"Love Your Enemies"

hymn number 475. 475. Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child and forever I am. Redeemed, redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed His child and forever I am Redeemed and so happy in Jesus No language my rapture can tell I know that the light of His presence With me doth continually dwell Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, His child and forever I am. I think of my blessed Redeemer, I think of Him all the day long. I sing for I cannot be silent His love is the theme of my song Redeem, redeem Redeem by the blood of the Lamb Redeem, redeem His child and forever I am I know I shall see in His beauty The King in whose law I delight Who lovingly guarded my footsteps And giveth me songs in the night Redeem, redeem Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, His child and forever I am. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number 497. 497.

When I can't read my title clear Mansions in the skies How bid farewell to every year And wipe my weeping eyes And wipe my weeping eyes And wipe my weeping eyes I'll bid farewell to every fear, And wipe my weeping eyes. Should earth against my soul engage, And fiery darts be hurled, Then I can smile at Satan's raging, Face a frowning world. And face a frowning world. And face a frowning world. And I can't smile at Satan's rage. And face a frowning world. Let cares like a wild day good come. Storms of sorrow fall.

May I but safely reach my home. My God, my heaven, my all. My God, my heaven, my all. God, my heaven, my home. May I not safely reach my home, My God, my heaven, my home. There shall I bathe my weary soul, Seize a heavenly rest, And not a wave of trouble Roll across my peaceful breast. Across my peaceful breast.

Luke chapter 6. We want to remember Daryl Hartman this morning in prayer. Brad, his son's got him up at the emergency room. And he hurt his arm the other day and hasn't been able to get around, has to be helped a lot. So please remember them. He's been a dear friend for 40-something years. Forty-something, yeah, oh my goodness, yeah. Forty-six, I guess, maybe even longer than that. A long time, a long time. But please remember them when we pray this morning. Let me start reading at verse 27 of Luke chapter 6 and read down to verse 38.

But I say unto you, which hear Love your enemies, do good them which hate you. Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the cheek, offer also the other. And him that taketh away thy cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee, and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask him not again.

And as you would that men should do to you, Do ye also to them likewise? For if you love them which love you, what thank have you? For sinners also love those that love them. And if you do good to them which do good to you, what thank have you? Sinners also do even the same. And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thank have you? For sinners also lend to sinners. to receive as much again.

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend hoping for nothing again. And your reward shall be great, and you shall be called the children of the highest. For he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned.

Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. Give, and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you meet, wither, it shall be measured to you again. Our most gracious God and Father, it says here that you're merciful. Be merciful as our Father is merciful. And Lord Jesus, we are so blessed to have your mercy. We're thankful for your mercies. We're thankful that they're new every morning. And your compassions never, never fail. And our blessed master, we come into your holy presence. We come with thanksgiving that we are allowed to meet this morning, that we are in our right minds, that we are able to meet, to read your word.

And Lord, give me wisdom and understanding to how to deal with it today. And our blessed Savior, we pray for this congregation. God, that you said here in your word, they that hear, Lord, give people ears to hear. You're the seeing eye and the hearing ear both come alike from you. And so, Lord, give hearing our ears and eyes to see, and we'll bless you and praise you in Christ our Lord's name. And now, Father, we pray for our families, oh, our families, Please meet the needs of our families, O God.

Convince them of their sin. Convince them of their need of Christ. Convince them of their lost condition. Make them understand how desperately, desperately far away they are from you. And Lord, you, we need you. And Lord, we pray for Daryl, his family. God bless Daryl. Lord Jesus, we ask you give him strength, give him an abundance of grace, give them abundance of grace. Bless his family for taking care of him, watching over him, helping him, encouraging him. And Lord Jesus, we pray for Shirley's son. Oh Lord, that you'd please do something for him, protect him, keep him from any news that's not good, and forgive us of everything that's unlike Him.

Bring glory to yourself through Christ our Lord's name. Amen. I forgot to mention Shirley's son, Chris, is in the emergency room too this morning. He got hit in the head with a golf ball the other day, and he's got a concussion. He's been in the hospital twice with it, and so we remember him too. Let's stand together and sing the hymn of the day in the bulletin.

Now in a song of grateful praise To Christ my Lord my voice I'll raise With all His saints I'll join to tell I, Jesus, have done all things well All worlds His glorious power confess, His wisdom all His works express. But, O His love, what tongue can tell? My Jesus has done all things well. How sober, wonderful, and free! Ask Him His love to send for me. He plucked me from the jaws of hell. My Jesus has a calling spell. I spurned his grace, I broke his laws, and yet he undertook my cause. To save me could not repel, thy Jesus has done.

♪ All things well ♪ ♪ Though many a reflaming dart ♪ ♪ The tempter levels at my heart ♪ ♪ With this his rage repel ♪ ♪ My Jesus has done all things well ♪ And when to that bright world I rise, And join the anthems in the skies, Above the rest this note shall swell, My Jesus has done all things well.

Our Lord's teaching was and is above any teaching before or any teaching since. No one taught, and the things that he dealt with, nobody other religion dealt with it. And our Lord Jesus, he faced things, dealt with things, He deals with heart issues. Our Lord deals with heart issues, issues of us living from day to day.

And now we last week, we dealt with blessings and woes. And now he starts teaching one great subject in these verses. And that's love, charity. And he taught us the true spirituality of the law. And I want to go through this, and I want you to consider that Christ, everything that he says in this verses, he did for us. He did for us. You consider it as our relationship to Christ.

And love, love is the great characteristic of the gospel. Love and charity is the bond of perfectness. Now, you keep Luke 6 and look over in Colossians chapter 3. If you can, get over to Colossians chapter 3, verse 12. You know, in 1 Corinthians 12, the last verse says this, faith, hope, and charity. And the greatest of these is charity, which is love. When we get to glory, we won't need faith. Hope will be seen, but love will continue throughout eternity. God's love for us and our love for Him will continue throughout eternity.

But now look in verse 12 of chapter 3. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercy. That means hearts of mercy. kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another. If any men have a quarrel against any, listen to this, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put on charity. Why? Because that's the bond that joins people together perfectly. bounds them in perfectness. So our love of God tells us, the scriptures tells us back over in our text, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. And the scriptures tell us plainly, he that loveth not knows not God, just don't know him. God is love.

And the Pharisees had changed the law to suit their nature. They changed everything. That's why our Lord said when he went through the Sermon on the Mount, you've heard it said, you've heard it said. And he'd go through what the Pharisees taught, then he would correct all the things that they taught wrong. And our Lord Jesus Christ said to these Pharisees, change the law to fit their natures. You know, that's what they tried to do, you know. They say, well, listen, love your neighbor but hate your enemy. your neighbor and hate your enemy. I'm going to show you something. Look in Leviticus 19, 18. Look in Leviticus chapter 19, 18. Leviticus is the third book in the Bible. And look in chapter 19 and verse 18. what our Master said here.

Verse 18, Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord. Now they turned that around and taught that you love your neighbor but hate your enemy. Our Lord said love your enemies.

The teaching of our Master came in the midst of this narrow-minded, intolerant Jews who came to, and our Lord came to tear down the walls. He came to tear down the walls, the walls of prejudice, the walls of false teaching, the walls of not understanding what our Lord really taught. And he's going to tear down every wall between every nationality, every Jew, every Gentile, All our Lord considers all men the same. He made of one blood all nations."

And that's why he said, love your enemies. And no doubt, this startled his audience. He said, love your enemies. Can you imagine how shocking that was? Can you imagine how that startled these people? They'd never heard nothing like that before. Love your enemies. Love them. That's what he said. Love them. Love them.

You know, our Lord Jesus, we were his enemies. Oh, what enemies we were. What enemies we were. But he loved us. God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And Romans chapter 5 and verse 10 says that while we were yet enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death, the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. So our Lord Jesus Christ, who are we to love?

Our enemies. Our Lord loved us while we were yet His enemies. We were enemies. Oh, how we were enemies in our mind by wicked works, yet He loved us. And He loved us with an everlasting love. And then He said, not only do that, but do good to them that hate you. Our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I don't know if you all know it or not, but really, truly, in our hearts, of hearts, before God saved us in his sovereign mercy, we had a hatred, a hatred for our Lord Jesus Christ, a hatred for God.

We loved our own righteousness. We loved our works. We loved our merit. We loved our praying. We loved doing things that would draw attention to ourselves. But we were enemies of Christ and hated Christ. And Christ came and slew that enmity, slew that hatred, and shed abroad in our hearts the Holy Ghost, the love of God in our hearts. Oh, my. Christ loved his enemies. Oh, my.

Look in Proverbs 25. We're going to look at a few scriptures today. Proverbs 25. You know, the scriptures tells us in verse 21, when God so loved the world, a world of every character, type, nation, people on the face of this earth, He loved them. He loved them. And what did He do? He gave His beloved son. gave his son. But look what he says here in Proverbs 25 and verse 21.

If your enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat. Christ is our bread. And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. Christ is the water of life. And look what happens. Thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord will bless you for that. The Lord will reward you for that.

Oh, no. This is not what our master did. If our Lord Jesus could love his enemies, and if we have any enemies, and we do, death is an enemy. Sin is an enemy. And if our Lord would do that for us, surely, surely, if we had an enemy, if we've got an enemy anywhere, Under any circumstances, surely we could be like our master and show some kindness, show some love towards them and be not seeking any kind of revenge, be unselfish, uninfluenced by any hope of return. And then look what he says again here in verse 28.

Bless them that curse you and pray for them which despitefully use you. What did our Lord do? What did our Master do? They'd curse Him, call Him a devil, call Him a fox, call Him a wine-bibber, call Him a drunk, did all things for Him. And you know, they plucked off the beard off of His face. And you know what He said when He prayed on the cross? He said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they did. do. They do not know what they're doing right now. They don't know what they're doing and who they're doing it to. You know, they, they was, they cursed our Lord Jesus Christ. And our Lord Jesus Christ never cursed them back, never sought any revenge.

And oh my, let me tell you this, ask our Lord to sincerely bless those who curse you. show them kindness, intercede for them before the throne of grace. Do you remember when Stephen was being stoned? He was being stoned, and there was a young man standing there holding his clothes while they stoned him to death. And he, before he died, he knelt down and said, Lord Jesus, lay not this sin to their charge. Do not charge them for the sin. Lord, forgive these people. They're stoning me to death right now. Oh, Lord, don't lay this sin to their charge.

And he was looking at the Lord Jesus Christ. They're stoning me. They'll go kill me. I'm going to die right here today, just in a little while. Don't lay that sin to their charge. Oh, my. You reckon we could do things like that? Huh? My little brother, you're younger than me. When I came back from Vietnam, I really was. I was a dramatically changed person, dramatically changed. I really was.

And I was going to his house one day, and I was getting ready to knock on the door. And he jumped out from behind the bush and attacked me. He attacked me. Started beating on me. And I asked him, what was it? He said, you've changed so much. He said, I just can't stand it anymore. I just can't stand it. And he just attacked me. You know what I said to him? And I've said it to him. He brought it up here a few years ago. I said, lay it not to his heart. Lay it to his head. Because in his heart, he would have never done that. It's in his head. It wasn't in his heart.

And he brought it up one time. Remember when I done that? And I said, I do. And I said, I laid it to your head, not your heart. You'd never do that to me. But I, you know, it just, you never know what's going on in a person's heart. But oh, that's what, you know, Stephen Dunn, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.

That's what our Lord said. Father, don't lay this sin to these people's charge. And Peter got up and preached on the day of Pentecost. And he was the priest on the day of Pentecost. He said, you condemned the unjust. The unjust condemned the just. You killed the prince of life. You killed him. You killed him. And then he started preaching to them. And so many of those were at the cross, and he preached to them.

And he said, they hollered out, oh, Lord, what can we do? What can we do? He said, repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And all that one that they was against, now 3,000 of them at that cross, so many at that cross. God saved them that day. And then look what he says again in verse 29. Unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek also the other, and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid him not to take away thy coat also. Oh, how our Lord Jesus Christ was smitten. And you know what he did? He turned the other cheek. He really, truly did. And with this talking about turning the other cheek, this is not like somebody slapping you. That's not what this is talking about.

There's, you know, there's so many ways to smite a person. We can smite them with our tongue. We can smite them with our attitude. We can smite them with a look. There's lots of ways to smite somebody. Lots of ways to smite them. And they physically smit our Lord Jesus Christ. But what he's talking about is reacting, reacting to your enemies, reacting to those who are haters of you, reacting to those who curse you.

And our Lord Jesus Christ went through every bit of that for us, and by his grace, By his grace, surely, surely, we can manifest just a little bit of the character of our master. Surely we can. You know, there's a lot of things we can't do, a lot of things we can't do. But one thing we can do, by God's grace, and that's love, that's love.

Not be vengeful, not be spiteful, not be cruel, not be mean, not be hateful. There's lots of ways to hurt a person, lots of ways, lots of ways. And what our Lord is doing, He's condemning the spirit of those who were so against Him. He's condemning the spirit of lovelessness, hatred, yearning for revenge. yearning for revenge. Some people, they just live to get even with somebody.

And our Lord said, turn the other cheek. Turn the other cheek. And our Lord did that with smiting me, turn the other cheek, smiting me, turn the other cheek. But he means to show us here the attitude and the word that we don't seek revenge. God gave us the spirit of love. Look in Romans chapter 13. In Romans chapter 13. You know, we're not even used to hearing these things ourselves. Romans 13. And we have this old rotten corrupt flesh with us.

But that don't excuse us for anything at all in this world. That don't excuse us. Don't use your flesh as an excuse. Don't do that. Please don't do that. Look what our master said in verse 8, Romans 13, 8. Owe no man anything but to love one another. What in the world is he talking about? Don't owe man anything. You know what we're to owe one another? The fella said, what do I owe you? I said, just love me. What do you owe me? Love. What do I owe you? Love.

You pay that debt off. Pay that debt off. Work on paying that debt off. You know, if you got a debt, this is one way to work on it. Owe nothing but to love one another. Keep on paying on that debt. See how long it is, but you could do that. Oh, my. Oh, well, listen to what else he goes on to say. For he that loveth another, listen to this, has fulfilled the law. Absolutely kept it and fulfilled it.

For this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Now listen to this, O no man anything, love worketh no ill, does not think ill, and work ill toward his neighbor, and this neighbor Who is that neighbor? That you are my neighbor. I'm your neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He loved us. Oh, how He loved us. Oh, my. And I'll tell you, and look, go back over in our text now.

And down to the last part of verse 29, it said, unto him that taketh away thy cloak, Forbid not to take his coat also. Now, you notice it says him that taketh it. It didn't say you gave it to him. He took it. This is talking about somebody stealing something from you. Stealing something from you. That's what he's talking about. This is a thief, and he comes to steal your cloak. And of course, if somebody tries to steal a bunch of stuff from us, of course, we call the police. But he's talking about somebody taking you to court, somebody taking you to law, and somebody demanding something from you that you're not willing to give. And he said, if they take your cloak, take it away from you. Don't you go. Don't you say, well, take it. Go ahead, take it. I'm not going to hold it against you. I'm not going to hold it against you.

And I'll tell you, let me tell you something. Our Lord Jesus Christ, he took away an old sorry cloak that we had on, old cloak of flesh, and you know what he put on? A robe of righteousness. Clothed us with a robe of righteousness. Let him take the cloak, go ahead, go ahead.

But oh my, if somebody takes you to court, to law, Don't fight for your rights. Don't insist on your rights. Submit. Submit to the wrong. Show kindness. Show kindness. Avoid strife. Avoid strife. Avoid what? Gender strife. Anything that genders strife between people. Avoid it. Just avoid it.

And look what our Master said here in verse 30. Give to every man that asketh of thee, and him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again. Now, what is he talking about here? If a fellow's standing on the street corner and he's asking you, say, well, listen, would you give me enough money to buy me another drink? Would you give me enough money to go buy me something else to drink? You know, of course you wouldn't do that. Of course you wouldn't do that.

But our Lord is talking about people that's actually poor. Look in Deuteronomy chapter 15. That's the fifth book in the Bible, Deuteronomy chapter 15. Look down at verse 7. That's what our master said. And oh, how poor we were, poor and needy, poor and needy. Oh, Lord, look what he said.

If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren, within any of thy gates in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden your heart nor short thine hand from thy poor brother. But if thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, Thou shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wanted. So our Lord taught to give to the poor. And I tell you what, if a person is really, really in need, have no problem.

We were in need. We were in need. How desperate we were in need. How desperately we're in need, but what did our Lord Jesus Christ do? He met our need. He met our need, and He continues to meet our needs every single day. Whatever our needs are, He takes care of it. I mean, you know, we all have needs, but whatever it is, we need grace, He gives us that. We need mercy, He gives us that. We need His love, He gives us that. We need His forgiveness, He gives us that. We need his wealth and the riches of his grace. He gives us that. He gives us that.

And I'll tell you what, how poverty stricken are we? That's what he said last week. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Now, how poor are we? How poor are we? He said, if there's one among you brethren, How rich is our Lord to give to us. Give to us. Oh my. And we ask him. We ask him. And he gives. He gives. And look what it says also again in verse 30. And of him that taketh away thy goods, don't ask him again. And this is again talking about stealing. If a man takes, and that's what he says, takes away. It didn't say you gave them to him. It said he took them away. He took away your goods. Oh, my. And what he's telling about is don't seek revenge. Don't seek revenge. Don't have a spirit of revenge if somebody takes your stuff. Be willing to suffer wrong. That's what our Lord said. Be willing to suffer wrong. be willing to let things go. Everybody here's had somebody take something they had, somebody steal something from them. How many four-wheelers did your dad have stolen off the porch? Everybody here's had people come and take things.

We was building down on the farm. We was building a barn and building on the house. And I had a big old box of nails. And we didn't even lock our door for years. The only thing that I ever found missing off of that farm was that box of nails. Somebody needed more nails more than I did. They come took those nails. I just went and bought some more. I don't know who counted them. Don't care. They probably needed them. Probably needed them. But oh, my.

If a man takes it, it takes it. He needs it more than you do. If he needs it more than you do. He really does. He really does. And I tell you what, it's a... Our Lord Jesus Christ said, He suffered righteous. You know, suffers He did. And then look what He says in verse 31. And oh, this is the root of it right here.

As you would that men should do to you, How you want people to treat you, do ye also to them just like they treat you. If you want people to treat you a certain way, then you treat them that way. And if you want people to treat you a certain way, you treat them that way. You treat them that way.

And I tell you, our Lord Jesus Christ, what if our Lord treated us, treated us the way we treated him sometimes. If our Lord thought of us the way we think of him sometimes, if he just occasionally thought of us instead of him thinking of us all the time, and we just, what if he just occasionally thought of us? What if he just occasionally paid attention to us? What if he treated us the way we treat him? Woo. We'd be in bad shape right here right now, wouldn't we?

Ain't you grateful that the Lord treats us, treats us every possible way that we don't deserve, but yet he treats us this way. So he tells us, ever how you want to be treated, you want to be treated with kindness, respect, admiration, love, forgiveness, Tenderness. He said, you do that to everybody else. You treat people that way. And you know, this is one thing the Bible teaches us. It does not tell us how people are supposed to treat us. It tells us how we're supposed to treat people. How we're supposed to treat people, regardless how they treat us.

And if our Lord dealt with us in the world, where in the world would we be right now? Huh? Where would we be? Oh, my. And then look what he says down in verse 32. Well, no, look down verse, excuse me, down verse 36. I'm sorry. When he says, you know, as you do unto people do to you. And this is what our master said and our Lord said here. Be ye therefore merciful. Be merciful, as your Father is also merciful." I probably told you this before, years and years and years and years and years ago. Years and years, I mean, been decades. But I can remember it very well.

I was in a situation. And a lot of men were talking, going on with one another. And I asked a man, I said, would you please show mercy to me? Would you please show some mercy to me? They was getting on me. Oh, my. I said, would you show mercy to me? And a man leaned forward and said, I'm not here to show mercy. I'm here to straighten you out and make sure that you get what you got coming. Mercy?

How can we not show mercy when Christ has showed us such mercy? You know, our Lord's mercies are brand new every morning. We get up of a morning, we got brand new mercies for that day. And how many times we said, oh Lord, please be merciful, please have mercy. Have mercy. And he says, now you be merciful. Your father's merciful. So you be merciful. You be merciful. Oh my. Oh my.

You know, as believers, we are held to a much higher standard than anybody else in this world. The world loves its home. Look what our Lord said down here in verse 32 now. If you only love people that love you, you reckon God's going to thank you for that? And you're going to get appreciation for that? For sinners also love them that love them. The world loves them that loves them. He says you can't do that. You got to love people that doesn't love you. You got to show kindness to people that doesn't show you kindness. Look what else he said.

And if you do good to them which do good to you, what are you going to get out of that? If you're only good to people, it's good to you. He said, what do you think? You think you're going to get praised for that? You think you're going to get appreciated for that?

No, no. Sinners, he's talking about rebels. He's talking about irreligious people here, people that don't care about God, don't care about Christ. He said, if they just do good to one another, why do you, why do you appreciate it? You got to do good to people that's not good to you. He said, the world does good for itself. And oh my, and look what he said in verse 34.

You know, this is, this is the, this sinners he's talking about here, they're irreligious, no regard for God's laws. He used sinners here three times. And he said, don't love like sinners. Love your enemies. Don't let your works be like the works of a sinner. Do good to them which is by which you believe. Don't give to sinners. Give helping for nothing in return.

Look what he said in verse 34. And if you lend to them, you lend something to them whom you hope to receive. What think of you? You think you ought to be thanked for doing it? Tell him how much you appreciate. For sinners lend to sinners to get back as much as they gave. Give back as much as you gave. But now listen to what our master said here. Verse 35. But love your enemies and do good. Our Lord loved his enemies. Oh, what enemies we were. And he did good to us. All things work together for good. Our God is good. That's what the scripture says. God is good. Good. Love your enemies and do good. Lend. And say, listen, I'm not hoping for you to give this back to me. I'm not. I'm not. Just give it to, just let them have it. And don't just stand around with your hand out and say, I'm waiting for you to give that back to me. Don't do that. And look what our master said, your reward shall be great. Your reward shall be great. Oh, it'll be great.

You know, in this world, and look what he says, and you shall be called the children of God, the children of the highest. Listen to what he says here, for he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil. People don't give him thanks, but he's kind to the unthankful and to the evil. So therefore, be ye merciful. And then look at some promises here, verse 37.

Judge not, and you shall not be judged. What he means is here, don't be hypercritical. Don't be hypercritical. Don't look for respect in somebody's eyes. Don't look for things just to find fault with somebody. Oh my. You know, don't condemn people for just anything at all. Judging harshly, self-righteously, without mercy, without love. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. That's just self-explanatory.

You know, David, when he had took Bathsheba, God sent Nathan to him, and he told David, he said, David, a man, a man was a rich man. He had great flocks. He had lots and lots of sheep. But there's one poor man. There's a man that was very poor. He had one ewe lamb, little old ewe lamb. And he loved that little old ewe lamb. He let that little old ewe lamb in his house. He loved it, took care of it, held it in his bosom. And then when a man come to visit this rich man, when he had a whole flock full of sheep, he went and took that ewe lamb away from that poor man and slew it to feed that man.

David said, oh, that man ought to die and ought to die now, right now. And Nathan looked him in the eye and says, you're that man, David. God gave you everything, and you went and took from You took from the poor. You took from people that didn't deserve it. And you are that man. But then the next thing he says, God has put away your sin. God put away your sin. He put it away. He put it away.

And oh, my. And if you don't judge like this, you won't bring judgments on yourself. Forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive. And look what he says down here in verse 38. Now I'm done. Give, give. Now he didn't say how much. He didn't say when. He didn't put a price on it. He said, give. And he said, you know what?

It'll be given to you. You'll get it back. It'll be given to you. And he said, I tell you what, he'll give you such a, you give a little and he'll give you a good measure. He'll give you such a good measure, you gotta press it down. He gotta press it down and put some more on top of it. Is that the way our Lord treats us? You know, we give just a little bit, and he gives us back. I've got to press that down. I've got some more to give. And he presses it down. Look what he says. And then he'll shake it together to get some more into it. And it'll run over. My cup runneth over.

And on shall men give in to your bosom. And this is the key to it right here. For with the same measure that you meet, the measure that you measure other people by, you should be measured to you again. If you try to measure what you give, then our Lord said, I'll measure. I'll measure. I'm the measure. I'm the measure. We're not the measure. Paul said, we're not of them who measure. one another against one another, judge one another, measure against one another.

You know, these are very unusual things, but they deal with our day-to-day lives. And our Lord Jesus Christ, everything that we dealt with today, our Lord Jesus Christ dealt with us. Dealt with us. He loved his enemies. He gave not wanting anything back. kind and merciful, smite him on the cheek and give the other. Oh, our Lord, there's nobody like him.

Our Father, in the precious, glorious, holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for allowing us to be here today. Thank you for your great mercies. Thank you for your great patience with us. Thank you that you loved us even when we were your enemies. Thank you, Lord, that you don't treat us the way that we treat you.

And, Lord, please put it in our hearts to love one another more than we ever have. Put it in our hearts to be a gracious people, a kind people, forgiving people, a tenderhearted people, a merciful people. So we are your children. So let us please, for God's grace, and by your grace, and by the Lord Jesus Christ's holy name, please enable us to be and act like your children, for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. There is a name I love to hear. I long to sing its worth. It sounds like music in my ear. The sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because he first loved me. Please remember Darren and his family. See you Wednesday, God willing.

"Love Your Enemies"

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"Love Your Enemies"

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About Donnie Bell

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