#45 Lu. 6:27-36 THE KIND OF LOVE JESUS WANTS US TO HAVE

Introduction:

    In our text last Sunday Luke recorded four of the beatitudes that Jesus
spoke to His disciples during the Sermon On The Mount.  In our text today,
Luke continues his account of the Sermon On The Mount.  In this part of the
sermon Jesus sets forth to His disciples the kind of love that He wants them
to have.  We sometimes call this kind of love "Christian Love." It is more
than Christian love.  It is the kind of love that God had for us when we
were yet unsaved.  It is the kind of love that God still has for all
mankind.
    V. 27, "But I say unto you which hear..."  There is more involved here
than just hearing with the ears.  Jesus is talking about those who have not
only heard the gospel message but have believed it.  He is speaking to His
disciples.  The great multitude of unsaved people are present, but what He
has now to say about love was directed to the disciples.

I.  He wants us to love even our enemies

    What He says is, (V. 27), "Love your enemies..."  Jesus does not start
out with the easier part.  It is easier to love our fellow Christians.  It
is easier to love those who love us.  Jesus starts with the hardest part.
He tells us to love our enemies.  On one occasion Jesus said to His
disciples, "A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another."
That means that a Christian should love other Christians.  But the command
in our text goes much farther than loving just our fellow Christians.  Jesus
said that we should love our enemies.  That is the very toughest job of all.

II.  He wants us to do good to them which hate us

    (V.27), "...do good to them which hate you."  That is the very opposite
of what the flesh nature wants to do.  It is the opposite of what the flesh
nature of even the most devoted Christian wants to do.  The flesh nature is
to knock his block off.  That is, if you are a man of boy, the flesh wants
to knock his block off.  Clobber him.  If you are a woman or girl the flesh
nature is to scratch her eyes out or to pull her hair out.
    But Jesus said, "Do not give in to the flesh nature.  Do good deeds to
him." Buy him a cup of coffee.  Buy him a steak dinner while you are at it.
Help him get a better job.  Go out of your way to be nice to him.  Go the
extra mile.  Go two miles while you are at it.

III.  He wants us to bless them that curse us and pray for them that
      mistreat us

    V. 28, "Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you."  The word, bless, means to pronounce blessings upon him.  Say good
things about him.  While you are at it, talk to God on his behalf.  Ask God
to bless him and help him.  Ask God to forgive him of whatever he has done
to you.

IV.  He wants us to turn the other cheek to one who smites us

    V. 29, "And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the
other..."  Our first impulse is to say, "Not me and if somebody strikes me
he had better watch out."  Jesus said, "Turn the other cheek."  Now before
you make any final decision that you are not going to turn the other cheek,
you had better take a second look at just who it is that gives you this
command.  This is not from me.  It is from Jesus Christ.  But not only that,
this is a command from the highest power and authority in the universe.
This is a command from the one to whom you owe everything.  You owe Him your
very hope of heaven.  You can say "No" to the Lord, but I would certainly
not advise it.
V.  He wants us to freely give generously to those who take from us

    (V. 29), "...and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy
coat also."  Now understand, that Jesus is talking about somebody taking
your cloak who has no right to it at all.  He is talking about somebody
taking it by force or by he takes it by hook or crook.  Jesus said, "Forbid
him not to take thy coat also."  Give it to him.  Let him have it.  Give him
a lot more than he started out to get.

VI.  He wants us to give to those who ask

    V. 30, "Give to every man that asketh of thee..."  Do not be a tightwad.
Do not be chinchy.  Give and give generously.  That is what Jesus taught His
disciples to do and that is what He wants us to do.
    Now I would add this one bit of personal advice.  If someone comes to
you wanting you to give him money to buy food, I do suggest that you give
them food instead of money.  Give as Jesus has said, but do not give money.
Give food or gasoline or whatever is needed, but do not give him money.  If
he ask for money for food, he may not want it for food at all.  He may want
it to by booze.  If you give him money, you may just be buying his booze for
him.
    You say, but there are so many hoods today who do not really need help.
All they are trying to do is to try to take advantage of you.  That is their
problem.  It is really impossible for them to take advantage of you in the
long run.  If you do what the Lord Jesus Christ has instructed you to do,
then He is going to bless you.  If somebody has sought to take advantage of
you and you give them help, then they have the Lord Jesus Christ to contend
with.  Now if you were the only one involved in this, then he could take
advantage of you.  But they cannot take advantage of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, Jesus is going to win and the person who tries to take advantage of
you is going to lose.
    (V. 30), "...and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again."
Leave the matter in the hands of the Lord.  The Lord just might get your
goods back again, but if He doesn't He will give you something better.  It
is not out responsibility to try to get the goods back again.  It is not our
responsibility to take vengeance.  It is our responsibility to do what the
Lord has instructed us to do.

VII.  He wants us to follow the Golden Rule

    V. 31, "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them
likewise."  Do you recognize this saying?  You ought to; it is very familiar
to you.  Maybe you are not familiar with it worded just exactly like this.
Perhaps you are more familiar with the words:  "Do unto others as you would
have them do unto you."  That's right this is the Golden Rule.
    This is the number three rule which the Lord Jesus Christ has given to
us to govern our conduct in this world.  It is often considered the number
one rule, but actually it is the number three rule.  The number one rule is:
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart, with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind."  If you love the Lord as you should, you will find
it easier to do right by other people.
    The number two rule is:  "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."  If
you love other people as much as you love yourself, then you will find it a
lot easier to do right by them.
    The number three rule is:  "Do unto others as you would have them do
unto you.  Just as you would like to be treated by other people, that is the
way you are to treat them."
    The whole thing hinges on your love for God and your love for others.
If you love God and if you love other people you will treat them right.  If
you do not love God sufficiently and if you do not love other people as you
should then you will find it easy to deal unfairly with them.  So ask
yourself the question:  "How would I want them to treat me?" and then treat
them in like manner.

VIII.  He wants us to love in such a way that He can bless us

    V. 32-33, "For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye?  for
sinners also love those that love them.  And if ye do good to them which do
good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same."  We may
think that we deserve a pretty high mark when we love the people who love us
and do good to them.  But that does not get us high marks with God.  The
very worst of sinners may do the same thing.  Even the worst may befriend
those who have already befriended them.  When we rank high with God is when
we love those who do not love us and we do good to them.  That gets us
points with God.
    V. 34, "And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank
have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again."  Even
the worst of sinners will lend when he thinks it gives him an opportunity to
make a good rate of interest off his money.  But it is love which will
motivate one to lend without any interest at all or when he pretty well
knows that he will not get back even the principle.  Yet that is the kind of
love that the Lord Jesus Christ wants us to have toward others.
    V. 35, "But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for
nothing again; and your reward shall be great..."  Did you notice that?  Did
you hear what Jesus said?  Jesus said that when you love people, when you
love everybody, when you love even your enemies and do them good, when you
lend and hope for nothing in return, then great will be your reward.
    Let me ask you:  Do you believe that?  Do you believe that you will
never lose by helping somebody else.  Do you really believe that there is no
way that you can lose?  Do you believe that even if the other fellow never
pays you back, you still do not lose?  It is true, even if from the human
point of view we may find it difficult to believe.  Jesus is the one who
said it and it is true.
    But Jesus said more than that.  Jesus said more than just that you
cannot lose by helping other people.  Jesus actually said, "That is the way
to have great gain."  Jesus said, "...your reward shall be great..."
    Now I do not mean to put you on the spot, but if you said, "I believe
what Jesus said.  I believe that there is no way to lose by helping others.
I believe that when I help somebody else even if he never gives it back, I
am going to be way ahead by helping him," then why not start living that
way?  Why not start loving people more and helping people more?  Why not
stop worrying about whether or not you ever get it back?  I want to repeat:
There is no way you can lose by helping the other fellow.
IX.  He wants us to be recognized as children of God

    (35), "...and ye shall be the children of the Highest..."  The idea is:
You will be recognized as the children of the Highest.  People will know
that you are a child of God.  People do not recognize you as a child of God
just because you say that you are.  They do not recognize you as a child of
God just  because you are a member of the church.  They recognize you as a
child of God when they see the evidence in the way you live.  If you love
people, even your enemies and do them good, then people around you will be
able to recognize that you are indeed a child of God.
     They will see in you a likeness to God, Himself.  "...for he is kind
unto the unthankful and to the evil."  God is kind unto the unthankful and
to the evil.  If you, likewise, are kind to the unthankful and to the evil,
then people will see in you a likeness to God, the Heavenly Father.

X.  He wants us to be merciful

    V. 36, "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful."
This is the will of God for your life.  This is the will of God for each one
of us who are saved.  Just as God the Father is merciful, even so He wants
all who are saved to be merciful.

XI.  He wants you who are unsaved to know that He has been merciful to you

    But there is something right here in this verse that I want to show to
those who are unsaved.  God has been merciful to you.  God loves you and has
shown you a tremendous amount of mercy.  I think you are aware that you are
a sinner.  God has been merciful just to let you live this long.  I can just
about guarantee that if God had not been merciful to you, He would have
killed you a long time ago.  If God were not merciful, you wouldn't be
alive today.
    Also God is merciful to you to feed and cloth you and provide your daily
need.  He provides your every need.  Take a look at the pictures of some the
people in foreign lands.  Many of them have literally starved to death.
Then take another look at yourself in the mirror and you will see that God
has been extremely good to you.
    God has been especially merciful to you to send His Son, Jesus Christ,
to the cross for of Calvary for you that you might be saved.  God knows that
unless you get saved that you are going to spend eternity in the fires of
hell.  God knows this better than anybody else in this world.  The fact of
the matter is that God loves you and does not want you to go to hell.  So He
sent His Son, His own Son, His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ to the cross
to suffer for you.  It was on the cross of Calvary that Jesus shed His blood
that you might have an opportunity to be cleansed from your sin.  Without
the shedding of His blood on Calvary there is no way that anybody anywhere
in the world could be saved.
    Now the ball is in your court.  God has made all the provisions that are
necessary for you to be saved.  But if you do not repent of your sin and
trust in Jesus Christ to save your soul you will still wind up in the fires
of hell and suffer there forever and ever.
    Let me tell you, my friend, if you are not saved, it is high time that
you stop dilly-dallying around and do something about your soul.  I do not
know for sure just how much time you have before it will be too late for
you, but I do know this, if you keep messing around it will soon be too
late.
    You say, "But, Bro. Davis, I thought you were preaching this sermon to
the people who are saved.  I thought you were trying to get them to love and
live the way that the Lord wants them to love and live."
    That is right I am.  I want every one of us who are saved, including
myself, to straighten up and live as the Lord would have us to live.  But I
am also concerned about you and your eternal destiny.  I would not be loving
you as I should if I did not care.  I care.  All of us who are saved care.
We care what is going to happen to you.  We care where you are going to
spend eternity.  It is high time that you start caring also.  It is time
that you care enough to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and call on Him to
save your soul.