Some aspects of True Righteousness Luke 6
Some aspects of True Righteousness Luke 6:27-38 EBC 4/27/08
J. Vernon McGee- commenting on theses verses had this to say “What I am saying may sound revolutionary, and it is, but it is what Jesus Christ said, friend. There are those who tell me that they are following Jesus. They do not dare to follow Him. Read what He says in this chapter and, believe me, it will remove the cloak of hypocrisy and peel off the skin of any man. Try on the Sermon on the Plain for size and find out if you are keeping it”. Jesus went “into the hill country” with His disciples. After a night of prayer, He came down to a level place, ordained the Twelve, ministered to the sick, and then preached this sermon. It was His description of what it means to have a life of “blessing.
Jesus was preaching to His disciples as well as to the multitudes for even the Twelve had to unlearn many things before they could effectively serve Him. Furthermore, they had left everything to follow Jesus and no doubt were asking themselves, “What is in store for us?” The Lord explained in this sermon that the truly blessed life comes not from getting, or from doing, but from being. The emphasis is on Godlike character. The Sermon on the Mount applies to today and describes the kind of Godly character we ought to have.
One thing s we need to keep in mind today – Oswald Chambers- “Beware of placing our Lord as Teacher first instead of Saviour. That tendency is prevalent to-day, and it is a dangerous tendency. We must know Him first as Saviour before His teaching can have any meaning for us, or before it can have any meaning other than that of an ideal which leads to despair. The Sermon on the Mount is a statement of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is having His way with us. The Sermon on the Mount also produces despair in the heart of the natural man, and that is the very thing Jesus means it to do. Natural man realizes he can’t do this.
Unlike the world, the bedrock of Christ’s kingdom is poverty not possessions.
I. The Nature and Extent of Our Love
God gives us some real aspects of unconditional love. This is the kind of love God expects us to have.
A. Love your enemies (27- 29)- how many here today realize just how hard that is.
1. Imperative tense- a command not a request.
2. We, as Christians are salt and light. Salt stings and light exposes. Sometimes that makes people not to happy with us. They insult us, avoid us, reject us or take advantage of us.
a. What should our reaction be to this? Love them, do good to them and pray for them. To love my family is a matter of emotions, to love my enemies is a matter of the will. Jesus didn’t demand his followers to feel a certain way but to act in a certain way. True love is always non-retaliatory.
b. James 1:20- our vengeance never is the righteousness that God wants. Hatred only breeds more hatred.
c. F.B. Meyer explains “In its deepest sense love is the perquisite of Christianity. To feel toward enemies what others feel toward friends; to descend as rain and sunbeams on the unjust as well as the just; to minister to those who are unprepossessing and repellent as others minister to the attractive and winsome; to be always the same, not subject to moods or fancies or whims; to suffer long; to take no account of evil; to rejoice with the truth; to bear, believe, hope, and endure all things, never to fail—this is love, and such love is the achievement of the Holy Spirit”.
B. Be merciful(36)
1. Mercy- forgive when it is in thine power to take revenge.
a. Rom. 12:19-
b. The Father showed us mercy when He didn’t give us what we deserved and He wants us to show others the same thing.
1. Psa. 145:8-9-
C. Judge Not (37) – Present imperative- stop doing what you are presenting doing.
1. We can never judge another person’s motives. This is judgment of the heart. We can’t read the heart so we can’t know why they do certain things. We are allowed to judge the works. That allows us to be able to better pray for them. This is the tendency to critize and find fault with others.
a. Luke 6:43-44- the fruit one produces is a certain indication of what he really is.
D. Forgive- present imperatives- actions that are to be done continually. To release from a debt.
D. Give (38)-
1. If we in a right manner give to others when they need, God will incline the hearts of others to give to us when we need, and to give liberally, good measure pressed down and shaken together. They that sow plentifully shall reap plentifully. Whom God recompenses he recompenses abundantly.
a. We must expect to be dealt with as we have dealt with others.
b. Good measure- describes a situation where the commodity you purchased is a fair amount
c. Pressed down- the grain in the container is pressed down so it will hold more
d. Shaken together – so items are shaken together so that every space is occupied.
e. Running over- the container is filled and a rounded heap is on top.