Romans, chapter 15. You can find this on page 949 in your Pew Bible. Romans, chapter 15. We've been going through the book verse by verse. We come this morning towards the end. Romans 15. We'll be reading from verse 1 to verse 7. Let's give your attention to the Word of God. We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, But as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you. for the glory of God. What do the strong owe the weak? Do you want a good pagan Roman answer? Nothing. The weak owe the strong obedience and fear. Do you want a good Darwinist answer? Nothing is for the strong to prevail and the week to go to the wall. This week I was strong. An old lady came up to me in the Trader Joe's parking lot. Can you help me get my car into gear? It won't go into gear. My son can get it into gear. I went and got the car into gear. Did I owe her anything? You know, a first general point that we can get from this passage here in Romans 15 is that, yes, you, if you are strong, insofar as you are strong, you owe the weak something. God gave you strength so that you could bear with others. I had to bear with the lady. It went into gears just fine. I had to put it back in parts to get out of the car. She got into the car. I had to teach her what she was doing wrong so that she could get it into gear. She got into gear, I went and got into my car, I pulled out and I had to wait. And she went backwards and forwards 27 times before she could drive away. We have here a general sense of strength that I'm speaking of. You owe it, you tall people, to get the sugar from the top shelf. You owe it, you short people, to get the sugar from the bottom shelf, to help someone move. And there are other senses of strength beyond the physical strength. You can, oh clever math students, explain the problem with patience and grace to your neighbor next to you. You can, listen patiently. As you bear up with the same irritation. This other person who has less tolerance today for the idiocy. You know, so far we're simply being wise people. You were once weak. If God gives you enough life, you will be weak again. It is simply good common sense to want to cultivate in society a compassion for the weak. given where you have been and where you are likely going. But here in Romans, actually, although it's a general principle, he does have something more specific in mind when he says strong and weak right here. Right here, he's picking up in the middle of a discussion. You could have very well had the previous chapter continue right here. He's been talking about those who are strong in faith in the following sense, those who know that they may eat anything. That has been the number one issue in the prior chapter. You have in the ancient church both Jews and Gentiles who believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world. And so they gather together and they open the scriptures, but the scriptures they have are the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament, and as you read them it is very clear that you are not to eat pork. But some have heard quite clearly that Jesus said, it is not what goes into a man that makes him unclean, but what comes out of a man. Some of them have heard that the Apostle Peter had been given a vision of God, in which he was encouraged to take Peter, kill and eat, and was encouraged that God has now declared these foods clean. So some were strong in faith. They were able to accept and understand what Jesus said, and accept that the kosher laws were from God for a period of time. That period of time was over, and they were free to eat anything. But others were weak in faith. They were not ready to go on and begin to eat the long-forbidden food. So the sense here of strong is those who understand their Christian liberty. We are free from the kosher laws of the Old Testament. We're free from the ceremonial laws, more generally, in the Old Testament. And if we're free of those laws that do come from God, then by extension, we are to a great degree, you could say, free of laws and customs and traditions that would bind our conscience. God alone is Lord of the conscience. And so for freedom, Christ has set us free. We're strong in this sense. We're strong in faith. strong to understand and to exercise their Christian liberty to the full. But we come now in Chapter 15 to this question, what then, O strong Christian, will you use your Christian liberty for? And he says, it is not to be used to please yourself. You do not build up the Church of Jesus Christ by alienating the weak You know, if we gather together, if this church burns down and we decide to have a church work day to rebuild it, and we start piling up bricks, you and I do not have the power to change a brick. If you come across a cracked brick as you build up the building, you'll have to toss the brick aside. We can't build physical buildings with weak bricks. But the Lord Jesus Christ is building the church in his own fashion. The church he is building is not a building, but rather all of us put together, the people of the church. And it says of God's servant that he does not break a bruised reed. He does not blow out a flickering candle. Rather, he gently leads those that are with young. He will pick up and carry the wayward sheep back on his shoulders. And so when it comes to building Christ's church, that is to say the people, we do that by bearing with the weak and seeking to strengthen them and not to toss them aside. So we have in this specific sense here, the strong in faith, those who use their Christian liberty are to use it for the good of all, to bear with the weak. Now you notice the term bear with. That's not as strong as adopt the wrong views of the weak, but it is stronger than merely tolerate. When you bear with someone, one commentator, Mr. Moose, says this, that is to sympathetically understand, to refrain from criticism, to treat as a brother and sister. These are the things that are strong or the weak in the Church of Jesus Christ. Because God gave you strength so that you could bear with others. And God calls all of us to please our neighbor for good. Well, verse 1 is specifically to the strong. In verse 2, without changing topic, he begins to broaden it out by using the word neighbor to make us think of the second greatest commandment. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. This is not a commandment for strong Christians only. It's a commandment for all Christians. And indeed, this is one way the weak become strong. by beginning to think more of others, and not only of themselves. And so he goes on to say, yes, and let the strong, and everyone else, remember that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, and let us do so in this way, let us each please his neighbor for good. Now this is difficult, because the Bible is very clear, there are some ways in which you are not to please your neighbor. You're not to please your neighbor in such a way that you displease God. And so, in the passages on work, it says, don't work as people-pleasers. That is, only work hard when the boss is watching. No, you should do your job, whatever job that is, all the time. When you're at work, you should be working. And it should not really matter if the boss is sitting there watching you or not. Don't work as a people-pleaser. That is, just when the eyes are on you. Work is unto the Lord. And the Apostle Paul says, at different times, am I trying to please people now? He's saying that when he is arguing for the truth of the gospel, and pronouncing an anathema on those who would change it. He says, don't be a people pleaser by holding back on declaring the truth of Jesus Christ. So then, we're not to please our neighbors by flattering them, or by only doing things to look good in front of them, or by holding back the truth from them. That's how not to please our neighbor. We are to please our neighbor by respecting his conscience. Not to quarrel with him about it, not to press things upon him, or to flaunt our liberty in such a way as grieves him. Rather, we're to aim at the general good. It's one place I'm going to fault this translation right here, and that is in verse 2, where it says, his good to build him up. There's no his and him in the Greek. Rather, we are to please our neighbor for good, for a building. It's a more general kind of frame. Certainly, he's involved. But it's not just his good. We're to have a bigger picture in mind of up-building. And this language of up-building is to make us think of the church together as one people, one body, one building. We're to build up the good in general. You can think of Psalm 122, which we sing about, I will always seek the good of, it says Jerusalem there, meaning God's people together. I will ever seek your good. And we're to enter into that. Not pleasing ourselves, but pleasing our neighbor for good, for the building up of God's people, Jerusalem. Now that aiming at good does direct our pleasing of our neighbor. Sometimes what builds up our neighbor is rebuking him. Sometimes what builds up our neighbor is giving a little proof there. Good requires that evil stop. And so to achieve this good, however, we have to distinguish between what is actually wrong in God's sight and what is merely our preference. We have to distinguish when someone is acting, you could say, in rebellion, and when someone is acting, you could say, simply in ignorance. But there's our concern. The big picture aim here is good, is up-building, and not simply what pleases ourselves. If you don't know in the case of someone, you wonder, should I talk to so-and-so about this? If you're uncertain, of course, you have elders you can go to. And so this is what I'm seeing. I remember one case of that. Somebody had led in prayer with his hand in his pocket. And this really bothered somebody from another culture, from another country. But he went to the oldest pastor he found present. And he's like, what is this? Praying with a hand in the pocket. The pastor was able to say, you know what? It's not a problem. He was not thinking about his hand in his pocket. There was no disrespect intended from such a thing. So the strong are to bear with the weak. Would it all seek to please our neighbor for our good? This is the proper focus of Christian life, really not our own pleasing. But someone might be saying, now what's the point of being strong that you can't please yourself when you're strong? When are you going to get to please yourself if you don't get to please yourself when you're strong? And so the passage goes on. The Messiah is strongest of all. The Savior of the world is stronger than anyone in the world. And yet the Savior of the world did not please himself. But as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached God fell on him. He's echoing what Jesus said, that Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. And we see that that's not just a momentary thing at the end of Jesus' life. During his life, he said, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Town to town, reliant on whoever would take them in. Now, did Jesus please his neighbor? It sure depends on the neighbor. If you came and kneeled before him asking for help, he would help you. If you were too ill to travel, if you lived in Galilee, it was quite possible he might be coming to you to heal you there in your village. If you came and you criticized him for neglecting the tradition of the elders, then he was going to fire back at you. And if you were changing money in God's temple, he was going to throw the money out the door. Did he please his neighbor? Well, he was certainly seeking God's house. Zeal for God's house consumed him. Not people-pleasing. But he was not pleasing himself. He was building up for good. And that did not lead him to have an easy life. So we have here this quotation there in verse 3 from Psalm 69. That's the second time that he's quoted from Psalm 69 in five chapters. He quoted from Psalm 69 back in Romans chapter 11, verses 9 and 10. That's among the most quoted psalms in the entire New Testament. The New Testament really quotes a lot of 22, 69, and 110. John quotes it. Peter quotes it to say this is why we need a replacement for Judas. And as he quotes it here, he turns our attention to God. Here, the psalmist said, the reproaches of those who reproached You, God, fell on me." That is how it works. There are people who hate God, and they can't reach Him. So they'll attack what they can. They will attack the people of God. They attack the psalmist. And they had their best target, you could say, when they had Jesus, who was God himself, to attack. And so here we have the first half of the verse is actually, zeal for your house has consumed me. That was applied to Jesus, clearing the money changers from the temple. And now you can say it's to be applied to us. Like Jesus, zeal for God's house, zeal for the upbuilding of the church, zeal for unity between brothers and sisters, it is to consume us. And so we are to be willing to bear reproach and not please ourselves as we bear with the weak. as we seek to build up the Church. Now, whenever you quote the Old Testament, the question can be, well, is that really about Jesus? And if it's about Jesus, then does that the end of it? Does it really mean anything for us? And so he goes on to comment in verse 4. For whatever was written in former days, and he means the Old Testament. He speaks about scripture. He's not talking about Cicero or Aristotle. Whatever was written in the scriptures in former days was written for us. That's striking, because he's been talking about how the food laws do not apply in the Christian church. And he said, of course, you are not under law. You're under grace. As you go through the Book of Romans, he's quite a few times said it in ways in which you could say the Word of God is not applied to us. So how is it to be applied? Well, first of all, he's been quoting it. to show that what he's saying is true, and it's truly God's plan through all ages. That's one sense in which it's for us, is to encourage us in the truth of these things. But more than that, when he spoke about Abraham, he was showing that Abraham was saved in the same way that we are, through faith. That David was saved in the same way that we are, through repentance and faith. So the Old Testament's not just a proof of the new, He's also teaching the same message of salvation by God's grace through faith. And here he goes on, you could say, to broaden it out a little bit further, and to say there are things there that are necessary for us to learn, things there that are not for Abraham. Abraham was dead by the time the scripture was written about Abraham. It wasn't written for Abraham. It was written for those after Abraham. And he's saying, it's not just for information. It's not just for proof. It's not just for belief. He says, whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, yes, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. He's quoted about the sufferings of Jesus. As you've seen, as we've sung it, the psalm describes the agonies that Jesus had to endure. And we, in this life, will also have to endure a fair amount. Some of us will have to endure a great amount. It says, through many tribulations, we must enter the Kingdom of God. It said back in Romans 8, we will be glorified with Him, provided we suffer with Him. Suffering can be sharp, let us hope, brief. It can be long, let us hope, dull. Let us hope it is not long and sharp. But he says the scripture is written so as to encourage us, to help us endure so that we might have hope. And he keeps circling back to this in this book. Go back to Romans 5. And he had talked in Romans 5 about how we even rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that sufferings produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. He circled back to this in Romans 8, already quoted, and how we will be glorified with him, provided we also suffer with him. For the whole creation was suffering together until now. He alluded to this in chapter 12, when he talked about presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice. The word sacrifice suggests. suffering. And he comes back again, this time in chapter 15. And he keeps pointing us to Psalm 69, so that we would see not only that Jesus and sufferings were foretold, and therefore part of the plan, but also see that the sufferings lead to hope. Yes, the psalmist in Psalm 69, by the time you get to the last section, you get to hope. And Jesus, having gone through death, in the end, He is resurrected and He gets to hope. And we who are in Christ, being in Christ, therefore as we go through sufferings, we in Christ will then get through to hope. And for our greater encouragement, we have what was written in former days. Can you continue to hope when your hope is so long deferred? You have Abraham, who had to wait for decades as a live birth became more and more implausible for his aged wife. Can you continue to hope when the promise is deferred for centuries? And you have the Israelites in slavery, facing genocide in Egypt for a long time. Can you endure if the capital of your people is smashed and you are a young person Captured, forced to serve in the capital. For this you have Daniel and his three friends. But is it possible to endure when you are a murderer? For this you have David. When you have forgotten the things of your youth? This you have Joseph. When you have burnt every bridge you could reach, With this you have the prodigal. But do you have to endure? You have the Israelites in the wilderness. Do you have to be faithful? You have the Israelites in the wilderness. Can you worship both the true God and the gods of this world? You have the Israelites in the exile. The great question is, can you count on God to hear and to know and to answer your prayers? And for this you have the entire Scripture, which is written so that you would see the merciful power of God and how He hears your prayers, so that through the encouragement of the Scriptures you might have hope. And all the more, as you bring everything back to Jesus, because in Jesus it says, all the promises of God find their yes in him. So we're to read our Bibles for encouragement and for hope. As you read, read to get to know the story. Yes. Read to learn the commandments. Yes. But don't miss what it says here. You're to read it for encouragement and hope in Christian living in the middle of suffering, in the middle of your own life. For our hope is this, that God knows our tears are in his bottle. Our days are in his book. And when he heard the cry of the slaves in Egypt go up to him, God heard and God knew. If God does not answer you quickly, you have Abraham. You have Job. You have 70 years in exile. And then you have Isaac. And you have God bless Job again. And you have the return from exile. And you remember that our hope is two or threefold. Threefold, yes. For God hears our prayers. He knows how often He does answer our prayers for an end of the supper. And our prayer is secondfold. Our hope is secondfold. For we know that after a little while we will lay aside this body for a time and go to be with God in glory. And our hope is thirdfold, for we know that He will come to judge the living and the dead. Yes, we're to believe in faith in Jesus, the coming judge. And hope is just faith applied to the future. You believe in God now, well then you have hope for the future. That's what believing in God implies about the future. If you believe in God in the present time, faith now implies hope for the future. That hope may not be specifically fulfilled this way or that way. But it is that God is good and all-powerful, and that He is working out His plan. Let's see here. Another reason why we are to pursue our brother's good, despite his weakness. That's because God pursued our good, despite our weakness. I want to bring something out to you. If you look at verses 4 and 5. In verse 4, it says that the scripture was written so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. So we're being told, as you read your Bible, read it for this. Read it for encouragement and hope. And then in verse 5, he then prays that God would give us those very same things. And so there's no contradiction between saying that God, God give it to me, and then trying to work towards it. This is not an either-you-do-it-or-God-does-it type of thing. Rather, it is God's gift to us. The scripture is His instrument for carrying it out. We're to use the instrument while still remaining dependent on Him. A lot of the times we read the Bible and it doesn't encourage us. So we know we are to remain reliant on God. And so he says, please, God, may God give you such endurance and encouragement. that you may live in harmony with one another and be an encouragement to each other. We're implied there is not only is the scripture to give us encouragement, but that we are to give each other encouragement also. Now our hope is the great goal of scripture. And yet it's not the final goal even in this paragraph. Notice where he goes. May you be granted to live in such harmony that together with one voice you may glorify God, and so welcome each other for the glory of God. When we are united despite our differences, when we endure despite our suffering, when we praise God together, then God is glorified. When we lovingly understand one another, bearing with weakness, then God is glorified. I want to point out two specific applications to you from this passage. One is, one way to bear with one another, well, a precondition is to get to know each other. So I encourage you to eat with one another, to invite people over to your house, to show up at a church game night. Get to know one another so that you may learn the weaknesses and the better bear with them and encourage one another. So long as you If you only come and you escape again, you're not listening to the passage. You're not applying it in your life. What's a passage about us living together? And secondly, as you read your scripture, read it for encouragement and for hope. It is not there just for your generalized instruction and information. It is to give you strength for the day. I have a dear friend reading this. And He says, you know, first you read it to get the story. And then you get to the point where you are reading it and really entering into it. And then finally you get to the point where you need it. For it's like the air that you need for living. We need this daily encouragement. But again, it's easy to hear a sermon on bearing with the weak. You know what the trouble with the weak is? They're so annoying. You'd rather please yourself. So why must we bear with the weak again? In Romans 5, we are assured that while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Jesus died for the weak. In Romans 8, we are comforted that the Holy Spirit helps us in our Weakness. We don't even know how to pray, as we ought. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And also in Romans 8, we are assured that God the Father has done what the law, weakened by our flesh, could not do. He has sent his Son to satisfy the righteous requirement of the law. Do you see how the Triune God has come to us to bear our weakness? Do you see how the Triune God comes to us to bear with us in our weakness? It is therefore a small thing for us to briefly not please ourselves, but to bear with our brother and his little weakness. A small thing for us to imitate. when we have this infinite gap between our pitiful strength and Almighty God. And Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have come to us in our weakness. So let us glorify God as we endure, as we hope, and as we live together in such harmony, strengthened by His Word. Let us pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank You and praise You, and glorify You, and marvel at You, at Your mercy to the weak, and not just the weak, but the ungodly. We thank You that You have borne our weaknesses and carried our sorrows. We thank You, Lord Jesus, that You were made a man, and not a happy man, but a man of sorrows who was acquainted with grief. Heavenly Father, praising You for this, we ask that You would keep this ever in the forefront of our minds, that we may follow after You, being truly Your servants, seeking to build up one another for good, seeking to bear with one another, not put off by the weakness of any, but rejoicing that we are able to imitate You in this, that we also can bear with the weak. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.