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Luke chapter 6 and when you found the passage there, just keep your finger there in Luke 6 and turn to Deuteronomy chapter 23. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 23 as well. So Luke chapter 6, Luke chapter 6, put your finger in Deuteronomy chapter 23 because we're going to turn there pretty quickly, Deuteronomy chapter 23. But just in Luke chapter 6 there in verse number 20, Jesus speaks, he says, it says here of Jesus and he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, Blessed be ye poor for yours is the kingdom of God. The title of the sermon this afternoon is yours is the kingdom of God. I mean, isn't it a wonderful thing that Jesus Christ can tell his disciples to tell those that have trusted in him that the kingdom of God is ours. Hey, it's ours. All right, it's not just something that we sort of partake in a little bit, you know, but God actually gives it to us as well. All right, and so the title is yours is the kingdom of God. Luke 6 verse 1, Luke 6 verse 1, and it came to pass on the second Sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields and his disciples plucked the ears of corn and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. So get this picture, you have Jesus Christ and his disciples going through plucking the ears and by the way, when it says through the corn fields, you know, this isn't corn as we know corn today. You know, we talk about the corn, you know, the yellow kind of, is it a fruit or vegetable? It's probably a fruit, right? I don't know. What is corn? It's probably a fruit. Anyway, that's not the type of corn we're talking about, okay. He's actually passing through fields of wheat, okay, and the outside of the wheat is also known as the corn. And so what we have is they're passing through somebody's farm, somebody's farm that planted the wheat and Christ and his disciples are passing through and collecting the top parts of the wheat, all right. And you can't just eat wheat as it is. You need to get rid of that shell. We want to get to the grain of the wheat if you're hungry, all right. This is what you make flour with, all right, but what you can do is take some of that corn of the wheat and rub it in your hands. And by doing that, in a sense, they're freshening out the wheats, right. And by doing that, you get rid of the chaff, you get rid of the stuff that's light and you're left with in your hands, hopefully by the time you've done it, the actual grain or the actual seed of the wheat and that's something that you can eat, okay. And so obviously they're hungry, they're passing through somebody's farm and they're doing that. They're rubbing that in their hands and they're eating. Now the reason I asked you to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 23, so can you turn there please if you haven't. Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse 24. Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse 24 is because until I understood this law in the Old Testament, I used to think, hold on Jesus, are you just going through someone's farm and like just, you know, eating their food? Like, you know, just in case you have any thoughts that what Jesus Christ was doing is unlawful, it's a bit rude that he's taking somebody else's food. We see that this is actually a law in the Old Testament. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse 24. It says, when thou comest into thy neighbor's vineyard, then thou mayest eat grapes, thy fuel at thine own pleasure. But thou shall not put any in any vessel, okay, in thy vessel, sorry, any in thy vessel. So if you're passing through someone's vineyard, hey, it's fine for you to take some of those grapes, if you're hungry, and eat of that, you know, at your pleasure. As long as you're not putting it in a vessel, as long as you're not there collecting it, you know, in bulk, and your intention is to sort of live off it for days and weeks, it's just for that one time event, all right. That one day that you're hungry, but look at verse 25. When thou comest into the standing corn of thy neighbor, then thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand, but thou shall not move a sickle unto thy neighbor's standing corn. So if you're passing through fields of wheat, it's also lawful for you if you're hungry to take and eat of that, right, but not to use a sickle, not to use something that you'll gather a great amount of wheat. It's just for that event, that time that you're hungry and passing through. And so in the laws of God, you know, if you had the fruit trees, if you had wheat, you had, you know, all these things at your disposal, and there's somebody hungry that's passing by, I mean, it's a wonderful thing that you can stop there and eat of it, okay, but obviously it'd be wrong of you to try to collect it in mass, in whole, okay. So what we see that taking place in Luke chapter six, verse one, is that Jesus Christ is basically doing this little thing that is lawful for them to do, and making sure he and his disciples are eating. But notice verse number two. Go back to Luke chapter six, verse two. So the only reason I wanted to show you Deuteronomy is just to show you this was a lawful, legal thing for them to do. They weren't cheating their neighbor. This was something that God had allowed. All right, verse number two, Luke chapter six, verse two. All right, so obviously this being a Sabbath, this being a Saturday, the Pharisees are saying, why are you doing this? You know, in other words, because on the Sabbath day you were not supposed to work. You were supposed to rest, right? You're meant to take that day as holy as separated and not work. Now, look, they're just plucking the ears of the corn there. They're actually just eating. They're not doing really that much work at all. But the Pharisees, if you understand this in the chapters here, they're out looking for Jesus Christ, looking for a way to find fault, looking for a way to make him stumble, looking for a way to cause the people to turn against him. How does Jesus respond in verse number three? What David did when he went into the house of the Lord, sorry, when himself wasn't hungered, and they which were with him, how he went into the house of God, he went into the temple and did take and eat the showbread and gave also to them that were with him, which is not lawful to eat, but for the priest alone. So if you understand the temple, the Old Testament days, that, you know, obviously the offering, the sacrifices, but also the showbread in the temple was permitted to be eaten by the priests, but not by anybody else, because you had to, you know, you had to have certain ceremonial cleansing, you know, things that you've gone through in order for you to partake of it, which is, you know, was only allowed for the priests. And so Jesus Christ points them to an Old Testament event where David, he was being persecuted by Saul, and he went into the temple looking for food, and with his fellow servants, they went into the temple and they ate of the showbread, okay. Now the reason he does this, I believe, is because obviously the Pharisees, you know, did not have a problem with King David. Obviously, you know, they read the scriptures, and obviously they honour and respect King David. And so what Jesus Christ is showing them is their hypocrisy. You know, they're going after him, they're going after Jesus Christ for so-called doing something that was unlawful in their eyes, but they weren't holding, you know, King David to that same standard, okay. In other words, they had double standards, and they were just trying to find faults in Jesus Christ. Verse number five. And he said unto them, that the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. Wow. I mean, that's a profound statement right there, because who's the Son of Man here? It's Jesus Christ, right. And what does he say about himself? That he is Lord also of the Sabbath. The Lord also of the Sabbath. Jesus Christ here is confirming his deity to the Pharisees, all right. Remember in the previous chapter, they were having a go at him because he had forgiven sins. They said only God can forgive sins. He says yep, right. That's, you know, I've been given the power and authority to forgive sins. The Son of Man has. And he says here the Son of Man has authority over the Sabbath. Hey, you're trying to find fault with me on the Sabbath day, but don't you know that I own the Sabbath? That I have power and authority over the Sabbath, right. Jesus Christ here is showing that he is the Lord, the Master, and the Ruler of the Sabbath, because he created the Sabbath day, all right. Verse number six. This is amazing. This is amazing, right. They watch him. Everything Jesus Christ is doing. You know, everything that he's teaching, when he's going in and teaching the Word of God, these Pharisees, these scribes are watching him, trying to find something for him to find fault in him. Whether he would heal on the Sabbath day, that they might find an accusation against him, right. But he knew their thoughts and said to the men which had the withered hand, rise up and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing. And I love the questions that Jesus Christ throws at them, because they never answer, right. They can't answer the question. He asked the question in verse nine. Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? So the obvious answer, what is the right thing to do, is to do good, is to save life, right. That's the right answer. But they want to find fault in him doing that good. They want to find fault in him healing somebody. And verse number 10, and looking round about them all, he said unto the man, stretch forth thy hand. And he did so and his hand was restored, whole as the other. So, you know, it's an amazing thing that Jesus Christ was able to perform this miracle. And the Pharisees knowing, knowing that Christ, they watch him perform this miracle, heal the man's hand, became whole, and they're still rejecting Jesus Christ. It's an amazing thing. And they're trying to find fault in the good that he's trying to do. Now as you read through Luke, keep your finger there, turn to Matthew chapter 12. Turn to Matthew chapter 12, because it appears that Jesus Christ is kind of provoking the Jews here. Sorry, provoking the Pharisees, because he's like the Pharisees are trying to find fault. And so he gets this man to stand up and pull out his hand and he heals. But really, if you look at it from Matthew chapter 12 verse 9, let's look at what it says here. Matthew chapter 12 verse 9. You'll notice that it was the Pharisees trying to provoke Jesus, okay. Matthew chapter 12 verse 9. And it says, and when he had departed thence, he went into their synagogue, and behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And now look, this is talking of the Pharisees. And they asked him, saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days, that they might accuse him? So the Pharisees that said to Jesus, raise a lawful foot to heal on the Sabbath day, so that might accuse him. And he said unto them, what man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep, and it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day? Will he not lay hold on it and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore, it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days. Then said he to the man, stretch forth thine hand, and he stretched it forth, and it was restored whole like as the other. So you notice there from Matthew chapter 12, it's actually the Pharisees that are trying to egg Jesus Christ on. They're trying to provoke him, they're trying to find fault in him, and that's why Jesus Christ then heals this man. It's just interesting when you go through the different passages and you compare scripture with scripture. In fact, as I've been going through this study in the book of Luke, I've spent a lot of time reading the parallel passages in the other scriptures. And toward the end, I think we're going to find something interesting that's different between the book of Luke and the book of Matthew, but I'll go into that a bit later on. But if you look at verse number 9, go back to Luke 6 verse 9. Luke chapter 6 verse 9. I want you to notice these words that Jesus Christ says. He said, then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing. Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good or to do evil? To save life or to destroy it? Now again, you always need to, when you read these things, we want to take an application that's relevant to us. Obviously, we do not have the power of Jesus Christ. We do not have the power of the apostles to go and actually heal the sick. To heal the blind, to make the lame to walk. We cannot achieve these things physically. But all of these things are, I guess, symbolic of what is even more important than the physical healing, and that's salvation. That's the salvation of the soul. When we go out and we preach the gospel, hey, we are healing. We are doing a miracle in the sense where we're given the words of eternal life and people can be saved. But I want you to then think about this in verse number 9. What are the two options there? If there's a man that has a withered hand and we have the ability to heal them, then he says, is it right to do good or to do evil? In other words, if I heal him, that's doing good. But if I leave him to be with his withered hand, it's evil. Or to save life, say if I heal him, I'm saving his life. Or do I not heal him and destroy his life? I want you to think about this in context of soul winning. We know that we live in a community here on the Sunshine Coast of lost people, unsaved. In fact, many go to churches and they still don't know what they need to do to be saved. They're like this man with a withered hand, seeking to be healed. And we have the gospel. We have the good news of the Bible. We have the way of salvation. We can go through this community and preach the gospel. So what? We have the option. We have the ability to heal, to save life with what we know that is in the scriptures. So when we do it, we're doing good. We go out there, we had a salvation this afternoon. Praise God, our life was saved, right? But what if we have the ability to heal? What if we have the ability to save, but we don't do it? What does Jesus Christ say about it? It's evil. You're doing evil and you're destroying life. Let that sink in for a moment. That if I don't go, if I'm not preaching the gospel, if I'm not using, with the ability that I have to reach my loved ones, to reach my family, to reach my neighbors, to reach the people that I care about, and you can, then you're actually doing evil. But obviously if you go out there and do the works of God, preaching the gospel, you're doing good because it's something that you're able to achieve. So I just want you to think about that, how important it is for us to go out soul winning, okay? Verse number 11, Luke chapter 6, verse 11. Luke chapter 6, verse 11. And they were filled with madness. This is the Pharisees. What's madness? Were they mad like angry? No, they're mad like crazy. They're losing their minds that Jesus Christ is able to heal, and they're not able to accuse Him or find fault in Him. They were filled with madness and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus. Now, if you read some of the parallel passages, what they're trying to do, they're trying to destroy Him. They're trying to kill Him. They're coming together, figuring out, how can we kill the Lord Jesus Christ? But what is He doing? Is He doing anything wrong? Is He doing anything evil? No, He's doing the works of God. He's doing great works. He's doing good things. He's healing our people from their sicknesses. And you know what? We too are going to face that. When we go out again with the gospel, the good news, healing people, saving lives, there are people that are going to be filled with madness. You know, I shared with you guys just an email that I got from one of the neighbours. Who knows who, right? And they're just so upset, so angry. I didn't even tell you that. She emailed me again, just saying, hey, you're trespassing on my property. You're littering with these gospel tracts. She's filled with madness. If she doesn't want it, she can just put it in the bin. Put it in the bin and forget about it. Instead, she wants to be back and forth, emailing me, just like these Pharisees were, filled with madness. They cannot accept that there are people that are trying to do good, cannot accept there are people that are trying to save lives. Verse number 12, Luke chapter 6, verse 12. And it came to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. And so this is interesting, because Jesus Christ does not pray all night. It's quite a rare thing that he prays all night. Now, Jesus Christ does pray a lot. He definitely prays a lot, but he doesn't pray all night all the time. It's something that's really rare. And of course, he'd be extremely tired. He's been preaching, he's been healing the sick, and then he's spending all night praying. But the reason he does this is because now he makes a decision to choose his 12 disciples that become what we know as the 12 apostles. Even though there were more apostles later on, but these are the 12 main apostles that we know about. Verse 13. And by the way, this is a good example for us. If we have a big decision to make in our lives, a crossroads in our life, and it requires a big decision, it's a good practice to just pray all night. Just to take those requests to the Lord, ask for his guidance, ask for his wisdom, so that when you make the decision, it's aligned with the will of God. And so when we get to verse 13, we see Jesus Christ making that decision on his 12. Verse 13. So we're familiar with Simon Peter, he's pretty prominent in the Bible. We also know him as Cephas. Now the name Peter was given by Jesus Christ. It means a stone or a rock. And then you've got the other name that Paul calls him in the epistles of Cephas. And Cephas is an Aramaic translation of a stone or a rock. And then it says, And Andrew his brother. So Simon Peter's brother was Andrew. And if you remember, it was Andrew that came to Simon Peter and said, Hey, we found the Messiah, we found the Christ. And so it's Andrew that got Simon following after Jesus Christ. And I just want you to notice the brothers here. So we got one set of brothers there. And then there's James and John. You might know James and John as the sons of Zebedee. You know, the Bible calls him the sons of Zebedee. Jesus also nicknamed them the sons of thunder. I'm not sure why that is. You know, there's probably many reasons why that is. But the sons of thunder means it's a pretty amazing title that Jesus Christ gave them. I'm not sure if the thunder refers to their father, the sons of his father. Maybe the father was a great man. And Christ saw him as this, I don't know, thundering voice or this great man, or whether James and John themselves were these great men with loud voices or, you know, strong. I'm not sure exactly why. But I'm just telling you, so when you read through the Bible, you have a good idea as to who these men were. So James here, and James and John, they're brothers again. So you have a second set of brothers in the apostles. All right? Now James, the James here, is James the greater. You've probably heard of James the greater and James the lesser to differentiate between certain apostles of Jesus Christ. And then you've got John here. And John is, you know, the writer of the epistle, sorry, of the Gospel of John. He's the writer of 1st, 2nd and 3rd John, and he's the writer of the book of Revelation. Okay? And then you've got Philip and Bartholomew. So if you remember, Philip actually recruited Bartholomew. Philip is the one that came to Bartholomew and pointed him to Christ as well. So you've got that. And Bartholomew, his name also is Nathanael. You might remember when Jesus Christ speaks to Nathanael and Jesus Christ says, I saw you under the fig tree. Okay? And Nathanael, you know, that caused him to be amazed and have faith in Christ, and he followed after Christ. It's the same guy. Okay? Sometimes they use different names in the Bible. And so Bartholomew actually means son of Ptolemy, but his name was Nathanael. So it looks like his father was Ptolemy and he was the son of Ptolemy, but his name was Nathanael. So you know, these people have multiple names. It's kind of like we have a first name, we have a middle name, and sometimes you've got a nickname that you go by. You know? So that's why these people had different names. And then verse 15, Matthew and Thomas. So Matthew was also called Levi. If you remember the previous chapter, you've got Levi the publican that left his job and followed after Christ. It's the same Matthew that we're reading about here. And then you've got Thomas. Obviously, I think Thomas, you guys are familiar with him. And then James, the son of Alphaeus. He's known as James the Lesser, just to differentiate him from James the Greater. And then you've got, sorry, and Simon called Zelotes. Now, I'll go into Simon a bit later on. I'll come back to him. Then verse 16, and Judas the brother of James. So we saw James in verse 15, and then we've got Judas, his brother, the brother of James. So Judas, this is the good Judas. You've got Judas Iscariot, which was the betrayer. We'll look at verse 16 again. And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which was the traitor. So there were two Judases that followed after Christ. Judas the betrayer, the traitor, and then you've got the good Judas, who was the brother of James. But you notice there that Jesus Christ has three sets of brothers, as his apostles, as his disciples that followed after him. And the good Judas, by the way, is most likely the writer of the epistle of Jude. Most people tend to agree that he was the writer of the book of Jude. Now, there's actually one other name that I wanted to give you. Judas, if you can keep your finger there, turn to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10 verse 3. I just want to feed you this information so when you're reading through the Bible, you know who these men are. Matthew chapter 10 verse 3. Matthew chapter 10 verse 3. So this is another listing of the apostles, but it says Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the publican, James the son of Alphaeus, and Labias whose surname was Thaddeus. Now you wonder, who's this Labias whose surname was Thaddeus? Well, Labias is the good Judas. That's another name that he had. So I just want to show you that. Not that it's that important, but I want you to know who these men are as you read through the Bible. Now I do want to talk about, just briefly, about Simon called Zelotes. Okay, Simon called Zelotes. So there are two big misconceptions about this man. Number one, one of the misconceptions that I've heard about of the 12 apostles is that they were all Jews, that they were all Israelites. Okay? Now what's interesting about Simon is that in Matthew and Mark, the writers call him Simon, Simon the Canaanite. Okay? Simon the Canaanite. Now that might not sound like much to you, but do you guys know what a Canaanite was in the Bible? So when Israel came out of Egypt with Moses, where were they headed? They were headed to the promised land. They were headed to the land of Canaan. Alright? And the people that dwelt in Canaan, they were called the Canaanites. Okay? They were not the Israelites. In fact, they went to war against the Israelites, you know, obviously, and they were heathen, you know, a people, but, you know, if you read through the Old Testament, the Israelites did not get rid of them all. Many of them remained on the land. And so we see that Simon is a Canaanite. You know, he lived on the land, but he was not of Israel, in a sense. Okay? And what's, you know, I love that. I love that. And the reason I love it is because, you know, a lot of people talk about, you know, Christ's great love for the Jews, which he does have. You know, he says that he's coming to the Jews, you know, at first, but he also, you know, just shows us that he selected one of his apostles, one of his main men to be a Gentile, you know, to be a descendant of the heathen, of those that, you know, worshiped idols and worshiped false gods. It's an interesting thing. But, you know, he was a Canaanite. That's one of the misconceptions. The second misconception about Simon is because he's called a Zelotis, that comes from the word zealot. You know, he was a zealot. Now, I don't know if you've heard this before, but there was a group called the zealots in the, not in the terms of Jesus, but anyway, there was a group of zealots, and these people were like a militia, and they wanted to overthrow the Roman Empire, okay? And what I've often heard is that Simon was one of these, was part of this militia to overthrow the Roman Empire, and that's why it's called a zealotis, Simon the zealotis, Simon the zealot, if you want to put it that way. But when I look this up, this group did not exist during the time of Jesus. They came into existence about 30 or 40 years after Jesus Christ. So you can rule that out. I mean, if you've heard that, that's not even true. So we're left with a couple of things here, that Simon was a zealot. In other words, he was a zealous man. He loved the Lord, you know, and this is probably why, you know, Jesus Christ chose him. Yeah, he wasn't a Jew, okay, but he was zealous for the Lord. He was a man that had great zeal, and Jesus saw that, and he said, look, it doesn't matter that he's a Canaanite. I'm going to take him, and he's going to be one of my main men as we go out and preach the gospel, all right? And so that's why I believe he was chosen, because he was zealous for the Lord regardless of his, you know, background, regardless of his ethnicity. And we'll see as we go through this that Jesus Christ did indeed focus on the Gentiles as well as the Jews, okay? Look at verse 17, Luke chapter 6 verse 17. And by the way, I just, I did want to make one little point. The fact that Jesus Christ chooses three sets of brothers, you know, and I've got a family of 10 kids, so there's a lot of brothers, and I'm just thinking about this, just meditating on this, and thinking about how brothers and sisters can work together for the kingdom of God. You know, parents, we need to think about, you know, our children, how they can partner up together and do great things for the Lord. I think it's really relevant that Christ did that to choose three sets of brothers in his 12 apostles. All right, verse 17. All Judea and Jerusalem, so they're all the Jews, and then, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon. Okay, so Tyre and Sidon were Gentile coastal cities. It wasn't just the Jews coming to hear him. It was the Gentiles as well, all right? They heard the great news of Jesus. It says, which came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And so yes, while Jesus was primarily focused on the Jews, he also ministered, he also healed the Gentiles that came for him, came seeking him. Verse 18. So the virtue is power, his miracle abilities were coming out of him, and he was healing them all. That's Jews and Gentiles. He was serving and he was ministering all kinds of people. Verse 20. All right, now this reminds me, if you keep your finger there, turn back to two chapters ago and in Luke chapter four, verse 18. Luke chapter four, verse 18. When Jesus Christ goes into the synagogue, if you remember, he reads from Isaiah and he reads of the prophecy of himself. And he said there in Luke 4 18, We see that the ministry of Christ, when he was going out to proclaim himself as the son of God, he was going to the poor first, right? Because the truth is that those that are without, those that are not rich, those that are struggling in life, those that, you know, have great needs, are those that are more likely to receive the good news of the gospel. It's just the way it is, you know? And the Sunshine Coast, it's hard to find poor people, all right? Yes, you can find areas that are lower social economically, but really, in light of it, they're still rich in comparison to many other places of the world. I mean, you, brother, you've been to, you know, Africa and Jamaica. I'm sure you've seen poor people, all right? And what you find with poor people, they're more likely to receive the gospel because they see the value of the great gift because they're lacking and they need things. And so we see Jesus Christ, his emphasis was to go to the poor first, all right? And that's something that we should try to emulate if we can as believers is to find the poor and go to them first, all right? And you're like, where's that on the Sunshine Coast? I don't know. Everyone's rich here, right? In fact, I looked this up. I was looking up, what were the poorest suburbs on the Sunshine Coast? And you know what I found was the poorest suburb? Caloundra. Like, what? Everyone here looks like they're having a great time. Everyone seems to have enough. They seem to have more than enough. And yet, somehow, you know, on the Sunshine Coast, I looked this up, it's a study that they did that, yeah, those in Caloundra apparently are the poorest on the Sunshine Coast. In other words, we live in a rich area. That's what it's saying, okay? Essentially. And so anyway, you know, that's just the truth that, you know, if we can, if we can find areas that people are poorer, those are the areas that we should be targeting with the gospel. And theirs is the kingdom of God. I mean, if you're poor and you're not, but if you were, all right, if you're struggling with things, you're struggling with the possessions, not sure if you're going to have a mule, you know, on the table this day, in that sense, Paul, you know, wouldn't it be such an amazing thing to know that one day you're going to be in the kingdom of God. You're going to be able to feast with Jesus Christ yourself, with the great saints that went before you. And, you know, it obviously brings great consolation to those that are struggling. Verse 21. Blessed are ye that hunger now, for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh. Now, obviously, this is a reference to the millennium and beyond. You know, once we have our resurrected bodies and we're ruling and reigning with Christ forever, you know, those that have gone without are going to be able to enjoy and celebrate with the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 22. Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the Son of Man's sake. Blessed are you when you're persecuted. Right? When people say, I hate you. I hate what you're doing. I hate your church. I hate your message. That's a time to be blessed. Right? But pay attention to something at the end of there. For the Son of Man's sake. All right? Now, people can hate you. You know, you can ruffle feathers. I mean, look, any of us can do it. We can all go out and ruffle feathers. You know, we can be, you know, hostile. We can be rude with our speech. And if you get persecution then, well, that's on you, buddy. But if you're doing it for Christ, if you're doing it by preaching the gospel, then you're blessed. Let's take a passage here. Keep your finger there. Go to 1 Peter 4. 1 Peter 4. And this was a passage that Brother Jason preached on this morning. But 1 Peter 4, verse 14. 1 Peter 4, verse 14. The Bible says, it's the same thing. If ye be reproached, the same word there, for the name of Christ. Remember, for Christ's sake. Happy are ye. You know, rejoice, be glad when you're persecuted for the name of Christ. For the Spirit of glory and of God on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. So he's saying, hey, when they speak evil, when they sort of reproach you, they're speaking evil, but the persecution that comes on you is glorification. It glorifies the Lord. Verse 15. But look at this. This is the warning. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evildoer or as a busybody. It's amazing that this is busybody. You know, being involved in other people's matters is listed with murderer. You know, being a murderer and all these other things. But a busybody in other men's matters. In other words, you can be reproached by being just an idiot, by being sinful, by being exceedingly sinful, by just being rude for the sake of being, you know, just being, I don't know, just being offensive. But that's not the type, you know, that you should be rejoicing in. That's not the type of reproach that you should be rejoicing in. Look at verse 16. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. All right. So be mindful, okay, guys, when you're being persecuted for doing the works of the Lord, for going out there preaching the gospel, or, you know, when we stand behind this pulpit and we preach God's Word, right, we've no compromises. We want to preach what the Word of God says. You know, if that gets heard online and people mock us, persecute us for what we believe, you know, rejoice, be happy. You know, God's going to be glorified in that persecution. Okay, it's a great thing. But, you know, don't start rejoicing and say, well, I'm being persecuted for God when you're the one that's causing, you know, like, you're the one that's being offensive. You know, you're the one that's being an idiot or being, you know, controversial just for a reaction. And then you say, well, I'm being persecuted. No, that doesn't bring glory to God. Okay, so be mindful of that. Go back to Luke chapter 6, Luke chapter 6, verse 23. Luke chapter 6, verse 23. And I love this because you'll be like, well, why should I rejoice in that? You know, Pastor Kevin, we're being persecuted. We're being hated for what we believe. It's causing division in our families. It's causing division, you know, amongst our friends and people that I know. People don't want to be associated with us or whatever. But look at verse 23. Why can't we rejoice? Rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy. You know, if I could jump right now, I'd do it, I'd leap, you know, but unfortunately my legs, you know, messed up a little bit. But leap for joy. For behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the like manner did their fathers answer the prophets. That's why you can rejoice when persecution comes. Because you're not just getting rewarded, but your reward is great. It's a great reward that you receive for being persecuted for the name of Jesus Christ. That's why we can rejoice. Verse 24. Luke 6 24. But woe unto you that are rich, for ye have received your consolation. Now obviously we know that many of the rich, you know, this is just a generalization. Of course there are saved rich people. There's nothing wrong with having wealth in of itself. Okay, but by and large, those that are rich, you know, those that have a comfortable lifestyle, you know, they're not seeking after the Lord, right? And it says, but woe unto you that are rich, for ye have received your consolation. Hey, that's it. Your riches, you've received it. That's as far as you're going to go. If you reject the Lord Jesus Christ, you're not going to have rewards in heaven. In fact, you reject and you're going to be in hell. Okay. Verse 25. Woe unto you that are full, for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now, for ye shall mourn and weep. So this is the opposite. This is the other group. For so did their fathers, to the false prophets. And so what the Bible is saying here is that the false prophets are going to be spoken well of. It's the false prophets that are going to become, you know, prominent voices. You know, they're going to be praised for what they teach. They're going to be on the media and celebrated. When you see a preacher being celebrated by the world, you should automatically know they're a false prophet. Just by the fact that that's happening. You're never going to find on channel 9, channel 10, channel 7 a peace on me. That's glorifying me and speaking how great our church is. It's never going to happen. And if it does happen, it's to accuse us of something, it's to show us in a bad light, but it's not to heap praise on us because the world just wants to praise the false prophets. They're the ones that tickle their ears. Verse 26, but look, Jesus says, woe, woe unto them. They're going to be cast into a hell fire. They're going to be hungry. They're going to be thirsty. They're going to have no riches. It's going to, you know, they're the opposite of those that are saved yet poor. Verse 27. But I say unto you which hear, love your enemies. And this is some of the best, you know, or I should say, most popular teaching in the Bible. Because, you know, when you go and knock doors and they say, I'm a good person. Well, you know, how do you judge that? Well, you know, do unto others is what they say. Many times, you know, do unto others. Try to be good to others and this is where they get it from. Verse 27. But it's a great truth. I'm not denying that. It's a great truth. But it's not how you get saved. But I say unto you which hear, love your enemies, do good to them which hate you. You know, if you would say to me, I have an enemy, you know, what do I do? There's someone that hates me. There's someone that's persecuting me. What do I do about it? What did Jesus say? Do good. Do good to them. The opposite to what you would naturally desire to do. Verse 27, sorry, verse 28. Bless them that curse you and pray for them which despitefully use you. Now you can pray for the destruction if you want, but pray for them. All right, pray for them. Because what I find is when you're praying for someone to the Lord, you tend to grow in a sort of love toward that person. You can be more kind to someone that's been cruel to you but if you prayed about them to the Lord, I find that in your spirit, you're able to love them a little more, okay, than obviously what the flesh would allow from you. But what God is saying here, what Jesus Christ is saying here is obviously be kind, be loving, be generous, be friendly to your enemies. And look, that's going to open up risk, you know. You've been generous to people that hate you. There's obviously the risk that they're going to take advantage of you, all right. But does that mean we don't do good to them? No, look, the clear instruction is that we would do good to our enemies, all right. Verse 29. And unto him that smiteth thee on one cheek, offer also the other, and him that taketh away thy cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee, and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. I mean, look, this is a hard saying. You know, when people preach about, you know, hatred, or they preach about, you know, the reprobates or, you know, these kind of doctrines, they say that's hard preaching. Yes, it is. But you know, this is also hard preaching, because it's hard to do. It's hard to be good to your enemies. But that's the instruction that God has left us. That's what Jesus wants from us. And Jesus knows full well, yes, that we're risking ourselves, we're opening up ourselves to be used and abused. Now look, I'm not saying to your harm, I'm not saying someone's likely to hurt you, or hurt your family, or you know, maybe they are a reprobate. Maybe that person is a reprobate, and they're more likely to harm you. Obviously, protect yourself. But not everybody that's wicked, not everybody that's your enemy is a reprobate. You know, and Christ says, you got to love them, you got to do good to them. If they ask of you, you know, to give. And you know, one good principle, I believe, when Christ says, so let me just find the passage there. Verse 30, give to every man that asketh of thee. I think a good rule of life, if someone asks of you, even if it's like, can I borrow this? Can you lend me this? It's like, offer and give what you're willing to lose. Alright? I mean, I've had many friends ask me for financial aid, and I've always been, well, alright, I'm willing to give this to you, because I know if I lose it, I'm still okay. Like, I can still provide for my house. I can still provide for my family. If it never comes back to me, you know, I mean, I expect it to come back to me, but if it doesn't, you know, I'm not pulled out. You know, my family's not suffering, kind of thing. Okay? So, I think that's a good rule of thumb. Obviously, lend, give what you're willing to lose. And, yeah, you know, some of them never came back and paid. So, that's just life. Okay? But, let me just say this. You know, you can take this in two ways. You can be someone that says, you know what, I'm never going to let myself be taken advantage of. I'm never going to allow myself to be hurt by somebody. And, look, that will cause you to be hardened in your heart toward others. It's going to cause you to lack love toward people that actually are deserving of love. You're going to find yourself being closed up and being self-focused, becoming selfish, you know, rather than selfless. Alright? And, it's all I'm just trying to protect myself. Look, it's better that you're a little bit open. It's better to create friendships. You know, it works to turn an enemy into a friend if you show a little love, if you show a little of goodness to other people. Okay? This is what Christ wants from us. Let's look at verse 32. Luke 6 32. So, look, even the unsaids love those that love them. What's so good about that if as believers we do that? Verse 33. Wait! Look, we want the great rewards in heaven. You know what that means? It means you have to open yourself up to a bit of risk. It means you've got to allow yourself maybe to be taken advantage of. If you say, no, I'm going to protect myself. I'm going to close myself up. I'm going to not allow anybody to enter into my life because they might do bad to me. Well, then you're not going to be able to receive the great rewards. Hey, if they take advantage of you, rejoice! God's got great rewards for you in heaven. He says, look, you've lent that $10,000. They didn't pay you back. Don't worry. You got it in heaven. Plus interest. Plus forever. Right? I want you to have this mindset. The reason we can be good to those that hate us, that despitefully use us, is because when they do, God says, don't worry about it. Your reward is great in heaven. I've got it covered. Okay? And it's going to be worth it. You're going to get to heaven and you're going to be like, I wish more people took advantage of me because I would have got the greater rewards in heaven. Alright? I know that's you know, our flesh doesn't like that. I know. Okay? But this is hard preaching. It's hard preaching from Jesus Christ. Verse 36. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Where would we be without the mercy of God? We'll be on our way to hell. Think about that. So, you know, is the mercy that you're showing to your enemy you know, better than what the Father has shown you? Of course not. Of course not. Okay? Verse 37. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged. Condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned. Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. Give, and it shall be given. Give, and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, press down, and shake it together, and running over shall men give in to your bosom. For with the same measure that ye meet withal, it shall be measured to you again. And basically the concept there is you reap what you sow. Okay? I don't want to go into this too much. Like, this whole chapter's got about four sermons in it, you know, but we need to move on. But look, God ensures that you will be rewarded. You know, maybe on this earth, but most of all, the great rewards in heaven, in the life to come. Verse 39. And he spake a parable unto them. Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they both not fall into a ditch? So you know, a blind follower of a false teacher, of a false prophet, they're both going to end up in the ditch. They're both going to end up in the pit of hell. Okay? We need to be careful about the kind of teachers, the kind of examples that we set before us. Even as believers, even as believers, you know, we can easily you know, take a book from Kurong, you know, written by a false prophet and read it. That's the blind leading the blind. You know, of course if you're saying you're not going to hell, but it could bring destruction into your life. Okay? So be mindful as to who you set as an example, as you set as someone that's teaching you. Verse 40. The disciple is not above his master, but everyone that is perfect shall be as his master. So perfect is to be complete. You end up like your master. You set Jesus Christ as your master, you'll be more like Jesus Christ. It's a great thing. But you set a false prophet as your master, you'll become like him, like that false prophet. Alright? Verse 41. And why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? I love this saying of Jesus. Because a moat is just a little speck of wood, like wood shaving. You know, you see that wood shaving in your brother's eye, and if you ever had something come into your eye, it's pretty painful. You know, you get a watery eye, your eye starts to swell up, you know, just around it, and it's quite painful. And like, you may want to try to help your brother pull that out. But then, he says, look, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye. You know, a beam is part of construction, you know, a big plank of wood, you know, and you've got that in your eye, and you're trying to help your brother with that little speck that he's got in his eye. You know, obviously, we need to not be hypocritical. Yes, you know, we should point things out, try to help our brethren, but most of all, you've got to deal with your own issues in your life too, okay? And you see this in verse 42. Either, how canst they say to thy brother, brother, let me pull out the moat that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye. Thou hypocrites, cast out first the beam of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the moat that is in thy brother's eye. And I've said this before, and, you know, we can all be this way, but I've said before how I've had certain people tell me, oh, this is how you should do your church. This is how you should run church. This is how you should do things. But then, their family's falling apart. You know, their marriages are falling apart. It's like, man, you've got this huge beam, right? And you're trying to tell me how to, you know, handle this little moat, and maybe it's a legitimate moat that it's in my eye or whatever, but we've just got to be mindful, guys, you know, when we're passing judgments, when we're seeking to help others with the problems, that we deal with our own problems first. And quite often, we have a beam that's much larger than the little thing that you see in someone else, alright? So, don't be a hypocrite. I mean, that needs its own sermon. One day, we'll cover that. Verse 43. Now, I will say this. Verses 43 to 46, I was really struggling understanding this. And let's have a read of it. I'll tell you why. No tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit, neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree that is known by his own fruits, for of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather thy grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil. For of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. And why call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say. Now, that might sound very familiar to you. Keep your finger there. Turn to Matthew 7. And I'm sure you all know it. Because I've preached in Matthew 7 a couple of times. And I've heard other men preach on Matthew 7 a few times. But I want you to I kind of want to share a little bit of my reading this, trying to come to an understanding of it. It's because as I read it through the book of Luke, I really got the impression that this is to believers. That this is to the saved. But obviously, I know Matthew 7. Okay. Now, look what Matthew 7 starts with. And like I said, as I was going through Luke, as I'm going through Luke, I'm also looking at parallel passages. Okay. But look at Matthew 7, 15 starts. Matthew 7, 15. Before we get to this teaching, it starts with, beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles, and so on. But notice in Matthew 7, he mentions there the false prophets. Right. And he says, you shall know them, the false prophets by their fruits. And what I notice obviously in Luke chapter 6, that's not mentioned. The mention of false prophets is not mentioned there. Yes, to some extent, you know, the blind leading the blind early on as we saw, but it's not covered here. And that kind of brought, you know, made me think about it a little bit. The other thing that's quite different, in Matthew 7, look at verse number 22. Matthew 7, verse 22. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name have done wonderful works, and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. So, we see that those that are, you know, the bad trees with the bad fruits, is the false prophets. Right. They're teaching people to trust in their works for salvation, and Christ says, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Obviously, they're cast into the lake of fire. You know, in Matthew 7, when Jesus taught this, He's speaking about, primarily, about the false prophets, about the unbelievers. Okay. But then when I read Luke chapter 6, look at Luke chapter 6, verse 46. It's a similar saying, but it's not, it doesn't cover everything that we saw there in Matthew. It says, And why call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? And I got thinking about this, and think, okay, if this is about false prophets, why would Jesus Christ be concerned that they would do the things that He says to then call Him Lord? To have the, sort of the, you know, the ability to call Him Lord. And so, as I was reading through Luke 6, it came to me that this is about the saved. This is about the believer. I'll explain to you in a minute why. Because we can all be saved, right? The free gift of salvation does not merit any work on our behalf. It's all been paid for in Christ Jesus. All right. And so we all can claim Jesus as our Savior, if you place your faith upon Him. But that does not immediately make Him your Lord. Now I'm saying you're saved from your sins, you're saved from your sins, you're going to heaven after this life, but what Christ says in verse 46, why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? So what does Christ want from the saved? He wants you, He wants to be your Lord. You know, He wants you to do the things that He says. All right. This got me thinking. It's like, hold on. You know, Luke 6 then, seems to be about the believer. And if we keep looking, look at verse 47, Luke 6, 47. And we know this is about the believer, because look at verse 47. Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like. And then he talks about the man that builds his house upon the rock. Obviously, that's a believer. That hears the words of God, and does it. And the person that does the commands of God, that keeps the laws of God, he is someone that can call Jesus rightly, Lord, Lord. All right. So this is what I sort of reasoned within myself, and I like your opinions later on as well. This is similar to John the Baptist. When you read about John the Baptist before, was it chapter 2 I think it was, remember he had a great multitude that came to him. He had the non-believers, he had believers that wanted to get baptised, but he also had false, you know, false prophets. He had Pharisees that sought to, you know, mock him, and to lead people astray. So when John the Baptist came preaching, he had a multitude of people as well. And what we see here in Christ, he also has a multitude of people coming to see him. Some that are not saved, some like the scribes and Pharisees that seek to find problems in what Jesus Christ is teaching. And so this is how I believe we can reconcile these two things. Is that Jesus Christ uses this analogy of the tree, of the corrupt tree that brings forth corrupt fruit, of the good tree that brings forth good fruit, and he uses this one analogy and then multiple applications. I mean it's like any sermon, you know, let's take our brother Jason's sermon on lying, on the sin of lying. You know, yes, we spoke about lying being something that's wicked that we shouldn't do, but then you can apply that in many things, right? You can apply that to your work life. You can apply that to your family life. You can apply that to preaching a sermon. We want to preach the truth and not preach a lie. You can apply that to many things in your life. And so what I believe here is that Jesus Christ taught about the good tree and the corrupt tree and Matthew pays special attention about the false prophets, the applications to the false prophets, but then Luke takes that application and applies that to the believer. Okay? And the believer, hey, why are you calling Jesus Lord, but you're not doing the things that he wants you to do? And what are those things that he wants us to do? Look at verse 47 again. Verse 47, we're almost done. Hey, if we're people that hear the word of God and we do it, we see the commands that Christ has left us and we do it. We're like a man that digs in deep, builds good foundations upon the rock of the word of God. Now does God say your life's going to be easy? No. There's still going to be days where the streams, the flood rises, the rain fall and beats upon your house. It's still going to happen, all right? But it's not going to shake your house because it's founded upon the rock. It's founded upon the word of God. If you want to live stable, content, happy lives, you've got to build your life upon the rock of the word of God. You have to. You know, if you find yourself where your marriage falls apart, where your kids hate you, you know, you can't keep a steady job, it's because you're not founded upon the rock. You might know what God wants from you, but you're not doing what he's asking of you. Okay? And look at verse 49. But he that heareth, hey, so there's no excuse, he's heard the word of God, but then and doeth not, he doesn't do it, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth, against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell. And the ruin of the house was great. And let me say this to you, I've seen many, many pastors, many so-called spiritual leaders fail in life. Divorce. Kids not wanting to do anything to do with the Lord. You know, their ministries just fall apart. You know, the ruin of their house, as Jesus says, was great. They heard the word of God. They even taught the word of God. But they did not do the word of God. Alright? I mean, look, anybody can put on a show. Anybody can appease spiritual. Anybody can quote verses and show you, you know, how smart you are doctrinally. And maybe even beat you on a doctrinal debate and show you their smarts and show you their wisdom. But if they're not doing what the word of God says, they hear it, they know it, but they're not doing it, they're going to be like this house You know, let's be mindful of that, guys. Yes, it's good to know doctrine. Yes, it's good to be firm and know what the word of God says. But we need to do it. Okay? We need to preach the gospel. We need to be the husbands that God wants us to be. The wives that God wants us to be. The mothers, the fathers. You know, the workers, the employees. You know, the friends that we ought to be. All these things that God has given us. The relationship that we ought to have with God the Father. That should be maintained. Confessing our sins often. All these things that God has been praying and reading the Bible, coming to church. All those things that come with being a believer is important. It's not just hearing the word of God, but doing it. And your house will stand strong. No matter what problems, what storms and floods of life will come your way, your house will remain strong and firm and will not be shaken. Alright.