Turn your Bibles to Romans 12. We'll be in verses three through eight this morning. Romans 12, three through eight. The title of the sermon this morning, God's love, grace, and mercy towards us produces the holy life of the church for the glory of God and the good of others. Let me say that again. God's love, grace, and mercy towards us produces the holy life of the church for the glory of God and for the good of others. Let's read beginning in verse three. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not have all the same function, so or therefore, we though many are one body in Christ, and individual members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, Let us use them if prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in his generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. May the Lord use his word this morning. As we proceed forward, as we start with this passage teaching us what we are to do as believers, how we are to act, how we are to live, how we are to function, especially in the household of God, we need to be reminding ourselves that all these things flow from a renewed mind. It's easy to say that we walk by faith. But what do we walk by faith in? What are we trusting in? Who are we trusting in? And what truth are we trusting in? So as our mind is renewed, as we dine on God's Word, and then by that same faith live according to God's Word, We need to understand that as we behold God by faith, as we see His excellence, as we see His glory, and He commands us to act certain ways, we see that reflected glory in the things that He's asking us to do. So everything that the Lord commands His people to do is for two reasons. For His glory and for the good of His people. The beauty is, is that God knows whose his people is. We don't need to. That's why God commands us to love our neighbor. We're not to make distinctions and say, well, I don't think that guy could ever be a Christian. I don't think that guy could ever get saved. We are called simply to love our neighbor. And as we do that, we reflect the glory of God and the good of our neighbor is our goal. Not self gain, not self loss. Exaltation, so let's read what we walked through last week just as a reminder, but also keep it in our mind as we work through these chapters in Romans. Paul says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Again, from this point forward, Paul is teaching the church what it looks like to walk by faith, what it looks like to walk by our renewed mind that is being conformed by the Spirit according to the Word of God, so as we continue through Romans, we will become more conformed into Christlikeness. as we obey and submit to the Lord of glory. That by our renewed mind we will think differently, we will desire differently, and we will certainly live differently. We now seek to do all that we do for the glory of God and for the good of our fellow man, especially the household of faith. Why must it be this way for the believer, for the Christian? Because for an action to be God-honoring and obedient, it must uphold God's moral law. When Jesus was asked, what is the first and greatest commandment? We can never seek to obey something else and deny that commandment. Listen to what Jesus says. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. That's the first and foremost command. Second, and flowing from the first, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And then Jesus says, on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. In other words, as we seek to obey God, as we seek to do good for our fellow man, we are upholding all of Scripture. We are upholding that God rules, that He reigns, that He deserves our love, He deserves our attention, He deserves our obedience. and our object of those things is our neighbor. Think about it, when we're asked to honor God, how do we do that? We honor those that he puts in our life. Children respect and give honor to God by respecting and giving honor to their parents. As we love each other, as we love and serve one another, as we serve the world, what we're doing is we're honoring God. We're saying, my God is worthy of my time. My God is worthy of my obedience as we offer ourselves, as we looked at last week, a living sacrifice. Only as we seek to do the first commandment will we actually be able to walk in obedience to the second and thus exalt God as His image bearers and therefore live in the freedom Christ purchased for us by keeping the moral laws of God. People in America think freedom means I have no boundaries. I can do whatever I want whenever I want. But we're told in the scriptures that freedom is actually found only in Christ Jesus. And freedom is only found in Christ Jesus as we walk by faith and not by the flesh, as we walk in obedience to God's moral laws. We are not to live to exalt self because that is the way of the world and only leads to death. With that as our introduction, let's begin to look at verse three. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Paul is declaring that he is an apostle, that he is a preacher of the word of God, that he's even a believer. by the grace of God, not by his own efforts. Think about what he says. He says, for by the grace given to me, I say to everyone. In other words, Paul's ability to speak truth is a gift of grace. In other words, Paul is warning the church, don't worship me. Don't put me up on a pedestal. Do not praise me. But if you see and hear and understand the truth through me and through my ministry, then praise and worship God alone for his glory and for the good of our fellow man. Remember when John tried to worship the angel? The angel told him to stop doing false worship, stop committing idolatry, and worship God alone. Whatever we do with the acts of faith that we do, whatever grace gifts we have, as we use them, people are going to want to thank us and praise us in a way that we should reflect back to God. If someone is heaping praise on us, we need to remind them, I serve you because my King loved me first. Therefore, I seek to love Him by serving you. If I blessed you, then praise God. It's good to encourage one another. It's good to thank one another. But if it reaches a point of exaltation and puffing a person up, we have to be so careful because what we're doing is we're robbing God of His glory. We're giving glory to a man, or to a woman, to a creature that only belongs to God. Paul then calls to church not to think like the old man, but to think by faith according to the Scriptures, so that self is not at the center, but God is, for the good of your fellow man. When Paul says to not think of yourself too highly, That's an easy thing, right? We often throw ourselves in the mud, right? We often think, well, I'm no good. God can't use me. I'm useless. I don't have any gifts. That's not what we're talking about. What we're talking about is boasting in the gifts and abilities that God gives us. That's thinking too highly of us because they're not our gifts, they're gifts that were given to us. But he also says, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Beloved, even the faith that we have is a gift from God. If you understand great statements of theology, if you understand great visions of the glory of God, understand you understand them because God opened your eyes and gave you the ability to understand them. Why does God give some the ability to see God more glorious than others? It's because the ones that see Him more glorious are to bring it to the others. That's how God works. God doesn't just grow us as we spend time in the Scriptures alone. God grows us as we give truth to one another, as we exalt the King one to another, so that we all grow in maturity and in the likeness of Christ. We are to view ourselves by our new reality, that new reality of being in Christ Jesus. It is a concept that our brains can't even wrap around. We are in Him, He is in us. He is praying for us that we will be one together, that we will be in unity as He is with the Father. How does that happen? How do human beings become so closely knit together? By the work and person of the Holy Spirit, by the blood of Christ, so that we reflect the oneness of the Trinity. Think about it. When we fight with one another, what are we reflecting? We're reflecting the world. But when we love one another and serve one another and fellowship together and enjoy that fellowship, we are reflecting the unity of the Trinity. That's the way that we are to think of ourselves. We are to so seek and to so think as to live as the children of God, as the sons and daughters that He's called us to be. As the redeemed of God, as the elect. In other words, as we walk by faith, we are proving to those that are watching that we are the elect of God, that we receive the Scriptures as the very Word of God, and we live the truth of the Scriptures, even if it costs us our lives. In other words, we are to so seek and to so think and to so live like Christ Jesus, as He did in the incarnation, so as to do the will of our Father who is in heaven all the days of our life. Isn't that what it means when Jesus taught His disciples to pray? Father, may Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Who's going to do that will? There are some things that only God can do. And that's right. To pray for those things for God to do. But who will witness? Who will go? Who will share the gospel? Who will be the hands and feet of service? Who will be the lips that preach the truth? That's the church. The church is called the pillar and buttress of truth. The martyr's blood that drips from the church is the seed in the ground that brings forth from that fallow ground believers all over the world. All we have to do is take a simple glance at church history and see that's the case. If your company comes under attack and half of your employees are killed, your company's probably done. But the church, when she's attacked, she just grows. She actually grows stronger. She grows deeper. Why? Because the enemy cannot overthrow the work of the King. Jesus said, the gates of hell will not stop me building my church. And He does that through you and through me as we walk by faith, using the gifts that He's given us and walking by the faith that He's given us. That's the beauty. It's a beauty that's so big that it's overwhelming and we think that we can't do it. Good, you can't. But He can through you. That's the beauty of Christianity. God calls us to climb mountains that we can't even see the top. And then He says, trust me, it'll be easy. Why is it easy? Because He walks with us. He walks in us. He carries us. He guides us. He directs us. He keeps us on the path. He gives us strength. As we sung that song and we sang that He will put us on wings of eagles. That passage in Isaiah is talking about the youth will get tired. Go to the ball field and watch the youth play baseball. Eventually, they'll get tired and they'll have to quit. But the believer, even to old age, can fly like an eagle because God Almighty carries us. Think about that. That when we become worn down, we think, well, that's the end of the race. What proves that we're a believer is that when we're worn down, we cry out, God, I can't take another step. Work in me and through me so you are seen. We don't want to just do as much as we can do. We want to do what God wants us to do. And it's always past our strength. It's always past our ability. That's why God designed sickness and disease and suffering and pain to be used by a believer to understand that you made it through that trial because God carried you. Why can't you make it through the sunny days? See, beloved, we are so programmed by the world. We were so programmed before we became believers, thinking that we're the center, we're the truth, we're the life, we're everything. And then God shatters us by the truth of the gospel, and we realize that Christ is all we need. But to give up at that point is to live by the flesh. To press on at that point, day after day, through the pain, through the suffering, through the heartache, through the trials. is to say that my God reigns. It's easy to say with our lips, oh, I believe God's sovereign, and then lay down and quit and not press on. Beloved, every day we put one foot in front of another, every day that we press on for our King, we're declaring not only with our lips that our God reigns, but we're declaring that our God reigns as we share the gospel. Because that's where that passage is quoted, right? How beautiful are the feet of those who brings good news. For our God reigns. It takes the strength of Almighty God to go to someone and share the gospel. It takes the strength of Almighty God to go into Planned Parenthood and share the gospel and cry out with the law, pleading with people not to murder their own babies. Matter of fact, it's a good time to ask for prayer for that because the men on Tuesday have been praying about going to Planned Parenthood. So be praying for us and be praying about joining us when we set a time to go. We need to understand that when Jesus lived in the incarnation, he grew hungry, he grew tired, he grew weak in his flesh, but he never quit. Think about the trial that he went through from the time that he was arrested to the time that he got to the cross. At any time during that trial, we looking on in human flesh would have said, it's okay if you quit. But he said by his action, I will not quit, I cannot quit, because I came to do the will of my father. And the will of my father says, I must die on a cross for the sins of the people he gave me to save. And He pressed on through the agony, and He pressed on through the pain, and He pressed on through the suffering, and in the midst of bleeding, and in the midst of pain, arrogant sinners like us walked up to Him and spit in His face, and slapped Him, and mocked Him, and ridiculed Him, and teased Him, and said, if you're the Son of God, come down. And He said by His actions, I will not, because I came to do the will of my God, and I will finish what I came to do. And when he suffers under the wrath of God completely, he cries out, into your hands, Father, I commit my spirit. What is that a statement for? Father, I did what you sent me to do. Now I can come home. King Jesus knew what his end game was. None of us do. None of us know what the last day will be. But when the last day comes, we'll know. And by faith, we can say, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit, only in one way. that we're still walking by faith. If you pray a prayer at some revival and never live for God for 50 years, and then the day of your death comes, and you attempt to say, Lord, here I come, the only words that you'll hear will be, depart from me, I never knew you, you worker of iniquity. But if we press on day by day, day by day, clinging to Christ by faith, keeping our hope in Him, trusting in Him, serving Him as living sacrifices, the day we die, we will hear, well done, my good and faithful servant. Not because we're perfect. because we pressed on in the one who is perfect. Because our righteousness now, our righteousness tomorrow, our righteousness at glorification will be the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we'll be transformed and we'll never sin again. But the only way we can be transformed and glorified is because every day we live under the peace and fellowship of God because of the righteousness of Christ. Verse four. For as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. So, or therefore, we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individual members of one another. This is a very popular theme in Scripture, to use an earthly picture to paint a heavenly reality. Paul is painting a picture of the church by using the physical human body. Paul wants us to rightly understand that just as God creates our human body, and he makes no mistakes, because he created man, both male and female. They are intentionally his created order, not something that happened by random chance as those who would teach evolution, not something to be changed as we live in a day of sexual perversion. So too God creates the church in Christ Jesus by his own will, designed for his own glorious purposes for the good of his people. Think about that. Every day that our body functions, we're to learn something about the church. When our hands pick something up, we're to understand just as He designed our hand to pick something up, He designed someone in the church to do something. As our eyes work, someone in the church. As our ears work, someone in the church. Every body part is meant to remind us that there's a gift in the church that's not identical. I'm not saying we have ears and eyes and spleens and kidneys in the church, but the picture's meant to describe that if you could count every single piece of your body, every cell even, everything that makes up your body, you would get a picture of how God builds His church. He builds it in such a way that it makes one body, and that body is designed to live in harmony. We live in a fallen world, so there's disease and there's sickness, and our body deteriorates and eventually dies. But those things we're to see as the effects of sin, not as God's design, original design. The way that we are to understand the beauty of humanity is to look before the fall, to look at how God created Adam and Eve, to look at Christ Jesus from the cradle to the grave. As we look at those two sections of scripture, we see the only sinless human beings that have ever walked on the earth. Adam and Eve fell, so their example only lasts for a moment. But we do see God's design there, don't we? We see God's design for male and female. We see God's design for the family. We see God's design for marriage. And then we look at King Jesus in the incarnation, and we see a holy life lived by the Holy One of Israel. We must understand that God created man in His image. And as His church, we are to once again, by faith, understand that design and walk intentionally by faith so people see our glory. but not our glory as if it comes from us, but our glory that is the glory of God working in us and through us. Remember the picture of Moses? Moses spends time in the presence of God, but he's in the old covenant for the people of Israel. I do believe Moses was a believer. I'm not saying Moses' glory faded as if he was a believer fading, but he was a picture for Israel. That as Moses went into the presence of God, his face shone with the glory of God, but it vanished, it faded away. Why? Because the Law, the Old Covenant only had a time and a season. But Paul tells us the glory that we have, the way that our face shines, it shines by the everlasting glory of King Jesus. And not only does it not fade away, but it grows stronger and stronger and stronger as we're being conformed into His image until one day we're glorified and we will shine like the sun. So just as there are many different parts of our physical bodies, so too there are many believers, many Christians that make up the church from every tongue, tribe, and nation. Think about how the church would look different if we saw that every tongue, tribe, and nation has gifts of God in it. It would kill prejudice. It would kill pride. And just as all of our physical parts of our body all have a different purpose, that different purpose in design is a created purpose by God. See, if you listen to the world, they tell us that our body's evolving, and we used to be this animal, and now we're another animal. Wrong. God created human beings in His image intentionally, and every part of our body was created by Him for a specific purpose. So too in the church, there are many believers, many Christians that have all different gifts given and designed by God for His glory and our good, but also to the degree of their faith. So two people can have the same gift and they're used differently by the degree of faith that they have. Think about it, don't you have a greater degree of faith now than you did the day you were saved? Doesn't God grow and strengthen our faith? But every degree is a degree that's strengthened and grows by His design. It's a gift. See, beloved, every single one of us, we dream, oh, I wish I could be a great missionary for the Lord. I wish I could do great things. I wish I could be used by God to save 1,000 people. But do we put in the time that's needed to do those things? If you desire to play the piano, don't you have to practice and practice and practice? You can't just say, I wish I could play the piano and then someday it plops in your lap and you can play the piano. Beloved, unless we spend time in the Word knowing who God is, why would He ever transform us into His image if we're not yearning for it? See, beloved, that transformation in our sanctification is by beholding Him. It's not by our own efforts. It's not like practicing the piano, that you just do it, you do it. We go to the Word, and we dig, and we harvest, and we ask questions, and we make connections by God's grace, and His image becomes more and more glorious. The God that we worship today better be bigger than the God we worshiped when we were first saved. Not that He's changed. But our image of Him has changed. If not, then we haven't grown. If the God that we saw when we were saved is identical to the God we see today, then we haven't grown. We're still babes in the faith. We're still needing a bottle rather than being able to eat meat and to grow. But even though I want to paint a picture of many believers that make up the body with many different gifts, many different talents, many different abilities that make up the church, we must remember that they are all given for God for our spiritual growth and unity in Jesus Christ. They're not meant to divide. If someone says they're using their gift to blow a church apart, they're not using a gift from God, but a gift from the devil. Beloved, we must understand that your body works in harmony. Your eyes look where your feet are going. Your brain tells you how to balance so you don't fall over. We have the ability to move and to function in unity. Can you imagine if our hands fought with our face and our legs would kick us? It would be a ridiculous sight. And yet that's much of the American church scene, isn't it? That instead of that unity and that growth and love by the truth and using the gifts of God, there's fighting and divisions in the church over silly things and over things that are so clear in scripture that I can't believe people would fight over it. Do you realize that churches are being split apart today trying to find out where the truth lies on the area of sexual perversion? I don't get it. I don't get opening your Bible and reading when God says something's an abomination, how someone can argue years later and say, well, now I don't think it is. It's the same thinking that thinks that humanity used to be a different animal, and now is something different, and will be something different in the future, or they just believe in annihilationism. Isn't it an oxymoron that evolutionists believe in the changing of species, and yet they believe in annihilationism? Isn't that kind of ridiculous? That you're growing, you're changing, you're becoming the better creature and then when you become the better creature you're just annihilated when you die. Isn't that the evidence of the folly of their system? That only the biblical view of man, only the biblical view of life is the one that makes sense? that we were created in the image of God but fell, lost our relationship with God, became enemies of Christ and the cross and of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and yet God came and saved us and puts his image back in us by his spirit dwelling in us and granting us the gift of faith to now once again shine forth the glory of God so that we believe we don't end when we die, but when we die we actually begin to live for the first time. Paul continues to unpack these gifts in verses six through eight. And I want to break verses six through eight down into nine statements. So let's look at each one of these. In verse six is the first statement. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. One reason we can't boast in our gifts is because God determines who gets what gifts. How can you get a free gift from God and then boast as if you deserve it? And at the same time defend, no, no, this is God's grace to me. If you deserve it, it's not grace gift. It's something you earn. But if it's a grace gift, it's something that's freely given. Just as Paul began in verse three by stating that he is who he is by the grace of God, he now declares so too are we. All the gifts, all the talents, all the abilities we have are all grace gifts from God. These are all the gifts that Christ Jesus purchased for us. Think about it. If God gives a grace gift to the church and we're not glorified yet, then we don't deserve it yet. it must come through our mediator. Jesus Christ is the reason why God can freely give us gifts. And all these gifts are given and designed by God for His glory and for our good and for the good of our fellow man. We must not miss that since the moral laws reflects God's holy character, as He does all that He does, He also upholds them. by doing all that he does for his own sake, for his own exaltation, for his own glory, for the good of his people. Have you ever thought of that? That if God says to us, the first and greatest law is to love your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the second is to love others, don't you think God functions under that same parameter? That's why in Isaiah he says, I don't share my glory with anyone. Call my sons and daughters from the East and from the West. I will save them for my own sake. He does that first. His work of salvation is for Him first. And for us second. Everything that God does is for His glory. For His name to be exalted. But it is certainly for our good. And when we see His glory, and when we understand it's for our good, don't we find much joy in making much of Him? See, the world says if God does everything for His glory, He must be evil. He must be selfish. He must be conceited. If we acted that way, yes, those would be true. But God is perfect. God is love. God is truth. God is everything that He is. So when He makes much of Himself, He's making much of our hope. He's making much of the only means of our salvation. He's making much of what we have to look for to spend all eternity in His presence. It's actually the most loving thing that God can do, to be God-focused first. Second point, also in verse six, Paul says simply, let us use them. Beloved, there's many tests out there that you can take to find out your spiritual gifts. I hate those tests. The way that we know what our spiritual gift is, is what we find ourselves doing with joy in the church. What we're compelled to do. When we hear that the Christian should be hospitable, then everyone's to be hospitable. Some people have a special gift for that. See, when we're talking about gifts, we're talking about using it in a way that's a special gift. But in those special gifts, there's also a characteristic of every believer. Some have the gift of prophecy, to be pastors and teachers and evangelists and missionaries, but every Christian's to share the truth. So don't think that when you look at these things, I want to know what spiritual gift they have, so I use just them. No, seek to be who God called us to be. And in that using of faith, in that following and obedience, God will show you where he's gifted you. God will show you your talents by what you love. I'm sure I could ask Danny, Danny, do you love music? That's why he does it, right? It's a gift from God. See, God gives us gifts and he doesn't give us gifts so we look at them and say, oh, I can't believe I have to do that again. When we understand God's gift, it becomes our joy, it becomes our love, it becomes our passion, and we're to use it for the glory of God and for the good of his people. That's how we know we're being faithful with our gifts. Just as the gifts that we give to one another on birthdays or any other celebration are only a blessing if they're actually used, right? If you give a child a toy, does the child rejoice that he got a toy, or does he rejoice when he uses it? Do you rejoice when you get clothes just to hang them on a hook, or do you rejoice when you get to put them on and feel like you got something special to wear? See, beloved, the gifts that God gives us for the church are only a blessing when we use them, not when we hoard them. Right? Isn't the picture that Jesus paints, don't lay up your treasures on earth where moth and rust can destroy, but lay your treasures up in heaven. Who's our treasure? It's Christ Jesus. And if Christ Jesus is our treasure, then the gifts that God gives us are to make us look like our King, to make us look like our treasure. It's to make us look Christ-like. So Paul simply says, let us use them. But I don't think he says, let us use them by merely making a suggestion. Paul's saying as an apostle, let us use them. He's commanding the church, if God gifts you, use them. Why did God tell Abraham he was going to bless Abraham? To make him a blessing. If Abraham had taken all the blessings he got from God and hoarded it, do you think he'd be the father of the faith? Used as an example, as a friend of God? Certainly not. God blesses us so we can be a blessing. That's in the truth of the scriptures, to give the truth of the scriptures. That's with talents, to use them for the glory of God and for the good of others. That's with our money. He gives us money through the way we work and earn money. There's many ways God gives us money. but he gives us money to meet our needs, but also to be a blessing. Therefore, Paul commands the church to use them. Only as we use our gifts and our talents and our abilities for the glory of God and for the good of others, only then are they truly the blessings that God designs them to be, just like the body. If we use our hands for sin, does that reveal why God gave us hands? If we use our eyes to lust and to look at pornography, are we using our eyes the way God designed our eyes? Of course not. So when God gives us gifts of grace, then we are to use them for the glory of God and for the good of others. Point number three, also in verse six. Paul says, if prophecy in proportion to our faith, The first thing we need to see before we go into the rest of the gifts is Paul uses the word if. Why? He uses the word if to clarify that not everybody has all these gifts. If this is yours, then do it this way. If this one's yours, then do it this way. The word if isn't meant to be bad, it's meant to point specifically to say, George, if you have this gift, then use it this way. What's that supposed to do? If you don't have the gift, do we pout? No, we praise God that George has the gift, right? Why? Because it's for the glory of God and it's for our good. See, when we think selfishly, we look at somebody and say, I wish I had that gift. I can't believe God gave it to him and not me. But we're missing the point. If George uses the gift for the glory of God and for our good, then all we'll do is praise God for that gift rather than begrudge that gift. God alone is self-sufficient. That's another thing we need to see by all these things. Why do we need grace gifts? Because we need God. As the children of God, we not only need God, but we need each other. It's kind of the echo of the law. Love your God first, love your neighbor as yourself, and God puts us in a body of people that are seeking to do that. By your love, the world will know you're mine. Why? Because it shows that we need each other. See, we only serve and love each other when we rightly understand we need each other. We first need God, first and foremost. But God also designs that we need the local church. We need Christians around the world. When we travel, isn't it a blessing when you bump into a believer as you travel and get to have a conversation about the King? So if he gives gifts, we must use them according to his will, to his design, for his purpose, so that he is exalted through them and his people are blessed. And the gift of prophecy is to be understood as proclaiming the truth. This is where this gift gets people sometimes into trouble, I believe in our day. In the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the time of the apostles, God spoke new revelation through the prophets and through the apostles. I don't believe he does that anymore. We have the canon of scripture, we don't have the apostles living anymore, we don't have anyone that spent time with Christ Jesus, and I believe those special apostolic gifts are gone. But this gift is not gone. This gift is to be seen as the preaching, the proclaiming of the truth, not by proclaiming new revelation, but of preaching and proclaiming the word of God, all of scripture. Therefore, not all Christians have this specific gift, nor are they all called to this kind of preaching. This is God's gift to those who are called and equipped to be elders and pastors, missionaries, evangelists, and would have certainly included the prophets of old and the apostles in the New Testament. But as I said before, everyone in the church is to echo that gift as we share the gospel and as we encourage each other with the truth. Think about it, when Paul writes to Timothy, he says, the elder must be apt to teach. Well, how can he be apt to teach? Is it by his natural ability? Certainly not. I'm a perfect example for that. Couldn't read in public, couldn't speak in public until God dragged me to Himself and I humbled myself before Him, confessing that He was calling me to do this for the rest of my life. It's His gift. It's not my gift. Then if you are called and gifted by God to preach, preach the word, Paul says. Preach it in season and out of season. Preach when it's something they want to hear and preach it when it's something they don't want to hear. Why? Because God gave us all of scripture because we need all of it. Statement number four, the beginning of verse seven. if service in our serving. In other words, God gives us a gift of service. God designs for the gift of service to serve with a willing and joyful heart for the glory of God and for the good of our fellow man. Therefore, we must never seek to exalt self by our serving others. Think about it. The world says, well, I'm gonna serve this person so they give me something. I'm gonna serve this person so I get something in return. But the Christian is to serve for one reason, for the glory of God and then for the good of others. The good of others is the fruit of the first. We need to understand that it's God working in us and through us to give us the ability to serve with a joyful and thankful heart. We are never to serve man or to serve God hoping to get something in return from either one of them. Why do we receive all the blessings we get from God? Because Christ purchased them for us. Because the Father gives them to us in love. He doesn't give them to us because we earn them. He gives them to us because Christ earned them. Think about how dishonoring it is to our king. If we do a good deed, then we look at God. Well, God, I did this great thing yesterday. I read my Bible for four hours. Now make me healthy. Get rid of this cold. I really don't want this cold. Isn't that saying that the life of Christ isn't enough? I had to add reading my Bible for four hours for you to answer my prayer. We pray and have the ability to pray because King Jesus opened the veil. Isn't that the picture that God painted when He died? That that curtain in the old temple was ripped, signifying the end of the old covenant, but also signifying that the way into the holy places is now open? Not by one priest going in once a year with the blood of bulls and goats, but every day, every hour, every minute, every second of every day, the veil is open for one reason, that King Jesus took His blood inside the veil and offered it on the altar that's in heaven. So that when we pray, our Father in heaven hears us because of the work and person of Jesus Christ. That's why we pray in Jesus' name, right? If we seek to serve by putting self at the center, or if we seek to serve to have people praise us and look at us, or to serve for selfish gain, it is to merely serve like the world, not like the children of God were called to be in Christ Jesus. Just look at the way politicians serve. Don't they serve merely to get a picture, to get the picture in the paper to say, look, I'm serving so you can vote for me next time, because you think I'm a good person? See, as believers, we don't take pictures with our checks. We give them in secret. Right hand, left hand, don't know what we're doing. Why? Because it's for the glory of God and for the good of others. It's not for our glory. Point number five, it's also in verse seven. The one who teaches in his teaching. Again, this teaching is part of the gift of being an elder and a pastor, but it's not just elders and pastors who can teach. Those who have the gift of teaching are those believers, those Christians that have had their eyes and ears open so that they can rightly understand the Word of God and then teach the truth to others. Isn't that the whole point of discipling someone? By this gift of grace, parents are called to teach their children. The older believers are called to teach the younger. The older women are called to teach the younger women. The church is called to teach the world. We're called to make disciples in the name of Jesus, right? As we use God's gift of teaching, He alone is to be exalted, and that for the good of our fellow man. And here we need to be reminded that it is God in His Word that tells us that we are to preach and to teach. So we are to seek the will of the people. So are we to seek the will of the people and merely give them what they want? Or are we to seek to be man-pleasers? Certainly not. We are to be faithful servants of the One who purchased us. We are to be unashamed and therefore preach and teach the whole counsel of God as the very Word of God. It's why Paul wrote this to the Galatians. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to dissort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one that we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. What's Paul saying? He's saying when the church looks at a false teacher and calls them a false teacher, it won't be for their good. They will be mocked and ridiculed for that. You can't do that if you're a man pleaser. You can't look at a liar and call him a liar if you're a man pleaser. You have to spin it and make it something else. Beloved, if somebody opens their mouth and willingly speaks blasphemy about Jesus, and they won't repent, then they are a heretic. Saw a thing on TV the other day that a pastor became so enthralled with trying to find approval for homosexuality that he threw out the doctrine of hell and then his church called him a heretic and cast him away. But he kept going. Another church took him in to be a pastor. Why? Because that church was having the same thoughts that he was. See, beloved, there is the true church that understands the beauty and glory of God all over the world. True believers read the Scriptures and say, what the Scripture says is what I wanna do. But there are others that call themselves Christians, and they have a different gospel, and they have a different understanding of truth, and they have a different understanding of the Word of God. They pick and choose what they wanna believe, and the rest they just regard as man's words. And Paul here says, let them be accursed. Beloved, the reason why the American church is in so much trouble is because she's unwilling to call false teachers false teachers. She's unwilling to say that there's a wolf in the camp. Nope, it's just another idea. We're becoming more like Athens. We just want to hear another new thing. Let's just have another convention, another conference for Christians to hear new things. It's a very dangerous way to live. And Paul says if anyone preaches a different gospel than the one revealed in scripture, he is accursed. Number six, beginning of verse eight, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, As believers, as Christians, we are to seek to exalt God in all that we do and say. As our minds are renewed by the scriptures, by faith, we have a passion and desire to make much of God in all of life. And as we do this, we encourage the church to press on for the glory of God and for the good of our fellow man, especially the household of faith. Pastors are to exhort the body of Christ. Parents are to exhort their children and on and on and on. We are to use these gifts to exalt God and to encourage the church to press on. Listen to what Paul wrote to the Philippians. What then? only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. And yes, I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance, as is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed. But that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. See, Paul's writing from prison, and he knows if he stays in prison, he will die. So he says, but that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Think about that. To live is to live for the glory of Christ and for the good of his people. And to die is to get Christ, to be in his presence. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Meaning, Paul's not gonna live longer so he plays. He's gonna live longer to live for the glory of God. Yet which shall I choose, I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and to be with Christ. He is the one. He is a believer that is being described in the book of Hebrews, that Christ is coming to get all those that eagerly await for him. This is how it sounds when we eagerly await for God. My desire is to depart and to be with Christ. For that is far better. But to remain in the flesh, is more necessary on your account. See, that's how we're to look at each other. I want to be with my King, but if I'm not with my King, I'm here for your good. If everybody thought that way in the church, the church would explode. My desire is to depart to be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith. Meaning, I'm gonna use the gifts that God gave me for your joy and progress in your faith. So that in me, You may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again. Paul is not saying praise me, he's saying when I come, I'll speak in such a way that you'll be able to praise your God in heaven. Number seven, verse eight also. The one who contributes in his generosity. God loves a cheerful and willing giver. You can see that in 2 Corinthians 9.7. We are not to give under compulsion, but joyfully and thankfully. As God has given all things to us, we must seek to be a blessing by using His gifts that He has provided for His glory and for the good of others. For as Jesus said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And you can see that quote in Acts 20, verse 35. Also what Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, he said, let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Somebody asks you, why do you work? To supply my family and to give to those in need, right? The world is trying to tell us, beloved, listen, you need to live in such a way that you can retire early and play. Just play. How much money does it take to play? Those commercials on TV boggle me. Oh, I need three million to live my lifestyle. I won't see three million in my lifetime. But they need three million to play with after they retire. That's a person that's living for their own glory, for their own joy. I'm not saying retiring is wrong. But when we retire, guess what we have more time to do? Live for the glory of the King and serve the church. See the world wants to tell us, work hard and then you get to play hard. Nobody is your boss. But the believer has to say, listen, my boss, he rules every day. When I'm at work, he rules. When I retire, he'll rule. On the weekends, he rules. He rules every day. And every day we are to live for the glory of our King by using the gifts that he's given us. Think about that statement about the thief. The thief's an unbeliever, I'm assuming. He's a thief, he steals, that's just his desire. It's about me, it's about self, it's about gain, it's about power, it's about control, and I don't care about anybody else. And Paul says, when the thief is saved, let him work hard so he can give to those in need. That's stunning. In other words, the thief, when he's saved, becomes a functioning believer. just like us. We are sinners saved by grace. We brought nothing to the table, and yet the moment we become a believer, we have gifts to use in the church, because God is already gifting us when he causes us to be born again. Statement number eight, also in verse eight, the one who leads, leads with zeal. If God calls someone to lead, for example, parents, elders, pastors, teachers, professors, anybody who leads, We must do it with a passion for the glory of God and not our glory. For the good of others and not for selfish gain. Think about the false teachers in scriptures. They're called false teachers because they preach in such a way to lead others after themselves. But leaders that use the gift of leading, they lead people to Christ. We are not to follow someone as the end goal, but like Paul's attitude, follow me as I follow Christ. We're only to follow someone as a means of seeing and following Christ Jesus. For the extent of degree of our zeal and passion in following Christ and to lead others, it shows the excellency and beauty of Christ Jesus. Think about it. You're following Christ because He's worthy to be followed. And you're leading someone to follow Christ because He's that much more worthy to be followed. Every time we follow, we're showing the worth of Christ. And every time we lead someone to follow, we're showing the worth of Christ. It's not about us, it's about Him. It shows that He alone is worthy of our lives, even unto death. Listen to what Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. He says, I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind. Not my mind, not your mind, but the mind of Christ, with that renewed mind. Be united in the same mind and the same judgment, for it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you. My brothers, what I mean is that each one of you says, I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow Cephas, or I follow Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? This is why I'm very careful when I use the word, and I call myself a Calvinist, because I don't want people to think that I follow John Calvin. But I believe his teaching, the beauties that he saw, reveals the beauty of God. Therefore, I am unashamed to be a Calvinist, to be Reformed, to be a Baptist, because I believe those things come from the truth of Scripture. But Paul says, we're not to follow a man, but we're to follow Christ. He even says, was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized into my name. I did baptize also the house of Stephanus, but beyond that I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. Why? For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. And not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of His power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. When you preach the gospel and an unbeliever mocks you, don't let that hurt you following Christ. It just proves that they're perishing. Let it be the power of God in you. Think about it. We are to preach the gospel to the lost, hoping that they would be saved, and we are to preach the gospel to one another to show us the power of Christ. We are to encourage people to learn good theology. It's not wrong to say, hey, this is a great book written by so-and-so. But when the person reads that book and then months later we say, that's all he's reading. He's not reading his Bible, he's only reading the books by this one person. We're to say, brother, don't follow a man. Make sure you're following Christ. Whatever we read for extra study, can't take away from our time from the word of God. Because if it does and that man goes off course, we'll go right off course with him because we're not in the word. It's great to have a mentor, living or dead. Piper recommended this years ago, I think it's great wisdom. Find somebody that's already died, somebody that finished the race well, and read everything that they wrote. Because what they wrote will shine on your blind spots, and your wisdom will see the blind spots that they had, because they're not perfect, none of us are. But when we read living people, it's okay to do that, but be careful. Because if they fall away from Christ, it could pull our heart saying, well, I loved what he wrote. Does that mean I'm gonna fall away too? That's why old writings are the best, in my opinion. And you'll find that the old writings and the new writings that are good are the ones that rejoice in the old writings. Lastly, point number nine. The last statement Paul makes in this section, he says, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. Think about what it means to the person who needs your mercy. Think about what it means when you come with a cheerful, joyful heart, or you come begrudgingly. If we come begrudgingly, is the person encouraged? If we come and say, well, I don't really have time for this, but I just stopped by, isn't he more encouraged to say, I came to encourage you and do it cheerfully? As we seek to be a blessing to others for the glory of God, we must do it with a thankful, cheerful heart. Why? Because it's a gift of God. Think about it. God is using you to encourage somebody. That's a gift. It's a gift for you to be used that way, and it's a gift of the person to be encouraged. Do you see how the gifts of God are meant to fuel our unity and meant to fuel our growth? Someone cared for me that they came to encourage me, and as you encourage, I guarantee God will be the reason why you're greatly encouraged as you see your brother and sister rise from their suffering, why they need encouragement or mercy. It is because of God's love for us and out of our love for God that we must seek to love others. No one can love God unless he's first born again. That's what the Bible says, right? Those that know God, love. Why? Because God first loved us. If God loves us, then we are called to love God, first commandment, and we are to love our neighbors, second commandment. It is because of God's great mercy towards us that we seek to be merciful to others. It is because of God's complete forgiveness of our sins that we seek to forgive one another. And in closing, I want to read from the letter to the Colossians that Paul wrote. Listen to these words carefully. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. See, we're not to be someone who, oh, I just love to suffer. I'm a masochist, I love to suffer. But if we are working and serving for the King, and we're suffering, we do it for others, right? Now I rejoice in my suffering for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's affliction for the sake of His body, that is the church of which I became a minister according to the stewardship that is from God. that was given to me for you to make the word of God fully known. If a pastor is speaking appropriately, the gifts that God gave him to make him a pastor are not for him, but for those that he preaches to. to make known the Word of God, fully known the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to His saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all His energy. That's the reason why we can be sanctified. It's the reason why we can use gifts. It's because of His energy that He powerfully works in me. There are those out there that are teaching that you can sanctify yourself by your own ability. You can use gifts by your own ability, and all you will do is find yourself worshiping yourself. But if we toil and if we struggle with all the energy that He gives us, that He is powerfully working in us, what does Paul call that in the book of Ephesians? The same power that raised Jesus from the dead. That's the power He gives us. Whatever strength you can make with your arm or your leg or any muscle in your body pales in comparison to the strength that God used to raise Christ from the dead. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, which is us, right? That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love to reach all the riches of full assurance and understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ. in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Isn't that a beautiful reason to struggle? To live and to so die that the church would be built up in love? To live and to so die that we lead people to Christ? That we lead people away from sin, away from the world, away from the devil, away from self? May we seek to live this way for the glory of God and for the good of his people. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you are a God who gives. We thank you that you are a God who creates and designs and has purpose. Father, help us to walk that way. Help us to walk in your wisdom. Help us to walk by the faith that you gave us. Help us to use that gift of faith to so dine on Your Word, to so plead in prayer, to so walk uprightly that You would be honored and we would be blessed by seeing You more and more. Father, help us to be faithful Christians who seek to renew their minds every day. Father, help us not to be babes in Christ who are just thankful to get a drink of milk now and then. But Lord, help us to be mature. Help us to so dine on the word that it's like dining on a steak every meal. That we can just feel it strengthening us and filling us. Father, help us to praise only you as we use our gifts that you've given us. Help us to only seek to do things for your glory and for the good of our fellow man. Father, help us this week to share the gospel. Help us this week to seek to share the truth, to see eyes and ears opened as you work in us and through us. Father, help us to be your children. Help us to be your image bearers. Help us to shine Christ in the way that we live and the way that we speak. And when we don't, may your kindness lead us to repentance. It's in Christ we pray. It's in his name we rejoice. It's in his name we give thanks. And it's in his name we know that you hear our prayers and you answer. And all God's people said, amen.