SPEAKER_00: Matthew 5, verse 38.
SPEAKER_00: You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.
SPEAKER_00: But I say to you, don't resist the one who is evil.
SPEAKER_00: But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
SPEAKER_00: And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
SPEAKER_00: Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And I will tell you this about the word of the Lord here.
SPEAKER_00: This is where the rubber meets the proverbial road.
SPEAKER_00: This is where the integrity of your Christian profession is put on display.
SPEAKER_00: So it's helpful to zoom out a little bit and remember what's happening in the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: The Sermon on the Mount begins with a very clear explanation of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It begins by Jesus saying in Matthew 5, verse 3, Blessed are the poor in spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who realize that spiritually speaking, their pockets are empty.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who realize that when it comes to righteousness, they are impoverished.
SPEAKER_00: They're spiritually bankrupt.
SPEAKER_00: That's the foundation.
SPEAKER_00: So you can't really fit through the eye of that needle here.
SPEAKER_00: You can't get into this sermon and understand anything else, especially today's passage, if you didn't start in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: If you encounter this passage and say, you know what, morally speaking, I'm pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: Morally speaking, I am able to stand before God.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need an outside righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: I am actually okay when it comes to righteousness, then the kind of passage we read this morning is not going to make sense to you.
SPEAKER_00: You encounter this sermon by saying, I am spiritually broke.
SPEAKER_00: I do not have a righteousness of my own.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, that breaks to you, Matthew 5, verse 4, you mourn over your lack of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: You grieve that you do not have standing before God.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not it's not sufficient to know that you are spiritually broke.
SPEAKER_00: You have to move beyond that to grieving over your spiritual condition.
SPEAKER_00: And that still isn't sufficient, of course.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5 is where the pieces begin to come together.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the meek.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who have surrendered then.
SPEAKER_00: You realize your spiritual condition.
SPEAKER_00: You realize you're spiritually bankrupt.
SPEAKER_00: You realize you're spiritually in poverty.
SPEAKER_00: You mourn over that.
SPEAKER_00: And as a result, you throw yourself at the feet of the Lord and you say, Lord, I surrender to you.
SPEAKER_00: I need a righteousness outside of myself.
SPEAKER_00: That's where Jesus goes next.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: I need a righteousness that is outside of me.
SPEAKER_00: I need to experience that righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: It cannot be my own.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: So I surrender myself to you.
SPEAKER_00: So being a Christian is not the same thing as believing in just that Jesus is true or the Bible is true.
SPEAKER_00: Hell will be filled with people who believe that Jesus is who he said he is.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Jesus is going to say that later in Matthew 7 in the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: Hell is going to be filled with those who know that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave.
SPEAKER_00: They know that the Bible is the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: But they're in hell.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because they never were broken over their sin, they never mourned their spiritual condition, and they never surrendered themselves to the will of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They never were converted.
SPEAKER_00: Or to use John's language, they were never born again.
SPEAKER_00: They lived their own life.
SPEAKER_00: They lived for themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They protected themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They put forward themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They trusted themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They were not meek.
SPEAKER_00: If you recall from our study of meekness, A.W.
SPEAKER_00: Pink wrote, A meek person patiently receives injuries and insults with the belief that it will be God who finds a way to defend us.
SPEAKER_00: That's the expression of meekness.
SPEAKER_00: That you surrender yourself to the will of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You say, I don't need to defend myself.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to put myself forward.
SPEAKER_00: If the Lord wants to defend me, he can defend me.
SPEAKER_00: A person who is meek, who has surrendered to the Lord, says, Lord, listen, there's no point in both of us staying up all night.
SPEAKER_00: You don't sleep, you stay up all night, you watch out for me, you protect me, you defend me.
SPEAKER_00: A person lies about you and you say, you know what, I don't need to defend myself.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord knows the truth, he can defend myself.
SPEAKER_00: It's up to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I think of biblical examples of this.
SPEAKER_00: David is, of course, the one that comes to mind.
SPEAKER_00: David was the rightful king of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He should have been on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: Saul had withheld that from him.
SPEAKER_00: Not only did Saul had taken that and persecuted David and pursued him, and David didn't avenge himself.
SPEAKER_00: David didn't put Saul to death.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, David fled.
SPEAKER_00: He removed himself from the situation and he fled.
SPEAKER_00: When he had the opportunity to avenge himself, he didn't take it.
SPEAKER_00: He'd surrendered to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The second time, when David was overthrown by Absalom, Absalom overthrew David, ran him out of the country.
SPEAKER_00: David's soldiers would have fought for him, and David said, No, he's not going to defend himself.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to be thrown out of the country, cross the Jordan River, and again, go weep on the other side of the Jordan, outside of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And David said, Listen, if the Lord wants me back, the Lord can bring me back.
SPEAKER_00: David even told his soldiers, You don't need to go, don't kill Absalom.
SPEAKER_00: Let him live.
SPEAKER_00: And it was exactly what happened.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, David's soldiers did bring him back.
SPEAKER_00: David's soldiers did put Absalom to death.
SPEAKER_00: And Joab rebukes David and said, You're disgracing your men.
SPEAKER_00: But in David's mind, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: It's all up to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That is the picture of the person who surrendered to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That was not the picture of the Pharisees or the Jews by and large during Jesus' lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: They did want to defend themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They did want to put themselves forward.
SPEAKER_00: They had the motto if you don't defend yourself, nobody else will.
SPEAKER_00: I think so much of the Sermon on the Mount, I kind of have to show you what Judaism was like during Jesus' lifetime for you to understand what Jesus was critiquing.
SPEAKER_00: But not this one, because Americans are pretty good with this one.
SPEAKER_00: It's part and parcel of our Americana lifestyle that we have rights, we can defend ourselves, we have the right to defend ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We have rights.
SPEAKER_00: Don't tread on me.
SPEAKER_00: It's on your license plates.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus comes along and says, if you've surrendered yourself to the Lord, you have given him the responsibility of defending yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Everything is hypothetical until someone slaps you in the face.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where Jesus goes.
SPEAKER_00: Now he gets there through the window of what's called the Lexalianus, the law of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, the law of justice in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 39, you've heard that it was said an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
SPEAKER_00: He's quoting the Lex Talianus.
SPEAKER_00: It's a very well-known legal principle from the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: It's three times in the Old Testament: Exodus 21, Leviticus 24, Deuteronomy 19.
SPEAKER_00: It's a judicial principle that governs Old Testament legal ethics.
SPEAKER_00: The punishment must fit the crime, in other words.
SPEAKER_00: You don't put somebody to death for stealing.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody punches you in the face, you don't get to kill them.
SPEAKER_00: It's a legal principle that says there's the same set of laws for everybody in society, and those laws are just.
SPEAKER_00: That's the principle.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus says, you've heard that it was said here, remember he's not saying something that the Jews were quoting that's wrong.
SPEAKER_00: All of the time so far, next week will be different, but all the time so far that he said this, he's followed it with a true statement.
SPEAKER_00: For example, you've heard that it was said, don't murder.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's it's good not to murder, right?
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament does say that.
SPEAKER_00: That's the sixth commandment, don't murder.
SPEAKER_00: You've heard it was said, don't commit adultery.
SPEAKER_00: That's the seventh commandment.
SPEAKER_00: Don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament is right when it says don't commit adultery.
SPEAKER_00: Don't divorce your wife.
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament forbids that.
SPEAKER_00: It's a true statement.
SPEAKER_00: And here this morning, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
SPEAKER_00: That is a true principle established in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, we don't have time for this to go through all these passages.
SPEAKER_00: I wish we had an infinite amount of time, but you can study these in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: All three uses of Lex Talianus in the Old Testament, all three uses are in the courtroom.
SPEAKER_00: The first, Exodus 21, is about a fight.
SPEAKER_00: Two guys are fighting, and one dude punches the other and one throws a punch and misses and hits a pregnant woman.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens to the pregnant woman if she's injured?
SPEAKER_00: If the baby is stillborn, if you killed the baby?
SPEAKER_00: Or if the baby is maimed, or if the woman is maimed, what's the consequence for that?
SPEAKER_00: And Exodus 21 spells that out.
SPEAKER_00: If the baby dies, the person who hits her is put to death.
SPEAKER_00: But if the baby's just injured, then the person who hit the mom is injured.
SPEAKER_00: Or it can just be a fine.
SPEAKER_00: You negotiate the fine, and it should be equitable.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first time you see Lextelianus in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting that you see it in the context of establishing the sanctity of the unborn life, the sanctity of human life.
SPEAKER_00: If a baby is in the womb and you hit that baby hard enough, the baby dies, you are put to death in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: But somebody punches your pregnant wife, you may want that person put to death.
SPEAKER_00: Like who hits a pregnant woman?
SPEAKER_00: Seriously?
SPEAKER_00: But you can't put the person to death if the baby is fine and your wife is fine.
SPEAKER_00: The guy's got to pay you a fine and move on with it.
SPEAKER_00: And if you can't sort it out, Moses says, go before a judge, and the judge renders the fine according to Lex Teleonis.
SPEAKER_00: Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
SPEAKER_00: The judge will punish accordingly.
SPEAKER_00: So notice it's a statement about what kind of verdict a judge should render.
SPEAKER_00: The second time you see it, Leviticus 24.
SPEAKER_00: And in that context, that's an insane story also.
SPEAKER_00: In that context, there's a guy who's half Israelite, half Egyptian.
SPEAKER_00: And he blasphemes Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: And the Jews arrest him and they bring him before Moses, and they don't know if it would have if he had been a Jew, he would have been put to death.
SPEAKER_00: But he's half Egyptian.
SPEAKER_00: What do you do with him?
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord says, here's what you do.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, all punishment deserves an equitable crime.
SPEAKER_00: If you steal, you repay four sheep.
SPEAKER_00: If you kill, you pay with your life.
SPEAKER_00: And that will be whether you're a foreigner or you're a Jew.
SPEAKER_00: Egyptian Jew doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter if one of your parents is Egyptian and the other not.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody gets the same punishment.
SPEAKER_00: Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, so put the blasphemer to death.
SPEAKER_00: And you realize, whoa.
SPEAKER_00: Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
SPEAKER_00: So you blaspheme God and you die?
SPEAKER_00: Is that the eye part?
SPEAKER_00: What is that?
SPEAKER_00: And you start to realize, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
SPEAKER_00: It's a legal principle that means justice.
SPEAKER_00: You can't punish a foreigner more severely than a Jew, and you can't punish a foreigner less severely than a Jew.
SPEAKER_00: It's one set of laws for everyone.
SPEAKER_00: That's eye for an eye, tooth for tooth.
SPEAKER_00: It's an expression that means justice.
SPEAKER_00: Don't show favoritism if you're a judge.
SPEAKER_00: A third time you see it in Deuteronomy 19.
SPEAKER_00: And this is great.
SPEAKER_00: False witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: If you testify falsely against somebody and you're found out, what punishment should you get?
SPEAKER_00: America has moved away from this one.
SPEAKER_00: Like in America, if you're found out to commit perjury, nothing happens.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you might get, if you're a politician, you might get a bad news cycle.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, if you commit perjury against someone, whatever the sentence would have been for that person becomes your sentence.
SPEAKER_00: If you say, I saw that guy steal a sheep and you didn't see him steal a sheep, you lose four of your sheep.
SPEAKER_00: If you say, I heard that guy blaspheme and he didn't blaspheme, it's you that's put to death.
SPEAKER_00: And then Moses says, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
SPEAKER_00: That's justice.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a good ethic.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not saying that's a bad ethic.
SPEAKER_00: It is a great ethic for the courtroom.
SPEAKER_00: So much American law flows from this kind of ethic.
SPEAKER_00: We have the same principle, you can't have unusual punishments.
SPEAKER_00: It's enshrined in our Constitution.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
SPEAKER_00: The punishment should fit the crime, in other words.
SPEAKER_00: It's a great legal principle.
SPEAKER_00: It is designed to have a just and equitable society.
SPEAKER_00: However, it is not designed to regulate individual relationships.
SPEAKER_00: It's not designed to regulate your dynamics with your neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: It's designed for a judge, not for you.
SPEAKER_00: You know, so your neighbor borrows something of yours and breaks it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't say, hey, eye for an eye, tooth or tooth, I'm gonna come into your house tomorrow and choose something to break.
SPEAKER_00: Your neighbor drives on your grass and you're like, all right, eye for an eye, tooth or tooth, I'm driving on your grass.
SPEAKER_00: But if you approach your interpersonal relationships with this idea of justice means revenge, then you embrace this ethic, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: If you're about keeping lists, checking them twice, not Santa Claus style, revenge style.
SPEAKER_00: You wrong me, you won't know when, you won't know where, but you'll know why.
SPEAKER_00: That was so much of the Jewish ethic during Jesus' lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: Like I have rights, and I will defend myself, I will defend my rights, and if you wrong me, you will pay.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus steps into that world and says, verse 39, I say to you, do not resist the evil one.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody's doing evil, Jesus says, do not resist him.
SPEAKER_00: Now that bothers us.
SPEAKER_00: Because we are all about rights.
SPEAKER_00: This is why you don't have to go back to Israel for this one.
SPEAKER_00: You can be just happy with our American culture right here.
SPEAKER_00: If somebody wrongs you, you want to defend yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, do not resist the evil person.
SPEAKER_00: I don't often give you Greek words, but here's a fun one.
SPEAKER_00: The word for evil person here?
SPEAKER_00: It's a great Greek word.
SPEAKER_00: We have the same one in English.
SPEAKER_00: It's anahistamine.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, what a great word.
SPEAKER_00: Something's lodged in your sinuses or your nasal cavity, and it's aggravating you, and your body should be fighting it off, right?
SPEAKER_00: Your body's designed to fight off those kind of infections, but this is like fighting your body back, and there's a war inside your nose over this.
SPEAKER_00: It's a great translation in English, the evil one.
SPEAKER_00: It's even from the Greek word for flower.
SPEAKER_00: You know, hay fever is evil.
SPEAKER_00: There's somebody evil in society, and he's after you.
SPEAKER_00: He should be driven away, but he's not, and he's after you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, do not resist him.
SPEAKER_00: And you say that, come on.
SPEAKER_00: If I don't defend myself, who will?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is pretty straightforward.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord will.
SPEAKER_00: This is why I say it's like super practical.
SPEAKER_00: Your Christianity is on display here.
SPEAKER_00: Here's where your Christianity goes from being hypothetical to actual.
SPEAKER_00: Do you really believe God will defend you?
SPEAKER_00: Now, we approach a passage like this and we want to justify it, we want to make excuses, we want to define what it doesn't say, and I think that's that's helpful in a sense.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say don't resist evil.
SPEAKER_00: Because you know the Bible can't contradict the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're reading a passage of the Bible that contradicts somewhere else in the Bible, then you're reading one of those two passages wrong.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible definitely commands you to resist evil.
SPEAKER_00: James 4, verse 7, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
SPEAKER_00: So you are called to resist the evil one in all caps.
SPEAKER_00: He's not talking about the devil.
SPEAKER_00: This is not an ethic for nations.
SPEAKER_00: God designs nations to check each other.
SPEAKER_00: One nation rises, another nation puts them down.
SPEAKER_00: God designs the world post-Babel for there to be conflict and wars to check evil.
SPEAKER_00: This is not designed for police.
SPEAKER_00: The police are supposed to check the evil worker.
SPEAKER_00: The police are supposed to come, and if you're a police officer and you see someone committing a crime, you're supposed to arrest them.
SPEAKER_00: You're not supposed to say, hey, I'm not supposed to resist you.
SPEAKER_00: This is not designed for church discipline.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard people say, hey, churches shouldn't practice church discipline because that's resisting the evil one.
SPEAKER_00: No, the New Testament commands very clearly to put the evil worker out of the church.
SPEAKER_00: It's not designed to talk about nations, it's not designed to talk about the devil, it's not designed to talk about the police, it's not designed to talk about church discipline, it is designed to talk about you.
SPEAKER_00: Do not resist the evil one.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus doesn't leave you guessing.
SPEAKER_00: He gives us examples.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to work through those examples, but of the examples he gives us, there's four of them.
SPEAKER_00: The overarching principle behind all of them is that you don't have any rights.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have any rights.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why this rubs us so as an American, you know, we are con we have the Constitution, and it be it begins after the preamble, it begins with the bill of.
SPEAKER_00: So how can you say I don't have any rights?
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus does.
SPEAKER_00: And he's gonna give some very practical examples.
SPEAKER_00: I've mentioned what it's not covering.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you what it is covering.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, he says, you don't have rights over your body.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 39, if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other cheek also.
SPEAKER_00: This goes against everything in us.
SPEAKER_00: If somebody punches you, you want to punch back.
SPEAKER_00: I read an article in GQ magazine a while ago titled How to Win a Bar Fight.
SPEAKER_00: Step one is seize the element of surprise.
SPEAKER_00: Do something like throw your keys at the person or throw your drink at the person.
SPEAKER_00: Step two is punch first.
SPEAKER_00: Throw the first punch.
SPEAKER_00: It was a good article.
SPEAKER_00: I remember it to this day.
SPEAKER_00: Never been in a bar fight, but I know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian approach to that is probably don't get in a bar fight.
SPEAKER_00: But notice what Jesus is saying is so counter the way we think.
SPEAKER_00: It's not element of surprise and punch first.
SPEAKER_00: It's you get punched first, give him the other cheek to punch also.
SPEAKER_00: Now, commentators all point out, every every single commentator points out, that this is talking about a backhanded slap, which is apparently was a thing in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: You know that because you would strike with your right hand if you're struck on your right cheek, then you were hit with a backhand.
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand the dynamics of that, but this is what every book says, so I'll deliver it unto you.
SPEAKER_00: But I did read part of the law code that governed Jerusalem at this time says this if you commit assault, if you punch someone, it's a$200 fine.
SPEAKER_00: Unless your punch draws blood, or you pulled out their hair, you spit on them, you pulled the coat off their back, or you loosed a woman's hair, or you struck the person with your backhand, then it's a$400 fine.
SPEAKER_00: So it's like an aggravating circumstance, you would say, in our American system.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just simple assault, it's aggravated assault if it's your backhand.
SPEAKER_00: So that's where Jesus goes.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody backhands you, which is more grievous than just punching you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, give him the other cheek also.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to defend your own face.
SPEAKER_00: And you think, but I do have to defend my own face.
SPEAKER_00: It belongs to me.
SPEAKER_00: That person wronged me.
SPEAKER_00: He needs to pay for wronging me.
SPEAKER_00: It's me.
SPEAKER_00: This is mine.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what Jesus said in our passage last week?
SPEAKER_00: You can't.
SPEAKER_00: You think your head belongs to you?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna swear by your head?
SPEAKER_00: You can't make your hair go gray, or you can't make your hair grow ungray.
SPEAKER_00: You think your head belongs to you?
SPEAKER_00: You can't even do anything with your head.
SPEAKER_00: Your head belongs to the Lord, not you.
SPEAKER_00: And now, two verses later, you're gonna be like, alright, I'm gonna fight over my head.
SPEAKER_00: Whose head is it?
SPEAKER_00: We established that last week.
SPEAKER_00: Your head belongs to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Turning the other cheek says, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: You hit me once, do it again.
SPEAKER_00: The willingness to endure and Further insult and abuse shows the Christians resolve not to retaliate.
SPEAKER_00: The opposite of keeping score, the opposite of taking names and getting revenge is this.
SPEAKER_00: Here's my other cheek.
SPEAKER_00: Now, don't make this say more than it does.
SPEAKER_00: Because what it says should be sufficient to convict you.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody slaps you, are you really giving them the other cheek?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's that's what we're talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: Don't go further than what it says to make it become ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus doesn't say if somebody's gonna murder you, let him murder you, for example.
SPEAKER_00: He uses the example of a slap, not of a sword.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say if somebody cuts off your right ear, let him cut off your left ear also, you know?
SPEAKER_00: We're dealing with somebody who's slapping you.
SPEAKER_00: And in that kind of context, if you actually want to play this out in your mind, in the kind of context where you're being punched, it is more likely than not that letting the guy punch you a second time is gonna diffuse the situation more than ramping it up.
SPEAKER_00: If we're just being honest.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody punches you, odds are decent you probably deserved it.
SPEAKER_00: He punches you a second time, it's probably gonna die there.
SPEAKER_00: Versus you being like, hey, I have the second amendment.
SPEAKER_00: That escalates.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't diffuse.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is about diffusing the situation.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say surrender your body to somebody who is hurting you.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say don't get out of a dangerous situation.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the way Jesus models this ethic in his own life is a very good window of it.
SPEAKER_00: Let's assume, for the sake of our discussion, that Jesus actually lives what he preaches here.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus was threatened with violence, what did he do?
SPEAKER_00: He got out of town.
SPEAKER_00: You know, in Nazareth, they're gonna throw him off a cliff.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus just leaves.
SPEAKER_00: You wanna throw me off the cliff?
SPEAKER_00: See ya.
SPEAKER_00: And they can't do anything to him.
SPEAKER_00: He's gone.
SPEAKER_00: That's his normal way of responding to violence, is he just bounces.
SPEAKER_00: But the word here for striking, it's a very unusual word.
SPEAKER_00: It's used again in Matthew's gospel at the end of Matthew's gospel, when the soldiers grab Jesus and they blindfold him and they strike him.
SPEAKER_00: And he lets them do it again.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say, don't call the police if someone hits you.
SPEAKER_00: No, you need to call the police if someone hits you, because it's their job to bear the sword.
SPEAKER_00: The point is, this is not yours.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say if somebody's gouging out your eye, let him do it.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Lex Taliana says, too, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: If somebody plucks out your eye, their eye gets plucked out.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says here, listen, I'm not talking about gouging out the eye, I'm talking about somebody slapping you.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody humili it's humiliating.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody who humiliates you in public.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get revenge.
SPEAKER_00: Let him do it again.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to defend yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have the right to not be humiliated.
SPEAKER_00: You can be humiliated.
SPEAKER_00: It's up to the Lord's providence.
SPEAKER_00: Turning the other cheek is a principle that says, I will not fight back, but I will leave the execution of judgment to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Martin Lloyd Jones has a wonderful comment about this passage of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Christians become legalists at exactly this verse.
SPEAKER_00: We come to this verse and we say, I don't want to talk about the heart.
SPEAKER_00: I want to find the loophole.
SPEAKER_00: We become Pharisees with this verse.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, show me in this verse the exception clauses that I can hit the guy back, because that's what I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: We look for loopholes in the clear teaching of Christ to justify our own self-protection.
SPEAKER_00: But this passage is not about self-protection, it's about surrendering your own self to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Not just in your flesh, but in your mind and in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Calvin wrote in this passage very clearly: Christ holds back our hands from revenge just as much as he holds back our minds.
SPEAKER_00: That's the hard issue here.
SPEAKER_00: It's not enough just to not punch the guy who punches you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying, you hold back that desire in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You check your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You belong to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord tells you, do not resist an evildoer.
SPEAKER_00: You let the police resist the evildoer, but not you.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody embarrasses you, it's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Let them do it again.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody slaps you, that's alright.
SPEAKER_00: Let them do it again.
SPEAKER_00: Don't resist the evildoer.
SPEAKER_00: But again, this is not talking about somebody's gonna take your life.
SPEAKER_00: And this is not talking about, you know, don't call the police.
SPEAKER_00: This is talking about interpersonal relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine if you were, you know, somebody hits you and you call the police, and the dispatcher says, you know, actually I'm a Christian, so I'm not gonna send the police.
SPEAKER_00: Or the police officer comes and says, No, I'm a I'm a Christian, so I'm not gonna arrest the guy.
SPEAKER_00: Or the police officer arrests him, and the district attorney says, I'm a Christian, so I'm not gonna prosecute.
SPEAKER_00: Or the judge finds him in trial, says he's probably guilty, but I'm a Christian, so I'm not gonna find him guilty.
SPEAKER_00: Turn the other cheek.
SPEAKER_00: No, you need society.
SPEAKER_00: The government bears the sword to check evil.
SPEAKER_00: And that has to be there for you to live out the Romans kind of 13 kind of ethic, that you love your enemy, that you turn the other cheek.
SPEAKER_00: If you are a judge or if you're a police officer, this is not your ethic that you bring to work with you.
SPEAKER_00: You bring Lex Talianus to work with you, not this.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're a Christian, you live with this ethic.
SPEAKER_00: We struggle over understanding that sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Examples, I think of the example of the Dallas police officer Amber Geiger, who murdered that guy in his apartment.
SPEAKER_00: Both of them Jean, I think his name was.
SPEAKER_00: You remember she went in the wrong apartment apartment, was confused, murdered the guy.
SPEAKER_00: She was put on trial for it.
SPEAKER_00: She was found guilty.
SPEAKER_00: She was sentenced to ten years or something in jail.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember at the time, that was a longer sentence than people thought she would get.
SPEAKER_00: But after the judge sentenced her for ten years, the judge herself walked around the podium and walked over to her and hugged her and cried with her and sent her off to jail.
SPEAKER_00: And people freaked out in the news.
SPEAKER_00: How dare she?
SPEAKER_00: She's a murderer.
SPEAKER_00: How dare the judge hug that person?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what the judge said?
SPEAKER_00: It's remarkable.
SPEAKER_00: The judge said, I'm a Christian first and a judge second.
SPEAKER_00: The judge in me sentenced her to jail.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian in me gave her a hug.
SPEAKER_00: That's this ethic.
SPEAKER_00: First, you don't have rights over your body.
SPEAKER_00: You let the courts take care of that.
SPEAKER_00: Second, you don't have rights over your stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Forget your body.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go on to your possessions here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
SPEAKER_00: This is something he said earlier back in verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: Come to terms with your accuser while you're going with him, lest you end up paying double here.
SPEAKER_00: You'd be thrown in the slammer.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, somebody is suing you, settle.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the world with frivolous lawsuits.
SPEAKER_00: This is the world where, if you're being sued, you probably did something to deserve it, even if it wasn't intentional.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you put your property line in the wrong place.
SPEAKER_00: You inherited a house or you bought a house and there's a property line there, and you thought that was accurate, and you're in your neighbor's property or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't know.
SPEAKER_00: And now they're suing you and they're dragging you to court.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says back in verse 25, on your way to court, settle.
SPEAKER_00: But let's pretend you were like, no, I have rights, and uh.
SPEAKER_00: And you get found guilty, and the judge takes your shirt from you.
SPEAKER_00: It says tunic in the SV, but I'm happier with the word shirt here.
SPEAKER_00: It's your shirt.
SPEAKER_00: We even have the idiom in English that you lost your shirt.
SPEAKER_00: You went to court and you lost, and the judge takes your shirt off of you and gives that to the person who sees you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, in that case, give him your jacket too.
SPEAKER_00: Give him your coat also.
SPEAKER_00: You're sorry that you did something wrong.
SPEAKER_00: You're not even happy with just give them your shirt.
SPEAKER_00: Take the jacket as well.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just settle, but make everything right so that everybody's happy.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in the Old Testament, Exodus 22, it says a judge cannot order you to give up your coat.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is wilderness wandering time back in Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: You're wandering out in the wilderness, you got one set of clothes for 40 years.
SPEAKER_00: No, no Kmart out there.
SPEAKER_00: You lose your jacket, it's gone.
SPEAKER_00: And so Exodus says you can't, judges don't take somebody's jacket.
SPEAKER_00: It's enough to take their shirt.
SPEAKER_00: And if you do take their jacket, give it back to them every night.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, well, that'd just be annoying.
SPEAKER_00: I get to wear it during the day and you get to sleep with it at night, and I get it back the next day.
SPEAKER_00: So don't take the jacket.
SPEAKER_00: Well, in the Roman Empire, we're well out of the wilderness here.
SPEAKER_00: You've got another jacket.
SPEAKER_00: If somebody sues you and wins your shirt, give them your jacket also.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna be naked.
SPEAKER_00: Go home and get another jacket.
SPEAKER_00: You got three of them in your closet.
SPEAKER_00: And that's like our world is today, too.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if somebody if you did something wrong to somebody, make it right and then some.
SPEAKER_00: Go over the top and make it right.
SPEAKER_00: That's the ethic Jesus is teaching.
SPEAKER_00: Don't dig in your heels and say, all right, I was wrong, and I'm gonna give you the bare minimum to acquiesce to the court here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, no, your ethic is you just keep giving.
SPEAKER_00: It's not your stuff.
SPEAKER_00: You hold on to your rights, it just becomes obnoxious.
SPEAKER_00: Flying during COVID, I was on a flight where there was a guy who wouldn't put on his mask the right way, or I wasn't involved in the conversation, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But the flight attendant gets on the intercom and says, All right, the person in 13F won't put on their face mask.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're all getting off the plane because he won't get off the plane.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start in the back row, so row 35 or whatever, stand up and make your way forward.
SPEAKER_00: And make sure you say hi to 13F on your way by.
SPEAKER_00: And so the whole plane has to de-plane.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's walking by a 13F, and he's like, I have rights.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thanks.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna miss my connection.
SPEAKER_00: You have rights, though.
SPEAKER_00: And the lady even said over the intercom, you know, if we told him, if he gets off now, we'll put him on the next flight.
SPEAKER_00: But if he doesn't get off now, he's never flying Delta ever again.
SPEAKER_00: He's got rights.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, listen, settle, apologize, move on.
SPEAKER_00: Don't hold on to your right for trial.
SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in court.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do this to me.
SPEAKER_00: I demand a judge.
SPEAKER_00: Stop it.
SPEAKER_00: And letting go of rights is not very American.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we grew up with I'll see you in court.
SPEAKER_00: This doesn't mean that you can't use the legal system, of course.
SPEAKER_00: When Paul was unjustly beat, you remember he appealed.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Is it okay for you to beat a Roman citizen?
SPEAKER_00: Just asking a question.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus was struck, he said, you know what you're doing is not right.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't resist.
SPEAKER_00: Paul appealed to his legal recourse, but he didn't dig in.
SPEAKER_00: You know, even in the way both Jesus and Paul spoke when they leveraged the legal protections was very meek, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_00: In the form of questions.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 10, verse 34.
SPEAKER_00: Paul tells the Jews that were losing, or the the Christians that were losing their property for being a Christian, he says Hebrews 10, 34, you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had better possessions and a lasting one.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why this is so important.
SPEAKER_00: Do you really believe that there is better stuff for you in heaven than here on earth?
SPEAKER_00: If you do, then don't hold on to your jacket.
SPEAKER_00: It's your favorite jacket.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
SPEAKER_00: You lost it.
SPEAKER_00: Give it to the guy.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about you.
SPEAKER_00: It's about heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And if you believe you have better stuff there, then it's so strange to be so focused on what you have here.
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, if your neighbor borrows something of yours and breaks it, you don't go to their house and break something back.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Lord, I have a better serving plate in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You look forward to that day.
SPEAKER_00: A friend of mine often says, when you lend someone money or possessions, don't call it a loan, call it a gift.
SPEAKER_00: And then when it gets returned, you'll be pleasantly surprised.
SPEAKER_00: Lend someone your car?
SPEAKER_00: Lend them your car.
SPEAKER_00: And pretend you don't notice it's got a dent when they bring it back.
SPEAKER_00: You're just stoked that it came back.
SPEAKER_00: I read a story in the news recently about a guy who got his car repossessed.
SPEAKER_00: And as it was being hooked up on the tow truck in his driveway, he goes out and he trashes it.
SPEAKER_00: He dumps his trash can in there and rips open the trash bags and you know, scratching it.
SPEAKER_00: And his attitude is, hey, if I can't drive it, nobody can.
SPEAKER_00: You know, what's the Christian response?
SPEAKER_00: Don't get your car repoed, I guess, first.
SPEAKER_00: But you get your car repoed?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, wash it or something before they take it.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry for the inconvenience.
SPEAKER_00: It's got a full tank of gas.
SPEAKER_00: I'm being just a little silly to try to think of some examples that like let this sink into you, that you're giving the person more than you need to.
SPEAKER_00: You call an Uber at Reagan Airport, somebody else hops in in front of you, they think it's theirs, and they hop in.
SPEAKER_00: Let them take your Uber.
SPEAKER_00: Call another one.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, don't even cancel the ride.
SPEAKER_00: You pay for their drive.
SPEAKER_00: Let them drive away.
SPEAKER_00: I'll figure it out eventually.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody grabs your order at Chick-fil-A thinking it's theirs.
SPEAKER_00: Let them take it.
SPEAKER_00: They come back and they say, I'm sorry, I ordered two milkshakes.
SPEAKER_00: There's only one.
SPEAKER_00: Pay for their second milkshake.
SPEAKER_00: You're going over the top.
SPEAKER_00: I have another friend who his neighbor put a driveway through part of his property.
SPEAKER_00: His neighbor's driveway cuts through a big part of his property.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think the neighbor knew.
SPEAKER_00: So, my friend, what's he do?
SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in court.
SPEAKER_00: No, in fact, when he has his own driveway retarded, he retards his neighbor's driveway as well.
SPEAKER_00: He justifies it by saying, hey, it's all my property.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta maintain it.
SPEAKER_00: There's a family at Emmanuel who's, I know their property line is kind of ambiguous.
SPEAKER_00: This is grass.
SPEAKER_00: And they told me that when they first moved in, their neighbor, person B, was getting upset at person A because when person A mowed the grass, he was mowing part of person B's grass.
SPEAKER_00: And that was a big problem to them because the lines then didn't match up on the two yards.
SPEAKER_00: It's my grass, and these lines go the same way.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what's person A do?
SPEAKER_00: You know, you picture a non-Christian out there with like putting in flyers and all this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: You know, little flags in the lawn.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Person A says, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: When my son mows the grass, I'll have him mow your grass too.
SPEAKER_00: Mow all of our yards together.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the reason for this is not evangelism, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: You're not doing this because the guy, you know, you pay for his Uber ride and he gets there and he realizes what happened.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, oh, I'm gonna chase this guy down and find him and say, oh, sir, what's the reason for the hope that lies within you?
SPEAKER_00: You're not doing this for evangelism.
SPEAKER_00: You're doing this because it's a practical demonstration that you have surrendered your life to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: This is for the Lord to see, not the guy in the Uber.
SPEAKER_00: It's for the Lord to see that you don't care about your grass.
SPEAKER_00: It's for the Lord to see that you don't care about the stuff.
SPEAKER_00: It all belongs to him anyway.
SPEAKER_00: It's your way of entrusting yourself to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So you don't have rights over your body, you don't have rights over your stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, you don't have rights over your time.
SPEAKER_00: And so far, some of you are like, okay, I'm okay getting slapped.
SPEAKER_00: I'm okay losing my jacket, but my time, back off.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna test that in a few minutes as we run over here.
SPEAKER_00: If he makes you walk one mile with him, walk two.
SPEAKER_00: So in the Roman world, soldiers could conscript you.
SPEAKER_00: They could take your stuff also.
SPEAKER_00: They could, you know, a Roman soldier needs a boat, he could take your boat.
SPEAKER_00: He needs a barn for a month, he can take your barn.
SPEAKER_00: He needs a horse, he can take your horse.
SPEAKER_00: This was very common in the Roman Empire.
SPEAKER_00: So common that like government horses had to have special tags because otherwise soldiers would just seize that horse.
SPEAKER_00: And you were allowed to get reimbursed.
SPEAKER_00: So if the government took your boat or your horse or your field or whatever, you could go to court and you know stand in line and tell the judge what happened, and the judge would award you money from the Roman treasury.
SPEAKER_00: That was the way the Roman Empire worked.
SPEAKER_00: You see the problem in this, though, I hope, that the soldier who's requisitioning your stuff is not paying it out of his own personal money.
SPEAKER_00: So he needs a boat, he's choosing the nicest boat in the in the lake, you know?
SPEAKER_00: He needs a horse, he's choosing the biggest one.
SPEAKER_00: He needs a field, he's choosing the nicest one.
SPEAKER_00: And it was very common for them to make you carry their stuff.
SPEAKER_00: So the soldier says, I got this stuff that's got to go over there, I'm gonna make you carry it.
SPEAKER_00: And so there is a Roman law that says the soldiers cannot make people carry stuff more than literally a thousand steps.
SPEAKER_00: A mile, more or less, because they don't want people to revolt.
SPEAKER_00: If you're making somebody carry stuff two or three miles, the people might revolt.
SPEAKER_00: But one mile is just enough to be super inconvenient.
SPEAKER_00: You're running late to work, you've got an appointment you're trying to get to, you're going on a date, who knows?
SPEAKER_00: On your way there, the soldier stops you and says, I know you're going that way, but I need you to bring this to Richmond for me, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Richmond?
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to get to Tyson's.
SPEAKER_00: Nope, Richmond, there you go.
SPEAKER_00: It's not even about the gas at this point.
SPEAKER_00: It's just about the inconvenience, it's eating up your day.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to carry this pack a mile this way.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, you know what, if that happens to you, carry it two miles for the guy.
SPEAKER_00: That's gonna take twice as long.
SPEAKER_00: But your time is not yours.
SPEAKER_00: Underlying this is the implication that Christians are not gonna revolt.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna overthrow the government because you had to walk two miles instead of one.
SPEAKER_00: You're just let other people revolt.
SPEAKER_00: Let the zealots revolt, but not the Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Simon the zealot is probably here torn.
SPEAKER_00: I want to revolt, but Jesus, oh.
SPEAKER_00: But uh, this one mile only attitude and no more does characterize a lot of our thinking.
SPEAKER_00: I think of the guy at work who's like lazy during the day when his boss is not watching, he might not be working, he's surfing the internet when nobody else is in the room.
SPEAKER_00: But then his boss says, I need you to stay 30 minutes late, and he's like, Rrrr.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in the union, you better pay me time and a half.
SPEAKER_00: It's not right, making me stay late.
SPEAKER_00: Like, man, you were watching YouTube videos for an hour today.
SPEAKER_00: Your boss says, Stay late, stay late.
SPEAKER_00: Work longer.
SPEAKER_00: It's not your time.
SPEAKER_00: And this gets to the kind of the overarching example at the end of this passage, verse 43 or verse 42.
SPEAKER_00: Give to the one who begs for me.
SPEAKER_00: This is this encapsulates all of it.
SPEAKER_00: Do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
SPEAKER_00: Again, this doesn't contradict other parts of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not talking about a beggar on the street here.
SPEAKER_00: He's not talking about somebody who comes by your table at Subway and says, you know, I need a money for a surgery, you know, some kind of scam kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: He's not talking about being scammed.
SPEAKER_00: He's not talking about giving to beggars on the streets.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament gives you a very clear ethic for that.
SPEAKER_00: If a person won't work, let them not eat.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about somebody that you, your neighbor, knocks on your door and says, I need a cup of sugar.
SPEAKER_00: Give him a cup of sugar, and then tomorrow buy them a pound of sugar.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody from church says, I need to borrow your truck.
SPEAKER_00: They can take your truck.
SPEAKER_00: I need your lawnmower next week.
SPEAKER_00: Have my lawnmower.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody needs something from you.
SPEAKER_00: You give it to them.
SPEAKER_00: Don't resist it.
SPEAKER_00: It all belongs to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The county comes and says, I need to seize 12 of your parking spots to expand the turnway net Braddock.
SPEAKER_00: You say, We don't have a parking problem.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Lord, it's all yours.
SPEAKER_00: You live your life that way.
SPEAKER_00: Your stuff isn't yours.
SPEAKER_00: Your time isn't yours.
SPEAKER_00: Even your own health, it doesn't belong to you.
SPEAKER_00: You throw yourself at the feet of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You could say it this way.
SPEAKER_00: Howard Hendrix said, You surrendered all your rights at Calvary.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that's precious to you died when Jesus died.
SPEAKER_00: And when you come up from the water of baptism, you have a new life.
SPEAKER_00: Your new rights are because you're in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Your new identity is in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Your new love in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Everything else is gone.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we're grateful that you've given us new hearts that love you and are defined by you.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be anxious about what we eat and what we wear.
SPEAKER_00: The Gentiles seek after those things.
SPEAKER_00: We're different.
SPEAKER_00: We're different because we were beggars.
SPEAKER_00: We have no righteousness, it's our own, but you, Lord, have given us all things pertaining to life and godliness.
SPEAKER_00: So we are full.
SPEAKER_00: We're full spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: We're full with the relationships in our church.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to defend ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to defend how people treat us.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to defend who borrows things from us.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to defend our own dignity and honor.
SPEAKER_00: It all belongs to you.
SPEAKER_00: So God, give us the grace to live this out, not in a self-righteous way, but give us the grace to live this out because we really do believe at the end of the day we stand or we fall before you.
SPEAKER_00: We know for us to have a kind of Romans 14 charity, or Romans 13 turning the other cheek, we really do need the Romans 13 sword of the government.
SPEAKER_00: So we do pray for our government.
SPEAKER_00: And we do pray that they would protect those that are exploited, they would protect the weak and the vulnerable, that they would enforce justice so we can live quiet lives serving and pleasing you.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, DC area, I would love to see you at Emanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.