1 00:00:00,502 --> 00:00:04,746 Let me give you an example. 2 00:00:04,746 --> 00:00:11,043 Some of you have read this and you're aware of it. 3 00:00:11,044 --> 00:00:19,978 This is Evangeline Booth, 4 00:00:19,978 --> 00:00:26,885 who was a daughter of William Booth, founder of Salvation Army. 5 00:00:26,885 --> 00:00:38,371 Evangeline Booth: "As one who ministered often to the dregs of society, 6 00:00:38,371 --> 00:00:42,513 she found herself one morning outside the large iron gates 7 00:00:42,513 --> 00:00:46,415 of a local police court and temporary prison. 8 00:00:46,415 --> 00:00:51,611 Waiting for the gates to open she heard the shuffling of heavy feet and loud, agitated voices. 9 00:00:51,611 --> 00:00:54,583 In her own words (and I'm quoting from her), 10 00:00:54,583 --> 00:00:59,558 she says, 'The gates opened wide, and I witnessed a sight 11 00:00:59,558 --> 00:01:03,460 which, if eternity could wash away from my mind, time never can. 12 00:01:03,460 --> 00:01:05,950 It was a woman. 13 00:01:05,958 --> 00:01:08,595 Two policemen walked in front and two behind. 14 00:01:08,595 --> 00:01:10,601 (Now the Salvation Army, in the early days, 15 00:01:10,602 --> 00:01:16,264 they reached out to the lowest of the low and they were full of life). 16 00:01:16,265 --> 00:01:19,322 Two policemen walked in front and two behind. 17 00:01:19,322 --> 00:01:23,476 One stalwart man firmly held the right arm and the other the left. 18 00:01:23,476 --> 00:01:29,855 (You got six guys escorting this woman out). 19 00:01:29,855 --> 00:01:33,532 Her hair was uncombed and matted and disheveled. 20 00:01:33,532 --> 00:01:36,364 Her right temple was blackened with bruises. 21 00:01:36,364 --> 00:01:40,477 Clots of dry blood stood upon her left temple. 22 00:01:40,477 --> 00:01:43,888 Her clothes were torn and bloodstained. 23 00:01:43,889 --> 00:01:46,928 She tried to wrench her arms from the grasp of the policemen. 24 00:01:46,928 --> 00:01:51,955 The very atmosphere of the morning was laden with her curses and oaths. 25 00:01:51,955 --> 00:01:58,157 She tossed her head wildly as the six policemen dragged her down the passageway. 26 00:01:58,157 --> 00:02:00,133 What could I do? 27 00:02:00,133 --> 00:02:04,324 One more moment and the golden opportunity to be of help would be gone. 28 00:02:04,324 --> 00:02:06,967 Could I offer a prayer? No, there was not time. 29 00:02:06,967 --> 00:02:09,350 Could I sing? It would be absurd. 30 00:02:09,350 --> 00:02:12,197 Could I give her money? She could not take it. 31 00:02:12,197 --> 00:02:16,786 Could I quote a verse of Scripture? She would not heed it. (P) 32 00:02:16,786 --> 00:02:22,917 "Whether it was a divine suggestion or not, I did not stop to think, 33 00:02:22,917 --> 00:02:27,675 but the impulse of a burning desire which filled my heart as she passed 34 00:02:27,675 --> 00:02:33,178 made me step forward and kiss her on the cheek. 35 00:02:33,178 --> 00:02:36,992 Whether the police were taken off their guard by my extraordinary action, 36 00:02:36,992 --> 00:02:39,887 relaxed their grasp, I do not know. 37 00:02:39,887 --> 00:02:44,276 But with one wrench she freed her arms and clasped her hands 38 00:02:44,276 --> 00:02:46,735 as the wind spread her matted, disheveled hair, 39 00:02:46,735 --> 00:02:52,427 and she looked toward the grey skies and said, 'My God.' 40 00:02:52,427 --> 00:02:57,627 She looked around wildly for a moment and then said, 'My God, who kissed me? 41 00:02:57,628 --> 00:03:00,032 My God, who kissed me? 42 00:03:00,032 --> 00:03:03,797 Nobody has kissed me since my mother died.' (P) 43 00:03:03,797 --> 00:03:08,340 "Lifting her tattered apron she buried her face in her hands 44 00:03:08,340 --> 00:03:13,793 and, like a little lamb, she was led to the vehicle which took her to prison. 45 00:03:13,793 --> 00:03:16,315 Later I went to the prison in the hope of seeing her, 46 00:03:16,315 --> 00:03:17,786 and at the door stood the warden. 47 00:03:17,786 --> 00:03:22,771 When I approached the warden, she said, 'We think her mind is gone. 48 00:03:22,771 --> 00:03:25,539 She does nothing but pace up and down her cell, 49 00:03:25,540 --> 00:03:31,408 asking me every time I go in if I know who kissed her.' 50 00:03:31,408 --> 00:03:37,199 'Would you let me go in and speak to her?' I asked, 51 00:03:37,199 --> 00:03:42,524 'I am her only and best friend.' 52 00:03:42,524 --> 00:03:44,317 The door was opened and I slipped in. 53 00:03:44,323 --> 00:03:47,290 Her face was clean. Her eyes were large and beautiful. 54 00:03:47,291 --> 00:03:50,034 And she said, 'Do you know who kissed me?' 55 00:03:50,034 --> 00:03:52,350 Then she told me her story. 56 00:03:52,350 --> 00:03:56,772 'When I was a little girl of seven years old, my widowed mother died. 57 00:03:56,772 --> 00:03:59,755 She died very poor, although she was of genteel birth. 58 00:03:59,755 --> 00:04:03,389 She died in a back basement in the dark. 59 00:04:03,389 --> 00:04:06,817 When she was dying she called me to her, took my little face in her hands, 60 00:04:06,817 --> 00:04:10,232 and kissed and said to me, 'My poor, little girl. 61 00:04:10,233 --> 00:04:11,724 My defenceless, little girl. 62 00:04:11,724 --> 00:04:13,573 O God, have pity on my little girl; 63 00:04:13,573 --> 00:04:16,692 and when I'm gone, protect her and take care of her.' 64 00:04:16,692 --> 00:04:22,958 From that day to this, nobody ever put a kiss upon my face until recently. 65 00:04:22,958 --> 00:04:25,211 Then again she asked me, 'Do you know who kissed me?' 66 00:04:25,212 --> 00:04:28,054 I said, 'It was I who kissed you.' (P) 67 00:04:28,054 --> 00:04:33,900 "Then I told her of Him whose life was so much more tender than mine could ever be, 68 00:04:33,900 --> 00:04:37,433 and how He went to the cross and bore our sins upon Himself 69 00:04:37,433 --> 00:04:39,298 and was wounded for our transgressions, 70 00:04:39,299 --> 00:04:43,635 that He might put the kiss of pardon upon our brow. 71 00:04:43,635 --> 00:04:47,187 In Him she found light, and joy, and comfort, 72 00:04:47,188 --> 00:04:50,768 and salvation, and healing, and love. 73 00:04:50,768 --> 00:04:52,982 Before she was released from the prison, 74 00:04:52,982 --> 00:04:58,300 the warden testified not only to the change in her life, but to its beauty. 75 00:04:58,301 --> 00:05:01,810 She was made, through Christ, the means of salvation 76 00:05:01,810 --> 00:05:05,819 to numbers of others who were down as low as she had been, 77 00:05:05,819 --> 00:05:12,232 and who were bound with fetters as heavy as those with which she herself had been bound." (P) 78 00:05:12,232 --> 00:05:13,562 Now what is that? 79 00:05:13,562 --> 00:05:18,521 What law are you going to say, "Kiss this woman now"? 80 00:05:18,521 --> 00:05:20,291 You see how different it is? 81 00:05:20,291 --> 00:05:25,585 The New Testament is not the idea God gave us a new list of laws. 82 00:05:25,585 --> 00:05:28,338 He didn't do that. He gave us the life of Christ, 83 00:05:28,338 --> 00:05:31,978 and He gave us some signposts saying, "Look fellows, this is radical. 84 00:05:31,979 --> 00:05:34,532 This is what it's going to look like." 85 00:05:34,532 --> 00:05:38,425 That's what He is doing in the Sermon on the Mount. 86 00:05:38,425 --> 00:05:43,684 And these things are things that God has given when we desperately need... 87 00:05:43,685 --> 00:05:46,943 How did she know to do that? 88 00:05:46,943 --> 00:05:51,055 She knew it because she loved people like that, 89 00:05:51,055 --> 00:05:54,092 and the Holy Spirit prompted her to do it right then; 90 00:05:54,093 --> 00:05:58,043 and she just did it, without thinking. 91 00:05:58,043 --> 00:06:01,887 That's what we need. That's what we're talking about. 92 00:06:01,887 --> 00:06:03,847 And beloved, I'm speaking for myself, 93 00:06:03,847 --> 00:06:09,395 we are so quick to become acting atheists and forget about the Lord Jesus, 94 00:06:09,395 --> 00:06:16,251 and read our Bible verses and do our thing, our Christian thing. 95 00:06:16,251 --> 00:06:23,567 But if you're full of Christ and full of love, it's totally different, isn't it? 96 00:06:23,568 --> 00:06:26,376 Totally different. And it's a living relationship. 97 00:06:26,377 --> 00:06:29,140 We have to be brought back to that over and over and over. 98 00:06:29,140 --> 00:06:31,764 It's not your list of rules. (P) 99 00:06:31,765 --> 00:06:40,297 Sometimes I go on trips overseas, come back, my wife's standing at the door, 100 00:06:40,297 --> 00:06:44,931 she's got a list: "Kiss husband. Hug husband." 101 00:06:44,931 --> 00:06:48,599 Do you realize how insulting that is? 102 00:06:48,599 --> 00:06:54,029 If you've got love in your heart you're going to do the right things. 103 00:06:54,029 --> 00:06:58,859 But a lot of times, that's the way we are treating the Lord. 104 00:06:58,860 --> 00:07:01,142 "I didn't do this, I didn't do this..." 105 00:07:01,143 --> 00:07:07,528 He's looking at something a lot bigger than that. (P) 106 00:07:09,559 --> 00:07:13,721 Now which of these things do you think will most convict of sin: 107 00:07:13,721 --> 00:07:18,970 the Law of Moses or the law of Christ? 108 00:07:18,970 --> 00:07:22,536 Here's an example - what I just read. 109 00:07:22,537 --> 00:07:23,799 I mean, it's convicting. 110 00:07:23,799 --> 00:07:26,408 I remember when I was a college student, 111 00:07:26,408 --> 00:07:32,663 I was staying with a family that was full of the Spirit of God. 112 00:07:32,663 --> 00:07:38,108 And there were always a lot of people coming there for meals, 113 00:07:38,108 --> 00:07:41,017 and the kitchen was just a beehive of activity - 114 00:07:41,018 --> 00:07:42,675 women fixing stuff and what have you. 115 00:07:42,675 --> 00:07:47,385 And one of the kids came in, right in the middle of all that, 116 00:07:47,385 --> 00:07:50,886 and had to get a glass of milk out of the refrigerator. 117 00:07:50,886 --> 00:07:53,953 You know, it's like he was already an annoyance. 118 00:07:53,953 --> 00:08:00,304 And then he opens the door up, and breaks the glass of milk all over the floor, 119 00:08:00,304 --> 00:08:04,513 right while they're preparing this big meal. 120 00:08:04,513 --> 00:08:07,419 And his mother turned around like this, 121 00:08:07,419 --> 00:08:12,465 she said, "Oh, Steven, I love you." 122 00:08:12,466 --> 00:08:14,790 She took his face in her hand. 123 00:08:14,791 --> 00:08:17,637 That did more to convict a self-centered college student. 124 00:08:17,637 --> 00:08:20,754 I mean, we were talking last night about college students. 125 00:08:20,754 --> 00:08:24,562 They'll come through your door, and they'll say, "Feed me, I'm yours. 126 00:08:24,562 --> 00:08:29,142 What can you do to serve me?" [Laughter]. 127 00:08:29,142 --> 00:08:35,734 But to see that, you see, that's much more than the "thou shalt nots". 128 00:08:35,734 --> 00:08:37,991 It's convicting. (P) 129 00:08:37,991 --> 00:08:42,169 Watchman Nee tells a story, there was a Christian there in China 130 00:08:42,169 --> 00:08:46,310 where they had these fields that they would paddle full of water - rice fields - 131 00:08:46,310 --> 00:08:50,381 they would paddle them full of water using a bicycle-like contraption 132 00:08:50,381 --> 00:08:53,387 that has a water wheel on it. 133 00:08:53,387 --> 00:08:59,121 And this man paddled and paddled, filled his field full of water. 134 00:08:59,122 --> 00:09:01,183 And the neighbor came in the night and opened the gate, 135 00:09:01,183 --> 00:09:05,571 and let the water out, and it ran down to the neighbor's field. 136 00:09:05,571 --> 00:09:08,812 So the Christian came the next day, he saw that; 137 00:09:08,813 --> 00:09:16,396 he closed the gate, didn't say anything, filled his field up again. 138 00:09:16,396 --> 00:09:18,625 Next night, same thing happened. 139 00:09:18,626 --> 00:09:22,307 And it was time for prayer meeting, he came in and said, 140 00:09:22,307 --> 00:09:24,337 "I haven't done anything against my neighbor, 141 00:09:24,337 --> 00:09:27,321 I haven't said anything hurtful to him or anything. 142 00:09:27,321 --> 00:09:33,955 But somehow I feel like this is just not measuring up to Christ." 143 00:09:33,955 --> 00:09:35,882 And they prayed about it. 144 00:09:35,882 --> 00:09:39,928 The next day he opened the gate and filled his neighbor's field first, 145 00:09:39,929 --> 00:09:42,364 then closed the gate and filled his field. 146 00:09:42,364 --> 00:09:47,146 The neighbor came to him, and he eventually became a Christian. 147 00:09:47,146 --> 00:09:53,283 He said, "What, What, What is this?" 148 00:09:53,283 --> 00:09:56,030 It's the law of Christ! (P) 149 00:09:56,030 --> 00:10:01,224 When Jesus said, "If they compel you to go one mile, go with them two," 150 00:10:01,224 --> 00:10:07,141 you know, the Romans had the right to compel you to carry their burden for one mile. 151 00:10:07,141 --> 00:10:08,846 So they yell at you and call you over there, 152 00:10:08,846 --> 00:10:10,333 you think, "Well, I'm doing pretty well. 153 00:10:10,334 --> 00:10:14,359 I'm not complaining, I'm not really angry, I didn't curse the guy, 154 00:10:14,366 --> 00:10:16,530 I'm not thinking bad things about him." 155 00:10:16,530 --> 00:10:19,931 None of that measures up, does it? 156 00:10:19,931 --> 00:10:22,878 So Jesus said, Go the second mile. 157 00:10:22,878 --> 00:10:27,977 It's during that second mile the guy is wondering, "What is different about this person?" 158 00:10:27,977 --> 00:10:33,918 I mean, he starts talking to you, and you have the opportunity to witness to him. 159 00:10:33,918 --> 00:10:35,982 It all sounds so good, doesn't it brethren, 160 00:10:35,983 --> 00:10:44,909 until you're carrying that burden the first half a mile [Laughter]. 161 00:10:44,909 --> 00:10:49,242 It's a lot easier to preach about it than it is to do it, 162 00:10:49,242 --> 00:10:55,888 because in reality it's sweaty and it's heavy, and your back is hurting. 163 00:10:55,888 --> 00:11:01,058 It's the same way with our spouses. It's the same way with our children. 164 00:11:01,058 --> 00:11:04,752 It's the same way in the body of Christ. 165 00:11:04,752 --> 00:11:08,205 There's nothing more costly than that. 166 00:11:08,205 --> 00:11:12,672 It's costly. 167 00:11:12,672 --> 00:11:19,830 But that's where it is. That's what we're talking about. (P) 168 00:11:21,400 --> 00:11:25,533 Another question comes up, How can you tell what real love is? 169 00:11:25,534 --> 00:11:30,292 Two college students living in sin, they say, "Well, we love one another." 170 00:11:30,292 --> 00:11:36,983 Jack Kevorkian, he loves his people so much he helps them commit suicide. 171 00:11:36,983 --> 00:11:41,759 Love is claimed to support abortion. 172 00:11:41,759 --> 00:11:47,329 So it sounds like Jesus left us a pretty flexible, mushy-type standard, doesn't it? 173 00:11:47,329 --> 00:11:49,874 But what did He say? He didn't say, "Love one another, " 174 00:11:49,874 --> 00:11:53,183 He said, "Love one another as I have loved you." 175 00:11:53,184 --> 00:11:57,776 In other words, all of His teaching, His holiness, His perfection, His life, 176 00:11:57,777 --> 00:12:03,030 everything about Him, His manner, all that, that's the standard. 177 00:12:03,030 --> 00:12:05,229 And that takes care of the problem. 178 00:12:05,230 --> 00:12:09,048 The conduct and life and person of the Lord Jesus Himself 179 00:12:09,048 --> 00:12:13,104 is the rule and duty of the Christian. 180 00:12:13,104 --> 00:12:16,478 We're called upon to be just as holy as He was.