08a) Cultivating Love for Men

The point: Never think there is any kind of disjuncture or antithesis between love as being gracious (fruit of the Spirit) and yet a volitional commitment of our wills to love.

The example of an unbelieving man sacrificing for his ailing wife illustrates that while common grace can produce self-sacrifice, the love required of a pastor is a distinct, Spirit-wrought gracious love.

I've defined it, first of all, as a gracious disposition. And by using the word gracious, I am trying to capture the thought that the love that a pastor must have to his people is, in its very nature and necessity, a fruit of grace. It is not natural love, but a love that is the product of the direct operation of the Holy Spirit upon the heart of the servant of God. Galatians 5.22 The fruit of the Spirit is love. Now, whatever love men may know in common grace, and there are great measures of it, when someone sees a man willing to sacrifice much of his own convenience, much of his own interest...

6:04 - 7:24 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin further unpacks the definition, explaining 'disposition' as a prevailing aspect of one's nature, and highlighting that love actively desires and seeks the good of its…

Comparing an 'ugly disposition' to a 'cheerful disposition' (like a child who smiles despite sadness) clarifies that love as a disposition means it is the prevailing, general state of one's heart, not an absence of all negative feelings.

And then, disposition. What do I mean by disposition? Well, a disposition is the normal or principal, prevailing aspect of one's nature. I hope no one has occasion to say of you, he's got an ugly disposition.

9:58 - 10:14 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin further unpacks the definition, explaining 'disposition' as a prevailing aspect of one's nature, and highlighting that love actively desires and seeks the good of its…

The anecdote about a child whose smile could 'melt a four-foot-high snow bank' illustrates the powerful, pervasive nature of a cheerful disposition, applying it to the pastor's need for a prevailing disposition of love.

When his favorite toy is broken, but by and large what we mean is the child generally goes around with a smile on his face. One of our brethren here in the academy has a son, and since he's not here, I can speak of it without embarrassing him, that I've said that when we had all those snowfalls last year, I said, Mark, you ought to go down to the local township and tell them that you'll rent out your son for $100 an hour and have just somebody carry him along by all the snow banks and smile at them. I said, that smile is...

10:35 - 11:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be content with your present measure of love; abound more and more.

Paul's imagery of parents laying up for children, not vice versa, is used to explain his commitment to spend and be spent for the Corinthians, highlighting the selfless, giving nature of pastoral love.

moving to my judgment in all of the Pauline corpus 2 Corinthians chapter 12 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and the imagery here is of parenting and children and Paul is moving back and forward with the human relationship to the spiritual relationship verse 14 Behold, this is the third time I'm ready to come to you and I'll not be a burden to you for I do not seek yours but you. And he said, the reason I do this is that an active not an indigent old decrepit parent who is dependent upon the children no an active parent who is able to fulfill his role of parenting the children ought not to be laying u...

23:52 - 25:19 Read in full sermon

The point: No specific ministerial duty is ever an excuse for the negation of the generic duties of a Christian man (e.g., being a rotten husband or stinking father).

The analogy of a noisy gong and clanging cymbal illustrates that even exalted eloquence without love is irritating and drives people away, rather than drawing them to the messenger and message.

midst of dealing with spiritual gifts generally and gifts of utterance and ministry in the public assembly more focused and more explicitly in chapter 14 we have chapter 13 and notice where the emphasis falls if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels that have not love I am become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal one of the modern translators has rendered it I am become a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal in other words no sweet melodious attractive desirable music is made somebody takes ear rather than having the man in the back row at a great crescendo in the symphony at the right p...

42:58 - 44:26 Read in full sermon

The point: No specific ministerial duty is ever an excuse for the negation of the generic duties of a Christian man (e.g., being a rotten husband or stinking father).

A quotation from Dr. Ed Payne's essay to medical students, arguing that professional demands do not excuse being a 'rotten husband and an inept father,' is used to parallel the ministerial context: no specific duty negates generic Christian duties.

burn the midnight oil consume myself in my sermon preparation and in the round of other pastoralists but have not love it profits me nothing surely brethren the whole context and substance of 1st Corinthians 13 shows how important is this principle in the work of the ministry that we have a growing measure of unfeigned love for our people but then secondly it's important because of the general demand for evangelical law keeping and because of the general demand for evangelical law keeping this brings us over to page 34 in our notes although peculiar duties and responsibilities are laid upon us...

45:54 - 47:22 Read in full sermon

The point: Feel a tender love to your people in your breasts and let them perceive it in your speeches and see it in your conduct; spend and be spent for their sakes.

An extended quotation from Richard Baxter's 'The Reformed Pastor' emphasizes that ministry must be carried on in tender love, like a father or mother, so that people will hear and bear anything from the minister.

of the constituted relationship between assured love and an open ear if you and I would do good to our people we must have their ears and if we would have their ears they must have the confidence that we love them if they know that we love them they'll give us their ears if they have reason to suspect we do not love them founded or unfounded they won't give us their ears they will not give us their ears that's why you find again and again when the Lord was commissioning the twelve and the seventy he never said whosoever receives your message but he said he that receives you receives me receive...

59:13 - 60:42 Read in full sermon

The point: Feel a tender love to your people in your breasts and let them perceive it in your speeches and see it in your conduct; spend and be spent for their sakes.

Martin shares a personal anecdote about his congregation enduring 'brutal dealings' with their sin because they knew he loved them, illustrating Baxter's point that assured love opens ears and allows for difficult truths.

and said to my wife honey I wouldn't be surprised if half the people don't show up next week and yet they've been there and when I've had occasion to ask them why do you come back to take that kind of brutal dealings with your sin the answer's been pastor because we know you love us we know you love us we know you're desperately committed to seeking to get us to heaven and as long as we know that we'll take it from you listen to what Baxter says we'll put up with a blow that is given us in love sooner than with a foul word spoken to us in malice or in anger saying if I know someone loves me I'...

62:11 - 63:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Feel a tender love to your people in your breasts and let them perceive it in your speeches and see it in your conduct; spend and be spent for their sakes.

Baxter's analogy that people will 'put up with a blow that is given us in love sooner than with a foul word spoken to us in malice' further illustrates the power of love to make difficult messages palatable.

and said to my wife honey I wouldn't be surprised if half the people don't show up next week and yet they've been there and when I've had occasion to ask them why do you come back to take that kind of brutal dealings with your sin the answer's been pastor because we know you love us we know you love us we know you're desperately committed to seeking to get us to heaven and as long as we know that we'll take it from you listen to what Baxter says we'll put up with a blow that is given us in love sooner than with a foul word spoken to us in malice or in anger saying if I know someone loves me I'...

62:11 - 63:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Feel a tender love to your people in your breasts and let them perceive it in your speeches and see it in your conduct; spend and be spent for their sakes.

A quotation from Charles Bridges' 'The Christian Ministry' states that 'the compulsion of love is the mighty lever of operation' in effective preaching, emphasizing that rational creatures are drawn by love, not driven.

speaks of the same principle we're not arguing however for that sensitive delicacy which refrains to wound when the patient shrinks but we know not why the most sensitive energetic tone of faithfulness should not be blended with that considerate treatment which unquestionably is best adapted to the exigency of the case the brute creation may be driven but rational creatures require to be drawn the compulsion of love is the mighty lever of operation our English friends would say lever and then he quotes from one of the here are the heathen philosophers who understood this and then says this lov...

63:39 - 65:07 Read in full sermon

The point: Feel a tender love to your people in your breasts and let them perceive it in your speeches and see it in your conduct; spend and be spent for their sakes.

A quotation from Calvin's commentary on Philippians 1:8 highlights that Paul's explicit declaration of love for the Philippians was crucial because 'it will in no small degree win credit for the teaching when the people are persuaded that they are loved by the teacher.'

speaks of the same principle we're not arguing however for that sensitive delicacy which refrains to wound when the patient shrinks but we know not why the most sensitive energetic tone of faithfulness should not be blended with that considerate treatment which unquestionably is best adapted to the exigency of the case the brute creation may be driven but rational creatures require to be drawn the compulsion of love is the mighty lever of operation our English friends would say lever and then he quotes from one of the here are the heathen philosophers who understood this and then says this lov...

63:39 - 65:07 Read in full sermon

The point: Love for your people should compel you to labor for logical order and transparency of structure in your sermons, making it clear for them.

Spurgeon's quote about feeling no guilt if he doesn't understand a preacher, because the burden of clarity is on the preacher, is used to motivate pastors to labor for logical order and transparency in sermons out of love for their people.

that I don't want to lay on them a burden God's laid on me and that burden is not only to penetrate the mind of God in scripture but to be an apt teacher to lay it out in a way that is clear that burden is mine not my people to sit there and say yes that's it where's the head from the tail and the nose from the ear that's my task not theirs remember what Spurgeon said about that said if I sit and things not clear he said I don't feel any guilt if I don't understand the preacher because he's laying on me a burden that God laid on him and he hadn't done his job Spurgeon said I feel no guilt what...

68:06 - 69:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Love for your people should lead to earnestness and pathos in your ministry, letting the truth possess you so that you impart your very soul with the gospel.

An extended quotation from Martyn Lloyd-Jones' 'Preaching and Preachers' discusses the vital element of pathos in preaching, confessing his own lack and emphasizing that it arises from a love for people, not mere love for preaching.

in the earnestness and pathos of throwing yourself into that ministry letting the truth so possess you that it carries you to your people you're not handling something but it is handling you it is possessing you and I've used the text in 1 Thessalonians 2 7 and 8 where Paul says we were well pleased to impart not the gospel of God only but our very souls because you were become dear to us well can Paul's soul save them? no but he said we were willing to impart not just the gospel but our very souls and the gospel has grip and convincingness when the one who preaches it is evidently imparting h...

69:35 - 71:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Love for your people should lead to earnestness and pathos in your ministry, letting the truth possess you so that you impart your very soul with the gospel.

The anecdote about David Garrick wishing he could utter 'Mesopotamia' with the same pathos as Whitfield illustrates the powerful, melting quality of preaching imbued with genuine pathos, which arises from love.

pathos listen to the confession of the doctor if I had to plead guilty of one thing more than any other I would have to confess that this perhaps has been what has been most lacking in my own ministry this should arise partly from a love for people Richard Cecil an Anglican preacher in London toward the end of the 18th century in the beginning of the 19th said something that should make us all think quote to love to preach is one thing to love those to whom we preach is quite another to love to preach is one thing to love those to whom we preach quite another end quote the doctor goes on to wr...

71:04 - 72:32 Read in full sermon

The point: It is quite allowable to mention your grief that many of them are unsaved and your vehement desire and incessant prayer for their conversion to a congregation who love you.

An extended quotation from Spurgeon's 'Lectures to My Students' argues for the power of 'heart argument' and 'emotional persuasion' in preaching, describing it as 'logic set on fire' and an 'irresistible torrent' when fueled by love.

with which Whitfield uttered it modern sophisticated man may laugh at this but it's only when we begin to know something of this melting quality that we shall be real preachers of course the man who tries to produce an effect becomes an actor and is an abominable imposter unfeigned love remember but the fact is that when the love of God is shed abroad in a man's heart as it was in Whitfield pathos is inevitable the pathos will manifest itself according to the distinctives of our own God-given humanity but manifest itself it will and it will be known and felt by our hearers I have sat and wept ...

72:32 - 74:01 Read in full sermon

The point: It is quite allowable to mention your grief that many of them are unsaved and your vehement desire and incessant prayer for their conversion to a congregation who love you.

Martin shares a personal example of expressing grief to his congregation about their lack of change after many sermons, illustrating Spurgeon's point that it is allowable to mention such grief to a people who know they are loved.

emotional persuasion now here's a full-blown Calvinist speaking brethren emotional persuasion they require not so much reasoning as heart argument which is logic set on fire you must argue with them as a mother pleads with her boy they will not grieve her or as a fond sister entreats a brother to return to their father's home and seek reconciliation argument must be quickened into persuasion by the living warmth of love cold logic has its force but when made red hot with the affections the power of tender argument is inconceivable when passionate zeal has carried a man carried the man himself ...

74:01 - 75:29 Read in full sermon