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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.
Unity: Love and Truth: Importance of Love and Implications for the Ministry Part 2
Series Love and Truth
This series entitled Unity: Love and Truth was preached at the 2014 Pastors' Conference which was held at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville NJ
| Sermon ID | 1023141223146 |
| Duration | 1:00:16 |
| Date | |
| Category | Conference |
| Language | English |
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