I turn back to Romans chapter
15, and let me read this 14th verse again. And I myself also am persuaded
of you. I'm convinced of this, my brethren,
that you are also full of goodness, filled with all able also to admonish one another. I've entitled this message, Able
to Admonish. Able to Admonish. And to admonish means to put
in mind, to remind, to instruct, and to warn. And it carries with
it the idea that it's correcting something that is wrong. If I
admonish you or you admonish me, we're correcting something
that is wrong. And the people who are least
competent to admonish are usually the ones who are quickest to
admonish. And the ones who are most competent
to admonish are the ones who are most hesitant to admonish. And yet Paul says to these people,
you're able to admonish one another. And I can't help but think about
myself how quick I've always been to admonish. far too quick. I like what Henry Mann said.
He said, never give advice unless it's asked for. And when it's asked for, half
the time don't give it. I thought that was good advice.
You see, unasked for advice is always considered as criticism. So I hope you and I can learn
about this. We should be very judicious in
this thing of admonishment. But I also want to be admonished. If I'm wrong, if I'm erring,
if I'm straying from the gospel, I want to be admonished. I don't
want to be one of these people who are so proud that if you
admonish them, they become completely offended and angry and you never
have them again. They're so upset and offended
that you would admonish such perfect, righteous people. Now, I hope we don't have that
attitude, that we're able to be admonished. This I'm sure If I can't be admonished, I have no business admonishing
anybody. If I can't be admonished, oh
may the Lord cause us to be like David, let the righteous smite
me. It'll be excellent oil to me. Able also to admonish one another. Now notice what he said in verse
15, nevertheless brethren, we're gonna get to this before long,
nevertheless brethren, I've written more boldly unto you in some
sort as putting you in mind because of the grace that's given to
me of God. Now, what he's saying is the
reason I've written so boldly is not because I believe you
to be a bunch of ignorant heathen, but I highly esteem you. I have
been persuaded that you are full of goodness. Now that's what
he says to the Roman believers. I'm persuaded. I'm convinced
that you're full of goodness. Now, the best commentary on Scripture
is Scripture. Matter of fact, the only commentary
on scripture is scripture. Now you got to look at this verse
in light of Paul saying, I know that in me, that is in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing. Do you know that about yourself?
That in your flesh, literally, actually, positively dwelleth
no good thing. He quoted David in Psalm 14 and
Psalm 53. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. And then I think of when the
rich young ruler came to our Lord and said, good master, what
good thing shall I do that I might inherit eternal life? He said,
Wyckoff shall be good. He knew that this man was coming
to him as a man, not as the son of God. but as a man. And he
said, why callest thou me good? There is none good but one. That is God. So what does Paul mean when he
says, I'm persuaded that you personally are filled with goodness? Because if Paul came up to you
and said that to you, you'd probably think, he doesn't know me very
well. Why would he say something like that? Well, this word is
used two other times with regard to believers, and both times
it's used with reference to the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness. The fruit of the Spirit,
goodness. Paul said in Ephesians 4 and
9, the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness. and righteousness
and truth. Now, he is talking to people
who were born of the Spirit, people who've been born again,
and every believer has the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit, and
a part of the fruit of the Spirit is goodness. And what a blessed
thing this is, this thing of goodness. Now, when you talk
about the goodness of God, what is the goodness of God? God's
good, isn't He? He's good all the time. No matter
what He does, He is good. Now what is the goodness of God? I love what he said to Moses
when Moses said, I beseech you, show me your glory. He said,
I'll make all my goodness to pass before you. I'll proclaim
the name of the Lord before you. I'll tell you who I am. And I
will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And I'll have mercy
on whom I will have mercy. The goodness of God is his capacity
to forgive and to have mercy on people like me and you. God's
good. He delights in mercy. Y'all read
somewhere, one of the Puritans said this, man is most like a
beast. when he kills. Man is most like
a man when he judges. Man is most like God when he
forgives. I love that. I want to be a forgiving
person, don't you? Now this goodness is the work
of God in the new birth. All that Christ died for, that's
our only hope, isn't it? The only hope I have is that
Christ died for me. All that Christ died for, all that God
the Holy Spirit regenerates, all that have the fruit of the
Spirit, all have this goodness. And I can say to you, everybody
who believes, just like Paul said in Romans to the Roman believers,
I'm persuaded that you're full of goodness. And that's the gift
of God in regeneration. Like I said, every other time
the word is used, it is used with reference to the fruit of
the Spirit. Now, because we have the fruit
of the Spirit, we're filled with goodness. And that goodness is
this capacity for mercy. It's this capacity to forgive.
It's this capacity to love our enemies. All of that is involved
in this thing of the fruit of the Spirit. Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy. Who's a merciful person? Somebody
who's experienced the free and sovereign mercy of God. If I've ever experienced His
mercy toward me, not dealing with me according to my works,
but according to His mercy, I will be a merciful person. full of goodness. Every believer, by grace, is
a good man or woman in that sense. And so that's not a bad word
to use. That's how Paul described these
Roman believers. I'm persuaded of you that you're
full of goodness. And the next thing he says regarding
them is that you're filled with all knowledge. And this is true
of every believer. Now some know more than others.
Some have a more clear understanding than others. Some have more discernment
than others. There's no question about that.
But every believer, because he's been born from above, has been
filled. Filled with all knowledge. We know God. We know Him. We don't just know
about Him. We know Him. If I am a believer,
He would call me His friend. He doesn't hold me off. He knows
me. And He makes known to me the
very heart of God in the Gospel. We know God. This is eternal
life, that they might know Thee, the only true God. and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent." We know His Word. We know He
saves by grace, don't we? We know that. We know salvation
is utterly in Christ. We know that. We know that Christ
is all in salvation. We know that His righteousness
is the only righteousness there is. And we rest in His righteousness. We know that. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. We know we're sinners. We know
what the Bible teaches about us, and I'm not just talking
about a doctrinal acquaintance with it. We really believe. We
know we're totally depraved. We know we're completely dependent
upon Christ for all things. The stuff I'm saying, when I
say this, you go, yeah, I know that too. I know that too. I
really believe that. I know that. We've been filled
with knowledge. The knowledge of the gospel.
Now you think about this. The gospel is called in 1 Timothy
2.5, Saved and coming to the knowledge of the truth. That's
what salvation is. Faith is called the faith of
God's elect. The acknowledging of the truth. That's what faith is. It's the
acknowledging, it's the embracing of the truth concerning God,
the truth concerning myself, the truth concerning Christ,
how He's everything in salvation. There's an acknowledging of the
truth. Repentance. It's called repentance in 2 Timothy
2, 24. Repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth. That's what happens when someone
truly repents. They acknowledge the truth. They
embrace the truth. They love the truth. And Paul
says to these Roman believers, you're filled with knowledge. Thank God for saving knowledge. Now, it's not our knowledge that
saves us. It's Christ that saves us. And
we know that, don't we? We know that. When we hear that,
we say, yeah, that's the truth. That's the truth. You know, when
you hear the truth, you can say amen to it. Amen. I believe that. I believe that from the very
depth of my heart. We're filled with knowledge.
Now, because of his work of grace in us, goodness, the fruit of
the Spirit, and the knowledge we have of the gospel through
the work of His grace in us, we are able to admonish one another. And like I said, this thing of
admonishment has to do with correcting something that's wrong. Now,
let me say a couple of things about me and you, beginning here. Every one of
us have a lot of things that need to be corrected. You believe
that? Let me give you a couple of reasons
why. You still have, and I still have,
I'm carrying with me an evil nature. It's still there. It hadn't changed. It hadn't
become better. It's just as wicked as it ever
was. We are still sheep which are
easily led astray. And it's very easy for every
one of us to go into a wrong way of thinking or a wrong attitude
or a wrong anything. And we still have the wicked
ones. who has a roaring line goes about seeking whom he may
devour. So we need admonished. And really, that's what's going
on in the preaching of the gospel all the time. I'm not going to,
or I shouldn't, I shouldn't come up to you and let me tell you
all the problems I see in your life. Here's what you need to
do. Now that kind of stuff, you know, If I do that to you, say,
look at yourself, buddy. I mean that. I don't want to
be someone who's quick to admonish. I know I've done that in the
past, and I don't want to be that way. It's wrong. But you
and I need admonished, and that's what the preaching of the gospel
is all about. I'm admonished in my own preaching.
You're admonished. You know, the discipline of the
church is the preaching of the gospel. How do you discipline
the church? Well, you get out there, you
excommunicate them, and try to embarrass them, and expose them,
and have them come down to the front of the church, and have
the church judge them, and kick them out, or you keep them from
taking the Lord's table. That is not church discipline. That's self-righteous, pharisaical
wickedness. That's all that is. The discipline
of the church is the preaching of the gospel. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, admonishment,
for correction, for correction. And I love this idea of being
corrected. Every time a plane takes off,
it's got a particular arc it's supposed to stay on to reach
the desired destination. Now, what happens the whole time
that plane's in the air? It gets knocked around. air blowing,
I mean, all kinds of things, wind, and it always has to be
corrected to be brought back onto that arc. And that's what
happens every time the gospel is preached. We're corrected
to be brought back into the arc of looking to Christ only. That's what that's all about.
Instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be perfect,
truly furnished unto all good works. Now, we sing that song
prone to wonder. Lord, I feel it, prone to leave
the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and
seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. Now look back at verse 14 once
again. And I myself also, brethren,
am persuaded of you, that you also are full of goodness, filled
with all knowledge, able also to admonish, what are those next
two words? One another. Now the Bible has
a whole lot to say about this thing of one another. Until all
these other one another's are put into place, nobody is able
to admonish one another. Now listen to these scriptures.
I'm going to give you a bunch of them. I'm not going to say much about
any of them, but I'm going to give you a bunch of them. Mark 9 50 says, have
peace with one another. That's the words of the Lord,
not arguing and bickering, judging one another, have peace with
one another. John chapter 13 verse 14 says,
you ought to wash one another's feet. I'll walk through this
life, we get dirty, We wash one another's feet through the preaching
of the gospel. That's what foot washing is,
and even getting down. I mean, if you want to do it literally,
go ahead. But that's not really what it is. It's our feet, our
walk through this world. You can't be in this world without
getting your feet dirty. And we wash one another's feet
with the gospel. John chapter 13, verse 34, the
Lord said, A new commandment I give you, that you love one
another. as I have loved you, that you
love one another. Now, how did the Lord love you? Well, He loved you completely.
He loved you freely. He didn't love you unconditionally.
He made you absolutely lovable so He couldn't help but love
you. He made you just like His Son. He loves you completely. He doesn't hold you off. He doesn't
put you on probation. He loves you completely all the
time. He can't love you any more than
he does. He can't love you any less than he does. He can't stop
loving you. Now he says you love one another
as I have loved you. Romans chapter 12 verse 5 says
we're members one of another. We're members of the same body.
Now that's close. Members of the same body. And
you know, the last few weeks, there's one member of my body
that I've been very conscious of. This arm. It's hurt. So, what member of my body have
I put the most emphasis on? This member. And that's the way
we are as the body of Christ. The member that's hurting the
most, that's the member that gets the most attention. Members
one of another. Romans 12.10 says, be kindly
affection to one another in honor preferring one another. Showing
difference. Showing difference in honor preferring one another,
having this kind affection. Romans 12.16 says, have the same
mind one toward another. You know what that means? Well,
I know how I want to be treated. I want you to treat me graciously.
I want you to overlook things about me. I want you to receive
me. I want you to love me. And you
know what? I want the same thing for you.
If we have the same mind, what I want for myself, I'm going
to want for you. As you would that men should
do to you, do ye also to them. Romans 14, 13 says, let us not
judge one another anymore. Now, anytime I sit in judgment
upon you, according to the scriptures, I'm playing the part of a hypocrite. Therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judges. For you the judge do
the same things. and I'm disobeying the command
of our Lord because he said judge not. That's a command. Oh may
God give us grace to not judge one another anymore. Ever again. Romans 14 9 says
edify one another. Build one another up. Don't tear
each other down. Build one another up. Romans
15 7 says receive one another as Christ received you. I love
to think of the way that Christ received me. Freely you've received. Freely give. Don't hold each
other off. Don't punish each other for things. Don't hold people into a time
of probation. Receive one another. as Christ
also received you. 1 Corinthians chapter 7 verse
5 says, Defraud ye not one another. Now here he's speaking to husbands
and wives when he tells them to not defraud one another in
their relationship with each other, then to do so is to defraud
each other. But in every respect, don't defraud
your brother. You think of how important your
brother is to Christ. Christ would not be complete
without him. Inasmuch as you've done unto the least of these
my brethren, you've done it to me. Defraud ye not one the other. 1 Corinthians 11.33 says tarry
for one another. Wait around for one another.
1 Corinthians 12.25 says there's
no schism in the body, no divisions, no Special groups, everybody's
the same, Christ is the head, we're brethren, and we're called
upon to have the same care, one for another. Now in the church,
everybody's to be treated the same at all times. There are no special groups,
there's no in crowd, there's no out crowd, everyone is to
be the same. Everybody in the body of Christ
is important. Everybody in the body of Christ
is significant. And to look at someone in any
other way is so contrary to love. It's so contrary to grace. I
don't want there to ever be cliques or special groups in our assembly. We're to have the same care,
one toward another. Love one another the same. And
then Galatians chapter 5, verse 13 says, By love serve one another. Be servants one to another. The highest position you and
I can ever reach in this life is that of a servant to our brethren
and our sisters in Christ Jesus. He said, but if you bite and
devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one
another. And then Galatians chapter 5 verse 26, it says, do not provoke
one another. and envy one another. Don't provoke
one another and envy one another. That's so contrary to love to
be envious of what somebody has in Christ. Here's the thing.
Let's say the Lord blesses somebody's preaching outwardly much more
than mine and maybe hundreds or thousands of people are brought
to a knowledge of Christ. Am I supposed to envy that man?
No. I'm blessed in it just as much
as he is. If the Lord blesses my preaching, you're involved
in it, it's a blessing to you just as much as it is to me.
We're all the same. And we're not to envy one another,
or envy one another's gifts, or provoke one another. Ephesians
chapter 4 verse 2 says, In longsuffering forbearing one another in love,
putting up with one another, endeavoring to in the bond of
peace, oh, may I be delivered from ever trying to disrupt the
unity of the Spirit through me seeking my own right and my own
self-interest, and I'm not gonna be treated that way. No, you
ought to suffer yourself to be defrauded rather than to do something
like that. Putting up with one another.
Ephesians 4.32, I love this. He says, be kind one to another. tender-hearted, forgiving one
another, as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. The most God-like thing, I've
said this several times in the last year, the most God-like
thing me or you can ever do, is from the very depths of our
heart, forgive someone freely. Not even forgive them, what if
they don't, what if they don't ever say I'm sorry? Forgive them anyway.
Forgive them anyway. That's impossible! The Lord said,
when we're taught to pray, forgive us our debts as we, in the same
manner that we forgive our debtors. Be kind. Don't you want to be
a forgiving person? A merciful and gracious person?
Ephesians 5.21 says, submitting yourselves to one another. Submitting
yourselves to one another in the fear of God. Philippians 2.3, Clare just read
this. Esteem the other as better than
yourself. Now the person that I know best
is me. I know me like nobody else in
this room knows me. Lynn knows me pretty good, but
she doesn't know me. I'm glad she doesn't know me altogether.
I'd be in trouble. She'd kick me out. I know me better than
anybody else, and it is easy for me to esteem you as better
than myself, because I know me. And that's what every believer
is called upon to do. I'm to esteem every other believer,
not as my peer or my equal, but better than me. That's a command
in the scriptures. Colossians chapter 3 verse 9
says, lie not to one another. Don't project a phony image. Lie not one to another. Be real. Don't try to put on some kind
of religious hoity-toity pretentious image. Don't lie to one another. And then Hebrews 10 24, I love
this. The writer to the Hebrews says,
consider one another to provoke unto love. Not to provoke to
irritation, not to provoke to wrath, but I'm to consider you
to provoke you to love me by the way I treat you. And I want
you to provoke me to love you by the way you treat me. Considering
one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. James
4.11 says, Speak not evil of one another, brethren. I said to Lynn the other day, if we just quit talking bad about
people all together, how much conversation would we have? Now this is a command. Speak not evil. Don't say anything
negative about your brother in Christ. If you don't have anything
good to say, don't say it at all. Speak not evil one of another,
brethren. James chapter 5 verse 9 says,
grudge not one another. You know the most little narrow-souled
way of being is to hold a grudge. Grudge not one another, brethren.
James 516 says, confess your faults one to another and pray
for one another. Now let me say this, that doesn't
mean confess your sins. What does it mean? Well, it means
confess your faults. Don't confess your sins to me,
I don't want to know about them. And I'm not going to confess
my sins to you, I'm sure of it. I confess them before the Lord,
but I don't confess them to you. But by grace, I want to be real
before you. Confess your faults one to another.
Be vulnerable. Don't try to be put up in some
kind of image that just makes people feel that they haven't
reached your state of godliness and righteousness. No. Confess
your faults one to another and pray for one another. 1 John
1, verse 7 says, If we walk in the light, as he is in the light,
the light of how God saves sinners by Christ, John 8, 12, I am the
light of the world. I'm the light as to how I can
look at this woman taken in the very act of adultery. No doubt that she was guilty
of it. And I can look at her and say, woman, where are those
nine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She
said, no man, Lord. He said, neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. Now, if we walk in that light,
the light of justification. You know what we have? We have
fellowship with one another, don't we? Our fellowship is in
how God can be just and justify somebody like me and you. Our
fellowship is in how that Christ took my sin and put it away and
gave me his righteousness and that's the only righteousness
I know anything about. Any goodness I have is nothing
less than the fruit of God the Holy Spirit. I know that. You
see, I've been born from above, filled with goodness, got knowledge,
God save you, you know, able also to admonish one another. Now, if all of these are in place, beginning with having peace with
one another and esteeming the others better and all those different
things, then we're able to admonish one another. You know, if you
see somebody really loves you and seeking your best interest,
you'll want to be admonished because you don't want to go
in a wrong direction. Now turn with me to Hebrews chapter
3. Verse 12, now here's the admonishment
you and I need more than anything else. Hebrews chapter 3 verse 12, take
heed brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of
unbelief in departing from the living God, but exhort one another
daily while it's called today, lest any of you be hardened,
calloused through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers
of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence." What's the
beginning of your confidence? You know the answer to that. The beginning of my confidence
is that everything God requires of me, He looks to the Son for.
Period. Period. No additions to that. We are made partakers of Christ
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. You know, in this thing of being
admonished, here's what I need to admonish
you. Hold the beginning of your confidence steadfast to the end. By grace, look to Christ only. Always. Nothing more, nothing less, and
nothing else. Believe even right now that you
are complete in Him. Let's pray.