WWUTT 201 Wise In Your Own Sight?

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Through the scriptures, we have access to the knowledge of God. The knowledge of God!
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I mean, that can cause a person to get pretty arrogant, right? Well, we shouldn't be, because this knowledge didn't come from us.
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It came from God, when we understand the text. This is
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When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word, that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will.
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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. The Romans, chapter 12, verses 14 through 21 is where we're at today.
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We'll read that whole section again. I think last week, when you were in this, we only got as far as verse 14, didn't we?
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That's pretty typical. When I did this section with my congregation, we were doing one verse per sermon.
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I think we got through 15. At least I'll touch on that again, and then we'll keep going from there. So starting in verse 14 of Romans, chapter 12, bless those who persecute you.
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Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.
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Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.
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Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
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If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
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Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine,
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I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.
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If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head.
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Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Going back to verse 14 again, bless those who persecute you.
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Bless and do not curse them. And you know, I want to tell you that if there's ever been a time in our culture where this especially should be exercised, it's right now.
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Because we're in a day and a time in which we are being ridiculed just because we won't accept same -sex marriage as being marriage.
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Or we won't recognize a boy who wants to be a girl as a girl.
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We won't call him the name that he wants to be called or use the pronouns that he wants to be known by.
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And just by those practices alone, man, we are being smeared in the media and in the press, in different op -ed pieces, people who just have an opinion, but maybe they don't even know anybody who is transgender, who is a man who wants to be a woman.
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They might not even know anyone like that personally, but just because you would have a viewpoint that a man is a man, no matter what he calls himself or no matter what he feels to be, just because you would call that man a man.
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We have people that are going to ridicule us because of that position, because of understanding who a person truly is made in the image of God.
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We see them as something that is more significant than they see themselves as.
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We love them with a greater and more intense love than they even know right now.
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And yet for that very reason, we're going to be smeared and ridiculed and persecuted because we desire to live a life of godliness in Christ Jesus.
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So there are those that will call us names and hurl all kinds of insults and revile us.
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And yet when those things happen, we need to respond peacefully and in love, not reacting in kind, but we bless them and do not curse them.
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Now, the way that I gave this to my congregation when we were talking about this particular verse is that giving the gospel is a blessing.
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When a person reviles us, you know, we shouldn't, we definitely shouldn't react by withholding the gospel. Well, that person's about to get their just desserts.
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Okay. That can't be our response, but in love, giving them the gospel of Jesus Christ, as Peter says in 1
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Peter 3 15, I know you know this verse and I've quoted it many times that in our hearts, we need to set apart
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Christ as holy, always ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us, but doing this with gentleness and respect.
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And so as we are ready to give a response to a person, even though we would be reviled, we should respond with the gospel, giving them the answer for here's why
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I view things this way. Here's where my worldview comes from. Here is why
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I hold the beliefs that I have. Here is why I know that no matter what you say to me, nothing can hurt me.
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Nothing is ever going to bring any harm against me because of the hope that I have in Christ Jesus. We bless them with that response.
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They are blessed with that kind of message. And we do so peacefully because a person's salvation does not come about because we are able to shout an answer to them and give them a sort of response that they had absolutely no retaliation for.
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They didn't have some witty comeback to the snappy quip that we just pulled.
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That's not how a person gets saved. Rather, we read in 2 Timothy 2 .25 that God grants repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth.
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In fact, in the context of that verse, it says that God's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, correcting opponents with gentleness.
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God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will, something that I've had to exercise so much in my life and continue to submit my mind to that instruction that I've had it memorized for a long time.
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So we're to bless those who persecute us, bless and do not curse them. Now, the example that I used is in relationship to the direction our culture is going concerning same sex marriage and transgender issues.
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But that might not be the everyday situation that you are going to encounter. There are lots of other viewpoints and views and opinions and positions that you will have based on your worldview that is gospel centered.
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That is because of a transformed heart in Christ Jesus, people will ridicule you for all kinds of viewpoints.
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But you can't let your argument be a reaction the way that they would react.
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You need to be calm and kind in the ways that we share the gospel with another person, blessing them and not cursing in response.
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Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. And as I mentioned last week, looking at this verse, the way that we tend to use that is in our relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ, in the body.
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We need to, when a person is going through a struggle, we need to struggle with them. When a person is experiencing joy, we need to rejoice with them.
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And that context is okay. It's okay to apply the verse that way. But particularly what we're talking about here is rejoicing with a person when they have an opportunity to share the gospel and perhaps see some souls impacted and turned around for Christ.
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We're rejoicing with them because that is something that the entire church celebrates together. We're all rejoicing in that accomplishment, in the gospel being spoken.
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Likewise, when a person is struggling, when they're being persecuted because of their faith, we are struggling with them.
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When they feel an intense burden for a particular person that they want to see come to Christ, we struggle with them in that as well.
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So we rejoice with those who rejoice, we weep with those who weep. Verse 16, we live in harmony with one another.
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Now again, I mentioned this last week, I didn't preface this today. But when we're looking at this particular section in verses 14 through 21, we are more talking about how
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Christians are interacting with a world that is going to revile us because of the faith that we have.
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When we're looking at verses 9 through 13, we're talking about Christians interacting as Christians within the body of Christ.
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But verses 14 through 21 is more about those who are going to come against us because of this gospel that we believe in.
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So in understanding that, when you look at verse 16, live in harmony with one another, we're particularly talking about living in harmony, even with those who are outside the church.
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As much as it depends on us, we need to keep the peace with everyone, which is what we're going to read coming up here in verse 18.
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So living in harmony with one another, we don't just go out and cause conflict for the sake of causing conflict.
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Or let me put it another way, we don't go out with the intention of being persecuted for our faith, because we know that we're building up rewards in heaven, the more that we're being persecuted.
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That should not be our ambition, to be persecuted. You will get persecuted.
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People will revile you for the faith that you have. It will be there. You go out on the street and share the gospel, people will hate you for it.
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We live in a country where we have the freedom of religion. We don't have the fear of our government rushing in the church with guns and holding us at gunpoint saying, renounce your
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God, or we're going to kill you and your family. There are governments. There are military regimes in the world like that, persecuting people that way, persecuting other
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Christians that way. We don't experience that in the United States of America. But trust me, if you go out on the street and you start sharing the gospel with people that you encounter, they will hate you for it.
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You will encounter persecution. But it shouldn't be our ambition to go cause trouble for the sake of storing up treasure in heaven.
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That's not the way we're supposed to approach these things. Rather, we're supposed to live in harmony with everybody.
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Even the ways that we preach the gospel need to be done in a peaceful way. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.
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That's the second part there of verse 16, meaning that we don't think so highly of ourselves and our
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Christianity that we would not go out of our way to extend charity to a person who truly needs it, nor should we withhold the gospel from anyone.
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There's not anybody that we should be looking at going, well, I'm not going to preach the gospel to that guy. I'd rather go over here to these people.
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We need to associate with everybody and take the gospel to all. Never be wise in your own sight.
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The wisdom that you have is not something that you have done some great work to achieve, but rather it is the spirit of God that is at work in you.
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So give all glory to him. When a person praises you for being a great, knowledgeable individual, just continue to direct it toward God.
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I would be nothing without God. I'd be nothing if it wasn't for Christ Jesus, my Lord, who saved me.
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Or be like the Apostle Paul who said to the Corinthians, I claim to know nothing among you except Christ and him crucified.
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So that's the way that our response should be even in the world. We're not to be wise in our own sight, but rather associating with the lowly, living in harmony with one another.
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Verse 17, repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
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And we, I think we talked about this last week. I might be getting confused with something that I talked about in a sermon.
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I told you I was going to do that. But anyway, Peter talks about this in first Peter chapter two, where he says, show honor to all.
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He says, give honor to the emperor, but we should also show honor to everyone. And so we have that instruction given here in Romans chapter 12 as well.
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Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
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Being a person who is worthy of honor, but even showing honor to those who are supposed to be shown honor.
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People within our communities who have titles of prestige and position, you show them the honor that that title deserves.
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Not the kind of character that they have displayed. And so I'm only going to show you honor as far as your character is concerned.
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But if they have a title of position and honor in the community or in the state or in the government, then you show them honor according to their title.
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Because if we are disrespectful and we are rebellious against that title, which God has established according to Romans chapter 13, which we're going to get to a little bit later on.
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If we're disrespectful of that title, then we will be in trouble with the government or we will not earn the respect of the people around us with whom we are supposed to live in harmony.
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So let us do what is honorable in the sight of all. And we're going to come back to that passage tomorrow as well as finishing up the rest of Romans 12.
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I think I can do it in one more lesson. Our God, we thank you so much for these instructions that have been given to us.
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We read last week about how we are to conduct ourselves within the body of Christ. Now reading about how we are to conduct ourselves in the world and help us to be a people who are worthy of honor, as well as showing honor to those who deserve honor.
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Let us not be so filled up with pride by the knowledge or wisdom that we might have gained from reading the word of God, but understanding that this has been given to us to equip us to now go out with the gospel and preaching so that they might hear and repent and know
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Christ Jesus as Lord. How will they know unless someone tells them? So give us the courage.
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Give us the knowledge according to your scriptures on how to answer each person in a right way, but doing this with gentleness and respect.
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Guide us in your truth. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.