Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Loving Your Enemies

Episode Date: August 28, 2023

Most of the great world religions share a tremendous amount of ethical common ground. But suddenly, Jesus breaks through all the conventional principles of morality—he soars into the stratosphere and puts forth the most radical love ethic anyone has ever seriously presented.  On the one hand, when we hear it, we feel we’re in the presence of something sublime. But there’s another side to us that has difficulty with it, because it sure looks like Jesus is saying, “Let people walk all over you.”  But what we actually have here is a set of remarkable balances. Let’s take a look at two balances: 1) There is the balance between the tough and the tender (between justice and kindness), and 2) there is a balance between the inner and the outer.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 21, 1993. Series: Hard Sayings of Jesus (1993). Scripture: Luke 6:20-36. Today's podcast episode is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. Jesus was a great teacher, but he had a lot of things to say that were challenging or difficult to understand. In the Bible, we see a number of places where his disciples say, Jesus, this is a hard saying. Today Tim Keller is preaching through one of the hard sayings of Jesus and how we can rest in the fact that while Jesus' teachings aren't always comfortable, he is always good. I'm going to read from Luke chapter 6, reading verses 20 through 36, our series is continued to be looking at the ministry of Jesus at his teaching. And what we've done is we've picked out over the last few weeks the hardest saying the most difficult

the most difficult to understand so that we can really look at them and open them up They take reflection they take pondering But as we open them up we find their wisdom Today in many ways we have maybe the most famous of Jesus hard sayings in many ways we have maybe the most famous of Jesus' hard sayings. It's a hard say because it's very hard to understand and people have gone around and around for years trying to figure out what it means. But it's also a very famous hard saying. Love your enemies. When someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. Turn the other cheek.

Let me read from verse 20. Looking at his disciples, he said, Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you

and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.

Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their father's treated the false prophets. But I tell you, who hear me, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic.

Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Due to others, as you would have them, due to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything

back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the most high, because he is kind. He is kind, so the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your father is merciful. This is God's Word. Most of the great religions of the world share tremendous amount of ethical, common ground. They all have laws and principles that forbid killing and murder and theft. They all have laws that promote telling the truth and caring for your family and for your people

and mercy to those in need and so on. But suddenly Jesus breaks through all the conventional and you might say the common principles of morality and he soars into the stratosphere and he puts forth the most radical love ethic that anyone has ever seriously presented. You're not going to find it. You can go looking all around. You're not going to find it in other places. C.S. Lewis in his book, The Abolition of Man, puts together what he calls the Dow, which means the common ethical principles, the common laws of human conduct that all the religions have in common. And it's very impressive.

You're not going to find this all over the place. Love your enemies. And if anyone slaps you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. What does it mean? On the one hand, we feel when we hear it, we're in the presence of something sublime. Nobody wants to despise it outright. It's, nobody wants to show disrespect to it.

We say, wow, what a lofty view of love. But there's another side to us that, of course, that is in difficulty at this point, because it sure looks like Jesus is saying, let them walk all over you. What is he saying? What he's actually doing is he's expounding a very important Old Testament theme. You see it running all through the Old Testament. It's the balance of the godly life. In Micah chapter 6 verse 8, you have a great example of it.

It's a very famous verse, and this is the place where the prophet Micah says, but what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God? Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. And if you look at that, you'll see a mobile. You know what a mobile is actually. And I don't mean the one in Alabama. I mean over over the little nursery cribs, you very often will have two little birdies hanging from a beam, a balanced beam. And underneath that each of the

little birdies has another beam with two little birdies. And if any one of the little birdies falls to the ground, the whole balance set of balances is all thrown apart. In the same way, what we've got in the Bible, and what we've actually got here, as we're gonna see, in this passage, is a set of remarkable balances. On the one hand, there's a balance between the tough and the tender, the courageous and the sweet, a Christian, a person who's living a godly life, has this remarkable balance.

Do justice, love kindness. Together, and you'll see it here in Jesus. On the one hand, woe to you who are oppressors, woe to you who are comfortable. You know, I'll call the revolution and then immediately turn the other cheek and love your enemies. There's a balance, do justice, love kindness, a balance between the tough and the tender that the godliness, the godly life, which means the godlike life has in balance. But then there's another balance under the balance. And if that balance is off and the other balance is but then there's another balance under the balance. And if that balance is off, then the other balance is off, and there's another balance

between the inner and the outer. Do justice, love kindness, that's outer activism, and walk humbly with God. There's a balance between outer activism and inner peace. There's a balance between toughness and tenderness. The whole mobile falls to the ground if any one of the little birdies falls off. Let's take a look at these two balances. And we will see that they take your breath away when you look at them.

There's the balance between the tough and the tender between justice and kindness, and then a balance between the inner and the outer. Only when they're all together can they all be together. First, Jesus on the one hand, in the first part of the passage, woe to you who are pressors, woe to you who are comfortable, woe to you, he denounces injustice and that is a theme throughout the Scripture. A godly person is actively concerned with injustice. In the book of Job, now Job, of course, is going through suffering

and therefore he's looking his life over for fault. And as he's reviewing his life, he talks to God about a particular aspect of his lifestyle, which of course shows the kind of lifestyle of a godly man. Listen, Job says, in chapter 29, I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist. The one who was dying blessed me, and I made the widow's heart sing. I put on righteousness as my clothing, and justice was my robe and turban.

I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy and took up the case of the stranger. I broke the fangs of the wicked and snatched the victims from their teeth. Interesting passage. He says, first of all, he has several categories of people, the widow, the poor, the single mother, the disadvantaged child, the fabulous, the stranger, which means an immigrant,

a person who's not a citizen, someone an alien, somebody from outside, the blind, the lame. Who are these people? These are people who, because they don't have clout don't receive equal rights of protection under the law. The law of God in the Old Testament said whether you're a stranger or a native, whether you're rich or whether you're poor, whether you're a man or whether you're a woman. See, whether you're in the right family or in the wrong family, no matter who you are, whether you're holy or blind or you're lame. Respect for the fact that you are a human being made in

the image of God. There has to be that respect, there has to be that concern, there has to be that equal protection of the law in the course. And Job looked around and he saw corrupt court practices, corrupt and unfair business practices. he saw people without clout being denied their due, and what did he do? What he said was, I put on justice as my turban, and as my road. He went to bat, not only that, he says, I broke the fangs of the wicked

and made them drop their victims. It doesn't sound like turn to the cheek, huh? It doesn't sound very passive, it doesn't sound very wimpy. It's not because the Bible tells us that it's God who created us in his image, and though we don't know all that means, it means that every human being is a sanctity about a human being, a sacredness, and that every single human being, whether rich or poor, whether man or woman, whether native or alien and so on, everyone is sacred, everyone deserves justice. And God calls godly people to have a passion for justice. Job is held up here.

He says, I saw the wicked who were pressing the weak and I broke their fangs. There's nothing wimpy or passive about that at all. And yet that same spirit here in Luke chapter 6, when Jesus points and he says, what do you who are laughing, what do you who are well fit, what do you who have brought down? You see, who have oppressed? You will be brought down. Jesus is no different than the New Testament than in the Old Testament. There's a concern and a passion for justice.

Do justice, says the Bible. And as soon as Jesus says that, whoa, whoa, whoa, to you, he suddenly says, but, hear this, love your enemies, pray for those who mistreat you and if someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. What does Jesus say here? Do justice but love

kindness? Now what does he say? Let's try to work it out. Many people have been very, very I think misled in understanding this passage. Lots of folks have said, far be it from us to challenge and despise this great ethic of love, but it sure looks like it's inconsistent with a passion for justice. How can you have a passion and concern for justice and turn the other cheek when someone mistreets you?

That doesn't seem to make much sense, and they understand Jesus is saying, if someone mistreats you, don't stop them. Some people would say, for example, that Jesus is clearly in light of this passage, it's clearly wrong to ever fight in your own defense if another nation attacks you. People have looked to this particular passage as a basis for pacifism. We can't have an army to stop people because if they come to mistreat us, we can't stop them. Now right now, I want you to know I'm not saying anything for or against pacifism at all. I'm not saying anything for or again, I'm not saying anything about international relations at all.

I'm just telling you that can't be what Jesus means here. That's not in view because if it was in view, if that really was the thrust of Jesus' passage, Jesus would not just be forbidding armies, he'd be forbidding police too. He would be saying it's absolutely wrong to have police. If somebody's coming up to you, you can't call the police, you've just gotta let him hit you and he's hitting you

and robbing you. Is that what he's saying? Let's assume for a moment, not that Jesus is inspired or that Luke who is his editor is inspired. Let's just assume that Jesus and Luke aren't stupid. If we can start with that, we can begin to understand the passage.

Jesus is not on the one hand saying, whoa to you, he's not calling for justice on the one hand, then saying, let's not stop injustice on the other. He can't be doing that. Not only is, would that interpretation be inconsistent with what we've already seen about Joe, but it would also be inconsistent with Jesus' own practice?

For example, in the middle of Jesus' trial, now Jesus knew the purpose of his trial was to lead him to death. He knew he was supposed to die. He had in the very midst of his trial an illegality happens. He struck which is illegal. And he turns in John 18 and he says to the court, if I broke the law, bear witness of it. But if I did not break the law, why did you strike me? Jesus is protesting. The illegality. He's protesting. The injustice. Paul did the same thing. When he was put in jail as a Roman citizen without a trial, his rights under Roman law were violated. What did he do? What did he do? He protested. He appealed. He

went to court. He appealed the Caesar. He says, I'm going to get you all in a lot of trouble. That's Paul. What was Paul doing? Was he contradicting what Jesus was doing? Well, that's the thing that Jesus was doing. No, let me tell you what Jesus is saying. It's a lot more balanced, it's a lot more sophisticated, it's a lot more like we say here in New West, than we might think. If you're gonna attack somebody, you don't aim for the cheek. Now listen, I want you to know that I'm not much

of martial arts. I don't know much about martial arts, but I can't imagine a martial arts person, you know, master, telling, you know, his students he's saying, now if you really wanna bring this guy down, aim for the cheek. That'll take this bugger right out. No, I don't think he would say that.

I mean, I'm not a martial arts person, I would think you aim for the jaw, you aim for the nose, you aim for the sore plexus, you aim for, I don't know what you aim for, but I know you don't aim for the cheek. And if you do aim for the cheek, if you're really gonna take that first knot, you know, slap it.

You see. What does Jesus mean when he gives us the case illustration of a slap on the cheek? A slap on the cheek is an insult. A slap on the cheek is not an assault on your physical safety. It's an assault on your honor. It's a personal affront. And what Jesus is saying, when he says, turn the other cheek, something very radical, and again, exquisitely balanced. He is saying, there has to be a spirit in my followers that is very different than what is normal to the human heart. This spirit is full of

a concern for justice but of no concern for your image, for saving face, for your ego. And so what he is doing is he's saying, my followers are not concerned about how they look, they're not concerned about personal in front. They are passionate for justice, but they go about it without a slightest bit of indiciveness or vengefulness or spite. Take a look and see how Paul does his protest. Take a look and see how Jesus does the protest

and you immediately realize what they're doing. There's no ranker in their voice. There's no spite. There's no cynicism. These things are important. These aren't just little editions, we say, well, of course, yeah, I better tone down my tone of voice. They tell the truth, they speak up for justice without any venom. Well, we've actually got here, and let me show you this. Let's take a moment

and say it in a couple different ways. What we've actually got here is the very, very opposite, the complete and total opposite of the way the human heart works. When you're mistreated, that's the, when there's injustice, mistreatment, that's within view here. How do you respond? I would say the human heart has two basic natural responses. The sinful human heart has two basic natural responses. The sinful human heart has two basic natural responses, and you can see them in yourself. On the one hand, you've got what I'm going to call the passive response.

And in this analogy, in the picture Jesus is giving us, it means to keep the cheek there just so they can keep hitting it and hitting it. Keep the same cheek there. See, for some of us, the way we respond to mis-treatment is we just let it keep coming. We don't complain, we don't speak up, we don't rebuke, we don't confront. People, therapists who understand family systems say that there are many of us who find it more painful to change the status quo than to confront. And therefore, we will take the abuse. We will take the mistreatment, but we don't want to rock the boat.

We don't want to change things. We're afraid to confront, we're afraid to rebuke because we favor continuity of our discontinuity so much. That means somebody strikes on the other cheek, you just sit there and you keep that first cheek there and let them hit it again and again and again and again, Jesus is not saying that. But that's one of the natural responses.

We've learned it, who knows exactly where it is, is a lot of reasons for it, but that's one of the responses, the passive response. Then, on the other hand, there's the vindictive response. In the vindictive response, they hit us on the cheek. What do we do? We don't, in the passive response, you sit there

and you let them keep on hitting you. In the vindictive response, you strike them on their cheek. You get vindictive, see. You pay them back, you get vengeful. You rub their nose in it, you make them feel as bad as they made you feel. Why do some people do it that way? Temperament, they've learned it that way,

they've had other models, one or the other. Now, there's other combinations, by the way, of the passive and the vindictive. Just to give you a couple of combinations, some of us are very more sophisticated and we do both. Some of us do it in stages. Some of us sit there and we let people impose on us and let people impose on us. We don't rebuk, we don't speak up, we don't complain, and all of a sudden we explode. I tend to be that way. True confessions.

Opposent, pose, and pose, and finally, I've had it. So you go from A, the passive to B, the vindictive. Or there's another way to combine them, and that is to do them both at once, which is the most pathological, and it's not funny. It's not funny. What I mean by that, and this by the way is very natural. On the outside to be completely passive and to be

completely accepting and not to speak up on the inside to be burning with rage. And in what this isn't funny, but the fact is that those of us who do that are in a lot of danger. We're the kind of people that can live quiet lives for years and all of a sudden go up into a tower and start shooting people. And then after the TV reporters go around and all the guys friends say, I don't understand, he was such a nice guy. And what Jesus is saying here is that neither a passive response or a vindictive response or a passive and vindictive response or a passive and vindictive response

or a passive and vindictive response together? None of those things are valid. None of those things work. All of them lead to the misery that's in the world today and none of them are appropriate for my followers. And what Jesus tells us we're supposed to do is not just an improvement on it, not just a progress beyond it, but the exact opposite. Let me put it to you this way. Let me put it, not just a progress beyond it, but the exact opposite.

Let me put it to you this way. Let me put it to you in a couple ways. Whereas the natural human heart's response to injustice and mistreatment is to be passive on the outside and burning up on the inside. The Christian approach is to be actively opposed on the outside, but on the inside have peace and forgiveness. The complete opposite. The what we want to do is we don't want to speak up, we don't want to rock the boat, but inside we're so mad. And the Christian response is on the inside to be forgiving and to be warm and to be at peace, but on the outside to be telling the truth and to be actively opposing and working for justice and truth.

And we put it another way. Jesus says, not on the one hand, you're not supposed to, when the person strikes you on this cheek to keep the cheek there so they keep on hitting you, nor do you slap them on their cheek, but instead you turn the other cheek, what does that mean? See it's it's perfect, it's radical. What it means is you put the relationship on a new footing, you start over with a concern for both justice and kindness, do justice, love kindness. See, example, I once heard this happen. I was happy to be in a room when I heard a woman, a grown woman talking to her father on the phone. And this is what I heard heard. Suddenly she was quiet for a minute and she says, Dad, I want you to know, I've told you before that I cannot allow

you to talk to me like that or mom like that. I've told you before that we won't put up with it and therefore I'm going to hang up right now right in the middle of your sentence. I want you to know that I care for you and I love you and I really want to have a good relationship with you And if you're willing to change, I'm willing to get it on but I'm not gonna listen so I will call back later I care a lot about you and hang up Don't you see what you did? If she had just sit there and let the herself get slapped in the cheek what she would have done

It's just sat there and listen to it and take it and take it and take it and take it Don't rock the boat after all, he's my father. Or on the other hand, she could have said, which that's the passive response, the other response is to slap on the other cheek. Dad, I've had it with you. You blank it, you blank it, you blank. What you've done to me is the same thing I wanted to do back to you. I never want to see you again.

I hope you, I'm going to tell mom to leave you. Wham! Either of those responses is pathological. It's so clear. Both of those responses are totally natural. The response that she came up with is the Christian response. It's what Jesus is talking about here.

It's turning the other cheek. It's the only hope for the world. And it takes supernatural strength as we're going to see in a minute. But what does she do? She turned the other cheek. She put the relationship on a new footing and she what she did was she said now that here's what justice is and here's what the truth is and Now I'm giving you a chance to start over She doesn't withdraw. She makes herself available. She says if you're willing to change I want a relationship. That's what it means to turn the other cheek. To give the person the chance to kiss you this time, instead of hit you. What it means to turn the other cheek is to say, I want a relationship,

but it's got to start, it's got to be on a footing of both justice and love kindness. Not one or the other, both of them alone will still destroy the world. Both of them together. When I've talked to people about this, I very often had people who had the passive response insist that that was the most courageous or the vindictive response. Let me show what I mean. Some people think the passive response is the most courageous. You say, well, I know I'm really taking a lot of abuse, I really know it's very, very hard, but what can I do? You know, I love this person, and it takes a lot of love for me to stay in there and not

say anything. But if I said anything, that would be the end of the relationship, that's it. That's not courageous. I heard a minister once put it this way. He says, on awful lot of us are living in pseudo-community. I think it's Scott Peck's word. Sudo-community means relationships that are superficial because nobody wants to rock

the boat and nobody wants to say anything except that which is safe. And this minister put it this way, if you want to drive from Denver to Vale to ski, the only way to get to those high open slopes is to go through the Eisenhower tunnel. And that means the only way to get to the high and open slopes you have to go down into the dark claustrophobic tunnel. He says the only way to get to the high and open slopes, you have to go down into the dark claustrophobic tunnel. He says, the only way to get to the height of authentic relationships, real relationships, not pseudo relationships, but real relationships, is to first go to the dark tunnel of the chaos of truth-telling. And what he meant is that usually when you start to tell the truth, when you start to

be concerned for justice, you go through chaos. When you first start to say, this is the way it is, this is what I think you're doing, this is what's going on. Immediately, there's chaos, almost always. The other person doesn't say, oh, I see. The other person, the other person, you may have it wrong, the other person may have it wrong, but the difficult thing is to keep going through that tunnel. And the only way to go through that tunnel and to get to the authentic relationships is on the one hand,

not to let the other person keep it in you on the other hand, not to hit the other person, but to turn the other cheek and say, I care about you and about justice together. I care about justice, but I also want a relationship. For many in our culture today, Biblical Christianity is a dangerous idea, challenging some of their deepest beliefs. In her book Confronting Christianity, 12 hard questions for the world's largest religion. Dr. Rebecca McLaughlin explores the hard questions that keep many people from considering faith

in Christ. Tackling issues, including gender and sexuality, science and faith, and the problem of suffering, McLosson shows that what seems like roadblocks to faith in Jesus can become signposts to a relationship with him. Confronting Christianity is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the love of Christ

with people all over the world. So request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give. There's other people who say to me that if you're forgiving, you're really not winning over injustice. A lot of people say forgiving is a wimpy way out. In many colleges, they'll tell you now. They will come after you and they will say that if you're an oppressed person, if you're an abused person, you mustn't forgive, you've got to get in touch with your anger. You've got to get in touch with your outrage.

Christ is saying, yes, of course you have to get in touch with your anger or you're not going to be able to forgive, but getting in touch with your anger is a means to an end. It's not an end in itself. That the only way to really win is to forgive. Now see, look, love your enemies, cannot mean let your enemy do whatever he or she wants to do. It can't mean that. Is it loving to let somebody sin? Is it loving to let somebody do evil? How could that be loving? You see, love your enemies cannot mean mean never oppose the mistreatment. But what it does mean is you oppose the mistreatment in such a way that you show a care and a concern, no vindictiveness.

What does it mean to forgive if you haven't paid the phone company? The phone company holds you liable by turning off your phone. If somebody owes you something they've mistreated you, what it means to resent them is you hold them liable, you turn their phone off. It means you score points on them, it means your harsh, it means you're cold, you cut them off in some way, and you sit there and you replay the tapes all the time about what they did to you, hoping for their missfall, hoping for their missfue fortune, hoping that they'll fall down and pay. And what Jesus is saying is when He says, turn the other cheek, what He's trying to say

is, you forgive. That doesn't mean you have to trust the person, not right away, heck no. As a matter of fact, sometimes the only way to love a person and to give them what they really need is to withdraw pretty far away. But what it does mean is your willingness to say, if you're willing to change, there's an openness here. I'm not taking myself out. I want a relationship.

I've turned the other cheek. I want a relationship on a new footing of both justice and love. If you don't forgive, you have lost to injustice. Let me just emphasize that. Is there something I could draw underlines underneath what I'm saying here? If you are bitter, you are under control of the person who wronged you.

Your thoughts are under their control. You're still thinking about them. Your actions, you may say, well, I would like to do that, but oh no, she used to do that. That person is still present to you. The wrong is still immediate to you. Your past has got you by the throat. You're not a human being. You're a computer. You're still under the program. You're being programmed. You're being controlled. program, you're being programmed, you're being controlled. Let me tell you this, until you forgive the mistreatment has won, until you forgive the injustice has beaten you, until you forgive and until you're able to say, I forgive you and if this person really changes, there's even a chance for a new relationship. Until you're able to do that, until you're

able to forgive like that, you haven't really overcome the injustice, you haven't beaten it, you overcome evil with good, you triumph over, you beat it, it's the way to be a warrior. To do justice without loving kindness means you're really not going to overcome injustice, don't you see? And a love kindness without doing justice means you're not really loving them at all. Do justice. Love kindness. You know, Jesus is saying, I want you to have a spirit in you that is so passionately

concerned for justice, but not at all for your own ego or your own image anymore. Don't let them slap you, don't slap them, turn the other cheek. Start the relationship of fresh. Be valiant for both justice and kindness. Speak up. Speak the truth and love. You know, in the middle, there's a lot of things that are wrong about the middle ages, but they had an ideal. And if you look carefully, you will see the ideal man and the ideal woman was not very

sexually stereotyped. The greatest knights were men who were valiant, but who were also as tender and as sweet and as nurturing as women should have been. And the greatest women, you know, like A.O. and the man-hearted, where you see, whereas valiant as men are supposed to be and yet to same time, sensitive and sweet and nurturant. And I think when you read about those great ideals, you know, when Lancelot died, Syracters said, that were at the sternest night that ever pulled a spear out of the breast. And now're the meekest who ever sat in the hall with ladies and listened to music.

And what he was trying to say there, is he's trying to say, you know what, you are a real Christian. You both did justice and love kindness. Now lastly, is this an impossible thing? I mean, when you look at what Jesus is saying, you realize this goes absolutely against the human heart. Some of you right now are in the throes

of one of these relationships. Some of you are, it's actually dominating and overshadowing you right now. You don't know what to do about it. You're doing the exact opposite. You're not speaking up and you're being bitter. You're doing the exact opposite. And you look at this and you say, of course,

this is the only hope for the world. Look at the problem in the Balkans right now. Right now, most of us have, in our mind, we think we know who the bad guys are. But do you think this has been going on for thousands of years? Do you think these guys have always been the bad guys? In every time and every place, you don't think the other guys are the bad guys sometimes.

Don't you see that a passion for justice without forgiving spirit, a humble forgiving spirit, or a humble forgiving spirit without a passion for justice will not do it. There is no hope for the world unless what Jesus says is godly balanced behavior begins to get inculcated in people. Well, how can it be done?

We look at him, we say it's impossible. Thoughtful people will say, this is impossible. One last time, can we assume that Jesus isn't stupid, that Jesus knew how hard it was when he told it to us? You think Jesus said, here we go, come on, let's go. You know, they threw it out there, say, here's an idea, come on, let's do it. He didn't do that.

He knew how lofty it was, and he gives us the second balance out of which the first one flows. And the second balance, remember, is do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with thy God. And what we have it right in here, a new attitude toward the self based on the new relationship with God is the source for this tough tender balance of God-leave life. It's right down here at the end. Then you will

be sons of the most high. Love your enemies and then you will be sons of the most high because he is kind to the wicked and the ungrateful. Be merciful as your father in heaven is merciful. Now, this is what is going on. If you look carefully, Jesus is saying, first of all, it's the nature of God to be good to the wicked and the ungrateful. All people to whom God is kind are wicked and ungrateful. In Romans chapter 5 verse 10 it says, while we were yet enemies, Christ died for us reconciling us to God.

And then he says, therefore, if you have been reconciled to God, if God is your father, you've been adopted by grace, it's surely by grace, he was kind to you when you're wicked and ungrateful. And if he's your father now, he's your father strictly by grace, you're an adopted enemy. An adopted child who was once an enemy. I submit to you that that is, the that thought is a little piece of dynamite in the heart of anybody who really believes it and grasps it. Please forgive me, I know this is abrasive, but let me put it this way. Many of you in this room do not think you have ever been enemies of God.

The average person says, look, I'm not having a very religious, but I'm not an enemy. I'm not mad at God. I'm not angry at God. I'm not an enemy now, and I've never been an enemy. If you know, think you've ever been an enemy of God, you're not a Christian right now. I know that sounds terrible. What a abrasive thing to say. Here I'm trying to be warm while I'm telling the truth. I don't know if I'm doing a very good job of it. But please listen to me about it.

The Bible says that while we were enemies, Christ died, what is a Christian? A Christian is somebody who has discovered that I wasn't just, if I'm a Christian, it's not that I realized I just wasn't really living a moral life, but that I really resented God's control over my life. And even when I was religious, I was just using God all along.

Here's what a Christian thinks. A Christian is somebody who says, hey, I was religious. I was moral. I did a lot of good things and I was hoping I was trying to be good. But when God wouldn't let me have the things I wanted, I was furious. I mean, that's a typical thing. Hey, I've been trying to be a pretty good person. I come to church occasionally.

I leave a pretty decent life. And here I am, not married yet. I leave a pretty good life. I've been trying my hardest, but here, look, I've gotten nowhere in my career. And other people who are anywhere near as talented as me has me have gotten ahead because of all sorts of skull degree.

And you turn on God, and you're angry at God. A Christian realizes that that is the normal way we relate to God. And that means we're using Him. We're trying to control Him. We don't really love Him. We're not really serving Him. We're using Him. We're doing what we want to do, expecting Him then to come through.

And if He doesn't come through, we're mad. And that anger shows how angry we are at him. Shows that underneath it all, we really want to control our lives and we resent his control. And we only play with God. We only play ball with God as long as we feel like he's giving us what we should have. And as soon as he doesn't, we cut off the game. We take our ball and go home. And a Christian at some point and other has come to realize,

has stopped repressing our anger toward God. The psychologists tell you, it's very easy to repress traumatic material. We don't like to admit how angry we are with people. How much more so with God? A Christian is somebody who's broken through that repression, who's finally realized the reason I get so mad about life and the reason I feel like I've been so in fear,

ultimately I have been using God. I have been an enemy of God. And I see therefore if I'm going to be saved, if I'm going to be accepted, it's going to have to be completely through grace. And then when a Christian is seen that he or she is an enemy of God and sees that Jesus Christ, when he died, he was dying for enemies.

He was dying for people who were killing him, who were causing his death, but he did so. And then a Christian says, wait a minute, Jesus did justice and loved kindness at once. By dying, he satisfied justice. He paid for my sins so that he could then love me and accept me freely by his grace. so that He could then love me and accept me freely by His grace. And when you begin to realize that you are an adopted enemy, that creates a little hole in the heart, a fire in the heart. And you see, you can make Christian friends, you can make that fire grow by throwing fuel on it, by remembering it, thinking about it, praying about it, remembering what He's done.

And when that fire grows, that is the dynamite, that is the dynamic, that is the power. For both doing justice and loving kindness, for turning other cheek, you'll be able to do it. When you think, look, when you look at somebody you're trying to help who's broken and amiss, if you look at somebody who's mistreating you, you look at somebody who's using you. How in the world are you going to be able to forgive that person? How in the world are you going to be able to turn the other cheek? It's fairly simple.

To the degree you say, but I used God, and I wouldn't want God to start to remember how I mistreated Him. What you see, if you can say that, and it starts to make you cry, if you can say that, and it starts to melt your heart, that is the power by which you can turn the other cheek. If what I'm saying is just an intellectual idea to you, in fact, if what I'm saying is actually a little bit untenable to you, you don't see yourself as being an enemy, you don't see yourself as needing to be saved completely by grace, you do feel like, hey, I've tried my best to live a pretty good life,

and God certainly should accept me if a gospel basically seems untenable to you. You don't have that power. The power comes from knowing, he is kind of the wicked and young grateful, me. You will only be able to be merciful if the God in heaven is your father and you know is your father by adoption and grace. There was a man. I read this story.

There was a man, a very wealthy man who owned a big business, and his best friend died and left a young boy, and he helped this young boy financially. He put him through school, put him through grad school, and gave him a very responsible job in his company. The young man was not a very responsible guy though. He had a drug addiction. He in order to get money for it, he misused the funds in his department, he embezzled, he did things, and finally he realized one, as time

went on, he realized that he wasn't going to be able to hold, he wasn't going to be able to cover it up any longer. He finally began to realize that the auditors were about to close in on him, that he would be ruined. And one night, he was opening and looking over the books, realizing that the jig was up, and he decided to kill himself. And he took out a gun, and he tried to drink, and he got drunk so he could have the courage, but he got so drunk that he passed out. The old guy, now an old man, the CEO, the man who had done all those things for him,

the owner of the company came in and found him. Realized what was going on. Looked at the books, saw what was going on, figured it all out and left two notes. One note in the book saying to the auditors, I will personally make up the difference out of my own funds. And one note to the young man saying, if you're ready to get help, I'm ready to forgive and put everything behind. And when the young man realized

that his benefactor had come and had seen him at his worst, had looked into his heart and seen the worst possible thing, and had done justice and loved kindness. He was transformed. Jesus Christ has come and looked into your heart and he's seen in there the heart of an enemy. He's seen things in your heart, crawly things, nameless things, a thousand times worse than anything that you were even know about our hearts. And he did justice and he loved Congress.

And he died for us. While we were yet enemies, does the thought of that melt you? Does the thought of that begin to mean anything to you? If it does, to the degree it does, to the degree that this week, you build the fire up of that thought in your heart. You will be able to be like your father.

You will be able to be as sons and daughters of the most high. You will be able to love your enemies and turn the other cheek and change the world as it is. Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God. Let's pray. Would you give us now, as we listen to the music, help us to focus on what you're telling us. Lord, there's some people here who are in the throes of some very specific situations

in which they need to apply this material. Many of the rest of us are not yet in such throws, but they're inevitable. We pray that you would change us because we've considered your word today. And you would make it a fire in our bones, like it was the Jeremiah. Make it a fire in our bones. Now, we pray that you'd help us to understand and apply these things in Jesus' name and the Spirit's power through Christ we pray.

Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching from Dr. Keller. If you were encouraged by this podcast, we invite you to consider becoming a gospel and life monthly partner. Your partnership helps more people access resources like this podcast. Just visit gospelandlife.com slash partner to learn more. This month's sermons were recorded in 1993 and 2016. The sermons and talks you hear on the gospel and life

podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.