All right, brethren, let's turn
to Romans 16. Romans chapter 16. I thought
I was going to preach on this whole passage here, this whole
salutation that Paul gives, and ended up getting probably more
than I can preach in this time allotted just from the first
two verses. So, let me just read these two
verses. I commend unto you, Phoebe, our
sister, which is a servant of the church, which is at Syncrea,
that you receive her in the Lord as becometh saints, and that
you assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you.
For she hath been a succorer of many, and of myself also. And when we read a passage like
this, we tend to skip through it and think it's not important. But this is inspired of God just
like the rest of the epistle is. And there's some very important
things we can see here. It's full of edification for
us. Right away, we see the love of
the Apostle Paul toward his brethren. Right away, the Holy Spirit produces
love for brethren in the hearts of his people. This is one of
the ways Christ said they're gonna know you're my disciple.
You're gonna love one another. And that's of God. The Spirit
of God makes you love your brethren. He creates unity in our hearts. We want unity. We endeavor to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Christ
is our high priest. And just like that high priest
wore the names of the children of Israel on his breastplate,
the Spirit of God makes you to bear the names of your brethren
on your heart. This is what the Spirit of God
does. If it was up to us, it wouldn't be this way, but it's
not. It's the Spirit of God that does
this. So it's so. It's so for believers. He makes
us peacemakers, helpers, comforters of one another. Now sometimes
because we're sinful flesh, we get in the wrong spirit and do
things and say things we shouldn't say. But I'll tell you what the
spirit of God's gonna do quickly. He'll make you hate that. Am
I right? He makes you hate it. He convicts
you in your heart and you're so sorry for that. You're so
sorry you said something you shouldn't have said or did something
you shouldn't have done, especially toward a brother or sister in
crime. This is what the Spirit of God
does. He makes you love unity and peace with your brethren.
Now, let's look at this and let's see what we can get from these
two verses. First of all, we have a, he commends her. Paul
says, I commend unto you, Phoebe, our sister. Now, I want you to
think about this. Paul wrote this letter from Corinth. That's where he was. And Phoebe
had come from the seaport Synchria. in Corinth, that's like about
eight miles from Corinth. And she sailed from there to
Rome. And the commentaries all agree
that because he commends her first, she is the one that when
Paul wrote this Roman epistle, he gave it to Phoebe to deliver
to Corinth, I mean to Rome. Now think about that. Think about
that. In that day, it was dangerous
for a woman to travel alone. Very dangerous. Sovereign God
moved Paul to write this epistle. This is an epistle that's one
of the very most important letters in the whole Bible. Think of
how many people God had ordained from eternity and purposed to
save through the preaching of this epistle. He had elect sheep
throughout the ages that he would call out through the preaching
of this Roman letter. And God moves Paul to write this
letter and he moves Paul to give it to this woman to deliver to
Rome. I know you're not entering into
this because we're used to traveling in our day and it's nothing for
a woman to strike out on her own in our day, We're talking
about a bunch of sailors, and scalawags, and thieves, and criminals,
and here's this woman in their midst, by herself, with the very
most important letter written in the history of the world. The letter by which God's gonna
save sinners from hell, and she's carrying this letter. Now let
me ask you something. Do you think anything could happen
to Phoebe when she was on that trip? Do you think God would
permit anybody to harm that woman as she's traveling from Sincrea
sailing to Rome? Do you think anything's gonna
happen to her till she delivers that letter to Rome? Nothing. God's not gonna let anything
touch her. Well, listen. God's entrusted me and you with
his word to send it forth into all this world for the calling
out of his sheep. And we're Christ's bride, we're
the woman. We're more helpless in ourselves
than Phoebe. And we're sent forth to carry
this word into the world and we have no power in ourselves
to deliver this word to anybody. Do you think God's gonna allow
anything to happen to you and me while he's using us to deliver
this gospel. If he's purposed for us to deliver
this word to some elect lost sheep of his that Christ bought
with his blood, do you think anything is going to stop you
from getting that word to them? Nothing. Nothing. That just struck
me. I was going to Tell AJ, he's
always talking about movies, and I thought, man, that would
make a movie right there. So as the bride, we're immortal. As long as God has a purpose
for us, we're immortal, we're protected, we're gonna deliver
his word. Now, Paul commends her. You think
of what a good thing it is to be commended by your brethren.
Here's sad, this is a sad commentary, this is our depravity. Men have
taken this and turned it into a law. The fact that he commended
this Lady Phoebe and others in the epistles. If you move from
one church to another, they require a letter of commendation. You
gotta move your letter from here to there or you're not officially
moved from one church to another. Paul said to the Corinthians,
Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or need we, as some
others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation
from you? You are our epistle. You are
our epistle, written in the heart, known and read of all men, for
as much as you're manifestly declared to be the epistle of
Christ, ministered by us. Written not with ink, but with
the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in
fleshly tables of the heart. He's saying, we don't need to
commend you, and you don't need to commend us. God's made you
an epistle. He's commended you. He's made
you what you are by writing the new covenant on your heart. Now,
it's a good thing to commend brethren moving to another church.
That's good. I've done it by phone, text,
and email. It's not a law, though. It's
not a necessity, it's a courtesy. We live in a connected society
where you know a lot of brethren in other churches and they know
you. So it's not a necessity, but it is a blessing to have
the commendation of your brethren, that's a good thing. Now almost
always when somebody moves from here to another congregation,
I almost always talk to the pastor and commend them and talk about
what a help they were and what a joy they were to be with us
and what an addition they'll be to that congregation. But
men can take anything in these scriptures and make it into a
law. And you gotta have it. And if
you don't have it, then that's not what this was. That's not
what this was at all. He calls her our sister. Now
in the early church, they spoke of elderly men as fathers, elderly
women they called mothers, Younger men they called brethren, and
younger women they called sisters. Now, here's what's important
about this title. It's a title that means that
the person was saved by the same grace of God as you. It means they have the same Heavenly
Father who chose them in Christ before this world was made to
save them, freely by His grace. It means they have the same Redeemer
who came and laid down His life and redeemed them from all iniquity,
put away their sins, accomplished their redemption like He did
all His elect people. And when you call somebody by
that name, you're saying that they believe on that Redeemer
and you believe on that Redeemer, and you're saved by that same
Redeemer. You're saying that the same Holy Spirit of necessity
had to come and irresistibly create life in you and make you
to be born from above so that you could know God, so that you
could enter into faith and trust Christ. It was a necessity. You're
saying they had to be born of that spirit and you had to be
born of that spirit. You're saying this is somebody who agrees with
me in the gospel. We're one in the gospel. And so therefore, We don't call
everybody brother and sister, father and mother. Do you do
that in your everyday life? When you have family members
that aren't really your family members, do you say, oh, but
they're my brother, they're my sister? No, they're not really.
But in the church of God, it's the family of God in heaven and
in earth. And the only ones you call brethren
are those that are really brethren. You're of the household of God. You're of the family of God.
There's one body, one spirit, even as you're calling, one hope
of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
Father of all who's above all and through all in you all. So
be careful, brethren. It's so common amongst religionists.
If they just hear that you go to a church, it don't matter
what church it is, oh, you're a brother. Brethren, that's a
title. A brother, a sister is a special
title. That's somebody that you're one
with. You're saying you're one with them in the faith. You're
one with them in the gospel when you use that title. So it's something
to use only when that's the case. Only when that's the case. Now
secondly, Phoebe held the greatest office in the church. She held
the greatest office in the church. He said she's a servant of the
church at Sincreia. She's been a succorer of many
and of myself also. I was amazed by the commentaries
and how much they focused on what it meant that he called
her a servant. And they tried to argue for women
preachers and argue for women deacons and all these different
things because of what that word servant means. Phoebe wasn't
interested in titles. Phoebe did what the office includes,
what it involves. That's what she was concerned
about, and that's what Paul commended her for. She served the church. She served them in acts of charity
and acts of hospitality. She was a succorer, meaning she
was a comforter. She did what she could to comfort
her brethren, even Paul. She had a business. This woman
was a businesswoman. And she obviously traveled with
her business. She's on her way to Rome. Perhaps
she was well off, but that's not what she was commended for. She's commended because she served
God's people. That's what she's commended for.
She was a servant, a comforter of God's saints. She probably
housed Paul and other ministers of the gospel and other brethren.
She probably let them into her home and served them. She probably
served brethren when they were sick, took meals to them and
did what she could to take their burden off of them and help them.
She probably provided them with financial help if they needed
financial help. Whatever God put in her hand
and opened up and showed her you could help them with this,
she did what she could. That's what it is to serve brethren. She was like her Redeemer. That's as close as you can get
to being like your Redeemer. Serve your brethren. That's what
Christ did for us. on one occasion, you remember
when the apostles were angry, because they were disputing over
who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Ain't
that just like us? And our Lord said, he called
them to him and he said, you know the princes of the Gentiles,
he said, it'd be like saying, you know the president and all
these politicians and these congressmen and these senators, they exercise
dominion over the people. They tell the people, we're benefiting
you, we're your benefactors, so you should serve us. You really
should serve us. You should treat us like dignitaries
and serve us. They that are great exercise
authority upon them, but it shall not be so among you. Listen,
Christ said, that's not how it's gonna be among my people. But
whosoever will be great among you, he's saying, do you want
to be great in my church? Do you want to be great in my
kingdom? He's saying, let me tell you
what it is to be great in the kingdom of God. Whoever will
be great, let him be your minister, your servant. It doesn't mean
let him be a preacher, although a preacher is a servant. But
we think of that word minister, we think of a pastor, whatever.
The word minister means let him be a servant. Let him be your
servant. Whose servant will be chief among
you, let him be your servant. Even as the Son of Man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life
a ransom for many. The Son of Man came not to be
ministered unto. He didn't have this sinful fallen
spirit of men who get in position in this world and expect everybody
to treat them like they're some important person and some dignitary
and bow before them and serve them. He didn't have that spirit
and he's God. He came down and he took the
form of a servant He came to give his life a ransom for many. The law said there's a ransom
that must be owed if you want these sinners. There's a price
that must be paid if you want these sinners. It's death. Christ
said, I'll pay the ransom. I'll give my life for their life. And that's what he came to do.
He came to serve, to pay the ransom price of the cruel, shameful,
cursed cross. Philippians 2.3 says, in lowliness
of mind, in lowliness of mind, in lowliness of mind, that means
in utter humility, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own
things. Well, you gotta look out for number one. It's just
the opposite of what that's saying. Don't look out for yourself.
Don't look at what you need and what you need to buy and your
cares. He's saying, but look on the
things of others. What do they need? What does
my brother need? What can I do for my brother? What can I do
for my sister? Why is he saying that? Let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus. That was Christ's mind. Can you
believe that? God came down and took flesh
and walked this earth in lowliness of mind. I mean perfectly. He perfectly esteemed others
better than himself. He perfectly looked to provide
for his people and for his father rather than for himself. And just like Phoebe, Phoebe
was a business woman, she was probably well off, but listen,
who being in the form of God, who thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, this one who is God, made himself of no reputation,
took upon him the form of a servant, and was obedient to the cross.
Christ became God the Father's willing bondservant. He came
down and became His willing bondservant to give Him the service His people
could not give. To give His Father the obedience
we couldn't give. And that's what serving is. It's doing what your brethren
can't do for themselves. That's what he did. That's what
he did. Phoebe, she was successful, but
she didn't make herself a reputation. She esteemed her brethren better
than herself. She took the form of a servant
like her master and served them. That's a great commendation,
a servant of the church, a comforter of brethren. Now lastly, here's
a request he makes. Ye receive her in the Lord, and
a sister in whatsoever business she hath need of you, as becometh
saints. Now what does that mean, receive
her in the Lord? It means this, receive her as
you would the Lord. You stand there waiting on her
to get off that ship, you greet her just like you would if the
Lord Jesus Christ walked off that ship. You take her home and you assist
her and provide for her and help her in all her business, whatever
she needs, just like you would the Lord Jesus Christ. Because she's in the Lord. And when you're in the Lord,
You're so one with Christ that Christ says, whatsoever you do
to the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me. Whatever you do to a brother
or sister in Christ, you are doing it to Christ himself. That, on one hand, makes me sad
because I want so much more. I want to
do for my brothers and sisters more because they're one with
Christ. What I'm doing to them, I'm doing
to Him. What I do to you, I'm doing to
Him. And it becomes saints. He said,
do this as it becometh saints. It's becoming to a saint to receive
one another and assist one another. It's what we ought to do. And
listen now, it is what saints do. It's like those Beatitudes. Those Beatitudes are not what
we ought to be. They're not what we're gonna
be one day. They are what we are. And this is what saints
do. We don't behave to become holy.
God's saints are already holy. That's how come they're saints.
That's what it means by saint. They've been sanctified by God. God the Father sanctified us
in divine election. Christ sanctified us by His one
offering when He perfected us forever, when He fulfilled the
will of God toward them God the Father put in Him. And we're
sanctified by God the Holy Spirit when we're made holy. with a
new man. But being made holy and being
saints already, we behave as becometh holiness, as becometh
saints. Every child that's born of the
Spirit of God has this desire in our heart. Everyone does. And I can say that without hesitation
because It's of the Spirit of God. And he doesn't fail to put
this in the heart of each of his people. Each of his people
want to behave as becometh saints. We all do. We all do. We don't dare think we live up
to it. We don't dare think that we do.
Because we see our sin, we see what's in us. Believers are looking
at brethren and saying, Now there's a holy man. But they look at
themselves and say, I'm not holy. Somebody else might be looking
at you going, that's a holy man. But you're looking at yourself
saying, I don't do this like I want to do it. Because you
want to please your Redeemer. You want to do as he commands. So it's our endeavor. It's our
effort that we put forth to behave as becometh holiness. Our motive's
not law. It's better than that. It's the
love of Christ for us. That's so much superior to law.
And our power to do this is not our sinful flesh. It's better
than that. It's the power of the Spirit
of God. Turn over with me to Ephesians 4. I'm going to spend
the remainder of the time reading some places where this phrase,
as becometh saints, is translated in a different way. I want to
first read this passage. It's lengthy and it's not the
same word, but it does have this phrase. But I want to just read
something. Here's what it means. When it says When I'm saying
we endeavor to live as becometh saints, to receive one another
and assist one another and do for one another as becometh saints,
I'm saying it's our endeavor to act like believers, not like
unbelievers. Act like somebody that knows
something about the grace of God, rather than acting like
people that know nothing about it. Look here, Ephesians 4.17. This I say, therefore, in testifying
the Lord, that ye henceforth, from here forward, walk not as
other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that's in them because of the blindness of their heart, who
being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness,
they've given themselves over to sin. to work all uncleanliness
with greediness. He's saying don't walk like these
lost, reprobate sinners walk. Don't do that. But, verse 20,
you've not so learned Christ. If so be that you've heard him
and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, if you've
really learned Christ, really been taught by him, that's not
what he taught you to do. Let no man deceive you. If people
say, oh, well, our sin's put away, that means we can sin and
we don't have to worry about it. That's not the spirit of
a believer. That's not the spirit of somebody
that's been sanctified that's learned Christ. It's not let
sin that grace may abound. God's people hate our sin. We sin every day. But we hate
our sin and we try not to sin. Listen, verse 22. Here's what he teaches you, that
you put off concerning the former conduct, the old man, which is
corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit
of your mind, and that you put on the new man, which is after
God. He's after God, he is created
in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore, putting away lying,
he's gonna give some examples here. Put away lying, speak every
man truth with his neighbor, for we're members one of another.
Be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your
wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole
steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands
the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that
needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but
that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister
grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit
of God, whereby you're sealed unto the day of redemption. Let
all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking
be put away from you with all malice. And in its place, be
kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers
of God as dear children. and walk in love, as Christ also
hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and
a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. But fornication and all
uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among
you, as becometh saints. Now I wrote this in the bulletin,
but let me give this to you here from the pulpit. Concerning ourselves
on these things, We ought to put forth effort to put off the
old man as if it's entirely dependent upon you and me to do it. Like
it's all up to you to do it. Put forth that much effort to
do it. All the while knowing and confessing
to God there's absolutely no way you can do it except by the
Spirit of God. And I say that because that way
we'll never say Well, I know I shouldn't have done that sin,
but I can only do what the Spirit of God enables me to do. Don't
blame God for your sin. Don't blame God. Let us not blame
God and make an excuse for our sin by saying, well, if the Spirit
of God would have enabled me, I wouldn't have done that. Well,
that's true. And he gets the glory for that. But we get all
the glory for the shame of our sin, and there ain't nobody else
to blame. So I'm saying if we have this attitude of it's all
up to me to put this old man off, while knowing I can't do
it except by the Spirit of God. If you have that attitude, you
won't make an excuse for it. You won't say, well, I can only
do what the Spirit of God has enabled me to. That's true, but
don't use that as an excuse for sin. Now, that ought to be our
attitude toward ourselves, but concerning our brethren, our
attitude ought to be different. Our attitude ought to be kind,
tenderhearted, forgiving, even as God for Christ's sake has
forgiven you. We ought to look at that brother
that falls into sin and remember this, Christ has put away their
sin. They are righteous in Christ
and it's an impossibility for them to sin before God in Christ. That's so of your brethren. When
you see your brethren sin, They're righteous before God. He says
their sin and iniquities, I remember no more. Now, will God correct
it? Yes, he will. But that's not
gonna bring them into condemnation. So don't you bring them into
condemnation. When a brother sin, we ought
to remember that's their sinful flesh. They can't do anything
except God enable them to do it. You see what I'm saying?
We think just the opposite of our brethren. because you're wanting to be
kind to your brother, tenderhearted to your brother, forgiving to
your brother, be a succorer of your brother, be a help to your
brother, point him to Christ. He's the master who can make
him stand. I can't. You can't. So I don't want to get in the
way. I don't want to try to push Christ out of the judgment seat
and get in his place like I'm the judge and start condemning
him. That's not my place. You know what I've done when
I do that? I've put off the new man and I've put on the old man.
In fact, it's worse. So toward our brethren, what
I'm saying is what becomes holiness is to be kind, tenderhearted,
forgiving our brethren when they sin, even as God, for Christ's
sake, has forgiven you. What if he marked your iniquities? Oh, self-righteous man, let me
ask myself when I get on my soapbox, what if he marked my iniquities?
Could I stand? So we ought to be forgiving even
as God for Christ's sake has forgiven us. Walk in love by
laying down our life to serve our brethren like Phoebe did
her brethren. Assist brethren, receive brethren
as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us an offering and
a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. That's putting
off the old man and putting on the new man. You see this thing,
it involves what I do whether I sin or I walk in the new man,
but it also involves how I treat my brother when they sin. If
you go back and listen to that, those messages through the epistle
of James, I'm convinced that whole letter is what James learned
when he tried to, him and Paul tried to come up with this idea
of how they could get people to come out and, you know, not
be against Paul at Jerusalem by that vow. He learned you can't
do that. He learned you gotta wait on
the Lord. You can't be masters over your brethren. You have
to wait on the Lord. You have to be quick to hear,
slow to speak, slow to wrath. You have to visit the powerless
and the weak and help them. You have to show no respect to
persons based on outward adorning. You can't, there's one law giver,
there's one judge who's able to save and destroy. And if I
start being the judge, I'm not doing the law of Christ. I'm
not treating others as I want to be treated. If I start judging
my brethren, I've said that law's no good, I'm gonna do it my way.
He said, you cease being a doer of the law and become a judge
of it. If a brother's sick, what sickness
is it that you have that you sin? He said if he's sick and
he sinned, what sickness is that? It's sin. It's sickness of the
old man. And the only way a man can be
delivered from that is through the earnest prayer of God's people
asking Christ to save him from it. This is things that's involved
in becoming holiness, brethren. Yes, don't walk in sin. But I'm
telling you, Christ was more, he was harder with the self-righteous
than anybody else that he encountered. We ought to pour that self-righteous
man in us more than anything else, because that is the, that's,
oh, that's saying I'm righteous without Christ. And I'm so righteous,
I can pick out your sin and inspect you as when you're God's fruit.
It's awful. I'm gonna end, I got about six
scriptures here where this phrase is used in other places. I'll send you the sermon notes
and you can look at it. I have them underlined. Like
for instance, he says there in Ephesians 4.1, he says, I therefore
the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation. That's the same word as as becometh
saints. walk as become the saints, wherewith
you're called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering,
forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. That means striving with
great might to keep the unity of brethren in the bond of peace. I don't walk past my brother
and treat him less than, treat myself less than. That's what
the scripture said. Treat them better. All right,
I'll just end there, and I'll send these to you so you can
read these other scriptures, but let's stand together. We'll be dismissed. Father, we thank you for this
word. I pray you could bless us and keep us and make us brethren,
make us servants, make us esteem our brethren better, make us to be helpers, comforters,
make us to be saints. Lord, do it that we might be
like you. We might do what you would have
done. in everything we do. Make that
be our heart. Make us receive brethren and
assist brethren and make us be somebody that our brethren can
commend. And Lord, if we're gonna do that,
we need you to make us overlook sin, cover the multitude of sins
by love. We need you to make us to not
expose one another, but to help one another and remind one another
that you've put their sins away. And we need that from each other.
Lord, make that to be the case, make that to be so. Lord, we abhor where we failed
you. We hate our sin, and it's personal,
it's against you, and we hate it. Lord, please forgive us,
and we thank you that you assure your people that you have, that
you're faithful and just to do so. Lord, remind us of that. Remind us of our advocate. It's
in his precious name we ask these things. Amen.