[0:00] Thank you for those prayers. Greet you all in Jesus' name this morning. Appreciated the opening and the focus on the blood, the song on power in the blood.
[0:19] As we were singing that, I thought about all the places that need that power and need that blood. I thought of Reggie over there in India and the needs there and how people all over the world are needing the blood of Jesus.
[0:41] Then my mind went to Michigan and those dear people there that Merlin was telling me about. Just the need they have for the blood of Jesus, to cleanse them and to find victory and find hope.
[1:01] So we keep praying for them and the family back there. I'd like to continue on with kind of this series of messages on biblical convictions in daily living.
[1:21] You might call this part two. Last Sunday was part one, I guess. Focusing on the Sermon on the Mount. And you know, I won't repeat all the things again about the Bible and the conviction that the Bible is true, but you remember that.
[1:42] Sometimes I know some of these things might be a little bit repetitious, but sometimes repetition is good. We remember them better when we hear them over and over.
[1:53] Some of the things from my childhood, I remember probably the rest of my life because I heard the same thing over and over again. And if it's the Word of God, that's okay.
[2:05] It doesn't get old. The Bible says that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine and reproof, correction, for instruction, for righteousness.
[2:23] That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. We must be committed to the Bible. What does this mean?
[2:34] Not just to read it, but also a commitment that it is true, a belief, a foundation in our lives, a subtle conviction that it is the thoughts and the inspiration of God.
[2:49] It is the mind of God. In Peter we read, knowing this, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but by holy men of God, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
[3:11] We know that the Holy Spirit is the author of God's Word. Peter made it very clear. Biblical convictions are based on irreverence.
[3:23] For God himself. And a deep desire to do his will and to walk in his ways. Not man's vain or flighty ideas, but God's idea.
[3:37] And then the theme verse that I've had is Hebrews 10 verse 16. This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord.
[3:47] I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them. In our hearts. In our minds.
[4:00] I will put my laws. And remember the statement, freedom without boundaries is bondage. Not freedom. Paul said he is a slave to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[4:14] And I had shared last time, I believe, about truths.
[4:27] These biblical truths will sustain us and last on into the next generation. But the only way that will happen is if God writes them into our hearts.
[4:42] Having it as a tradition won't sustain the next generation. Traditions are good, but it's more than that. It's a deep, settled conviction of the heart.
[4:55] I'd like to turn our Bibles this morning to Deuteronomy chapter 6 for some reading here.
[5:06] Speaking of our children and the next generation, God has a heart for that. He didn't just leave us blank or without any teaching or instruction.
[5:21] And in Deuteronomy, children of Israel, He speaks very clearly about this subject of teaching our children. And I'd like to just start reading chapter 6, verse 1.
[5:38] We'll read some scriptures here. Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it, that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God to keep all his statutes and all his commandments which I command thee, thou and thy son and thy son's son.
[6:11] All the days of thy life, that thy days may be prolonged. I had to think of that. That's like me and my son and little Brantley.
[6:23] You know. In other words, it's not just for me. It's for my children and their children. Hear, therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
[6:50] Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might, and these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart.
[7:06] And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
[7:23] Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
[7:38] I think I'll stop reading there. But it says, to teach diligently to our children the things of God, the commandments of God, the law of God, the thoughts of God, the heart of God.
[7:53] Teach them diligently to our children. When? He made sure and had that covered. I would say pretty much all the time, on a daily basis, every opportunity to teach this book, these convictions, this heart, these laws, to our children.
[8:18] It's our job. And you know, recently there's some things going on in Idaho that we've been watching some, and a story there that, about children, and all the corruption in the government.
[8:33] And, you know, the whole idea that the government somehow is liable or responsible to teach our children is just not scriptural.
[8:47] Yeah, the whole public school system. Yeah, the whole public school system. And we can see where that's going, can't we? And what they're teaching next.
[8:57] And it's not just corruption and evil there, but just in the last, I don't know how many years, the falseness, ever since they took prayer out of school, threw God out, they're teaching anti-God.
[9:13] But you won't find that in the scripture, not even a hint of that. It tells parents to teach their children. And I believe that in that area, it's so easy for us as parents to just take things for granted.
[9:33] We just live our convictions, and you know, they're supposed to just kind of follow along and learn or do what we do or think what we think. But I feel like in my life, I've failed in the area of taking the time to teach diligently.
[9:56] We all can teach. If we have children, we can teach. If you are an older child, you can teach.
[10:08] You can teach your younger brothers and sisters, right? Right, Megan? Yeah. If you're one of the older ones, you can teach.
[10:19] You can be a huge help in that area. God will bless you for it. You know, there's no doubt that we believe the words of Christ himself.
[10:31] Amen? If the words are in red letter, Jesus taught them. It doesn't mean that it's more true than the rest of the Bible, because Jesus, we just read, the Holy Ghost spoke the rest of the Bible too.
[10:50] But let's turn to Matthew again on the Sermon on the Mount. I just love the words. There's something still about Jesus himself, opening his mouth and teaching, and just going through some of those things.
[11:05] I'm excited about it, about some of the things that I just, in studying this morning and so on. In Matthew chapter 5, I know we had covered this, a few of these verses, but starting in verse 20 again, just want to go over that.
[11:28] There's that, well, we're going to start in verse 27 actually, but I want to look at verse 20 as well, where Jesus said, for I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no wise or in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
[11:52] Remember, what was the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? They were the religious leaders of the day. They were the ones that people looked to for spiritual counsel or spiritual input, knowledge, wisdom, all those things.
[12:13] But here comes Jesus and he says, unless you have more righteousness than what they have, you'll never make it. And I believe they had many of the laws of God, but they had mixed it all up.
[12:27] They had added their own laws. And they didn't even accept the Christ when he did come, the Messiah. They rejected him.
[12:38] And they had no life within them. And so, Jesus comes and he says, there's a much better way. There's a much deeper life than just having the outward correct.
[12:54] And he addressed that. So let's go on down now to verse 27. And just go over that again.
[13:05] You have heard that it was said of them of old time, by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
[13:22] How serious is this subject? Let's look at the next few verses and we'll get a picture of how serious Christ looks at the subject of lust.
[13:40] Verse 29, And if thy right eye offend thee, that word offend means cause thee to sin. If your eye cause you to sin or stumble, pluck it out and cast it from thee.
[13:56] For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, your eye, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. Same way with her hand.
[14:09] If your right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
[14:22] He repeats it twice. That's how important Jesus looks at the issue of lust. Or, should I say, adultery in our hearts.
[14:39] You know, all these things, and that's what I love about, you know, before Jesus came, and even when he gave this teaching, this sermon on the mount, as we know it, all he had, all they had, was the scriptures of the Old Testament.
[14:56] They didn't have anything in the New Testament yet, and possibly not even all of the Old Testament. I'm not sure. But certainly none of the New Testament. It hadn't been written yet.
[15:08] Christ hadn't died yet. Technically, they were still in the Old. But Jesus came and began a ministry of the New Covenant.
[15:19] And to expose what God's heart really is. The Old was just, you know, the physical, the natural. The Old was if there was adultery, an actual act.
[15:39] But here comes Jesus and says, no, if you even think it, if it's even in your heart. He's dealing with our hearts now. And I just love the way Jesus comes and just lays it out there for us.
[15:55] And where were we? Verse 31. It hath been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement.
[16:10] We know that somewhere else the Pharisees came to Jesus and they asked about Moses' law. This is what Moses told us.
[16:22] The same thing. A writing of divorcement. What do you say? And Jesus said, yes, he did that for the hardness of your heart because people had hard hearts.
[16:36] But he said, from the beginning it was not so. And what that says to us is that God's original thought, God's purpose, his plan was not so.
[16:53] So, we'll keep reading here. But I say unto you, yes, Jesus addressed that. He said, it hath been said. When he says it hath been said, he's referring to the old scriptures, the Old Testament.
[17:10] But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery. And whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery.
[17:27] Here again, yes, Jesus is making a change from what was from the old, what was accepted in the old, to what he is commanding today. I have, some of my notes here are kind of overlapping a little bit.
[17:50] Yes, I already said that. It's not the plan of God. You want to know what God's heart was. It is what Jesus is saying. What about this clause in here of fornication?
[18:05] I did quite a bit of reading on this and a lot of different versions and commentaries and so on and trying to conclude exactly where I stand on that or what I see in that.
[18:22] I'm going to share this. You know, there's a difference between fornication and adultery. And we know that the difference in fornication is sexual immorality outside of marriage and adultery is immorality, sexual immorality when you are married.
[18:48] And I've heard this teaching and I'll share this thought, about the culture of betrothal, the culture of being promised to a wife but not yet married.
[19:05] That time was a big deal in the Jewish culture. That was actually, in fact, they called them their wife, Joseph and Mary.
[19:17] You know, if you think about it, he was betrothed to Mary and he called her his wife or the Bible did. We would, today we would say my wife-to-be or my fiancé or whatever term you want to give it.
[19:37] There's many people that believe and I've heard this teaching that Jesus was referring to that time frame that if you couldn't put her away or break that commitment unless there was fornication.
[19:52] Therefore, the word fornication was used rather than adultery. And I'm not going to make any concrete statements on that because I tried to really look into that and see if that is actually the case and I can't.
[20:14] I'm 90% there but maybe some of you are 100% and that's okay but the point is not really that even. Even if it was marriage and there's that clause for that, here's my thought on it.
[20:33] It is extremely serious to be unfaithful to a marriage partner and I believe that's what Jesus was saying.
[20:43] Marriage is a covenant for life and when there is unfaithfulness at some point that covenant can be broken by sin.
[20:57] And there are major and severe consequences when this happens. Christ makes it extremely clear in these scriptures that remarriage is living in adultery.
[21:12] This is not a cultural thing or just some old fashioned out of date ideas. This is a direct teaching from Christ himself and he makes it so clear.
[21:27] But when there is sin in the marriage, here's the answer. Genuine, complete repentance and restoration, forgiveness, restoration.
[21:40] You know, people say, well, it's not possible. But with God, all things are possible. Divorce is not the solution. God is. God is the solution.
[21:54] And so, we'll keep reading here. Well, it changes subjects now, but I do believe whether you think that was pre-marriage or not, that clause, we do know that God's heart is that marriage is a covenant between two people.
[22:18] Jesus taught very clearly that the twain, the two, shall become one flesh. And we become one. And what God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.
[22:31] We hear that in weddings all the time or all the time that there's weddings, we hear that. Right? We always hear that at weddings, or almost always. And even the marriage vows, even today in America, we still use those commitments, those vows.
[22:48] The problem isn't that we don't have it clear. The problem is we don't live it in America. It's a sad state that our country's in. And the devil has done a lot to destroy marriage.
[23:01] marriage. Let's go on now to verse 33. And these things, again, let's remember as we go through these things, even this subject of adultery and lust and all those things, marriage, that God would seriously establish what we believe about that.
[23:31] and where we stand. Because if ever there was a day that we need to know where we stand, it's today that we know in our hearts, not just on paper.
[23:44] Verse 33, again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths.
[23:58] But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king.
[24:11] Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. We know that's true.
[24:23] Some of us have changed our hair color and we can't do a whole lot about it. But then he goes on, he says, but let your communication be yea, yea, and nay, nay.
[24:38] For whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Do we take this seriously? As the word of God?
[24:51] Teachings of Christ? Or are we leaving it optional? I grew up and our parents taught us not to swear, but somehow we ended up saying, I swear.
[25:07] If we didn't think you would believe it, I'd say, I swear. I don't know how we got away with that, but Jesus' teaching says, no, don't swear.
[25:20] Just say yes and let it be yes, and no. No, I said no. That's all it takes. If we don't lie, that should be all it takes.
[25:38] We know in a lot of our courts and in political, they call it swearing in or something like that, and you have to swear in.
[25:49] A lot of places they leave it optional that you can say, what is the word they use? Affirm, yes. Right. Unless you get sworn into office, then it's going to be swearing in.
[26:04] okay, so let's let that settle in our hearts. I know that I've heard that teaching all my life, but somehow it never got written into our hearts, really.
[26:20] It was more just, yeah, he said that, maybe we shouldn't, maybe we shouldn't. But no, it is what, it's as clear as you can read on a piece of paper here.
[26:31] you know, the words are clear. Don't swear at all. Where were we again?
[26:42] Verse 38, this will be the kind of, I was hoping we'd get to this today. In verse 38 and 39, you have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
[26:58] Do we understand what that means? I think we do. Some of you, a lot younger ones might not, but an eye for an eye, meaning that if somebody takes your eye, you take their eye.
[27:12] If they knock your tooth out, you go ahead and knock theirs out. But I say unto you, meaning, I have a different message.
[27:24] That's what Jesus meant when he said, but I say unto you, that ye resist not evil. But whosoever shall smite thee on thy cheek, turn to him the other also.
[27:43] But what about my rights? What about, that's not right. What about justice for the evil doer?
[27:55] How about making him pay for what he did? Otherwise, this person, he might do it to someone else if we don't stop him.
[28:09] You know, maybe if enough people, if there were enough Christians to turn the other cheek, pretty soon that person might come to realize that he's working against God.
[28:23] But too many Christians don't do that anymore. Maybe if we would actually do that and love them like God tells us to, they would come to Christ too.
[28:38] Jesus knew that there was no greater force on earth than the love of God. Still today, there is no greater force, no greater influence.
[28:50] confidence. Obviously, we need wisdom from God in this. We need to recognize too that there are authorities to deal with evildoers and things like that when things get way out of hand.
[29:07] But the question for us in our hearts is, are we willing to suffer wrongfully? One thing when we deserve it.
[29:20] We just got what we deserve because we messed up. But suffering wrongfully is when we were actually not wrong. But we suffer anyway.
[29:33] And that's what Jesus is teaching us here. Or do we stand up for our rights and strike back? Which is it? If self or the natural man is in charge, you and I will never be able to live up to these teachings.
[29:56] If self or the natural man is in charge, we can't do it. What a high calling. What a high and noble teaching to turn the other cheek.
[30:11] You know, recently somebody from Hollywood got slapped in the face. And boy, they're making a big deal out of that.
[30:25] But you know, this teaching is so profound that even the world knows the term turn the other cheek. Right?
[30:37] They should practice it. but they do know the term. Most people, even non-Christians, probably even atheists, know the term to turn the other cheek.
[30:49] It is so profoundly different than what is natural to the natural man. Now let's talk a little bit about the political world.
[31:04] in the political world in America, especially in the conservative side, it's all become about preserving our rights.
[31:18] Think about that a little bit. Preserving our rights. So which is it? The politics of America or Jesus our Savior?
[31:33] Which one are we going to listen to? They both sound good, don't they? But the two are not the same.
[31:49] One says, be willing to suffer and be mistreated. Be willing to suffer and even turn the other cheek. The other says to protest or protest, however you want to pronounce that.
[32:03] stand up for your rights and for freedom. Which voice will we listen to? What would Jesus say to us today if he lived in America?
[32:22] Yes, we appreciate the freedom that we have and that we live in, the peace that we have, the freedom to worship, all those things. And we need to thank God for that and we do.
[32:37] We appreciate that. But if we must violate the teachings of Christ to have it, then it's better to not have it.
[32:51] Do you believe that? If we have to violate this book and fight back to have freedom, then it would be better to not have it.
[33:09] These are some tough teachings. I'll admit, sometimes it's hard. It's really hard. It goes against everything that is in the natural.
[33:24] You see, this is a spiritual teaching. This is a heart teaching. Like, where is our heart? And it cuts to the heart.
[33:37] We feel we have rights. And you know, according to our nation, we do. And sometimes we can use those to our advantage. You know, the Apostle Paul did. When he was being imprisoned, I forget, was it in Rome?
[33:53] He told them, you know, he said, I'm a Roman, what are you doing with me? Or something like that. He challenged them with their own laws. And I'm not saying that would be, I think that's good.
[34:10] But the heart of it is what we want to get here. Verse 40. He just keeps plowing here. And if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also, and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
[34:30] Now, how is that? See, that's the same thing as turning the other cheek, isn't it? He just comes from a different angle now. And maybe cuts even a little bit closer to home.
[34:41] Now, somebody that is not nice, possibly, well, it doesn't say that here about the coat, but yeah, it does indicate it's not a very nice person.
[34:53] He's going to sue you at the law, right? So that's not very nice. Possibly an evil person, bad heart, and he wants your coat. Now you give him the big one yet, too, you know, your cloak.
[35:08] Make sure he's warm enough, he or she. And he's going to say, go with me a mile, carry my load, or something like that.
[35:21] Just make sure you go extra, go the extra mile. You know, they say that second mile never really stops. Once you go extra, I mean, it's just whatever.
[35:34] It could be ten miles. Next one's challenging, too. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away.
[35:52] Now is that, what do you have that you wouldn't loan out? You know, we have a lot of stuff, don't we?
[36:05] Some of it we have to protect and be good stewards and it'd be nice maybe for us if Jesus would have said, now loan it out to the person that wants to borrow unless you're worried about it getting damaged.
[36:25] He just didn't say that. There it is. I was challenged with this. I do believe that God wants us to use wisdom also.
[36:39] And everything that we have already belongs to God. Right? It's not ours, we're just stewards of it. And we are responsible for it.
[36:52] If somebody is destructive or a waster or whatever, just selfish, you know, maybe rather than loaning it out, maybe we'll come with the package.
[37:04] You know, I'll come run that equipment for you, you know, if we're worried about that. I do think we need that kind of godly wisdom.
[37:16] But to just say, no, I won't loan you that. Go buy your own, you know. Jesus just said, he didn't give any explanation, he just said the word, not my word.
[37:28] He's not God. Verse 43, ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.
[37:45] But I say unto you, but here's my message. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.
[38:01] now we thought we were just about getting through the toughest of these. Now he says, love your enemies, do good to them, and pray for them.
[38:20] We know that this is possible because Jesus did it. We know it's possible because the church over the ages has loved her enemies.
[38:30] and prayed for them that despitefully used them. Not everybody that's called church, but the church has always done this.
[38:43] Do you believe that? The true church of Jesus has always done this. I believe that. They have always loved their enemies.
[38:55] Maybe not in perfection. Christian, we still deal with the old nature wanting to rise up and all that. But when it comes right down to it, those that really believe and truly follow Christ, I believe, have practiced this.
[39:16] Do good to them that hate you. Pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you. That means even hurt you or put you in prison. How often was Paul in prison?
[39:28] Most of the time that he was writing the New Testament, he was in prison, being persecuted. I want to repeat that phrase again. If self or the natural man is in charge, you and I will never be able to live up to these teachings.
[39:47] Only if the Spirit of God is in us and strengthens us. what about this statement? Well, I'm willing to suffer myself, but not my wife and children.
[40:04] I have to defend them. How am I going to tell my children that I will defend you against anything harmful or evil?
[40:18] and yet teach them this principle and I'll get to explaining my heart on some of this, but teach our children to turn the other cheek, but I'll teach them that that was wrong and they shouldn't have done that to you and all that.
[40:42] You can teach them that it was wrong, but then teach them this too, to teach the other or to turn the other cheek if I don't get my words mixed up here.
[40:56] You know, I would do all I could to physically protect my wife and my children. They know that. They know I would do anything I could without violating this, I hope.
[41:11] and that's where we need God's help, God's grace. But my family also knows, I've told them this, that I would also allow them to die before I'll kill somebody else.
[41:32] That might not be where everybody's at, dying. But, what's so wrong about dying? Have you ever thought about that?
[41:47] If we're living for Christ, and we're Christians, and we're going to go to heaven when we die, think about this, which would you rather do, or rather be, which place would you rather be on the day of judgment, coming before God, the almighty God, the judge of all judges, which would you rather say to the Lord?
[42:18] Lord, our enemies came and they took my family, but I did no harm to them, as they are your creation, and you taught us to love our enemies, and pray for them that despitefully use us.
[42:34] You said we will be persecuted, and we were. Lord, it was hard, but I wanted to be faithful to your word, and to all your teachings, and we know you are the righteous judge.
[42:50] Or would you rather meet God and say, Lord, they were going to harm my family, so I killed them because it's my job to protect.
[43:05] These are just thoughts that could be a reality to us. I'm not against protecting and doing all you can if that case ever happened.
[43:19] I don't think it will, but it could. Protect all you can, excuse me, without violating the principles or the teachings of Christ.
[43:31] So what about joining the military and going to war? Where does that put us as Christians? What are our convictions about that?
[43:44] You know, we need to talk about these things. We need to teach them to our children. There are many people that I talk to quite regularly on, you know, with doing sales and they bring up the fact that they were veterans and so on and being a war veteran is a noble thing.
[44:17] Being willing to give your life for anything is noble, right? For your country. I understand where they're coming from, but I also know what Jesus taught.
[44:33] but our calling is so much higher.
[44:47] As a Christian, as a follower of Jesus Christ, our calling is to lay down our life. That's really the whole point, I believe, in these scriptures is to lay down our life.
[45:03] Yes. How can we go and what we call serve, but rather than being killed, we kill?
[45:20] How do you love your enemy while killing a son or a husband or a father with a gun or a bomb or whatever method? Even when the war seems justified in some way?
[45:36] Is it the way the world thinks or the way Jesus taught? There is so much peace in just surrendering this all to the almighty hand of God to allow his spirit and his word to be our guide in these things.
[45:53] We have nothing to fear if we have God. We have nothing to fear. We have God's love to read on here now in verse 45.
[46:13] Probably should have kept reading earlier, but verse 45 Jesus said, that he may be the children of your father which is in heaven, for he maketh the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.
[46:30] For if you love them which love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others?
[46:44] Do not even the publicans so? Be therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect. He's saying here that God allows the rain to fall on the just and the unjust, the good people and the bad.
[47:04] He allows the sun to shine on all of them, good or evil. people. I believe that the purpose, again, for this teaching, the real heart of it, is that we are called the children or may be the children of our heavenly father, that we be like him.
[47:33] Verse 45, that you may be the children of your father which is in heaven. Are we his children? Will we be his children?
[47:45] That we be like him, not as a man thinks, not the common sense philosophies necessarily, but as God thinks.
[48:00] And then he says in verse 48, be a perfect, therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect. Following his example, Christ actually experienced, this is something powerful, this thought, Christ actually experienced all these things that he taught.
[48:24] He didn't just say them with words, he literally experienced them. Yes, his teaching and his word is wonderful, it's powerful, it's the word of God, but he also lived them, if he wouldn't have.
[48:45] Let's turn to Matthew 16 for a closing scripture and just wrap it up with that. Matthew 16 verse 21 says, from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day.
[49:17] Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying, Be it far from thee Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he turned and said unto Peter, get thee behind me Satan, thou art an offense unto me, for thou savest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
[49:44] Then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Jesus recognized and even today, we still today have this thought, this man's theory on all these things about laying down our life versus defending it.
[50:10] You see, Peter, even when they came to get Peter, he still had that in him. He still came with a sword. He came and was going to, I believe, kill the high priest.
[50:23] But he missed the mark and just caught his ear. What did Jesus do? He picked the ear back up, he put it back on, and he healed it instantly. He said, put your sword back, Peter.
[50:37] My kingdom is not of this world. If it were of this world, then would my soldiers fight. my disciples fight. And here we see the same thing.
[50:52] This was before Peter did that with the sword. This was when Jesus was just telling him or the disciples that he's going to be killed. He's going to lay down his life.
[51:06] And Peter, naturally, that is our natural tendency, just rose up. And he said, no, this can't be. And what did Jesus say?
[51:18] He said, get thee behind me, Satan. He knew where it was coming from. It was coming from the devil. Then he says these words, for whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
[51:41] That's why I said a while ago, what's so bad about dying? I say that carefully. I'm not making light of it. But Jesus said, if we lose ourselves, lose our life, for his sake, we'll find it.
[51:59] But if we defend it or if we save it, we'll lose it. meaning if we fight for my own rights, my own desires, and again, we cannot live this life by ourselves.
[52:21] It's impossible. Then he goes on, the final two verses. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
[52:34] For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
[52:50] These verses also hold some very precious promises. promises. Our reward's coming. It's just maybe not in this life.
[53:03] We may never get a reward in this life. In fact, we may suffer. There's a lot of suffering in this life, and especially so as a Christian that doesn't believe in defending himself.
[53:17] The chances of suffering is pretty high. Who suffered more than our Lord? Who was mocked more and ridiculed more than our Lord and his apostles?
[53:33] Jesus said, if they persecuted me, they're going to persecute you, James. But there's a precious promise, and then he shall reward every man, every person, according to his works.
[53:54] Satan was speaking through Peter by using the reasoning of man instead of the things of God.
[54:06] Remember, Jesus said, you don't treasure the things of God. You're talking for man, not for God. That's why he rebuked him.
[54:17] And he said, unless we take up our cross, follow him, follow his teachings, follow his commandments, we can't be his disciple. I know I said a lot of things here and shared thoughts.
[54:35] Some might be difficult. We can discuss them. I know there's always those what ifs. What would you do if? those kind of things.
[54:48] But let's get the heart of what Jesus is teaching. And that is that we are called as his followers to be willing to lay down our life.
[55:02] Hard as it is versus taking it. let's pray. Father, we just come to you, Lord. Lord, we know that when you came and gave these teachings to your disciples, it must have been hard for them.
[55:25] They never heard it before. And Lord, we've heard it many times. And it's still hard. So, Lord, we need you.
[55:35] We need your help. Lord, we want you, Lord, to write your laws upon our hearts and in our minds that we would know what we believe and where we stand.
[55:50] And Lord, that we would have the grace to accept your word and all the teachings of Christ, as hard as it may sound and as anti-American as it may sound.
[56:08] Lord, we want you to help us to choose you, Lord, and to give ourselves completely to you, Lord Jesus. I pray in your name.
[56:21] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[56:31] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[56:41] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.