The Letter to the Romans: Message #6 – Chapter 12

Okay, I’m just going to read this to you: be devoted to one another in brotherly love, giving preference to one another in honor. And I just mentioned that—please understand that every human being in here deserves some honor. Every one of us, at one time or another, ought to be honored, and all of us should go out of our way to honor. Have eyes that see what other people have done for you. Now, we can always do this, but try to have eyes to see what others have done and know that every one of us really does need this. Robert, come here—I forgot your name deliberately. Every one of us needs this every once in a while. By the way, that’s honoring. That’s honoring, and it helps. It goes a long, long way.

I’ll tell you two or three short stories. One is about a man who tells the story of working in the northeast, and I don’t know what this fellow did, but it was in timber country, and his job was to get the foreman and men to get wood up some kind of a chute. He died, and they had to put another man in his place who was good at it. But he was the biggest grouch. Nobody had ever heard him say a kind word, and he always bellyached, and this is the true story that the man tells. He took over the job, and the foreman said to the other men, “Just remember, Joe is the best (and he named the task) on the northeastern border of the United States.” He said that Joe began pushing those men and began working himself so hard getting that wood up there. He never complained. He never said a murmuring word. He was doing a better job than anybody had ever done in this business, and this went on for days. The man was completely transformed. Finally, the foreman went over and asked him, “What in the world has happened to you?” And he said, “That’s the first time in my life anybody ever said anything nice to me.”

You ought to be able to identify with that. Don’t look for it, don’t get pouty.  I’m not talking to you; I’m talking to the others. You show honor to somebody else. Don’t look for honor. Our eyes are often blind. I was in Tyler, Texas, sitting out at Lake Tyler. I sat down beside the lifeguard. I said to him, “Have you ever saved anybody out here?” He said, “Yeah, I have saved several people.” Then he said, “Just a few weeks ago, a young boy disappeared out there, and I went out and got him and brought him in, and he was dead, and I brought him back to life.” And I said, “Did his parents ever thank you?” And he did like this, and you could tell I had said something that obviously he’d given a lot of thought to. He said, “No.” He said, “You know, I got my picture in the paper, I was interviewed on the radio, and the Kiwanis gave me an award, but the mother and daddy never thanked me.” I bet that mother and daddy loved that kid and were grateful as they could be that the child was alive, because that man alone deserved the credit for it. They never came back to say thank you.

A heart that sees gratitude and can see honor. Now, do you know something? I haven’t delivered a message like this since I left the religious system over twenty-five years ago. Let me see if I can get my wife to read her. Honey, is that true? No, I’ll forget it. I’m in the business of exhorting you. Alright, I’m just going to keep reading here. I think that verses 9 through 21 in chapter 12 (12:9-21) should be read publicly in the church twice every year. I really do. I wouldn’t say that of another passage of Scripture in the entire Bible, Old or New Testament, but we just need to hear this. All of us need to hear it. So, I’m going to read it to you.

Let love be without hypocrisy apart from what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Give preference to one another in honor. Don’t lag in your diligence. Be fervent in your spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in your hope. When you have tribulation, persevere, and also keep on praying. Give to the needs of the other holy ones, and practice opening your home, and be hospitable. Bless those that persecute you and don’t cuss them, don’t swear at them.

When someone in the church is rejoicing, don’t pout—rejoice with them. If they’re sad, don’t poke fun at them—weep with them. Be of the same mind one with another. Don’t have a haughty mind. Run around with the dingbats of the church. Run around with the lowest. Don’t think you’re a hotshot. That’s still verse sixteen. Don’t ever take revenge. Now, respect what is right in the sight of all men, and I want to come back to that and explain what that means. If possible, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take revenge. He decided to go back and say this again. He said it in seventeen; he repeated it in nineteen. Let’s throw something else in the middle there: vengeance is God’s; He will repay. If you have an enemy, feed him. If he’s thirsty, give him something to drink, and if you do, then you’ll be heaping burning coals upon his head. And there’s an old, ancient story about the woman who came to her pastor and said, “My husband mistreats me terribly.” He said, “Well, have you ever tried or considered heaping burning coals upon his head?” And she said, “No, but I tried a hot skillet once.” Evil will seek to overcome you. Evil will seek to overcome you. When evil comes to seek to overcome you, overcome it with good.

Now then, that passage just needs to be reread to all of us. A passage like this is actually quite dangerous, brothers and sisters. Very dangerous. If we dwell here, we get into salvation by good works, but the whole point of the first part of this chapter is that you’re not going to impress God by anything. Your gift doesn’t get you anywhere. This is an exhortation that we all simply need to hear from time to time. I’ll tell you something else: when we let our spirits, the fires of our spirits, run low and the embers almost die, we tend to totally lose all of what I just read here, and that’s not you, and that’s not me. That is some of the finest Christians who ever breathed air. It’s true of all of us. We will tend to revert to the very opposite of these things, and I can tell you, I know that for a fact because I’ve done it. Things that I would not ever do, I find myself slipping into if those fires have, for some reason, been made low. We really need to read this a couple of times a year. It’s called Christian ethics. God’s not going to love you more if you do, or less if you don’t, but I’ll tell you, a lot of this stuff is really important to the harmony of the body of Christ.

I want to go through a lot of this really quickly with you. If you can’t love sincerely, don’t love with hypocrisy. You might get the habit of doing it. You will lose who you are. There is evil lurking around. Hate it. Go for the good. Honor one another. In verse twelve, there is the statement, “Rejoice in hope.” I love another translation, and I would like to read it to you: base your happiness on the hope you have in Christ. Now, that is terribly important. If you base your happiness on anything other than your hope in Christ, you may literally lose the Christian faith. Certainly, you’ll be disappointed. You’re going to be disappointed by man, and you’re going to be disappointed with God.

There really is an aspect of the Christian faith that’s futuristic. Now, I’ve often heard it said, “We have a religion that’s pie in the sky when you die by and by.” And that’s true— a lot of people think of nothing in the world but heaven, heaven, heaven, heaven, heaven. They’ll end up saying, “He’s so heavenly minded, he’s no earthly good.” But I have never appreciated that statement. I don’t believe that, if it’s truly a hope of the eternals. There is an element of our faith, when all else is gone, that is both past and future, and not present, and that’s against everything I believe and teach, but it’s true. There are times when things have gotten so hard for me—I’ll give a personal testimony here—the only thing I could say is, “Well, thank God at least, as unworthy as I’m feeling, as unworthy as I’m getting treated, I know that Jesus Christ saved me. I may be all I’ve got left, but one day, somebody named God loved me enough to save me. I’ve still got dignity. I still got worth.” And that’s sometimes all I’ve got. There is that which is past, that which He did for me in the past, and proved His love to me, and there is that which is future.

Boy, when things get rugged and rough and hopeless, there is a point of saying there is glory ahead, and you put your happiness—the happiness factor—goes for the future, not for the present. If you try to find happiness in present things, you will be disappointed. Base your happiness on your hope that you have in Jesus Christ. That, by the way, is also present. That is also present. I am now saved, and I am now in Christ, and all the riches of Christ are mine now. I am one who is wealthy, for He is mine.

Now I’m going to say it again: there’s nothing in this book that is relevant outside of the home of Priscilla and Aquila. All this stuff I just said to you may be a little bit helpful to you; nonetheless, you will lose if it’s not within Priscilla and Aquila’s home, their gathering, and the gathering of the body of Christ. I hope you’re following me. That verse is not for the individual. That verse is for the individual who’s in the ecclesia. One day, I need you to tell me my hope is in Christ. Forget trying to be happy somewhere else; find happiness somewhere else, and there will be a time when I will need to tell you the same thing. Now, I just told you, did I not? Say amen. Well, one of these days, you may find Gene Edwards just about four feet down, walking in the cracks of the oak floor, and I may need you to tell me that because I may have forgotten. It is relevant only within the body of Christ. Are you with me? Alright. When somebody needs something (I’m in verse 13), would you make sure they get some money? He should get, if not money, food, or something. Take care of one another. And stop saying, I don’t want that guy sleeping over at my house. And as far as the city council is concerned, who wants this building condemned, or the people up and down the street who persecute you, don’t get so mad at them that you swear. And if you do swear, ask the Lord to forgive you, and don’t do that anymore. Well, that’s really angry when you get mad enough to swear.

Verse 16: You will find it recurring again and again and again in Paul’s letters, and it has nothing to do with an ecumenical church. It has nothing to do with the National Council of churches. It has nothing to do with you and another Christian. This has to do with a local body of believers who meet in Priscilla and Aquila’s home: have the same mind toward one another. If two of you don’t have the same mind about something, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? Somebody tell me, what are you going to do? I can give you one suggestion. Accept his point of view. You haven’t been married, most of you, yet. Boy, it’s when you back off to one another and you are just locked, and there’s no giving in, and finally one of you gives in to the other’s view, and the other one feels so horrible that the other one gives in to your view. And then you have another fight. I have a friend, or had a friend years ago, who gave me one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received. He said, when somebody starts to shoot you, take the gun away from them and shoot them with their own gun. He meant by that this very thing. Just pull the rope right out from under them. Say, “Great, I think you have a better idea than I’ve got.” It’s all right. It doesn’t hurt to lose. It doesn’t hurt a bit to lose. You got saved, and you are rich in Christ today because somebody lost—lost and lost and lost and lost again. It’s okay to lose. By the way, I would like for everyone here and listening to me on television to know that in all of this, I sin not. I am perfect in these things, and by the way, I also have the Sears Tower up for sale this week, too.