Sermon
Loving The Unlovable
February 20-21, 1999
Pastor Donald Sheley

I am going to ask you to take your Bible and join with me in a portion of scripture that we have spent months; we'll be here a few more months. We're studying the Sermon on the Mount. The great sermon by our Christ and it's found in Matthew's gospel chapter 5, 6 and 7. But we're in Matthew chapter 5 verses 43 through 48. Here's what Jesus said, "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 sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on 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 subject this evening is love, and probably the greatest writings on the subject are by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. And I'm going to read this to you from the Amplified. Paul says, Love endures long and is patient and kind; love is never envious nor boils over with jealously, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. What a definition of love. 

In the year 1567 King Philip II of Spain appointed the Duke of Alva as the governor of a lower part of the nation of Spain, and the Duke was a bitter enemy of the newly emerging Protestant reformation. He did not want anything to injury his church and thus he detested the Protestants. His rule was called the reign of terror and his council was called the bloody council because it had ordered the slaughter of so many Bible believing Christians. It's reported that one man who was sentenced to die for his biblical faith managed to escape during the dead of winter, and as he was being pursued by one lone soldier, the man came to a lake whose ice was very thin and cracking. Somehow this fleeing Christian was able to get across the ice, but as soon as he reached the other side he heard his pursuing soldier crying out in fear and despair and screaming. The soldier had fallen through the ice and was about to drown; and at the risk of being captured, tortured, and eventually killed or being drowned himself the Christian went back across the lake and rescued his enemy because of the love of Christ constraining him. He knew he had no other choice if he was to be faithful to his Lord and to his Christian faith.

Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I'm going to tell you that that's wrong, and I'm going to tell you what love really is. When we study the gospels, each gospel focuses on a different aspect or character of the life of Christ. Matthew's concern and theme is to present Jesus Christ as the king. The king of the universe. The monarch of the earth. The king of Israel. The anointed of God. The messiah. That was his theme and Matthew is writing primarily to a Jewish audience because he wants them to realize that the very one they crucified was none other than the promised messiah of the prophets. They had said, we will not have this man to reign over us, and the very one they rejected was none other than the messiah that had been prophesied for centuries to come. 

So Matthew's goal in his gospel is to present the kingliness of Christ. Chapter 1 is a presentation of Christ's royal birth. He is adored and worshiped by the Magi of the east in chapter 2. In chapter 3 he presents Christ in His baptism as approved by God; and the voice from heaven said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." In chapter 4 Christ is presented as the victorious one over Satan, who then the reigning monarch of the earth, as Satan tried to tempt Him. And Jesus was very clear in His instructions to Satan, "You shall not tempt the Lord your God." "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve." The king's royal birth, worship, His baptism, His victory over Satan, and now we come to chapter 5, 6, and 7. And Matthew presents Christ as the king with a kingdom and that kingdom has standards for living, and we are learning that in these 3 chapters Jesus tells us how Christians ought to behave in our evil world. That's the meaning of the Sermon on the Mount. It's called the sermon; it's called the manifesto of the King. 

Already in our study in this great sermon, one thing is obvious, that Christ's standards for living or our standards for being Christian, are obviously a world of difference than the world in which we live. Jesus has already taken the issues. You remember we said that after He said in verse 20, unless you righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you'll never make it into heaven. And then Jesus selected six various issues of life. He took the issue of murder, and then He said if you even get angry, anger is just as sinful as murder itself. You remember then He took the subject of divorce and remarriage and then the subject of adultery, and then the subject of making false oaths. 

Last Lord's Day we talked about revenge and vengeance, and now Jesus is going to talk to us about love. You remember that He introduces these six different subjects with these words, 'You have heard that it was said'. And what He is simply saying is over the period of the centuries religious leaders of Judaism had developed their own concept or their standard of righteousness, and in most cases they had warped and twisted the teachings of almighty God which were given to Moses. And their teachings were a lie and Jesus has come to clarify their false teaching. He says, "But I say unto you". That's what they say, but I'm going to tell you what the real truth is. Verse 43, "You have heard that is was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' You shall love your neighbor. Now that all starts out good and then comes the perversion. You see, it's always that way with false teachers. They will get our attention by saying things that they know we believe in and then after they've caught our attention then they start interweaving their error. 

I have watched Christians who have been lead off into error. I remember a lovely lady and I remember her name as Laura about 30 years ago. And I watched Laura as she invited those with their record machine and their books to enter her home, and I said to Laura one day, I said, Laura, those are false teachers. And she said they're good because I believe much of what they're saying. But I said, Laura, when you really get to the depth of what they're going to teach you, it's heresy and it's a lie. She never listened to me and finally she was lead off into error. 

But false teachers always start with enough good and enough truth to catch our attention. And that's exactly what those false teachers did in Jesus' day. But they had two problems with their teaching. On this one they left out something and they added something. Here's what they left out, 'You shall love your neighbor', now that's in the scripture we're going to go to that. But you know what they left out? As yourself. And what they added, 'and hate your enemy.' They left out 'as yourself' because of pride and they added 'and hate your enemy' because of prejudice. You see they didn't want to love anybody as themselves.

The Jewish people in that day felt that they had all of truth and God, Jehovah God, the creator God, had uniquely selected them above every other nation of the world and they did not want to love anybody else because they thought they were the most lovable. And they deserved to be loved and out of their pride they weren't going to love your neighbor as yourself because they loved themselves too much to love anybody else. And they did not have any respect for anybody who was not of their religion nor of their race. They despised the gentiles and anybody that was not of the Jewish race was a gentile. They hated them with intense hatred. They believed that all of us as gentiles were created for one reason only and that was to add to the fires of hell. That's the only reason why the gentiles were created as far as they were concerned. 

They would have nothing to do with them. They wouldn't allow them to come into their house. They wouldn't feed them. They wouldn't help them if they were dying; and if a woman was giving birth and was in the possibilities of death, they would never, never assist in any way. Because that would just add one more fuel to the fires of hell, and so they said thou shall love thy neighbor but left out the important thing; as thyself. And they said hate thine enemy, but you see the Pharisees were already told, Jesus has said unless you've got a religion, unless you've got righteousness that exceeds these false leaders you'll never make it into heaven because they're not going to heaven. 

And Jesus said, made it clear, that you may not murder, but if you've got hatred you're just as sinful. You may not have committed adultery, but if you've got an impure and a vial mind that thinks in the gutter, you're just as sinful as the man who does it or the person who does it. You may have followed all of the regulations of divorce, and remember we learned in Jesus' day those false teachers said you can get a divorce for anything, just make sure you fill out the paperwork. That's what they said. Just make sure you do all the documentation, and as a result I suggested to you that in Jesus' day they possibly had far more divorces, far more broken homes than we have even in our day. 

And Jesus said that your concept of sin is manmade. It only has to do with traditions. So now, here's the question. What did the Old Testament teach about this whole subject of love? Why was it that those religious leaders were teaching what they were teaching? Is the teaching of the Old Testament different than the teachings of Christ on the subject of love? 

Now I want you to go with me to a number of verses and I'm going to show you what the Old Testament said about love. Go with me to Deuteronomy 22:1-4. What we're going to do, we're going to show you how much error those preachers were preaching in Jesus' day. What does the Old Testament really say about loving everybody? Deuteronomy 22:1-4 says, "You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray, and hide yourself from them. In other words, you won't ignore that straying animal. You shall certainly bring them back to your brother. "And if your brother is not near you, or if you do not know him. Maybe you're seeing this stray animal off in the fields and you don't know who it belongs to. Well what is your responsibility? Your responsibility is; then you shall bring it to your own house, and it shall remain with you until your brother seeks it; then you shall restore it to him. So if you found a straying animal as a godly person you would take that straying animal bring it to your house, feed it, take care of it until its owner came and said I lost one of my animals. Oh, I've got it here. We found it and we've cared for it. 

Verse 3; "You shall do the same with his donkey, and so shall you do with his garment; with any lost thing of your brother's, which he has lost and you have found, you shall do likewise; you must not ignore or hide yourself from that need. You must do something about it. Verse 4; "You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fall down along the road, and hide yourself from them; you shall surely help him lift them up again. In other words, maybe the animal has been overloaded and under its heavy burden it's fallen to the ground. You as a godly person under Old Testament law, you had the responsibility to help that man get his animal back on his feet. That's the way it was. You say well that says it to his brother. 

Just hold your finger there and go back to Exodus 23:4, and I'll show you God changes one word but the message is the same. Look at what He says in Exodus 23:4, "If you meet your enemy's ox. Ah, thank God I hope that ox runs away and the enemy never finds it. That's our natural reaction. No, He said if you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, what do you do? You shall surely bring it back to him again. You see the responsibility is equal to the brother as it is to the enemy. God simply says anybody in need he's your brother and your neighbor, and then He goes on to say, "If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it. You see the principle of kindness and helpfulness is the same for the brother as well as it is for the enemy. God makes that very, very clear. You may have enemies, but if you see them in need, you show kindness and you help them. 

Remember the little story where Jesus, when the lawyer asked Jesus who his neighbor was and Jesus told the story of the good Samaritan. Of the man who was making his way down to Jericho and he got caught by robbers and they beat him up and Jesus said, when they asked the question, you know who's my neighbor? Jesus said very, very clear; the person who has a need, that's your neighbor. 

Job talks about this whole subject. Go with me to Job 31:29-30. Let's see what Job has to say about it. Job was probably the oldest writing in the Bible. One of the most ancient of scripts, and here's what he says; "If. I'm in Job 31:29 and 30. "If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, Or lifted myself up when evil found him (Indeed I have not allowed my mouth to sin By asking for a curse on his soul). Job said I've never, I've never wished a curse. I've never wished ill on one who hates me. That would be a sin if I did that. 

Well let's see what David has to say. Go with me to Psalms 7:3-5, and it's Psalms 7:3-5. He says, O Lord my God, if I have done this; If there is iniquity in my hands, If I have repaid evil to him who was at peace with me, Or have plundered my enemy without cause, Let the enemy pursue me and overtake me; Yes, let him trample my life to the earth, And lay my honor in the dust. What is he saying? Lord if I have misused a friend or one who even hated me, I deserve Your judgment. And then he goes to Psalm 35, and it's Psalms 35:12-14. They reward me evil for good, To the sorrow of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, My clothing was sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting; And my prayer would return to my own heart. I paced about as though he were my friend or brother; I bowed down heavily, as one who mourns for his mother. 

And this is what he's saying, God, I know that those who have rewarded me with evil, I've done them good, but when I know their sick, I'm going to turn my clothes into sackcloth. What did he mean by that? When you were humbly praying, sincerely praying, for someone you took your clothes and you turned them into sackcloth. And what he said is, I fasted over them as if they were my friend as if they were my brother. I mourned over them as if they were my mother. David said, even when my enemy is sick I don't gloat over it dear God. I pray for him. 

Proverbs 17:5 says, He who mocks the poor reproaches his maker; He who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished. And Proverbs 25:21 says, If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; And the Lord will reward you. Look at folks, I can take you through hundreds of other verses, but the theme is always the same in the Old Testament. If someone is in need, even through he considers himself to be your enemy, you're godly duty is to reach out and help that person no matter who it is. 

Now let me show you an Old Testament story and you'll enjoy this one. Go with me to 1 Samuel 24. Here's the story of how you should treat your enemy. It's an interesting story. It's the story of Saul in hot pursuit for David. He hates David. He wants to kill him. And it says in verse 1, Now it happened, when Saul had returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, "Take note! David is in the Wilderness of En Gedi." We know where David is and so Saul took 3,000 crack troops. The very best soldiers in all of Israel. Three thousand of them. I mean, he's serious. Three thousand after one man and his very best. And he went to seek David and his men on the Rocks of the Wild Goats. So he came to the sheepfolds by the road, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to attend to his needs. 

You say what does that mean? He went to the bathroom. That's the Bible way of saying he took care of his physical needs. So he finds this cave and he goes into the bathroom. But something's interesting. Do you know who's in the bathroom? David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave. That's where they were hiding. And the men of David said, "this is the day which the Lord said to you, 'Behold I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you.'" David Saul is sitting here on the toilet. And I mean he's undefended. Now is the time to kill him. He'd kill you if he had his opportunity. 

Do you know what David does? Look at what he does. And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul's robe. Now that's getting close isn't it? I mean he quietly in the darkness found Saul's robe and cut off a little bit of it. And look at what he does. Now it happened afterward that David's heart was troubled because he had cut off Saul's robe. I mean he's even feeling guilt at taking off a little bit of his robe when he had every right to kill him. And he said to his men, "The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord." 

So David's restrained his servants with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul. I mean to get that close. And Saul has got three thousand men right outside that cave waiting to kill David. You've got an enemy and Saul was it. And David even felt bad because he'd cut off a little bit of his robe. You see even the stories of the Old Testament build on this truth. You do not do harm to one who hates you. So the Bible does not teach that you are to hate your enemies. It teaches the opposite. You are to do kindness and to be helpful. You say, just a minute Pastor, just a minute. Doesn't David pray that his enemies will be cursed by God? Now these are the prayers that sometimes really bother us as Christians. 

Go with me to Psalms 69:22-24. Yes, David prayed some really difficult prayers about his enemies, and let's read one. Psalm 69:22-24, and here's what he's saying. He's praying this against his enemies. Let their table become a snare before them, And their well-being a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see; And make their loins shake continually. Give them a disease that causes their body to shake. Pour out Your indignation upon them, And let Your wrathful anger take hold of them. You say that isn't very nice thoughts about enemies. But when you study the prayers of David that is called an imprecatory prayer. 

You see, such words did not represent David's personal vendetta, but his concern for God's holiness and His justice to be executed on those who despised the Lord's glorious name and persecuted the Lord's name. David's concern was for those who were against almighty God, who shamed Him, who were defiant against Him, and David's great concern was for the Lord's glory. You say is there a New Testament illustration? Yes. Remember when Jesus walked into the temple? And they've got that temple, they've got the bleating of the ox and the money changers, and He sees the house of God turned into a house of merchandise and a den of thieves. What does Jesus do? 

He puts together a whip and He whips them. He turns over the money. He chases them because the zeal of the Lord's house had eaten Him up. He had seen them shame the house of God and profane the sacred, and Jesus wasn't going to put up with it. And that was David's concern. He loved God almighty intensely, and when people brought shame to almighty God he waited for that day and prayed for God's judgment. There is such a thing as righteous indignation. It is right to get angry over sin and those who bring shame to the cause of Christ. I do. I want to say God, I'm sorry for You the way supposed godly people bring shame to Your wonderful name. God, I'm sorry over that. And that's what David is saying in his Old Testament way. God, I pray for that day when this misuse of Your glorious name will come to an end. But it never was the feelings because turn with me to another Psalm. 

Go with me to Psalm 139. Listen to this prayer. You catch the feeling now of how David prayed that prayer. Here's what he says, Psalms 139:17-24. Listen. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You. Wonderful words of praise, aren't they? God I'm just amazed how much You love me and how much You think of me. But look at his next words. Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God! Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men. For they speak against You wickedly; Your enemies take Your name in vain. Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies. What he's saying?

God I cherish Your glory and those who fight against You they are not my friends. Notice the next words. Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my thoughts or my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting. You know his heart is not filled with anger. God search me and if there's anything that displeases You, take it from me. So there is an anger that is justified against the enemies of God. But there is nowhere in the Bible where you are taught to hate your enemies. And most likely what had happened, those religious leaders had gone back to the prayers of David and they said, look at, David prayed against his enemies so that justifies we are to love our neighbors and, if David prayed against his enemies, then you are to hate your enemies. And that's possibly where they started their lie.

Jesus said in verse 11 and 12 of chapter 5, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Now we're going to close the study because Jesus, what He does, He lists five things. Five principles to correct faulty love and the false religious teachers of His day. I'll list them for you. Number one; love your enemies. Number two; pray for your persecutors. Number three; manifest your sonship. Number four; exceed your fellow man. Number five; imitate your God. Let's quickly go through them. 

The scribes and the Pharisees were proud, prejudice, judgmental, spiteful, hateful, and they presented themselves as the custodians of religion for a Jewish nation. Jesus says it doesn't say you are to hate your enemy, it says you are to love your enemies. Now in the Greek language there are four words for love. Phileo which is a love of brotherly love, a love of friendship. That's why the city of Philadelphia is known the city of brotherly love, phileo. And there was storge which is the love of family. And there's the word eros which is desiring romantic sexual love. Erotic is where we get that word from eros. The fourth word is agapao or agape. And that is a love that seeks and works to meet another's highest welfare without expectation of anything in return. It's a love that sacrifices self for someone in need. Agapao love always involves action. It always does. It's an active verb. And the Bible commentator says love indeed sets all the hatefulness and the wickedness of the enemy, feels his stabs and his blows, may even have something to do with warding him off, but all this simply fills the loving heart with one desire and one aim and that's to free the enemy from his hate, to rescue him from his sin, and thus to save his soul. 

You say Pastor, how do you love your enemies? You love them with the love of God. Paul tells us in Romans 5:5, the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. When we become Christians God pours His love into us. Here's what John says. John says, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world. There's the action. That we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. And we can only do it with the love of God that He pours in our hearts.

There's a story that comes out of history. It's the story of a man, a Scottish reformer, George Wishart. A contemporary and a friend of John Knox the great preacher of Scotland. And this man was sentenced as a heretic. And when he went to the executioner's block, the executioner knew him. And he knew he was a man of love because it was George Wishart who was down in the gutters of the city helping the poor and feeding the hungry and pouring out his love for Jesus Christ. And the executioner knew George Wishart, and when he realized that it was his assigned task to put this man to death, he fell back and his face was filled with remorse and his eyes were filled with tears. He didn't want to be the one that killed such a godly man. And old George Wishart knew that he was wrestling with his decision. And what he did, he went over to the executioner and he kissed him on the cheek and he whispered this in his ear. Sir, you may take that as my token of forgiveness. Now do your task.

Love, godly love is known as supernatural love and it takes us beyond the realm of the human and helps us to do the supernatural. Quickly, I hurry, pray for your persecutors. Jesus said probably the hardest thing to do is for those who misuse you is to put them on your prayer list and start praying for them. But that's what we're to do as Christians. And you know what I've found ladies and gentlemen? And I say this with deep regret. Some of us as Christians are persecuted by other Christians. I have seen those in the body of Christ injury and hurt their fellow Christians. To the hurt of the body of Christ I have wept over that time and time again. And for us as Christians to pray for someone else in the church who has lied about us, misused us, defamed us, and ruined our reputation with someone else. What do you do?

Jesus said put them on your prayer list. Pray for them and leave vengeance, remember, to God. He'll take care of it. He always balances the books. Thirdly, manifest your sonship. Jesus said, that you may be the sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and the just. Our heavenly Father is not selective with His love. I mean, the man who hates Him, the atheist, and he's got his farm. God's sunshine shines on the atheist farmer as it does on the Christian farmer. And God's rain from heaven causes his crops to grow just like it does for the Christian. What Jesus is saying, God is not selective as to where He pours out His love, and neither should we be. And by so doing, we identify whose family we belong to. If we're a part of God's family we're to act like God.

I set my boys down when they were young because the Bible says unless a minister controls his own house how can he control the house of God. In other words, if a minister's family is not being godly, he should not be in the ministry. That's what Paul said. And I remember when my boys were little I set them down and said boys, we have got a task together. I'm a minister. You must never forget who's your dad. Because if you bring shame to the cause of Christ and you go off and live in sin, the moment you do and you start living in rebellion, I'll stand in the pulpit and resign and never preach another sermon. Don't ever forget who's your dad. Now that's laying a heavy one on children. But I thank God my boys are now 40, 38, and 35, and they love God with all their hearts and they serve this church as pastors. They remembered when the temptations came, who their dad was. And if we will do the same thing when opportunity comes, even for those who may hate us. If God rains rain on the just and the unjust and sunshine on the just and the unjust, we have no right to be selective with our love. 

Fourthly, it says exceed your fellow man. He said look at, if you're going to love those who love you, so what. Everybody does that. I mean if you get loved you give it back to them. But He says what do you do more than they? In other words, what is your standard for living? Is it higher than the world in which you live? Is your standard of integrity and honest higher than those who work at the shop. They might not think anything of stealing 3 minutes off of their coffee time, but you do. They may not think much of taking something home from the shop, but you do. Here's Jesus' point, have a standard of living so high that you'll mark yourselves as someone different than the world in which you live. What do you do more than they? And lastly, be ye perfect, just like your Father in heaven. 

You say, Pastor, that's God now. I cannot be perfect. Jesus knew that. All He is saying is set the standard so high for your living that none other than God Himself is your standard. That's what He's saying. We used to sing the chorus; To be like Jesus, to be like Jesus, all I ask is to be like Him. All through life's journey from earth to heaven, all I want to be is like Him. I take that verse very seriously when I come here for my prayer each morning. I pray dear God I want You to help me to be a Godly man. I want You to help me to be compassionate and forgiving and loving and kind and sensitive. God I want to be like You, and sometimes when the day is over I've missed it a million miles. But God knows I have one standard and that's Him. Here's what Jesus said, don't listen to those false preachers. You love your enemies. Those who persecute you, put them on your prayer list. Don't forget that God in heaven is your heavenly Father, and He doesn't select objects of love and neither should you. Fourthly, live a life with such a standard that you mark yourself as someone different in the world in which you live. And if you live that way, you'll change the world around you. Amen.

Father, thank you for Your word. Now help us to live it. Give us strength and empower us to really be Christians this week. And everybody said, amen.