submission to government

One need only to turn on the news today or pick up a newspaper to be reminded that we are in an election year.  In November, we will be voting to determine who will be our president for the next four years.  And I’m sure that you, as well as I do, follow closely what is going on in our national politics, as we are aware of the tremendous impact government has on our lives, on our families, on our children’s future and for the direction of our country.

Today we are constantly told of the need for separation of church and state.  The left is afraid that the church is going to try to mandate morality and try to cram it down their throat, and the church is afraid that the government is going to stifle our religious freedoms and tell us what we can and cannot teach and believe.  And yet this tension is not something new.  This see saw has been going on for thousands of years.

In our text today, Paul is going to tell us what our responsibilities are as a church to the governing authorities.  And next time we are going to see what authorities God has given to government and what our response is supposed to be.

But what we need to understand at the very outset is that from a Biblical point of view, the hope for this country, or for that matter any country, is not going to be found in the political arena.  The only hope for the world is found in Jesus Christ.  Only when men’s hearts are changed, transformed to the will of God, by the supernatural power of God, can there be any lasting hope for man.

That is why Paul has spent the first 11 chapters of Romans telling us how we can be transformed by God.  How we must understand first of all that all men are depraved and lost in their sins and in need of a Savior.  And that God made it possible through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins to be atoned for, so that we who believe in Him will be credited with righteousness as a gift of God.   And how having been made righteous we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the spiritual presence of God to live in us, so that we might be able to do the will of God.  We become part of the body of Christ, the church.   And the church as the manifestation of Christ is the only hope for the world.  So what exactly is the church?

In Matthew 16:18 Jesus said to Peter, “Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” The church is  God’s spiritual house. The church is the earthly representation of God’s Kingdom of Heaven. Peter says in 1Peter 2:5, “You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Now that we individually have become transformed into living stones, indwelled by the Holy Spirit, then both individually and corporately we are made into the dwelling of God, to be God’s chosen people, God’s instrument whereby He is made manifest to the world.

Peter goes on to say in 1 Peter 2, “You are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.”

See, when God called out Abraham from the land of his pagan fathers and told him that He would create from his seed a chosen people and a chosen race from which the world would be blessed, God was prophesying that 400 years in the future He would bring out a race of people from slavery in Egypt  and separate them from the world.  He would be their God and they would be His people.  He would be to them both God and King.  And this nation was ruled by what is known as a theocracy.  God set forth laws at Mt. Sinai for this people, governing every aspect of the way that they should live. 

But a few hundred years later, Israel rejected God from being their king and wanted to have a king like the rest of the world.  And God warned them of the consequences of that decision, but they insisted in their call for a king and finally God gave them what they wanted. God allowed them to have Saul, and then David, and then Solomon, and there was a certain amount of blessing under David and Solomon.  But after Solomon things quickly fell apart until the kingdom became divided into a northern and southern kingdom, each with their own monarchy, and then eventually the northern kingdom became completely overthrown and the people were taken into captivity and eventually dispersed.  By the time of Christ, there was only the southern kingdom left, basically made up of the tribes of Benjamin, Judah and the Levites, and they were under the iron rule of Rome.

So the Roman Empire really was the governing authority for Israel at the time which Paul wrote this letter.   And I believe it would help us understand this passage if we first of all understand the historical context in which it was written.  Herod was the king of the Jews, and yet He wasn’t even a Jew, He was appointed by Caesar.  And these rulers of that day had practically absolute power.  They were tyrants.  If you remember, at the time of Jesus birth, Herod had every male child under the age of 2 killed throughout all of Israel.  He was able to do this solely by his own authority without any fear of repercussions. 

And Caesar, if you remember just before the birth of Christ, was able to make a decree whereby all people had to travel to their birthplace to register for the census for the purposes of taxation.  And so everyone in the Roman Empire had to make this journey to their homeland.  The Caesar’s had unbelievable authority.   Not only could they do whatever they wanted, but they also were worshipped as a god. 

In the time of Christ, slavery was the law of the land.  It was an established and accepted practice and all sorts of abuses happened in the name of slavery.  Taxation was especially oppressive.  Tax collectors like Matthew and Zaccheus were given the authority of the Roman government to collect taxes and to add on exorbitant charges which went directly into their pockets.  That is why tax collectors were hated so much in those days.

And not the least of these abuses of power was the persecution of the church.  Christians were blamed for the burning of Rome and for causing insurrections.  And  as such they were routinely rounded up and thrown into prison or worse, used as entertainment for the Coliseum amusements in which they were thrown to the lions or sent to be butchered by gladiators.   The emperor Nero was one of the worst, he tied Christians to stakes around his palace grounds and set them on fire to illuminate his parties.

And into this cauldron of political excess and abuse of power, Jesus Christ came declaring that the kingdom of heaven was at hand.  At first, there was a great interest by the Jews because they were looking for a Messiah who would deliver them from the political oppression and restore the throne of David to the prosperity and dominance that it once enjoyed under Solomon.  But Jesus never came to bring about a social revolution. His appeal was always to the hearts of men, it was always to the souls of men, not their political freedoms. It was not social justice that Jesus sought. He didn’t participate in civil rights. He wasn’t involved in a crusade to abolish slavery. He preached the gospel and He knew that the only real justice and the only real solutions to man’s problems would come when hearts are changed. He was not interested in a new social order, He was interested in a new spiritual order. And so Jesus didn’t come to establish an earthly kingdom, He came to create the church. 

Jesus was saying earthly kingdoms will come and go.  But the church will endure forever.  Because the church is the spiritual kingdom of God in which He rules in His people.  And as a result of Christ living and ruling in our lives, the world will not only hear the truth, but witness their changed behavior, and that testimony will be to the glory of God, that others might be called to surrender their will to God, by believing in Jesus Christ.

And so in that context we see that this text in chapter 13 concerning political and governing authorities comes out of the previously stated theology regarding the church.  As living stones, as living sacrifices, as temples of God, as God’s chosen people, as the Kingdom of God, we are to live our lives in such a way as to be a testimony to the world, to show them Christ.  By the way, Peter confirms what Paul is saying in 1 Peter 2:“Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.  Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.”

Today we find ourselves as the modern day church living in a political situation that is not that different from the days of  Peter and Paul and Christ.  If anything, we are living for the moment in a much more tolerant environment, at least here in America. But there are people living in certain places of the world today who are under highly abusive systems. Their problems, and the problems of the people in the New Testament time, and the problems of people who are under severe duress in the nations in which they live are much more severe than ours. We can complain about the way things are in America, but no minority group in America has had their infant children massacred. Nobody in Washington  has made an edict to kill all the baby boys under two, while mothers stood around and wept.

And even those that are struggling with difficulties in life seem to be able to find certain luxuries like a TV set, a hot meal, running water, electricity and transportation that could not even have been fathomed 2000 years ago.  We  cannot allow the fact that everything isn’t the way we would like it to be to cause us to turn our attention away from our God directed responsibility to government to a self directed one. Nor can we turn away from the urgency of the  message of the gospel to a social gospel. We are obviously called to live godly lives in the world. We are obviously called to demonstrate righteousness, to pursue righteousness, call for righteousness, and uphold righteousness. We are obviously called to speak the revelation of God into this society so that this society can enjoy more of the common grace that God provides when people live according to His laws, even non-believing people.

We are obviously called to do all of that. The church is designed to be the very manifestation of divine righteousness in the world, in the culture. But our responsibility specifically to the government is stated here in this text. Be in subjection.  Romans 13:1 “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”  Now notice the parallel between what Paul said to what we read earlier from Peter in 1 Peter 2; Verse 13, “Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.”

Peter goes on to say starting in vs. 15, “For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.  Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.  Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.”

Wow! Submit, even to a master who is unreasonable, even to a king that’s unreasonable, even to a governor that’s unreasonable. “For this finds favor if for the sake of conscience toward God, a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.” Amazing. There is something to be gained for the gospel even when you suffer unjustly in silence, for the sake of keeping a pure conscience before God. You want to be an influence for peace, we read that in Romans 13, you want to do right and thus silence the ignorance of foolish men, do right as that society and as every man knows because right is written in the heart, you want to honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God and honor the king.

So Peter and Paul agree on this, as we would expect since they are both under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We have a mandate, a responsibility to live out our justification by grace through faith, our self-sacrificing lives should be models of submission to government authority, no matter whether that government authority is what we want it to be or not. This is a biblical pattern for all people. Our responsibility is to be subject to the higher powers, the governing authorities. 

And the word subject is from the Greek verb hupotasso which means under, essentially a military word which means to line up under a commander, speaks of soldiers lining up under the one who commands them. Get in line underneath the powers that govern the governing authorities, the existing civil government without limitation here, without qualification, whether they be reasonable or unreasonable.

And Peter says in regards to subjection that we are to do it for the Lord’s sake, as unto  the Lord.  Not for our sake.  Our rights may be violated.  Our privacy may be violated.  But we are to render unto kings and authorities the submission due them, as if we were submitting to the Lord.  This can be hard.  It offends our sensibilities.  It sometimes offends our sense of justice, of righteousness. 

We’ve had the luxury in this country in the past of sometimes seeing our values upheld by society as the norm.  And yet today we are seeing our values growing further and further apart from American society.  And yet we are to submit to the governing authority.  That doesn’t mean we are to conform to the world’s values.  No, that would be the direct opposite of the foundation Paul laid in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, for this is your acceptable, spiritual service to God.” 

Now there are times when we’re allowed not to obey the government.  In Acts 4. Acts 4 starting in vs. 13, we see Peter and John were told by the Jewish leaders that they were not to speak any more in the name of Christ. verse 19, “Peter and John answered and said to them, ‘Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge. We cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.’” Here is where the authority of the government ends, when the government forbids you to do what God commands you to do, you do what God commands you to do. When the government tells you to do what God has not allowed you to do, that’s where you stop. When the government mandates what God forbids, we obey God. And then accept the consequences. We don’t start a violent revolution, we simply refuse to disobey God. We do what God has commanded us to do and we accept the consequences.

Go to the fifth chapter of Acts for a minute. They brought them before the Council. The High Priest comes in now and is trying to shut them up. They’re preaching Christ. They haven’t stopped. The High Priest says to them in verse 28 of Acts 5, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name and yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood on us.” Not only did they fill Jerusalem with the teaching, but they blamed the Jews for the murder of Jesus. Here’s Peter’s and the Apostles’ answer, verse 29, “We must obey God rather than men.”

You may come to a point where you have to disobey the government when the government tells you to do what God forbids you to do, or mandates that you stop doing what God commands you to do.

But here is the key, as much as it is possible, chapter 12 verse 18;  “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.”  So far as it depends on you.  The government is corrupt?  Submit to the government.  The government is unreasonable?  Submit to the government.  The government charges too much taxes?  Submit to the government.  The government demands you stop declaring Jesus Christ?  Obey God, but you still submit to the government in regards to whatever consequences they have for your disobedience. 

Of all the missionary work and travels that Paul did in his life, I would suggest that his greatest work, his most enduring work was done in a prison, shackled to a Roman guard 24 hours a day as he wrote his letters to the churches under divine inspiration.  Whatever consequences we face as Christians, let it be suffering as Peter said for doing right, not for doing wrong.  And let God take care of using those consequences for His glory and to advance His kingdom as He sees fit.

Jesus could have called 10,000 angels to His defense, as he told Pilate, but He submitted himself to the Roman and Jewish authorities and achieved the greatest, most enduring work of creation, the redemption of mankind. 

God’s ways are not our ways.  His wisdom is so far above our wisdom.  He sees the past, the present and the future in a way that we can never even fathom.  And in His wisdom, He has chosen the weak things, and the foolish things to confound the mighty.  So the guiding principle in our life and conduct  is to be like Paul’s found in  2Cor. 12:9            “And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

God's blueprint for the church

Now in our ongoing study of Romans we have almost finished chapter 12, and we have been looking at it verse by verse.  But today I want to try to go back over this again in a summary, because I believe it is such an important passage regarding the church and I want to make sure that we don’t lose sight of the forest because of the trees.  In other words, we need to stay focused on the big picture.  And the big picture that is presented here is the life of the believer within the church.  Too many times when we come to this chapter and others like it, we want to cherry pick certain subordinate themes such as spiritual gifts or love, and focus on them.  But it is extremely important for the health of the church to take this whole chapter in context, and see how each section works together to achieve one common goal.

The word church is never mentioned in this chapter, but the idea of the body of Christ is clearly presented, and we should all know that the church and the body of Christ is synonymous.  Now it is clear from the context that Paul having laid the groundwork of the doctrine of salvation in the first 11 chapters, in other words, how you become part of the body of Christ, he is now presenting in the rest of the book how the church should function. But I believe that this first chapter of application, chapter 12, has been overlooked in it’s importance for straightforwardly giving us the guiding principles for church life.

This is God’s blueprint for how the church is supposed to function.  And yet I am afraid that today the church as a whole is so far off track that we are in very real danger of  being completely ineffective, if not altogether useless for the Kingdom of God.  Consequently, in spite of the church’s efforts to figure out new ways to be relevant to the world and our culture, we actually have become of almost no influence whatsoever. If anything, the church is being influenced by the culture, rather than the church influencing the culture. As a result, the modern church is of little use to the culture, and sadly, in many cases of little use to God either.

This is why we are losing the culture war.  This is why churches are failing to win the hearts and minds of our children and our youth.  This is why thousands of churches across our country are dying along with their aging congregations made up almost solely from the ranks of  the elderly from previous generations  while our children and young people abandon ship at an alarming rate.  The most often heard request I get from people after a service is asking me to pray for their kids who have abandoned the faith.  The exodus has reached almost catastrophic proportions.

But the solution to the church’s problems isn’t a better praise band, or creating more of a night club atmosphere in our churches which we hope the world would be more attracted to, or trying to recreate a Disney movie set in our children’s church, but the only solution, the only hope for the church is found right here in this passage.  The church needs to become relevant, not to the world, but relevant to God again, and relevant to the rest of the body, and only when that happens will the world be drawn to the church. 

In the second chapter of Acts, we see the first church.  It came into existence in the midst of a culture not that different from ours.  Jerusalem was multi cultural. It was heavily influenced by pagan religions and Greek and Roman culture.  Every type of sin was rampant.  Immorality of every kind was common place.  Homosexuality was openly practiced by the Roman Emperors and much of the upper class of Greek society.  And yet notice what it says about the early church in Act 2:42  “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  What?  That’s it?  No concerts?  No skits?  No drama?  Just a bunch of preaching and prayer and fellowship?  How archaic.  It must have been a dismal failure.  But no, after God saved 3000 people the first day, it says, “Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,

praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

So right there God’s blueprint for the church was instituted.  And Paul just takes that and unpacks it here in this chapter.  And he basically says, God’s blueprint for the church can be broken down into three parts.  1.The church’s attitude  to God, 2. The church’s attitudes toward fellow Christians, and 3. the church’s attitude toward the world. 

Now first off, understand that the body of Christ or the church is not an organization, it’s not a building, but is made up of individual believers.  Look at vs. 4 and 5, “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”  We individually are the body of Christ, and corporately we make up the church of Christ. 

1Cor. 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”  You have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body.   So as a result of  becoming righteous and holy through faith in Christ, the Spirit of Christ lives in our bodies, so that we become the living stones which make up this spiritual body we call the church. 1Peter 2:5 “You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Here is the principle then: having been saved, having received righteousness by faith in Christ, I am transformed from a dead stone to a living stone and now I live to offer up sacrifices to God through the power of Christ who lives in me.  And Paul begins this passage by affirming first and foremost that our attitude as a member of Christ’s church should be that of offering your body to God as a living sacrifice in spiritual worship.  And very briefly, that means that as we already stated in 1 Cor. 6:19 that since we are bought with a price we no longer consider our body as our own. 

We offer back this redeemed life to God to be used in service of His will.  Vs. 2, “that we may do the will of God.”  This is our purpose.  This is our mission for the time left on this earth. So the attitude of the church towards God should be to offer the service of their lives to God as a living sacrifice to do the will of God. Not my will but His will be done.

Then secondly, Paul tells us what the attitude of the member of the church towards the rest of the church should be, towards other believers.  And the first thing we should notice is that God doesn’t call us to do something without providing the means for us to do it.  It doesn’t mean that everything God calls us to do is going to be easy.  No, far from it.  It is usually going to take some sacrifice.  That’s why Paul’s first point was that we offer ourselves as a sacrifice.  Sacrifice is a hallmark of service.  But the good news is that He will not call you to do something that He doesn’t equip you to do.  And in this passage, Paul lists seven general gifts, or I think a better word would be empowerments, to enable us to do what God has asked us to do.

Now we looked at this subject in great detail in our last couple of studies, so I will not belabor the gifts again.  But note just a couple of points.  First of all, he says you need to exercise the gifts.  Not only is our salvation based on faith, but our gifts are based on faith as well.  And remember we don’t want to confuse our natural talents with spiritual gifts.  They are not necessarily the same thing.  This mistaking natural gifts for spiritual gifts is the origin of a lot of confusion in the church today.  We’ve got people running around masquerading natural, fleshly talents as spiritual gifts.  They may be gifted at attracting attention to themselves, but in most cases I believe natural talents and spiritual gifts are diametrically opposed.  God uses the weak things of the world to shame them that are strong. 1Cr.1:27

What Paul is talking about is God giving you an opportunity, such as service, and then God providing you  the resources and strength to serve as He has given you opportunity, provided you exercise it in faith.   That’s why it says, Rom 12:6            “Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”  Notice the way Paul presents these gifts, it’s all about practicality.  You have an opportunity to serve, then serve!  You have an opportunity to give, then give!  You have an opportunity to teach, then teach!  The emphasis is on doing it.  Just get on with it.  God gives you the opportunity, then trust Him to provide the ability to do what He has called you to do, and step out in faith and do it.

Please understand something this morning that is fundamental for the effectiveness of the church.  Gifts are not given to measure our spiritual significance or for our spiritual security, but for spiritual service.  It’s the practical supply from God of the power to do what He wants you to do in service to the church. No gift that is given in this list is something that is to be used for yourself.  It is something that is to be used in service to other Christians. 

And I’ll tell you another principle to remember in regards to these gifts;  they are all tied back to sacrifice.  That’s where it starts and you never really get away from it in the Christian life.  That’s why Paul chooses to continue in this blueprint by using the word love, specifically agape love.  And agape love is the most often used word for Christian love, and it means a selfless, sacrificial love.  Remember Ephesians 5:25?  It says, “As Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” That’s the short definition of agape love. Sacrificial, serving love.

Listen, this goes right back to my original point about the church’s ineffectiveness in the 21^st century.  We use the word love as a euphemism in Christian circles today.  It’s used as a euphemism for God, or Jesus.  A lot of modern Christian songs today have substituted love for God, and I believe it’s because they think that it will be less offensive to the world.  But the problem with that is, Jesus came to be offensive. Rom 9:33  “Just as it is written, "BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED."

We think in our human reasoning that we need to help God out.  We need to make Him a little less offensive.  We need to soften the tone of His word.  If the church is going to succeed, we say, we need to make it more inclusive.  Stop talking about hell, for goodness sake.  We wouldn’t want to be accused of scaring people.  Stop talking about judgment.  And above all, don’t talk about sin.  Just talk about love, love, love.  And the world, not knowing we’re talking about a different kind of love than John Lennon was talking about, will somehow be drawn into the church.

The amazing thing to me is that God does actually want us to help.  He encourages us to help establish the kingdom of God.  He asks us to be His ambassadors to the world.  Knowing full well that our flesh is going to work against us. Knowing full well our natural reasoning and wisdom is going to work contrary to his wisdom.  That’s why He says in verse 2 that right after offering ourselves as a sacrifice we need to change our way of thinking.  “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  In other words, don’t let the wisdom of the world make the blueprint for the church.  Don’t think according to human reason and take a survey and plan according to what the best minds think, or try to copy what the biggest churches are doing and hope that works.  But instead we need our minds transformed according to God’s will and His plan.

So the 2^nd point,, which is the church’s attitude to other Christians and the 3^rd point, which is the church’s attitude to the world, both flow out of agape love that is presented in the last half of the chapter.  And Paul starts out by saying that love must be without hypocrisy.  And this is probably the biggest criticism that outsiders lodge against the church.  We hear this all the time, don’t we?  “I don’t want to go to church, it’s filled with nothing but a bunch of hypocrites.”

And Paul knows that  hypocrisy is one of the greatest detriments to an effective church.  Because too often, the church is marked by selfishness rather than self sacrifice.  See, we can’t get past that sacrifice part, can we?  The modern church is all about me.  We think of going to church the same way we think about going out to dinner at a restaurant.  “Where do you want to go this week, honey?”  How about Outback, or Ruby Tuesdays, or this place or that place?  Hey, I heard they have an early bird special at that restaurant down at the beach.  Let’s try that this week.”

But the church is not to be treated like going to a restaurant, but rather like going to a pot luck supper.  We used to have a lot of pot luck suppers when I was a kid growing up in church.  And everybody there would bring something.  I remember there were always a lot of deviled eggs.  As a young boy I really liked deviled eggs, and I always thought it was kind of sinful that they called them deviled eggs and we ate them at church.  And I always ate a lot of them, and they usually caused me a lot of trouble later on, if you know what I mean.  Maybe that’s why they are called deviled.   But the bottom line is, pot luck dinners were not just about eating, they were about serving others and fellowship.  And that was one of the characteristics of the first church that we read about a few minutes ago in Acts.

So we aren’t called to be spectators in church, but participants.  We are part of the body, and we have a part to play.  We have a role to fill.  So Paul says, don’t say you love God with your mouth, but live like you don’t.  Let your actions speak louder than your words.  That’s the problem with our children in a lot of cases, by the way.  We tell them that God should be the most important thing in their lives, and yet when they watch our lives they don’t see that.  We tell them they should go to church, and yet they don’t see that commitment lived out in our lives.  And then we are surprised when the grow up and leave the church.

But here is the amazing thing;  God makes us holy and righteous by His grace in response to our faith.  And then He puts the Holy Spirit to live inside these fleshly bodies, so that we might be the body of Christ on the earth.  And now as the body of Christ we are to be about the Father’s business, just as Jesus was.  Jesus tried to hammer home that point to Peter three times before He was taken up into heaven.  Three times Jesus asked Peter, “Peter, do you love Me?”  And Peter answered, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.”  And Jesus answered, “Feed my sheep.”  “Tend My sheep.” “Feed My Sheep.”  If we love God, then we will love His sheep and feed and tend His sheep.  That is God’s definition of love.  Taking care of His sheep.

John Stott said that love is a servant of the will, not a victim of emotion.  We are called to love the brethren whether we like them or not.  Jesus said in John 13, “Love one another as I have loved you.  All men will know that you are my disciples is you love one another.”  Agape love is defined in the rest of the chapter starting in verse 9 all the way to the end. And our first responsibility is to love the brethren. 1Ti 5:8  tells us,  “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”   So our first responsibility is for the fellow believers, the other parts of the body.  And we are all dependent upon each other, just as the physical body is dependent upon all the parts for good health.

Life in the Christian church without this kind of love is worthless.  No matter how awe inspiring you may think your spiritual gifts are, without a self less, sacrificial love for the brethren your gift is worthless.  I Cor. 13 tells us that without this sacrificial love I am a noisy nuisance. “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.”

 Without this serving, self sacrificing love we are nothing.  The biggest problem with the effectiveness of the local church is the absence of agape love.  We’re not called to love people we like.  We aren’t called to just love those of our social strata.  But the test of God is the motivation of our hearts to serve Him, not the physical attraction to others.   I Cor. 13 tells us that religious  activity, without agape love, is nothing.

So starting in vs. 9 then of Romans 12 we see another description of love:  without hypocrisy love the fellowship, give honor to the other person, don’t look for honor yourself, love by being diligent – don’t be a fair weather Christian.  Be diligent about the things of God. B fervent in spirit.  Serving the Lord by serving the church.  Rejoice in hope, no matter what the tribulation, but becoming ever more devoted to prayer.  Share in the needs of other believers, practicing hospitality to those who are hurting and in need.  This is agape love towards the believer in the church. 

And then finally, the church’s attitude we should show to the world.  And guess what?  We’re supposed to love them too.  We may not like what they do, or like what they stand for, but our attitude towards them is going to be marked by love; in other words, willing to sacrifice our rights for their sake and the sake of the gospel.  Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them.  Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.  Be above reproach in the sight of all men.  Wasn’t that what they said about the church in Acts?  It said that everyone spoke well of them.  They had favor with all the people in town.  Wow.  Would that could be said about the church.  Would that could be said about us.  Then maybe we would see the same results of the Lord adding to the number those that were being saved as they did. It goes on to say don’t take your own revenge.  Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. 

I will close with this story I heard about President Lincoln. When Abraham Lincoln was campaigning for the presidency, one of his archenemies was Edwin Stanton. They were both lawyers and had been rivals in a bitter trial.  Consequently, Stanton hated Lincoln, and used every ounce of his energy to degrade Lincoln in the eyes of the public, often using the bitterest diatribes in an attempt to embarrass him. He called him names, even describing him as a long armed gorilla.

But after Lincoln was elected, in the process of choosing his cabinet after his election, Lincoln selected Stanton for the important post of Secretary of War. The president's inner circle erupted in an uproar when they heard his choice. Numerous advisors came to Lincoln saying, "Mr. President, you are making a mistake. Are you familiar with all the ugly things he has said about you? He is your sworn enemy."

Lincoln replied, "Yes, I know.  But I believe that  Mr. Stanton is the best man for the job."

As Secretary of War Stanton gave invaluable service to his nation and his president. After Lincoln was assassinated, Stanton rushed to his bedside and said through his tears, there lies one of the greatest men who ever lived and said, "He now belongs to the ages."  Lincoln won over his one of his sworn enemies by showing him kindness.

Folks, God has called us to a higher purpose.  If you have been born again, then you’ve been born into the spiritual body of Jesus Christ.  Your physical body houses the Spirit of Christ who has equipped you for this great call to be about the Father’s business;  the business of tending His sheep, feeding His sheep, serving His sheep.  Church isn’t a spectator sport.  Jesus said in Mat 16:24, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

Listen, when the world sees Christians acting like Christ, and loving each other the way Christ loved the church, and then showing that love even towards those that hate them, then the world will be drawn to Christ through the church.

love and hate

Last week I said that spiritual gifts was one of the most misunderstood subjects of the Bible.  Paul lists seven gifts in Romans 12.  And to understand these gifts correctly, we must understand why God designed them and what His purpose is for them.  We broke this down Wednesday evening, but I realize a lot of you cannot be there on Wednesdays, and so I will try to briefly bring you up to speed.  Because none of this can be taken in isolation.  Paul builds this great dissertation we call Romans precept upon precept, and it’s imperative that you always look at what has proceeded the passage that you’re looking at if you want to interpret it correctly.

So, notice first of all that chapter 12 begins with exhortation and application, following 11 chapters of doctrine concerning our salvation.  Paul wants us to thoroughly understand our salvation.   And we have learned that we should not base salvation on good works, or our merits, or our heritage, or our nationality, or church membership, or circumcision or baptism or anything that we can do in and of ourselves.  But Paul makes it clear in those 11 chapters that salvation is  by grace, it is the gift of God to those who trust in the  atoning work of His Son Jesus Christ.

Therefore, he says in 12:1, on the basis of God’s great mercy by which He has saved us and made us born again into new life, having become a new creation, old things have passed away and all things have become new, Paul says I urge you to lay down your bodies on the altar as a living sacrifice to God.  He says this is your reasonable service of worship, considering the fact of all that God has done for you.   Lay yourselves on the altar, consider your body as dead to the world, and yet spiritually made alive unto Christ.  All the things of the flesh that once were a source of pride and accomplishment, lay it down at the cross.

And then he tells us that we should no longer think as the world thinks, no longer be conformed to the standards and expectations and desires and passions of the world, but instead be transformed by the renewing of our mind through the word of God, and there is a very important clause on the end of verse 2.  “So that we may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  In other words, we are made living creatures by God’s grace, we are transformed by the Holy Spirit working through the gospel,  and we lay down our old fleshly nature at the cross, SO THAT WE MIGHT DO THE WILL OF GOD.

Folks, this is so essential.  It’s so fundamental.  You know, there is a lot of so called theology out there being written about in books and taught from pulpits and presented on television that has missed that principle completely.  They will tell you that if you will have a relationship to God then He will basically do YOUR will.  All your dreams and fantasy’s will come true.  You want a better paying job?  Come to God.  You want a new car?  Come to God. (Hey, if you believed that by coming to God you could get a new car, who wouldn’t come?)  You want to be healed of some disease?  Come to God.  They will tell you that God is just this giant Santa Clause type of guy up in the sky that wants you to love Him and wants you to tell Him you love Him, and through having a relationship with Him that is based on mutual love and admiration, He will give you the desires of your heart.  And you can have your best life right here on earth because God loves you and just wants you to be happy.

The sad thing is, many, many people are falling for this false doctrine hook, line and sinker.  There was a time in my life that I wanted to believe it as well.  But listen, vs 2 tells us that we are saved not so that God might do our will, but that we might do His will.  Rather than God giving us everything our heart desires, Paul tells us that we should lay our fleshly desires down on the altar as a sacrifice to God. Phl 3:7 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.”

So then, if our purpose now that we are born again is to do God’s will, then the list of spiritual gifts that Paul gives us starting in verse 6 are to be understood not in terms of pride but practicality.  Having laid down our fleshly body on the altar, God gives us the means to do His will.  Remember the last verse of the preceding chapter?  “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.”  So then as we have received from Him new life, become a new creation, then we now receive new gifts or empowerments that enable us to do His will.

And I don’t have the time this morning to go through all the gifts and unpack each of them again, but note one important characteristic that they all have.  They are all for the edification of someone else, rather than for your own edification.  In other words, we are given the gifts to build up the body, not to build up ourselves.   Pride is marked by building up yourself, but humbleness is marked by building up someone else.  And everyone of those gifts, or the combination of any of those gifts, is designed by God to build up the body, the church, not for your own building up.  That’s why Paul says in verse 3 not to think more highly of yourself than you ought, but to have sound judgment. We all belong to the body, and the body belongs to Christ, and so therefore we belong to one another and our gifts are necessary for the benefit of each other in the body.

Now moving on, we come to today’s text.  And I really don’t think we’re going to get further than one verse today.  But don’t get your hopes up that the message will therefore  be more brief than normal.  Usually, the shorter the text, the more longwinded I get..  Verse 9 says, “Let love be without hypocrisy.  Abhor what is evil, cleave to what is good.”

Now if spiritual gifts were misunderstood, then I must tell you that it pales in comparison to the misunderstanding of the word love.  Love has so many connotations and meanings in the English language and in our culture. It’s used for everything.  I’ve said it before, I love ice cream, I love my dog, and I love my wife.  Not necessarily  in that order.  And so we really need to define our terms before we can  understand what Paul is getting at.

First of all, the word Paul uses for love here is the Greek word agape.  It is probably the most common word that Paul uses when he refers to love.  There are three words in the Greek that were commonly used for love;  there was eros, from which we get the word erotic, and I don’t think I need to explain for you any further what connotations that word has.  There is another word that is used for love, in fact it is used in verse 10, and it is phileo, from where we get the word Philadelphia.  And some of you folks here today I’m sure are from that city.  What slogan is associated with Philadelphia?  The city of brotherly love.  That’s what  phileo means.  Familial love.  And then agape is the other word most commonly used by Paul to describe Christian love, and it means a sacrificial, selfless love that puts the needs of others ahead of one self.

And I would submit to you that Paul isn’t starting some new thought here, but when he mentions agape love immediately following the gifts of service to the church, it’s because love is the attitude with which those gifts must be administered.  Love isn’t some completely new concept that he is going to talk about, but it is the underlying component of effective spiritual gifts.  And we only have to look at 1 Corinthians 13 to verify that.  Gifts that are self serving, that are showy, just end up being prideful, selfish, ways of trying to manipulate God for the benefit of our will.

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.  Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,  does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part;  but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.”  (1 Cor. 13: 1-10)

So then, love is an attitude, it’s our motivation.  In Christian love, it’s the attitude of humility, the attitude of service, it’s the attitude of putting your self on the altar to be used by God as a living sacrifice to serve the body of Christ.  Love isn’t an emotion.  Love isn’t a feeling.  I know our culture tells us that love is all those things.  John Lennon told us the world’s theology: that all the world needs is love.  But the kind of love he espoused has not been the answer for the world’s problems.  And if we are not careful, the world’s theology will creep into Christian theology.  We will end up with silly sentimentalism rather than the kind of love that the Bible teaches.

The Bible tells us what love is: 1John 4:9 “By this the love of God was manifested in us, [ this is what love looks like] that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

So what are the two major characteristics then of love as shown by those verses?  Love is service, and love is sacrifice.  Jesus became our servant, He became our substitute and He became our sacrifice so that we might have life through Him and forgiveness of our sins.  So true love is marked by service and sacrifice, not sentimentality, not emotion, not feelings.

And so we know what love looks like and how love acts, and  in2 John 1:6 we learn what love does.  “And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.”  That takes us full circle doesn’t it?  Acting in love brings us right back to doing God’s will.  Walking according to HIS commands.  HIS will.  And His will is stated in John 15:12  "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”

Now that we have defined our terms, we know what love is, notice our text again.  Paul says let love be without hypocrisy.  Do you know what the Greek word for hypocrite means?  It means an actor on a stage.  Someone who performs for public acclaim. Public applause.  Someone who performs to be seen of men and acknowledged by men.  Paul is saying, don’t let your service which is supposed to be done in love, don’t let it be for public acclaim.  Don’t do it so people will notice how spiritual you are.  What did Jesus say in the sermon on the mount?  If you do your works for other people to see you then you already have your reward.  But do your works in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

Now maybe in your Bible another word is used rather than hypocrisy, you might see the word unfeigned.  But it means pretty much the same thing.  It means don’t fake it.  Let your love be genuine.  Let your love be sincere.  And Paul illustrates this principle beautifully in the next statement.  He says, “Abhor what is evil, and cleave to what is good.”  See, I believe that this statement is an explanation or illustration of the preceding statement that we are to love without hypocrisy.  How can you have a love that is unfeigned, not faked, that is sincere, and not hypocritical?

First, abhor what is evil.  Or some versions say, hate what is evil.  Now notice first off that Paul doesn’t say hate someone or some person.  He says hate evil.  Abhor evil.  We are to be like God are we not?  We are made in His likeness, filled with His Spirit, so that we may do His will and be conformed in the image of Christ.  And what does the Bible say that God hates?  God hates sin.  He doesn’t hate the sinner.  He loves the sinner so much that Jesus came to die for Him.  But He hates sin.  And so Paul is telling us that if we love God then we will love what He loves and hate what He hates.

In fact, that love and hate relationship is what defines us as being children of God.  Look at 1John 2:15 “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”  That’s why Paul started off telling us that we needed to lay our bodies down on the altar as a living sacrifice to God right at the beginning.

James lays it out in pretty bluntly.  He says in James 4:4 “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

You know, I was joking while ago about loving my wife.  I really do love my wife.  And the really amazing thing is that she loves me.  She puts up with an awful lot.  But one thing she probably wouldn’t put up with is if I told her that I loved her, and I sang love songs to her and put notices on face book that I loved her, but then I went and hung out with old girlfriends that I used to have.   I can tell her how much I love her all day long, but if I’m running around with my old girlfriends in the evenings she is going to know that I’m a hypocrite.  That I am not sincere in what I say.

I believe that God feels sort of the same way when we go back to the old ways, the old paths of the world and yet say we love God.  When we still go back to the places which once enslaved us.  Like the Israelites when God brought them out of Egypt, they constantly yearned for the things that God had delivered them from.  Listen, grace is not a license to sin.  God’s mercy should never be presumed upon.  God is a jealous God.  He loves us with a jealous love.

As Christians, grace doesn’t mean that we can try to see how close we can get to sin without being burned.  But being saved by grace means that we devote ourselves to holiness and purity, that we consider ourselves betrothed to one husband and we want to keep ourselves pure and unblemished by the world for Him.   As Jude said, “hating even the garment polluted by the flesh”,  in other words, staying as far away as possible from the disease of sin.

I’m reminded of the story of the millionaire that wanted to hire a limousine driver.  And so he arranged a little road test for the applicants.  He told them that there was a hairpin turn down the road and he wanted to know how well they were able to negotiate the turn.   And the first limo driver said, “Sir, I can take your limo at the speed limit within one foot of the cliff without going into a skid or running off the road.”  And the second limo driver, not to be outdone said, “Sir, I believe I could drive that car at the speed limit within 6 inches of the cliff without running off the road.”  And the third limo driver said, “Sir, I would stay as far away from the cliff as possible.”  Needless to say, the millionaire gave the job to the third candidate.

As Christians, we need to stay as far away from the world as possible.  Folks, I said last week that if Satan can deceive you into thinking that you can get to heaven without being born again by the Holy Spirit, then he can destroy you.  But if you do become born again, he doesn’t stop trying to destroy you.  He can’t take away your eternal destiny, but he can destroy your testimony.  He can destroy your ministry.  He can destroy your effectiveness in the church and perhaps cause you to be a stumbling block to others.  I was never a soldier, but I read once that in warfare it costs the army much more to take care of the wounded than it does to take care of the dead.  Satan knows and employs this tactic very effectively.  He is working to deceive and destroy the church. Satan wants wounded Christians.  And Christians are being duped into thinking that they can have a relationship with God and keep their relationship with the world.  And they don’t realize the danger that they are subjecting themselves to.  Folks, we need to be more like Joseph, who when faced with possible temptation left his coat in the hands of the woman and ran.  We can’t flirt with sin.  We need to have a holy abhorrence of evil.

Then finally, Paul says back in our text that we need to cleave to what is good.  To use the marriage metaphor again, when you were married, chances are you said something like this:  “forsaking all others, cleave only to you.”  It comes from the passage of scripture found in Genesis 2:24   “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”  That is a picture of our relationship with God.  Not a feigned love, where we try to have our cake and eat it too.  But where we forsake all others and cleave only to you.  We give ourselves, fully, completely to God to be used for His glory.

We need to love what God loves.  We need to love righteousness.  We need to love His word.  We need to love one another.  We need to love the church, because Christ loved the church and gave His life for her. We think we can walk the center line between God and the world.  But you can’t be in neutral with God.  God said you are either for me or against me.  You can’t have a little of the world and a little of God.  The problem with most Christians is that they want just enough God to be safe, but not so much as to be sorry for what they might be missing out on.  But God says He wants all of us.  Not just a part of us.  Cleave to what is good.

 I’ve noticed that behind every good man is a great wife. A good wife gives herself totally to her husband.  She not only says she loves him, but she also shows that she loves him.  She cleans up after him.  She cooks for him.  She supports him.  When I was in the antique business I was always amazed at how the wives would come along to some of the shows that we did around the country and support their husbands.  They learned to like what their husband liked.  My wife got to be a pretty good judge of antiques because she supported me in my business.  She cared about me, and so she cared about the things I cared about.  I can’t tell you how much my wife has gone through to support our family in surfing.  Our vacations for years now have centered around surfing.  My wife doesn’t surf, but she loves us, and so she cares about what we care about and is willing to sacrifice what she wants many times so that we can do what we want.

Listen, God does want a relationship with us.  He does want us to love Him. But He wants real love, not some faked love.  He wants us for Himself, He doesn’t want to share us with the enemy.  He wants us to love what He loves, and hate what He hates.  He wants us to abhor what is evil, and cling to what is good.  And folks, He is good.  He is good.  You can trust Him with your life, with your future, with eternity.

Gifts: a tool box, not a toy box

Today we find ourselves in Romans 12.  We have been studying Romans now for several months, and we have had 11 chapters of doctrine.  Some of it was pretty heavy doctrine.  But doctrine is so very essential as the foundation for building a Christian life, as well as a truly Christian church.  Doctrine defined very simply, is Christian truth.  It’s not negotiable.  And it is foundational.  You cannot build a Christian life, or the church of God without a foundation of correct doctrine.

I was trying to counsel someone not too long ago that was under spiritual attack, and it was so severe that they were actually fearful that they might die.  And I was glad to be able to tell them that according to the scripture, Satan was unable to even so much as touch a hair on their head.  He was not able to harm them without express permission from God.  But what I told them Satan could do, is deceive them.  He is described in the Bible as the father of lies.  And he comes to deceive, and destroy, but his power to destroy lies only in his power to deceive.

And the same is true in the church.  Satan’s goal is to destroy the church, but he cannot touch it.  Jesus said “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”  The best weapon, in fact the only weapon that Satan really has in his arsenal against the church is deceit.   And he uses it mightily.  A good example is the thousands of churches and religions throughout the world.  And Satan would love to deceive people into thinking that all roads lead to God.  But doctrine tells us, the truth of God as given by Jesus Christ, in Matt. 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.  For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

The Bible tells us very plainly that Satan will deceive many.  So therefore it is essential that we know doctrine.  And once the doctrine is understood and accepted then we can build with practical application upon that doctrine, whether you are building a Christian life, or the church. But if you don’t have the right foundation, then you may find that at the day of reckoning, you built upon a foundation other than the foundation which is the doctrine of Jesus Christ, and all your works amount to nothing.

Jesus said at that day, there would be many, many people that would say, Lord, didn’t we prophecy in your name?  Didn’t we do many miracles and works in your name?  And Jesus said He will answer them, “Depart from Me I never knew you.”

So it behooves us to come to this chapter today recognizing that only by the 11 chapters of doctrine which have preceded this passage are we able to begin this section of practical application.  Only by having the right foundation, can we begin to build our lives and the church of Christ as Paul lays it out for us in this chapter as he begins to tell us about how to live the Christian life and the life of the church.

Now I don’t have the time this morning to review all 11 chapters of doctrine we have covered so far, but what I must say is that the prerequisite for entering this chapter is that you must have been transformed from dead stones to living stones.  You must have been transformed from being dead in your trespasses and sins to being made alive by the Spirit of Christ.  You must have been transformed from being a natural, earthly being into a spiritual being.  And this is something that man cannot do through his own efforts or merits, but only through the grace of God.  Through faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ, God graciously credits us with righteousness, and being made holy, then the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us, so that we are born again of the Spirit into new life.  We become living stones.

As Peter says in 1Peter 2:3,  “in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord, coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God,  you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

You see that?  Through salvation we become living stones, which God has selected to build a spiritual house, which is the church, for the purpose of offering up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.  Then, and only then, once we are made spiritual stones, part of the body of Christ, can we offer up spiritual sacrifices according to Peter.

Now at this point Satan will usually try to deceive us one of two ways.  Either he will try to convince you that you can skip the first step of being born again, being made a living, spiritual stone, or he will attempt to deceive you with the wrong application of these practical applications which follow.  If he can deceive you into thinking that you can do God pleasing things in your naturally dead state, then he is successful in destroying you spiritually.  And if he can deceive you into thinking that the next phase of spiritual application is all meant to be about self fulfillment, then he is successful in destroying your effectiveness in the church and in your Christian life as well.  Because what we’re going to find out here folks, is that God has designed the body of Christ, the church, to be his hands and feet, serving one another, the body, and not to be self serving.  And as we look today at this passage which is about spiritual gifts,  a lot of times this is presented as a self serving kind of thing which God has given us so that we can further our own ends, rather than as God has designed them, and that is to serve the needs of the church.

So then as Paul begins chapter 12 he attempts to head off this sort of  me first mentality that is part of our old nature.  See, the Christian life is totally different than the way life was before.  In the new life our wisdom from God.  Our strength is from God.  Our power is from God.  And of course, our life is from God.  But it’s important for us to exercise what God has supplied and turn away from our old natural wisdom and strength and not fall back into our old patterns of thinking.

Therefore, Paul makes it clear that in light of what God has done in us, we lay down our old nature, we lay aside our pride and we exercise that spiritual reality that is from faith.  We have to be careful that we don’t fall back into the same old patterns of thinking, and working and striving as we were used to doing in the flesh.  But recognize that God has through His grace given us gifts by which we might live the life that He wants us to live.  The problem is that when we start talking about spiritual gifts we sometimes get confused and start thinking of our natural talents.

According to our natural birth we are born with natural talents and abilities.  And  through spiritual birth: we are born again with spiritual talents and abilities.   And we need to recognize that they are sometimes diametrically opposed.  I’ve been in churches where they gave out a handout at the end of the service which you were supposed to fill out so that you could determine your spiritual gifts.  And all the questions in the survey were all about your natural inclinations.  What do you like to do?  What are you good at?  And then they tried to tell you that the results of your natural tendencies were somehow  now your spiritual gifts.  What a load of horse dung.  They either forgot their doctrine, or more likely, they never knew it to begin with.  Our natural inclinations are our problem, not our solution.

Listen to Romans 8: “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.  If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.  But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” So how can that which came from the flesh, the body of death, now be considered a gift from God?  It can’t.  God gives life to your dead bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.  He provides the gifts, and the gifts that He gives are not necessarily based on our natural talents.

This is so misunderstood in the church today.  We love to use our lack of talent as an excuse that God has not gifted us for a particular ministry in the church.  “Oh, I can’t carry a tune, so therefore (thank goodness!) I don’t have to help with the singing.”  Listen, the gifts of God are given to those that are saved to equip them to do what God has asked them to do.  To start with, you can’t be righteous without the gift of the Holy Spirit.  And so goes the rest of the Christian life as well.  If you are naturally a good singer, and you like to sing in public, then that isn’t a spiritual gift.  It’s a natural gift.  You should still give it to God and use it for God’s glory.  But if you can’t sing a lick, and you by faith in the grace of God,  sing your heart out to the Lord, then that is a spiritual gift.  And by exercising that gift, that is practicing that gift, you’re going to find that God will use it for His glory and not your own.  And that is the difference between natural talents and spiritual gifts.  Don’t get them confused.  And don’t be deceived into thinking that spiritual gifts are related to physical gifts.

Naturally in our bodies we are selfish creatures.  Pride is a natural characteristic and selfishness is his twin brother.  And we all have them in spades.  But in our new birth, vs. 4 says, we are born into  part of another body;  the body of Christ.  We are not to be selfish any more.  But the life we live now we live for the glory of God.

So the first thing Paul tells us in verse 1 is to lay that prideful, selfish body down on the altar as a living sacrifice to Christ.  He says that is your reasonable service.  It’s reasonable because we’ve learned that our flesh profits nothing in God’s kingdom.  We need to lay it down.  And secondly Paul tells us in verse 2 that we need to change our way of thinking, we need to stop thinking according to human wisdom and learn how to discern spiritually the will of God.  And thirdly, he tells us in verse 3 that we need to divest ourselves of pride, not thinking highly of ourselves, but realize that it is only by God’s grace that we are even saved and chosen of God.  And then fourthly, Paul tells us in verse 4 that all of us are just one of many parts of the same body, we all belong together, and we all exist for the good of one another.

And then fifthly, Paul tells us that each part of the body has been given gifts from God so that we might be able to perform the function of the body we are designed to do.  I mean, this is pretty practical stuff.  God gives us the life to be a part of His body, and so He gives us the power to live that life as He has designed us to live.

I heard one preacher say it this way:  Spiritual gifts are not found in a toy box, but a tool box.  God gives us gifts not for our own personal pleasure or self fulfillment, or to make ourselves look spiritual, but so that we might minister to others.  And Paul lists 7 gifts here.  And there is a lot of discussion over these gifts.  There are other lists in other books like Ephesians, and 1 Peter, and particularly in 1 Corinthians.  And so much has been made of certain gifts.  There are some that want to teach that everyone is supposed to have the same gifts.  And of course, that was the problem with the Corinthian church.  They all were trying to claim what Paul described as the showy gifts.  And unfortunately, today the church is still struggling in this area.

If I put a notice in the newspaper that we were going to have a conference down at the Holiday Inn next week that would teach you how to have some so called spiritual gift that produces a special goose pimple experience, there would be a line getting in there.  But I guarantee you that if I advertised a conference on how to employ the spiritual gift of giving, or serving, I couldn’t pay people to come.  It’s human nature to covet showy, self serving things.  And that’s the problem.  We too often let human nature direct our thinking when it comes to this matter of spiritual gifts.

So rather than approaching this passage in the typical way and giving a long dissertation on the varieties and meanings of all the spiritual gifts out there, and compare Corinthians list with Romans list and so on, I would like to really just get you to change your perspective on the purpose of the gifts today.  I want you to see that the gifts were given for the edification of the body, for the good of the church, for the good of the other members and parts of the body, and not for your own edification, and certainly not to be the means or source of pride.

To look at this in the most elementary way possible, number one , I would suggest to you that you consider these lists of spiritual gifts as not conclusive, nor exclusive, but representative.  That’s why there is so much overlap in these lists, and yet at the same time, none of them match exactly any of the others.  Romans 12 lists seven:  prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership, and mercy.  Corinthians gives 9.  Ephesians gives four.  But let’s take these various gifts that God gives and think of them like the alphabet.  Our alphabet has 26 characters.  And yet we can arrange them in so many different ways that we can create millions of different words.  I believe that is a good picture of our gifts.  God takes some of this and some of that and perhaps a little of a couple of more things and it says in verse 3 that He measures it out to each of us.

Another illustration is like an artist’s palette.  He has some primary colors on his palette.  And the artist mixes these colors together in a way to make a unique color.  And he can create an almost endless variety of colors from those basic hues.  Now I believe that is how God distributes the gifts to us.  A little of this and a little of that, more of this and even more of that.  So that each of us is uniquely qualified, uniquely gifted to be able to do what God has called us to do.

David speaks of this masterful working of God in Psalm 139:13 “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb.  I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.  My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.”  What a testimony.  For God saw David when he was just a boy, and picked him out from all his brothers, all big handsome, strapping men, each of them looked like a king.  And yet God told Samuel, God looks on the inward part, not on the outward appearance of a man.  And God said I have picked this little boy to be the king, because he is a man after my own heart.

And then secondly, to consider this in the most elementary fashion possible, God wants you to exercise your gifts for the edification of the body. As you have been given gifts, then exercise them. Perhaps this very general list of gifts that Paul describes here are things that we all have to some degree or another.  We may have some of them all.  So we are told to exercise them.  Make them stronger.  Use them.  Some of you will find that as you begin to exercise certain gifts there is a limit as to how much you can do in that particular area.  But I believe the gifts aren’t like physical, natural gifts.  These gifts are supernatural in origin.  They don’t come from you, they come from God.  Therefore, they are limited only by your faith in God and the opportunities that God gives you to use them.

These aren’t offices but practical means of doing God’s will. Let’s look at them briefly, and I’ll think you will agree that by God’s grace, there is not one gift listed here that you can’t do by the help and power of the Holy Spirit in your life.    1. Prophecy: not fortune telling, not prediction, but forth telling: the explanation of God’s revelation. And His revelation as revealed in His word is available for all of us to dispense.  2. Serving:  sensing what needs to be done and doing it.  This is so important that Christ Himself became a servant so that we might follow his example.  3. Teaching: imparting information and knowledge. Discipling others. 4.  Exhortation:  how about encouragement?  Think you can do that?  5.  Giving.  Not just rich people. But having a heart to give like the widow’s mite. Like the good Samaritan.  6.  Leadership; being diligent in the course you’re given.  Stay the course.  You can be a leader by example.  It’s not an office. It’s an attitude.
7. Mercy;  He who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.  Mercy is given to people who don’t deserve it.  And none of us deserve it, do we?  We stand in grace.

I heard about a CEO once that was looking for a top manager to take over an important division.  And so he went around the plant dropping little pieces of trash and setting things a little out of order and making a little mess here and there.  And then he secretly watched to see who took the time to personally take care of those things.  And the guy he found that took care of the little things, the things that didn’t have a bunch of people taking notice of it, the things that took a love and caring about the company and it’s people, this was the guy that he gave the promotion to.

Listen, the showy people doing the showy things have already gotten their reward. 1Cr 12:22 On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.  Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it.

Listen, God hasn’t designed the gifts of the church to create chaos.  But harmony.  The whole body working together effectively.  And for that to happen, we need all the members of the body to work, to exercise, to participate as they are designed by God for the glory of the church. Mat 20:26 "It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."