Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

You've Heard It Said Pt.11

Let's go back to Matthew and take a little bit of time here in the Lord's teaching on the Sermon on the Mount. As we said, it's not one of those exciting jump-up-and-shout messages, but it's where we live. These principles, as we relate them, aren't just, as we were talking about this morning, something that is doctrinal, but it is practical, every day in the church. This is talking to the church, how the church is to live. It's obvious that within the church there are conflicts. There are times that we would very quickly look to our personal benefit and prosperity and not so much to those that are around us. There is even the temptation within the body of Christ, as we ended this morning's session, to say, "Well, you know, people are always wanting me to help and wanting to borrow my stuff or whatever." Most of us are not this way, but some people still battle along these lines because it is in our flesh. "I've worked hard and I've gotten this." God has blessed you with it. Amen? We never step back and say, "Look what my own hands have produced," but these are the blessings of the Lord, praise God. You can tell the difference. When it is "the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow to it," it's held very loosely. It's that that is used for the glory of God and there is no fear because the source was God's love for us and there is no fear in love. We are talking about all of those principles.

We'll pick back up where we left off this morning. I want to go into verse 43 and see if we can finish the chapter. We'll be referring back to the principles this morning of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. We, as Christians, can never live in that spirit of vengeance or retaliation. I don't want to get sidetracked into this, but I made a statement, and I was making it as a tongue-in-cheek statement last session. I said it's interesting that the teaching on vengeance and retaliation follows the teaching on marriage. How many know that in our marital relationships we can become vengeful and there can be retaliation? It has to do with that spirit of pride and "our feelings are hurt, and we're not being treated right" and that tendency to demand justice instead of being forgiving and loving and seeking the good of the other party. We're going to talk a little about that. Also, I want to make one statement here before we get into the teaching, because I made a comment under my breath and Greer said, "I heard what you said, but I don't think everybody did when you talked about menopause and Dottie." So to clarify, I meant she's a nurse. Okay? Not that she's an example of a raging hormonal maniac. Neil came up to me afterwards and said, "It's all right, don't worry about it." No, but I did make that statement, I said, "If you want to know more, ask Dottie." It was because she is a nurse.

As the Lord is speaking to us here in this fifth chapter, and talking to us about how we relate to our enemies, let me clarify one thing in this that will help you right from the beginning. Many times, when we think of different applications of these words, we isolate to the extreme. We talked this morning about turning the other cheek and not rendering evil for evil and these different things. When we talk about enemies, we're not necessarily talking about mortal enemies, somebody trying to kill you--do good to those who are trying to kill you--it's not talking about doing good to them at the moment. Okay? We're not talking about hazarding our lives. We're not talking about compromising stands for righteousness. Just as we said this morning, as it pertains to the Scripture, "Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away." We realize, then, that if we took that specifically and literally for every time somebody would come and ask us for something, we would feel under obligation to give, wouldn't we? It could come to the place, then, where it crossed other commands and responsibilities that we have clearly defined in the Scriptures. When the ambiguous comes in conflict with the obvious, then, of course, we choose the obvious, and that that we understand. So we saw, as it pertained to giving to those that are asking, we cannot give away the children's bread to dogs--you don't give the tithe to a beggar. There are so many different principles. "But if any provide not for...his own house, he...is worse than an infidel" (1 Timothy 5:8). "That if any would not work, neither should he eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10). There are many principles. When you interpret the Scriptures, make sure it's not in conflict with obvious responsibilities that God has spoken. It's the same here as it relates to enemies. Many times, the enemies of God were not only not blessed, but they were annihilated. God would go in and annihilate whole aspects of peoples--men, women, children, their animals--but that, again, was at the discretion of the vengeance of God. We realize again that this is something that relates to God's hand. That goes over into society. It goes over into conflicts of nations and wars. It has to do with laws of the land, and we see then that there are different laws that have to do with if you take a man's life, then you pay with your own blood. We saw that aspect in the law. Jesus said, "I didn't come to do away with the law." That doesn't mean that people that are enemies of God, or personal enemies of ourselves, are to be given a dispensation beyond what is just and right. He's talking to us about moving into the spirit of love, to be ready to love at all times, and, as the Scripture says, "When we love our enemies we're heaping coals of fire on their head." It's setting an environment. The whole reason to love your enemies is not to be able to project some piety or self-righteousness; it's to set an environment that makes them more receptive to the gospel, to the Jesus that's in us, because it's not natural to love your enemies, is it? This begins to show the working of the spirit that's in us and it becomes very real that there is a supernatural work taking place in our lives.

Let's pick up where we left off this morning, verse 43. "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy." You have heard that it has been said. There is nowhere in the Scriptures that says, "Hate your enemies." Jesus was contending with what? Tradition, with the Pharisees. In fact, throughout the Scriptures, it's just the opposite. Jesus wasn't making up a new law. The Old Testament tells us to love our enemies. It tells us what to do when we find our enemy's donkey or ox in jeopardy, and how to respond. (Exodus 23:4) The Scriptures make it very clear to us that we're not to rejoice when our enemy falls. He's going back and trying to cut across the grain and say, "Don't get caught up in the tradition of the day or the natural tendency of what is acceptable among the religious, but more importantly, come back and touch the heart of God and find out what God's original intent in all of these commandments was." "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies...."

When we're talking about enemies, we made it very clear this morning what was in the mind of a lot of His hearers. They were hearing this--enemies: the Romans, or the Samaritans. That's what they were hearing, the people they were most offended by at this particular moment. The truth of the Scripture is we have to step back into our generation and we're not caught up with the Samaritans that much this week. Has anybody had any trouble with the Samaritans this week? I haven't. I have a little problem still with parts of Rome, but we won't mention any names (the Vatican) oh, okay. We realize this is what they were thinking. Who are our enemies today? Let me define it for you and this will help you a little bit in the definition. When we talk about enemies, we're talking about adversaries, too. Enemies--we always think about someone who is just out to kill us, but we're talking about adversaries. What about business adversaries? What about somebody vying for the same job, what about somebody vying for the same investment possibility? What about somebody vying for the same possible life mate? Oh, now we're getting a little closer to home, aren't we? Enemies aren't always mortal enemies. They are people who are opposing us; they are adversaries, they are competition. We realize how inclusive, then, this term is and the spirit of it and how Jesus is speaking here to us. As He's talking to us about loving our enemies, He says, "Bless them that curse you." That's one extent of our enemies, those that are cursing us. In the day that Jesus lived, these were the people who were actually trying to do ill to the individuals, cursing them, meaning either through an occult-type curse, believing that it would bring some kind of destruction or damage, or just slander, a curse that would be slanderous, that would damage our character or whatever. He turns right back around and says, "Bless them." What does that mean? Send them a $100 check? It means to speak well for someone that's speaking against you. If somebody speaks badly about you, you speak well of them. "You know, for idiots, they are not that bad a people." We try to find something.

Let me stop and say something here. If you are having to work and do it in your head, you are not moving in the right spirit. This should be natural to us. This should be something, where, as we read in the earlier verses, we've taken that cross up; we're not overly sensitive. We have no reputation to lose. Frankly, most of our reputations are self-imposed. We're not what we think we are. "Well, what will people think now?" Probably the truth. You are the one that's all caught up with your reputation. Once we die, though, to our reputations, or the desire for a reputation, this isn't an easy process. Even people like me who are naturally humble, who don't have problems like being competitive or wanting to achieve or whatever, those of us who are naturally docile and content, we still have to contend with these things.

As we went through the process of dealing with the Spirit's voice to us of choosing the old paths, of losing a reputation--I had a reputation going and it wasn't just in this area. Most of you have been around a lot of years and you know that. As I was being put into positions, asked to be president of that newly founded organization that was going to be a nationwide accreditation for Christian schools, working in conjunction with Oral Roberts University, and they asked me to be the president of that. We were being invited to the super churches, and rubbing shoulders with the "Who's Who in Christianity" at that time. The sky was the limit in that one window and God spoke and said, "I'm not pleased with what you are doing. You are building your own kingdom. You are taking the glory to yourself, and you don't even know it." I didn't know it until the Lord spoke to me. I thought I was working for God, and I was smitten in my heart with that. I said, "I have lost--It's true." What are you going to say when God speaks to you? "Well, Lord, you don't understand. This is all for You." We don't know our own hearts. I thought it was. It started that way, and it probably was mostly still that way, but it has to be all that way, doesn't it? Even if it was 80 percent, 90 percent, my heart wasn't right. I was on my way to dying and God loved me and delivered me. As Father spoke that and I began to see these things, He said, "Choose the old paths," and we made those choices. In the midst of all this, the conflicts that arose, the different consequences of seditions in our midst and people from without speaking things that were not edifying, and having those approach you and call you a "has-been." That's the truth--a "has-been." I was young when the guy called me that. How long have we been on this path now? It's been a good while. I was young. It's better than being a never-been, I guess, unless you did it in your own strength. God was blessing us, and God was working, and--don't misunderstand what I'm saying--God was doing great things, but it was getting out of focus.

At the same time I'm experiencing from one segment, people talking about what I could have been and too bad this thing is falling apart, and look at how the ministry has just crumbled there, and all of these things. Then you have people over on this side that were disgruntled, and the slander, and the gossip, and the hatred. People wanted me dead! They weren't just not happy. It was at that time that Willard sent that prophetic word that said, "This is a word for you from the Lord." It was very difficult at that time and it said so clearly what was taking place. "For your love they have hated you. All you wanted was to see people set free from the power of sin and from the power of the world, and the pride of life and for that you've been hated." I began to realize and embrace the fact that they hated Him first. The closer I walk with Him, the more I'm going to be hated of natural man. Count it all joy "...when men...shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake." We were able to, at that period of time, embrace that spirit and that truth. There is nothing more liberating than that absolute freedom to be able to owe no man anything but to love them, to be able to look people in the eye and tell them what God said and not worry about what it's going to cost you, because you no longer have a reputation. You no longer have a life of your own. This is what Jesus is trying to portray here. He's saying, "I want you to come into that realm of being able to crucify this self-life to where you can love your enemies. You can love everybody around you. Love is speaking the truth in love." Amen? Loving your enemies is speaking the truth to them, looking for their deliverance, their edification. Love is not always tolerating what people are doing, because God chastens those that He (what?) loves. Many times, it can be a straight word that's abrasive to the natural. Iron sharpening iron, but it's the spirit of love. To whom? Who is my enemy? My enemy is anybody who is opposing the Spirit of God, because to be a friend of the world's system or to live worldly or contrary to the Word of God is to be at enmity with God. It makes you an enemy of God, an adversary of God, an opponent of God. Another god, another way. Our enemies, then, can even be within this room tonight at times when they are making decisions for the world, if they are bringing another gospel, wanting to set another standard. That's why he says in 2 Thessalonians 3:15, "Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother." There are those even in our midst that could be counted as enemies based upon what they could be involved in.

When Jesus is speaking here about loving our enemies, in our minds we go clear to the nth [degree] and we begin to think of those that are haters of the gospel and they are out trying to start another holy war. The Muslims are going to ride in here on their horses and they are going to massacre our children--and that day could come. This spirit of antichrist is very real in that camp and the unbelievable position and power that that group is receiving and we are the "bad guys." What are we going to do when our enemies take our land and kill our children?

You see we're getting into some--This passage that we're dealing with tonight takes some hard swallowing. What happens to you when somebody murders your children? "Oh well, praise God, I'll just bless them." You didn't understand the question. How can we do this? How is it possible to love your enemies? "Well, okay, I can love the guy that beat me out of twenty bucks, but the guy that just stole my car?" "I can love the guy that embarrassed me in public, but they just molested my child." What do you do? What's happening right now? Is your blood pressure going up just thinking about it? Mine does. We need grace, don't we? We need the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We need to be aware of what is on the horizon. We're going to be contending with the spirit of hatred in this last day. The moment we become retaliatory, vengeful, we can lose our salvation. What allowed our brothers and sisters to endure in the first century, to endure in China, to endure in Uganda? The grace of God. Amen? Let's not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think in this hour. Let's be sober and prayerful. Let's begin to trust in the goodness of God, because the one thing you're going to do in a moment like that is begin to question the goodness of God, the sovereignty of God, the justice of God. Why me? Have you ever asked that, even in the journey to where you are right now? Why me? Why does everybody else have money and I don't have money? Why is everybody else married and I'm not married? Why does everybody else have success and peace and it seems we're always in turmoil? How come they're never sick? In the parable of Jesus, it says, "...his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat... [these lies against God, an inferior doctrine, or leaven in our midst, or whatever else it might be]" (Matthew 13:25).

What I'd like to do in the teaching is broaden your thoughts of what is an enemy and what we have to do to guard our hearts against being vengeful, retaliatory, and hateful. Remember always that when you were the enemy of God, He (what does Romans say?) loved you. Jesus' teaching here takes on a great volume of application. "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them..." Bless them, speak on them salvation. It doesn't mean to send them a $100 bill, but you don't render evil for evil, cursing for cursing, but contrariwise, the Scripture says. Amen? Are you there? How many of you are there? Don't raise your hands. How do you respond to the little injustices, the little things? "Well, that's not right! I got charged three bucks too much for this. The VEPCO guy was rude." We're so sensitive and so preoccupied with self and to be able to rest again in the providence of God, our steps being ordered, the opportunities to do good to those that are cursing us and saying all manner of evil against us. I'd like to get better at it. I need to get better at it. I'm in a place where this is something I have to constantly have to be aware of and that tendency within us to rise up and defend ourselves, and justice, and our perspective of truth. He said, "...do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." "Yeah, I'll pray for them all right. God will be an enemy to my enemies, praise God. He'll bless those that bless me and He'll curse those that curse me." That's the truth. Amen? The thing is to rest in that and not try to instigate it. God will bless those who bless us and curse those who curse us; "...vengeance is [His; He] will repay..." Amen? That's what this whole teaching is about. Resting in the goodness of God and realizing that we're to pray for those people that are speaking contrary, that are despitefully using us and persecuting us. Why? So we may be the children of our Father which is in Heaven. Guess what? He's the One that's sending rain upon the unjust. He's the One that's blessing the unlovely, prospering the sinner. Does that bug you? Does it bug you that people that are sinners are prospering and doing well and you're having to war, and battle, and scrape through? The Psalmist said that it bothered him and then, "I went to the house of the Lord, and I realized there is going to be a final day of justice and it's not necessarily now." He began to rest in the mercy of God, in the goodness of God.

We realize then, "For if ye love them which love you [verse 46], what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect [mature, complete], even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." As Jesus brings this mandate, we see how we're to respond to those who are our enemies, to those that are in opposition to this course that we're on. Let me give you a couple of Scriptures here with this in mind and see what the biblical principle is. Turn to Proverbs with me for just a moment and with the foundational principles set there in Matthew, let me just give you a couple of things to put into your notes and see if we can find something that can help us on a daily basis. Proverbs 24, verse 17, and we related to it a little bit earlier, is the core of the spirit of this thing. Most of us at this time don't have mortal enemies. We do have, however, people that we're in opposition against in the secular, the financial world, as I said, even here in our social relationships. What do we do? What is the spirit that the Lord is speaking to us? He says in Proverbs, it's interesting. Verse 17, look at it. "Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth." It's pretty straightforward; think about it. How about when that person here in the fellowship that everything always goes right for them and they finally get their just--Just like everybody else, they finally experience that life isn't a bed of roses, and we just kind of at times--Do you ever get a twinge of--And then your next response is, "Oh, Lord, bless them, Lord." Is it ever in there? Do you ever sense, do you know what I'm talking about? Anybody? I guess not, I guess we're all in good shape and never have that problem. This is why all of those rags, gossip things, are so popular, because it's natural in man. You just want to see the people that are on top come down. Why do you think everybody roots against you guys in Tennessee? Have you ever noticed nobody likes us down there? Why? It's because we're number one! We go in seeded number one. We have more people, we have more talent, and we're better looking. They want to see us fall; it's in man. Not in us, I know you don't deal with that, but people--It can go anywhere from, "It serves them right," to "Well, you know, it will be a reality check, everything doesn't always go right for people; they can't win everything."

When your enemy--It can get as absolutely mundane, as we were talking about basketball. The rivalries and, "Man, I'm glad to see them--" You have nothing invested and some of you are exercised over the win/loss of the basketball tournament that's going on this week. It's still going on, right, the NCAA thing, the March Madness? When the rival team gets beat, it's, "Yeah, serves them right. I hate those guys." You don't know any of them; they've never done anything to you! This spirit that's in man of rivalry and wanting to see our enemies fall and get their just--It's that spirit of vengeance, and hatred. Next year, when the Forty Niners make this miraculous comeback and win the Super Bowl, you should be glad for them and bless them, praise God! Everybody in the church should wear Pittsburgh Steelers jerseys just to honor Tony. You get it into even those little mundane things and you can see the spirit that's in man.

Can you bless your enemies? Are you genuinely happy when those around you prosper? I have trouble being happy for people that beat me. If I'm competing in something, I mean it doesn't--If it has to do with who gets away from the stop light first. Sometimes, I'm too competitive, I hate losing. I hate losing! I told our guys yesterday, I did get a smile out of them for the picture, though. It's tough at a time like that and the loss they took and they should have won. I told the guys just as they were getting ready to snap the picture, I said, "Look guys, it is a fact that second place is like kissing your sister. But, we have a good-looking sister!" You have to find something positive, right? I have trouble, I have trouble with this. I have trouble when I lose a race, being happy for that person. Don't mistake what I'm saying. I'm not saying I want them to crash and burn. I want two things. First of all, I'm upset they beat me, but then I become kind of a fan, because if they win, I don't look so bad. You got beat by the winner so at least you're not a chump.

This is an ugly spirit in us, isn't it? I know none of you contend with that. We found that out earlier in the night but the admonition is, do not rejoice when your enemy falls. How about Clinton? We don't know him. None of us has a relationship with him. We just know about him, but some of us would have loved to have seen him tarred and feathered, run out, or hung. I'm not condoning injustice; I'm not condoning all of the wrongs. I'm just saying, "What's in your heart?" He's a person just like us. He needs to be born again. He needs to be set free. He is bound by his flesh; he's bound by satanic wiles. He's under the influence of the spirit of antichrist through politics, many of the different things, but the man needs to be saved. Amen? Let's take it a step further. Do you think you could love Hillary? I know I'm stretching it. These are the facts. This is where we are living, and the Scripture says, Proverbs 25:21, "If thine enemy be hungry [what are we supposed to do?], give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink." This is not talking about, as I shared this morning, being in conflict, but if I'm walking down the street and the person who has been speaking all manner of evil against me, trying to take over my business. In the days this was written, the guy is grazing his animals on my property and he's robbing my corn, and I know for a fact that he killed my ox, and now here is his ox. This guy is lying alongside the road, and he's been injured, and his ox is in jeopardy. What does the Scripture say to do? Refresh the man, give him food, give him some water, relieve his animal, and send him on his way. That's the spirit of the God we're serving. Amen? When our enemy is in our hands, we should have King Saul speak back to us, "You are more noble than I am. You are more righteous than I am, David." David was smitten that he even just cut the hem of Saul's garment off, that he passed judgment on him. He didn't even do anything to harm him physically. He just mocked him, and then was smitten in his heart. How can you touch the anointed of the Lord?

We realize it's not about our enemies and having to come up with some type of justice. It's coming up with the condition of our own hearts. Are we truly free from self-vindication, from self-righteousness, from self-imposed justices? In other words, are we trusting in the sovereignty of God, the justice of God? Because "Vengeance is mine," is really speaking of justice. "Justice belongs to me," says the Lord, "I will repay; My way, My time." Are we ready to live there? That's basically what the Spirit of God is trying to say to us here. That's why Paul speaks again in Romans, Chapter 12, over in verse 20. You can look over there with us and see, "Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head." It's the same thing that David did to Saul. We would expect, then, that we would be treated fairly from that moment on and people would realize we are righteous, and we're trustworthy, and we should be treated fairly. That's not how our enemies will always respond, but we have heaped coals of fire on their head, we have presented to them righteousness. That's why when we are out in public and we are sharing the gospel with them, and we're sharing what God is doing in our lives and in our families. How many times do you run into backsliding people and your testimony smites their hearts? These are the enemies of God! When we find out they are backslidden, we're not repulsed. This is the opportunity of one of the lost, to be able to see one of them reached, and we begin to speak to them the love of God and the goodness of God. Are you repulsed by the Muslims, by the drug addicts, by a youth culture that it's tragic, the bondage they are under? These are all the enemies of our belief system, of our God, and yet the Scripture says that we were the enemies of God and when we were, He loved us, and we're to respond in that same love.

There are just so many aspects that we can get into, but Romans 15:1 says, concerning responding to those that are in fellowship with us and our neighbors and those that we're in relationship to, "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves." Those of us that have this capacity to be free from self, to walk in this realm that we're talking about, we don't live to please ourselves, but every one of us pleases his neighbor for his good, the Scripture says, to edification. Romans 13:10 says, "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." We try to get that application in every opportunity where we are walking and fulfilling the love of God.

Let me finish with this for this evening. Leviticus 19, turn over there, and we're going to talk a little bit on this last aspect about retaliation or vengeance. I wanted to deal more with just the spirit of loving and knowing who our neighbor is, this need of dying to self, but it becomes very clear in the Scriptures. Leviticus 19, verse 18, "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord." This is what Jesus was reiterating in His sermon. The one thing that we're trying to portray at all times is the goodness of God. God is good; no one else and nothing else is. When I talk about good, I'm not just talking about moral. I'm talking about just; I'm talking about holy, separate, distinct in all things. Everything in the world's system, the temporal realm, is defiled. How can we give them a glimpse of what the blood of Jesus is capable of doing but in the heart that doesn't respond in vengeance and hatred, and can bless when cursed, and can do good when trespassed against? It's totally contrary for the children of Adam. He makes it very clear to us.

Proverbs, Chapter 20, get these in your notes. We're going to try to go through them rapidly here. We're out of time. "Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee" (Proverbs 20:22). "Say not I will recompense... but wait on the Lord." I think this is the one key admonition we need. Just wait on God, God is good. He is just; He is going to bring these things to pass. He's going to do in your life everything that's right. The reason that you experience that injustice, the reason that you experience that tragedy, that violation of yourself, has an eternal purpose in it. God is going to work this situation for your good. "Yeah, but I hate the circumstances as they are now." It's going to work for your good, praise God! This whole thing comes back to that ability to rest in God and His goodness and not demand immediate justice based upon your limited perspective. I don't know about you, but I'm a guy who wants stuff fixed now. I want it right now! I want it fixed, bless God, this thing taken care of. How about as Americans, how tough is it? We have rights, don't we? "Bless God, I've got rights. You've trespassed, this thing, we're going to court! You're not going to treat my--You're going to hear from my lawyer." One good thing that would come out of this, if people would begin to practice this, at least we would get rid of lawyers. (Sorry, Donna. Thank God for Donna. We know one good lawyer.) Think about this for just a moment. Are we going to judge God? Are we going to say, then, we are subject to fate? Those people had power over me and God could do nothing about it. God was not good, He allowed these people to come, so I'm going to retaliate. I'm going to bring vengeance, the wrath of God! Was that in that movie, Tombstone, where that one guy was saying he was the wrath of God, or was that another movie? I can't remember, this one guy was making reference to the fact that he was setting stuff right, he was the wrath of God, the vengeance of God in this particular situation. We are not. We wait on the Lord. Because the force behind--this is the thing that gets tough--these people, they are puppets of satanic power; they need to be set free. I don't have time to go there right now but, "...And such were some of you..." Amen? That's what we forget. I don't know about you, but if somebody had exercised vengeance upon me at times that it should have been and I experienced what should have been my just desserts at that moment, I would have been dead a long time before I got saved. I'm glad God is patient and loving, and has an eternal justice at hand. "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."

First Peter 3:9, "Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing." God wants to turn these things for our good. That's the rest that Jesus is speaking of. That's the response of blessing our enemies. The hatred that humanity has for our Father, and the love that He returns. We say, "I just can't comprehend how God could love this ugliness in all these people." We were one of them. Amen?

Father, thank You for Your love. Help us to be the image of Your love, that men could see this in us and glorify our Father which is in heaven. That we could be called the sons of our Father, the children of our God in the midst of a generation of self-imposed justice and rights, a people whose hope is in the Lord, whose boast is in the Lord, a people who can bless those that curse, those that mock our beliefs. We don't cower down and fail to speak the truth; we just don't retaliate. We don't say evil, we don't make snide remarks; we just speak the truth of God. We expose the spirit of antichrist, the working of the devil. We identify and say, "Look, I was one of you, but God has redeemed me. The scales have fallen from my eyes. I used to believe what you believe; I used to do what you do. Once I was blind, but now I see." Can you not even cope with those in our midst that are brothers and sisters that are blessed and prospering, that you can't even speak blessing upon your brethren? A jealousy, a questioning of God's justice and goodness, the ability to rejoice when a brother or sister prospers in our midst; that's what lets us rejoice and bless our enemies. Start with your brother and we'll mature as it pertains to our enemies. Father, we ask that You would make this real, in Jesus' name, amen.

Let's stand together. Start with your brother, start with your wife, start with your husband, start with your children, start with your parents. The spirit of this enemy is those who are opposing you at the moment, opposing your will, in conflict with you. How do you respond? How much of you is still alive in there? "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). Let's take a moment as Gary plays for us and just allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us. These are hard sayings to the natural mind, but they are so liberating and refreshing to the spirit, as we look and say, "Praise God, thank You, Lord, for loving me while I was Your enemy. How can I not love those, how can I go and take that man by the throat and cast him into prison for what he owes me when I've been forgiven a debt that can't be paid? Yet I am going to hold people accountable to me? I'm going to be bitter against my parents, my spouse, that person that offended me, that person that took advantage of me, that person that hurt me? I'm not going to retaliate physically, but I hope they get what they deserve." They deserve you praying for them, they deserve you blessing them. "Set them free, Father, heal their lives, save their souls. Let them come to know Your love as I have, Father." Be set free of your vengeance, and your hatred, and your unforgiveness tonight and love as you've been loved.

Let's sing it together, Lord, Here Am I. Hallelujah! Father, help us to love as we've been loved and to be light and salt, to be the children of our God. Be glorified in our midst, Father, as we love as we've been loved. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen! Turn to somebody next to you and say, "Love your enemies." Amen. Go in peace, God's love go with

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