Matthew 5:38-42

There are times in the scriptures where we read the words of Jesus and we're kind of

awestruck or maybe just left amazed, scratching our heads and wondering is he really saying

what he is saying?

Admittedly, some of the words of our Lord are very tough.

I think this passage, if we take it seriously, is one that just absolutely levels us.

Beginning in verse 38, the Lord Jesus speaking to that great crowd who had gathered on that

day, he said, you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

He's quoting the law.

What I tell you, not to resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on your right cheek,

turn the other to him also.

If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, that's your inner garment, let him

have your cloak or your coat, the outer garment as well.

Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too.

From him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away.

Let's pray.

Father, help us.

For Jesus has spoken, he's the king of his kingdom and this is the ethic.

God give grace this morning, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

This text this morning is very familiar and it's also very misunderstood.

It was actually upon this particular text that the famed Rushland novelist Leo Tolstoy

based his famous novel, War and Peace.

As Tolstoy was reading this, he believed that nonviolence was the only way to ultimate peace

and justice.

This was a utopia, is what he was looking for.

And he saw in this particular passage our text, a support for his view.

So now my aim this morning is to look at exactly what our Lord was teaching or spousing and

what he was not espousing.

As always, it is imperative that we keep in mind the context and remember where we are

in the scriptures.

This is based on part of the Sermon on the Mount.

Our Lord is preaching there on that great mountain to a group of his followers and he

was letting them know what life in his kingdom looks like.

So the sermon, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, is an exposition of kingdom living.

And we know how it began.

Before anything ever the Lord starts telling what his kingdom is like, he pronounces a

blessing upon his people and we looked at that for a few months, verses 3 through 11.

These are the type of people, he said, are inheriting the kingdom.

Now it is of utmost importance to remember those blessed people, the Beatitudes, are

not the way that one enters into the kingdom.

They simply describe the person who is already in the kingdom.

His kingdom, the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, all are synonyms.

They are made up of this type of people, poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are

meek and that will be very important today, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,

those who are merciful, the pure in heart, those who are peacemakers, and those who are

willing to be persecuted for the sake of righteousness.

Now at the very same time that our Lord was telling his disciples about life and his kingdom,

he was also using this opportunity to expose the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of

his day.

Jesus was very upset with the religious leaders, particularly the Pharisees, because they had

so perverted and twisted and maligned the law of God.

They were hypocrites.

They were duplicitous hypocrites.

And here's why they were.

They prided themselves on their devotion to God's law, yet they never considered its true

intention.

They only wanted to look at the letter of the law and never the spirit that lay behind

the law.

Moreover, these same religious leaders, they gave incredible weight to the rabbinic traditions

that had been handed down through the generations, which also had twisted and misinterpreted

the law of God.

And because they had twisted it, they were now teaching a perverted view of it.

So our Lord has had enough.

He's tired of the hypocrisy.

In verse 20, he tells everyone listening to him, he said, unless your righteousness goes

beyond that of the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter into the

kingdom of God.

That's a strong statement.

You don't enter into God's kingdom without a righteousness that is greater than the religious

leaders of his day.

He goes on to give six examples of what he was talking about.

And four of those we've already looked at.

Today in our text is the fifth example of how God demands that our righteousness surpass

that of the scribes and Pharisees.

And it's a hard text.

Today the Lord is going to speak about what does a believer do when he is personally wronged.

You were done wrong.

That's the backdrop.

Now, John MacArthur, he says, probably no part, go to the next slide, probably no part

of the Sermon on the Mount has been so misinterpreted and misapplied as this one.

It has been interpreted to mean that Christians are to be sanctimonious doormats.

It has been used to promote pacifism, conscientious objection to military service, lawlessness,

anarchy and a host of other positions that it does not support.

I would agree with him.

A lot has happened or been based upon this text that the text cannot and does not support.

So what does it say?

Well, let's go back and look at it.

You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Now this did not originate with God's law.

You can go find it in the Babylonians even to the law of Hammurabi.

It is known as the lex talianus, lex law talon claw.

It's the law of the claw, lex talianus.

And here's what it refers to, the legal principle of exact retaliation.

Now we're going to explain this before we understand what Jesus is saying.

Now this is found in the scriptures on three different occasions.

You find this law.

The most extensive is in Exodus 21.

If men fight and they hurt a woman or child, so you have a pregnant lady, so that she gives

birth prematurely, yet the baby's fine, no harm follows, he shall be punished accordingly

as the woman's husband imposes on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine.

That's an important part.

But if any harm follows, meaning the child dies, then you will give life for life, eye

for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound,

stripe for stripe.

Okay, that's the first place.

In Leviticus, we see it again.

If a man causes disfigurement of his neighbor as he has done, so shall be done to him.

Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth.

As he has caused disfigurement of a man, so shall be done to him.

Then the other place is in Deuteronomy 19.

Your eye shall not pity, life shall be for life.

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

This was the lex talianus.

It's an ancient law code, and what is it requiring?

It's requiring that the punishment fit the crime.

We might say a quid pro quo.

The purpose of the law, and I get this, this is so important or we'll miss it.

The purpose of this law was to control excessive retaliation or excessive punishment.

The punishment that was meted out was to be meted out by judges, a court system, not by

individuals who had been wronged.

It's not as though if you take my eye out, I can come and take yours out.

That's not what the law said.

The law was not designed in any way to encourage retaliation, but to limit it.

But the religious leaders of Jesus' day had so perverted these scriptures and twisted

them that they used them as a justification for revenge.

Now we look back at the law.

God knew man was sinful.

He knew his heart was sinful.

He knew that his actions needed to be limited or curbed, especially when he was done wrong

and he would want to retaliate.

So God gave this law to control anger, violence, and a desire for personal revenge.

The law did say eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, et cetera.

So example, let's say if I caused you to lose your eye in some way through a fight or an

accident, you could not come and immediately take off my hand.

You could not come and kill me for it.

Rather, you would take the case, go before the magistrates, go before the courts, and

the magistrates would then issue a just penalty, but it could not go beyond.

If I had taken your eye, you don't get a cut off my arm.

It's eye for eye.

And this also was designed so that you don't take justice into your own hands.

You don't exact personal retribution.

The law never said, let me just say this, the law never said or demands it has to be

an eye for an eye, but it couldn't go beyond that.

So it couldn't be a life for an eye or a hand for a tooth.

They wouldn't allow you to do that.

So again, if someone lost an eye, it didn't mean that the assailant then automatically

got his eye gouged out.

Usually you can go through the Old Testament, usually there were financial compensations

attached to each of these things.

Because a lot of it was done in a fight or done in an accident.

So if I call Shane to lose his eye, Shane takes me to court, they don't necessarily

take out my eye because that's not going to help Shane.

They're going to attach a financial compensation that I have to give to Shane that would be

commensurate with losing an eye.

Now why is this important?

The whole purpose of this law was to maintain order and justice.

But the Pharisees, the religious leaders of Jesus day, they turned it upside down.

They made it a matter of personal vigilante justice.

You take my eye out, well now I have mandate to take yours out.

Eye for eye, right?

Tooth for tooth.

You punch me in the ass when it's on tooth, you're getting yours knocked out, buddy.

That's not what the law ever said.

The law was meant to curb all of that.

Two things that the law did.

First of all, it was used as a deterrent.

When evil is punished speedily and appropriately, it serves as a deterrent to keep people from

doing evil and harming others.

We could learn something from this again today.

This is how you maintain order and justice in a fallen society.

Punishment fits the crime and punishment is meted out speedily.

I think that's one of the problems that people have in the school system today.

Teachers' hands are tied, administration's hands are tied.

There's not a lot of deterrent.

We have a problem here.

Secondly, though, this law was also used to prevent excessive punishment based on personal

revenge.

So, when man is wrong, because man is sinful, man, we always want to get revenge, right?

But when we get revenge, we want to do it in a greater way.

That's the temptation.

It's to hurt them more than they hurt you.

And again, this would be the law of the jungle or vigilante justice.

And God said no.

That's forbidden.

You don't just get to take matters into your own hands.

There's a court system set up.

You have to go before the judges and they issue a punishment that would fit the crime.

Martin Lloyd Jones says this, the object of that law was not to urge men to take an eye

for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and to insist upon it every time.

It was simply meant to avoid the horrible excess, this terrible spirit of revenge and demand

for retribution and to check it and hold it within bounds.

Do you see how badly the religious leaders had twisted this?

Because even in the Old Testament, many times you see God encouraging mercy and forgiveness.

Because God's the same God.

He's always been merciful.

He's always been forgiving.

In Proverbs 24, we read this, do not say, I will do to him just as he's done to me and

I will render to the man according to his work.

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, right?

The Proverbs says don't do that.

Proverbs 25, if your enemy's hungry, give him bread to eat.

He's thirsty, give him something to drink.

For so you will keep coals of fire on his head and the Lord will reward you.

Now again, this does not mean burning sulfuric rocks are falling on that guy's head.

It simply means his conscience is going to bother him.

Our God has always encouraged mercy.

But fast forward to the Jesus time, you have religious leaders.

They were teaching the people and they were using this law that we just read about, but

they're perverting it.

They said, they insisted it gave them a right, a mandate to exact personal revenge.

So in essence, they became their own judge, jury, and executioner.

That was forbidden.

They missed the whole point.

The law said let's restrict retaliatory excess.

Let's restrict revenge.

So now you have the religious leaders teaching the people, espousing revenge, encouraging

vigilante justice, and Jesus our Lord comes with a totally different perspective.

Verse 39, I tell you don't resist an evil person, whoever slaps you on your right cheek,

turn to the other, turn the other to him also.

Now notice it says do not resist an evil person.

Again, this is speaking of retaliation in personal conflicts.

This does not teach as some claim that evil is not to be resisted at all.

The Lord's words are not to be absolutized.

He is speaking in rhetorical overstatement.

He's using what we know as hyperbole, which is causing us to challenge us in our thinking

here.

So let me say, he's not addressing any civil matter.

He's not addressing the state.

He's not addressing the government.

So you cannot take this passage, verse 39, and then take from that that we ought to have

a national pacifism, that there should be no military, there should be no police force.

No.

That's not at all what he's saying.

That's going way beyond what the text says.

That's an extrapolation that cannot be proven.

You don't know what the role of government is.

We don't have to wonder about that.

We are told specifically in Romans 13, this is government.

Let every soul, that's a you and I, be subject to the governing authorities.

For there is no authority except from God and the authorities that exist are appointed

by God.

Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God.

And those who resist, yeah, you bring judgment down on your own head.

For rulers, look at verse three, for rulers are not a threat or not a terror to good works,

but to evil.

Do you want to be unafraid of the authority?

Well, do what is good.

You'll have praise of the same.

For he, the authority, the government, is God's minister, servant to you for good.

But if you do evil, be afraid.

For he, the government, does not bear the sword in vain.

Again, he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

And we see the same thing in 1 Peter 2.

I'm not gonna take the time to read that.

The scripture, suffice it to say, clearly teach that government does have the right

and the ability to mete out punishment for those who break the law.

In fact, God calls the government his minister, his servant.

He says it bears his sword.

As long as human hearts continue to be depraved and wicked, the law will always be needed

to restrain evil men and evil women.

But so our Lord says, well, don't resist an evil person.

He's not talking about an attack on the country.

He said, if someone does you wrong personally, you don't then go get revenge on them.

You don't seek to then turn to them and do the same thing.

This is what Paul taught in Romans 12.

Do you remember after Paul takes us through that glorious gospel?

And then in chapter 12, he starts to explain the ramifications of the gospel.

He says, repay no one evil for evil.

Have regard for good things inside of all men.

If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

Look at verse 9.

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves.

Don't get revenge, but rather give place to wrath for it is written, vengeance is mine,

I will repay.

It is the Lord.

Now, Jesus is going to give us four illustrations of this law of non-retaliation.

The first one is an attack on your dignity, and this will be hard.

Notice he said, whoever slaps you on your right cheek.

Most of the world is right-handed.

So if you're going to be a right-handed man and slap someone on the right cheek, what

are you going to do?

You're going to backhand them.

That's what it's not like.

It's not like this, but rather this is one of those things where in all cultures, in

all languages, in all places in the world, if you stand before someone and you backhand

them across the face, that is an attack to their dignity, isn't it?

So demeaning.

So this is not a physical attack where you don't defend yourself, or worse yet, where

you see your family getting attacked and you don't defend them.

Let me just say this.

If you or your family are being physically attacked, you have the moral imperative to

defend them.

You must do it.

But in this verse, the Lord is talking about insults, humiliation.

Someone backhands you.

It's not a punch in the face, but this is a sign of great disrespect.

The backhand was not intended to cause personal harm.

You're not going to knock someone out.

It's meant to demean.

It's meant to degrade.

To the Jews at that time, it was one of the most degrading acts because they felt it was

an attack on their honor.

It's to be treated with contempt.

In fact, slaves would say that they would rather take a whip across the back than to

be backhanded in the face.

So Jesus said, now listen.

Listen church.

He's speaking to us.

What should we do when we are treated with indignity?

Whether a literal backhand or a figurative backhand, as kingdom citizens, we don't retaliate.

He said, turn the other cheek.

You and I are not to retaliate in kind when we're treated with contempt or in some degrading

way.

In other words, you do not return an insult with an insult.

Why not?

Because you're a citizen of heaven.

That's what he's saying.

You belong to heaven.

Kent Hughes says, we are to set aside our petty ways of giving even.

The kind of living that punishes others by returning their own sins to them.

If your spouse is messy, then you say, well, I'm going to leave things messy in return.

I'll show them.

If your friend is late, you're like, well, I'll tell you what.

I'll be late for them next time.

In effect, Jesus asked us in turning the other cheek to make the other person and his or

her well-being the center of our focus.

We think of them and we adjust our actions according to what we think will point them

to Christ.

Wow.

The ethic of the kingdom of God is vastly different from man's kingdom.

In man's kingdom, you get even.

They're not going to treat me that way.

I don't know who they think they are.

But in God's kingdom, blessed are the meek.

You allow God to bring justice and he will.

J.C.

Ryle says, a readiness to resent injuries, a quickness in taking offense, a quarrelsome

and contentious disposition, a keenness in asserting our rights, all are contrary to

the mind of Christ.

Do you see what the Pharisees were doing?

They were saying, hey, you get backhanded.

Well, you better backhand them.

You don't let someone treat you like that.

Now, that's only going to cause things to escalate.

Our Lord says, no.

You turn the other cheek.

Endure that insult.

Now, this is not natural.

Bruce Hurt says that and I think he said it well.

It is not a natural response.

No kidding.

It is a supernatural response representing the work of God's spirit in the new heart

of a citizen of the kingdom of heaven who is controlled by a gentle, meek spirit that

chooses not to respond.

When you're done wrong, do you believe that God will avenge that and one day bring all

justice to light?

Or do you feel like, no, I better take care of it now?

Friends, we have a tremendous example of this in Christ.

One of the evidences, we know he's the divine one.

We know he's the son of God and son of man.

He's the God man.

I look at his character and this amazes me.

In 1 Peter 2, Peter says this, for to this you were called.

This is you and I, church, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example

that you should follow in his steps.

What's the example?

Who committed no sin nor his deceit found in his mouth.

Look at verse 23, who when he was reviled, did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he committed himself to him who judges righteously.

The divine one, the king of heaven, allowed himself to be insulted and degraded and he

never defended his own honor.

He never said, don't you know who I am?

He never wore that title.

Now, if the name of his father was being abused or blasphemed, then you would see Jesus springing

into action.

Do you remember he goes to the temple and he sees the money changers there and they're

making a mockery of all the religious worship there and Jesus drives them out with a whip.

He's upset not for his honor, but for the name of his father.

Do you personally insult him?

He remains silent.

See, this is what it is.

Burning the other cheek is simply dying to self and our personal rights.

Now, I'm not saying you should be unconcerned about law or justice.

You should, but you can't be concerned about your own personal honor.

I told Sandy I was going to say this.

Several weeks ago, I told you about the car wash incident that someone caught me off and

I'm like, I felt compelled to tell them that they were the problem with the world.

Literally, I had them roll down the window and I did and I'm so not proud of that.

I thought about this, it just really bothered me.

Why was I so upset?

Well, I could say, well, Sandy and the kids are in the car, but the truth is he cut me

off.

I didn't like it and I thought that he's been a jerk and I wanted him to know in that moment,

but I was sinfully angry and what I did was absolutely sinful and it was a terrible reaction,

it was a terrible example.

I thought about this today and I told Sandy, I want to apologize to the church as your

pastor, forgive me.

I was wrong in doing that because someone did me wrong, I'm going to make it right.

That goes against the spirit of this passage.

The second thing is, look, he said, if anyone's to sue you, if anyone's to take your tunic

away, we'll let him have your cloak.

Again, I said the tunic, that's your inner garment, that's what you wore next to your

skin, the cloak, that's your outer garments, like the coat, but he's not talking about

someone robbing you, he's talking about someone suing you, they're taking you to court, but

the law said you could never sue for the outer garment.

Why?

Because that kept the person warm and it also served for his blanket at night.

You have to keep in mind, at this time in history, people probably only had two or three

inner garments and one outer garment, that's it.

So they didn't have a blanket, they only had one coat, you took it away, they're going

to be cold, exposed to the elements.

So the law said if a person had no money or possessions, yeah, you could be fined by clothing,

you don't have any money, we might take your clothes, but we can't ever take your coat.

Our attitude as citizens of the kingdom of God should be a willingness, this is what

it says, to surrender even the outer garment.

The law wouldn't even do that, rather than cause an offense with an adversary.

Again, the word Jesus is using graphic language to shock his listeners.

Why?

Why would he want to shock them?

Because they value personal rights more than the kingdom of God.

This is a call to die to self.

Once more you surrender your rights.

Never injustice if need be.

Life in the kingdom of God goes beyond what is minimally required.

The bare minimum, well that's the kingdom of man.

You and I go beyond that, we're citizens of heaven.

Look at the next one, verse 41, whoever compelled you to go one mile, go with him too.

Most of you know the backdrop, but if you don't, you have to remember Israel was an

occupied nation, they were being occupied by Rome at that time, and the law said, Roman

law said a Roman soldier could commandeer an Israeli citizen to carry their baggage

and their supplies for a mile, and the Israeli had to do it and they could not say no.

Now this caused, needless to say, a deep hatred to exist between the Jews and the Romans,

because I'm sure this is being abused a lot.

So think about it, you're an Israeli, you're out there working in the field, you're doing

your job, and suddenly you see a Roman soldier approaching you, and he tells you, you have

to stop what you're doing right now, and you have to come over here and carry my bags to

the next station.

And the law said you had to do it, up to a mile.

Once you've gone a mile, you didn't have to do it anymore.

Your personal freedom, your sense of dignity and rights were being trampled on.

You were being treated as a slave of Rome.

Legally, you had to go one mile.

Let's Jesus tell his followers, go too.

What?

Go beyond what was required.

And by the way, they weren't doing this for friends.

I'd be willing to carry something for my friends.

No, you do this for your enemies.

Go two miles.

And by the way, don't do it begrudgingly.

Joyfully surrender your pride.

Walk the extra mile.

Now can you imagine, this is the natural man, he would begrudge the entire mile in his heart

and be bitter at the Roman soldier the whole way, probably cursing under his breath.

And after they had gone one mile, I'm not going one step further.

Do you understand?

I fulfilled my commitment.

This is what the law required.

They're not going to go any farther.

And Jesus says no, to his followers.

He said, surrender your personal rights.

Gladly go the extra mile.

And the result for his followers will be the ability to testify about God's grace that

is active in your life.

Friends, all people were required to go one mile, but to willingly and cheerfully go two

miles can only be explained by the presence of God in your life.

But why would we do it?

Why should you do this?

Because God has saved you and rescued you from your sin.

God has gone the extra mile with you when you were his enemy.

See, you adorn God's doctrine and the gospel when you walk the extra mile.

Let me talk to you.

Let's make this practical.

What about at work?

Do you go the extra mile or do you only do what is required of you and not one eye at

a more because I'll stick it to the man?

They wouldn't do it for me.

I'm not going to do it for them.

Let me ask you husband, wife, what about chores and responsibility?

Do you only focus on an equal distribution of labor and you refuse to help the other

with their work?

Oh, by the way, that's not my job.

That's her job.

What about in relationships?

Reconciling.

You said, well, I've already said sorry.

Will you go the extra mile and move toward that person that did you wrong?

Do you know how many marriages could be saved if the husband or wife was willing to forgo

one's rights and simply go the extra mile cheerfully?

So many.

See, friends, as long as you and I are focused on our rights and what is fair, you will never

do this because Christ's agenda is not about fairness.

It's not even really about justice right here.

You go the extra mile because it shows off God and His grace that rescued you.

God will take care of justice in His own time and in His own way.

You leave that to Him.

And fourthly, look at verse 42, give to Him who asked you and from Him who wants to borrow

from you.

Don't turn away.

This is about generosity, kingdom generosity.

Share what you have with others.

See, the natural man, the one who doesn't know Christ, he by nature is sinful and naturally

possessive.

He holds on what belongs to him.

It's mine.

I can do with it whatever I want.

But as Christians, nothing is truly ours, all we have belongs to the Lord.

We're merely stewards.

That's what we're talking about on Wednesday nights.

We're merely stewards.

You and I think, we assume we can do with our property as we see fit.

But the Lord says, hey son, hey daughter, surrender that personal right.

You don't have the right to hang on to what is yours.

Really lend to others.

Money, yeah.

Time, yeah.

Other resources, yes.

Why?

I hope you don't have to ask that question, but here's the answer.

Because God has been so generous with you.

Those in God's kingdom share His likeness.

Our God is patient with us and He's generous with us.

He goes beyond the bare minimum.

And we are to be like Him in this world.

So let me summarize this.

We don't need revenge.

We don't need security.

We don't need money.

Because we have Jesus and He has given to us His kingdom.

All these examples that our Lord is using is calling for death.

It's a death to self.

You give up your right and you seek the glory of God alone.

But friends, I'll tell you, this takes faith.

Faith that believes that Jesus' way is better than yours.

Do you believe that?

Do you believe what this text says?

Yes, this is better than my way.

Faith that any insult you're required to take or whatever sacrifice you're required to make

is worth it because God's way is best and He doesn't lead His children astray.

See, it's not primarily about just turning the other cheek or lawsuits or walking two

miles or even lending to others.

But rather it is dying and dying to self.

It's a dying to our own way of thinking that we assume we know.

We have faith that God's way is better.

Lord Jesus is talking to His followers and He says, you want to come after me?

Well, you deny yourself and you take up your cross.

You follow my example.

What did He do?

He left the glory of heaven and He humbled Himself, the one who should have never been

humbled, humbled Himself and became a servant who's obedient unto death, not just any death

but the cruel death of the cross.

He joyfully submitted to the will of His Father, didn't matter the cost, knowing that His Father

would vindicate Him.

This is what I say to you, church, to me.

Trust God completely and leave the results with Him because in time He will vindicate

His own.

Luke 18, 7, and shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him though

He bears along with them?

Even that's a death to self, right?

A death to our own time.

We want God to vindicate us now.

He calls us to patiently wait.

The time of vindication will come.

But He's also telling you, don't value what the world values.

Everything I've said today is not honored in the kingdom of man.

The world says, oh, look at the aggressive man, the man who asserts himself, the man

who's always ready to defend himself in his own honor, the man who's going to stick it

to them and not let anyone get anything over on them.

That's not life in the kingdom of God though.

If you're going to live as the Lord calls us to live, you must be born again.

If you don't know Christ, you cannot do any of this.

It's an impossibility.

You can't do this.

You are dreadfully and I am dreadfully unable to live up to this high calling.

I know that.

I need to be changed.

You need to be changed.

You must be born the family of God.

If you're going to live like this, you need the Holy Spirit of God.

In other words, you've got to become a new you.

You've got to be a new person.

You've got to have a new birth if you're going to live as a citizen of heaven.

How do you do that?

All you can't.

You can't birth yourself.

But I say this.

Today if you will humble yourself and you understand your own inability and your own

sinfulness and you come to Christ admitting your sin, admitting your weakness, and you

see in Him glory and you see in Him the answer for your need, He will receive you.

You call upon Him.

Call upon Him today while He may be found.

Today the doors of salvation are open to you.

Don't wait.

Hear the law of God.

Hammer you and let it hammer you and lead you to Christ, the one who has obeyed in our

place.

Look to Him.

I want to close with this quote from Martin Lloyd-Jones.

I thought it was excellent.

I loved it.

The cross of Christ is a supreme illustration and the argument of the New Testament is this.

That if we say we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and believe that He has died for our

sins, it means that our greatest desire should be to die to self.

That is the final purpose of His dying.

Not merely that we might be forgiven or that we might be saved from hell.

Rather, it was that a new people might be formed, a new humanity, a new creation, and

that a new kingdom set up consisting of people like Himself.

Not the life of self-defense or self-sensitivity, but such a life that even if we are insulted,

we do not retaliate.

If we receive a blow on the right cheek, we're ready to turn the other also.

If a man sues us at the law and takes away our coat, we're ready to give our cloak also.

If we're compelled to go a mile, we go two.

If a man comes and asks something to me, I do not say this is mine.

I say rather if this man is in need and I can help him, I will.

I have finished with self.

I have died to myself.

And my one concern now is the glory and honor of God.

This is what our Lord is calling us to.

Let us pray.

Let us pray.