Welcome to the Plenteous Redemption podcast, where the cross and the culture are on a collision course for discussion. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign Now, here's your host, Thomas Ervin. All right, Matthew 5. We got a lot of ground to cover this morning, so I'm going to go fast. I'll say from the onset, my concern about covering a chapter like Matthew 5, 6, and 7 in one sitting is that it does it no justice. But our purpose is to just get an overview of the chapter and try to gain a little understanding of what's being taught in the chapter. But Matthew 5 is probably the height of Christian living. It is the most difficult instruction in existence. It will challenge you and push you in ways that only the Holy Spirit could help you to live. Now, a lot of people like to take Matthew 5, 6, and 7 and put it in the Millennial Kingdom, and that'd be very convenient. I wish I could do that too, but the numerous references to the kingdom of God and the numerous references to the church in Matthew 5, 6, and 7 make it awfully hard to put it in the Millennial Kingdom when there is no church. The church is in heaven. Or that the church is with the Lord Jesus Christ at that time and and he's ruling and reigning in righteousness And and so, you know, it's just it's just not not gonna work to put this in at some future date This is true of us here. And now This is how the Lord if the Lord was going to come back and structure the the way people are going to live this would be it and And so this is what he wants us to do. All right, let's read verses 1 through 12, and we'll take this section by section. It's a longer chapter, and we'll try to get to the end and hopefully do it a tad bit of justice. Verse 1, and seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Verse 2, And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which are before you." Now, these are commonly known as the Beatitudes, and it is the absolute height of Christian attitude, of Christian living. And when you go through and you see what the Lord expects of us, he opened his mouth saying, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Right now, that's a direct reference to the physical earthly kingdom. The Lord is telling you a blessing comes from being poor in spirit, which is not something we think about. It's not, we think, We connect blessings to always being happy, healthy, and wealthy, and that's it. And the Lord says, if you're poor in spirit, I'm going to give you the Kingdom of Heaven one day. It'll be yours. And then he says, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Now here's the issue a lot of people have. When will you be comforted? It doesn't say. All right, so it's not that it might or might not be an immediate process. Now, the New Testament gives us some more insight into mourning and sorrow and all the troubles that we will have in this life. And our consolation is that we are in Christ Jesus and there is a future blessing. But that blessing is true now. All right, so it's not, not only is there, will there be comfort for those who mourn in the future at a certain time when the Lord will wipe away all tears and all the pain will be taken away and so many people with broken bodies will be restored and people you've lost, some of them will be there with you in heaven. I mean, there's a lot of comfort is coming. But you can also be comforted now by the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. You can also go to the throne of grace now and pour your heart out to Jesus Christ. He would like that. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Moses was meek, the meekest man God said to live. and yet he was hard and firm and strong. He was a great leader. Being meek means that you can maintain your responsibilities and still be able to take wrong. I don't like that. I don't want to take wrong. Leave me alone. Don't do me wrong. I'm not going to do you wrong, you're going to do me wrong, and everything will be okay. Well, that's not meekness. To be meek means that you can take something that's being given to you that is wrong, and you still maintain, you still hold your responsibilities. Being meek doesn't mean that you're weak. It doesn't mean that, you know, as a man you're effeminate, or as a lady you just take abuse. That's not the idea. It means that you're able to keep pressing forward doing what you're supposed to do, maintaining life, maintaining your responsibilities, even though you're being done wrong or mistreated in some way. The Lord says, you're going to inherit the earth if you're meek. That's a blessing. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. We have no problem in this country feeding our bellies, feeding our flesh. When I'm hungry, you've got 100 restaurants to go to, all hours of the day and night. 24 hours, I can go and get food. Well, do you hunger and thirst after righteousness to the same extent? And if you do, the Lord says, I'll fill you. I'll give it to you. If you don't, then you're just going to be hungry on that end. Verse 7, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. I like when people are merciful towards me. I do stupid stuff sometimes. I don't want people to be mad at me. I want them to be merciful. Well, in order to receive mercy, guess what you have to be willing to give? Mercy. And if you're not willing to give mercy, in what world would it be okay for you to assume that people should be merciful towards you? So being merciful means you're not giving people something they deserve. And you're going to withhold. You might have the right, you might be in the right to punish someone or to deal with someone in some way, but instead of doing that, you withhold it. I'm just going to be merciful. I'm just going to get over it. I'm going to move on. I'm not going to hold a grudge. I'm not going to fight with people. I'm not going to cause problems. I'm just going to get over it. They will obtain mercy blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God you God's got the invisible. God says you want to see me be pure in heart That's the way you see God. Be pure in heart. Live a life of purity. Then it continues, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. Lord knows we could greatly use some peacemakers today. The entire world, it seems like, is either in flames or it's being doused with gasoline. It's one or the other. Now, praise the Lord, we live in a small, quiet part of the country that nobody cares about. Nobody cares about Mississippi. They just know it exists somewhere down at the bottom of the country. We don't even go down there. Well, praise the Lord. Don't. Stay out. But the rest of the world, you go to California, you even go to Florida. With all the great things that have happened the past few years in Florida with their leadership and all that, it's wonderful. But you go to Orlando in the middle of the night. It's not good. You know, we were standing on a street corner in downtown Orlando preaching the gospel to people as they walked by and walked into a gay nightclub, and that very night, a Muslim walked into that nightclub and shot it up. in downtown Orlando. They walk by, mocking Jesus, you know, laughing. It's all fun and games till somebody comes in with an AK-47 and starts laying people down. And for months after that, they were very nice to us when they walked by us on the street corner. Now, it didn't last long, but their attitude certainly changed momentarily. Peacemakers, we need peacemakers. You don't always have to be, you don't want to get vengeance. You don't want to get revenge all the time. That's going to create a vicious cycle of pain and turmoil, loss of life, loss of property. It's just, if you'll just be a peacemaker, it'll put an end to it all. And that's what the Lord would have us do. And you'll be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now, if you're going to live godly in Christ Jesus, people are not going to like it. It's just the way it is. On a small level, they'll make fun of you. On a major level, they'll despise you. They're going to hate you. Why? Because you won't go along with the way they've chosen to live their lives. And you end up standing as a contrast to the choices they make. And they know they shouldn't be doing some of the things they're doing. And it ends up making them angry. As I've told you before, we'd stand across from a bar down in the land, and we'd preach, and we'd say, Jesus saves. And they'd turn and say, don't tell me not to drink. I didn't tell you not to drink. I said, Jesus saves. And something in your heart said, I shouldn't be touching alcohol. And instead of listening to what your heart's trying to tell you, instead of listening to your conscience trying to condemn you, you turn and lash out at the man who said, Jesus saves. Are they turning to say, don't tell me not to go in this club. I can go in this club if I want to. I didn't tell you not to go in the club. I said that Jesus Christ will save your soul. And something in your heart said, I really shouldn't be going in here. And you turn and lash out. And so you're going to be persecuted if you're going to try and live a righteous life. You're going to, on a small level or on a major level. In this area where we live here, it'll be on a minor level, most likely. In the land, we go out, we stand up publicly and preach the gospel, and people walk by and they say, you know, Satan rules, and they use all sorts of colorful language to tell us how they wish we were not there. That's probably not going to happen here. Here, I mean, we have the church in Amory, Mississippi, established street preaching in their town, and people in the town bought us pizza and bought us coke and brought us water and it's like even a reporter came one time and I told the pastor I said look man you you'll be real careful because reporters come out all the time and they want to talk to us when we're out on the street corner and their goal is to talk to us get information and then they go back and they write an article that completely rips us apart. It's all manipulative. Not this guy. He came out and he talked to the pastor. And then before he published the article, he sent it to the pastor and says, is this okay? I was like, what? Where are we? I don't understand this. This is not how it happens in Florida, and probably not how it happens in many other places across America. It's just how it is in this part of the country. And you better do everything you can to help keep it that way, because it's going to change rapidly. Everybody's all excited about this new internet coming out. It's lightning fast. Well, you get access to the internet. Guess what else you get access to? all the things that rot your brain and change the character of your society. The whole town's up in arms. We want to get alcohol coming in here. Well, you think you do. You better be ready for the changes that come with it and for the level, the massive drops in the level of character of your people when they're walking around drunk. It's going to be ugly. And so, they might want to be a little careful about what they invite into their lives. So, you might be persecuted for righteousness sake. Now, blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Well, praise the Lord. The Lord said, if somebody does that to you, they talk bad about you because of me for my sake, you get a blessing. Well, I mean, I would rather people not talk bad about us. I'd rather people not, I'd rather they walk by and encourage us and say, thank you for being here and it's a blessing and all that. But everybody's not going to do that. You know, some people are going to be angry. A lot of people are going to walk by and say, oh, thank you for being here. And then they're going to stop and talk to you and find out we don't agree on anything. And then they're going to go from saying, thank you for being here to get out of here. And that's just how it's going to be. A lot of people think they agree with us, they think they would like to come along with us, and then they find out what we actually believe and that we actually hold to the Word of God. And they're like, oh, I don't do that. Yeah, I know. You're a part of this American Christianity that's fake and shallow and empty and has no standards and could care less about the Word of God. And that's not what we're going to do. That's not the direction we're going. So you might want to find somewhere else. Rejoice and be exceeding, exceeding, exceeding glad. The Lord is funny. For great is your reward in heaven. Now, where is the reward? Heaven. All right. So here, persecution, difficulty, trouble for the Lord's sake. Now, that's just another indication that God is not in control of this world right now. If he was, you would serve Jesus and be rewarded here and now, and it would be a good thing here and now to serve Jesus. Well, when you do that, you please God and you lay up treasure in heaven, but the world around you is a present evil world. It has a course to this world that is against God. It is an enemy of God. So here you're going to get persecution. But the Lord said, what I'm going to give you in exchange for that is a reward in heaven. So when somebody walks by and they cuss at you for standing up for Jesus, just say, thank you. Appreciate it. You just added to my reward in heaven. All right, so thank you. Give me some more. Just lay it on me. All right. Now, we don't go out looking for persecution, but it's going to come naturally if you're going to stand up and live righteously, righteously for Christ Jesus. And so that's just the way things go in this world that we live in. Let's look at verses 13 through 16. Verse 13. Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?" Now it's very interesting when you look at the wording. Ye are the salt, and if the salt have lost his savor. All right, so he maintains the context that the salt is you. It's me. We are the salt. It's a person. It's not something you're sprinkling on the ground. It's us. But if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men. Now, our job is to salt this earth. We are the salt. We're supposed to contribute to salting the earth. When we fail to do that, the earth becomes useless and is just trodden underfoot of men. And that's not what we want. That would not be a good thing. But then it continues, verse 14, Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick and it giveth light unto all that are that are in the house let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven now the structure of that last sentence let your light so shine before men comma all right now why do we want to let our light shine before men there's two reasons Number one, that they may see your good works. Okay, this world needs to see a contrast, something different to what they're used to. It's our job to demonstrate that and to live in such a way that they say, there's something different here. What is it? And then we can say, it's Jesus Christ. It's the Word of God. Now, here's the problem we have today, again, with American Christianity. And it's not just a problem in America, but we're in America, so we're going to bash America because of this form of stupidity. They want to act like the world. in the hopes that it will trick the world into coming into the church, and then they'll surprise them with some Jesus when they get there. That's not what God said. God said, I want the world to see a contrast between the way that you live and the way that they live. They should see you and know there's a difference. What is it? I want to know what it is. And then when the world sees your good works, the Lord says that is equivalent to light. What you did was you shone your light to the world and then they begin to become interested and say, okay, what's going on here? Now, if you act like them and live like them, well, what's the contrast? Why would they come to your church? You already live the way they live. They just don't have to come and sit here on Sunday morning and give their money to something that they really don't care about. They don't have to give their time and effort and money to, I mean, they can give it to Netflix or to, you know, the football team that they love or whatever it is that they have dedicated themselves to. It doesn't have to be Jesus. And if you live just like them but claim the name of Jesus, then they can say, well, I can do the same thing and not have Jesus. That makes no sense. And so we don't want to do things that way. We want to provide a good, strong contrast between us and the world around us. And people start to notice it. As I go around in town and talk to people, recently I talked to a guy who they were talking about how their life is, they're having some trouble. And he said, but it's not all difficult. We throw some liquor in there every now and then. Yeah, you don't, you have, and now he has no idea what he said. No clue. No idea as to how that's going to help make things far worse. And then, you know, eventually he got to the idea of how I handle alcohol. And he learned that I don't. He's like, really? Like, it's such an odd thing to them. Like, you don't, you don't drink at all? No. No, not in the slightest. And yeah, coffee probably, you know, I'm guilty of coffee for sure. Coffee and water, that's all I drink. Occasionally I drink Coke, we go out to eat. That's my, you know, Coke is the devil, and I fail that temptation too often. But liquor, alcohol, beer? Do you know what the Bible says about those things? They will destroy your life. The number one killer in the world of people between ages 15 and 25 is alcohol. You know that we have this problem with fentanyl coming in our country, and I haven't looked at the numbers recently, but when it hit 70,000 deaths, they declared a national emergency. But alcohol kills 80,000 people per year every year consistently. No national emergency. In fact, towns that are dry are trying to bring it in. That makes perfect sense. It's like, what would help reduce our population? Alcohol. Let's bring it in. It's ignorance, and they don't even know it. And so you have to provide that contrast. Now, I didn't go to that man and say, well, let me tell you what the Bible says about alcohol. He's a lost man. He doesn't care what the Bible says about alcohol. He needs to hear what Jesus did for his sins. That's what he needs to hear. He doesn't need to hear a lecture from me about how he should handle alcohol in his house. That's not going to go well. But man, you're headed for hell. Why, because I drink? No, because you're a sinner. You're a sinner. Jesus Christ died for your sins. You need Jesus Christ. Now, after he trusts in Jesus Christ, then we can talk to him about what the Bible says about alcohol and we can leverage the Holy Spirit sealed inside of him and all those wonderful things that the Lord uses to help direct us and guide us and teach us to be more like Jesus Christ. All right, verses 17 through 20. See if we can get through the rest of this chapter. We got a lot to cover. Miss Pat's holding me up again. Verse 17, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. All right, so the Lord is making very clear, I did not come to destroy the law. I'm not coming to bring an end to the law. All right. I am going to teach you how to use the law properly. I'm going to teach you how to use the law righteously and I am going to fulfill everything the law says about Messiah the Christ, but I'm not coming to destroy it. All right. So now today we have a lot of people who will say to you, I believe in order to be saved, you got to keep the law. What they mean is you have to keep the Ten Commandments, which is not the law. That's a tiny part of the law. There were 600 plus commandments in the law, somewhere around 640, 650, something along those lines. So if you think you've got to keep the law, you've got to keep all of those. And you tell me how you're going to go to the temple today and keep the sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem. It's not there. You can't do it, right? And I believe that it's lack of existence is for a good reason. So when you talk to a Jew and they say, well, you know, I keep the law of Moses. No, you don't. When was the last time you went to the temple and kept the law in accord with the law of Moses? You can't. The Lord took away your temple, and now all you have left is the temple of that body that was destroyed and buried for three days and rose from the dead, Jesus Christ. That's what you need. You can't keep the law. And then they say, well, I think you've got to keep the Ten Commandments to be saved. Well, then you ask them, what are they? Well, I don't know what they are. Okay, you think you've got to keep the Ten Commandments to be saved and you don't know what they are? How do you know if you're keeping them? You don't. All right, and so, the Lord came to fulfill the law. He did not come to destroy the law. Now, we use the Ten Commandments today in witnessing. It's a great tool. Have you ever told a lie? Well, yeah, everybody does. Yeah, well, I didn't ask about everybody. I asked if you told a lie. Well, yeah, I told a lie. Well, God says, thou shalt not bear false witness. You broke the law. You ever thought on a woman to lust after her in your heart? Yeah, okay, well, you broke the law. Have you ever sat at work being paid to work, but instead of working, you were playing on Facebook? All right, that's stealing. You broke the law. God said not to steal. All right, so we use the law in that way to help demonstrate to people you are condemned and you need a Savior. Jesus Christ is that Savior. He's the one that fulfilled the law. He's the only one that could keep the law. Everybody else failed. And because you failed, you have fallen short of the glory of God, and you need to have your sins forgiven and your soul saved through the one who kept the law, Jesus Christ the righteous. All right, verses 21 through 26. You have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, ho, ho. All right, so he states the law, the existing law, and he says, but that's not good enough. God is righteous, God is holy, God's going to take it even further. Verse 22, shall be in danger of the council, but whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him. Now, a couple things here. First of all, the Lord says, You know, we go out and we witness to people, and we haven't done it that much here. We're going to in the coming weeks. But we have done it all around the world. And we'll ask people, you know, what's going to happen when you die? And they'll say, well, I'm going to go to Heaven. Well, of course you are. You're you. Of course you're going to go to Heaven. I mean, God would never leave you out, right? And so we ask them, well, how are you going to get to Heaven? And they'll say, well, I'm a good person. That's interesting, because God said there's none that doeth good. How did you become the only one who does good? And then they'll inevitably say something like, well, I've never killed anybody, to which I say, congratulations. I mean, that's... that's a pretty low bar. I feel like most people haven't killed anybody. And that's probably a good thing. But the American legal system does not define whether you get into heaven or not. Something else they'll say is, well, I've never robbed a bank. Again, You know, congratulations. I'm glad you haven't robbed a bank, especially one where I keep my money. But I feel like most people haven't robbed a bank. I think that's probably a very narrow, small group of people that have robbed banks. There may be more than we would like, but in reference to the population, it's probably a very, very small number, right? And so what the Lord is trying to say is, I'm not asking you if you have murdered someone. Have you been unjustly angry with someone? Have you been angry with someone without a cause, without a real reason to be angry? It's okay to be angry if there's a reason. But if you're angry with someone and it's hindering your relationship, and it's hindering the mood in the church, the mood in the home, the mood in the town, whatever, and you don't really have a reason to be angry, the Lord said that's akin to murder. In fact, that's a precursor to murder. What happens next is a fit of rage in which you do something incredibly stupid and end up killing someone. And you know, I have this interest that I probably shouldn't have in interrogations. You learn a lot about human nature by watching interrogations. And it's a whole thing now. People put all these interrogations of people on YouTube, and I will watch them, and you'll be amazed. at the progression of events that led to what got that person sitting in the seat talking to police. All right. Now, I don't care about the morbid, you know, evil death and all that stuff. What I care about is the interrogation when they're talking to somebody and police have all these methods that they use to break the person down and to discover the series of events that took place that led up to what they finally did. And a lot of times it's a fit of rage where you allowed anger to build in your heart over weeks or months or years, and then finally you exploded and did something really stupid, and then you're sitting there talking to the police like nothing happened. Like, there's not video cameras everywhere. And like, your body doesn't leave traces of itself all over the place. And then they end up in all this trouble and all that. And so, the point is, anger will get you in a lot of trouble. The Lord said, don't be angry. You can be angry and sin not, but you need to get over it. You need to be working towards reconciliation. And then the Lord, now think about this. Does God expect you to give your time to his service? Yes. Does he expect you to give your money to his service? Yes. Does he expect you to give your heart and your mind to his service? The Lord says, I don't want any of that from you until you go fix the broken relationship with your other brother or your other sister in church. You got money you want to give to me? Set it down there. Don't put it in. Just set it down there. Go fix the relationship. Then come back and you can worship me. Till then, I don't want to hear from you. You can't just have broken relationships in a church or in a family and expect things to function properly and the Lord the Lord wants those things to be actively resolved. That might mean you have to get over some things that might mean you have to take some wrong again one of my In fact, hold your place there. Look at 1 Corinthians 6. Let's do this real fast. We don't have time. Miss Pat takes up so much of my time, but this is worth seeing. 1 Corinthians 6. I'm just going to tell you, I wish this verse did not exist. This is the Christian life. This is difficult. It's very hard. 1 Corinthians 6, look at verse 7. For I would that all men were even as my..." 1 Corinthians 6, verse 7. Let me get in the right chapter. Verse 7. Now, therefore, there is utterly a fault among you, because you go to law one with another. Now, listen to this. Why do you not rather take wrong? You understand what God's saying? Why don't you just take it? Yeah, Lord, but he did that. No, no, no. Just take it. Just get over it. But it continues, why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Now, I wish that wasn't in the Bible. I wish God said, gather the church together, take them out back, stone them, and then you get to keep all this stuff. That's not what it says. Like, you don't know what He did to me. Yeah, well, you know what you did to the Lord? And He took it. That's the example. So, you know, I have, we've tried to help people who have trouble with their relationships and, you know, the husband's like, well, you know, she's my wife and she's not doing what she's supposed to. I said, well, you're part of the Bride of Christ, are you doing what you're supposed to? Well, what do you mean? Yeah. Yeah. All right, and so, This is the difficult part of the Christian life. Sometimes you gotta learn to just take things and just let it happen. But what if I lose money or I lose property or I lose this or lose that? According to the Lord, why don't you suffer yourself to be defrauded? Now, I'm not telling you you should just let people take advantage of you. If you know someone is taking advantage of you, the best thing to do is to try to resolve that situation as quickly as you can and then stay away from that person. And if someone in the church is defrauding you, please let me know about it. I'll be happy to talk to them. But everything has to be hashed out. We got to get all the information out on the table and find out who said what, who did what, how it all happened, and all that good stuff. And we'll try our best to resolve it. But for the furtherance of the gospel, for the unity of the church, for the unity of your family, you might just have to take it and get over some stuff. And things may or may not always work out your way. And that's Matthew 5. Matthew 5 is difficult. It's hard. The Lord said, I don't even want to see you until you've resolved all your relationship problems. Which ones? Don't ask me which ones. Go fix them. Restore things. Verses 27 through 32. Here we go again. Ha ha. And if thy right eye offend thee, plug it out, and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery." There's a lot there that we can't get into, but let's just deal with the lust part. Brother Nathan is really the only man in here. This is primarily a problem for men, though it is also a problem for women, but primarily a problem for men. If you see a beautiful woman walking down the street, there is nothing wrong with seeing the beautiful woman. There is nothing wrong with acknowledging that she is a beautiful woman. But that's where it needs to end immediately. Oh, she's pretty. Turn and go the other way. Look the other way. Now, if it goes from she's pretty to, wow, look what she's wearing. Wonder where she's from, wonder who she is, wonder what she's... No, no, now you're venturing into dangerous territory and you're about to, you're about to commit adultery in your mind and in your heart. All right, so seeing a woman say, oh, she's pretty, look at those flowers. Redirect. Flee from fornication. Run away. You don't need to look at her and see if she looks at you and just see how it goes. You don't need to toy with any of that. It's not wrong to know that God made men to desire women. If you see a beautiful woman, she's pretty. Great. No problem. All right. Now, when her image is scarred in my mind and begins to, and I begin to null around how she looks in my mind, now we're moving in a very dangerous direction because thoughts are going to stir up the body. Then the body is going to stir up activity. And then your next thing you know, you're going to be explaining how it was just a mistake. A mistake? No, no, I think you keep saying that word in reference to adultery and fornication. I don't think you know what the word mistake meant. you're misusing the word. And so you just, you got to move on quickly. You don't, you don't dwell on the beauty of another person. Appreciate it. Thank the Lord for it. Move on. Verses 33 through 37. We'll just read to the end of the chapter. We're out of time and I'll make a few notes, but we'll get down to the end of the chapter. So actually 33 through 48. Verse 33, Again ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay. For whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." So when it comes to promising somebody something, just tell them, look I'll do the best I can, these are my intentions, and then follow through with it. But don't go out of your way to guarantee somebody you're going to do something, and then you end up failing and not able to do it. You want to give them your word. Your word should be honorable. It should be kept. But make sure they know that you're going to keep it to the best of your God-given ability, because that's all you can do. You might be on your way and have every intention of doing it right, and then all four of your tires blow up. What are you going to do now? And so you just want to make sure they understand, I will do this, I will do it to the best of my ability, but don't go above and beyond trying to overly promise something that you can't deliver. Versus 38 through 48. 38 through 48, yeah. Yeah, I've heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, shoot him in the knee. Turn to him the other also, apparently. Thanks, Lord. And if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, hang him out back. No, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, tell him I'm tired, I just got off of work and I don't feel like it. Go with him twain. That's the Christian life. Put other people ahead of yourself, give them more than they ask for, and keep your word. I'm telling you, this is an elevated way of living. This is high in the clouds. You need God's help to accomplish all this. Verse 42, Give to him that asketh of thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. And we just keep it that way, right? But I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Now this is where people come up and they start saying, what do you mean? You know exactly what he said. Bless them that curse you. Yeah, but they're cursing me. Yeah, just like they did Jesus Christ. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Now, I struggle with this because my mentality, you know, I grew up in the streets. I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. It was a very violent upbringing. Then I joined the military. Then I spent years training other militaries how to fight wars, and I've gone through all this stuff. So my mentality is fight back. The Lord said, no, just take it. What do you mean, Lord? All right, so, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. For he maketh his Son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the publican so, be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." You know what he said right there at the end? This is how my father would live. This is the way he would do things, so this is what I expect of you. Do it. Amen. Let's pray, and then we'll come back at 1030. Father, we love you. Thank you so much for loving us. Lord, help us as we try and apply these very, very difficult truths to our lives. And they're only difficult because it's so contrary to the way we think and the way we live. And it's so contrary to our emotional makeup. We want to respond to things, and we don't like being mistreated. You're asking us to elevate ourselves above mistreatment and to put others ahead of ourselves, even others who would hate us and use us. Lord, we just pray, God, that you'd help us to apply these truths to our lives and to live in this way. And Lord, what a world it would be for us if we did. We sure thank you for being so good to us. Thank you for loving us. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. We hope you enjoyed this podcast. You can learn more about our ministry by visiting www.plenteusredemption.com. You can hear more Plenteous Redemption podcast audio at www.plenteusredemption.media. Please comment below if this podcast has been a help to you. Also, inform us of future topics that would interest you. Thank you again for listening to the Plenteous Redemption podcast.