WWUTT 1382 The God of Endurance and Encouragement (Romans 15:4-5)

Romans 15, 4, and 5 tell us that God is a God of endurance and encouragement.

And so we must have enduring love and encouragement toward one another when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of Romans chapter 15, verses 1 through 7, and I'll pick up reading that section again.

The Apostle Paul writing 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 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

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

Now, I mentioned yesterday that we need to not become experts in one another's weaknesses, but rather we bear with one another's weaknesses, that we may strengthen one another in the

Lord. These cultural attitudes that you see going on right now, the whole cancel culture thing and microaggression, you know,

I'm actually looking for ways that you're insulting me with your speech. The whole critical race theory where it's being critical of whatever is between those two words, critical and theory and intersectionality just breeds this attitude of victimhood.

I have these different points of intersection in my own identity and everywhere that you offend me at these various points will bolster my social standing.

You become the oppressor and you owe me. It's an incredibly self -righteous approach to life.

It's a very miserable way to live, filled with bitterness, looking down on everybody else and finding ways that you can play the victim and therefore elevate yourself and build yourself up.

But what is said to us here in Romans 15 is that's not the way that we are supposed to approach one another.

But with meekness, with humility in heart toward each other, as Paul says in Philippians 2, that we must consider the needs of others more than we consider ourselves.

We who are strong, who do have spiritual maturity, to whom

God has given that certain strength and measure of faith talked about in Romans 12 3, we have an obligation to bear with the failings of the week, not to please ourselves.

So we're not in this looking for how can I elevate myself in this? How can I bolster my social standing, play the victim and get a better deal out of this whole thing?

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good. That is so countercultural, looking out for the needs of others.

Now people force these ideas that some of the ideas that I mentioned there, like critical race theory, intersectionality, stuff like that.

People are forcing that stuff because they think that they're doing this for others.

Good. Well, at least that will be the claim. Maybe the reason why a person adheres themselves to that particular idea is because they're looking at how it's going to benefit me.

Or somebody has been so shamed to the point of thinking, hey, how can I get out of this shame?

Well, I must cling to this worldly philosophy and elevate it, and then maybe people will show me some grace, which is not going to be the end result of this at all.

There's no end to this critical game that the culture is playing. It's just going to get more and more critical.

There's no final solution to all of this. Even the whole reparations talk, it's never going to be enough.

You're never going to pay enough money to earn the favor or even the reconciliation that they say that this will bring about.

Nothing will ever reconcile us to one another except for Christ. Putting our faith and love in Jesus Christ, then we're unified.

The only place that there will ever be true unity on this earth is going to be in the church that is fixing itself upon Christ and his word and building one another up according to that.

That is the only place you will ever find true unity here on planet earth. That unity is not going to be perfect.

It's being perfected. It's growing in sanctification and holiness, but it's never going to be perfect this side of heaven.

We find that perfect consummation of the unity that we have in Christ once we join with him in glory.

But in the meantime, here on earth and these personal relationships that we have with one another, we're aspiring toward that perfection when we aspire to be like Christ.

Paul says to the Philippians, it's not that I've already attained this perfection, but I seek to make it my own because Christ has made me his own.

So Christ is our example here. As we looked at last or yesterday,

Romans 15, 3, Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me as Christ sacrificed himself for us.

So we must be willing to lay down our lives for one another. We're not in the church to better ourselves, although we certainly do benefit.

So this is, is not to please ourselves. It's to please our neighbor for his good, to build him up.

Verse four, 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.

So I mentioned this yesterday. I didn't really tie this into verse four as well, but it is through the teaching that we have according to the word of God that we strengthen one another.

It is according to what Christ has said, and it's the teaching that accords with godliness as Paul talked about with Timothy in first Timothy chapter six.

So it's that teaching that produces godliness, the teaching that we have in scripture that is going to build each other up, that is going to grow us more into Christ, that is going to make us more like Christ.

We're supposed to put on Christ as we read at the end of chapter 13, that we would grow in godliness.

And remember that Paul said to Timothy, whoever desires to live a life of godliness in Christ Jesus is going to be persecuted for that.

The world is going to hate us just because we want godliness, just because we want to be like Jesus.

You don't even have to stand on the street corner in your community with a bullhorn and preach the gospel for people to hate you just because you have values and ethics that are reflective of what

Christ says in his word. Just because you want that, the world is going to hate you for that.

How is it that we grow in godliness and Christ likeness? It's according to his word.

When we fix ourselves on the Bible, when we grow according to these things, this was written for our instruction that we might grow in godliness through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

And then in verse five, it says, may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another.

So why do we want to grow in endurance and encouragement?

Because our God is the God of endurance and encouragement. So let's talk these terms through as we come back to verse four here.

What was written in former days was written for our instruction. Now what is Paul talking about?

Written in former days? What's that a reference to? Well, that's a reference to the Old Testament.

That's what the churches had at this particular time. This is what they were using to understand who

Christ is and how to grow in the knowledge of Christ, what he has done, all of the

Old Testament pointing to Christ. So they were going to the Old Testament scriptures and seeing how

Christ is the fulfillment of all of this. Now the churches also had other letters that Paul had written to other churches.

In the book of Colossians, he talks about going to Laodicea and grab that letter that I wrote to the

Laodiceans, see what it was I wrote to them. You also take this letter to them so that they may see what

I wrote to you. And then those churches, the scribes from those churches would copy those letters down and then they would have those letters within their midst.

And so not only learning from the Old Testament, but seeing in writing how the apostles were pointing to what was fulfilled in the

Old Testament is given to us in Christ. So whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction.

We're not, we're not, uh, what's the word that Andy Stanley uses? Unhitch, unhitching.

We're not supposed to be unhitching from the Old Testament. Paul didn't have that attitude toward the churches in the first century.

Nowhere do you find that anywhere in scripture. Of course, Andy Stanley tries to say it was Acts chapter 15, the

Jerusalem council. That was the council saying unhitch from the Old Testament. That's not what was being said there at all.

Especially since consider here that Paul says in Romans 15 for what was written in former days, what was written by the prophets of God in those days has been for our instruction.

We still are instructed by the Old Testament. Now we don't unhitch from those things. So what was written in those days was to instruct us.

We grow in godliness when we read the Old Testament, we know of God's holiness and his demand for perfection when we read the law and we recognize then that we've broken that law and we're not holy.

And so therefore I'm, I'm going to need something here that is going to redeem me from what

I have done, having broken the perfect and holy law of God. And how does

Paul call the law of God? Like what does he call it here? Even in the book of Romans back in chapter seven, he says it's good.

He calls God's law good. And that is an attitude that you see diminishing even in the

Western culture, even within the church in the Western culture, there is this diminishing attitude toward the law of God as it being a good thing, especially when you've got our most popular preachers saying things like you must unhitch yourself from the

Old Testament. There was another sermon that Stanley did about a year ago, maybe a little more than a year ago, where he says that God loves you more than he loves his own commandments.

No, no. For Jesus said in Luke nine 26, whoever is ashamed of me and my words of him will the son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the father and the holy angels.

If God loves you more than he loves his own commandments, there's no reason for the

Bible. You don't need it. Throw it out. Stop reading it for God is just going to love you no matter what.

God said in Isaiah 66 to this is the one to whom I will look. He who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at my word.

So no, my friends, God has not elevated you above his word. It is

God's word that reveals God to us and that we know about his character, his holiness, the love that he has for us.

We would not even know about that if it was not for his word. So he doesn't love you more than he loves his own commandments.

God's character is demonstrated in his own commandments. Jesus saying to his disciples, you will show me that you love me when you keep my commandments.

But when we look into this law and we see God's perfect character and his perfect standard and that we don't measure up to that, then it also demonstrates to us our sinfulness and our need for a savior.

And then we look to the one who has fulfilled that law, who did keep that law perfectly.

And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. The law instructs us, but we cannot keep the law perfectly.

We need the savior who has redeemed us from the penalty that we have incurred because we broke the law.

And so the scriptures instruct us to turn to God, to grow in godliness, and we are only able to attain that righteousness when we have the righteousness of Christ.

Jesus who fulfilled the law and the prophets, who died on the cross for our sins as that perfect spotless lamb, and all who believe in him will receive his righteousness.

We're clothed in his righteousness. So therefore, we're able to keep the instructions of God because of the righteousness of Christ that we have been given.

So when we read whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that delights us, that fills us with hope to know that God is speaking to us and he has spoken to us through his word.

The prophets and the apostles who wrote this down for us, it is for our benefit. And we know the affection that God has for us when we look into the word and we read it, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

If not for the word of God, we would have no hope. What are we supposed to hope in? What is our expectation for the future?

What is our deliverance? How do we know that there is a resurrection from the grave?

That's something else you'll hear somebody like Andy Stanley talk about all the time. He will say, you're just supposed to believe in the resurrection.

Just believe that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead. All those other things don't matter. Just believe that a guy could come back from the dead.

Well, how do you even know that? Because you read it in the word of God. You wouldn't know about it if you weren't reading your

Bible. So how can we trust in the resurrection? How can we have a hope that there is a resurrection from the dead?

Because we read about it in the word of God. Now, Paul says here what was written in former days.

That's of course a reference to Old Testament scriptures, because that's what the church had. That's what they were reading. But this pertains also to this very letter that we're reading right now.

For is this not something that was written in former days? Certainly it is.

We have the canon completed. It is closed. It is given to us for our instruction that we can read all of it from Genesis to Revelation and know what

God expects of us as his children. How do we live to please our father from whom we are named?

That we may walk in a way that is pleasing to our father in heaven who gave his son to redeem us.

How do we live to please our God? That's what we have here in the Bible. And he's written it on our hearts.

When we read it, it's inscribed on our hearts by the Holy Spirit of God, whom

God has given to us and has poured into us. So the

Spirit of God dwelling within us reveals to us an understanding of these spiritual things that have been written down by the prophets and the apostles.

First Corinthians 2 .14, the natural man cannot discern the spiritual things of God for they are spiritually discerned.

If we did not have the Holy Spirit of God, we would not even understand this word or desire this word or know how to live by it.

So because God has poured his spirit into our hearts, we are encouraged. We have endurance.

We can endure these days, these trying times, these things that are going on and the false teaching of the culture, by the way, we can endure that too.

So the culture is forcing its different philosophies on us, is wanting us to be just as cynical and critical and spiteful as they are.

That's what the culture wants us to do, to shape our thinking according to the culture. But we're not led astray by these worldly philosophies because we have the word of God.

We know the right way to go. Remember Psalm 1, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

It's that not a description of our world? Wicked, sinners, scoffing, but his delight, the man who does not walk in the way of the wicked, his delight is in the law of the

Lord. And on his law, he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither in all that he does.

He prospers. The wicked are not so. They're like chaff that the wind drives away.

Our culture is changing its mind every day, being tossed to and fro by the shifting winds of doctrine.

Paul describes in Ephesians chapter four, what is ticking off the culture today is going to be something that something completely different is going to trigger it tomorrow.

Like the ethics and the values of the culture right now are going to be the things that the culture will shame you for tomorrow.

It's going to be a completely different set of rules. You can't keep up. There's no way you'll never please everybody.

You will fall into despair, complete and utter hopelessness in this madness and chaos that's going on around us.

There's no grounding, no solidness to any of that. But the person who plants himself in the word, in the word of God, we are able to stand in the judgment for the

Lord knows the way of the righteous. It says Psalm one six, but the way of the wicked will perish.

We must be like the tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither.

We're not driven away by the shifting wind of culture were planted firmly in Christ and his word who gives us hope.

So we're able to endure these days. We're able to endure the despair and the uncertainty of the culture.

We're not led astray by the false teaching of the culture. We're not led astray by the false teaching of people who wander in the church and attempt to lead the flock astray.

We're not led away by that either, for we endure holding fast to the true word of Christ that we have in the

Bible and through the encouragement of the scriptures. We have hope the scriptures encourage us.

We don't read what we read in the Bible and just feel depressed every day. We feel encouraged because we know those scripture is going to reveal to us the sins that we've committed against God.

We're also given the hope of redemption of forgiveness of grace.

We know that we're received by God. We're loved by him when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, and that's encouraging.

The scriptures don't tear us down. It tears us down just to build us back up again.

We do need to feel ashamed of our sin. Absolutely. It's not really that the scripture tears us down in that sense.

It just shows us you're dead. You're already torn down. You're torn to the ground. You are self -condemned by the sins and passions that you've walked in contrary to the holiness and the righteousness of God.

But God has sent a savior who died for us so that if we look to him, we've been brought to life.

We've been brought from death to life and the life I now live in the flesh. I live not to myself, but to the glory of God who gave himself for me a ransom for my sins.

I'm encouraged by this. I have hope in this. There is a future and a hope for me in Christ Jesus.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus.

So let's let's finish on that verse then. So God is a God of endurance. He endures to the very end, right?

No beginning and no end. But he is also long suffering and patient with us.

And so we must be patient with one another. What's the first word Paul uses to describe love in first Corinthians 13 for love is patient.

Love is kind. And that's how we're to be with each other enduring with one another.

First Chronicles 1634. Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good.

His steadfast love endures forever. And you've heard that repeated in the

Psalms multiple times as well, right? Psalm 52 one. Why do you boast of evil? Oh, mighty man, the steadfast love of God endures all the day.

Psalm 100 verse five for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations.

So we must endure with one another as God is a God of endurance. Also, he is a

God of encouragement. May the God of encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another. Now, when we talk about encouragement, oftentimes we just think of that as always positive.

That's the Caleb slogan, right? Positive and encouraging Caleb. That word encouragement, when we encourage one another, it may be to encourage somebody to turn from sin.

And they may not always be received so positively, but that is something that we're obligated to do with one another, that we show each other where they are going astray and lead them back to the path of righteousness, not becoming an expert in one another's weaknesses, as I forbid yesterday, don't become an expert in one another's shortcomings, but specific things.

When you see a person going astray, wandering off into sin, that you correct them and call them to repentance.

Galatians 6, 1. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

That's Galatians 6, 1 and 2. So that's one way that we are encouraging one another. But another way we encourage is also that we remind one another of the promises of God in his word.

Sometimes life can just get tough and a person can be so overwhelmed with the pressures of things that are going on that they begin to lose sight, begin to lose focus on those wonderful promises of God that have been given to us.

When a person begins to struggle and begins to despair, remind them of what

God has said in his word. That's an encouragement. I've had those moments before, and I have been grateful toward those brothers and sisters in the

Lord who reminded me of the promises of God that we have been given in Christ. And through this, we have hope.

So may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus, the unity that we have in Christ.

It's the only true unity that exists this side of heaven is the unity that we should find in a church that is growing together in Christ.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this good word that you have given us, encouraging to us, enduring with us.

And may we be this way with one another, that we know what was written in former days was written for our instruction, that we might endure in these days, that we might encourage one another in these days to continue to hold fast to Christ, who is our hope and our peace.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus, we pray in your great name. Amen. You can find a complete list of videos, books, devotionals, and other resources online at www .tt