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A very good morning once again to all of you and we are glad you're able to join us as we continue our study in the book of Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount.

Well, this is not something easy for man to do, right?  You can love your wife.  You can love your kids.  You can love your friends.  You can love people you are familiar with but to love your enemy, that is quite a tall order and that's why I can understand why people would want to minimise the Law of God.  You see, that's what the Jews, the religious leaders during the times of Jesus did.  They minimised the Law of God.  Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said - you shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.”  You say, “Where did the Jews minimise the Law of God?”  Well they minimised the Law of God by adding this phrase - and hate your enemy.  This is nowhere found in the Old Testament.  It's nowhere found in the Word of God but that's what the religious leaders have added themselves and been teaching throughout the land of Israel.

Say why would they want to do that?  Because they find in themselves no possibility of loving their enemies so they began to define the word neighbour based on their own interpretation, or their own desires.  They say, neighbours are people who are Jews who are like us, who people, who are people we like so you love people like you and people who you like but as for your enemies, you have licence to hate them. Of course this is baloney.  This is not what the Bible says at all so Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount showed up their superficial and very selective kind of obedience and said, love your enemies, no exclusion.

You say, what are the enemies?  Well, the enemies are even people who would persecute you.  They hunt for your life.  They want to kill you.  What do you do with people like that who really hate us?  You love your enemies.  This is not a new thing.  This has always been the will of God.  Back in the Old Testament, thousands of years before that, God had already said via Moses that we are to love your neighbour as yourself.  No clause that says, love your neighbour and hate your enemies. You love your neighbours including your enemies. You say how do you know?  This definitely includes enemies. Well, let me show you a verse.  In Exodus 23, it says that when your nei... or your enemy has an ox or donkey that has gone astray, what do you do?  Oh go grab it and kill it and, and cook it for yourself?  No, you don't do that!  When you see your enemies' livestock missing, you find, you find that livestock.  You do your enemy a favour and bring that ox or donkey back to your neighbour, that's loving your neighbour, that's loving even your enemies and if you see the donkey of one who hates you, lying down under its burden, you, you help the donkey, you help that animal.  In other words, you love your enemies by helping them.

This is almost exactly the same thing as you would do for your brother. Deuteronomy 22 verse one, you shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them.  You shall take them back to your brother, just as you would do for your enemies' livestock so you love your neighbour, you also love your enemies, you love your brother the same but probably the best convincement that we are to love our enemies, just like we would love any other neighbour would be via the teaching of Jesus Christ in the good Samaritan. This is a story in the Bible, Jesus actually gave.  He spoke about a Samaritan.  He is a half-Jew.  He's a mixed breed, a Samaritan who sacrificed himself to help a Jew. That is remarkable because Jews and Samaritans are enemies but Jesus says this is the definition of a neighbour, a neighbour is someone who you are able to help around you, regardless if he is your friend or your enemy.

GK Chesterton has a very interesting witty little quote I hope that helps you.  He says the Bible tells us to love our neighbours and also to love our enemies, probably because they are generally the same people, people around us, generally offend us and we generally offend people around us and at the end of the day it really doesn't make a difference according to God's Word, whether they're enemies are not, you are to love them all the same.

Let me give you a story about this man.  His name is George Washington.  A story is told of him finding a man, his name is Michael Wittman, guilty of treason and lying so General Washington is going to sentence this man to hanging but a pastor, a scholar, a translator, he's all these three roles in one, a very influential man, godly man, his name is Peter Miller.  He came to George Washington to plead for the life of Michael Wittman and this is the dialogue they had.

“General Washington, I've come to ask a great favour of you.”   “I shall be glad to grant you almost anything,” said Washington, “for we surely are indebted to you for many favours.  Tell me what it is.”    “I hear,” said Peter Miller, “that Michael Wittman has been found guilty of treason and that he is to be hanged at Turk's head tomorrow.  I've come to ask you to pardon him.”  “Now Wittman is a bad man.  He has done all in his power to betray us.  He has even offered to join the British and aid them in destroying us.  In these times we dare not be lenient with traitors and for that reason, I'm sorry Peter that I cannot pardon your friend.”  “Friend?” cried Peter.  “Why, he is no friend of mine!  He is my bitterest enemy.  He, he has persecuted me for years.  He has even beaten me and spat in my face, knowing full well that I would not strike back. Michael Wittman is no friend of mine.”  “And still you wish me to pardon him?”  “Yes I do.  I ask it of you as a great personal favour.”  “Tell me, why is it that you thus ask the pardon of your worst enemy?”  Peter Miller simply said, “I ask it because Jesus did as much for me.”  So this is what Jesus says, you are to love your enemies. In a sense, He's doing, He's saying what He Himself would do, that on the cross, He would say, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Jesus loves His enemies and so He calls us today to love our enemies.

Maybe there's someone you are really bitter against. It may be your spouse, your husband, your wife.  It may be your friend in church.  It may be a colleague, it may be someone that is dear to you who has betrayed you, lied to you, spoke unfairly about you, or been very harsh towards you.  You have been very upset but you know the Bible tells you today love your neighbours and that includes loving your enemies.

Now why would you want to do that?  Well Jesus went on to say in verse 25 so that you may be the sons of your Father who is in heaven, love your enemies, why - because that's what your Father does. That's the character of your Father, be like daddy almost if you would said today in, for a father and son relationship.  Son, do this, why dad, because daddy also does this, you are my son and Jesus is saying you love your enemies, say why, because your Father loves His enemies.  How do you know the Father loves His enemies?

Well the Father makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.  Have you ever seen sunshine and rain in Singapore?  I'm sure we do, every day you see, either sun or rain right and in Singapore, how does the sun and the rain come?  It comes to Block 110 and not to Block 128 because 110 a lot of Christians and 128 don't have Christians.  Does it come like this?  No, it doesn't come down in shafts, in pillars, in columns, it comes down across the land and Jesus is saying, this is how God demonstrates His love for all, whether you are a good guy or a bad guy, a Christian or not a Christian, evil or good, God shows His love to all, by sending the rain and the sun.

Not only that, your Father sent His Son Jesus Christ on the cross. This is the message of the Bible that God loves His enemies, God so loved the world. How do you know? That He gave His Only Son to die on the cross. So why should Christians love unlovely people?  Why should Christians love people who hate us?  Why should Christians be good to those who hurt us - simply because your Father loves His enemies!  You see, sometimes we have a hard time loving enemies and we often do.  Why because we look at the enemy and we say, “I hate your face, I see you I want to puke.”  You really hate that guy, you, you, you every time you see him you want to…. you want to turn your head with disgust, you hate him and say, I cannot love him because he doesn't deserve my love.  Look at the way he has treated me, look at the way he has betrayed me, look at the way he has ill-treated me, I cannot love him.  You see, we find all the reasons to love someone in the person, that's where your  difficulty lies but according to this verse, God is saying, don't find your reason to love that person in that person, find your reason to love that person in your Father, love him not because of him, love him because of your Father.

Let me apply this to parenting.  My two boys fight, they quarrel, sometimes they quarrel and fight with other children outside, so we would as a parent, what would you say?  Shawn, Matthias be nice to people, don't fight with people and the typical thing we would say to our kids is don't fight with them, be nice to them, so that others will, will, ah, very good, that's a, that's a good common reason, be nice to other kids, so that other kids will also be nice to you but does it always work?  Does it always work?  Is it true that if your son is nice to other people, other children will always be nice to your son, no not always.

My eldest son Shawn he, he learned that very early, we always tell him, be nice to Matthias otherwise Matthias won't be nice to you. He says, “But Matthias never nice to me.  He is hopeless, cannot one [Singlish], he cannot one [Singlish]”, and that might be the case for you when you are ill-treated by someone, you find that it's hopeless, no matter how good I am to the other guy, he's never got to be reciprocating that love so what do we say to Shawn?  I say , “Shawn, yah, sometimes Matthias really doesn't deserve to be loved that way because he's been mean, he doesn't understand, he's still young but Shawn you love Matthias not because Matthias is good to you, you love Matthias not because Matthias will be good to you, you love Matthias because you love God, because God loves people, God loves His enemies.  Shawn you're to love your brother even if he doesn't love you in the way you expect so Jesus is saying, this is the reason why we love because of God.”

He goes on to say in verses 46 and 47 for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have, what so special about you if you love those who love you? I mean that's what the tax collectors do right and that's what the Gentiles do right, that's what everybody does!  The tax collectors were the rogues of the day.  They were like the despised and rejected because they were Jewish people who work for the Roman Empire to collect money from the Jewish people, they are seen as traitors. They would often times have to bribe and line their own pockets with more money so that they can survive and so the Jews despised the tax collectors but Jesus says, even the Ah Bengs [local: mafia] even the gangs, even the triads, even the bad people, even the tax collectors, they have a certain esprit de corps, they have a certain loyalty and love for one another, they have this camaraderie and so if the people of this world, the despised, the rejected people of this world could love one another that way, if you only love your own people, if you only love people you like and people who like you, what's so special about your faith in God?  The Son of God, the child of God, the Christian must be defined with this statement that there is something more that you are doing.

Wow that's a very powerful statement, don't you think?  How do you know if you're Christian?  Oh because I'm a loving father, great, good start but that's not so distinctive you know?  Oh because I'm very nice to my colleagues, great, good start but not very distinctive. Oh, because I'm a very moral man, great but not distinctive.  What's distinctive for Jesus here - when you love your enemies!  You're not just a moral man, you're not just a kind father, you're not just a good husband but you are able, by the grace of God to love your enemies - people would hate you, scold you, persecute you, you still do good for them, wow, that's how people tell… ah, that man, he's different.

We know the Ah Bengs, can [Jiang Yi Qi] [讲义气] [to value loyalty], love one another but this guy, he's entirely different because his motivation is from God Himself who loves His enemies - that's the acid test for the child of God. What more are you doing, that's the question, that's the mark of a child of God.

Jesus now wraps up the Sermon on the Mount err, not the Sermon of the Mount but this segment on the Law Fulfilled with verse 48 which says, you therefore must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. Now many people think that this verse 48 is applied immediately to verses 43 to 47 which is loving your enemies. Certainly that can be so but I think more likely, this is a concluding statement to mark the end of the entire segment from verse 16 onwards, which is about, or verse 17 onwards, which is about the Law of God, about the perversion by the Jews.  They minimise God's laws.  They made it very superficial.  They made it very selective.  They made it all about themselves.  Jesus has given six examples to say no, that's not the right way to understand the Law.  The Law of God must be understood in this proper light and what it means is that you will fulfil the Law in its entirety, in its entire spirit, you aim for that fullness of the expression of the Law of God, be ye therefore perfect, complete, mature, even as your Father is so.

Now let me come back to this message of loving your enemies and I just want to end, er, I say end because really just three applicatory thoughts for you today alright and then that's all.  What can we learn and what can we apply in our lives as we hear Jesus teaching on loving your enemies.

Number one, I want to say very simply, God loves you. Sometimes we think that God doesn't love man at all because God says I'm going to send you to hell.  Now it's true that God is angry at sin and God is angry at sinners, the Bible equally teaches that and for those who are not forgiven of their sins who die as unforgiven sinners they will face the fierce wrath of God in hell and the reality is today at the same time we see the anger of God being revealed in many ways, the way people are living in rampant sins without checks.  The way the world is going through catastrophes and disasters. They are tokens according to the Bible about the wrath of God against sins and sinners so yes, the Bible teaches about God's wrath but today's text also tells us about God's love.  God loves the world.  God loves man.  God loves everyone.  I say that again, again. God loves everyone.  God loves every man.  You say how is that possible?     He's angry with man and He loves, that's what God tells me in the Bible, that's God, that's what the Bible teaches and I say without reservation God loves man - in what ways?

Well, we have already read that.  He makes His sun shine.  He causes rain to fall.  In Acts chapter 14 it tells us He gives us the sun, He gives us the rain why - so that you may have fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.  This is the goodness of God.  This is the love of God.  He showers His blessings to all men.  This is what we call the common grace of God and most of all, I know God loves man because the Bible beautifully tells us, for God so loved the world that He gave His Only Son. The God of the Bible is a God of amazing love because He doesn't just love nice people - there is no nice people in this world by the way, according to God standards, there is no one righteous, no one pure, no one deserving of love but the Bible tells me God loves man.  He loves even His enemies, wicked, filthy, rebellious sinners - He loves us and gave His Son for us.

I wonder if you really think about that and would you just consider how astounding this is.  You see it's astounding for someone like me.  I'm raised a Chinese in a Chinese home and I watch many Chinese shows.  I watched shows about fairies and deities, Chinese folklores.   I, I watch movies about how the deities in heavens are powerful, wise but something about some of the deities is that they don't really understand love.  OK if you are Chinese and you can understand these two Proverbs - good for you but if you don't, it's okay, don't worry alright.  The two proverbs I'm going to say is, the Chinese deities, I think they portray themselves as [bu shi ren jian yan huo] 不食人间烟火 [placing oneself above the common populace], heard about, okay, don't know never mind don't, don't stress it's cool alright the, the gods, [bu shi ren jian yan huo] they also [bu dong] 不懂 [don't know], [mei you] 没有 [don't have]  [qi qing liu yu]七情六欲[seven affections and six desires] so the idea is that the deities are generally quite detached emotionally alright and they have to come down to human world to be human, have, take on human form so that they can experience human love so the idea is that maybe they are powerful, they are wise, they live very long but they don't really have a good understanding of what real love is all about so humanity excels the deity in this experience and this power of love but when I read the Bible, that is not how God is being taught or portrayed or revealed.  The God of the Bible is a God of amazing power and sovereignty, no question.  The God of the Bible is a God of amazing wisdom and knowledge.  The God of the Bible is inflexibly righteous, always righteous and just and at the very same time, the God of the Bible is a God of extreme, supreme, amazing love. His love is so great, far above our understanding and our grasp of love. He doesn't need to come down to experience love, we need to know more and more about God's love, it's so clear when we think about how God loves His enemies and we all are struggling with what it means to love our enemies.

I think there's this story in the Bible that beautifully illustrates how we, we, our love would never come close to the way God loves.  That story is told of in this man called Jonah. You know the story?  God called Jonah to preach the good news, to preach a message of repentance to the people of Nineveh but you know what Jonah did?  He rebelled, he very [tee kee] [dialect: stubborn], he's very stubborn, very [ngaang geng] [dialect: stubborn], he - God tells him to go to Nineveh which is about 550 miles but he purposely went the opposite direction to Tarshish, which is way further but the idea is this, where God wants me to go I'm going to go right the opposite side, I, I, I won't want to ever get near to the Ninevites, you say why, because the Ninevites were wicked people. They were evil, they killed the Israelites and Jonah, though he is a prophet of God couldn't believe, couldn't accept that God would send a gracious message so that the Ninevites would be saved. He, he didn't want to be an instrument of their salvation. He couldn't find in him the grace to forgive and to love the Ninevites.

Well God, of course, as you know the story woke Jonah to his senses by means of the big fish.   He went to preach against the Ninevites and lo and behold, the whole city, repented, led by their king, the whole city repented at the preaching of the reluctant preacher and when they were saved, when they were restored, you what Jonah did?  He, he very [bei song] [dialect: not happy] you know, he, he went outside the city, found a little, little plant, it's a desert, Middle East area so he found a plant and he sat there and pout. “You see lah, I knew You would do this God, I knew that You are a gracious God, you will, you will forgive them and save them, I'm not happy”, and that's what Jonah did, he couldn't love the Ninevites.

That story tells me something.  That story tells me how I am like the Ninevites, err, how I'm like Jonah and I find it so hard to love my enemies but God, actually what's this got to do with Jonah, the Ninevites have offended God and God forgave and is willing to forgive the Ninevites.

You know sometimes we over estimate our love and underestimate God's love. We ask these questions - how- now, there's nothing wrong with asking this question but what I'm trying to address is the wrong understanding that may come behind this question, we ask a question like how can a good God allow suffering in this world?  It can be a very genuine question and it's a great question but sometimes the reason why we ask this question is because inherently we feel that we love the world more than God loves the world. That's why we say how can a good God allow suffering in this world?  Doesn't that show that He doesn't love the world?  I say if that is the reason why you asked that question I hope Matthew 5, would help you.  God, your Father sends rain, sends the sun.  He sends His blessings to people who don't love Him, to people who are His enemies.  He gave His Son for His enemies. How can we ever doubt the great and amazing love of God?  I want to encourage you to have a high view of God.

Now when it comes to suffering, there is a mystery there we don't always understand but what I can really be clear about from the Bible is I may not know why this suffering has happened to you or why this catastrophe has happened to this country but I can always say, because the Bible say so, God is always wise, God is always sovereign, God is always powerful, God is always love and He's always going to make all these things make sense, in eternity. It may not make sense now, we are limited in our understanding, we don't see as God sees, we don't understand as God understands but we can trust Him.  I will say to you even in sufferings our God is a God of love. God's love extends to you today.  He loved you so much He gave His Only Son to die for your sins.

Maybe today, this is the only Sunday you would ever appear in church. May be your friend dragged you here, I don't know, blackmailed you to come here and if this is the only Sunday, only time you are going hear God's Word, I say to you, this is the message of the Bible. This is the Christian message.  The Christian message is that God loves you and He gave His Son Jesus Christ to die for you.

Now He did that not because you were good.  He did that not because you are worthy.  He did that not because He knows you're of some value to serve Him as if He's going to get something out of you and He needed that from you, no!  He loved you while you were yet sinners. He loved me when I was rebellious against Him. This is the unconditional love of God and He says I'm willing to wash away your sins.  I'm willing to bring you back into a loving relationship with myself, if you will repent and believe in Jesus My Son so I pray this morning, if there's nothing else you remember, this is it - you repent and believe in Jesus and receive the love of God.

Perhaps some of you who are Christians, now I'm speaking to Christians, perhaps some of you are Christians and you're going through sufferings, probably one of the first things that will pop up in your mind when you're suffering, whether you are diagnosed with a disease, you are retrenched, you have a difficult situation at home, the first thing you would think about is why would a good God allow me to suffer?  Is it because God you don't love me anymore?   I say banish that thought from your mind, have a high view of God's love for you because the Bible says so.

Think about it.  If God can love His enemies by giving His Son, what couldn't He do for you if you are now His child so even in suffering?  He is sovereign.  He's wise.  He's loving.  He's working something of value that you may not understand right now but you will appreciate in eternity to come. He has a purpose and plan. It's always going to work out for His glory and for your good but stand upon the revealed character of God, He loves you.

The second thing I want to say, as we apply this is God's people love their enemies.  As I mentioned, this is the distinctive of the Christian.  You can be a moral man, a good neighbour, good father but what makes you stand out is when you do this more, this thing called “more”, to love your enemies, that's what marks you out as a Christian.

Now if you are Christian today I think you should be progressively showing this aspect of your life.  May be it's in the way you drive?  May be it's the way you treat your -people who have said harsh things towards you?  I'm not saying that you will be perfect alright?  The Bible does not tell us that we can be perfect here. I'm not saying that you can love all your enemies completely, always, no but I think a Christian should show this distinctive mark, this acid test more and more as we often say here in Gospel Light, it's not about sinless perfection, it's about sincere progression.

Dr. John MacArthur would say this - perfection is the standard, love your enemies, all the time, always, that's the standard, you can't change that,  that's God's will but direction is the test. Perfection is the standard. Direction is the test. If your life does not reveal growth in grace and righteousness and holiness, you need to examine the reality of your faith.  Wow, that's a big statement, don't you think?  If after 30 years, 40 years as a Christian you have not loved your enemy at all, say whatever you want, you might have failed the test, you might have just revealed to yourself, you might have just realised for yourself that maybe you are not saved because you're not like your Father.  If you're born again, you're like your Father you will love your enemies.  Again let me say this, not perfectly but progressively. So are you born again?  Are you a child of God?  Not just the fact that you were baptised or you said the sinner's prayer but you will have the nature of God, the nature of God in you that love enemies, that's the logic.

Well Jesus, as you know loved His enemies.  On the cross, He said Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.  As you know the first martyr in the, in the New Testament Church, the first man to die for his faith in the New Testament church, was Stephen and he likewise prayed, Lord, do not hold this sin against them.  He loved his enemies. So God's people love their enemies this is the distinctiveness of the Christian. This should be the direction as you are studying the Word of God, as you are delighting in the love of God and as you are depending on the Spirit of God, you will be moving towards that direction and that's how you know if you're born again so stop kidding yourself.

I pray that you will be checking your own life, examining your faith, if it should be real but the last thing I want to say about loving your enemies is this - loving your enemies means that you choose to do good to your enemies.  If I may just add this, even when you don't feel like it. What does it mean to love your enemies?  Choose to do good even when you don't feel like it because we, honestly when you see your enemy, do you feel like loving him? You feel like slapping him! You feel like scolding him. That's what you feel like but love is not doing necessarily what you feel all the times, all the time but loving your enemies means you choose to do good even when you don't feel like it.  Frankly you hate him but you say because of God, I'm going to love him and I'm going to love him with a choice to do good unto him.

Now, it's important that you don't just don't take revenge, Jesus did say this earlier last week we said, do not resist the evil one, don't retaliate, don't take revenge but here later on Jesus also tells us to do good proactively so don't just do the negative part, which is don't take revenge but do the positive part which is to actively, proactively do good. You say, “What good do we do?”  You give him bread to eat when he's hungry, you give him water to drink so you can give, the Bible also says you can pray so if there someone you that we really irritates you, start thinking about how you can give, start thinking about how you can pray, start thinking about how you can greet.  Now in church I actually see this you know.  When people are not happy with each other and they see one another in the escalator or the canteen, you know what they do?  [bo hew, bo chap] [dialect: ignore or not bothered ] eh but the Bible says if you hate your brother all the more go and greet him, do good and the Bible also says you do good, you bless those who curse you, you speak well of them, you don't talk behind their backs, you don't slander but you speak well and again you pray for them. So loving your enemies is not just an emotion I say is not just, it can involve emotions but it's not just an emotional thing, loving enemies, often times may begin by choosing to do good.

Lewis, CS Lewis, he says, as soon as we do this, as soon as we obey, as soon as we choose to do good, as soon as we do what is necessary to love our enemies, we find one of the great secrets.  When you are behaving as if you love someone so your feelings are not quite in sync but you say “Never mind, I'm going to do what is right, rather than what I feel”, so when you're behaving as if you love someone, you will presently at that point of time, come to love him.  If you injure someone you dislike you will find yourself disliking them more so what's his logic?

Well, it works like this, suppose, not suppose, I have a dog at home now, a puppy and my youngest son Matthias he likes to play rough and sometimes you can be quite abusive, he huh, hacha, hacha!  You know little boys just…. and when I see him do that, I say Matthias, don't do that not because I'm scared he will break the dog's bones because it's not that hard but I don't  want him to do that because if he acts cruel with the dog he will feel with time cruelty towards the dog so I said, Matthias don't do that, but all of us when we see kids with dogs, what do we tell the kids to do, [sayang] [Malay: love] the dog because when they sayang the dog, after a while, they learn to love the dog, care for the dog.  What you do will influence the way you respond to it so if, if your wife, you see her, you huh, huh, huh, after a while you also hate your wife but if you sayang your wife after a while you will also love your wife.  Well that's, that's what he's saying if you injure someone you dislike you find yourself disliking, disliking them more but if you behave as if you love that person you will soon come to love.

Kent Hughes also says it is impossible to go on praying for another, including your enemy alright, he's saying it is impossible for you to be praying for your enemy without loving him or her.  Those for whom we truly pray will become objects of your conscious love.  It's amazing right? A baby is born you initially may be very irritated with the baby, [diam diam] [dialect: every time], poo, pee, cry, you can't sleep but you know something strange, the more you care for the baby, even though it's very irritating, very sleep-depriving, the more you love the baby. Well, that's what he is saying, you pray for the person, you pray for enemies, you come to love.

Greg Morse, he's a content strategist at Desiring God, he says, it's true that your affections or your actions often flow from your affections now that's ideal.  You know you're supposed to love and you feel like loving, fantastic, that action that comes out of it is great so today you love your children, you know it's good to love them and you really do love them with your affections, your actions will flow, you'll take care of them, that's wonderful but he says that is likewise true that your affections also flow from your actions.  When you do something for someone in love, you will find that your affections follow that action so a lack of action in the name of authentic love so I, I want to wait till I like my enemy then I love him but if you do that it actually dams a torrent of affection that might have otherwise flowed if you had acted. In other words, if you are always waiting to feel like loving someone before you love someone, you will never know what it means to love someone and see that affection follow along with it.

Now I know this is all very abstract but let me bring it down to a story. Seven years ago Singapore was rocked by a piece of news that a 19 year old young man was killed brutally, viciously, stabbed to death in a gang fight in Downtown East Singapore.  19 year old Darren Ng was with his friends and together they got involved in a confrontation with another gang and Darren himself was killed when five of the other gang came with choppers and knives and a screwdriver. It was said that he was so brutally attacked that the screwdriver ripped off his jugular vein, he exsanguinated, he bled to death.  Five hours after he was in hospital, he was pronounced dead.

Now of course his family is extremely angry and bitter and sad about this. His father, his name is Francis, Francis Ng was of course very upset and it was during the wake, the funeral wake that the friends of Darren came. They came because they felt sorry for the whole event and the father Francis was actually very upset that they actually came and wanted to chase them away. He felt that this gang that Darren was in was partly to blame for his son's death but he also wanted to find out more about Darren's life with them from their perspective and so he decided not to chase them away but they sat down and they talked and they talked and they talked and he found out more about Darren, he found more about these young men who were with Darren and he felt that these young men were very vulnerable youths and they were all at the brink of joining gangs so that one conversation became many more conversations.  He began to hear their sorrows, he began to think of how to help them, he began to counsel them to help them stay in school, stay on the right track. He, he even took them out for dinners by and by and soon that became more and more and he converted one of the rooms in this house to an entertainment center for these youths. It was a room for Darren actually but now that he's gone, he converted it for them for these youths.

He and his wife began to take care of these youths, listen to their woes, became their, in a sense, defacto parents because a lot of them, their parents don't care about their children and soon the young people began to call Francis and his wife godpa, godma and one of them said, “They filled the need for us to be loved and be cared for.  They are very generous and kind.  They gave and godpa even paid for a degree course for one of my friends” but what's interesting is this phrase in this line that his wife said, she said, “They are still so young and have many challenges ahead of them. I've come to love them like I love my son.”  I'm very sure when they started this journey with these young lives, they didn't feel like loving them, they didn't, they wanted to chase them away they didn't want to be with them but as they invested in their lives and as they gave, as they prayed, as they love them with actions that began to she said I've come to love them, their affections are coming into the play now and so I say to you, loving your enemy means choosing to do good to them even when you don't feel like it.

Maybe your son-in-law, your daughter-in-law, maybe your colleague, your business partner betrayed you. Well, think about how you can bless them. Ah, I don't feel like it you know? Yeah I know you don't feel like it but this is what God has called you to choose, to pray, to speak well, to give, to do good. Wah, that's very embarrassing! No, no, no, it's obedience to God. But what if, what if they bullied? Well that's obedience to God. But what if they get worse? Well do what is right, wise but choose to do good to your enemies.  He will never change! That's not the point, do good because your Father loves you and loves the world the same way, you get that?

Well Jesus Himself says love your enemies and He did it Himself, that's the point, that's the Gospel. That's why we are to do what we are to do and this is the wisdom of the kingdom of God.  It is a kingdom built on love. Kingdoms of this world are built by force and power but the kingdom of God is a kingdom built with love. Now that is not an observation I made, that is an observation a powerful man has made. Napoleon he says, “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I have built great empires but upon what did they depend?  They depended upon force but long ago Jesus started an empire that depended on love.”

Allow me to close with one last story.  In 1941, that year is special because that's the year the Japanese flew their bombers and absolutely destroyed Pearl Harbour. This attack on Pearl Harbour was a devastating success. It was led by a man called Mitsuo Fuchida, the overall coordinator of this attack.

Mitsuo Fuchida became a national hero back home in Japan. Well, the Americans were absolutely obliterated in this and they wanted to take revenge so six months later, they launched a counter strike on Tokyo and Nagoya, other cities in Japan. A team of pilots, they are the Doolittle Raiders named after their commander, Doolittle, not that they did little alright but it's just a name. They went to Japan to attack them. One of the pilots was a man named Jacob DeShazer - he looks like this handsome young man and he was furious when he first learned about the Pearl Harbor attack. He actually upon hearing the news stood up and shouted I will make sure the Japanese pay for this. Well he gets his opportunity now, he flew to Nagoya, successfully bombed Nagoya but sadly, in a sense, he got lost in the fog, he had to eject from the plane and he landed into the hands of the Japanese and became a prisoner of war. There in prison he was ill-treated.  He was tortured.  He was starved. He was a, he was a pale shadow of what he is or was and in prison he was so angry he said, the bitterness of my heart against my captors seemed more than I could bear.

Well, something changed.  The Emperor said that they would treat the prisoners in a different way in Japan and what happened was that he was then given the privilege to have a copy of the Bible. He got the Bible and he read it several times through, through in prison. He was convicted of his sins, he was convicted of the need to believe in Jesus and when he read Romans 10 verse 9, which says, if you believe all your heart that Jesus is Lord and that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, he, he looked at that verse and he said, I believe in Jesus and he got saved.

He says I'm going to follow Jesus and one of the passages that impacted Jacob deeply was the same verse you've read this morning Matthew 5:44 that says - love your enemies and now he said I'm going to do that.  He began to treat the soldiers with respect. He began to greet them.  He began to pray for them and he said that bitterness just went away. He was on this journey of from vengeance to forgiveness from hating his enemies to beginning to love his enemies.

Well soon after the war was over. Jacob was released.  He went back to America and he studied in the Bible College. After he graduated from Bible College, you know where he went?  He went back to Japan. He went back to Japan to be a missionary sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ and he would distribute flyers.  He would distribute his own testimony, his flyer, his testimony, testimony will be entitled - I was a prisoner of the Japanese. He will give that to people and thousands of Japanese would come to hear Jacob share the Gospel of Jesus. It is said that many came to faith but in particular there was this special man who was interested in what Jacob has written.  He actually sought Jacob out and asked him what does this all mean and Jacob shared with him the Gospel and this man got saved. You say who is this man?  This man is Mitsuo Fuchida, the commander who brought the Pearl Harbor attack to place. Mitsuo Fuchida came to Christ so Jacob was a missionary in Japan and Mitsuo Fuchida became an evangelist preaching in Japan, in Asia, other parts of the world.  Jacob and Mitsuo became friends, I'm not sure whether they're the best of friends but they were friends and there were times that both of them would be preaching in Japan together. Well Mitsuo died earlier on and Jacob would stay in Nagoya and plant a church in Nagoya.

Let's bow for a word of prayer together. The Christian faith is a faith that teaches love, a love that is really out of this world, a world, a love that comes down from heaven. It begins with God in that while we were yet sinners, He sent His Son to die for you.

This morning I want to tell you about God's love and I pray today you would have seen God's love.  God's love in your life that you're still alive today, God's love in giving you so many good things but most of all, God's love in giving you Jesus Christ, His Son.

I said that God loves you.  The Bible also says God hates your sins and hates sinners and His love is extended to you today in that if you would repent and believe in Him, you will be spared from the holy wrath of God, you will be saved from your sins so my friends today, I invite you, I urge you, in fact the Bible commands you to repent and to believe in Jesus Christ, to believe and receive this love that you may be saved. Don't just come to church, come to Christ, come to God through Jesus Christ. I pray you would come to this love.  There's nothing more astounding than this love. It's amazing, it's life-changing and it is real, it's on the cross.

Maybe today some of you are struggling, you're going through hardships, trials and difficulties and you're tempted to doubt God and His love, I say if God could love His enemies by giving His Son, how much more would He not do what is good for you. It may not be pleasant, it may not be comfortable, it may not be easy but He's always good, He's always wise, He's always sovereign.  It may be difficult on the outside but it's all for your good for all eternity. Hang in there cling on to His love, stay the course, look to Jesus.

Maybe today, you are struggling with bitterness in your heart, just someone you can't forgive, turn your eyes away from that man, from that woman, whoever it maybe, turn your eyes to God, find in God and the way He has loved you, the grace to forgive those who've offended you.  Do not resist the evil one and give, bless, pray, do good to him or to her, that in so doing you will know that you are a child of your Father and in so doing, the people around you will say, surely he or she is a follower of Jesus and then God be praised through your life.  May we all be a kingdom, part of a kingdom that is built on love, an amazing love of God.

Father, bless Your Word to your hearts, to the hearts of your people here. Thank you for your love.  Fill us and our hearts today with this amazing love of God that we may then love others the same. We thank You, we pray all this in Jesus Name, amen.

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