Loving Your Enemies (Part 2)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. Michael E.

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Abendroth. Can't believe I'm 64 years old.

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Ouch. Most days I don't feel 64. After I have walked around for 20 minutes, had an entire

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French press. After a

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COVID pneumonia, I couldn't have coffee.

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Couldn't have gluten. Couldn't have cheese. Couldn't have dairy. And that was kind of rough.

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So now I appreciate that I can have coffee again in the French press. My wife doesn't like how

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I grind the coffee. It's got some burr or something she doesn't like.

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It's fine by me because my taste buds, and you older people will know this, my taste buds getting worse over time.

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They're not being heightened nor enlightened, but de -lightened, de -heightened, whatever that might be.

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I also am old enough that I'm receiving emails and things in the mail for signing up for Medicare.

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I was at AARP a long, long time ago. Now it's

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Medicare. Praise the Lord, my insurance will go down a little bit.

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You can write me, mike .nocompromiseradio .com. Two things in the works. A smaller version of The Cancer is not my shepherd book.

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My friend, Naum, has said something about that. So I'm working on that. Something maybe 30 pages, small booklet.

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You could just buy a bunch of them. And if you're at the cancer hospital, hand them out. I put little stacks places.

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That was all his idea. So I'm trying to work on that because it's basically minimizing slash editing.

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I don't have to write anything new. So that makes it nice. And the Law Gospel Primer, you might say primer, but it's really a primer.

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I'm working on that to a short little book on what Law Gospel means. And just a little primer, just like a little

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ABC Law Gospel thing, it would go hand in hand with the five -part series on American Gospel. Right now on American Gospel TV, AGTV, five -part series on Law Gospel, five -part series on assurance, five -part series on sanctification, and then like 16 -part series on suffering and cancer.

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So there you have it. And I think I'm working on one where I'm going to talk about teaching the

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Bible slash preaching. Today on No Compromise Radio Ministry, I want to talk again about loving your enemies, loving your enemies.

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And I'm doing this because it's in the Bible, A. B, I'm not good at it.

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And so I also need the encouragement and conviction. C, it's in Luke and I've been preaching through Luke.

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And so what I'd like to do today is Wednesday, excuse me, today's Thursday in NoCo time, real time rather.

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And see, I can't talk. And what's... What in the world is going on?

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And how long have you been on that medication? Thirteen months and another 11 to go.

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How about that? Wherever I go, I have all these pills. I have to walk around with pills. Some of them are like horse tablets.

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I get afraid that one's going to get stuck because that's happened to me before. I'm like, all right, here we go. I'm going to choke on this pill.

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Did you die of leukemia? No, not directly, but indirectly because of the pills that I had to swallow.

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C, we can complain about anything. Complaining about my cure, right? You're complaining about the cure,

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Mike. Not the band either. Love cats. That's for you,

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Christian Harris. Out of all the songs that they sang, I'm more of the first album,

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I think it was Boys Don't Cry. That was a much better album than some of the poppier stuff that was released later.

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I don't know about you, but I could probably listen to 80s music only, right? A lot of the newer stuff I don't really like so much.

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Jesus wants his disciples, well, he wants you as you go out and preach the gospel and minister to realize you're going to come across people that don't like you, that don't like the message.

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And when you get mistreated, when you are hated, when you get jailed, when you get persecuted, when you lose your job, your response should be, drum roll, should love the people because God loves his enemies and he loved you.

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He still loves you, but he loves you even when you were an enemy, Romans chapter 5.

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That's what Jesus is saying. It's hard enough to love our spouses and children because sometimes we don't have a good attitude and they're not lovable and or they're not lovable.

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It's hard to love friends because friends let you down or say things and there's rubs. It's hard to love people at church, so many different backgrounds, theological backgrounds, ethnic backgrounds, cultural backgrounds, political backgrounds, geographic backgrounds, put everybody together and the only thing you have in common is the

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Lord Jesus. There shouldn't be rubs, but there are. So, how do you love people at church?

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How do you love people in your neighborhood? How do you love your boss? How do you love people that just have a rub with them and the passage love your enemy?

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He says it twice in Luke 6. The reason behind it all is because God is kind and merciful and that if we're to love our enemies, then we should love everyone else at home, at work, at school, at church, and more.

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God is kind and merciful to his enemies. We have to be kind and merciful to our enemies.

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We have to be kind and merciful to Christ's enemies. Sound good? And I just was reading the other day in the

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George Swinnick book, George Swinnick, I think reprinted by Banner of Truth, five or six volumes for maybe a hundred bucks.

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I encourage you to get that. They've done a good job, Banner has, of some reprints.

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I think they just did Richard Sibbes, the sweet dropper, they called him because he preached so well. And then

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Swinnick. And Swinnick said this, grace is for the unworthy, mercy is for the needy.

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And of course, if you see unbelievers, if you see enemies of Jesus, if you see just family members, anyone as in need, then mercy says,

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I'm going to meet that need. So, that's what loving your enemy actually looks like.

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Jesus is talking to his disciples and we can learn the lesson as as we go out there and preach the gospel and run across people that are our enemies because they're

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Jesus's enemies. These are not your enemies because you're dumb. These are not your enemies because you're stupid.

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These are not my enemies because I did something sinful or just weird or dumb or illegal.

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These are people that because of the gospel and Jesus is so polarizing, as we said in the last show, there's going to be a reaction.

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And our response needs to be loving them because God loved us, being merciful to them because God was merciful to us, to be kind to them because God was kind to us.

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And if you realize how much God has loved you and does love you and will love you, then it's easier to love other people.

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And of course, in the scheme of theology, you could consider this guilt, grace, gratitude out of gratitude for God's great love.

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We love other people. You could consider this third use of the law. You're thankful that you're not under the first use of the law, love

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God and love your neighbor as a requirement for perfection to get into heaven because you're trusting in the

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Lord Jesus who loved God and loved neighbor and who paid for your lack of love to God and paid for your lack of love to neighbor.

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And we realize that this risen Savior now calls us to love. And we receive the law as the

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Merriman would say, through the hands of Christ. The hand of Christ gives you the law, not as judge, but as Savior, advocate, friend, and brother.

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So, we receive the law and we know when we receive the law from God, third use, that it guides us because it's good for us and good for the society, good for our neighbors, good for the church people, and it honors

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God. And so, that's why we obey. And so, of course, love is law. I mean, that would have been a good way to start the show.

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Is love law? Let's think about that. Is love law?

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Hmm? I'm waiting. Is love law? What does that have to do with anything?

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I have no idea. Well, it's a trick question. Because if it's where to love, if it's a imperative, if it's a command, if it's something to be obeyed, then that's law.

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Law says do. So, when God says, love God, love neighbor, do, do this and live, that's law.

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Love is law in that context. If I said law is describing

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God, God is love. Well, there's nothing do there. That's just something that God is.

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And that would be really good news that God is love. And so, God is love is not law.

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But when He tells us to love, that's law. Because otherwise, if we didn't love, it'd be lawlessness. But love is law.

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As I said, welcome to the show. Thanks for listening. Martyn Lloyd -Jones said,

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The secret of the early Christians, the early Protestants, Puritans, and Methodists, was that they were taught about the love of Christ, and they became filled with the knowledge of it.

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Once a man has the love of Christ in his heart, you need not train him to witness.

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He will do it. He will know the power, the constraint, the motive. Everything is already there.

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The man who knows the love of Christ in his heart can do more in one hour than the busy type of man can do in a century.

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God forbid that we should ever make of activity an end in itself. Let us realize that the motive must come first, and that the motive must ever be the love of Christ.

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So, since God loved you, dear Christian, you should be motivated to love other people, including enemies.

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If God did not spare His Son, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?

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And we realize that God has saved us. Did you know, dear Christian, that God has chosen you in eternity past, and that your salvation is sure, it's firm, it's fixed, it's irrevocable, it's unmovable?

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William A. Brackel said, Our salvation was in sure hands even before the world was, for God and Christ had engaged themselves by covenant to each other for us, the one to die, the other to accept it for us.

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I mean, isn't it so wonderful, Christian, you don't have to worry because your salvation's been earned by someone else.

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It's been merited by someone else. A. Brackel goes on to say,

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The elect need not merit salvation, nor add anything. For by this covenant, all the weighty conditions were laid upon Christ.

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Christ would bear your punishment. Christ would fulfill the law on your behalf. Christ would keep the law, and He would lead them, you, dear

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Christian, to salvation. I mean, can you imagine?

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Name written in the book of life, sins paid for, righteousness given, called, one day glorified, loving you with an everlasting love.

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And so, because we are loved, then we what? 1 John 4, 19.

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We love because He first what? Loved us. So, any conversation about love needs to be put in these categories, under these auspices, under this umbrella.

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If you have a hard time loving other people, and I do, sometimes I'm selfish.

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Sometimes I don't want to love. Sometimes I think I have to go out of my way for these people when, if they would have done it the way

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I thought they should have done it, I never would have had to do such and such, right? That happens. Kids are a little bit older.

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I want you to do this, that, and the other. They don't do it, and what they don't do causes me to have to do more things.

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If they just would have done what I told them, I would have never had to intervene or to clean up the proverbial mess or go take care of this, that, or the other, you know, get your oil changed every 5 ,000 miles with synthetic oil, and your car will run a long time.

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And then they don't, and then they can't afford a new car, and I have to chip in. You know, whatever the dumb illustration might be, you get my point.

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And it's the same thing in a local church. People have problems, and then you give them advice, which you think comes right out of the

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Bible, and it's good advice. It's wise advice, multitude of counselor's advice. Then they don't do it, and then as a

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Christian, you can't say, well, you didn't do what I told you to do, therefore I can't help you now. No, if you would have done what

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I've told you from the Bible, you would have gotten out of that proverbial pickle, but now you're still in it, and now you need more help, and now

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I need to help you again. And so, if I'm not careful, then I can have a bad attitude, a non -loving attitude, a selfish attitude.

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So, my point is this. When you think about loving other people, and you'd like to get better at it, and I would, you've got to understand

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God's love for you first, God's love within the triune Godhead, God's love for us, the

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Son's love for the Father, Spirit's love for the Son, et cetera. And if we were enemies of God and reconciled to Him by the death of His Son, then we ought to love other people.

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If you just think about God's love, kindness, and mercy toward you, how can you not then do what the

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Lord asks you to do, including loving enemies? God is the example.

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He loves enemies. We should love enemies as well. And so, Luke 6, 27,

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Jesus said, but I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

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He's been talking to His disciples. He's sending them out. They're going to get persecuted. He gives the four blessings for those that will listen.

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He gives the four woes. And now He says, but I say to you who hear, of course, the disciples who are going to go out, but also anybody else, love your enemies.

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And I think what He does here with these parallels, these four parallels, and by the way, Luke, here's a little inside scoop.

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Ready for inside scoop? I like inside scoop. Luke loves fours, four blessings, four woes.

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Here's four commands. And these two verses, verses 27 and 28, love, do good, bless, and pray.

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He loves fours. Luke loves fours. That's not true when it comes to fours.

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I say to you who hear, love, do good, bless, and pray for those who hate you, curse you, and abuse you, that is, your enemies.

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So, we see the context here. Sent out for gospel ministry because of the Son of Man right there in Luke 6, you're hated, despised, looked down upon.

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And ultimately, every one of these men, well, Judas dies for a different reason.

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He's killed. John in Patmos is exiled, and maybe he would have preferred death to that.

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But many of these men that he's talking to will die for the faith. So, what do you do when it comes to loving your enemies?

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You're supposed to love them. He commands you to love your enemies. And then he fleshes out what that love looks like.

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Do good, bless, and pray. Here, some say, and I think it's true, these are the first commands from Jesus in the gospel of Jesus according to Luke.

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Four commands. And you would call these similar commands.

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They'd be parallel commands. Literally, it would be a synonymous parallel -ism. Four things, love, do good, bless, pray.

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So, probably it's, how do you love? It's do good, bless, and pray.

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Now, before we even talk about this any further, you say, this is beyond me. I can't. I don't want to. I don't like it.

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I don't know if I ever could do that. So, this should tell you that while people can be nice to other people, even if they're not believers, that is, an unbeliever can be nice to somebody else.

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This is really something that's a supernatural work of God that Jesus is calling for. The fruit of the Spirit is what?

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Love. And so, this is not something you manufacture. This is something that you'd have to say, Lord, I don't want to love them.

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Everything in my being says no to loving them. I don't feel like I love them. I can't stand them.

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I know what you're commanding me, Lord. You've commanded me to love them. Would you please help me to love them?

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Spirit of God, please help me. That's how this works. Love. It's an attitude that Jesus is trying to help them with that's the opposite of vengeance, that it's the opposite of retribution.

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It's the opposite of what human nature affected by the fall, what our flesh affected by the fall might want to do.

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These people are enemies. There's a hostility and a hatred of Jesus that now finds itself directed toward us, deeply rooted.

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Love your enemies. Now, I can just imagine when Jesus starts, but I say to you here, love your, what do you think the people are going to be thinking?

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They're thinking it's going to be love your neighbors. And so, it's pretty shocking that he says, I want you to love your enemies.

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There's a very, very famous story of Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1500s,

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I believe. And if you wanted to become his friend, he was well -known, do something wrong to him because he would work hard to love you back and win you as a friend.

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That's what Jesus is basically talking about here. And of course, we are salt.

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We are light. We are going to expose sin and unbelief, and people are not going to like us.

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But we want to be like God and be kind and loving and merciful to our enemies.

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I read online of something that's the exact opposite of this. And it was a will that was written in the 1930s by a

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Mr. Donohoe. Here's what the will says. Unto my two daughters,

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Frances Marie and Denise Victoria, by reason of their unfilial attitude toward a doting father,

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I leave the sum of one dollar to each and a father's curse. May their lives be fraught with misery, unhappiness, and poignant sorrow.

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May their deaths be soon in a lingering, malignant, and torturous nature. Of a lingering, malignant, and torturous nature.

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May their souls rest in hell and suffer the torments of the condemned forever. And obviously,

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Jesus is talking about the opposite. And of course, we go from greater to lesser, from farther to closer, whichever way you want to measure that.

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Jesus is commanding his disciples. He's commanding you, dear believer, your disciple, means learner, to love your enemy.

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And one man wrote this that got me super convicted. Quite frankly, we will see that what

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Jesus requires his disciples to do for their enemies is more than what many are willing to do for their spouse.

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Luke 6 and Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount, also says this too.

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But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Because remember what he had said, you heard it said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

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I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Romans, Sanhedrin, Pharisees, and who knows who our enemies are.

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Well, I don't really feel like it. I'm not led to do that.

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Of course, a command. Don't have to think about that. We just do it. We don't have to feel. Another scholar said here, love is not simply praised but commanded.

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Right? You look at 1 Corinthians 13 and you see all the commendations of love and what it is.

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Well, here it's commanded. Love your enemy. Very famous writer said, the rule for all of us is perfectly simple.

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Do not waste your time bothering whether you love your neighbor, act as if you did. And if you do, you probably dislike him less, the author said.

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And of course, when you think about all this, you have to be thinking about the triune God. You think about the incarnate

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Jesus loving. Don't you?

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That's what I think. Loving your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

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That's right from Leviticus. And here we see Jesus say to love. And what do you do?

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How do you love? You bless those who curse you. You pray for those who abuse you. I mean, maybe you got to run so these people don't kill you for your faith.

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But as you're running, you could be praying for them. When you're safe, you could be praying for them. Prayer, prayer, prayer.

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I mean, many people have said, if you pray for your enemies, it softens your heart.

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It's hard to be so bitter against them. It's hard to hate them. It's hard to dredge up old memories about them and how they've mistreated you and how they've hurt you and insulted you and threatened you on the account of the

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Son of Man, Luke 6, 22. So, if you have an enemy, they're Christian, you're listening today.

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You have an enemy, an antagonistic boss that hates Christianity, pray for him.

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Not in precatory prayers, but that he might have his eyes open and that he might be saved.

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God is kind. God is merciful. What's his greatest need? Salvation.

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So, why don't you pray? He wants to harm you. You don't respond with the same kind of attitude.

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You say, what's best for him? God treated me when I was an enemy with kindness and love.

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And by the way, Jesus on the cross, what did he say about his enemies? When they came to the place called the skull, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.

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But Jesus was saying, Father, forgive them.

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That's a prayer for they do not know what they're doing. I think

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Stephen understood it. And they stoned Stephen. And as he was calling on God, saying,

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I mean, the stones are hitting him and he's praying, Lord, Jesus, receive my spirit.

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And he knelt down, cried with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin. And those are the last words out of his mouth.

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Sound like loving your enemy? Absolutely. One man said, why don't you get on your knees and pray for your enemies?

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It will help you in terms of your posture and your attitude of submission and desiring mercy for them.

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Prayer changes things. Probably does, right? Changes you.

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My name is Mike Ebendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. Loving your enemies.

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And if you can love your enemies, the other scriptures in the Bible are true as well.

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Loving your neighbor, loving your spouse, loving other people at the church that you're at. God gives you the power to do it by the

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Holy Spirit. You have a motivation to do that, guilt, grace, gratitude. It's time to start loving people.