Foes Faults Fruits and Foundation — Luke 6

0:00 Let's pray. Dear Lord, we're just so grateful to be here. We thank you for your word. We thank you that it's true. We thank you for this time that we can take to observe it, to read it.

0:16 We thank you for the time that we've also had to worship you, to remember the Lord Jesus. The fact that he came, the fact that he lived a perfect life, that he died, that he rose again the third day according to your word as it was prophesied. The fact that he conquered death for us and we just continue to remember that that fact, that act of love, for us this morning. Help us now as we follow him. We pray these things in Jesus Christ name.

1:03 And we're going to come now to the end of what some may call the sermon on the plane as opposed to the sermon on the mount. The gospel of Luke as we've been learning has been dealing mainly with Christ in his humanity. So, Jesus Christ, the god man came down from heaven in human form and is showing us what it looks like to walk a human life, a perfect human life. What god had originally intended for mankind. To live sinless, to be concerned with the needs of others, and to obey god and have an intimate, close relationship with him.

1:45 Of course, we know that because of sin in our human state, that relationship was broken. And that that is why Christ had to come to repair that relationship for us. We heard as well in in past messages how the gospel of Luke can be considered Christ on a journey. Christ on a journey as Christ has his mind set going towards Jerusalem as he has his mind and eyes looking towards Jerusalem going to the cross and going to pay for the sin of the world. So that he can offer forgiveness and salvation to all who would come in faith.

2:32 John twelve thirty two says, and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself. So, not just Jewish people, not people from his own ethnicity but Gentiles as well. We were are reminded that Luke himself, the writer of the gospel is a Gentile. And he's saying to us that we can come to Christ. Anybody can come to Christ for salvation.

3:03 We also heard recently from our brother JC JC Schroeder about the different features of a written gospel. So, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. What are those, what are some of those different features? Well, one of them is virtue forming. The fact that we would read this account about the lord Jesus and it would help that that he would lead us into a virtuous life to to lead us in ways of action, to lead us in ways of of proper behavior that would honor him as well.

3:41 And as well, we heard about some of the themes of Luke. One of them is repentance and forgiveness and here in this passage, we find again that theme of forgiveness. We heard about recently from from Ray Gonzales about how Christ has proven himself to be god the father or god one with god the father but also to be god himself coming in human flesh when he offered forgiveness and he said to that that paralytic man, that disabled man, your sins are forgiven and then he healed him. That Christ would totally change his life for eternity and then, of course, to prove that he had that power, he went and healed him. At this point in time in Luke six, Jesus is also called his apostles.

4:34 So, he's called these 12 apostles, these 12 close disciples of his and remember, remember that apostles, they're sent out ones. So, he's calling them together. He's going to give them instruction and then he's going to send them out and right now, he's giving them instruction on what does it mean to be a true disciple. What does it mean to be a true disciple of Christ? We heard last week from brother Chris Schroeder.

5:05 We want to be a effective Christian. We want to live a blessed life that we would take on these qualities of the son of man, Jesus Christ, that we would desire to be poor, that we would be blessed as a result, that we could experience the the kingdom of god in a very real sense, in a very present tense sense when we choose to be poor, we can experience the presence of god when he comes and meets our needs, when we can put our faith and trust in him. That also we would willingly be hungry for the sake of the gospel. That like we might weep now and be sad now for the lost and and be sad for the state of the world but know that we can experience joy that one day we can be in his presence but not only that but we can experience joy because the lord is still working today, still saving souls and finally, we heard about how we are blessed when we are persecuted for being a Christian. I believe that the the reward that we experience for for receiving that persecution is just the confirmation, the fact that if Christ experienced that persecution, we are as well.

6:29 It's a it's a confirmation that we are on the right track that we are following Christ. That it it is indeed what we have indeed if we are following Christ, it's authentic because we receive that persecution as well. Now, in Luke chapter six verses 18 through 20, we get this explanation that all these these crowds of people are following him. So, it's not just his closest disciples there, his apostles that are there with him. Although, we can assume that they're there but think of it maybe try and put it yourself in the in the situation like we heard from brother Roger that you're someone else there.

7:19 We're not apostles, right? The apostles originally there to witness who Christ was but put yourself in the in the shoes of someone else who's coming to hear about the lord Jesus, who's coming to experience the healing and the different miracles that he's doing and here he takes this opportunity to talk about what true discipleship is and a little outline for us this morning is we're going to talk about some of the different aspects of the Christian life, of the life of a disciple and there's four different aspects of that. We're going to talk about our behavior and treatment of our foes or our enemies. Number two, we're going to talk about when we find fault with other people or another person. So when we judge someone else.

8:39 It's an adversary. Someone that is is hostile to us, that's against us, that's maybe even hating us. This is kind of pivoting off of that that passage that we just read or heard about from last week from brother Chris about receiving persecution and so that's what it's it's going to be talking about. What's a foe? It's an adversary.

9:03 Number two, what does it mean to judge or to find fault? Well, I think it's an attitude of of condemnation, of condemning others, of of trying to look to them and and punishing them at fault or or suing suing them or giving a sentence and pronouncing judgement on that person. Next, fruit. What's fruit? Well, it's just something taken.

9:34 So someone taking something from someone else or something that is producing it, right? So you have some something producing that fruit and others would take that fruit as well. That's what fruit is. And then number four, we have a foundation. It's a it's something that is laid down under.

10:28 And as I was sitting there this morning, often times during the singing or during some of the preaching, my wife will tap me on the the shoulder, on the hand and say, the baby's moving. Like I can feel. And it was just a reminder of me that that the baby's listening. The baby's hearing and responding and and that's what Christ is essentially telling us this morning. He's asking us that question, are we listening?

10:57 Like, are we ready? Are we ready to hear from him? Are we coming here this morning to to hear from him personally? What is he going to say to us this morning? As we encounter him in his word this morning.

11:12 So, again, verse 27, but I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Verse 28, bless those who curse you and pray for those who spitefully use you. This is pretty tough. It's a tall order. Christ is actually telling us to show love to others who for all intents and purposes are our enemies.

11:43 They're they might be hating us. They're doing hateful things to us. They might be persecuting us or mocking us just for the fact that we name Christ. When when you have someone that is not a believer of Christ, they are looked on or or god said it is god says in his word that they are enemies with god. They don't have that close relationship with god that that a believer might have and because of that, they could be enemies with us but what Christ is saying here is he's saying, love your enemies as if they weren't your enemies.

12:27 Love them as if they they were a believer in Christ, as if they were a brother in Christ. And he's saying, love your enemies and and treat them as if they're not your enemies. Pray for them. Be kind to them. He doesn't want them to be our enemies, right?

12:49 We don't want them to be our enemies as well. We want them to be common followers of Christ as well. So, he's telling us, he's saying, love your enemies so that maybe one day, they might become followers of Christ as well. I think that the whole point here is that through this love that you would show your enemy through this prayer, this these acts of kindness, the fact that we would love somebody who maybe they're at just at odds with us, Certainly, that they might be at odds with Christ but through our love and through the actions that we show them that they might one day turn to Christ. That they would look at our attitudes towards them and they would be curious.

13:34 Where does that love come from? Well, it comes from Christ because the love, there's other verse that says, the love of Christ has poured into our hearts and that's what he's telling us to do that same love that he has given to us that he's put into our hearts that we would go ahead and love others. Verse 29, to him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Verse 30, give to everyone who asks of you and from him who takes away your goods, do not ask them back.

14:16 And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. This passage here is just totally countercultural. The human spirit, we have this inner sense of justice inside of us. So that when when we experience some hate or some some hateful act against us or maybe we even see someone else experience the same thing. We want to retaliate.

14:46 And Christ here is saying don't retaliate. He's saying do good to those who persecute you. If they take your cloak, do not withhold your tunic as well. Give them more. I want you to do them to them what you would want them to do to you if you were in that same situation.

15:07 Christ is telling a Christian to love their enemies and as disciples of Christ, we're also called to forgive debts. It's something quite countercultural. It's hard. We can't do it on our own. We need someone to show us, who has shown us.

15:27 Well, Jesus Christ has shown us. I'm sure we'll get into this later in the in the final chapters of Luke but what does it say when Christ comes before those rulers in that phony trial? It says, that when they reviled him, he did not revile them in return. What did Jesus say on the cross? In Luke twenty three thirty four, he said, father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

16:00 Again, we've already heard about how Christ forgave a man's sins and he's calling us to do the same. He's calling us to love our enemies and to take the hit, to take the pain of whatever we're experiencing. He's calling us to to forgive. To maybe even be poor financially. I cannot think that this is totally unrelated from those beatitudes that we had just talked about last week earlier in the chapter that we would be poor for the kingdom of god that we would suffer for the sake of Christ so that maybe one day, when someone sees how we would suffer and the fact that we would offer love and kindness in return, they might want to become a follower of Christ as a result.

16:52 Verse 32, but if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is is that back to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you?

17:18 For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies. Do good and lend. Hoping for nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the most high. For he is kind to the unthankful and evil.

17:40 Therefore, be merciful just as your father also is merciful. Remember that mercy is not giving something that someone deserves. Holding back what they might deserve. So, as we'd already said, the natural inclination is to see or even receive some hateful act and want to give it back but what Christ is telling his followers is he's saying, love them, show mercy to them, hold back what they would deserve. Again, this is this is such a a tall order.

18:23 It says here that if we were to expect something that we already get that it's it's just as if an unbeliever would expect the same thing. Meaning, if you do the good to those who do good to you, well, what credit is that to you? Like, if you see someone do a good act and then you do good that to them as well, well that's what the natural inclination is to do. That's what natural humanity does. Or if we see someone do a hateful act to someone else, the natural inclination of our hearts is to do that exact same thing.

19:03 So, if we do that, it's it's the same thing. It's not a taller order that Christ is is talking to us about. He's saying to love our enemies, to actually do good to those who do hateful things to us. We treat our enemies and our foes according to the direction of Christ and we are then following Christ and we experience this close relationship with him. It says, that your reward will be great and you will be sons of the most high god.

19:43 That would be our reward. The fact that when we would do this, we would continue to understand and experience this close knit relationship and what it means to be a son or daughter of the most high god, to be a follower of Christ. He wants to be generous. Here, he wants us to be generous with our resources and to give to those without expecting anything in return. For that's what he has done for us.

20:33 Good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will it be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. Again, what is the normal thing that we might see on a daily basis? Maybe that we would even experience in our day to day lives in the relationships with other people. That when we receive the hate, we would give it right back.

21:03 There's this attitude in the human spirit just to continue to one up each other like to point out someone's fault and then they would do the same thing back to us and then we have that natural tendency to do the same thing back to them but he's saying, break that pattern, break that thought loop of of judging and just bantering back and forth. He's saying, don't judge and you won't receive judgement back. I find it no coincidence that immediately following the teaching on blessedness on what it means to live a blessed life and and to be poor, to be hungry, that he has this instruction on judgement because I'll admit what I found myself doing immediately following that teaching is not really examining myself but examining other people's lives in light of that and trying to compare myself to them and I found myself judging other people in my own heart and so Christ here is giving us this this instruction not to judge others. That we wouldn't compare ourselves and and look at someone else and point out their faults that we wouldn't have that tendency to to do that, to look at their faults.

22:34 Why do we want to judge others? I might suggest to you that maybe it's because we are not satisfied with Christ himself. We're not satisfied with the the things that he has given us. The the fact that when he calls us to be blessed and to be poor, we can then experience this close relationship with him and be satisfied but by the fact that he would return and and come to us in our need when we are poor. We wouldn't be satisfied with that and so we might look to others and start judging them and we might do that because we're we're lifted up in pride and we need some sort of like an ego boost and we do that by putting others down and judging them for for the things that they do.

23:28 And certainly what I've experienced, there's this one time that I had this interaction with this student and I asked him to do something. It was like a required test to do and he just outrightly refused. And what did I do immediately following this natural inclination of me was to snap back at him and condemn him. Come with this attitude of of condemnation against him. And what did he do in return?

24:04 He did the exact same thing to me. He came back and came back with the same attitude of condemnation to me that I gave to him. There's this verse in in Proverbs. Proverbs fifteen one says, a soft answer turns away wrath but a harsh word stirs up anger and so we can definitely see that when we give that same thing that back, we get the same thing back and you see this kind of give and take of if you're giving this common domination or you're having this attitude of condemnation or even anger that you would receive the exact same thing back. But on the flip side, when you give forgiveness, you would experience the same thing.

24:53 You would come to this person that you come with them... To them with this attitude of forgiveness and you would experience the same thing back. I received some some instructions, some wise counsel about forgiveness and I and I went to this student. I went with him one on one and I and I apologized and he did the same thing. We were able to make up and so you you just see that that give and take that when we give forgiveness that we would experience forgiveness in return.

25:31 What about righteous judgment? When we read the gospels horizontally like brother JC said, we looked at some of the other gospels and we compare them. And in John seven twenty four, it says, judge righteously. So, how do we how do we judge righteously? How do we do it without a condemning attitude?

25:54 Well, I believe that this has to do with the section earlier that we had heard from our brother Tim. When Christ was speaking with the Pharisees and they had come to him with this accusation of the disciples and they were walking through the field and they were picking the heads of grain and and the Pharisees came and they accused them saying, you're not supposed to do that. It's the Sabbath but we heard about how Tim had described the fact that it was the Pharisees themselves that had come up with that very law. The fact that you couldn't even do anything as pluck ahead of grain from the field. But the original law said that Christ gave in or that god gave in the Old Testament, it allowed for it.

26:42 It allowed for you to go and get your own food and prepare your own food for the day and so you have the Pharisees coming and accusing and what are they doing? They accused Jesus and his disciples of according to their own standard. They had invented their own standard or their own tradition or their own set of rules and so how do we judge righteously? Well, how do we look or what do we do is look at the original law, not our standard. We don't invent our own standard when we make determinations in our life.

27:20 We look at Christ's standard. Certainly, they were they were judged from the lord Jesus. He pointed it back unto them and and pointed at the fact that they had invented their own standard and they were holding other people accountable to the standard that they had invented and they were condemning and coming to this at with this attitude of condemnation to them with the standard that wasn't their own. But they missed the point. The point is that how do we judge righteously?

27:58 Well, we judge and we look with god's law. We don't add with god's law. We just look back to what Christ said. We don't look at our standard, the ones and the the rules that we have developed but we look at Christ's standard and and when we go through our lives, if we were to see someone caught in a sin as another section in the Bible talks about, we would just point them to what it says in Christ's word and the fact that it's not our word but it's Christ's word but we we didn't come to that person in it this attitude of condemnation. We would come to them with a forgiving mindset.

28:43 Christ says, to love our enemies and to forgive them And so we would come with that same attitude to someone and look at them and come to them in the same attitude of forgiveness. I want to get to a verse and I can't find out where it is. But it was that verse in Galatians six one. It says that when you see someone trapped in sin, you come alongside them. Beware lest lest you be tempted, meaning you come to them and if they were caught in some trespass, again, not on our own standard but against god's standard, we would come to them in this attitude that we we wouldn't necessarily be better than them.

29:31 That we would have the same tendency to do the same thing as them. And so we would come to them and help them out in a loving and a in a forgiving way. Let's jump back into our passage. Verse 39. He spoke a parable to them.

29:51 Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not fall into the ditch? A disciple is not above his teacher but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye but do not receive or perceive the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, brother let me remove the speck that is in your own eye when you yourself do not see that plank that is in your eye?

30:24 Hypocrite, first remove the plank from your own eye then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother's eye. So here Christ gives us this parable. He gives us this analogy of someone trying to help another person like the blind leading the blind. How does that work out? What it doesn't work out.

30:48 It's sort of related to what we hear on planes today. What do we hear when we are in the plane, it's getting ready for takeoff and they're going through all those safety videos and it says, when the mask drops down, you put the mask on yourself, on yourself then you would help other people with theirs because if we don't put the mask on ourselves, if we don't look and take a look into our hearts, how are we going to help other people? If we don't take a look at god's standard for us, and just go along and play the hypocrite. Well, we don't look at the plank that we have in our eye and we have some other small tidbit and we see that's we see in someone else's life. We're playing the hypocrite.

31:38 But what is he saying? He's saying, remove the speck that is in your own eye then you will do good to see the plank in someone else's and carefully remove the speck. So, it doesn't necessarily say, don't help someone out. Don't maybe call someone out in sin or if you need to go to the to them in in private or maybe it's personally to you. It's not saying that but it's it's saying, don't go to them in a hypocritical mindset.

32:07 Don't go to them even in a condemning mindset. Go to them in a loving way and in a forgiving way. Saying to yourself and with that same attitude that that I have this tendency to do the same thing. Put the mask on yourself and then you would be able to help someone else put their mask on as well. It says that, we would restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.

32:42 Galatians six one, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. So that's that that's that attitude that Christ wants us to go to somebody with. A spirit of gentleness and a forgiveness. And considering the fact that we could also be tempted with the very same thing. Number three, fruit.

33:36 And an evil man out of the treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. Certainly, the saying is true that what's in the well comes out in the bucket or comes up in the bucket. So, what's our fruit? You can ask yourself, what's my fruit?

34:01 Is it fruit that is for the lord? Is it the same attitude of of love and forgiveness? See, the fruit isn't for the lord. The fruit is for others to see. The lord already knows our our thoughts and our hearts.

34:20 There's other passages where it says that the lord sense what was in their heart. So, the lord already knows what's in our hearts. So, what is the fruit for? Well, the fruit is for others. We talked about how a fruit comes from a producer.

34:36 So you and I are as followers of Christ, we are producers of fruit and that fruit is so that someone else would take that fruit. So what is our fruit? Is it fruit that is pointing back to Christ? Is it behavior and attitude that we see Christ exhibit? Is it point to Christ or does it not point to Christ?

35:02 Does it turn someone on to the gospel or does it completely turn them off? The the fruit that we exhibit as followers of Christ, this fruit of love and forgiveness is for the betterment of others. It's to point others to Christ and to reiterate the fact that maybe through the love and forgiveness that we show people, they would want to know more about Christ. Second Corinthians 13 has a little passage verses five through eight. It says, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith.

35:40 Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you are disqualified. So, I look at this section and I kind of take it as a a self as a a evaluation. Christ is telling us, what's our fruit?

35:59 Like, what do we see in our own hearts that comes out? What do we see in our well of our heart that comes out in the bucket? Examine our own hearts. Verse six in second Corinthians five, but I trust you will know that we have not disqualified you. Now, I pray to god that you do no evil.

36:20 Not that we should appear approved but you should do what is honorable though you may seem disqualified for we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth. So, again, the fruit, it's not for the lord for evidence for him but it's for other people to to show forth Christ, to show forth his his love and his forgiveness to show where our true identity is. It's also for the glory of Christ to to honor him and that others would see the fruit that we produce and not give ourselves glory or give us glory but that they would give god glory. Love and forgiveness are the true fruits of a follower of Christ. Number four, foundation.

37:56 But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation. Against which the stream beat vehemently and immediately it fell and the ruin of that house was great. The foundation is what truly matters. I've been doing some projects recently at our house and this principle in pretty much any project has applied from whether you're putting up a wall, whether you're putting up more drywall. When you put that drywall up, you got to have something to nail it to.

38:37 You got to have a good two by four as a foundation. Certainly, when you go to buy a house, what do you do? Well, at some point you're going have to go look downstairs. You're going to have to look in the foundation. What is the foundation of the house?

38:52 We might ask ourself the same question. Who is or what is the foundation of our lives? Who is our foundation? Christ is saying here that when you listen to my words, my words are the foundation. The fact that you would go ahead and listen to this instruction that I'm giving to you, That's your foundation and laying the foundation, the fact that we would lay our lives on the rock of Christ's word.

39:29 Doing that is like a man that built his foundation on the rock. That we would behave and that we would act and have the attitudes that Christ wants us to act. That's our foundation. That's the very foundation of our discipleship. That's what it means to follow Christ.

39:49 It means to obey his word. It says there in verse 46, but why do you call me lord, lord, and do not do the things that I say. Kinda reflects back to the very beginning. Why didn't you listen to me to what I said in the beginning? Listen to what I'm telling you.

40:12 Give heed to this instruction. Follow me. Our foundation is based on a pure devotion to Jesus Christ. That's what it means to be a disciple of Christ. To be purely devoted to him and his word.

40:29 Amen. Verse 47, he says again to those who hear, whoever comes to me and hears my sayings and does them, I will show you what is like. Just a reminder that are we listening? There's another verse in Luke kind of foreshadowing here but it says in Luke nine it says, Jesus Christ says to his disciples. He says, let these words sink down into your ears.

41:02 Listen to me. Listen to what I'm telling you. Here and let it change your heart. Let it be the foundation of your very life. So, just another reminder for us today that we would listen.

41:17 We would ask ourselves, am I listening? Am I listening to god's word and what it's telling me in Luke? The fact that he is our foundation that he would take us through the storms of this life. It's Christ's virtue or the virtues that are our foundation. He's telling us to pursue these virtues, to pursue what it means to be poor, to pursue what it means to love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us.

42:13 Am I a son of the most high? Am I a son or daughter of the most high? How do I treat my enemies? Do I love them? Am I willing to take the hit and forgive a fault even financially?

42:31 And then, what's my fruit? What does my heart say? It says there that the fruit comes from our heart. So, what's my fruit? Remember that love and forgiveness are the true fruits of a follower of Christ.

42:50 And then finally, what is my foundation based on? Am I willing to obey Christ and to follow his instruction? Let's pray. Dear lord, we just thank you for this passage this morning. We just look at it and we look at those words and we really wanna ask ourselves the same thing.

43:13 Are we listening? We wanna listen to this this instruction that you're giving us. We wanna pursue these things. We want to love our enemies. We wanna do good to those who persecute us, but it's so hard.

43:29 Help us to look at your example. We see you before those leaders and the fact that you didn't argue back in return that they reviled you and they, insulted you but you didn't do the same thing back. The fact that you said, father, forgive them for they know not what they're doing. Help us to have that same attitude, not an attitude of of condemnation, lord, but an attitude of forgiveness, lord. Help us to look at Christ and to follow him this morning.

44:04 We pray these things in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.