Romans 12:9

Coram Deo Reformed Baptist Church iconCoram Deo Reformed Baptist Church

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All righty, so I had planned on, since we're in Romans chapter 12, to do 9 through 11 to go through that section, but I got started on 9, and I just kept going on 9, so we're just gonna do verse 9 today.
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But as we normally do, let's start in verse 1. Context is important.
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Starting verse 1, he 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who act who does acts of mercy, cheerfulness.
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Let love be genuine. This is the verse that we're covering today, and I started in on it, and there are a plethora of commentaries on Romans.
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There's no shortage of them. It's been 2 ,000 years of church history, of course.
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Many, many, many thousands and thousands of people have written commentaries on this, especially in 12, but I felt that verse 9 is something that needed to be covered in depth.
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The reason for that is because these terms here that we're going to go through here in a minute are so muddied in the modern church, especially.
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Certainly, they've been muddied throughout time. Our English language doesn't help at all, most assuredly, but this is something that the church struggles with in general, especially in our camp.
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But as we discussed last week, as Paul admonished us not to let our egos get out of control concerning the gifts that God has given us, but rather we should think of ourselves according to the level of faith or confidence, trust given to us.
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We should think with sober judgment in these things. He then gives us a list of gifts, of spiritual gifts, and tells us that just as the body has many members that serve different functions, so we are members of the body of Christ and serve different functions, and we're given these gifts and put in these positions that we may show ourselves to be living sacrifices, honoring
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God to glorify Him. This is the reason that He gives us the things that He gives us.
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It is most assuredly for our benefit, but it is ultimately for His glory, and not just in the church, but also in our daily lives, in our thoughts, and in our actions.
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And then we get to verse 9, and Paul makes a statement in verse 9, a very short statement, four words, but it's something that doesn't come naturally to human beings.
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It isn't. Let love be genuine.
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In some other translations, it may say, let it be sincere, or let it be without hypocrisy.
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I'll address what Paul is saying here in just a moment, but for the time being, what I would like to do is to address the terms.
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Anytime you read through any kind of text, or you especially start into any sort of debate or talking to someone about anything, you want to make sure that your terms are defined.
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Most assuredly, there are plenty of people that don't know what love is in the context of Scripture, and what it is to be genuine, to be without hypocrisy.
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Now keep in mind the fact that we are saved, yet sinners.
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We're being sanctified. Our process isn't complete yet, so we do sin.
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Many people look at the church, and they see us as hypocrites calling people out for their sin, and still sinning, and so on and so forth, and that's not the same thing.
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The same thing would be you participating in a sin actively, and calling someone else actively for that sin.
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Certainly there are plenty of Christian hypocrites. There's no shortage of them in the world.
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There are human beings in the world, but let's look at this word, love.
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So what love is Paul talking about? Certainly there are many different definitions for love.
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Certainly in our postmodern age, many people define it subjectively in their minds as to what this is, and unfortunately in the
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English, we find no help, because there is one particular word, love, that is used.
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We don't have multiple words for these things, so it gets thrown around probably a lot more than it really should in common speech.
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A friend may visit your home, and say that they love your Christmas tree, or they love the the paint color that you chose to paint your house with, or you serve them a meal, and they loved the meal.
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This is an expression of how much they like something. It's not love.
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It's how much they liked it, but it's a common thing for us to say. When we greet someone, or when we leave a family member to go out in our daily lives, or so on and so forth, we exchange that word.
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I love you. I love you, too. It's a good expression to use, certainly with children.
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You must tell your children that you love them. Don't just show them.
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Tell them. Children aren't old enough to grasp the concept of, you know, action speaks louder than words.
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You have to tell them, so that they know. Otherwise, they won't realize it until they're 30.
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Well, we have many things in our culture that muddy it, as well. Not just our speech. TV, radio, radio,
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TV, music, shows, movies. They all muddy this word, as well.
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How many movies or television shows have, I want to say, ripped off, but based their stories on Romeo and Juliet?
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Two star -crossed youngsters who love each other, and shouldn't be together, and whatnot.
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That that is an expression of love. It isn't. Rather, it is an expression of teenage angst and lustful desire.
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But our minds, from the beginning, are riddled with these images, and with these words.
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There are, in fact, though, many things that are called love that aren't.
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The Greeks had the same problem, and in their language, they had multiple, multiple words to describe different types of love.
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We're not going to discuss them today. We're gonna focus on one, because the other ones aren't love.
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But they would have a word, storge, which is an empathetic love. It's a love that you would have, a feeling that you would have, a bond that you would have with a person who's not a family member or a friend, but you identify with them, and and you care for them.
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Or philia, which is a friendship bond that you would have. Or a familial relationship, and there's eros.
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Eros, which is lust. It's just sexual desire that you feel for another person.
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As I said, we're not going into these in depth, because they have nothing to do with what we're talking about.
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It wouldn't be necessary. But for the sake of the the text, I do want to get in to one particular type of love that the
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Greeks did discern exists, and the word for that particular type of love is agape.
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That's the word for it. This love is benevolent, good -willed.
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It is pure. It is service to one without regard for oneself.
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Meaning, I want nothing in return. It is selfless. It is an action that you take.
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Specifically, that word is used in regards to action, to a thing that you do, to love.
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This is the love that God has for His people. God doesn't just tell us things.
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He is gracious enough to tell us things, but He doesn't just tell us things. He does them.
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He may tell us that He's going to do them beforehand in some cases, but He does them.
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God's love for us is actionable. Think of our justification, our sanctification.
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He sent His Son. Christ lived and died and rose again for us.
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This doesn't describe a feeling. It describes a thing that you do. The Bible, in fact, the love that it describes, the love that Paul is talking about, is an action.
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It is something that we do, not a feeling that you feel. Certainly, you have feelings for those that you love, and you care for them, and those come along with it, but that's not what we're talking about.
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You love another when you act in such a way toward them that has been deemed by God to be good, and is for their benefit, and not always necessarily for yours.
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It is a sacrificial act. For example, when one confronts a friend or a family member who struggles with addiction, regardless of the outcome of the relationship, this is love.
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You notice that they're doing something that is hurting themselves, and you realize that talking to them about it and confronting them about it is probably going to end your friendship or your family relationship that you have with them, but you love them enough to do it anyway.
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That is love. When a parent corrects bad behavior, even to the disgust of the child, that is love.
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When even when you know it is going to cause your death or your harm, you proclaim the name of Christ.
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That is love. When we are chastised by the
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Father, that is love. When we share the gospel, that is love.
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Husbands, particularly in Scripture, are told to act toward their wives in a sacrificial way as Christ did to the church.
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When you do those things, when you act that way toward your wife, whether you like her or not,
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I'm not talking about like. When you act that way toward your wife as God commands in Scripture, you are loving her.
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When a wife acts towards her husband as God commands in Scripture, you are loving her or she is loving him, but it's not enough to understand this concept that I should do this thing towards this person.
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Certainly in our flesh, we do things all the time that we don't want to do. We don't want to do them before.
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We don't want to do them in the moment, and sometimes we wish we hadn't done them after, but it's not just the doing of the thing.
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The doing of the thing is better than not doing it, but that's not just what
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Paul is talking about. He is talking about the intent behind it.
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So love unconditional, sacrificial, sacrificially in service to another with the intent of doing that.
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The best example of this we are given is Christ. In Matthew 20, 20 through 28, it says,
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Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons, bowing down and making requests of him, and he said to her,
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What do you desire? She said to him, Say that in your kingdom these two sons of mine shall sit, one at your right and one at your left.
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But Jesus replied, You do not know what you are asking.
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Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink? They said to him,
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We are able. And he said to them, My cup you shall drink, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my
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Father. And after hearing this, the other ten disciples became indignant with the two brothers, but Jesus called them to himself and said,
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You know that the rulers of the Gentiles domineer over them, and those in high positions exercise authority over them.
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It is not this way among you, but whoever wants to become prominent among you shall be your servant, and whoever desires to be first among you shall be your slave, just as the
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Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
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There is no other concept of love like this in all of human history.
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There is a reason that our faith is as radical as it is.
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Not only does it defy every other expectation of religion throughout human history that it's up to you to get there.
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Christ says no, you can't. No one comes under the Father except through me. Christ did it, period.
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It is only by faith in him that you can even hope to get to the
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Father. Not only that, but his absolute and utter sovereign authority over all the universe, in all of that, he came to serve, to do for us.
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The Father could have sent him as a king, the newborn king over Jerusalem, and however that would have played out, he didn't.
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This particular time of year, we talk about exactly how he came into the poor, destitute, to serve, to be the lamb that we did not deserve, but absolutely needed.
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And the example that he gives in his life is one of service, not only to his disciples, but also to those that didn't believe in him.
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But now that we have established what type of love Paul is particularly talking about here,
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I want you to keep in mind what Paul has talked about earlier. He talked about gifts or talents, as you may call them.
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This love is actionable. So he says in verse 9, let love, gape, this is the word used in the
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Greek, let love be genuine. So what is the word used here that is translated to genuine, sincere, without hypocrisy?
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Anopokritos is the word, and it means just exactly what those translations mean.
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Sincere, genuine, without hypocrisy, with true intent, unfeigned.
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The other thing that doesn't come to us naturally as human beings is the ability to be genuine.
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This is why it's actually, even in our secular world, such a highly valued thing that a man keeps his word.
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Even culturally, we understand that at the end of the day, you have nothing but your word.
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Lying on the other hand comes very, very naturally to human beings.
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We don't even have to learn how to do it. It's one of the first things that children do when they figure out that if I do this,
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I'll get in trouble. There are things that they can do that they get in trouble for certain things.
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Why did you knock that over? I didn't. He did. Why did you do that?
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I don't know. Lying comes very naturally to us, and even as adults in certain situations where the truth may get us in trouble or put us in danger, what do we naturally do?
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Lie. We lie for self -preservation, lie for the fun of it, lie to benefit ourselves, and a lot of people most assuredly think that it's your words, that you can only lie with your words.
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Not so. I'm sure we each even know one.
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Just to back up for a moment, we know someone here who is a perpetual liar. We've all met those people.
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They just lie for no reason. You ask them a question.
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Have you seen such -and -such movie? Yeah, I went and saw it in space. What? You just make things up for no reason.
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We lie to others. We lie to ourselves. We're very good at lying to ourselves. I say probably most people are experts at lying to themselves.
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Some people have a hard time lying to other people. In general, human beings are really, really experts at lying to themselves about things, but in action, we do the same thing, and we don't even realize most of the time that we're doing it.
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I'll give you a very obvious and familiar example, maybe familiar to some who have actually been in the retail or service industry where you've had a terrible day, a crappy morning, and you have to feel yourself full of fake cheer and put on a smile when you clock in because you have to help other people, and you can't drag them into your pit of despair.
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Otherwise, you may lose your job or so on and so forth. Good afternoon.
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What can I do for you today? And on the inside, you're dying. You can't show it, right?
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Now, it's a very obvious example of what I'm talking about.
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It's insincere action. On the outside, you're chipper and you're thoughtful.
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On the inside, you just want to go home and be left alone. Let me crawl in my hole and go to sleep.
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This is participating in disingenuous action. We end up doing this in many different things that we do throughout our lives, being disingenuous in work and relationships, charity, service to others.
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I hear many, many, many stories, especially having access to the Internet, about people being in disingenuous relationships.
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First of all, you don't need to be in a relationship unless you're getting married. It's sinful.
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Stop it. But even in marriage,
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I've known many people throughout my life who absolutely hated each other and were disingenuous with each other about it.
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Does it sound like a godly marriage? It shouldn't.
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You can also think of it like this, another example of disingenuous action. How many people do you think, in the history of Israel, went to the temple, got a couple of pigeons or lamb or whatever the sacrifice needed for their sins was, had it prepared, paid for everything, and went through the motions?
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How many? Didn't really care, but they're a
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Jew, and this is what Jews do, so I'm doing the thing that we do. But at the end of the day, didn't really care one way or the other.
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Probably quite a few, in much the same way that you go to any church today, and you find people doing the exact same thing.
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Well, it's Sunday. This is what we do on Sunday. There is no sincerity in what they're doing.
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How many in the church today go to church because it is what you do on Sunday? They sing songs and pray or don't.
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They just kind of mumble the words and close their eyes like everyone else, stare at their phone for the 15 minutes that some guy stands up and talks.
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They don't actually ever take the meal of the sermon. Now, most assuredly, in some churches, it's not a meal, and they shouldn't even be doing it.
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We wouldn't call those churches, though. I also pondered this while I was writing this.
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All of us have to account for every thought, every action, everything that we do when we stand before the
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Lord, whether He decides to tarry, and we go to Him, or He comes to us.
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We have to answer for it. What will you say when
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He asks you, why did you pretend? In another book in the
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Bible, Christ makes very clear that He doesn't like people who tarry in their faith.
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I'm sorry, not tarry. People who are lukewarm in their faith. Yeah, I know
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Jesus. He's got this. He's my buddy.
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In the comparison that I made before about the people going to the temple giving sacrifices, most assuredly there is intent needed.
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When we talk about repentance, when we say that word in the
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Greek, I forget the word, but it means a changing of the mind about a thing, which doesn't fully describe repentance.
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Repentance is certainly a changing of the mind. It involves godly sorrow, not because you're sorry that you did a thing, but you're sorry that you offended
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God. This is given by the Holy Spirit, and it comes more and more and more and more as we're sanctified, but when you sit in prayer and you ask forgiveness for your sins, the intent needs to be there for it to be genuine.
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Otherwise, you're just saying words. If you're not actually asking for forgiveness and true repentance and a desire to turn and flee from sin, then why are you talking?
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It's not real. It's not genuine. In much the same way as Paul admonishes us earlier in this chapter to be living sacrifices, the things that we do should be genuine.
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We should be genuine sacrifices. Just going through the motions doesn't count.
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He is telling us to be sincere in these gifts, in the actions that we use them with, in the love that we show to people, told to worship in spirit and in truth, right?
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Paul says earlier that to act as living sacrifices for this is your spiritual worship.
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If there's no truth to go with it, if you're not being genuine, stop.
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Put a hold on it. Carry in the Word. Have it become genuine.
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Certainly it is a good thing to give charitably to others, but if you're doing it so that you feel good about yourself, stop.
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Carry in the Word. You shouldn't care how it makes you feel.
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And Paul in these gifts and in the words that we've been reading isn't just saying, hey Christians, this is how you're going to act.
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I want you to act this way so that you can be more Christians. No. What he is saying is we've already been through all the doctrine and everything leading up to chapter 12.
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Chapter 12 is the beginning of the application. Paul is saying this is how Christians act.
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This isn't what you do when you're pretending and you do these things. He's saying this is how Christians act. He says it multiple and multiple other epistles.
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These are the things that you look for. These are the gifts of the Spirit. Love being the foremost.
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There's a reason why he begins this next section with love.
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It is the foremost grace from which all others spring. In his letter to the
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Corinthians in 1st Corinthians 13, he says this, if I speak with the tongues of mankind and of angels but do not have love,
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I have become a noisy gong and a clangy cymbal. It's just noise.
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If I have the gift of prophecy and know all the mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove so as to move mountains but do not have love,
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I'm nothing. And if I give away all my possessions to charity and if I surrender my body so that I may, oh,
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I had a typo here. I apologize. Sorry.
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Yeah. But if I do not have love, it does me no good.
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Love is patient. Love is kind. It is not jealous. Love does not brag.
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It is not arrogant. It does not act disgracefully.
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It does not seek its own benefit. It is not provoked. It does not keep an account of a wrong suffered.
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It does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth.
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It keeps every confidence. It believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
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Love never fails. But if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away with.
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If there are tongues, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
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For we know in part and prophesy in part but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with.
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When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think like a child, reason like a child.
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When I became a man, I did away with childish things.
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For now we see in a mirror dimly, but in face to face. Now I know in part, but I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known.
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But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, but the greatest of them is love.
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This is the first and foremost graces given to us, and without it, it doesn't matter what we do or what we say.
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It is nothing. Everything that we do has its beginning in genuine love from the
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Father, from the Son, from the Holy Spirit. We are
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Christians because God loves us. This is a true love, a godly love.
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It is what we are to have for one another. It is what we are to have for our friends and our families, for our spouses, for the members of our church, for the people who hate us, for those that would kill us.
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Unfortunately, well
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I guess fortunately, for the glory of God, fortunately for us, we get a taste of His love.
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Whatever amount of true and actual love that we can feel for others in this lifetime is just a drop.
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It is a percentage of a drop that the Trinity has for each other.
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The Godhead has loved each other from all eternity, and in eternity past,
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God decided that He wanted to share that with others. Creation.
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The church. As you go through your week next week, before we meet again, and you talk to others about the true meaning of Christmas, if you are given the opportunity, and even as you go through your general tasks in dealing with people and with other people, think about whether or not your action towards them is genuine.
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When you deal with that person in the store, when you talk to that person on the street, when you give money in or you give in charity to a homeless person, when you buy your coffee, or when you pick up your food, are you being genuine?
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Paul doesn't restrict being living sacrifices to the worship service. It is an all -the -time, everyday thing.