Looking this morning now, we
left off last week, Romans chapter 12, and we'll begin at verse
4, down through verse 8. Verse 4, Romans 12, down through
verse 8. Now let me make this introduction.
Every believer has experienced the transforming power of God. We call that salvation by the
grace of God. We've been translated out of
the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear son. That's the transforming power
of God in the salvation of our soul. The apostle Paul referred
to it as being a new creature in Christ. If any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Peter talks about believers have
received a divine nature. They are partakers of a divine
nature by the new birth, being born into the kingdom of God.
And our Lord said, except you be born again, you cannot enter
into the kingdom of God. Being made a new creature in
Christ, therefore we have low thoughts of self. and we have
high thoughts and right thoughts about God Almighty. We also esteem
others better than ourselves. The Apostle writes about that
in Philippians 2, he said, let each esteem other better, better
than we would our own self. God, by His grace, has implanted
in the believer a willingness to serve Him. We serve Him because
we want to. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of His power. And we serve Him out of what?
Bondage, drudgery? No, we serve Him out of love
and gratitude. Love and gratitude. The love
of Christ constrains us. That's how we serve the Lord.
We serve the Lord by serving one another in that body. In, we serve the body of Christ. and we serve the Lord Jesus Christ
be by serving one another in the Lord Jesus Christ and by
Him. There is one Lord, one body,
and one spirit. Now don't turn, let me just read
this to you, Ephesians chapter 4. The prisoner of the Lord beseech
you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called.
Now, talking about the same thing, your reasonable service. Walking
worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called with all lowliness,
meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is
one body. One Spirit, even as you're called
in one hope of your calling, there's one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through
and in you all. Each and every believer is in
the body of Christ. Each and every believer is in
the ministry to serve the Lord, that is to serve His purpose
and to serve His glory to the furtherance of the gospel. Now, let's look at verse 4 and
verse 5. For as we have many members,
we're one in Christ. There are many members, but one
body. And all members have not the
same function. We're going to read in a minute
from 1 Corinthians chapter 12 where it talks about the hand,
the foot, the eye, the ear. We're one body but yet members
have not the same office. All members have not the same
office. For we being many are one body in Christ. Now it keeps
emphasizing that we're one in Christ. And everyone members
one another. All believers of all ages make
up the body of Christ, called his church, called his bride,
called his jewels, called his elect. He has chosen us from
the beginning unto salvation. We are His by His choice. We are members, therefore, one
of another. We serve one purpose, one goal,
one Lord. We are joined in one in Christ. Christ is our head and we are
the body. We are put in the body of Christ
made members of his body by his sovereign grace. Each member
of his body, they make up the elect of God, the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ that he loved and that he gave himself for. But of Him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God has made unto us all that we need, wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. We're all one
in Christ. I want you to find 1 Corinthians
chapter 12. And while you're turning there,
let me remind you of this verse found in John 17. You find 1
Corinthians chapter 12, beginning at verse 13. And then I'll remind
you what the Lord prayed in John 17. And the glory which thou
gavest me, I've given them, that they may be one, even as we are
one. I in them, thou in me, that they
may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that thou
hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. We are one in Christ. And what's
true of the head? through the body. The Father
loves the Son and loves all those that are in the Lord Jesus. Now you got 1 Corinthians chapter
12, look at verse 13. For by one Spirit are we all
baptized into the one body, whether we be Jew or Gentile, whether
we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one
Spirit. For the body is not one member,
but many. If the foot shall say, behold,
because I'm not the hand, am I not of the body? Is it, therefore,
not of the body? If the ear shall say, because
I'm not the eye, am I not of the body? Is it, therefore, not
of the body? If the whole were an eye, where
were the hearing? If the whole were a hearing,
where would the smelling be? God hath God set members, every
one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him. Now we're in
Him by His sovereign grace, and we serve Him as He has placed
us in His body, and we are members one of another. Now, verse 6,
down to verse 8, back in Romans 12, "...having then gifts, gifts. We know what the fruit of the
Spirit is, what? Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness,
temperance. Having then these gifts, gifts
of God, these are sovereign gifts, differing according to the grace
that is given to us. Any gift we have, It's the gift
of His grace. We can say with the Apostle,
I am what I am by the grace of God. The grace that is given
to us, and then he mentions seven different things here. Prophecy,
ministering, teaching, exhorting, giving, ruling, and then showing
mercy. Seven different things. The Apostle
gives unto us. a description of some of the
gifts. Now not all of the gifts, seven are mentioned here. These
gifts are sovereignly given to whom the Lord will according
to the measure of His grace, according to the measure of His
purpose. Therefore we should be eager and willing to use what
God has given unto us to serve him. Now each one of us have
been put in that body of Christ and given the gifts that he mentioned
here to serve his purpose. Now the first thing he mentioned
in verse 6 is this thing of prophecy, prophecy, prophecy. Now back
in the Old Testament times before the written word of God, God
raised up certain prophets. He gave them the message. What
was that message? the Lord Jesus Christ. To Him
give all the prophets witness. Every prophet in the Old Testament
bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. And every preacher called
of God and put in the ministry, they have the same exact message,
salvation by Christ and salvation in Christ. So we consider this
word here at this time talking about preaching, preaching the
gospel. Let us do so according to the
measure of faith that God has given unto us. Now, as pleased
God by the preaching of the gospel to call out his people, to feed
his people, We are to feed the church of God which he purchased
with his own blood. The apostle gives unto us these
descriptions, prophecy. Prophecy, let us do so with the
measure of faith. Now, Paul said we preach in part
and we know in part. But what God has revealed that
we plainly declare. Paul is talking here about the
gift of preaching the gospel with the ability that God has
given to that man. He has called and put in the
ministry of Christ. Now, I emphasize that word, man. God doesn't call women to preach
the gospel. He calls men and puts men in
the ministry. And they all have, all those
who are called of God and given this gift of preaching the gospel,
they all preach the same message. Wherever you find God's servant
that's called of God and put in the ministry, they preach
the same message. Paul said, I'm determined not
to know anything among you, but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If you turn back, let's turn
to Ephesians 3. I had that earlier before in
Ephesians 4, but if you'll look at Ephesians chapter 3, The Apostle said in verse 7,
Ephesians 3, 7, they all have the same message. Wherefore I
made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God.
There is that gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual
working of His power unto me, whom less than the least of all
the saints, all saints, is this grace given that I should preach
among the Gentiles. What do we preach? The unsearchable
riches of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said,
we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. And then
Paul, right before he was executed for the Gospel, remember he wrote
back to Timothy, he said, I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus
to preach the Word. Preach the Word. We cannot...
Notice the first thing that's mentioned here is the preaching
of the Gospel. preaching of the gospel. It pleased God through
the preaching of the gospel to call out His people. We put much emphasis upon teaching
the Word verse by verse, line by line, precept by precept,
because God will bless His Word to His sheep. They will hear
it and they will follow Christ. The second thing he mentions
here is ministry. Ministry. This is talking about
serving the Lord. Serving the Lord. Every believer
is in the ministry. Every believer is in the ministry,
that is, serving the Lord Jesus Christ, being a faithful servant
unto the Lord's people. Every believer has been given
this gift of service, service unto the Lord, service unto the
Lord. You know it's a high title to
be known and called a servant of the Lord? The Apostle Paul
often referred to himself as the servant of the Lord. A willing,
loving, bond servant of the Lord. You know who else is called the
servant of the Lord? In Isaiah 42 verse 1, God said,
Behold my servant, my elect, in whom my soul delighteth. Who's
that referring to? Well, we know he's referring
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is called the servant of God.
You see, it's a high title. to be known as a servant of the
Lord, to be in the ministry, to serve His people. In Isaiah
53, the Lord Jesus Christ is called the righteous servant
of the Lord. Now listen to Scripture in Matthew
chapter 20, verse 28, where the Lord said, Even as the Son of
Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. He came to serve His people and
to serve His Father and to complete the work God gave him to do,
but to minister and to give his life a ransom, payment for sin
for many, it says there in that text. And then Paul writes of
those in the church of Corinth, 1 Corinthians 16, 15, those that
have addicted themselves, now we usually think of addiction
as a very negative way because of the addiction to drugs, But
it's a good thing to be addicted to serving Christ, and that's
what Paul says. Some have addicted themselves
to the ministry of the saints. That's a good thing to be addicted
to, to serving. And that's how we serve the Lord,
by serving one another, being members one of another. Now in verse 7, On ministry,
let us wait. Let us wait upon the Lord. He
will show us where, how, and when that we're to serve Him. Or, the third thing he mentioned
is on teaching. Teaching. Teaching. Now, what
do we teach? Well, we teach the Word, don't
we? We teach the Word. Those who are taught of God,
remember, our Lord said, all those who have heard and learned
of the Father, they come to Christ. Those who have been taught of
God desire to teach others what the Lord has taught them. Teaching the Word. Teaching the
doctrine of the Word. The doctrine of Christ. And I've
often said to you, it's one beggar telling another beggar where
he found bread, and that's what preaching is, and that's what
teaching is. Now, some will say, well, he's
a pretty good teacher, but he's not much of a preacher. Turn
over here to Ephesians chapter four this time. I don't know if you can draw
a line between teaching and preaching. I know if you're not preaching,
you're not teaching, and if you're not teaching, you're not preaching.
Preaching and teaching is communicating the message of Christ, the message
of the Gospel. If you look at Ephesians chapter
4 verse 9, Now he that ascended, what is it but that he also descended
first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended
is the same also that ascended far above, all heavens, that
He might fulfill all things." Talking about the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ, talking about His death, talking about His
resurrection glory. And when He ascended up on high,
He gave some apostles. Now, there are no apostles today,
but the word actually means those who were sent of God. And God
still calls men and sends them to preach the gospel. And then
he talks about apostles, he talks about prophets, those who were
sent to preach the gospel. Some evangelists, those who were
blessed and gifted to travel and preach the gospel. And he
gave some pastors and he gave some teachers. Teachers. For the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of
the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth
be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about by
every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men and the cunning
craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive us, but speaking
the truth, and we speak the truth in love, may grow up in him in
all things which is ahead, even Christ, for whom the whole body
fitly joined together, compacted by that which every joint supplieth
according to the effective working of the measure of every part,
make it increase of the body, and the edifying of itself in
love." God will bless the preaching of the Word and the teaching
of the Word, and God will bless those who serve in His cause. Now the fourth thing he mentioned
in verse 8 back in our text, "...for he that would exhort,
exhortation, let him wait on this thing of Exhorting, that
is giving a word of encouragement to one another, maybe a word
of comfort in the time of trial. Isaiah writes, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. Or maybe not only a word of exhortation
by the way of comfort, but how about a word of exhortation of
warning as well. Sometimes we need to be comforted
and uplifted. Sometimes we need to warn one
another, don't we? If you'll take your Bible and
find the book of Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3. And here
he writes about exhorting one another daily. Hebrews 3 verse
12. But he also writes about a warning.
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. Exhort one another while it is
called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness
of sin, for we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning
of our confidence steadfast unto the end. There we are to exhort
one another to persevere in the faith. Now look back in our text,
Romans 12 verse 8, he that exhorteth on exhortation. And then the
fifth thing he mentions here, he that giveth, giveth, or the
marginal reference has imparteth. imparted let him do it with simplicity
or the marginal reference has let him do with a liberal generous
spirit in a right attitude. It is a blessing to be blessed
of God to have a willingness to give. God loveth a cheerful
giver. It is a blessing to give and
to encourage one another. He that giveth, let him do it
with a generous willingness in his heart. And let's give without
calling attention to ourselves. Now, religion is plagued with
this saying about calling attention to people who give gifts. In some places, they'll even
have on the end of the pew, they'll say, well, this pew is bought
and paid for by a certain so-and-so. They call recognition to people's
name. We're to give, not let the right
hand know what the left hand do. Give unto the Lord and do
it in an anonymous way. That's why we have a box out
back. You can go by that box and you can put your gift in
there. You see, the point is we share with others what the
Lord has put into our hand supporting the ministry of the gospel. And
we do not give to be seen of men. Don't blow your trumpet.
Don't sound the trumpet about how much you are able to give
or when you give. The Lord said, freely have you
received freely give. It is more blessed, Acts 20,
35, it's more blessed to give, is it not? Than to receive. It's a blessing to be able to
give. And God's people are cheerful,
cheerful, willing givers. He that exhorteth on exhortation,
he that giveth, let him do it with a generous, generous heart. A willing heart. And then he
mentions there the next thing in verse 8, He that ruleth, let
him do it with due diligence. Diligence, diligence. That is,
faithful to the privilege and responsibility of the office
God has given unto you. Whether it be in the church,
whether it be in your home, the responsibility God has given
you to be a parent, a father, a mother, that's a big responsibility. Let us do so with diligence as
unto the Lord, whether it's a church office, whether it's a home office,
or on the job, on the job. Let us lead others in a way that's
honoring to the gospel of God. Now, I've been a boss on the
job before, and I've had people work underneath me. And it is
a privilege, but with privilege comes responsibility. Responsibility
of those men to lead them in a way that's safe and right.
Responsibility unto the owner of the company to lead those
men and do things that are right. But how much more? How much more
in the family of God to be a responsible believer unto the Lord? You see, we are accountable When
I was a boss on the job and things didn't go well, you know who
the owner of the company came to see? If there was a mess up,
it was me. It was me. I was responsible
to the owner of that company to do what I was told to do.
And so much more, we are responsible unto the Lord. And I mean by
that, we are accountable. We are accountable unto the Lord.
We are to serve Him with a reasonable service. And then the last thing
that he gives here in verse 8, the last part of that, He that
ruleth with diligence, and then it says, He that showeth mercy.
He that showeth mercy. Now, how do you show mercy? Mercy
is something that needs to be demonstrated. You can say, well,
I, you know, I'm a merciful person. Show me. Show me you're merciful. You know how you show mercy?
By loving and forgiving everyone who has sinned against you. Love
one another, forgive one another, even as God for Christ's sake
has forgiven you. He that showeth mercy, let him
show mercy with A cheerful heart. I'm going to show mercy, but
I don't like it. That's not showing mercy, is it? Let him show mercy
with a cheerful heart as the Lord has been merciful to us. Remember from our study in the
book of Luke chapter 6, Be ye therefore merciful as your Father
also is merciful. How merciful has God been to
us? It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Let
us demonstrate to others and treat others as the Lord has
blessed us according to the gift of his grace. It is more blessed
to help others than to be in need of help. It's better to
help others. I thought about this when I was
thinking upon that point. when after we were flooded the
last time in 2010, even in 2009, how many people came here from
out of town, stayed in the motel room overnight, came here and
slopped around in that old bacteria-laden mud. Why'd they do that? Why'd they do that? You know,
I didn't even ask them to come. They just showed up. They did
that out of the willingness to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of the time when we not
only cleaned up all the flood mud, but when we started work
on our house out of the flood plain. People poured in from
all over the country, sent gifts, unsolicited, sent gifts and willingly
came. Plumbers, electricians, carpenters,
brick people, cement people. Brother John Chapman was here
last week and he said to me, he said, did you build this house
all by yourself? I said, no, sir. No, sir. Freddie knows, don't you, Freddie?
I had a lot of good help. I had a lot of good help. And
the Lord sent his people to show mercy. Why'd they do that? To
labor and to work? Because they love the gospel
of God and wanted to see the gospel prosper right here in
our community. Now these things describe for
us what the Apostle Paul back in verse 1 is talking about.
That you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. It's
only reasonable To serve the Lord, is it not? Out of love
and out of gratitude. Reasonable to serve the Lord
by helping one another. Now, let me close by reading
this scripture. Remember in Matthew 25, when
he separated his sheep from the goats? and said to those sheep,
come be blessed in my Father, inherit the kingdom of God prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. And then he said,
I was in prison, you came to me. I was hungry and you fed
me. He said that to the righteous. And in all these different things,
I was naked and you clothed me, you remember? And they said,
Lord, when did we do this to you? Listen to what he says.
And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto
you, insomuch as you've done it unto the least of these my
brethren, you've done it unto me. Now think about that next
time you're blessed to be a blessing to someone else. That's how you
serve the Lord, by being a blessing to someone else. May God help
us to do so, by His grace.