Living Out Our Love for One Another

Transcript

GR 2259
11/29/2020
Living Out Our Love for One Another
Romans 12:9-12
Gil Rugh

We’re going to Romans 12, where we have been moving through the book of Romans. I don’t know if it’s the best way to say it, but it’s become a way we identify it. We’re in what we call the practical section. The doctrine is practical and we’re reminded of that because what the Spirit has directed Paul to do, it lays the foundation in the doctrine, the teaching, and the work of salvation that God accomplishes in a life. Now, how do we live that new life in Christ out? When we come into chapter 12, he reminded us how we are to be conformed not to this world, but to be transformed, to be brought into conformity to the character of God Himself. We have been placed into a body of believers, the church, and the manifestation of the church are local congregations of believers. That church, as we would call it, is universal, comprised of all believers from Acts 2 down to the Rapture of the church, wherever they are in the world.

But the focal point of Scripture is on the individual, local churches that have been brought together by the Spirit of God. He places us where the word of God is proclaimed, defended, taught, and where people grow together by exercising their spiritual gifts. That’s what he’s talked about in verses 3 through 8 of chapter 12, on spiritual gifts, abilities that God gives to us to enable us to function as part of this body, to make a contribution to the body, being all that God intends it to be. Sometimes it may not seem that significant, that important. But the analogy in our physical bodies reminds us of that. Every part of the body has a part to play. When one part of the body is not functioning, the rest of the body is not feeling so good. I’m going to see the dentist this week. One of my teeth is having a problem. The last time I was in to see the dentist, he said, “That tooth may be dying.” Well, that’s alright. What about me? “While the tooth is dying, you may make it.” But you know what, before I came in tonight, I had to look for the Advil or Tylenol or something. That tooth, it’s just throbbing. You know what, my whole body is affected! It’s just a little tooth, but my whole body is affected by it. And that’s the way it is. Little things that don’t seem to be making much, what difference do I make? As Gordie Coffin mentioned in his testimony, you come in and it’s a large body. God’s brought many of us together, but no part of the body is insignificant because it all has a role to play. That’s what Paul has laid out.

Now he’s going to move into not totally different areas, because it’s all part of our being transformed and now living lives in all aspects, consistent now with how God would have His children do. So it’s fitting, when we come to verse 11, after he’s talked about the spiritual gifts, what does he talk about? Love, and the manifestation of love. Down in verses 9 through the rest of the chapter here, in chapter 12, it’s going to deal with areas where something of that transforming power of God in the life of a believer is manifested. One of those key ways is in our love for one another. One of those familiar verses that we draw from the gospel of John is when Jesus told His disciples on the last night with them before His crucifixion, “By this all men will know you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”(John 13:35). That becomes a defining characteristic. The enmity that was often there, was just, indifference. Now, we love fellow believers. We want to be with them. We want to grow with them. Verse 9, “Let love be without hypocrisy.” A genuine love. Now, it’s interesting, that Paul has waited to this point to bring this subject up. He’s talked about love, earlier in Romans, but he talked about God’s love for us.

Come back to a couple of passages in chapter 5. Romans chapter 5, verse 5. We’ll probably talk about this a little bit later, but chapter 5 opens in verse 1, “…having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…” And now we have a hope. Our future is bright. Verse 5, “…and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” We noted when we talked about this, it’s talking about God’s love for us, and I’ve entered into an understanding and appreciation of the God who loved me, who has poured out His love into my life. A lost sinner, unworthy, undeserving, and yet God put His love on me. Look down in verse 8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” As we heard Gordie share in his testimony, I should never cease to be amazed at that, that God loved me. He loves me. He demonstrated the depths of that love.

Come over to chapter 8 of Romans, verse 35. “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” None of these things! Verse 37, “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That infinite, unbroken love that He has for us. He’s talked about that in Romans.

But now, in chapter 12, verse 9, he talks about our love for one another. A genuine love it is to be. “Let love be without hypocrisy.” We’d expect this, because of the Holy Spirit’s ministry. We’ve seen that in the “doctrinal section” of the book of Romans. What does the Spirit produce in our lives? Well, the fruit of the Spirit. The work that the Spirit accomplishes in our lives, in Galatians 5, is love, and then the subsequent fruit there, joy, and so on. But love is the beginning. A manifestation of God’s work in our lives. It is a self-sacrificing love. This is the agape love we talk about. It’s not the only kind of love, there’s the brotherly love, and I’ll say a little about that in a bit here. But, it’s supernatural. We are willing to sacrifice for one another, because what? The model of God’s love for us is clear. He loved me when I was loveless and unlovely. What was there about me, a sinner, rebellious against God, selfish, indifferent to Him? And yet He loved me. So, we are to have a love for one another and it’s a love without hypocrisy. It’s to be genuine. Not put on. We don’t just act the part because we’re together and we have to be nice to one another and show an interest, but my heart’s not really in it. Not even that interested in being together with believers. Something’s wrong. I’m to have a genuine love. When you really love someone, you enjoy being with them. You want to be with them. So we have an unhypocritical love, a love that is not put on. It is to be genuine, not counterfeit.

Come over to 2 Corinthians. Just after Romans, you come to Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, and come to chapter 6. Paul begins this chapter, “And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain--…” God has reached out to you with His saving grace. Respond! Receive it, believe. The end of verse 2, “…behold, now is ‘THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,’ behold, now is ‘THE DAY OF SALVATION.’…” We are to be the people offering this grace. You realize how important it is. We heard a testimony of a friend who had been a partner in sin before, and now becomes the instrument through whom the grace of God is brought. That grace that transformed his life now transforms another life. So we are to be living this out. Verse 3, “…giving no cause for offense in anything…” We want to be careful, “…in order that the ministry be not discredited, but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings…” all of that. Verse 6, “…in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love…” Not just love. Unhypocritical love. A love that comes from the heart. You don’t have to put it on and just get through this time. It’s genuine. It’s supernatural. It’s what the Spirit is producing in my heart—that love for other believers.

Now come over to 1 Peter 1. Let’s look at these two references in 1 Peter 1. He’ll talk about brotherly love and this self-sacrificing agape love. In verse 22, “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren…” And that’s the brotherly love. We have it in ‘Philadelphia;’ just the compound word of the word for love and the word for brother. But “…for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart…” And that’s our agape love. We have that family, brotherly love. We also have that self-sacrificing love, and it is to be a burning love. An intense love. “…fervently love one another from the heart…” Again, it’s genuine. This comes from really within. This is not just something I put on the outside, to dress myself up like a believer. But it’s really from the heart. That means we put up with things with one another, right? We overlook faults and flaws like we do when we really love. It’s a self-sacrificing love, even when we’re in a context where maybe things have gone contrary to even the way it should, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love my family anymore. There may be things to be worked out, but that’s what gives us perseverance and endurance in dealing with one another. This is because we’ve been transformed by the word of God. Verse 22 started, “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls…” And what were your souls purified for? For a sincere, a genuine, and unhypocritical love of the brethren that produces an intense love, a love in its various forms for fellow believers, and it grows, and it grows deeper as we’re used in one another’s lives.

Now come back to Romans chapter 12, verse 9. That sort of is a foundational principle, as Christ said, this is how people will know we are truly believers and followers of Christ. Because we love those who are followers of Christ. We love the world, we love the lost, and we want to reach them with the gospel, but there is this unique bond that God has brought. Brought us together as strangers from different places, different parts, even from a little town like Osceola. My goodness! And then from New Jersey? What good thing could come out of New Jersey? It’s right next to New York, New York. But the Lord brings us together and we have a bond. It’s like wow, this is where I want to be! These are the people I want to be with. I want to grow with them. I want to pour my life into them and have them pour their life into me. So, “Let love be without hypocrisy.” And then we have that “Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.” Similar to what we were talking about in our Psalm 45 earlier today. You love righteousness. You hate wickedness. Here you abhor what is evil, you cling to what is good. We ought to be careful of this mixing together things that are not mixable. They cannot be joined. We are to abhor what is evil. That’s where the hatred, the abhorrence is. Love doesn’t mean we accept all kinds of behavior. Now I do recognize it’s to be expected of the unbeliever and I recognize that’s what I was until God’s grace saved me, but it doesn’t mean this, oh well, we want to be loving so we’ll be inclusive. No, the church is not inclusive. It is an exclusive body that God has brought together. Now we welcome unbelievers to come, but we never want to lose the recognition that they are not part of the body. We don’t say that to be mean to them, but we do damage to them if we give the idea that whatever you are that’s fine. No, we welcome unbelievers. We are glad you are here. We want to be friendly to them, but we never lose the clarity of the distinction between a believer and an unbeliever, a child of God and a child of the devil. Our desire for them is for them to come to the salvation we have.

So, we abhor what is evil. We saw this in Jude, verse 23 when he said we were to be hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. I don’t even want external pollution to occur. Not in that self-righteous way that I’m too righteous and I don’t want any contact with sinners, but I don’t want it to become part of my life in any kind of defiling way. And the warning there was believers need to be drawing some lines, contend earnestly for the faith. They had allowed unbelievers to come in, become acceptable and accepted, so then pretty soon the sinful conduct is something that becomes accepted and acceptable.

I was reading this afternoon, in a book I may recommend to you later, talking about a quote, by an evangelical pastor of a very large ministry, and he’s written to show how we can be more acceptance of the LGBTQ community. Wait a minute! We cannot be accepting that. I understand they practice sinful practices like every unbeliever does and no believer is totally – but we have been cleansed. So we abhor what is evil. We don’t find ways to make it acceptable and one of the things that makes our congregation unfriendly is we cannot be open and welcoming as acceptable conduct like this. We have to point out sin is sin. And that’s true in other areas, pride, arrogance and selfishness. No, that’s not acceptable. And so what the world begins to say is acceptable conduct, even though there would have been a time not so long ago when they would have called that sin and wrong. Now it’s acceptable. We as the church don’t adapt to that. We are not to be conformed to the world.

So, we abhor what is evil. We cling to what is good, and this is a word, the word to cling to something that denotes the strongest bond. It would be used of a marriage bond. It is by Christ in Matthew 19, verse 5. Some way we are bound together in the closest relationship. We are glued together. When God saved us, we became His children. We became partakers of the divine nature. Well then, we have become joined inseparably, ‘gorilla glued’ to what is good. So, we abhor what is evil. We love righteousness. We hate wickedness, the same idea.

In verse 10, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love…” We talk about the two kinds of love; both are good. Both are used of Christ. The brotherly love is more the family kind of love, the phileo love. Agape love is more self-sacrificing. There may be more mutuality expressed in the brotherly love. The self-sacrificing emphasized there are words that joined together. We are to be devoted to one another in our brotherly love, our family love. We are family together. We like it when our family is together. We enjoy it. Something is wrong and we miss these days with the health concerns when we can’t all be together because of physical issues, physical concerns. Some people should not be joining together because they are especially vulnerable in certain things. But the desire of our heart doesn’t change. We join together in spirit but we look forward to the time when we will be able to get back together again. We are devoted to one another in brotherly love. We want to be part of one another’s lives. That’s why we still keep track of one another, make contact. We pray for one another and are involved in one another’s lives. When one part of the body is hurting, we are all hurting. We are concerned. We are checking, how is so and so doing. We get updates through the contacts and that. So we deal with what we deal with, but we don’t want to lose perspective. We don’t want to get to a point where we say, you know, we could just have television church. Watch our computer and that way we don’t have to get cleaned up. Don’t have to get a shower, roll out of bed, don’t comb your hair. Get a cup of coffee and a donut and sit down, go to church on the computer. It’s not the same. It’s not the way. Like telling the guy or girl that you’re thinking you might marry, you know I love you, I just don’t want to be with you. I think this love relationship is going nowhere. Good-bye.

So that’s the way we are as God’s family. “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor…” Working together as a family has its rubs. It just does. We are fallen beings. We are fallen creatures. We have been made new by Christ but that work is ongoing. Just like in your physical family some are harder to get along with than others. We are working at it. One of the things we do is give preference to one another in love. You know what that helps you do? Not get your feelings hurt. Verse 3 talked about this. You are not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. Think with sound judgment. “…give preference to one another in honor…” We are glad to have others honored. We are not looking for honor for our self. It’s like our family. When a member of our physical family is honored, we are glad for them. In fact, we sort of connect to them by saying, yeah, we’re family. That’s my brother. That’s my sister. We are glad for that. That’s the way it ought to be in the body. It’s not that well, I’ve been here for awhile and nobody seems to be interested in me. But instead, I am looking for ways that I could help someone else do better as we see with our gifts. We talked about this, with humility, even today in our study out of Psalm 45. Truth, meekness, righteousness was the pursuit. That humility that Christ evidenced, Philippians 2, He’s the example of that humility in deferring for the good of others. So that’s the way we want to think. We don’t want to lose that appreciation. We can’t live in the past and we don’t control the future, but I want to be reminded. One of the things that gives strength to the congregation and our fellowship as believers is when we overlook faults. We talk about the early years of the ministry and nobody left. Nobody complained. We just got so absorbed in how blessed we were to be a body looking into the Word together and studying the Word together and growing together. But you know we are just as imperfect then as we are now, but somehow, we didn’t notice those things. Sort of like God had to tell Israel. I look back to the early days, your devotion, but you’ve lost that. We don’t want to lose that. That’s what he’s talking about. “…give preference to one another in honor.”

We don’t want our zeal to grow cool. That’s the next verse, verse 11. “…not lagging behind in diligence...” You don’t grow lax. You don’t grow lazy. You just don’t fall off the wagon so to speak. We ought not to have a declining zeal, that enthusiasm, passion. We are not lazy Christians. We are not indifferent. Here’s what one commentator on the Greek text of Romans said, “In lives which are truly being transformed by the renewing of the mind there is no room for slackness or sloth, for that attitude which seeks to get by with as little work and inconvenience as possible, which shrinks from dust and heat and resents the necessity for any exertion as a burden or an imposition.” That just can’t be true of us. We have a passionate love for the God who loved us and that reflects itself in our passion for one another and our zeal for one another. Here’s what Paul wrote the Galatians. I’ll just read it to you. Galatians 6, verse 9, “And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary.” I’ve shared with you a couple of the verses from the Old Testament on other occasions where God said to Israel, you have become weary of Me. You say, oh how tiresome it is. We don’t want to come to that. We’ve been through all that. I’ve done all that. What am I saying? So we are to be sure we’re not lagging behind in diligence but the positive side of that, to be fervent in spirit.

The last part of verse 11, “…fervent in spirit…” Fervent, that word there refers to something that is burning hot. It is boiling. My love ought not to cool down over time. That fire as it is added to, should be getting stronger, burning hotter. When we are involved with one another we are growing. I want to be more mature than I was ten years ago, not just sort of faded out. That concerns me a lot having been in the ministry for a long time. There are people who have just sort of faded out. They just sort of dropped off. Where they not believers? What happens? It’s a danger he warns believers about. It’s sort of like a fire that is dying down and you stoke it, and you add to it. You’ve got to keep it burning. We are burning in spirit, fervent.

Come over to chapter 3 of Revelation. This is important. We want to take it seriously. We are aware there are seven churches that Christ addresses in these two chapters, chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation. And the one that He says that about, this is literally what He says, I want to vomit you out of My mouth. Why? You are lukewarm. The heat is gone in your passion. Chapter 3, verse 15, this is to the church at Laodicea, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.” And you note what the margin says the literal translation is, “I will vomit you out of My mouth.” We don’t want Christ to say that about us, about our church. Now He’s addressing a church here. It’s not they were just fine, and they were satisfied; we’ve reached that good balance and that contributes to our “success”. We’re not either extreme, we’ve found the happy middle, but it’s not where we are supposed to be. We are to be on the burning fringe, not lukewarm. He addresses this out of His love for them. That’s what He says, “‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous (stir the fire, get it burning again) and repent (of your laxness, your indifference, your laziness).’” And you better. Because I’m not happy with the situation and I will bring correction. So, it’s a serious matter.

Things haven’t changed with the 2,000 years or so. Since the New Testament was written we face those same things. One of the challenges is to finish well, not lose that early passion, but to stir that, so that we have a deeper passion, a deeper commitment. It’s like our love in marriage, it grows deeper and stronger over time, not weaker. You get the picture. Back in Romans chapter 12, verse 11 gives you both sides, “…not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord…” What else does my Master deserve but my full service? This is the word that we get the word slave from. I’m slaving as a slave to the Lord. That’s what I do. I’m His slave, He deserves my best, my all. You see what it involves here, all that we’re talking about. That’s not something isolated, it goes on in my heart, I want to be sure I’m keeping that strong. But it involves my inner action, what’s going on in the body. This is part of what God is doing. I’m serving Him. What is He doing? What did Jesus say? I will build My church. Well, I’m serving the Lord, I’ve been placed into the body, I’ve been given a gift. I do it with zeal. I do it with passion. It may not look significant to someone else, but it’s very significant and important to me, because it’s my service to the Lord. I can’t measure it on how others see it. I have to be the best slave, most committed, most diligent that I can be. Because it’s for Him.

Remember when Paul wrote, I’m under the direction of the Spirit, to slaves who were literal physical slaves, who were saying, I pour my life into doing something for someone else, what do I get out of it? Little or nothing. He says, remember, your service is to the Lord. You are being the best slave you could be because you’re ultimately concerned to do it in the way that honors and pleases the Lord, serving the Lord. Another writer wrote, “When discouragement overtakes the Christian, and fainting of spirit as its sequel, it is because the claims of the Lord’s service have ceased to be uppermost in our thoughts.” So, I want to keep perspective, my life is to serve the Lord. It focuses here in the local church, because this is the body. That’s why he started out with the body, but then it will impact me wherever I go. It impacts me in my job, if your job is out in the world doing something. It impacts you in your family. But it comes from this. It’s because of who we are. It’s that passion, that I can do and be nothing else.

Verse 12, we are to be “…rejoicing in hope…” Joy is to characterize the Christian. Hope, Hope, Hope. We saw these passages, but come back to chapter 5. I noted we might be coming back here to Romans 5, because this fits with this. And this is where we have our focus again. See what Paul is doing, he’s keeping our focus back. He spent 11 chapters talking about the doctrinal foundation of the wonder of the salvation we have. Now that permeates our life. So, chapter 5, verse 1, “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.” I love it. Paul, his life is a difficult life. He’s experienced the ups and the downs. He knows what it is to be beaten. He knows what it is to be imprisoned. He knows what it is to be opposed by even those that He led to Christ, like the Corinthians. But “we exalt.” Never lose sight that this is all about pleasing God and the hope we have of the glory of God. It’s not all worked out here. We are looking for that ultimate realization. Our hope, the presence of God’s very glory.

“And not only this, but we also exalt in our tribulations…” Why? Because I keep my sufferings in the perspective of the hope that I have. And “…tribulation brings about perseverance...” Perseverance is endurance. You build that stamina. I stay with it in the good times and the bad times, in the hard times and the easy times. That’s what we are talking about. We don’t quit. We don’t give up in those times when the pressure and things seem to be caving in. I say, Lord, I need the added strength because I’m going to keep going forward with You. I need those difficult times because that’s when I say, Lord, I can’t do it on my own. I develop that ‘stick-to-itiveness.’ It brings about perseverance and perseverance proven character. That’s character that has passed the test. It has been tested. Anybody have any questions about Paul’s proven character? No! Now if he just had an easy ride we’d say, well, you know we don’t know how he’ll function when the pressure comes. We know how he’ll function when the pressure comes. He’s the same when he’s in prison as when he is out of prison. He’s the same when he’s in the midst of a shipwreck and when he’s not. He has proven character. He’s facing his imminent execution. In 2 Timothy, he’s the same person. I’m looking forward to what God has promised me. There’s no defeat. There’s no giving up in Paul. Proven character and proven character, you know what it does? You come back around again to hope because that hope gets intensified. And it intensified and it gets stronger and that’s good, because it helps me more and more lift my sights from the transitory things of this life that are as we saw in Ecclesiastes, but a breath to what God has prepared for those who love Him. That’s my hope. “…and hope does not disappoint…” because we know God loves us. “…because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

Come over to chapter 8 where we were a little bit ago. Look at verse 16, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…” We talked about the marriage of the Lamb and we are the bride of Christ. Sometimes I’ve thought, sitting in my study, and say, I wonder what it’s going to be like? In heaven the multitudes of people there, I wonder if we’ll be lonely? We’re not going to get married as resurrected people. I wonder what we’ll do. I wonder how I’ll fit. You wonder and then I realize, I’m elevated to the highest position. We are the bride of Christ. The bride doesn’t have to worry about her importance. She’s number one. She’s the object of His attention and affection and here God the Father says He has made us fellow heirs with His unique and only Son, Jesus Christ. We are not only heirs of God we are fellow heirs with Christ. You don’t get any higher than that, anymore involved in the closeness and intimacy that God can bring to a life. “…if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” First the suffering, then the glory. This life is not intended to be our cruise along. We are blessed to live in a country where we have had relative ease. We have been free to meet together. We have been free to study the Word together. You can meet in your home and study the Word with fellow believers and not fear being arrested, imprisoned. It’s not that way in many parts of the world. Paul had to deal with that. It could come before our lives are over in ministry here. But we have to keep in mind, this life with its trials, whatever they are, sometimes they are physical. We do it because of Him. Lord, You’ve brought this into my life. I accept it as from You. Your grace will be sufficient. I’m not looking forward to what may come, but I’ll trust You today. Each day has enough trouble of its own. We are growing.

If we are His children, we are heirs. We are intended to be glorified. Verse 18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time…” I love it the way it is literally ‘this now time’. “…are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.” That time when ultimately, as we read in Revelation 19 earlier today, heaven will be opened, and we will descend from the glory of heaven with Christ, unveiled as His bride. And Christ will come to lift the curse from the creation and we will rule and reign with Him. Verse 23 says we groan because we have just had a little taste of what God has for us. I know when we get there we’ll say, I could never have dreamed it would be like this! How would you? We have a little bit of a taste, but my goodness, what’s it going to be like! It is beyond what we can comprehend. Verse 24, “For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope...” I’ve put everything in what God has promised. I’ve never seen heaven. I’ve never seen a glorified body. I’m taking it on faith. Verse 25, “But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.”

Come back to Romans chapter 12. We are “…rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation…” I’m reminded, everybody who lives godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. That’s 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 12, “…all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus.” We don’t know where our country is going. It could quickly turn against believers and the things that we must stand for, the truth that we must proclaim. That could have serious repercussions. It’s not acceptable for you to have a job like the Jewish believers had to face in the early New Testament times. That could be coming up because this is what the standards are now. If you don’t hold to that and promote that and support that you are considered a bad person, an evil person. You shouldn’t be allowed to have a job in our society. Those things can come quickly. I don’t know. We persevere. We expect that if persecution comes, we are not caught off guard. If it doesn’t come, we thank the Lord for another day of His grace in peace. But if it does come, we won’t be shaken and go off track here and all over asking, what has happened? We are anchored. We are committed.

Paul wraps this up in verse 12, we are “…devoted to prayer.” That’s where we are going to stop. “…devoted to prayer.” That’s why we put out the prayer lists. Persistent in diligent prayer. We ought to be praying for one another. It takes discipline. We want to come before the Lord, to come with confidence to the throne of grace to find what we need, because God delights to meet our needs. It’s a reminder to us that I can’t get through the day without Your grace, Lord. How sad that you don’t have, because you don’t ask. I don’t want to come and stand before the Lord and hear, I would have done so much more for You, but you never asked. Well, I didn’t know you wanted me to do more? Well, didn’t I tell you to come and ask? Well, that doesn’t mean I’m going to pray tonight for maybe a million dollars gift. Not selfish things, but I’m praying for all that the Lord would have for me. And whatever He brings me into, He’s taking me through. Lord, I want to benefit in the greatest possible way for this, and when it’s all done, I will have come closer to you. Our body will be strengthened of believers. I may have been a help in the lives of other believers, for them to get through what they are going through. So that’s all a part. I have a list in the book of Acts where they were praying for one another, but we will leave that for one another.

It’s exciting to me that God doesn’t intend us to be isolated, lonely believers. He didn’t save us for that. My salvation is personal and individual, but I’m not left there. I keep reminding you, but it was the same with Israel. What did He do? He established a nation which was to be comprised of people that were committed to Him and interacted and grew as His people. And now in the church age He’s established the church. What happens to us spiritually? He places us into the body of Christ joining us together. We are part of one another’s lives and we want to be involved. We want to be used. We want to find our place, so to speak. We want to help other people realize how they can be used here. It can be a big body. How? We heard in the testimony earlier, that one of the things that helped was when a fellow believer here in the body invited me to be part of their home study. That drew me in. It’s hard for a person to come in and say, hey I want to be here and think maybe they don’t want me. We want them to know yes, we do. We want you to know you are a part if you are a believer in Christ and God is leading you to be part of this body; you are necessary here. I can’t tell you where you ultimately fit and be used of the Lord in the greatest way, but I can tell you, you do belong here. Come on over and be with us for a while. Great things went on in the church Marilyn and I were in when I was going to bible college, early in those days. I got to serve in a variety of ways that helped me to appreciate some of the things and what was going on. I realized there were places, probably long-term, that I’m not going to be serving in, but I found that yeah, I can contribute here. I came to appreciate believers. They came to know me better, so that’s the way we want to be developing as a body and count it a privilege. We are not out there alone. So, when you’re going through trouble you don’t say, well, sometimes we tend to want to withdraw, pull away. I’m going through such difficulty I just don’t feel like getting together. I’m not comfortable right now. Then you have to just make yourself. And that’s where sometimes it’s good to talk to another believer and say, I don’t want to withdraw. I don’t want to pull away and I want to make myself. I let them know I’m glad to have them to encourage me along the way because sometimes I need it. I’m just going through a difficult time. You know it will help to have someone go through it with me. Yeah, be happy to pray with you. Maybe be part of our fellowship in our home with believers that will be encouraging to you. They’ll become part of your life. They’ll help you through it too. These kind of things ought to be going on and we want them to be going on.

Alright, let’s have a word of prayer and then I have a couple of things to share with you. Thank You Lord, for Your work in our lives. Lord, it is an awesome work and Lord, it is just the beginning that someday will reach its ultimate completion, perfection in Your presence, joined as the bride of Christ, unveiled before all creation. Lord, what a privilege to be serving You in these days, at this period of time, as Your family of believers that You have established to be a testimony for You. To grow together, to share one another’s burdens and pressures and trials, to contribute to each other’s growth, all so that You might receive honor and glory because it is You who have brought the blessings to us. It’s You who provide the grace for each day for our ministry to one another, for our testimony. We desire to be faithful. We pray that in Christ’s name. Amen.

You are welcome to submit questions. I just want to mention a couple of books, a little pamphlet. I think I mentioned to you before about what’s going on, and the change particularly in our country, but it’s going on in the world. I think it’s good to be aware of. We don’t get involved in the political things, but do with things going on in the world, there’s a change. As I shared in a message a week or so ago, the evangelical world is changing. What we called the evangelical world, it becomes an umbrella, for people who professed to believe the bible is the word of God, Jesus Christ is the Savior. Sort of like our country is undergoing a change. Things that were once held as important now are discarded and things are promoted that we sit back and say, how did this happen? That’s happening in the evangelical world theologically. It’s been happening for some time. I realize the devil has been opposing the truth from the beginning, but I’m talking about things that have happened particularly more recently for us and in our country, where there’s been an openness to biblical truth and a freedom on a broader scale. Even unbelievers appreciated and recognized certain moral standards, for example that had a biblical base, even though they didn’t accept the biblical foundation the way we would. But now that, even those who claim to be evangelicals, and this really got founded and established back in the 1940’s when we had the “new evangelicalism.” We had come through the “fundamentalist-modernists controversy.” Some of you have worked through this, can appreciate it. Fundamentalists, there was a split, divisions, and now we go on, but then within fundamentalism began to fragment in the sense that we had a “new evangelicalism” which was going to take fundamentalism and bring it up to date so we need to become more socially active and involved. It was called “neo” which is the word new, “new evangelicalism.” We don’t discard the doctrines. The bible is the word of God. Christ is the Savior of the world. Men and women are lost. But that’s not enough and that’s where we begin to bring in the social action, political things, and it begins to corrupt. There is a little pamphlet that if you are interested in this, it is a good introduction to it. We have it in Sound Words; it’s called Critical Race Theory. It is so prominent and talks about how this is used today. And it’s talking about the Southern Baptist Convention and their involvement in this. I say that because the Southern Baptist Convention has been noted as perhaps the largest evangelical denomination. Yet, this writer is concerned that this Critical Race Theory is a Marxist solution, and it will not work. These neo evangelicals that now have developed down to our day think we ought to take the Marxist view of society and wealth and poverty and all of that and wed it to the Christian view of morality. I’ve talked to you about the sermon we had. Now, anytime you’re talking about something like wedding things together, and we talked about it with psychology, you can’t take the world’s view and the biblical view and now we’re going to mix them together. Now we have what we need. The main thing is, this has been going on, like I said, this particular thing, since the 1940’s. And you see this breaking out in a political sense in our country, where you see progressivism or socialism, Marxism. Where did this come from? I thought we were more Capitalistic or whatever. But at its heart, it is totally unbiblical. It’s going on in the Christian world. It concerns me more, obviously what’s going on among Evangelicals than what’s going on in the political world around us. Because I expect they’re going to pieces. But the foundations have been so eroded that there is little left. And the evangelical world, the schools have by and large gone, the schools that I attended have been to a large extent taken over by this. Other schools are in the process. So, if you want to read a little bit about what this entails, without getting too detailed, I’d recommend this little booklet to you. That’s a good way to get started. If you’re a little more interested, then a very fine writing, I wasn’t familiar with it, but picked it up at Sound Words. And it’s, I don’t know whether to say an easy read. It depends on what you’ve been reading. I got so engrossed, I sat down and read it one afternoon. You may want to read it longer, you may read a chapter or two, but if you’re interested in it and have some background, you don’t have to know everybody in this. Because if you haven’t been reading in it, you won’t necessarily recognize the people. Those of you who have been teaching and so on, have been in some of the classes that Don Goertzen teaches that covers some of this. You’ll appreciate names like, Jim Wallace, Richard Mouw, John Alexander, Ron Sider. This walks through, even if you don’t know the names, just accept the fact that these are people that have been accepted in the evangelical world as one of us and are now exerting tremendous influence. And you will see the influence that is there. It’s causing problems everywhere. I mentioned schools. Moody Bible Institute recently went through a major division over things there. Wheaton College has been involved in what we call progressivism, a form of Marxism for many years. And some of the key people have come out of that. You’re familiar with those kinds of names. So, if you want to know what is going on and the corruption and how serious it is, we are a very small minority now. There was a day when I started bible college, dispensationalism taking the bible literally, and as fully sufficient, seemed to be probably Evangelical. I thought well, there will be a number of churches I could consider. I was a candidate and spoke in churches on the east coast all the way up to New England and down into the Carolinas and the Midwest, up Chicago area and that. You find it’s getting harder and harder. And the schools we send our young people off to thinking they’ll get grounded in these schools, instead, they get grounded in this evangelical Marxism. It concerns me, because once you wed this stuff with the Scriptures, you’ve corrupted the Scriptures. As I mentioned when I talked about this in the sermon a little bit ago, it’s the Galatian heresy all over again. It’s the bible plus. And as soon as you do that, you’ve corrupted it. And those who are teaching it, are not genuine believers. Now, genuine believers can be confused by it and drawn into it. And it sometimes gets so muddled you don’t know who’s a believer or not. But Paul is clear in Galatians, those who are teaching this kind of stuff are cursed to hell. Doesn’t matter if it’s an angle. So, I want to draw a line between those who teach it and promote it, and that’s where some of those are mentioned in this book, I think are on the other side. In spite of the fact, they claim that, oh yes, we believe in salvation, it is important in believing in Christ for salvation, but it’s not enough. And they think they’ve found the perfect balance, which you’ll find, when you read their testimonies. That’s why I would recommend you read this, if you’re at all interested in, and have done more than just general reading on this. Because they’ll admit it. And it was going to Christian schools like Wheaton, where they got exposed to a Marxist approach to social issues, which caused them to want to come up with a mixture of the bible and Marxist views of social and all that that involves. What they were looking for and needed, was the salvation in Christ. They had the external exposure. When you say that’s not enough, you have to back up and say, I don’t have the biblical version of conversion because that is sufficient. In that I find everything that’s necessary for life and godliness. So, it is a concern, I don’t know where the church, all the churches of our city are. I get concerned. The more you move away from a consistent, literal interpretation of Scripture, and the serious focus on the Scripture, the more you begin to adopt and adapt with other things. So, we want to be careful to stay faithful.

Let’s pray. Thank You Lord, for Your grace. Lord, these are serious days. They have always been serious, but these are the days in which You’ve put us. Lord, we have to take these matters seriously. We start with taking Your word seriously. We will not move, we will not budge, it is Your Word. We will interpret it faithfully, consistently, literally, no matter where the movement is in those around us. May we be committed firmly, have a solid commitment to endure, and may our testimony be clear. We commit ourselves to You for the week ahead, to use us wherever we are, however You please, to honor You. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen