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Please remain standing, if you
would, for the reading of God's Word. You turn to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6, and we take
up the reading at verse 43, and we'll read to verse 48. Matthew 6, verse
43 to 48. This is the life-giving word
of our living God. Let us give attention to it.
You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor
and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies,
bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and
pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that
you may be sons of your Father in heaven, For He makes His Son
rise on the evil and on the good. He sends rain on the just and
the unjust. For if you love those who love
you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors
do the same? And if you greet your brethren
only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors
do so? Therefore you shall be perfect,
just as your Father in heaven is perfect. The grass withers,
and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord endures forever.
In God's people say. Amen. Please be seated. To love as a Christian is to
love in a way that is not of this world. Indeed, the exhortation
of our Savior here in our passage this morning is a radical exhortation. You see, just prior to the words
that we read just now, Jesus tells us in a previous passage
that we're not to resist the evil person, and that we're not
to retaliate, and that we're not to take revenge. And that's
a tall order, no doubt. But then, in our passage here
this morning, he exhorts us with a command that goes even further,
even further by telling us that we're to actually love our enemies. That we're to love and to pray
for those who hate us, for those who spitefully use us, even for
those who persecute us. Indeed, what a way to reassure
us that the kingdom of heaven is not of this world. And what
a way also then for us to witness to others that we are not of
this world, that instead we are citizens of a kingdom not of
this world, citizens of the kingdom of heaven and sons and daughters
of our Father in heaven. Well, as we begin, let's consider
first what it was that was being taught by the scribes and the
Pharisees. And then we'll move on to consider
how Jesus corrects their wrong teaching and their wrong understanding
and application. As Jesus begins to tell us here
in verse 43, Jesus says, you have heard that it was said,
you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Now, the
first part of what was said and what was being taught is pretty
straightforward, right? The scriptures are clear, very
clear, as it concerns our duty to love our neighbor. This is
the second of the two great commandments. You are to love the Lord your
God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and you are
to love your neighbor as yourself. Well, the Jews of that day, and
the Jews even still today, would give a hearty amen to that. They
understand that this is what is required of us. But where
they appear to have been mistaken was first of all in understanding
who their neighbor actually was. You see, they considered their
neighbor to be limited to their fellow Jews. In fact, this misunderstanding
of theirs is something that Jesus brought to light when he told
the parable of the Good Samaritan in order to show that all people
are our neighbors and we're to be neighborly to everybody without
exception. But they didn't just have a wrong
understanding of who their neighbor was and of their duty to love
all men without distinction. They were also in error when
it came to how they were to treat their enemies. They taught, even
as Jesus tells us here what they taught, that they were to love
their neighbor and hate their enemy, which was a gross misunderstanding
of what the scriptures teach. And so let's consider then how
Jesus corrects the teaching and the misapplication of the scribes
and the Pharisees. Look at verse 44. Jesus says,
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do
good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully
use you and persecute you. Again, radical exhortation. You
notice though that Jesus doesn't simply tell us here that we're
merely to just have a sentimental love in our hearts toward our
enemies. Rather, he tells us that we are
to love them and that we are to show that we love them by
our good deeds. Okay? By our good deeds. We're
to love our enemies by doing them good. For instance, if we
see an enemy in need, and in need of our help, and we have
the ability to help them, we ought to help. It's a loving
thing to do. And when our enemies say hateful
things to us, when they curse us with their tongues, we're
not to respond in kind, but instead we're to seek to bless them.
We're to respond with a soft word, with the hope that it might
turn away their wrath. We're to look for a way to bless
them with kindness, with the hope that even as the kindness
of the Lord leads us to repentance, so the Lord's kindness through
us might lead them to repentance as well. But we're also told
by our Savior to pray for them. And this, my friends, is a profound
piece of instruction that the Lord gives to us here. You recall
that Jesus prayed for His enemies. He did so upon the cross. Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do. This was also the
way of Stephen, our fellow disciple in the Lord. Following the example
of our Savior, he also prayed for his enemies. He prayed for
those who were stoning him to death. Indeed, our Lord would
have us to pray for our enemies. And as you do, you'll discover
that even in praying for our enemies, there's a mercy of God
that's actually directed toward us in praying for our enemies.
Because as you do that, our hearts become softer toward them. And
as that happens, it becomes easier and easier by the grace of God
to not hold a grudge in our hearts, to not have bitterness in our
hearts toward them. You see it's difficult to genuinely pray for
the Lord's blessing upon your enemies and at the same time
to remain hateful and vengeful and bitter towards them. The
Lord has a way then of using prayer even to minister to us
as we are praying for our own enemies. Now let's spend just
a few moments here considering the reason why it is we are to
love our enemies in these practical ways. The reason we are to love
our enemies in these ways is because this is to be like our
Father in heaven. It's to be like our Father in
heaven. In the next section, we will
see that what we are to believe, like our catechism tells us,
what we are to believe concerning God and then what duties God
requires of us in light of that. And you'll notice then how after
this exhortation, Jesus immediately tells us that this is to be like
our Father in heaven who also loves his enemies in practical
ways by giving them practical blessings. Look at verses 44
to 48. Verse 44, but I say to you, love
your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who
hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute
you. Verse 45, that you may be sons
of your Father in heaven. You see, this is what it's like
to be like our Father in heaven in doing this. And then comes
the practical blessings from the Lord, for He is the one who
makes His Son rise on the evil and on the good, and He sends
rain on the just and on the unjust. In the practical account, excuse
me, the parallel account found in Luke chapter six, just after
Jesus says essentially the same thing as we have here in our
text this morning, right after that in verses 35 and 36, Jesus
says, but love your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for
nothing in return, and your reward will be great. And then he goes
on to say, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind
to the unthankful and the evil. And so therefore, Jesus says,
be merciful just as your father also is merciful. Now again,
listen folks, the reason we are to love our enemies and the reason
we are to do good to them is because this is what it's like
to be like our father in heaven. You see, even God loves his enemies. Now in a reformed standard, you
might say, whoa, whoa, what are you saying? What are you saying?
But he does. He does. I mean, otherwise we
can't make good sense of what we're being told to do in Matthew
5 and in Luke 6. And not only that, let's not
forget what we know about our Lord in relation to us. Remember
what Paul says back in Romans 5, 8, that God demonstrates his
own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us. Verse 10, for if we, when we
were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his
son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Now, some, surely you've heard this. Some will say, though,
that the reason that God loved us, well, is because we're elect. It's because we're elect. But
my friends, that doesn't take anything away from the fact that
He loved us even when we were still sinners. In fact, it was
even while we were yet His very enemies, it was while we were
still in a state of hatred toward Him that He loved us. But more
than that, by looking to God's love, we see it in the way in
which He lived His life as the God-man as He walked upon the
earth. It's easy to see by looking at
Christ and His ministry that He did also, He also loved His
enemies. And we must remember that Jesus
is both God and man. We cannot divide the person of
Christ. To do so is heretical. And we
know that as it concerns Christ's humanity, He was born under the
law. And we know that in order to
fully redeem us, Jesus had to perfectly obey the whole law.
And what does the whole law require, my friends? Well, to summarize,
it requires a love of God and love of neighbor, right? Isn't
that exactly what Jesus told the rich young ruler he had to
do to inherit eternal life? Indeed it is. And now, let me
ask a question to you. Did Jesus only have to love his
neighbors who were elect? Some people might think so, and
they would tend to think so. Some don't believe that Jesus
could have loved any neighbor who was reprobate. But if Jesus
was required to fulfill the whole law, He had to love his enemies,
even as the law itself commands it to be done in Exodus 23 and
other portions of God's holy word. But think about this as
well. If Jesus did only love his elect
neighbors, then that would mean that the only reason you and
I are called to love all men is because of our ignorance as
to who is elect and who isn't. But is that the case? Is it the
case that the only reason we're called to love all men is because
we're ignorant of who the elect are? Well, no, not at all. That is not the case at all.
The fact of the matter is we are called to love our neighbor,
not on the basis of what we don't know, but instead on the basis
of what we do know. And what we do know is this,
our love is to be patterned after that of our father. That's why
we are to love our enemies. Look at verses 44 through 48
again. But I say to you, love your enemies.
He goes on to say, verse 45, that you may be sons of your
father in heaven. And therefore, because you're
sons and daughters of your father in heaven, you shall be perfect.
Even as your father in heaven is perfect. You see, we're to
love our neighbor. We're to even love our enemies.
Not because of what we don't know about them. Not because
of what we don't know about them as a people. But because of what
we do know about our father, okay? To love our neighbor, reprobate
and elect alike, friend and foe alike, is to be like our father
in heaven. It's to love as our father loves. You see, we're not being told
here to love our enemies because they might be elect. Rather,
we're being told to love our enemies, even as our Father in
heaven loves all people, the just and the unjust, the righteous
and the evil. Again, the parallel account in
Luke 6, verse 36, be merciful. That's it, be merciful as your
Father is merciful. In this world, my friends, God
shows love and mercy to all, the elect and the reprobate alike.
Folks, if it were the case that we're to love our enemies only
because we're ignorant of who the elect are, then that would
mean that we're to love those whom God doesn't love. And if
that's the case, then we have to wonder whether God requires
us to love on a larger scope than even He Himself does, and
that could hardly ever be the case. Could not be. My friends, in Ephesians 5, the
Apostle Paul tells us that we are to be imitators of God. We're
to love and to do good to our enemies because this is what
it's like to imitate our Father in heaven. And so consider, if
you would, then, how God does show goodness to all, and He
does so without distinction. We just sang from Psalm 145,
and in the ninth verse of that psalm, we're told that the Lord
is good to all, and that His tender mercies are over all His
works. And in the last part of that
same psalm, He goes on to say that the Lord provides food and
shelter and all the necessities for all of His creatures, and
He does so without distinction. James tells us in the first chapter
that every good gift that comes to us in this world comes to
us from our Father in heaven above. Well, let me ask you,
is food a gift? Food is a good gift. And we can
conclude that the reprobate and the elect alike have food on
their tables. And so what does that tell us about God's provision
for all? He gives food to the elect and the reprobate alike
out of His goodness, out of His kindness, out of His mercy. Consider
again what Jesus says in our text in verse 45, for he makes
the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and he sends rain
on the just and on the unjust. The goodness of God, even to
the reprobate, is a genuine goodness. You need to understand that because
some people say, well, it's not real. It's not really genuine.
He's just doing that because he's going to add more judgment
to them for them not being thankful for what God has given to them.
But that's not the case. That's not the case, my friends.
Listen, they believe, some believe, I should say, that these apparent
good gifts really aren't good at all because God doesn't do
or he doesn't give good things to anybody whom he doesn't love.
But again, when we look at the parallel passage in Luke 6 and
in verse 35, we are told that he is kind to the unthankful
and evil. He is kind to the unthankful
and the evil. What does their unthankfulness
reveal about the true nature of the gift? What does their unthankfulness
reveal about the true genuine nature of their gift? Does it
not imply that the gift truly is something good, something
that they ought to be truly thankful for? Indeed. You see, one of
the things the reprobate are condemned for in the end is their
unthankfulness. Paul tells us in Romans 121,
because although they knew God and they did not glorify him
as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts
and their foolish hearts were darkened. The reason one would
be guilty for being unthankful is because why? Well, because
they ought to be thankful. But notice the fact that they
don't recognize the goodness of God and not recognizing that
is something that is totally on them. It has nothing to do
with the genuineness of the gifts because they are genuine. Likewise,
in our interactions with our enemies, we are to love our enemies
regardless of how they receive or how they respond to our love. We don't, you see, we don't love
them or do good to them for what might come out of it. Rather,
we love them simply because it's the right thing to do. It's to
be like our Father in heaven. How radically different this
is to the way of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Instead
of seeking revenge, we're told to do good to our enemies, to
love our enemies, and to do so in practical ways. And then in
verse 46 of our passage, Jesus goes on to say, listen, for if
you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not
even the tax collectors do the same? And in the parallel passage,
in Luke, we read, And if you do good to those who do good
to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the
same. And then in our text, he goes on to say, If you greet
your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even
the tax collectors do so? You notice, Jesus mentions the
tax collectors. And in the Luke passage, he makes
reference to sinners. Why do you think both of these
groups are mentioned in this regard? Well, it's because, again,
the audience, the Jews, had a very low view of sinners and tax collectors. Those people were at the bottom
of the barrel as far as they were concerned. They were the
immoral ones, the sinners, the dogs of society. But notice how
Jesus uses the fact that even those who are counted as being
tax collectors and sinners, that even they are able to do good
to those who do good to them. And even they are able to love
those who love them at a superficial level. But you see, my friends,
as Christ's disciples, we're called to a higher calling. We're
to have a greater love than that. Jesus asks, what do you do more
than others? He asks the question because
He demands more from His children. He demands more for those who
bear His image and likeness. You see, we're not to love, or
we're not just to love those who are easy to love. to only
love those who will love us back. And we're not to love for the
sake of our own self-interest as so many other people do. No,
we are to love our enemies. We're to love the ones who won't
love us in return. We're to love the ones who spite
us and hate us. We're even to love those who
persecute us. Listen, folks, you won't find
that kind of love in this world. This is the kind of love that
can only truly and genuinely be shown and expressed by one
who's been born again from above, from one who has come to know
the love of God in a saving way. And may the Lord grant us the
grace to love in this very manner as we're commanded to do here.
I don't think we have time to take up the next verse, so I
think we should conclude here. Thank you for inviting me today. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
thank you for this opportunity to spend some time, brief as
it is, to give consideration to your love and to the love
that you've shown us. And then, therefore, that love
that we ought to have for one another and also even for our
own enemies. Oh, Lord God, this must require
and it does require a work of your wondrous grace in each of
our hearts left to ourselves. Father, we have no such love
in us. But indeed, having known your love and knowing it even
now, we know that you have granted us that grace to be able to do
the very thing you command us to do here. Oh, Lord God, you've
given the command. Now give what it is you command us to do, that
we might bring honor and glory to your name in this world and
be witnesses of our father in heaven. For we ask in Christ's
precious name. Amen. Oh, OK, 145C. Yeah, yeah.
Love as the Father Does
Series Chapel Sermon
| Sermon ID | 110242038306736 |
| Duration | 21:54 |
| Date | |
| Category | Chapel Service |
| Bible Text | Matthew 5:43-48 |
| Language | English |
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