In the sermon titled 'What About Me!' delivered by Jason Dohm, the foundational elements of Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount are explored, emphasizing the transformative nature of repentance and the radical departure from the natural man's inclination toward self-centeredness. Dohm elaborates on the Beatitudes as the character qualities that define those who have truly repented and become subjects of God's kingdom. He contrasts the spirit of the law, as intended in the Old Testament, with the distorted interpretations by the scribes and Pharisees. The sermon focuses on Jesus' teachings about non-retaliation, urging believers to respond with selflessness and humility rather than seeking personal vengeance. Dohm highlights the principle of not repaying evil with evil, drawing on examples such as turning the other cheek and going the extra mile, to illustrate how Christians should reflect the character of God in their interactions. The sermon underscores the call to love one's enemies and the importance of living distinctly from the world, aiming to glorify God rather than oneself. Finally, Dohm concludes with a call for Christians to strive for perfection through the grace of Christ, living out their faith in a way that challenges and confounds the natural man, while seeking to honor God above all else.

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 the right cheek, turn to him the other also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too.

Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away. You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the sons of your Father in heaven, for he makes his Son rise on the evil and on the good.

And he 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 do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?

Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Let's pray. Lord, it is always a humbling thing to come before your Word, knowing that it is eternal, knowing that you breathed it out in every syllable, and that behind it there is a God who made everything that we know and see and are. God help us to be humble before your word today and to submit ourselves. And to desire to have the full weight of what you're saying.

Come upon us to bring change to hearts that need change, to bring sanctification to your people, conforming us more into the image of this son of yours that you love. We pray it would be so in Jesus' name. Amen. So this is actually our eighth Sunday in chapter five. And of course, we're finishing up the chapter this week.

In chapter four, verse 23, we see that Jesus went about Galilee, and he's teaching, and he's preaching, and he's healing. And there's no kind of disease that can stand before Jesus. He's healing all kinds of diseases, including those who are demon possessed. He's healing them as well. And as a consequence, as you would expect, the crowds are growing.

And people are intrigued not only by his teaching, but by the miracles that he's doing. And so the crowds are swelling and swelling. And in chapter 5, he sees the multitudes and he goes up on a mountain and he's seated and he begins to teach his disciples. But we shouldn't think of that as Jesus with the 12 men around him. In Matthew, the 12 disciples haven't even been identified and introduced yet.

They'll be, I think it's in either chapter 10 or chapter 11 is the first time we see all 12 of the disciples functioning as a team of 12. And so when we see disciples here, we've got to have a much broader view of what's actually happening here. We get to the end of the sermon in Matthew 7 verse 28. We see that the people were astonished at his teaching. So he's actually teaching the multitudes.

There are a lot of people listening to what he's saying. And he begins with the beatitudes, these eight character qualities that describe, there are an exposition of what it means to repent for the kingdom of God is near. And Jesus talks about what that looks like at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. It matters when people actually repent and actually become subjects of this great and mighty king. And it makes them a type of person that the world doesn't recognize.

It makes them poor in spirit. And it makes them mourn. And it makes them meek. And it makes them hunger and thirst for righteousness, and it makes them merciful, and it makes them pure in heart, and it makes them peacemakers, and it makes them persecuted for righteousness' sake, and even rejoicing in persecution. And it's the complete opposite of the natural man.

And so when Jesus will come to Nicodemus later and say, you must be born again, we understand this. Because when Jesus came and his message, as he was preaching throughout Galilee, was repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, he talks about what that means. And it's so transforming. It's so different. It's so contrary to the natural man that it produces a heart that receives the blessing of God, but that the world doesn't understand at all.

The world doesn't understand poor in spirit, and mourning, and meekness, and hungering, and thirst for righteousness. And So as we went through each of those Beatitudes, we saw that there's always a counterfeit for each one of those things. But it's very easy to get to the bottom of the counterfeits. And the real question is, what's at the center? Is man at the center of what you see in the heart of a person, or is God at the center?

Is the glory of man the point, or is the glory of God? And as you look at the counterfeits out there that we would say exist in some measure in all sorts of natural men, people who have never repented, and we start to drill down into what's at the center of it. Is man at the center of it or is God at the center of it? The counterfeits become very easy to recognize. So as Jesus begins this sermon and his teaching on what his kingdom is going to be like, He starts with what we are, with what we're like, with these eight character qualities that are so contrary to the word.

And he starts there and then he moves to what we do and how nonsensical it is to start anywhere else. The natural man doesn't have the capability the ability to do what Jesus is Is asking his followers to do so he starts with actually? Repentance and being born again and what that gives birth to in the heart of a person. And then he moves on to the things that his followers will do. Because it can't be done in any other order.

The natural man has no ability to do the types of things that we'll be seeing in our text today. And then after the Beatitudes, Jesus starts to talk about what that looks like in the world. And he says, it tastes like salt. It looks like light. There's the flavor of Jesus Christ.

There's the light of Jesus Christ. And when a person is transformed by repentance, and they become a poor in spirit and mourning over their sin, and they become meek, that this works its way out. And it looks very different to the world. It becomes very distinct. And so that the people of God are distinct from the world, and they actually bring the flavor of Christ and the light of Christ into the world.

And then Jesus begins to talk about how he relates to the Old Testament. And he says, I didn't come to destroy or abolish the law, but to fulfill it. And then he embarks on a comparison between the spirit of the law, what the law always was intended to teach, and the warped and distorted view of it that the scribes and the Pharisees had brought into the religion of the day. And so in the last several weeks, we've been seeing the contrast between the spirit of the law, which we can clearly establish was always there in the Old Testament. This is not new teaching.

This is a correction. And that the spirit of the law is very different from the religion of the day that Jesus is really attacking very aggressively. And in the last three weeks, Jesus, he started with murder. And he talks about the really contracted, shrinked up version of murder that the scribes and Pharisees were teaching. And he expands it back out to include anger against your brother without a cause, or calling your brother you fool.

And then he went to adultery, where it had been shrunk up to just a single physical act. And he just expands it back out to where it always should have been. And it includes the thoughts and the intents of your heart. And then last week, he talked about the swearing of oaths. And we had the opportunity to look at what the Old Testament really taught about oaths and how the practice of the day was so very different from that, and how we ought to be so careful with our oath taking.

And we ought to completely do away with this second level of oaths where we're not actually calling on God for a witness. In our oath taking, God ought to always be called as witness and judge to our oaths. And so we saw in each one of these examples that Jesus isn't changing or replacing the law that had been given before, but that he's correcting it, where the scribes and the Pharisees were always whittling away at the law. They were putting up their sandbags to try to keep out this broad version of the law that can't possibly be done by any of us. And they made it into something that could be done.

They made it into something that could be managed. And you could feel like you were doing well. You were righteous. And you were winning. But Jesus takes all this contracting that had been done through the centuries, And he sends the tidal wave over the wall of their, there's this puny little wall of their sandbags.

And he sends 15 foot of water over that to expand the law back out to what it was always intended to be. And he is just attacking their self-righteousness. But you know what? He's not just attacking their self-righteousness. He's attacking all of our self-righteousness.

And if you've been through these weeks and haven't found in your own heart the tendency to contract the law down to something that's very manageable. And if you haven't found the 15 foot of wall of water coming over the top of your sandbags, then you haven't been examining yourself nearly carefully enough. One of the things I've so much appreciated from being in the Sermon on the Mount so far is it just reminded me of my early Christian days and how many breathtaking moments there were in those early days when I realized what the Bible actually taught and the radical nature of what his followers are called to. Not a special subset of his followers, but all of his followers are actually called to take up their cross and to follow him and to put ourselves to death so that Christ might live in us. And to the extent that we've become comfortable through the months and the years and the decades, Jesus Christ wants to use these texts to make us very uncomfortable, to find, to put his finger on the places in our lives where we've become, we've made peace with the little sins.

And to challenge us that he doesn't think about sins in that way at all. He thinks very differently about sins. And he calls things adultery that we would never call adultery. And he puts us guilty before him. And all of these things should have us running to the cross for mercy.

It's been very difficult text for me to try to withstand as I'm studying them all week long. It's been hard on me, but it's been hard on me in a good way. And it's caused me to see things in my own life that I have not been thinking rightly about. And it really has awakened a hunger and thirst for righteousness that wasn't, that really wasn't here like it should have been in the last eight weeks. And I pray that it's so for all of you as well.

This week, we're actually talking about a hotly debated text, the Turning the Other Cheek. And it's really easy to get caught up in the minutia of the text. To look through a couple of phrases under the microscope and then get wrapped around the axle so that we're just caught up thinking about things that aren't the main principle of the text at all. And so today, I just want to begin with a reminder that Jesus is actually applying the spirit of the law. He's not creating a new letter of the law, but he's actually applying the spirit that has always been there.

If we turn this into new letter of the law, then we'll get caught endlessly discussing what the qualifications are. And it was a big challenge of me to construct the sermon this week without trying to talk about all the qualifications. This isn't about the qualifications. This is about the overriding principle where Jesus is coming and he's making an all out assault against what is in all of our hearts which is to protect self, to promote self. And Jesus is coming and saying, my people are not like that.

My people are not the kind of people that are protecting turf, that are protecting self and promoting self, but they're another kind of people entirely. So let's get right to the text in verse 38. You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And at least in this way, the scribes and the Pharisees have gotten it right. At least they have quoted it correctly this time.

In some of the previous examples, you can't even really find it in the Old Testament law. But this one, actually, you can find in the Old Testament law word for word in three different places. You can find it in Exodus 21, 24. You can find it in Leviticus 24, 20. You can find it in Deuteronomy 19, verse 21, word for word.

So they heard that this was said, and it actually was also written. But what I'd like to do is just to take one of those three places and look at it carefully and ask the question, what is the law really saying? When eye for eye and tooth for tooth is established in the law, what does it mean? So turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 19. Deuteronomy 19.

Deuteronomy 19. Deuteronomy 19. Deuteronomy 19, we're going to start in verse 15 and read to the end of the chapter. And I'll tell you right up front I have some motives for picking this at a 1 out of the 3. It's not the most direct actually.

This text is actually dealing with false witnesses. And the other texts deal much more directly with the person who has done wrong. And it says, if you've done this, if you plucked out an eye, you're to have your eye plucked out. So it's much more direct than the other text. But I have reasons for picking this one out.

And as I explain the text, those reasons will become clear. Deuteronomy 19, verse 15. One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits. By the mouth of two or three witnesses a matter shall be established. If a false witness rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, then both men in the controversy shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who serve in those days.

And the judges shall make careful inquiry. And indeed, if the witness is a false witness who has testified falsely against his brother, then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother. So you shall put away the evil from among you. And those who remain shall hear and fear and hear after. They shall not again commit such evil amongst you.

Your eye shall not pity. Life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. So one of the things I like about this passage is that this text, it is so crystal clear that public judicial action is what is in view. The immediate context is public judicial action. You have judges, you have witnesses, you have careful inquiry.

This is public action. This is not an individual and their response to something that's happening to them. This is society's response to a crime that's been committed. And when we get to eye for eye and tooth for tooth, it's actually sentencing guidelines, isn't it? It's sentencing guidelines.

It tells you when this is done what ought to be done about it. And so The purpose of the eye for eye and the tooth for tooth is this. So you shall put away the evil from among you, and those who remain shall hear and fear. It's actually a deterrent. It's a public law system that functions as a deterrent.

So that evil is put away and then when people hear about it, they don't want to do the crime. Because they know what the consequence of the crime will be. And it ends by saying, and hereafter they shall not again commit such evil among you. So this is public judicial action, and it is not a guide for personal conduct that authorizes individual retaliation. Is that distinction really clear in this text?

It's public judicial action, and it's not about personal conduct and authorizing you to retaliate at all. This has been carried forward in an extensive way into our law system today. In Latin, it's called lextalionis. So if you say that phrase to a lawyer, they'll instantly know what you mean. And it just means literally the law of retaliation.

And it means that the punishment fits the crime. You've heard it that way a thousand times. The punishment ought to fit the crime. And that is twofold. One is when there's a crime, there ought to be punishment.

So that there's not more and more and more and more crime where people think there's never any consequences for doing something like this. So crimes ought to have punishments. But the second part of that, which is actually quite an instrument of mercy, is that the punishment should fit the crime. Matthew Henry says it this way. It is not a life for an eye or a limb for a tooth.

It's an eye for an eye. You don't kill somebody for plucking out an eye. You pluck out their eye. So the punishment is in kind for the crime itself. And it's to restrain the evildoer, not to give me a personal right to assert when something happens to me.

Critical distinction, it restrains the evildoer, but it doesn't give me personal rights to assert. It's actually rights that are given to the governing authorities. The spirit of the law is restraining evil, not authorizing personal retaliation. So Now Paul shows us how individual conduct and the duties given to the governing authorities relate to one another. So now turn in your Bibles to Romans 12.

Romans 12. So in Romans 12 and then the beginning of Romans 13, Paul is going to begin talking about individual conduct, what our duty is as individuals who follow Christ. And then he's going to talk about the duties that are given to governing authorities and how those two things relate to each other and the justice of God. And in a way, eye for eye and tooth for tooth, I don't need to give an exposition of it because Paul has already given an exposition of it directly in the text that we're getting ready to read. Paul explains our text today and helps us to think rightly about it.

Romans 12 beginning in verse 14. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another.

Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heat coals of fire on his head.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority?

Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid. For he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

So long text, but boiled down, Paul begins with personal conduct. And he says, bless those who bless you, bless and do not curse, he says. Repay no one evil for evil, he says. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live at peace with all men, he says. Do not avenge yourselves, he says.

If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. And then he gives this summary statement in verse 21. And the summary statement of personal conduct is, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. In other words, Paul is exhorting the people of God to conduct themselves in a certain way so that they're not overcome by evil, but they're overcoming evil with good.

And in Personal conduct, that means not responding in kind. That means in personal conduct, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is completely inappropriate. That's what Paul is teaching. And then as he gets into 13 and starts talking about the governing authorities, He explains the righteous justice of God, right? God is the lawgiver and so any anger against sin on the part of God is completely justified because he's the lawgiver.

And he shows how that fits with the authorities. And he's explaining what our turf is and what God's turf is. Our turf is not to respond in kind. Our territory, our duty, our responsibility before God is not to repay evil with evil, not to revile when reviled, but to overcome evil with good. God's responsibility is vengeance.

And he actually says that he delegates, in many cases, delegates that responsibility to governing authorities that he puts in place. So in God's economy, the governing authorities are appointed by him, set in place by him, and they're ministers of wrath. Vengeance is God, and he delegates the wrath to the governing authorities, and they don't bear the sword in vain. If you wanted more of the same, we'd go to 1 Peter 2, starting in verse 13 and following. And Peter actually reverses the order.

So he talks about the governing authorities first, and then he talks about personal conduct second. He says exactly the same thing, so we're not going to go there. But if you want another example of the same teaching from a different inspired writer, you can go to 1 Peter 2, starting in verse 13. And so the teaching of Paul is that there's personal conduct, and then there's duties that have been given to the governing authorities. And they're not the same.

And when they're side by side, And those on both sides understands where the line is and who has what duty. They work together and complement each other beautifully. But when you erase that line and say, no, you come over here and take your own vengeance, you end up with big trouble. This is what Jesus is addressing in Matthew 5. A wiping away of the line between personal conduct and the governing authorities and the duties that they've been given.

So that we reach across that line as an individual, and we say, this part of the law of God has given me a basis for retaliating. And that was never part of the law of God. So here's what we see in verse 39. Now we're back in Matthew chapter 5, verse 39. But I tell you not to resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also.

Now, some people take this first phrase, I tell you not to resist an evil person. And they remove it from the immediate context. And they argue that this should stand alone, this statement, should stand alone without any qualification. And then they apply it to law enforcement and to war. And I just want to be on record as saying that these are people who are either immature in their understanding of what the Bible actually teaches, or they're people that are dishonest.

They don't really think that the Bible teaches that, but they have an agenda, and they seize upon this text. As we look at this text with the immediate context intact, we don't rip it screaming out of the context. We see exactly what is being taught. So I tell you not to resist an evil person, but. So we have this connecting word, but, that tells us that the second part is a contrast to the first.

That's what but is there for. It's the connector that shows that we have a first part and a second part, and they're being set in opposition to each other in contrast to each other. So it's not this, but it's that. It's not responding in kind. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

It's not that. It's not responding in kind. But it's enduring. But it's bearing with. It is laying aside our rights for something that's much bigger.

If you look at actually how Jesus treats the preservation of life, of course, he went to the cross, but that was his mission. In Luke 22, verse 36, we see him teaching, he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one. So people who want to just take this one phrase, I tell you not to resist an evil person, and say that should stand alone without qualification, and never mind the context, need to go grapple with that verse. Sell your garment and buy a sword. In fact, if we were to take that phrase, sell your garment and buy a sword.

In fact, if we were to take that phrase, sell your garment and buy a sword, and let it stand alone without qualification, you'd have a real battle on your hand between the two of those kind of people. Only one of them would be armed, so we know who would win. What is in view here is an open hand slap. That's what the Greek word means, is an open hand slap. And so this isn't a life threatening situation.

This is a grievous personal affront, a grievous personal insult that is in view here. Here's what D. Martin Lloyd-Jones has to say about this. And this helps us to come back down, to get out of the weeds, and come back up where the big principle that Jesus' teaching is and focus on that. What he asks you to face is yourself.

And it is very much easier to discuss pacifism than to face his clear teaching at this point. He is saying in effect that if we are to be truly Christian, we must become dead to self. Our Lord here is unveiling and exposing this horrible thing that controls the natural man, self, that terrible legacy that has come down from the fall of man, and which makes man glorify himself and set himself up as a God. This is what Jesus is making war on. Our tendency to set ourselves up as a God, and it happened all the way back at the garden, but it carried forth.

And you were born with the seeds of this. When you came into this world, you were ready made with this. That you would have something in your heart that desired you to be your own God. And there's something when you're insulted, and so this goes way beyond just an open hand slap, this goes down to just even a verbal insult, that when we're insulted, there's something that rises up in our hearts that says don't you know who I am I'm at least as good as you justice must be done I've been insulted and this is what Jesus is coming against And he explains what he means in the four examples. So he says, not this, but this.

Not an eye for an eye, not responding in kind, but, and he gives four different examples. And the first one is the open hand slap. If we apply an eye for an eye to personal conduct, then if someone slaps you, what do you do? You slap them back. But Jesus is saying, my people aren't like that.

The people of God are not like that. Christians don't slap back, and Christians never have slapped back, all the way to the beginning. You see this abundantly in the Old Testament. Leviticus 19, 18 is the second great commandment, which is, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. That's What most of us, that's all most of us know of that verse, but that's actually an incomplete quoting of that verse.

The full verse, Leviticus 19 and 18, says, you shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people. But you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord." And so when we see the second great commandment is, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. This isn't bake them cookies and just give them a big hug. It is in the context of having a grievance.

It is in the context of having a grievance. It is in the context of having a legitimate basis for taking vengeance or bearing a grudge. And so What's being said in Leviticus 19 and 18 is, don't take vengeance, don't bear a grudge, but love your neighbor as yourself. This is exactly what Jesus is teaching in Matthew 5. Proverbs 20, verse 22.

Do not say, I will recompense evil. Wait for the Lord, and He will save you. Proverbs 24, 29. Do not say, I will do to Him just as He has done to me. I will render to the man according to His work.

And so Jesus is teaching Leviticus. Jesus is teaching Proverbs. The things that were established in the Old Testament, Jesus is carrying forth and explaining them as the spirit of the law, which is being contradicted by the scribes and the Pharisees in the religion of their day. Now I want you to turn to 2 Samuel. The greatest example of not responding in kind is Jesus Christ, hands down.

And maybe the top five are five events in Jesus' life. And he's unparalleled at not responding in kind. Imagine what it would be like for us, for humans, if Jesus responded in kind. So as members of a rebel race, do you want the rules to be that we always respond in kind? We should think about that.

And the answer to that question is no. We don't want a world where it's right to respond in kind, because that has implications for us in God's dealings with us. Outside of Jesus, this may be the finest example of turning the other cheek. And it's in 2 Samuel 16. And it's David.

David is being run out of town by his son, Absalom. There's an overthrow movement. And David has to flee for his life out of Jerusalem. And this is recorded in 2 Samuel 16. And there's someone, there's a man, who's been waiting for something like this.

And we don't know why, but we know that he's happy to see this moment come. So 2 Samuel 16, starting in verse 5. When King David came to Bahurim, there was a man from the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera, coming from there. He came out cursing continuously as he came, and he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David. And all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.

So the mighty men are men who stood against overwhelming odds and overcame. So just so you understand where we are at this point in the narrative, David holds all the cards. You've got a man who comes out, and he's cursing, and he's throwing stones at David. But David is surrounded by the mighty man, and this man is alone and unarmed. Verse 7, also Shimei said thus when he cursed, come out, come out, you bloodthirsty man, you rogue.

The Lord has brought upon you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. And the Lord has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom, your son. So now you are caught in your own evil, because you are a bloodthirsty man. Then Abishai, the son of Zerui, said to the king, why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Please let me go over and take off his head.

But the king said, what have I to do with you, you sons of Zerui? So let him curse, because the Lord has said to him, curse David, who then shall say, why have you done so? And David said to Abishai and all his servants, see how my son who came from my own body seeks my life. How much more now may this Benjamite let him alone and let him curse, for so the Lord has ordered him. It may be that the Lord will look upon my affliction and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing this day.

And as David and his men went along the road, Shimei went along the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went, throwing stones at him and kicking up dust. Not an eye for an eye, not a tooth for a tooth, not a rock for a head in this case. That's what was being requested. But David actually saw the hand of God at work in this. This is what separates the people of God from the natural man, that they can look beyond the open hand slab and see the hand of God at work.

This is what David is doing. He's seeing beyond the guy who's cursing him and throwing rocks at him, and he's seeing the hand of God, knowing that somehow, for some reason, God has appointed this to happen. And that he will somehow work it for good and for blessing. That's what David ends up saying. Maybe God will see my affliction and pay me good for what's happening today.

And so the question comes to the Christian. Will we see the personal upfront when the open hand slap happens, Or will we see the hand of God working something that we don't understand, but working something that will lead to his own glory? The people of God look beyond the open hand slap, and they see the hand of God, the hand of their sovereign creator working something that will bring himself honor. And so they're willing to be dishonored because they know that their honor or their dishonor is completely irrelevant. This is what we have to come to terms with, friends.

Our honor or our dishonor is irrelevant. But the honor of God is relevant. And If God is pleased to bring someone to us who will slap us with their open hand, then we ought not to slap back. We ought to turn to them the other cheek. So Jesus takes the question, what about me?

What about my honor? And he says when you become a subject of my kingdom, it's my honor that counts. It's only my honor that counts. And the way to honor him is not what the natural man would imagine. It's a thousand miles away from what the natural man would imagine.

It's 1, 000 miles away from what the natural man would imagine. Secondly, in verse 40, if anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let them have your cloak also. If anyone wants to sue you for your tunic and take away your tunic, let them have your cloak also. The tunic is the inner garment. It's the cheap one.

The cloak is the outer garment. It's the expensive one. So if somebody wants to sue you for your cheap garment, you give them the expensive one along with it. The author of Hebrews says this in Hebrews 10.34. For you had compassion on me and my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.

Friends, this is the issue. The people that the author of Hebrews is writing to joyfully, cheerfully endure the plundering of their goods. That's what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 5. Cheerfully, joyfully endure the plundering of your goods knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. The natural man has to get his fingernails as deep into his stuff as he can, because he's only thinking about what happens in this life.

But the Christian is not like that. The person who has the Spirit of God in them is not like that. They know there's an enduring possession and it has nothing to do with their stuff. But It's all tied up with being a citizen of a better country. There are two spirits in the world.

There is the spirit of the world which resides in the natural man. And it's only looking on this plane. It can't ever see any further. But there's the Spirit of God that causes us to lift our eyes to a better country. And it means that we really don't care about our stuff.

And so when we find in our hearts a lot of caring about our stuff, we need to stop and evaluate and examine ourselves. In Matthew 5, 16, just a couple of weeks ago, we were back there. Jesus said, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." This is an exposition of that. When we don't care about our stuff, when someone sues us for our cheap clothes and we say, OK, and have the expensive clothes with it, It's possible that we would so confound the natural man that we would cause him to begin to think. This is a person not like me.

This is a person with a different spirit, with a different disposition. What is happening here? This is the nature of letting our light shine so that people may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. May the natural men that observe us be so confounded by what they see with us and how we relate to our stuff that it would start the gears turning in their brain to say, why? Is there such a different spirit?

Why is there such a different disposition? Jesus takes the question, what about me? What about my stuff? And he says, when you become the subject of my kingdom, it's my stuff. And I give and I take, But it's all mine.

And his people have that perspective. Thirdly, in verse 41, and whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too. Someone compels you to go one mile, you go a second mile with them. Now this would have made sense instantly to the original hearers because Roman law allowed them to press you into service for a mile. They were a mighty nation with all these military gears, and stuff had to get moved.

And as a way to move that stuff, they allowed their military to press any subject in the service to carry stuff for one mile. That was the limit, though. They couldn't just make you carry it 100 miles. The limitation on the military was a mile. So they could press you in the service.

And that's actually what's happening in Matthew 27. When we see Simon of Cyrene, the cross has to be carried. They say, you, you carry that cross. He's being pressed into service, and it's legal because he's a subject of the Roman Empire. And so they can say, you carry this stuff for up to a mile.

So Jesus takes the question, what about me? What about my rights? And He says, when you become a subject in my kingdom, it's my rights. I have all the rights. As the king, I have all the rights.

And so when we find ourselves griping about our taxes or about the things that our government is requiring of us, we should think about this. Are there things that our government does with our taxes that are unrighteous? Yes. Should we pay our taxes? Yes.

We're being pressed into service. We're being taken a mile. And Jesus says, go a second mile. Now, are any of these things without qualification? No, of course not.

If the government presses you in the service to murder somebody else, you tell them no. But Jesus doesn't want us focused on the qualifications. He wants us focused on the mighty principle that puts self to death. And so he doesn't want us thinking about all the things that don't apply. He wants us to think of where it does apply.

And so he's not talking qualifications, because he wants us focused on the principle. Fourthly, Verse 42, give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away. We study this in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 15, starting in verse 7. If there is among you a poor man of your brethren within any of the gates in the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother.

But you shall open your hand wide to him, and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs." Skipping down to verse 11. For the poor will never cease from the land. Therefore I command you saying, you shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy in your land. Proverbs 21, 26. The righteous gives and does not spare.

Jesus is not rolling out a new doctrine, but he's teaching Deuteronomy and he's teaching Proverbs. And there's a spirit behind the law that's always been behind the law, and it's that we would be open handed to those who are in need. That's what Proverbs says. The righteous gives and does not spare. Is this without qualification?

No. If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. Second Thessalonians. But again, Jesus doesn't want us focusing on the qualifications. He's wanting us to address what is the spirit of it?

What is it that a Christian ought to be? And love establishes the qualifications. So for every one of these principles there are qualifications, but love is the establishment of it. The next verse we come to is going to say, love your neighbor at yourself. So Jesus is folding this right into love.

So love is the end of the law. Love is the fulfillment of the law. The two great commandments are love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. There are qualifications for these things, but love sets the qualifications, not our rights.

When we think about qualifications and begin to qualify these things, we want to keep people out of our space, and our turf, and our stuff, and our money, and Our honor. But Jesus says none of those are legitimate grounds for qualifications for these things. It's love that sets the boundaries. So there might be time where you shouldn't be open-handed to someone. If it wouldn't be love, but it would actually be hurting them, if it would be propping them up in their sin to help them financially.

But love is the boundary, not that you're trying to keep your hands on your money. Jesus takes the question, What about me? What about my money? And he says, when you become a subject of my kingdom, it's my money. I own it all.

All your money, everything you have I've given to you, and I still maintain authority over it. It is his money. Verses 43 through 47. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies.

Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For he makes his son 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 do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so. It goes without saying that the phrase, hate your enemy, is nowhere commanded in the Old Testament. You shall love your neighbor is there.

You shall hate your enemy is not there. And so the scribes and the Pharisees took the truth. You shall love your neighbor. They said, well, if I love my neighbor, then it infers that There's a second class of people also, my non-neighbors. My non-neighbors are my enemies.

And if I love my neighbors, then I hate my non-neighbors, or my enemies. But in Luke 10, in the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus actually troubleshoots that theology. And the problem is the definition of neighbor. They thought that there were your neighbors and your enemies, but the truth is that Your enemies are your neighbors sometimes. And so there's not a second type of conduct for your enemies.

And again, this is not foreign to the Old Testament. This is not Jesus rolling out a new doctrine. Exodus 23, verses 4 and 5. If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it." Jesus is repeating Exodus.

Our enemies, there's a recognition in Exodus that we would have a disposition to treat our enemies differently, but Exodus contradicts that and explicitly says You have an obligation and a duty to help and be kind to your enemy. Even if someone hates you, if they need help with your donkey, you help them with it. Proverbs 25, 21. And this was actually quoted in Romans 12 when we went and looked at it. If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat.

And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. Jesus is repeating Proverbs. And when we do this, when we do something again that is completely contrary to the natural man. Do you know a natural man who does this? We're simply imitating God.

We're simply acting like sons. That's the argument that Jesus is making. Act like sons. Jesus sends sunshine and rain on the most thankless, wicked people. And we're called to be like him.

There are so many common graces in the world, like sun and rain and love and family and, and, and, birds that chirp and cool mornings. And that's not just for the people of God. God gives that to everyone, and we're called to be like him. And when we don't do this, we're simply imitating the natural man. Who are you going to imitate?

Are you going to imitate God and act like a son? Are you going to imitate the natural man and act like a son of the devil? Is there another way to put this? And Jesus brings up the obvious point, which is everyone loves the people that love them. Everyone greets the people that are happy to see them.

Even the tax collectors have made the poster child for this, but it just means that the natural man, every wicked soul in the world, loves the people that love them. We're called to be different than that. We're called to go beyond that. And the basis of it is the character of God who is good to those who are wicked and unthankful. Then he closes in verse 48, Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

And he's been piling up the condemnation. He's been expanding the borders of the commandments to bring back in the spirit of the law, which had been lost. Spirit of the law had been cast aside and trampled on. We were left with just the letter because we can do the letter. We can manage the letter of the law.

But Jesus will have none of that. He wants nothing to do with that kind of religion. That's not his kind of kingdom. He won't be the king of that kind of kingdom. He wants the law to express the perfection of the king, and it does.

And we can never attain to it, and yet here we have our calling to attain to it. The standard is the standard. He will not lower it for you or for me or for anyone else. Our calling is to be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect. And he's been piling up the condemnation.

And It's brought to a crescendo here where he says what James says. If you've broken one point of the law, you've broken it all. The standard is perfection. Not just continuous improvement. That might be our standard.

But the standard for God, the law giver, is perfection. And in Colossians 1-28, Paul solves this for us. And Paul says, him we preach, Jesus Christ we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ. So Paul's teaching, Paul's warning, and it's that he may present every man perfect in Christ. Our calling is perfection.

God will not move the standard for anyone. And yet there is a way, It's to be in Christ, perfect in Christ. That is your only way to meet the standard, is to be caught up in the merits of Jesus Christ. The verse before that, he talks about the mystery of the gospel. And he says the mystery of the gospel is this, Christ in you, the hope of glory.

That's what it means to be perfect in Christ. The mystery of the gospel is the answer. Christ in you, the hope of glory. So in conclusion, these are not unqualified letters of the law. They're Applications of the spirit of the law.

If you take them as new letters of the law, then you end up with pacifism and no police force and all these crazy things that the Bible never intended to teach, that Jesus is not teaching here. But if we understand them as applications of the spirit of the law, then we begin to know how to apply love. This is what Jesus is after, teaching his people how to apply love. And Jesus leaves them here without qualification because he doesn't want you thinking about the qualifications. He wants you to think about the great principles that's being taught, which is that your self must be put to death.

That we must be done with self so that Christ can emerge and manifest itself in such a way that we would be salt, we would be light. People would understand there's a distinction between the spirit that dwells in the hearts of his people, in the spirit of the world, the spirit of the natural man, who cannot even comprehend these things. Philippians 2, 5 through 8. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant, and coming in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and he became obedient to the point of death even the death of the cross. The beauty of this teaching is as much as we have to wrestle with it as difficult it is to do it Jesus Christ has gone before us in it, and we're called to just put on his mind.

Let this mind be in you which also was in Christ Jesus. He has gone before us. If you want to know how to apply these things, look at Jesus and look at how he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even the death of a cross, a shameful death. A death that would make us think nothing of an open hand slap. Jesus went to the cross.

He was the Lord of glory and He went to the cross and we're worried about our honor when we're slapped by our enemy? Oh God, I pray that you would help us to apply these things, to understand the truth of them, but God, that you would help us to apply. The truth is so simple, it's so plain. And yet, we find self rising up again and again and again. And it's at war with us.

Oh, God, make us at war with it. Make us yielding. Make us yielding to the Holy Spirit minute by minute so that we might be conformed into the image of Christ, that we might have the mind of Jesus Christ, who humbled Himself. Oh, God, may we be a people who so baffle the natural men who are around us that they would consider that they would see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven. May it be so.

Make us a different people, a peculiar people, Lord. We call upon you to apply the power of the Holy Spirit to accelerate our sanctification so that we would be more different, more different, more different, that people would know us as peculiar because we have this quality within us that is looking to the better country. I'm not concerned about stuff, not concerned about our own honor, but our most concerned about your honor. May we be faithful subjects of your kingdom in Jesus' name. Amen.