- 00:01
- have a little bit shorter one we'll see we'll see how it goes so last week we did the first part of verse 9 let love be genuine and we went over a couple of the words in there this time
- 00:20
- I had thought about finishing out verse 9 and doing the the second and the third clause of the verse but rather than that I figured we'll just spend some time on the second clause and the next week we'll do the third clause of the verse but it's what
- 00:41
- I normally do so that we can keep everything in context let's start in verse 1
- 00:46
- 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 for by the grace given to me
- 01:18
- I say to everyone among you do not 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 all have the same function so we though many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another having gifts that differ according the grace given to us let us use them if prophecy in proportion to our faith if service in serving the one who teaches in his teaching the one who exhorts in his exhortation the one who contributes in generosity the one who leads with zeal the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness let love be genuine abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good last week we talked about how our love toward one another should be genuine
- 02:38
- Paul admonishes us to do that that those actions of love or the way that we treat each other and do things for the benefit of each other we should do with sincerity actively working to the benefit of those around us in truth this goes right along with what
- 02:58
- James says in his epistle James 2 verses 14 through 17 what good is it my brothers if someone says he has faith but does not have works can that faith save him if a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking lacking in daily food and one of you says to them go in peace be warmed and filled without giving them the things the things needed for the body what good is that so also faith by itself if it does not have works is dead in the same way your love for the brethren if it does not have works is dead you can say and do well you can say all the nice things you want to say if you're not doing it's not true conversely if you're doing doing doing and the sincerity of the action isn't there it is also worthless ultimately especially if those feelings never come now there is a stage in which the young Christian will do they'll have the want to do and maybe the sincerity isn't there yet but it will come this is true of most
- 04:24
- Christians oh I have to I have to do the thing so I'm gonna do the thing and hopefully in doing the thing the feelings will come it's kind of like when you come to realize that the best way to be married is how
- 04:38
- God says to be married you may even start out not knowing truly or really liking your spouse but through in the
- 04:51
- Christian life through the treatment of the spouse as God says you ought to treat them you should fulfill your role in this way those feelings come they may come before they may come after but they certainly follow the action and this is what
- 05:10
- Paul is saying when you do things for one another do them in truth don't pretend last week we spoke about how in comparison to the sacrifice as we're to live as be as living sacrifices the man who takes the pigeons to the temple and doesn't really care about the the the intent of having atonement for his sins of repenting of his sins what uses his sacrifice it's worthless and to the one who never goes to the temple but really really wants to what use is that it's a feeling without action is dead it's it's worthless a husband or a father can say that he loves his family all day long but if he is abusive or just plain lazy for that matter he isn't actively living in a way that is beneficial to them teaching the ways of the
- 06:20
- Lord leading in them in the way that they should go going out gathering the provision for them protecting them from that which is evil be it people or temptation as I said before you can take all the well -wishing you want and you'll never fill up a bucket no active participation is called for and not only that but true intention in it as well and Paul says this he says abhor what is evil
- 06:58
- Paul actually telling us to hate that which is evil or what is antithetical to God's character this is a huge issue for a lot of people but we're supposed to love our neighbor we're supposed to to to show kindness and and be nice to everyone and what
- 07:20
- Paul is saying comes into conflict with that for some people abhor is the
- 07:28
- English word used in the ESV and the King James and the New King James Version the
- 07:34
- NIV says hate the NASB says detest it's a strong language
- 07:40
- Paul doesn't mean just merely have dislike or a strong negative feeling against it that's not what he's saying that goes along with what he's saying let's take a look at the word for just a moment the
- 08:01
- Greek word is epistode oh to abhor to detest to utterly hate the verb according to Strong's conveys a strong sense of aversion or repulsion it is used to describe an intense dislike or hatred towards something often of a moral or ethical connotation in the
- 08:23
- New Testament it is used to express the believers attitude toward evil emphasizing a complete and utter rejection of sin and unrighteousness again we see that Paul isn't just talking about feelings he's talking about intent and action let's take the word look at the word evil that one's a lot simpler the naros is that word evil wicked malicious used in the
- 09:07
- New Testament to describe that which is morally or ethically evil wicked malicious it often refers to actions thoughts or individuals that are contrary to God's nature and commands so evil that which is contrary to God's character that actively opposes
- 09:26
- God that is what is evil that is what Paul is saying that we should in that we should hate we should actively oppose that which opposes
- 09:38
- God now for some people this may work out in the it should work out for all of us in a similar way repentance if you are a
- 09:55
- Christian and you are into up with the Holy Spirit through the process of your sanctification the Holy Spirit will cause you more and more and more to hate what you once loved and love what you once hated which is
- 10:07
- God you will begin to see those things as for what they are being contrary to God's character and you will begin to actively oppose them especially in repentance he will show you the sin and from there you will be more and more able to actively oppose it to run away as it were evil being that which is antithetical to God this is how we are in our natural state from from conception we live in active opposition to the character of a
- 11:02
- God man we love the things that he hates and we hate the things that he loves this is why we need to be born again we need to have spiritual rebirth so there is a change we're given examples of some of the things
- 11:28
- God hates two examples Proverbs 8 13 the fear of the
- 11:34
- Lord is hatred of evil there may sound familiar to another verse the beginning of all wisdom is fear of the
- 11:45
- Lord here he says the fear of the Lord is the hatred of evil pride and arrogance in the way of evil and perverted speech
- 11:54
- I hate Proverbs 6 16 through 19 says there are six things that God hates or that the
- 12:03
- Lord hates seven that are abominations to him haughty eyes a lying tongue hands that shed innocent blood a heart that devises wicked plans feet that make haste to run to evil false witnesses who breathe out lies a false witness who breathes out lies and one who sows discord among brothers what
- 12:32
- Paul is saying as I said before is that we should the Christian being indwellent with the
- 12:37
- Holy Spirit ought to actively oppose the breaking of the law not that we can't that we we can't my apologies not that we won't sin but through the process of sanctification we will want to not sin more and more and more and more and those things that we see in the world the the promotion of sin we will oppose that as well as I was talking about before many people will inevitably come to this passion and become confused and ask how am
- 13:27
- I supposed to love my enemy and hate that which is evil at the same time because people are evil from conception so on and so forth this is obviously part of the rub between the love everything types and the hate breathing types legalists and their contraries but if love is being the active proponent of a person acting solely for their benefit the benefit of a place or a person or an idea a thing and hate is being the active opponent and what we're supposed to do is love our neighbor then in loving your neighbor in truth you are in fact opposing that which is evil right so in the church you see a brother sinning and you go to that brother and you tell him that you recognize his sin and you point it out to him what you are doing in the loving of the brother is the opposing of the evil with truth because it doesn't matter whether or not that relationship works out you loved him enough in the action of telling him the truth loving
- 15:02
- God is opposing evil it's not one and one then the other so both and Matthew 22 says but when the
- 15:17
- Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees they gathered together and one of them a lawyer asked him a question to test him teacher which is the greatest commandment in the law and he said to him you shall love the
- 15:36
- Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind this is the great and first commandment and a second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets just to be clear that is not the gospel that is the law so when you talk to a fellow
- 16:06
- Christian or at least someone who claims to be Christian you asked him what the gospel gospel is and they say you shall love the
- 16:13
- Lord your God and you should love your neighbor as yourself all they've done is quote you okay tell me the second half all you've done is quote to me what you should do not how it's done anyway acting in love and obedience to the will of God is actively opposing that which is evil we cannot love the world and God at the same time right scripture says this you can't do both praise the
- 17:01
- Lord the Holy Spirit causes us to keep more and more through sanctification not only to become better and better at being obedient to God's character to the law but also wanting to keep it the intent that we talked about before if you're just keeping the law then what you inevitably end up doing is just being a legalist you're putting your faith in yourself
- 17:29
- I have to do this I have to do this I have to do this what that is and it is an expression of self -righteousness you're depending on your own works the
- 17:42
- Holy Spirit causes us to want it and not only to want it but when we're not there yet and this may sound confusing but he causes us to want to want it have you ever dealt with a sin that you didn't want to do anymore you recognize it as sin right and you actively wanted to oppose the temptation you remember a time in your sanctification when you wanted the burden of sin
- 18:20
- I remember a time when in in very early on for me we went through a book called the pilgrims progress and I'm reading through this book and I'm hearing that reading about Christian and Christian is reading this book in the book that I'm reading and every time he opens the book and he begins to read this burden on his back that's described as kind of a backpack it grows and it grows and it grows and it grows and it grows until he sets off on his journey and to get rid of the burden and I remember reading that going
- 19:05
- I want that burden give me that I want to recognize what my sin is so it's not even necessarily just the wanting to keep the law it's the the wanting the the urge to want to get to a place where you can even understand how in John 14 15
- 19:46
- Jesus says to his disciples he says if you love me you will what keep my commands my commandments in light of what
- 19:58
- Paul is saying here being actively and intentionally obedient that is love and let's not forget what
- 20:15
- Paul said said at the very very beginning of this chapter I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God that is the only way that this makes any sense remember we've moved on from Paul's theological section in Romans and into the application and this is the very beginning of those chapters this should not be read to someone who is not saved because they won't understand it there's a reason
- 20:49
- Paul didn't start with application all of the other things you have to understand first before you can even come to understanding how to apply it to your life because the only people that can are saved it says by the mercies of God to those who are saved to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship so not only the loving love genuinely with sincerity and truthful action to one another in the church but also actively opposing that which is evil a better example of this may very well be that you have a congregant a member of the congregation who is participating in sin fornication drugs whatever it may be right and it is the duty of the eldership or the member the membership to love them by telling them the truth that is love it is love when they confront them it is love when they bring to two or more to them it is love when they bring it to the eldership it is love when they basically go through the entire process of Matthew 18 and the removal of that person's from the church should they not repent is loving because they shouldn't be there you should not allow a person to be fooled into thinking that they're saved when they're not and if you go through the process of Matthew 18 and there is no repentance scripture says they're not otherwise they would repent because it's not up to them for a person who has saved the
- 22:59
- Holy Spirit it causes them to be repentant you're also being loving to the congregation by removing that person in the same way pick pick anything fornication two people living together when they shouldn't or participating in things that they shouldn't participate in because they're not married there's a reason in say if you have an issue with your brother should you take communion no you can't take it in sincerity you have an issue go resolve the issue first and then come to the altar right oppose that which is evil we should always endeavor to oppose that which opposes
