back to index2018-02-25 Qualities of Biblical Love Part 4
00:00:04.280 |
If you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans 12, we're continuing our series 00:00:12.640 |
Romans 12, and again, I want to read starting from verse 9 down to verse 13 00:00:23.320 |
Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with brotherly 00:00:27.720 |
affection, outdo one another in showing honor. 00:00:31.320 |
Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord, 00:00:35.400 |
rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, 00:00:39.480 |
contribute to the needs of the saints, and seek to show hospitality." 00:00:48.360 |
Lord, you truly are deserving of all honor, all praise, all glory. 00:00:55.320 |
The more we think and the more we study of your word, the more we experience 00:01:04.200 |
We want the world to know, Father God, what kind of God we serve. 00:01:08.680 |
We pray, Father God, that the preaching of your word will be accompanied by the power 00:01:13.400 |
of your spirit, Lord, in our hearts, that those who hear, 00:01:19.440 |
that those seed would fall on fertile soil, that it may bear fruit 30, 60, 100 fold, 00:01:25.840 |
and that it would rise up to greater and more sincere worship to your name. 00:01:31.320 |
So we pray, Father, you would anoint this time. 00:01:36.080 |
Can you do me a favor and just take it down just a little bit? 00:01:45.720 |
As you guys know, we are studying through a book of Romans and we're in the section 00:01:49.080 |
where Apostle Paul is challenging us to apply the things that he's been talking about. 00:01:56.520 |
And so sanctification, the priority in sanctification, the highest priority, 00:02:01.280 |
he talks about using our gift to build up one another. 00:02:03.880 |
And ultimately, it's explained in love, that the greatest quality of any Christian, 00:02:08.920 |
the greatest application of any sanctification is ultimately love. 00:02:12.960 |
You can have prayer, you can have evangelism, you can have sacrifice, 00:02:16.200 |
you can be generous in giving and making disciples, yet you do not have love. 00:02:22.880 |
It is meaningless because the ultimate goal of all of this is to love. 00:02:40.160 |
2 Peter 1, 5 through 9, if you can turn to that passage, basically it sums up where 00:02:45.880 |
Peter says, for this very reason, considering the gift that we have in Christ, 00:02:51.640 |
considering the justification, make every effort to supplement. 00:02:56.280 |
And again, some of your translation says to add, right? 00:02:59.360 |
And it's no different what Paul is saying in chapter 12, considering his mercy, 00:03:03.280 |
considering the great salvation that we have. 00:03:05.800 |
He says, supplement, add to your faith with virtue and with virtue knowledge, 00:03:11.560 |
and with knowledge, with self-control, and with self-control, 00:03:13.920 |
with steadfastness, and with steadfastness, godliness, and with godliness, 00:03:18.160 |
brotherly affection, and with brotherly affection, with love. 00:03:23.960 |
So if you notice what Peter is doing here, he's laying down in reverse order that 00:03:30.240 |
sanctification, if you apply these things, add to your faith, 00:03:34.880 |
add to your confession of justification, are striving after sanctification. 00:03:40.960 |
And it says, if you have virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, 00:03:44.440 |
godliness, and ultimately leading to brotherly love, and brotherly love 00:03:52.600 |
Does that remind you a lot of what he said in verse 10 of chapter 12? 00:03:55.720 |
And he says, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another 00:04:02.440 |
So again, Peter is saying in the reverse order that the goal 00:04:09.320 |
So if you have discipleship, discipline, and prayer, and giving, and all of that, 00:04:14.400 |
and it ultimately doesn't lead you to greater love, agape love, 00:04:19.000 |
unconditional love, all of that is for nothing. 00:04:22.480 |
All we have become is greater religious people. 00:04:25.200 |
All you have become is greater disciplined people, that you know more theology, 00:04:33.280 |
But in the end, if it doesn't produce the character of Christ, 00:04:39.120 |
And then he says in verse 8, for if these qualities are yours 00:04:42.240 |
and are increasing, meaning that it's not like, well, I have these things, 00:04:46.720 |
and I've worked on it, and now my job is to tell other people. 00:04:50.520 |
No, he says every Christian that this quality should be constantly increasing. 00:04:54.640 |
Our sanctification is not going to be done until we are actually glorified. 00:04:59.200 |
If these qualities are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective 00:05:04.120 |
or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, 00:05:07.160 |
meaning that you have a personal relationship with God, 00:05:09.480 |
and yet you don't see the sanctification happening, 00:05:12.040 |
and you're not actively pursuing these things, 00:05:18.560 |
And then he gives the explanation of why this doesn't take place 00:05:23.080 |
For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, 00:05:28.840 |
and having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 00:05:32.120 |
So what is the reason why somebody wouldn't be pursuing this? 00:05:38.800 |
Now I was thinking about what does it mean to be nearsighted? 00:05:41.480 |
Nearsighted is somebody who cannot see from a distance. 00:05:48.400 |
So basically what he's saying is the reason why an individual is not actively 00:05:52.200 |
pursuing his faith, his sanctification, and is not actively trying to love somebody 00:05:57.240 |
is because all they see is what is right in front of them. 00:06:04.160 |
The greatest distraction in our lives, there's lust, there's temptation, 00:06:09.880 |
there's compromise, all these things are all true. 00:06:13.560 |
But on a day-to-day basis, what causes us to be ineffective 00:06:18.520 |
All we pay attention to is what is right in front of us. 00:06:23.000 |
The distraction of paying bills, the distraction of raising kids, 00:06:26.720 |
the distraction of the next thing that's coming down the line. 00:06:31.440 |
And so we don't have a larger picture of what Christ has done and what it is that 00:06:35.560 |
we have in Christ and what is that ultimately going to lead to when I die. 00:06:46.080 |
If I do this, I'm going to be able to invest in stock or whatever it may be. 00:06:54.040 |
He is living as if he has forgotten what it is that he has in Christ. 00:07:00.080 |
So every week, you come to Bible study, you come to church, and 00:07:03.840 |
you have to be constantly reminded, do you not know what it is that you have in 00:07:12.800 |
Soon as you get into your car, you turn on the radio, you forget. 00:07:19.200 |
All you are looking at is what is right in front of you today. 00:07:21.920 |
That's why it is so important that we never forget. 00:07:29.800 |
In view of God's mercy, what it is that you have in Christ, you and I, 00:07:37.640 |
every professing Christian whose sins have been forgiven, you are a child of God. 00:07:45.840 |
The God who created the universe says you are co-heirs with Christ. 00:07:51.480 |
And your inheritance can never fade, spoil, or perish. 00:07:58.560 |
And that even when you sin, he says he has a way to forgive you of your sin, 00:08:13.160 |
responds by saying, okay, I already know that. 00:08:18.000 |
How many times are you going to tell me that? 00:08:31.320 |
I'm a Sunday school teacher, I'm a leader at this church. 00:08:33.960 |
We can easily say, well, I know all of this, and then what? 00:08:36.360 |
Anybody, in my opinion, anybody who responds that way, to me, 00:08:43.560 |
it makes me question, do you understand what it is that you just said? 00:08:48.200 |
The Son of God came and died for you on the cross, forgave you of your sins. 00:08:55.320 |
He has inheritance waiting for you, guarded by him. 00:08:59.600 |
The Holy Spirit is interceding on your behalf. 00:09:02.080 |
Son of God himself has become the high priest that we are able to have 00:09:24.160 |
it makes us suspect of the genuineness of our faith. 00:09:27.680 |
So that's why he says, a person who's not actively pursuing this, 00:09:33.440 |
who's not desiring to apply this to love, is because he is blind. 00:09:46.240 |
because he has forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 00:09:53.560 |
It's always been around, this false teaching, false theology, 00:10:01.480 |
Because usually the false gospel isn't off by a lot. 00:10:08.120 |
The false gospel usually doesn't go directly and say, I don't believe in Jesus. 00:10:16.760 |
Usually, false gospel that usually is very effective in deceiving people 00:10:26.360 |
There's so much truth in it that it's hard for us to identify what is and isn't. 00:10:31.240 |
And the two main heresies that the New Testament constantly deals with 00:10:38.560 |
So the Gnostics, the Christian Gnostics, were from the secular camp, 00:10:44.560 |
Basically, their main teaching was, flesh is evil and the spirit is good. 00:10:51.240 |
So whatever you do with the flesh, he's already condemned. 00:10:53.920 |
So you can do whatever with the flesh because Jesus Christ came and delivered 00:10:59.040 |
So the application of that was, it doesn't matter how you live because one 00:11:07.160 |
He didn't save our flesh, he saved our spirit because these two things can coexist. 00:11:14.600 |
And then you had the Judaizers saying that, well, if you really want to be saved, 00:11:24.320 |
And so they were perverting the gospel by adding, and then the Gnostics were 00:11:32.760 |
But either way, either of these false gospels were leading to disobedience. 00:11:38.200 |
And Paul says, "Let him be anathema," because once you mess with the gospel, 00:11:47.280 |
The reason why I say this is because, you know, especially...I don't think this is 00:11:52.080 |
only true in our generation or where we live, but there is a specific disdain 00:11:58.600 |
toward any kind of rebuke in our generation, of any kind. 00:12:06.000 |
And if someone feels guilty over their sins, that in and of itself is sin. 00:12:16.920 |
I don't know how many times I've counseled somebody to sit down and say, 00:12:22.960 |
In 1 Corinthians, Apostle Paul is rebuking this church, right? 00:12:29.040 |
I don't know what kind of rebuke that you may have heard, but read 1 Corinthians if 00:12:34.800 |
1 Corinthians starts with rebuke and it ends with rebuke. 00:12:38.080 |
And all throughout it, he says, "What is wrong with you? 00:12:45.080 |
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the spirit of God dwells in you? 00:12:50.440 |
And whoever destroys the temple, he will be destroyed?" 00:12:56.400 |
Because of that, there's sin in the church and they were relying on all kinds of sin 00:13:01.480 |
Their communion table actually was dividing the church. 00:13:04.920 |
People who were prophesying were standing up and say, "Well, God's talking to me, 00:13:10.800 |
And, you know, and it was just creating all kinds of chaos in the church. 00:13:14.320 |
So Paul comes down as harsh as you can possibly imagine, right? 00:13:19.040 |
Of all the letters, 1 Corinthians is the harshest letter. 00:13:23.920 |
And then he begins 2 Corinthians as a response to this first letter because there were two 00:13:38.800 |
And as a result of that, it caused them, this guilt led to repentance. 00:13:44.220 |
And so Paul says, "You know, I regretted it for a little bit because I was so harsh 00:13:47.800 |
with you, but I did not regret it because I see what it did to you. 00:13:51.360 |
It brought you to repentance and brought you to restoration." 00:13:55.480 |
And so now he encourages them, "That brother, that guy that I was telling you to shun him 00:13:59.640 |
from the church, now embrace him and love him in repentance." 00:14:08.600 |
Their guilt led to godly sorrow, which led to repentance and restoration and redemption. 00:14:15.420 |
And then the second group responded to that by saying, "Well, this guy's letter is so 00:14:26.860 |
And so what they did was they didn't want to live with this guilt and they didn't want 00:14:31.100 |
So what they did was they began to question Paul. 00:14:37.840 |
So 2 Corinthians is written to defend his apostleship against people who didn't like 00:14:48.960 |
One led to repentance, godly sorrow led to repentance, and the other was who didn't want 00:14:52.520 |
to repent, basically saying, "That guy is not an apostle." 00:15:04.060 |
Now, the reason why I say all of this is because if we don't have the proper understanding 00:15:09.660 |
of the gospel, if you think that active sanctification is not something that a Christian should be 00:15:18.780 |
embracing because we're saved so we don't need to worry, sanctification is just going 00:15:22.740 |
to happen, so I don't want to hear that, "Just tell me what Jesus did. 00:15:29.540 |
He says, "Because that person is nearsighted." 00:15:33.100 |
The reason why he's not pursuing God is because he has forgotten what it is that he has in 00:15:46.340 |
Ultimately, the right gospel will lead us to passionate pursuit of Christ. 00:15:55.740 |
Why wouldn't you want to have an intimate fellowship with a God who loves you beyond 00:16:02.700 |
Why wouldn't you want to commune with a God who knows everything about you, and yet he 00:16:14.100 |
Why wouldn't somebody who professes to know this God, who's opened access to this throne 00:16:19.940 |
of mercy, we try so hard to pay so much money to get the best seats to watch a measly concert, 00:16:28.020 |
and yet make so little effort to be in the presence of this holy God who loves us? 00:16:37.300 |
We have forgotten what it is that we have in Christ. 00:16:42.380 |
The motivation behind why we actively pursue God is the gospel itself, is what we sing 00:16:52.260 |
It is what we already have in Christ, to enjoy it. 00:16:59.620 |
Not to just sing about it, not to just talk about it, not just memorize it, but to enjoy 00:17:03.420 |
the salvation that God has given you, to come into the throne of grace. 00:17:09.700 |
No one buys a ticket to the Game 7 World Series $4,000 ticket and then sits at home and just 00:17:21.180 |
talks about the ticket, celebrates the ticket. 00:17:26.700 |
Look at the ticket, take a picture of the ticket, put it on Facebook, let everybody 00:17:38.140 |
The ticket, the expensive, ridiculous ticket that was so hard to get, you have it, so you 00:17:46.500 |
So it doesn't make sense for Christians to take pictures of Bible verses, sing songs, 00:17:51.860 |
go to church, talk about it, have Bible studies, yet they don't go. 00:18:02.860 |
The reason why he's not doing that is because you become nearsighted. 00:18:07.580 |
You forgot what it is that God is holding on for you. 00:18:18.620 |
That's the motivation because without that motivation, everything else that he's going 00:18:22.140 |
to say is going to just sound like, "What is wrong with you people?" 00:18:38.300 |
That's all you're going to hear if you don't understand what it is that he's calling us 00:18:54.420 |
Someone who is affected by the love of Christ. 00:18:57.140 |
Someone who is eager for Christ to come, to be redeemed from this fallen world. 00:19:03.420 |
Let me get to the point here because I only have one this morning. 00:19:05.940 |
I had two and then I boomed it down to one because we have baby dedication, second service, 00:19:13.260 |
And I didn't want to just skim through these things because every one of these points, 00:19:20.700 |
I mean, he just calls them, he just 24 imperative statements, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, 00:19:25.020 |
boom, but every one of these statements are principles and teachings of Jesus that are 00:19:32.500 |
So I don't want to just state it and then just move on. 00:19:42.620 |
So the principle number 11, biblical love contributes to the needs of the saints and 00:19:52.580 |
Biblical love contributes to the needs of the saints and seeks to show hospitality. 00:19:57.300 |
The interesting thing here, the word for contribute or some of your Bible say share, the Greek 00:20:04.100 |
I think a lot of you already kind of nodding your head because you know what that word 00:20:10.940 |
It means to fellowship, where we get the word fellowship. 00:20:12.860 |
And that literal understanding of that word is to partner together. 00:20:16.300 |
So I talked about in last week, Philemon verse 6, where Paul says to Philemon that he's praying 00:20:22.700 |
that the sharing of his faith would become effective in the knowledge of Christ. 00:20:28.660 |
And again, we talked about the sharing of his faith. 00:20:33.260 |
He's talking about living out, right, living out his faith and being gracious and merciful 00:20:38.780 |
and loving that in that context to receive Onesimus as a runaway slave, as a brother. 00:20:45.460 |
So he uses that word koinoneo, to share, to partner. 00:20:49.520 |
In Philippians chapter 1, 6, Paul says of the Philippian church, and he's writing this 00:20:54.140 |
letter because of their partnership in the gospel. 00:20:57.180 |
And that word for partnership there is koinoneo, to fellowship. 00:21:02.020 |
Again, so it's very different than the way that you and I use the word fellowship in 00:21:07.020 |
Fellowship, if two Christians get together, go shopping, get some boba, it's fellowship. 00:21:17.840 |
So I'm not saying that they can't be fellowship. 00:21:21.140 |
All of that stuff can be fellowship if it is working toward partnering. 00:21:26.980 |
We're partnering, we're sharing, we're spurring one another on toward love and good deeds. 00:21:31.800 |
If you ask an average Christian, what of the four disciplines, you have the prayer, you 00:21:36.700 |
have the word, you have evangelism, and you have fellowship, you ask an average Christian, 00:21:43.700 |
At least in where we live, we said, we're really good at fellowship. 00:21:56.020 |
Word, I get it at church, if you go to church. 00:22:04.700 |
If you apply the biblical understanding of fellowship, most Christians are pretty weak. 00:22:09.380 |
I would say the word, at least where we are, is probably higher above fellowship. 00:22:15.700 |
And the reason why I say that is because when you really understand what this fellowship 00:22:19.240 |
means to partner together, where you're deliberately spurring on one another, not spending time 00:22:24.460 |
together, not having fun together, again, there's nothing wrong with that. 00:22:27.540 |
I'm not saying that Christians should be killjoy. 00:22:33.060 |
I hope Christians getting together is not a drudgery. 00:22:37.540 |
But if all it is is just spending time together, that has nothing to do with fellowship, not 00:22:45.580 |
Partnering together, sharing with one another, and the specific context that Paul uses the 00:22:50.620 |
word koinonia is sharing of what we have, which obviously the most tangible thing is 00:23:02.340 |
In Galatians 6, it says, "Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." 00:23:08.660 |
Fellowship, true fellowship, biblical fellowship, where brotherly love is leading to agape, 00:23:19.580 |
So if you think about in the book of Genesis, when they sin, what was the immediate thing 00:23:31.020 |
Did Adam and Eve just fall to the ground and die? 00:23:43.940 |
Fellowship with God was broken, and then husband and wife, the intimacy between husband and 00:23:49.020 |
So fellowship was broken between the two, because they had to hide from each other. 00:23:55.140 |
And that was the result of the fall, that when sin comes in, it destroys fellowship. 00:23:59.820 |
So those of you who are studying Leviticus with us, the peace offering represented the 00:24:08.220 |
Restoration with God and restoration with mankind. 00:24:11.420 |
So you give an offering, and then that offering leads to picnic. 00:24:15.820 |
And it was to remind the nation of Israel, true fellowship can't be had until there is 00:24:21.620 |
And that's what that peace offering was teaching the nation of Israel. 00:24:25.820 |
Paul is saying here, this biblical love leads to fellowship, true fellowship, meeting the 00:24:31.620 |
needs of the saints, and to seek to show hospitality. 00:24:39.380 |
In the very beginning of the book of Acts, when the Holy Spirit comes upon them, one 00:24:44.220 |
of the evidence of the Holy Spirit was that they were fellowshipping, genuine fellowship, 00:24:48.620 |
in Acts 2, 40, 45, and all who believed were together in all things in common. 00:24:55.060 |
They were partnering and sharing with one another in material goods, and they were selling 00:24:58.660 |
their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. 00:25:06.620 |
When the Holy Spirit came upon them and they were convicted, the first thing that they 00:25:15.460 |
Now the full number of those who believed were one heart and one soul. 00:25:19.100 |
No one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own. 00:25:26.660 |
And with great power, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the 00:25:29.940 |
Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 00:25:36.140 |
For as many as were owners of lands and houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what 00:25:40.420 |
was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had 00:25:48.680 |
When they were affected by the cross, one of the first evidence of it was they became 00:25:55.420 |
There's reasons why these professional athletes who come from very difficult backgrounds, 00:26:04.140 |
and so many of them come from backgrounds where they were living in poverty, and if 00:26:09.180 |
you talk to them about, you know, they were a single family home and mom had to work three 00:26:13.780 |
jobs just to make it, and then they come to the NBA, and all of a sudden they're multi-multi-millionaires. 00:26:19.380 |
And so you see so many of them out on their community. 00:26:23.740 |
They set up charities, they're always giving, they're going back to their hometown and setting 00:26:32.560 |
The reason why they're so generous is because they know what it is that they have. 00:26:37.440 |
They were given the genetic lottery and they won. 00:26:42.420 |
And so they know that what they had, that it wasn't like 50 years of hard work. 00:26:48.420 |
Instantaneously, because they were good at dribbling the ball and putting the ball in 00:26:52.100 |
the hoop, and they were better than anybody else, right? 00:26:56.260 |
And it wasn't because they were better people. 00:26:59.380 |
They won the genetic lottery, and so as a result of that, all this wealth that they 00:27:04.540 |
In fact, some of them are so generous that they lose all their money by the time they 00:27:09.060 |
come out, you know, and you hear stories about these athletes who made like $100 million 00:27:14.380 |
and they have nothing in their pocket because they weren't wise with their money, because 00:27:18.100 |
they were just so generous with their friends and their family and everybody. 00:27:22.620 |
The reason why the early church became so generous is because they understood what it 00:27:32.180 |
They didn't do anything, they weren't better people than the people who didn't. 00:27:38.020 |
They heard the gospel and they believed and they were convicted, and all of a sudden the 00:27:41.060 |
Holy Spirit in them started working powerfully, and as a result of that, they became generous. 00:27:51.980 |
They understood what it is that they had in Christ. 00:27:53.900 |
So compared to what it is they had in Christ, this material stuff just didn't look that 00:27:58.340 |
appealing to them, just like what Apostle Paul says. 00:28:01.820 |
In light of the surpassing knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ, everything else became rubbish. 00:28:10.660 |
Anybody who is in love with the world, we don't have to go through spiritual assessment, 00:28:19.020 |
we don't have to list all the things that you're doing wrong. 00:28:21.980 |
Automatically, we know that Christ is not that appealing to you. 00:28:26.620 |
I don't need to sit there and do three years of biblical counseling to find out why you 00:28:43.380 |
That really is a simple reason why we don't pursue Christ. 00:28:47.940 |
We can say everything we want, we can have the right doctrines, go to the right church, 00:28:51.060 |
but it's just, he's not as appealing as you say he is. 00:28:56.500 |
See the early church, when they met Christ, I mean, and I want you to understand that 00:29:07.420 |
You're going to say, "Well, it sounds like communism. 00:29:09.980 |
They sold everything and they distributed it for everybody else. 00:29:15.860 |
Actually, even China is in communism right now, right?" 00:29:24.260 |
The apostle didn't say, "Hey, sell all your possessions, give it to the poor." 00:29:28.940 |
In fact, remember the very first sin that's being dealt with in Acts chapter 5, Ananias 00:29:34.380 |
and Sapphira, they look at all the people who are being generous and instead of being 00:29:39.460 |
really motivated to honor God, they're like, "Okay, maybe I should do this." 00:29:47.380 |
And they give half of it and say, "Here's all of it." 00:29:56.060 |
And this is how Peter describes it, Acts chapter 5, 3-4. 00:29:59.940 |
But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to 00:30:05.060 |
keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 00:30:09.100 |
While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?" 00:30:12.860 |
In other words, we never asked you to do that, right? 00:30:17.700 |
And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? 00:30:21.940 |
After it was sold, it was not required of you to do that. 00:30:24.860 |
Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? 00:30:34.780 |
So Peter basically is telling them this was not required to do. 00:30:42.020 |
So when the other people were doing it, they were doing it out of the abundance of their 00:30:47.380 |
But in light of the surpassing knowledge of known Jesus Christ, the world seemed to look 00:30:55.080 |
It was greater to share and to glorify Christ than to hold on to and hoard it. 00:31:05.500 |
When we are affected by what Christ has done, it causes people to be motivated to be generous. 00:31:13.500 |
And that's what he's saying, that biblical love leads to fellowship, contribution. 00:31:30.780 |
You can profess to have faith, but if your life doesn't back it up, it's dead. 00:31:37.020 |
Even the demons, remember when they saw Jesus, they fell on their grounds. 00:31:41.180 |
They said, "Son of God, why have you come before the time to torment us?" 00:31:49.600 |
They confessed the right doctrine, right identity, Christology, when they met him. 00:31:53.900 |
He said, "If all your faith is just a confession of orthodoxy, it is no different than the 00:32:00.460 |
So James says, "Faith without deeds is dead." 00:32:07.580 |
And if you've ever studied the book of James, you'll notice that this theme is all throughout 00:32:13.260 |
There was a problem with the rich and the poor, where the poor were envious of the rich, 00:32:18.060 |
and the rich were looking down at the poor, and the rich would come in, they would get 00:32:21.700 |
special seats, and poor people were not getting treated well. 00:32:25.060 |
And so the whole thing that he was dealing with in the book of James is this problem 00:32:33.100 |
And he says, "What good is it, my brother, if someone says that he has faith and does 00:32:40.260 |
He's not saying that you have to have faith and works. 00:32:45.380 |
If somebody says that he has faith and it doesn't produce any works, is that real faith? 00:32:53.580 |
"If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you 00:32:58.020 |
says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed 00:33:04.620 |
So also faith by itself, it does not have works, is dead. 00:33:10.060 |
So the deeds that he's talking about, he said faith without deeds is dead. 00:33:12.980 |
The deed he's referring to is what Paul is talking about here, contributing to the needs 00:33:21.380 |
When you're not generous, when you're not sharing, what good is it if you say, "Oh, 00:33:28.300 |
Can somebody who has won the spiritual lottery be so stingy? 00:33:36.700 |
Can somebody who has been targeted by the love of God to have eternity in heaven for 00:33:42.620 |
him, a co-heir of Christ, who confesses to believe this, be so concerned only about himself? 00:33:56.660 |
And the specific deed he's referring to is generosity. 00:34:01.220 |
James 1.27, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this, to visit 00:34:15.660 |
That's basically, again, that's what James is writing. 00:34:21.060 |
So in this application, there are three things that we need to remember in priority. 00:34:27.300 |
First of all, the priority of generosity is you need to be responsible for your home first. 00:34:36.220 |
First Timothy 5.8 says, "But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially 00:34:39.780 |
for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." 00:34:44.700 |
This comes in the context of Paul saying to Timothy that you have these certain widows 00:34:50.380 |
who are in need, but first of all, before the church gets involved, let the family take 00:34:56.780 |
Because if a family member sees their mother or father who is in need and ignores them, 00:35:04.100 |
So the first priority in being generous, he says, is to your own home. 00:35:10.620 |
I think most people, some people have a problem with that, but most people will automatically, 00:35:14.340 |
I mean, they're family, so you have to be generous. 00:35:17.020 |
But usually, we're generous with our families, and they said, "That's where it stops." 00:35:26.420 |
I got to take care of my brother, my sister, my aunt, my uncle, my grandfather, my grandmother, 00:35:37.380 |
I take care of my family, and I fulfill the law of Christ. 00:35:40.700 |
He said that priority-wise, that's where it starts. 00:35:42.300 |
But secondly, in Galatians 6.10, second priority is practice love with brothers and sisters 00:35:48.500 |
Galatians 6.10, "So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially to 00:35:56.260 |
And over and over again, the Bible says the priority is the church. 00:36:00.980 |
The priority is the church, the people who are around us, or other Christians in other 00:36:07.980 |
Typically, for whatever the reason, when we think of social justice, we think of outside, 00:36:16.060 |
The priority is first, whoever's closest to us, and then second, to the brothers, to the 00:36:29.020 |
The word he uses here in verse 13, he says the word "hospitality," "Contribute to the 00:36:33.580 |
needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality." 00:36:41.100 |
You probably noticed the first part, right, philo, where we get the word philadelphia, 00:36:51.900 |
And the word for zania basically means outsider or stranger, right? 00:36:59.540 |
So having your family members visit your house, that's not the biblical understanding of hospitality. 00:37:05.880 |
Having your friends coming over for dinner on Friday night, right, that's not the biblical 00:37:11.300 |
And some of you guys are really good at that. 00:37:13.420 |
We think hospitality is just having a lot of friends and opening up your house to have 00:37:20.420 |
Instead of having it at your house, let's have it at my house because I'm hospitable. 00:37:24.420 |
The biblical idea of hospitality is not inviting your friends to your house. 00:37:28.980 |
It's an active love toward the outsiders, strangers, people that you do not know. 00:37:34.820 |
And it is in the context of a culture where there wasn't, you know, going to an inn or 00:37:44.420 |
So when strangers would walk in and you don't show them hospitality, they would basically 00:37:51.020 |
And that's, you know, when you talk to the pastors in India, you know, a long time ago 00:37:55.140 |
when they first started preaching the gospel, they said that's exactly what happened. 00:37:58.420 |
They would go to these villages and preach the gospel and if people were hospitable, 00:38:02.920 |
So this is a, the pastor Matthew, you know, he has, he had four kids, little kids. 00:38:09.540 |
And he would walk into villages and if they weren't hospitable, he was out on the street. 00:38:13.060 |
And I remember Pastor Sake, who was our main contact, he would tell me how much he hated 00:38:18.140 |
He said when he grew up, he said the last thing he wanted to do was be a pastor because 00:38:21.760 |
he remembered what it was like sleeping out in the fields. 00:38:25.320 |
So when he's talking about hospitality, he's talking about in that context of strangers 00:38:34.760 |
And the reason why this is so important is because nothing reflects the love of God. 00:38:44.120 |
Nothing reflects the love of God so accurately than this word hospitality. 00:38:53.400 |
In fact, remember we're talking, we're studying the book of Leviticus, you look at the details 00:38:58.560 |
and how God is so concerned for even the poor who couldn't pay. 00:39:04.580 |
And so he had bull offerings, the goat offering, the sheep, and then he says to the pigeons 00:39:10.280 |
or turtles, and even if you couldn't afford that, if you were so poor you couldn't even 00:39:15.280 |
afford that, he says to bring a tenth of ephah, the flowers. 00:39:19.660 |
He made provisions so that nobody would be excluded. 00:39:25.800 |
But God's care and concern goes way beyond that. 00:39:28.440 |
The fact that he looked at a nation who was rebelling against him, the fact that he didn't 00:39:32.440 |
destroy them, that in and of itself would be like, wow, that's so much restraint for 00:39:41.680 |
But in Leviticus 19.34 he says, "You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as 00:39:47.320 |
the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the 00:39:57.000 |
If you really studied from his perspective, not from our sinner's perspective, we're selfish 00:40:02.080 |
and everything that we value from our perspective, you study the Word of God from his perspective, 00:40:13.260 |
Why does he care that some stranger is coming into town, that he has something to eat? 00:40:20.400 |
Why does he care about this guy who's most likely a pagan, an idol worshiper, coming 00:40:30.360 |
Deuteronomy 10.18-19, he executes justice for the fatherless and the widows, and loves 00:40:36.040 |
the sojourners, giving him food and clothing, loved the sojourners, therefore, for you were 00:40:42.320 |
He said, "Don't forget, this is who you were. 00:40:52.920 |
Isaiah 58.6-7, "Is it not this, that the fast that I choose, to loose the bonds of the wickedness, 00:40:58.160 |
to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 00:41:03.640 |
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house 00:41:08.040 |
when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?" 00:41:13.400 |
The reason why he calls us to biblical love, to share, and to pursue, do you notice that? 00:41:27.880 |
Actively pursue the strangers who you wouldn't normally run into." 00:41:35.360 |
You don't have to pursue your brothers and sisters, but you have to pursue the strangers, 00:41:42.520 |
We could live the rest of our lives not practicing hospitality, just having friends over to our 00:41:46.320 |
house and thinking we're practicing hospitality, but to actually practice hospitality, you 00:41:58.880 |
You have to be deliberately pursuing people who can't pay you back, people who are not 00:42:09.680 |
That's why he calls us to actively pursue, and the reason why he challenges us to pursue 00:42:13.880 |
actively is because that's the core of the gospel message. 00:42:23.360 |
God wasn't just looking around and saying, "Well, I'm going to choose these people." 00:42:26.400 |
The Bible says that he had us in his mind before the creation of the world. 00:42:31.400 |
Ephesians 1, 3-13, repeatedly, over and over again, he says, "He predestined us. 00:42:38.720 |
And he says over and over again, "He chose us. 00:42:43.600 |
He purposed according to his mind, according to his purpose," over and over and over again 00:42:53.840 |
A sovereign God planned to pursue sinners, sojourners who are hostile against him. 00:43:03.600 |
And so when he calls a church to practice hospitality, he's telling us to practice what 00:43:11.880 |
If we want to be an aroma of Christ and we ignore this command, we ignore the very essence 00:43:19.360 |
Remember, Jesus gives a parable of a man who's been forgiven, like millions and millions 00:43:24.800 |
of dollars, and he refuses to forgive a man who owes him a few hundred bucks. 00:43:36.040 |
Considering how much you've been forgiven and you refuse to forgive him, is it the very 00:43:41.120 |
nature of who we are requires us to be generous if we really believe what it is that we have? 00:43:48.680 |
If Jesus is not something or someone that we use so that we can have a better life. 00:43:57.560 |
If Jesus is being used because I want a better job, because I want to have peace, I want 00:44:03.800 |
to have security and not go to hell and go to heaven, if that's who Jesus is, then it 00:44:08.320 |
would make sense that we wouldn't be generous, that we would be hoarders. 00:44:14.520 |
There's a whole purpose of why Jesus is here so that we can hoard more. 00:44:18.640 |
But if that's not the case, if the Jesus that we profess to believe and sing about, that 00:44:24.880 |
he forsook everything so that he can make us co-heirs with Christ, he abandoned everything 00:44:32.120 |
so that you and I could have everything, if that's the Jesus that we profess to believe 00:44:36.600 |
and that's the Jesus that we follow, it automatically, we assume that that's the nature that we would 00:44:52.160 |
Hebrews chapter 13, "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some 00:45:00.440 |
Again, there's always a debate between who wrote the book of Hebrews, I personally think 00:45:06.840 |
it's Paul, but again, I could be wrong, you're right. 00:45:12.600 |
But whoever wrote it, I think was very aware of the parable that Jesus was giving in Matthew 00:45:19.680 |
He gives a parable how at the end, the goat and the sheep are going to be separated, and 00:45:24.920 |
the way that they're going to be separated is, he says, "For I was hungry and you gave 00:45:31.680 |
"I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked 00:45:35.400 |
and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me." 00:45:39.120 |
Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or 00:45:45.640 |
When did we see you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and clothed you? 00:45:49.960 |
And when did we see you sick and in prison or visit you?" 00:45:52.200 |
And the king will answer them, "Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least 00:45:59.400 |
Then he will say to those on his left, "Depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire, 00:46:06.960 |
For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I 00:46:10.920 |
was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and 00:46:17.540 |
Then they also answered, saying, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or strangers 00:46:22.200 |
or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?" 00:46:26.660 |
Then he will answer them, saying, "Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one 00:46:31.720 |
of the least of these, you did not do it to me. 00:46:35.040 |
And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." 00:46:41.220 |
Our greatest act of worship, tangibly, is to love people. 00:46:48.000 |
And the most tangible way that we can love people is by being hospitable, by being generous, 00:46:54.360 |
by meeting the needs, recognizing what it is that we have in Christ, to actively, deliberately 00:47:07.000 |
Would you take a minute again as we ask the worship team to come up? 00:47:16.920 |
Let's take some time to pray and again, examine our own hearts. 00:47:25.560 |
Are we practicing this fellowship that the Bible describes? 00:47:32.640 |
Are we living me-centered lives or is it truly Christ-centered? 00:47:35.960 |
Again, as our worship team leads us, let's take some time to pray in response to God's