The following sermon was delivered at the 2014 Pastors Conference held at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. The preacher is Pastor Robert Fisher from Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Mebane, North Carolina. I would like us to turn to some of the implications of the subject of love for the Christian minister. My hope has been that we would be so impressed with the largeness of importance which the New Testament attaches to love for the people of God and for the churches, we'd be so impressed that we'd go away realizing if we're supposed to be under shepherds of Christ, If we're supposed to represent Christ, and if this is so important to Christ, then we should make it really important to ourselves. If we are supposed to endeavor to present every man perfect in Christ, and if this is what it is to be like Christ, to love as Christ loved, then we as men for our own sake, but as elders and shepherds for the sake of our churches, we need to give special attention to what we should do regarding love. And there's very much more in the New Testament than we could begin to consider in this conference. And so what I'd like to do this morning is direct your mind in the first place just to an outline of directives which Paul gave to Timothy and Titus regarding love. And you realize there's so much more in the epistles that I'm just going to limit myself to what he specifically says to those two men regarding love. And then I would like us to consider some hindrances to love that by the grace of God we can overcome. Well, if you'll open your Bibles, please, to 1 Timothy. I'd like us to look together at some passages in 1 Timothy. The first directive that Paul gives to Timothy regarding love is that our goal in doctrinal controversy must include love. We may have several goals if we are required to go into some kind of doctrinal controversy. We may have several goals. But one of the goals should be love. Look at the passage, 1 Timothy 1, verse 3. I'm reading from the New King James Version. There are definitely better translations of some of these phrases, but I'm going to read to you from the New King James Version. Excuse me. Paul says, as I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus, that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine. nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes, rather than godly edification, which is in faith. Now the purpose of the commandment, it would be better translated, charge. Now the purpose of the charge is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith. You read on and it becomes obvious that there are some people in Ephesus who are teaching errors regarding the law. And Paul is saying that, when I went to Macedonia, I wanted you to remain in Ephesus. And he tells him what he wants Timothy to do. He wants him to charge these men who are teaching error. He wants him to charge them. He is to charge them that they teach no heterodoxy. He is to charge them that they not give heed to fables and endless genealogies. He is to charge them to not engage in disputes. And the purpose, he says to Timothy, the purpose of the charge. In verse 3, it's the verb prongelo. In verse 5, it's the noun from the same stem. I wanted you to charge those men. Now the purpose of that charge is love from a good conscience, from a pure heart and a good conscience and from sincere faith. Now what does that mean really? Is Paul saying to Timothy, when you get engaged in this doctrinal controversy, I want you to be sure that you engage yourself with love and with a good conscience? Is he saying, Timothy, I want this to be in you? I don't think so. I think he's saying to Timothy, I want you to go and stop this error. Go there and stop these men from teaching what they should not teach. And the goal is to bring them to love. The goal, the purpose of the charge is love. It wouldn't be satisfactory to Paul if he just got these men to shut up. It wouldn't be satisfactory to Paul if he simply got those men to have a right understanding of the law. The goal is not only to stop the teaching of error, the goal is not only to bring them to a right understanding, the goal is also to bring them to love. The end of the charge is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith. Now I don't want to say any more about this. Except to note the obvious. What would that do to us if we ever felt we had to contend for the faith with our brothers, not talking about now, but with men who profess to be the disciples of Jesus. And we think they're really teaching something that must be stopped. And we're right, of course, because we're right. So we think they must be stopped. Well, we must remember this, that part of the goal is love. Part of the goal is to create such a situation, to bring such motives to bear, to treat them in such a way that the effect is they become lovers. That they're not only corrected, but that they come to love. The second directive is in chapter four. I ask you to turn to chapter four. And that is simply that we who are ministers of Christ must be examples of love. First Timothy chapter 4 verse 12, let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Pastor Martin has opened up these verses on different occasions. always to tremendous help. And you can find some of those and go back and look at those, please. But for this moment, I just draw your attention to the obvious. That the minister, Timothy, is to be example of more than one thing, but he is to be an example in love. He's to conduct himself so that his words and his conduct display love. Now the Apostle Paul commended Timothy because Timothy had carefully followed Paul's example, and part of Paul's example, he says, was his example of love. And it would have been wonderful to be Timothy and to go around with Paul and to observe love, to observe Paul going to Thessalonica and really treating them like a mother, like a nursing mother treats her child, comforting and exhorting like a father treats his son, to hear him and to see him pleading with the affections of Christ and showing how he's willing to be loved more and to love more and more even he's loved less and less. Paul would have been a profound example while he's telling Timothy you must be an example. Sometimes at a pastor's conference, you'll hear remarks like this, that what would it be like if all the people at church were like you? It might be quite a mess. Well, the point is they're supposed to be like us. We're supposed to set an example in more than one thing. But the stress at the moment is we're supposed to be an example of love, a third. is that ministers must pursue love and increase in love. This very passage, we're told to be an example of these things. Then look in verse 13, till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all well now What are the these things and I may be wrong and this my assumption is it's all those things Give attention to being an example being a ten give attention to the doctrine give attention to yourself Give attention to all these things you're supposed to progress in these things and everybody's supposed to see your progress in these things Love, among other things, must be pursued. We're supposed to make progress in love. In chapter 6, verse 11, he directly says, but you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue, pursue something, righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. It's wonderful that God has made us love by virtue of our regeneration, but we're not to be satisfied with that initial love. We're supposed to be pursuing it, pursuing it, pursuing it. And you can just notice the outline, Paul, we should pursue love with Like-minded brethren, we should pursue love in the Spirit, and we should pursue love in Christ. We're supposed to pursue love with others. In 2 Timothy 2, Paul likens the church to a great house that has all kinds of good and bad vessels in it, and how we should separate from the bad vessels. And then he makes this statement, flee, this is in 2 Timothy 2, verse 22. flee also youthful lusts, pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. There's supposed to be a social element to this. Timothy was supposed to find some people in the church that he regarded as like-minded brothers who had the same goals as he did, and he was supposed to, with them, pursue these various graces and especially love. In 2 Timothy 1, verses 6 and 7, These are some of the passages that are worn out of my Bible. 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse 6 and 7 he says to Timothy therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying out of my hands for God has not given us a spirit and I understand that to be a capital spirit for God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind Timothy you must increase in love And you shouldn't be timid and backward because you should know that the Spirit that God has given us, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, is a Spirit that gives enablement, is a Spirit who gives love, is a Spirit who gives sound mind. Is this one of your favorite guides for prayer? That God, by His Spirit, would give enablement, that He would give love, that He would give a sound mind? It's one of my favorite directives in prayer. We're supposed to progress in love. We're supposed to pursue love with others. We're supposed to seek love through the ministry of the Spirit. And according to 2 Timothy 1.13 and 2.1, we're to find love in Christ. In 2 Timothy 1.13, he says that faith and love are in Christ Jesus. And in 2 Timothy 2.1 he says, Therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Faith and love are in Christ Jesus. Grace is in Christ Jesus. If we're supposed to grow in love, what do we do? We bond with people that can help us. look to the Spirit to generate love within us, and we realize that all these graces are in the Lord Jesus, and so we go to Him, and we ask, we tell Him that we want to abide in Him, and we want Him to abide in us, and we're committed to His word abiding in us, and we're gonna abide in His love, and would you please bear this fruit in my life. So we're supposed to pursue and increase in love. In the fourth place, we are to hold the truth in love. Second Timothy 1, 13 and 14, hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me in faith and love, which are in Christ Jesus. Paul didn't want Timothy to ever think that it was enough just to hold the truth. Now he exhorts him to hold the truth, guard the truth. That pattern of sound doctrine must not be careful to let it be diluted or to slip away. How are we supposed to hold it? Well, in faith. This precious, precious doctrine, we believe it. We hold it in faith. And he says, in love. He doesn't want some cold Timothy proclaiming, this is right, and that's right, and this is the truth, and that's error without love. Hold the truth in faith and in love. In the fifth place, he directs Timothy that, and we take it for ourselves, that we must conduct ourselves in love toward those who oppose. Again, in 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy 2, verse 22, we read a moment ago. We're supposed to flee youthful lusts with those who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart. We're to pursue virtue. Verse 23, we're to avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And the servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient. The servant of the Lord must pursue righteousness and faith and peace. The servant of the Lord must avoid foolish disputes. The servant of the Lord must not quarrel. And in the positive statement, the servant of the Lord must be gentle to all. Paul is telling Timothy that he must be like Paul. Remember the text that was opened up earlier, that Paul could say that he went to Thessalonica, we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. And Paul could also say to the Corinthians, now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. It might have been easy to be gentle with the Thessalonians. Probably wasn't easy to be gentle with the Corinthians, but he could plead that he was being gentle with them. Well, that's what Paul is calling us to hear in reference to those who oppose themselves or to oppose us. We must be gentle. Now, the word that in this version is simply translated patient is a compound Greek word that means basically, it means literally to be patient with evil. It's to be patient with evil. And perhaps it would be appropriate to say, be patient with evil men. But this is not a call to patience in the general sense. This is a call specifically to be patient with evil, or to be gentle, or to be patient with those who are evil. I think this is fifthly, I'm sorry, I actually have the letters and not the numbers. F. We must promote love as necessary to sound doctrine. And that, of course, is what Paul says in the book of Titus. In chapter 2 of Titus, verse 1, he tells Titus, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. There are things which are proper for sound doctrine. And he immediately goes to matters of ethics. Sound doctrine. There are things that are right for sound doctrine, that fit. And if you're going to preach the sound doctrine, you must preach the things that are fit for sound doctrine. Well, what are those things? Verse 2, that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience. That the older women likewise. And the older women are supposed to teach the younger women how to love their husbands and how to love their children. A society perhaps like ours, where young women really don't grow up knowing how to love. They can learn to love. Well, the point is that Paul is telling Titus, not only should you go and appoint elders, not only should you be sure that these elders are sound in doctrine and can convince the gainsayers, not only should you get the church right in terms of its leadership, but in general, to the church, Titus, you should be speaking the things that are appropriate, that fit sound doctrine and they're ethical. And where sound doctrine is properly presented, and where those things which are appropriate to sound doctrine are lovingly enforced, you have old men that love and are patient. You have women that love. You have young women who are learning to love. Now a whole lot more, but we're talking about love. Part of what's befitting to sound doctrine, which the minister must do, is to bring people in the church to love. Letter G is also, we must promote good works as expressions of love. In Titus chapter 2 and verse 7, Paul requires that Titus be an example of good works. That's interesting to me that he requires Timothy to be an example in certain things, and there's no difference here, but it's a different stress here. For Titus, he says, you must be an example of good works. Now the whole book of Titus, in one way or another, comes down to this, that the people in Crete must be given more and more to good works. Well, we've learned from 1 Corinthians 13, what are good works? If they're not expressions of love, they're nothing. So I don't think it's a stretch to say that when Paul tells Titus, you need to stir up the church there, keep reminding them, be committed to good works. It's not a stretch to say he's telling them, keep these people loving so that they do those things which we might call works which are pleasing to God. And if they're not done in love, he has taught in 1 Corinthians 13 that they're nothing at all. So this final point is simply that we who are ministers of the gospel, we must promote good works in the church as expressions of love. Now, this is a very crisp and almost cold outline. I meant simply to identify some of these things that Paul says. You go to the epistles and you'll find more things. Again, the simple point I'm trying to communicate is this is a large issue to Paul. That this young man Timothy, Timothy has no peer, Timothy is regarded very highly by the Apostle Paul, Timothy has a work to do in Ephesus. And a lot of that work is related to love. And we take these pastoral epistles as general directives to us, and we should take these directives for ourselves that we should be concerned about our conduct and our ministry in the church in terms of love. But I'd like to turn now to the next heading, and that is hindrances to love. which ministers must overcome. Certainly must overcome personally, but I'm really referring to must overcome in the context of our pastoral ministry. I listed three. I'm not going to take up the first one, the hindrance of indwelling sin. Maybe that's a no-brainer. But what I did want to emphasize, and I can say in just a couple of sentences, that love is to exist in the context of sin. We're supposed to put off all kinds of sinful patterns. We're supposed to put on virtue, and one of those virtues is love, of course. Of course, wicked things are to be eschewed, and virtue, including love, is to be developed, of course. It'd be great. but we never actually get that done properly where we put off everything that's wrong and we've got on everything that's right. These descriptions, the characteristics of love in 1 Corinthians 13 assume sin. They assume sin in the heart of the guy who's loving and they assume sin in the person that you are loving. You go through each of those characteristics and they assume somebody's sin, either my sin or the other guy's sin. And my simple point is that we can't act like we can only love when our brother has stopped sinning against us. Well, some people seem to act that way. Love is to exist in the context of sin. The grace of God has brought love into our lives, and it exists, and it may exist, and we must make it exist in the context of sin. But let me leave that. I'd like to talk about another hindrance to love, which I've simply entitled lack of forgiveness. Perhaps it should have been entitled inadequate forgiveness. But I'd like to talk about this. Love is to show itself in forgiveness. Lack of forgiveness is an obstacle that must be overcome if we're going to love each other properly. What is forgiveness? Well, technically forgiveness is to remit. It's like having somebody owes you something, there's a debt. To forgive is simply to cancel the debt. I don't hold you, I don't obligate you any longer to that debt. The word that is translated to forgive is also in the context of divorce. It's to cancel, it's to separate. What is it to forgive? It's to remit, it's to cancel the debt, it's to separate yourself from the debt. What is God's forgiveness? Now that's a big thing. God's forgiveness is part of a big package, isn't it? What's the package in which God's forgiveness comes to us? It's immense. He's loved us before the foundations of the world. He's chosen us in Christ. In love, He sent His Son. And His Son, in love, laid down His life and propitiated God. And He rose from the dead. He brings them into contact with Christ. And in that complex, He gives them faith. And He gives them the gift of repentance. and they turn. And then the whole scope of redemption accomplished is applied to them. They're sanctified, they're justified, they're glorified, they're adopted, they're reconciled, and in that package they're forgiven. Now we're supposed to forgive one another as God forgives us in Christ. What do you think? What of that package can we do? What of that package can we imitate? It seems to me that the only thing we can come close to imitating in that package is simply to remit. We can't give our brother the gift of repentance. We can't accomplish in his heart what God can accomplish. We can't effect ourselves reconciliation. We can work for it, long for it, and pray for it, but we don't have the ability to effect that like God does. We can say, I forgive you. which is not to say I'm reconciled to you. It's not to say that the, but I can say I forgive you. I can say that you have sinned against me and you owe me a debt, but I cancel it. I remit it. As far as I'm concerned, I'm going to walk away from this. Now I'd like us to look at passages that tell us that we are to forgive in response to repentance. And I hope that God will just grant us this wonderful grace to forgive people who repent to us. I'd like you to turn to Matthew chapter 18. Yes, please stay in Matthew chapter 18. I'm going to read to you from Luke chapter 17. In Luke chapter 17, verse 1, Jesus speaks to his disciples about stumbling, causing others to stumble. And he says it's a terrible thing to cause others to stumble. If your right hand or you cut it off, it's an awful thing to cause someone to stumble. And then he says, take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day and seven times in a day returns to you saying, I repent, you shall forgive him. Now that's a black and white situation. Your brother repents even if seven times in a day. The process starts at 12 o'clock and every couple hours he's coming to you and he's repenting. Forgive, forgive, forgive. In Matthew 18, you have a similar situation, but a larger context. Matthew 18, the beginning of the chapter, the material that Matthew has put together, begins with the disciples asking Jesus, who's the greatest in the kingdom? And Jesus' response is, unless you come up like a little child, you won't even get into the kingdom. Who's the greatest in the kingdom? You need humility or you won't even be in the kingdom. And then, like the Luke 17 passage at the beginning of verse 6, Jesus warns against offenses. It's a terrible thing. One of these little ones who believes in me. It's an awful thing to cause an offense to one of my little ones. It's better that your members be cast into hell than that you cause one of my little ones to stumble. And then he gives the parable of the lost sheep. And the point of the lost sheep is to say, I want to save those little ones. I want them to be saved. I don't want you to stumble them. And then he moves in verse 15 to dealing with a brother who sins. And again, appreciate the flow of this context. Humility, it's an awful thing to cause someone to stumble. Christ wants these little ones to carry on. But here's a sin. And you have this procedure which we all know about how to deal with sin, this three-step procedure. Please think about this passage before you apply it. This isn't the way that you deal with every sin. The sins envisioned here are so grave that if they're not repented of, the man has to be branded as a non-Christian and put out of the church. This is not about little personal problems. The sins envisioned here are that grave. Also, the sins envisioned here are so objective that you can bring two or three witnesses. This is not about little problems that people have with each other, really grave sins that are so objective that if necessary, you could bring witnesses. That's what this is about. Now, following that in verse 21, Peter comes to him and said, Lord, how often shall my brothers sin against me? And I forgive him up to seven times. And Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven. And then he tells this story about a man who has a great debt to his master and he begs for forgiveness and the master forgives him. And this man has fellow servants who beg him to forgive the small debt, and he won't forgive them. And then you have this statement at the end, verse 32, Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity upon you? And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers. And verse 35, you have Jesus Jesus comment about his own story. So my Heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespass. Now this is a very sobering passage, isn't it? What is the focus of the passage? You're all interpreters of the Bible, and I submit this interpretation to your judgment, but what is the focus of the passage? Well obviously there's to be forgiveness obviously if somebody repents obviously, but that's that lies on the surface of the passage does it not But I want you to appreciate the intentional exaggeration that Jesus makes not seven times 490 times If in a 24-hour period, if in a day, your brother sins against you 490 times, you know how frequent that is? Every three minutes. It's an intended exaggeration on the Lord's part, of course. But take the point. Every three minutes, the guy sins against you. He hardly does have time to make his confession, and you say, I forgive you, before he's done. Jesus is making an absurd point, isn't He? Why? I think the point is because we're not to be very thoughtful about the quality of his repentance. And you'd be pretty suspicious of somebody who sins against you seven times in a day, comes and says, I'm sorry. 490 times in a day, you'd think this is really, this guy doesn't even understand what it is to sin or to be, but I think that's the point. I don't think we're supposed to be putting big conditions on people. Somebody again and again and again and again, we better forgive. Because if we don't forgive, we will not be forgiven. So these are two passages that put forgiveness and repentance in the same context. Somebody repents, we have an obligation to remit. We have an obligation to say, you've sinned against me, I receive your repentance, I cancel the debt. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not gonna take any, I have nothing to require of you at all. But now I'd like us to consider passages that bring forgiveness. that require forgiveness without repentance. So here's your brother who sinned against you and he won't repent. What are you supposed to do? Well, of course, you're supposed to be forbearing. You're supposed to be patient. You're supposed to be gentle. Love does cover a multitude of sins. It's not that love might. Where there's love, love does cover a multitude of sins. So, of course, your brother won't repent. You're supposed to have all those characteristics toward him. But I think Jesus teaches that there's to be more than a long-suffering, forbearing spirit. I'd like us to look now at three passages where Jesus teaches about prayer. And the first, of course, is in Matthew 6. And I ask you to look there in Matthew 6. This prayer in Matthew 6, like all the parts of the Sermon on the Mount, should be taken should be taken in its context. Jesus begins with the Beatitudes. You read these qualities of the child of the kingdom. It's hard to imagine those people would ever fight if somebody was really characterized by all of the Beatitudes. After he gives the Beatitudes, Jesus says that he demands a greater righteousness than that of the scribes and the Pharisees. And he immediately turns to the law, which of course is the standard of righteousness, and he's enforcing this, that I require a greater righteousness than the scribes and Pharisees. And so he comes to the sixth commandment, and he says, you know what he says there? The Sixth Commandment is not satisfied if we abstain from murder. The Sixth Commandment requires that we not be angry, that we not be insulting. And then Jesus goes beyond that even and He says in verse 23, therefore if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Now this is a complicated, this is a complicated I mean, you may not have the power to be reconciled to your brother, but just appreciate the bare statement that if somebody, one of his disciples who has a greater righteousness than the scribes and the Pharisees tried to keep the sixth commandment, he goes to engage in worship and he realizes that somebody's got something against him. Okay, that's supposed to be addressed. There's no condition here. It's not that if he's sorry, if you know that he's got something against you, We're supposed to go to him. Then he moves on and he comes in several more verses to the requirement that we love our enemies. You know the passage. He does not put any condition on that. It's not when these wicked guys become nice and when they apologize to you. No, it's while they are your enemies. You love them. You pray for them. You do good for them while they are your enemies. In chapter 7, he will say that we should not be judgmental and we should not condemn. So there's an ethos here of what our attitudes to people who are pretty nasty to us, there's an ethos in the Sermon on the Mount as to what we're supposed to be like. But now look at the prayer, the Lord's Prayer, Matthew chapter 6. A lot of people have commented that there are these various petitions, but there's only one assertion in this prayer. We ask God for some things, but only one thing we're supposed to assert to God. One of the things we're supposed to ask, according to verse 12, forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And then Jesus reinforces that in verse 14, for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And so we're instructed to ask for this, and ask for this, and ask for this, and ask for the forgiveness of sins, and we're supposed to say, as we forgive those who are indebted to us. No qualification here. This instruction about prayer would not settle the matter for us, I suppose, but the two other times do. And so look at the two others. Look, please, at Luke chapter 11, verses 1 through 4. Luke chapter 11 verses 1 through 4. Now it came to pass as he was praying in a certain place when he ceased that one of his disciples said to him Lord teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. So he said to them when you pray say our Father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us day by day our daily bread forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us now that's a very comprehensive statement there's no condition it's not I forgive those who repent forgive me because I forgive everyone who is indebted to me The same idea is forcefully stated in Mark chapter 11, and so I ask you to turn to that passage, Mark chapter 11. In Mark chapter 11, verse 25, and whenever you stand praying, If you have anything against anyone, those are very broad, anything against anyone. If you have anything against anyone, forgive him that your father in heaven may also forgive you. Now each of these three instructions about prayer are asking us to be able to say something to God when we ask him to forgive us. And we're supposed to be able to do it whenever we pray. And we're supposed to be able to say it in reference to all people and all things. We're supposed to be able to say to God, please forgive me, because I forgive everyone who is indebted to me. That's very broad. If somebody repents, of course you forgive him. But these passages don't envision any condition. They don't envision repentance. they envision that you want to be forgiven yourself. And not motivated by anybody's repentance, motivated by your own desire to be forgiven, motivated by your need to have this humble spirit that forgives others quickly because you know how much you need to be forgiven. We just forgive. Now, it would take too much time, and I'm sorry that I'm taking so long on this, so let me just refer you to Luke chapter 6, verse 20 through 49. And in that place, you have kind of a redacted edition of the Sermon on the Mount. It has the same structure. It begins with Beatitudes, love your enemies. It ends with the guy in the storm. It's a similar sermon, of course, to the Sermon on the Mount. But a lot of things are stripped out of it. And what's left in the Luke account is almost all in terms of personal relationships. There's an extended section on how you're supposed to love our enemies, those guys who won't repent against you. And at the end of that extended section of how you're supposed to love your enemies, verse 37, we may not judge, we may not condemn, rather we must forgive. Now here, with enemies, love extends itself not only in prayer and doing good, but it extends itself to the extent of forgiving the enemy. And Jesus really appeals to self motive. We may not judge, we may not condemn, rather we must forgive, because if we forgive, we will be forgiven. If we give, it will be given to us. For with the same measure you measure, it will be measured back. We'll look at that passage in your leisure. I ask you to turn now to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four. Please plug this in to what we said earlier about love being one of the structural themes of Paul's view of the church. Ephesians chapter 4, you have verse 30. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you. What are we supposed to be like? We're not supposed to have any of those sins of verse 31. Rather, kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving one another. The word that's translated forgiving there is from the verb charizomai, charas, charizomai. It's a verb that stresses freeness. We're supposed to forgive freely. It's a word that stresses something that's undeserved and unmerited. So here we are in the church and we're putting aside, we're doing the best we can to put aside all bitterness and everything else. And we're supposed to be putting on kindness and tenderness and free forgiveness. It's the same word, and I think with the same idea, that Paul expresses in Romans 8 and verse 32. For he did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall I not with him freely give us all things? It's the same idea here. We're supposed to be freely forgiving, unearned forgiveness, no condition. Turn to Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2. Verse 12, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you are also called in one body, and be thankful. This is a wonderful passage. We need to really think about this passage. In the context of the church, where there are going to be sins and problems, we're supposed to put on all these graces. And one of the things that we're supposed to do is not simply to bear with one another, but to forgive each other. Remit, cancel, where we don't hold somebody obligated to the sin that they've committed against us. This is a part of love and Paul says that this is the big thing above all things put on love. You've been called to peace, he says. Well, a lot of situations there's no peace because there's no forgiveness. But in this case, love is supposed to show itself in forgiveness and it's that love which is gentle and forbearing and forgiving that is the bond of perfectness. Well, there are several motives given for forgiving in these passages. We are, in some cases, to forgive because our brother repents. Yes, even if it seems ridiculous. Even if he just keeps repenting and repenting and there's no sign of change. Yes, if he repents, we forgive him. Another motive is in all cases we forgive because we desire to be forgiven. And three, in all cases, we forgive because we love. And love must be displayed in forbearance and in covering and in keeping no records and in canceling the debt. Now, there are a lot of complications that come to mind in this. And so let me just, in a couple of sentences, give some qualifications. Personal forgiveness does not cancel justice. Personal forgiveness does not cancel justice. My brother sins against me. I'm obligated to forgive him. So I say to him, brother, you've really grieved me. You've sinned against me. But the Lord requires me to forgive you. So this debt you owe me is gone. I cancel it. I forgive you. But perhaps this guy has committed some sins where he should be censured by the church. My personal forgiveness does not cancel out that justice. Perhaps he's committed some kind of crimes where the state has to execute its It's authority to punish. Well, my saying, I don't hold you accountable to me, doesn't mean that guy's not accountable to the state. So personal forgiveness does not cancel justice. And personal forgiveness does not equal reconciliation, which is, of course, what we want. We don't have the power to effect that. So we can say to somebody who is obstinate, who won't recognize his sin, brother, you owe me a debt you so sinned against, but I cancel it. Christ requires me to cancel it. I want to pray tonight and I want to be able to say as I have forgiven so and so Lord, please forgive me. Well, you do that, you step back, you're no longer holding him accountable. He's obstinate perhaps. Your forgiveness is not reconciliation. Personal forgiveness does not necessarily restore trust. You know that old saying that forgiveness can be given, but trust must be earned. You might have a situation where there's a woman whose husband has grievously sinned against her and they've had to be divorced, and she can say, I forgive you in the sense of this great debt that you owe me, I cancel it, but I don't trust you, I don't want to see you again, I don't want to be around you. Well, personal forgiveness does not cancel out those realities. And the fourth qualification is that personal forgiveness, like love itself, will not be perfect in our hearts. Love will not be perfect in our hearts. The forgiveness that love brings us to will not be perfect in our hearts. And so we're going to have to be in situations where it's so hard to love this enemy, But the Lord wants us to, so we accept the difficulty. And we'll be in situations where it's so hard, it seems so unjust, it seems so inappropriate to not hold this guy's feet to the fire. Well, like love, we won't be perfect in love, and we won't be perfect in forgiveness, but if that's what the Lord requires, then that's what we must do. I said at the beginning that love, the requirements of love, brings us to many tensions. And so if we're to love, if we're to remit, then we must again and again pray that our love would abound more and more in knowledge and discernment that we would know what to do. The third hindrance to love is unnecessary divisions. I'm not talking about necessarily church splits, I mean that would, I guess, would have its own place. I'm just talking about unnecessary divisions between brethren. There are necessary divisions, of course. There are necessary divisions when the gospel is at stake and somebody's a heretic, we're supposed to mark them and get away from them. There are situations of necessary separation, at least, where you have a brother who won't work, you're supposed to not have fellowship with him. So there are some necessary situations where we're required to be separated. But I'm not referring to them. I'm referring to unnecessary divisions. As I was preparing for this, I was trying to read the New Testament several times and just trying to focus on those passages that had to do with love and forgiveness and peace. I just felt overwhelmed at the material in the New Testament which identifies unnecessary division. This is overwhelming. You know, back when the Lord institutes the Lord's Supper, the disciples are striving with who's the greatest. In Acts chapter 6, you have people striving about who's getting proper care for the widows. You have Paul and Barnabas falling into a sharp contention regarding John Mark. You have Peter in Antioch conducting himself away that stirs division between the believing Jews and the believing Gentiles. Almost every letter that's addressed to a church at some point deals with unnecessary divisions in that church. Romans in the Church in Rome chapter 14, you're no longer walking in love. The strong and the weak are contending with each other and they're not doing what there's a there's a tension in that church unnecessarily. The church in Corinth All these things that were splitting up the church in Corinth. The first one of those things that's mentioned is the party spirit. I'm with Paul, I'm with Paul, I'm with Christ. These unnecessary divisions. He says, you're carnal. You're acting like mere men. The churches of Galatia. Paul's concerned lest they bite and devour one another. It's not only the heresy that is being brought to their congregation. There's this contention, biting and devouring one another that he's fearful about. The church in Ephesus. The church in Ephesus, it's not like there's a radical division marked out in the church of Ephesus. But you read the letters to Timothy, 1 and 2 Timothy, you begin to get the sense there are problems, unnecessary divisions in Ephesus. Philippi, a bright letter that Paul writes to the Philippian churches. What does it say? If there's any compassion, if there's any love, be of one mind. Because there were contentions in that church. Crete. Church in Crete there were men who are causing divisions and Paul says those have elders that can deal with those men and there are some after the first and second admonition have to be identified as heretics and put out there's trouble in the church in Crete the church in Colossae there were people there who might try to deceive them with persuasive words And the Christians in Colossae were to be concerned about their besetting sins and lay them down and put on virtues that they might live together in peace. The church in Thessalonica, Paul doesn't identify any problem in any division in Thessalonica. There's that brother that has to be identified. But what does he say? I'm not satisfied with your love. It's great. It's wonderful the way you love each other. I want you to love each other more and more and more. The churches that Peter wrote to, 1 Peter chapter three, he's concerned about their divisions. The churches that James wrote to, the church that Jude wrote to again and again and again. There's a record of unnecessary divisions. Well, let me bring this Kind of a crashing way to a conclusion. We, of course, should see divisions that touch us or that we participate in as having a long and infamous history. But that shouldn't allow us to say, well, that's just the way it is, and that's the way it's going to be, and what can we do? And no, no, no. We need to see the seriousness and the danger of these unnecessary divisions. You can go to some of the passages that I listed. What's it like when people stop walking in love toward one another? What's it like when people start biting and devouring one another? It's very serious, these dangers. There's very serious danger to these unnecessary divisions. What should our response be? What should our resolutions be in the light of these ongoing divisions? What solutions do we have? Well, I am not wise enough to recommend solutions to all of our divisions, all the divisions that exist in the Christian world. But there are some general themes which run through the New Testament discussions of division that we should notice. One is that unnecessary divisions are caused either by sin or by Satan. They're not caused by virtue. Unnecessary divisions are not because we're so valiant for what's good. Unnecessary divisions, even if they focus around truth, unnecessary divisions are either from Satan or from sin. 1 Corinthians 1.3. These separations, you're still carnal, you're acting like mere men, this is from sin. The Galatians problem about biting and devouring one another, it's because they're walking in the flesh and not walking in the spirit. James identifies those who are sowing division among them as earthly, sensual, and demonic. We mustn't be mistaken, we mustn't allow ourselves to think unnecessary divisions can somehow be seen as virtuous. A second thing that we should hinder is that many unnecessary divisions are simply a failure to love properly. We can give all kinds of complicated stories, and this happened, and this happened, and on and on, and it's very complicated and hard to ever hear the whole story. But in fact, many unnecessary, we're talking about unnecessary divisions, are simply a failure to love. And again, you can look at the text. Another response that we should have is to realize that many unnecessary divisions are due simply to inadequate effort. I think that's surely the obvious point, and it's not an implication, it's the obvious statement of Ephesians chapter four, verses one through six. were to walk in a manner that's worthy of our calling. And remember what the calling is in the flow of Ephesus? It's not just calling to individuals becoming Christian. It's individuals being called into Christ and called into this great body. And in this great, this is their calling to be one body together. And in the light of that, with all lowliness and gentleness and long-suffering and bearing, they're to endeavor, they're to strive, they're to energetically force themselves to pursue the maintenance of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. You have the same idea in the passage that we read from Colossians. We're supposed to have this awareness that there's nothing more important than putting on love. And I fear that a lot of people don't see that as the primary thing, so there's inadequate effort to bring love to bear upon the whole situation. In Romans chapter 12, you have these series of isolated statements about love, let love be without hypocrisy, be kindly affection to one another and brotherly love, be in the same mind toward one another, so forth. And then you have verse 18, if it is possible, as much as depends upon you, live peaceably with all men. Well, I fear that sometimes we haven't really done enough, that we haven't done everything that's possible. Maybe we haven't been willing to talk. Maybe we haven't been willing to forgive. Maybe we haven't been willing just to step back and say, I remit it. It's never going to be solved, so I just forgive you. Are we really doing everything that we can do to promote peace? Are we really loving in the way that these texts require us to love? And just a fourth thing to note. And that's what I was just saying, that we must freshly rededicate ourselves to freely loving each other. And I'm not really just referring to us. I think we really do love each other. But we must rededicate ourselves in our churches, in our extended circles. We must dedicate ourselves to freshly loving each other as Christ has loved us. We must not allow anyone to think these unnecessary divisions are acceptable. We must all give more diligence. We must all increase in love. We must be determined that we will not disgrace the gospel and we will not create stumbling blocks for God's dear children. And we will not disappoint the Lord himself with unnecessary divisions. Now in Paul's letters, he's always giving us hope. He's always giving us hope. And one of the most wonderful passages to me is that one addressed to Timothy, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Love is in Christ Jesus. We can go to Christ. Please strengthen me by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Please give me the grace to love my enemy. Please give me the grace to love that brother who will not be reconciled to me. Lord Jesus, you have loved, you have loved enemies, you have forgiven when people, you please give me grace and the Lord will give us grace. And I think that surely in the good will of God, in the kindness of Christ being our head, that the elders of this church have chosen this subject because of a desire that we have more and more unity, which is characterized by love and by truth. Let us seek it and surely the Lord will give it to us. Let us pray. Our Father, we acknowledge to you how imperfect our understanding of the Scriptures is, and we ask, please, that in the light of these many texts that we've looked at this morning and throughout the week, that you would help us to ponder them and think them through, that you would help us, that you would impress upon us The things that are true from these passages and from these sermons and that you would help us to lay aside anything that is not according to the scriptures. Surely it is according to your word that we should love each other as the Lord has loved us. We want that. And in this room, you have given it to us. And we are so very grateful, so very grateful for the large bonds of affection that you have established between us in this room. Thanks be to you. You have delivered us from what we would have been, and we thank you. And we pray that you would help us to be more faithful examples of love in the churches. We pray that you would help us to be more successful in promoting love in the congregations. We pray that unnecessary divisions would be removed. We pray that you would help us at every point of our need. Thank you. Thank you for your love to us. Thank you for this conference. Thank you for every truth to which you've exposed us. We love you and bless you and thank you. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.