secure and permanent in Jesus
Christ. Even when our happiness is fleeting
and sometimes we're unable to express our joy, we know that
our complete confidence and assurance comes from him. We thank you,
Father, for the assembly tonight, that we would continue to hear
your word in Romans. And Lord, we pray that your will
be done as we learn and as we apply this word to our lives.
And we pray for those who are among our fellowship, Father,
who are continuing to labor in the body and in the mind and
in the heart. Lord, we pray too for the healing
of many who are in need of healing. You know who they are, Father,
and we've prayed for them every day and always and continually. And we pray these things in the
name of Christ. Amen. All right, we are in chapter
15 of Romans. Can you believe it? Chapter 15
of Romans. And it seems like this is week
68 or 69. We've gone fairly rapidly through
this book in our reading of this letter and when we get done we're
going to have a few doctrinal studies and then we're going
to get into the letter to the Galatians and whatever else the
Lord might propose for us as he permits the teaching of his
word. So let's go now to Romans chapter
15 and let's read the first seven verses. We who are strong have
an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not
to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor
for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself,
but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell
on me. For whatever was written in former days was written for
our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement
of the scriptures, we might have hope. May the God of endurance
and encouragement grant you to live in harmony, in such harmony
with one another, in accord with Jesus Christ, that together you
may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Therefore, welcome one another
as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. Now, we may
get beyond that, but I want to read that and introduce this
tonight. Paul has already given in chapter
14 this expression about how there are weak brothers and strong
brothers and weak faith and strong faith and people who have a weak
conscience or a strong conscience about things. I think we've exhausted
the priority of that text and the possibilities of what it
might be or what it might be saying. And we've even taken
a little bit of liberty to expressly make it apply to certain areas
that Paul may not have had in mind. But for sure, we have approached
things like what people eat, what people drink, what people
wear, what festivals they enjoy, what music they listen to. These
types of things are matters of conscience. Before our service,
some of the brothers were talking and we were engaged in how some
people who seem to be legalistic often are legalistic because
they have this air of self-righteousness, that they are doing well by the
Lord. And because of that, if everyone
else would just see their model and follow after them, then they
too would be doing well before the Lord. But we also suggested
that there's the possibility that many people who are in this
attitude of legalism, in other words, we must do all these things
according to our culture for these expectations and this image
is actually what's honoring to the Lord. A lot of them are there
because they are scared. They have great fear that who
they are and what they do and what they say and what they think
and all of these things are not honoring the Lord. Now, it's
not a bad thing to have a desire to give glory to God because
isn't that necessarily what Paul then says in this first seven,
eight verses that we've had here, these first seven verses? That's
the whole outcome of it all. That's why we deal with issues
of conscience with humility, and with patience, and with kindness,
because we want to give glory to God. We want to give honor
to Him. But it should not put us in a
place of fear. The love of God casts out all fear, for the love
of God, who He is, is perfect. And so perfect love casts away
all fear. So we do not stand in a position of fearing God
in that we are fearful of judgment. for love cast away all fear and
we do not have fear of judgment but rather we long and can have
intimacy with God because we do have intimacy with God through
Jesus Christ who endured the suffering of the cross for his
people so that we are now his righteousness because not only
that through the work of sanctification that Christ has completed we
have the imputation of his perfection his righteousness we are set
apart as if we are indeed the Son because His perfection is
ours. But we shouldn't fear condemnation.
Paul has already established that. What does he say in verse
1 of chapter 8? There is no condemnation. For who? For the one who obeys? Nope, there is condemnation for
the one who obeys. For the one who obeys has still
fallen short of the glory of God and still sinned in essence,
by nature. There is no condemnation for
the one who is in Christ Jesus, but there is always condemnation
for the one who is governed or judged by their works. The one
who is judged by their works will stand before the Lord condemned,
but the one who is judged by faith And the one who was condemned
in their place, Jesus Christ, stands before the Lord. Paul
says in chapter 14 verse 10, why do we pass judgment on your
brother, or you? Why do you despise your brother?
For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God, for
as it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall
bow to me. and every tongue shall confess to God." So then each
of us will give an account of himself to God. So in one sense
we need to realize that there are a lot of nuances about life,
a lot of polishing that the Lord may do or the Lord may not do
in each of our lives that may or may not be as wise in each
other's eyes, but that we will give an account to God for those
things. But in the beauty of the gospel, we will not be judged
in that account. That account is not something
that the Christian will ever stand and be rewarded or punished
because of. For if we could gain reward because
of our obedience, then grace means nothing. Then man could
be justified by the works of the law. To be honest, what is
the only reward of God? What is the reward of God for
any human being? That is eternal life. The crown of righteousness
is the only reward that we will have. And in that reward, it
is only established and affirmed through the finished work of
Jesus Christ. So we are not to judge one another. But we are
to be careful that what we do and what the conscious that we
have, and this is a review from the last two Wednesdays, the
last three because we didn't meet the second one. We are to
keep to ourselves. We aren't to flaunt our liberties
and we aren't to be judgmental against our consciences when
we don't have those liberties. We are to just be at our be at
peace with the things that God has told us are good or the things
that God has told us are not good for us. But we don't make
them spiritual issues. We do not make them spiritual
issues because the apostles are very clear what are and are not
spiritual issues. And we know that covetousness
and idolatry and hatred and gossip and murder and lust and all of
these things, we understand what sin is versus what may not be
wise. But if we are able to see these
things, then we are not to destroy the one for whom Christ died
based on our conscience. We are not to cause division.
We are not to usurp the reality and the fruitfulness of the gospel
because we just want to see other people see our weakness. Make
us not stumble. And Paul establishes it very
clearly this way. We should not cause each other
to stumble. through any way. So if someone
is weak and what we do causes them to stumble, we are to abstain
from that while teaching them that it is weak. While teaching
them that it is something that they should not have fear of.
And vice versa, someone who maybe has a fear and comes to us and
says, well this is that, you get the point. Overall, Paul concludes that
if someone doubts, he is condemned. I said this last week and I'll
give an extra thought that a brother proposed throughout the week.
But I said this last week, if we are doing things in our lives
that we do not have a clear conscience on, it is very well that those
things are sin because we are not doing them by faith. That's
what Paul says. by faith, if we partake in certain
things, if we do certain things, if we engage in certain activities
in this world and we know we do not feel condemned then we
have that liberty. But if we are condemned in our
conscience, if we doubt we should not be in these activities. But this brother proposed the
idea, well, what happens when I know that I will be judged? What happens that I know that
when these things become evident that even though I am even expressing
a weakness or a liberty that I'll be judged in a certain way?
Well, that's why the teaching of this text is so important.
That's why the teaching of this text is continuing in chapter
15, and that's where we are today. Because each of us, as we exercise
our faith, we are to keep it to ourselves in that way, as
we do what we do in this life, knowing what is sin and what
is not sin. But those things that are not necessarily defined
as sin, we know what is wise and is not wise in our own sight.
No, we know what is wise and what is not wise in the conscience
that God has given us. And that is all relative to what?
Are we free to just decide, well, in my heart, I love this, so,
oh, it's probably okay. No, it's not about our affection.
It's not about our heart at all, because our heart cannot be trusted,
but our conscience is not tied to our heart. Our conscience
is tied to the truth that is taught to us in God's word. So
when we see what the culture says, but we see that the Bible
gives liberty, then we ought to subject our conscience to
the scripture. And when we see that even what
the scripture would give liberty for We see in our own lives that
it's not healthy, profitable, or unifying, that we probably
should just abstain from it. So that we know then our conscience
bears witness, according to the word of God, that what we are
doing or are not doing is by faith. I have the faith to realize
that I should not drink alcohol. I do not drink alcohol. I have
never drunk alcohol. And many people who hear that
stuff, they go, oh, good old pastor, good old holy man, oh my gosh.
No, it's not. There are many times I probably should have
drank alcohol. All those years of anxiety, I won't take medications
either. I won't take a class 3 substance. I won't take a narcotic.
I won't take Tylenol. I'm scared to death of dying
of liver failure from one pill. I won't take anything. A little
sip of wine or whiskey might have helped me. I don't know.
And I'm not saying that loosely. But by faith, I could not do
it. By faith, I could not do it. In the same way, I would
not condemn my brother for doing it. because they did not proceed
for faith. Some people would look at that and go, wow, you
know, I mean, I have friends who have never been on the internet,
ever. They've never had an email address, they've never had an
internet account, they've never had a laptop, never had a computer, don't have a
smartphone, they've still got, you know, that, you know, well, I've
never been on the world wide web, I'm not gonna be sucked
into the Satan's thing, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah. And I wanna roll my eyes and go, are you kidding me? Is
your middle name Luddite, L. Luddite? I mean, what are you?
You're missing out, man. You don't get to see our live
feed. You don't get to see all the cool things that you get.
But I'm just not going to be subject to that. Listen, that's
his conscience. And I was wrong for trying to convince him to
get online. Because in the middle of that
conversation he's like, quit trying to make me sin. It's not a sin
to be on the internet. But for him it is. The cause,
he knows that he doesn't want to deal with the possible temptation. He knows his own heart, he knows
his own flesh, and that's okay. Other people don't want television
in their house. Other people have a television
in every room. Bathroom, closet, you know, got televisions everywhere. Television on the watch, televisions
everywhere, televisions everywhere. Some people don't go to movies,
other people do go to movies. There are a lot of things that
we do that are matters of faith, and when we find out that there's
a disagreement, we talk to one another, we come to terms, we
recognize that there's strength and weaknesses, but we do it
all by faith, and as much as it's up to us, we try to maintain
a sense of peace. But what do we do when there
are people in and among us, as a fellowship, as a family, who
are just extremely weak and they just cannot get the picture?
And that's where Paul continues. We who are strong. But now here's the kicker, and
I've said this before, everybody thinks they're strong, except
when they're self-deprecating and they're being spiritual.
No, I'm just weak. But in their mind, they're going, and that
makes me strong. You see? And that's really the way it
goes, you know? Like I've said to you many times over, I have
certain things that I feel like that I do very responsibly, that
I have this sense of responsibility, this sense of order in my life,
and if everybody else would be just sort of like me, it would
probably go better, and it's sin, it's arrogance, it's pride.
I know what that is. And so, you know, I might say
to myself, well, you know, I'm really probably not all together,
but in the deep part of my mind, I'm probably thinking, but I
am. So there's no telling where our weakness lies. How has it
surfaced? How has our weakness exposed?
When we're around people who are not like us. When we're around
people who don't like the things we like, or who like things that
we don't like, or who do things that are different. When we have
people who speak a different way, or who live a different
way, or who raise their children a different way, or who educate
a different way, or who entertain a different way, or who fix their
food a different way. That is when we will realize
we have weakness. We will have weakness when we
are confronted by unity that comes in the gospel of sovereign
grace, and nothing else is unifying. We've been taught a lie in the
Church of America, and I use that term lightly. We've been
taught a lie in the evangelical cult of America, that we must
have an affinity beyond Christ. or an affinity before Christ,
such as outdoor recreation, or sports teams, or clothing, or
knitting, or yard work, or construction, or fishing, or hunting, or something
cool that we could do, no matter what gender we may be, or no
matter what ideals we have, we've got to find something that would
establish this connection, this connectivity, this unity, and
then Jesus can become a part of that. but the gospel and the
scripture actually rebukes that as wicked. Because our unity
is in and only in and always and only will be in Christ. And
if it's not in Christ, then when these differences come along,
then we're divided. It's how people can just bail
out of each other's lives. It's how people can just gossip
as if it doesn't matter. It's how people can just do all
the things that they want to do, claiming to be strong, but
in reality they're actually weak because they're unable to have
unity in Christ because there's some differences that we just
cannot seem to overcome. And the list could go on and
on. I could just start off the top of my head thinking about
differences and we'd be here till next Wednesday. Then we
could end at 645. But Paul says, we who are strong,
we who are strong. What does the strong one really
do? The strong one actually is willing
to lay down their life. The strong one is actually willing
to say, I give up. I give up what I am for the sake
of another. The strong one is the one who
sacrifices. The strong one is the one who
gives in. The strong one is the one who leads by example. The
strong one is the one who is not offended by the very call
to forsake. So now who are strong? Very few
of us, right? But by the Lord's mercy, sometimes
God gives us strength. He strengthens us in these seasons
when we're confronted by these differences to realize, wow,
I don't have the strength to do this, but I have been given
the strength to endure this for the sake of my brothers and sisters,
for the sake of the unity of the family of faith, for the
sake of Christ. And that's what Paul's arguing
here. We have an obligation, who are
strong, to bear with the failings of the weak. And so that is in
itself explains what strength is. We who have a strong spiritual
faith are able to bear with the failings of the weak. We're not
offended. We're not troubled. We're not
irritated. We're not suspicious. Let me
say that again. We are not suspicious. We don't
pass judgment. But rather when others come along
with all their judgment regalia, and all their judgment finger
pointing, all their judgment accusations, and all their judgment
piety. You know what judgment piety
looks like? Prayer requests. Oh, you better pray for brother
so-and-so. I mean, he's having a hard time. He's doing this,
and he said this, and he's doing that, and he said that, and he's doing
this, and he said that. Oh my God, he's going to hell. We better
pray for him. But you know, we're not like that. So may the Lord
give him the strength we have. That's why I hated prayer meetings.
And when I got to be in control of prayer meetings, prayer meetings
that were scheduled, that I could not rearrange, were often dead
in the water within just a few months. Because we prayed silently. We wrote our prayer requests
on papers and we handed it to the elders. And the elders would
pray over the request and there would be none the wiser of who
was being prayed for. And we started taking the prayer
sheet off the bulletin because people would show up and say,
why am I on the prayer sheet for salvation? I'm an associate
pastor. Because sister so and so saw you smoking a pipe and
thought you were going to hell. He better get saved before they're
going to get him. We must bear with the failures
of the week. And we must do so at this, with this cost not to
please ourselves. We're not to please ourselves.
We're not to make ourselves happy in that context of bearing. We're
not to do it for our own personal gain. We're not to bear with
the failings of the week so that we might look strong. We're not
to be the spiritual hero for the week. Sometimes we just go and we don't put on the fasting
face. You know what the fasting face looks like? I have an eight
in a week. Don't bother me. I'm spiritual. Yeah, there's
the fasting face. Yeah. We're not supposed to wear
our spiritual burdens expressly outside. And people go, well,
we're just faking it. Well, if you're faking it, then
you're lying and you're not strong. If you have to put on a different
face out here. To reflect the opposite of what
you're feeling in here, your faith is weak. on those circumstances. You don't have to fake it when
you come together, church. You don't have to pretend all
is good and a ball of wax. You don't have to pretend that
you've got no problems in the world. A person, listen to this,
a man or a woman in the faith with no burdens is a scary thing
for me. And I've had brothers, I guess
they're brothers, I've had people claim to be brothers who have
told me to my face before in deep times of burden for me.
What's wrong with you? You just don't seem like you're
having fun anymore. Fun? Fun is running and gunning and
blowing stuff up on the range. Fun is playing chess. Fun is
being in a band and enjoying the sound of your own music.
Fun. This ain't fun. When you get a call that somebody's
dying, it's not like a whoo-hoo! Hallelujah, I've been waiting
on something fun to do. Let's go down to hospice and visit.
Is that fun? It's not fun when people's lives
fall apart. It's not fun when spiritual oppression
comes. It's not fun when the enemy is allowed by the sovereignty
of God to dabble in our lives and destroy things. It's not
fun, but it's joyful. Ministry is not about having
fun. We can do fun things together, but that's not ministry. Ministry,
by definition, is meeting the needs of the burdens of people.
Burdens aren't fun. I mean, even if we decide, you
know, I really want to go do this, I want to conquer this,
I want to obtain this goal, it's never fun getting there. It's
just the Americanized ideal. And these same people would say,
oftentimes, well, I don't have any burdens. If you're so burdened,
then you're probably not called to ministry. But the opposite is true. If
you have no burdens, you're definitely not called to ministry. Because
if you have no burdens for people, you've got no business leading
them. You've got no business leading
them. You've got no burden for people. You're not intimate enough
to understand what they have and what they're going through.
And as a congregation our size, as small as we are, we could
know each other greatly. But in reality, we're only going
to know a couple of people intimately. We're not all going to be best
friends. We're not all going to go to the beach together.
Don't invite me to the beach. I don't like it. I'll house-sit
for you, if your air condition is running, while you're at the
beach. Do you see what I mean? We're not all going to have the
world's idea of, oh, we're just one big ball of joy in Jesus.
How about we're one big family of joy in Christ in the midst
of chaos sometimes? And I'm not saying that it's
like that forever. I mean, nobody's on fire in here. Nobody's bleeding
out. Nothing's falling down. Nobody is, you know, having a
heart attack. We're pretty cool right now.
But what about tomorrow? What about the next day? When
is the next calamity coming for us? Is it going to be one of
us? Is it going to be one of our
extended family? Is it going to be our neighbor? Is it going to be a friend of
ours? Burdens are a way of life. And those burdens, as light as
they are, often become extremely divisive on very insignificant
things that we don't like about each other. And that is the essence
of what Paul is expressing here in his audience. We who are strong
have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and
not to please ourselves. This doesn't mean to lay down
and let people who are weak speak evil of that which is good. Also,
we don't let weak people pass judgment. That's not causing a stumbling
block to not be able to pass judgment. Even when someone has
to express their dislike, we train them in righteousness,
we train them in understanding of how we stand before the Lord
as a people. So we go on to see what he says in verse 2, let
each of us please his neighbor for his good. Now how broad is
that? It's pretty broad, but it does
have a scope. It's a broad scope, but it does
have a scope. We are to please our neighbor for his good. Now we're back to trying to figure
out, sort of like, how do we know who's strong? Well how do
we know what's good for our neighbor? The Word of God gives us that
context. What's good for our neighbor is things that relate
to righteousness, things that relate to healthiness, things
that relate to what is the context here? Spiritual unity and love
for one another. So if our neighbor has a weakness
and he wants to go around and do things that are damaging to
his life, then we need to not just let that take place. That's
not what Paul's saying. We're not to just bear with somebody
who's destroying themselves. We're to help those people. We're
to try to restore those people. We're to come alongside people
like that. Because I've had people use this
text to say, see, it's none of your business. Stay out of my
business. Well, that's good on things that
aren't necessary, but there are some things that are necessary.
It's not my business if my neighbor decides to set his house on fire.
But if he's still in it, I'm going to rescue him. Had to do
that before. Changed his mind when the flames
reached his bedroom. Throwing stuff out of his second
story window, hitting my window. Pastor! Pastor, help me! We go
out there and his house is inflamed. He no longer wanted to die. when
it was facing him. Well, that was none of my business.
What do we do? We called 911 and we went over
there and tried our best to get him out of the house. By the
Lord's grace, the fire department got there and got him out of
a second-story window because we weren't coming through the
front door. We tried, but we just weren't going to make it.
How dare you rescue me? How dare you save me? See how
silly that is? But that's not even the context
here. It's just an illustration. Let's please his neighbor for
his good to build him up. What does that look like? We
edify one another so that what we do and what we say and how
we engage in relationships is not because we want a good friend.
It's not because we want to be the spiritual leader. It's not
because we want to be esteemed as somebody who's solving everybody's
problems or helping or being the helping hand. You see the
motivation there, the motives. are really what's at play, really
what's being expressed. We are to do it to build up our
neighbor for his good, to edify him, to encourage him, to speak
the truth in love, as Paul would say to the Ephesians. Sometimes
even the love that we have to speak, the truth that we have
to speak in love is a little bit stressful sometimes. And
are we having to say these things? Are we saying these things for
the good of our neighbor or for the good of our own conscience,
to get it off our chest? You see the difference? It's
not about getting it off our chest, that's thinking of ourselves.
It's not about us going to bed without a burden, getting it
off. Anybody who confesses any type of feeling they have so
they can get it off their chest, but it's going to destroy relationships
outside, are sinners, and they're wicked, and they're doing things
that are causing division in relationships that are not necessary.
Does that make sense? And we've all witnessed it, we've seen
it, we've seen it in this very fellowship several times over.
Where people will come and for the sake of their brother they
speak the truth in love and then when they're done they can walk
away free going, I kept it real and I said it like it was and
maybe that'll help. But it didn't help, it helped
them get it off their chest rather than help build up their neighbor. Many small little things can
cause great division. James talks about it in chapter
3 of his epistle where he says that the tongue is like a spark,
a tiny little spark that sets a forest on fire that burns the
world down. So be careful. Blessed is the
man who can tame the tongue. Who can do it? No man can. Sometimes we have to pray that
God would lead us not to temptation to say things that we should
not say in the inappropriate times or the inappropriate places.
Is it really edifying to our brothers and sisters to say those
things that we really think they should hear when it's not time
for them to hear? How do we discern? Are they spiritual?
Do they relate to the gospel? Is what you have to say going
to edify and strengthen unity in Christ? If yes, then say it. If no, let it be your burden. But see, what does the selfishness
do? I got the burden. I got to fix it. I got to say
it. I got to do it. No, we are not to please ourselves. I'm
not to unload my burdens on top of your burdens when your burdens
are my burdens. You see the difference? We are
to carry each other's burdens. What burdens do you carry and
someone else is carrying yours? See, if we want to get them all
off, then we're just being selfish. We're free. Hey, those people
don't have burdens because they're not carrying anything. They have
none of their own. They say what they need to say.
They're in charge of it all. They've gone out and they've
wiped the floor clean. There's nothing out there. And
at the end of it all, they're by themselves. They're by themselves. There's no one there. There's
no one to represent Christ together. Where there is two or more, Christ
is with them, not one or more. Not one. See, that's that imagery
there. And I think that's a literal
spiritual reality. And if it wasn't enough for me
to just express it this way in this context here with this one
sentence and phrase, the four in verse three expresses exactly
what I've just preached. But it does it not in the human
sense of how we are to be, but in the model that Christ has
given us in his redemption of his people. Christ did not please
himself. Christ did not glorify himself.
Christ did not please himself. Christ did not vindicate himself.
Christ did the work of redeeming his people in silence. Christ
laid down His life willfully for the sake of sinners. While
we were still sinners, God showed His love for us that while we
were still sinners, Christ died for us. How is it that our flesh would
manifest itself in the work of Christ if we, if fleshliness
were at work there? What would we say? Okay, we might
be willing, we might be stoic, we might be zealous about sacrificing
ourselves for the sake of our brothers and sisters, but oh
my goodness, they would know it. You see what I'm going through? See these straps on my back?
See these holes in my hands? You see what I'm going through?
Look how much I love you? You better, boy, you better not
forget what I've done. It is finished. No, it ain't.
You died for nothing. See what I have to put up with?
See what I deal with? So on and so on. And oh, man,
does my marriage come into mind at that time? I think about the times I think
things like that. In those first few years, you
say them, right? And then you learn very quickly. This is a
good text for couples before they're married. Don't please
yourself. How many years I was one of these
guys who, and my wife says, no, you weren't like that. I was,
I know how I was. I demanded a perfect house. Demanded it. Stuff in the place,
carpets clean, dusted straight. Don't put dirty clothes here.
Don't put dirty clothes there. We have a place for dirty clothes. It's about
placement. I've been writing the word OOP for many years in
my writing. When I text people and I'm talking
about stuff, OOP means out of place. Out of place. It's an abbreviation I learned
from my grandmother back when I was in middle school. And I just kept it. And it's
something that constantly, I hear it all the time. I hear it in
my head, that's out of place, that's out of place, that's out
of place. There's things in this building that are so out of place.
And see, when we start having that type of mentality, it's
very easy for us to think that the way we are around each other
is out of place. In a marriage, it's very easy
for me to go, you know what, my wife is out of place. She
shouldn't put her foot on that table. That's a pet peeve. Don't
put your foot on a coffee table. Buy an ottoman. Coffee tables
for books and lightly coastered drinks. Not feet. And that's sinful. You see what
I'm saying? I'm just being honest with you. I've got a whole lot
of psychological problems. And it's what God used all these
things to culminate, and the camel, poor thing, was down in
his back, and that last straw came up and broke, and I don't
even know how many more straws came on top of it, but God took
me down to nothing, and I praise Him for it every single day.
And if I had to go through it again knowingly, I'd jump off
the edge of the flat earth, but, but looking back, I'd take it
a thousand times again. Because now sometimes I have
to pinch myself in a psychological way to go, am I a sociopath?
I'm really not worried about this. I feel it though, I see
it, oh my gosh. Relax, it's not important. So
if we're that way over things and organization, how much more
can we be that way about each other? And it's not profitable.
Christ did not think that way about us. He did not think in
his heart, I can't believe I'm having to die for these wicked
idiots. If they hadn't have just eaten
that fruit, look what I would have been. He didn't come down
and say, look at me and all my majesty. He pointed to the Father
and the Father glorified him. Christ did not please himself,
but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell
on me." What's that mean? Let me give it to you. The Lord
is saying the wickedness, the accusations, the sinfulness, these realities of who these
people are, these reproaches, they reproached you. The sins of these people who
sinned against you, their sins fell on me. That's ultimately
what Paul's saying there. He's talking about God. We sin
against God. God's answer to the sin of his
people is not to show himself justice. But to produce justice
and show justice in the death of Jesus. And Jesus did not consider
Himself, but made Himself, what does Paul say to Philippians?
Nothing. The God of the universe becoming nothing. And in that
same manner, that's how we relate to one another in the body of
Christ, in our marriages, with our children, in our community.
That's what we do. Because Christ did these things. The reproaches of those who reproached
you fell on me. For whatever was written in former
days was written for our instruction. That through endurance and through
the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope. And I'm going to expound on this
a little bit more in depth right there in verse 4 next week because
I want to get through the text here in its context. But in this
way, we know that the Old Testament and the promises of God in the
Gospel of Grace, that the promises and the prophecies of Jesus Christ
are for our encouragement. That even long before the example
of the Gospel was real, in other words, historical, the idea of
God humbling himself to propitiate for his people was still very
evident. And then there's a little proclamation
here, a little prayer, a little exaltation, a doxology. May the God of endurance and
encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another
in accord with Jesus Christ. So here, what we see is that
the power of it all revolves and centers in Christ. So that this is not a sermon
for each of us to get with the program and get spiritually strong
and do the things we're supposed to do now, church. Chip-chop-chip,
let's get it done. It's that we know that we are
to call ourselves to this truth, to this practice, to this mindset,
but God has called us there. And not only has God called us
there, God has perfected us in Christ. And that if we are to
live in this way, we are to do it by the endurance and encouragement
granted to us by God. And how is that done? How's the
encouragement of God? How does God grant you encouragement?
How does God grant you endurance? What is endurance? To make it
through. When you can't go anymore, you
just continue to move and you make it through. You endure to
the end. This suggests, it actually teaches
directly that it's a struggle. It's a struggle because we have
to endure in it. You don't endure that which is awesome. This is
so great, I can't stand it. I mean, you endure bad food,
bad movies, bad music, bad company. You endure. for the sake of Christ,
by the power of God to give you the endurance and the encouragement
to live in harmony with one another. Friends, listen to this. As a
fellowship, the greatest example of gospel power, I want you to
see this, manifested amongst the people, is enduring, forgiving
and forbearing, staying the course, living together in harmony, in
accord with Christ Jesus. What He did, purposed in us to
do the same. That together, why? Verse 6. You may with one voice glorify
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That with one voice, together.
You know what that means? If a hundred of us are sitting
in here singing, and one person is this stoic symbol of, I'm
bitter, we're not glorifying God together. If one of us has a problem with
another of us, and it is unsettled, and you know what are we learning
about being settled? If it's not an issue of sin against
us, we need to just learn to be strong. And here's the ultimate
outcome. I'll keep my mouth shut, but
my heart's not right. Your heart's not right because you're not
being encouraged by the Word of God, remembering the Gospel.
Your heart's not right because you're not being encouraged to
endure by thinking about what Christ did. should have preached this five
years ago, three years ago. The Lord's timing is impeccable.
But we need to, with one voice, glorify God, the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the very one who sent Jesus to endure
the cross on behalf of sinners. We then, at the simplest, by
the power and the mercy of God's grace, by faith, verse 23 of
chapter 14, are able to endure And it's not this bitter endurance. It's not this silent frustration. It is, therefore, verse 7, welcome
one another. Oh, we can be welcoming. We love you. So good to see you.
High five, low five, whatever. How you doing? Peace out. Love
you, brother. You know how many times a day
I hear love you, brother? Dozens. Dozens. And do you know that of all the
times I hear it, I would say that less than half
of them are true brothers in the faith. They just pick up the vernacular.
They hear the church say it. They hear Christians say it.
People that hang around my house, they catch that vernacular. I
mean, I could have like a mass murderer sitting on my front
step with his knife out ready to go and go, I love you brother.
I mean, you know. Because you're just going to
pick up the wording. And I love the love of the brethren. But
just saying it doesn't mean anything. Do we welcome one another? Do we welcome one another? And
not just say, you're welcome. I'm so glad you're here. Here,
have my seat, have my coat, have my drink, have my dollars. Welcome
one another as Christ has welcomed you. See, there's the test. Welcome one another. And this
isn't universal. This isn't a universal call to
the world of the church saying, or God saying to the assembly,
you got to go welcome everybody. He's talking about the brothers
and the sisters in Christ. He's talking about the assembly. But
we've got to welcome them as Christ has welcomed you. Why? For the glory of God. God is
glorified in his body. when we are in unity together.
Above all things. Because it is that unity, it
is that example that is given to us in the gospel of free and
sovereign grace, that Christ bore our iniquities. We did not
deserve it. And in that, He welcomed us to
the Father. Christ welcomes you to call you
brothers and sisters. For you have been adopted by
God. And in all of this, we need to
be mindful of all of this. We need to be mindful. So the
next time somebody in our fellowship irritates you. We remember the cross of Christ.
We remember the exhortation here. We consider to ourselves, do
we really want to say that or to deal with this or to act this
way? And sometimes, how do we handle
it? We just avoid people. And what does God do? Brings
them right to our face. Right to our face. We ought to
welcome them. Imagine eternity where those
who have been paid for by the blood of Christ. I think if God
would if he just had a sense of humor like I think he should
see, I've even got an example of how God should be. I think
when I get to glory, everybody that irritates me will be in
my block. And I will welcome them over
and over and over in Christ. For in seeing the very one who
causes my burden to rise, I am looking in the face of the one
for whom Christ died. My brother and my sister. And
that goes a long way. It goes a long way, beloved,
so be encouraged in that. Verses 8, Through the rest, especially
in verses 8, 9, and 10, 11, 12, we see what Paul is talking about. Let me answer what I said I'd
talk about next week. Verse 4, whatever is written
in former days was written for our instruction that through
endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have
hope. So we're going to talk about that as Paul begins to
explain it in verse 8. That's why I sort of skipped
over it in that sense. But let's pray. Father, we're
thankful for your word. We're thankful for the cross
of Christ. We're thankful for your welcoming sinners into your
presence because you've satisfied your wrath on the Son, the living
God, the creator of all things. And Father, in Him alone are
we justified. In Him fully are we set apart
and holy. And in Him fully shall we live
forever because of your mercy and grace toward us. Let us then
therefore have the same kindness as Christ toward each other.
If we cannot love each other, we cannot love anyone. Help this
be true in our relationship with our families, with our spouses,
with our children, with our parents, with our neighbors, especially
those of the household of faith. Father, help us to epitomize
the central reality of the gospel in part. of the picture of unity
in Christ. For it is the temporary condition
of the saints that we wait for that eternal promise of being
together as one body forever. And it's in the name of Christ
we pray. Amen.