The Duty; Ruling Disposition of Heart

Introduction: The Crucial Importance of Peace in the Church

0:01 This sermon was preached on Sunday evening, January 17, 1982, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:10 Now let us once again pause in the presence of God, seeking the aid of the Holy Spirit as we seek to understand the mind of God as given to us in the Holy Scriptures. Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray.

0:59 And we therefore cry for a present, powerful, and a deeply personal ministry of the Holy Spirit to every one of our hearts, that the word may come to us not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance. Lord, you know our hearts. You know the deepest motives and intentions of our hearts. And we pray.

1:30 And out of your perfect knowledge of our hearts, you will speak to us that word which you know we need to hear. Meet us in our individual need, and to your name and to your name alone, may there be praise and honor and glory, as by your grace we respond in faith and in obedience to that word. Amen. Now I want to speak to you tonight from the word of God.

2:05 Amen. This is a very broad theme, and therefore I can only address myself to it in a very cursory manner. And that theme is councils for peacemakers. Councils for peacemakers.

2:23 And I have chosen to speak on this theme for two basic reasons. First of all, as I hinted this morning, the regular course of expositions in the book of Philippians, found us in Philippians chapter 4, verses 2 and 3, in which the Apostle Paul, writing to that church which caused him such great joy and delight, the church at Philippi, had to entreat two leading influential women to deal with whatever factors were causing a barrier in their fellowship, and he had to write to them, saying, I beseech Oodia, and I beseech Oodia, Syntyche, to be of the same mind in the Lord. And after opening up that text, I had occasion to underscore as the primary principle of the text the great fact that unity and peace in the church of Jesus Christ are of crucial importance. And my mind has been much engaged with that subject in the anticipation and preparation of coming to that text. In Philippians, which we examined this morning, and so that's factor number one that has pressed me in this direction.

3:43 But then factor number two is this. In the course of his lectures to us in the academy this past week, Pastor Hofstetter was dealing with the general subject of pastoral oversight, that function of elders in which they take the initiative to consider the state of the various members of the flock of God. And in the course of dealing with that subject, he said, and this is not a verbatim quote, but it reflects the intent of his statement, that perhaps no two passages of the word of God were more frequently and openly defied in the church of Christ than Matthew 5, 23 and 24, and Matthew 18, 15 and following. And those two passages refer to specific directives, which members of the church of Christ are to take in seeking to keep the peace of the church, peace in a path of ethical and moral purity. And so the pressure of the exposition of the morning, plus the pressure of that statement of Pastor Hofstetter, have acted as a constraint upon my own spirit, so that I am going to seek to address you tonight on the subject, councils. For peacemakers.

Defining Biblical Peacemaking: Not Worldly Compromise

5:06 Now, before we come to the subject proper, I have one basic statement of qualification to make. When I speak tonight of peacemakers, I am speaking of the kind of peace that is to be promoted within the boundaries of the fellowship of the church of Jesus Christ. As the people of God, we are not indifferent to international peace, and frequently from this pulpit, in obedience to 1 Timothy 2, we pray for peace among the nations. But of this foolishness that goes on in the name of Christianity, in which church groups are found picketing the UN, and picketing nuclear plants and all of the rest, I say without any reservation, we have no sympathy for that nonsense.

6:00 It is foolishness to the nth degree to think that by picketing the UN, this particular government agent or that, and saying we are all against nukes, that we will somehow persuade such powers as that which is represented by the Kremlin, suddenly to become sweet, loving people, who will just be delighted to see the rest of the world put its guard down, and act as though talking about peace will bring international peace. I am utterly appalled at the hopeless naivety of the so-called peace, the so-called peace movement as it finds expression in the world at large, and more particular, in so-called Christian groups. And so when I speak tonight of councils for peacemakers, I am not giving you advice as to how you ought to join the latest picket brigade, and say down with nukes, let's have unilateral disarmament, let's just tell the Russians and the Chinese and everyone else, we don't want a war, and therefore to prove we mean business, we'll just get rid of all our nuclear armament and hope that they will follow our example. I say such naivety, if that's all it is, is pitiable. If it's more than that, which no doubt much of it is, then it is the worst kind of deception. Well, when I speak then of councils for peacemakers, I'm not speaking of anything that has to do with that.

7:25 We're talking about being peacemakers within the framework to which the word of God addresses itself explicitly, namely, the Church of Jesus Christ. And we are thinking within that framework, not of peace at any cost, but of a peace that fits the description of Psalm 85, 10, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. We are thinking only of peace in a context of righteousness and uprightness, peace in a context of obedience to the moral law of God, and to the ethical norms of Holy Scripture. Now, with those qualifications before us, let us then begin by considering, first of all, the predominance of the duty of being a promoter of peace and unity in the Church of Jesus Christ. The predominance of the duty of being a promoter of peace and unity in the Church of Jesus Christ. Amen. And what I want you to do is something we do not often do.

The Predominance of the Duty to Be a Peacemaker

8:37 We're going to look at a number of texts. It's generally our practice to take one text and open it up in depth. But I want you to feel something of the pressure of the overall emphasis of the New Testament on this subject of the duty of being a peacemaker. And we'll start in the book of Matthew, and we'll end in the book of Hebrews.

9:00 Now, in that section commonly designated, the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord begins with those blessings, those statements that we usually call the Beatitudes, which are a composite description of the character traits of the true sons and daughters of God. Here our Lord gives a verbal delineation of the characteristics of the subjects of his kingdom. And among other things, he describes them in this way. The very ones who mourn for their sins, who hunger and thirst for righteousness and are pure in heart are described in verse 9 in this way. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. In other words, one of the indispensable marks of a true son or daughter of the kingdom is that he or she is a peacemaker. The making of peace is not a matter of secondary importance.

10:11 As surely as every son or daughter of the kingdom of grace and of God knows something of poverty of spirit, knows that he or she is nothing, has nothing, can do nothing, and stands in need of the grace of God, just as surely as all of these other characteristics are present at least in principle in every child of God, so is the quality of being a peacemaker. A Christian who is not fundamentally committed to the making of peace is a creature not recognized by our Lord Jesus Christ. The person who is warlike in his disposition, who can tolerate in himself, those qualities which are disruptive of peace, who can encourage in others attitudes, words, and actions which are disruptive of peace, that's the negative, that person who professes to be a Christian who does not actively seek peace between himself and his brethren and between brother and brother, such a person is not recognized by our Lord as a true son or daughter of the kingdom. His words are clear, blessed are the peacemakers, for they and they only shall rightly be designated the sons of God.

11:39 So on the very threshold of the New Testament we are taught that it is indeed the duty of every true son or daughter of the kingdom of God and of grace to be a promoter of peace. Now that this is a promotion of peace in the context of righteousness, is clear from the very next beatitude. Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness sake. These very peacemakers are a disruptive element in society.

12:12 They live such a holy life, they so pursue righteousness that they become a burr under the saddle of society at large. And so they are persecuted, they are ostracized, they are sometimes even physically abused. They are part of that society further described in the subsequent context as the light of the world, as the salt of the earth. So we must not in any way think of this peacemaking quality of the children of God as an attitude of compromise and accommodation that seeks to have peace at any cost with everyone under every set of circumstances.

12:54 No, that is entirely foreign to the intention of our Lord and the immediate context of the passage makes it abundantly clear. Then as we move on through the words of our Lord, we find this emphasis coming through again. Turn to the Gospel of Mark. Now remember all we are seeking to do is to underscore the predominance of the duty of being a promoter of peace among the people of God.

13:23 Towards the close of Mark's Gospel, chapter 9 and verse 50, we read this. Mark 9 and verse 50, toward the close of chapter 9. Salt is good, but if the salt have lost its saltness, wherewith will you season it? Have salt in yourselves.

13:44 Have a savoring influence in yourselves. Do not be a bland commodity that mixes well with everything and exerts no positive influence over anything. No, you are to be a distinct people. You are to have a lifestyle and a perspective and an influence that is like unto salt in the checking of putrefaction, in the giving of flavor, a little bit of salt influencing much.

14:13 So the context again is something of the distinctiveness of the righteous lifestyle of the child of God. Have salt in yourselves and be at peace one with another. You see how our Lord brings those two things together again. We are not talking about peace at any cost, peace at the price of sinful accommodation, peace at the price of a uniformity and conformity with the world.

14:44 No, we are to be utterly and distinctly different. Have salt in yourselves, but at the same time, we are to be promoters of peace among ourselves. We are to be at peace with one another. Turn then to the book of Romans.

15:02 And in that latter part of the letter to the Romans that is rich in practical directives, we read in Romans 12 and verse 18 these words, If it be possible, as much as in you lieth, be at peace with all men. Now in the context, the emphasis falls upon the relationship of the believer to the society around him, particularly when that society becomes hostile. Verse 17, Render to no man evil for evil. Take thought for things honorable in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as in you lieth, be at peace with all men. So surely, if there is an obligation upon us to seek to be at peace with all men, even including non-Christians, but not at the expense of truth or righteousness, how much more then within the family of God, and that's precisely the emphasis of chapter 14 in Romans and verse 19. So then, let us follow after things which make for peace, and things whereby we may build each other up.

16:28 We are to pursue, we are consciously to follow after those things, attitudes, disposition, actions in the context, even a use of things indifferent. We are to regard the promotion of peace as of greater worth than even the indulgence of lawful liberties. Peace among the brethren must be sought even if I must deny myself a multitude of legitimate liberties in my interaction with my brethren. That's the context of that exhortation.

17:07 Then we turn over to Ephesians chapter 4. Remember all we're doing now is seeing the predominance of this duty of being a promoter of peace. Ephesians 4 verse 1. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith you were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, giving diligence.

17:38 This is not to be something that you just do if it comes naturally, or to do occasionally, but giving diligence. There is to be conscious, deliberate, and constant effort to do what? Giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Every child of God is to have as one of his conscious duties as a child of God the promotion of the unity of the Spirit rather than the promotion, the keeping of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

18:16 And without again going into a detailed exposition, it is evident that the apostle joins together this matter of the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Unless peace is that bond which holds us together, there is no such thing as realized unity in our life together. And then over to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Writing to a relatively infant church, and toward the end of his epistle, throwing in these many exhortations as he often does, having exhorted them with respect to their relationship to their overseers, he then says this at the end of verse 13, Be at peace among yourselves. Notice the setting. We beseech you, brethren, know them that labor among you and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and esteem them highly in love for their work's sake. Be at peace among yourselves.

19:27 Just as you are to cultivate an active effort to know your overseers, to know them with a knowledge of love and intelligence, just as you are under obligation to esteem them exceeding highly in love for their work's sake, to make their work much easier, you are to labor at maintaining peace among yourselves. Oh, the heartache that comes when those that are over you in the Lord must spend their time settling fusses amongst God's people. And what a delight it is, conversely, to labor in a context for the maturation of the people of God in which peace reigns among the people of God, because the people of God make conscience about establishing, maintaining, promoting true peace. Then we turn over to 1 Peter chapter 3. We see the emphasis coming through not only the teaching of our Lord, the teaching of the apostle. We could look at a critical passage in the book of James, but in the interest of time, we'll pass over it.

20:40 James 3, 13 to 18, but now 1 Peter chapter 3, beginning with verse 8. Finally, be ye all like-minded, compassionate, loving as brethren, tender-hearted, humble-minded, not rendering evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but contrary-wise blessing. For here unto were you called that you should inherit a blessing for, and now he quotes directly from one of the Psalms of David, for he that would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile, let him turn away from evil and do good, let him seek peace and pursue it. Now again, notice the setting. Peter is calling the people of God to unity, to compassion, to non-retaliation for evils done to them and he says in this path there will be blessing and he quotes the Old Testament to buttress that promise. And notice again that when he does so he chooses a passage in which the peacemaker is found in the path of practical godliness and righteousness.

22:05 He is turning away from evil, he is doing good, but in his pursuit of the holy life he is also seeking and pursuing good. Peace. And then the final text, Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12.

22:23 This text becomes, as it were, the watershed of all the other texts. It is the distillation of that overarching emphasis which you have seen, I trust, in the brief consideration of the previous texts, Hebrews 12 and verse 14. Follow after, and that verb to follow is the standard verb used in the New Testament for persecute. Set your eyes upon and track down with zeal.

22:56 That's what it means to persecute, to track down, to pursue with zeal. Follow after. This is to be a conscious, deliberate, earnest effort. Follow after peace with all men and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord.

23:16 And here again we see the two things brought into close proximity. The pursuit of the holy life, which is in no way contradictory to the active pursuit of peace with all men. Never peace at the expense of the law of God. We're to follow after holiness at any cost to ourselves, at any insult or disruption to others.

23:39 We must obey God no matter what the cost may be. But it is not the pursuit of a holiness that is not joined with an equally zealous pursuit of maintaining peace with all men as much as in us lies. And so it is not a harsh and a caustic holiness that claims much in terms of vertical dimensions of conformity to the law of God while insensitive to the horizontal dimensions of the law of God. For though the first commandment is the first, to love God with all the heart, mind, soul, and strength, it is the first in relation to the second.

24:19 And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Well, I trust this brief survey will convince you of the predominance of this duty of being a promoter of peace and unity in the Church of Christ. What are we warranted to say then in the light of that? Well, the simple conclusion is if being a peacemaker is not a matter of conscious effort on unity, then in your part you have reason to question if you are a true Christian.

Peacemaking as a Mark of True Christianity

24:49 For the mark of a true Christian is that he keeps the commandments of Christ. He cherishes the word of God. He that saith, I know him, and keeps not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Now then, having established the predominance of this duty, consider with me some practical directives for the implementation of this duty.

Practical Directives: The Ruling Disposition of Forgiveness

25:14 And the directives fall into two basic categories. One has to do with the heart. The other has to do with our actions. Though they are never separated, for analysis and for emphasis, we will separate them.

25:27 And the first is this. The ruling disposition of the heart to be sought and cultivated. What is it? The ruling disposition of heart to be sought and cultivated.

25:40 What is it? The ruling disposition of heart to be sought and cultivated. Well, that ruling disposition ought to be characterized by two things. Forgiveness and forgetfulness.

25:53 And if you would promote peace among the people of God, the ruling disposition of your heart must be forgiveness and forgetfulness. All right, forgiveness. Let's turn back to the words of our Lord. When our Lord gave to his disciples a framework for their prayers, and that's what it is, when he set before them the broad categories which constitute the legitimate concerns of prayer, one of them was the daily seeking of personal forgiveness for personal sins.

26:34 Matthew 6, in the section commonly called The Lord's Prayer. Matthew 6, verse 9. After this manner therefore pray ye, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

27:03 And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Then our Lord goes back and expands only one of those petitions. And it's interesting that the only one he expands upon is the one in which we ask for forgiveness. And he expands it with this word of assertion and exhortation.

27:26 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And some months ago, Pastor Nichols gave us a more detailed exposition of this passage or this principle, and I will not go into that in detail. Suffice it to say that if we are to live and move amongst the people of God as the promoters of peace, the ruling disposition of heart that we must seek and cultivate is one of forgiveness, one that is as present as our own consciousness of the daily need for forgiveness. Do you need forgiveness every day? Do you seek it every day? Well, in that very seeking of divine forgiveness, you ought self-consciously to cultivate the spirit of forgiveness to your brethren.

28:34 For Jesus did not say that you are warranted to pray for forgiveness. Detached from this perspective, you are to pray, to give us our debts, even as we forgive others. In other words, do you want God to be no more free with his forgiveness than you are with yours? Or do you want God to forgive you in the manner in which you forgive others?

29:07 Are you open-handed free in your forgiveness? Or are you stingy and niggardly in your forgiveness? Forgive our debts as we forgive those who are indebted to us. If you and I are to be promoters of peace, the ruling disposition of the heart to be sought and cultivated is one of forgiveness.

29:37 Jesus underscores that again in Mark 11.25 and then again in Matthew 18. I'll not take time to open up the passages. I only mention them.

29:48 Those of you taking notes can jot them down. But then we turn to the two pivotal passages in the epistles of Paul. Ephesians chapter 4. In that chapter which begins with that ringing call to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, the apostle, towards the end of that chapter, brings into sharp focus one of the most necessary ingredients for the promotion of that peace.

30:19 Ephesians 4.31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and railing be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another tenderhearted and I love that word. It's a beautiful word. Tenderhearted forgiving each other even as God also in Christ forgave you.

30:48 In other words, our forgiveness is continually to be conditioned by the quality and the reality of the divine forgiveness. What is God's forgiveness to us in Christ? Is it restrained? Is it set up with a thousand conditions?

31:08 Is it tentative? Is it half-hearted? No. When we come in the genuineness of poverty of spirit, and cry out as we must do again and again in the language of the public and God be merciful to me, the sinner, or we pray in the language of Psalm 51, have mercy upon me, O God, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

31:37 What kind of forgiveness do we find in God? It is free. It is abundant. He speaks of abundantly pardoning.

31:46 And in the language of the Old and the New Testaments, it is as though figures of speech cannot be marshaled to extol the magnitude of the pardoning, forgiving heart of God. He speaks of burying our sins, blotting them out like a thick cloud, removing them as far as the East is from the West. And language seems impoverished to underscore the magnitude, the breadth, the unrestrictedness of the forgiveness of God. And now we are commanded, be kind, be tender, forgiving each other, even as my forgiveness in all of its limitations is somehow to be analogous to God's forgiveness, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. And so if we are to promote peace, the ruling disposition of the heart to be sought and cultivated is that of forgiveness, a forgiveness that is like unto God's. Now over to Colossians for one more passage that underscores this. Colossians chapter 3, verses 12 and 13.

33:06 Put on therefore as God's elect those beloved and chosen of God in eternity past. Put on therefore as God's elect, chosen when you were unholy and vile and unclean. Put on therefore as God's elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving each other. If any man has a complaint against any, even as the Lord forgave you, so also do ye. You see how the call to forgiveness is again embedded in God's gracious dealings with us. If we have a quarrel, what are we to do? Stand upon our rights.

34:09 Insist upon the vindication of our claims and our dignities. He said, No. If any have a quarrel against any, as the Lord forgave you, so also do you. Did God stand upon His rights?

34:28 If He did, you and I would be burning in hell. God had the rights of His own sovereign, eternal, holy throne behind Him. If He were to consign the whole bunch of us to hell, then all heaven would have bowed in worship while we sank into the pit and proclaimed Him holy, just, and righteous in your damnation and mine. Any time you start talking about your rights, my friend, you're putting yourself on ground that's dangerous.

35:05 If you want God to deal with you in mercy and grace, you better stand on that ground in your dealings with others. Even as the Lord forgave, so also do ye. And so, the ruling disposition of heart to be sought and cultivated forgiveness, the exact opposite of grudge-holding, vengeance-seeking, and then that withering spirit of unforgiveness, the sullen, sulking, pouting, petulant spirit of saying, well, they don't deserve to be treated any other way. All of that is the antithesis of the cultivation of a forgiving spirit. But the ruling disposition of heart must not only be one of forgiveness, but of forgetfulness. And where do I get that notion? Well, turn, please, to 1 Peter chapter 5.

Practical Directives: The Ruling Disposition of Forgetfulness

36:03 The ruling disposition must not only be one of forgiveness, but of forgetfulness. Now, forgetfulness gets us in all kinds of trouble in certain areas. Some of you husbands have found that out. When you came home on your anniversary and your wife's eyes were all lit up like firecrackers and you met her at the door and you said, well, she looks awfully excited to see me.

36:31 I didn't, you know, don't know what's going on. And then the poor dummy discovers about 9 o'clock at night when his wife is in the bedroom weeping her eyes out and what's wrong, what's wrong? And finally finds out he forgot the anniversary. And forgetfulness can get you in trouble.

36:46 And you kids, if you're supposed to be home at 5 o'clock and you forget and sometimes the little thing that makes you remember, we can conveniently turn down the volume, can't we? And there's a kind of willful forgetfulness, huh? We forget the things we want to. But there's an area in which forgetfulness is a wonderful God-like virtue.

37:06 And it's that forgetfulness that Peter talks about in 1 Peter, chapter 5. Look at his language. 1 Peter 5, verse 7. But the end of all things is at hand.

37:17 Be ye therefore of sound mind and be sober unto prayer, above all things, over all other virtues, standing, as it were, as a canopy, above all the other duties, above all things, being fervent in your love among yourselves. And then he takes a quality, a disposition, an activity of this kind of love. For love covers a multitude of sins. Now is Peter saying that he wants the church to have itself so baptized in holy love that it never deals with sin?

37:59 That it can allow sin to go unchecked and unrebuked and everyone goes around saying, oh, I've got such a big blanket of love, I just throw it over all kinds of sins? No. That would be a contradiction of the whole teaching of the Word of God. When the church at Corinth had what they thought was that kind of tolerant love and they allowed an openly immoral man to go undisciplined, Paul rebuked him in some of the sharpest language to be found anywhere in the New Testament.

38:27 He rebuked them for that kind of disposition. And certainly, if we have in our churches sins that are a reproach to Christ and to his cause and a disruptive element, it's not a virtue to say, oh, well, we just have love, we cover all those sins. No, no. Peter is not talking about that at all.

38:46 He knew very well that that was not the will of God for he got nailed publicly by the Apostle Paul in the presence of a group of people down there in the churches wherever it was there in 1st Galatians, chapter 2. I'm sorry. I think he said he came to Antioch. He withstood him to the face.

39:05 But now Peter's talking about those multitudes of sins, those infirmities and failures that adhere to all of us. We are all imperfectly sanctified sinners. And so, and in any given day, if you were to scrutinize any other brother or sister with a magnifying glass, you'll be able to find many blots and blemishes that are, in the ultimate analysis, sins. That is, they are character traits, activities, and actions that fall short of mathematical parallelism to the holy law of God.

39:43 And in that sense, any lack of conformity to or transgression of the law of God is sin. So they are sins. But they are not the kinds of sins that warrant public censure, public discipline, or even the kind of treatment that our Lord envisions in the passages we will look at in a little bit. It is that multitude or an expression of that multitude of human sin and infirmity that is present in any society of even the most mature, advanced, godly men and women.

40:19 And we're not to act as though those things don't exist. But according to Peter's words, we are to have such a fervency of love that that love becomes a loom. And that loom creates a blanket. And we delight to throw that blanket over the sins instead of running to the desk and pulling the magnifying glass out of the drawer and magnifying those sins.

40:49 We are to have the love that covers a multitude of sins. It's the exact opposite of what the writer to the Proverbs describes in Proverbs 16 and verse 17. I'm sorry, 16 and chapter 17 as well. The book of Proverbs 16 and verse 28.

41:10 A perverse man scatters abroad strife and a whisperer separates chief friends. And what does the whisperer whisper about? Did you hear this? And he passes on these choice little juicy tidbits about the failures and the falls of others.

41:40 Chapter 17 and verse 9. He that covers a transgression seeks love. That is, as he covers the transgression, he is seeking to do the thing that love does. But he that harpeth on a matter.

41:58 What does it mean when you harp on a matter? Well, you plunk on that string. You go over it again and again. He that harpeth on a matter separates chief friends.

42:07 Here are people who once were close. Chief friends. And now there's a rift. There is disunity.

42:14 There's a lack of peace and harmony. How did that happen? Somebody got plunking on a string of the fault of another. He harped on it, harped on it, harped on it.

42:24 And my friend, listen. This doesn't happen just in harping on it in the presence of a third party. You can harp on it in your own mind so that nobody hears the tune but you. And it'll separate you from your chief friend.

42:39 Someone to whom you once were tied in deep ties of affection. As a friend, a fellow mother, a fellow wife, a fellow single person. Perhaps one of your leaders. There was once that attitude that the minute your eyes met his, your heart leaped within you, you were glad to see your elders or that particular elder or pastor.

43:07 And he could read that love light in your eyes. And it was the legitimate kind of love that exists between the shepherd and the sheep. It's the kind of look I see in the little kids every Sunday morning. When my eyes catch theirs and I know I'm looking at a friend and they know they're looking at a friend and we know it's only a matter of time before they traverse the distance between the two of us.

43:31 One of the most heartbreaking things in the work of the ministry is to have known that look from the eyes of some of your sheep and then to see it go. And you go home and you get on your knees and you search your heart and say, Oh God, is there something I've done? Quicken my memory. Quicken my memory.

43:53 Lord, help me to remember if I've said something unkind, ungracious. Lord, if there's something I've done, my conscience is clear, but I also know that I'm a forgetful man. Lord, show me, bring it to my remembrance. But Lord, it hurts, it pains to feel the separation.

44:14 Well, you say that's subjective reading looks in eyes. The Bible says the show of their countenance doth testify against them. The Bible uses such language as countenance was not towards him as it had been before. No, no, that's not subjective.

44:31 That word trenchant was not subjected to the Father's judgment. It said, even though you are the Son of God and the Son of the Son of God, you are the Son of God and you are God, and you are the Sovereign of the Son of God and you are You were chief friends. You were. You were not only husband and wife, you were each other's best friend.

45:11 And that ought to be true of husbands and wives. But you know what's happened? You've been separated because one of you has been harping on the faults of your partner. Harp, harp, harp, harp, harp, harp, harp.

45:23 Maybe not verbally, but in your own mind. And because you've not had the love that covers the multitude of sins, there is a separation in your affection for one another.

Love Keeps No Record of Wrong

45:36 If we're to promote unity in the body of Christ, we must not only have as the ruling disposition of our heart forgiveness, but also forgetfulness. 1 Peter 5.8 and then one other text and oh how I thank God for this text and how I pray that it will more and more regulate my mind and my thinking as it has been my prayer for years that it would. In 1 Corinthians chapter 13,

46:08 among the many characteristics and functions and expressions of true biblical love, will you notice the one mentioned in verse 5? Love does not behave itself unseemly, does not seek its own, and oh I'd love to pause and preach on that, but that's not germane to the point tonight. Seeks not its own, is not provoked, now notice the next quality of love, that takes not account of evil. The NIV gives an excellent rendering of the sense of this passage.

46:46 It keeps no record of wrong.

46:50 Love keeps no record of wrong, either written or mentally. Love enables us to cultivate a holy forgetfulness. It gives us a blank memory so that people will come to us and say, Pastor Martin, do you remember such and such? When I said such and such, I've come to apologize.

47:11 It's a lovely and wonderful thing to be able to say, I'm sorry brother, I don't remember what you're talking about.

47:17 I don't know what you're talking about. I don't think it's old age.

47:22 See what I mean? When love enables you to cultivate forgetfulness, you don't have this unwritten list of all the people who've offended you, and you've allowed their offense to fester, and you have a heart full of open sores off from God's people. No wonder it's no delight, to see them and be amongst them, and you feel uncomfortable and strained. Why?

47:55 Because you've got an accounting list as long as a gargantuan's arm.

48:05 Love does not take account of evil. It keeps no record of wrong. It seizes every opportunity of a wrong done to cultivate forgetfulness.

Conclusion: The Duty and Spirit of Forgiveness and Forgetfulness

48:20 Well, that's the first practical directive for the implementation of the duty of being a peacemaker. And it is that the ruling disposition of heart to be sought and cultivated is one of forgiveness and forgetfulness. And then there is in the second place, and this is the second major division, the regulating directives for our conduct to be considered and obeyed. And I see it's already 25 after 7, so I've preached enough.

48:51 I'm going to stop there, and you'll have to get the other installment. Sorry, Phil, I said this was going to be one sermon, but I hadn't preached it before, so you now know what you're going to get, Lord willing, next Sunday night. Seriously, I really feel it would be unwise at this stage. You've listened carefully.

49:07 We've encountered some, I think, very vital issues from the Scripture. Let me try to round it off and conclude, even though I haven't covered the second major heading of how to have in a practical way the place of a peacemaker in your own heart and life. Let me simply say by conclusion that I trust you are convinced from the Scriptures of your duty. If you name the name of Christ as surely as it is your duty to love God, to pursue a life of holiness, it is your duty actively to pursue being a peacemaker.

49:48 It's not a matter of option. It is mandated. Furthermore, in the light of the text we have examined, if you know yourself to be a sinner, and if you're a Christian, you do. Not that you were a sinner.

50:02 I said if you know yourself to be a sinner, then you stand in constant need of God's forgiveness. It is unthinkable that a heart soaked in the glorious provision of divine forgiveness can be one that finds it difficult as a rule to extend forgiveness to others. That's the whole thrust of that parable of Matthew 18. That guy who got his servant who owed him a few cents and started to wring his neck off, the reason he was dealt with as a wicked man, it showed he never understood the principle of forgiveness with respect to his own great debt.

50:41 And when you and I have stood before the court of heaven in the presence of Almighty God and known something of what it is for the infinite God to extend forgiveness to man, the finite sinner, the rebel who deserves wrath, overcome with the wonder of that act of divine forgiveness, something is stamped upon our hearts which is so powerful and indelible that being an unforgiving person cannot be the ruling principle of our life. Now I did not say that we may not fall before a specific spirit of unforgiveness in a given area. If that were not possible or true, then all the exhortations of the Bible are there for nothing. But my heart is full of forgiveness. But my heart is full of forgiveness. But my heart is full of forgiveness.

51:29 My friend, if unforgiveness is the ruling principle of your heart, you better ask God where you are.

51:36 You better take seriously what the Scripture says. If you forgive not, neither will your Father forgive you. But I'm assuming that the vast majority of you are those whose hearts have been touched by the spirit of forgiveness and you do long to cultivate a forgiving spirit. Then let me urge you to cry to God, to grant it, and then go to the place where it is most likely to be given, that is, to the cross, again and again.

52:07 Meditate upon the nature of God's forgiveness to you, and in the light of that, extend forgiveness to others, and then pray that God will give you holy forgetfulness. One of the most heartbreaking things in pastoral work is to talk with people whose spiritual lives have been crippled for six months, a year, two, three, four, five, ten years, because of some niggling little issue that went back for years when they thought that somebody offended them, and when they finally get around to tracking the thing down, they have been crippled by a mirage for ten years in their own... What a tragedy!

52:56 It's bad enough to be crippled by real enemies, but to be crippled by shappos and mirages is one of the most terrible, terrible, tragic tragedies. And though we haven't touched on it tonight, we'll see next week God's made provision to make sure we're dealing with substantial offenses or with mirages, because sometimes we don't know. And God knows that not being omniscient we wouldn't know, but we'll look at those, God willing, next week. Suffice it to say tonight, I trust your consciences have been honed afresh with the realization of your duty to be a peacemaker, that you see that you cannot be such a person unless the ruling disposition of your heart is one of forgiveness and one of forgetfulness. If that's so, then when we hear the word I beseech Iodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind, we'll know how to go about coming to oneness of mind. May the Lord give to us, by his grace, increasing measures of that spirit of unity which cannot be maintained without the constant exercise of the grace of forgiveness.

54:17 Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you that your word comes to us in our real situation. You know that in this present state, having only the earnest, the down payment of a full and completed redemption, that there is yet, within us, remaining sin in all of its ugly actings and manifestations. But we thank you that in your beloved Son and in the gift of the Spirit, provision has been made that we might not be the subjects of the lording influence of those passions and attitudes which once were our masters. For you have said, sin shall not exercise lordship over you. sin shall not exercise lordship over you. And we pray that in this very delicate area, one that impinges upon each of us day by day, that we may know increasing measures of grace, that we may indeed be those peacemakers, those men and women and boys and girls who promote peace and harmony in our families, in our flocks, and wherever you give us opportunity to exercise an influence.

55:42 O Lord, in a world that is filled with bitterness and with unforgiveness and rancor and vengeance, we pray that this congregation and all of the true churches of Christ, wherever they may be, whatever their denominational name may be, O Lord, in every true church may true peace in a context of righteousness reign so that the world looking in may be astounded and amazed and may know that the gospel is indeed the power of God unto salvation. We pray that you will seal the word to every heart and may it bear holy fruit in all of our lives. We ask these mercies in Jesus' name. Amen.