Cultivating Love for Men

The Axiom: A Growing Measure of Unfeigned Love for Our People

0:04 Well, as you brethren visiting with us can see from the abstract in your hand, the great concern that is the organizing and overarching theme of our lectures at this point in our pastoral theology course is the essential elements of effective pastoral preaching. And we are concerned with those elements as they relate to the man of God himself for the tap roots of all effective preaching are in the man who preaches. And so we've considered the man before God spiritually, intellectually, physically and emotionally

0:44 and now today we move to another category under the general heading of the man of God himself and in the abstract I originally taught according to that outline the first and second points are now... reversed.

1:01 As we think of the man of God in relationship or among his people we will consider today our relationship to our people in love and then God willing next week our relationship to them in terms of being delivered from the fear of men and then thirdly our relationship to them in terms of earning an increasing measure of respect and confidence from them. But today we take up the...

1:30 first and most fundamental dimension of our relationship to our people if we are effectively to preach to them as pastors and it has to do with our relating to them in genuine biblical love. Now the structure of the lecture this morning will have three major headings. First of all I will state an axiom and then as we've often done give an explanation of that axiom. And then secondly I will seek to demonstrate the crucial importance of this axiom in relationship to preaching.

2:10 And then thirdly I will set forth some practical suggestions as to how this love can be nurtured and cultivated and how it ought to be manifested in our relationship to our people. First of all then we begin with the statement and explanation of a simple axiom. What is the axiom or rule or principle. And in this matter of our relationship to our people, nothing, nothing is more vital than this simple axiom.

2:44 We must experience a growing measure of unfeigned love for our people. We must experience a growing measure of unfeigned love for our people. If we would be effective in doing so active pastoral preachers, then we must not only be men who are growing spiritually, intellectually, preaching out of a context of optimum physical and emotional health, but we must be men who are

Defining and Explaining Unfeigned Love

3:23 conscious of experiencing a growing measure of unfeigned love for our people. Now, in opening up the axiom, let me first of all concentrate on trying to give a working description and definition of love. Love is much better understood in its working manifestations than in terms of precise definition or philosophical analysis. Now, a classic example of this is 1 Corinthians 13.

4:02 Love is described in terms of what it does and does not do. And most interesting is there's not one word in an English translation or in the original in this great poem or hymn or treatise on love that even remotely suggests anything to do with feelings. I challenge anyone to go through and analyze the language, the structure, the emphases of 1 Corinthians 13 and come up with a notion,

4:41 that feelings has anything to do with the love that is described and celebrated in 1 Corinthians 13. It is described in terms of what it does and in terms of what it does not do, not in terms of what it feels. And this is the constant pattern of scripture. For example, here in his love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his love.

5:14 His son to be the propitiation for our sins, 1 John 4, 9 and 10. Here in his love. And how is love described? In terms of the activity of God. Here in his love that God sent his son. Now, for our

5:33 purposes, I'm going to attempt a working definition and description of love. And you may want to challenge some aspects of this, but until I come up with something, I'm not going to do it. I'm going to do something better. This is what I've worked with over the past few years and continue to find it helpful. When I speak of the necessity of a growing measure of unfeigned love for our people, what am I

5:58 speaking about? Well, I'm speaking about love as, and you may want to write this down because we'll then exegete it, that gracious and principled disposition, that gracious and principled disposition of good and good. And I'm speaking about love as, and you may want to write this down because we'll then exegete it, that gracious and principled disposition, that gracious and principled disposition of good and good. And I'm speaking about love as, and you may want to write this down because we'll will, which desires, practically seeks the good of its object, even personal cost. That gracious and

6:41 principled disposition of good will, which desires and practically seeks the good of its object, even at personal cost. Let's break down five elements of that definition. First of all, it is a gracious and principled disposition. And by gracious, I mean it is a fruit of grace, either of God's common grace, in the case of the unconverted, or of His special grace. And of course, I'm thinking of it

7:19 in that second category with reference to the work of the ministry. Galatians 5.22, the fruit of the Spirit is love. So when the Spirit comes to the world, it is a fruit of the Spirit. And when the

7:35 Spirit comes to take up His residence in the human heart, the fruit of His presence is love. Now, I would not be so bold as some exegetes to suggest that all of the other eight dimensions of the ninefold fruit of the Spirit are expressions of love. I've read some of the attempts to do so. I think they're a bit artificial at certain points, but certainly this much is clear. Love is mentioned first, and would certainly seem to be

8:05 a direct and deliberate attempt of the Apostle to set forth the fact that biblical love is that which does not grow in native Adamic soil. It grows where grace has come and visited the soil of the human heart. And likewise, with 1 Corinthians 13, the Apostle indicates that it is apparently possible for men to have penetrating insight to the Spirit.

8:35 and yet be devoid of grace, to have great usefulness both in gifts of utterance and even gifts to perform miracles and yet be devoid of the grace of love and therefore be devoid of grace. So when I use the term that love is a gracious disposition, I'm speaking of it being gracious in terms of its presence being the fruit of grace. Now what do I mean by the term principled disposition? It is a gracious and principled disposition.

9:15 Well I'm trying to emphasize that this love operates not by whims or impulses.

9:23 But by fixed perspectives and commitments of the soul.

9:30 When we speak of a principled man, we think of a man who operates not by the pressure of his peers or by the appeal of money or popularity. But he has some internal perspectives, whatever they are, and they are the rails on which the car of his life runs. And by which it is driven.

9:57 So we are concerned with a love that is rooted in the operations of grace and that operates in a principled way. That operates without being radically altered by the ups and downs of the emotional complexion of the preacher. Alright, the third key word in this description or definition of love is disposition. Disposition.

10:26 Disposition. Disposition. Disposition. Disposition.

10:26 It is said that this love is a gracious and principled disposition.

10:34 Now we use the word disposition to describe the normal or the prevailing aspect of one's nature. We say of a certain person, he has an ugly disposition. And what we mean is ugliness, nastiness, negativeness is the prevailing characteristic of the man's soul. We speak of someone and say he has a...

10:57 A happy disposition. A cheerful disposition. What we mean is that the prevailing habit or climate of their soul is one of happiness or cheerfulness. So when we think of that love that must grow in the soul of the servant of God to his people if his preaching is to be effective over the long haul, we are speaking of a love that is in the realm of disposition.

11:26 Now it may... Merge into a deep affection which always has with it an element of affinity.

11:38 When love merges into affection, then it always gives birth to this desire for closeness to the person. Affinity.

11:49 That's why most of you are married. You had a level of affection that led to a longing for the closest of affinities, the two. Becoming one flesh. Again, this love may grow into the love of complacency or delight in which there is not only a principled disposition binding you to your people, but there may be qualities emerging in your people that draw forth what the old writers called the love of complacency in which you actually delight in the things you see.

12:28 It's that love of complacency that Jesus... spoke of when he said, My father loves me because I lay down my life for the brethren.

12:38 Well, does that mean the father only began to love him when his obedience reached its apex? No, but it meant this dimension of love, that is the love of complacency, of delight, was intensified with each subsequent act of obedience on the part of our Lord Jesus to his father. But we are concerned now to think of love...

13:00 Love in terms of a disposition, a fixed principle. And then, fourthly, I've used the term, it is that principle disposition of goodwill which desires and seeks the good of its objects.

13:21 It is a principle disposition of goodwill which desires and seeks the good of its objects. You see, it is the opposite of selfishness. In the description of love in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says, Love seeks not its own. Its very nature is to go out seeking the good of its object.

13:52 Romans 13 and verse 10. Love works no ill to his neighbor. Love does not work ill to its neighbor. It desires and seeks...

14:07 It seeks the good, not the evil, of its object. And it is good as defined by God and not man. There are those who would say that when you seek to awake someone out of his never-never land of self-deception to see his lost condition and come under Holy Ghost conviction, that that's cruel. You're making a happy person sad.

14:32 A contented, fulfilled, integrated person, fragmented and fractured. You're destroying and pummeling his ego. But you see, from God's standpoint, that's the best thing you can do. Get him out of the never-never land of spiritual deception into the real world of where he's really at.

14:50 Under the wrath and curse of Almighty God if he is not in Christ. So when I use the term desires and seeks the good of its object, I mean good as defined by God, not by the object or by some other creature. And then, fifthly, Fourthly, love seeks these things even at personal cost.

15:14 Whenever we think of love in a biblical perspective, we cannot help but think in these terms. And of course, the most well-known text in all of the New Testament, John 3.16 underscores this. God so loved that he gave.

15:33 And what he gave cost him. Romans 8.32 He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. Ephesians 5.

15:44 Christ loved the church and gave himself up for it. Now that's the best I can do. But that's enough for my conscience to feel very uneasy that I don't know too much about love.

The Quality and Measure of Love for Our People

16:00 If it is a gracious and principled disposition of goodwill which desires and practically seeks the good of its object at personal cost when necessary, then surely this grace is essential if we are to be effective pastor-preachers to our people. Well, having talked around the subject of love, now I use the term in the axiom, we must have an increasing measure of unfeigned love. So having looked at love itself, now the quality of that love, it must be unfeigned.

16:46 Three times in the New Testament,

16:50 the word anupakritos is used with reference to love. It's used also with reference to faith and to wisdom and its other usages. But in 1 Peter 1.22, we are said to be those who having been begotten again are begotten again unto not only a living hope, 1 Peter 1.3,

17:18 but unto unfeigned, love of the brethren.

17:23 And Romans 12 and verse 9, we are admonished, let love be without hypocrisy. Same word in the original. And then it's interesting when Paul gives that concentrated list of the marks of a true minister as they refer to himself. He says in 2 Corinthians 6,

17:48 verses 4 to 6, in everything commending ourselves as ministers of God, in much patience, affliction, necessities, distresses, stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labors, watchfulness, fastings, pureness, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in love unfeigned. One of the marks, he says, of the ministry that I have and one of the indications that it is indeed a true ministry given by God is that it's carried on in love, in love, that is unfeigned. It's not fate. It is real.

18:31 It is a gracious disposition implanted and nurtured and cultivated by the power of the Holy Spirit. In other words, it's not a ministerial act. It's not some air that I assume. It is a genuine disposition wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit in relationship to those to whom we minister.

18:56 And then I want to say a word about its measure. I've said there must be an increasing,

19:05 increasing measure of unfeigned love. As your first weeks accumulate into months and your months into years and hopefully if the Lord spares you and the Lord delays His coming, the years into decades, you will not preach with continued freshness and usefulness to your people unless you preach with freshness. You preach in a context of increasing measures of unfeigned love to them. Now, just like with a healthy marriage, that means that the more you know them and know their faults and their failures and their weaknesses and all their ethical and moral warts and moles

19:49 and they know yours, the only glue that will keep the relationship together is a growing measure of unfeigned love. Isn't that true in your marriage? Whatever you thought you were walking down the aisle with, you knew after three weeks you didn't quite get the same product. And same thing with your wife.

20:14 She for sure knows that she didn't get quite the same product. And after three months, you know more fully. You really didn't know what you were walking down the aisle with and after three years, you know it more fully and after 30, it's amazing that you look back and shake your head and say, you know, I was so out of touch with reality, it's not even funny. And your wife will say the same thing.

20:38 But what makes you say after three weeks, three months, three years or 30 years that next to your relationship to Christ it is the most blessed relationship you've ever known. It's when true biblical love is operating in that relationship. With all of its vulnerability,

20:58 it's still operative. And so in the axiom, I've used the term deliberately, there must be an increasing measure of unfeigned love. And then I've just said to your people. And what do I mean by to your people?

21:12 Or to our people?

21:15 Well, of course, I mean primarily the members of the flock of God to whom we have explicit and clear biblical responsibilities. Acts 20 and verse 28, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock of God in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. But when I use the more generic term our people, I also mean those who come within the orbit of our influence and contact by virtue of caring for the flock of God. The natural association such as the children of the members of our assemblies.

22:00 The visitors who come among us. The unconverted whom we contact in our normal life as the people of God. And as we perhaps engage in cold turkey efforts to go house to house in evangelistic endeavor. Those that come within the orbit of our contacts in the working out of our commitments to shepherd the flock of God.

22:27 In that sense, they also become our people.

The Importance of Love for Effective Pastoral Preaching: Explicit Teaching

22:33 So I've given you the axiom. I've attempted to exegete it. Now, the second major concern is to demonstrate the importance of this growing measure of unfeigned love as it bears upon the work of pastoral preaching. Now remember, I'm not speaking of how it bears upon pastoral work in general.

22:58 But the relationship it sustains even in a more limited sense to the work of pastoral preaching. And here the biblical materials are so vast they are unwieldy. But I've tried to organize many of the biblical principles under five headings.

23:19 Why is it vital that we should have a growing measure of unfeigned love to our people if we would be effective preachers as pastors? Well, number one, because of the explicit teaching of 1 Corinthians 13. Because of the explicit teaching of 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

23:43 Now you remember the setting of this chapter. Paul is discussing spiritual gifts. He began the section in chapter 12 in verse 1 concerning spiritual gifts. Brethren, I would not have you ignorant.

23:58 And then as he deals with the subject of spiritual gifts and comes particularly in chapter 14 to deal with gifts of utterance with reference to their benefit to the assembly. He says that the, great concern should be to be preoccupied with gifts that are useful unto the edification of the church. 1 Corinthians 14.12 So also, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that you may abound unto the edifying of the church.

24:35 Now, his great concern is that the gifts be viewed in terms of the way and manner in which edification comes to the body. Now, with that in mind, look at his statement in the opening words of 1 Corinthians 13. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. I've become like a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal.

25:09 I make a noise, but there is no sweet music on the ear of the hearer. If I speak with the tongues I had the lid of an old garbage can and stood here with a spoon and banged and banged and banged. I'd only do one thing to you. I'd irritate you.

25:27 I wouldn't edify. I wouldn't please you. Now, a cymbal at the right point in a beautiful work of musical art can be a thrilling thing. Right at the apex when everybody's out triple forte and the cymbals clash and the rest, that can send a chill up and down your spine.

25:47 But Paul says, imagine having the guy who can only bang his cymbals twice. Here's a 40-minute symphony and he has to sit there and keep awake and only twice at the right point is he going to bang. And he's so frustrated. He comes to your house for coffee that night and he brings his instrument with him and he's a frustrated cymbal clasher.

26:06 So he just sits there all the while you're having coffee. Clash! Clash! Clash!

26:10 I mean, by the end of the night you'd have it. I mean, that's the imagery. That's the imagery, isn't it? If I speak with the tongues and men and angels, yet it is evident that in so speaking I am not impelled by love, bound to those to whom I'm speaking in love.

26:29 I become not a means of edification but a means of irritation.

26:34 And your reaction is to get the cymbals away and if you can't, to plug your ears. And that's exactly what happens with many people who preachers think they're stopping their ears because they won't receive the truth. No, the reality is they can't stand a clashing cymbal week after week. The din of it in their ears is too much for them.

26:56 Now I know the Bible does speak of those who will turn away their ears from the truth and will heap to themselves teachers who will tell them I know that aspect. I know that. That is a biblical truth. But what I'm saying is sometimes people hide behind that when in reality the people sitting there are tired and sick and weary of clashing cymbals in their ears.

27:18 And it has nothing to do with the volume of the preacher. It has to do with whether or not there is clear evidence that he's relating to them with an increasing measure of unfeigned love. Love as a gracious principle disposition that wills and seeks their good even at personal cost. And so brethren while we strive for impeccable orthodoxy and surely we can strive for nothing less, can we?

27:47 If it's the truth that is the greatest grand instrument of saving man and edifying man building them up into maturity in Christ if it's the form of sound words in Paul's language which alone are healthy words then surely we must labor at impeccable orthodoxy knowing and holding the form of sound words. We must seek to cultivate skill in speaking but it will all be an orchestration in futility and immutability and irritation without love. That's the explicit teaching of 1 Corinthians 13 and it comes couched in the context of dealing with public gifts or with gifts in general

28:30 and public gifts of utterance in particular. And therefore Paul puts the emphasis if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love I am become sounding grass and a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy that is if a man were given in that epoch of redemptive history the ability to be the very mouthpiece of revelatory action and know all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love I am nothing. And so I urge you though I'm anticipating how to cultivate it

The Importance of Love for Effective Pastoral Preaching: General and Specific Demands

29:15 here at this point I would urge you be familiar early and familiar and familiar with the truth. Frequently with 1 Corinthians chapter 13. But then secondly in demonstrating the importance of this growing measure of unfeigned love as it relates to preaching not only is it important because of the explicit teaching of 1 Corinthians 13 but number two because of the general demand for evangelical law keeping. Because of the general demand for evangelical law keeping.

29:49 I'll explain what I mean in a moment. There are peculiar duties and responsibilities laid upon us because of our office but none of the general duties of all believers are ever negated because of the specific duties of an elder. You see what I'm saying?

30:16 If this block represents all of the general duties of all Christians whatever specific and particular duties are laid upon office bearers in the church they are never laid upon us in such a way as to negate or cancel these. In fact they assume no little measure of advancement in the performance of these. If a man ruled not well his own household it doesn't say how shall he remain a church member but it does say how shall he take care of the church of God. How shall he be an elder?

30:51 You see. Alright. Now in that category then of biblical revelation what does God say to all believers? Well, in Romans 13 another key passage in Romans 13 verses 8 to 10 here is a general Christian duty.

31:09 Owe no man anything. Let no man say that he's on the bad end of a bad debt incurred because he was stupid enough to loan you some money. Now this is not a blanket prohibition of borrowing money because Jesus said give to him who asks of you and from him that would borrow of you turn not away. If it's a sin to borrow then Jesus was encouraging sin.

31:34 I've had more people all hung up about borrowing money and someone told them it's wrong under all circumstances I said alright then go quarrel with Jesus because he encouraged sin. He says give to him who asks of thee and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

31:51 To me that's the beginning middle and end of the case. So when he says owe no man anything he means don't be someone who has incurred a bad debt or who sustains a bad debt save to love one another. Regard yourself in constant debt with respect to what you owe your brethren in the area of love. Owe no man anything with regard to material possessions and money and commodities let no man say you're on the end of a bad deal that I've received by borrowing or you borrowing from me.

32:28 You haven't paid me what you've promised to pay me. No. Owe no man anything. save here's the exception to love one another.

32:37 Look upon every man as someone to whom you're indebted indebted to love him. For he that loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this you shall not commit adultery you shall not kill you shall not steal you shall not covet and if there be any other commandment it is summed up not cancelled not negated it is summed up the commandment the commandment in its abiding and binding nature upon the believer who is rendering evangelical obedience that is obedience out of love to Christ out of serious loving regard for God's authority not seeking to earn his salvation but having been

33:21 freely saved by grace is seeking to walk in obedience if there is any other commandment it is summed up in this word you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love works no ill to his neighbor it is that gracious principled commitment to seek his well-being love works no ill to his neighbor love therefore is not the negation the cancellation of the law but it is the fulfillment of the law. The law is filled up to the full in its requirement when you love your neighbor when you seek his good as that good is defined by God's precepts

34:04 thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal and all the other commandments Paul says if there be any other commandment that's a rhetorical device there are a lot more and he said in keeping those commandments you fulfill them you fill them to the full when you perform them out of the sense of the indebtedness of love to your neighbor whenever I'm in the presence of my neighbor I have a debt to you how much more brethren when my neighbor happens to be the sheep for whom Christ died when it happens to be my brethren among whom the Lord has placed me to be a helper of their faith and therefore

34:49 I am under the pressure of evangelical law keeping I have a debt to my people and that debt is the debt of love and therefore in all of my interaction with them I am never free from that debt to love then thirdly because of the specific nature of our office because of the specific nature of our office we are constituted the under shepherds of the chief shepherd and you remember how Peter uses this play on words in 1 Peter 5 1 to 4 he says shepherd the flock of God

35:34 using the verb form of shepherd shepherd and then he says when the chief shepherd shall appear the archipoimonos appears ye shall receive the reward Christ is the great and chief shepherd and as such he is the great pattern of what it is to be a shepherd he that says he abides in him ought to walk even as he walked the disciple is not above his teacher nor the servant above his master it is enough that the disciple be as his master and we are to be as our master

36:17 and in his shepherding function what is that function with respect to our Lord if divorced from this matter of love our Lord in underscoring his functions and ministry as the great and chief shepherd the good shepherd uses these words John 10 and verse 11 I am the good shepherd good shepherd the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep if that isn't a description of what love does in seeking the good of its object at personal cost then I don't know where to find such an illustration in scripture

37:01 I am the good shepherd the good shepherd manifesting his selfless love to the sheep lays down his life for them chapter 15 and verse 13 I am the good shepherd the good shepherd I am the good shepherd

37:18 though we don't have a direct reference to shepherd notice the laying down of the life is impelled by love according to our Lord greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends so as the good shepherd who lays down his life it is laying down the life as a manifestation of love so then even when we see him in the midst of the lampstands in Revelation 3 saying some very well shocking words to the refined ear of the 20th century congregation when he speaks to the church at Laodicea he says because you're neither cold nor hot I'm about to

38:03 vomit you out I'm about to puke we would say now we have the old euphemistic translation I'm about to spew the you ever hear anyone say I gotta go into the bathroom and spew no you're gonna vomit no that doesn't sound very loving Christ in the midst of the lampstand speaks and says I'm about to vomit you out but he says in Revelation 3 19 as many as I love I rebuke and I chase as many as I love you see the good that he does is good that's determined by God not by human sentiment now since our

38:47 great influence is that exerted in the preaching of the word do you see how greatly we misrepresent the chief shepherd God's if there is not a growing measure of unfeigned love for our people as we preach to them a love that can be felt and known how we misrepresent the chief shepherd if we do not as under shepherds manifest his spirit of self-giving love and that of course even with respect to the unsaved for when he saw the multitudes the indiscriminate masses Matthew 9 37 saw them as sheep without a shepherd vulnerable exposed as sheep

39:32 without a shepherd or exposed to the predators it says his heart was moved with compassion and you have that untranslatable Greek word that speaks of the viscera being moved it was a moving at the depths of his being and then you see it breaking out in his wailing over Jerusalem in Luke 19 in verse 41 when he beheld the city the city that he knew was lying under the judgment of God for they knew not the day of his visitation it says and Warfield is careful to point out that distinction in the two words in John when he comes to the place of Lazarus' tomb he weeps

40:16 and the word for weeping there is the restrained weeping whereas the word used for Luke in Luke 19.41 is that he wailed unrestrained weeping weeping over the city what was this but unfeigned love to a people that he knew had spurned him and yet he wept over them and so the nature of our offices under shepherds brethren demands that there be a growing measure of this unfeigned love or we grievously misrepresent the chief shepherd but then in the fourth place we must have this increasing measure of love because of what I'm calling the constituted relationship

The Importance of Love for Effective Pastoral Preaching: Open Ears and Sermon Influence

41:00 between the shepherds assured love and an open ear because of the constituted relationship between assured love and an open ear now that's a strange statement but again I'll try to explain it if you would do good to your people you must have their ears and if you would have their ears you must have their confidence and if you're to have their confidence they must be assured that you're laboring for their well-being which is just another thing another way of saying they must be assured that you love them

41:44 now you ask yourself this very simple question to whom do I most readily joyfully and safely give my ears in any kind of public ministry is it not to those in whom you have the greatest degree of confidence that they really love you you don't sit there and think now does this man love me shall I give my ear it just happens and where someone has earned your confidence that they love you there's an immediate relationship between your assurance of their love and the openness of your ear

42:29 now listen to Baxter who certainly was no stroker in modern terminology who believed that the only way to motivate people was to stroke them make them feel good and never say any negative things to them but Baxter on page 117 and spilling over onto 118 in his classic work The Reformations from Pastor this is the Banner of Truth paperback edition hits the nail right on the head when he writes the whole of our ministry must be carried on in tender love to our people we must let them see that nothing pleases us but what profits them and that what does them good does us good

43:12 and that nothing troubles us more than their hurt we must feel toward our people as a father toward his children yea the tenderest love of a mother must not surpass ours we must even travail in birth till Christ be formed in them in allusion to Galatians 4.19 they should see that we care for no outward thing whether wealth, liberty, honor, life in comparison of their salvation but we could even be content with Moses to have our names blotted out of the book of life to be removed from the number of the living rather than they should not be found in the thus should we as John said

43:56 be ready to lay down our lives for the brethren we've received of the Lord Jesus when the people see you unfeignedly love them they're the true people of God now no one loved like the Lord Jesus and no one had such opposition as he say we not well that thou art a Samaritan and hast a his assumption is that you got sheep not when the people

44:39 that is the true people of God see you unfeignedly love them they hear and bear anything from be ourselves will take all things well from one that we know does entirely love us we'll put up with a blow that is given in love sooner than with a foul word spoken to us in malice or in anger most men judge of the council as they judge of the affection of him that gives so far as to give it a fair hearing all therefore see that you feel a tender love to your people in your breasts and let them perceive it

45:19 in your speeches and see it see there is a constituted relationship between the open ear and the assurance of the love of the one who seeks to speak the section on preaching the gospel in his christian ministry where he speaks of preaching the gospel in the spirit of love on three thirty six we're not arguing for that sensitive delicacy which refrains to wound when the patient draws energetic tone of faithfulness

46:03 should not be blend with that considerate treatment unquestionably nation may be driven but rational creatures repulsion of love is the mighty lever his friends say lever of operation even the heathen sophist insisted upon kindness in an orator as indispensable to his success and doubtless none will open their hearts to the christian minister except the instructions has impressed them with a sincere conviction

46:45 of his love love is the life power soul and spirit or soul and philippians one eight where paul in language of affection philippians read the text and then just a little segment of his commentary philippians one in verse eight

47:25 god is witness i long after tender mercies it's almost soupy and saccharine it's so gushy but he says god is witness that my words don't exceed the reality of my heart god is witness i greatly long after you language of love god is my witness he now declares more explicitly his love for that uses a little how dear in the sight of god is the edification of his church

48:09 it was two of the first importance that paul's love should be thoroughly made known to the philippine small degree for the teaching all degree win credit for the teaching when the people are persuaded they are loved number five what is the relationship between this

48:50 increasing measure of unfeigned love and pulpit usefulness well because of the specific ways in which love will actually influence creation and delivery of the sermon because of the specific way it's in which love will influence the preparation and delivery of the sermon a series of questions is effective preaching marked by its fidelity to the text of scripture i hope all of you answer without any hesitation yes it is by the truth

49:31 that men are to be set free by the truth they are to be sanctified well then brethren it is love to your people love that desires their highest good that will drive you to carefulness in exegesis that will press you on when all this dark and murky and for the like of you you don't know what no long the passages say yet it's the next passage in your consecutive expositions and you believe that unshould live not by able only by very worried that proceeds from the mouth of god and you believe that all scripture is given by inspiration pastor bol that only for teaching but reproof correction instruction in righteousness and it's a commitment

50:15 two those principles that makes you commit yourself to a course of expository lectures and you come to a paragraph and you can't even sort out the subordinate from the main clauses and phrases and the strain, the thought. And there are times you actually get irritated with Paul and say, why didn't you write for simple guys like me? Now, maybe you're not so carnal, but I confess there are times...

50:39 And then I said, Lord, forgive me. That thought is blasphemous. This is not Paul. This is your mind revealed through the mindset and the complex and vast intellectual capacities of, Lord, forgive me.

50:52 This is your precious word. It's my dullness. It's my laziness that's recoiling. There is something precious and needful here for your people.

51:01 Well, what will drive you to go the extra mile in the labor of exegesis if it isn't love for your people that is determined to serve them up nothing but the truth,

51:16 the whole truth, the truth as best God gives you, grace to understand it.

51:23 You see, often, the measure of your love for your people will be tested in the unglamorous labor of careful, exegetical spade work.

51:34 Do I love my people enough to copy, uh-oh, to labor unto toil and pain in the word and in doctrine? When you know you could bluff it and get away with it on that given Sunday with most of the people. If you happen to be part of a situation where you've got an academy and a bunch of guys sitting out there with their Greek texts and all the rest, you might not. Some of us are so perverse that God surrounds us with a lot of helps to keep us on track.

52:04 But you may not be surrounded with such helps.

52:09 Well, you see how practical this matter of love to your people is? Lord, I love them too much to give them anything but wholesome words to give them your truth. Is effective preaching marked by its logical order, transparency of structure, so people can sort out the head from the tail in the subjection? Sermon?

52:29 Is it marked by logical progression? Whether your heads are announced or not, that's a moot question. But no sermons are blessed as a general rule over the long haul in pastoral preaching that are not, to some great degree, expressions of logical, orderly, transparent structure. People are not edified and built up into solid, mature Christians who just get a holy gush from the pulpits Sunday by Sunday.

52:59 They may be very warm, loving, and in that sense, experimentally sensitive people, but they will not be intelligent, well-grounded believers described in Ephesians 4 as those who are no longer children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.

53:19 It's love to your people that will make you labor to be logical and transparent and clear when many times the exegesis may be relatively easy and you say, well, I see what the passage teaches, but now how do I lay this out so that the lambs can get it? How can I lay it out so that the babes as well as the grown men spiritually can be edified? Well, you see, it's love that will drive you to scratch out two or three or four or five, six different ways of trying to handle the passage only to chuck them and try again and chuck it and try again. But it's love that drives you, drives you, not love for you, your own reputation.

54:03 God have mercy on you if that's what it is. But love for your people is effective preaching marked by its searching element,

54:13 its riveting element.

54:17 Well, it's love to your people that will make you labor to seek to do what Baxter said, to screw the word into their consciences. Remember the imagery of your academy night? And view the human mind like hard oak and many times screwing wood into hard oak without any pilot hose is hard work. But you see, if you're convinced that the word will not profit them until it fastens itself upon the conscience, then it's love for your people that will drive you to labor in the whole area of how to make your preaching applicatory.

54:55 Whether in terms of comfort, in terms of conviction, in terms of motivation to holiness, whatever it is.

55:04 And it's love week in, week out, year in, year out, year out, love to your people that will constantly keep you laboring to apply the word. Is effective preaching marked in its actual delivery by earnestness and pathos? Then it's love that will cause you to pour out your heart again and again and again until you feel there's nothing more to pour out. To say with the Apostle Paul as he did in 1 Thessalonians 2, 7 and 8, that he was seeking in his ministry to the world to the Thessalonians something of this spirit.

55:42 We were gentle in the midst of you as a nurse cherishing her own children, being affectionately desirous of you. We were pleased to impart not the gospel of God only, but our own souls, our own principle of inner life, because you were become very dear to us. What was it that caused him to say, I'm willing to impart not just a block of propositional truth, but also the gospel but mingle my very life's blood with it, my very soul. Why?

56:15 You were become dear to us. We love you. And it was the impelling pressure of love that caused this element of earnestness, tenderness, pathos, likened in one place to that of a nursing mother and later on to a faithful father in this chapter. Paul could say before the very witnesses, you know that I was among you with humility of mind, Acts 20, saying, serving the Lord, and he says, I was with you house to house publicly, teaching you with tears.

56:47 With tears. With tears. And brethren, there perhaps are few things that are more demanding in the area of love to your people than to be wrung out over them Lord's day by Lord's day. To be wrung out over your people, and especially when the years mount up into the decades and you feel that there's nothing more to be wrung out.

57:11 And yet you say there's no other way to minister to their well-being. Spurgeon said in one of the most pathetic in the truest sense,

57:20 pathos, pathos, not pitiable, but in the truest sense of pathetic, when he speaks in his biography of, or it's in maybe his, you know, his lectures to his students of this whole concept of being utterly poured out over his people until there wasn't a drop left and then to go back and ask God to fill him again that he might be poured out. In the labor of ministry.

57:46 On page 92 of Preaching and Preachers, Lloyd-Jones makes some very perceptive comments. Partly a confession. And it's very interesting.

57:58 A special word must be given also, though in a sense we've been covering it. It's the element of pathos. If I had to plead guilty to one thing more than any other, I would have to confess that this perhaps has been what was most lacking in my own ministry. This pathos should arise partly from a love for the people Richard Cecil, an Anglican preacher in London toward the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, said something that should make us all think, quote, to love to preach is one thing.

58:30 To love those to whom we preach is quite another. To love to preach is one thing. The exhilaration of the felt sense of God's presence. Something of the exhilaration of seeing the look of light in people's eyes as truth dawns upon them.

58:49 To love to preach is one thing. To love those to whom we preach is quite another. The trouble with some of us is that we love preaching, but we're not always careful to make sure we love the people to whom we are actually preaching.

59:06 Spurgeon, in his lectures to his students, on page 341, and then spilling over into 342, addresses this subject again.

59:18 He speaks of the whole matter of emotional persuasion. People, who need not so much reasoning as heart argument, logic set on fire. You must argue with your people as a mother pleads with her boy that he will not grieve her, or as a fond sister entreats a brother to return to the father's home and seek reconciliation. Argument must be quickened into persuasion by the living warmth of love.

59:44 Cold logic has its force, but when made red hot with affection, the power of tender argument is inconceivable. The power which one mind can gain over others is enormous, but it's often best developed when the leading mind has ceased to have power over itself. When passionate zeal has carried the man himself away, his speech becomes an irresistible torrent sweeping all before it. A man known to be godly and devout and felt to be large-hearted and self-sacrificed has a power in his very person, and his advice and recommendation carry weight

60:28 because of his character. But when he comes to plead and to persuade, even to tears, his influence is wonderful, and God the Holy Spirit yokes it to his service. Brethren, we must be pleaders. And then he goes on to deal with that principle and how our people must know that even when we do not attain our end in preaching, our heart is set upon that end, and we're not what I call take-it-or-leave-it preachers.

60:58 To me, there are few things more abominable than take-it-or-leave-it preachers. Here's the wad of truth. I've dumped it on you. Take it or leave it.

61:06 If you can dump it that way, don't dump it. Let somebody else do it.

61:12 There ought to be that sense that you leave a disappointed and aggrieved man if the truth you've brought does not have its desired intent in the lives of those to whom you minister. Well, these are at least five of the ways, brethren, in which there is this relationship between love and effectiveness in pulpit ministry. They are not all of the ways, but they are some of them. Why is it essential to have an increasing measure of unfeigned love to our people?

Nurturing Love: Prayer and Meditation

61:43 The explicit teaching of 1 Corinthians 13, the general demand for evangelical law-keeping, the specific nature of our office, because of the constituted relationship between assured love and an open year, and because of the actual way in which love will exert its influence in both the preparation and delivery of our sermons. Well, let's take a break, and then I can cover in just about 15 minutes some practical suggestions as to the nurture and manifestation of this love in pastor-flock relationships. All right, so let's take a break. Well, brethren, we'll pick up in these remaining minutes, and I'll try to just give what can only be called

62:27 some practical suggestions as to the nurture and manifestation of this love in your pastor-flock relationships. As to its nurture,

62:41 first and foremost, continually cry to God for it. That seems so obvious that you may wonder about the wisdom of even mentioning it, but I have found again and again when I've been at the point where I've said, Lord, I just can't take this anymore from this particular sheep or this particular sheep, or this particular segment of the flock.

63:04 It's like the Lord says, I don't hear any voices, but in the reasoning of faith in the light of Scripture. Well, serves you right.

63:13 How long has it been since you've asked me for an increased measure of love? And then I'm humbled to realize that perhaps too long the period is gone in which I have not cried to God that I would be filled with the Spirit whose fruit is love. And if He gives His Spirit to those who ask Him, He gives the Spirit with His increased measures of gifts and graces to those who ask. So many times the sense of the loss of love or the absence of a sufficient measure of love is God's curse upon our own prayerlessness.

63:54 You have not because you ask not. So continually cry to God that He would give you increased measures of love. of love. of love.

64:05 of love. of love. of love. of love.

64:05 of love. of love. of love. of love.

64:05 of love. of love. of love. of love.

64:06 of that principled kind of love that seeks the well-being of your people. And then secondly as to its nurture, deliberately and periodically meditate upon those truths calculated to produce it.

64:31 To cry to God and not to use the means ordained of God for the cultivation and development of that love is to tempt God.

64:43 And what are some of the truths that are most calculated to produce this love for our people which must be paramount in our ministry to them? Well, think first of all of their worth in the sight of God. Their worth in the sight of God.

65:06 And here I would urge you to meditate periodically on pages 131 and 32 of Baxter's Reformed Pastor where he takes the phrase as you know the structure of that entire treatise is Acts 20-28 and he takes the phrase the church which he purchased with his own blood. The church purchased the blood of the incarnate God. What worth does God place upon the people to whom you're ministering? And Baxter in the truest sense waxes eloquent on that concept.

65:39 And when I can remember in spite of all the things that may irritate me and disappoint me and grieve me God's estimation is not changed. Christ is not stepped out of heaven and said I'm sorry I shed my blood for that bunch. His estimation stands and mine must continually be brought to the touchstone of His.

66:02 And so as you meditate on their worth in the sight of God. Secondly the worth of a soul in itself.

66:13 Mark 8-36 What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? One soul is worth more in the sight of God than the accumulated wealth and possessions of the entire world. Well meditate upon that. And a gracious heart a heart in whom the Holy Spirit dwells cannot meditate on the worth of a soul and then be prepared to write someone off the first time there's that which comes toward us that irritates disappoints grieves etc.

66:50 And then meditate thirdly on the true state of men.

66:56 Their true state if you're thinking of the people of God think of all the horrible potential of remaining sin in them. Think of what that's done in your own life when you're tempted to be impatient and unloving to use your pulpit as a club by which to beat people because you're irritated and angry and irked at what they've done. And many a pulpit has been turned into a pounding club.

67:29 And that's one of the most horrible abuses of it. But think of their true state. The people of God yes they are loved washed they are in Christ yet they have remaining sin. They battle a devil who's wiser than they are.

67:44 They feel the pressures of a world that is squeezing them into its mold.

67:50 Any man who's living in biblical honesty with his own remaining sin should not find it difficult to be patient with others who are struggling with their remaining sin. Then as far as the lost are concerned think of their true state. 2 Timothy 2.26 Paul pictures them as the devil's captives led about to do his will.

68:19 They're blind they're deaf they're the slaves of sin. And though God has righteous anger against them we as those who were once in that state should have nothing but pity for them. Pity for them.

68:37 Well these are some of the truths brethren calculated to help us in nurturing that principled disposition that seeks their good even at personal cost. So cry to God for this love and then deliberately periodically meditate upon the truths calculated to produce it. But then I want to say a word about its manifestation.

Manifesting Love: In Word and Deed

69:04 You must not only be concerned about its nurture but its manifestation both in and out of the pulpit. And this is vital. If the only place the people would get a hint that you love them was in the pulpit it won't be long before they're convinced that what you're showing there is fate.

69:25 You hear me? If the only place you're showing something that seems to be an expression of love is in the pulpit it won't be long before people will question the sincerity of that supposed love. And since the Bible speaks of love being manifested in two ways I'll use that as the framework for my subheads. 1 John 3 18 Beloved let us not love in word only assumption is we will love in word but in deed and in truth.

69:57 So we love in word and we love in deed. Now I know in our western culture men using words of affection to other men and women in public address is not considered part of our western heritage. Well I could care less. Is it biblical?

70:18 Then chuck your western heritage to the extent that it runs counter to the Bible. If it keeps you from being biblical then stick your tongue out at it. Kick it in the bridges. And you cannot be biblical and be a stranger to such biblical words as agapitos dearly beloved we were affectionately desirous of you you became dear to us even to a bunch of people that caused him his greatest heartache Paul could say in 2 Corinthians 12 15 though the more I love the less I be loved he told this bunch of people he loved them and that his love

71:02 to them was increasing even though the more it increased to them the less he was getting in return.

71:10 Now some of us many of us were brought up in homes where we were cursed with this horrible notion that for men to express love verbally let alone physically is just not done. Well I'm convinced it is an unbiblical expression of how sin has worked its way out into various structures of society and in our own particular society people can feel at liberty to do all kinds of things that are ungodly and yet they're all tied up in knots when it comes to doing things that are godlike. God loves me in word and I'm so glad I've got his word. Aren't you?

71:51 I can go and be assured of his love. Well we need to love in word. Let us not love in word only. The assumption is we will love in word and we have the precedent.

72:01 We have our Lord expressing his love to his own. We have the Father expressing his love to the Son. This is my Son my dearly beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. We have the Apostle expressing in many ways his love to the people of God.

72:16 So must we.

72:19 And how can we do that in word? Many ways. This is why your place at the door after preaching is vital. When you place the hand on the shoulder and you speak a word that expresses affection where you show an interest and a concern where you use words to be the vehicle of that principle disposition that is seeking the well-being of your people and love will find its own ways its enterprising a way consistent with your own age temperament and all of those factors I'm fully conscious that all of those influence the precise form in which we will express our love in word but nonetheless

73:04 we must express it in word but also in deed. In deed. Your sermons be a constant reflection of the depth of your love to your people.

73:19 Let them be the fruit of kapia'o labor unto pain and toil. Determine that you will never serve up by God's grace to God's people that which cost you nothing. One of the things that I'm going to say is that one of the greatest proofs of your love to your people over the long haul is maintaining an increasingly high standard of pulpit ministry and true sheep will know that you love them because they know at least to some degree that you don't maintain an increasingly high standard of pulpit ministry without great pains to yourself and they will come to love you and respect you more and more as you manifest your love to them.

74:04 Love indeed arduous labors to feed them well in being sensitive to their peculiar needs which demand individual pastoral care in being sensitive to their individual needs which demand pastoral care.

74:27 Some people are very reluctant they know it costs you to produce in the pulpit week after week. They have a real conscience about intruding on your time and it's difficult for them to do that. It's difficult for them to say Pastor I have a problem may I come and see you but they'll throw out a little hint hoping that maybe you'll say do you have a problem that I ought to come and see you about and if love has caused your ears to grow out of size to the rest of you that's what they'll do you'll pick up on the hints they're throwing out and you won't wait till the situation gets so desperate that they climb over all of their own reservations you'll say look if I'm hearing you rightly brother I'm going to go is there something we need to talk about I don't want to meddle

75:11 in a matter that's between you and the Lord and it's none of my business but is there something we need to talk about well yes pastor there really is well when can I come and see you you're proving indeed your preparedness to alter your schedule not to undermine your responsibilities but to adjust your schedule in fulfilling them to meet the need of one of your sheep another way to do it indeed not only arduous labors to feed you but to feed them willingness to take the initiative for individual pastoral care were needed but by affectionate relationships with their children I don't know how I'm going to get through Mark 10 without preaching one topical message

75:55 on Jesus' relationship to children because we'll come back to it again in Mark 10 as we were in it last week and if anything is Christ-like being affectionate and intimate with children is children never felt threatened in the presence of our Lord that incident I expounded last week it took grace not to digress but it says he took a little child and set him in the midst I mean that's contrary to a child's nature to be picked up and set down somewhere the threatening presence of these grown men and all of the rest but it was the confidence of that little child in Jesus that made him so pliable now how was that confidence developed? well that was the home in Capernaum

76:40 that Jesus had visited many times I'm personally convinced they built up a relationship from a distance till he gained the confidence so that in that situation we want to use the child as an object lesson the child was so confident that Jesus would never ask him to do anything or do anything that wasn't in his own best interest that he had no hang-ups when Jesus said come here sonny and he came and then he stood him down and he just stood there and when it was time to take him in his arms and put him on his breast it was natural because it wasn't the first time the kid had been there and you go through the Gospels and there's a beautiful doctrine of Christ relationship to children and there's someone who said he who lays his hand on the head of a child lays his hand on the heart of his mother

77:24 he who lays his hand upon the head of a child lays his hand upon the heart of his mother and if you feel awkward around children get over your awkwardness you say well I feel stupid getting down and talking I feel stupid until it becomes natural you felt stupid the first time you tried to drive a car some of us from the dark ages we had to do a lot more than you guys did we had to learn how to push and pull and a clutch and a gear shift and all of the rest and it was not a natural thing driving a car is a very unnatural activity especially in a metropolitan area these poor fellas from California and those of us here but you learned it so now you can do it for hours and not even think what you're doing

78:06 but it was very unnatural at first getting all this stuff all set but you worked at it until it became natural so if you don't naturally feel comfortable around little kids so what you're not so you're not so fixed in your ways you can't learn a few things between now and the time you go to heaven so just learn to be natural around the children learn to cultivate the ability to make children feel at ease with you love indeed the affectionate touches and approaches and conversation with children little ways again these are mundane but over the long haul they add up occasional phone calls

78:51 when you're praying for the flock and you notice you just haven't had a chance to talk with a given sheep for a month or two and you just call them and say look there's no particular concern just notice looking back as I was praying for you this morning that it's been a couple of months since we even had a conversation about the weather how's everything at home no hit no no no nothing just call it letting you know that I know you exist and I'm concerned about you when there are deaths in the family train your wife to be sure to go out and get appropriate sympathy cards you don't know what a card from the past oh yes you've called you may have even conducted the funeral but that you go the extra mile to have something

79:35 come through the mail a few days after the wound has been opened and now begins to close there are men sitting here who have experienced the bitterness of death in their own families that will tell you it's never just a little meaningless card in the sense in which a part of a person's heart comes with that expression again if you're determined by the grace of God that you will love your people and that your people will know that you love them by word and by deed as Dr. Packer has reminded us love is very enterprising and you will find ways to express that love in word and deed appropriate to your station and age and development and all the rest

80:20 see that's one of the joys of getting old in that you can be a lot more physical with a lot more people in the flock in a way you couldn't be when you were younger it used to frustrate me when I was a younger man that it would not have been discreet for me to have even put my hand on the shoulder of many of the women it's great that now some of them I can hug them in front of their husbands with a good conscience before God and before men but that's appropriate to somebody who's a grandfather it would have been inappropriate when I was in my thirties alright let not your good may have been a good expression of love indeed but let not your good be your good be evil spoken of alright so all of these things are flexible and I can't give you a manual

81:05 but I hope I've given you enough specifics and don't wait till somewhere out there to begin to do these things but here and now because over the long haul once the novelty of your initial ministry is over every time you stand in the pulpit you bring with you the measure of proven love that you've established between you and your people and that influences and colors and flavors and gives weight to everything you say in your pulpit ministrations well that's all I wanted to say to you on the whole matter of seeking to cultivate and manifest this love any of you men that on a tight schedule it's two minutes to one and you feel free to leave otherwise we'll take maybe just ten minutes

81:50 for any discussion that may be in order alright