Turn with me, if you would, to
Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. In light of, and I want to begin
by saying, in light of the salvation that we have The salvation that has been freely
given to us in the blood of our Savior, because it's finished,
because salvation is finished and we can rest and rest from
that. These gifts that we have been
looking at the last few weeks, These have had a huge impact
on me. The spirit of God wrote this
word and gave it through the apostle Paul. And he is speaking
about our reasonable service because of the finished work
of Christ. And he said, gifts have been
given to God's people for the service of the ministry. And
this is honestly had a huge impact on me. He listed seven of them
right here. And, uh, I know you've experienced
this. Um, sometimes you have moments,
whether it's through hearing a message or whether it's through
reading the word, you have moments where a word just really sinks
in. You just hear something or read
something and it just makes an impression on you. And, um, A
lot of times, I realize that I saw that already and knew that
already. I just have seen it more. It's
just more clearly and more fervently impressed on me. Well, that's
what I feel about these gifts, the exhortation of these gifts. I've always known that these
things were serious and they needed to be taken seriously.
I, before I ever preached my first message, I knew that preaching
was a serious thing. I knew that, but I feel like
the Lord has, has allowed me to just enter in more fervently
to how serious this thing of preaching is, how critical it
is and how vital it is. And how serious we need to take
this. If the Lord has called on us to do this, we need to
take it so seriously. We're not just here to throw
an outline together. And what hits me is I have a
lot of volume to deliver. I have a lot of volume. I think that's the only way I
know to say it. We do a TV broadcast and we do a Wednesday night service
and we prepare a bulletin. And if the Lord gives me an article,
I try every now and then to write an article in it. And then we
have a Bible study, a Sunday morning, a Sunday night, and
the whole thing starts over. And what has greatly impressed
me is we're not just here to, well, that's an outline. Let's
throw that one out there. We're here to speak a word from
God. I mean, when that sinks in, we're
here to stand up on God's behalf. The apostle Paul said, we are
ambassadors for Christ as though God himself was speaking to you. You talk about make a man want
to sit down and shut up. I mean, when that really just,
Oh, I mean, we're here to preach the truth, but we're here to
stand up on God's behalf in front of God's people. That is a prime
example of how this has just hit me, really hit me. So we need to take our preaching
seriously. And that's what he's saying in
this. And he goes on through these and he says, we need to
take our ability to help in the ministry in any way that we can.
He said, ministering, we need to take it seriously. And we
need to take our teaching of these things seriously. Both our making sure
that we teach these things as clearly as we can and our learning
of these things. We need to take them seriously.
We need to take our witnessing of the gospel seriously. There are people who we would
love to witness the gospel to, but we just don't because we
don't. It just, we just don't. And you know, somebody would
say, well, why would I want to really worry myself with that?
If they are elect, if God elected them, they're going to be saved. You know, why would I want to
run the risk of offending them or run the risk of ruining our
relationship? Here's why. It's because God
said that he chose to use the means of witnessing the gospel
message to call his people to himself. And God, if he has purpose
to save one, he will not let that one go without hearing the
good news of Christ. That good news message will come
to that person. And he may use us to bring it
to him. So we can't just take that for granted. We need to
tell men and women that the work of salvation is finished in the
blood of Christ. We need to take our giving seriously. We need to support his work and
support this message. Life is too short. Death is coming. Hell is coming. We need to take
it seriously. And he goes on to say, we need
to take our ruling seriously and we need to take our mercy
seriously. And those last two, that's what
we're going to try to cover this morning. These are included in
what Paul called gifts for the service of the ministry. And if God does give us these
two things. They would be true gifts to this
ministry. They would be two very, very
true gifts to the ministry here. Look at the middle of verse eight.
It says he that ruleth with diligence, let him do it
with diligence. This is a very important exhortation
to all of us. It's important for those who
have been called on to take part in leading Our worship. And it's important for all of
us as members, as worshipers in our worship service. It's
important for all of us. And the reason is because that's
what ruling with diligence is pertaining to. The word ruleth
means to stand before. It means to preside. It means
to practice or maintain rule. That's what we're doing. When
we conduct a worship service, we are standing before we are
presiding. That's what it's called. When
a man handles the order of the service, if I leave and I ask
Amanda, make announcements and this and that I'm asking him,
will you preside over the service? We're also in this practicing
and maintaining rule. We see it right now. We all come
in and we love each other and we're talking and we're hugging
and we're all those things. And then when the time comes,
we all sit down and very quietly, very orderly worship our Lord. And the exhortation here is whoever
presides over it, needs to do it with diligence. Now I wanna
explain to you what this means, but first I wanna tell you what
it does not mean. The reason I say it's important
for a worshiper who's not presiding to know this is because you need
to know if the man presiding over you is doing it with diligence.
All right, this is what it does not mean. Ruling with diligence
does not mean ruling over God's people. as though the one presiding considers
himself to be the ruler of everybody, my way or the highway. The one who presides over is
not the one who puts his thumb on everything. That's not what
ruling means, not at all. There is only one ruler. And His name is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is our ruler. We have no hands,
but His hands. I'd love for that to be our slogan.
You know, everybody goes around saying, well, God has no hands,
but your hands. Well, here's the truth. That's
not so. We have no hands, but His hands. Therefore, there's
no thumb, but His thumb. The only authority that the man
presiding has is the Word of God. Outside of that, there's
no authority. We're all brothers and sisters
together, cut from the same lung. So if a man is gonna preside
over the worship of God's people, that man needs to realize the
people do not answer to him. God's people don't answer to
the man. God's people answer to God. They all answer to God. All ruling must be unto Him and
not unto us. It must be according to His word
and not according to my word. Well, I'm the pastor, and if
I say I think it needs to be this way, no, it must be according
to His word. Romans 14, if you look, it's
across my page here. Romans 14, verse four, it says,
who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own master,
he standeth or falleth. That means God will rule his
own people. He's the controller, he's the
teacher, he's the corrector, he's the instructor. We're just
the ones setting forth his word, that's all. Somebody will say,
well, what about the scriptures like obey them that have the
rule over you? What about that scripture? Amen. That's our ruler's commandment
to us. But this is what we must understand,
this right here. If a man is called on to rule,
this is what God has to say about it. Look with me if you would
at 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5. Verse 1, it says, The elders
which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness
of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory
that shall be revealed. He said, Feed the flock of God
which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint,
but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, Verse
three, he said, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but
being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall
appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
Likewise, you younger submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea,
all of you be subject one to another, all of us. And be clothed
with humility, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to
the humble. So ruling with diligence is not
thinking that I have the rule and everybody's gonna have to
crawl up under my thumb. That's not it at all. All right,
then what is it? Back in Romans 12, we've already
said that the word ruleth means to stand before, to preside,
to practice or maintain rule. And the word diligence means
with earnestness. It means to interest one's self
most earnestly. It means with much care. Our Lord, our ruler, has ruled
us with much care. He interested His own self most
earnestly with much care. And in light of that, if I'm
gonna do this, if I'm going to conduct our worship of Him, that's
what we're here to do. We're here to worship Him. If
I'm gonna conduct that, I need to care about it. I need to care
about it. I need to care about how it goes. I need to care about whether
or not true worship takes place. If I'm going to do this, if any
of us are going to do this, I'm not the only one who presides
and I'm not the only one who preaches and such on and so forth.
If any of us are going to do this, then we need to do everything
that we can. to not be a hindrance to the
true worship of God's people. Everything we can. If I'm gonna
take this lightly, then I don't need to do this. Whatever it is that I'm called
on to do, I need to take it seriously. I mean seriously, it doesn't
need to be put on the back burner. I'll get to it when I get to
it. I need to take it seriously. I need to be prepared and I need
to do it as unto the Lord as though I was standing before
the Lord doing it because I am. That's scary. We don't wanna just get up here
and wing anything. Have you ever seen a man stand
up in a pulpit and wing it? We don't wanna do that. We need
to be prepared, we need to take it seriously. If we're called
on to rule, we need to do it with diligence, diligence. Now let me just make these comments
and I'm gonna say something quickly about the last gift that Paul
mentions. Whether we're preaching, this is for the good of our ministry
here, this is our reasonable service for the good of our ministry. Whether we are preaching or reading
scripture or leading in prayer or leading the singing or even
just standing up to make announcements. Whatever we do, it needs to be
done reverently. It needs to be done reverently.
It needs to be done in the fear of the Lord. You think about
how in the Old Testament they handled those Old Testament pictures
and types and the service of the law. Oh, they were so fearful
before the Lord. It needs to be done unto the
Lord. Whatever we do, if we pray, if
we pray, we need to pray unto the Lord, not unto the people
who are listening. Whatever we do, it doesn't need
to be unto anybody but the Lord. This is not a place and this
is not a place for entertainment. And this is not a place for entertainment. It's not a place to try to impress
anybody. If a man is called on to read,
don't try to impress anybody. If we're called on to pray, don't
try to impress anybody. If we're called on to sing, don't
try to impress anybody. When I ask men to do things and
they say, I'm not good at it, I say, great, you're my man. If a man says, why don't you
ask me, I'm pretty good at it, you're not my man. Don't try
to impress anybody. Don't put on a show for anybody. This is not a place to be funny. You and I both know that every
now and then I'll say something that comes out funny, and we
all laugh, and I stand behind that. That's a good thing. I
think that's a very good thing. Our Lord laughed. Joy and laughter, absolute rejoicing
breaks out in heaven every time one sinner repents. There was
a dear man who used to, he'd show up at all the, he was a
pastor and he'd show up at the conferences and you'd hear that
man laughing. Everybody would think, I always,
I remember him as a kid. He passed away a long time ago,
but I'd hear that man laughing and I'd think, what is so funny?
He was so happy over the message he was hearing. That's a good
thing. There's nothing wrong with that.
We are not self-righteous and we are not stuck up. And you
don't have to have a furrowed brow to be reverent. When people can laugh together,
it means they're happy together. But with that being said, this
is not a platform for comedy. We're not just going to get up
here and just kind of make everybody listen. It's not a platform for
comedy. The pulpit is not. The pew is
not. There's nothing funny or especially
flippant or casual. There's nothing casual. about what we're doing here.
We need to reverently keep that in mind. If our Lord will allow
us to remember that, it will be a good thing for this ministry.
If we never get down the road and lose our reverence and turn
this thing into a big show and it'll be good for this ministry.
Okay, now I'm gonna be brief here. The last gift Paul mentions
in the service of the ministry is showing mercy. The end of
verse eight, if you go with me, I don't know if you're already
in Romans 12. The end of verse eight, it says, he that showeth
mercy with cheerfulness. Showing mercy right here means
showing compassion. Helping the afflicted, that's
what it means. We very briefly touched on this
a few weeks ago. I brought up the example that
you ladies, when a family is in need, I don't even think of
it. And then I'll hear that somebody has made a sign-up sheet and
everybody's getting on it to bring meals to a family who has
been afflicted in some way. And that is so thoughtful. That's
such a good thing to do. I mean, we could either, either
think of that and do that here or not think of that and not
do that here. That is such a good thing. That's a good thing for
the ministry of the gospel to have that thoughtfulness, that
showing of mercy. Keep doing that. We need to keep
doing that. That is what this is talking
about when he's talking about showing mercy with cheerfulness. And the root of that is nothing
makes us want to do that quite like seeing the mercy that our
Lord has shown to us. That's why we do it to each other.
Turn with me over to Psalm 103. Psalm 103, verse eight. It says, the Lord is merciful. Now this has really impacted
me. This has really, really impacted
me. I pray the Lord will impact all of us with this. The Lord,
just think about Him for one second. The Lord is merciful. And He's gracious. He is slow to anger, and He is
plenteous in mercy. Does that just sink into your
heart? If you think about how He deals with people, His dealings
with people, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger,
and plenteous in mercy. Verse nine says, he will not
always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath
not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. Christ was merciful to us when
he bore our sins for us. And Christ was merciful to us
when he hung on that tree for us. Christ was merciful to us
when He emptied all of the blood out of His body to pay our debt. Christ was merciful to us when
He allowed the wrath of God to be down on Him instead of us. He was merciful to us. Verse
10 says, He hath not dealt with us after our sins. nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. He dealt with himself after our
sins. And he rewarded himself according
to our iniquities. And this is what has made a great
impression on me. And I hope I learned this and
I hope I do this. Sometimes these things are so much easier said
than done, but I pray the Lord will teach me this and apply
this to me. Because of that, because of that,
we should not deal with each other after our sins. And that's how we deal with each
other. That is how we deal with each other. We should not reward
each other. Oh, okay. That's what you're
going to do for me. Well, here's my reward to you. We should not
reward each other according to each other's iniquities. Showing
compassion to someone who has not wronged you, being kind and
bringing that meal over there to somebody who has not wronged
you, but only been gracious to you, that's a good thing to do. Keep doing it. But Christ showed
compassion to those who had sinned against Him and cursed Him and
rebelled against Him. He showed compassion to those
who needed mercy from Him. Didn't even realize it, but needed
mercy from Him. And as He's done for us, let's
do that for each other. This would be so, so good for
our ministry. This would be so good for the
church here. And I'll tell you why. This group
loves each other and is close to each other. We have to be,
we don't have any choice. This building is like a 25 by
25. And when we go to this new church
building, one of my biggest concerns, and I know it's been one of yours
too, is that we'll all start to separate and go to the four
corners of that building, because that building's like a 50 by
45. I don't want to do that. I don't
care if I'm five feet from you or 20 feet from you. I don't
want to do that. This would be so, so good for
our ministry. This would be so good for Kingsport
Sovereign Grace Church, and especially between the ministries. If the
Lord would allow us to not reward each other after how we wrong
each other, we have, do, and will. But if we will deal with each
other like Christ dealt with us and truly show mercy, truly
be kind. You know what he did to me? May
God give me a heart to love him, forgive him, be friends with
him. He's my brother. If he's going
to be in heaven and I'm going to be in heaven. If God forgave
his sin, then Lord, please let me do it too. If you've already
forgiven that, would you please teach me to, as you have shown
mercy, would you teach me to show mercy? I don't need my wrath
to come down on him if yours didn't. If you rewarded Christ
for that, you see what I'm saying? Oh, may God teach us what it
is to be merciful. Verse 11, he said, Heaven is
high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that
fear Him. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Like
as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear Him. He knows our frame. He remembers
that we are dust. Let's remember that for each
other. I'm begging you, would you remember my frame? Would you please remember my
frame? I'm just a sinner saved by grace like everybody else.
I'm just dust. From dust I came to dust I'll
return in this flesh. Forgive me. I'm begging you,
forgive me. Whenever I give you that reason,
not if, when I give you that reason, forgive me. And may God
give me a heart to forgive you and show kindness to you for
Christ's sake. For Christ's sake, thank God
he did not cut us off. That's what you've done to me?
I'm cutting you off. I've done that to people. I'm
not cutting you off. That's what he said, I will not
cut you off. Cut me off, nope, not doing it.
For Christ's sake, when there is an opportunity to preach,
if God gives any of us an opportunity to preach, let's take it seriously.
For Christ's sake, if God gives us an opportunity to help in
the work of this ministry, let's take it seriously. For Christ's
sake, if God gives us an opportunity to teach, let's take it seriously.
If God gives us, for Christ's sake, an opportunity to witness,
let's take it seriously. Before you do, pray, Lord, give
me the words, put your spirit in me, tell me what you'd have
me to say, take it seriously. For Christ's sake, if God gives
us an opportunity to forgive and to give and support the gospel,
let's take it seriously. For Christ's sake, if God gives
us an opportunity to truly worship, let's take it seriously. And
for Christ's sake, when there is an opportunity to show mercy,
let's take that opportunity seriously. And Paul said in our text, do
it cheerfully, not just show mercy, but he said, do it cheerfully. Blessed are the merciful for
they shall obtain mercy. Pray the Lord will profit that
to us. All right, you're dismissed.