WWUTT 1381 Christ Did Not Please Himself (Romans 15:3)

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Romans 15 3 says Christ did not please himself but as it is written the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me so as Christ has done this for us we must do for one another when we understand the tax this is when we understand the text a daily

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Bible commentary that we may be equipped for every good work in Jesus Christ our Lord please tell others about our ministry at www .utt

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.com here once again is Pastor Gabe thank you Becky we come back to our study of the book of Romans picking up in chapter 15 and I'm gonna start out here by reading verses 1 through 7 the

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Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up for Christ did not please himself but as it is written the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope may the

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God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus that together you may with one voice glorify the

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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God I once did a sermon on this particular section and each verse was its own point so that's a seven point sermon

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I know I left my Baptist roots there are my Baptist disciplines a little bit and instead of doing that three -point sermon where every point begins with the same letter that's how you're supposed to do

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Baptist sermons we continue with the theme of the instructions that Paul had been giving in chapter 14 and this has to do with matters of conscience back in 14 verse 1 as for the one who is weak in faith welcome him but not to quarrel over opinions one person is going to be convinced of one thing as a matter of conscience another person is going to be convinced of another thing and we're not talking here about those things that scripture strictly forbids for we came right out of chapter 13 where certain laws were even mentioned you shall not commit adultery you shall not murder you shall not steal you shall not covet and then in chapter 13 verse 13 let us walk properly as in the daytime not in orgies and drunkenness not in sexual immorality and sensuality not in quarreling and jealousy but put on the

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Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires so when we're talking about matters of conscience here particularly over chapter 14 we're talking about those things that scripture does not strictly forbid a person is not compromising their their citizenship in the kingdom of God by doing or not doing this thing they're just convinced in their conscience this is what

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I must do and they do it in honor of the Lord and so Paul says that's fine they do what they do in honor of the

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Lord you do what you do in honor of the Lord and do not quarrel over opinions do not divide and most especially don't put a stumbling block in front of somebody else that would cause them to sin you are convinced that something is good keep that between you and the

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Lord if you put that in front of somebody who is convinced that it's wrong then you could cause them to fall into sin and to stumble and now you're both wrong you're sinning because you caused your brother to stumble and your brother stumbles because he's done something that in his mind is he's convinced of sin as it says at the end of chapter 14 whatever does not proceed from faith is sin if you do something that you are convinced is wrong even if the

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Bible does not say that it's wrong you've still sinned before God because you and your heart believed it was rebellion and then you rebelled

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I've had these kinds of conversations with people before where they've come to me and they have said you know

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I did such -and -such is that wrong and I'll say to them well I'm gonna take you through the scriptures and help you to understand what the

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Bible says about this but if you have to ask that question your conscience is guilty so you need to take that before the

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Lord the example that Paul is given in Romans chapter 14 is with regards to food and drink but as we went through that chapter over the last couple of weeks we applied this to some other things as well one of the big things going on in the culture right now of course is mask wearing so you have some people saying you have to wear a mask if you don't wear a mask then you're sinning and there are others that say you should not wear a mask and if you do wear a mask you are sinning so this is a difference of opinion and a person needs to be convinced in their own mind do what they do in honor of the

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Lord and don't shame a person because they're convinced that this is what it is that they have to do don't quarrel over opinions over these particular things with regards to food and drink alcohol consumption is often an example that gets brought into the principles laid down in Romans chapter 14 one person believes a

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Christian shouldn't be drinking alcohol at all no wine beer hard liquor anything another person says well scripture indicates that an abundance of wine is an indication of God's abundant blessing and so I can drink these things as long as I don't drink it to intoxication that's when it becomes sin but drinking alcohol otherwise is fine whatever you do do that in honor of God but don't put a stumbling block before somebody else one person's flesh may be completely weak to alcohol consumption their conscience weak regarding this so if they're drinking any kind of alcohol then they've sinned let's say you're having a dinner party and you've got somebody at your dinner who is they're convinced in their mind that they should not be drinking any kind of alcohol and you serve wine at your dinner party because everybody else is drinking wine they're thinking to themselves well okay

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I'll I'll have a little bit too and then they get home that night and they're completely guilty because I I did something that I believe the

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Bible says is wrong I should not be drinking alcohol and you've caused your brother or your sister to stumble we need to be mindful of one another's conscience as Paul has been talking about loving each other loving the brotherhood we're all different parts of the body but we're part of the same body as he said back in Romans chapter 12 this is another aspect of that that we are considerate we're mindful of each other we can we're kind of in a culture right now where we're encouraged to become experts in one another's weaknesses this is cancel culture this is intersectionality this is that whole microaggression thing you know what

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I mean by microaggression it's so small little slights so if you say something a certain way well that's offensive and I should be offended by that I'm gonna tell you that I'm offended you need to change your behavior and your attitude and your words and stuff like that see this because this creates this mindset of becoming an expert in one another's shortcomings and their weaknesses and that is an evil thing scripture actually discourages us from being that way and in fact when we leave the finer points of the gospel the gospel as Christ taught it then this is what becomes fostered in the mind this is the kind of attitude that we will adopt toward one another is having evil suspicions consider what

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Paul says in 1st Timothy chapter 6 I'm gonna start reading in verse 3 if anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our

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Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness so what kind of teaching are we talking about here what is a different doctrine it is any kind of teaching that against that that goes against the sound words of our

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Lord Christ basically what we have in Matthew Mark Luke and John and the teaching that comes from the

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Apostles and also the teaching that accords with godliness so it's that teaching that flows from the gospel that produces godliness when we listen to that teaching and we live by that teaching we grow in Christ likeness and in godly behavior attitudes a desire for God grows within us when we adhere ourselves to that teaching that's the kind of teaching

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Paul is putting before Timothy and from the start of this letter he's been saying don't let anyone teach anything else in the church where I send you so if anyone goes against those words the sound words of our

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Lord Christ and the teaching that produces godliness he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing he has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy dissension slander evil suspicions and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth imagining that godliness is a means of gain means of financial gain of worldly gain of prestige of recognition but as it goes on in verse 6 to say godliness with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world but if we have food and clothing with these we will be content so in leaving the sound teaching of our

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Lord Christ those those words those teachings that produce godliness in us and that's whatever comes from the

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Word of God when we go away from that teaching and we wander off into vain discussion into mids in the end of cultural cultural fads just some of the philosophies that are going on in our culture right now critical race theory intersectionality something like the social justice movement and that's one of those things where it's like well surely we can all get behind that we all want justice right of course we do for as it says in Deuteronomy 32

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God is our rock and all of his ways are justice but how is justice being defined in the social justice movement we can't just hear that word and go well everybody wants justice so yeah sure we should get behind justice how is the culture defining it just like with you know some sort of movement of love that will pop up in the culture every once in a while how is the culture defining love because the way the culture defines love is often not the way that the

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Bible defines love so we need to be careful about some of these fads and trends and philosophical thinking that attempts to shape a cultural mindset and not go along with according to what the culture wants us to do because right now we have we have these attitudes being fostered in which we're just supposed to be constantly suspicious of one another said whole cancel culture sort of a thing and this is evil to be this way to become experts in one another shortcomings this is putting a stumbling block before another and this is thinking low of your brothers and sisters in the

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Lord it's thinking more highly of yourself and lower of your brothers and sisters and what did

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Paul say to us back in Romans chapter 12 he says not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think but with sober judgment each according to the measure of faith that God is assigned consider verse 4 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 of one another and so as members of one another we need to consider each other and strengthen one another not weaken each other and when we become experts in one another's weaknesses that's exactly what we do we weaken one another and the entire body weakens as a result it is an evil thing to become an expert in one another's weaknesses to be meditating on those weaknesses instead of thinking about how can you strengthen each other how can we build up the body of Christ how can

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I make my brother or sister in the Lord stronger that's the way that we need to be approaching one another in the body and I believe

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I mentioned this last week as we finished up the lesson on Wednesday but as everybody in the body of Christ matures the whole body improves and that includes you does it not if you help to strengthen your brother or sister in the

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Lord does not does that not also build you up the focus is not on you you benefit though that's not your goal that's not your aim the whole body benefits as we build each other up in love that's the picture in Ephesians chapter 4 in 1st

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Peter 2 where Peter talks about how we are living stones being built up into a spiritual house unto the

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Lord so how can you build up your brother or your sister in the Lord as the whole body strengthens everybody strengthens as the whole building is being built up everybody is being built up and so we who have that maturity in the faith who have strength in our faith need to bear with the failings of the week not to please ourselves our aim is not to please ourselves but to glorify

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God to do this all to God's glory that's verse 7 so we start off in Romans 15 1 speaking this way we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the week not become experts in the failings of the week but to bear with the failings of the week not to please ourselves we do this to the glory of God verse 7 welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God so we're building everybody up as a matter of worship it is worship unto

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God when you consider others needs ahead of your own when you love your neighbor and build him up for his good and that that that is good for the entire body for the whole church we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the week and not to please ourselves let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up what is popular in the culture right now to tear each other down we're seeing this constantly it's all over the place it is the attitude of the culture to become experts in one another's weaknesses to tear one another down to shame the whole cancel culture mentality and this is being fostered by those philosophical views like woke ism and critical race theory it's right there in the name critical theory whatever is in between those two words is designed to tear that down you can throw race in the middle of it you can throw masculinity in the middle of it critical masculinity theory is designed to tear down men and make them feel weaker than they really are our culture hates chivalry and masculine strength and just being a gentleman the culture wants to tear those kinds of things down you cannot go with the cultural attitudes on what it means to be a man or a woman because right now the culture is saying if you don't feel like a man you can become a woman if you don't feel like being a woman you can you can become a man and the culture will tear down whatever it means to be a man or a woman that way everything is just subjective and you can be whatever you feel like you want to be today your attitudes about this might change tomorrow but whatever you feel like today you can do that just be that that's that's where our cultural attitudes are right now you need to go to your

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Bible and you need to read about what God says you are to be as a man of God or as a woman of God and do all of this to the glory of God and build each other up brothers building up brothers in the

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Lord sisters building up sisters in the Lord men respecting women women respecting men in the

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Lord for this is pleasing unto God let us please our neighbor for his good to build him up now

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I was on those two verses last week technically today I should be getting to to verse 3 so let's consider that almost done with the lesson here and I'm just now getting to the verse that I should have been getting to for Christ did not please himself but as it is written the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me so let me explain what this means this is a reference to Psalm 69 verse 9 for zeal for your house has consumed me and the reproaches of those who reproached you have fallen on me so the psalmist there is saying that they are so devoted unto the

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Lord that whatever God God is passionate about that's what I'm passionate about what does

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God desire that's what I desire zeal for your house has consumed me but because of this because I am a follower of God and I desire those things of God the people who hate

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God therefore hate me so the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me so verse 3

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Christ did not please himself but as it is written the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me

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Christ was all about his father's work his father's will and those who hate the father hated the son and the reproaches against God fell upon the son and he was crucified on the cross by the sin of man for the sin of man that whoever believes in him our sins are imputed to him and then his righteousness is imputed to us the enmity that we had against God is on Christ on the cross he takes that upon himself and gives us his righteousness all those who believe in him this is the great exchange that takes place our sins upon him his righteousness to us the reproaches of those who reproached

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God fall upon Christ and the righteousness of God falls upon us for those who believe in him so because this is the the great favor and grace that God shows to us therefore that needs to be our attitude with one another as well and we need to have the attitude also that that whenever someone in the body of Christ is reproached whenever someone in the world hates a member of our own church of our own body and congregation then we need to feel that with each other if somebody in my church is hated by the world the world's hating me too the reproaches that fall on them also falling upon me they hate

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God therefore they hate the church what they have hated about God falls also upon the church this is why

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Jesus says when the world hates you know that it hated me first if the world received you as its own it would not hate you but because you are not of the world but rather I have chosen you therefore when the world hates you it's because they hated me this is what

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Jesus has said to his disciples and says therefore also to us so the reproaches that fall on anybody else in the church also falls upon the rest of the church because it comes from those who hate

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God Christ did not please himself so therefore we should not be out to please ourselves as Christ gave himself for his church we need to give ourselves for the church to better one another to build each other up in the

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Lord to the glory of God not becoming an expert in one another's weaknesses but bearing with one another's weaknesses that we strengthen each other in Christ my friends this world is such an unrelenting place unforgiving ungracious the world is no grace and you see that growing and getting worse and worse in the culture around us as some of these critical philosophical thoughts continue to seize the mind and shape the cultural attitudes the church needs to be a place where brothers and sisters in the

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Lord know that they can come and they can experience the grace of God they can receive forgiveness from their brothers and sisters not those who are going to be experts in their weaknesses but those who look out for their best interest and build them up even when you have to admonish somebody for their sin you do so with goodwill because that's what the word admonish means it means to correct with goodwill the world has no intention of correcting with goodwill the world is just going to shame and cancel and tear you down but we as Christian brothers and sisters in the

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Lord when it comes to correcting one another's sins it's for the purpose of building up to restore back to the path of righteousness that the grace of God may be demonstrated within our midst because we all need it every single one of us needs the forgiveness and grace of God on a daily basis as Paul said to the church in Colossians chapter 3 forgiving one another as God has forgiven you if any of you has a complaint against another that's the way

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Paul shapes it there he says if you have a complaint against somebody else forgive as God has forgiven you so you must also forgive how countercultural is that right and it goes right back to Romans 12 to do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind let's help one another do that in the body of Christ Heavenly Father we thank you for this good spirit that you show to us pouring out your

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Holy Spirit into our hearts that we may demonstrate the fruit of the spirit love joy peace patience kindness goodness gentleness faithfulness and self -control may we do this with one another strengthening one another in these things and when the world hates us we know it's because they hate

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God but we hold fast to Christ who has overcome the world and strengthening one another in Christ according to your word let this word be in our hearts today and fill us with peace and we pray this in Jesus name amen for more about our ministry visit us online at WWUTT .com