Luke 6:20-23; The Blessings

Let's begin today with the reading from God's word Psalm

one nineteen. I always like to read from Psalm one

nineteen today, Verses twenty one through twenty eight. I have

one judgment. I have done judgment and justice. Leave me

not to mine oppressors. Be surety for thy servant for good.

Let not the proud oppress me. Mine eyes fail for

thy salvation and for the word of thy righteousness. Deal

with thy servant according under thy mercy, and teach me

thy statutes. I am thy servant. Give me understanding that

I may know thy testimonies. It is time for thee

o Lord to work, for they have made void thy law.

Therefore I love Thy commandments above gold, yea above fine gold.

Therefore I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to

be right. I hate every false way. What a wonderful

what a wonderful octet that is from some one nineteen.

You want to stand to your feet. Will begin with

a word of prayer. Father, be surety for your servants

today for good. We ask Lord that you would help us.

Let not our eyes fail us for seeing your salvation.

Open our eyes to the word of your righteousness. Deal

with your servants today according to your mercy, oh Lord,

and teach us your statutes. Give us understanding, Father, that

we may know your testimonies. For we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

This is one of my favorite hymns. I swim your

all to sid all to Jesus. I s all to

my free leggain.

I will have.

Intrust him in his present dayly.

Sir relander, I s.

All to leave my godson save you are saner.

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Si span we say, Oh, let let me feel I.

Speak.

I know that oh lo, I serm b Sam called

to be said, save you Hi sprem oh to Jesus

so friend, Oh I kid my sup to.

Me with my love, and.

And I lettas f.

S s.

All to.

Sin save.

I screen.

You're gonna take your Bible and join me in uh

Luke chapter six today. Well, last week we looked at

Luke six twenty seven through thirty four, and we saw

this beautifully woven picture of the love of God for sinners.

When we got home last week, Denise asked me. She said, now, well, okay,

I want to ask you about your sermon.

Now.

When my wife says that it's always always, have to

stop and say oh what did I say? She said, okay,

so what happens to the wife, the young wife who's

abused by her husband, She's supposed to just turn the

other cheek. And I said, no, no, that because what

Jesus gave us in twenty seventy through thirty four, remember

that is undoable.

Because for the sinner, what do we do? We love

those who love us, We do good to those who

do good to us. We lend to those who lend

to us, right, that's the sinner's rule.

So what Jesus gives us is commendments that we can't keep, which,

just like the Ten Commandments, drive us to him because

we understand we can't do it. And so especially for

someone in an abusive situation, they just need to find

shelter from that abusive situation.

No matter what it is, whether it's physical or verbal

or whatever.

They don't need to stay there. That's not what this

that's not what this passage teaches. So I just wanted

to I wanted to clarify that. So Jesus gives us

those commandments, we know we can't keep them, and he

and he you know, clarifies that with those last pieces there.

Here's what the sinner does, and so describes.

That for us.

Now we come to thirty four and we're gonna talk

about how the believer is to act.

So these are commands, but they're only four believers, those

who are in Christ Jesus. This is how we are

to behave.

So I've entitled this sermon running over. You see, they're

on the on the graphic. So we come to today

thirty five through thirty eight, and these are the commands

for the believers to love and what that looks like. Okay,

why don't we read thirty five through thirty eight. But

love you your enemies, and do good and lend, hoping

for nothing again. And your reward shall be great, and

you shall be called the children of the Highest. For

he is kind under the unthankful, and to the evil.

Be therefore merciful, as your father also is merciful. Judge not,

and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, you shall

not be condemned. Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. Give,

and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed

down and shaken together and running over shall men give

into your bosom. For with the same measure that you

meet withal it shall I'll be measured to you again. Amen, Father,

help us today as we consider your word and bless

this time together, Father, that you might speak to us

each one.

Through your word. We pray today in Jesus' name. Amen.

So if you look here at verse thirty fives, the

world will begin. Notice that he starts out with the

same command, but love your enemies.

Now he ended with.

There in thirty four, thirty and thirty four sinners also

lend to sinners and receive as much against So he's.

In thirty four.

He's ending that piece about the sinners and how they

behave what their love looks like, and then he starts

with the adversative, but love your enemies.

So the reason this command is in contrast to the one.

That precedes it, or rather is based on the word

that preceded it, is because it's.

A mirror image of it. So he says, do good. Well,

we know that.

Just like in twenty seven when Jesus said love your enemies,

he explains what that looks like. So now he's going

to explain what it looks like for the believer to

love the enemy.

Do good. This command is wide open. How do we

do good? And how we do good is really in

our hands. We're allowed to be creative about it. Do good,

that's it. That's the command. Well, how do I do that?

Do good?

What does it look like in your situation, in your time,

in your community, with your people, with your neighbors, and

your family, and your friends, and your enemies and everybody.

What does that look like?

How can you do good to that person, to that family,

to that company that you work for?

Perhaps, how do you do good? Well, that's up to you.

It's really beautiful because he just says do good. It

doesn't tell us exactly how. But that's kind of where

our creativity comes in, and the spirit of God leads

us and points out to us, this is the thing that.

You should do for so and so.

And this is given to believers because the love of

God expressed in twenty seven through thirty four is the

model for our love. And there, of course, in verse

twenty seven we have but I say, unto you which here,

love your enemies, and do good to them which hate you.

So that's the model of God's love. And now we're

going to impose that upon ourselves. Here's how our love

should look like, doing good to those that hate us,

whatever that means, and however we are to do it,

we just do it as a spirit of God leads

us and is just wide open.

Ladies and gentlemen, go out and do good. Just go

do it, because that's your commission from Christ.

Love looks like this doing good. Notice what he says next,

and lend and lend, hoping for nothing again. Notice that

verse thirty has the verb give, because God is the

great giver and what he gives last. But when he

gives us this command, he doesn't say give. He says

lend because what we have is temporary. It's not gonna last.

It's not eternal. What God gives is. What we give

is not, so we can lend it because it's not

gonna last forever.

Also notice that the attitude in giving here.

When goods are confiscated, he says they're in verse thirty,

ask them not again. But when the Christian lens, we

follow the same principle. Because this is the manner of

God's love. We don't ask for it again. We lend

and that's it. There's no strings attached, Just like when

God gives, there are no strings attached, no works necessary,

no performance required. He just gives to us freely, and

so when we lend, where to do it the same way, freely,

no strings attached.

Here, you go, love you.

That's it.

So we're to love or to do good, and we're

to lend. This shows our enemies the.

Love of God.

Why because in the believer's heart, the love of God

is shed abroad by the Holy.

Ghost which he has given us. And so we have

it and where to share it? And how do we

share it? By doing good?

Because that's what the world will see by lending, because

that's what the world will see. If there's strings attached

to the lending ladies and gentlemen, that just looks like

the world, and it looks even grosser the world because

the Church is supposed.

To be different than that. I mean, I understand it.

With somebody out in the world does something crooked and

lends and has little strings attached to the lending.

But when the church lends, no, it's just free. When

the believer lends, it's just.

Free because we've been given something marvelous and so we

know how to do it. We know how to love,

we know how to do good, we know how to

lend because we know the love of God. And then

notice he says, your reward shall be great?

Well, what reward? What reward do I receive?

What in the world is he talking about here? Your

reward shall be great? Well, what reward do I receive

that is any more meaningful than having Christ in my life,

than knowing the Father, than having the Holy Ghost shed

abroad in my heart? What reward is better than that?

Your reward shall be great? Well, maybe he gives rewards,

but I'm not going to depend on him. I'm not

going to count on me giving and God giving back

to me. I'm just gonna give no strings attached. That

means no strings to the person I'm giving to or

lending to, and no strings to God, saying to him, Hey, listen,

I gave to so and so so, you better give

back to me.

Come on, are we really that vain that we would

do that?

We'll talk up a little bit more about that in

a minute. The Psalma said, whom have I in heaven?

But thee?

Now listen to the next words here. This is Psalm

seventy three. And there is none upon earth that I

desire beside THEE. None that includes people, that includes things,

that includes all.

Of it none on earth that I desire beside thee.

How wonderful that is. What a beautiful word that is

for us.

Here is my great reward, the very presence of the

Father with me. And then notice what he says, you

shall be called the children of the Highest.

Here it is, this is the reward to be his child.

What a wonderful reward that is. And in Romans chapter eight.

Paul gives us something of that when he says there

in verses sixteen and seventeen, the Spirit itself beareth witness

with our spirit that we are the children of God.

And if children, then heirs heirs of God, and join

heirs with Christ. And if so be that we suffer

with Him, that we may also be glorified together children

of God, heirs, join airs with Christ. Children of the Highest,

Your reward shall be great, Jesus said, you should be

called the children of the Highest.

You see this is all about the believer.

Loving, Jesus said, But love your enemies, do good, lend,

hoping for nothing. Again, your reward should be great. You

should be called the children of the Highest. And then

we have the character of the Father mentioned beginning there.

In the second part is the verse thirty five. Yes,

written verse thirty five, for he is kind. Notice that

he is kind unto the unfaked, unthankful, and to the evil.

So how far does your good go? How far does

your good go? You know, we are so.

Accustomed to blessing those whom we know, blessing those who

are blessing us, praying for those who are praying for us.

Doing good to those who do good to us. That's easy.

That's what sinners do. We're called to something higher than that.

Because God is kind to the unthankful and to the evil.

Always is the rain falls on the just and the unjust.

This is what God does, his goodness to those who

hate him, curse him to spitefully, use him as great.

And this is a pattern for our love to the

world of sinners. And you might not be surrounded by

heathen every day, or sinners or wicked men. They might

not be where you are, But I guarantee you there's

somebody there in your life that you can be kind to,

that you can be good too. And ladies and gentlemen,

take the lid off of that and just be creative

as you can be and being good.

What does it mean? It means whatever it happens to

mean in that situation. Go out and do good, and

do good to the.

Unthankful and to the evil, because your father does it

to them as well.

And who knows he may be using.

Your good for his good, your kindness for his kindness,

so that they might come to know Christ. This is

a witness to the world Verse thirty six. Be therefore merciful.

Your father also is merciful. So he's kind, and he's merciful.

And do you notice the language here your father, who

who is Jesus speaking to now the believer? Be merciful

as your father is merciful. This is the pattern for believers.

Jesus gave the character of God a name mercy. This

is the character of God. He's merciful.

Again, the most High is.

Our great reward. But now Jesus calls him our father.

This is in his DNA, and so is a part

of the DNA of every believer, because of his spirit.

Which abides in us.

Then he looked to the mercy of God is demonstrated

in the lives of believers, and unpacked the meaning he said,

be merciful as your father is merciful. This is loving

this is kindness, and this is good doing. This is

lending mercy, ladies and gentlemen. Is the motivator for all

of these things. The love of God is seen in

his mercy, and that mercy is described by Christ in

four ways. And now we're going to come to those

four ways here beginning in verse thirty seven. Notice mercy

descriptor number one. Judge not and you shall not be judged. Okay,

this is how you are to be merciful, one of

the ways you are to be merciful. This verse, however,

has been used by the zombie media, by the Rainbow Mafia,

and by many others in that camp to beat Christians

over the head because the homosexual agenda will come up

and they'll say, you can't say anything does.

Because the Bible says judge not unless you be judged.

They will say that we break this command when we

don't affirm their lifestyle choices. But is that what this

verse is about. Shouldn't we discriminate between what is wrong

and what is right. Shouldn't we discriminate between what is

good and what is evil and have the courage to

call it evil. Shouldn't we discriminate between sin and righteousness.

Well, yes, of course we should.

That's part of our commission as believers, part of who

we are. The Bible makes it very plain that we're

to do those things. We're commanded to you. The Greek

word here that's translated judge means the divine tribunal occupied

by God to administer justice, and you and I cannot

do that. This judging is most often seen in the

way we express prejudice. Don't judge, because what we do

with our prejudice is we prejudge, don't We We see

somebody and we automatically we know who they are, where

they've been, what they've done, and so we slot them

in a category and.

We treat them that way. Because prejudice always leads to.

Treatment poor treatment. It's not doing good and it's not

lending without strings. Our prejudice puts us puts people in

certain categories. That's what he means here by judging is

the prejudice that we hold in our.

Hearts towards people.

We can't look into the soul of another to pass

eternal judgment on them, but what we can do is

we can look on the externals and say, I know

that that's right.

And that's wrong. I know that the Bible says that

that's righteous and that's unrighteous.

We can look at those things and we can discriminate

between the good and the evil, but we can't look

into the soul of the person and say, well, well,

I know what's going to happen to you, because we don't.

We can't prejudge them. And that's what he means here,

don't judge. Only God can do that. But with the

word of God as our guide, we can distinguish between

right and wrong, and we should do that. But we

should decide that someone. But if we should decide that

someone is unworthy of salvation or mercy or the love

of God, that, ladies.

And gentlemen, is not our purview, not at all.

The unthankful and the evil, who are they? That's a

big group, isn't it. That's a big group.

And it's not our.

Duty to judge them. That's God's job. Our duty is

to love them. Now, sometimes loving them, what does it mean?

It means telling them the truth? Actually, that means that

all the time. And sometimes when.

We tell the people in the world the truth, what

are they going to say to us? Will you better

not judge me.

Yeah, if we say to the person who loves is

alcohol to read you know, Proverbs chapter twenty, verse one,

whine is a mocker, bears a brawler. Those are ontological statements.

They're always true, They're eternally true because the Bible says

they are true. And when we say that to the

person who is drinking, they might say to us, well,

don't judge me. I'm not judging you.

I'm just telling you what the Bible says about what

you're doing. You see.

So we got to be careful and understand this verse

and don't let them beat you over the head with it,

because what they want to say to you about this

is not what this says at all.

Don't prejudge their soul. Love them.

Whatever they're doing. Just love them, but tell them the truth,

and don't engage with them, and don't affirm them when

they're off in sin. That's not what this is about.

Mercy the scriptor number two condemn not and you shall

not be condemned. This is to pass the sentence of

judgment from the previous statement judge not unless you be

judged condemned not. So now the sentence is being passed.

Who can do that. Only God can do that. He's

the only one that can pass the sentence.

To pass the sentence of judgment without mercy, well, that's

God's job and that's his prerogative.

But we know he's merciful.

The problem with judging according to our prejudice is that

we always condemn without mercy, and condemnation always follows corrupt

tribunals run by men, whether it's the tribunal in the

heart of an individual or whether it's some tribunal in

some court someplace. When we are prejudice and then we condemn,

it's always bad news. Thirdly, the third mercy descriptor is

right there, forgive and you shall be forgiven. Now you

notice how we've turned a corner real quick. Here We've

had two negatives judge not and condemn not. Now notice

these are positive forgive and you shall be forgiven. Is

my forgiveness dependent on my ability to forgive? No, Remember

that these commands are only for the believer. The forgiveness

received is only from men. You shall be forgiven. This

is not saying that if you forgive somebody, then Jesus

is going to forgive you of your sins. No, if

you're a believer that's already been done, eternally done, and

all the sins are taken care of, and you have

the imputed righteousness of Christ, and all of it is

under his blood. Now, when it says they're forgiven, you

shall be forgiven. We're talking about what men do to you.

If you forgive them, then they're going to be forgiving

towards you.

And again, whose character is this? This is the character

of God. We are to forgive.

Why?

Because God is merciful and he expresses his mercy in

kindness to the unthankful and to the wicked. So forgive

and you shall be forgiven. I'm always amazed at how Christians,

and I've had this happen to me in my past.

Before I was in the ministry, and right after I

started in the ministry, people will come to me and

tell me how they were not going to forgive so

and so Joe Doaks, I will never forgive Joe Doaks

to myself, well, didn't Jesus tell us to forgive? You

don't know what Joe Doakes did to me?

Are you born again? What did you do to him?

What did you do to Jesus? What put him on

the Cross, and you can't forgive you little thing can't

forgive Christians. Christians have trouble with this more than you think.

Forgiveness, ladies and gentlemen, should become us. It shouldn't be

something that we struggle with, because if we've been forgiven

in Christ Jesus, then that should be that should be

item number one on our agenda for others.

Forgiveness.

And I'm gonna tell you, I know it's hard. I've

lived long enough in this life to know how hard

it is to forgive some people. And there are some

people in my life very difficult to forgive. But when

I think about what Jesus did for me and what

I'm dealing with with someone else.

It doesn't compare. It does not compare.

And so all the forgiveness that He's given me in

his death on the cross, ladies and gentlemen, imputing his

righteousness to me when.

I never deserved it, what does Joe Doakes deserve.

My forgiveness, no matter what he's done. Now, that doesn't

mean that, you, you know, embrace Joe Doaks and bring

him into your home. You might want to keep him

at arm's length because he's a fool. But you still

forgive him.

Wisdom says, keep him out here.

Jesus says, forgive, but be wise, but be wise mercy

descriptor number four give. So we've had four things too negative,

now too positive for judge, not condemn, not forgive, and give.

Okay, give, and it shall be given unto you.

Good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over, Shall men

give into your bosom. It is likely that you are

familiar with the charismatic word of faith interpretation of this verse,

because what they say is they teach most of them anyway.

I won't paint with a broom. They teach most teach

a seed faith.

Doctrine that says, if you give financially to their ministry,

it's like planting a seed, and then God will respond

by multiplying the seed one hundredfold. Good measures shaken together,

running over. So they want to talk about seed faith,

and it is so ubiquitous now in the culture because

of what the Crouches did with Trinity Network, and it

was preached NonStop, twenty four hours a day for so

many years, and still is. It's still being abused, it's

still going through its permutations. People are still talking about

seed faith It all started with Oral Roberts back in

the sixties.

He's the one that came up with this seed faith.

Idea, and now it so permeates everything that as soon

as you look at this verse, you go, wait a minute,

I know what that means. That means if I give

my money, then God's going to return it to me.

And look at look at how it's gonna happen. It's

going to be pressed down, shaken together, running over. But notice,

shall men give into your bosom again?

It's about the.

Men and how they respond to your lending and your giving.

And of course this entire verse, verse thirty eight has

been has been ripped from its context by the charismatics

and the Word of Faith gospeliers and by the prosperity gospeliers.

They have ripped this completely out of its context because

so this has nothing to do with you becoming rich

because you give.

It has nothing to do with that.

But what it has to do with is the mercy

of God and how we're to behave towards others. I

saw a video last week or two weeks ago. I

wasn't even thinking about this passage when I happened to

come across this video, and it was of an apostle,

somebody they call themselves an apostle. Of course there are

no apostles, so that's a lie to begin with. And

this apostle was a female again a mess, and there

was a mother there with a little child, and the

child was very ill, laying at the feet of the apostle,

and the apostles asking the mother how much she had

given and seed faith money for her child to be healed.

And the mother told the apostle what it was, and

she said, well, you need you're not giving enough. You

need to give thousands of dollars to my ministry.

Or this child's not going to be healed. And I

was so disgusted with that, and I.

Thought to myself, how would anybody ever go back to

the church if that's what they thought God was, that

he was some sort of a genie that you could

put quarters in a machine and eventually something good would

come out. But you never know, You didn't know how

many quarters you had to put into the machine, so

you just had to keep putting quarters in the machine.

And guess what people today are putting quarters into the

machine based on the false teaching of this verse. So

that they can get some blessing in this life, they think,

and they're being disappointed, and they're being harmed, and they're

being hardened, and they're.

Just walking away.

And they were rejecting now the gospel because they were

mistaught this verse and others. And another thing they do

with this is they take it and they connected with

Jesus parable of the goods of the good sowerd. Remember

the man who goes out and sows the seed, and

then they say, well, if you sow the right seed

in the right place, then you're going to get a

crop of thirty sixty one hundredfold. Jesus is never teaching that,

and it's not connected to this at all. So I

know it took a minute to talk about that, but

I really think we need to understand the false dynamic

that's going on here in some circles that lead us

to this kind of.

Ugly, foolish theology that these charismatics are preaching.

Jesus said, give and it shall be given under you,

good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over shall men

give into your bosom, just like there above it in

descriptor three, forgive and ye shall be forgiven. Who's forgiving

me the men that I forgive. Who's giving to me

the men that I give to? And I'm not looking

for that as a reply, because why Jesus already told

me to lend looking for nothing in return. Don't look

for anything again, no strings attached, So I don't.

Give so that I can get back. That's ugly. No,

just give, lend, do good, do it, go out and

do it.

Be creative about it, however it is you do it,

and don't think about what may or may not become

of it, because that's not the point. And then he

concludes with this, for with the same measure that you

meet with, all that shall be measured to you. Again,

where does this come from. Not being judged is for men.

Not being condemned is for men. Forgiveness comes from the men.

Giving is from the men. Shall men give into your

bosom the measure that you meet, it shall be measured

to you again. Why because they are responding to the

mercy of God that is being displayed by you in

doing good.

That's why you're doing good.

The mercy of God is being displayed, and men are

being attracted to that, and so they're not judging, They're

not condemning, or they may, but they may not. They

are forgiving because you're forgiving, and they're giving because you

gave to them.

To begin with, all of this begins with you.

Do good.

As I said, take the lid off of that whatever

that might look like, in that situation, in that moment,

with that person, wherever you are, go.

Ahead and do good. So how do we apply this?

I think I just applied it.

Love your enemies, take the lid off of your good doing, lend, give, forgive,

don't judge, don't be prejudiced, and don't follow that up

with condemnation, because you're not God.

And what will men do? They will respond in kind?

And guess what happens?

Then they're drawn to your Christ because they see the

love of God in you, the mercy of God in you,

the very person and presence of God in you.

The Holy Ghost is abiding in you. They see it

all and it draws them to him.

Father, help us to do good, to love like Jesus

is teaching us here to lend, hoping for nothing, that

we might be the children of the Highest, that our

Father might be displayed in us in his mercy.

M Father, we thank you for that.

We asked that you'd help us to do that today,

resolving us Father to forgive and to and to give

for we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

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