Back with you this morning.
There is a movement afoot for the session
to prohibit my going away again because I
come back with germs I didn't have when
I left.
I hope you'll withstand that as a congregation
anyway.
Can I underscore Mr Lowe's appeal for next
Lord's Day and for the preparatory service on
Wednesday evening.
It is necessary that we learn to come
to this most sacred right of our Christian
church in a manner that is acceptable that
we profit as God meant us to profit.
So we bid you if you're free on
Wednesday evening or can make yourselves free join
us.
The reason is not to have a great
crowd.
The reason is that together as a congregation
we may acceptably administer and partake of the
sacrament of our Lord.
We would honor him and we covet your
presence and if you cannot be with us
we covet your prayers to this end that
not only as individuals but as a people
we may learn here and everywhere else to
magnify the Lord our God.
Now will you kindly turn with me this
morning to the Sermon on the Mount.
We continue with our studies there.
We're looking at a passage that begins with
verse 38 in chapter 5 and proceeds over
verse 42.
Matthew chapter 5 verses 38 to 42.
You have heard that it was said eye
for eye and tooth for tooth.
But I tell you do not resist an
evil person.
If someone strikes you on the right cheek
turn to him the other also.
And if someone wants to sue you and
take your tunic let him have your cloak
as well.
If anyone forces you to go one mile
go with him two miles.
Give to the one who asks you and
do not turn away from the one who
wants to borrow from you.
The Christian response to personal injury.
May I remind you very briefly of the
way we've come in this great Sermon on
the Mount coming from the lips of our
Lord.
With these words now before us we come
to the fifth of six segments in the
latter half of this chapter in which Jesus
in one way or another contrasts popular ideas
about true religion with what the Old Testament
actually said or what he himself now declares.
Thus far we have dealt with the subject
of murder verses 21 to 26 adultery verses
27 to 30 divorce 31 to 32 and
though the language is the language of oaths
in verses 33 to 37 really it's about
telling the truth.
And there are two such segments that remain
the one before us today and then the
final one in this in this remarkable second
half of Matthew 5 in which our Lord
reaches the very climax of the ethical teaching
of the New Testament.
Demanding of us not only as in this
passage that we should learn not to resist
an evil person who molests us but demanding
of us that we should love not just
the evil person but our bitterest enemy and
that we actually should become like our very
father who is in heaven.
That is the topmost the capstone of the
vast and deep ethical dissertation of our Lord
in this particular section.
Now you will doubtless have noted that all
these issues are actually interrelated.
They're interrelated in this sense and you will
see later on there is reason for my
calling attention to it at this point.
All of these issues have to do with
personal relationships.
This is basic to all of life if
we can't get on with people we can't
get on with God and if we can't
get on with people we can't enjoy heaven
either when we get there or here upon
earth.
The purpose of God is that heaven should
more and more invade earth in our own
experiences here and now.
Jesus came with heaven in his soul into
a world of woe and he enjoyed the
peace that passes understanding even when all the
hideous things of his death were clambering around
him and his enemies stood astride his way.
Seeing the cross he could say my peace
I give to you I've overcome the world
don't be afraid I've overcome.
He could speak in those terms.
Now unless we know how to get on
with people we've not learned to live and
Jesus has been telling us in all these
several relationships how to get on with people
their personal relationships.
Now with that background let's come to what
we have before us today.
The first thing that I have to mention
is the perversion we have here the perversion
of an old testament requirement.
You have heard that it was said eye
for eye and tooth for tooth.
Now first of all let's say a word
about the promulgation of that law.
It appears first of all immediately following the
giving of the moral law the giving of
the ten commandments a way back in exodus
21 to 23.
Actually we only have one little little quote
from a larger quote that we have in
exodus to which I will turn in a
moment and then there are two repetitions of
that same injunction that same basic injunction which
includes these words tooth for tooth eye for
eye etc.
There are two additions adding one specific qualification.
Let me give it to you the precise
statement referred to by Jesus in verse 38
is based on exodus chapter 21 verses 23
to 25.
If there is serious injury caused to anyone
among the children of Israel you are to
take life for life eye for eye tooth
for tooth hand for hand foot for foot
burn for burn wound for wound bruise for
bruise.
The underlying principle of this to give it
its latin name lex talionis which means law
of exact retribution is quite simple really
but I will enlarge it in a moment
before I do so let me say this
in Leviticus 24 verses 19 and 20 we
have the additional words fracture for fracture and
actually the one that is quoted in in
Deuteronomy 19 21 has already been given which
I must have I must have missed it's
life for life but we already have that
in in our Lord's words.
Now this law then this principle originated with
God that's the thing we want to stress
at this point it originated with God and
it was given by him in order to
regulate the behavior of his redeemed people the
same God who in chapter 20 of exodus
gave the ten commandments the two tables of
the law with our duty to God and
our duty to man now in chapters 21
to 23 gave certain regulations to the leaders
of Israel as to how to apply the
ten commandments and the spirit of those ten
commandments to life in general because we do
not read the old testament as we ought
we often flounder here and we say how
do the ten commandments apply how did they
apply well if we read on you see
chapters 21 22 and 23 and a few
other chapters in Deuteronomy we would know that
God gave certain regulations as to how they
were to apply it's very something that always
comes to light in pastoral work some very
well-meaning people were asking me just a
little while ago but how does it apply
to life certain thing I won't tell you
what it was now if they read exodus
21 to 23 all the answers are there
the Bible is a complete book God knows
our needs and he tells us how to
apply the basic principles now two things I
want to say about this principle the first
is this I want you to notice it
was meant to regulate public life not so
much relationships between individuals as public life among
the children of Israel it needs to be
clearly noted that this law concerning an eye
for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth was not addressed to individuals God was
not telling the individuals in Israel now look
if your neighbor knocks out your right eye
you get his right eye back you know
that's how it has been represented as if
the almighty was telling people look get your
hatchets out ready in case somebody does something
to you if it's the right arm you
lose will you get a right arm back
if it's the left leg you lose will
you get a left leg and it's all
because we don't read the scriptures and we
misrepresent the holy one of Israel because of
our sheer downright ignorance of the word of
God no no God gave the 10 commandments
and then he told the leaders of Israel
how to apply the 10 commandments and these
words before us were given to the judges
people we would call in our day the
magistrates people who sit on the benches lawyers
if you like judges the magistrates of that
ancient day that was the the elders that's
what they were generally called but they they
performed the tasks of magistrates now all these
were given to them and they were taught
how to apply them now what I want
you to notice is this then this lever
an eye for an eye or if you
want to call it license or liberty to
take another person's limb was not given to
an individual it was given to the lawyers
of the day it was given to the
law courts of the day and if somebody
has taken away my eye then I go
I go before the elders and then the
elders tell me if I insist that it
is wrong the elders will and that I'm
that justice must be done the elders will
tell me right one eye for one eye
one tooth for one tooth so you see
this was given largely to curb something that
is very native to human nature the desire
for revenge and to the desire to get
much much much more back than anyone has
ever taken from me and that brings me
to its purpose its purpose was twofold one
it was to represent the justice of God
before people you cannot do anything wrong to
one of God's creatures his person or his
property without incurring the wrath of God and
we take ages to to to really accept
this for ourselves but you see you as
a creature whoever you are you're made by
God and whether you are interested in God
or not God is interested in you you're
his creature and even though you're the greatest
sinner you still bear some relic of his
image and God is interested in you he
causes his sun to shine upon you and
the rain to come upon you God is
interested in all men and he says look
if you deal wrongly with any man or
any woman anywhere you have to you have
to you have to pay for that but
says the Lord it will be on the
basis of justice you take one eye no
one no one with my permission will take
two eyes from you it represented the sanctity
and the justice of God on the one
hand now the other side of the coin
is this I've already referred to it see
we are fallen creatures all of us and
there is sin in our hearts and we're
very selfish and very self-centered and you
see if somebody knocks my tooth out by
nature I want a couple of teeth back
really if somebody breaks my leg I want
to make sure at least that his leg
his right leg his best leg is as
fractured as mine and a little bit more
because you see when you hurt my body
you hurt my pride and as a fallen
creature we are all proud and hurt pride
takes us further than a hurt body and
this law was to guarantee a certain hedge
a certain limit against the actions of individual
men whose pride had been hurt as well
perhaps as their tooth lost or their body
maimed in some way or another the purpose
of this principle this law then as originally
given was at one and the same time
to stress the sanctity of life as a
whole God is holy and because God is
holy his people must be holy too and
then to protect his people against vengeance from
an individual taking the law into his or
her own hands and saying I'll get my
own back no says the Lord I've given
the ten commandments now I will tell the
elders of Israel who administer the law in
my name I will tell them how to
apply it and I will make it clear
that if somebody has been hurt he is
never never to receive more back than he
has lost lex tionis the just equivalent now
that is the background by the time we
come to the to the teaching of our
Lord and to his day we discover a
perversion of that old testament law you will
pardon me having to sip a few drops
of water the social climate in the theocratic
state of ancient Israel required justice to be
administered with care and compassion and the two
words are important but here there was a
particular perversion what was it well the particular
perversion of which the pharisees and the leaders
the teachers of the law were guilty amounted
to this they took this principle that was
given to the those who administered the law
in the old testament they took it out
of the hands of the lawyers and they
said to individual people you can use it
yourselves and they took it out you see
out of the hands of the of the
of the law law per se and of
legally trained people in their own day and
said to the individuals if anybody takes an
eye from you you see that you get
your own eye back and that's where the
perversion comes in they did not simply say
you may get your eye back or get
another eye get his eye or her eye
but they said you can take it into
your own hands and indeed they encouraged people
to seek this kind of thing so that
society was oftentimes on edge now the law
clearly forbade this kind of thing i know
from what i've said already but let me
just in case somebody has a doubt let
me just give you a passage of scripture
one or two in leviticus chapter 19 and
18 god said categorically to his redeemed people
he said do not seek revenge or bear
grudge against one of your people you're not
to take revenge if you belong to the
redeemed people of god under the old economy
as under the new if you belong to
the israel of god now you don't stand
over against another israeli israelite and go to
law against him and enforce him to hand
back things no no there's another law for
you now that's in the old testament do
not seek revenge or bear a grudge against
one of your own people but love your
neighbor as yourselves now that's the old testament
not the new i know it comes in
the new but that's the old testament if
anybody hasn't heard that this morning i want
to say it again that's the old testament
and it's not the only one of course
listen to this do not say i'll pay
you back for this wrong wait for the
lord and he will deliver you proverbs 20
20 or listen to this do not say
i'll do to him as he has done
to me i'll pay that man back for
what he did that's proverbs 24 29 see
the old testament said that in personal relationships
especially with other redeemed men and women you're
not to slap back you're not to go
to the law court with another brother or
sister because you belong in the theocratic community
you belong to god you're one of god's
you've got to live differently yet the pharisees
removed or extended the application away from the
law court and put it into the hands
of individuals and they encouraged individuals to get
their own back now that was to undermine
the very purpose of the law and allow
personal vengeance to raise its ugly head against
anyone and to determine such important issues issues
that are too important for an individual himself
or herself to determine in the words of
dr john w wenham in our lord's day
this excellent if stern principle of judicial retribution
was being utilized as an excuse for the
very thing it was instituted to abolish namely
personal revenge our lord gives no hint that
he wishes to see the magistrate relaxing his
important social function of witnessing to the majesty
of the law and to the sanctity of
justice but he does discourage his disciples from
appealing to justice when it is for merely
selfish purposes of gaining their own rights in
personal relationships then as jesus goes on to
say we are not to resist an evil
person we are to go beyond the mere
requirements of the law the law was not
meant to limit our kindness this law of
a just recompense the lex talionis was not
was not put on the books in order
to limit our kindness towards one another but
to curb our greed and our arrogance and
our hurt pride now this is the situation
that jesus is here condemning and correcting failure
to recognize this has caused no end of
misunderstanding so that we need to have it
clearly resolved in our minds if we are
to appreciate what this teaching is and see
how it applies to ourselves dr lloyd jones
sums up in this way he says of
the pharisees they were guilty of two main
errors they were turning a negative injunction into
a positive and furthermore they were interpreting it
and carrying it out among themselves and teaching
others to do so instead of seeing that
it was something that was to be carried
out only by the appointed judges who were
responsible for law and order i'm sorry to
stay so long with that but that is
the necessary background to what our lord is
here saying the perversion of an old testament
requirement now that comes us to begin with
something which we shall have to continue with
on another occasion the promotion of the divine
requirement by our lord jesus christ and this
is what we have in verses 39 to
42 but i tell you do not resist
an evil person if someone strikes you on
the right cheek turn to him the other
also and if someone wants to sue you
and take your tunic let him have your
cloak as well if someone forces you to
go with him one mile go with him
two miles give to the one who asks
you and do not turn away from the
one who wants to borrow from you actually
the passage before us today needs to be
seen as only part of the teaching of
jesus concerning this important subject it is only
a part jesus has more to say about
this and particularly of course in the little
section that follows and goes right to the
end of of matthew 5 to which i've
already referred where where he lays the capstone
on it all and says you are not
only to be non-resistant to evil men
in personal relationships you are to love your
enemies but now let us look at what's
before us this morning first of all the
affirmation of this principle i tell you do
not resist an evil person addressing himself to
the matter of personal relationships jesus insists that
the subjects of his rule and of his
kingdom should not set themselves implacably over against
their brothers and sisters in defense of their
supposed rights oh you may have a right
if you've been slapped on the face you
may have a right by law if you've
lost an eye or your leg has been
broken your rights in law may be thereby
established if you were innocent but says jesus
we don't live by our rights there is
a higher law for those who follow me
i am going to the cross and we
live in the wake of the cross he
died he did not press for his rights
he abandoned them and we are to die
with him in order to live in fellowship
with him and there has to be a
death to ourselves and our supposed rights and
particularly not exclusively particularly in relation to our
fellow believers in the kingdom and church of
our lord jesus christ we must not press
for our rights whether you're male or female
old or young rich or poor cultured or
illiterate whoever you are where the moment you
begin to stand on your rights in the
christian church that moment you fly in the
face of god the bible tells us that
as lost sinners we only have a right
to our condemnation we cannot start pleading for
our rights for if god gave us our
rights where would we be there is an
arrogant ignorance about the man or the woman
that shouts for his or her rights in
the church of jesus christ blessed are the
poor in spirit the poor in spirit will
not plead for his or her rights whether
it's the minister in the pulpit or the
man in the pew we must learn to
live by another principle to be crucified and
die to ourselves in order to be alive
unto god and responsive to the needs of
men and this is very difficult but this
is the christian way now this is highly
challenging and it has occasioned no end of
controversies in the course of history many of
which have unquestionably violated both the spirit and
the letter of our lord's teaching what does
it mean what really did jesus mean when
he said and the king james makes it
very difficult fortunately it it is a little
wrong and the niv corrects it but the
king james says says uh that you resist
not evil now i have the highest view
of the king james version but but it
is completely wrong there i do not know
how those great stalwarts theologically and spiritually could
possibly have put that into print that you
don't resist evil god became incarnate to resist
evil jesus lived throughout his life resisting evil
exposing it and resisting it and condemning it
and dying to redeem men from it how
on earth could they have said that that
you don't resist evil life is a summons
to resist evil that's not what jesus said
what did jesus say what jesus said was
that you we don't resist evil men in
the context of personal relationships john stott has
a note here and i think i will
read it for you because i've profited from
it and it's it's rather brief but it's
good as all his writings are says he
we cannot possibly interpret our lord's command as
an invitation to compromise with sin or satan
no the first clue to a correct understanding
of his teaching is to recognize that the
words toe panero in the greek the evil
are here masculine and not neuter what we
are forbidden to resist is not evil as
such evil in the abstract nor the evil
one meaning the devil but an evil person
one who is evil or as the new
english bible translates it the man who wrongs
you jesus does not deny that he is
evil he asks us neither to pretend that
he is other than he is nor to
condone his evil behavior what he does not
allow is that we retaliate do not take
revenge on someone who wrongs you now we
evidently need to be careful in our interpretation
of these words lest we make them out
to mean something contrary to what jesus meant
or contrary indeed to the practice of jesus
himself and this morning i must confine myself
to general remarks in closing perhaps only one
or two only first of all with regards
to the application of this teaching who does
it apply to does it apply to everybody
willingly now i have stressed all through this
morning that our lord jesus is expounding this
teaching in the context in which he is
dealing with personal relationships and i think that
that is the key to it what jesus
is saying here he is not saying to
the leaders of the nations to the magistrates
to the lawyers to the parliamentarians he is
not laying down a rule that is necessarily
to apply between nation and nation society and
society what he is laying down here is
a rule that is to apply when you
believer meet somebody who slaps you on the
face or takes away your eye or your
tooth or whatever or does something similar and
it's in this personal intimate relationship of life
he tells us how to behave there are
other rules and regulations that relate to the
state mr low referred to one when he
was addressing the children this morning there are
sections of the new testament which tells us
which tell us about the state and the
rights of the state and what powers are
are given to the state jesus is not
dealing with that so you see we are
not here to take these words of our
lord and apply them willy-nilly to everybody
they are applied to people who've repented of
their sins who've come to faith in jesus
as the king of the kingdom and who
on some level have experienced that which is
reflected in the beatitudes they're poor in spirit
they're meek they're seeking righteousness purity of heart
they've become the salt of the earth and
the light of the world now says jesus
you people this is the way walking in
it and you see you can't do that
with a non-christian i know there are
non-christians for some reason first from some
inspiration or another can do some remarkable things
and i don't mean to take away from
that but you cannot tell a non-christian
to do what jesus tells his people here
to do it is not in us by
nature to turn the other cheek we want
revenge i want to justify myself i want
to get my rights and even a long
time after some of us have been christian
we haven't become dead to sin self made
dominant for a long time so jesus is
here saying to individuals in personal relationships this
applies to you now that therefore is the
reason why we would with many of the
commentators on this subject reject the understanding of
it which uh characterized the teaching of people
like alexei tolstoy for example count tolstoy of
russia he lived the end of the last
century into the beginning of this century and
um india's great mahatma gandhi and uh japan's
toyohito kagawa we had the privilege of entertaining
him in our home on one occasion these
were great men but whether they were great
christians is another thing they believed you see
that what jesus says here relates to the
state and therefore they concluded as count tolstoy
did in his war and peace he says
it is wrong to have a police force
you shouldn't resist evil or evil men let
them go it is wrong to have uh
soldiers and it is wrong to be a
soldier it is wrong to have soldiers at
all it's wrong to have a police force
it's wrong to have magistrates you just let
them go that's what jesus said well now
jesus did not say that in relation to
the state but he said that in personal
relationships as christian men and women you're not
to press for your rights i hurry for
that and i just want to say a
word about this in closing with regards to
the interpretation of the injunction itself now i
believe as i think all of you who
are regular members or adherents of knox will
know i believe the scriptures to be the
word of god in their entirety from genesis
to revelation i believe in the infallible book
and so i don't want you to think
that i have changed my stance in what
i'm going to say now but i cannot
agree with people and we must not agree
with people and i dare you to agree
with people who say that we've got to
understand every part of the bible literally you
can't do it and what is going to
really cause a bit of a worry to
people who say i take the bible always
at its literal meaning what's going to cause
a little bit of a hurt here is
this that jesus himself did not interpret this
literally always and if you insist on a
literal interpretation all the time then you are
going to say that our lord jesus christ
did not live up to his own teaching
now you say to me what what really
are you getting at well now resist not
evil turn the other cheek there are times
and the natural understanding of these words if
we did not have anything else to turn
to the natural understanding of these words would
have to be literal now let me say
that quite clearly because the genre here is
is is is is of that order jesus
is speaking in prose not metaphorically not poetically
he's speaking out clearly and we would have
to interpret it literally did we not have
something else to go by but you see
our lord jesus christ did not himself nor
did his apostles always do this literally i
don't really know how to what word to
use in order to tell you how they
did it when they did not do it
literally but they kept the spirit of it
and this i think is the main point
they never they never so imposed their own
rights upon men and women that they demanded
their own rights rather they yielded their own
rights and allowed people to do certain things
to them now let me be specific in
mark chapter 15 verses 16 to 20 we
read that our lord jesus christ was marked
and here he yielded himself physically you might
say almost in literal in literal appreciation of
these terms and fulfillment of these terms they
clothed him with the castoffs of royalty they
put a scepter a reed in his hand
and an old crown of something on his
head and you remember how the soldiers went
past and bowed to him and mocked him
of course and called him the king the
king of the jews and he took that
but when he got when he got to
pilate's praetorium let me read to you let
me give you john's own words the high
priest questioned jesus about his disciples and his
teaching i have spoken openly in the world
jesus replied i always taught in synagogues or
at the temple where all the jews came
together i said nothing in secret why question
me ask those who heard me surely they
know what i said when jesus said this
one of the officials nearby struck him on
his face is that any way to answer
the high priest he demanded what did jesus
do if i said something wrong jesus replied
testify as to what is wrong but if
i spoke the truth why did you strike
me he demanded an explanation he did not
turn the other cheek and said to the
man now look you struck me on the
one cheek here's my other he didn't do
it he asked for an explanation now he
had reasons for that but what i am
saying is this that despite all that jesus
kept the spirit of his own injunction in
this sense even there in pilate's praetorium he
did not press for his own rights he
refused to plead his own case he refused
to defend himself he refused even even to
make a case against the very people that
were nailing him on the cross jews or
gentiles but he gave himself up he delivered
himself up to die now my friends there
are times when you and i may have
to do that and i think that it
is this underlying principle that we're all at
all times called upon to promulgate and to
practice maybe not literally though sometimes it will
be literally necessary to let people smite us
on the other cheek you know there are
some people who do not know the evil
that is in them until it comes out
in action and i have known people literally
come to conviction of sin and a sense
of need of the savior only when they
have done something drastic to a believer that
has presented them with the gospel of our
lord jesus christ and if needs be we
must take that but even when we can't
do that the spirit of it the deeper
significance of it is this we must learn
by the grace of god to say like
john the baptist he must increase i must
decrease or to say with the great apostle
paul i live yet not i i'm not
here to stress my own rights and what
i deserve according to my own imagination we're
not here for that we are here brothers
and sisters to represent god now let me
give you the picture as i close here
is someone who comes to you as a
believer a man or a woman it doesn't
matter and he's come up and he or
she has slapped you on the face and
he or she is enraged he or she
is out for revenge for something or other
imaginary or otherwise what's at stake i'll tell
you there is a man or a woman
that needs the grace of god probably lost
probably under the power of an evil spirit
temper out of control hands out of control
life out of control that man that woman
needs christ needs god how can he or
she find god not only by hearing his
voice over your lips but seeing you act
as god and for that reason we must
not press our rights who are we to
press our rights when the incarnate lord of
glory said i came not to be ministered
to but to minister and to give my
life a ransom for many who says the
apostle for while we were yet sinners christ
died for us the man who smites you
on your cheek my friend needs god needs
god's love needs god's grace he's lost and
he can see god in you and in
me if by the grace of god we
heed the word of christ and by the
same grace learn to live it we'll take
up this theme again next time in the
will of god but meanwhile shall we pray
for it pray about it let us bow
together oh lord our heavenly father you are
a great god your word tells us that
your world tells us that but so does
a passage such as the one we have
been reading this morning you know us you
know what goes on in our hearts when
we're hurt you know what goes on in
our imaginations you know all about us you
know our perils oh lord who did teach
us in the sermon on the mount that
an evil look can be adultery in the
heart but an evil word can be murder
in the soul teach us to nip these
things in the bud by your grace oh
come and work in us a deep work
who desirous truth in the inward parts and
that for jesus sake amen