Duty, Responsibility and Practice — Charles E. Fuller

Christian Heritage Ministry in cooperation with Fuller Seminary proudly presents the Old-Fashioned Revival, a broadcast of the Gospel with Dr. Charles Eagle.

Christian Heritage Ministry in cooperation with Fuller Seminary proudly presents the Old-Fashioned Revival, a broadcast of the Gospel with Dr. Charles Eagle. Christian Heritage Ministry in cooperation with Fuller Seminary proudly presents the Old-Fashioned Revival, a broadcast of the Gospel with Dr. Charles Eagle.

Christian Heritage Ministry in cooperation with Fuller Seminary proudly presents the.

Old-Fashioned Revival, a broadcast of the Gospel with Dr. Charles Eagle. Christian Heritage Ministry in cooperation with Fuller Seminary proudly presents the. Old-Fashioned Revival, a broadcast of the Gospel with Dr. Charles Eagle.

Christian Heritage Ministry in cooperation with Fuller Seminary proudly presents the Old-Fashioned Revival, a broadcast of the Gospel with Dr. Charles Eagle. Christian Heritage Ministry in cooperation with Fuller Seminary proudly presents the.

Old-Fashioned Revival, a broadcast of the Gospel with Dr. Charles Eagle.

Christian Heritage Ministry in cooperation with Fuller Seminary proudly presents the Mrs. Fuller's not with me today to read the letters to you. I know it's one of.

The features that many of you look forward to on the Old-Fashioned Revival Hour. Lord willing she'll be with us next Sunday. At this time I'm going to ask Bill McDougall of the Quartet to come and stand in front of the microphone here with me.

Bill has been with us for 14 years and Bill I just want you to know that you've been a pillar of strength to us and how much we appreciate the wonderful work that you've done in backing up this hour with your prayers and your presence.

And every Sunday I want the audience to know that the Quartet and many of the chorus as possible go down and do personal work at the close of the hour and Bill's right there eager to win souls to Christ.

And Bill this is your last Sunday with us. He's going out into evangelistic work and evangelistic singing and I just want to say that any evangelist that will have your services will be fortunate indeed.

And I covet the prayers of the Old-Fashioned Revival Hour audience to go with you Bill. We'll miss you and we pray God's blessing upon you. I'd like to have you just say a word to the.

Radio audience. Well thank you Dr. Fuller. It's with a little fear and a little apprehension that I say goodbye to the Old-Fashioned Revival Hour and yet we realize that we're not saying goodbye because by the miracle of radio I know that we'll be in contact with one another wherever we go.

And these last years have been precious and we've almost every Sunday requested prayers of the listening audience for this work and the members of it and lo and behold apparently some of the prayers have been answered because God's been speaking to my heart for a good number of months and has laid it upon my heart and opened the door of opportunity to get out into the vineyard of evangelism.

And I still want to continue to ask you or want to ask you your continued prayers in my behalf that God may continue to use me. And Dr. Fuller has been quoting this wonderful verse of scripture as the verse upon which the work of the Old-Fashioned Revival Hour has been founded all these many years.

It's the second chapter of Ephesians and the tenth verse. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. I can't resist the call any longer.

I've got to get out. God's been speaking to my heart and he's spoken to the heart of my wife and family and it's all okay. We've got the go-ahead from them and the sky's the limit as far as I'm concerned.

I want.

To be expendable for him. I've asked the chorus choir to sing especially, Bill, before.

You leave. This song, listen to it carefully. Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness,.

Sowing in the noontide, in the dewy, bring everyone, sing with us, join with us in the.

Radio audience. I'm standing for prayer in every head, Bob, please, and eyes closed.

We thank thee, gracious heavenly Father, that they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever. And we thank thee for the privilege of sowing the seed into the four corners of the earth and beseeching men and women everywhere to be reconciled to thee through Christ.

And we thank thee for the convicting power of the Holy Spirit that has brought thousands upon thousands to a saving knowledge of thy beloved Son. And to every soul outside of Christ today, we pray that the Holy Spirit may do his convicting work in an unusual way.

We pray for those in authority over us today. We pray especially for those in high places, that they may turn their eyes more and more unto thee and come back to the paths of righteousness and the high standards of morality, that our country may be spared the oppressor's hand, if it be thy will.

O blessed heavenly Fathers, may this country be a place where the gospel is propagated and sent forth to a needy world. And now take this broadcast and send it out, and may thousands of precious souls be saved today, for we ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen.

You are listening to the Old-Fashioned Revival Hour with Dr. Charles E. Fuller. The message for today is titled, Duty, Responsibility, and Practice. I'll provide additional information after Dr. Fuller's message.

The Duties of Christian Conduct in Romans 12

Open your Bibles to the Book of Romans, Chapter 12, as we rejoin the broadcast. Oh, where shall I go? Where shall I go? I want to go to heaven, but I want to go wrong. Rainbow three and nine. There's a star in the east and a star in the west.

I wish that star was in my breast.

Open your Bibles and open to the twelfth chapter of Romans, beginning at verse fourteen. And.

So we read as follows. Bless them which persecute you. Bless and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one to another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate.

Be not wise in your own conceit. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.

Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him a drink, for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. What a practical portion of God's word.

The love of the brethren to those about in the world, but not of the world. Now notice, as a believer in the world, but not of the world, you have certain social relationships and duties to others. And in this section that I've just read to you, Romans 12, 14 to 21, we find our duty to those outside of the household of faith, to the world at large, dead in trespasses and sin.

And one will find it a very hostile world, for bear in mind, please, the righteous, that is those that are out and out for Christ, are hated. And Satan, the God of this present world system, the enemy directly opposed to God and all his saints, is ever against the brethren, daily, hourly, accusing the brethren.

And our Lord, before his ascension, told his disciples, in this world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. And so, first of all, we have the believer's duty, practice in the hour of persecution.

Blessing Those Who Persecute

Now notice it, please. Verse 14, bless them which persecute, bless and curse not. In verse 13, where it speaks of given to, the thought is pursuing, that is given to hospitality. It means to pursue hospitality.

And it's identically the same word as persecution in verse 14. Thus we are to pursue hospitality. We are to bless those who pursue us, persecute us. These words are an echo of Matthew 5, 10 and 11. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake.

Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. What are you supposed to do? Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven.

For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Do you expect to go to heaven on a bed of roses? No. The more out and out you are for Christ, the more you'll be subject to false accusations and to persecution.

In Proverbs 29, 10, the bloodthirsty hate the upright. He that is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked. And I'll tell you, everyone that stands out professing the name of Christ and is a real born-again believer, he is a testimony to the wicked.

Strange, isn't it? I went into a meeting some time ago. They knew that I was a minister. The crowd seated around the room were smoking, but why was it? The minute I stepped into the room, I never said a word.

Their cigarettes were put away. You are a testimony, a witness, and the world has high regard for those that are really out and out for Christ. Out in the fifth chapter of Acts, we read about the early apostles being persecuted and how they rejoiced that they were worthy, counted worthy, to suffer for His name.

We read in the 29th verse of that chapter, Peter and other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. And down to the 40th verse, and to him they agreed. And when they had called all the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.

And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for His name. And daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

Again, in 2 Corinthians, all that eleventh chapter, read it at your leisure, how Paul suffered imprisonment and beatings and stripes and starvation and persecution and misunderstanding and false accusations.

It's a marvelous chapter. But listen, Paul could say through it all, I take pleasure in infirmities, reproaches, persecutions for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. And blessed is the man when temptation comes, will not go under but be a real testimony.

But the Lord said, listen, I want to send out a word of warning to you. This will come true someday. Mark my word, as the time of the Lord's return comes near and near, those that are born again are a testimony unto Christ, may seal their testimony with their lives.

You have no conception how some of the bloodless isms are on the march in America and heading up the apostate religious system. And those that name the name of Christ and are saved by grace through faith, not of works, it may be our blessed privilege to die for Him.

I send that out as a warning. And as Satan knows that his time draws to a close, he'll be of great anger hating the righteous. And persecution of the righteous will increase. And may God give you courage.

May God give you a backbone to be able to stand and, if need be, to go to the stake rejoicing that you're counted worthy to die for Him. You know, persecution to the church today will purify it. And lot of so-called professing believers that have their names upon the church robe but are not born again will either come to a real born-again experience or they'll fall by the wayside.

I'm just warning you. So think it not strange when fiery trials come upon you and they will come but be in the state like the martyrs of old and in the midst of persecution to stand firm in these closing days.

Single-Mindedness and Humble Fellowship

Then he goes on in that twelfth chapter of Romans and he says, Rejoice for them that rejoice and weep for them that weep. And in the sixteenth verse we have the thought of single-mindedness. Be of the same mind one toward another.

Oh, how wonderful it is to know a man or a woman who is single-minded will not say one thing to you to please you and then turn around to someone else and say something entirely different. God help us to be single-minded for a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.

And then it says, Mind not high things. And there's a person who spoke of it in third John, the ninth verse, Diotrephes. It says, Who loves to have the preeminence? Oh, it's a marvelous statement there.

How this man in the early church went against us with malicious words, it's recorded. Not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, forbidding them that they would and casting them out of the church.

This man in the early days loved to have the high place and to have the preeminence. Loved power, loved authority. God says, Mind not high things, but come to send a man of low estate, that is, let yourself be carried away with, be accommodated to people and circumstances very different from yourself or your own taste.

I'll not forget for a long time, Mr. Green, the leader of the Chorus Choir, will know about this. I was invited to speak to a certain missionary conference in the Southwest. And the speaker just previous to me, a man of great learning, he, oh, everything was wrong with the bed.

Everything was wrong with the food. And word came to me that they were having trouble with him. And I said, well, to myself, but God's grace, I'm going to try to give a good testimony. Well, I'll tell you, when I got into the bunk that night, my knees almost touched my chin.

It was a hard place. I couldn't turn over on my side. But I slept that way all night, never complained. I didn't complain because there wasn't any hot water. All lesson. And the food wasn't the best, but it never said a word.

And I did it by God's grace. When the conference was over, many of the natives of that section came to me and thanked me for the testimony. I say it for God's glory. Mind not high thing, but condescend the men of low estate.

And James, you know, the second chapter speaks very clearly. And I've seen this happen so many times in my meeting. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring and goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment, and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place, and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool.

I've been in meetings, and I frankly confess to you where someone has leaned over to me and said, I'm going to invite so-and-so up out of the audience. You know, he's worth a million dollars. And I've shuddered.

I didn't know whether he was saved or not. They were looking upon the outward appearance of the fact that he had a pull, and he had a lot of money, and win favor with him. I want to say something to you out over this network.

You can never win favor with the world. The world hates you. They have respect unto you when you stand up and are testimony out and out for Jesus Christ. God goes on. He says, Be not wise in your own conceits.

There is nothing more despicable in my own eyes than a fellow that's conceited. For the proverb says, The way of a fool is right in his own eyes. Nobody else thinks so, but a conceited, stuck-up person thinks that he knows it all.

And the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. He's proud, petty, high-minded. And I've learned long ago that corn, when it is green, is upright. But when it is ripe, it bends very low. Seventeenth verse.

Returning Good for Evil

Recompense. No man evil for evil. In other words, I've heard some say, I'll get even with you. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I'll give it to him. I'll repay him for the dirty tricks and the dirty words he's spoken against me.

Now vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I'll repay. And the servant of God must not strive but be wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove. And then God says to provide things honest or honorable in the sight of all men.

And the word honest or honorable is literally beautiful. Provide things beautiful, outwardly attractive, to maintain beautiful works, to adorn the gospel. Speaking of a certain Christian worker the other day, he said, My, can't he preach?

Marvelous preacher. Look at the doctrine he gives forth. And you go and talk to him and he kicks the milk pail over. Critical. Fault-finding. Spoils his testimony by his unattractive works and words and deeds.

Ours lies within you. Live at peace with all men. It takes two to make a quarrel. To keep the peace means hard work. But I want to close with the twenty-first verse. Returning good for evil. For here's the real test.

Heaping coals of fire, hot coals of fire, hot coals of love upon the enemy's head. If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat. If he be thirsty, give him water to drink. For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head and the Lord shall reward thee.

Recompensing Kindness for Hostility

May I tell you a story? Several years ago, I won't tell you how far back, I was manager of an orange packing house in Southern California. And one of the directors, everyone involved in that except myself, has departed from this life.

One of the directors had it in for me. I didn't know it at the time, but it seemed that I couldn't leave the office to go get the mail or to go out and see one of the growers about shipping his fruit.

But what this director threw a colleague in the packing house, who was a foreman trying to get my job, would phone this director and the director would phone back and say, is Mr. Fuller in? The secretary would say, no, he just stepped out.

And when we came to the director's meeting, this director always brought it up that every time he called, I was out. I didn't know hardly how to answer it, and I let the matter take its own course. And one day, I heard that this man and his wife were seriously sick.

And it just came to me to go down to the house. And I went down, it was a summer day, the window to his bedroom was open, and I said, Mr. So-and-so, I understand you and your wife are ill. Is there anything I can do for you?

And then there was a word of hesitation. He said, won't you come in? I went in to the bedroom and I said, is there anything I can do for you? He said, yes. We need some bread and some milk and some food.

I said, I'll be glad to go uptown and get it for you. He turned his head away from me towards the wall. He began to cry. And from that day to the very day that he died, he became one of my best friends, recompensing goods for evil and heaping coals of fire upon his head.

Becoming a New Creation in Christ

It's hard to do. The natural man says, get even, take it out on him. It's all foreign. What I've been preaching to you along this line out of 12 of Romans is foreign to the old nature. The old nature is selfish, self-seeking.

The idea is make a fast buck, regardless of the manner or method you ride roughshod over the weak and the helpless. Get the good or get what you can while the getting is good. But listen, the moment that you accept Jesus Christ, it changes.

All things become new. And by the grace of God, you become humble, your conversation seasoned with salt, a man of few words, slow to anger, long suffering, doing good unto all men, especially unto the household of faith, and your heap coals of fire upon your enemy's head.

Would you like to become such a new creation today? You can by accepting Christ as your personal savior. Let's bow our heads in prayer. No one stirring, please. And in this audience here in Long Beach and out over the radio audience, God's calling you to a real walk with him, to be a testimony for him, to adorn the gospel, and to beseech men and women everywhere to be reconciled to God through Christ.

Will you give your hearts to him today and accept him as your personal savior? And while our heads are bowed in this splendid, visible audience in Long Beach today, how many will put their hands up and say, Brother Fuller, pray for me.

I need Christ as my personal savior. I want to accept him today as my savior. Put your hand up and say, pray for me. God bless you, sailor boy. God bless you, soldier boy. God bless you down here, lady.

Do I see a hand any place anywhere? Another hand just before we close? Say, Brother Fuller, remember me in prayer. I here now want to accept Christ as my personal savior and be remembered in prayer. Continue in prayer, please.

This is Charles E. Fuller bidding you goodbye and God's richest blessing upon you.