Turn Weapons into Tools

We have been looking together at the Sermon on the Mount. We read today from Matthew chapter 5, beginning at verse 33 and concluding with verse 42. Our Lord speaks and he says, Again ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, thou shalt not perjure thyself, but thou shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths.

But I say unto you, Swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yes, yes, no, no, for whatever is more than these cometh from the evil one.

Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.

And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him too. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not away. Our Lord is describing here a difficult kind of life, one that only he can make possible.

Wherever there is life, there is power. A tiny little germ gets into the bloodstream of a 240 pound football player, and before long that football player is flat on his back, because where there's life, there's power. Or a tiny seed drops into the ground near your house, and it germinates, begins to grow, and before long you find your foundation cracking, because where there is life, there's power.

And the higher up you go in the scale of life, the greater the power becomes. I'm not talking simply about physical power. As you come to man, this marvelous creation of God, made in God's image, you meet such a thing as intellectual power, moral power, and for those who are Christians, spiritual power.

But power is a two-edged sword. Power can be used either to build up or to tear down. Power can be used either constructively or destructively, and that's what our Lord is talking about here in the Sermon on the Mount.

In Matthew 5, verses 33-42, our Lord is saying simply this, you and I have certain powers. We can use these powers either as tools to build with or weapons to fight with. Children can use these tools to fight against their parents and parents against their children.

Husbands and wives can use these tools either to build a home or to wreck a home. Church members, church officers can use these tools to build the church or to tear the church down. And each one of us has to make the decision as a Christian to use the power that God has given to us as tools to build with and not weapons to fight with.

You see, most of the problems we face in the world today, we face because of the abuse of power. You just think about that person you have trouble with at work or that person you have trouble with in your neighborhood. It's a power problem.

Someone is doing something and you don't have the power to do anything about it. Our Lord is dealing here with this very sticky, very personal, very intimate matter of using the powers that God has given to us as tools to build with and not weapons to fight with. Now I don't have to remind this congregation here at Moody Church that our Lord is talking about believers.

What I'm going to say in this message is not going to mean much to an unbeliever because he doesn't have the wherewithal to do what our Lord is talking about. In fact, Jesus said one day, there are two forces at work in this world. I am gathering, Satan is scattering.

There is the force that is pulling things together for God and there is the force that is scattering and destroying. And those of you who don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are a part of that latter force. You are a part of Satan's force to scatter and to steal and to kill and to destroy.

You may be a very moral person, I'm not talking about that. You might even be a religious person, but if you don't have the Holy Spirit in your heart, if you don't have eternal life within, if you've never trusted Jesus Christ, you are not a part of what he's talking about here. The beautiful thing about being a Christian is we can live in a difficult world, face these tremendous problems and challenges, and not be torn down by them, not be wrecked by them.

God has given to us the resources to be able to handle these things. That's why it's important to be a Christian, not only because it saves you from eternal hell someday, but while you are here on this earth, it makes life that much more meaningful. You can be a builder instead of a destroyer.

Now what are these powers that God has given to us that we can use either as tools to build with or weapons to fight with? Well, there are three of them. In verses 33 through 37, he talks about the power of our words, what we say. And then in 38 and 39, he talks about the power of our feelings, how we respond when others hurt us.

And then in 40 through 42, he talks about the power of our rights, human possessions, we own certain things, we have rights over these things, how do we use them? In other words, this past week, how did I use the power of words? How did I use the power of feelings when people hurt me? How did I use the power of my rights? I have certain rights as a human being, as a husband, as a parent, as a pastor. Now you take these three powers and get them under the control of the Holy Spirit of God and you have a life that builds. You have a person who goes through life building and not tearing down.

But you get these three powers under the authority of the flesh, or the world, or the devil. And you've got a person who will wreck a home, split a church, break a heart, ruin a ministry. Let's take this first power in verses 33 through 37, the power of our words.

I trust that you have respect for the power of words. Now I know all the arguments that are going on today that words are not important. A very famous philosopher has written a series of books to tell us that it is the medium that is the message.

But he wrote a book to do it. He used words. He wrote a whole book using words to tell me that words are not important.

Words are important. Come with me someday to a hospital. And standing outside the hospital room is a family and in that hospital bed is a loved one and they're waiting for words.

And the doctor comes in and he says, I have good news for you. We got the whole tumor. He's clean.

Do those words make a difference? They certainly do. Go with me down to court. Here stands an accused criminal before the judge.

What's he waiting for? He's waiting for words. Has the jury reached the verdict? We have, your honor. And everyone holds his breath.

We find the defendant guilty. Do those words make a difference? They certainly do. You see, words carry power.

When God wanted to bring the universe into existence, he didn't call a committee meeting. He spoke. Words, let there be.

And there was. In fact, so important are words that Jesus Christ has taken that as one of his names. In the beginning was the Word and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Never underestimate the power of words. Now, I don't have to emphasize this because this past week you were either helped or hurt by words. This past week, someone you know or someone you didn't know either cut you or cured you.

You heard words this week that either change night into day or change day into night. The power of words. Just think of the magnificent privilege we have of being able to speak.

I suppose that the lower forms of life communicate in one way or another. If I were Dr. Doolittle, I could figure those things out, but I'm not. I suppose that animals have a way of talking to each other.

But think of the privilege we have of using words to be able to speak, to share our heart, to share our mind, to be able to teach and communicate, to lead someone to Christ. Now, words can be used as weapons. That's what the Pharisees were doing.

You see, the Pharisees had a little rule that went like this. If you want someone to believe you, you must have an oath. You don't simply say, well, I will do that.

You say, I swear by Jerusalem that I will do that. But your oath is not valid unless you use the name of God. And so they had a sneaky way of getting around this, and they were deceiving.

You couldn't trust what they were saying. They said that I swear by my head that I will pay this debt, and they didn't pay it. And then the fellow came back and said, but you took an oath.

Oh, but I didn't mention God's name. It was my head. I swear by the earth.

But you didn't keep your promise. But I didn't have to. I didn't mention God's name.

You see, once you start living by rules, you can sneak around them and sneak under them. There are people who do nothing but figure out ways of getting around the laws that have been passed. That's why it's a difficult thing to live by rules.

Every rule has to be interpreted. Then every interpretation has to be interpreted. Then every interpretation has to have an application.

And by the time you have all of this interweaving of interpretations, applications, you can do anything you want to and get away with it. Now, Jesus comes along and says, I'm going to change all of that. It did say in the Old Testament, don't you perjure yourself.

You be honest. When you speak, you speak truly. Don't you speak lies.

Thou shalt not bear false witness. If you make an oath, you perform it unto the Lord. And Jesus came along and he changed the whole thing.

He said, you missed the point completely. You're looking at the outside of this law. You're not looking at the inside of it.

There are many people who live by the outside of things. They know the outside of the things, but they don't know the inside. They never get to that spiritual kernel down inside.

Jesus said, you know what my father was saying when he gave you that law? No, what was he saying? He was saying this. What you say depends on what you are. If you are a person of character, all you have to say is yes or no.

And people believe you. If you aren't a person of character, you can use all the O's that you want to use and nobody will believe you. What our Lord is saying is you cannot separate words from character because it's out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

There are some people that you know. If they swore on a stack of Scofield Bibles, you wouldn't believe them because you know them. They'd find some way to get out of it.

There are other people who simply say to you, yes, I will do it. And you forget about it because you know that they'll do it. Why? They have character.

Our Lord is saying here no amount of additions to our vocabularies will change our character. A man is known by his words. Somebody came to J.P. Morgan one day, the great financial wizard, and said to him, Mr. Morgan, what is the greatest collateral a person can give you for a loan? And Morgan looked up and said, character.

Do you mean to say that you have loaned out millions of dollars on a man's character alone? Yes. You don't hear much about character these days. Do you think that because someone signs a paper they're going to keep a promise? No.

Character. And so my Lord is saying here, don't use your words as weapons to fight with, to deceive, to tear down, to steal. Use your words as tools to build with.

So when you say something, people grow. The Book of Proverbs has a great deal to say about human speech. I recommend someday you sit down with a pen and the Book of Proverbs and mark every verse that talks about the tongue and words.

It says, for example, in Proverbs 18.21, death and life are in the power of the tongue. The tongue of a righteous man is like a tree of life. Over and over again in the Book of Proverbs we find the Lord saying to us, your words reveal your character.

Here's a husband and wife and they want to have a bath. Well, they do it with words. And our Lord says, don't do that.

Don't do that. Use your words as tools to build with. How do you do that? By being honest.

Speaking the truth in love. Our Lord is simply saying here, in your relationship at work or with your family or your neighbors or in the church, speak the truth in love. Some folks can't take the truth.

I have been in some places where they sweep things under the rug and they can't face it. Ephesians 4.15 says, speaking the truth in love. Keith Miller has hit the nail on the head when he said, truth without love is brutality and love without truth is hypocrisy.

You've got to have both. Speaking the truth in love. Where does that come from? It comes from the heart.

When there is love in the heart, then there's truth on the lips. And I may say something someday that will hurt you, but I trust it won't harm you. There's a difference.

Speaking the truth in love. So we use our words as tools. It's worth noticing here that Jesus is saying, the more you have to say, the less character you have.

People come in and they start to spill out all sorts of, wait, just slow down, slow down. In one sentence, what are you trying to say? And they can't say it. My Bible says, in the multitude of words, there wanteth not sin.

I have noticed that men and women of character are precise in what they say. Have you ever noticed that? And when they speak, I've noticed here at the Moody Church, when we have a committee meeting or an executive council meeting, executive committee meeting, there are some people who don't say a great deal, but when they stand, everybody listens. You know why? They're men of character.

Words can be used either as tools to build with or weapons to fight with. Which are we doing? People made promises when they got married. Are we keeping those promises? We made them to the Lord.

The Pharisee says, now wait a minute, I swore by Jerusalem. Jesus said, that's the city of the great king. What can you swear by that doesn't touch God? You Pharisees say, oh, I didn't use the name of God, but anything you swear by touches God.

You swear by heaven, that's his throne. Well, you swear by earth, that's his footstool. Well, you swear by Jerusalem, that's his city.

You swear by your head, he made it. You can't even make one hair black or white. In fact, you can't even make one hair.

And only your hairdresser knows for sure. Using our words as tools to build with and not weapons to fight with. Now he moves into a second area, and in verses 38 and 39, he talks about the power of our feelings.

You've heard that it's been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And folks, that's a good law. That's a good law.

He didn't say it was a bad law. It was a good law. What he's saying in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is, you have just and fair punishment for crime.

You don't kill a mosquito with a cannon. If a man breaks a window, you don't hang him by the neck until he's dead. You suit the punishment to the crime.

And that's a good law. You see, God gave that law to prevent them from having personal and private retaliation and vengeance. He didn't want any avengers running around in Israel.

In fact, he set up on either side of the Jordan River those cities of refuge, three on one side and three on the other side. And the way to them was marked. And the signpost pointed the way to the city of refuge.

And the gates were open. And if a neighbor accidentally killed his neighbor, and those things could happen. He's chopping away at some wood, and the head of the ax comes off and hits his neighbor and kills him.

That could happen. And the family says, you killed him, you killed him. He runs to the city of refuge.

Why? So they can have a trial to find out whether it was premeditated murder or manslaughter. You see, in the Old Testament, these laws were fair and gracious. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

If your neighbor does this, you do the equivalent to get paid back. But Jesus said, don't live like that. I've got something better for you.

You know, anybody can live on that level. There are three possible levels you can live on. You can live on the devil's level, that's the sub-basement.

Or you can live on the human level, where most people in Chicago live. Or you can live on the divine level. The sub-basement, Satan's level is, he returns evil for good.

Did you ever notice that? Satan always returns evil for good. You won't find any place in the Bible where Satan did not return evil for good. Then the human level, where your neighbors live, and maybe most of us, I don't know.

You return good for good and evil for evil. That's where most people live. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

Love me, love my dog. Or my cat. That's where most people, anybody can live there.

Jesus said lift yourself to a higher level where you return good for evil. Oh, that's hard. It's much easier to roll up your sleeve and belt somebody in Christian love, much easier.

Or is it? Or is it? Our Lord is dealing here with this matter of feelings. He says if someone comes and slaps you on the cheek, you turn the other cheek. Now at this point you may say, wait a minute, Jesus didn't do that, they slapped him.

But you must remember he was standing in a law court. It wasn't a matter of just a personal insult or injury. It was now a matter of national legality.

Our Lord is not talking here about my official position. He's talking here about my personal problems. Someone slaps you.

Not literally. I always hated it when my mother slapped me in the face. It always hurt more than a spanking.

You know why? It was a shameful thing. A slap in the face is an insult. I remember one day I had been down the street telling some of the neighbors what I thought of them, and she heard it.

How mothers hear things, I'll never know. This was before the days of CB radios and walkie talkies, and I know our crystal set wasn't picking it up. I can still see myself walking into the kitchen.

Came in the back door and walked, and she was waiting for me by the refrigerator. And she had the fastest right hand in Indiana, and I got it right in the face. Now it didn't really hurt.

Didn't really hurt. Not my body. It hurt me in the inside.

It was an insult. She knew she was really getting through to me. You've been hurt.

Maybe not by a literal slap in the face. Maybe it was a letter. Maybe it was somebody saying something.

Maybe it was being ignored. Maybe you held out your hand to somebody at church and they just walked right by you. You've been hurt, and your first response is, and my first response is, well, if you want to be that way, who can play at that game? But it's not a game.

It's a war game. It's dangerous. What is Jesus saying here when he says, turn the other cheek? If you're going to turn the other cheek, you've got to stay there.

You don't turn the other cheek while you're running. He's saying, wait a minute. If there's a problem there, don't run away.

But Lord, if I stay, he may hit me again. Then let him do it. It's better that he hit you than that you hit him.

The great Bible commentator, Matthew Henry, was robbed one night. England in those days was not especially safe. He came home and wrote in his journal, I was robbed tonight, and I give thanks that it was I who was robbed.

I was not the robber. And though he took my money, he did not take my life. And he could not take those things which are the most important to me, the things that the Lord has given to me.

It's a great way to look at life, isn't it? How marvelous to say, I'm glad I was not the aggressor. Jesus is saying here, look, when you turn the other cheek, he's not giving you a law. He's not passing a rule.

So the next time somebody hurts you, you say, rule 16, turn the other cheek. No. The Sermon on the Mount is not another 10 commandments that you try to obey.

He's talking about an attitude. He's saying here, have such an attitude toward those who hurt your feelings that you're willing for them to hurt you again, that you might help them. That's what he's saying.

When you turn the other cheek, you stay, you don't run, and you hurt, but you help. All of us have had to work with people who were abrasive. All of us have had to live with and work with people who were difficult.

And we could do one of several things. We could draw a line and say, man, you crossed that line. You've had it.

But that's no way to live. That limits your life. Limits his life.

Or you could give in to him, but you don't want to do that. That just makes him worse. When our Lord talks about turning the other cheek, he's not saying encouraging somebody to sin.

He's talking here about a relationship of love that is so strong and so spiritual that by turning the other cheek and becoming vulnerable, we help the other man see himself and grow. It's not easy, but it works. We could go up and down these roads here at Moody Church and have some of our saints share that this works.

There's someone that they've had problems with, and they've trusted the Lord, and they've been vulnerable, and they've taken it, and they've not fought back. They've fought back through love. They've fought back through prayer.

They've taken the hurt, and they've said, Thank you, Lord, that I can take it. If he was doing this to her or to him, they couldn't take it. It would destroy them.

So I'll take it, Lord. And then God begins to work, and two things happen. One, you start to grow.

It's an amazing thing. There's a growth that takes place. And number two, you start building a bridge.

And before long, that person says, You know, there's something different about you. I mean, I've said things to you and done things to you. You really ought to throw me in jail.

And that's your opportunity to say, Well, let me tell you why. There are many cases of this in the Bible. Joseph was this way.

Joseph could have had every one of his brothers buried alive. He didn't. He forgave them.

He turned the other cheek. Paul, that jailer whipped Paul and put him in prison, stuck his feet in the stock. The earthquake comes, and Paul is watching the jailer.

And the jailer picks up his sword. And if Paul had been like some of us, he would have said, Go to it, man! But Paul did, Do thyself no harm. We're all here.

That's turning the other cheek. If he'd been fighting back, he would have said, That's what you deserve. I knew it was coming.

You say, Pastor, you're talking about an awful lot of faith. Yes, yes, faith and love. We have a great deal of violence in America today.

You know what the source of violence is? It's not power, it's weakness. People are violent because they're weak. Strong people don't have to be violent.

When you have enough self-esteem, acceptance from God, you know who you are and where you are and what you're doing, and you don't depend upon the praises of people to be happy, when you've got that kind of character, it doesn't make any difference if somebody criticizes you or slaps you or kicks you. You can take it because you don't lose anything. That's the beautiful thing about being a Christian.

When all of these things happen to us emotionally and physically, they can't rob us spiritually unless we let them. You know how many times we've let them? How many times we've lost our temper? How many times we've fought back? We wrote that letter. We made that phone call.

Jesus said, Look, don't do it. He's not talking about not protecting yourself. If a man comes at you with a gun and a knife, you protect yourself.

He's not saying that at all. He's talking about the personal insults and injuries that keep you awake at night, that give you ulcers, that you buy Maalox by the carton. That's what he's talking about.

And there are people in America today in our churches who are eating themselves alive with the violence down inside, with this hatred and with this malice and this desire to get back. And you know what? They're only hurting themselves. They aren't hurting the other fellow.

He doesn't even know anything about it. They're just hurting themselves. And so the Lord says, Your words can be powerful to build or destroy, tools or weapons.

Your feelings, you can build with them or you can destroy with them. Use your feelings not as weapons to fight with. You hurt me, but as tools to build with, I won't hurt you.

Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. Now our Lord moves into a third area, a third power that we have, the power of our rights, our personal rights in verses 40 to 42.

He's talking here about somebody suing you. He's talking about being drafted in verse 41. Back in Jesus' day, a Roman soldier could stop you on the highway and say, Carry this for a mile.

And Jesus said, If he says that, look up and say, Yes, sir. In fact, I'll do it for two miles. Then watch the look on his face.

And while you're on that extra mile, talk to him about the Lord. You know what the Lord is saying here? What do we do more than others? He goes into that in the next section. What do ye more than others? Well, I'm as good as.

Wait a minute. What do ye more than others? Now our Lord is not saying here that we shouldn't want to see a lawsuit straightened out the way it should be. As Christians, we should not go to law with one another.

Sometimes, in order to determine a point of law, there has to be a friendly lawsuit. A man came to me some years ago. There had been an automobile accident, and the only way the insurance companies could settle it would be if it went to court.

But he said, I'm a Christian, and the other man's a Christian. What should we do? He said, We aren't fighting each other. I said, It has to be determined.

That's not what our Lord is saying. What He's saying is when someone's out to rip you off, protect your life, obviously, protect your property, but don't be selfish about it. You can lose more than your coat.

You can lose more than your tunic. You could lose your character. You could lose your peace.

Who's going to worry about an extra coat? Who's going to worry about an extra mile? The thing to worry about is your spiritual growth, your stature in the Lord. He's talking once again about character. Now, we have rights.

I have rights as a human being. I reread the Declaration of Independence the other day, and Mr. Jefferson said, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal before God and the law, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. There are certain rights that I have because I'm a human being.

Whether you're black or yellow or what you are, there are certain rights that you have. Now, do you use these rights as tools to build with or weapons to fight with? Paul gave up his rights. Jesus gave up his rights.

The person who holds on to his rights and goes to court to support his rights, he's going to lose something. Paul wrote to the Corinthians and said, You're suing each other. You're better off losing the money.

You're better off being defrauded and maintaining your testimony and your character. The thing he's saying here is that we gain by losing. Somebody comes and asks you for something, if you can share it, and it'll help them do it.

Now, it doesn't mean when I walk down Clark Street and every bum that asks me for a dollar, I give him a dollar. I wouldn't do that. If he comes up and says, Sir, I'm hungry.

I'll take him to the nearest restaurant and buy him food. You would do the same thing. I wouldn't hand him money.

He'd end up down at the bedding parlor or go get a bottle of wine. I wouldn't be helping him. When Jesus says give to him that asks, he doesn't tell you what to give.

Sometimes you better give a testimony. Sometimes you better give an exhortation. Sometimes you better give a word of encouragement.

Sometimes you better give an arm and say, Let's go down to the restaurant and get something to eat. Our Lord is not talking here about a law. Our Lord is saying, Look, there are those who want to hurt you.

There are those who want to rob you of your rights. Give God your rights. Paul did this.

Paul said, I've got a right to be married. I gave it up. I have a right to take up collections for myself.

I've laid that aside. I have the right to, but I've taken that away. You know, it's a marvelous thing to say, They aren't my rights.

They're his rights. And the person who lives by my rights, my rights, is always super sensitive and touchy and legalistic and hard. He's always waving the Constitution in your face.

Now, there are times when the Constitution is a good thing to wave. W-A-Z-E. There's a time when the Constitution is a good thing to wave, W-A-I-Z-E.

Just forget about it. Because life is not made by laws. Life is made by something much higher.

So here we have three powers. There's the power of words. This next week, will my words be tools to build with or weapons to fight with? There's the power of my feelings.

Will my feelings this next week be tools to build with so that I grow and they grow or weapons to fight with? There's the power of my rights. Am I going to use my rights this next week as tools to build with or weapons to fight with? You say, What did Jesus have to do with all of this? Oh, I want to remind you of something. He died to make this possible.

You talk about giving up rights. He lost every one of his rights. He was not treated like a citizen.

He was not treated like a Jew. He was not even treated like a human being. Talk about giving up rights.

Being slapped in the face, he knew what it was. Being lied about, he knew what it was. As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.

Our Lord Jesus stands before us as the example of all of this. Willingly giving up his feelings, his rights, using them as tools to build with. Then going to the cross and dying.

The ultimate in surrender. The next time you think you've got a rough thing in your office, remember you haven't died yet. They haven't crucified you yet.

And they won't. You've got to crucify yourself. So our Lord is simply saying here, take those feelings, take those rights, take those words, come to the cross, lay them at the cross.

Now get up here with me. I'm crucified with Christ. Die to self.

Be raised again to newness of life. And go out into a world that's fighting, fighting violence, antagonistic, abrasive, divided, bloodthirsty. And put on the shoes of peace.

And be a peacemaker, not a troublemaker. And where there are lies, bring truth. And where there's hatred, bring love.

Because that's the way He lived. That's the way He wants us to live. You can't do this unless you're saved.

And if you are saved, we can do it through the power of the Holy Spirit of God. For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. Oh, how marvelous it is to walk out into the battlefield confident, confident with God.

Knowing God. Knowing yourself. Not being threatened. And able to use what God has given you as tools to build with and not weapons to fight with.

Father, forgive us when we have declared war. Forgive us when we're more concerned about being right than being righteous. Forgive us when we've nurtured feelings that have been festering, sensitive. And forgive us when we've not been sensitive to the feelings of others. Help us, Lord. We consecrate ourselves. Take our words. May that words that we speak be tools. Take our feelings, Lord, may they be tools. Take our rights. May we willingly lay them at the altar as tools to build with. Oh, use us to build your church, to build lives. For those, Lord, who don't know the Savior, who are still in the bondage of sin, I pray, help them to come and trust Him. For Jesus' sake. Amen.