Let's read from Psalm 19. Psalm 19. Scripture says the heavens declare
the glory of God. The firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech,
and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech
nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone
out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the
world. In them hath he set a tabernacle
for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and
rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is
from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of
it, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. The law
of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the
Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord
are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey in the
honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant
warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward. Who can
understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from
presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over
me. Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from
the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and
the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord,
my strength and my redemption. Open your Bibles with me to Romans
15. You know, when we get into eternity, it'll be as if we was
already always there. Because eternity is eternity.
It'll be as if you never was anywhere else. When you get into
eternity, you're there. And as far as you're concerned,
you've always been there. We're going to have a baptizing
after the service this evening. Jacqueline and Kyle are engaged
and talked to them today and very thankful, very blessed in
my heart, so thankful for what the Lord's done. And so I tell
you that's, on that, oh boy, well it's just
something, it's something, look forward to it. Let me read these
first seven verses and make a few comments about them. We then that are strong ought
to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves.
Let every one of us please his neighbor for he is good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself,
but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell
on me. for whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience
and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now the God
of patience and consolation grants you to be like-minded one toward
another according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and
with one mouth and one mouth glorify God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, receive you one another
as Christ also received us to the glory of God. Now, Paul started
out exhorting to unity, for believers to be united, whether you had
weak faith or strong faith. The weak Christian, the strong
Christian, whatever it was, received without any doubtful disputation,
though no arguments about it, no judgments about it. And when
he's talking about unity, he's not talking about unity among
all religious people. Our master himself condemned
those who sought acceptance by God by their own righteousness. He said, every tree which my
father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Ain't that what
he said? And said, those Pharisees go
about to establish their own righteousness, and the apostle
wouldn't even tolerate those who preached another gospel.
He said, if a man preached another gospel, let him be accursed,
for there's not another gospel. So here he is in Romans 15, these
first seven verses, exhorting those who know, those who love
the Redeemer, and he's exhorting them to love one another and
forbear one another. And he's talking to those who
find their peace and hope. only in Christ's sacrifice. He's
talking to believers here. And look what he says. He gives
us an obligation. I'm going to use a little outline
here tonight. And he gives an obligation to
us. He says, we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities
of the weak and not please ourselves. Now what does he say? We that
are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. Now
we know, we know without a shadow of a doubt, we have no strength
in ourselves. We're not strong in ourselves. Our Lord Jesus
Christ says that when we're weak, His strength is made perfect
in our weakness. We acknowledge our weakness.
We acknowledge our inability. And Paul says, I am what I am
by the grace of God. But he's not talking about people
strong in themselves, but strong in the faith of Christ. Strong
in the faith and sure of their deliverance in Christ. He's talking
about those who are strong, delivered from all the rituals and all
the traditions that they was raised in. To what you eat or
what you drink or reserve a certain day and any kind of a bondage. And so he's talking about those
who are strong in the faith. Strong belief that they've been
delivered by Christ from everything that's against them. Everything
that's contrary to them. And then he says, they ought
to bear the infirmities of the weak. ought to keep on bearing
the weakness of the ones that are powerless. And what does
he mean powerless? And not be wanting to continually
please ourselves. There are young believers and
there are people that they don't, they're weak in the faith. They don't understand a lot of
things. And he says we ought to bear their infirmities and
their weaknesses, not just to please ourselves. And that's
what he means. And look over in Galatians, right
over to your right, a couple of books over to your right,
Galatians chapter 6, and look what he says here. And he's talking about, you know,
there are people that ought to keep on bearing their weaknesses.
Keep on bearing their weaknesses. And I tell you, that's why Paul
said, if some of you think you're weak, I'm even weaker. That's
what he told the Corinthians. He said, you think you're weak?
I'm the one that's weak. You think you're the one that's
strong? I have no strength. You think you've got something
to glory in? I have nothing to glory in but Christ. He'd let
them brag about themselves and promote themselves and talk about
themselves. And when He done that, He says,
you go on and do that, I'm just the opposite. You're strong,
I'm weak. You're somebody, I'm nothing. You can do something,
I can't do anything. And so He says, so then He says,
you know, and that, when those people said that, they were really
truly the weak ones that was doing those things. But look
what He said here in Galatians chapter 6, verses 1 and 2. Brethren,
If a man be overtaken in a fault, and I tell you what, if you're
a man, you're going to. If you're a man, you're going
to. You're going to be overtaken in a fault. Now watch what he
says, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness. kindness, tenderness, gentleness,
in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted,
considering this could happen to you. This very thing may happen
to you. And look what else he says, bear
ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Oh, how do you fulfill the law
of Christ? Did He not bear our burdens? Does He not bear our
burdens now? Does he not bear all of our infirmities
and all of our weaknesses? And so he said, if he bears ours,
he said, oh, we ought to. That fulfills the law of Christ.
Now back over in Romans 15, he goes on to say, we then that
are strong ought, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak,
not to please ourselves. And this word ought here means
that this is a profound obligation and we're conscious of it. Ought
means that we owe it. We owe it. We owe it. And you
know this as well as I do, that there's lots of weaknesses that
come from prejudices, from faults and from errors, and they come
from a weakness of faith. We have a lot of opinions and
a lot of prejudice and faults and errors, and they come from
a weakness of faith. And so what men and people who
seem to be strong in the faith and strong in the faith of Christ,
they need to seek and make all brethren feel wanted. How everybody
needs to be appreciated. Make them feel needed. Make them
feel they're appreciated. Not seeking only to please ourselves. And do you know what the greatest
power to carry a burden is? If you're going to carry another
person's burden, you know what the greatest power to enable
you to carry another man's burden or anybody else's burden? Love. You remember that story? It used
to be, if I guess it's still there, it was a place out west
called Boys Town. And all orphans would go out
there. young man was carrying his brother
on his back. And he finally arrived there. And he says, why are you carrying
your brother for? He walks the door. Ain't he awful
heavy? And he says, no, he ain't heavy.
He's my brother. And oh, my. To have that kind
of love, to say he ain't heavy, he's my brother. Can we say that
to one another, you ain't heavy? You ain't heavy, you're my brother.
You ain't heavy, you're my sister. Is your burdens heavy? And that's
the way we're to do one another. And that's the way it is to bear
one another's burdens and the infirmities of the weak. And
oh, and look what he says here. So let us, he talks about edification
now, obligation now edification. Let every one of us please his
neighbor for his good to edification. Let every one of us, now he's
talking to all of us as believers, let every one of us please his
neighbor. Now who's his neighbor? We're
neighbors. We're all neighbors. You know,
that's what one man wanted to justify himself when he says,
love your neighbors as yourself. I said, Lord, who is my neighbor?
And then he used the illustration of the man that was by the wayside
that was beaten and robbed and left for dead. And who it was
that went by and helped him and bound up his wounds and took
him to an end and paid for everything that needed to be done for him.
And that's what he did. He saw somebody in need and he
sought to do good for that person that was in need. And please
his neighbor for their good. For their good. With the view
to build them up in the faith. To strengthen them. To settle
them. To encourage them. Look what He said over here in
1 Corinthians 10. You know, this is what we're
talking about. 1 Corinthians 10. To edify means
to build up. It means to establish. It means
to strengthen. In order to build people up,
not tear them down. It's easy to tear people down. It's another story to build people
up. I tell you what, if you know
something about yourself, that's why you come to hear the Gospel.
Because you know that you need the gospel. You know that you
need to build up into faith. And the gospel is what does it
for you. The Word does something for you that nothing else does.
The Word of God edifies you, builds you up, establishes you,
gives you strength, gives you encouragement, gives you a firm
foundation. How firm a foundation your saints
of the Lord has laid for your faith in His excellent Word. What more can He say to you than
He said to you, to Jesus, for refuge fled? And oh, look what
He says here in 1 Corinthians 10.32, talking about edification. Do good to please his neighbor.
Try to please his neighbor with a view to build him up. And Paul
says, give not offense. Don't offend. Neither to the
Jews. Don't just go out here because
a fellow's a Jew and offend him because he's a Jew. Or don't
go to a Gentile, you Jews, and offend a Gentile just because
you're a Jew and he's a Gentile. And certainly don't give offense,
good reason to stumble to the church of God, to the saints
of God. And listen to what he said, even as I please all men
in all things. Now what does that mean by that?
He says, I seek their good, I seek their edification, I seek to
build them up in the faith. I seek to establish these people. And look what he says, not seeking
my own prophet, but the prophet of many, that what? They might
be saved. He said, here I don't count myself
to be nothing. To a Jew, I'll be a Jew. To a Gentile, I know something
about Gentiles. To the saints of God, I know
something about them. And I seek to please them all,
edify them and establish all of them. And I tell you, we should
be willing to sacrifice our liberty, whatever it may be, for the rights
and goods of others, and the weaker especially. And then look
what he said over here in verse 3 of Romans 15. Obligation, edifying, please
His neighbor for good. For His edification, build Him
up, strengthen Him, edify Him. And oh, here's our imitation.
Oh, somebody for us to emulate and imitate in every way. For
even Christ, please not Himself. But as it is written, the reproaches
of them that reproach thee fell on me. And you know when it says
here, let us not please ourself but his neighbor for his good
edification. Not only did our Lord Jesus Christ
not please himself, but he emptied himself. He emptied himself of
his rights. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, but he emptied himself of that. When you saw
Him, you didn't see nothing but a man, and He emptied Himself.
He divested Himself of His glory and His rights, and everything
really went to the cross. And oh, and our Master didn't
seek His own comfort, He didn't seek His own ease, didn't seek
His own profit, or didn't even seek His own glory. What He did
and everything He did, He did for the good of His people, for
His elect. He went about doing good. and
healing all that were oppressed to the death. So our Lord Jesus
Christ, it says that He even pleased not Himself. If our Lord
Jesus acted in such a way, how it ought, and it does me, I shouldn't
say how it ought to condemn us, but it does me. When we want
to indulge our rights and our desires at the expense of the
whole family of God. indulge our rights and our privileges
and our powers and our opinions at the expense of the whole family
of God. If our Lord acted this way, how
much should we do? And then look what it says here,
for even Christ pleased not himself, but he confirmed it by a verse
of scripture. But as it is written, the reproach
of them that reproach thee fell on me." What does he mean? Well, if you keep Romans 15,
look in Psalm 69. And this is what he means. This
is the very verse of Scripture he's quoting. Psalm 69, the very
verse of Scripture he's quoting here. Psalm 69 and verse 7. He confirms this, that our Lord
pleased not Himself. Now what it means here, that
we as sinners, we as fallen men, and even as believers, we've
reproached Christ. Simon Peter reproached him when
he denied him. Denies are not right. We've all
brought reproach on the name of the Lord. And here he says,
everybody that ever reproached God, Everybody who reproached
Him, had some reproach for Him, said something negative about
Him, said something derisive about Him, and treated and talked
about Him and regarded Him in ways way below what He is worthy
of and He deserves. And He says this in verse 7,
Because for thy sake I have borne reproach, Shame hath covered
my face. And this is what Christ became.
I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my
mother's children. For the zeal of thine house hath
eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproached me. What
happened to them? They all fell over. Everything
that we ever thought, everything we ever did, all the reproaches
we reproached Christ and reproached God, our Lord Jesus Christ took
all them reproaches on Himself and bore all reproaches that
we had for God in His own body there on that tree. Huh? So every time you've ever reproached
God, Christ bore it, took it upon Himself, took it upon Himself. Oh, ain't you thankful that He
did that? How many times have you reproached Him? We know when
you take His name in vain, every time you say, just take
it as a byword, that's a reproach. Anytime you use the Lord's name
in any other way than what it's worthy to be used as, always
to be uplifted, but we never did that. And he said, everything that
we reproached God with, every time we used his name, every
time we never highly exalted him and lifted him, he said,
every reproach that they reproached you with, they brought it over
here and poured it out on me. Oh, bless his name. And now look
back over here in verse four of Romans 15. It is written it
is written or whatever you find it is written pay attention to
it And here's another thing for whatsoever things were written
He said this is why these things are written. This is why this
was written about Christ For whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning That we through patience
and comfort of the scriptures might have hope And so what he's
talking about is, is that when we teach doctrine or exhort to
a practice or a principle, we prove it by the Word of God.
There ain't no sense in telling somebody what to do if you ain't
got something to back it up with the Word of God. And that's why
he says, you know, all Scripture's given by inspiration of God.
And it's proven for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction
in righteousness. And all of them are given that
way. And I tell you, look what he says here. These things were
written for our learning. For us to learn. To learn. We just learned what we're exhorted
to do. Bear the infirmities of the weak.
Please our neighbors to good, to their edification. Not to
please ourselves. Those were three things that
we were just exhorted to do. And where do you find that at?
You find it written. All things were written for our
Lord, and we learned what we've been, and my Master did it, and
it was foretold of Him. It was written of Him. And you
go through the Scriptures. It was written that Abraham would
have imputed righteousness, and imputed to it, and it is not
written for his sake only, but for us who would believe. And
it is written, don't muzzle out the ox, and tread without the
corn. Go wherever place you find it is written. Where's it written
at? In the scriptures. And oh, I tell you, I don't know
how many folks I've talked to over the years. I'm talking to
one fellow pretty often now, and he carries a Bible with him
all the time. I run into him at the gym. We talk together
at the gym, and he's got a Bible with him all the time. And he
takes time before he goes home. He'll go in a different room,
and he'll read it. And we talk. And I'll tell him some things
that the scripture says. He'll say, where does that say that
at? Where's that at in the Bible? And I'll be able to show him. It's
written there. There's where it's at. You'll be able to go. And boy, whenever you've got
an idea that's written, it's time to sit up and listen, ain't
it? Because you know what, when it's written, you know what that
says? God said. God said. And all these things
are written. What were they written for? For
us to learn. How did we learn about Christ?
And how did they know anything about Christ in the Old Testament
before the New Testament was written? How did they know about
substitution? How did they know about sin?
How did they know about how Christ was going to satisfy God's justice
before He ever come into the world and was ever born of a
virgin? How in the world did they know
that Christ would come and die and bear the sins of His elect
people and be buried and rise again and ascend to heaven and
set the right hand of God in the Old Testament? They didn't
have the news because the Old Testament is
full of it. It's just like the ark. And we'll
talk about that in a minute. The ark. It says that God has
said to prepare an ark to the saving of your house. That ark
had one door. One way to get in. One way. And Christ, He said, I am the
door. No man comes unto the Father
but by Me. And God, He said, pitch it within
and without. And that word pitch is the same
word as atonement. Christ our atonement. And they
were put in that ark, and that ark was sealed, and there was
one door. And the scripture said, and God shut the door. And there was only one window
in it, and the only way you could look was up. Set your affection
above where Christ saith on the right hand of God. Look up, your
redemption draweth nigh. And God sent judgment. And now
everybody in that ark bore the judgment. But where did they
bury that? Born in the ark! That's the gospel! That's how they knew about Christ? Oh, listen, and then it says,
it says that like figure one, two, they were saved by water,
the water carried them up, carried them up, and then left them,
when it went down, left them up on the mountain. And he says that's what baptism
is. It's the answer of a good conscience. That your conscience is satisfied. That God's done something for
your heart. And your conscience is satisfied
before God. That your sins have been put
away. You have the righteousness of
Christ. You've been accepted of God. And your conscience says,
I'm satisfied with Christ. And I want to confess Him by
baptism. That's what it says. Ain't that
right, Gary? Oh, listen, that's why we're
written for our learning. And look what else it says about
us written for. And that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures
might have hope. That we might be patient. Be
comforted from learning the Scriptures, and be upheld, and increase our
hope in Christ. That's why when we see these
old things and these things in the Old Testament, we delight
in them, we rejoice in them, because we learn from them. And
we see the patience of Abraham, and the patience of Job, and
the patience of Paul, the patience of Joseph back in the Old Testament. And you see how God brought them
up, and you see how that they patiently endured, and we see
through the Scriptures they're patient, so we're patient. And
as they was comforted of God in those days, we're comforted
of God by seeing what they went through. That if they went through
it, we'll get through it. Great is thy faithfulness! Patience, oh my! And when we
look at Joseph, oh my goodness, how his brothers treated him
all them years in prison. Abraham just wandering around,
wandering around, Job, and he went through that great trial
and all these things. They comfort us when we read
about it. Comfort us. Now look what else it says here
now in verse 5. Here's a prayer, here's supplication. Now the God of patience and consolation
grants you to be like-minded one toward another. Now listen,
I love this, according to Christ Jesus. Now as He describes God, in one
place He's called the God of peace, here He's called the God
of patience. The God of patience. And patient here, and He's the
God of patience. And patience here is an active
endurance, not just a passive resignation. It's an active endurance,
not just sitting down waiting until it gets over with. You
go on doing what you got to do patiently, actively going through,
and the God of patience grants you to be like mine. God is patience. He's the God
of patience. And what does He do? He gives
us patience. And look what it says, and He's
the God of consolation. And boy, when you need consolation,
who's going to give it to you? The Father is. The Father is. I love 2 Corinthians 1-3. You
all look at this with me. This is a wonderful verse of
Scripture. 2 Corinthians 1-3. And I tell you, if you've been
a believer very long, you'll understand what it is for God
to give you consolation, be your consolation. Paul said here in
2 Corinthians 1, verse 3, Blessed be God, even the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, listen to it, the Father of mercies, and
the God of all Oh, old Bruce Montgomery used
to say all the time, he said, just crawl up in the Lord's lap,
just crawl up and hug up to Him real good. He said, He'll hug
up to you too. He'd say, just hug up to Him
real good. And that's what he says, look what he says here,
who comforts us in our tribulations, in our trials. And why does He
comfort us in our tribulations? That we may be able to comfort
them which are in any trouble. When you go through trouble,
it makes it easier to help those that are in trouble because you've
been there yourself. By the same comfort we're with
God comforted us. We see people in trouble, we've
been through that trouble. So we know how to comfort people
because we've been in that trouble ourselves. Now back over here
again, God's our solid Solid consolation. Now the God of patience
and consolation grants you to be like-minded one toward another.
And look what it says. Oh, grants you to be like-minded
one toward another. He says, may God make you patient,
long-suffering, forgiving, and a source of comfort to somebody
else, to one another. And look what he says here. According
to Christ Jesus. And in the margin, it says this,
after the example of Adam. Forgive one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, has also forgiven you. And I'm going to
say something. And this is true. If you don't
get anything else I say tonight, listen to this. When I've forgiven
every wrong word against me, And I've borne every hard word
and every thought. And when I've overlooked every
weakness and confronted every fallen, comforted every fallen
friend, I still haven't endured one iota of what our Lord Jesus
Christ did. And the sad part about it is
we don't even come close to those things. We ain't even got close. But
just cause we ain't, that mean we ain't gonna quit trying. Is
it? We're gonna still, that's what,
these things are written for what? By learning. We learn from
these things, learn from them. And then look what he says in
verse six. That you may with one mind and
one mouth glorify God, even the Father, by Lord Jesus Christ.
All of us have the same mind. Paul said, Oh, I would, y'all.
We're like-minded. Be like-minded. Have the same
mind in the Gospel. One mind. Everybody having the
same mind. Everybody using the same mouth.
Everybody speaking the same language. Everybody having the same purpose,
the same goal, the same desire, the same aim, and that's to glorify
God our Father. And that's what he's saying here.
And I tell you, God's not glorified. when there isn't union of heart
and there's not union of purpose and there's not union of spirit
and union of doctrine. God's not glorified when we're
not that way. He's not. We all ought to have
the same voice, all have the same mind, all have the same
aim, the same goal, the same purpose. And what's that? Glorify God, even the Father,
our Lord Jesus Christ. And then, oh my, look what else
he said here now. Wherefore, receive ye one another. Oh my, receive you one another.
That's exactly how it started out over in Romans 14.1. Him
that's weak in the faith, receive you. Wherefore, receive you one another.
And he closes it the same way, receive you. And when he says receive you
one another, receive you one another into
your hearts, into your affections. Embrace one another, weak, strong,
old, young, male, female. Treat one another as believers,
as Christ would treat us. And you see, receive you one
another, now listen to this, as Christ also received us. How we do receive one another?
Like Christ received us. That mean, what does that mean?
That means ever how Christ received you. Did Christ receive us full
grown? Did he receive us strong? With
no faults, no sin? full grown matured saints? Is that the way Christ received
us? Or did he receive us as babes?
Weak? Frail? Sinful? Wretched? In great need? Broken hearts? Weak in our spirits? Huh? No, our Lord received us
just like we are and like we were, unlovely, weak, sinful,
and having all the infirmities of human nature that you could
possibly have. But God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Receive you one another as God
received you Pretty good. That's good sound doctrine That's
good doctrine That's things that we need to listen to it. That's
what we learn from those are things we learn Our father in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord Thank you for allowing us to meet here
this evening to deal with your precious, precious Word. Oh,
it rebukes us, it comforts us, it exhorts us, it strips us,
it feeds us, it condemns us, it reproves us, it rebukes us,
it gives us assurance all at the same time. What an amazing
thing the Word of God is in the hands of the Holy Spirit. We
thank you for it and bless you to all of our good and to your
glory for Christ's sake. Amen.