How to Think and Act in Evil Days, Part 2

There's only one question and that's this. How do I skate Kelly get to heaven. That's the only question that is crucial for eternity. How do I escape Ellen get to heaven any religion has the wrong answer has to be discarded cannot be tolerated and that brings it down to the gospel is no salvation in any other than the name of Jesus Christ take place. What was condemned has to be celebrated and what was celebrated to has to be condemned and that's a pretty good summary of what we've seen take place in the world and especially here in the United States. If you hold to the biblical views of marriage and sexuality abortion or simply even gender you are sure to raise eyebrows, if not face harsh condemnation. So in this world that just keeps getting darker. What does the Lord expect from you and how should you treat those who are hostile to what you believe. John MacArthur delves into those issues today as he shows you how to think and act in the evil days.

That's the title of his current series that John will be in the gospel of Matthew. So if you have your Bible turn there now and it's always sort of a divine appointment for me when I stand up to preach and I'm always amazed as to how the Lord begins to put things together. Change what I was going to say this morning started thinking about it a little differently last night, set aside some things that I had planned to do in the and just kind of being open to the Lord in the waiting for some kind of a direction in my own thinking. No voices from heaven have ever spoken to me but my get these these ideas and impulses in the SOI.

I thought what you know III think I'm going to do this and then this morning I woke up and it was kinda confirmed and then I came here and all the Scripture that you put up there was about love was all about love and that was exactly what I decided to talk about and in fact that the very emphasis was on the second commandment love your neighbor as yourself, and that even more specifically, was what I wanted to talk about so kind like a little bit of affirmation for me and and that means that I am here with the Lord's full knowledge. She's the sort of surrounded me with the truth that you should be thinking about for us to consider this portion of Scripture. We live in a world where people are lost in their own way to judgment. They're going to Paris to perish forever in hell. That's inevitable. They're going to die and that they don't they don't know when they're there going to die and are not in control of their deaths.

In Luke 13 when another question came up about the Galileans who are offering sacrifices in the Temple and pilots men came in and and sliced and diced them. The slaughtered them in their own blood was mingled with the blood of the sacrifice.

What a horrific thing that pilots men would slaughter these Jews from Galilee. While they were offering their Passover sacrifices and the question in the minds of the people who were very aware of that. What was why did that happen where they were worse than than other sinners that are calamities that God's way of the of killing the really bad people and leaving the better people and the good people and that Jesus picked up on that and said what about this tower inside lawn that fell over and crushed 18 people in the first case, you have people obeying God doing what they were prescribed to do in the second you have innocent bystanders just standing there and some scaffolding maybe for the building of the Roman aqueduct in that area collapsed on them and kill them.

They were just innocent bystanders in the question came up. Are they worse than anybody else do the people who die in the synonymy die because that's a divine judgment and the people who float to some high place in survivor are better people do calamities kill just the bad people and we answer that question know that the message to give.

It was the same message that we give in every occasion like that, whether it's a natural disaster or whether it's an act of war or a whatever it is that it it it might be an incidental death like we saw just the other day when the seven of our Marines died in an explosion away the worst of the people who were on that basis, that why they died. And the answer is no. The answers everybody deserves to die. We deserve to die after we taken our first breath because in sin we were conceived. We were born sinners, God would have a right to take our lives the soul that sins shall die. The wages of sin is death, but but that is not how to view calamity, calamity happens to relatively good people and bad people happens to believers and unbelievers alike. The message of calamity. The message of disasters in the world. The message is simple. Everybody's going to die, you're not in control of when you're going to die. You don't know when that is going to happen.

It could happen in a very unexpected way very soon.

You had better be ready or you will perish. That's what Jesus is saying and it was followed up. Remember, by by the parable of the fig tree at which basically said the Lord is extending time, let alone for a year to see if it will bear fruit before you chop it down so here we are in a world of people who are dying and their all headed to eternal judgment and held there are going to perish, and they're all living on borrowed time. All of them could die in any moment and God would be Justin taking their lives because the wages of sin is death. He lets them live. He extends grace to them. He gives them time to repent that the patience of God.

Romans two says is intended to lead them to repentance. We have a responsibility then living in a world of dying people on borrowed time to communicate the gospel to them. That's why we're here. That's that. What we want you to do for the rest of your life, whatever profession you follow wherever you end up on this planet you're going to be there for this sole purpose and that is because you alone have the answers that every eternal soul needs regarding their eternal destiny. You know the truth. You know the gospel, only Christians know it. False religions don't know it, and that by the way, is the question religion must ask and answer there's only one question and that's this.

How do I escape Helen get to heaven. That's the only question that is crucial for eternity. How do I escape Helen get to heaven any religion has the wrong answer has to be discarded cannot be tolerated well. That brings it down to the gospel doesn't there's no salvation in any other than the name of Jesus Christ I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the father but by me. We know that that's the message we know we believe and we must proclaim to a world of people living on borrowed time, all of whom will die, and most of them in an unexpected way. I ended up talking a little bit about the fact that the world in which we live is not only dying but it is increasingly hostile to Christianity. Probably been following in the news. A pastor who was arrested a Christian pastor and held prisoner in the Middle East and they don't want to release and we know about Christians being persecuted and you could say the enemy is getting more powerful and more powerful and more powerful all the time. The enemy that could be labeled anti-God anti-Christ anti-Scripture anti-salvation pro-Satanic system growing at a massive massive speed is a frightening future. And of course along the way or not. It not only does it have its own worlds to conquer but it wants to silence Christianity. Obviously Satan sets everything against the Christian message and so we think in the future, Christians, outspoken Christians are going to be persecuted. We talked about that last time.

First, there will be a rejection of the of the Bible as a standard that's happened in our country, then morality will be turned on its head and everybody will advocate that immorality, fornication and adultery is fine. Morality is completely turned on its head.

Then it calls for tolerance for that and then it turns to intolerance for the people who are tolerant and then that turns the persecution.

That's the flow very likely that the world in which you live. A few years after you're out of school is going to be a world in which Christians will be persecuted. They will be persecuted and there's a great danger in this and the great danger in this is that all of a sudden the mission field. This world of dying people caught up in false religious systems all living on borrowed time about the parish becomes the enemy that they become the enemy, rather than the mission field. That's the danger that as the hostility ramps up toward Christianity, toward Christians, that it could come from your family. Jesus said he came to to bring a sword inside a family that could come from your your environment.

That is to say, your workplace, or wherever it is that you are your associations play could come it will come from your governments and it. It will also come from from massive forces, anti-God.

False religious forces so that the assumption could be that there's going to be an amp thing up of persecution and hostility and intolerance of the Christian message in the Christian gospel and that poses the danger that all of a sudden we start seeing these people as our enemy we get caught up in this sort of the defense of Christianity as is. If it were some entity to be protected.

Circle the wagons kind of mentality that would that would be completely opposite to what we are called a dude which is going to all the world and preach the gospel to every creature because it's the only hope they have for eternal salvation, so we can't turn our enemy, no matter how volatile and vicious. The enemy is can't turn the enemy into an object of hatred.

With that in mind I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 5 because here is the companion this is the underlying attitude that puts us in a position to do evangelistic work which were called to do around the world.

No matter how the world treats us. Matthew five is in the sermon on the mount of the Lord gave that sermon to the leaders of Israel in particular to dismantle their false religious system and expose them to how God thought and there are series of things that are said here which our Lord directs at the Jews and he doesn't quite an interesting way of starting in verse 21 he says you have heard and then verse 27 you have heard and then verse 31 it was said, and then in verse 33 again you have heard and then in verse 38 you have heard and then verse 43 you have heard what he's talking about is there theology that had been taught to them by the rabbis you have heard you have heard you have heard you ever you've heard such and such about murder you heard such and such about sexual immorality. You've heard such and such about divorce you.

You've heard this about oath's and vows you've heard this about retaliation.

I for nine tooth for tooth, you've heard this about how you deal with your enemies.

This is your theology. This is the rabbinic extent theology that gripped the populace of of the of Israel at the time of our Lord. In contrast to that, he says in verse 22 but I say verse 28 but I say verse 32 but I say verse 34 but I say verse 39 but I say verse 44 but I say I'm giving you a new theology here were overturning your conventional thinking.

You have heard but I say you have heard but I say let's just go to the to the final one of these comparisons down in verse 43 and let me just read to you and will talk about it. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have do not even the tax collectors do the same if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing then others do not even the pagans do the same. Therefore, your to be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect. Now Jesus gets to the end of this discussion comparing traditional apostate Judaism.

The morality of traditional apostate Judaism with the heart of God, and he lands on the second great commandment.

The first great commandment. According to Matthew chapter 22 is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. In the second like unto it is to do what love your neighbor as yourself meant when you think about that. That is putting that attitude into a very high category of responsibility. I mean we all understand love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

In the second right behind it.

Love your neighbor as yourself back in Romans 13. Paul essentially says love is the fulfilling of the whole law. The first half of the 10 Commandments are about God. If you love God you won't break those the second half of the 10 Commandments are about man if you love men you won't break those therefore love is the fulfillment of the whole law you can say to someone look. Forget the 10 Commandments. Love the Lord your God with all your being, and all your powers and love your neighbor as yourself. And that's all you need I will I think of it I don't have a son in the kitchen that says one, don't swear your wife to don't hit her with anything free answer her when she talks to you for. Don't be rude on what why when he did. I just have one law in my heart it says love your wife. My don't need rules because love controls that relationship.

And that's exactly what you have here and we are commanded in this second commandment in the second most important commandment first one love God second one love neighbors neighbors and neighbors distances.

The reality from family beyond the people that you normally love in your intimate circle now as you look at this taxation will show you three things okay number one is the tradition of the Jews and then the teaching of the Old Testament and then the final truth from from our Lord. Tradition of the Jews. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

By the way that command. Love your neighbor appears originally in Leviticus 19. Leviticus 1917 and 18. It's it's verbatim. Love your neighbor that's that's where it comes from the Mosaic Scripture you have heard that it was said that's the familiar phrase that introduces the teaching of the rabbis that developed into their traditional morality and was passed down as the acceptable standard there tradition then was very simple.

Love your neighbor and they added hate your enemy. Love your neighbor hate your enemy. Now they conveniently omitted something they omitted. Love your neighbor as yourself. So they diminish the requirement of that love. Love your neighbor, but of course you don't want to love your neighbor like you love yourself because you're far more important than your neighbor. You deserve more love than your neighbor that would define the culture which are living right today the self-centered, self-fulfilling, self-aggrandizing self-esteem mentality, but the Old Testament says love your neighbor as yourself.

What is it mean this not a command to love yourself, please. I've heard people preach on that your to love yourself know you're not not commanded. Love yourself you already do that that's built into your fallenness. That's part of your depravity is an inordinate love for yourself. You need to be cured of that. Now I'm gonna talk about self-preservation and I'm not talking about failing to comb your hair.

Not talking about failing to feed yourself. What I am talking about is it is part of being human to care for yourself is part of being sinful to overdo that preoccupation with yourself.

We love ourselves in an unfeigned fervent habitual way. We we love ourselves. We meet our needs. We meet our wants. We attend to our interests.

We fulfill our desires, our hopes and our ambitions occupy us.

We are more interested in what we say in a conversation than what somebody else is saying. That's why it's so hard to be a good listener. We do everything we possible can't possibly can to secure our own happiness, our own well-being, our own satisfaction to make ourselves welcome and comfortable and to fulfill our interest to seek our own pleasure and fulfillment, and we are really good at forgiving ourselves for all our failures and all our weaknesses less exactly how you shall love your neighbor. That's exactly how you should love your neighbor lay left that part out because they were really prepared to take the command that far.

But anyway, they did say your to love your neighbor and oh by the way, they not only admitted part. They added something and by the way, hate your enemy. Hate your enemy. Your enemy, then, is not your neighbor that they have just qualified neighbor as non-enemy K narrowly defining neighbor. It would be Jew. Of course for them because they resented the Gentiles, but not not every Jew, because tax collectors were not acceptable to them and neither was the common rabble in John 749 leaders of Israel declared the common people were cursed, so they and they had narrowed down neighbor to exclude enemies and to even exclude people they thought were lower than themselves, sociologically recommend that a very narrow definition of neighbor they would've done well to go back to Leviticus 19 in verse 34 and read the stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself stranger somebody you never met or they might've read Exodus 1249, there shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.

Your loving your neighbor really has no limits, it can be a total stranger in the Qumran community, the, the Essenes were were a very sort of monastic cult that within Judaism they had some very interesting statements.

Here are a few of them. They they mirror the attitude of the Jews in the time of our Lord on this issue. Quote love all that God has chosen and hate all that he has rejected is another one. Love all the sons of light, each according to his lot in God's community and hate all the sons of darkness. Here's another one. The Levites curse all the sons of Belle Isle. Another was anybody who is not in our group is a cursed son of Belle Isle. So in the tradition that had developed the command to love your neighbor as yourself became a license to hate because they defined neighbor near more narrowly and narrowly and narrowly until excluded anybody outside their group and certainly excluded enemies.

There's a Maxim of the Pharisees quote. If the juice easy Gentile fallen into the sea, let him by no means lift him out of there for it is written, thou shalt not rise up against the blood of thy neighbor. But this man is not thy neighbor" let them drown how the Pharisees would've made good lifeguards or firemen nor first responders so it's a small wonder that there the Romans charged. This is true. Small wonder that the Romans charged the Jews with hatred of the human race hatred of the human race.

What an attitude. So, here, here is this is the existing theology of Israel hate your enemies, and any and enemy is anybody who is not a neighbor and a neighbor has been so narrowly defined that it's the small little group of people that would be considered your friends and relatives. That's the tradition father, we thank you this morning for the just the joy in the richness of being together.

Thank you for all these blessed privileged young people who are in a very unique sense, enjoying your loving kindness by being here at the Masters college and we know that there there are many many tens of thousands who would would wish to have this experience. But this is this is your goodness to these young people in and to all of us were here. What a wonder, what a kindness. Help them to make the most of it and prepare them to go into a dying world and do all they can to love those people the way you love your which we once were, and you loved us into your kingdom may use us to love others and to the kingdom as well. Thank you pricing that's John MacArthur on grace to you.

He's continuing a series he originally preached during chapel at the Masters University where he serves as Chancellor will call it, how to think and act in the evil days. Now John made it clear today that Christian love should control our relationships and extend to everyone around us, friends, enemies, everyone, and in fact that principal has led many of us to support all sorts of charitable organizations, ones that focus on giving food and clothing and shelter to people in need. So what about that John does meeting those kinds of practical needs qualify as showing Christian love to our neighbors.

Well, Jesus even said, take no thought for what you shall eat or drink, or what you so aware. But seek first the kingdom, and all these things shall be had. I think that's a method gospel mandate, that's fine too to care for poor people. We should do that. And Jesus did that in his ministry and were were called to do that in both the old and the New Testament. But everything is simply an opening or an entrée to gospel ministry.

We cannot be satisfied with just charity a minute if you were going to go to hell, it doesn't matter whether they go to hell.

Well, closed-door well fed. It only matters that they go to hell.

So you and I think it's easy to feel somewhat righteous about doing what is easy, like giving money to a poor person or giving something physical to them. What's much more challenging to confront people with their lostness, their sinfulness the threat and reality of divine judgment and eternal hell and come to them with the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because while at the front end.

Of course it giving them food, giving them clothing that is an act of love which they will receive giving them the gospel is very likely the greater act of love which they will reject and our Lord said that to the disciples. You know you're going to go and preach and were they going to do the gonna persecute you to go to put you in jail. They can arrest you.

The they gonna kill you and think they do God's service. So it's easy to do the easy things and we need to do those things that was right things to do the hard thing to do is be faithful to the proclamation of the gospel on a one-to-one basis, but that is the most loving thing that a Christian can do to love someone enough to warn them about the inevitability of eternal judgment, eternal punishment in hell, and to bring them the saving message of Christ. Thank you, John, and friend. A great tool for equipping yourself to proclaim those saving message of Christ's love is John MacArthur's classic book called the gospel according to Jesus, it can really find tune your understanding of what it means to submit to Christ and follow him. Order your copy today. This hardcover book is available for $15 and shipping is free to order the gospel according to Jesus, call us toll-free at 855 grace or visit our website de TY.org. Let me also recommend John's book called the gospel according to God, it shows you how the Old Testament prophesied the work of salvation that Christ fulfilled in the New Testament again to order either book the gospel according to Jesus and the gospel according to God you can do that when you call us at 855 grace or you can shop online at GT Y.and while you're online. Take advantage of all the free Bible study tools you'll find at our website. We have thousands of free resources available on issues like growing in faith or God's design for the family. The life of Christ, and other vital topics. You can read a lot of articles you can download any of John's more than 3500 sermons and much more. And again, all of those resources are free@gty.org now for John MacArthur and the staff. I'm Phil Johnson.

Keep in mind you can watch grace to you television this Sunday on DirecTV channel 378 or check your local listings and be here tomorrow for another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on grace to you