Now this portion of Romans 12,
as we said last week when I did the first two verses, which set
the, they're transitional, and set the stage for the exhortations
of scripture, exhortations unto obedience. And I think that we
just have to realize that in any time, any time we see The
exhortation. What is an exhortation? Well,
it's a command. It's an encouragement by way
of the gospel. It's not a legal threat. This
isn't legalism. It's not a mercenary promise
of earned reward. This is the obedience of faith
the scripture speaks of. It's serving the Lord in newness
of spirit. motivated by his grace, all of
salvation by grace. So whenever you see an exhortation
in scripture, for us to do anything or not do anything. It's never
an exhortation that's given in a way that we can earn our salvation
or earn our blessings from God or earn our righteousness before
God. It's not that. It's always in
the context of what he says in verse one, I beseech you therefore
brethren by the mercies of God. And mercy cannot be earned. If
you can earn mercy, it's not mercy. Cancels it out. Grace
cannot be earned. He says, by the mercies of God. The mercies of God is his compassion
towards us in Christ, by virtue of the merits of Christ, that
you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God, which is your reasonable service. And that word holy there
means separated. That's what it's talking about.
He's not talking about moral purity when he says, oh, now
we're to strive for moral purity. But what he's talking about is
that we're separate from the world. And you know that because
look at verse two, and be not conformed to this world. Don't
be conformed to the world in any way, whether it's the world's
immorality or the world's religion, which is false religion. We're
not to be conformed to any of that. And he says, but be you
transformed by the renewing of your mind. that you may prove
what is good, that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. In other
words, you're a living example of the grace, the power and the
love of God in Christ. That's what we want to be. We
don't want, we're not here to draw attention to ourselves.
We're not here to get glory for ourselves. We're here to point
sinners to Christ. And in doing so, in our witnessing
the light of the gospel, we don't want our personalities, our character,
our conduct to get in the way to hinder that. And so then,
therefore, he gives the exhortations of scripture. Now in these exhortations,
these are things we're to strive for, but in a godly way. And the first thing he brings
up here, I believe, is another foundational truth, is this.
And I believe it's the fact that we sinners saved by grace in
the church, the true church of the living God, we're one body
in Christ. That's what we are. We're one
in Christ. And the reason this is so important
is because by nature, we're so selfish. We're so self-interested. By nature, we want to promote
ourselves and we want our way. And what, and so what he does,
he starts off, look at verse three. He says, for I say through
the grace given unto me. Now, what he means by that is
this is not, this is not the wisdom of men. This is, this
comes from God. This is part of his grace. God's
grace saves us from our sins. God's grace makes us righteous
before God. But God's grace also gives us
the motive and the desire to follow Him. And He says, I'm
telling you this, to every man that is among you, not to think
of himself more highly than he ought to think. Now that's what
we are by nature. We all by nature think more highly
of ourselves than we ought. And that's pride. So what is
he talking about? He says, but to think soberly.
It's almost like get our feet back on the ground. Realize who
we are. That's what thinking soberly,
reasonably, thinking in a way that's right and true and not
fake or false, not in pride. In other words, what am I? I'm
a sinner saved by grace. That's all I am. And just because
I stand behind this pulpit and it's elevated a little bit doesn't
mean I'm any higher than you. And thinking soberly, he says,
according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith,
according as God has taught us, revealed to us our sinfulness,
our depravity, and our need of salvation. Now here's what, he
shows us that nothing we have that is godly, nothing we do
that is pleasing to God is something that is done by our own power,
that's something that we deserve or earn, it's all of grace. By
the grace of God, I am what I am. And I always, you know, when
I look in scripture, when I see that, in other words, he says,
he's promoting humility here. Humility before God and humility
before men. Now that, now another thing we
gotta be careful of is this humility simply says is that we're in
the same boat. I'm a sinner, you're a sinner.
I'm just as much in need of God's grace as you are and you as me. And in God, by His grace in Christ,
we're equally saved, equally righteous. We stand before God
in the righteousness of our Savior imputed to us. None of us had
anything to do with that, with our works. We're equally accepted
of God. We're on equal footing. And there's
no use you or me acting as if we're better in that sense. There's
no use is what the old farmer used to say, putting on the dog.
Acting like that we're lower than everybody else, you know,
just in language. I'll never forget one time a
fella was telling me, he said something like this, he said,
I knew I was saved when I knew that God would be just to send
me to hell. Well now look, if God sends anybody
to hell, he's just in doing so. I know that. But salvation is
not just in knowing that God would be just to send us to hell.
Salvation comes when you find out through the gospel how God
can be just to save sinners like us. So in other words, we don't
want to promote false humility. We don't want to promote pride.
We want to realize according as God hath dealt to every man
the measure of faith. And the measure of faith here,
I believe the context we'll see what he's talking about too is
spiritual gifts and degrees of spiritual gifts for use in the
ministry of the church. Every believer, again, has an
equal standing before God in Christ. As far as our sinfulness,
there is no difference. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. And as far as our salvation and
the ground of it, the cause of it, the merit of it, the righteousness
of it, there's no difference between us. But when it comes
to spiritual gifts, there's a difference. And so we ask the question, and
a good parallel chapter to this is 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
He goes into detail there. When it comes to spiritual gifts,
there's differences between us. But who makes us to differ? It's
not because if God has given me a spiritual gift or given
you a spiritual gift, it's not because we earned it or deserved
it. It's not that God looked down from heaven and said, well,
hey, you know, that fellow there, he's got a good brain and he's
pretty intelligent. I think I'll make it. No. That's
not what happened. Again, it's totally a matter
of God's will, God's grace. So who makes us to differ? Let's
realize that. But there are differences. God
dispenses special gifts to every believer according to his sovereign
will. Look over there at 1 Corinthians
chapter 12 with me. And listen to how the apostle
starts this out. He says basically, I wouldn't
have you ignorant concerning spiritual gifts. And look at
verse four, he says, now there are diversities of gifts, but
the same spirit. We're all equally regenerated,
born again by the spirit, but there are diversities of gifts
and there are differences of administrations, ministries. And he says, but the same Lord,
verse six, there are diversities of operations, but it's the same
God which worketh all in all. In other words, God may be operating
in you in one way for some special purpose and operating in me in
some way for some special purpose, but same God. It's same God,
the same God who justified us and saved us by his grace. He
says in verse seven, but the manifestation of the Spirit is
given to every man to profit withal. Now why is God given
different spiritual gifts? To profit everybody. To profit
every believer. It's for your edification. The
ministries, the gifts of ministry are for the furtherance of the
gospel, calling his sheep in, and for the edification of the
body of Christ, so that we might grow in grace and not, that's
why we're given gifts, whatever gift it is. And he says, talks
about the various gifts, but go back to Romans 12, because
he does it here too. What makes us differ from another?
It's God who makes the difference. Look at verse four. He says,
well, yeah, he says, for as we have many members, They're individuals
in this church. But there's one body, the body
of Christ. Christ is the head, we're the
body. And all members have not the
same office. Now in the church, God has established
offices, offices of authority. And that's just like the pastor,
the elder, the deacon, the leaders of the church. different offices,
and so God has established this, and he says in verse five, so
we being many, we're individuals, are one body in Christ, and everyone
members one of another. In other words, whatever gift
or office I have, it's not just to self-promote, it's not just
to build me up as an individual, it's for you, it's for the body.
It's for the glory of God. for that to further, to promote
the calls of Christ in the preaching of the gospel. So one body, many
members. Now, over in second, look back
at 1 Corinthians 12. In this passage, he likens it
to our physical bodies. He says, verse 14, he says, for
the body is not one member, but many. Now he just said that in
Romans 12. If the foot, You've got a human body, but everything's
not the same. You have feet, you have legs,
you have hands, you have eyes, ears. He says, if the foot shall
say, because I'm not the hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore
not of the body? And I've seen this happen. The church calls a pastor. Somebody
else wants to be the pastor. It's like the foot saying, well,
because I'm not the hand, I'm not part of the body, and they
leave the church. They're dissatisfied. No, that's not the way it should
be. Not everybody, if the whole body were a foot, where would
it be? He goes on, he says, verse 16,
or verse 50, if the foot shall say, because I'm not the hand,
I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? Verse 16, if
the ear shall say, because I'm not the eye, I'm not of the body,
is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye,
where were the hearing? How would you hear? If the whole
were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God hath
set members, every one of them, in the body, verse 18 of 1 Corinthians
12, underscore this, as it hath pleased him. Now, you might ask the question,
well, how do you know you got the right man for a pastor? How do you
know you got the right man for an elder or a deacon or whatever?
Well, are they in it for themselves? Are they preaching the word of
God? Are they preaching the gospel of God's salvation by grace in
Christ? We're in the righteousness of
God. Are they preaching other things that are contrary to it? Go back to Romans 12. So verse five he says, Romans
12, so we being many are one body in Christ and every one
member is one of another. So what he's talking about is
this, there's unity, that is one body, there's diversity,
many members, and then there's interdependence, members one
of another, we need each other. And that would include anything
done in the church. We had breakfast this morning.
Now, ladies, if it were just up to us men to bring the food,
it wouldn't get done. Or if it did, we'd all probably
walk out of there sick. That's part of the gift that
God has given you. Now, there are men who can cook,
I admit it. I can heat a can of soup or fry
a hamburger, but that's about it. But there's gifts, and this
includes from sweeping the floor all the way to preaching the
gospel. And we need each other. I mean, you know, we joke about
it, but it's true. We do, we need each other. Not
everybody's gonna be the pastor. Not everybody's gonna be a teacher.
Now go on, like at verse six, he says, having then gifts differing
according to the grace that is given to us, Whether prophecy,
now what is prophecy? Well, that's preaching the word
of God. That's communicating the word of God. It's the gift
of the word that comes in understanding and preaching. And that's a special
gift, to be able to interpret the scriptures, to be able to
study the scriptures. I've got in your lesson there
that you see an example of that in Philip the Evangelist. Here
God sent him out on the backside of the desert and brought him
to the Ethiopian And the Ethiopian was reading the scriptures, and
he asked the question, or Philip asked the question, do you understand
what you're reading? And the man said, well, how can
I except some man show me? Some man who's gifted of God,
who's been given that gift of the Word. And Philip began at
the same scripture, remember, Isaiah 53, and preached unto
him Jesus. That's that gift of prophecy.
It's not just foretelling the future. Even back in the Old
Testament, you had prophets And it wasn't just one who foretold
the future, now that was involved in their message, but it was
just speaking God's word. Hearing, knowing, understanding,
and preaching and teaching God's word. And he says, whether prophecy,
let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. What
that means is this, let's tell what we know. Let's try to tell
what we don't know. That's the according to the measure
of faith. If God has revealed this to us, you see, I'll never
forget one time a preacher came, came to another preacher and
the one said, said, you know, he said, God revealed something
to me last night. And he said, I want to see what
you think about it. And the other preacher said,
well, what do you care what I think about it? God revealed it to
you, it doesn't matter. How do you know God revealed
anything to, is it according to his word? Is it consistent
with the gospel of his grace through the righteousness of
another? If it's not consistent with that gospel message and
the word of God, if it confuses it, denies it, or ignores it,
it's not the gift of prophecy. The gift of preaching or teaching.
Go on, he says in verse seven, he talks about the gift of ministry.
Ministry is service. When we talk about somebody being
a minister, that's one who serves. That's exactly what it means.
Now we can serve in a lot of different ways. We can serve
in the spiritual needs of the church, teaching, preaching.
In other ways, we can serve in the physical things of the church. We're not of the world, but we
live in the world, but I'm glad the lights are on, aren't you?
I'm glad that everything's working the way it should be working
physically around here, and if it's not, somebody's got to work
on it or hire somebody to do it. And that's ministering, it
is. And we don't need to downplay
that. You know, I've often said, boy, I admire people who can
work with their hands, who have that ability to build things,
to take things apart, to fix things. I mean, that's a valuable
commodity. And in the church, it's just
as valuable. So ministry here is service.
He says, let us wait on our ministry. In other words, let us be diligent. The word ministry, in fact, here
in verse seven, in Acts chapter six and verse two, you know what
is translated? Serve tables. Serve tables. You mean that's a gift from God?
It's what it says here. He says in verse seven, or he
that teacheth on teaching. This teaching is the gift of
communication by providing instruction from the word of God. It could
be in a formal setting, standing up behind a pulpit or a lectern,
teaching, or it could be an informal setting, just two believers talking
and teaching each other that way. And so that's a gift, that's
a gift of teaching. Verse eight, he says, he that
exhorteth on exhortation. What is it to exhort? It's the
gift of speaking words of encouragement, comfort, even words of warning
for the purpose of strengthening, correcting, giving, reproof. That's a gift. You know, not
everybody has that gift. There's some people, even believers
now, they can't hardly talk in matters like that without sounding
like they're condemning you. But this is a gift, he says,
to exhort, to be an encouragement. Now, we all ought to strive to
be an encouragement to one another, not a discouragement. He says,
verse eight, he that giveth, let him do with simplicity. Giving
is a gift. Now, all believers are to give
to support the ministry and the gospel of the church, but there
are some who are given more and they have that gift to give.
And they ought to give it, and they give it with simplicity,
with singleness of mind. In other words, not to glorify
themselves, not to draw attention to themselves, not to get gain. If I give this much, God's going
to give me that much in return. This isn't the stock market.
But they give it for the glory of God, to spread the gospel,
and the good of the church. That's a gift. He says, he that
ruleth with diligence, that's in positions of authority in
the church, pastor, elder, with diligence, that is earnestly
working to glorify God, to promote the gospel, to edify the church,
and he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. You know, he that
showeth mercy, all believers are to show mercy and kindness,
aren't we? God's been merciful to us. Somebody said, well, I'll
show mercy to those who deserve it. Well, that's not mercy. You
can't show mercy to those who deserve it because if they deserve
it, they don't need mercy. How did God show us mercy? Because
we deserved it? No. His mercy endureth forever,
the scripture says, many times. And we're recipients of what
the Bible calls the sure mercies of David. That's mercies that
we didn't deserve and didn't earn. That's the mercy seat,
that's Christ. Somebody one time told me, said,
well, God doesn't put up with our sin. And I looked at him,
I said, are you kidding me? God puts up with a lot. Well, I tell you, people just
take more highly of themselves than they ought. But we're recipients
of the unearned, undeserved mercy of God in Christ, who is our
mercy seed. Therefore, we all ought to strive
to show mercy to others. Now, showing mercy doesn't mean
that we condone bad behavior or condone sin or promote sin,
but we show kindness. But you know what I think he's
talking about here more than anything else? I got in your lesson here a quotation
from Isaiah 50 in verse four. And listen to what it says here.
It says, the Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned
that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that
is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning,
he wakeneth mine ear, mine ear to hear as the learned. I believe
this mercy here, this gift of mercy is a special gift that
God gives some people to be able to know what to say and when
to say it. You ever run into anybody that no matter, you know,
get in a bad situation, they're trying to help, but they just
say all the wrong things? There are people I believe that
God gives the gift to just say the right thing at the right
time, speak a word in season, you know. I know, and sometimes,
you know, the fault lies with ourselves when somebody comes
and talks to us because we might be in bitterness or we might
be feeling sorry for ourselves or whatever. I've done that,
you know. You know, when somebody, when you go through a trial,
somebody else is gonna tell you, he said, God's in control. I know
that. But it's right. I kind of feel
for people in that, because sometimes it's hard to know what to say.
Sometimes it's better not even say anything, isn't it? Just
sit down and say, I love you, brother, and I'm praying for
you. But I believe that that's a gift
that God gives to his people. Anyway, this is the issue that
Paul starts with. He's going to be talking about
the one body of Christ working together consistently And our
three main goals, number one, to glorify God. And number two,
to exalt Christ. They go together. You can't glorify
God without exalting Christ. If you come together in a worship
service like we are, a teaching service, and we don't lift up
Christ in the glory of his redemptive power as the Lord our righteousness,
we haven't glorified God. If we come together and talk
about obedience, and we're gonna be talking about obedience, we're
gonna be talking about in the scripture here things that go
against our natural grain. If we don't lift up Christ, we
haven't glorified God. And then I said three, it's four
goals. To glorify God, to exalt Christ,
to see sinners saved, That's why we preach the gospel every
time when we meet together, preaching the gospel of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ, how God saves sinners by his
grace through the blood of Christ, the righteousness of Christ.
And then fourthly, to edify, to build up the body, to edify
brethren. I want us all to grow in grace
and knowledge. I want us to be built up, not
in pride, but in the faith. and in humility to the glory
of God. And so he's going to be bringing
forth a lot of things that'll help us do that. Okay.