How do you see it's it's easy to be loving to loving people?

See, you're you're the pretty people.

You're the you're the good people.

For the most part, I thought about saying this as a general rule, but there's a couple of you that just you're just mean.

But the rest of you, you're really nice people.

And it's easy to love loving people.

It's easy to love lovable people.

But what about the people who aren't so nice?

What what about what about the ones who insult you and exclude you and and scorn your name and hate you?

What about your enemies?

What he's doing here, and and this is this is what I refer to as the great exchange.

What he's doing here, he's not telling you just to try harder.

He's not telling you just to do the best you can with what you got, pull yourself up by your spiritual bootstraps.

I hope it works out for you.

He's not talking about earning your salvation.

He's not talking about how we're gonna have to love our enemies, otherwise we will not be children of God.

That is the wrong way to look at this passage.

What he is doing is he's saying, as my disciples, as followers of me, as those who have been converted, transformed, metamorphosis, those who are new creatures in me, this new life abiding in me, something is changing, something is transformed on the inside.

And this exchange, the old for the new, the dead for the life, the dark for the light, all of this is going to be happening in the midst of it, you're going to be living with a different agenda.

In the world, your enemies would be those who are against you, and you would treat those the way that they treat you.

So if your enemy yells at you, you yell in turn.

If they insult you, you insult right back.

And it becomes this war, this fight of seeing who can win, who insults the most, or hurts the most, or punches the most, or offends the most, or sues the most.

And he so you get into this vicious cycle of hating one another back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

But he says, but there's something different about you.

Because what you understand as a follower of Christ, and what we need to be reminded of on a daily basis, is that we're not living for this world rewards.

We're not living so that we can collect the most toys, so that we can be the most popular, so that we can live as comfortable as we can while we are on this earth.

We're living for something so much greater.

And what has happened is we we treat passages like love your enemies, do good to them.

We treat them as a cosmic, I'm gonna make this up as I go along, a cosmic spiritual bubble burster.

Where we say to ourselves, I just I was gonna have a good life, but now that I'm following Jesus, he just he's he's poo-pooing everything.

I'm sorry for the Greek, I apologize, but he's he's getting on the midst of everything, so I can't even enjoy my life.

Now I've got to I've got to get rid of this too.

I I have no room for vengeance, I can't, I can't make people sorry that they messed with me, I can't be the bully in the courtyard, I can't do any of that.

Think about what Jesus is giving us.

Think about who you are in Christ.

C.

S.

Lewis, back in the 40s, he wrote a number of articles and he was reflecting on the passage in Corinthians that talks about the weight of glory.

I so appreciate the way he put this that I wanted you to read it along with me.

He says, if there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith.

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward, the unblushing promises of reward, and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels.

Don't miss that.

This is not about, well, I'll just give up everything and life is terrible, I'm gonna eat worms and die.

He's saying we understand what really is valuable, we understand about eternal life, we understand about true joy and true love and true mercy and true grace.

We get it now.

We understand what is worth living for, to die for ourselves, to live for Christ, to no longer be under sin, but now under righteousness, to have this identity in him, these promises of reward, the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels.

It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy has offered us, infinite joy is offered us.

Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

We are far too easily pleased.

This counter-cultural, this anti-establishment, this new kingdom agenda, Jesus says in chapter 6, verse 27, but I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.

You know, I I years ago when when Kim and I were just starting out and we had a young family and the kids were small, we would get advice from other people on how to be parents.

And what I always struck as funny or ironic is the most advice we got were people who had no children of their own.

And I remember sitting there thinking to myself, we'll we'll talk to you later.

It's really easy, hypothetically, philosophically, and just in our minds to think about loving our enemies until they start hurting you, until they start screaming, and still until the pain begins.

This exchange, this hate with love.

What Jesus is coming through as he's talking about this, he's saying, as people are getting.

You evil, our responsibility, our calling as a follower of him is not to reply evil for evil, but to repay evil with good.

They give us hate, we give them love.

This isn't about you and I choosing who we love.

It isn't about us deciding that we feel good about those who call us names, those who hate us, those who offend us.

As a matter of fact, this has so little to do with emotions and so much more to do with our will, with our volition, with our decision to say, I'm going to be obedient, whether I feel like it or not, so that the will, so to speak, becomes the engine and the emotions become the caboose.

Sometimes they follow along the emotions and the feelings, but sometimes they don't.

But either way, we want to do the right thing.

We want to help the person who is hurting us.

We tend to, especially when we're in squabbles, when we're in disagreements, when we're in schisms and arguments and fights and quarrels, we tend to villainize or make evil the person that we're against.

We draw lines in the sand, we say that we're completely right and they're completely wrong.

And what Jesus is doing is he's saying, You're going to follow me.

And when you follow me, you are going to be ostracized, you're going to be offended, you're going to be persecuted, you're going to have issues that are going to happen because of your allegiance to me.

And when people hate you, it is not an excuse for us to sin in response to their sin against us.

So as he's doing this, he's getting right into our business.

He's saying, this is what it looks like.

This is how we we flesh this out.

This is how we live together.

This passage is not about believers versus unbelievers, but about believers versus unbelievers who thank they're believers, but they're really not because they don't have the abiding God inside, helping, guiding, progressing, loving them.

He continues in verse 28.

He says, Bless those who curse you.

This is so anti-establishment.

This is so against what we're taught, what we understand.

Exchange the curse with a blessing.

They want you to hurt, you want them to be blessed.

They want you to experience pain.

You want them to experience redemption.

They want you to be separated from God.

They want you to not know what it is to have peace and love and joy.

You want them to know what their pain is truly costing them and turn to the one who truly can save them.

When you go to 1 Peter chapter 2, Peter talks about how he was reviled, but he did not revile in return.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 12, overcome evil with good.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

It's not talking about pretending everything is okay when it's not.

It's not pretending that you're not hurting.

It's saying that as a follower of Christ, something's going to change on the inside so that when your buttons are pushed, and don't tell me you don't relate to this, please.

I beg you don't tell me you don't relate to this.

When your buttons are pushed and you have that response that you know is not from God, you have the God-given grace and humility to slow down and ask for forgiveness.

But, preacher, they did the, I understand what they did.

No, no, I'm not saying what they did was right.

I'm not excusing what they did.

What I'm telling you is as followers of Christ, your first priority is your Lord and not the other person.

Your first priority is how your heart is going to stay tender and sensitive and submissive and humble toward your Savior.

If you let someone else steal that joy, let someone else steal that intimacy, let someone else steal that communion you have with your Savior, you literally are saying, You, a human being, you have more control over my life than the one who made me?

Are you kidding me?

It makes no sense.

But we do it all the time.

I do it all the time.

And if you're sitting there, let me just say, if you're sitting there thinking, well, poor preacher, I'm sorry that happens, but I'm doing great.

Um, okay.

We got another conversation.

Meet me afterwards.

We're going to talk a long time about your self-denial.

Here we go.

Exchange the curse with a blessing, verse 28.

Pray for those who mistreat you.

Exchange the pain with prayer.

When you are persecuted, when you're excluded, instead of wanting them to feel as bad as you feel, Christian love does not depend on the other person.

Christian love doesn't say, boy, you just wait till I get a hold of you.

You want what the other person needs.

You want them to have it.

So you pray.

Nowhere does this say that evil is good.

Nowhere does this say that you pretend that bad is okay, that you let other people sin and have no consequences.

That's not what he's talking about.

He's doing something much more profound, much more relevant, much more foundational to your faith.

Understanding that your connection to other people, it matters.

And if you think that we can just take sides and we can draw lines and shoot at each other from a distance and that God's okay with that, that is so not what Jesus is saying in Luke chapter 6.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

You don't get to do that.

We don't get to do that.

Our allegiance to our Savior is greater and stronger than anything we would have toward an agenda, to a politician, to a custom, to our culture.

When they hurt us, we respond by praying for them.

And then there's a few more verses as he's continuing in this vein.

He's saying, verse 29, Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also.

And whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either.

Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.

Okay.

You ever heard this passage before?

Is this make you as uncomfortable as it's making me right now?

Do you understand what he's saying?

Let me let me maybe this is giving you a little bit of ease, and maybe it's not.

But the context and the culture of what he is talking about, go back to verse 29.

When someone is hitting someone on a cheek, this isn't about just a backstreet fight.

This isn't about just somebody's punching on the other one in the courtyard or the schoolyard.

He's saying this is a this is a cultural social norm issue.

Someone hits you on the cheek, it's offensive.

And what is happening is they are putting themselves in a position of judgment over you, and you are supposed to, according to them, submit yourself to them, even though it's unwarranted.

And then he says, more to the giving and the taking.

They want to take away your coat.

And then verse 30, he says, give to everyone who asks of you, and who whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.

So you have you have this issue of people who are taking, taking, taking, never giving, but taking, taking, taking.

And you're just supposed to sit there, you're supposed to stand there, you're supposed to grin and bear it.

Hang on.

Exchange the loss with giving.

Let me tell you how this works out.

When you are the victim of a poor judgment, when you are the victim unjustly in court or in a relationship, and someone has unjustly, unequally, ungodly, they have done something against you, the temptation will be, I want my rights, I want to be the center of attention, and you're going to bow to who I am and my rights.

And what Jesus is doing, he's coming back and he's saying, wait a minute.

If you're living for this world, that makes total sense.

If you're living for my kingdom, you put the needs of the other person ahead of your own.

Now think this through, and this is this is the part where some of you have already closed your mind and your and your ears, and you're on your you've already you've gone to other things, and the rest of us, just think this through, please.

How loving is it to let a thief continue stealing?

How loving is it to let a murderer continue to kill?

That is not what he is saying here.

He's not saying, hey, we need to enjoy being beaten up by the world around us, lay down, roll over, and say, please, sir, I would like some more.

That's not what he is saying here.

What he is doing is he's showing us our heart toward those who hurt us.

Their heart toward us is hate, it's evil, it's bitter, it's anger.

Our heart toward them, God help them.

If they had any idea how bad they're acting right now, if they had any idea how far they are from God right now, we exchange the loss with giving.

We exchange losing to providing instead of receiving, giving.

Now, Luke chapter 12, a few chapters down.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

You don't have to turn there, but let me read it to you real quick.

He says, Sell your possessions and give to charity, make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

There are numerous examples in Scripture of giving it up, of releasing it for the sake of the kingdom.

Peter, just in the in the Gospel of Luke, Peter gave up everything to follow Jesus.

Levi, who is Matthew, gave up everything to follow Jesus.

That's throughout the scriptures.

We have examples after example after example.

And it's not advancing the evil, it's understanding what it means to follow Jesus to count the cost.

In Acts, same author, different book, Stephen, he literally gave up himself as a martyr because of his testimony for Jesus Christ.

Paul, Silas, and Philippi.

They were in prison, they were unjustly beaten, and they were thrown in prison.

They gave up their rights so that the gospel could be spread.

But here's the point that you and I have got to walk away with, because if we keep this one-sided, it's going to pervert justice, it's going to pervert the truth of what this the Bible is saying.

Take, for example, the story of Paul and Silas.

If you remember in the book of Acts, chapter 16, they're illegally imprisoned.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

He's a Roman citizen.

They're thrown in, they sing hymns in the middle of the night, the earthquake, the shackles come off, and they stay, they could leave, but they stay.

The Philippian jailer is saved, his household is saved.

All is right with the world.

And then the next morning, the officials, they send word, send them on their way.

If you read the passage, Paul does something very interesting.

He says, Um, time out.

I'm a Roman citizen, and you beat me without without the the legal right to do so, you're about to get in a whole lot of trouble.

This scared them.

They came and placated with Paul and Silas.

So how does that line up with Luke chapter 6?

Luke 6 · chapter mention

Let me tell you.

If Paul and Silas had left in the middle of the night and gone on their merry way, free men, the church still would have had a stigma of, well, the people who started this church, they were beaten and they left, so obviously this isn't the right thing.

What Paul wanted was to defend the rights of a future generation so that the church members would be able to do all they could to spread the gospel, to know Jesus without the government getting in their way.

This is what the love is for.

It's not love to say, hey, you go ahead and act in evil and you go ahead and do your bad thing, and we won't worry about it because God wants me to turn the other cheek.

You're gonna run out of cheeks.

You're gonna run out of coats and you're gonna run out of shirts, you're gonna run out of money, you're gonna just run out.

But if you look at it differently, that this is you and I, instead of seeking our own good, seeking the good of the other person, everything changes.

As a matter of fact, this is the context for the golden rule.

Luke chapter 6, verse 31.

Luke 6:31

Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.

This one verse, it amazes me how we twist this thing.

Man, we get this all rip it out of context and twist it around so it just for the sake of time and and and to be succinct, this is not saying, Well, I didn't hurt anybody, so I'm not doing anybody any harm.

And this is not saying if I have a perverted sense of justice and a perverted sense of right and wrong, then I want people to treat me with that same perversion.

He's saying, as a follower of Jesus Christ, when you line up with the one who created you, and your ethics and your conscience and your reality are true to the revealed word of God, you want you want to treat other people the same way you want God to treat you.

You want to be righteous and holy, expressing love and faith and gentleness and peace and kindness, self-control.

You want God to work in you and you want other people to experience that same working of God in their life like you're experiencing it as well.

Let me let me show you what I mean.

Keep going in chapter six, verse thirty two.

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?

For even sinners love those who love them.

If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?

For even sinners do the same.

If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you?

Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount.

This idea of reciprocity, this idea of I'll do good to you if you do good to me, that I'll I'll scratch your back, you scratch my back, I'll invest in your company, you invest in my company, I'll give you some goods, you give me some goods, is back and forth, back and forth.

What Jesus is doing is he's setting the stage.

He's helping us with our foundation.

And he's doing something I think is incredibly radical.

But if we don't get this, nothing else is going to fit into place.

You don't love people selfishly.

You don't love the people who can scratch your back.

You don't love just the people who can help you out.

You don't just love the lovable.

Even the sinners do that.

You don't you don't love the people that will will will notice it and take notice and pat you on the back just for the sake of your own self-gratification.

You don't love people so that you can be the center of attention and everybody talk about how great of a person you are.

You don't love people for your self selfish needs, your self-centered ideals.

You don't love people so that you can be elevated.

You love people because you want what's best for them.

And the beautiful thing about all that he's doing here is it's reflecting how God loves you.

He doesn't love you because you can give to him.

He doesn't love you because you can repay him for his love.

He doesn't love you so that that he can brag and say how, look how great their love is for me and my love is for them, and how they they're they're accomplishing everything to earn the love that I have have given them.

It's a debt you'll never pay.

It's a it's a deficit that will never be equal.

But I want to do, um, we've just got a few more verses in Luke, and I just want to show you this one passage in Romans, and then we'll wrap this up.

And so maybe you're thinking to yourself, Phew, good, it's about time.

Here we go.

Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

Let me just show you about the love of God.

Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

Beginning in verse 1.

It says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, and you just think about what that means.

You're right standing with God by faith, not by your works, not by what your effort, not by your qualifications, not by your heritage, not by your DNA, not by your your your parents' faith, not by your church, but by justified by faith, we have peace with God.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

That peace, that faith, that what we have in him, no one else in him.

Verse 2, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand and we exalt in hope of the glory of God.

And not only this, this every one of this is a sermon in and of itself.

Not only this, but we also exalt in our tribulations.

Well, wait a minute.

What?

Follow his logic, follow what he's saying.

We exalt in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation peels back the skin.

It gets to the heart, it shows us what we truly love.

And it helps develop that perseverance where we stay true to the rewards that are everlasting, to the life that truly matters.

Perseverance, proven character, and to proven character we add hope.

And hope does not disappoint us because the love of God, the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

This is not some pie in the sky in the sweet by and by.

This is not some other world thinking, has no impact on the world today.

What this is, is showing you who you really are, who you really belong to, and how the love of God has overwhelmed you so that you can be a loving person on this side of glory.

It's talking about your communion, your relationship with God, and what that does for those around you.

Verse 6.

For while we were still helpless, while we were enemies with God, by the way, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.

But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, rebellious against God, enemies, Christ died for us.

Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him.

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son.

Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

And not only this, but we are also exulting God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Let me let me do verse 10 and 11 one more time, real quick.

Verse 10.

For if while we were enemies, love your enemy, if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son.

There's the the death, the cross, the burial.

Much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life, his resurrection.

For if we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son.

Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

And not only this, verse 11, but we also exalt in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

It is really easy for me to stand up here and preach about love your enemies.

It's really easy for me to talk about how you need to be kind to those who are unkind, how you don't repay evil with good, how you you live a life of not reviling in return.

It's really easy to talk.

But the foundation that Jesus is building in our life is not about our lip service, it's about our obedience.

It isn't about how we look on the outside and what our house is built like and whether it needs repair or not.

We all need repair.

We all need help.

It isn't about whether or not we hear the gospel.

We've all heard the gospel.

That's not what he's doing at the end of the sermon.

What he's saying is the only difference between those who are successful and those who fail, those who are wise and those who are foolish, are those who build upon me.

Who let me be the foundation of your heart.

So you come to me and you let me guide your thinking.

You let me renew your heart.

You let me be what I supposed to be, your Lord, your savior, your guide, your provider, your shepherd, your counselor, your paraclete.

You let me help you so that when you encounter the world and you will, and when people are unfair, and they are, you have something much greater.

See, it's not just the great exchange, it's also the great example.

And so he finishes the passage in verse 35 and 36.

He says, But love your enemies and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.

And your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

Be merciful.

Just as your father is merciful.

The point, the point isn't try harder.

The point is, have you received the mercy of God?

That's first.

The point isn't how you treat other people, because what we do as a religion, we we make it about ethics and morals and behavior.

As a religion, we say, you've got to be nice to people even when they're mean, you've got to be friendly even when they're unfriendly, you've got to return evil for good, you've got to be right with people.

As a religion, we try to morally look good.

But as a faith, we've got to receive before we can give.

We've got to be loved before we can love.

We've got to know the grace before we can extend grace, and we've got to know his mercy before we can give mercy.

We've got to be forgiven much before we can love much, and we've got to be the recipients of a Father who is incredibly merciful.

It says he himself in verse 35, he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

Please hear me.

We are at the top of the list, ungrateful and evil men.

And he is so kind to us.

As a follower of Jesus Christ, as a part of a member of the family of God, family resemblance means everything.

If we think we can earn his mercy, if we think we can earn his grace, if we think that we can do something to accomplish it so that we get proud of our achievements and our accomplishments and say, Hey, look how great I am, we'll be judgmental toward other people.

But if you and I can bow before a holy God, And you and I can come before Him and say, Lord, I need to be merciful as you are merciful.

I need you to help me to help other people.

Then there's the secret, there's the sauce, there's what needs to happen for you and I to better understand the mercy of God in our own life so that we can give and extend that mercy to other people.

I'm not telling you to ignore evil.

I'm not telling you to be okay when people sin.

What I'm telling you is that according to the sermon in Luke chapter 6, the sermon on the plane, he wants you to know the Father of mercy.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

And part of knowing the Father of mercy, who is merciful, is that you will change how you treat other people.

So if you're here this morning and you are unmerciful, I beg you, get it right.

Because what happens is we get in this world weird world of self-denial and we say, I know that God wants me to be merciful, but you don't know what so and so did to me.

That's not what the Bible says.

I know that God wants me to forgive, but you don't understand how great of a debt that person owes me.

That's not what the Bible says.

I'm not asking you, if you're a believer, to doubt your salvation.

I'm asking you, as a believer, check to make sure that your security is not on lip service, but on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

That your security is not on just saying a few words a few years ago and now you're going to go to heaven when you die.

That's not how you're saved.

Jesus saves.

Period.

It isn't because of what you do, it is because of what he does, did, and will do.

It isn't because you achieved it, it's because he achieved it in your stead.

There will be a day according to the scripture where we will stand before the judgment.

I don't know how that's going to play out.

The scripture is not specific.

I'm not sure who will be there when and where we'll stand and all of that.

Those are things that we'll find out.

We will find out.

But I don't know what the deal is.

But I am pretty confident of this.

If you, if, if, if you were asked, why should I let you into my heaven?

It doesn't start with personal pronouns.

It doesn't start with I went to church.

It doesn't start with I d I walked down an aisle.

It doesn't start with I tried to live a good life.

I tried to be the best I could.

It doesn't start with you at all.

You're not saved by works, by faith.

You're saved by grace through faith.

Your salvation starts with Jesus, not you.

So if you had to just say one word when you stand before the throne, just say Jesus.

He's how you get in, he's how you stay, he's how you are, he's everything.

And so what he's doing in Luke chapter 6, the sermon on the plane, he's giving us this assurance.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

Not that it's going to be easy, he wouldn't have to preach the sermon if we had this down already.

Honestly, honestly.

If we were perfect, we don't need to come here.

We got other things we could be doing.

We got to go to church.

We got to know one another, we've got to love one another, we've got to hear the word because we got to grow.

He's not preaching to those who have arrived.

He's preaching to us, disciples, who need to be reminded we need to act like our dad, not like the world.

We need to be merciful, not unmerciful.

We need to be loving, not unloving.

We need to exchange their hate for good, for love.

We need to be about the Father's business.

And as he's doing this, he's not doing it in a cruel, malicious way.

Our Father's heart wants what's best for you.

And just like you're an enemy of God until he reconciles you, he wants you to be an agent of reconciliation with other people in your world.

If you spend all your time shooting at other people, it's gonna be really hard for them to hear the gospel of the God who wants reconciliation.

So this is where he's going.

So what do you do with it?

What's your response?

Do you understand the mercy of God?

In just a few moments, we're going to stand and we're going to have a time of invitation.

There'll be pastors and deacons who'll be glad to come down and talk with you, pray with you.

It might be that you need to come to the altar, you just need to spend some time here.

Or it could be that God is working in your heart right now and you just need to stay right where you are, and God bless you.

Honestly, we don't go around with the clipboard and whistle and call spiritual foul if you're not doing it the way we want you to do it.

That's not what we're about.

But what I'd like is I'd like the freedom over the next few moments for you to be able to engage your Savior.

For you to ask some simple but honest questions.

Lord.

Do I appreciate, understand, appropriate, love, endure, acknowledge your mercy toward me?

And Lord, do I give it to others?

That's a good start.

Would you pray with me, please?

Thank you for who you are.

Thank you for what you give.

And thank you for sermons like what you give here.

That we're not supposed to be like those around us, that we're not supposed to be consumed with this world.

But Lord, now we're at a foundation question.

Now we gotta decide if we're gonna build our house on sand or on rock.

And this is where it gets really hard.

Lord, I pray for grace and mercy.

I pray for our hearts towards you to be humble and moldable and sensitive.

Where we have not resembled you, convict, restore, redeem.

Give us clean hearts, give us pure hearts, clean hands.

Search our hearts, know us.

See if there's anything within us that is against you, so that we may know you and enjoy you all the more.

Father, one more thing I'd like to pray before we stand and have a time of invitation.

I pray for the strife and the wars and the anger and the bitterness that is represented in this room.

For the homes that are being torn apart, for the relationships that are strained or entirely cut off, for the lack of mercy.

Lord, I pray for healing.

I pray you start with us.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

Would you stand with me, please, in an attitude of prayer and worship?

We'll give you a few moments if you'd like to respond, and I'll close this in just a little bit.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your love and for your word.

Lord, thank you for providing it for us.

Lord, thank you for through your son giving us this most perfect example in life.

Lord, help us to follow after you in your footsteps.

I pray you guide and direct in all things.

Lord, guide us and direct us as we go our separate ways for this day.

Help us in all things and in all ways to keep our eyes fixed on you, Jesus.

In your name, I pray.

Amen.