Only by the Power of the Spirit - Luke 6:32-36

Let's go ahead and open our Bibles to Luke chapter 6, Luke

Luke 6 · chapter mention Luke 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6. As you know, you guys have been

going through the Sermon on the Plain and which of course is in

Luke's gospel account, shortened version of the Sermon on the

Mount, which are obviously two different messages.

But we're going to read this morning verses 32 through 36,

chapter 6, verses 32 through 36. So follow along in your Bible as

I read. It goes like this.

But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?

For even sinners love those who love them.

And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is

that to you? For even sinners do the same.

And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back,

what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners

to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good

and lend, hoping for nothing in return, and your reward will be

great, and you will be sons of the Most High, For he is kind to

the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as

your Father who is, excuse me, just as your Father also is

merciful. I'm gonna have you stop there.

Let's pray, Father, as we dig into these verses and just talk

about what this is all about here this morning.

We pray as always for your Holy Spirit to bring direction and

wisdom. We believe, Lord, that your

heart is to feed us from the Word.

And so we ask you to do that today.

Nourish our hearts, minister, grace, guide and direct us in

wisdom and truth. We ask it, Lord, in the

authority that is ours through the name of Jesus.

Amen. Amen.

Amen. As Tucker was saying, I I

pastored Calvary Chapel, Ontario for actually it was just shy of

35 years, but Sue and I are now living in Meridian ever since I

turned the fellowship over to my assistant pastor and we're

loving it here. We've got, we've had two kids

living in the Meridian area for years.

And so I knew that I wanted to come, come and live here and

it's just been great. We're within walking distance

from an Olive Garden. Wonderful.

Anyway, we were driving, we were driving from Eagle to Meridian

yesterday and we happened to pass a church that had a sign

that said this. It said Jesus says love one

another. And I and I, I thought about

that as we were driving by and I was thinking, you know, what a

simplistic message that is for, for that.

And you know, it's, it's not like it's untrue, but there's,

there's so much more that needs to be said.

You know, that's one of the problems, you know, with putting

a little quip or something on a electronic sign or whatever.

Jesus said so much more about loving.

And and if we're just going to hear him say things like, you

know, love one another, our natural tendency as he brings

out in this passage that we're looking at here.

And Luke, our natural tendency is to love those who love us or,

or at least who, who we find easy to love.

And so left to our own devices, we're really not going to get

the essence of of the command that Jesus has given us related

to loving other people, because in the passage we looked at her,

he says, no, I don't. I don't want you just to love

people that are, are are easy to love.

I want you to love people that are impossible to love.

I want you to even love your enemies, you know, and people

that that that do this and that and the other thing.

In fact, you know, Pastor Tucker went through and some earlier

verses here just a couple of weeks ago and he he covered

verses 27 and 28. Let me put him up on the screen

just to remind you of what we covered back then.

This is Jesus again speaking, saying, but I say to you who

here love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless

those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

And this is what I meant when I said Jesus said more than just

love each other. It gets much deeper.

It's it's much harder, much harder than than than that.

You know, you'll notice Jesus used some really, really hard

words. He used, He used words like

hate, you know, he used words like curse those who curse you.

And then he even used the word abuse.

Those are all three trigger words today in our, our, our

culture. Now here's the deal.

The passage that I showed you just a moment ago on the screen

of what Tucker talked about here a couple weeks ago, we read it

from the ESV and I did it on on purpose because of the ESV.

Although the new King James and the ESV are very close

translations, I felt like the wording on the ESV was a little

harder hitting when instead of instead of abuse or those that

abuse you, the new King James says those who spitefully use

you. There's nothing wrong with that

translation. It's just that it's not the way

I would talk. You know, I, I don't go around

saying, oh, he's spitefully used me or something like that.

I would say he abused me or he was abusive.

You know, that's a word that I would use.

So I wanted to use the word that that kind of connected with you

or, or even caused some emotions to rise up in you just a little

bit. Because the word abuse, by the

way, makes emotions rise up in people.

I don't know if you've noticed that you, you start talking

about abuse or being abusive and people get angry.

I mean, it just, it, it, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a huge

trigger, particularly in our, our culture today.

And, and, and, and, and obviously there's good reason

for that. Abuse is horrific and, and no

one should, should ever have to go through it.

But what's interesting here is that you'll notice that, that,

that Jesus doesn't say love your enemies unless they abused you,

in which case you're off the hook.

Now, again, he's talking about the kind of abuse that comes our

way because we're believers, OK? And that's the context that

we're we're dealing with here. And, and, and incidentally, we

should never be surprised when we, when abuse comes our way or

cursing or hatred. We should never be surprised

when those things come our way because I mean, as believers,

just because we're believers, because Jesus bent over

backwards to warn us and to tell us that this is the way life is

going to be for us. In fact, he said, listen, if

they, if people end up hating you, just just remember they

hated me first, right? So he, he, and that was just one

statement that Jesus made over the course of his public

ministry that was used to prepare you and me for, for the

understanding that we're going to be living in a culture.

And as we walk with the Lord and as we do our best to live for

Jesus, it's going to create problems in the world.

The world is going to look at you and say I don't like you and

the and, and, and some of them might be able to point to a

reason why they don't like you, but some of them won't.

It's just there's something about you, You know, even Paul

the apostle told us, you know, that we are the we are the

fragrance of Christ. You know, to those who are

perishing, it doesn't smell very good.

You don't smell very good Now to those who are born again, You,

you, you come into a room and they're like, oh, you're my

brother, you're my sister. You know, they love you, but the

world does not love you. And, and, and try as you may,

you're not going to get them to love you because you belong to

Jesus. Good grief.

They crucified the Lord of life and he was perfect.

What do you think they're going to do to you and me?

You know, So what what these passages tell us about is that

is that this is this is what we can expect and how are we going

to respond, you know, to these sorts of things.

You know, when I started in the ministry 40 plus years ago, I

have to tell you that Christians weren't really looked down upon

like they are today. In fact, I think that even we

were even esteemed to a degree. I don't know if you guys are

into old classic movies. I used to love We've got 4 grown

kids and and I used to play these old classic movies for my

kids. You know, I'd say, hey movie

night, you know, I'd start a movie and they'd real.

The thing first comes on and they realize it's in black and

white. They're like oh dad, it's black

and white. I guess it's OK, just just watch

this. You know, those were the days

when the clergy or Christians, you know, were highly esteemed,

you know. Well, those days are gone.

I mean, Hollywood has been abusing Christians for a long

time for, for, you know, decades.

And, and, and the world that we live in is becoming increasingly

hostile to the things that we stand for.

And when you express any sort of disagreement with the things

they stand for, look out. I mean, today all you have to do

is just disagree with the ideologies held by the world and

they're going to attack you like a junkyard dog.

You know, the and, and just as viciously.

And, and that that is, that is hard.

But like I said before, I'm not surprised.

And we should never be surprised when the world decides that they

don't like us very much because once again, Jesus told us that's

the way it was going to be. Do you want to know what saddens

me though? What saddens me is when I see

Christians attacking back at the world and I, and I do once in a

while, I watch YouTube videos and stuff like that.

And, and, and I, and whether they know it or not, when

Christians attack back, they're stirring up negative attitudes

in US. And I get affected by it.

I don't know about you, but I get affected by it.

It, it, it, it becomes irritate, irritating.

And then it develops into anger. And I find myself getting angry

at the world because of the dumb things they do and say, you

know? And so we as believers, we kind

of naturally begin to take on this adversarial attitude toward

the world. And it's kind of US versus them.

You know, it's like, man, I'm glad we're in church today so we

can be around people we like, you know, because you go out in

the world and there's a lot of people that are just make it

really, really hard to like them.

And you work with some of those people who some of those people

are even in your own, your family.

And it's hard to like them. You know, you're supposed to

love them, you know, but it's hard to like them because of the

things they say and, and, and the things they do and the

things they believe in. You know, it's, it's, it's not

hard to dislike the world. I mean, it's as simple as that.

And, and it's especially hard when you see the world

unraveling, when you see society unraveling, when you see the,

you know, I, I've, I've watched in, in, in my lifetime, I've

watched the family just fly apart.

And you guys know, you know, that the fat, the family is the

basis of, it's the glue of our society and, and families.

You know, I mean, we've seen this thing deteriorating over

over time for quite a while. And it's hard to watch and to

and, and, and then Jesus comes along and says, I want you to

love these people. Lord, you don't know what you're

asking. You know, there's a, a

particular prophecy that the Apostle Paul spoke wrote.

We don't usually think of the Apostle Paul as a prophet and he

wouldn't have referred to himself that way either, but he

did. He did wax prophetic at times,

particularly when he wrote his 2nd letter to Timothy and when

he talked about what life was going to be like in these last

days, which I believe we're in. And I mean technically we've

been in the last days ever since they really the inauguration of

the church. But I, I believe we're in the

last days of the last days. And one of the reasons I believe

that is because of what Paul wrote to Timothy.

Let me put this on the screen for you so we can look at it

together. He says second Timothy 3 verses

one through 4. But understand this, that in the

last days there will come times of difficulty, for people will

be lovers of self. You seen that at all lovers of

money, proud, arrogant, abusive. There's that word disobedient to

their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable,

slanderous, without self-control, literally meaning

they do not possess the ability to control their emotions.

Brutal, not loving, good, treacherous, reckless, swollen

with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

You know, we, we, we read that passage and we think, well,

that's, that's my neighborhood. I mean, this is my address, you

know, Second Timothy chapter 3. That's where I live.

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

I see it on the nightly news. I, I, I, you know, we're, we're,

we're living this reality right now.

And, and it's, it's, it's troubling.

I mean, I, I can retreat once in a while and watch episodes of

Andy Griffith, I suppose, and, and, and, and think about what

life used to be like back in the day, But it's not that way now.

This is not that day, and I have to confess that there are times

that I get mad. And when I got mad, it's almost

impossible to hear Jesus say to me, Paul, love your enemies.

Do good to them even when they curse you, even when they hate

you. I want you to do good to them.

And then I, you know, I, I, I, I get reminders in the word of God

that my anger doesn't do a whole lot of good anyway, You know,

there's that verse in James. Let me put it on the screen just

as a reminder. This always comes up, it seems

like when I get angry. Know this, my beloved brothers,

let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to

anger. Why?

For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of

God. And I have to go.

Yeah, you're right, Lord. You're right.

Now, I know there's such a thing as righteous anger.

Jesus got righteously angry at times.

I don't know if I've ever experienced righteous anger.

You know, I'm. I'm not sure I would.

I don't think I would give myself that kind of credit.

My anger is usually the kind that, you know, I need a good

rebuke over. And then there's the reminder

that Paul gave us in Romans chapter 12 up on the screen.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Do not be conformed to this world because the world is

angry. The world is upset, but he's, he

goes on to say, but be transformed by the renewal of

your mind. And I got to remember that I,

you know, I, I, I, I do, I get angry sometimes, but I got to

remember that it, it's really not a positive thing in my life

and that I need to respond differently from the world.

There needs to be a, a lack of conformity in my life to the

things of the world. And and yet sometimes I find

myself conforming to the world and and that's, you know, a, a,

a bummer. And so, you know, but you know,

one of my brothers, one of my Calvary Chapel brothers, came

out with a message here a couple of years ago and he said this.

And I, I remember when I heard it, it was so profound, I had to

write it down. And so I'm repeating this to

you. What I heard my brother say, he

said this. We must never lose the mission

of the church because of our outrage over the madness in the

world. Because, guys, the the world has

gone mad. I don't know if you've noticed

they've gone mad. It's crazy.

And my response to that can never be such that I lose the

mission, that we lose the mission, and we know what the

mission is. Jesus gave us the mission.

We call it the Great Commission. Let me put it on the screen.

It's for Matthew chapter 28. Therefore go and make disciples

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of

the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And then he goes on to say this,

teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

You know, there are several elements to the Great Commission

that are very important that we are, we are bound obligated to,

to, to carry out as, as believers.

But we're not going to be able to do any of those things if our

hearts are overflowing with bitterness toward the world in

anger and frustration. I mean, we're never going to

invite people into, to the, the, the, the, the Kingdom of God

with a clenched fist and clenched teeth, you know, and

that's the, and I'm, I'm preaching to myself here, you

guys, I need this reminder. I want to, I want to invite

people into the Kingdom and I'm not going to.

It's not going to happen if I'm just getting angry all the time

and I'm upset. Because of the cursing and the

hatred and, and, and the abuse that comes our way as you know,

the, the body of Christ, you know the, the, the last thing

that we read in the Great Commission when you saw that

passage on the screen, Jesus said, and I want you also to

teach them to observe all the things that I have commanded

you. Well, guess what?

He commanded us to do that. We're supposed to teach them

love your enemies. And you see, if I'm not, I'm,

I'm struggling sometimes to love believers, let alone I have

hardly gotten around to loving my enemies.

And, and so I'm struggling here. I, I'm, I'm challenged by this

call that Jesus has placed upon my life.

And, and you ought to be as well.

It's a challenging call that he has laid out for us.

And, and, and so if we're, if we're, if we're going to, you

know, respond with annoyance and, and, and anger, you know,

nobody's going to stick around to hear our message.

Hey, let me tell you about the love of Jesus, you jerk, or

something like that. You know, it's just not going to

work. So he gives us in these in, in

in this passage that we're looking at here in Luke chapter

Luke 6 · chapter mention

6, some very difficult statements and and sobering

statements. When you look at the end of

verse 35 in your Bible here, it goes on to say that we are to be

kind because he's kind to the unthankful and the evil.

And So what he's basically telling you and me is he wants

us to go do the same that that he wants us to be like him.

He says, you know God, God is saying to you and me, I'm I'm

kind even to evil people. I want you to go do that too.

That's hard. And then verse 36, if you look

with verse 36 again, it says, therefore be merciful, just as

your Father also is merciful. Now, I probably don't have to

remind you that the definition of mercy is not getting what you

do deserve, right? We deserve judgment.

I deserve judgment, but we don't get judgment, we get eternal

life. Why?

Because we're good people? No.

Because we've done things right? No, because he's merciful,

right? So Jesus says, therefore I want

you to be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful, so be

merciful like he's merciful. In other words, show to those

people who hate you, curse you, and despise you because you're a

Christian, show them mercy. Why?

Because God showed you mercy. Wow, that's, that's hard stuff.

You know, there's a companion passage to this section that

we're looking at here in Luke. And of course it's in Matthew's

Gospel and the Sermon on the Mount.

And just as a by way of reminder, I want to, I want to

show it to you on the screen so we can look at it together.

It's in Matthew chapter 5. And it goes like this.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

You've heard that it was said you should love your neighbor

and hate your enemy. That was a common phrase.

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who

persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in

heaven. For He makes his Son rise on the

evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the

unjust. For feel if you love those who

love you, what reward do you have?

Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you

doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the

same? And then check this out.

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is

perfect. Try that one on for size.

You thought it was hard enough when Jesus said to you and me to

be merciful because our Father is merciful.

Now he UPS the ante a little bit more and he says you therefore

must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.

And I got to say something if if reading that verse doesn't give

you the shakes, I don't think you read it right.

It ought to give you the shakes because Jesus is saying things

to you and me that are impossible in the flesh.

In other words, when I say in the flesh, I mean they're

impossible for you and me to accomplish in and of ourselves.

You know, I've always felt like some of verses in the Bible

should come with a warning sticker.

You know, like when you buy something and it says be sure

and turn off the power before you put this thing, you know,

plug this thing in or something like that.

But the warning sticker that ought to go along with certain

passages of, of the Bible is warning.

Don't do this in the flesh or don't try to do this in the

flesh. And, and if you read things like

love your enemies and then you go out and you try to love

people that hate your guts and you try to do it in the power of

the flesh, I got news for you. You're going to fail and you're

going to fail colossally. I mean, it's going to be a big

failure. Some of you know what I mean?

You've been there. And that's really kind of the

whole point. When Jesus, when Jesus spoke

both the Sermon on the plane and the Sermon on the Mount, he was

speaking to believers. Guys, this these are not

messages you give to an unbeliever.

You don't go around telling unbelievers love your enemies.

You just don't do that. But you know why they don't?

They don't have the goods. They don't have the capability.

They are when I talk about, you know, they I'm when I'm

unbelievers are what Paul refers to in the Bible.

In his epistles, particularly First Corinthians chapter 2, he

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

talks about unbelievers as the natural man.

OK, that's a term that Paul uses, and he uses it to describe

people who do not have the Holy Spirit living within them.

In other words, their perspective, their ability,

their power is all comes from the natural.

Their their wisdom, their understanding, it all comes from

the natural. OK, they don't have any

supernatural element or spiritual element at all to

discern or to walk in the power of God it they just don't

possess it. OK, you do as AI mean.

I mean, I'm assuming here that everybody in this room is a born

again believer. And what that means obviously is

that you've come to Jesus by faith and you've accepted what

he did on the cross for your sins.

You've embraced him and you've received the gift of the Holy

Spirit. Wonderful.

You're a Christian. But there's so much more to

understand because now He has empowered you.

He's literally given you the power to read through passages

like this and do them. It is now in your power because

of who lives within you, right, to fulfill these things.

You couldn't do that before you were a believer.

You would you you'd look at passages where you know Jesus

says you're, you must be perfect as your heavenly Father's

perfect. I mean, as an unbeliever, I

wouldn't even even know how to even understand or begin to

comprehend a statement like that.

I would just would have gone. That's the dumbest thing I've

ever heard in my life. But as a believer who is now

empowered, endued with power through the Holy Spirit, I can

look at verses like that and I can say, Lord, I know, I, I know

that that's not my power. That's not in Paul, but it is in

you. And now you are in me.

And so I can now walk in that power.

Boy, if that doesn't leave you with your mouth hanging open, I

mean, nothing will. But we forget about this all the

time. All the time.

We forget about the power of the Holy Spirit.

We forget the extent of that power.

When I, when I talk to Christians and they're, they're,

they're talking to me about some, you know, besetting sin in

their life or something like that, Pastor Paul, I just,

there's, I can't get. And all they all they are

focusing on is their weakness and and they need to they need

to build their faith by getting into the word and understand

what kind of power now lives inside of you as a believer.

It is absolutely astounding. Let me, I want to, I want to

share with you the apostle Paul actually describes the power of

the Holy Spirit living within you.

And in fact, he even prayed for the believers in the Ephesian

church that they might that their that the eyes of their

heart might be open to understand it.

And this is one of the most beautiful prayers in the Bible.

And I believe that it's a prayer that all believers can lay hold

of in terms of of what Paul's desire was concerning our need

to come to terms with the this power that now is resident

within you and me. It's from Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

And we're going to put it on the screen so you can see it

together. All right.

He he says, first of all, I do not cease to give thanks for

you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our

Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit

of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him having the

eyes of your hearts enlightened. Here's why, that you may know

what is first of all the hope to which He has called you.

What are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the

Saints? And check this out.

And what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us

who believe according to the working of His great might, that

He worked in Christ when He raised him from the dead and

seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above

all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every

name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to

come. Guys, do you realize what Paul

said here concerning this power? That he was praying for you and

me to be open to, to begin to understand, let alone lay hold

of? He's he's basically saying that

the very same power that now lives in you through the Holy

Spirit is the power that raised Jesus from the dead and seated

him at the right hand of the glory of God.

Same power. Can I just say something?

If we really, truly understood the depth of what Paul said in

this passage, I wouldn't be able.

You guys wouldn't be able to stay in your seats.

You'd be up on your feet like you were at a football game and

your team just won the game with a last minute something or other

and you'd be cheering and going bananas.

If we really understood this power that is resident in us, he

says, Paul says. But I'm praying for you guys

that you might have your hearts opened to the fullness of what

God has done for you. First of all, the hope to what

you've been called, but then also this, this power, this

power. Power to do what?

Be merciful even as your heavenly Father is merciful.

Power to forgive even as Jesus showed you that perfect example,

hanging on a cross, looking down upon the people who crucified

him and saying Father, forgive them.

They know not what they do. That ability is now living in

you because He is living in you. And whatever inability you have

noticed in yourself to forgive others or to be merciful or to

be kind when they are being particularly awful to you,

That's just all you. But the power to live and love

that supernatural ability to go beyond who you are and be like

he is, is now living within you and just waiting.

Just waiting. I had somebody come up to me

after first service and ask the question, So why aren't we

seeing this more in our lives? Isn't that a great question?

I, I thought that was really good.

Why, why, why am I not seeing this power to forgive this power

to, to, to love even my, my enemies.

And, and I said, well, you know, there's a, there's a

corresponding reality that goes along with anything that the

spirit wants to do in our life. And that is to resist the power

of what I want to do. And that's the flesh.

You see, dying to the flesh is this is another message, by the

way, which I'm not going to launch into it.

It really is. It's a it's a whole different

message. But but whenever we talk about

walk in the spirit, walk in the spirit, there's always that

correspond. There's the other side of that

coin and that is resist the flesh, because my flesh wants

to, to punch people, right? Somebody gets in my face, I want

to punch them. That's, that's Paul, that's me.

So you see, why am I not seeing this power to forgive?

Because I've been giving in for so long to, to the power of

Paul, to, to, to walk in the flesh, to be angry, you know,

But we have to learn to resist so that we might yield to the

power of the Holy Spirit. You know, it's really

interesting. The power of the Holy Spirit is

such that he's, he is such a gentleman.

I've learned this over the years of walking with the Lord.

He is such a gentleman. Sometimes I wish he wasn't so

much. I mean, I need to be smacked

upside the head more often than the not.

But he yields to me sometimes. And that's the crazy thing about

the Holy Spirit. He will sometimes yield to me

when I am supposed to be yielding to him.

And so in other words, when somebody treats me badly, he'll

let me. He'll let me treat them badly

back, and then he'll convict me. And I feel like a worm.

You know how that goes. And then I have to go to the

person later and say, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that.

And so my prayer then becomes, Lord, I want to release you more

in my life. I want to resist me so that I

might be able to yield more to you.

You told me to love my enemies. I'm not there yet, but you've

given me the power that I can't deny.

It's all there, right? It's all there.

I don't have to. I don't have to cry out to God.

Please help me love my enemies. It's there, it's done.

The Spirit lives in US. I just need to learn to yield to

Him and resist the me. Amen.

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