 Matthew chapter 5 verses 38 through 42. Retaliation. Jesus said, you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let them have your cloak also. Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too. Give to him who asks you, from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away. Okay, I don't want to teach this today. Let's move on to something else. Retaliation. What Jesus is teaching about here in these verses before us is retribution. We also refer to retribution as payback or getting even. What Jesus is teaching us, and you might want to note this, this is the heart of what he'll be teaching us. We'll see this as we go through these verses, is he's teaching us against having what would be called a vindictive attitude. A person who has a vindictive attitude is a person who is disposed to seeking revenge. They are people who are spiteful, who can be intentionally hurtful. And so Jesus is teaching against having this vindictive spirit, this intentional hurtful spirit, this spiteful, vengeful spirit. You see, our natural inclination is to get even with those who hurt us. It's been said revenge is a dish best served cold. And there are a lot of people who understand exactly what that means. I read of a woman who wrote down every mean thing said or done to her in a notebook. She wanted it documented so that she could get back at the people who were so unkind to her. You know, there are actual sites on the internet that offer suggestions of how to get revenge on someone. I won't give you the site. You'll find it yourself. One page I was looking at actually gave ways to get even with people who have hurt you. These are suggestions. These are actual suggestions on a particular page where the person is saying these are the things you can do to get even with somebody who has hurt you. And these are the suggestions. They begin by saying sink to their level and play dirty. Send anonymous letters. Make anonymous phone calls. Send mean text messages. Gossip about them on Facebook. Post personal information about them in public places like writing their phone number on phone booths. Hide frozen shrimp in their desk locker or under their chair and let it rot. Order offensive material and have it sent to them. Make them look stupid on the job. Monitor every slip and failure and then mention it openly. Bombard them with irritating tweets and stupid Instagram photos. I mean, there's a whole page. I only gave you a few of them. Some of you are writing furiously. You can get the tape later. There are people who have exceptionally novel ways of exacting revenge. I read of a man who discovered his wife of 24 years was cheating on him. And you know what he did? He listed her as for sale on eBay as a lying adulteress. You know, for sale, one lying adulteress. He actually listed her on eBay. Some people seem to thrive on the desire to get even with those who have even simply irritated them. They desire to actually hurt others. Some actually, and we know this, actually seem to live to hurt others. In Proverbs 4.16, evil people cannot sleep until they have done their evil deed for the day. They cannot rest unless they have caused someone to stumble. And there are people indeed just like that. Personal hurts can cause us to stay awake at night, wishing that we could somehow find a way to get even. Somebody said, I know there are people who believe you should forgive and forget. For the record, I'd like to say I'm a big fan of forgiveness as long as I'm given the opportunity to get even first. And there are people exactly like that. And it's easy for us to get into a position where we are angry and desiring vengeance on somebody, even for the slightest things. You might have been married or we're in a relationship and it ended badly. At one time you used to speak about how wonderful this person was. You would say things like, they're just right for me. But now that this relationship has ended, you go out and you begin to share all their faults with people. It may be that when you were in high school or previous to high school, you had been bullied by people. And you got bullied by the popular kids, but now you go to a reunion, a 10-year reunion, a 20-year reunion, and you see these people who used to bully you, the ones who were so cool. And time hasn't been kind to them. And you start feeling pretty good about how ugly they are now. At one time you loved the church that you attended. You loved it a lot and you invited your friends, but you got hurt somehow and you're no longer there. And so what do you do? Well, you begin to not only badmouth the church and the pastor and everybody there, but you begin to invite your friends to leave also. Those are natural inclinations. And Jesus' teaching is how to deal with these impulses. They are understandable, of course, but they don't represent the best that we can be. In Proverbs 24-17, the writer said, Do not rejoice when your enemies fall into trouble. Don't be happy when they stumble. In reality, we have to come to grips with the things that have hurt us and we have to leave them in the hands of the Lord. Because if we don't, the desire for revenge will consume us. In Proverbs 20, verse 22, Do not say, I will recompense evil, wait for the Lord, and He will save you. You know, often we protect what we consider to be our rights and we end up angry with everybody. We don't want to be somebody's doormat and so we react quickly to any perceived slights. We're standing in line at the supermarket and somebody cuts in front of us and we get angry. We begin to count the amounts of goods they're placing on that, you know, in front of us. It says, 10 items or less. And you're counting them. The guy's got 11. Got a boot of them out of line. And you say, You know what? You've got more items. And the guy says, No, look, I've got some bologna. I've got some bread. I've got some ham. I've got some lettuce. I've got tomatoes. And that all makes one sandwich. So we get mad. I mean, we, I don't know where that came from. I'm jet lagged. I'm telling you. You know, you have to wait for something at a place. Where it may be. And before you know it, you begin to get angry that you're waiting so long. And then you begin to threaten and you say, I'll never come back to this place again, doing them a favor, actually. Somebody gets what we worked for so hard, a promotion, a raise. We become angry. And we devise ways to get even with them for taking what we perceive to be our own. You see, the desire for vengeance is something that, that isn't to be cultivated. And that's what Jesus is speaking of as we look at this passage. Now, notice he begins with the phrase in verse 38. You have heard that it was said an eye for an eye. Now, that quotation is an Old Testament quotation. Obviously, it's found in Exodus chapter 21, for example, verses 21 through 25, the second book of the Old Testament, Exodus. And it says there, if men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely, but there's no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands. And the court allows. But if there is serious injury, 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. Leviticus 24, 19 and 20, if anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him. Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, as he has injured the other. So he is to be injured. So there is Old Testament law that pertains to this. So what is Jesus saying when he says an eye for an eye? Gandhi misunderstood this saying. He said an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. He misunderstood what the Old Testament was teaching, even as the people during Jesus' day misunderstood what that passage intended to communicate. Because Jesus was teaching that the penalty must exactly match the crime. It speaks of proper, legitimate, balanced and equitable justice. That's what Jesus is speaking about. And so the commandment that was given actually had a purpose. One, as you look at the commandment, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, it was to serve to put a stop to a person committing further crimes. An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth was to prevent further crimes. In Deuteronomy 19 verse 19, it says, you must purge the evil from among you. So this would have stopped them from committing further crimes. Secondly, it was to serve as a deterrent to future crime. People actually would witness the punishment that was enacted upon those who committed the crime. Now, the punishment was not to be a source of entertainment in a time in the history of the United States. They would have an execution, a hanging, we'll say, and people actually treated it like it was a picnic. And that wasn't what it was intended to do. It wasn't to be a source of entertainment at all. It was to be a warning. In Deuteronomy 19 verse 20, the rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid and never again will such an evil thing be done among you. So it was to keep someone from committing further crimes. It was a deterrent to the people who witnessed the punishment. And third, it prevented punishment based solely on personal vengeance. You see the law of an eye for an eye would be fair, and it would prevent overkill. Vengeance and extreme punishment was avoided because human vengeance can be very unjust. If somebody hurts you, you may go full throttle on them and harm them in a way that they didn't harm you. And so this is supposed to be speaking of equitable, of proper justice, a proper measurement for justice. Eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Now, when Jesus was ministering under the present rabbinic tradition, the element of justice often was neglected. So instead of punishment fitting the crime and eliminating vengeance, it actually became a way for getting even. So here, Jesus is correcting this teaching. That's why he says, but I tell you not to resist an evil person. So he's referring to the attitude of personal spite, resentful retribution. He's speaking against that attitude. He's saying to me as a believer, don't go out of your way to try and harm somebody because they harmed you. Don't go out of your way to try to get even with somebody because you have perceived a slight. Don't be trying to always get even, don't have a vindictive, vengeful spirit. You need to step out of the way. And this is something that the law has misinterpreted at this point during the time of Christ. This is something that people would use a lot to say, well, we can get, we can get even in this fashion. And Jesus is saying, no, I want to teach you something about the spirit of the law. That's why he says, I'll tell you not to, I tell you not to resist an evil person. Proverbs 24-29, do not say, I will do to him just as he's done to me. I will render to the man according to his work. Don't say that. So he's not saying that we should never take a stand against that which is wrong. I need to hasten to say that right now because there are those who would say, well, then Christians, really, you ought to just be quiet and leave things alone. You shouldn't really ever say anything about how you view culture or you view society or what's going on in the world. There are many who feel that it's a good thing for the church to just kind of do what we're doing right now. Cloister in a room. Keep your opinions to yourself. Don't take them outside of this room here. The public square really isn't for you. It's for those who agree with me. And so you Christians really, you ought to just keep these things to yourself. Jesus isn't teaching us that. He's not saying that we should just allow evil to thrive. In verse 39, some could read that. I tell you not to resist an evil person. And so they can say, see, you're not to resist. Is that what he's saying? No. We're not to excuse. We're not to hide. We're not to cover up wrongdoing. If we do that, then sin itself goes unchecked. Remember, Jesus in chapter 5 here in verses 13 through 16 had spoken of us as the church as being salt and light. No, we have a purpose here on the face of the earth. And we're not to, we're not to resist, you know, doing that which God has called us to do. We've been created to do certain things. When we encounter something, guys, that is, that is wrong, that is really not good for society. And remember that God's word is intended to promote the health and well-being of society along with so many other things. But it's intended to, to provide places of blessing that God can bring to people who follow him. When we have an opportunity as Christians, we should try to learn to clearly present biblical perspectives on current things. We have not only the right to do that, thank God for the nation that we live in, that we have a right to do that. But we also have a responsibility to do that. And I know that I have a lot of friends who, who have a real desire to be able to present biblical perspective relating to certain things to perhaps in the youthfulness of their, their faith have, have yet to really develop a strong biblical argument or perspective. And that's why we study. That's why we go to Bible studies. That's why, that's why we read the word of God. And that's why we ask God to give us clear insights and all of that. So as a Christian, I, I become equipped to be able to give a defense concerning the things that I firmly hold fast to. I remember one, a member of the church I used to assist. I was an assistant pastor before I planted this church. And one of the young men at that time approached me and said to me, pastor, what do we believe about this? And that's the way he said it. What do we believe about this? And I said, I know what I believe about this, but what is it that you believe? Because it's not my responsibility to believe for you. But if you're asking me a question related to what the scripture says, so you can study and learn these things on your own, I'll share these things with you. But see, it's not my responsibility to believe anything on your behalf, it's your responsibility to believe certain things that God gives to us. You know, that's our responsibility personally. I can't believe for somebody else. I can only believe for the things that God has given to me. And so my role as a pastor is to encourage you to develop a hunger, you know, continue to develop a hunger for the Word of God, and to study so that you might have biblical perspective on various cultural issues and all. And on occasion I will refer to the obvious things that go on in our culture and present to you what scripture says related to those things. Because you may have opportunity on the job side or in the neighborhood or at the school or wherever it is that you are, you might have an occasion to be able to share a little bit of a different perspective that many people have yet to really hear. You see, the Christian perspective very often is so muddled or it is so, it is presented in such a biased way that it's just simply unfair. I mean, it comes in so many ways. I heard a comedian say, you know, that at one time he said the fish were in water and then they developed lungs and they came out of the water. And it's a comedic act and he says, oh, sorry, homeschoolers. You know, and it was part of his line and everybody laughs because naturally he's saying that homeschoolers must be ignorant to not realize that a fish actually developed lungs and walked on the face of the earth. We never really go beyond. Why would a fish develop lungs? It would be like me right now developing gills. Why would I do that? But we never really think about that and it's never really answered. And so there are a lot of issues that we as Christians ought to be equipped to be able to deal with. And so I wondered and I prayed about and I thought about should I bring this up? I've brought it up before but I'll bring it up again in the event that some of you might want a perspective to research for yourself. And obviously one of the examples when it comes to learning to clearly present biblical perspectives on current issues, an obvious example that is being waged at this moment is a battle that is over the main streaming of homosexuality. Now I'm going to ask a question. I normally don't do this because many don't know this. But how many of you and don't embarrass yourself? If you don't want to, don't respond. It's okay. But I asked the first service and they responded so if you don't you're worse than them. But anyway, but I asked the first service today. I said how many of you know? How many of you know that in the fifties? How many of you know that homosexuality was presented in the fifties in this nation as a mental illness? How many of you know that? Raise your hand. Okay. If you looked around out of the group here, maybe 40 of you raised your hand just now. The overwhelming majority of this church doesn't know that. Does not know that in the fifties homosexuality was regarded as a mental illness. The American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality as a mental disorder. In 1953, President Eisenhower said it was sufficient reasons to fire a federal employee. So today, homosexuals have made an effort to not simply be tolerated but to be accepted. Every means possible is being used including music, television, movies, and our public schools. There are shows like Alan, Glee, Grey's Anatomy, the new normal modern family that have mainstreamed homosexuality. The Hollywood Reporter stated that 27 percent of viewers surveyed said that homosexual TV programs have made them more in favor of homosexual marriage. There was a report in 1948 it's called the Kinsey Report and in the report the conclusion was one out of ten Americans or human beings really are homosexual and that became the mantra of the land when in fact its findings were both inaccurate and biased. You see Dr. Kinsey was bisexual. He was referred to as a sexual revolutionary and I was reading concerning this and I was reading this quote. His Kinsey reports are junk science. Professor of constitutional law Dr. Charles Rice of Notre Dame concluded that Alfred Kinsey's research was contrived ideologically driven and misleading. Any judge, legislator, or other public official who gives credence to that research is guilty of malpractice and dereliction of duty. Now in the risk of being a hater, that's one of the words that is used concerning me and because I hate everybody, but in taking the risk of being called a hater this particular attitude has inundated as we know and become accepted in a very short time. Now in Oakland school children have been indoctrinated with a belief that you can choose your gender. In grades kindergarten and first grade they can be taught that there are lots of ways to be boys girls or both. Recommended reading for five and six year olds is my princess boy. In grades two and three they learn gender diversity in nature and gender biology expression and identity. Recommended reading for a seven and eight year old 10,000 dresses. Grades four fourth and fifth are being taught concepts like kids can be boys girls both or neither and they've been taught the subject three dimensions of gender. This is called indoctrination. The National Center for Health Statistics and Centers for Disease Control findings are instructive. The Kinsey report stated that one in ten home are homosexual. New findings debunk this. The newest in latest government study finds that that figure is actually 1.4 percent. It's revealing that when a well-known person comes out of the closet they're applauded. They're regarded as courageous for revealing the true nature. Neil Patrick Harris, Adam Lambert, Leslie Gore, Clay Akin, Matt Dallas, Anderson Cooper all were applauded when they came quote-unquote out of the closet. Yet when a homosexual claims have been transformed by the power of the Spirit of God through coming to faith in Christ they are ridiculed. We recognize that this is a sinful choice but it has devastating and eternal consequences and because we're believers we actually share the truth even though people don't want to hear it. Even though people get angry and they do and write letters to editors and all about the bigots that that are pastoring these churches and all. But it's because we care for the human soul and believe that eternity is at stake that we tell the truth. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9 through 11 Paul said do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals nor sodomites nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God and such were some of you. But you were washed you were sanctified you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. And so we have a heart for people we tell them the truth they may not like it but that's what our responsibility is and we need to understand that. So Jesus isn't saying that you should just just remain silent and let evil continue. He isn't saying remain silent while sin is celebrated in a society. What he is saying is do not seek personal vengeance when we are personally wronged. Now when he is saying this he gives us four illustrations. Notice he begins by saying whoever slaps you on your right cheek turn the other to him also. If he slaps you on your right cheek then turn the other. Now I heard somebody say I only have two if you hit me a third time you're dead. But what is the point that he's making here? Well a slap to the face of a Jewish man was one of the highest insults that he would endure. It was an insult to what you call he would call his personal dignity. So what is Jesus speaking about here? He's saying what do you do when somebody insults you? Well his answer is do not seek to retaliate. Why? Because then you're not seeking to retaliate you're revealing a gentle and humble spirit. And if I want to have an example of somebody who did not seek to retaliate all I need to do is look at my master Jesus Christ. Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 50 verse 6 speaking of Messiah wrote I gave my back to the smiders and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting and that was something Jesus endured when you look in the gospels and it says in Matthew 26 67 and 68 they spit on his face they buffeted him others struck him with the palms of their hands same prophesy to us you Christ who struck you and so we use Jesus as our example and so he says to us that we're not to have a spirit of retaliation whoever slaps you on your right cheek turn the other to him also. Remember Jesus's prayer Father forgive them for they know not what they do humble yourself trust God to protect your personal dignity is that easy no no I'm not going to stand up here telling you that it is because it's not when somebody insults you when somebody mocks you when somebody says all manner of evil against you falsely that can be that that's tough that that can be difficult it can be very hard because people have a tendency of believing the evil they want to there's a there's something inside of us that that responds to those kinds of things and naturally we're going to want to respond immediately so how do you respond Jesus is teaching us you respond by not retaliating now what when he says if anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic let them have your cloak also when he speaks of a tunic that was like an undergarment was like a t-shirt the cloak is your outer garment it could be used as a blanket so Jesus here is saying secondly how do you deal with somebody who has a legitimate claim against you during his day a person very often only had one coat or perhaps two tunics those were their personal garments but if they went to court and the court made a decision against them if they had no money they may take their garments so what is Jesus saying by using that illustration be willing to offer more than required and resist the temptation to be bitter over it a third in verse forty one whoever compels you to go one mile go with him to well during Jesus his day roman law gave a soldier the right to force a civilian to carry a burden for a roman mile what is Jesus saying go the extra mile and do it with humility in doing so you'll be a good witness of the things of the kingdom of god and then he says lend to those who ask i saw you grab your wallet just now lend to those who ask by implication lend to those who have a genuine need of help be generous and be quick to respond to real needs in proverbs 1917 we read he who has pity on the poor lends to the lord and he will pay back what he has given now he's not commanding you and he's not commanding me to be a soft touch he's not we are stewards we should be responsible when we help other people and i am wanting to be generous and wise at the same time so i i don't give to somebody who doesn't have a real obvious need i'll give you an example and i began this when i was in the service i had someone approach me saying can you lend me some money so i can buy cigarettes and i said no if they said hey can you give me some money so i can buy something to drink you know a beer i'd say no i'm not going to support your habit and i remember telling one of my friends i said listen if you're hungry i buy you a sandwich but you're wanting me to buy you cigarettes i'm not going to do that no i'm not going to support your habits i'm not going to do that and so i'm not a soft touch a lot of times people think that churches have been established so that people who who have need any need just show up and it's kind of like a place that we just just throw things out and and that's not what the lord is teaching here there needs to be a discernment in that now if i see a real and a legitimate need and i have the ability within my my own personal means to help them then i have an obligation before the lord to be generous of course i do but that doesn't mean that i should just give because somebody says i want that i mean i can still remember when my kids were small one in particular had said to me daddy i want this and and and i said oh really yeah i want you to buy me this and i know you have the money for it i remember them saying that i know you have the money for it and and and and i said well just because i might have the money for it doesn't mean that i'm going to take it out of my wallet and buy this for you i mean just because your mother does that to me doesn't mean you can just because somebody says you have it and i want it doesn't mean that i give to you but if there's a real need there of course Galatians chapter six verse 10 as we have therefore opportunity let us do good and to all men especially into those who are of the household of faith generosity responds to genuine needs and we give when there's a genuine need and God does bless so the spirit that jesus is speaking about in this passage is really the spirit of peace these things that he's speaking about reveal gentleness and humility it reveals a heart that desires the best for other people he's speaking about a way of life a way of life that's not possible without the grace of jesus christ in our lives he's speaking about a way of life that requires the power of the holy spirit to be able to live you see it's the spirit that moved abraham to give his nephew lot the best land or that allowed joseph to forgive his brothers who had sold him into slavery it is the spirit that led steven to pray for those who killed him and it is the spirit that moves us to do good to those who might not care for us it is all the work of the holy spirit the law when they tried to live according to its dictates did not speak of the motives of the heart but jesus christ is revealing the motives of the heart when he speaks concerning these things what he's called us to do is to walk in the spirit and not in the flesh and not to retaliate simply because somebody has wounded us he's speaking about the spirit of peace