I've been studying the Book of
Romans, and I found that the first 11
chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, the first 11 chapters
are devoted to the great doctrines of redemption, the great doctrines of justification
by faith, the grace of God to us in Christ Jesus our Lord through
faith. And one thing that the Apostle
Paul emphasizes throughout this book is that we're dependent
upon the scriptures alone for our foundation. We're dependent
upon grace alone. for our redemption. We're dependent
upon Jesus Christ our Lord alone for our salvation. The scriptures
alone, grace alone, and Christ alone. And this is the truth
that our forefathers loved. It's the truth by which our forefathers
lived. It's the truth for which many
of them died. And it's the truth in which we
rejoice, the grace of God. Let's read over here in Romans
8, what we studied a few weeks ago. Romans 8, verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose. By whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate. to be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom
he called, them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. What shall we say then? What
shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? I love that truth, don't you?
I rejoice in that truth. Now the last five chapters, 12,
13, 14, 15, 16, is devoted not so much to the doctrines of redemption
as they are devoted to the results of redemption. Now, the doctrines
are there. They're on every page of Holy
Scripture. But it seems to me that the last
five chapters of Romans are devoted to the results of redemption,
the life of the redeemed, the life of grace and godliness,
the believer's walk, the believer's conversation, the believer's
conduct in this present world. That's what these chapters are
dealing with. You saw that this morning. And
I call this study tonight, I'm going to begin with verse 9,
but I call this study the Ten Commandments for Believers. I
think it's a good title. And it's motivated, I looked
at it, the title, Ten Commandments for Believers, and I thought,
is that scriptural? Yes. It's motivated by my Lord's
own words to His disciples In John 13, he said, a new commandment
I give you, a new commandment. Moses came down from the mountain
with 10 commandments. Our Lord said, a new commandment
I give you, that you love one another, as I have loved you,
that you love one another. So here they are, here are the
10 commandments for believers. In verse 9, It says, let love
be without dissimulation. In other words, here's the first
commandment for believers. The first one, love one another. Love one another. True, sincere
love is the heart of the law and the prophets. It's the essence
of spirituality. By this shall all men know you,
my disciples, if you love one another. This is what our Lord
said. If you would turn to Matthew
22. Matthew 22. Love one another. That's the
first one. Love one another. Matthew 22, verse 36. One of the lawyers said to him
in verse 36, Master, which is the great commandment in the
law? Which is the great commandment? Jesus said, Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God. With all thy heart, with all
thy soul, with all thy mind, this is the first and great commandment.
The second is likened to that thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
So some of the law and the prophets. So that's the reason it's placed
first here of the Ten Commandments for Believers. It's the first and great commandment.
Love one another. And Paul says in Colossians that
love is the cement that holds the stones together in the temple
of the living God. It holds everything in place.
It's the cement. Let me read that to you. If you
want to, you can turn to Colossians 3. And I'll read that to you,
though, if you don't turn to Colossians 3, verse 12. Listen. Put on, therefore, as the elect
of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercy, kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving
one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all
things, put on love. Put on love above all things,
the first commandment for a believer. Put on love. It's the bond. of
perfectness. It's what holds it together.
It's what holds it together. And without love, gifts are useless. I turn to 1 Corinthians 13. 1
Corinthians 13. Without love, gifts are useless. In 1 Corinthians 13, go back
to the verse Above chapter 13, verse 31 of chapter 12, Paul
said, covet earnestly the best gifts, but I'll show you a better
way than gifts. I'll show you something better
than gifts. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, I have the gift of tongues. And have
not love? You might as well clang on a
sounding brush and a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the
gift of prophecy and understand mysteries and knowledge and have
faith so that I can remove mountains and have not love, I'm nothing.
And though I bestow my goods to feed the poor, though I give
my body to be burned and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love one another. That's the
first and great commandment. And that's the first and great
commandment to his church. Go back to my text now. Let this
love be without dissimulation. What is that word? Let it be
sincere, without hypocrisy. And let it be a love that hates
evil, even in myself. Let it be a love that cleaves
to that which is of God, that which is good. All right, let's
move on. Here's the second commandment,
verse 10. First one, love one another. is be kind to one another. Be kindly affectioned one to
another with brotherly love in honor of preferring one another.
I'd like for you to go to Ephesians 4 for this proof text. Ephesians 4 verse 32. Be ye kind
one to another. That's the second commandment. In Ephesians 4 verse 32 it says,
Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. And this kindness, back
to my text in Romans 12 verse 10, this kindness is a brotherly
love. Now let me see if I can explain
what that means. We're commanded to love all people.
We're supposed to, we'd like to, we try to. And be kind to
all people. But there's a special love for
one's family. He said you be kind, kindly affection
one to another with a kind of love and a kind of affection
and a kind of kindness that you have for your own brother, your
blood brother. I know how your mamas and daddies
love, we love our children. We love them so dearly. Special
love. Special love. Brothers, two brothers
love each other. Sisters love each other. They're
kind to one another. They have one father and their
brethren, one mother and their brothers and sisters in the same
family. Well, the church, he's telling us here, needs to enter
into that same kind of relationship with believers. Love one another
in the church as much as you love one another in your blood
families. That's right. Fathers and sons, mothers and
daughters, brothers and sisters, they have a special bond. It's
a protected bond. They protect one another's person,
and then one another's reputation, and one another's secrets. They protect one another. It
covers a multitude of faults. They're concerned for one another.
One gets sick, they run to the aid. They promote one another. Hire my brother. That's right,
you promote one another. You just do that. You prefer
one another. You protect one another. You
provide for one another. And that's the kind of kindness
and attention that we're supposed to have for the Lord's family. Command one, love one another.
Command two, be kindly affectionate to one another with the same
kind of love that you have for your blood brother and children
in honor, preferring one another, protecting, providing for one
another. The third commandment, be fervent
in spirit. In verse 11, not slothful in
business, but fervent, fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Now
look at that closely and you'll see what I saw. There are clearly
two things dealt with in this verse. The first one is shown
in the first four words, not slothful in business. In your
business dealings be fervent. What's the word fervent? Earnest,
wholehearted, zealous in business. Make the Lord's glory our rule
in everything we do. We're told whatever you do, do
it to the Lord. Now if you're engaged in business,
give it your best. If you're engaged in secular
work, be fervent. If you're working for somebody
else, do your dead level best. If you're working, laboring for
wages, earn your wages. If you're serving the public,
serve them honestly, fervently, dedicated, zealous. Work as if you're working for
Jesus Christ. Let me show you that in Ephesians
6. That's a good commandment. This is Ephesians 6. Ten commandments
for believers. Ephesians 6 verse 5 through 7. Ephesians 6 verse 5. Sermons,
be obedient to them that are your masters according to the
flesh with fear and trembling and singleness of heart as unto
Christ. Not just with our service as
men pleases, but in service of Christ, doing the will of God
from the heart, with good will, doing service as to the Lord,
not to men. Be fervent in business. Be fervent
in your labor. There's a certain pride of workmanship
that's not wrong. Pride of spirit is always wrong,
but not in workmanship. Doing the best I can is what
I ought to do in business. But not only in business, the
second thing is serving the Lord. Be fervent in the service of
the Lord. Be careful that our worship,
be careful that it remains devout, and that our prayers remain sincere,
and that our study of the Word in fellowship with other believers
and serving the Lord not degenerate into a doctrinal position. into
a formalism, into a routine. Even our Lord Jesus Christ as
a child gave us that example. You remember I think he was 12
years old or something like that when they went up to Jerusalem
and Mary and Joseph and the people they were with started back to
Nazareth. And they went a day's journey
and he wasn't, they suddenly realized that he wasn't with
them. And so they went back to Jerusalem looking for him, searching
for him. And they found him in the temple.
Found him talking with the doctors and the Pharisees. And his mother
said, son, would you care that we sought you with Sarah? And
he said to Mary, How is it that you sought me?
Do you not know that I must be about my father's business? I
must be about my, not slothful in business. This is my father's
business. Here's what you do, and you do,
and everybody here, you elders do, and everybody here, it's
your father's business. If you work out in public works,
that's your father's business. If you work in worship, it's
your father's business. I don't object to that. These are good commandments,
aren't they? Here's the fourth one. Rejoice. Rejoicing in hope. Rejoice. Patient in tribulation. Contingent
in prayer. An old writer, I was looking
at something for this. Rejoice, of course the book of
Philippians is dedicated to rejoicing in the Lord. You say this says
rejoice in hope, well he's our hope. Christ in you, that's the hope
of glory. We rejoice in the Lord. Ten times I think in Philippians
it says rejoice in the Lord. But I read an old writer and
he pointed out that in verse 12, rejoicing in the Lord, rejoicing
in hope is right between serving the Lord and being patient in
trials. See that the last line in verse
11, serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in trials and
trouble. So he said Paul put that rejoicing
right between serving the Lord because nothing tends to motivate
a believer to serve the Lord more than the hope he has of
being like him. That'll motivate you. And nothing,
at the same time, nothing will help a believer endure his trials
with patience like that blessed hope of one day being with Christ. I walked with an example of this
for 35 years, my friend Bill Clark. I miss him. You realize
that Bill and I, since 1965, have spent at least two weeks
a year, at least that many together, Darcy and I, Bill and Evelyn,
in this country and in some other country. I've traveled with him
to Africa, to Russia twice, to Ireland, to Spain, to Africa,
a lot of places. I was with Bill two weeks out
of every year, 35 years. Dearest, dearest of friends,
I can tell you this about him, no matter how bad he felt. He
used to go down to Africa and come back with malaria. Just
as soon as they let him out of the hospital, he'd go right back.
He had that cancer three or four years ago, taking chemotherapy
and radiation and all that, but fervent in serving the Lord.
Right back to Africa. Right back to Russia. He claims
serving God. And yet not one complaint. about
that cancer, about that malaria. One time they put him in isolation
in the hospital, didn't know what he had. He came back from
Africa and they just had the doors shut, nobody, not even
a nurse could go in. He had something, they didn't
know what he got. The last day on this earth, he's
in the hospital and he died that day. But Evelyn was there and
Jeanine was there and whoever was there, some people. Janine
wanted to stay with him. He said, now you go on to church
and teach your Sunday school class. And she ran out the door. He died that day. But on his
mind, the thing for her to do was to go teach that class. That's
what it was talked about. That's to rejoice in the Lord. Be fervent serving the Lord and
be patient in tribulation and keep on praying. Number five,
here's the fifth commandment. Share what you have. Verse 13,
distributing to the necessity of the saints, given to hospitality. Oh, you're all so good at this.
Somebody said this several years ago, there's not a more generous
church in the world than the 13th Street Baptist Church. By God's grace it's that way,
and by God's grace it'll continue that way. But there's a two-fold
distribution, a two-fold distribution, and this is, you've learned this,
I'll repeat it anyway. We know it's the will of God
for his people to provide for and support Missionaries and
preachers, those who faithfully engaged in the gospel ministry.
We know that and you do that. Better and more than any church
I know. Pastors and missionaries in different efforts to preach
the gospel. In the foreign countries on television, radio and printed
page, you're just so gracious. But the second thing, distributing
to the necessity of all the saints. and you do this. It's in the
will of God, for whatever purpose he wisely chooses, it's in the
will of God. For some of his people to experience
trials of sickness, and we need to help them. Loss of jobs, and
we need to help them. Decline in work, we need to help
them. Old age, we need to help them.
Widowhood, we need to help them. fire and storm and just a number
of things. But this is what he's saying.
No one in the family of God should be neglected or permitted to
be in need when we have by his grace the means to help them.
Distributing to the necessity of the saints and given to hospitality. It's a common thing here for
someone to walk in off the street And we do a lot of this. Martha
does it. She's in charge of it. But I
mean, lots of groceries and gas bills and electric bills and
prescriptions. And she helps so many people
pass them through. But I find this to be true. Every one of them who are indiscriminately
seeking help from a church are members of a church nowhere.
And I often tell them, if I'm in the office and they're standing
there asking me for help, I say, where do you worship? I don't
go anywhere. But I said, I'll tell you this,
if you had a pastor and you were a member of a congregation that
loved Christ, you wouldn't be coming here begging. That's exactly
right, because that church takes care of you. That's right. It will, because we're family.
Here's the sixth commandment. Share what you have. Here's number
six, verse 14. Bless them that persecute you,
bless and curse not. What's this saying? Don't hate
anybody. Don't hate anybody. Down through the years, some
of the Lord's people have had to endure some severe persecution. Our words and deeds because of
the gospel they believe. There have been some people that
died for this gospel. We've never, Paul said, you've
never resisted unto blood. I haven't either. But we do have
enemies. We do have opposition. We do
have to deal with unkind words and unkind feelings and we do
have to deal with those things that produce hard feelings. But
don't hate them. pray for our enemies. That's
what he says here. Bless them that curse you, bless
persecute you, bless and curse not. Our Lord hanging on the
cross looked down at those soldiers that nailed him to that tree
and he said, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're
doing. Stephen, when they were stoning him before he went to
be with the Lord, he said, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. If it were not for the grace
of God, I'd be doing the stoning. For the grace of God, I'd be
the enemy. Wouldn't you? Wouldn't you? If I regard iniquity, hatred
in my heart, God will not hear me. So I'm the one that's hurt,
not the one I hate. If a believer holds grudges against
people, it's not that person that he hurts himself. Because
God won't hear me. Number seven, that's verse 15,
Rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
Be of one heart. Be of one heart. We're able to
identify with one another in all things, in joy or sorrow. A strong God-given love produces
a strong interest in and a concern for one another. And you keep
that compassion. Pastor John Brown said this.
This is interesting. Be one family in your affections. In your affections, in your interests,
and in your goals. Now listen, listen to this and
hear what he says. You know it's so and I do too.
It's difficult to love every Christian with the same degree
of love because everybody's not equally lovable. He's telling
the truth, isn't he? He says it's difficult to love
every Christian with the same degree of love because some are
not equally friendly, they're not equally lovable, they're
not equally amiable, they're not equally sociable. But we can love them with the
same kind of love. That makes sense. We can love
them with not... There's some people that are
just so near to you and so much like you and all, you love them
with a greater degree of love. But you love the other people
too with the same kind of love. It's a love of kindness and affection
which really rejoices when they rejoice and weeps when they weep.
That's it. I was in a Bible conference one
time. About 20 preachers. And I preached on 1 Corinthians
13, the love chapter. I remember this like yesterday.
It's been years ago. I preached on the love chapter. And I got through preaching. And
they were discussing the message. All preachers there that morning,
two or three members of the church, but they were just all preachers,
special preachers meeting some kind. And one of the fellas got
up and he said, could I give a testimony? I said, yeah, go
right ahead. They were going to ask some questions
too. And he had tears in his eyes
and he said, that message really got me, really got me, really
helped me too. He said, I need to cultivate
a love for everybody. He said, even for Brother So-and-so,
he points him on the picture sitting there. He said, he's
not easy to love. Oh, he's not all that easy to
love, he said. Well, that's just true. I'm not
all that easy. I realize that. I've got a personality
that's greats a lot of people, but love me anyway. Love me for
the gospel of praise. We can find something to love
in Varken. Love him for the gospel, he preached. One preacher said
about me one time, he said, one for the gospel he preached, I
wouldn't put up with him. That's true. Be of one heart for the same
kind of love. Able to rejoice for those that
rejoice and weep for those that weep. Here's the eighth commandment. Be of one mind. in verse 16. Be of the same mind, one toward
another. Now, man not high things. You
know what he's saying? Don't be haughty. You're not,
but don't be that way. Don't be snobbish. Don't be proud. Adjust to people of every station. Can you do that? Paul could. He said, I know how to abound.
I know how to be abased. Adjust to people of all stations.
There's differences in folks. Give ourselves not just to great
things, but humble things, humble tasks. Cultivate a deep sense
of our own unworthiness. That'll keep us from haughtiness.
That'll keep us from snobbery. That'll keep us from pride. Cultivate
a deep sense of our own unworthiness and our own ignorance. And Paul
said, let no divisions, let there be no divisions among you. But
be perfectly joined together in the same mind, striving together
for the faith of the gospel. And then when he's telling them
goodbye, he said, finally, brethren, farewell. Farewell. Be mature. Be of good comfort. Be of one
mind. And live in peace. And the God
of love and peace will be with you. Number nine, here's the
ninth commandment, verse 17. Be honest. He said recompense
to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the
sight of all men. Honest. We're not just addressing
the conduct and character of believers among believers in
the church fellowship. He said provide things honest
in the sight of all men. Honest. All men. Especially those of the world.
We are to be honest in our business dealings, honest in our conduct
in public and private and family, to adorn the doctrine of God
our Savior. Let's not give the people of
this world cause to despise our gospel on our account. Let me
repeat that. I think that's a good statement. Let us not give the people of
the world cause to despise our gospel on our account. Provide
things honest, even if you have to lose, even if you have to
lose something. Leave the impression that you're
honest and truthful. Last of all, the last of the
Ten Commandments for believers, verse 18, if it be possible,
if it be possible, as much as life in you, live at peace, live peaceably
with all men. If possible, as much as peace
and harmony depends on you and me, on our attitude and actions,
let's seek peace, let's pursue peace, let's live in peace with
all men, as much as you possibly can. And then verse 19, this
has got to do with living in peace. All this is under that.
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourself, but rather give place to wrath.
For it's written, vengeance is mine, I'll replace saith the
Lord. You know, the people we deal with will never be changed
by anger. Anger and revenge and wrath will
never change the heart of an enemy. He may never be your friend,
he may never believe your gospel, but one thing is sure, your anger
won't change him. That's just so. The wrath of man does not work
the righteousness of God. So that goes under that live
at peace, because anger is not going to change him. You take
God's word and God's grace, but in verse 20, so if you're in
him in hunger, feed him. If he thirsts, give him drink,
and so doing you heap coals of fire on his head. It may be your
love and kindness will break his heart. Who knows? Make him
ashamed of his enmity. But here's the chief thing, and
live at peace. Be not overcome of evil, but
overcome evil with good. Don't allow evil men and evil
thoughts to dictate your course. Don't let revenge replace divine
grace of forgiveness. Don't allow ill feelings to replace
God's love shed abroad in your heart. Don't be overcome with
evil. Now I know you're surrounded
by it, you work in the midst of it, you live among people
that are contentious, but don't let them change you. It takes
God to change them, but don't let them change you. Don't be
like them. That's why I said this morning,
don't be conformed to this world. Let them go their way. Be transformed
in the renewing of your mind.