In the third verse of Romans
chapter 15, God the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to
set before us the Lord Jesus Christ in two specific ways. Romans 15 three declares these
two things, example and expiation. The example Our Lord Jesus has
left for us to follow. And the expiation he accomplished
by his sin atoning death. In his life example, our Lord
Jesus teaches us how to live. In his expiating death, our blessed
Savior shows us how sin has been put away by the sacrifice of
himself. Let's look at those two things.
In the opening verses of this chapter, we're admonished in
verses one and two, not to please ourselves, but others. Not to live for our own pleasure,
our own gratification, our own satisfaction, and after our own
desires, but rather to live as men and women devoted to the
benefit and good of others for the glory of God. Oh, what an
admonition. How can anyone be persuaded to
live in selfless devotion to others? What motive can inspire
anyone to devote themselves not to themselves, but to our brothers
and sisters in Christ, to the calls of God, to the people of
God for the glory of God. What motive can inspire such
behavior? Romans 15 verse three. For even Christ pleased not himself,
but as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproach thee fell
on me. First, Paul shows us that our
Lord Jesus Christ is the example we are to follow in life. The
example we are to follow in all things. It's common for preachers
and for religious leaders when trying to get people to behave,
to live right, or at least as right as they think they should
live. It's common for preachers and religious leaders to pull
out the whip of the law and beat folks in line, threatening punishment. God's gonna punish you if you
don't behave right. I can't tell you how many times
I have heard. I've heard fellas with these
ears. I've heard fellas say, if you
don't tithe, God'll get it out of your hide. He'll make your
family sick, he'll kill your children, he'll threaten you
with punishment. Or they entice you by promising
rewards. If you'll tithe, God'll increase
your bank account. If you'll do right, then your
life will be happy and healthy and all that nonsense. Such preaching,
such teaching, such motivation is always wrong in the house
of God. It is always wrong in the house
of God. How come, pastor? Because God's
children are not under the law. They are God's children. And
their correction is not by you. but by God. God's children are
the Lord's free men and women. His servants, but entirely free
from the law. We live by faith in Christ, not
by rule of law. We're inspired by gratitude for
grace, not by the threat of punishment. God's people are motivated by
the constraint of love. The love of Christ constraineth
us. We're not motivated. We're not
constrained by the promise of reward. Believers, believers
are not under the law, period. Now I'm not looking for something
to say, I'm wanting you to get what I said. Believers are not
under the law, period. Enough said. Believers are not
under the law. There is absolutely no sense
in which God's elect are under the yoke of bondage. We're not
under the ceremonial laws of Israel. We're not under the civil
laws of Israel. We're not under the dietary laws
of Israel. We're not under the economic
laws God gave Israel. We're not under what men look
at and see as the 10 commandments and rightly so. Those laws were
given to none but the children of Israel. In fact, if you care
to read the scriptures, the law was given only to Israel. No one else was commanded or
even allowed to keep the Sabbath day with the Jews. No one else
was commanded or even allowed to bring the sacrifices and keep
the ordinances and ceremonies of the tabernacle and temple.
The law given to the Jews, you see, had one purpose only, to
point us to Christ. It was our schoolmaster unto
Christ. The law, I repeat, is not our
rule of life. We have no commitment to it,
no curse from it, and no constraint by it. Now I know folks say,
Don, you just can't preach that. That'll lead folks to sin. That's
exactly what Jude warned us of. He said these false prophets
will creep into the church and they'll tell you that preaching
free grace promotes licentiousness. Oh no, oh no. The scriptures
are very plain. Ye are not under law, but under
grace. The promises of God are ours in Christ Jesus, not
by our obedience. The law promises reward to obedience. The law threatens punishment
for disobedience. But God's saints are not mercenaries. We don't do what we do for God. We don't serve God because of
what we get from it. We don't serve God in hope of
reward from him. And we don't serve God because
we're afraid of what we might lose if we didn't. Our service
is motivated by love, grace, and faith. God accepts only hard
obedience. That's what he requires and that's
what he accepts. He will not accept the mere outward
pretentious show of religious hypocrisy. Do you hear the scriptures? Do you hear the scriptures? This
is what the book says. These are not my words, these
are God's words. We are not under the law, but
under grace. Law makes men slaves. Law obedience produces bondage
and creates strife because folks begin to look at others to see
how little or how much they are doing. Law work promotes pride,
self-righteousness, and judgmental attitudes. We are expressly forbidden,
we are expressly forbidden throughout the epistles of the New Testament
not to be brought under bondage to the yoke of the law. For Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Well,
Pastor Hal then, are we to get folks to live right in this world? The law, remember, points us
to Christ. Christ alone obeyed its requirements
and satisfied its justice as our substitute. And now having
come to Christ, our lives are governed by love and faith as
we walk in the spirit and not in the flesh. Let me show you
a better way to live. Our Savior left us an example
to follow. Follow it in all things. Oh,
Spirit of God, give me grace, day by day, hour by hour, moment
by moment, to follow my Savior's example in all things. Let me call your attention to
just two points of exemplary conduct set before us by the
Son of God. Turn back to John chapter 13.
John chapter 13. In his life of obedience as our
representative, the Lord Jesus left us an example of service,
not pleasing himself. In our text, in Romans 15, three,
the apostle says, for even Christ pleased not himself. What does that mean? He didn't
come into this world, nor did he live while he was in this
world for the purpose of his own ease, his own pleasure, his
own profit, and his own honor, but to do his father's will and
his father's work. He said, my meat is to do the
will of him that sent me. That is, this is how I live.
This is the bread I eat. This is my life, to do the will
of Him that sent me. Our Lord Jesus always did the
things that pleased His Father. In His obedience, suffering and
death, He sought not His own, but His Father's glory. We read
in Psalm 69 and we'll look at it again in a little bit. Our
Lord Jesus walked in this world in the perfection of faith. He
believed God as no other man ever did. He walked in this world
in the perfection of righteousness. He obeyed God as no other man
can. He did this not for himself.
but for us as our representative to bring in everlasting righteousness
by his obedience unto death. All that he did and suffered
was done for his elect, for us. He said, I came not to be ministered
to like the prince that I am, but I came your prince to minister
to serve and to give my life a ransom for many. I didn't come
here for men to serve me. I came here to serve men. And
as a man, he who is the Lord of glory served men as no other
man ever did. His incarnation was for us. His obedience was for us. His
death was for us. And then in John 13, we see an
example. After our Lord Jesus washed his
disciples' feet, he tells us specifically that he has done
so to leave us an example. Look at verse 15. For I have
given you an example. I've given you an example that
you should do as I have done to you. You take your children
and you show them how to do something. And then you step aside and say,
do it. That's how you teach them. The Lord Jesus took a bowl of
water and a towel and girded himself and knelt down beside,
at the feet of each disciple and washed their feet. And when
he got done, he wiped his hands and took the towel in again.
And he said, now I've given you an example. You do that to each
other. You do that to each other. Verily,
verily, he says in verse 16, I say unto you, The servant is
not greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent greater than
he that sent him. For if you know these things,
happier ye if you do them. Now, our Lord's example here
of washing his disciples' feet was not the beginning of what
some churches call high communion. So that they have the Lord's
table, whenever they have it regularly, they just have bread
and wine or crackers and grape juice, whatever folks do in other
places. But then when they have high
communion, They have a special service, and they show humility,
and they take and wash each other's feet. Now, that's not what this
is about. That's not what this is about.
On those occasions, I've never been in one of those services.
Some of you may have. I've never been in one. I have friends from
Primitive Baptist. I know they've been there. I've
never asked them about this. I will next time I get a chance. I wonder
if anybody smelled dirty feet. I got a hunch they all washed
feet before they came to church, because we're having high communion.
That is not what this is about. This is about something far greater.
Here our Savior gives us an example of genuine humility and love. True humility, true love, willingly
condescends to do whatever is needed for the benefit of its
object. true humility, true love, willingly
condescends to do whatever is needed to be done for its object. That's what it is, so it is.
I find it highly instructive to see that our Savior here washed
Judas' feet. He ate bread with Judas at the
first communion table. Now, that ought to tell everybody
we have no business putting fences around the table. It's not our business to decide
who takes the Lord's table and who doesn't. It's those who take
it. That's their responsibility. It ought to tell us plainly that
it is not our business to try to separate sheep from goats.
Our Lord Jesus knew very well what Judas had done. He had already
made a deal with the Jews to betray the Savior. He knew what
he was about to do, and yet he washed his feet with the other
disciples. He broke bread with Judas, giving us an example. You and I must not make ourselves
the judges of others. Our Savior is the judge. Still
he washed Judas' feet. Still he ate bread with Judas.
You see, even those who oppose us, Even those who would harm
us, even those who despise us, it is our privilege and responsibility
wherever we can to do them good, not harm. To do them good, not
evil. Though it's apparent that Judas
had his feet washed here. The message was for us. The message of what our Savior
did, he makes plain, was for his disciples. He said, you do
this. You go and do likewise. You follow
in my steps, and you're happy if you do. When may it be said
that our Savior washes our feet? He still does, you know, when
he shows us our sin, shows us the foulness of our
feet, because otherwise we wouldn't
know it. We would push it aside. When
he graciously makes us aware of our corruption, Then he washes
our feet. We've been washed in his blood,
but he washes our feet, causing us to dip them anew in the fountain
of his precious blood and experience again the cleansing and forgiveness
of sin. I remember the first time I was
in Tortola, I was visiting Brother Daniel Parks and It's been a
long, long time ago. And we were going somewhere,
it's a very small island, driving around the island, and you know,
being a sheltered fellow like I am, I had not previously seen
folks strip off naked in public and go take a bath. But it's
very common for them down there to take a sea bath. They just
strip off, buck naked, men and women, kids and all, get in the
pool, or get in the ocean, and take a sea bath. They like to
wash in the salt water. But I observed something as they
were coming out of the sea. You know the very first thing
they did? They step up out of the ocean, walk across the sand,
and start to put the feet in their sandals. Before they did,
they wiped the feet off again. Because just walking from the
water across the sand, they had defiled themselves again. Oh,
what a picture of our lives in this world. As we go through
this world, we constantly bring upon ourselves pollution because
of our sin from within and from without. So we daily must go
again to the fountain filled with our Savior's blood and wash
our feet. be washed again in the fountain
of his blood. As he enables us with tears of
repentance to wash his feet and to kiss them, we have our feet
washed by him. This self-same loving service
is our responsibility to one another in this world. Our Savior's
example is our rule of life. And all who follow his example
find happiness and satisfaction in doing so. Washing one another's
feet, that is serving one another, refreshing one another, benefiting
one another. not correcting, not chastising,
and not judging, but helping, lifting, strengthening, feeding,
clothing, taking care of one another. Our Savior said, if
you know these things, happy are ye if you do them. The fact is nothing brings greater
joy to devoted saints than the privilege and grace of obedience
to Christ and usefulness to his people. We ought to live to be used. We who are God's ought to live
to be used. What a privilege. What a privilege
to take a cup of cold water, give it one of his disciples,
to go visit one of his children in the hospital, to get some
clothes for one of his children, to take some food to one of his
children. These are God's children. These
are God's children. It is our greatest joy as believers
to be used of God to benefit his people. Turn over to 1 Peter
2, 1 Peter 2. Not only did our Savior give
us an example in his life, he gave us an example in his death
as to how we're to live in this world. Look at verse 21. For even here unto where ye call,
Paul told us in Philippians 1 29, unto you it is given on the behalf
of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for
his sake. And if you're God, you're going
to suffer for Christ's sake. You may suffer abuse for men,
that's common. You may suffer great abuse for
men. That has been common in the past.
But you are given of God this gift of faith and to suffer for
Christ, for Christ. so that whatever it is you and
I may suffer in body, in mind, in life, from the hands of men
or from physical weakness, whatever it is, we are given this to suffer
for Christ. Now watch how he did it. For
even here unto were ye called because Christ also suffered
for us. leaving us an example that ye
should follow in his steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth. Who when he was reviled, reviled
not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Our Lord Jesus, when he was reviled
by men, took it. He just took it. He didn't respond. When he was
threatened, he just took it. He just didn't let it bother
him. How can that be? Rather, he committed himself
to God. He lived believing God. He trusted God. Father, into
thy hands I commend my spirit. Were his words not only on the
cross, but as he walked through this world. Look at the next
line. Who his own self, bear our sin
in his body on the tree. That being dead to sins, that
we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness. By whose
stripes ye were healed. All who would live in this world
for the glory of God need only to follow the example of Christ. That's all. That's all. I don't like religious cliches
at all. I don't wear religious buttons
on my clothes. And I don't put religious decals
on my car. And I'm not going to. I don't
have religious pictures around the house. I don't like the folks
to act religion and show religion. But I sure do like a question
that I used to see regularly. I don't know what the new ones
are. I remember one day out on a golf course, and I didn't know
what it was. In fact, I had to ask my son-in-law what it was.
They teamed us up with somebody else playing golf, and the fellow
had a bracelet on his arm. And he was about half drunk and cussed. Cussed like a sailor, just, I
mean just cussed. I don't put up with that much,
but he was so high, I didn't think he'd do any good to correct
it, but he just cussed and carried on. And finally I asked my son,
I said, what's that bracelet on his hand? He said, that's
a what would Jesus do bracelet. I said, it's a what? What would
Jesus do bracelet? What would Jesus do? Well, obviously
it didn't matter much to that fellow. It ought to matter to
you and it ought to matter to me. In every circumstance in
life, in every relationship, in every experience, follow his
example and you do what's right. Just that simple, just that simple. All right, that's the first thing.
Then the second thing. Paul shows us by inspiration
how our blessed Savior accomplished the complete expiation of our
sins by the sacrifice of himself upon the cursed tree. Hear the
Lord Jesus pleasing not himself to the uttermost depths of humiliation. and to the uttermost heights
of mercy, love, and grace was made a reproach for us. As it is written, the reproaches
of them that reproached thee fell on me. I've been studying
this particular statement in Romans 15 three for a good many
weeks. Paul gives a direct quote from
Psalm 69. Turn back to that Psalm we read
earlier. Romans 15 three is a direct quote
of Psalm 69 nine. Paul quotes the Psalm being moved
by divine inspiration, just as David wrote the Psalm being moved
by divine inspiration. The 69th Psalm is altogether
messianic. It is completely messianic. You
do not read it aright, except as you read it, you hear the
voice of the Lord Jesus Christ in every word. It is he who speaks,
not the man who wrote the psalm, but Christ who speaks. Understand
that? In this psalm, five times he
speaks of the reproach he endured. Look at verse 7. As you read these various statements
concerning reproach, you'll understand this. He bore the reproach of
sinners who reproached God while he walked on this earth. Men
who just reproached God. He comes to the temple in John
chapter 2 and refers to this psalm and says, The zeal of thine
house hath eaten me up. And he was reproached by what
was taking place in the temple. He bore the reproach of wicked
men while he lived on this earth as they reviled him as a drunkard
and a winebibber and a friend of publicans and sinners. He
bore the reproach of the wicked in his death as well as they
mocked and derided him. And he bore the reproach of our
sin and our guilt upon the cursed tree. Let's read these five statements,
verse seven. Because for thy sake I had borne
reproach, shame hath covered my face. Verse nine, for the
zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of
them that reproach thee are fallen upon me. Verse 10, when I wept
and chastened my soul with fasting, That didn't even satisfy me,
and that was to my reproach. Verse 19, thou hast known my
reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor. Mine adversaries are
all before thee. Verse 20, reproach hath broken
mine heart. I'm full of heaviness. And I
looked for some to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters,
but I found none. Turn back to Psalm 22, Psalm
22. Our Savior cried, reproach hath
broken my heart, I'm full of heaviness. In Psalm 22, 14, we
see our Savior speaking the same thing as he was hanging on the
cursed tree, bearing our sin in his own body. I am poured
out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is
like wax. It is melted in the midst of
my bowels. Five times in Psalm 69, our Lord
Jesus speaks of bearing reproach. Our text tells us the reproaches
of them that reproach thee are fallen on me, our Savior speaking. We see this clearly in three
different places and three different experiences in our Lord's life
on this earth. In Gethsemane's garden, turn
to Matthew 26, I think it is, Matthew 26. The Lord Jesus was reproached
here and assaulted by the dragon of hell who's in a rage because
he knoweth that he hath but a short time. Gethsemane perhaps is the
place, the one place to which our Lord Jesus came more frequently
than any other while he walked on this earth. Look at Matthew
26, 36. Then cometh Jesus with them unto
a place called Gethsemane, and saith to his disciples, sit
ye here while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and
the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, and began to be sorrowful
and very heady. Then saith he to them, my soul
is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Carry ye here and
watch with me. And he went a little further
and fell on his face and prayed, saying, oh, my father, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as
I will, but as thou wilt. And he prayed the same prayer
two more times here in Gethsemane. The Jews call it Gethsemane,
Gehenna, that is hell. Here our Lord Jesus began to
endure our hell as our substitute. bearing the weight of our sins and our
guilt in his heart. And Satan assaults him. the fiend of hell would destroy
him here. As in the wilderness, he tempted
the Savior to undo the incarnation to reverse his purpose. Here,
he tempts the Savior to undo his purpose again, bringing to
his mind all the horrid accusations of guilt and sin he was about
to suffer. What is it that our Savior here
prayed not to experience? I can't really say with any certainty,
but I know he was not fearful of physical pain. I know he was not fearful of
death, no matter how it came. I know he was not praying to
be released from dying upon the cursed tree. It was not merely
praying to avoid paying an enormous debt, but rather that which crushed
our Savior's heart was the anticipation of being made sin for us, the
anticipation of guilt. I think J.C. Ryle stated it best. He said, it was a sense of the
unutterable weight of our sins and transgressions, which were
then specially to be laid on him. An unutterable weight of our
sins and transgressions to be laid on him. if you can take a chaste, upright,
righteous, believing young lady who's never known a man and hold
her before a mob of foul, filthy, drunk rapists and say, here,
to give you to these beasts to have their way with you in about
three hours. And she knows there's no escaping
it. She knows there's no possibility of her being delivered from it
as she is thrown in the midst of the beast. Before ever one
touches her, can you imagine how her heart must break within
her? And that's an insignificant comparison
with what our Savior anticipated. Here is the only man who ever
walked on earth anticipated being made sin, who knew no sin. The only man who ever knew what
sin is, we don't, we don't. Our judgment's clouded. He is
God in the flesh, and he knew what sin is. He looked on sin
as God looks on sin. And he cried three times, Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. Only Luke tells us, perhaps Luke
was inspired to tell us and he alone, because he is the beloved
physician. But only Luke tells us that as
he prayed the third time, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless,
not as I will, but as you will. He broke out in a bloody sweat. such sweat that his blood fell
to the ground. Because he began to be sore amazed. The weight, the stress broke
his holy heart. It was stressed enough to rupture
the blood vessels around his sweat glands and cause him to
be drenched in his own blood as he anticipated being made
sin for us. And then they arrested him and
took him to Gabbatha, John 19. is the Hebrew name that is given
here in John 19 for the pavement for Pilate's judgment hall and
the Lord Jesus is brought here and the soldiers reproach it.
The Jews reproach him as a wicked man, as a wicked man, as a traitorous
man, a man who causes insurrection, a man who's a disturber of Israel,
a man who's opposed to Caesar, a man who would overthrow the
kingdoms of the earth, a man worthy of death, a blasphemer,
a man who called himself God. They reproached him. Pilate said,
I find no fault in him, and brought him out to the people. Said,
I find no fault in him. And the Jews said, if you let
this man go, you're not Caesar's king. And he said, shall I crucify
him who is your king? And the Jews, the chief priest
among them, made a strange statement. They said, we have no king but
Caesar, verse 17. Or verse 15, rather. We have
no king but Caesar. When they did that, the chief
priest made an unconscious confession of something. In Genesis 49,
verse 10, the scripture says, the scepter shall not depart
from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh
is come. When the Jews said, the scepter
has departed from Judah, the lawgiver has been taken from
Judah, they were saying the Messiah is this man we're about to crucify. This is he of whom the scripture
spoke. In the midst of all the scathings,
reproaches heaped upon him, the Jews were forced by God to confess
him, even as they crucified him by their own will, they confessed
him against their will. Here still in John 19, our Lord is taken out to Golgotha's
horrid hill and made a reproach and assaulted by our God. Verse 17, he bearing his cross
went forth into a place, the place of a skull, which is called
in the Hebrew Golgotha, where they crucified him and two others
with him on either side one and Jesus in the midst. Turn over to Psalm 31. Let's
look at a couple of texts in the Psalms, and I'll wrap this
up. Psalm 31, verse 10. The Savior
says, my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing. My
strength faileth because of mine iniquity. My bones are consumed. I was a reproach among all mine
enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and a fear to mine
acquaintance. They that did see me without
fled from me." Back in Psalm 22, another Psalm of the cross. Here's the climax of our Savior's
obedience and the climax of his sorrow. Here is reproach breaking
his heart. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? Oh, my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not. And in
the night season, and am not silent. but thou art holy, O
thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Verse six, I am a
worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people. Verse 14, I am poured out like
water and all my bowels are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted in the midst of
my bowel. Turn over to Psalm 40. Psalm 40, verse 12. Innumerable evils have come past
me about, mine iniquities, mine iniquities. Oh, can it be that
God the Son human flesh, suffers the fury of God's wrath,
and calls my sin his sin, my transgression his transgression,
my iniquity his iniquity, this is what he says, mine iniquities
have taken hold upon me. Do you remember, Lindsay, when
your iniquities took hold on you? When first the Savior bowed you
to Him because your iniquities took hold on you and you could
not look up. Like the publican, you cry, God,
be merciful to me, the sinner. could not lift your eyes toward
heaven. The Savior says, my iniquities
have taken hold upon me so that I'm not able to look up. They're
more than the hairs of mine head. Therefore, my heart they lift
me. Psalm 69. Psalm 69. Again, I remind you, this is talking
about our Savior. This is our Savior speaking.
Verse five. Oh God, thou knowest my foolishness. If you care to look the word
up, foolishness is a very poor translation. If you understand
the word foolish as ignorance and folly. The word is guiltiness. My iniquities, he said, are more
than the hairs on my head. Here he says, oh God, thou knowest
my guiltiness, and my sins are not hid from thee. And God, in
his justice, started him. expiating sin, thereby putting
away our sins. The reproaches of them that reproached
thee have fallen on me. Thank you. Oh, thank you, blessed
Redeemer, for bearing my sin, my reproach, for the gift of
righteousness, and for allowing me to behold you in faith. Will you do that for everybody
here? for the glory of your name. Amen.