The Letter to the Romans: Message #7 – Chapter 13

Now, a church is about to split when four men, or five men, reach the point that they sit together in a room and do this toward someone else. They have not conspired to split the church; they have simply sat down and lost all bridles, and now they are simply faultfinders, and they are finding fault in someone constantly. It’s no longer one bitter person, or a hurt person, or a self-righteous person, or a highly critical person, or someone who has gotten his eyes open, and I think that’s the flavor I see over and over and over, that someone has finally got their eyes open. Someone has helped you get your eyes open to someone else’s faults and shortcomings. Don’t let people open your eyes to someone else’s faults and shortcomings. A fault, two or three shortcomings—we are all going to be doing this—but I’m talking about when we have examined a person over a period of months, and it’s no longer me and his problems, but I have now met with three or four others of you, and we are all telling one another all the things he ever did wrong. You have split a church, you don’t know it yet, but you have—you have split a church. And somewhere in there, you’ll say, we ought not to let this go on. I hope somebody will mail you to me, and I would like to do it to you, what you’re doing to him, and you can’t stand it either. No man can stand that kind of glare, and you ain’t done nothing—brothers, you haven’t done a thing in this world, nothing. All you’ve done is prove that you’re ugly. You have opened the eyes of the blind.

And now, there is one other little indication. I just want to say this, one other little…I’m going to pull this out. I don’t know whether it fits; I’m just going to say it. When a brother finally does lead a group of people out of the church, every one of them will declare they are not following him, and they will say, ‘I already felt this way before he came along and talked.’ That is true. It is not true. It is true in that it has gotten bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, but you’re incorrect when you say, “I’m not following him, I felt this way myself.” Somebody opened their eyes wider than they had been opened to the faults of another brother or sister.

Yeah, I’ve had those same feelings too. Listen, in one period of one day, I bet you every one of us has enough negative thoughts to hang half the people on this planet—what he did, what he said, what he did, what he said, but it’s when someone comes along and starts saying, “Have you noticed that he…? Have you seen that she…? Have you watched such and such…? Have you… so and so?” And each of us has seen all of those things, and he just never focused on them much. And our eyes opened. Now, who is good at opening our eyes? Yeah, the Holy Spirit is great at opening our eyes. Somebody else can open our eyes too, and they opened their eyes and saw that they were naked…and the snake said, “Did God say…? Is it really true?” And our eyes are suddenly opened to things around us we never paid a lot of attention to.

Brothers and sisters, I have got news for you. Love never does this. Love’s not going to inflict pain on someone else. I’m ending—I guess he called this a negative note—but I’m ending with the words reverberating in my mind and ears. I saw an old warrior once standing before a group of us in a fellowship of believers, not a church, but a real body of believers, and he said, “You just cannot imagine what criticism has done to destroy the kingdom of God.” What I have observed in my lifetime – the destructive power of criticism in the body of Christ. He said, “No one can comprehend the power of the tongue to destroy.” Just a few days ago, I read a very simple statement: How easy and how simple we find it is to criticize another brother or sister. We can do it without a thought. Doesn’t hurt us, doesn’t pain us, we don’t feel checked by it, without any thought of the enormity of the pain that it causes the other saint when they’ve heard what you said.

And how incredibly hurt you are when you hear what criticism has been laid at you. Is it not true? You are pained beyond words by someone who just flipped it off without a thought. Love doesn’t do that. Love doesn’t do that. I’m not fussing at you. I bet I’m as guilty as you are, but the older I get, the more I realize the power of the tongue to destroy the body of Christ and its individual members in particular. Brothers and sisters, at some point, and I’m telling you, these are not teasing words or lightly said; at some point, we have got to all consecrate our tongues to Him, our lives, and our tongues to Him. Oh, the enormity of the pain and hurt that is inflicted by one saint upon another through criticism. It has never been done by love. Love fulfills all ten of the commandments, so don’t make room for strife and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, what happens if you put on the Lord Jesus Christ? Can anybody figure that out? What happens if you put on the Lord Jesus Christ? If you put on the Lord Jesus Christ, then where are you? Alright, brothers and sisters, it is a better thing that we go and get inside of Christ than these matters. Now, I want you to know that it is not typical of me to bring messages like this. Can I get any kind of vote on that? I probably won’t very often. I don’t want you to think I’m the kind of person who goes around doing this a whole lot because it would begin to look like works.

There are only four chapters in Romans, three chapters in Romans that have this in them; the rest of it is about the Lord, but I am, and you are, in need of hearing these things. More than that, and quite frankly, I’m going to talk to you about this tomorrow night; we must take some sort of action within our lives. We must take action toward something within our lives. We must take action toward something in our lives. I don’t think right now there is one of you, maybe one, maybe two at the most in this room, who truly wants to hurt another saint. But we can do it, can’t we? First class, everything that I just said has some small relevance between Christians who may be next-door neighbors or who go to the Baptist church. It may have small relevance, and it may help them, but, brothers and sisters, in the fellowship of the body of believers, this business becomes crucial. Harmony: We don’t have glory outside of harmony. The glory is here because of unity. Lose that unity, and you’ve lost the glory. It’s not worth it, saints. Within the fellowship of the body of believers, these things become absolutely crucial.

Isn’t this arresting? Is this arresting? Does this make you stop and think? You missed that completely. Do you have any questions? You want to talk a bit? Yes sister? Well, praise the Lord. Isn’t that neat? That’s a good question. What do you do with a chronic bellyacher, just viciously, viciously complaining? We have, over here, a kind word from one of the brothers. Crucify them. Oh, I’ll tell you what I would do if I were you. If you were really as wise as a serpent, but as harmless as a dove, I’d encourage that saint to criticize more. I’d just feed it, give it a fish or two. But Gene, what are you talking about? Oh, the body of Christ is so smart. She can be dumb sometimes, but she’s so wise. This is the sacredness, the sanctity, and the security of the church. We all begin to notice one another’s patterns, and this person may not totally lose their power to criticize, but I’ll tell you who’s being hurt most of all: it’s that person.

I got stopped while preaching one night by a woman I had never seen before in my life. She stopped me cold, said she did not agree with what I had to say. She got so angry, and she demanded that I apologize and reverse my view. And I said, “Young lady, it’s just not my burden to do that.” Those, I think, were my exact words, and she got up and walked out. Everybody was stunned, embarrassed, and feeling bad, and I was looking kind of like a villain. I hadn’t done anything. I just said, “I don’t have the burden to do that.” And I looked at everybody and said, “That’s not the first time she ever did that.” I’ve never seen her before, and I’ve never seen her since. That’s not the first time she’ll do that. It won’t be the last time she’ll ever do that. You won’t do something like that unless it’s a pattern in your life. Watch for one of those patterns. Just what are you going to do? You’re going to have to…

We had a sister who just got everything out of proportion, and it was not—I won’t call it lying—I don’t think she ever lied a day or a life, but nothing was true that she said. Nothing was true. Now, I’m not going to tell you her name, but I’m going to give you the name Mary Sue. We got to the point where if a story came by that sounded really bleh, we’d say, “Did you hear that from Mary Sue?” Would you be wise? Would you be wise? The old saying, “Consider the source.” You don’t get to do that the first year or two, and that’s why the first year or two are so dangerous and so important. Thank God you’re past that. Isn’t that wonderful? You’re past the first year or two, but after a while, you live together in a community; you’re all a bunch of stinkers. So, she criticizes, and that’s bad. Or he criticizes, that’s terrible, but you don’t take baths, so we’re getting the smell of you, too.

Some of these things are really more dangerous than others, but saints, there are patterns. There are patterns. I watch people doing things. Have you ever seen one just do a running fit in public? Maybe you didn’t ever see them. I’ve seen them before, maybe in a restaurant or something. You just sit there and think, “That’s not the first time they ever did that, and it won’t be the last time.”

Well, I will tell you a story about the only time someone ever did something, but I will tell you that it was very, very much like her, and this is totally off the point, but a wonderful way to end the story, end an evening: My mama. She was a case in point. Gladys Edwards. Good night, what a woman. I loved her, and I miss her, and I cry; every day I cry, I wish I could see her again. Mama lives in West Texas. She’s coming to see us from Tyler, Texas. It was Sunday. Now, Mama didn’t go to church very often, and in fact, I don’t know why in the world she did what she did that day, but she decided she was driving along, it was about 11 o’clock. She decided she’d just stop and go to church. She gave herself a chance to rest. She pulled in, got out, walked into church, and didn’t even notice what kind it was. Well, I don’t know if you know anything about the Church of Christ in Texas, but they believe they’re the only people in the world who are saved.