Bible Teaching
Calvary Temple Teaching Library
Keys Of The Kingdom, The Mission Pt.15
Pastor Scott
January 9, 2000 Sun AM
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We saw then that there was another great responsibility that we had, and that was the message of the church. We said that it wasn’t necessarily in this order that we looked at them, but first and preeminent was the worship, and second the message. We’ve been talking about our responsibility to herald the gospel, to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. We saw the responsibility then to disciple the believers. And so we’ve looked at that aspect of responsibility.
Today, we want to look at the responsibility that we have of not ministering to the sinners, but ministering to the saints. I believe that, in order, this would be the second most important responsibility of the church—more than evangelism. Because we realize that what’s most important is to get those who have embraced the gospel to be able to finish the race. To be able to say, "Father, of those that You’ve given me (as the Lord said) I’ve lost none." That requires discipleship; it goes beyond evangelism. We looked at Ephesians the fourth chapter, a passage that we’re all very familiar with. We saw that in the founding of the church and the establishing of the church, God has sent these ministry gifts, the ascension gifts, and that they were given for a purpose. And in chapter 4 of Ephesians, verse 11, we see that these five-fold gifts—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers—were given for the purpose of perfecting the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. And so, God’s ministry gifts were given preeminently to cause you and I, as members in particular, to learn how to build up one another. You didn’t come here this morning to get blessed; you came to be a blessing. We’ve come to worship the Lord, and then we’ve come to honor His body or to care for His body. As the body is built, what is going to be the consequence? Jesus is going to get more glory, isn’t He? There’s going to be more worship from the mature believers. As the passage goes on (the apostle is speaking), he says that this ministry of edifying will bring us all to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God. So, we see that there’s to be a unifying in doctrine and a contending for the faith, as the apostle says. And it brings us into a deeper knowledge of God, and to maturation, or (he says in verse 13) the perfect man—or a better word for perfect here would be not sinless perfection, but mature or complete—that each of us would come to completion, that God’s work would be finished in us. And then we would come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That’s quite an order, isn’t it?
I think what you’re going to see as we go on into the study this morning is that the one thing we should really continue to emphasize in our lives always is, "Lord, I want to be like You; I just want to grow up." "What do you want to be when you grow up?" "I want to be like Jesus." Wouldn’t you love to hear those words out of the mouth of one of your children? "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Not a Gates, the richest man in the world; not a Michael Jordan, the number one athlete of the century; not a fireman or a cowboy, as some of us had those great aspirations when we were children (or a Redskin, I guess; not a Cowboy around here). The more real Jesus is in our lives and hearts, and in the hearts of our children, the more natural that kind of response should be. Let me ask you a question this morning, parents. What are your aspirations for your children? What do you want most? "I want my kids to grow up into the full stature of Jesus Christ." What’s more important?
As we get ready to go into another topic in the next weeks, we’re going to be talking about that, and the example that we are of the believer, and what our actual treasures are in this life, and how we like to believe it or not, as diligent as we’ve been in this last decade of our pursuit of holiness, we are a people (not only individually, but as a congregation) who have been vexed by the world. We need to contend with that vexation, and realize the hour that we’re living in, and make sure that our hearts and our minds are separate unto God. And so, the church’s responsibility is to allow these gifts to operate in our midst. Each one of us, as individual members, are to take on the responsibility that God has given us of bringing about corporate body edification.
Then he goes on and says that as we come into that stature, that full stature of Jesus Christ, we would no longer be immature children, "carried about with every wind of doctrine." One of the most dangerous things in this last day that we’re going to contend with is false doctrine, as men heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, the Scripture says. There’ll be people who will say, "Prophesy unto us smooth things; tell us what we want to hear; tell us how good we are. Don’t tell us that we need to pray more, study more, be more separate from the world, be more sacrificial in our lives in serving one another. Tell us we’re all right." That will be the cry of the great apostate church of the last days. But he says that the true church of Jesus Christ is going to be one of maturity that will not be "tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of man, and by cunning craftiness, whereby [these false prophets] lie in wait to deceive." But the hallmark of the true church is going to be found in verse 15: "but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things" will make us grow up.
And so, what we have to do is to really begin to examine our hearts and say, "What am I doing to contribute to the mutual love of this community?" Now, this fellowship has a true love for one another beyond any that I’ve ever known, and it’s not by accident. You know it’s like when somebody has a good kid, someone says, "Oh, man! Your kids are just really a blessing; you’re so lucky!" I’ve had people say that about ours, and I said, "Lucky nothing! It’s a lot of hard work! There’s no luck involved." And this congregation didn’t get where it is by accident. It’s been a lot of hard work on all of our parts. But the reason we are where we are today as a fellowship is because we accepted no less a standard than perfection. We wouldn’t allow ourselves the luxury of self-indulgence, but have given ourselves to serving and loving one another. Now, we can grow. We’ve got a long way to grow, but thank God for where we are today, and thank God for the love we have one for another and, as we’ve shared, just the natural desire to be together. I’ve had people in this community (you have, too) say, "What are you guys doing up there? Why are you always up there? Every time we drive by this place, the parking lot is full; everybody is hanging out." People walk into our gymnasium, like they did on Friday night for a basketball game. We go to all the other Christian schools; we go to the other private schools in the area. They have fourteen or fifteen parents out, maybe twenty people hanging around. They come here, and there are hundreds and hundreds of people, and everybody is fellowshipping. And they say, "What is this?" I’ll tell you what it is: "Behold, how they love one another (John 13)." Thank God for the love that’s expressed here!
But I shared a concern with you a couple of weeks ago (right around Christmas time). I was so pleased as I made it out to a couple of the gatherings. Somebody said, "I’ve noticed that some of the other pastors and you have come out to some of the functions more than in the past." How many of you want to know why we’ve done that. Have you noticed that some? Do you want to know why? It’s because when we show up, you all aren’t bugging us so much! I’m serious. When all you deal with is people and problems all week, do you want to go and fellowship with more? And now, when we come, we’re able to fellowship. Why? Because your needs are being met by one another on a daily basis; everyone is carrying this mutual concern and love. This ministry, over these last years, has brought about a health, a wholeness, a strength in our midst to where we’re able to have fellowship (true koinonia) and come and be refreshed in the presence, rather than continually being drawn upon. That’s the facts of life. And so, these are some blessings that we’ve been able to experience. As I was out at one of the parties on Christmas Eve—most of the world on Christmas Eve want to gather their blood relatives around "us four and no more" and have whatever the tradition is of that particular time. There’s nothing wrong with the traditions and the family gatherings. But here we are on Christmas Eve, and we dropped over at the Kusar’s house, and you can’t even move in the place! I don’t know how many people were there, probably 75, 80 or more people. We left there and went to the Edwards’ house. And family was just loving one another, kids were everywhere, you just had to kind of stand with your legs straddled, and kids were coming through! It was just a great time of fellowship and family gathering.
Over the years, we’ve become true family. And we realize, because of many of our stands for the gospel many of us have lost our natural families. There’s nothing easy about that, but God has given us what the Scripture says: "And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." (Matthew 19:29) That’s what we’ve received here—the hundredfold of brothers and sisters, a love truly manifested toward one another—and, because of that, the mandate of verse 15 to speak this truth in love. I shared the one thing that concerned me a little bit at the gathering (and I don’t see it as a major problem, but something for us to watch). And that’s the fact that when we come together, we don’t come now because of our mutual concern one for another primarily. We don’t come because we’ve been knit and we enjoy one another’s company primarily. We come primarily to see Christ formed in each one of us, that He might be glorified. That’s why we come together. We come together to fulfill this mandate on our lives to contribute to the maturing of the body so that Jesus might be all in all. "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted…" (verses 15-16). We’ve been seeing that, and as we speak the truth, we see this compacting, or that weaving like a rope, or the knitting together, the intertwining of our lives. It’s to the point where when one hurts, we all hurt; when one is honored and rejoices, we all rejoice.
We’ve seen it a couple of times in some of our young people’s gathering with our athletics. We use athletics here—not like so many others to fulfill egos and give false ambitions of what’s ahead—but as training for teamwork and unity. A newspaper reporter at one of the tournaments came up as we were in this game. We were beginning to win, and then we subbed in some of the others who were not our starting players. They were able to play and score some points, and some of these things, and all of the others on the team were just rejoicing with them. This reporter after the game asked, "What’s this all about? You were so excited to be watching them play and excel, and not run up your own stats, and all of these things." It’s practical evidence of what we’re talking about here: each caring one for another, this knitting together.
Then he said, as we finish up here in verse 16, every joint is to be a source of this; every joint supplies to this interweaving of lives and purpose. We come together for the sole purpose of seeing Christ formed in us, not only as a community where people say, "That seems to be a group of people who really love the Lord," but to see Him (and this is what we’re going to emphasize today) more greatly expressed in those of us who lack. The fact of the matter is: we don’t all have the same maturity; we don’t all have the same zeal. Some of us are being dragged along by those who love our souls. I want to tell you something this morning. You’re not heavy; you’re our brother. We don’t mind; we thank God. But we are not in any way ever going to contribute to your delinquency. We will make up where you lack, but we will require of you growth. And so, as he speaks to us here, he says that there’s to be an effectual working in the measure of every part, so that there would be the increase of the body unto the edifying of itself (say it with me) in love. And so, we begin to see that our responsibility is one of mutual edification. The edification, then, begins to be a consequence of our love one for another.
Turn over to John 13 for just a second. In John’s Gospel, the 13th chapter, is one of the great passages. The Lord is speaking in verse 34, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." That, in and of itself, is not a difficult requirement. We see natural love all around us, don’t we? We see those that have a phileo love that’s expressed, a brotherly love. We see a storge love that manifests itself, that which is a compassion, a maternal-type love or a family love. And so, there’s love that is expressed in many different ways. But look what Jesus says here. He says there is a new commandment. Love, in and of itself, is not a new commandment. Here is the new commandment: "That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." How many of you realize that ups the ante a little bit? And so we find right here the requirement that’s been placed upon us: a love that loves while we were yet sinners. Christ loved us, Amen? It’s not a conditional love; it doesn’t say if you do good, I’ll love you; if you’re able to satisfy something in my life, then there will be a reciprocating here. It says that there’s going to be a love because we have been loved by Jesus. Freely we’ve received; freely we give. If we’ve received His love, the Scripture says, we ought (or we owe it) to love one another. It’s this kind of love that He goes on in verse 35 to say "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." And so, that’s the great requirement of the love of the saints.
I’m going to give you a list of things here. Lists are not always real exciting, but they’re necessary for us, and the Scriptures are full of them. This is not one list that you’ll find in the Scriptures; it’s one that we’ve put together. In this mutual edification, or the edifying or building up of the body of Christ in love, we see that it’s a love (number one) that’s the by-product of having embraced the love of Jesus. We love (number one) because we’ve been loved. If you can’t find yourself involved in edifying your brothers and sisters in love, it’s because you really haven’t been a recipient of the love of Jesus. There’s a good chance that for whatever reason you’re here in this community, it is not because you’ve been regenerated, but because you’re looking for some social relationships, you’re religious, you’re something other than a redeemed child of Jesus Christ. Because how can you say you love God whom you haven’t seen, and not love your brother whom you have? That’s the question that has to be answered. If there is not a love one for another, our relationship is questionable as to whether it’s real. We’ll talk about this love as we go on, and how it’s expressed. We all know that the love isn’t going to be always manifested maturely, completely. If we really are able to look closely—and we all are pretty well involved in one another’s lives—we might periodically, if we checked out all of these lives that are here this morning, be able to find one or two people among us who are still carnal, who are a little selfish once in a while. How many of you think we could find two? Hundred! Or more. And so, we all deal with that selfishness, this flesh, this sin that’s in our members that we battle continually. We’re not always going to perform at this level of maturity and perfection. We’re not always going to be longsuffering. We’re not always going to prefer others better than ourselves, but it is in the redeemed a real desire to be used of Jesus. We should never love because of the value we have placed on the individual. We should always love because of the value He’s placed on the individual. I’ll say it another way: we love them because Jesus loves them, not because we have a relationship with them; we like the way they comb their hair; we like the way they artificially smell from being down at the perfume counter; we like the way they conduct themselves; we have mutual interests. That has nothing to do with the body coming together in unity and love. We can love those who naturally have no appeal to us. And so, it’s very important that we understand this call to love one another.
Look over at chapter 15 of John for just a second. "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. These things I command you, that ye love one another" (verses 12-14, 17). And so, we see the mandate given to us is to love or have affection for one another. It doesn’t take a natural commonness to be able to love, because we love for the purpose of seeing them built into the full stature of Jesus Christ. Let me tell you something. If you love them enough to build them up to maturity, they’ll be able to take care of themselves and won’t bug you anymore. How’s that for motivation? Selfish, but the reality is that the death to self to be able to sow into the lives of others will bring about corporate benefits. We’ll all gain when we love one another, when we lay down our lives.
Turn over to I John chapter 3, and we see the requirement here. There is a lot of talk about love today. "Oh, we went to this church, and it was so loving, praise God! As soon as we were greeted, it was, ‘Oh, brother, praise God, we’re so glad you’re here!’ And they were patting us on the back, telling us how glad they were to see us and have us." That’s all fine, but that’s not love. If anything, that’s probably just church etiquette; you want to greet the folks and have them be comfortable. But I John 3:18 tells us that loving by word is not enough. He said, "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." It’s easy to say, "I love you." It’s easy to see someone doing something wrong, and just kind of overlook it, and call it love, and say, "Well, we just love you, brother; we know you’re messing up here; we know you’re bringing a reproach on the kingdom; and we know this thing will probably destroy your life, but we wouldn’t dare speak anything to you from the Word of God in truth and in love, because you’ve got to work out your own salvation." That’s not what the epistles teach us as our responsibility of community where our lives are intertwined. If our lives are knit together, and this guy goes down, he’s taking you; he’s pulling on you. There can be nobody in the church of Jesus Christ who is able to be separated, and to backslide, or to be destroyed by the enemy, and us not be affected, touched, know it, if in fact we’re carrying out the mission of the church. Our lives are not a social club, and we’re not just coming together on Sundays.
Now, I know I’m preaching to the choir here because of the amount of time we spend together as a community. But I’m trying to show you the spirit that we’re contending with in our society. And some of you—because we all battle in the flesh—sit here and say, "Man, I’ll tell you; the schedule we have here at the church—it just seems like this is all we have time for!" Does it seem like that to you? If it does, don’t think it’s by accident, because if you were left to something else, you’d be getting in trouble! We don’t say you have to be here; we just give you the opportunity to be here. But I want to tell you something. The moment we begin to find other things to entwine our lives in than the body of Christ, we’ve moved into the secular realm; we’ve moved into the love of the world, which makes us the enemies of God. It’s that clear in the Bible. Now, the necessary evils that we experience in our society, of having to go to work, God has overcome by giving us a spiritual perspective, hasn’t He? What did we share on last week? We go to work now with a different attitude. Why do we go to work? Because that’s our mission field. We go to win souls; we go to be the light of the world; we go to be epistles that are read of men. We’re not going down there to "work for the man." We’re not going down there to this drudgery to have to make some money to bring home to buy a loaf of bread. (How much does a loaf of bread cost? A buck and a half? The last time I was seriously involved in buying bread, it was like twenty cents!) So, here we are. We go down and work, and we come back, and the guy charges—first of all, Uncle takes thirty-five percent of it all—then we’ve got to buy this stuff, and pay the rent. That can become a real hassle, living under the curse of Adam by the sweat of our brow. But we’re not under Adam’s curse; we’re not just living to sustain ourselves. We have a mission, don’t we? God has called us to herald this gospel to every creature, and you’re reaching your world if you’re a true member of the church, if John 15 is a reality in your life, and He’s ordained you to bear fruit. Every one of us is an ordained minister of God to bear fruit. How would you judge your ministry? You’re a minister of the gospel, John tells us very clearly. How is it going to be when you stand before Him in that last day and give an account of your ministry? You’re just as much a minister of the gospel as I am. I happen to fulfill a role of one of the ascension offices that God has called and placed to oversee a flock and to minister His word. But I’m no more a minister of the gospel than you are, according to John’s Gospel. Ordained. That’s why He called you. Now, what are you going to do when you stand before Him in that last day and give an answer for your ministry? Oh, we like to go to I Peter 5 and talk about the ministry gifts, and the elders of the church, and how they’re to take the oversight of the flock willingly, not grudgingly. Let me ask you, how do you go to work? Grudgingly? When you come together to the fellowship here the times that we gather, do you come grudgingly? You’re a minister! Are you doing it willingly? You see, freely we’ve received; freely we give. This is what God has called us to do, beloved, to love one another—not in word—but in deed and truth.
I don’t want to make this the whole topic; we have 12-14 other things I want to get in the list. But as you look at the love aspect, the truth is always synonymous with the Word of God. So, we don’t love in tongue; we love in deed. We get involved; we do something; we say something. What we say is not our opinion; we say the truth, the Word of God. I don’t put my personal convictions off on you. I don’t allow my conscience to become your conscience. But in the community, every time I see a brother or sister move contrary to an established, obvious, biblical principal, I must speak to that truth if it’s being rejected. What does that bring? It brings mutual edification. That’s why (Hebrews 3:13, Hebrews 10:25. Get it in your notes) we’re to exhort one another. That word "exhort" means "to call near." To call near to what? Christlikeness. That’s why we admonish one another (Romans 15:14, Colossians 3:16). An admonition, we all know, is one that comes to motivate us; an admonition motivates us in the direction of Christlikeness, in the direction of obedience to the Word of God. The church cannot come together and be static. We have to come together and be dynamic in our relationships—iron sharpening iron. We’ve talked so much in the past about the best known verse in all of American "churchianity," "Don’t judge; don’t judge!" when we are called to be judges. "What’s wrong that there’s nobody spiritual enough among you to judge?" Paul said. The Scripture requires of us an exhortation of one another, an admonition of one another, a speaking of the truth in love. It’s to be done in humility, lest we be tempted ourselves. Our relationships together, beloved, are dynamic.
Look over at I Thessalonians chapter 4 for just a moment. We’re not going to be able to look at all of these references, but I trust that you can get them down and take a look at them this afternoon. (Since the Redskins already played yesterday, you don’t have anything else to do.) I Thessalonians chapter 4 is a passage that we love so much—the expectation of the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says that we’re to constantly put one another in remembrance of these things, of the soon coming of the Lord. And he says in verse 18 that we’re to comfort one another with these words. The word "comfort," of course, has to do with "coming alongside" or "calling to one’s side." The Holy Spirit, the paraclete, the Comforter, comes alongside and gives ballast or stability to our lives. We’re to perform that same work in one another’s lives. When we come together, we should bring about a stability. When we come alongside, it’s to shore some things up and to give you the assurance that you’re not standing alone. So many of us, beloved, still perceive ourselves as individuals exclusive of responsibility to the community of the body of Christ. "I’m not responsible to provide anything for you, and I’m not responsible to receive anything from you." If you are not part, intertwined, a member in particular, placed of God, then, of course, you’re not a Christian. There is no place for a "just me and Jesus" Christian, you can’t find it in the Scriptures. You can find it as an arrogant statement in I Corinthians: "Well, I’m of Christ!" Others said, "I’m of Paul," and "I’m of Apollos," and "I’m of Cephas." And Paul said, "That’s carnal; you’re saying that because of your carnality. Is Christ divided? There’s only one body; Jesus is the head." There’s not a whole bunch of heads running around with an individual appendage hanging from it. And so, we look and see that we’re called to comfort one another. I think we’re living in a day when we can all use some comfort, don’t you? We’re living in a day when we need people to come alongside and encourage us in our pursuit. Have you found traveling the highway of holiness an easy thing? Have you found dying to self an easy thing? Have you found forsaking all and following Him an easy thing? It’s not easy, and we need to comfort one another with that continual reminder that He’ll never leave us nor forsake us.
We find in I Peter 4:10 the admonition to minister to one another. And the word that’s used there is the same root word for deacon. It’s really talking about serving. ("And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all." (Mark 10:44)) So, in I Peter 4:10, we are admonished again to bring about that stewardship. "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifest grace of God." That word "minister" there is "servant" or "deacon." As we begin to grow into the full stature of Jesus Christ, the one thing that becomes a natural consequence of that is servanthood, and we serve to whatever capacity. I heard someone tell me the other day of a pastor who wanted to show he was the servant of the flock. Whenever the flock would gather together to have a church picnic or barbecue or whatever, this pastor would always want to put on the apron, and wash all the dishes, and clean up, and serve the food to the people, and do all these kind of things. I think something like that would be very, very acceptable as something that could be a derivative of one of the ordinances, such as a foot washing or whatever. But we can’t carry servanthood, in its true biblical understanding, to that extreme. If this was the case, then as it pertains to the everyday life of the flock and the ministry, then he should be running their errands to the store and seeing that they all had groceries in their house. He should, by all means, pick up all of his children’s toys and see that the house is tidy, because "We’ve got to be humble and be the servant." That’s not what being a servant is talking about. It’s talking about the ability to serve under the lordship of Jesus as you’ve been gifted (what you’ve been called to and placed in) to bring about the effect of body edification, letting your gift best serve the body. How does what you’ve been gifted to do best contribute to the body? In that case, maybe it would have been that his best gift was to cook the meal for everybody. I guarantee you if I cooked for this body, it would not be in your best interest. We’d better find somebody else to do that (Dan and some of his workers). I guarantee you men’s breakfast would be a time of fasting if I was the cook!
And so we realize that as we minister to one another, the first thing we have to do in order to effectively minister is to be able to properly identify, "What is my gift?" "Well, you know, I believe I’m the doorstop. I just come in, lean up against something, and I’m here." Well, there are times when a doorstop comes in handy. But to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord isn’t just to prop the door open. It’s to be able to be involved in bringing access to the presence and the glory of God. Don’t just hold the door open for somebody; encourage them as they go through. Share with them what God is doing and your expectation. Be prepared to best honor God in whatever it is you’re doing. I shared a little bit with some of the young people on Friday for their pep rally just that aspect of knowing that whatever we’re doing, we’re doing it as unto the Lord; we’re doing it with all of our might. But we’re not doing it for any other reason but to honor God and to glorify God. That has to become real. It’s so easy to say it; it’s in our doctrine. We all know the right answers. It’d be naive to think that we don’t deal with our flesh, and that we would like to see and have some of the recognition and praise, and we would like for people to recognize our talents. That’s all natural to man. But we’re talking about the supernatural, the ability to die to self and be able to truly honor God, and to recognize that if we do in fact have some kind of talent, everything we have has been given to us by the Lord. There can’t be any boasting in it. You can’t boast in it. I never go around boasting of my good looks; I just thank God for it! (I know what some of you think: "Do you repent for that lying after services?") We must truly realize how God has placed us in the body to serve Him.
Turn over to Corinthians real quickly. I’m a little bit off course on this; I want to get back to our list. But I just want to show you something real quickly, beginning in I Corinthians 12:18. "But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him." "But now are they [verse 20] many members, yet but one body. [verse 22] …much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary" And he says, "My desire is that there’s a mutual respect and working so that (verse 25) "there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another."" Do you care, really? Now, we all have closer acquaintances here in the community, and we get moved by those particular needs. But do you really care? How about some of the uncomely members that are among us? Do you care? There shouldn’t be any schism; there can’t be a respect of persons. That doesn’t mean we have to spend equal time with everybody here. It means that we have to be able to be touched when we truly understand that there’s a need. We have to be compassionate and longsuffering with those that require the most maintenance. "And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it" (verse 26).
When I used to play ball, it was always amazing to me. You’re walking off the field, and you’re bleeding and carrying your teeth in your hand, and everything else. And everybody in the stands is going, "We’re number one! We’re number one!" And you’re bleeding and beat up! There’s unity but we don’t all pay the same price, and so when one member is honored, we all rejoice, and we all involve ourselves in that. We can identify with the victory.
As he speaks to us, I think that this caring aspect is one of the real vital things; we have to ask. Now, we die to self and respond to certain requests among us sometimes from an obligatory position rather than compassion and a true care. But that, in and of itself, is still a sacrificial loving and a submission to Jesus’ lordship rather than affection for the person. But He really wants us to have both—an ability to love beyond ourselves and our own definition of what is comely or uncomely. So, let’s allow that to begin to work in our lives. Let’s ask ourselves this morning, "How am I doing in that area?" As God continually knits us together, as I said the fellowship here is a blessing as I stand in awe many times of what God has been able to do in our midst. But we need growth in these areas, and we need to be honest with ourselves in our own hearts.
This brings us down into the next responsibility we have to one another, and that’s to forbear one another. To endure, or to hold up, or put up with, many times can be a way that this Greek word is used. Colossians 3:13 and Ephesians 2 speak toward this. Look at the Colossians passage. "Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." He always brings in this example of His response to us. Love as you’ve been loved; forgive as you’ve been forgiven. And so, here it is, the responsibility to forbear one another. This is why there’s a church; this is part of our mission, our responsibility to one another. And so, as this forbearance is manifesting itself, it’s the ability to have confidence in the word of God. We’ve already done these other things. We’ve exhorted, we’ve admonished, we’ve spoken the truth in love. And now, we’re forbearing and waiting for that season of that word to produce after its own kind, to take root, and to bring forth the image of Christ. This same passage—Colossians 3:13, and then put Ephesians 4:32 in your notes—as you see our responsibility to forgive one another. You cannot be forgiven of Christ; Jesus’ blood will affect no salvation upon those who are unforgiving. Period. If you don’t forgive, you will not be forgiven. There’s no place in the body of Christ for unforgiveness, for grudges. "Well, they took advantage of me; they didn’t treat me right; they didn’t show me compassion, they, they, they, they…" Even if they were wrong, and we see them come and repent, they must be forgiven seven times seventy, the Scripture tells us. "Seven times seventy?" Yes, that’s forbearance. And so, we allow the luxury of Jesus’ blood to flow without our permission to bring about a cleansing and forgiveness, and a healing in our midst, to where no place can be given to the enemy. Satan has one way to destroy: a house divided against itself cannot stand. Your kids are not always going to be perfect, but you’ve got to stand with them if they’re standing for Christ. There might be a time when there has to be a severing of that relationship. But I want to tell you something, beloved. Until that day comes at the gates with the elders, when you stone your rebellious child to death (and I want you to know something: it takes time to get to that place), there’s got to be a forgiving and a forbearing. Some of the greatest wounds come from our family members, some of the great transgressions that break our hearts, and some of the things that are said and done. But there can be no place to allow the house divided; there must be a spirit of forgiveness. Don’t let the sun go down upon your wrath. And so, we see that’s the responsibility that we have.
Now, in the bringing of the reproof and the admonition, and all of these different things, there has to be a spirit within the church that imbibes the humility that allows us to submit ourselves. Ephesians 5:21 makes it very clear that we must submit ourselves one to another in the fear of God. It’s not "you and Jesus." When somebody in this fellowship comes to you with the authority of God’s word in an area where you’re out of order, you must subordinate yourself to the word of God. The Ephesians passage here speaks so clearly to the relationships we have between husbands and wives, and parents and children. And then we find the 21st verse. That word "submit" just means "to yield or rank under." Are we ranking under one another, or are we ranking under and submitting to the word of God? It’s the word of God; it’s the fear of the Lord. It’s not a false humility or ranking under. It’s not like two of you walk up to the door and one says, "After you," and the other says, "No, after you, and you each keep saying, "After you," "No, after you," No, after you!" Somebody go in! There’s a purpose for this ranking under; it’s because somebody has broken order. It’s not a false humility. It’s an applied biblical truth; it’s an obvious, recognized placing of a gift or a ministry in our midst at a given time, however it might be applied. And we submit to that, to the word spoken, to the gift placed, whatever it might be. And so, there is that submission to one another.
I Peter 5:5 says we’re to be "subject" one to another. That’s basically the same word, a subjecting. But this subjection here to one another has to do with an actual direction given to us. It has to do with something spoken. And primarily—notice the context of this—verse 5, "Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, an be clothed with humility..." You see, without humility, there can’t be subjection or submission. So, the environment of the church is to be one of humility, "...for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." People are always worried, "Well, somebody will take advantage of me." God will give grace to the humble, amen? To try to take things into our own hands, to control our own circumstances or the environment we’re in, and the spirit of fear to protect ourselves, denies the working of the grace of God in our lives. It’s the expression of a proud heart, and God resists the proud. "Humble yourselves therefore [he says] under the mighty hand of God; that he may exalt you in due time" (verse 6). And so, we find that need of subjection whenever the word is spoken.
How open are you to counsel, to advice given by believers? You see if we’re this knit together, there’s going to be a knowing. My wife and my children know me more intimately than anybody. Because of the knowledge they have, they’re able to bring about this ministry of forbearance and forgiveness. They’re able to speak and bring about the encouragement. At the same time, because I know they know me, when they speak to some areas in my life that I may or may not be aware of, I have to, by the Spirit of Christ, the humility that’s in me, realize they’re seeing things I’m not seeing. Now, this doesn’t happen a lot, because I’m pretty perfect! But when they do, it’s something that I have to immediately respond to, because I’m aware of this biblical principal that requires this submission and subjection to those who are speaking the truth in love. If you realize people love you, you don’t respond negatively. You’re not fearful that someone is out to get you, and bring you down, and destroy you. You’re not afraid in the relationship that, "Now my image is shattering, and I’m not going to be accepted anymore." You know that your acceptance is in the beloved, and that there’s a true biblical love, and that it’s not a works-oriented thing. You don’t have to perform like little "Fido" to be accepted. They know the dust of your frame, and they love you anyway. And they know the dust of theirs, and they thank you that you love them. And so, we have that responsibility.
Let’s continue on; we have a couple more here in the next few minutes. We have the responsibility to teach one another (Colossians 3:16). And then, one you need to take a look at Romans 12:10 to prefer one another. (You know, stand there at the door and say, "After you." "No, after you.") The preferring is a pretty inclusive requisite that’s put upon us. You have to prefer your children when you bring them discipline. That’s biblical love. So many times it’s easier just to let things slide and not have to address it every time. If you love yourself, you won’t say anything. But if you love them and prefer them, you’ll be consistent, bringing about the necessary admonition and chastisement that delivers their souls from hell. The word "prefer" just means "to set them above" in your estimation of them. Preferring is a derivative of humility. We’ve got to be humble; we’ve just got to think less of ourselves. We think so much more of ourselves than we ought to think, the value we place upon our needs and our opinions. This preferring, of course, is to raise others up in your estimation. It doesn’t mean you always defer to them, but it means you listen. I think that, especially in husband and wife relationships, this is so important, the preferring of the wife, to raise her in your estimation so many times. It never ceases to amaze me how men and their egos so often seem to think that because Jesus has made them head, they’re smarter. That’s not what that headship is all about. There has to be this preferring of that vessel that is there to come alongside and assist you. That word "helpmeet" means the same as the Comforter, one who comes alongside, lends ballast, gives some perspective from the feminine and also from the tenderness side, and from the subjective rather than objective perspective, all of which is needed to be put together in the mix to come up with a final decision. And so, that preferring is the ability to recognize the other gifts around you and to draw on them.
Next, the Scripture says pray one for another (James 5:16) that you might be healed. It just means to have supplication. We need to really be touched with the feelings of the infirmities of those that are around us, lifting up the hands that are hanging down. People have wondered sometimes, "Why do we emphasize those days of prayer that we come together as a community?" Because in our midst, there are certain individuals who have needs that we need to, as a body, recognize and bring about supplication and intercession on their behalf. You’ll see emphasized throughout the Scriptures when they would come together in prayer. When there’s a unity and there is a community of believers, there is a power, there’s an expectation. One of the things that we might even want to look at doing sometimes as the community is together here is to take some of these needs and pray simultaneously for these as we do many times here in the services. We have that responsibility to pray one for another to bring about that supplication.
And then, lastly, there are a couple of things that are related to one another. We have the responsibility of showing hospitality (I Peter 4:9), and to be involved in true koinonia, which is different from hospitality (I John 1:7). The hospitality has to do with being able to open up our lives. We see the Scriptures talk about hospitality to strangers. That doesn’t mean some derelict off the street necessarily; but as it was spoken in the Old Covenant, it talked about those who were non-Jews, the ability to look beyond our own little nationality or our own little community of believers. In other words, if there are people in the body of Christ beyond this community that need care, we need to extend ourselves to them. If this hospitality is something to where we open up our homes to the derelicts, the street people, or whatever, that’s something that is based upon your own compassion and your own desire of evangelism, however God leads you. But that’s not the hospitality that’s being spoken of here. The hospitality has to do with the embracing of those beyond our closed society. It doesn’t mean that you have to have a revolving door to every need that we deal with. I know many of you have opened your homes. On numerous occasions, we’ve done that. One that stands out in my mind is a fellow that we had come in. When he left, literally, we had to repaint the walls in the room he stayed in and burn the sheets. Nasty! But the Spirit of God impressed us to minister to this individual. As we brought him into the home, we had a six-month-old baby and a two-and-a-half year-old. This was some drug addict we were trying to take care of that had fallen off the wagon. There are to be those times of hospitality. This doesn’t mean to invite one another over for coffee. And so, we realize this hospitality is one that really evidences itself in recognizing and ministering beyond our community.
Lastly (and we’ll end with this for this morning), is the responsibility to fellowship or have koinonia with one another. We throw that word around today, saying, "Oh, we had fellowship." What that meant is that you went down and had a cup of coffee and some doughnuts. That’s not fellowship if the main purpose for your gathering was not mutual edification. What you did was you had coffee and doughnuts; you hung out. "Fellowship" or koinonia means "communion, to have commonness." You’ve come together for a specific purpose, in common, to bring about edification. When that’s the whole purpose of our gathering, we’re having fellowship. When a bunch of the young adults get together and go hang out wherever the hang-out is and shove a couple of burgers down their throats, that doesn’t make it fellowship just because we’re Christians in the same building. There’s really nothing that says that every time we get together, we have to have fellowship. There are going to be things that we do that are secular (and I use the word "secular" meaning "non-spiritual"). You can be holy and be non-spiritual at times. People get so serious in these different areas, so reclusive. I don’t think we have that problem here. If anything, it’s the other extreme, and we need to look at that.
But this true fellowship is seen in I John 1:7. Now, the word "fellowship" here used is not you and I fellowshipping, but our fellowship with Jesus. But I want you to see what the word "fellowship" in its truest sense is. John, of course, here is talking about the purity of Jesus and, battling the Gnostic doctrine against Christ, declares Him as the light. "...God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. [verse 5] If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (verse 7). If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship. We see this commonness of pursuit, the commonness of the light, all of these different things. If we say we have fellowship, and we are in darkness (or we have different aspirations, we have different doctrine as it pertains to some of these things, then we have to deem that one may even be heretical), and we say we are in fellowship with Jesus but we walk this way, we’re liars; the truth isn’t in us, John says in this epistle.
So, fellowship is commonness of doctrine and pursuit. When we fellowship, we come together to put what we have in common together so that we can both be edified. That’s fellowship. We come together with our common doctrine, our common goals, to build one another up to the full stature of Jesus Christ. And so, we see that this is the responsibility that we have as the church. This is what we owe one another because of what we’ve so freely received from Jesus.
Father, we thank You for the word of God this morning. As we take some time in the next week to meditate on this list, help us to identify the areas on this that are our weakness. As we pray and ask You to help us in these areas, bring us further illumination and give us opportunity to do it right. We just honor You, Father, and give You the praise for that privilege of serving. Father, I thank You that You’ve brought us to such a great love in this fellowship for one another. Lord, we do marvel at the community and the unity that’s here. We thank You for that. Don’t let us take it for granted, Father. It’s only evidenced among us because of our individual obedience to the word of God; there’s no guarantee that it’ll remain. If each one begins to take to himself instead of give, it’s broken; it’s gone. If each one begins to prefer himself, it’s gone. If each one refuses to submit, then it’s gone. We don’t take it for granted, Father. We thank You, because it’s solely dependent upon each individual’s submission to Your lordship. So, we pray for one another. I pray that you will continue to submit to Jesus so that we might continue to be in fellowship. If my relationship breaks with Jesus, it’s going to break with you. Those are the things we contend for and war for in the spirit realm. Satan would come and divide a house by wanting you to prefer yourself, to think of yourself more highly, and begin to be brought down through self-indulgence. And when brothers and sisters come to you, it’s not just for you; it’s for the community. Let’s thank God for the great privilege of loving one another that He’s given us as the church, in Jesus’ name.
Let’s stand before the Lord. As Gary plays for us, we’ll allow the Holy Spirit to apply to our hearts individually those things that are most necessary this morning. God’s word has been spoken to us; it has its own anointing upon it. What’s the ground this morning on which it was applied? Jesus’ parable said Satan will come immediately for the word. You may receive it with gladness, but have no root in yourself, and when the trials come, you faint. It may grow up and begin to germinate, but the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and lust of things choke it out; or the good ground that brings forth fruit thirty, sixty, and one hundredfold. How many times have you received the word and said, "Praise God, I’m going to do it!" and you don’t even make it to the parking lot? Or you get home, but it doesn’t quite make it to work on Monday. Oh, beloved, break up the fallow ground; it’s time to seek the Lord. It’s not because there’s lack in the word; it’s the soil. His word will not return void. Let’s sing this together and just worship Him this morning.
Just take a moment and worship Him this morning. Thank Him for what He’s doing in your life. Allow the word as it germinates in your heart right now, let it take root. Guard your heart against the enemy as you go this morning. Protect it. The enemy is after that seed that’s sown. Protect it. Oh, Jesus, finish the work in me; Lord, cause that area in my life to change. Let Your word bring about strength by the grace of God and healing. I want to be like You, Lord. I want to take on the full measure of the stature of Christ. I want to be able to love as I’ve been loved, Lord. Help me to love the uncomely; help me to love beyond my preferences. You’ve sure loved beyond Yours, Lord, when You loved me. We’ll give You the praise, Father, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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