All Sermons

Recorded in Sydney, Australia at the 1998 Banner of Truth Conference 

1 Peter 1:13

Necessity of Love in the Ministry No.1 By Martin Holdt

Ian for the welcome. It's good to be in Australia, good to share in fellowship with you and having
arrived on Friday morning, Friday lunchtime in Perth and then spending the weekend in Brisbane
and since yesterday here in Sydney, it's been good to have the kind of fellowship that I've enjoyed
and experienced and come to appreciate all over again the wonder and the glory of the body of
Christ. Shall we turn to scripture to read together from 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 1
and reading from verse 13. 1 Peter chapter 1 and reading from verse 13. I'm reading from the
New International Version.
Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be self-controlled. Set your hope fully on the
grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children do not conform
to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance but just as he who called you is holy
so be holy in all you do for it is written be holy because I'm holy. Since you call on a father who
judges each man's work impartially live your lives as strangers you're in reverent fear
for you know that it is not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were
redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers but with a precious
blood of Christ a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world
but was revealed in these lost times for your sake. Through him you believe in God who raised
him from the dead and glorified him and so your faith and hope are in God now that you
have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers
love one another deeply from the heart for you have been born again not of perishable seed but
of imperishable through the living and enduring word of God for all men are like cross and all
their glory is like the flowers of the field the grass withers and the flowers fall but the word
of the Lord stands forever and this is the word that was preached to you therefore rid yourselves
of all malice and all deceit hypocrisy envy and slander of every kind like newborn babies crave
pure spiritual milk so that by it you may grow up in your salvation now that you have tasted
that the Lord is good. I am going to speak to you this evening on the subject of the
absolute necessity of Christian love in the ministry and my subjects for this evening
tomorrow evening and then on the final evening will be not only love but Christian forgiveness
and fellowship and I do so because all these three have I believed reached a very low ebb
in the Christian ministry. If you look around and mix and move with men in the Christian ministry
one discovers that I'm the first to confess and to admit that I fall far short of the biblical
standards of love forgiveness fellowship. All these three I suggest to you are close to the
heart of God very close to the heart of God and that being so they should be close to our hearts
as well and we need to understand that God will not tolerate a superficial attitude to any of these
you cannot wish them away indeed you have to face the fact that they are serious issues and ought
to be more serious to the pastor to the minister of a church than to any one of his congregants
and for that matter anyone else in the world.
We all long for revival I believe you do as much as I do it is as Dr Lloyd-Jones said in
his last recorded interview the only hope for the western world if it isn't the only hope for the
world then we are to prepare for revival and there is no better way to prepare for revival
than to discover the glory of those truths which Jesus Christ came to establish
and to make part and parcel of his body the church.
Remember my brothers that the whole councils of God do not only consist of the five points
of Calvinism. The five points are foundational. I love them and ever since the day when my
day when my mind and heart were enlightened about these
glorious truths I have ever thanked God for giving me what he has.
But what of these three roots of Christian living and how do we propose to minister to people and to
preach to people and to shepherd people and to guide people if the truth of God's love if the
wonder of forgiveness if the glory of Christian fellowship do not become the warp and worth of our
very existence for as long as we live and until we die. We've preached on them I believe you have
and I have.
But is it not true that some of our parishioners sometimes want to shout back at the very men who
are sound and orthodox in so many other requests. Physician heal yourself.
Are we not meant to be one cut above the people in terms of being models for them to follow.
And are these three aspects of the Christian life and the Christian ministry not
kernel to the whole issue of handing the ministry in a proper and a God glorifying way.
Are we willing here tonight and always to take our medicine and to heal our rifts where rifts
have developed and where we have become oblivious to the fact that while we continue to exercise
the Christian ministry God is grieved and the Holy Spirit is grieved because we have not dealt
with these matters.
How in the world are we ever going to experience the wonderful fulfillment of psalm 133 verses 1 2
and 3 if we do not face these facts. How good and unpleasant it is when brothers live together in
unity it is like precious oil poured on the head running down on the beard running down on Aaron's
beard down upon the color of his robes it is as if the dew of herman were falling on mount sign
for there the Lord commanded his blessing even life forevermore and so my theme tonight is
Christian love and the absolute necessity of Christian love in the Christian ministry and I
will take two verses from first Peter chapter 1 verse 22 and 23 for the purpose of our thinking
and meditation this evening now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that
you have sincere love for your brothers love one another deeply from the heart for you have been
born again out of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and enduring
love word of God why Christian lovely firstly because it has been neglected
I have been to many conferences many ministers conferences in my life
and there have been very few that have dealt with this theme
given the extensive treatment the whole subject of love is given in the new testament
I suggest to you that this may be so much shocking
the second reason why it is important is because it is absolutely vital Jonathan Edwards made it
clear if you read his book charity and its fruits you will see quite clearly that he felt and he
knew and he believed that it was the heart of religion the one distinguishing mark of the
the one distinguishing mark of the Christian according to our lord is precisely this
my command is this love each other as I have loved you
this is my command he repeated love each other and then in chapter 13 of John's gospel in verse
34 and 35 a new commandment I give you love one another as I've loved you so you must love
one another all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love one to another
thirdly it is misunderstood
we are here talking about a love which must be distinguished from the sentimental love of the
world it is not a love which just consists of bear hugs and expressions of affection which are
commonplace it supersedes anything the world has ever known within its own ranks
it is strong it is as strong as the fury of hell itself
it is a copy of Christ's love
and if the love that is found in the heart of a Christian minister
Christian minister is imperfect it still strives to become more like his love
the verses that we are looking at this evening were addressed to people who knew and felt what
it was to be loved by God says Peter to them in chapter one and verse two you have been chosen
according to the foreknowledge of God the father by the sanctifying work of the spirit for
obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood you cannot know the doctrine of election
experientially if you cannot know at the same time that you are loved by God and have been loved by
him from before the foundation of the world they knew it they knew something about the biting
effects of bitter trials which is the reason why he speaks to them in verse six of chapter one in
this you greatly rejoice though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all
kinds of trials but they also knew the glory of belonging of belonging to God verse 18 and 19
for you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were
redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers but with
the precious blood of Christ a lamb without blemish or defect
and it is to these people that a pastor writes
a pastor who in his own words in chapter five and verse three would be an example to the flock
and that example will include that of agape love in the heart of a pastor
peter goes on and advocates the fact that you already love verse 22 now that you have
purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for the brothers
love one another he is here referring to the regenerative effects of God's word already known
to you and since that happened the love of God has been shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit
you know that you have passed from darkness to light according to first John chapter 3 and verse
14 you know that because you do love people you never loved before you do love the brothers
if you did not
then you might call to question your profession
and that is why Francis Schaeffer called love the mark of the Christian
you cannot be a believer let alone a minister and not love
says John in first John chapter 2 verse 9 to 11 anyone who claims to be in the light
but hates his brother is still in the darkness whoever loves his brother lives in the light
and there is nothing in him to make him stumble but whoever hates his brother is in the darkness
and walks around in the darkness he does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded
him and therefore on the basis of what John the apostle is saying here to be bitter and twisted
towards fellow believers or towards those who are equally called into the Christian ministry
whoever they are and wherever they are is to be discredited on the spot
I know that is a severe test but it is biblical and denied if you will you cannot
it does not for one moment deny the fact that there are some who are extremely difficult to love
they are I know it but there can be no excuses
tell me have you ever applied
five verses of first Corinthians chapter 13 to the Christian ministry
if I speak in the tongues of men and have not love I am only a resounding gong or a clanging
symbol if I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge and if
I have a faith that can move mountains but have not love I'm nothing and if I give all I possess
to the poor and surrender my body to the flames but have not love I gain nothing love is patient
love is kind love does not envy it does not boast it is not proud it is not rude it is not self-seeking
it is not easily angered it keeps no record of wrongs
and if you have never applied those to the ministry why not why not
you will notice when you examine those verses that it includes the prospect of
powerful communication and please see it even martyrdom
and says the apostle Paul when those things happen minus love what do you have left nothing but
noise something of which all of us are capable
we are talking about a love which is demanding which is searching which is cutting
and it is in the nature of Christian love to be willing to die if it ever were necessary to do so
for any believer
and for that matter for any pastor
we had the case some years ago of a pastor in South Africa
donating his kidney to another when the matching process made the operation valid
that's just a little idea of what johnny's talking about
the love that we are dealing with here is a very practical love
it doesn't end with words
it does things that God would do
a few of you may know a closer friend a reformed pastor in the Tron sky
I once asked him whether he had ever struggled with bitterness because of the racial issues
that were live at the time
he told me that as a young man he tended to hate every white man he saw
and one day he passed a rude comment about whites in the presence of an aging godly black saint
and the old man said to him sicona
black saint and the old man said to him sicona
never again must you hate as you have just said you hate
they're not all the same I want you to know who I am
is it sicona when I was born my mother was dying and according to tribal custom
I too had to die
I was born near to a farm where an africana woman knew about the birth
and about my fate she had a baby at the breast she left her baby
ran to the crawl seized me from where I was about to be sacrificed took me home
and raised me at the breast with her own baby
that's practicing life
and when I hear that I have to ask myself whether I know love as love is meant to be known and to
be understood and to be felt and to be practiced by a reformed pastor
Peter says it's sincere and when he says it's sincere he intends us to understand that there
is no element of hypocrisy about it it's not an external thing it's not the two-faced thing
that so easily manifests itself when you are one thing to a brother's face and another thing
behind his back he says so you have sincere love
it doesn't appear to be love it is genuinely that before a living and loving and omniscient
and ever-present God who sees every movement you make reads your mind your motives and your heart
sees you're rising up and you're lying down and all that happens in between
and it is complacent
it is loving for the sake of the object's benefit
and when I say that it may include the necessity of a rebuke
for the wounds of a friend are better than the kisses of an enemy
and there is no question about the fact that when the apostle Paul
rebuked Peter publicly and openly for his hypocrisy he did it because he loved Peter
and could not tolerate the idea of a continuance of the hypocrisy which had so evenly manifested
itself in that great apostle and he tells me something else that if it happened to Peter
it could as easily happen to me and I may become guilty of the same thing
the love that Peter is advocating is a love for the sake of the object's benefit
it is as sacrificial as Christ's love was and is for Christ loved the church and
gave himself for it to death to death
that he must purify it and sanctify it and present it pure and spotless
it is a love which genuinely empathizes
it is the kind of love which the apostle Paul wrote about in first Corinthians chapter 12
and verse 26 if one part suffers every part suffers with it if one part is honored every part
rejoices with it it feels for its objects it is I say complacent
then it increases
the Greek word here for deeply love one another deeply is the word etinos
which means constantly and intensely
I'm indebted to that wonderful commentary on first Peter by John Brown for his
thoughts here and I shall quote him later on this evening
but he takes you to Acts chapter 12 and verse 5 where the same word is used so Peter was
kept in prison but the church was earnestly praying to God for him this wasn't a spasmodic
love as the church kept up the praying the Christian keeps it up that is to say he's love
and mark this no change in the circumstances in the object will change that love
it is constant but there is another aspect to this love
it is strong and intense and the same word is used in Luke chapter 22 and verse 44
and being in anguish he prayed more etinos he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was
like drops of blood falling to the ground and if that is so it simply means that it
is willing to make a costly sacrifice for its object if that were ever necessary
a new commandment I give you love one another as I have loved you so you must love one another
why the newness of the command
because of the new motivation because of the fresh comparison the love of Jesus Christ was constant
the love of Christ was intense notwithstanding the sins of the objects of his love
it kept its strength
it is still the same
and now we come to something while we think about it that we need to digest deeply and permanently
it surpasses denominational boundaries
it extends to all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ
it excludes no believer anyway it is therefore not selective
it mortifies jealousy
I was invited to attend a minister's gathering of
Dutch Reformed ministers in Pretoria by a very godly Dutch Reformed minister once
I enjoyed every moment of it the praying was good the humor was good
the fellowship appeared to be so good but as we drove away
he said to me Martin the jealousy in that group of men is nearly breaking my heart
the facade of love and fellowship
the absence of the same how can it be and yet
our fellowships and our fraternals could as well be taught with the same brush
is it there as it should be
have you read Hugh Martin's book Simon Peter?
and if you have do you remember that remarkable chapter on the secret of communication and
the reference he makes to John the Baptist
and when he points out that it was a costly thing for John the Baptist to say
to some of his own disciples look the lamb follow him
that for that lonely man the forerunner of Christ to see
his beloved friends and supporters leave him and follow Christ Hugh Martin makes this interesting
comment he coveted the very success that meant the thinning of his own thanks
could you
I think I should mention in passing that that dear brother about whom I referred to a moment ago
with his heart broken because of the jealousy in a fraternal fellowship
was also somebody with whom I shared in rich fellowship when we were ministers
in the same town in the earlier years of my ministry and I shall never forget his example
he would visit people on my behalf and tell them to come to my church and not to his
I'm not suggesting you to that
but I will always remember him as an apostle John
as somebody who left his younger brother with an example
I would like to follow to the end of my days
may I ask you a very searching question
has your love for your brothers in the Christian ministry grown
has it developed has it for your people
or are you here tonight somewhat bitter and embittered because of the way you have been treated
do you love the people and those in particular who have made your life difficult
do you
thirdly the powerful resources given which increase this love
not only has he said that now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so
that you have sincere love for your brothers you are to love one another deeply from the heart
but goes on to point out that we have been born again not of perishable seed but of imperishable
through the living and enduring word of God you were brought into Christian fellowship in the
first place when you were converted when you've experienced the regenerating experience of
free grace you were brought into God's family by this means and when it happened
the bonds within that family superseded all other natural bonds
your brother in the ministry and the people whom you know to be God's people have also been
incorporated into this familyhood by similar means that is the powerful
inerrant inspired word of God
love is the inevitable
what then
john brown is exceptionally forceful at this point he says
if he is rightly considered as a monster who refuses to cherish and manifest peculiar regard
to those who are connected with him by the ties of a natural relationship which may in a moment
which may in a moment which must in a few years be dissolved forever what name is to be given to a
man calling himself a Christian who does not regard and treat as brethren those who if his profession
be a sincere one stand to him in a relation of the intimacy of which the nearest earthly relation
is but a feeble figure and the duration of which can be measured only by the years of the eternal
if i may simplify that
if i he is saying that if a man is a monster who does not love his blood blood brother
who must sooner or later die and be separated from him what do you call a believer
who refuses to love those to whom he is bound forever
it is therefore inexcusable not to love a fellow pastor
i come as a visitor to your country
i almost feel ashamed that i'm standing here pontificating to you about christian love in
the ministry when for all i know there may be a bond of love here that i never knew was there
and undoubtedly there is at this conference for after all we are like-minded
and as we sometimes say in africans in my home country
which means birds of a feather flock together and more than that they love each other
but what about others
and more pertinently what about the will of the head of the church
i was puzzled a few years ago as to the reasons for the lack of gospel success
in the ministry of a brother and a colleague whose preaching i have so enjoyed and benefited from
and i'm not suggesting that we always know why it would seem as if god's favors are withdrawn from
some when they are given to others but i asked a man who was older than i am and has been on
christian for longer than i am and he's also in the christian ministry and i asked him why did
he think that was so and he said because martin i think that he carries around with him
deep down in his heart a root of bitterness
is it perhaps so that we who are met here for this banner conference wonderful as it is
cherish it as we do because of its nature because of its character because of its value
is it perhaps just true
that with many of us the kind of christian love that god would have of us
who are role models to our people whether we like it or not is not up to standard
i was speaking at a leadership camp of a church where the pastor who has just recently accepted
a call to a church in adelaide in australia was talking to me about a time when tragically
he and a colleague had a fallout
he said what hurt him most was the fact that he discovered that his people were watching
and saying it if not verbalizing it then at least thinking
if the two of you cannot love each other for all your differences how can you expect that of us
what are we to do about it what are some of the things we ought to guard against
there are six things i share with you briefly and they're very practical but they're terribly
important and they have everything to do with the advance of truth surely we are here because
amongst other things we are concerned about the advance of truth in a world
which is suffering from an epidemic of lies
and in a church which is wanting for sound solid truth
well what are we going to do about this
this thing which when manifested and when there when asked for when prayed for when coveted when
thirsted for pleases the heart of father son and holy spirit and brings with it great glory
to the ministry and to the christian church
first of all i suggest that we should get our facts straight
when we think about colleagues in the ministry and not to assume things about any man
things which we may have not been prepared to discuss with him and things which have never been
that's hard
but important
we base far too many of our conclusions on assumptions
and am i not right in saying that some of the things that have been said about us
have been based on assumptions and not facts
and where we have been the victims dare we victimize others
so
secondly
we need to become better acquainted with those who under god we are duty bound to love
you cannot love those you do not know
again i mean let it to john brown for a thought here when he suggests that
when you become better acquainted with another believer and for the purposes of
this evening's message a brother in the christian ministry says don brown you will begin to detect
something which you may not have noticed before and that is the developing image of god in the
man and you may have to admit that you have seen something which you never knew was really there
isn't this why malachi
chapter 3 and verse 16 enjoins the kind of interpersonal contact which pleases god when
he says then those who feared the lord talked with each other and the lord listened and heard
and a skull of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the lord
and honored his name in our busy schedules
is there not to be a time and a place for this kind of interpersonal communication which will
sooner than hinder
if we have been wronged we are to forgive for christ's sake
tomorrow evening i shall be dealing with the whole matter of christian forgiveness
but just for now are we any better than our lord jesus christ who came as a forgiving messiah
the anointed one with a heart burning with pity for the helpless and the hopeless and stephen
who could pray in the spirit of his master lord lay not this into their charge and forth
ought we not to pray for those
with whom we have some difficulty and perhaps even great difficulty
when it comes to the whole matter of interpersonal fellowship
the lord delivered joe from his captivity when he prayed for his friends friends who had
misrepresented him friends who had not spoken correctly about him and if we are to love our
enemies and pray for those who are despitefully using us ought we not with equal further and
concern and love to pray for those who may not be our best friends in the ministry
it may be hard but in the testimony of many it is liberating
fifthly mortify those things which inhibit love chapter two verse
one of first peter rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit hypocrisy
envy slander of every kind will you permit me to read it a second time
and as i do think about it in terms of the christian ministry
rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit hypocrisy envy and slander of every kind
because these are the things that clog the conduit of love
do we engage in daily mortification of sin ruthless and necessary
and sixthly
drink deep of the love of christ
drink deep of the love of christ it was just before the passover
jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the father
having loved his own who were in the world he now showed them the full extent of his love
and the full extent of his love took him from this point where he washed the disciples feet
to the place where he died the cruel death of the cross and when you think of that remember
remember jesus christ loves your brother in the ministry too
he does
he loves that as williams still calls them in his marvelous little book
the work of the pastor he loves that oddball in your church
or in your previous church
the one who made it hard for you and the one who hurt you
and the one who hurt your wife which made it even worse
you see in the very nature of things love covers a multitude of things
it does it does which is exactly why i say we need to take the deepest draft we can
of the love of christ
and when the apostle pauline joined the romans to accept one another then just as christ accepted
you in order to bring praise to god he was suggesting to them that whenever they thought of
the apparent impossibility of the gulf between themselves and another
there was a brother or a sister in christ they were simply to think of the impossibility of
the gulf between the father and his children but for the love of christ
and when he considered that it would make the world of difference
i do not think for a moment that i have been as exhaustive as i could have been in the treatment
of the subject
but if my being with you this evening has only served the purpose to make you cry
as i wish to cry to god for a fresh baptism of heavenly and holy love
so that all that i believe and teach
may be cemented by the love of god shed abroad in my heart by the holy spirit
then i believe we shall be the better fitted for the next year of christian ministry
how we need it how much i do and how much you do
the love that we are talking about will be perfected in heaven
but it must begin here and to take up peter's thoughts it must increase
my brothers i do not apologize for dealing with a subject which is not usually dealt with
at conferences like this perhaps more than i realize or appreciate but i come convinced of
the fact absolutely persuaded of the fact that we all need to take to heart the call of peter
now that you do love love one another deeply never sacrifice your convictions
and never compromise on your beliefs not even your calvinistic convictions
for they are the essential truth of god
but let us never forget first corinthians chapter 30
if you do not have love as god has love for his people and for his servants
you are nothing more than a noisy god
oh father work in our hearts and fill us with heavenly and holy love
that we may speak the truth in love ever and always to our dying day
now to him
the king immortal invisible god only wise in honor and glory and majesty and power forever and ever
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