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Advent Productions

Benjamin Ng

Be Ye Therefore Perfect

Father in heaven, thank you so much for this opportunity that we have to come and study your word together.

Thank you for keeping us in good health and strength.

Thank you, O Lord, that you've blessed us this past weekend.

If we can't think of 1 blessing, I just pray that you would please jog our memories, help us to remember the wonderful things that you have blessed us with this past week.

And now As we're about to open Your Word, help us to focus.

Lord, I know that it is so convenient to be anywhere and doing anything, but I pray that as we come to study Your Word, we would give You the reverence that You deserve.

We would give You the honor that You deserve, and we would give you the attention that you deserve.

So please be with us now, guide us, O Lord, we pray in Jesus' name.

Matthew chapter 5, and we are looking at the last few verses of this chapter.

Matthew chapter 5, please turn with me in your Bibles.

Follow along as we start there in verse 43.

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.

For he maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

For if ye love them which love you, What reward have ye?

And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others?

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

And so we're brought to the conclusion of Matthew chapter 5 and it says there at the very end, be ye therefore.

That is a conclusion, that's summing up everything that we have just read in this chapter But more specifically in those previous verses, what is the conclusion that Jesus tells us?

This is not a prophet, this is not any human being, this is God himself telling us this.

Now if Jesus tells us we can be perfect, surely we can.

You know sometimes when we look at this word perfect, we get nervous, we get a bit agitated sometimes.

Are you telling me that we can be perfect?

And he would not give us an unreasonable height to attain to.

He would not give us a standard that is unattainable by the grace of God.

Well, in these verses from verse 43 to 47, it's about what?

Pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you.

But when's the last time you blessed somebody that cursed at you?

Friends, when's the last time you did good to those that hated you?

When is the last time you prayed for those that were your persecutors?

Usually our prayers are, God, help me to withstand the persecution.

But it doesn't usually just stop there, does it?

We usually go to other people and say, I don't know why this person's persecuting me.

I don't know what I've done to deserve this.

It's so easy to start to gossip, isn't it?

But yet Jesus says, pray for your persecutors, those that are intentionally wanting to do you harm.

Let's turn the Bibles to Romans chapter 5 and we're starting there in verse 6.

Romans 5 verse 6 the Bible says, For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly For scarcely for a righteous man will 1 die, yet perventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

You know, friends, when we weren't even looking for Jesus, when we were out there in the world, when we were living in darkness and loving that darkness and doing the works of that darkness, Jesus came and He died for every single person.

Never mind just a righteous person, this is the ungodly person, that is you and me.

Luke 23 and verse 34, how did Jesus react to His enemies?

Luke 23, 34, the Bible says, Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Here we see Jesus praying for his enemies.

What did Jesus say about them though in this text?

It's almost as if Jesus is giving them an excuse.

If you don't know what you're doing, it's because you're ignorant of how to do it or what to do.

So Jesus, when he prays, forgive them for they know not what they do, it's almost as he's giving them an excuse as to why they're doing what they're doing.

Isn't that an interesting perspective to look at those that are persecuting you, even though it seems like they are doing it intentionally, you've got to look from that standpoint that the reason why they're doing it is because they don't know any better.

So look, if we do this, if we are able to pray for those that are persecuting us, if we are able to do good to them that hate you, if we do this, what does Jesus say we are?

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.

Friends, what is the characteristic of God's children?

What are the identifying marks or the fruits of the true Christian, 1 that follows God?

Whilst these are important things, that's not the fruit of the true Christian.

It's not they give their tithes and offerings.

It's not they wear shirt and suit and tie and everything to church.

It's not they have a certain type of diet.

The Bible here says that if you are able to love those that hate you, you are the children of your Father in heaven.

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Be Ye Therefore Perfect

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