Let's turn tonight again to Romans,
tonight to chapter 15. It's good to have Brother and Mrs. Grover with us tonight, missionaries
to Mexico for many years. And I asked Walter, or I invited
him to speak. He has an open invitation, but
so far he's declined. And I know after preaching in
Spanish so many years, it's difficult to preach in English, I'm sure. Just the opposite for some of
us. Martin Luther said concerning
the book of Romans, the clearest gospel of all. John Calvin said,
if a man understands it, he has a sure road open for him to the
understanding of the whole scripture. William Tyndale, he said the
principle and most excellent part of the New Testament, speaking
of the letter of Romans. I'm sure that those comments
especially had reference to the doctrinal part of the letter,
but for several weeks we've been looking, beginning with chapter
12, at the practical part. And tonight we're going to look,
the Lord willing, at the first 13 verses in this chapter And
the title of my message is Like-Mindedness. Like-Mindedness. In beginning my message, let
me point out to us a thought that came to me as I was reading
over these verses several times this past week. I thought about
Paul's words. If you keep your places here,
but turn over to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. The very last chapter
of the first letter of Thessalonians. At the end of this letter, he
wrote several short exhortations. Beginning with verse 16, rejoice
evermore. Verse 17, pray without ceasing. Verse 18, in everything give
thanks For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. Quench not the spirit. Despise
not prophesying. Prove all things. Hold fast all
things. Abstain from all appearance of
evil. There's several of these short
exhortations. And I thought about that one
in verse 17. Pray without ceasing. Now we know that he doesn't mean
that we should always be on our knees in prayer. John Gill said,
there's such a thing as mental prayer, praying in the heart,
private ejaculations of the soul, which may be sent up to heaven
while a man is engaged in the affairs of life. And as we go
back here to this passage in Romans chapter 15, can't we see
this very thing in these verses? Well, the apostle Paul in these
13 verses is engaged in writing this letter, but at the same
time, he is praying, praying without ceasing, praying, sending
up requests unto the Lord. If you notice in verse five,
He says, now the God of patience and consolation grants you. That's one request, right in
the middle of this. Then in verse 13, now the God
of hope fill you with all joy and peace. I thought, what a blessing it
would be if we could learn to do this, if I could learn to
do this in interacting with others. Not praying out loud, of course,
but being engaged in other affairs. Lord, help me to say this in
a kind way. Lord, help me to somehow show
forth the love of God that you have shed abroad in my heart.
I'm talking about while we are interacting with other people.
praying without ceasing. Lord, help me to make this clear. What a blessing it would be if
we could learn to pray without ceasing and if we would pray
without ceasing while engaged in the affairs of life, always
calling upon the Lord for his help, for his direction, for
his guidance. Tonight I have three divisions
in my message. First, the subject continues,
verses one and two. The subject continues. We then
that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and
not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his
neighbor for his good to edification. Some people believe that the
chapter division here was unfortunate because the subject continues. The same subject in chapter 14,
and that subject was the love and forbearance that God's children,
we must learn to exercise toward each other. Now in the context
here, the strong in verse one, we then that are strong, I would
suppose are those Gentiles who had been saved and they were
strong in the sense they had the knowledge that that old covenant
law had passed away. And that part of that law, which
concerned meat, the dietary part of that law, had no reference
to them whatsoever. They were strong. in faith. They were strong in their knowledge. They were like the Apostle Paul.
We saw this last week in chapter 14 when he said, I know and am
persuaded that there is nothing unclean in itself. So we would think of the strong
in this verse as those who are strong in knowledge And we would
think of them generally as Gentile converts, men and women who had
never been under that law, first of all. They had never been under
the law and when the gospel came to them, they didn't look to
the law for anything. They looked to Christ and Christ
alone. And then the weak, generally
speaking, the weak in verse one would be those whose faith, that
is, whose knowledge in these things was clouded to some degree. And I would imagine most of them
were Jews. They'd been brought up believing
that it was wrong to eat this, it was wrong to eat the other,
drink this, anything that the law prohibited they had been
taught was wrong. And even in the first council,
in Acts chapter 15, when this issue was settled, really, whether
the Gentile believers were to be brought under that old covenant
law. And, you know, the Apostle Peter
spoke, and the Apostle Paul spoke, and then James spoke. He must
have been, we believe, the pastor there in Jerusalem. And they
wrote what Gentiles should do concerning those Old Testament
rules, that old covenant, the rules that were part of it. I like Peter. Let's turn over
there to Acts chapter 15. I like the way Peter responded in this council. This was a very, very important
issue, whether the Gentiles should be brought under that law. Verse
seven says, and when there had been much disputing, Peter rose
up and said unto them, men and brethren, You know how that a
good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles, by
my mouth, should hear the word of the gospel and believe. He
is the one who took the gospel to Cornelius, the Gentile. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
them witness giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto
us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their
hearts by faith. Now therefore, why tempt you
God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither
our fathers nor we were able to bear? Now notice, but we believe. It's what I believe. I know this
is what you believe if you are a believer in God's sovereign
grace, but we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we shall be saved even as they. That's the way I believe that
I'm saved, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, freely,
freely by his grace. Grace is a wonderful word, isn't
it? It's a beautiful word, every child of God. The Apostle Paul,
if you look in 1 Corinthians, back to our text tonight, if
you look in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, concerning this matter of
our relationship, the strong to the weak and the weak to the
strong, he gives his own testimony here in 1 Corinthians 9, beginning
in verse 19. He said, for though I be free
from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all. That's
the first thing. We read at the beginning of the
service how the Lord Jesus Christ served his disciples in washing
their feet. Paul said, I made myself, I made
myself servant of all. that I might gain them more.
In other words, for the good of the ministry, for the saving
of sinners, Paul said, I made myself servant of all. To the
Jews, I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. To them
that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them
that are under the law. To them that are without law,
as without law, be not without law to God, but under the law
to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law. To
the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak. I made
all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now back in our text. Here is
what the strong ought to do. You know that word ought? The
word ought, in early English, it was the past tense of the
word owe. The past tense of the word owe,
the verb owe, was ought. If we possess another's property,
we owe it to him. And if we owe it, we ought to
pay. ought. Here's what the strong
ought to do, the apostle says. The strong ought to bear the
infirmities of the weak. You know in Paul's letters several
times he uses the analogy between the human body and the church,
the local church. And it is such a beautiful picture
of how that Of all the various members, we make up one whole. One whole. And all the members
work together for the good of the body. Some of the members
of our body are strong. I think about our legs, the muscles
in our legs are strong, and some people, their arms are strong,
but there are some parts of our bodies that are weak, the muscles
are weak. Well, the strong ought, just
like our body works together, the strong bears the infirmities
of all working together for the good, the common good of the
church. John Calvin said, Paul shows
that the strength by which they, that is the strong, excel the
others is bestowed upon them for the purpose of sustaining
the weak. and keeping them from falling. So here's what the strong ought
to do. If you are strong tonight in
your conviction and your knowledge that there's nothing unclean
in itself, that you have the freedom to eat the various meats
and these Special days that the Jews had under the law of Moses,
holy days, that that was just a shadow of the real, that Christ
is our Sabbath. If you have knowledge of that,
if you're strong in that sense, then you ought to bear the infirmities
of the weak. Not everyone has the same knowledge,
not every believer, not every child of God. And remember this,
it's also important. When a person is first born into
this family of God, he's not born full grown. He's not born
full grown. We begin to grow. Desire the
sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. We grow
in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's what Paul here tells
us. Here's what the strong ought
to do. Now I want to say, here's what
the strong and the weak ought to do. Both ought to please his
neighbor for his good to edification. Verse 2. Let every one of us,
not just the strong, but now also the weak, Let every one
of us, this is my interpretation of this, let every one of us,
this is what both the strong and the weak ought to do. This
is what we owe it to our brother, our sister in Christ to do. That
is, we ought to please our neighbor for edification. That is, for
his being built up in the faith. Paul is especially speaking to
the strong But this should concern every member of the local church. The concern of every member,
the concern of this church should always be, for every member of
this church, our concern should always be for the good of the
church. And this is, turn with me to
Philippians, Philippians chapter two. Philippians chapter two. If there is therefore any consolation
in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the
Spirit, if any vows and mercies, fulfill you my joy. Now, Paul,
how could we fulfill your joy? Could we buy you a new house? Could we buy you a new car? Could
we increase your salary tenfold? Oh no. Here's how my joy would be increased. Here's how you could fulfill
my joy. And this is true of every pastor,
every missionary. Remember Paul, he was a missionary. And when he lists the things
that he suffered, I believe at the very last he said, and beside
all this, the care of all the churches. I know we have a brother
here tonight who has the care of a number of different churches.
And to fulfill his joy and the joy of this pastor, speaking
of myself and every pastor, that you be like-minded. Not
everyone seeking his own good, his own will, not everyone looking
on the things of himself, but everyone, not just most, but
everyone, all of us being like-minded and being concerned for the good,
for the edification of the body. Fulfill ye my joy that you be
like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and
of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife
or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other
better than themselves. You know, I'm thankful for the
unity and the love that the Lord has given us here in this church.
But let me say, over the years, experience that I have observed
When there's trouble in a church, and I'm thankful, as I said,
that the Lord has preserved us, but usually when there's any
trouble in a church, you can find pride is at the center. Someone is seeking preeminence. Maybe the pastor, but someone
is seeking preeminence. But if we all are like-minded,
and that's the title of the message this evening, like-mindedness,
as the Apostle Paul is here exhorting those in Philippi and the same
thing here in our text tonight. We then that are strong ought
to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves.
Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. Now the second part of the message,
the example and motive that is given. This is his exhortation that
every one of us please his neighbor. Now he brings forth an example
and also a motive for believers to do this very thing. The apostle
brings forth the Lord Jesus Christ first as the Christian's example
and then as the motive to produce the care that members should
have one for another. First, we have Christ as an example
of how He pleased not Himself. And this is what believers should
do. Verses 3 through 6, For even
Christ pleased not Himself. But as it is written, The reproaches
of them that reproach thee fell on me. For whatsoever things
were written aforetime were written for our learning, that you through
patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now the God
of patience and consolation grants you to be like-minded one toward
another according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and
with one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We have Christ as our example. Those of us who are God's children
tonight, members of this congregation, we have Christ as our example
of how He pleased not Himself. And this is exactly what we are
to do. He quotes from the psalm to illustrate
how that Christ pleased not Himself. The passage he quotes from is
Psalm 69 and verse 9, which reads, For the zeal of thine house hath
eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are
fallen upon me. Christ had such a zeal. He had
such a zeal for God and for God's glory that he was affected by
the reproaches that were hurled against God, as if he had endured
them in his own person. The Old Testament scripture,
the apostle tells us here, is given to us, that is to believers,
for our learning. Our learning, that we might learn
through patience and comfort, to have hope. And that word hope,
of course, means a good expectation. That's the reason the Old Testament,
he says, is given to us that by learning and by comfort or
consolation, we might have a good hope. The Apostle James tells
us, you have heard of the patience of Job. And we've all heard of
his patience, haven't we? Now, everything was taken from
him, everything. And yet he had patience. He said,
though he slay me, yet will I serve him. I know my Redeemer liveth. And in the midst of all the persecution
and everything else that came upon him, we know the patience. You've heard of the patience
of Job. And, don't miss this, have seen the end of the Lord. You've seen that. You've seen
his patience and you've seen the end of the Lord. That the
Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. You see the patience of
Job and then you see there in that last chapter, don't you,
how Everything was given back and more restored to him. But he have seven sons and one
daughter that's mentioned, is that right? I believe that's
right. Well, he's given double. Someone said, well, his seven
sons and first daughter, they were in heaven. So he's given
seven more sons and one daughter. I don't know, but I know he had
twice as much. And he had a whole lot to begin
with. But you've seen the patience of Job. How he went through that great
trial and difficulty. And you've seen the end of the
Lord. We have the Old Testament to
learn of patience and comfort. Plus, we have the God of patience. Notice he says, Now the God of
patience and consolation We've got the Scriptures. First of
all, he tells us we've got the Scriptures, which were written
for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures
might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation
grants you to be like-minded one toward another. We've got
the Word of God that comes to our mind, that brings this truth
to our mind, but also we have God the Holy Spirit who lives
in us in our heart to teach us, so we've got both the Word of
God and God Himself to give us patience and consolation, no
matter what the trial may be, no matter what the difficulty
may be. That is given to us to enable
us not to please ourselves, but our neighbor for edification. And second, that is we have Christ
as an example of how he pleased not himself, so we should follow
his example. But we have Christ as a motive
of how we should receive one another. Notice that in verse
seven. Wherefore receive you one another
as Christ also received us to the glory of God. Now say that
Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth
of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers, and that
the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. As it is written
for this cause, I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and
sing unto thy name. And again he saith, Rejoice,
you Gentiles. with his people, and again, praise
the Lord, all you Gentiles, and Lord him, all you people. And
again, he saith, saith, there shall be a root of Jesse, and
he shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, and him shall the Gentiles
trust. We have Christ as a motive of
how we should receive one another. And he points out to us how that
Christ received the Jews. He was a minister first to the
circumcision. Remember he told that Syrophoenician
woman, I'm sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He ministered,
he received the Jewish people that came to him. But then the
apostle shows us how he also received the Gentiles. And it's
interesting that he quotes three passages of Scripture, three
verses of Scripture, and he quotes a verse from every part of the
Old Testament as the Jewish people divided up the Old Testament. They divided the Word of God
into three divisions. That is the Law, the Psalms,
and the Prophets. Turn with me to Luke chapter
24. Luke chapter 24. These are the words of the Lord
Jesus after his resurrection, before his ascension, while speaking
to his 11 disciples. Verse 44. And he said unto them,
these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with
you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written. Now notice how he divides up
the Old Testament. In the law of Moses, in the prophets,
and in the Psalms. That's it. That's the Old Testament,
isn't it? And what did the Old Testament
speak of? What did he say concerning me? concerning me. Christ, He is
the message of the Word of God. Now, back in our text tonight,
what Paul did, he, in this passage, he takes a verse from the Law,
takes a verse from the Psalms, and takes a verse from the Prophets,
and shows how that Christ, first of all, he said He received,
we ought to receive one another, even as Christ received us, He
received Jews, that came unto him, but he also received Gentiles. In verse 10, back in our text, Rejoice,
you Gentiles, with his people. I believe this is from the book
of Deuteronomy. That is part of the law. And
then in verse 11, he quotes from the psalm, Praise the Lord, all
you Gentiles, and laud him, all you people, And then in verse
12, he takes a word from Isaiah, one of the prophets of old. This word here in verse 7, wherefore. Now remember, he's writing to
a church that he had never visited. Now it is true, we see in chapter
16, he knew quite a few of these people, but he had never been
to this church. But notice what he exhorts them
in verse 7. ...Wherefore, receive you one
another. I took those two words this past
week and I typed them in and looked in the concordance at
the various verses where we have these two words together. One
another. And this is what I saw. First
of all, here we are told, receive one another. Now remember, a
local church. We're talking to a local body
of believers. Receive one another. Love one
another. Serve one another. Forgive one another. Admonish one another. Comfort
one another. Edify one another. You get the
idea that we are to minister to each other. that we are to
receive each other, one another, even as the Lord Jesus Christ
received us. There's no greater example, there's
no greater motive than the Lord himself to give to a church body
to strive for the good of all. How did Christ receive us? I
couldn't let this pass by. How did Christ receive us? He
tells us, receive ye one another as Christ also received us to
the glory of God. How did Christ receive you, if
you are one of His children tonight? How did He receive me? And I
thought about these words that someone said Oliver Cromwell
spoke. When he was going to have his
picture painted, his portrait, he said, warts and all. He did not want his painting
to be like was so typical at that time that they would embellish
the ruler, the kings, and they would be the most handsome men
that are on the face of God's earth. He said, it is said that
he said this. And I saw a picture of his death
mask. You know how they used to put
that mask? I guess it was plaster of Paris. And sure enough, he
had a growth right here, according to that mask. He said, paint
me, warts and all. I'm not going to put my finger
up here. I'm not going to cover up some scar. How did Christ
receive us? Warts and all. Warts and all. He received us with all our guilt to pardon. Remember what he said
to that lady, that woman who was taken in adultery and brought
before him? He said, Do I condemn thee? Go and sin no more. That's how
he received us. He received us guilty and granted
us a full pardon. How did he receive us? He received
us filthy as that leper who came to him and said, Lord, if thou
wilt, thou canst make me whole. And the Lord Jesus touched him.
I've been reading a book written by a doctor who labored among
lepers in India and also in a leper colony in our country, in Louisiana. And according to him, one of
the worst things about leprosy, because there was so much ignorance
of the disease, first of all, but people were afraid to touch
a leper. He was examining one man, he
was just learning to speak this English dialect, Indian dialect
rather, Indian dialect. And he said something to him,
he put his arm around this man, said something to him, and this
man just started weeping. And he asked the translator there,
he said, did I say something wrong? I know my ability to speak
in this language isn't all that good. But he said, he talked
to him for a few minutes and he said, no, he said, he's weeping
because you're the first man who has touched him. And I forget
how many years. The Lord Jesus Christ, he touched
us. He was not afraid. It's filthy. How did he receive us? Filthy
to cleanse us, to wash us. How did he receive us? He received
us in all of our ignorance. Oh my. Don't you look back? If you've
been saved for any time at all, think about when you first trusted
the Lord, some of the things that you believed and thought,
some of the misconceptions you had even about the scripture.
But he received us in our ignorance to teach us. And lastly, he received us in
all of our hopelessness to be our hope, to be our hope. Now let me close a prayer of
the apostle here, verse 13. He had never visited this church,
but he loved them, and he asked for this great blessing for them,
that the God of hope, now the God of hope fill you with all
joy and peace and believing that you may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost. Notice he says that the Lord
would fill you with joy and peace. These are part of the fruit of
the Spirit that we read about in Galatians chapter five. Longsuffering,
gentleness, love, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, and temperance. and joy and peace that God would
fill them with the Holy Spirit. Have you ever had a disagreement
with a brother, a sister in Christ, maybe a member of the same church? I wouldn't be surprised. I found
this, I found this to be true. One of the best things that you
can do, one of the best ways to overcome that is to do just
like the Apostle Paul is doing for this church here, pray. Pray for that person. Whoever
it is, whatever the disagreement is, pray for that person. Pray that God will fill them
with joy and peace. And you'd be surprised how quickly
whatever the difference is is forgotten. It has to be small. in the grand scheme of things.
The strong praying for the weak and vice versa. The weak praying
for the strong. I pray the Lord would bless this
word, us here this evening. Remember, we will not have a
service this Wednesday. Happy Thanksgiving. And Bill's
going to lead us in another hymn and then we'll be dismissed.