0:00

Hi, this is Nathan W Bingham and

0:02

before we get to today's episode I

0:05

wanted to encourage you to download the free

0:07

Ligonier app if you haven't already You

0:09

can easily get the app by searching for

0:11

Ligonier in your app store of choice or

0:14

by visiting ligonier.org slash

0:17

app as a renewing

0:19

your mind listener You know that most

0:21

days our resource offer has a digital

0:23

component Something you can stream or read

0:25

and you can access those resources in

0:28

the app The Ligonier app

0:30

also makes it easy to listen to each day's

0:32

edition of renewing your mind Plus

0:34

there's thousands of other free resources in

0:36

the library that you can read watch

0:39

or listen to and if

0:41

you're a Ligonier Ministry partner when

0:43

you log in our complete teaching

0:45

series library will be unlocked so

0:48

you can study on the go So

0:50

be sure to search for Ligonier in

0:52

your app store and make the Ligonier

0:54

app something that you use every day

0:57

Now on to today's episode We

1:00

are all called to bear our

1:02

injuries and our griefs and our

1:04

pain and the insults we receive

1:07

with patience and love and gentleness

1:09

and long-suffering that's

1:12

required of all of us because

1:14

it is part and Parcel

1:17

of the Christian's life that

1:19

is to be an imitation of Christ

1:28

When someone accuses us of something

1:30

that isn't true it hurts if

1:33

you use social media You may

1:36

have experienced someone commenting on a post

1:38

of yours and insulting you when

1:40

that happens. How do you respond? How

1:43

should we respond as Christians? This

1:46

is the Monday edition of renewing your mind

1:49

as we start a new study in

1:51

our sea sprawl series Keeping in step

1:53

with the spirit Until

1:55

Friday you can request access to this

1:57

20 message series on growth in

2:00

the Christian life. Plus, we'll send

2:02

you a newly released 90-day

2:04

devotional that contains reflections on

2:06

the Christian life when you

2:08

give a donation of any

2:10

amount at renewingyourmind.org. Well,

2:13

to begin our time in this series,

2:16

here's Dr. Sproul to share a personal

2:18

account of hurt and how

2:20

we as Christians are called to have

2:22

a charitable response. Have

2:27

you ever had somebody say something

2:29

unkind to you? I

2:33

think we've all had that experience. Have you

2:35

ever had an experience where you hear

2:38

that somebody has said something untrue

2:41

about you publicly?

2:45

I think we've all had that experience. And

2:48

certainly those of you who are in ministry

2:50

know what it's like to have that kind

2:52

of thing happen that we call slander or

2:55

malicious gossip and so on, and

2:58

how painful that is in

3:02

order to bear it. But

3:05

the question I'm concerned about today is how

3:07

do we respond to that sort of

3:10

thing? This

3:12

morning I wrote a letter to

3:14

a friend of mine. I

3:16

wrote him in response to a letter

3:18

I received from him last week where

3:21

he wrote me this nice friendly letter that's bringing

3:23

me up to date on what's going on with

3:25

his life, and he happened to include in

3:27

that letter a copy of

3:30

a newspaper article that recently

3:32

appeared in the LA Times.

3:35

And the basic drift of the

3:37

article was a

3:39

vicious personal attack. And

3:44

when I saw that picture and

3:46

read that article, I would

3:48

say to myself, how would I

3:50

feel? If I

3:52

opened the newspaper one day and read

3:55

such a scurrilous attack against

3:57

my integrity in print. gotten

6:01

the message that was in it. And

6:03

so I was rereading it. In fact, I was

6:05

rereading it this morning. And

6:07

he has a chapter in there on

6:09

how love bears

6:13

personal injury and

6:15

pain, how

6:17

Christians are to respond

6:21

to false charges, to

6:23

angry assaults from other people.

6:27

And the more I read what Edwards

6:29

said, the worse, the worser

6:31

I felt. The more

6:34

I said, wait a minute, I have

6:36

just allowed myself to

6:39

slip into despondency, to lose

6:42

the joy of my salvation,

6:45

and to have feelings of anger

6:48

and even potential bitterness

6:52

because of this personal attack

6:54

against me. And

6:57

Edwards, in Charity and its

7:00

Fruits, says many things. I'm

7:02

going to read just a couple of comments that

7:04

he makes. He says

7:06

this, the

7:09

spirit of Christian long-suffering and

7:11

of meekness in bearing injuries

7:14

is a mark of true greatness

7:17

of soul. It

7:19

shows a true and noble nature and

7:22

a real greatness of spirit

7:24

to maintain the calmness of

7:26

the soul in the

7:28

midst of injuries and evil. He

7:33

says earlier, men that

7:35

have their spirits heated and enraged

7:37

and rising in bitter resentment when

7:40

they are injured act

7:42

as if they thought some strange thing had

7:44

happened to them, whereas they are very foolish

7:46

in so thinking, for it is no strange

7:49

thing at all, but only what was to

7:51

be expected in a world like this. They

7:54

therefore do not act wisely that allow

7:56

their spirits to be ruffled by the

7:58

injuries they suffer. Now,

8:01

what Edwards is getting at here is

8:05

that the Christian has to

8:07

keep his eyes focused on

8:09

God and on his

8:12

relationship with God. Now,

8:14

I've been involved in a controversy for over

8:16

a year that was somewhat acrimonious and a

8:18

theological controversy and so on, and there were

8:20

all kinds of statements made

8:23

publicly and so on. It

8:25

was a time of great distress for me, and I

8:27

met with my pastor about this, and he said, well,

8:29

how are you doing? And

8:32

I said, well, actually, I'm not doing very well,

8:34

and he said, what's the matter? I said, I'm

8:36

not sleeping at night. I

8:38

can't get this stuff out of my mind. It

8:41

has me so upset that I'm tossing and

8:43

turning in my bed, and

8:45

I said this to my pastor, and

8:47

he understood this is why I was

8:49

telling him this, that

8:51

I was concerned about

8:54

this because of what it was

8:56

saying about me. I

8:59

said, I'm embarrassed to tell you this because

9:03

I know that my trust is to be

9:05

in Christ, and I

9:07

am to rely on God as

9:09

my shield and my very great

9:11

reward, and I see myself now

9:14

so disturbed in my soul and

9:16

so disturbed in my spirit that

9:19

I'm worrying about my reputation. I'm

9:22

worrying about my feelings. I'm

9:25

worrying about my friendships. I'm worrying

9:27

about everything else except the kingdom

9:29

of God, and I'm

9:32

not proud to tell you this. I

9:34

said, this has been a revelation to

9:37

me that's not very pleasing

9:39

because I am

9:41

allowing matters

9:44

to disturb the

9:47

serenity of my soul and

9:49

the calmness of my spirit

9:51

that ought never to disturb

9:53

me, and

9:57

as I read Edwards this morning, Edwards

9:59

re-enacted. enforced that concept to

10:01

me. And he

10:04

is saying in that work that

10:06

there is nothing that

10:09

another human being can

10:12

do to us that

10:14

can ever hurt anything but

10:17

our worldly pleasures. A

10:20

person can injure our body. A

10:23

person can steal our money. A

10:27

person can cause us all kinds

10:29

of economic distress, and

10:31

they can destroy our reputation, all

10:34

of which things have to do with

10:36

the cares and the pleasures of this

10:38

world. But we have

10:40

an inheritance that is laid up in heaven,

10:43

a treasure there where nobody can

10:45

steal it and nobody can cause

10:48

it to be rusted or corroded,

10:50

and it is preserved and protected

10:53

by the Lord Himself. And

10:56

He guarantees this future

10:59

inheritance. And so

11:01

basically Edwards is saying, what are you

11:03

so exercised about, R.C., other

11:06

than worldly concerns? Now,

11:09

I know we can stop away and say, well

11:11

Edwards, that's you. You are a spiritual giant, and

11:13

you can handle these things, and you don't worry

11:15

about personal affronts and injuries and all of that

11:17

sort of thing. But you're extraordinary.

11:20

You're super Christian. And

11:22

after all, I'm human, and how can I

11:24

not be distressed when I'm hurt

11:26

by people I thought were my friends and

11:28

so on? And

11:31

yes, it is true that it's part

11:33

of our human nature to respond with

11:35

sadness or anger or bitterness. So all

11:37

of these things are eminently human, but

11:39

I want to say two things about

11:42

it. Yes, they're

11:44

human, but they're part of

11:46

our fallen humanity. Those

11:49

are not part of the manifestations of

11:51

the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And

11:54

yes, I believe that Edwards was super Christian

11:57

and attained a plateau of spiritual diamonds.

12:00

that there's something I'll never experience in this

12:02

world. Nevertheless, what he's calling

12:05

me to in this

12:07

situation is nothing extraordinary. We

12:11

are all called to

12:13

bear our injuries and our

12:16

griefs and our pain and the

12:18

insults we receive with

12:21

patience and love and gentleness

12:23

and long suffering. That's

12:26

required of all of us because

12:30

it is part and

12:32

parcel of the

12:35

Christian's life that

12:37

is to be an imitation of

12:39

Christ. We

12:41

are not Christ, but

12:44

as we are being sanctified, we

12:47

are being molded into

12:49

His image, and we are

12:51

being conformed to the image of Christ,

12:54

and we are to strive to

12:58

live like He lived. And

13:02

how can I get on my

13:04

knees and complain to Jesus that

13:07

people are making false accusations about

13:09

me? Can I

13:11

hear Jesus look at me and say, really?

13:15

I didn't know that ever happened. What

13:18

crime was Jesus not accused of

13:23

in His earthly ministry? His

13:28

contemporaries constantly plotted

13:31

to kill Him. They

13:35

slandered Him every opportunity

13:37

they had. And

13:40

the Bible says that our Lord opened

13:43

not His mouth and

13:46

like a lamb that was

13:48

led to the slaughter. He

13:52

went, He accepted

13:54

these vitriolic attacks, and

13:57

in the very moment of His passion,

13:59

pray for the forgiveness of

14:01

those who were attacking Him. And

14:07

He was sinless. Every

14:09

charge that was leveled against Christ was

14:11

a false charge. Not every charge that's

14:13

leveled against me is a false charge.

14:15

I can't stand up and say, wait

14:18

a minute, nobody should

14:20

be criticizing me because I'm

14:22

above criticism. That's crazy. And

14:25

what do we do? Even when the criticism is

14:27

valid, we get mad, and

14:29

we get hurt, and we get bitter.

14:34

But Jesus always

14:36

was innocent, and

14:39

He still loved, was

14:44

patient, was

14:46

gentle, was kind, and

14:49

never once sought

14:51

revenge. Now,

14:55

He is the perfect

14:58

image of the

15:01

fullness of the Spirit of God. Now,

15:04

obviously, we're not going to attain

15:06

an equality of

15:08

virtue with Jesus in this

15:11

world. But

15:13

we are to show a

15:15

certain Christ-likeness here. We

15:18

are to manifest the Spirit

15:21

that was in Him that He

15:23

has given to us. He

15:25

has shared His Holy Spirit with us, and

15:28

He calls us to

15:31

nurture and to cultivate

15:33

the fruit of that

15:35

Holy Spirit. Now,

15:38

I can only say this. When

15:40

I read that reminder by Jonathan

15:42

Edwards, it didn't illuminate

15:45

suddenly all of the pain I've been feeling

15:47

or the distress about it, but it certainly

15:49

put it in a different light. And I

15:51

thought, wait a minute, I've

15:53

been so concerned about what other

15:55

people are doing, I

15:58

haven't concerned myself with what I'm am

16:00

supposed to be doing as a Christian.

16:03

And even though at a horizontal level

16:06

I feel that I have been unjustly

16:08

treated, when I look at

16:10

my relationship to God can I say to

16:12

God, God you are

16:14

not just in allowing these things

16:16

to happen to me. I

16:19

can't. And so the

16:21

next question I have to ask is not

16:24

why God, an accusatory why,

16:27

but a genuine why. Why?

16:29

And I don't have to go look very far to see

16:31

the answer to that in one hand at least. I

16:34

can see this occasion as a

16:36

golden opportunity in my life to learn

16:39

something about the fruit of the Spirit.

16:41

Because it said,

16:43

Sproul, you allowed

16:45

your soul to get distressed, you

16:47

allowed yourself to get angry, you allowed yourself

16:49

to have at least a potential for a

16:52

root of bitterness to spring up in your

16:54

soul. And all of those things

16:56

are destructive, and all of those things are sin.

16:58

And instead

17:02

of seeing this as an

17:04

occasion to imitate Christ and

17:07

to grow in your sanctification,

17:11

you have been resisting my

17:13

Spirit. Because I believe that God does bring this

17:15

sort of thing into our

17:17

lives for our

17:19

edification, for us

17:22

to remember where our treasure is.

17:25

And so when I wrote my letter today,

17:27

I told him when I saw that newspaper

17:29

article about you, I was angry,

17:32

not at you, I was angry at the newspaper.

17:34

I said, and I tried to

17:36

imagine how I would feel if I were in

17:38

your shoes. But I have to

17:40

tell you, I

17:42

have been singularly impressed not

17:45

only by your courage, but

17:48

by your Spirit in

17:50

this. I have

17:52

not heard Him scream in bitterness, or

17:56

lose His cool, or be

17:58

depressed because of this. looked

22:00

and to some degree of

22:02

personal anecdote at

22:05

how we bear injuries

22:07

that we receive from other people. There

22:10

are a couple of practical things I'd like

22:13

to say to you in conclusion about that.

22:15

One is, you know,

22:17

we're called to exercise that

22:19

love or charity that

22:21

covers a multitude of sins. Think

22:25

of the sin that's been covered in

22:27

us by the

22:29

covering of Christ. And

22:32

we're supposed to cover our

22:35

brothers and sisters' sins as well.

22:38

Not in a sense of lying or deceit.

22:40

That's not the kind of cover-up I mean,

22:42

but in the sense of bearing them graciously

22:47

and in a loving attitude.

22:50

It helps us when we realize that

22:52

for the most part, the wounds that

22:54

we feel at the hands of other

22:56

people are rarely

22:59

committed with the

23:01

kind of malice we

23:04

assume they are. Most

23:07

people do not mean to hurt

23:09

us as deeply as we are

23:11

hurt. And when

23:13

we hear that we've hurt somebody else, we're quick to

23:16

say, oh, I didn't mean to do that. I'm

23:18

sorry. I didn't mean to bring that much pain

23:21

into your life. And the pain

23:23

that we experience, we have their sinners, and most

23:25

people don't intend that degree of pain either. And

23:29

we have to remember that, and we

23:31

have to think about them and the

23:33

struggles that they're going through and why

23:35

they are feeling the way that they're

23:37

feeling. And Edwards puts

23:39

it this way, as

23:42

love to God prevails, it

23:44

tends to set persons above

23:46

human injuries in

23:48

this sense that the more

23:50

they love God, the more

23:53

they will place all their happiness

23:55

in Him. They

23:57

will look to God as they're all and

23:59

seek their happiness. and portion in His favor

24:02

and not in the allotments of His

24:04

providence alone. And the more

24:06

they love God, the less they set their

24:08

hearts on their worldly interests, which

24:11

are all that their enemies

24:14

can touch. Keep

24:17

that in mind as

24:19

you seek to manifest the fruit of the

24:21

Spirit. That

24:30

was R.C. Sproul on this Monday

24:33

edition of Renewing Your Mind. As

24:36

we seek to live the Christian life, we

24:38

seek to walk in step with the Holy

24:40

Spirit, not resisting our growth

24:42

in grace and our growth in holiness.

24:45

And the series that you heard a

24:48

message from today was recorded to help

24:50

you understand the work of the Spirit

24:52

both in producing fruit in our lives

24:55

and in putting sin to death. It's

24:57

an extensive study, 20 messages,

24:59

and you can have lifetime digital access to

25:02

it when you give a gift of any

25:04

amount at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us

25:06

at 800-435-4343. Your

25:11

support keeps Renewing Your Mind freely available

25:13

to Christians all around the world. And

25:16

when you make your donation, we'll also

25:19

send you a copy of a new

25:21

90-day devotional, Our Great Salvation. These

25:24

daily readings cover four areas,

25:26

the character of God, His

25:28

blessings in salvation, our

25:30

privilege of worship, and our lifelong

25:32

pursuit of holiness. So

25:35

request both resources today at renewingyourmind.org

25:37

or by clicking the link in

25:39

the podcast show notes. As

25:44

God works in our lives, He produces

25:47

fruit. Tomorrow, Dr. Sproul will

25:49

consider the fruit of love. So

25:51

be sure to join us then here on

25:54

Renewing Your Mind.