Norbie, Donald: Matthew 1994-06 ~ Matt 5:43-48-Love

Matthew emphasizes that the Lord Jesus is king. And as we, uh, think of this, we realize that when we accept the Lord Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we're making him our authority. He becomes our king. So we emphasize the Bible and getting to know it, getting to know what God wants us to do, how we should live, and, uh, we're going to start reading today in Matthew five and verse forty three. Jesus says, you've heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Now, what I want to do is just review quickly the chapter that we've already covered, because it's been a little bit of time that's lapsed. This chapter has to do with the interpretation of the law. There were religious teachers in Israel, the scribes, the Pharisees, the leaders, and the people would go to them and say, tell us, how should we live? Interpret the law for us. When it says you shall not commit adultery, what does that mean? When it says you shall not lie, what does that involve? And so Jesus now is giving his interpretation of the law. First of all, he points out the law is permanent. The moral truth does not change. In every age, God's word is the same. There are certain things that are right, there are certain things that are wrong. It doesn't matter if the culture changes or not. God says these things are permanent. Jesus said, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. Then he goes into the various commandments. He talks about hatred. He says, you've heard it said, you shall not. Jesus says to you, I tell you, if you hate someone, you've sinned in your heart. Watch how you talk about others and, uh, how you, uh, react to others. Hatred, he says, is sin. It's not only murder, it's hatred that Jesus condemns. He, uh, talks about lust. He says it's not just the act of adultery. Many people today will say, well, what you do in your mind doesn't matter. If you want to look at pornographic material, that's okay, just so long as you don't commit the act. Jesus says, no, there, uh, it's true the act is wrong. Adultery is wrong. When a man and woman take their marriage vows, God expects them to be faithful to one another. But he goes on to say, lust, the very thought is sin. And Jesus warns about it, and he says, you remove the cause of temptation. If there's something that is leading you to think in wrong directions, Jesus says, get rid of it. He uses such a strong figure, he says, if you could stop sinning by cutting off your hand, cut your hand off, because it's altogether important that you get rid of causes of temptation. He says, there's no divorce except for adultery. The Lord was very strong on this. Divorce was tending to be made easy, and Jesus made it very hard. He said, no, there's no divorce, like Malachi said. The Lord says, I hate divorce. And so he took a strong stand against this. Now he says if adultery takes place and the man, for example, is constantly running out with another woman, then you've broken the very idea of marriage, and then you may as well go and make it legal and, uh, finish the break that's already taken place. Talks about truthfulness. This is the ninth commandment. He says no lying. You shouldn't even have to take an oath. To make someone take an oath is implying you can't really trust his word. He has to call down a solemn curse upon himself if he tells a lie. So in the law court, when you stand and you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God, you're calling upon God as a witness because the implication is you may not tell the truth otherwise. And Jesus says, listen, you be known as people who tell the truth. You don't have to take an oath in order to, uh, make people believe you. And then he talks about revenge, and, uh, he... this matter here of, uh, seeking to get even or something like this, he says, don't be revengeful, but, uh, you and your personal attitude be loving and forgiving. And now we get to this section that I want to notice today, that has to do especially with love. Jesus says, love all men. Love all people. There's no one, he says, that you should hate. He emphasizes this very strongly. Now he says, you've heard it was said, you shall love your neighbor. In Leviticus nineteen and verse eighteen in the Old Testament, and I want to just read that, Levi- Leviticus nineteen and verse eighteen. God here says, you shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. Now the Jews interpreted that to mean, well, that means I'm to love Jews, but I can hate my enemy. Just my own people, those are the ones I'm obligated to love. Jesus says, no. Your love is to be greater than simply your own people. And love is to reach out to all regardless. And I want to read in Luke chapter ten where he gives this parable, because this question came up. In Luke ten. m verse twenty five. A certain lawyer stood up testing him, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, What is written in the law? What is your reading of it? So he answered and said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. He said to him, you have answered rightly, do this and you shall live. He, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, who's my neighbor? See, uh, the Lord says to him, you should love the Lord your God, first of all, and then you should love your neighbor as yourself. Uh, this is the way he answers the question of what does the law say? But then he, he has a problem here. Your neighbor is yourself. He says, well, who's my neighbor then? That means just care for Jews, doesn't it? Or people that are close to me. But I don't have responsibility for other people. I can be selective. I can say, well, I'll love these, but I'm not going to care for others. And so Jesus now tells this parable, and, uh, in verse thirty he says, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now, by chance, a certain priest came down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. When he saw him, he had compassion on him. He went to him, bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, take care of him. Whatever more you spend when I come again, I will repay you. So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves? He said, he who showed mercy on him. Jesus said to him, go and do likewise. The Lord told the parable of this man who goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and you really do go down. You drop over three thousand feet just in a matter of miles. It's a steep grade going down to Jericho. It's rough country. There are canyons, there are, uh, valleys leading down into that area, and it was a place where robbers could hang out. It was sort of like the Badlands of, uh, South Dakota, uh, rough, barren country. This man's going down, and on his way down, this, uh, band of robbers jump him. They beat him up, they take his goods, they leave him there. He's wounded. He, he would have died if he'd been left alone. He's by the side of the road, and he's calling out. He's calling out for help. He's moaning, perhaps. And the Lord speaks here of several who go by. First he says, um, a priest comes along, a religious leader. He goes down the road, he sees the man by the side of the road who is wounded and, uh, suffering, but he doesn't want to be bothered. Maybe he was afraid, and he may have thought these, uh, this may be a setup, maybe they're waiting here to d- to assault me too, to, uh, attack me, but he passed on the other side. He refused to be moved to help the man. He says a Levite came by, in other words, a priest's assistant, and he too, when he saw the man who was wounded, who was hurting, who desperately needed help, he passed by on the other side. He didn't want to get involved. There's a lot of that today, isn't there? In fact, sometimes we're almost afraid to get involved because, uh, so many times, uh, there are carjackings, there are robberies, and so forth. Maybe this is the way he felt. But then it says a Samaritan came by, and a Samaritan was a part of that, uh, group of people that were hated by the Jews. They had a, uh, kind of a half-breed religion, and, uh, they were- they were a mixed race, and the Jews wanted to have nothing to do with them. Tremendous separation between the Jews and the Samaritans. But this Samaritan comes by, and as he sees the man, uh, wounded and hurting and, uh, desperately needing help, it says he's moved with compassion. He says, here's a man who needs my help, here's someone that I can aid, and uh, regardless of his race or anything like this, I will help him. So he personally inconveniences himself. He uh, gets down off his, his donkey, he was probably riding a donkey, and uh, he puts the man on the donkey after he's washed and bandaged his wounds. He takes him to the nearest inn. He tells the innkeeper here, take care of him, let him rest up, let him heal so he can go on his journey. And he says, here's some money to take care of it. If it isn't enough, when I come back through, I'll make it up. The Lord says to the man, okay, who of these three acted like a neighbor? And of course, it was the Samaritan. And Jesus says, you go and do likewise. So he emphasizes the fact that I should have a concern for people who ever need help, regardless of the race or the background or anything like that. My neighbor is my fellow man, wherever he is, whatever his background may be. I'm to love other people. This is the law of his kingdom. This is the highest law. He says, not only people who are hurting and, uh, so forth, but he says even to love your enemies. The Jews would say it's hard to hate your enemy. You've got enemies, hate. Jesus said, no, you love your enemies. You bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. The world is full of people taking revenge. There are people who say, I've been hurt in some way, and I want to hurt this person. In Israel today, there are many Jews who have, uh, lost relatives to the Arabs. Perhaps there's been a car bombing or something like this, and there's a lot of hatred. There are Arabs who say, uh, we've been abused by the Jews, misused, treated like second class citizens, and there's a lot of hatred. And you know, this thing just kind of keeps building up. The Arabs will, uh, shoot at the Israelis, the Israel- Israelis fire back, and the hatred just builds and builds and builds. Jesus says the only way to stop hatred and to stop this kind of spirit going on is simply to interrupt it by love. Someone hates you, you say, I'm not going to hate you back. Someone curses you, you say, I'm not going to curse you back. Someone abuses you, you refuse to, uh, give them back what they've given to you. He says love is going to stop this thing from going on. You know, I sometimes say couples are having problems, and it's really easy to get into an argument, maybe the words become more and more heated. You can stop it very easily. All one has to do is shut up. If one person will just close his mouth and refuse to give back to your partner, uh, the same hostility and anger. Jesus says, you stop this business of hatred by love. When someone hates you, you love them. If someone curses you, you pray for them. Someone calls you names, you just say, may the Lord bless you. You refuse to retaliate. And when you do that, then there begins to be a healing. And you can see this happen. If the love of God can come into a situation, there can be real healing. So he says, love your enemies. And he says your pattern is God himself. Be impartial like God, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. What kind of a God do we have? Do we have a God who has hatred in his heart? Do we have a God who, eh, is out to get people and destroy people? No, we don't have that kind of God. Now, we have a holy God, we have a just God, but we have a God who is loving people, who's deeply concerned for people, regardless of what they've done. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. God's love reaches out to everyone. It's universal. There's no partiality. God does not have favorites. God doesn't say of one race, you know, these are the only ones that I'm going to choose to be in heaven. God's love is universal. What a wonderful message to have. Regardless of what people have done. I've had people say to me, you know, I think I've done such terrible things, God would never forgive me. And when you hear of some of the things they've done, they are terrible. But the good news is God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. You can be forgiven. Anyone can be forgiven. Regardless of the sin he's committed, he can be forgiven. That's wonderful to know. A man was telling me in the jail this last week, who goes to trial in October, uh, for murder, and uh, he said, you know, some of the men in the jail were saying to me, how can you have such peace? How can you be so calm when you know what you're facing? You're going to trial, you're going to stand before the judge, you may get life imprisonment, you may never be a free man again. You don't know what you'll get. And he said, I just tell them, uh, I know I'm forgiven, uh, I know I have peace with God, and my life is in God's hands. I'm not afraid. And some might say, you know, when I first met this man, uh, he was a very disturbed young man. He's only about nineteen and, uh, very confused. He'd been a heavy drug user, and, uh, yet what a joy it is to be able to tell people like that, God loves you. I don't care what you've done. You've killed your stepfather, shot him to death. God loves you. You may think it's too great a sin. God couldn't forgive me for what I've done. God says, I love you and I care for you. I can forgive you because Jesus died to pay for that sin. That's how much I love you. I gave my son to hang upon the cross and to bleed and die in order to pay for your sin. And I can forgive you. That's the character of God's love. And he says to us, you be like your, your father. Be like a son should be. Be like a daughter should be. Be like your father. Act like your father. He's your model. He's your role model. Your heavenly father. How does he love? He loves sinners. He loves people that have cursed him, that have, uh, used his name in vain, that have defied him, that have rebelled against him, that have said, I'm not going to do what God wants me to do. I'm going to do what I'm going to do, what I choose to do. And yet God loves them, and his love reaches out and reaches out and never gives up. And Jesus here tells us, you have that kind of love. The sun came up this morning. It didn't just shine on those who are believers, who are people who love God. The sun's shining on the fields of people who have been cursing God, people who've gotten drunk last night. People have committed adultery. People have done all sorts of indescribably wicked things. God lets the sun shine upon all equally. It's an evidence of his love. He sends his rain on the just and the unjust. What a benevolent, loving God we have. This is the character of our God. Now he says, you've become a believer, you've become a Christian. Now he's your model. He's the one you should imitate. You should be like your Heavenly Father. And so he emphasizes here the tremendous need that we have to be like our Heavenly Father and to love like he loves. Now the world's love, Jesus points out, is selfish. He says, if you love those who love you, what reward have you? The world does that. And he speaks here of the tax collectors who were kind of at the bottom of Jewish society. They were those who had betrayed their own people. They were those who had sold out to the Romans, and they were those who were collecting taxes and adding so that they, they taxed the people more than they should have been and lined their own pockets. But he says people like that, uh, they, uh, they're kind to their own, but it's a selfish kind of love. And Jesus said, if you, you simply show kindness to other people that are kind to you, you're just doing what unbelievers do. Anybody will do that. He says, you show the love of God by loving people who are unlovable, who, uh, may even hate you, who may ridicule you, who may defile, defy you really and turn away from you. He says, you love them. He says, that's a high standard, isn't it? That's being like God, and that's what he calls on us to do. He says our goal is to be perfect, like our Heavenly Father. Be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. And, uh, he calls on us to be loving in the same way. But you say, I can't do that. No, we can't do that, naturally speaking. Our natural inclination is if we are hurt, we want to hurt back, and uh, we want to get even. Jesus said, but that isn't what God is like. And he calls on us to allow the Holy Spirit to move in our lives so that we begin to show the very love of God to people around us. Now I want to just think of how we have to beware of loving certain things only. Some people who, for example, love their family. That's very natural. But this is where their love stops. This is where their obligation ceases. They'll be loyal to their family. They'll say, well, we really stick together as family. We're brothers, we're sisters, and we're close as a family. Family loyalty. And that's good. But if you stop there, that isn't Christian love. God says, I want you to love more than your family. My love reaches out to the whole world. Some people's love will stop with their race. They'll say, well, I love my own people. I love those who are of the same race. I have a lot of ethnic loyalty. I'm loyal to my own race. Now, it can be good to be happy for your own race and background, but your loyalty shouldn't stop there. Now, my grandparents came from Norway. It's a small country, only about five million Norwegians still in Norway. They say there are more Norwegians in the United States than in Norway now. But, uh, and I'm not ashamed of that. Someone says to me, what's your background? I say, well, I'm Norwegian, and I'm, I'm not ashamed of that. Uh, there's some good people among Norwegians. Some of them aren't so good, but there are some good ones too. And I'm not ashamed of my background, my racial background. But I sin if, for example, I look down on any other race. If I say my race is superior, then I'm acting in pride and I'm putting down another race. And the truth is, all people are created in the image of God. All of us come from the same beginning, from Adam and Eve. All of us, if we need a transfusion, can share from the same blood ba- bank. They don't keep the blood of blacks separate from whites, or Chinese separate from Spanish, or whatever. The blood is the same. There are different types, but, uh, as far as the races go, there aren't any distinctions. We all come from the same source. So if I take pride in my race and put down others, I'm sinning, I'm not showing love. Because if I love, then I will love all like the Lord himself does. If I am limiting my loyalty and love to my nationality. Now it's good to have, uh, some patriotism. If you're an American, there should be a sense of patriotism towards your own country and, uh, wanting to see it, uh, flourish and do its right. We're told to pray for our leaders and so forth. But when this matter of nationality gets too strong, then, uh, you can get into wars, you can get into struggles, and, uh, as Christians, the Lord would say, listen, my love transcends national boundaries. As far as I'm concerned, I don't make, uh, distinctions, I don't show favoritism toward the United States as against Mexico or toward Canada as against some other country. My love is impartial. I love all. So there's that, uh, strong warning, I think, of being, uh, narrow in our love. The Lord would say, don't just think in terms of your own church. Some people have, uh, excessive, should I say, denominational loyalty. Some people will say, well, I've always been a Baptist, and I'm gonna die a Baptist. I've always been a Methodist, now I'm gonna die a Methodist. And the loyalty is, is too strong toward a denomination. The Lord would say, listen, you love all of God's people. There's one church made up of Christians, wherever they are, and you love all of God's people. You should have a sense of loyalty to your local fellowship, but you don't want to exclude others and think you are the only people of God. He would emphasize this to us. I ask the question, have you experienced God's love and forgiveness? You can't really begin to show God's love to others until you've come to know love. You know, the scripture says, we love, we love him, and we just love because he first loved us. It's when we accept the Lord Jesus into our lives that then we can begin to really love. And, uh, it's wonderful to see the Lord beginning to change our hearts. And I think of my own self as a young man. I was a very selfish young man, and I, I really didn't care for anyone else in particular, I don't think. When I came to know the Lord Jesus, I began really to have some care for other people, some concern for someone else. We love because he first loved us. When we accept the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us, and uh, the Holy Spirit is love. God is love. And we begin to, for the first time, experience love and concern for other people. Unselfish love. That's the working of God in our lives. That's the evidence. By this shall all men know that you're my disciples, he says, if you have love for one another. Now, let me talk about, for a few minutes, about what love involves. Love involves, first of all, acceptance. I accept someone as he is, if I love him. Love, in this sense, is not conditional. As husbands, we don't shouldn't say to our wives, well, I will love you if, if you do this, if you do that, if you change, if something else. We accept people the way they are, with their different backgrounds and with their weaknesses, with their strengths, whatever, we accept people as they are. We should, if we love people, appreciate them. Will Rogers, who was a rather famous American, once made this comment. I thought it was interesting. He said, I never met a man I didn't like. I never met a man I didn't like. Now, what did he mean by that? Well, I think what he meant was, when I meet someone, I begin looking for those things in that person I can appreciate. There are certain good qualities, there are certain good characteristics, there are things about that person I can appreciate and I can like. And we can choose, if we wish, we can focus on the person's failures, his weaknesses, or we can begin to say, Lord, help me to look at those things that are, are good qualities and appreciate those things in this person. So love, I think, is going to be marked by an appreciation in other people. And, uh, we need to emphasize that. Love is marked by concern, by care. The, uh, Samaritan going down that road from Jerusalem to Jericho saw a man that was crying out, someone that was needing help, desperately needing help. His heart, it says, was moved with compassion, with love, and he thought, I need to care for this person, I need to help this person. Here, this man needs help, and I can help him. So love is not simply an emotion, but love now will move us to act. And the man on the road to Jericho there, who'd been beaten up, looked up into the face of a man whose eyes were full of love, and here this man's hands reached out to him. He washed his wounds, he bandaged his wounds, he lifted him up on his donkey, he, uh, gave him something to drink, he led him down to the inn, he took care of him. Love is going to care for other people. And, uh, as Christians, we should be marked by that kind of care, that concern for one another, that love for one another. Love is also marked by forgiveness. God is a forgiving God. How much he's forgiven us. You think of the, uh, things you've done you regret, and, uh, all the sins and failures that God knows about. And yet, when we turn to the Lord and we say, Lord, save me, forgive me, in all our needs, the Lord forgives us. He's tremendously forgiving. A woman came to Jesus, you remember, who'd been a prostitute, and she stands there, and she's weeping, and she's, uh, deeply repentant. I think as she was there, she was just thinking about all the things she'd done wrong, and she's a broken person, but she's coming to Jesus. Somehow she feels, I know he's a prophet, I know he's a, he's a good man. He's not a man who'd have anything to do with me on the streets. But I'm coming to him because I desperately need forgiveness. I need to be right with God. And Jesus didn't reject her. He didn't turn away from her. He didn't, uh, act indifferently toward her. He forgave her. And she went away with the words, your sins are forgiven. It's a wonderful thing to be forgiven. Are you forgiven this morning? Can you say, I know my sins are forgiven? Well, then the Lord would say to you, all right, you begin to be forgiving toward others. We have to forgive others. As husbands, we have to forgive our wives, because our wives aren't perfect. If you're a wife, you have to forgive your husband, because no husband is perfect. But that's the very nature of God. In Ephesians four, he calls on us to be forgiving and to be, uh, gracious and kind. He says, Ephesians four, verse thirty one, let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you. Anyone here who has As bitterness? bitterness, anger, a lack of forgiveness. Is there someone, when you think of this person, you know, you get angry? Have you forgiven others? That's part of love. Love is forgiving, and we're called on to be like our Heavenly Father, who has forgiven us so much. He says, you be like your Heavenly Father, and you be forgiven, you be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Be a loving, forgiving person. Now, when you forgive, let me just add this. Sometimes people will say, well, I can't forget. Well, there's a difference between forgiving and forgetting. Our minds will retain things. It's hard to eradicate things from your mind that you've seen or experienced. But when you forgive, what you do is you refuse to bring it up to the person. A couple of people years ago that I forgave, who had hurt me very deeply. And since that time, I determined I will never mention it again to this person. I have forgiven. God has helped me forgive them, which means I refuse to bring it up. If I wish to, I can think about it, and I can remember the hurt. But as a Christian, knowing the forgiveness of God, I've said, Lord, help me to forgive, and God can enable you to do that. It's vital. To learn to forgive is vital for our homes. It's vital in a Christian fellowship. It's vital with your neighbors, your friends. We desperately need to be a forgiving people. So may the Lord help us to be marked by love and to realize that, uh, this is a very high standard. It's very easy to, to give people certain rules. And you say, well, you're a Christian, okay, that means you, you don't do this, and you don't do that, you don't do something else. Some people think being a Christian is not doing things. The Lord Jesus says no. Being a Christian, a true Christian, is means you're going to be marked by love, which isn't negative at all. It's positive, because love isn't content with not hurting a person. Love says I must help you. Love says I want to see you, uh, blessed and see you encouraged. And the Holy Spirit can that work that in us as his people and make us a loving people.