Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Sunday, January 8th • Beau Bradberry
"And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." — Ezekiel 36:27
–
Podcast: https://pod.link/willowridgechurch
Website: https://willowridgechurch.org
Instagram: https://instagram.com/willowridgechurch
Facebook: https://facebook.com/willowridgechurch
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@willowridgechurch
Show Notes
January 8th, 2023 • "And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." — Ezekiel 36:27
–
Podcast: https://pod.link/willowridgechurch
Website: https://willowridgechurch.org
Instagram: https://instagram.com/willowridgechurch
Facebook: https://facebook.com/willowridgechurch
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@willowridgechurch
–
Podcast: https://pod.link/willowridgechurch
Website: https://willowridgechurch.org
Instagram: https://instagram.com/willowridgechurch
Facebook: https://facebook.com/willowridgechurch
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@willowridgechurch
Creators and Guests
What is Willow Ridge Sermons?
Sermon audio from Sunday services at Willow Ridge Church.
Hi, and welcome to the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast.
This is where you can find audio for our current and past sermons.
We hope that you enjoy this week's installment, and be sure to check back next week to hear
the latest message.
Thanks for listening.
Well, good morning.
If you've got your Bibles with you, I'm going to ask you to go to two places this morning.
I'm going to ask you to go to Ezekiel 36.
That's where we'll begin.
And then go to Matthew chapter 5.
That's where we'll jump to.
I want to reemphasize what Berger said.
We would love to see you tonight.
And so if you are someone that likes to cook, likes to do that, I know, I believe from the
Bradbury House, we've got a chicken stew and a peanut butter pie that's coming with us tonight.
So if you like to cook, that's great.
Come and be a part of that.
And if there's not enough food, we'll just pray that God does another miracle for us, and
we've never run out, right?
But if you're someone like, I don't like to cook, I don't want to cook, but I like to eat.
All right.
Well, you've joined the rest of us that like to eat as well.
And so it'll be a wonderful time, 4 o'clock.
We don't have a program that we're doing.
It's just a time of fellowship, of coming together.
And so I would like to encourage all of you to come and to be a part of that.
First time guests, I've seen a lot as they came through this morning.
I just want to say thank you for being here.
Aaron and I will be back here to my left at the end of the service and would just love for
you to stop by so we can say hello and thank you for being here and for worshiping with
us this morning.
Well, as we look at our scripture, I want to say this.
This week, we're starting a new series on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John.
Now, we are in Ezekiel and Matthew, and I'll explain why here in just a little bit that
we're starting our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John by looking at Ezekiel and Matthew, neither of
whom are by John, right?
But what we're going to have moving forward, many of our small groups are going to be following
along with us.
In fact, what we're going to do for the next, I believe, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 weeks, somewhere
through there that we're going to be journeying through these books is we're going to be following
along also with our Right Now Media study that Dr. Tony Evans does on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John.
So maybe an opportunity for your small group to do that.
Maybe it's an opportunity for you as a family or you as an individual to walk through that
study.
I would encourage you, allow Sunday morning to be the time where we come and open up God's
Word and whet our appetite for what's going to be discussed, and then you can go from there
in your own study and really get the meat of what God is going to do in His Word for you.
So this week what we're going to do is we're going to lay the groundwork thematically for
what we think is going to happen where we feel like the Holy Spirit is leading us as we look
at 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John.
And as Scripture reinforces Scripture, as Scripture interprets Scriptures, is what we're going to
see that Ezekiel 36 and Matthew 5 speak to so much of what we're going to draw from as
we go through this study in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John.
And so I'm excited about that, that we had that opportunity to do that this morning together
to just get us ready for all that God is going to do as we work through this series together.
Now, we're going to look at Ezekiel 36 first.
In just a moment we're going to start reading in verse 25.
But I want to say this, this is one of my favorite passages that explains what happens
in an individual when they become a follower of Jesus Christ.
And I think one of the things that I like so much about it in these three verses that we're
going to look at this morning is that it is from the Old Testament.
And so most people would not think that I'm going to journey to the Old Testament to learn
about Jesus.
But here's what we find, Old Testament, New Testament, it's the story of God, it's the story
of Christ.
And that's what we find here in Ezekiel 36 is going to share with us that what happens
in our life when we become followers of Jesus Christ, what God is doing in us so that God
can do through us in there.
So let's look at Ezekiel 36, starting at verse 25.
It says, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanliness
and from all your idols, I will cleanse you.
So in this verse, God says he's going to do the work.
He's describing what he is going to do.
He doesn't say you will sprinkle.
He says, I will sprinkle.
He doesn't say you will cleanse.
He says, I will cleanse.
And then God's going to carry this forward.
So what we can learn about this work in salvation, it is in the kindness and the grace and the
goodness of God of what God is doing in our lives.
This is no form of merit-based salvation where we've earned this.
It is what God is doing in us.
And then God says in this verse that God says that he forgives us.
Yes and amen.
We like this.
We like that what we get to bring is our sin, our failures, our idols, and that God, what
he tells us in Ezekiel 36 is that he cleans us from all.
He cleans us from all idols, all of it, every bit.
We like that.
Now it causes in some of us to say, but what about this?
What about that?
Yep, that too.
All of your sin, all of your idols, every foolish thing we settled for, every selfish pursuit
that we've had, every sinful desire of the heart.
God says, I cleans you from all of it.
Every idol that we chase after, God's words that he cleans us from that.
He does this.
God in the gospel forgives us.
But then look at verse 26.
And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you.
And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
So after he forgives us, God gives to us.
And we like that too, right?
We like that God gives.
God forgives and that God gives to us.
Here in Ezekiel, he says that he gives us a new heart, that he replaces the old heart,
the heart of stone, for a new heart, a heart of flesh.
God takes what's broken.
God takes what's busted.
God takes what is filled with the rottenness of our sin.
And he takes that from us and he gives us new.
He gives us a new heart.
But he also gives us a new spirit.
He takes out our rebellious, depravity, filled, sinful, pursued, evil spirit
that rests within us, that sends us toward the pursuit of the things of this world.
And God takes that from us and he does not leave us void.
And instead what God does is he gives us his spirit.
He gives us the Holy Spirit.
Just as Jesus promised, just as we see fulfilled in the book of Acts,
that all those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved
and are indwelt by the power of the Holy Spirit.
That the spirit of God rests in.
This isn't a metaphor.
This isn't a description.
It is the truth of God's word of what happens and takes place physically and spiritually
in the life of all of us who are believers.
The spirit of God rests in us.
Right?
This is good news for us.
We get God's forgiveness.
We get God's gifts.
Let's look at verse 27.
And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes
and be careful to obey my rules.
Now with the new spirit, change happens.
Now here's what's interesting.
This is a promise.
This isn't a suggestion.
This isn't hope that this happens and takes place.
This is what God says happens and takes place in the lives of the men and women and children
who are followers of his, who rest in him, who have found their forgiveness and their hope
that Jesus is their Lord and Savior.
What happens is, is he promises that change happens and that as, as in this change, that we will walk in his statutes
and that we will obey his rules.
And we're like, oh, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.
Forgiveness, yay, right?
Gifts, that's good.
Now rules.
Oh, we don't like those too much, do we?
Now we're in church and we're going to say that we like rules, but what we see and experience in a lot of us
is that the rules aren't necessarily the things that we like and we get really excited about.
Talking about forgiveness, talking about gifts, that, yes.
Talking about the rules, maybe not so much.
Now, but God says that this is what happens and that this is what he does and that this is what he changes in us.
Now, does this happen instantly, right?
If you've been walking for, with Jesus for a while, you know the answer to this question.
Does this happen instantly?
Now, most of us would say, no, this doesn't happen instantly.
But I would argue that, yes, that this does happen instantly in some areas of our life.
In that moment when we are encountered with Jesus, when Christ saves us, there are those pieces and parts in our life that God begins to change.
It's maybe how we view worship.
It's maybe how we view the church.
It's maybe how we view forgiveness.
It's maybe how we view love.
It's maybe how we think we're supposed to treat people, right?
Instantly, God begins to take those areas of our life and change those.
But for many things, what God does in his grace and his kindness over the course of our life is he works in those areas of our life, making us more and more like him, sanctifying us.
So those things that we used to pursue, we don't pursue anymore.
And instead, we're pursuing the things of him.
So we can look back from the moment that we got saved and we can see those things instantly that God changed in us.
We can see those things that God has changed later in us.
We can also identify the things that we still know are there that God's working on.
But then there's a third category of those things that you and I don't even really know that we struggle with right now.
And the Holy Spirit's like, just wait, that's coming later, right?
And that's what God is going to work and do.
And so here's the promise that we take away as we look at this in Ezekiel chapter 36.
It's that when you are saved, God changes you and promises to continue changing you.
And here's what I have come to understand.
You and I, as a result of this, of knowing the work of God and the fullness and the work of the gospel and what the gospel wants to do in us and through us,
means that we can't sit back and say, man, I'm just good where I'm at.
Spiritually, we cannot treat our lives like a Sunday afternoon sitting in a rocking chair looking at the pretty mountains.
I'm good.
I'm fine right here.
I'm good and comfortable.
That within our being, we have to realize that we have not arrived, that we have not been perfected,
but that also that we're not good enough and there's no need to get any better.
The gospel won't let that happen in us.
The truth of God's word pushes against that in our lives.
You and I can't sit back and say, I've arrived.
You and I can't sit back and say those areas of my life, I don't need to change.
On Twitter this week, I read a quote from Shane Pruitt, who's the next generation mobilization person for the North American Mission Board.
And I got this quote on the screen.
For some reason this week, I got a lot of quotes, but this is the only one that's on the screen.
Here's what he says.
Too many people want a God that saves them, but doesn't change them.
The gospel doesn't work like that.
That hurt my feelings.
Too many people want a God who saves them, but that doesn't change them.
And the gospel doesn't work like that.
The gospel doesn't say, here's your salvation and you're great.
No.
Jesus says, here's the gospel, but what's going to happen is I'm going to work in you through this.
And this is going to be our theme as we look at 1 and 2 and 3 John.
This concept, as Berger and I were looking at the study with right now, we were looking at the study, reading through in God's word, and we came back with the thought of uncomfortable Christianity.
That where we see, what we see that in this life is that too many of us want comfortable, good, laid back on the front porch with our feet kicked up, with a glass of sweet tea, taking a nap, Christianity.
And I'm good, I'm fine, leave me alone.
But that's not what happens.
When we are saved, many of us see behaviors that we want to change, and we're excited about changing those.
But what happens is eventually we have behaviors and sins that we don't want to change.
We like them.
They feel good.
They meet a desire.
They scratch an itch.
And so we don't want to let them go.
This is who I am.
This is what I do.
So here's the things we say.
We say things like, when we're confronted by someone, this is what I found.
When someone confronts us with sin in our life, which by the way is biblical, it doesn't mean that it feels good, but it's biblical.
When someone confronts us with sin in our life or the Holy Spirit begins to speak in us the sin that we're living in, we tend to have some posturing or some responses that aren't godly in this from time to time.
And one of the things that we say is, we know God's not working on that yet.
So here's what we do.
Here's what that statement does when we do this.
And I say we, because this is just as much me as it is you.
We blame God.
This sin is God's fault.
Well, I mean, God's not working on that yet.
I mean, maybe he will, but right now is not his timing.
And you heard what Bo said.
We always have to trust in God's timing, right?
We blame God.
God's not working on that yet.
The other thing we say is we say, well, you know, it's just the way that I am.
It's just the way that I am.
And here's what that does.
That limits God.
We're trying to put a limit on God.
Well, that's just the way that I am.
And it should change, but God needs to change it.
And that's just the way that I am.
And so what we're saying is God really can't change that.
It's just who I am.
It's who I'm going to be.
And I've accepted it, so you accept it.
Or then we do this.
Well, you know, you really shouldn't judge me.
And you should just accept and love me for who I am, right?
And that may go really well in a Hallmark movie, but it goes terrible in the Bible, right?
And so we blame others.
We blame brothers and sisters in Christ who are trying to help us in our sanctification.
And so in this, when we're not willing to address these things, we blame God, we try to limit God, and we blame others.
But here's what we've learned from Ezekiel, that God forgives if you're saved.
God gives if you're saved.
And God changes us if you're saved.
And all throughout the Bible and all throughout the teachings of Jesus, this is what we see.
Jesus calls his followers to a different, to a higher standard for themselves in their lives.
Go ahead and turn over to Matthew chapter 5.
We'll start in verse 38 here in just a moment.
But I want to give some examples of this that are even outside of Matthew 5.
And there are so many of them.
We could stay here until 4 o'clock tonight or this afternoon and read through all of these that we see.
But here's just a handful.
Rich young ruler, remember him, he comes to Jesus, wants to be a follower of Jesus.
What does Jesus say?
Jesus attacks his idol.
He says, take all your possessions, all that you have, sell it all, and give it all away.
You know, that's a little, that's a little much.
Jesus?
Did Jesus mean that?
Yes.
Yes, he did.
Jesus meant that.
When he came, he attacked his idols.
Remember he said, I'm going to cleanse you from all of your idols?
So he attacks his idols.
Give it all away.
Here's the thing.
We're going to see this in just a few moments also about the illustrations that Jesus gives.
You know, sometimes more of us in here, more so than others, I include myself in this,
sometimes we say things that we didn't really think about saying and then we just say them.
Anybody else ever have that?
We've got a filter like a basketball net.
Are you there with me sometimes?
All right.
See, that's not Jesus.
Everything Jesus says is perfect, is holy, is divine, and is inspired.
That's who Jesus is.
So Jesus doesn't flippantly say anything.
So everything he says, he means, everything he says is truth.
So the rich young ruler, I want to follow you.
Well, cool.
Well, let me attack that idol.
Sell it all.
Give it all away.
That's uncomfortable.
That's uncomfortable.
Later on in Scripture, Peter, and this is probably the most uncomfortable call that we see.
Peter comes up to Jesus in a moment of pride for himself.
You know where he's got an answer to the question that he's about to ask, and he's waiting for Jesus to affirm him in front of everybody else.
He says, Jesus, how many times should we forgive someone?
Seven.
Seven.
Seven, the number of perfection.
Jesus, should we forgive them seven times?
And Jesus says, no.
How about 70 times?
How about 70 times seven times?
That's forgiveness.
How many of you are keeping track of forgiveness?
Probably a lot of us.
But I forgave them here, and I forgave them here, and I forgave them here, and I forgave them here, and now I'm just done.
I'm done forgiven.
The only problem with that is Jesus.
And Jesus says, no.
No.
You keep on forgiving.
You keep on forgiving.
You keep on forgiving.
And so in Matthew 5, verse 38, what we find here is that Jesus is teaching, and Jesus is doing the Sermon on the Mount.
So I want to kind of hit the structure of it so far to kind of get to where we're going here.
But Jesus is already given the Beatitudes.
The Bible tells us that there's this group of people, and they've been following Jesus, and this bigger crowd is coming, and bigger crowd is coming.
And Jesus kind of looks around, and in the guidance of the Spirit of God and obedience to the Father, the Son begins to preach.
And what we see is the Beatitudes are first, and Jesus defines that this is what it means to be blessed.
And then it's the calling of Jesus to missional living, to being on mission, to understanding that we are missionaries in Christ.
He says, you're going to be salt and light, that we are sent people.
If you're going to follow, this is who you are.
And then in chapter 5, starting in verse 17, Jesus talks about how he came to fulfill the law.
And this is really important, because in a minute, he's not going to attack the law, but he's going to speak to the law.
And Jesus talks about that in him, that he, he is the fulfillment of the law.
and then what we see is Jesus begins teaching what I'm just calling like a Christian ethic,
a Christian character, and over the next several sections, he begins by saying something like,
you have heard it said, or you've heard it said from times of old, and then Jesus in each one of
these, he talks about anger, he talks about lust, he talks about divorce, he talks about oaths, he
talks about retaliation, he talks about love, and in each one of these, he says this, and he quotes
from the Old Testament of you've heard it said, and then gives the standard of the Old Testament
of what God sent for his law, but then Jesus digs deeper, and he digs deeper to the heart
issues, so we're not going to look at all of those, but I do want us to look at, let's look
it started in verse 38, Jesus says, you have heard it said, an eye for an eye and a tooth
for a tooth, now this quote here, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is found in
Exodus 21, Leviticus 24, and Deuteronomy 19, and God gives to his people, to the nation of
what's there, not to individuals, God gives this standard for governing, for punishments
of what needs to be done, now God doesn't look at them and say, hey Bo, in your life, here's
the standard to live out, buddy, an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, but he says to his
nation, to the group, here's how we're going to govern, and this is what you're going to
do, but individuals, right, have taken this as their individual duty, now how many of us
have ever quoted that verse for me, well you've done this to me, so I'm going to do this to
you, and what we do in there is we try to manipulate God's word to justify our sin, and Jesus says,
you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and then verse
39, he says, but I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil, do not resist the one who
is evil, now in this moment, what you've got to do within your heart is decide if you believe
God's word, you've got to take verse 39 and ask yourself this question, do I believe in
what God's word says, and if the answer to that is no, thank you for being honest with
yourself, thank you for being honest with yourself, and our prayer for you is that you will, and
if you do, then what we're about to find, Jesus is going to give us four examples of this,
of what this means for a greater calling on our life, look at the rest of verse 39,
but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also, okay, that's not fun,
all right, now remember Jesus said what he said, we believe all of his words that they ring true,
and so Jesus gives us some very specifics in this, Jesus says, but if anyone slaps you on the right
cheek, turn to him the other also, so what's Jesus saying here, all right, pretend with me that you're in a
situation where you're about to get slapped, not necessarily the greatest moment of your life,
right, not one of those where you say, sign me up, I'd like to do that, I did find out this week that
there's a sport of professional slapping, where people stand across the table from one another
and slap each other, and I will say, I think they have limited judgment and great restraint in that
moment, right, hey, sign me up for that, you want to play kickball or get slapped in the face, I'll
take slap in the face, nope, not what we're doing, right, this is what they do, take, just, let's look at
this, Jesus says, if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, right cheek, right here, but why does that
matter, it matters because Jesus said it, if anyone turns and slaps you on the right cheek, now 90% of
the world, how many left-handed people do we have in here, raise your hand, raise your hand, oh, we got a
handful of y'all, all right, there's not many, here's the reason for that, right, there's not many left-handed
people in the world, roughly 90% of the world's population is right-handed, so if a right-handed
person is going to slap someone on the right cheek, if I'm coming at them, I'm coming at the left
cheek, this way, so how do I slap someone with my right hand on the right cheek, backhand, every
translation, it is not punch, it is not hit, it is slap, and so Jesus says, if anyone would slap you on the
right cheek, turn him the other also, now this deals with the physical nature and a physical example of
what's happening and taking place, but I believe there's, there's more to what Jesus is getting to.
If you've ever seen someone hit someone like this, it's a physical action of violence that takes place, but with a
unique and particular goal, it's to put someone in their place, it's to belittle them, it's to insult them, it is to
show you are less than me, so I will hit you like this. And so Jesus says, if someone seeks to physically
attack you with the goal of insulting you, turn and give them the other cheek, these are Jesus' words.
Verse 40,
And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
I did some reading about the clothing that was worn during the times of Jesus, and here's what I found.
Alright. Most individuals wore five items of clothing on their body. They wore their sandals, something to
cover their feet. They wore some type of cloth to cover their head. They wore a loincloth of some fashion as
their underwear. And then they would wear their tunic, which was more tighter fitting and fit to the body,
against them, right? And then they wore on top of that a cloak. Now, the cloak was the most expensive thing
that the person would have. A cloak was often, and these times is what people would travel. As they would
travel, they would have to take journeys, even go from town to town. And so oftentimes a cloak would be that,
that would protect you from the sun. It would protect you from the cold. It would protect you from the rain.
It would protect you from the wind. If you had to sleep on the streets at night, your cloak
would be the thing that you would cover up with. Your tunic that you would wear while it was comfortable
and allowed you to have it, it wasn't considered
a necessity of life. And so Jesus says, if someone sues you and take your tunic, let them have it and end there.
Because you're like, well, I'm good. I got my cloak. I'm cover up. No need to see my undergarments, right?
I'm fine. Still is going to protect me. Still is going to do all those things.
But Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Let them have your cloak as well.
Jesus says, if someone seeks to take this from you, voluntarily surrender more.
What does that mean you look like?
You don't have a tunic.
You don't have a cloak.
You've got something to cover your head.
You've got something to cover your feet.
And you've got your undergarments on.
And that's it.
This is the heart of what Jesus is, is cutting to.
Verse 41, if anyone forces you to go one mile, go two miles with him.
What?
I'm not going there.
Here's what Jesus is talking to.
There was a practice.
Now, remember, in this time where Jesus is in the setting, it is filled with Roman occupancy, okay?
And Rome has occupied them and is taking from these people.
They are foreigners in their land, in their country.
And this is a war-torn area, much like it is today.
And what the Romans would do, any Roman member of the military could walk up to any person and say to them,
pick up my belongings, pick up my equipment, and come with me.
And you are required by law to go with them one mile.
One mile.
But what if you're headed to work?
It didn't matter.
You've got to go.
What if you were older and you couldn't make the trip?
It didn't matter.
You had to go.
What if you're headed to the temple and you're headed to your time of worship?
It didn't matter.
You had to go.
What if you're there?
What if you're a young mom holding her baby and you cannot carry everything that they're demanding of you and carry your baby?
Well, then you leave the baby.
Jesus says, go two.
Go two.
That even that those who seek to oppress you, Jesus says, serve them.
Serve them.
And in doing so, who do you also serve?
You serve your brother or sister.
Because when you lay it down, someone else has got to pick it up.
So Jesus says, when they ask you to go one, you go two.
Some commentators say that when they ask you to go one, you go two on top of that.
So in the end, you've gone three.
Jesus gives this one last illustration here in Matthew 5.
He says, give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
So Jesus gives two financial situations.
The one that begs from you.
You know, we've had that happen.
Jesus didn't say, think about it.
Jesus says, give.
And these are his words.
He says, the one who would borrow from you, let them have it.
But what if they don't pay me back?
You know, it's fine.
Let them have it.
Jesus says that we're to live generously in who we are.
As we look through what it means to understand what it looks like to follow Christ,
Jesus desires and commands and calls for change,
even in the most self-focused, self-entitled areas of our lives that you and I long to hold on to.
But Jesus, they insulted me.
We'll give them the other cheek too.
Jesus, but they took from me.
We'll give them more.
But Jesus, I'm oppressed.
Then go as a servant and you're no longer oppressed.
It's harder.
It's different, but that's the point.
Jesus said, you are the salt of the earth.
You're the light of the world.
You're different.
So go and be that way.
The way of Jesus is different, is better, is sacrificial.
Essential and essential.
Continue reading with me in verse 43.
Jesus says, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
Now, this one, first part, Jesus quotes, found in Leviticus 19.
You shall love your neighbor.
But that next part, and hate your enemy, well, that's taken from culture.
And so what Jesus is saying to his followers then, Jesus would say to the church today, is that oftentimes we take God's standard and we culturize it.
Well, here's what God's word says, but let me view what God's word says in light of culture and let me allow culture to influence what God says.
And that's not even just simply not biblical, that's sinful.
Our approach should be, how does God's word affect the culture, not does how God's, or how does, not how does the culture affect God's word?
And so we looked at that.
We talked about forgiveness.
Ephesians 4.32 tells us to forgive others as Christ has forgiven us.
There's the standard.
How do you forgive?
Well, how has Christ forgiven you?
There you go.
How has Christ forgiven you?
Same way he's forgiven me, freely and completely.
Culture says do the opposite.
Culture says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Mm-mm.
They don't deserve it.
And it drives me insane when my heart wrestles with that.
And it drives me insane when we wrestle with that.
How has Christ forgiven me?
Freely and completely.
Ephesians 4.32 tells us, forgive others as Christ has forgiven you.
That's it.
There's no, and here's an asterisk, and here's how we get out of that.
This is it.
And so Jesus' disciples must live and love in a way that is superior to the ways around them.
That doesn't conform to the ways around them, but that's superior.
So Jesus says in verse 44, 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 makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
Jesus says, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Those aren't empty words, church.
That's what Jesus did.
The Bible says that before Christ that I'm his enemy.
And so the Bible tells us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
He served us.
We couldn't do it.
And so he did it.
He did it.
You're like, okay, but praying.
Praying for people who persecute me.
You remember that phrase that Jesus said, father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
Do you know what was happening during that time?
He was hanging on a cross.
He had just had spikes ran through his feet and through his wrists.
He just had a crown of thorns placed on his head.
And I'm not talking about thorns like what we have on our little rose bushes that cut our finger a little bit and we put a band-aid on it and we get over.
I'm talking about thorns this long that would have gone all the way through and potentially even punctured his eyes as it was pressed down.
This was a man that was beaten and had the skin ripped off of his back so that he could then be placed on a cross where he'd have to pull himself up on that cross in order to breathe.
And see every splinter and every piece of that wood penetrate into the exposed flesh that was there.
And Jesus in that moment says, father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
Jesus says, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Verse 45, he says, so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven.
We got to do something with that.
D.A. Carson wrote this and thought it was the best.
And I apologize, it's not on the screen.
He says, the point of the passage is not to state the means of becoming sons.
But the necessity of pursuing a certain kind of sonship patterned after the father's characters.
The sons and daughters should reflect the father.
He says that in this, in this, when you get this, when you're praying, when you're serving, when you're enduring insults and hardship,
when your generosity is being taken advantage of, and your response to those who do this is love and is prayer,
what is happening in you is a divine work with where what the people see is not you, but they see the heavenly father.
A particular type of sonship that's there.
Look at verses 46 through 48, and we'll close on this.
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?
Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?
Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
You, therefore, must be perfect.
My last quote, Alfred Plummer said this.
To return evil for good is devilish.
If someone does good for you and you return evil to them, that's devilish.
He says, to return good for good, that's human.
That's what we hope for.
That's what we kind of expect out of humanity.
But to return good for evil is divine.
You see, when you're good to me and I'm good to you, that's really great fellowship.
If I return evil for what you do for good for me, that's sinful.
But if you do evil for me, and what I give back is good for you, then that's what God did for us.
As we gave him our evil, and he gave us his goodness.
And it's the call.
And so Matthew says, you, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
This word perfect is where we get the word holy from.
That as God, as Christ calls us to this life that he has.
It's not to give us restraints and rules and restrictions.
It's not to punish us so that we have these boring lives and we can't do all the things that we want to do.
But it's to grow us in our obedience to the Lord so that we reflect something particular.
Our heavenly Father.
Our heavenly Father.
And to let us have the pursuit that we chase after.
The pursuit of the standard for my life and for yours.
As we are found in Christ.
Is the holiness and the perfection of God.
If you're here today and you know that you are found in Christ.
And that's who you are.
May that be our pursuit.
But if you're here today and you don't know Christ.
And you're here this morning.
And you're searching for those answers within your heart.
I just want to remind you in closing the truth of Ezekiel 36.
No matter what you've done.
No matter what you're capable of.
No matter what your past says.
God forgives.
And when God forgives.
God gives.
And he gives you a new heart.
And he gives you a new spirit.
And he gives you a new family.
And he makes you sons and daughters.
Of the living God.
And in that.
Whether your journey.
Is one more moment.
Or 90 more years.
Praise the Lord.
He's working.
And God changes us.
And God makes us new.
And God is working in us.
As God changes.
Not himself.
But as he changes you and I.
And God's forgiveness.
And God's gift.
And the change that God promises.
Is not found in your works.
And it's not found in mine.
It's not found in our ability to be good.
It's not found in our ability to change things in ourself.
It's found in the person of Jesus Christ.
Who died on the cross.
So that you and I could have forgiveness of our sins.
Who paid the debt and the penalty that you and I deserve.
But the tomb could not hold him.
That while he died three days later.
He rose again.
And just as he rose in newness of life.
So too can you and I.
And then later he ascended to the father.
And one day.
When our time is up here.
When God calls us.
He'll call us home.
To him.
Folks that's the hope.
Of what we know to be true.
Of the gospel.
Would you pray with me?
Lord we come to you this morning.
And Lord we thank you in your kindness and your goodness.
Lord of who you are and your love for us.
Lord I thank you.
That you are kind and good and patient.
And Lord I pray for us.
That we would see.
Not to settle.
Lord for what we long for.
What we desire.
What we think is right.
Lord I pray that we would not allow.
The culture in which you've called us to.
The culture in which you've placed us.
To be our determining factor.
Of who we are to be.
But Lord you call us to something better.
You call us to something different.
You call us to something beautiful.
You call us to something essential.
If we are going to go and be the salt and light.
If we're going to go and carry the gospel.
And share the love of Christ.
And how we live.
And how we speak.
And how we treat people.
And so Lord what that means.
Is that we have to look at what Jesus did.
Lord we need to endure.
The attacks of this world.
We need to endure.
Insult.
We need to endure.
Injury.
We need to endure.
All that would throw at us.
Lord we need to be people of generosity.
Of love.
Of kindness.
Of compassion.
People who forgive.
As we have been forgiven.
Lord I pray.
That as we gather here.
We will not just simply stand.
And sing a song.
Because that's what's next.
But Lord may the words we sing.
Be the echoing of the spirit.
Of God inside of us.
May we examine our hearts.
And say God okay what next.
What area do we need to attack.
Where do I need to be broken.
Where do I need to repent.
And Lord may we keep our eyes.
Focused on you.
Jesus thank you.
Thank you for dying on the cross.
The death that I deserved.
But you took in my place.
Thank you for forgiving me.
Thank you for forgiving me.
And making a way.
For me to be.
The father.
It was a way Lord.
That I was incapable.
Of obtaining on my own.
Thank you for saving me.
And keeping me.
In spite of my continued battle.
Shortcomings.
With my sin.
You extend me grace.
With love.
And mercy.
And it's in your name we pray.
Amen.
Thanks again for listening.
To the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast.
We hope that you enjoyed listening.
To this week's message.
If you'd like to learn more.
About who we are.
Or explore additional resources.
Visit us online.
At www.willowridgechurch.com
Or by searching for Willow Ridge Church.
On Facebook and Instagram.
Thank you.