Getting Along and Growing Together

Transcript

GR 2260
12/06/2020
Getting Along and Growing Together
Romans 12:13-16
Gil Rugh

The book of Romans, chapter 12 in your Bibles. I was reminded this week in some of my reading in a theological area, of the importance of what we’ve worked through, coming to this point in Romans where Paul laid out the gospel with such clarity and depth, through the first eleven chapters of Romans. One thing we noted, justification is inseparably joined to sanctification. Justification is distinct from sanctification, but it’s not separate. You do not want to break them apart because everyone who is justified is sanctified. Remember we moved from chapter 3, verse 21 of Romans through chapter 5, verse 21 of Romans, where Paul unfolded the truth of our justification. Then we flowed into chapters 6, 7, and 8 that talked about our sanctification. You see how they’re inseparably joined together because our justification is brought about when we place our faith in Jesus Christ. We are identified with Him in His death, burial, and resurrection. God views the penalty for our sin as having been paid. Christ is our substitute. He acted on our behalf. What He did on the cross is credited to our account, so God can now declare us justified, righteous in His sight. But that same connection, we were identified with Christ in His death, His burial, and resurrection to new life, as chapter 6 made very clear. That is an unbreakable connection. If you’re identified with Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, you received the benefits of His righteousness credited to you. If you died with Christ, have been raised with Christ, you have new life now that you are living out. So, the life living out can be distinguished from the act of being identified with Christ in His death. It pays the penalty for our sin, but the resurrection is to a new life.

Everyone who has been justified, declared righteous by God, has a new life now that they are living. I want to emphasize that because a particular theologian I was reading was making a distinction as though you could be justified, but not sanctified. They are inseparably joined together. We don’t want to forget what we were through in the earlier chapters of Romans because what we’re talking about in chapter 12 is how that new life now looks as it’s lived. The things that ought to be true of us, characterize us. If these things are not true of us, and none of us are perfect, we don’t want that to be an excuse. We want to be honest and open as we look at the Scripture. These are the things that are and must characterize us now as God’s children. We have new life. We are living new lives. The old things have passed away; new things have come. What he’s doing is unfolding for us what the new life we have in Christ looks like; how you now live as a child of God. There is a transformation that takes place.

We’re going to pick up with verse 13. It was maybe an awkward break, but it doesn’t matter because these things flow down together. The first thing, and it becomes of almost prime importance, is that when we were identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, the Spirit of God placed us into the spiritual body of Christ. We become His spiritual body; members of Christ spiritually connected to Him. God’s children. And the manifestation of that is the local church. Paul is writing to the local church at Rome. A Pauline letter to the local church in Rome. So, that’s the manifestation. And God, when He placed us into the body of Christ through the ministry of the Spirit, gave us a special ability, or gift, to function as part of that body. So, the analogy is the physical body. There is a great transformation. You can attend physically a Bible-believing church, but not be connected to the body of Christ. You’ll always be out of sync, never quite fitting, and always have a sense that it’s all external because you don’t have a true, living spiritual connection. So, that first part where he connected us and showed we are a living body, supernaturally and specially gifted by God to fit together. Then he walked us through how we relate to one another and the characteristics. “Love…” in verse 9; being “…devoted to one another in brotherly love…” in verse 10. “…not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord…” in verse 11. It’s not, well, I have to drag myself and do it. Oh boy, this is getting tiresome. There are days when we’re tired. There are days when we think, I’m going to take a break. But our life is characterized by enthusiasm.

We are thrilled to belong to Christ, belong to His body, and be part of what He is doing not only in us, but also in the fellow believers we’ve been joined with. “…rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer…” in verse 12. We now pick up with verse 13. We are “…contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.” That continues his flow. You can see how that section, down through verse 13, connects to our being a family of God. As Paul told Timothy, the church is the family of the living God. We belong together. We are important to each other. So, we want to treat each other as family. That means we work together, we make adjustments to one another, we work through disagreements. We are family. God didn’t save us to be in isolation. He saved us to be joined together with others. So that physical relationship we have, which is based on our spiritual relationship, is important. People say, well, I have the Holy Spirit, I have my Bible, so I can just stay at home and grow through reading the word of God and having the Spirit minister to my heart and continue to become more mature. No, you can’t. You can’t come up with plan B because God says here’s My plan and here’s the way I am working. Remember what Jesus said. I am building My church. I will build My church. That’s what He is doing. So, our relationship together is a precious relationship.

Let’s pick up with verse 13 where we broke off. Since we care about one another, we are “…contributing to the needs of the saints…” We are involved in one another’s lives, even in the most basic ways. Not just spiritually, as we would say, but part of our spiritual concern is when a fellow believer has needs. Particularly, maybe financial needs, but others could be connected. We want to be part of helping with that. We want to do what we can to meet the needs, and we do that corporately. That’s where, how we’ve given in this body, so we have funds that we have contributed together as a church family that can be used when needs come up in various individual’s lives. That’s something we are glad to do. We don’t want believers who are part of our church family to feel awkward at all. ‘I don’t like the church to be burdened.’ It’s not a burden. It’s one of God’s blessings, that if you go through a special need, we as a church family are privileged to be involved with you in meeting that need. That’s not something we count as unpleasant or it’s a negative, we have to do it. No! And we’ve manifested that. You’ve given generously to provide those funds, so they are available, and we want to be aware of that when needs come up. We don’t want it to be something we’re hesitant to make known. Whether you know it about someone else, or you particularly are having a struggle, you can speak to one of the elders or one of the deacons. Make it known, so that it can be addressed properly. So, contributing to the needs of the saints is characteristic of our fellowship as believers. In fact, that word contributing is related to the word fellowshipping. Our fellowship, and you’re familiar with the word koinonia. It became popular a number of years ago. It’s more broadly used to mean fellowship. This word translated, contributing, is connected to that. It’s part of that family. That’s what we’re doing, sharing together by helping to meet one another’s needs and carrying through.

Paul writes about that in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. These are the two key chapters on giving. Not the only chapters; you could go through the book of Acts, but we’re not going to take the time to walk through there. But you’ll find the early church contributing to the needs of fellow believers in the book of Acts. What happened in the early church days, persecutions broke out and early on, particularly impacted Jewish believers. Because now, we see some of this beginning to surface in our own country. Sadly, when you have certain views, you don’t deserve to have a job in this business. We don’t want you part of our company. Well, for the Jews, they become a Christian I don’t know. You know, I’m underqualified. If I am a Jew of the day, I don’t want you, who abandoned Judaism as far as I’m concerned, to follow as your Messiah a Person I don’t recognize. So those needs were there. It was important. There was disagreement in Acts chapter 6, remember, where the Jews with Greek backgrounds felt the widows were not being taken care of like the Hebrew Christians were. So, they had to work it out. The church at Jerusalem had to say, we have to come together. We don’t just decide we’ll have two different churches, one for the Hellenistic Jews and one for the Hebrew Jews, if I can distinguish them that way, so the needs are met. No, we just have to work this out because we’re one family. That’s where we usually see, maybe, the first deacons appointed. Godly, spiritual men who would help become more aware and alert to the needs and to see that they are all being taken care of properly.

If you’ve come over to 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, what Paul is doing here connects to that Jewish need. Jewish believers that were headquartered in Jerusalem, and that’s where the apostles were. When persecution broke out, the apostles basically stayed in Jerusalem and that becomes the center of the church, even as it reached out into other places. Paul’s ministry carried the gospel particularly to other places. And then Jewish believers left the city because of persecution and went to other parts of the Roman Empire to get employment, perhaps. But that left those Jewish believers in Jerusalem in difficult straights because they may not have had an income. So, Paul is raising money from Gentiles because again, the apostles are still the center of Christianity. Remember, Acts chapter 15, when there was a major theological disagreement about what the gospel really is, they had the Jerusalem Conference. Paul and Barnabas and others came there because that’s where the apostles were headquartered to get this resolved.

Paul is talking to the Corinthians, you’re a Gentile group of believers, but you have your basis in what happened at Jerusalem. And you have been greatly blessed because of the Jews and your Savior is the Jewish Messiah. So, it’s a privilege and opportunity for you. Paul is going through these churches, making a collection so it can help what? One of the things the early church was concerned about, and God makes clear, is we don’t want to have a split, so we have a Jewish church and a Gentile church. The church is a new entity, made up of all nationalities. But, originally, it was Jewish. It starts in Acts chapter 2. It’s not until Acts chapter 10 that the Gentiles get the gospel directly brought to them at the house of Cornelius. And in Acts chapter 8, you had the Samaritans, but the Samaritans, even though they’re rejected by the pure Jews, are mixed-blood Jews. We don’t want to have a Jewish church, a Samaritan church, or a Gentile church because the church now, remember, in Christ, there’s neither Jew nor Gentile. There is a mixture.

Paul is helping that, those Jews, in dire straits, that are really the foundation for the church. Remember, the apostles and prophets, Peter’s headquartered in Jerusalem, they are the foundation of the church. These Gentiles are going to acknowledge that and recognize their bond spiritually with them. I had a question on giving, and some of this would connect to that. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 1, “Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia…” And you see how he talks about giving. He uses the word grace, and it’ll be translated in different ways down through here, sometimes favor, but this is God’s grace at work. The churches of Macedonia were undergoing persecution. That’s where Philippi, Thessalonica, those churches are. We have a record in Acts of the persecution there. Paul wrote to the Philippians and said it’s been given to you. The church at Philippi is not only to believe in Christ, but to suffer for His name. That’s going on. But these churches in Macedonia, Gentile churches, wanted to sacrifice even though they’re ongoing, so they could let these Jewish believers in Jerusalem know how much they appreciate them and are a part with them. So, it helps keep the church together. Now Paul’s in southern Greece. Macedonia’s a northern province. Achaia’s in the south, and that’s where Corinth is. Most of you are familiar. A couple of you in your Sunday school classes are studying 1 Corinthians, so you’re well familiar. They gave, verse 2, “…that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.” And you see the contrast. They have an abundance of joy, but they have deep poverty. Our giving is to be a blessing and encouragement to others. We want to be careful; we don’t want to do it for wrong motives and be showy in our giving. But Paul here uses the Macedonians and their giving as something to challenge the Corinthians because the Corinthians are far better off than the Macedonians were. And he really doesn’t want the Corinthians to have to be ashamed of giving a small offering when the Macedonians gave a lot compared to what they have.

Verse 3, “For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord.” And that’s important. We don’t give on a tithe basis, which was Mosaic Law, and included much more than a tenth when you added together the various tithes required. But it’s on your own response. You’ll note, it’s a response as a result of God’s grace in their lives. They really believed this is what God wanted them to do. It was God moving in their lives, and they did far more than we expected, Paul says in verse 5. You know, Paul was reluctant to take their money. It’s like if someone poor wants to give and you say, well, there’ll be other people to give. You probably have enough needs of your own. They were begging Paul. Look at verse 4, “…begging us with much urging for the favor…” And that’s the word grace again. “…for the grace of (fellowship) participation in the support of the saints...” You can’t exclude us. That’s not fair. We want to be part of this work of God’s grace too. So, you see the attitude that characterizes the giving. It’s just the opposite of what sometimes well, you know, they’re asking for more money. No, Paul was saying, no, we’re fine. I just want you to know what I’m doing and something of the needs in Jerusalem and the importance the apostles and the church in Jerusalem. Because it’s the mother church at this point and the doctrine is being solidified as the New Testament is being written. So, they’re dependent on that mother church, so to speak. Now, every church has the completed word of God and we build on the foundation of the apostles’ and the prophets’ writings in our New Testament. It’s a matter of grace.

Titus is coming to Corinth as Paul’s representative. Paul is very careful. He doesn’t want to be coming and putting pressure on the Corinthians. He was instrumental in leading them to Christ. He doesn’t want them to give just because Paul is pressuring us. But Paul will put pressure on, from a biblical perspective. I sent Titus, and what I want Titus to do is collect what you give. I’m not taking any collections when I get there. I want him, in verse 6, to “…complete in you this gracious work as well. But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also.” Again, you see it’s all about grace. That’s what giving is about. Grace.

Paul doesn’t hesitate to put pressure on them. He’s not going to come and lean on them. He does it in a direct, but subtle way. Verse 7, “But just as you abound in everything…” And he started out in 1 Corinthians, telling them they don’t come behind in any gift. The church had its problems, but it’s a church abundantly blessed by God and used of God. That’s the sad thing about their problems. It became a hinderance that God could do more, and they could be blessed in greater ways. We sometimes think of the Corinthian church, and all we think of are problems. But those problems stand out as clearing inconsistencies in a great church, and the divisions shouldn’t be there, as Paul told them. So here, they could be united in this. He wants them to understand this is going to be on grace, out of grace. I’ll put the pressure because when other believers are functioning in a godly way, manifesting God’s grace, that ought to put pressure on me. That’s good pressure, that I want to be manifesting God’s grace in my life. So, Paul is not using secular motivation, but he’s using biblical motivation here with the Corinthians.

Verse 8, “I am not speaking this as a command, (I’m not telling you that you have to do this) but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also.” You talk about saying one thing. I’m not commanding you and turning it around. I’m just testing if you’re really genuine, if your love is genuine. If you’re really earnest. That’s good. I want my genuineness to be tested. That’s good pressure. We think oh, we don’t want pressure. We don’t want the wrong kind of pressure, but godly pressure is good. That’s good in our families, physical families. There’s pressure there. That’s good. It’s the right kind of pressure. Paul doesn’t hesitate to put pressure on when it comes to the finances. He mentions that in his letter to the Romans. He’s got a greater development here because of the connection and what he’s doing in making a collection, but he’ll get to that later in Romans. We’ll talk about that before the letter is done. This collection he was making was so important that it impacted his timing in traveling to Rome. So, money wasn’t something that’s not spiritual. It’s very spiritual to Paul. It had to be used properly, in godliness. You’re familiar, we have a booklet walking through these principles from chapters 8 and 9. We don’t have time to go through it, but he continues to emphasize it.

Come over to chapter 9. Let’s just pickup verse 12, “For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God. Because of the proof given by this ministry they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all, while they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you.” You see, when we function as God would have us, we are a blessing to one another. We are an encouragement to believers. That’s the way it should operate. We don’t want to miss out on that. I don’t want to be an observer to the blessings that God is bringing to this work of God’s grace. I want to be a participant. I could say giving has been a great blessing to me personally, as well as us as a church, as we’ve been privileged to be used of the Lord in that way together. We don’t want people to give, to give grudgingly. I feel I have to do it because I’m going to go here. No, you don’t! Don’t do it! We don’t want your dirty gold money. But that’s all it is if we don’t do it in grace, right? God’s not poor. What did He say? If I had a need, I wouldn’t tell you. What could we bring to Him? So, if it’s not God’s grace working in my life, that’s one thing I want to deal with. Lord, it is really something I can do, pleased that you give me the privilege that it’s Your grace. I might not be able to do a lot monetarily, but if I’m doing all I can, like the Macedonians, I am even stretching myself, I want to do it. That’s good. We don’t want you to give your food money, so you don’t have food. But by the same token, Lord, I want to give out of Your grace. That’s a constant reminder.

When you come back to Romans chapter 12, verse 13, we read we should be “contributing to the needs of the saints…” And to Paul this is a manifestation of that we really recognize we are believers together. We are concerned for one another. We don’t want you to be struggling to get enough food, to pay your necessary bills. Now we’re not going to pay for you to drive a new car, but you know the idea. You know the point. We understand it. So, you withhold the privilege if you have real need and you don’t let it be known, you keep us from having the privilege that what? What’s God call it? Grace! Why would you withhold us having God’s grace at work in our lives? That’s the way we want to look at the giving. I want to be used of God every way I can. That’s what he’s saying.

“…contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.” Another way we demonstrate our oneness. Times change. We have hotels today. In biblical times they weren’t the places you would want to stay. So, opening a home was a great thing to do for a visitor. In 3 John, verses 5 to 8, John encourages traveling believers. Believers ought to welcome those believers. Like Paul, he travelled. Where is he going to stay? Where do these traveling bible teachers stay? Well, they would open their homes. That’s what 3 John, verses 5 to 8 talk about. Now you don’t open your home to false teachers, he warns about that. Because you don’t want to do anything to encourage the promotion of error. So, there’s discernment in this.

Now in our day we can exercise that and there’s some benefits to it. For a variety of reasons, we would do what? We would have a speaker come. We pay for their lodging. I remember a well-known speaker John Walvoord, who was speaking in seminary, at my seminary. He said I had to stop going to churches based on the offerings because they’d take an offering, and it didn’t near cover the expenses, so someone else like the seminary had to pay for my expenses. That’s why we wouldn’t want to invite a speaker to come and tell him he had to pay to come. We want to do it generously. We want to provide the best lodging, not extravagant, but the place where they will be the most comfortable. I have had testimony feedback from some speakers in past years that remarked they appreciated how well they took care of me, the setting they provided which was good for me getting ready. You want to do that. That’s part of fulfilling or showing hospitality. Now perhaps we don’t open our home as often in the context and the culture in which we are, but we are still going to provide that hospitality. See that they are cared for, see that the lodging they have is the best and safe, that the food that they’ll have is what they should have. Just like if we were preparing in our home. We want that to be the best. There will be breakfast there. We want to check on those things to make sure. Provide for the finances if they are going to be eating out and if someone from our congregation is taking them, we want to be sure that we cover those things. So, we do those things.

We make sure we pay for the airfare or the driving costs and we want to do it liberally. I don’t want to say, well, they made sure they paid just to the penny. No, because they are servants. We are showing hospitality and appreciation for their ministry. So, it’s part of doing that. “…contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.” Some people have asked, don’t you think we should be having them in homes? Well, we have had speakers indicate I would prefer not to stay in a private home because it’s maybe a difficult situation. The husband gets up and leaves in the morning, then he says I’m left in a home with perhaps the wife all day long. That may not be the best setting for my reputation and for how people see it. So, we have to take that into consideration. In biblical times what would have been the hotel would not have been the place you would want to put up a person; so that kind of thing we transition. But we still do the same thing and help in that way.

We have a transition. We’re going to go on with verse 14. We’re going to change now, from those on the inside, our family, to those that are on the outside of our family, that are trouble to us. “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” We are to ask God to intervene and bring blessing to those who curse us. And what? Lord, make them financially prosperous? No. Asking for God’s blessing on their life. Lord, maybe they who are persecuting me, will be used by the Spirit to enable them to see something in me of Your character, that You will use to turn them from their rejection of You. Because the believer recognizes they hate me, not because of me, because apart from Christ I was just like them. They loved me. But they hate me because now I belong to God and the children of the devil hate the children of God. So, if I keep that in mind, you bless those who persecute you, you bless and do not curse, you recognize this is what I would expect. This is the way I would have acted or perhaps did act before God graciously saved me. And the persecution, obviously we are aware what Paul went through, isn’t just negative like someone’s slandered you behind your back. Paul suffered greatly for his testimony. In the book of Acts he stands before these Roman authorities and he’s concerned about their salvation. He’s not trying to correct the political injustice here. He’s sharing the gospel. They need to understand about coming judgment. Not, well, if you persecute me, you’ll go to hell. But you understand there is a living God. That’s the One I serve. He’s the God who has provided salvation so you can escape judgment.

Come back to Matthew chapter 5. That is the Sermon on the Mount. What did Jesus say? Verse 44, “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you…” You know when they are persecuting you that means what? You have contact with them. For whatever reason they have been brought in contact with you as a believer. Remember what Paul told the Philippians? What did Jesus say if you are persecuted? These people have been brought, Paul told the Philippians, for what? My imprisonment for the cause of Christ has opened a door of opportunity. For what? People in prison are hearing the gospel from me, even members of Caesar’s household. You had this at the end of the book of Acts when Paul has to have a Roman prisoner chained to him. What happened? Well, there you have a rough Roman soldier. Lord, I can’t take it, that guy is so profane. You talk about a godless character. But you know what? He’s chained to who? Paul. What does that mean? He’s not going anywhere. Paul’s in prison. He writes to the Philippians that those in prison with me aren’t going anywhere. Even the guards can’t go away because they’ve got a job to do. So, we’ll just talk about Christ. What’s he doing when he was at Philippi in the book of Acts and he was beaten and imprisoned? Bemoaning how unjust the Roman system has been to him, a Roman citizen? They are singing praises to God!

Sometimes the opportunity goes by us and we’ve all had it where we look and say, I don’t know where my head was. That was a great opportunity for me to talk to them about Christ. I got so caught up in the unimportant things going on, that I wasn’t thinking about what the occasion really provided for me. Here is a representative, an ambassador for Christ, a slave of the living God, and I’m in contact with a person on his way to an eternal hell and I forget to tell them? What do you mean I forget to tell him? Where’s my head? That doesn’t mean you can do that every time, all day at work. Obviously, you have responsibilities that you are to fulfill. Slaves were to be good slaves in their slaving. Doing better work for their master than the unbeliever because ultimately, they are doing it to please God. But we want to be ready to give an answer to anyone who might even ask and look for opportunities that would be fitting to share with them the truth. So that, “Bless those who persecute you…” seems like at first unrealistic. It is out of character in the world, isn’t it? Look how in the political world we get such exposure to dog-eat-dog, lie, cheat, do whatever you can, but you have to win. That’s the world in which we live right? We’re not surprised by it. Maybe disappointed, but not surprised. But we as believers don’t fit that world. If I begin to act like them, joining the fray, how are they going to see the difference?
Oh yeah, I was in it with him. He was as bad as anyone I’ve ever had to deal with. What do you mean? So no matter the extreme here they persecute you, you bless them. You don’t curse because why? We represent the living God

Come over to 1 Peter, chapter 2. There’s other verses and you’re familiar but just limit to a couple samples. 1 Peter, chapter 2 and Peter knows what it is to suffer. 1 Peter chapter 2, the order God’s established. It is important, we respect the order in these practical things. We talked about this not too long ago. In submission, recognizing the order God has established. We step out of that we shatter our testimony. Our theology is no longer put into practice. What does he say? Verse 13 “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake,” I have underlined in my bible and highlighted, “for the Lord’s sake.” If I’m going to please Him I have to do this. These aren’t godly men ruling the Roman empire at all levels when Peter is writing. He’s going to be martyred under their authority. They are so vile they are not even respected by the unbelieving Romans. He writes “submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution” because as Paul will get to in chapter 13 of Romans, God established it at every order. When I am out of line my testimony is at stake wherever it is. Children in rebellion against parents, wives in rebellion against their husbands, husbands in rebellion, we’ve gone through this. But somehow our theology becomes relative if we are not careful. That’s the concern of what we are going through in this political season. I see evangelical believers saying things about opposing positions and about those people that are not reflective of biblical character. They can support one over the other but seems like they have joined the battle as combatants for one position or another. We want to be careful with our testimony.

And he talks about it whether it’s the king, the end of verse 13, or it’s the governors, we’ll get to this. “Such is the will of God,” verse 15. We’ll be repeating this when we get to Romans 13. I want to do the will of God. Here He is telling me. Well I don’t know if I want to do that. I want to pick out the areas that may be I am in danger of not being willing to do His will and fix that. I get to looking and say yeah, I’m doing pretty good. It doesn’t matter. Here’s the will of God. You don’t want to give the enemy any occasion to accuse you are not different than us. You do just what we do.

That comes down to verse 18. “Servants be submissive to your masters with all respect not only to those who are good and gentle but also to those who are unreasonable.” And all of this we come down to verse 21, “for you have been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin nor was any deceit found in His mouth. While being reviled He did not revile in return. While suffering He uttered no threats but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.” And He was doing it for us. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. For by His wounds you are healed, for you were continually straying like sheep but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.” Then he’s back to submissiveness in chapter 3, wives be submissive to your husbands. He sets the example. Even under unjust, unfair treatment we manifest a character that is not natural to fallen humanity. That’s why the pressure is good for us. And we’ve all fallen on our face in this. We realize, I’ve got a lot of growing to do. There are times I sit and say Lord, I would have thought I would have grown more than this by now. You must be disappointed. I am disappointed. I just can’t sit in a puddle. I have to say I’m going to make a change. I have to think differently and if it deals with personal things, maybe the start is Lord I’m going to pray for your grace to work in their lives in ways that will honor You. It may not fix me. I have to deal with it.

Come back to Romans. Christ is the example, example for us who believe. You are not saved by following Christ’s example obviously but when we are saved we want His character to be produced in us. That’s what Peter is talking about. It’s not all bad. “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” We are back, we are involved with one another. We are sympathetic, we are understanding because God is. He knows our frame, we are but dust. How patient is God with you? With me? So we rejoice with those who rejoice.” We are not jealous of one another. We’re pleased when someone does well. We’re that way in our physical families. Ask someone how their kids are doing? Oh well, they graduated from this school. They’ve got a job and they are really rising to the top and they won’t stop talking about how their kids are doing. They’re not jealous. Kids may be making far more money than they make. They are just beaming. That’s what we are about our family, we are proud of one another. We can boast about one another. We rejoice with those who rejoice. Did you hear the blessing so and so got? Yeah, I lost my job, they got promoted. What do I have to be glad about? Glad they are doing so well and now they can contribute to my needs. No. Somehow it gets turned around.

“Weep with those who weep.” Our hearts are broken when other people’s hearts are broken. We are saddened when it’s a fellow believer; it weighs upon us. We want to be sure they are being comforted, that someone is checking in with them. Has anybody talked to them? Has anybody visited with them? Do they have an idea what their needs will be and are at this time? That kind of thing.

“Be of the same mind toward one another…” We have the mind of Christ. What else is there to say? Come over to Philippians chapter 2. I have a list of verses, but we’ll do Philippians chapter 2. Most of you could quote this verse. The chapter opens, “Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and compassion (if anything is true, or there that God produces in your life) make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.” That’s easier said than done. We’ve been brought together as a family of believers, but we’ve not been perfected yet. You know the problem in our church? You’re just too immature. Now I’m so mature it’s hard for me to put up with it. That’s the way we begin to think. We get into a conflict and we’re irritated by that other believer and we can’t work it out. We don’t want to work it out. What is Christ?

Look at verse 5 to see what is Paul encouraging? “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus...” Oh, do you have to put it that way? You know there is certain satisfaction in being upset and rolling over our hurts and all those things in our minds. That’s partly because we have not been perfected yet, because that is not godliness. We have one mind. Where do the divisions come from? Paul’s going to have to deal with that because they had them at Philippi. Help these two godly women because they’ve been workers with me in the gospel, but now there’s tension going on. So Euodia, you going to have your own church, and Syntyche? That’s our solution in the day. We just run and hide in another place? We want to be of the same mind, resolve it. It can’t be resolved. Now we have a problem. Are we dealing with unbelievers? There’s only one mind here that should be driving us all, right? The same mind, the mind of Christ under the control of the Holy Spirit. Now we are warned with one another, what’s the problem? Well God’s failed, I guess. The Holy Spirit is fighting against God the Father? That’s almost blasphemous to say it that way, but somehow in our mind we’ve come to, this is acceptable. We can live with this and I realize some things in this life will not be resolved. Then we have to be careful we move on without bitterness, holding animosity, saddened that it couldn’t be worked out. What does it come to? That two of God’s children can’t resolve it because it’s resolved in the mind of God, because He doesn’t conflict with Himself. There’s something here, but when it can’t be resolved because of our fallen nature we want to be careful that I don’t let it continue with me. So, the word of warning.

Come back to Romans 12 as we wrap this up. “…do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly...” We’re back to what he talked about in verse 3. “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment…” Have a biblical view of yourself. You recognize the gift that God has given you. You recognize how God might use you, but you recognize that will happen in the context of a body that has order that only functions effectively when all the parts function properly. So, we have a sound mind. We don’t sit as though we are outsiders of the body. If you sit and think you are an outsider maybe you are! But if you are a believer you are not an outsider. There is a place for you. That’s why God put you here. We went through that.

Maybe your giving is more prominent. Maybe you are such a personality that it seems you have a lot of friends, whereas this other person says, I don’t have any friends. Well, we want to work at it so that everybody recognizes that they are a part in one way or the other. “…Do not be wise in your own estimation.” We come to that basic. Part of the problem comes for all of us, we get into disagreements, we think of our superiority. We can’t compromise Scripture. It’s unchanging, but I want to be sure my Scriptures are solidly founded in the Scripture. My convictions are scripturally based and if I have a disagreement with a believer, I want to sit down and talk. And I’ve done that on occasion. And there are occasions where we can’t come to an agreement. We are functioning from a different hermeneutical base. We just have to disagree. There are other local churches. We have to be doctrinally pure as we understand it. It doesn’t mean I hate them. I may address the doctrinal differences, but I realize that in heaven they will be resolved. But I will not, as Paul, and the Scripture is clear, we can’t compromise Scripture. But I want to be careful that doesn’t degenerate to bitterness. You know, talk to them. I was sitting in a restaurant with my family. Another family came up, looked in the window and saw us walking there, and turned around, got in their car and left. They had been part of this ministry for years. I said, does it have to come to this? They can walk in, we are different, I appreciate you have a different view and you felt that leads you someplace else. We don’t have to hate one another. We don’t have to be bitter about it and I don’t want to be that way. I’m not saying I’m too godly to do that. I want to be careful that doesn’t affect me. But yeah, I can appreciate our differences are founding in a different understanding of the Scripture here. We couldn’t function in the same local body because we have to be true to the Scripture as we see them and understand them. And I understand that if they are going to criticize what I teach on these areas of disagreement, they have to teach the Scripture but be careful it doesn’t become bitterness. We don’t want anything to do with them, they’ve not become our enemies. Even our enemies aren’t our enemies, remember? We love our enemies. We even bless those who persecute us, but we don’t talk to fellow Christians?! No, wait a minute. Do I have some confusion in my theology and how it is to be applied? So, very practical things. We are back to Romans chapter 6 which enables this to happen. We died, we were buried, we were raised to new life, and now we have new abilities provided by the Spirit of God.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord, for Your word, its clarity, its simplicity. Lord, as we study it together we are reminded most that our problems come not because we don’t understand what you have said, but we fight against what you have said. It’s a clear Word. It’s understandable. You are so gracious to speak on our level because You speak to us and You speak knowing that we can understand. Lord, we want to not only study it together, but examine our lives under the light of the Scripture and be ready and willing to make adjustments in our own lives. Not to be taken up with how others might make adjustments, but what are the adjustments we need, that I personally need to make so that we together will have a body that honors You. Bless our further discussion we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

A couple of comments and then I’ll address a question or two. I recommended a book last week and some of you asked me again. They said I kept it down here so you couldn’t see the full title, so I’ll hold it up again. Social Justice Goes to Church, the New Left in Modern American Evangelicalism by Jon Harris. I was not familiar with him before last week in our discussion time. It is a book I’d recommend to you, especially if you are a teacher or you are seriously interested in some of the theological things going on. Not that we aren’t all, but we all have different areas of ministry. So, I don’t like to recommend a book that you say, oh, it didn’t have any interest to me. I say that not because I think some of you are more capable than others, but some of you have different interests than others. This is a book that is dealing with some theological issues. So, that you don’t get discouraged to start, you could skip the preface if you want. I think it can be a bit foggy if you don’t have any exposure. Some of you have taken classes on neo-evangelicalism that we’ve had on Wednesday night. Don has done some of that. You will relate more to this than those who haven’t done any study or reading in it, but I think very helpful when you pick up with the main part of the book, even if you don’t recognize the names as I mentioned last week. Recognize these are men and women accepted as evangelical leaders and having great influence among bible-believing Christians. What he says about them and their views you will understand. You say, well, I didn’t know who he was, but I couldn’t believe that what he was teaching is being broadly accepted. So, it’ll go like that. I talk a lot about social matters, social issues, the way it is infecting the church. This helps show how serious the matter is and how broad based it is. Our view as fundamentalists in the good sense of that term and following a strictly literal interpretation of Scripture puts us in a shrinking group within evangelicalism today, outside the realm of evangelical scholarship, by and large. I shared with you one of the professors in an evangelical seminary, now with the Lord, said to me at a meeting we were having, the two of us. You just cannot be accepted in the scholarly world Gil, if you are a dispensationalist, taking a literal interpretation of Scripture. This book will point some of that out. Socialism wed together with evangelicalism is the flow of the day. So, I recommend that book. I recommend it highly, but not necessarily broadly. My Dad used to read the books I recommended, and he'd tell me, I don’t know what you were thinking when you recommended that. I don’t think anybody is going to be interested in that. You may have been, but I wasn’t. So, I’ll give it to Marilyn, and she’ll give me her view, respectfully.

Okay, a couple of questions.
*** Are there examples in the Bible of giving where it was accompanied by a gain of any sort? If so, what was God’s response? How does God view our giving when it is done in ways that personally benefit us? And that generally relates, I mentioned, when we were reading 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, and I recommended to you reading those two chapters and if you’d pick up the booklet that we have on giving, “Giving as an Evidence of God’s Grace.” I walk through some of this. There are benefits to us. Paul talks about the benefits that come. When we are being used in any area where God’s grace is at work in our lives and we are growing in that area, it is a benefit. So, that’s where I have found times where there was a certain amount of pressure in special ways in giving in our church that caused me to go to the Lord and say, Lord I want to examine what I have. What You have given to me and how I might do all that You would have me do. That becomes a personal thing and that’s good for me. And I have found blessing out of that. So, there is blessing. The idea that God will give me more money if I give to Him, I don’t find any guarantee of that in Scripture. That’s a wrong motive for giving. That seed-faith giving that you find the health and wealth preachers, well, you give and that is the seed. And you notice they are not giving to you. They don’t say, I want to give you a seed and then let God bless me. No, you give me the money. It always works that way. One of the seed-faith giving leaders this past year was going to buy a new updated personal jet. I think it was $34,000,000 dollars because the old jet he had just wasn’t sufficient for all the travel he was doing. And as you give your seed-faith to enable me to carry the gospel to other places, you will be experiencing God’s blessing. I bet nobody else has a $34,000,000 dollar jet who sent their money in. You know that kind of stuff is an attack on the truth of the word of God, but there are blessings and God may bring you blessing. The more He trusts us with sometimes, the more He gives us. But it may go the opposite! You may give what you thought you wouldn’t need and then you find out your job has been terminated and you think, oh if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have given it. But if you considered before the Lord and believed that’s what He wanted you to do, He knew what you were going to be dealing with tomorrow. So, Lord I did what you wanted me to. I’m trusting You that You will guide me, direct me, and provide and do it. I have no regrets for doing yesterday what I believed God wanted me to do, no matter what happens today. I have regrets for some yesterdays that I didn’t do what I knew God wanted me to do. The only thing I can do is fix it today, so I don’t have the same regret tomorrow. So, in our giving there is a motivation. We just read a little bit of that from Paul in 2 Corinthians 8. There is spiritual blessing, but not necessarily the material result. I could share testimonies where God has given. There was a time when Marilyn and I took everything out of the bank and gave it because we thought that’s what the Lord wanted us to do because you know what? I can always work. I can always work. And the Lord has blessed us. So, I can’t say, well, if you take all…I wouldn’t necessarily do it again on another occasion. At that point in time, we thought that’s what we should do. And you don’t necessarily talk about it because people don’t like to talk about some of those personal experiences, but Paul wants to motivate people. I want to encourage. You know every situation is different. Everybody is different. Like I say, I do something at one time. Would you do that same thing today? I sometimes think and say, what was I thinking? Marilyn and I talk about it. What were we thinking? I went to school for eight years getting ready to preach and then a little church that wasn’t even financially able to pay its own bills called me to come and be the pastor, travel halfway across the country. My parents asked me, what are you thinking? But you know, you do certain things. Would I do that today? I don’t know. You make the decisions God would have you do. So, trust the Lord and that’s in the giving. That’s the way I look at my giving. The year is coming to an end. I give through the year, then I evaluate what I think God might have me do here, because through the year I know I’m not done with my giving. Some of it I wait. Not because I’m afraid I’ll need it. It’s just, sort of the pattern through the year. If there was something special that comes up through the year that was needed, then I would want to respond with my giving there. Many of you do that. That’s why December is usually a bigger month for us because we’re looking now and want to be sure I’ve done all that I want to do before the Lord.

So that’s the way I look at giving. There are the benefits, but they are not maybe always measurable, and Paul said he had given up everything to follow Christ. Could he consider, well, if I reconsider that, no. You have Philippians 3 as his testimony. He puts it rather picturesquely. I put it too picturesquely one time and people thought that was inappropriate, but he put it all on the “dung heap.” We will leave it there. Doesn’t sound right to say, it’s all just a pile of poop! And then they say, oh, I wish you wouldn’t say that, and I don’t want our kids talking like that. I know, but that’s what Paul said. Remember the prophets? They could speak rather bluntly. He wants us to be impressed. That’s all those things I had.

Alright, enough of that.
***Why don’t we have communion on Sunday mornings?
This was probably, generally we don’t. Not just the virus restriction. Part of that came out, we couldn’t work it out with the facilities we had. There was a time when we had Sunday School class meeting in the kitchen, and they need to get things ready. I’m more comfortable doing it on Sunday evening. It is primarily for believers. Those who eat and drink improperly eat and drink judgment to themselves. We have more of a broader audience on Sunday morning. We would want everybody here for communion and I sometimes wonder why more people aren’t concerned to come. But if people aren’t any more interested than being inconvenienced I would rather do it at that time. Now I am not against doing it in the morning. The church I pastored for three years before I came here, we had communion every Sunday morning, fifty-two Sundays a year. It’s not that I am against communion on Sunday morning, but I’m comfortable with the way it works. The elders are comfortable. If you can’t come because you can’t drive at night, let us know and we will have someone pick you up. We would like you here for communion on Sunday night. I realize it gets dark early. If we were having communion, some perhaps elderly and some with physical conditions, they can come out on Sunday morning. We don’t want that to be a barrier. I would expect we would have more people on communion nights because maybe I have reasons not to come, but I will make a special effort to come on those nights. To me it is like baptism. I’m not going to push people. I was reading this week and the man was writing how you identify a biblical church. It is comprised of baptized believers in Jesus Christ. That’s New Testament teaching. But some people come regularly, profess Christ, but they don’t get baptized. They can read the Scripture. I’m not taking responsibility for their decisions. I don’t understand why everybody who has placed their faith in Christ doesn’t want to do what He commanded and step forward. Well, I’m identified in other ways. Good, you should be, but He said you should be baptized. So, if view that. Communion to me, Sunday morning, why would I do it on Sunday morning? Well, there is more people there. Church is meeting on Sunday night for communion. Everybody who sees the importance of that, I would assume will be here. Those who don’t see it as important, I prefer they get that worked out and not partake, as I caution when we do have communion. So that’s a little bit. You end up and it’s the pattern and we do it that way. I wouldn’t be opposed to doing it. We’ve talked about maybe doing it on Sunday morning, but I must tell you from my own personal feeling, and that does have a factor in how we do it here because of my position, I would wonder why we would do it on Sunday morning just to accommodate people who don’t think coming on Sunday night is important enough. I’m not ragging on people who don’t come on Sunday night, but when we’re doing communion on Sunday night, if it’s that important and you really want to be part of it, if there’s a problem in you getting here, let us know. We’ll have somebody pick you up. We’d be happy to do that. And if it’s just that it’s got to be convenient, we may be going to persecution days even now with the virus, we find things can change quickly. So that’s a little bit of just rambling thoughts I have on this.

Let’s have a word of prayer. Thank You, Lord, for this time together today. For every blessing we do enjoy as Your people. Lord, blessings we perhaps have begun to take for granted. Now even as we have restrictions because of the physical climate, the virus that is affecting many, Lord, we realize some of those privileges we took for granted. And when we don’t have them, we do miss them, and we want to miss them. Lord, thank You for your Word. Thank You for the riches of fellowship together as believers. As we move out into the week before us, Lord, we pray that we will be faithful testimonies every place You put us. In those difficult places with difficult people Lord may we draw upon Your sufficient grace to manifest Your grace in the way we deal with it. May You be honored everywhere we are in everyone’s life. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.