Now let's open our Bibles tonight
again to Romans chapter 12. I'll just remind us again tonight
that with this chapter begins the practical part of this letter,
the epistle of Romans. the doctrinal, the teaching part
in the first 11 chapters, and now we begin with the practical
part, the application, if you please. I gave us an outline
of this chapter last week that divides it into three divisions. The first division, verses one
and two, we have looked at for the last two weeks. What should
be the attitude of the justified believer toward God? The justified
believer. Remember the scripture in Romans
5, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with
God. Verses one and two, what should
be the attitude of the justified believer toward God? Tonight,
beginning with verse three and through verse 13, the second
part of the chapter, what should be the attitude of the justified
believer toward fellow Christians? What should be the attitude of
the justified believer toward fellow Christians? I have three
parts to the message. First, how we as believers are
to think about ourself. Now we as believers are to think
about ourselves. Notice beginning in verse three.
For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that
is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought
to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to
every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in
one body, and all members have not the same office, so we, being
many, are one body in Christ, every one member's one of another,
having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to
us, whether prophecy let us prophesy according to the proportion of
faith. Actually, I read verse 6, but
these verses we're looking at first, verses 3 through 5, how
we as believers are to think about ourself. You notice in
verse 1, the apostle, he began, I beseech you, therefore. But now in this verse, he writes,
for I say, before I beseech you. But now, for I say, and he says
through the grace given unto him. For I say through the grace
given to me. Now the grace here that Paul
is speaking about is the grace of the apostleship. He was an
apostle. This grace was the grace of apostleship. Remember he's writing to a church,
to a group of believers, that he had never visited, and yet,
as an apostle, he has authority to write, and this is where we
know the inspiration of the apostles. They were given divine inspiration
so that what they wrote in these letters is given by inspiration
of God. Every scripture, the scripture
tells us, is given by inspiration of God. If you look back in the
first chapter of this book, this letter rather, you see that he
addresses them. Let's look back here in Romans
chapter 1, just a moment. As an apostle, he writes to them
rather, as an apostle. a servant of Jesus Christ called
to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. So he's writing,
I write or I say unto you by the grace that is given unto
him as an apostle, how are we to think about ourself as a child
of God is being justified by the imputed righteousness of
Christ, how are we to think about ourself? Well, first of all,
he tells us we are to think soberly. We're to think soberly about
ourself. And I would just say we must
all think about ourself like the Apostle Paul thought about
himself when he said, I am what I am by the grace of God. We
should all think soberly. We are what we are by the grace
of God. Whatever ability we have and
whatever knowledge, whatever Christian knowledge we have,
I have it not by myself, but rather from God. It is the gift
of God. No matter how much ability and
how much Christian knowledge I may have, I do not have it
all. We ought to think soberly. All
the ability and all the Christian knowledge that we have tonight,
each one of us here as His children, all that we have, we have by
the grace of God, and all that we have, let's recognize we don't
have all. We don't have all. We don't have
all the knowledge, the Christian knowledge. Every believer, as
Paul says here, has some knowledge of the faith of the gospel. Some have more light than others. Some have more understanding
than others. And so we must think soberly. None of us have all the knowledge. For I say through the grace given
unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself
more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly,
according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Every believer, as I said, we
all have some knowledge of the faith of the gospel. We wouldn't
be God's children if we had none, but some have more light, some
have more understanding, but none of us have all. Is that
clear? We're to think soberly. Everything
we have, we have by the grace of God. And none of us have all
knowledge. None of us. If we learn how we
are to think about ourself and to do it, if we learn how and
we practice it, it will keep us from thinking more highly
of ourself than we ought to think. Now Paul uses one of his favorite
examples. You find this in several of his
letters. One of his favorite examples
to emphasize the truth about the church. The church of the
Lord Jesus Christ is his body. Let me read you one verse, Ephesians
chapter 1. Verses 22 and 23, and hath put
all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over
all things to the church, which is his body. The church, which
is his body. The same thing he wrote to the
Colossians in the letter of Colossians. So Paul points to, he points
us rather to the human body, which has many members. has many members in our body, but there's only one body. Now,
when I think about the church, the mystical body of Christ,
I think about every child of God in this world, everyone who
has been saved. we're all members of His body. Doesn't matter what denomination
we may partake of or be a part of, if we're truly saved, we've
been born again of the Spirit of God, we are part of His body. It's called His mystical body
because it is a mystery, isn't it? It is a mystery. There's
no doubt about this. And yet the scriptures very clearly
teach this. But yet, That is a church I'd
call the universal church. All over this world, his body
is made up of every child of God. But then we read in the
scripture of churches, plural, not just one church, but churches. And so we know from the New Testament,
there are local churches, just like our church here. This is
a local church. And this is a body, the mystical
body of Christ. I asked Brother Cliff Heller
one time, missionary in New Guinea, and from everything I've been
able to finagle out of him, which is very little, about how the Lord's blessed
that work over there. But everything that I've heard,
God greatly used him there. Over 50 years he was there working
in one tribe. And there are many churches,
many churches. And I asked him one time, he
was there at our house, and I said, brother, how many people does
it take to make a church? He said, well, the scripture
says where two or three are gathered together. So I don't know how
many churches are in that tribe. But I know there are many. And
I know recently, when Lance was there, they had a meeting of
the people from all the churches, as I understood it, and there
were several thousands of people there. So, yes, some churches
may be two or three, but some may be two or three hundred,
I don't know. But they're local churches. Local churches, just
like our church is a local church. There are many members. There
are many members, but there's only one body. There's only one
body, whether it's the universal body or the local body. There's
many members of the local body, just as our human body has many
members, but the members don't all have the same function. Every
member has its own work. You think about the eye and the
hand, how different. And yet how necessary the eye
to see, the hand to grasp or pick up something with. But if
the hand were to try to do the work of the eye, if every member
did the work of the eye, it wouldn't be a good thing. Just like our
bodies, right? If every member tried to do the
same work. I heard a man preaching a few
weeks ago and he said that When he was in college, I believe
it was, he played on the baseball team. And he played third base. And he said he found out, playing
third base, if he just played his base, his position. But when he had run over there
and tried to play the position of the shortstop, that didn't
work. He had his position, his place. And the same is true about a
church, isn't it? We're all one body, and yet there
are many members. And we all are to think soberly
of ourselves. None of us are to think more
highly of ourselves than we should. Now, that's the first thing.
How? We as believers are to think
about ourselves. We're not to think more highly
of ourselves. We're to think soberly, recognizing
that any ability that we have and any grace that we have and
any knowledge that we have, we don't have all knowledge and
we don't have all the gifts. We don't have all the work to
do. We're part of a whole, members
of a whole. And we should not think more
highly of ourself. We're to think soberly about
ourself. Now second, the members of the
body all have differing gifts. I've already said that, but look
in verses six through eight. The members of the body, we all
have differing gifts. having then gifts differing according
to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us
prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry, let us
wait on our ministry, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that
exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth, let him do it with
simplicity, he that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy
with cheerfulness. These verses speak to us of the
differing gifts in the church. But before we look at these differing
gifts, I want to remind all of us of this. There's one gift
that all of us have. There's one gift that every member
of the body of Christ has been given. Look with me in 1 Corinthians
chapter 12. The one gift that every Each
member has is the gift of the Holy Spirit. I Corinthians chapter
12 and verses 12 through 14. For as the body is one, I told
you this is one of Paul's favorite analogies. He used this in several
letters. The body, the human body. made
up of many members. For as the body is one, and hath
many members, and all the members of that one body being many,
are one body, so also is Christ, the body of Christ. For by one
Spirit, the Holy Spirit, by one Spirit are we all baptized into
one body. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles,
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 members. Now, in this passage we see that
there's one gift that every member has been given, and that is the
gift of the Holy Spirit. Now this passage is not speaking
of water baptism. Don't ever think that when it
says, for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body. It's not talking about water
baptism here. It's speaking about regeneration,
about the new birth. And then we're told we're all
made to drink and to partake of one spirit, that is the Holy
Spirit. Every member of the body. We
are all given this gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit. We've
all been baptized into the body of Christ, quickened, made alive,
regenerated, whatever term you want to use, a new birth. But
that's the work of God, the Holy Spirit. He's the one who has
accomplished this in us. And I want you to notice here
in this passage in 1 Corinthians 12, before we turn back to our
text, If you look back to verse 11, the apostle said, but all
these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, that is God
the Holy Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will. The Holy Spirit, He divides severally
as He will. When we think about the sovereignty
of God, We talk about God being sovereign. I would imagine most
all of us, we think primarily of the Father. But when we say
God is sovereign, we are talking about God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God is sovereign. And the apostle
here tells us that it is God the Holy Spirit who sovereignly,
sovereignly, according to His will, gives us gifts which are
different. We don't all have the same gift. Now John Gill, back in our text,
John Gill, who I think all of us would recognize as a very
able commentator, he saw these gifts as two. Pastor, deacon. That's the way
he understood these verses. Pastor, deacon. We recognize from other scriptures
that these are the two offices in a local church. Pastor and
deacons, according to the New Testament. These are the two
offices in the local church, in the body of Christ. And we recognize, or I do, that
these scriptures tonight may especially apply to them. The pastor does prophesy. And
don't believe that that word prophesies always means predicting
the future. When you look at the prophets
in the Old Testament, you see that very seldom did they predict
the future. That was not the work primarily
of a prophet. A prophet was to reveal the will
of God, to teach and preach the will of God. And so yes, pastors,
we do prophesy, we interpret the scripture, we teach, and
we exhort. And yes, deacons, they do minister,
they do give, and they do rule. There's no question about that.
But having said that, These things that are written
here, I don't see that they must exclusively apply to the pastor
and the deacons. Yes, they do apply. But not exclusively. And I'll tell you why. One reason
I say this. If you look with me in Acts chapter
6. In Acts chapter 6. The word which is translated
ministry there in Romans is found two times in these first four
verses here in Acts chapter 6. It's found two times. The first time it's found in
verse 1 and it is translated ministration. The second time
it is found in verse 4 and it's translated ministry. Now let's
read the passage. And in those days when the number
of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the
Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected
in the daily ministration. That is, in giving, helping the
widows, those who were in need, who were part of the church.
Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and
said, It's not a reason that we should leave the Word of God
and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look you
out, you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost
and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business, but we will
give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of
the Word. So we see the same word is used
in the distribution the ministry, the distribution among the widows,
the same word is used concerning the work of the apostles, that
they would give themselves to prayer and to the ministry of
the word. And surely, when you think about
it, there's a sense in which every believer, every believer
has these gifts to teach parents, They have the gift to teach their
children. And it's a very big responsibility
that parents are given to teach their children. I'm talking about
Christian parents. To teach their children the things
of God. Minister. We all minister to
one another. Exhort. There are times when
we need exhorting. We need to be exhorted, and we
need to exhort, give, rule. Parents rule in the house, do
they not? And show mercy. And we should
do these things, as the scripture here says, with simplicity, diligence,
and cheerfulness. All of these things, if it's
just the pastor, if it's the deacons, if it's all of us, which
I believe it applies to all of us, whatever we do, we're to
do so in serving Christ with simplicity and with diligence. The work of the Lord is to be
done with diligence, not haphazardly, diligently. and with cheerfulness. I read this past week about a
man who was a chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court back in
the 1920s. His name was Charles Evans Hughes. He served two times on the Supreme
Court. The second time in 1930, he was
appointed the chief justice. His father was a Baptist pastor,
and he was a believer and was known as a believer. When he moved his family, or
when he moved to Washington to be the Chief Justice, he joined
a Baptist church. And in this Baptist church, they
had this custom. When a person joined, they would
ask that person to come to the front of the building to be introduced
to the congregation. On the Sunday that he joined
and was to be presented to the church, the first man, there
were several joining that day, and the first person who joined
was a Chinese laundryman who had moved from San Francisco
to Washington to open up a laundry, to work in a laundry. I saw his
name, but I can't remember his name. But anyway, they called,
he was a believer. They called him, and he came
up to the front, and he walked over to one side. They called
another name, and this man or woman, he came down, walked over
to this side. And they called a few more, and
all of them went over here. Chinese believer over here by
himself. And finally, they called the
chief justice, his name. And he came down and where do
you think he went? It went over there and stood
by this believer. And the pastor made a statement,
something like this. And the reason I'm telling us
this is because this word exhort What it literally means is to
stand alongside. It's very close to that word
that is translated advocate in 1st John 2 and comforter in John
chapter 14. But that's what it simply means,
just stand alongside. And here comes the chief justice
of the U.S. Supreme Court down and stands
alongside this obviously poor person, believer. And the pastor
made a statement like this. He said, I want you to know,
congregation, you've just seen the truth, that at the cross
of Jesus Christ, we're all on level ground. We're all on level
ground. And I read that story and I thought
about Scott Richardson. when he came back from the Pacific,
I believe, after World War II on a troop ship. And he had got
a couple of stripes, he said, on his shoulder, I guess a corporal,
after several years in the Army. And on that ship coming back,
he was assigned KP duty. And he said he was assigned KP
duty several times. He thought too many times. He
went to the man who was above him, I guess the CO, the commanding
officer, and he laid out his complaint before that man. And
that man told him, he said, listen, when you came up that plank onto
this ship, you left your stripes over there on shore. There is no difference here on
the ship. Everybody, no matter what your
rank is, Everyone's going to serve kitchen duty. Everyone. At the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the pastor pointed that out
about this, and he also, being familiar with this scripture,
said, you've seen a demonstration of what the word of God teaches
us concerning exhorting one another. That it literally means to stand
alongside a believer. And sometimes that's all it takes,
isn't it? Sometimes that's all we can do. And yet, what a blessing it is
just to stand alongside somebody that maybe is going through some
trial. I remember years ago going to a funeral service and I told
the person I was going with, I said, you know, I just don't
know what to say. Never feel comfortable, do you? And this person very wisely told
me this. He said, you know, you don't
have to say anything. Just being there. Just being
there is a comfort to the people who've lost a loved one. And that's true, isn't it? Just
stand alongside. And that's the ministry. That's
what I'm saying. We all have a ministry one to
the other. I was looking, let me say this
before I move on. Several quotes, I was reading
various quotes by this justice. Look them up online. They're
interesting, but let me give you one. A man has to live with
himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company. You get that? A man has to live
with himself. and he should always see that
he has good company. Here's the third, putting into
practice what our attitude toward other believers will produce. First of all, what we should
think about ourselves as justified believers, we should think soberly
and not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think.
And secondly, Our attitude toward other believers
should be that as pictured in the body, the human body. All
of us members of the same body having different functions, but
all working together for the good of the body. Now, lastly,
putting into practice what our attitude toward other believers
will produce, verses 9 through 13. Our attitude calls for love without
dissimulation. We notice that, first of all.
Love without dissimulation. Our love for God and other believers
must be without hypocrisy. It must not be feigned, but genuine
love. And I say to us tonight, it does
us good to read First Corinthians 13, quite often, Paul's description
of love. Our love must be without hypocrisy. Second, abhor that which is evil
and cleave to that which is good. In the psalm that Brother Streeter
taught from this morning, this is one of the things that we
saw about the Savior. Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity. And I asked you tonight, I asked
myself, are we indifferent to evil or do we abhor evil? Are we just indifferent or do
we abhor evil? Be kindly, affection one to another
with brotherly love and honor each other. Preferring, let not
every man look upon his own things, but upon the things of others.
honor others, see how we may serve others. We must not be
slothful, in verse 11, but fervent. And we understand that this is
speaking of spiritual things, but you know, the same thing
is true of a believer in the things of this world, because
we're told, go to the ant, thou sluggard. Man, you know, when
God created Adam, and placed him in the garden. He was holy,
but God gave him work. Idleness is not good. Remember
that old saying, idleness is the devil's workshop? That's
one of those sayings that I've heard since I was a little kid.
But it's true. I saw this morning reading in
Ezekiel chapter 16 about Sodom. Before Sodom was destroyed, there's
three things or said about Sodom. And one thing was there was a
fullness of bread. And one thing was there was idleness,
idleness. It's good to work. And honest
work is good. And honest work never hurt anyone. I remember what that doctor told
a friend of mine. He said hard work never killed
anyone. And I don't suppose it does.
And we're to be not slothful, but fervent. And the next thing
we see rejoicing in hope, the hope that we have tonight, the
Lord Jesus Christ coming again, patient in tribulation, continuing
instant in prayer. Our Lord taught us to pray. And
he taught us to pray with expectancy, and he taught us to pray with
perseverance. Ask and keep on asking. Knock and keep on knocking. Seek and keep on seeking. That's
the way those words could be translated. We're to pray, we're
to ask, and we're to ask with perseverance. Distributing to the necessity
of saints, given to hospitality. Let me ask this question in closing. Can saints have needs? Notice what it says. Verse 13. Distributing to the necessity
of saints. Can saints have needs? That one statement, if you stop
and think about it, that one statement explodes some of the
things that are being taught today in so-called Christian
pulpits, distributing to the necessity of saints. Those who teach that the church
makes men saints after death, well, that's not true. This letter
was written to saints. To saints. That simply means
a person's been sanctified, been set apart by the spirit of God. Every child of God is a saint. I'm preaching to saints tonight. And don't you just love it when
these religious people say, well, I'm no saint. Whoever accused
you of being one. They don't understand what they're
saying. When a person says, I'm no saint, what he is saying,
he doesn't realize it. If she doesn't realize it, I'm
lost. I've never been regenerated by
the Spirit of God. Every believer is a saint. Men are not made saints after
they're dead. What a lie. Another lie that
is exploded by this is that we are to pray to the saints. Where'd you ever read that in
the Word of God? Pray to the saints? No, no. We
pray to our Father. That's what we're taught to do,
not to pray to saints. And a third Live it's thought
that it's always God's will for believers to be wealthy in this
world. Believers shouldn't have any
needs, not if they have faith, not if they believe God. They
shouldn't have any needs. Well, here was some at Rome,
evidently who were saints, and yet they had needs. And as long
as the Lord Jesus Christ has had a church in this world, and
that's from the very beginning, And as long as he has a church
in this world, this fallen world as it is, there's going to be
saints who will have needs. And it's our privilege, our privilege
to help others, help those in need. I pray that the Lord will
bless this word to each one of us here tonight. Let's sing and
then we'll be dismissed.