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Okay, so as Brother Mike opened it up last week and we talked about love and a little bit about peace, so this morning, following our breakout, we'll kind of stay in order and we'll talk about being members of one another and being kindly affectionate to one another.
And again, in something, good morning, something I noticed this morning as I was just looking at my notes and that is that it's interesting to me that many of the one another's that we're going to look at are in the Book of Romans and not only just in the Book of Romans but in the, if you will, in the practical part of Paul's letter to the Romans.
In other words, if you think about it, Paul sets out this great doctrinal statement, right, through the Book of Romans. We could look at that and think about all the different truths he lays out as he works through his epistle and then you get to Chapter 12 in the Book of Romans and Paul then says, therefore, in, because of what he has said in the previous 11 chapters, he then begins this practical teaching and so it just made me, it just reminded me again that our practical living, right, whether it be individually or with each other in a community of believers is really to be grounded and founded in doctrinal truth.
In other words, if you have strong doctrine, it ought to lead to strong practice. And I think the opposite is true also, that if our doctrine is weak and if the truth sets us free, then if our doctrine is weak, our practical living is going to suffer also.
So I thought it was interesting that, again, I think I counted, there were 10 of them specifically out of the 36 that we listed here, 10 of them were in Paul's final chapters of the Book of Romans. And so I thought that was significant.
You can come in, you have the secret password. Good morning, Charlotte. All right, so let's go to Romans Chapter 12, we're going to look at, and Brother Lee had pointed out, if you have the breakout, Brother Lee came up to me last week and said if I was going to try to understand Romans Chapter 12, verse 25, I was going to have a lot of problems and I agreed because there is no Romans 25, 1225.
So hopefully you've picked up on that, if you've looked at it, it's actually verse 5. So I'm going to read the first five verses of the Book of Chapter 12 and then we'll begin to discuss it. Paul says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
For we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function. So we, being many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. And that's the text we'll use to consider this truth of one of the one another's, and that is being members of one another.
Couple of things to lay out as we work through this, and here I think is what needs to be said at the very beginning of any of these specific instructions given to us. And so I want to say it clearly, and I want to say it pointedly, and unless we really understand, unless we really understand the lordship of Christ, and his, him being the head, us being the body, him being the master, us being the servants, him being lord, us being his disciple, unless we really understand the lordship of Christ, we are going to struggle with a proper understanding and a proper outworking of being members of one another.
Because there is a great tendency, I think, to, especially in the day that we live in, and especially in our situation in our country, that I think we need to remind ourselves over and over again that Christ is the head, we are his body, and that we live in a day when it just seems to me, and maybe you would agree, maybe you wouldn't, that the motto and the force seems to be behind people who say, you know what, it's really all about me.
I'm the center of the universe, I'm the one that matters, it's my world, and basically don't mess with me. I think we seem to be pounded with that over and over again, and then we see the outworking of all that, right?
But I think you and I as Christians and as God's people, we really need, before we even begin to try to figure out, okay, so how are we to be with one another, that we first need to understand this all has to be under the Lordship of Christ.
That's why the teaching of the Lordship of Christ is so essential, and I hope you would agree, that we need to understand him as Lord, as King of Kings, Lord of Lords, as the ruler overall, to help us to begin to work out.
And there are so many scriptures to help us support that truth, but I thought about what Ephesians 5, and you don't have to turn there, Ephesians 5 .30 says this, that we are members of his body, right?
Of his flesh and of his bones. And really, until we gain our right understanding of our true identity, and that being that we are of his body, of his flesh and of his bones, and therefore, because of that, we are now members of one another, that we will be able better as we work through that to, if you will, to understand, okay, so I'm a member not only of Christ, but I'm a member of all those that are Christ.
You know what I was thinking as I was thinking about this, I was thinking about, you remember when Saul was on the road to Damascus, and he was met by the Lord Jesus Christ, and you remember what Jesus said to him?
He said, Paul, why do you persecute me? And what was Paul doing on the road to Damascus, or Saul doing on the road to Damascus? Right, isn't that interesting how it's so saturated within the scriptures, and sometimes we read right past it, but you see, if you persecute God's people, you persecute Christ, and the reason being because we're all of his body, and we're all his, and we are members one of another, and so therefore that is a true statement, that if we do not understand being members of one another, then we do harm to the reality of being a member of Christ.
And again, those kinds of things were encountered in so many ways, and I'm not trying to destroy individuality, certainly not, right? There's many scriptures that would help us to understand, 1 Corinthians 12, 27 says, now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.
So, in one sense, not promoting that we lose our individuality, because God has created us unique, right, every one of us, but that with that understanding of our uniqueness and our individuality, we also need to understand our being members of one another, and certainly as it works out in the church of Christ.
So, one of the ways to understand this, and it's so laid out for us, if you think about it in the New Testament, is this whole idea of the body, and the members of the body, and how the members in the body interact and support and promote the welfare of the other members of the body, right?
And that analogy is just, it's something that we can really get our hands around, because we deal with it all the time, because it's, we understand it in a great outward, and so Paul, when he says that in Romans chapter 12, he says you are members of one another, he's really saying you're a limb in this body, you're not the body in totality, you are just a limb, or part of that, and I would agree, I would hope you would agree with me that that is something that you and I can understand how every part of our body affects our whole body, right?
And so, I think it's important I've learned a lot about that reality ever since my disease in my eye, or whatever this is that I have, because I've really begun to understand more fully that what's happening in my left eye is not only affecting my left eye, it's affecting my right eye, and it's affecting my balance, my equilibrium, it affects my mind, it affects what I do, so it's really been helpful in that sense to teach me more about this reality that every limb must really be supporting the welfare of the whole, and if it's not, if there's an issue with something not operating correctly, that it's going to affect the whole body.
And so when you and I think about this idea of membership, and being members of one another, it is so important for us that we realize not only who we are, but where our place is in this thought of the body as a whole.
Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 12, and I know I'm quoting scriptures this morning, and I should have wrote them down, and I'm sorry I didn't, but in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul says, but God has composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.
That's another one of the one another's we'll look at. But that the body, that the members should have the same care for one another, or the limbs ought to have the same care for the other limbs, if you will.
And if one member suffers, all members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all members rejoice with it. And again, if you think about it, as the Lord Jesus Christ dealt with Saul, who he turned to Paul, and think about that, and remember the teaching in the Gospels, when Jesus said, as far as you did it, what?
Jesus says, when I was hungry, you fed me. When I was this, you did that, and remember the response? When did we do that? As much as you did it to what? My disciples, you did it to me. Again, see from a doctrinal perspective, there's no dichotomy in the truth of it, and we need to get closer to that, not further away.
And again, I believe we live in a day when things try to gravitate away from that truth, more into the individual, it's my world kind of mentality, and it's so important. Okay, let me ask us to think about something else along with this.
This idea of being members of one another, I think there's at least two important ways to break it out. Well, let me pose it as a question, I'd rather do that, because that means you've got to say something.
How do you understand being members of Christ? In other words, do you see in the scriptures any kind of divergent ways in which that is laid out for us?
The second chapter of Ephesians, Paul says that we are members built on the apostles, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. Those members of the body, or this building, are fitly joined together. If they're not joined properly together, if you've ever built anything, laid any block or anything, if they're not laid right, or even if you're building a house, if it's not laid right at the foundation, you don't notice it as much when you're down low, but as you work up farther, as you get to finish things out, you see everything does not work together.
Absolutely. You just made me think of something. I, one time, put up a wall, and I was putting wood on the wall. You know how you put the shiplap? I'm putting it up, putting it up, putting it up. I get to the bottom, right row.
Now I'm on the left side, I've got to need to piece this thick, and on the right side, I need to piece that thick. Right? We have to couch in front of it. You're right, baby. And I will fix it. I have extra wood to fix it.
But again, one part affect the other, right? And here's what I was really thinking, and ask you to think about it. Would you agree with me that from, we can say that we are members of one another in a universal sense?
What do I need to define what I mean by universal? What do you think I mean when I say universal?
By the total totality of the body of Christ?
Yeah, absolutely. That you and I are members of one another with all the body of Christ that has been spread out through time and space. Okay? Because we are his bride, and in that day, when we are with the Lord, we will be, in that sense, in one place, but we have, we are members of one another from every child to God, from the creation, till the end.
Right? And that's why we're looking for that consummation when all the members are brought together and united and can imagine the glorious reality of that. So there's a sense in which we are members of one another in a universal way.
In that way, if the church in China suffers, the church, then we suffer. Or if they're honored, we're honored. There's another way in which you think about it. Does anybody have any thoughts on another way to look at that?
Now, as you're thinking, I would say that this, this, this one, is not as, well, that's the wrong word. Let me do it the other way. There is more emphasis in my understanding in the epistles that the idea of this membership is more of a local.
And what do I mean by local? And I didn't say loco, I said local. Yeah, in other words, I do think that you can find both of those teachings in the New Testament, that there is a sense in which we are the members of one another in a universal way of all the God's people spread out through space and time.
But I would suggest the emphasis of the New Testament, especially Paul's epistles, is that this idea of being members of one another finds its outworking locally, in a local church. And that you and I need to keep this in balance, neither ignore, don't disown one over the other, but don't go too far to the extreme.
And again, I said this Wednesday night when we were talking about something else, that I believe that sometimes we have a tendency to go to extremes. And the reason why we go to extremes is because it's easy for us to defend ourselves because we got a position and we're not changing it and that's it.
What could be a way you can go extreme with those two things? No, it's in the reality of being members of one another. Yeah, in other words, we can go so far to one side that people can almost say, well, you know what, I don't really need to be a member of a local church, right?
Because I'm a member of the Bride of Christ throughout all the world. And so, you know, I don't really need to function and act as a working limb in a local body because we're all of the same.
Family. We're all one family anyway. I think another way to look at that is just in reverse, just support your local church only and never go outside of, like we support a minister,.
I'm a missionary, never go outside of that. Yep, you could almost become cult-like in this thought, right? So nothing happens, we're not members with anything outside these walls. That's it. And again, I think we do have a tendency to go to extremes.
And many people, once you go to an extreme, it's kind of hard to get your way back into where you ought to be. But I do think these are both realities that are laid out in the scriptures that you and I need to understand that much of the weight in the New Testament for our lives right now is that we ought to be members of one another here at Sovereign Grace Family Church.
And again, am I, do I have a propensity to lean on this local church truth? Yes, because I believe it's absolutely essential. And again, not disowning what takes place outside these walls, but really my real input comes where?
Here, right? This is where I really, I think we can be helpful and be helped. And I could be members of one another here in a much more demonstrative way than I can here. That doesn't mean I don't understand that.
It just means my life basically revolves here. And so again, what Paul says is in Romans, we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. You take it in both applications.
However, as you begin to read through what he now talks about and goes further, if we wanted to really look at this whole chapter, he begins to deal with it in a very specific way about using what God has given us.
Now I can use what God has given me in a much clearer way here than I can universally, right? Now there are other people who have much more of a universal distribution of whatever it is that God gave them.
So you and I need to think about these things as we work through this. Thoughts? Again, I'll take compliments.
Insults go to brother Mike at all times. Yeah, that's a good way to, it's a good way to.
Explain it, brother. You're right. Cause he, he, he sees the need for, for this, right?
Not that we know that number, but there's a number in which God says, okay, that's the last person I'll be saying. That's it. In his mind, in order for him, this is in my conversation with him. And in order for that to happen, he has to go into those furthest.
Regions where nobody is that last number. So that's really, again, um, the limbs of the body need to be gathered together. And Scott understands that. And therefore he realizes the importance of establishing local churches, right?
Where members can then what? Reach out to others that would become members. And so I, and I absolutely agree with you, brother, that I believe the only thing that hinders Christ from returning is that the last sheep hasn't entered into the fold.
But once the last of God's elect is, is ushered into the kingdom, to me, that's the end for what? And I'll stop there because it'll take us down the wrong path if I go further on that. Okay. So I want to kind of try to get both of them in this morning.
So I'm going to end this one about being members of one another, but let me just close it this way. I'm going to reemphasize what I said at the beginning. The more we understand, the more we understand the kingship of Christ over the church, the more we will understand the truth of being members both individually and corporately.
Um, as we understand this headship, we'll better understand the needs of the members. And I wanted to, uh, I wanted to read a quote. How many of you heard of A .W. Toza? Okay. So many people have heard of A .W. Toza.
But I found a quote from A .W. Toza that spoke about how, well, I'll just read it to you because I think, uh, it's really good. And he says this, he says a hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork or automatically tuned to each other.
They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must humbly bow. So 100 worshipers met together. Each one looking away to Christ are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become unity conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.
I think it's an excellent thought. In other words, what I believe he's saying is that in order for us to really understand our relationship of being members of one another, we really have to look away from ourselves and look to Christ.
And that sometimes we get bogged down. In other words, um, we become so busy trying to be like everybody else, to accommodate everybody else, to, to, uh, fit in with everybody else. And the better way, the scriptural way I believe to really accomplish that is to look to Christ.
That's why he says about the pianos, if they're all tuned to the, to the, the fork, that is the standard, they will automatically what? Be tuned to each other. And so again, I think that's something that you and I should consider in our lives that, um, we don't necessarily retain our individuality, uh, return, retain our uniqueness.
And by looking to Christ, we will draw closer to one another because we'll be in tune with him rather than just trying to be in tuned with each other for the sake of, uh, unity. Um, again, just things to think about in this thought of members of one another.
Really, that fits right in with what, uh, that marriage, um, course that we looked at last time we had fellowship. And, you know, Debra said, well, what, how can we be closer with our spouses? And, and, and, uh, use the example of a, of a triangle with a husband and wife being at the base of the triangle.
He said, we want to be closer together. Well, we'll be closer together. We draw guys at the top of that triangle, a pyramid cluster.
We draw on a God cluster. We'll be together. Yeah. It's, it's something that just happens right as we, again, and that's another way of describing the same too, because otherwise, um, many times, well, I'm going to, I'm going to say it now.
And I asked brother Mike about this, uh, by the way, in order to, and let's talk about it in a marriage just for a second. If you think about it, uh, when two people get married, probably not the best example.
Some might be upset to me. It's like two Rams getting together. Right. And they have to figure out how before God to go from two Rams, butting heads to two sheep laying next to each other and caring for one another.
And so I, I will say this. And, um, when, um, when I first met brother Mike and brother Mike first met me, we had a bit of, uh, we, we, we, we did a little Ram and maybe that's why I drive a Ram. I'm not sure, but, but I would say that brother Mike and I, um, for a lot of different reasons, some good, some not so good, we butted heads a little bit, right?
And now I will say, as I have, uh, tried, and I know brother Mike has, we've sought to, to look to Christ. I'd go to war with him anytime, every time. And again, we, we need to, to focus in on that. If we're really going to be members of one another, we really have to focus on the head.
And if we don't focus on the head, as much as we scurry around here, trying to find ways in which we can find commonality and all those other things, it's not going to happen. And if it does, it's not really going to be the way God intended it to be.
Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's the, and, and isn't that one of the most disturbing things that we all face? In other words, uh, hypocrites, I don't know about you, but I guess cause I'm so good at being a hypocrite and, and well, don't laugh cause you are too.
Truth be told, right? That, that it rubs you wrong when you think someone is just being something to you merely for outward reasons, right? Um, I remember at work and being in a manager's position, I remember meeting with other managers and people above me in the food chain and people below me in the food chain.
And it always rubbed me wrong because many of the people that were really concerned about my welfare, no, they're really concerned about their own welfare, right? And, and what, and it bugs you. It really gets to the point where it really irritates you because you know, it's disgenuous and it's, and it's, if you will, it's, uh, it's fake.
So I wanted to close that, uh, with that quote. I thought that was a good quote and I'm glad you brought up what you brought up also. So we have just a few minutes left. I want to look at the second one right here in the chapter.
Um, in verse five he says, we are members, um, one of, of one another and then look at verse 10 and there's others in this chapter also, but he says, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love in honor, giving preference to one another.
And that is a couple of them in there. And I also want to say what brother Mike brought up last week is absolutely essential in any of these one another's that the ocean from which this all flows is the love of God.
And, and, and if, if we do not love God, I guarantee you, we will never love one another the way we should. Right. And, and if you think about it, that's what he's bringing up. He says, be kindly affectionate to one another in, uh, in brotherly love.
So just for a minute, just think about this idea of being kindly affectionate. So I tried to look up the original meaning of the word and I came away with the reality that this, it really is, is emphasizing tender care.
It's really emphasizing, uh, a care like that of a parent for a child or a brother for a sister or a close relative for another close relative. It's, uh, the word uses an adjective and, um, believe me, I am no, I ain't no English scholar, but anyway, what does an adjective do?
It describes, right? It gives, it gives additional understanding, additional quality, additional, uh, emphasis to something or someone, right? Usually an adjective will work with a noun and an adverb will work with a man.
We flying high sister. All right. So think about that. So what he's really saying is that we ought to be kindly affectionate to one another. We ought to, we ought to be, um, with an intense desire looking to, uh, show tenderness to one another to, to show that we have this relationship and that that relationship is of great importance.
And here's the thing. If you think about it in that analogy of a parent to a child, I mean, there's a problem if a parent has to be coerced or, um, prodded to love their own child. Wouldn't you agree?
Right. Why? Because that relationship specifically of a mother and a child, not disowning a father and child, but the maternal love that a mother has for a child, that's natural, right? That you don't have to get up in the morning and say, man, I'm really gonna, you know, do I really love, am I really going to try to, to, to show, demonstrate?
No, it flows. It just flows out of you. Why? Because it's, it's there. That's what it is. So when you think, when you and I think about this idea of being kindly affectionate to one another, it's something that should not be coerced.
And again, that will lead to hypocrisy and hypocrisy is, is a bad road to be on. Right. I hope you would agree with me that, um, it ought to flow freely to us. And again, the way in which it flows freely is the grace of God.
I'll go back to my statement over and over. I'm gonna do it on every one of these one and others in order for us to demonstrate the one and others that God tells us we must show fruit of. We first have to get that truth and grace from God himself.
Right. And then once we have that, again, as the fork, as the pianos are tuned to the standard, that fork, they automatically draw closer to one another rather than separate from one another. So. Yeah, no, you're right.
It is the only place, the only time that it's used. Yep. And again, I think it's, it's, it's there for emphasis and it's there to give us a clear understanding what this means when we say that we ought to be, uh, kindly affectionate to one another.
It's, it's not to be, um, it's not to be anything but true. And again, in the idea of a family and the idea of, uh, relationships and even in friendships. Right. And that's what we should strive for. And again, I'm going to go back to my point.
Where is this? Where can that truly be demonstrated? Yeah. I mean, we, we, we can mourn with those who mourn across the ocean, but in the intensity of it, we mourn here, just like you brought up about the cop.
Right. Which one of us would not say that reading that article about a cop shot in Nassau County did not affect us differently than reading about a cop that shot in Germany. Right. Why? Because there's a, there's a relationship in there.
There's an intensity that is, uh, that it just grabs us and works in us in a, in a distinct way. So when it comes to being kindly affectionate with one another, that you and I really have to think about, um, where are we at with this?
You know, where, where, how am I doing? Am I really, do I really consider myself as a member of, of you and you a member of me? And do I really seek to be, to, to, um, grow in grace, to be kindly affectionate towards you and kindly have you be kindly affectionate towards me?
It's reciprocal too, right? At least that's what we would hope. I mean, it's kind of hard if, if all you ever do is be kind and affectionate to someone and all they ever do is step on your head for it, right?
Again, it's, it, it, it's a, it goes back to this whole concept of the body too. Again, it's the limb and, and even as Paul brought up in first Corinthians, every, every part of the body has its function.
And again, um, he even brings out the part that if, that if you really think about it, the most, uh, dishonorable parts, if you will, um, the most uncommonly parts, they're the most important parts. I mean, I could live without my left eye, but you can't take my liver from me, right?
Although I would rather look at someone's eye than someone's liver. I mean, it's just me. I mean, the whole point of being sister, I really think I, uh, well, I didn't want to speak. She wanted to know how, how you and I worked out our two Rams putting heads.
This would be my perception of it now, which should be done. If I said, Hey, let's go preach at the middle of the interstate, you'll do it. Well, God's not gifted me to do that. And he's right. So then I go, all right.
God's not gifted him to do that. Then where do I support him in the way that God's gifted? And that's where it's spent. So it was sent on my part, thinking that everybody, not to everybody to do it my way, but I think that, that, Hey, this is what we're going to do.
This is how preacher should be. I was wrong.
I think that, uh, I think that's the way in which the limbs, um, really have to consider the position that God has given them. Right. And I would agree. And I'll say this and I'm not, uh, I'm not proud of it, but I have more of a propensity myself to be, um, willing to be disposed of inside the churches than outside the churches.
And again, I've learned. And again, I think that's part of, I think the way I overcame, uh, and don't get me wrong. We weren't fighting in the back. Yeah, we, we, we almost did arm wrestling, but we, we gave up on that one.
That was it. I lost. I couldn't, I couldn't, but I began to realize in the same sense that I was, um, I'm made differently and Mike's made differently. And I began to become thankful for that rather than argumentative about that.
Right. Because yeah. What, what good is it to have two left feet? Unless all you're ever going to do is make less, right? I mean, you gotta have a left foot, you gotta have a right foot. And if you think about it under the headship of Christ, um, I want to make sure that the left foot functions as a left foot and right foot functions as a right foot.
And I think that's again, I think we looked away to Christ rather than looking at each other. Um, yeah, just, just be those two Rams button heads as soon as I get a headache. Yeah. He texted me one.
Morning and he might not remember. He texted me one morning early cause me and him were always up at four o 'clock and he said, uh, Mike, I love you because you love the Lord and Christ loves you. Probably how, how we should be correct for one another.
To see.
God's people. Yeah. And as I said, I would go, honestly, I could say I would go to war with him anytime. And we really should be of such members of one another that we'll go to war with each other at any time.
Every one of us. Because we realize that, that our part is not just for us. Our part is for the glory of Christ. Right? And again, that's one of the great blessings of being part of a local church is that you have the ability to retain your individuality, but that, that individuality as remember what it says, the spirit places, the members in the body, how as it pleases him.
Why? Because he's considering the good of the whole, not just of the individual. And again, we live in a day we're going to stop. We live in a day of so much individuality. We need to, and it needs one another's.
I hope that's one of the things that will come out of it. We'll begin to lose ourselves to gain Christ. And by gaining Christ, we will gain each other. So, um, okay, we got to stop. Let's just close with a word of prayer and we'll continue in worship.
Father, thank you for our time together. Lord, thank you for who you are. May this day be a day of great fellowship with one another.