certainly an honor and a privilege
to be here with you today at Grace Truth Church. I want you to know that I pray for you constantly as
a church, as my brothers and sisters over here in my hometown
of Claxton, Georgia, as I serve over, as James said, at Elizabeth
Church outside of Reidsville. And I covet your prayers for
myself and for my church as we continually try to move forward
for the gospel, for the glory of God. But all that being said,
it is great to be here with you today, longing to preach truth,
longing to honor and glorify God by the words that Brother
Dave just prayed, and only his words should go forth today.
You will turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Romans,
chapter 12. Today we want to talk about acting
and reacting, living out the gospel for the glory of God.
And as you're turning there to Romans 12, I want you to think
about, what is it that comes to mind when you think about
living out the gospel? Just think about that. I submit
to you today, church, that how we act in our lives, how we react
to those in our lives, to situations in our lives, defines what the
gospel really is to us. How the gospel has really changed
us, what has been wrought in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit. For that that has been born into
us by the Holy Spirit of God, it comes out in our everyday
lives. Look with me at the Scriptures. Romans chapter 12, we begin reading
in verse 14. The Apostle Paul writes, Bless those
who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice.
Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another.
Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise
in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but
have thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible,
so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved,
never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God,
for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the
Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy
is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something
to drink, for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his
head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Let's pray and then we'll preach God's Word today. Holy God, thank
you so much for the opportunity to be with your people, that
we would come together and fellowship with one another around your
Word, that we long to hear truth, we long to teach truth, And we
know that that truth unifies us, as James mentioned earlier. Help us to be unified, not that
we would just get along, but that we would get along for what's
right. God, teach us now through your word. Hide me behind your
cross and use this time for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. In Romans 1.16, Paul defines
the gospel as the power of God for salvation to everyone who
believes. Everyone who is a true believer
in the one true gospel is unified by that gospel. That is what
makes us come together and love one another, folks. I mean, it's
utterly amazing and astounding to me that the gospel of Jesus
Christ, the one true gospel, not a false gospel, Many people
may rally around or come together for, but the gospel can bring people together from
all different backgrounds, all different walks of life, and
bring us together. We know that the gospel, folks,
is truth. And the fact is that despite
all of our differences, our age differences, the difference in
race, our economic status, et cetera, no matter what differences
we have, we know that we can come together, that we're unified
together in truth. I hope that we know and understand
as the body of Christ that in the body of Christ, unity is
key. Like James mentioned earlier, not You know, some of my folks
sometimes, they love each other and care for one another so much,
but that love and that care comes out of nowhere. We just, we don't
want anybody to be upset. We don't want nobody to be offended.
Well, folks, I've had to show them in the scriptures that Jesus
offended people plenty because they weren't unified with him
and the gospel that he preached and that he proclaimed. Jesus
himself said in John's Gospel, chapter 13, verse 35, that the
world will know who we are by the love that we have for one
another. Therefore, I submit to you that
we are unified in truth by love. In Romans, chapter 12, verses
4 and 5, we see there where Paul says, for as
in one body we have many members and the members do not all have
the same function so we though many are one body in Christ and
individually members one of another. There Paul is sharing the message
of this unity as we are many members that make up one body. We're all individuals. I acknowledge
that each and every one of us here today are unique in who
we are. God has made us into beautiful people by the uniqueness
that we are made in his image. But as individuals we come together
and we love one another despite where we come from, our differences
that we may have. In Ephesians 4, a chapter that is known for teaching
unity, Paul writes, he says, speaking the truth in love were
to grow up in every way into him who is the head and to Christ
from whom the whole body joined together and held together by
every joint with which it is equipped. When each part is working
properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in
love. Folks, we come together. to encourage one another, to
lift one another up, to be matured in the faith, that Jesus Christ
is the head and as the body we grow up into Him. Unified in
that. I could continue all day going
throughout the scriptures showing you how we're to be unified,
but I hope by now you get the point. I hope we understand how
we're to be unified, that we are unified in Christ. It's been stated so far that
truth is what unifies us in love as we saw Jesus state in John
chapter 13. Yet there's one more thing that
truth does other than unify. And that, my friends, the other
thing that truth does is that it divides. Why do people outside the body
of Christ disagree with you? Why do people outside the body
of Christ do wrong to you? Why do people outside the body
of Christ persecute you? The answer is simply because
their truth isn't your truth. And folks, there's only one truth,
and that's Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus says in John
16, 33, we have peace in him. Yet in Matthew 10, 34, Jesus
says, I didn't come to bring peace with a sword. to divide
family member against family member. Unbelievers and skeptics
alike will say, aha, Jesus is a liar. He's contradicting himself.
No. Both statements that Jesus made
there in Matthew's gospel and in John's gospel are truth. To
those who are in Christ, yes, peace. But not only is Christ
or peace. He's also the dividing point. He's the line in the sand where
when we come to Him and we see Him, you either unify yourself
with Him or you don't. No contradiction there at all.
People are divided by the truth that is Jesus Christ and as His
people, His sheep, His bride, His body We must stand united
on the foundation that is our rock and our Redeemer, Jesus
Christ. I share with my folks this morning
in Matthew chapter 7, when Jesus, he likens a man, a wise man who
built his house on a rock to those who are obedient to his
word, that they do the things that he says, that he teaches.
And so he is the rock that we stand on. He is the rock that
our foundation is found on. We see here in Romans 12, 14
through 21, that there are those who will persecute us. There
are those who will rejoice, and there are those who will weep.
There are those who have difficult economic statuses. They may not
be on the same level as us, maybe higher, maybe lower. And there
are those also who will hate us. But guess what, folks? Because of the truth that is
Jesus Christ, we can act and react to these people in such
a way to show them the love of Christ and that our lives will
be clear pictures of the gospel of Jesus Christ. No matter what
our differences are, whether we're unbelievers or believers,
whether we uh... are rejoicing or we're weeping
we're upset we're whatever we come from whatever our backgrounds
are we can unite in christ and those who do not unite in christ
we're still called to love them i think of the rich young ruler
where he came and he asked jesus lord good teacher what must i
do to inherit eternal life jesus said you know the commands he
lifts off some of them well lord i've i've done these from since
i was a child i've kept these jesus said there's one thing
you lack go and sell everything that you own and give the money
to the poor and he couldn't do it he walked away sad and dejected
and it says and jesus looked on him with love and so folks
we love those who are lost we love those who are unbelievers
and we show that love by sharing truth within my church I have many
people who they've had children who have made profession of faith
and they grow up and depart and it's a hard thing to come to
the realization that my child is lost and I said folks would you rather
your child continue believing in something that they did a
prayer that they prayed as a child that's going to get them into
heaven or would you in love share the truth with them How dare we say that we love
our loved ones if we're not willing to share the truth. So, first of all, I want to deal
with two things today. I'm used to saying this morning
or this evening, this afternoon, I want to deal with two things.
First of all, how can we live out the gospel in relation to
those who are not in Christ? Unbelievers will persecute the
church. They'll disagree with us on many things in life. but
the reason that is because they disagree with us on who Christ
is on the truth that is his word and our dealings with those who
are without Christ when they do come against us in whatever
way shape or form listen folks they don't always oppose us to
our face they don't always come against us or want to kill us
like James mentioned earlier but it's the position of their
heart that creates that animosity that wages that war with us who
are in Christ. And so in our dealings with those
who are without Christ, Paul makes it clear how we are to
act with those and how we are to react to them. First of all,
we see it in verse 14. Bless those who persecute you.
Bless and do not curse them. Folks, I think about our Lord
and Savior as he was on the way to the cross. And I often think
about the fact that they beat him and treated him so harshly,
but the worst thing, the thing that gets me more than anything
is the fact that they spit on him. I mean, I don't know, like,
it'd be hard for me to turn the other cheek if somebody spit
in my face. But he just, he was focused.
He kept the mindset, I'm here to glorify my father. and then he cried out, Father
forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. Folks, we've
got to bless those who come against us in persecution. We don't curse
them. We don't act in anger towards
them. Our spirits may be angered inside
of us, but Paul says in that anger, do not sin. It's frustrating
for me as a pastor and as a believer, mainly, to share truth with people
and they disagree. Because I want to take them and
I want to shake them and I want them to get it. I want them to
understand. I want them to know truth and love truth. But I can't
make them, folks. You can't make them, but you
share the truth and love. And if they hate you for doing
that, Jesus said, they hated me first. Verse 17, repay no one evil for evil but
give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. When unbelievers
come against us and they persecute us or they hate us or they disagree
with us, we need to think about our reaction,
our response. First of all, we need to think
about this sermon today. I hope this Word of God, I hope,
will make you think prior to these dealings that you have
with other believers, but in those occasions when people do
come against you and they do wrong to you, they do evil to
you, pause, think a minute, think about how you should respond
in an honorable way. Verse 19, Beloved, never revenge yourselves,
but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance
is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. folks, I hope that we trust
in the sovereignty of God. We trust that our God alone sits
on His throne and that He is in control. And we know and understand
that for those who do wrong to us, we pray. Folks, we know from
reading in 2 Corinthians 5, we've been given the ministry of reconciliation.
We desire to reconcile people to Christ, and we desire to reconcile
people to us. but it's not always going to
happen. And for those people who hate us, who long to kill
us, folks, we long for their reconciliation. We long for their
salvation. But folks, when they do evil
to us, we don't react in such a way that's dishonoring to God.
We react in a way that's honoring to Him, and He tells us from
His words, He's going to take care of it. There's a day of
judgment where people will deal with an almighty, a holy God.
And we must trust in that. Verse 20 continues on. Paul says, to the contrary, if
your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something
to drink. For by so doing, you will heap
burning coals on his head. Now, when I first read this in
my ignorance, I thought, well, man, so I'm just supposed to
be nice to people to tick them off? Is that what God wants me
to do? When you look in the meaning
of the text there, folks, when we show the love of Christ to
our enemies, to those who come against us, to those who hate
us and persecute us, we're praying the whole time for that reconciliation
to take place, for them to be reconciled to God, for them to
be reconciled to us. And so, folks, when we show them
the love of Christ, when we show them patience and kindness and
gentleness, and we show them that in Christ we have joy in
the midst of their persecution towards us, we pray and hope
that they will be shamed by their actions towards us in such a
way that the Holy Spirit of God would work on them and bring
them to faith and repentance. That is how we should respond
to those who hate us. How do we act and react towards
our brothers and sisters in the faith? I'm sure if we took the time
to do so, we could go around the room and everybody could
share stories, testimonies of fellow church members, fellow
believers, horror stories where there's been animosity and hate
and discord within the body of Christ. And folks, these things
ought not be. But we are an imperfect people who trust in a holy God,
and we are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit in our lives. But there are times where it's
frustrating, it's tough, it's hard to get along within the
body of Christ. John Popper says that justified
sinners live in relationships and they work hard to make those
relationships durable and mutually beneficial. On Wednesday nights at Elza we're
currently doing a study on, it's entitled Basic We Are Church
and it's led as a video series by Francis Chan and One of the
men in my church is leading it. He's facilitating that study.
And the first two sessions deal with fellowship, unity. And the main thing that I took
away from that study so far as a pastor is that folks, I mean,
and think about this in your own lives personally, when you
come together as Grace Truth Church, when you come together
as the body of Christ, I hope that you don't come seeking what
you can benefit from this time together, although you do benefit
from this time together. Our attitudes, our mindset should
be, I want to go together with my brothers and sisters to serve
them in love. We're not a consumerist church.
We don't come because of what we can get or what we won't get,
although we do get when we come. We're taught from the word of
God. We're encouraged, we're exhorted by our brothers and
sisters in the faith. So we don't join a local church
for what we can get out of it, although we are greatly benefited.
We are a part of the local body to glorify God and lovingly serve
one another. Look in Ephesians chapter 4 verse
25, Paul shares with the church, acknowledging that they had put
away falsehood. He says to them, and he says, since you put away
falsehood, what he's saying there is since you're in the truth,
since you're no longer in the dark, you're in the light, God,
by His great mercy and grace, has brought us out of darkness
into marvelous light. We're no longer filled with lies. We know truth. We know Jesus. So in Romans 12, we see that
as a family, The unified body of Christ, we deal with one another
in these ways. Verse 15. Rejoice with those
who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Folks, when our brothers
and sisters are hurting, they're family. And so when they're hurting,
we hurt. Yet we always rejoice in all
things because we know and all things work together for good
for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
Even the worst second, the worst minute, the worst hour, the worst
day of your life, God is working it for your good. But when our
brothers and sisters are hurting, we hurt with Him. And when they
rejoice, we rejoice with Him. I told Jesse I was a little angry
at James because I couldn't be at Jesse's baptism this morning
because I wanted to be there to rejoice with my brother in
this time. That's okay. I repent and get
over it. And so we're glad when our brothers
and sisters are glad. We rejoice with them when they
rejoice, but we hurt when they hurt. Verse 16, live in harmony with one another.
Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Folks, if we
show partiality, We don't understand what God
in Christ has done for us. If we think different of certain
brothers and sisters because they're not exactly the same
as us, we've missed it. We've completely missed it. We
must not show partiality. We must show peace. that despite
all our differences, like I shared at the beginning, that despite
all of our differences, we are united in truth that is Jesus
Christ. And in that, in Him, we come
together. We are all one in Christ. Verses 17 and 18. You say, Luke,
you've already shared with us verse 17. Yeah, well, I believe
that this verse can pertain to relationships within and without
of the fellowship. See, there he says, Repay no
one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable on the
side of all. Folks, when our brothers and sisters, or us,
when we're struggling with one another, maybe a little discord
there, maybe a little frustration, because that little bit of selfishness
creeps in and things aren't being done how we want it to be done.
pitch a fit a little bit we can't be so naive to think
that our brothers and sisters won't hurt us won't disappoint
us from time to time they may come against us in disagreement
but when this occurs show them the love of Christ by being obedient
to Him and work it out there's no reason folks Let me say it this way, if we
think there's a reason that we can't work it out, we need to
think about the reason that we can work it out. I know there's little differences
here and there, but when we're obedient to what Jesus says,
Matthew 18, and other places about coming back together and
working it out, when we're obedient to that, the Holy Spirit will
work it out. Now we see that we're to do what
is honorable. Like I said a while ago, pause
for just a minute. Think about, hey, what is it
that's honorable? How is it that I'm to respond
in this situation that will bring honor and glory to Christ? Then
we notice there, we do see in verse 18, Paul says, if possible,
so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Paul
acknowledges here by saying, if possible, that there are some
times when we're not able to live peaceably with one another.
But reading that scripture doesn't give us the excuse to say, well,
Paul says it's not always possible, so forget them. we want to try we don't use as
a cop-out or we don't just wrote off of disagreements as christians
we must be a big into the word of god and dealing with our disagreements i'm thankful for grace through
church in that there's a time in my life as james said we are
cousins james has been a and i'm not doing this to blow his
head up but i'm thankful for james and that there was a season
a time a lot as working in ministry i was so frustrated discord and
hate within the church i told him several times that i'd rather
go flip burgers i'd rather go work with my dad doing construction
than deal with people on a daily basis who say they're my brother
and yet they hate me And I always wanted James, I've
been honest with you, I always wanted him to say, well, brother,
quit. Praise God, he was faithful to
the word and he showed me what the word says about how we're
supposed to deal with these things. And we know that when we're faithful,
we must endure because Christ holds us in. And so when dealing with disagreements,
folks, do what the word of God says, do what is required of
you. to the fullest extent don't just
shrug it off fight for your brothers and sisters
not with but for fight for them verse 21 Paul says do not be
overcome by evil but overcome evil with good This is a summation
of the last several verses. As Christians, we know that we're
not overcome by evil. We trust that God is holding
us for that day when we'll be glorified with Him, with our
brothers and sisters as we see Him on the last day and share
eternity with one another. So we know we're not overcome
by evil. We trust in what Christ has done for us on the cross
and then three days later, raising himself from the dead. But how
can we, how can we overcome evil with good? Well, first I submit
to you because Jesus Christ has overcome evil because he is good. And noticing that, let's look
back in Romans chapter 12, verse 1. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers,
by the mercies of God." And then look in verse 6, "...having gifts that differ
according to the grace given to us." Folks, we define grace
as unmerited favor, the fact that we were separated from Holy
God, and that by His grace He showed us favor. not because
anything that we've done or could do or would do but just because
of his grace we didn't earn it I would like to define mercy
as unmerited relief we don't get what we deserve so folks this is how God has
treated us in Jesus Christ he has given us grace he's given
us mercy We deserved the wrath of God. God had mercy. While
we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We didn't deserve God's favor.
God gave grace. In Ephesians 1, blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in
Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. God blessed
us when we didn't deserve to be blessed. And so folks, the same mercy
and the grace, not that we can't share it to the same extent that
God has shared it with us, but we practice showing mercy and
grace to those who are lost and to our brothers and sisters.
And so I ask you today, are you practicing giving people what
they don't deserve? As Jesse shared a while ago as
we were standing out front, none of us deserve to hear the truth,
but God shared truth. So are you practicing giving
people what they don't deserve? Are you showing them the mercy
of God, the grace of God? And how are you dealing with
your fellow believers? I heard James mention a while
ago the covenant, the fact that you come together and you agree
as to who you are, what you believe and what you're doing here together
as the body of Christ. Take hold of that, folks. Be
thankful that you can be a part of a body that is in agreement
on all things. And how are you dealing with
those that are lost? Your day-to-day relationships with people that
you come in contact with, maybe they're your loved ones, maybe
they're family members, maybe they're acquaintances. How do
you deal with them? How we deal with people is a
clear reflection of the gospel that we believe in. And so I
guess the best question to ask today is, what is the gospel
to you? What is the gospel to you? I hope we have one answer for
that. Because that's what we're unified in. And that's how we
act and react towards others. May the Word of God continue
to teach, reprove, correct, and train us in righteousness until
the day of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Holy God, thank you for this
precious time to open up your Word. God, I pray that the message
was clear, that it will continue to resound in our hearts and
our lives for the rest of our lives. that the Holy Spirit that resides
in us, whom you sent to bring about new life in our hearts. I pray that that new life would
be evident to those around us, to our brothers and sisters in
the faith, and to those who do not know Jesus Christ as their
Lord and as their Savior. God, give us a heart to unify
in truth. Give us the heart to be obedient
to your every word, to your every command. And Father, may we love
our brothers and sisters and may we love those that are lost
with the same love that you loved us with and that you continue
to love us with. Lord, thank you for your grace.
We know that it is sufficient in all things. It's in Jesus'
name we pray. Amen.