In the sermon titled 'An Impossible Command?' by Peter Allison, the focus is on Jesus's teachings from Luke 6 about loving one's enemies. The sermon clarifies that Jesus's message is not about contrasting Old and New Testament laws but correcting the corruptions added by the Pharisees. Jesus calls for a higher standard of love that includes loving enemies, doing good to those who hate us, and blessing those who curse us. Peter Allison emphasizes that such commands are impossible to fulfill without the supernatural aid of the Holy Spirit. He explains that love in this context is not about affectionate feelings but fulfilling the law positively towards others, including promoting their well-being and respecting their property and name. The sermon further explores how true love and forgiveness are rooted in understanding God's love for us and His forgiveness. The indicatives of scripture, which are the truths about God's actions and promises, form the foundation for the imperatives, or commands, that believers are to follow. Through the power of the Holy Spirit and reflection on God's love, believers can embody the impossible command to love their enemies.

Please turn to Luke chapter 6. I'd like to read beginning at verse 27. But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either.

Give to everyone who asks of you, and from him who takes away your goods, do not ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?

For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners Lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.

Therefore be merciful just as your father also is merciful. Judge not and you shall not be judged. Condemn not and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give And it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom.

For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you." His testimonies are wonderful. May our soul keep them. Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing your word to us. Thank you for preserving it. We ask that it might come now to us in power by the Holy Spirit and with much assurance.

Sanctify Lord these sinful lips to proclaim the beauty and the truth of your words in Jesus name, amen. Let me say right at the outset that this message, this sermon that Jesus gave, is about how the sons of the king are to live. This is not about how people become sons of the king. This message is to those who have already been adopted by the King and given a place in his home to live. It's not about how to win the favor of the King so that he will adopt you and accept you into his home and his fellowship.

This is a message to those who are sons, his sons already. This is how we are to conduct ourselves as children of the heavenly king. This is how we are to live. We are to be like Him. We are to imitate Him.

Jesus opens this section saying, But I say to you who hear. But I say to you who hear. But, but what? But what? But, But implies a contrast.

There's this, but this is also. Or you've heard this, but I say to you, on the other hand. In Jesus' other sermons, He says, the Pharisees or you have heard it said such and so but I on the other hand say this to you what is he contrasting here well one of the common misunderstandings is that he is contrasting the Old Testament law with New Testament law. He's contrasting what the Israelites had been taught in the Old Testament and how they were to live, with now He's giving to them a new, a better way, a new way. But I think if we take a quick look at the Old Testament, you will see that that is not what Jesus is contrasting to.

He's not contrasting what God said in the Old Testament with what He says in the New. For example, if we look at Leviticus, If you were to pick one book that sounds like a lot of laws and requirements and burdens, it probably would be Leviticus. Just sounds like a book of laws. Leviticus 19. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest.

And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am the Lord your God. You shall not steal, nor do falsely, nor lie to one another. You shall not swear by my name.

You shall not profane the name of the Lord your God. I am the Lord. You shall not cheat your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of him who is hired shall remain with you all night until morning. You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God, I am the Lord.

You shall do no injustice in judgment you shall not be a partial to the poor no honor the person of the mighty in righteousness you shall judge your neighbor you shall not go about as a tale bearer among your people nor take a stand against the life of your neighbor I am the Lord You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor and not bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance nor bear a grudge against the children of your people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

In Proverbs 25, we have another example of what the Old Testament taught. Proverbs 25, if your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat. Verse 21, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. How is the Old Testament, how are they to treat their enemies? Well, if they were hungry, they were to give them food.

If they needed something to drink, they were to give them something to drink. That's love. That's love. And Jesus is not coming to give another law, another commandment. He's not coming to change what the Old Testament was teaching.

He is coming though to change the corruptions that the Pharisees and the Sadducees had introduced to the law of God. They had added to this law and they said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But that was not what the Old Testament said. The Old Testament said, love your enemy. If your enemy is hungry, feed him.

That's loving your enemy. If your enemy is thirsty, give him a drink. That's loving your enemy. So Jesus here is not changing the Old Testament law. This but is not a contrast to the Old Testament, but rather a contrast to the corrupted teaching of the scribes and the Pharisees.

It was a subtle corruption. The Old Testament spoke of loving your neighbor. And they limited neighbor to include only friends and to exclude enemies, forgetting that sometimes your neighbor can be an enemy. See, they thought it was perfectly acceptable to hate your enemy as long as you love those who were friendly to you, your neighbors. Jesus says exactly the opposite.

What good is that? Everybody can do that. Jesus is calling his children to something much different. He's calling us to imitate our Father, who is kind to the unthankful and to the evil. He's kind to those who are unthankful and to those who are evil.

God is kind to those who are evil. If people eat, it's because God has fed them. If they are alive, it's because God has given life to them. If they have a spouse, they're married and have children, it's because God has blessed them with these things. If they have rain on their fields, it's because God has blessed them with rain.

All these things are God's kindness, God giving of the storehouse of His riches to those who are evil, to those who are unthankful. The wicked don't pray before they eat and thank God for providing their food, and yet God continues in many cases to provide that food for them faithfully, regularly. He preserves their life. He blesses them with the joys of families. He allows them to live in a land that is at peace, peace in the streets.

These are all kindnesses of God, and in the case of unbelievers, to those who are evil and unthankful. God is kind. And He says, if you're going to be my children, then you need to be kind the same way I am, and to Love your enemies. I say to those who hear. I say to those who are ready to listen.

This is a hard, hard message. Sounds like impossible commands. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, to him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. Those are impossible commands.

Those are impossible commands. Apart from the Holy Spirit, apart from the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to do these things, because they are not natural. They are not anything that we can do in our own strength Many Many people talk about not taking vengeance. Many religions talk about, probably all the religions, a few that I looked at all do, talk about not taking vengeance on those who hurt us. But Jesus is going beyond that.

He's not saying don't do to people things that you wouldn't want them to do to you. He's saying, do the things to people that you would want them to do to you. And do those things even to your enemies. See Jesus did change the word that was used. The Old Testament spoke about neighbors.

Jesus uses the word enemy here to make clear that Its neighbors can include enemies. Remember the parable that he told of the good Samaritan when the lawyer asked him who is my neighbor? Who is my neighbor? He didn't say well it is the person that lives Close to you or the person that likes you or the person that's nice to you He gave a story About two people that didn't like each other. They weren't friendly to each other They hated each other The Israelites and the Samaritans Samaritans had many ways corrupted the true worship of God.

And there was enmity between these two groups of people. And that's who Jesus used to illustrate Who a neighbor is. The Israelite who showed kindness to a Samaritan. Somebody who was an enemy of the Israelites. What does it mean here, Jesus says, to love our enemies?

To love our enemies means that we fulfill the law with respect to them. We often read this and we begin to think of love as it's defined popularly in our culture. And we think of it as a feeling, we're saying, well, I'm supposed to have warm affection to the person that's hurting me and committing all sorts of atrocities against me. I'm supposed to have a warm affection for them. It's not exactly what Jesus is saying.

He's saying we're to love them. And Paul describes very clearly what this means in Romans 13. He says, Oh no man anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet. And if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

So what does it mean to love our neighbor? It means to do the positive things that are taught in these commandments. Commandments are given in a negative form, what we are not to do, but we understand that we are to do the things that are the opposite, that are positively commanded. Or that what is for that the opposite is positively commanded. The opposite of what is forbidden is positively commanded.

Love does no harm to a neighbor therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Love is the fulfillment of the law. So when Jesus says that we are to love our enemies, he's saying we are to fulfill the positive duty of the law of God with respect to them, which means that we are to have a regard for their life. We are to promote their life and their well-being. We are to have a regard for their chastity.

We are to have a regard for their property. We are to promote their property and their goods. Promote or preserve. We are to preserve their name, their good name. For example, some of these commands would be in Psalm 132, deliver from the hand those from the hand of the wicked.

Deliver those who are drawn toward death and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If we are loving our enemy, we will deliver them from the hand of the wicked when they are being unjustly treated. We will deliver them from the hand of the wicked. We will deliver those who are drawn to death and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. We don't see our enemy being drawn to death, stumbling to the slaughter, and say, well, that's our enemy.

We can just let the forces of nature have their way. No. Proverbs says, surely, if you say, surely, we did not know this, does not he who weighs the heart consider it? He who keeps your soul, does he not know? And will he not render to each man according to his deeds." If you say, surely we didn't know, God can see our heart, our thoughts, our mind.

Deliver people from perishing. This is what's behind a lot of the work to rescue babies from their mothers and doctors who are seeking to kill them. We don't say that, well those are wicked, vile people And they're just killing their own offspring. We say, no, to love our enemy, to love these wicked, vile people is to rescue their little ones from death. If we are able.

Do not grumble against one another, James says. That neighbor that plays the loud music at 1 a.m. You know, that has the bass drums that send the seismic waves through the through your foundation through the walls. It's 1 a.m. And you want to sleep or you're working.

It's so easy to grumble against that neighbor, isn't it? What are they doing? It's not kind, that's for sure. Don't grumble against that neighbor. Figure out how to love them, how to help them.

That's certainly not in any of our natures to do it, certainly not in mine. It's a readiness to be reconciled. A readiness to be reconciled. It's a little different than saying, well, don't be unkind to your enemy. It's a readiness to be reconciled.

Often we are very content to not be reconciled to people that we think have wronged us. We are content not to be reconciled. We don't treat them unkindly, we may even be kind to them, but we are content not to be reconciled. To love our enemy is a readiness to be reconciled. To love our enemy is a patient bearing with and forgiving of iniquities.

To love our enemy is to comfort those that are distressed. It's to protect and to defend the innocent. What if you're fighting a war? One of the things that happened in World War II. It's not talked a lot about and there's probably lots of debate about facts, but I think it's clear that it does happen.

That intelligence agencies use pretty women to seduce enemies into fornication and thereby hope to gain secrets that will be of use to their side. If we love our enemy, we won't we won't not do that not It is not true that all is fair and love and war We are at there are times that we are to conduct war There are times that we do need to go to battle, that we do need to kill, but even in these times we have to be governed by the Word of God and governed by what's right. Even As we are going to battle, we have to remember we have a duty to love our enemies. And that means that we respect their chastity. We don't entice them and tempt them into sin.

So we'd have to say that that method of espionage is wrong. Even though Espionage itself is not wrong as we saw in the text that we read earlier in the life of David He used espionage he used concealment. He missed use misdirection He got the enemy to believe one thing, got the enemy to believe what wasn't true, that they weren't hiding there. So these things are necessary, but you see, none of that did they cause their enemy to sin. They didn't entice them into fornication.

To love our enemy means that we have a respect for their property. A respect for their property. We see their cattle escaped on the road, we don't think, oh, well, maybe a few of them will die. Or their dog. We don't have cattle fields around here.

I grew up in farm country where houses are few and far between and there are more cattle than there are people and it was not uncommon for cattle to escape the fence and get out on the road. To love your enemy is to call them and let them know that their cattle are out on the road. Maybe it is even to help them get them back in. See, that's something that we can very easily do when it's our neighbor who is kind to us. But it's something that can be very hard to do when it's somebody that's cruel to us, when it's somebody that's spiteful to use us, when it's somebody that's deprived us and wronged us and not been respectful of our property.

It's a different matter. It's a different matter. To love our enemy means that we have a respect for their name. It's very easy to trash, to destroy the good name of our enemy. Now, that doesn't mean we cannot speak the truth in the appropriate time and place about the evil that is done.

But it does mean that we have a respect for their name and we don't unnecessarily ruin it. We don't ruin it as a way of getting back, a way of repaying what they've done to us. These commands, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Do good.

It's far more than just don't hurt them, don't do evil to them, don't replay evil for evil, but actually Jesus says do good to those who hate you. One way you can do good to those who hate you is giving a gift. Turning vengeance over to God, who says he will repay, frees us up To wage a war of love to overcome evil with good Jesus goes on bless those who curse you and pray for those who spitefully use you. How do you pray for somebody who has spitefully used you? Jesus asked the Father to forgive those who crucified Him because they did not know what they were doing.

Stephen asked God to forgive those who were stoning him. That's love. A willingness, a desire, asking God to show mercy on those who are stoning you. See, that's what giving over vengeance to God allows us to do. When someone strikes you on the cheek, Jesus goes on, turn the other cheek.

Jesus has given some hard and startling commands. We need to rightly understand these startling commands without minimizing what they are asking us to do. Jesus said, when someone strikes you on one cheek, turn the other cheek. Does that mean that if you're at the ATM and somebody comes up and it costs you in order to steal your money and they slug you on one side of the face and knock you down that you should get up and change your orientation so that they have an easier chance to hit the other side? Where you say, wasn't that what it says?

If somebody strikes you on one side, cheek, turn the other. Also, offer the other cheek. Isn't that what Jesus is saying? Isn't that what the words say? Don't we take things literally where possible?

And isn't it evading the direct words of Jesus to think this says something else? If we're supposed to believe that God created the universe in six days, six thousand years ago because that's what Genesis says, why shouldn't this passage mean exactly what it says? The question is, what does it say? What does it literally say? What is Jesus seeking to communicate to us in this command?

What did Jesus mean that we were to do? We can answer that by simply looking at what Jesus did do when he was struck and given a slap across the face, when his cheek was smitten. Remember when he was sitting, when he was captured in the garden, they bound him and took him to the high priest, Anas. And remember then, one of the big bullies there gave him a whack across the face with the palm of his hand as he was bound and unable to resist. And what does Jesus do?

How does he apply this command, this own teaching? It's recorded in John 18. Well, it doesn't say that Jesus turned and offered his other cheek to the person that struck him. Quite the contrary, Jesus answered him and said, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil. But if I've done well, why do you strike me?

Jesus gently rebuked the one who struck him. Isaiah prophesied of this very incident when he said in Isaiah 50, I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting." See Jesus speaks in analogies and metaphors and he's often understood even by his own disciples, the twelve disciples. Once Jesus told them, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. And the disciples were thinking that Jesus was speaking of their failure to bring bread.

But Jesus being aware of their misunderstanding about what He said when he said, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, Jesus said to them, Oh you of little faith. I mean, all they were doing was taking Jesus, literally they thought, Jesus said, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Or you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread? Do you not understand what I am saying? Don't you remember the five loaves, the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up afterwards?

Nor the seven loaves or the four thousand and how many baskets you took up there? They took up more remember than what they started with after feeding 4, 000 and 5, 000 people. How is it that you do not understand that I do not speak to you of bread, but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees? And then the Bible says, then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And so we need to understand then, rightly understand, not be those of little faith, as Jesus rebuked his disciples.

We need to rightly understand based on the scriptures themselves, based on how Jesus responded when he was struck on the cheek, and What Jesus is teaching here in this passage, Jesus is not teaching us here that we are not to have a security team outside the door to forcibly resist those who want to come into our assembly intent on doing harm. What Jesus is saying is that we are to not resist the evildoer out of a desire for revenge or out of an unforgiving and a vindictive and an unloving spirit. We are to show by our attitudes, by our actions, and by our words, even in our resistance, that we are not acting out of a spirit of bitterness and resentment, but that we are acting out of a spirit of love. We are seeking to restrain them from doing a great evil in killing people. That's love, to stop them from committing murder.

And so this passage, I think we need to rightly understand it, is not saying that we need to be pacifists And we need to stand helplessly by while somebody beats us up or some such thing. Or that it's wrong to ever use force to resist those who are seeking to harm us. But rather, he's speaking here of the spirit of our resistance. The spirit of our resistance. Are we resisting because we love that person and we want to see evil stopped, even as they are doing it?

Or are we doing it out of rage and resentment and vindictiveness? Because we want to see them suffer like they made us suffer. These Brothers and sisters are not easy words. If someone takes your coat, gift them with your shirt. Give to everyone who asks of you.

This is asking out of poverty. If you have it in your possession, give it to them. And give it to them immediately. Proverbs 3 says, don't withhold good from those to whom it is due. Who is it due to?

Well, Jesus is saying good is due even to our enemies here. When it is in the power of your hand to do so, do not say to your neighbor, go and come back And tomorrow I will give it to you when you have it with you. Don't put stipulations. Don't make your mercy difficult. Don't make people jump through a whole lot of hoops just because you can.

Don't exact a sort of revenge, because I'll help you. I do have it. I have it in my means, but I want to see you jump through a lot of hoops. Go back and come tomorrow. There's a way of saying, do this, do that, do a bunch of unrelated, unnecessary things before I'm willing to give you my help.

Those who take away your goods, don't ask for it back. Do to other people the things you want people to do to you. Just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them. Not don't do what you don't want people to do, but do, do to other people. The things you would want done to you, Even if that's your enemy.

If you have an opportunity, take it. It's good for your own soul. It's amazing what giving a gift to an enemy does, not for them, but for us. Them, but for us, for us. Be merciful, merciful in judgment.

Merciful, merciful in judgment. Love is defined in 1 Corinthians 13. We often hear this read at weddings or other moments of love. Love a husband and wife or a bride and groom have for each other is a beautiful thing. But I'd like to read this to you in the light of Jesus' words this morning about loving our enemies, loving those who misuse us, who spitefully use us, who treat us wrongly.

Paul says, love suffers long and is kind. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love doesn't envy. Especially when we see an enemy, somebody who has mistreated us, being rewarded for something else they may have done.

Love doesn't envy. Love doesn't parade itself. It is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own. Is not provoked. Love thinks no evil.

It doesn't assume evil. That's probably one of the hardest things to think about, to do with our enemy. Because they've done something evil. It's easy to think evil of them, to begin to think in every circumstance, to think evil of them. Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. How? Endures all things. How? How could we ever possibly keep these seemingly impossible commands.

Well first we need to remember that we can't keep these commands in our own flesh. We can't. This isn't saying that we somehow have to conjure up in ourselves wonderful warm feelings toward our enemy. We have to first of all recognize we need the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. We need to ask the Lord specifically for the power of His Holy Spirit to be able to love supernaturally like this.

That needs to be our prayer. That needs to be our starting prayer. Because without the Holy Spirit, we can't do this. We cannot do it. But secondly, But secondly, it helps to remember and to think of the love of God for us.

How aware are you of God's love for you? You can't imitate what you don't know. Are you aware of God's love for you? Is it something that impresses you? Is it something that amazes you?

That God loves you? That He is loving to you? That He is kind? Think about that. If you have trouble loving your enemy, go back to meditating and pondering the love of God for you.

It changes everything. When we realize that God loved us while we were yet at enmity against Him, that He died for His enemies, that He laid down His life for those that hated Him. That changes our way of looking at the people that hate us. Ponder the love of God for you. Ponder how He loved His enemies.

And that will begin to change our minds and our hearts and how we view other people. Jesus calls us to be merciful just as our Father is merciful. You're having a hard time loving your enemy and being ready to forgive. Being willing to forgive. Willing to be reconciled.

Think about how God has forgiven us, how God has forgiven you. He didn't sit up there and say, well, when you prayed, Lord forgive me, I've sinned against you. He didn't pray, well, I'll think about it. I'll get back to you in a little bit. He didn't say, well, this is really hard.

I'm having trouble doing this. If we confess our sins, He is faithful. He is faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He readily forgives. When the king of Nineveh repented in dust and ashes, sackcloth and ashes, when he humbled himself, God forgave the nation.

God withheld his wrath against that nation. God is our God, our Father is a forgiving Father. If we are having trouble forgiving one another, just think about it. It is because we haven't realized, we haven't been impressed yet with what God has done in forgiving us. We just need to realize how much He has forgiven us, how readily and willingly He has forgiven us.

Therefore, Therefore be merciful, just as your father is merciful." You know, the imperatives of scripture follow the indicatives. You look at books, and the whole book of first three chapters of Ephesians is about indicatives. It's about what is true, what God has done. It's about the truth of the word of salvation. And it's only then in the light of all those indicatives, in the light of those statements of fact about what God has done, that we are called to do all the imperatives that are given in the second half of that book.

The same in Romans. We see this pattern throughout Scripture. The imperatives follow the indicatives. The indicatives are the basis for the imperative. The indicatives, the statements of fact, of what is true, are the basis for the commands that we are given.

And that's the same in this case as well. This command to love our enemies, to do good to those who spitefully use us, To be ready to forgive even our enemies. These commands follow the indicatives that God has forgiven us. That God has loved us. That God is kind to us.

That God is a heavenly Father who is kind to the unthankful and the evil. And when we realize these things, when these truths are impressed upon our heart, when we're overwhelmed with the love of God for us, when we're overwhelmed with His forgiveness of us, when we're overwhelmed with that He would be reconciled to us, then we are enabled by the power of His Holy Spirit To be reconciled to our enemies, to love our enemies, to forgive our enemies, to do good to them as well. May it be so. Almighty Father in heaven, how we thank you for your love to us in Jesus Christ. How we thank you for your love to us in Jesus Christ.

How we thank you for your many kindnesses to us. For you heal all of our infirmities. You forgive all of our iniquities. You crown us with loving kindness and tender mercies. You satisfy our mouth with good things.

You renew our strength. Indeed, your mercy to us is new every day, and there is nothing that we have done to earn that favor. There is nothing that we have done that deserves any of these wonderful blessings. You have called us your friends, and you have spoken to us of your plans as one does friend to friend. Oh Lord, we bless your name.

We thank you for this and we ask for your supernatural power, for your Holy Spirit to imitate you that as a little three-year-old imitates their father so Lord grant to us to imitate you in this that you are kind and merciful to the evil and the unthankful. Lord, we cannot do this by our own strength. And We fail, and we fail many times. We look to you this morning to forgive our failures and to equip us for every good work through your word and by your spirit. Through Jesus Christ, amen.