Community Reveals Human Weakness (Problems in the Church of Rome) #5

Alright. Disunity and jealousy. Some of you have clothed yourselves with the world, and you are making room for your sinful nature. You are feeding your cravings, and you’re figuring out a way to gratify, feed, house, and bring along as your companion your flesh. Rather than denying it, you’re treating it—wining it and dining it.

Some of you treat the weak brothers and sisters in the body differently than you do those who are strong, and you’re more impatient with them than you are with ordinary people. Do you understand what I mean by “weak”? Alright, good. I’m glad I didn’t have to say anything about that.

Some of you have a really bad habit of judging others by what your standard is of what a person should do to conduct their life. “You don’t understand. These are my values; they’re my values. Bother, you’re just not living up to the right values. Now, I don’t say my values, I just say the right values.” I am judging everybody else by the standards I have set, and everybody is being judged. I have erected the standards of God—they are in my possession—and I will eventually insist that you adopt my standard of values. You have usurped the position of God in the house of the Lord.

Alright, some of you are a stumbling block by what you do and say to weaker Christians, and you don’t care. You see them being hurt deeply by it, and you don’t mind being a stumbling block. It just doesn’t bother you a bit. But what you say and what you do causes others to stumble, and your conscience about this is seared, and you just don’t care. Therefore, others are really being hurt by your conduct. Some of you think that it is what you eat and what you drink that pleases God. Some of you think that it is what you do not eat and what you do not drink that pleases God. I doubt you’ve ever heard it put that way; have you? That God is pleased by what you eat and what you drink, and God is displeased by what you do not eat and what you do not drink. You’re looking at me like, “That surely couldn’t be here.” Well, I’ve got some news for you; Paul spent one and a half chapters on that subject. Can you believe that? Isn’t that unbelievable? Some of you think that you please God by what you put in your mouth and chew on, or drink out of a cup, and that there are things that would displease Him based on what you chew on or drink out of a cup?

Alright, some of you just display a continuing spirit of disunity. Some of you Jews and Gentiles are fussing with one another. That’s not going on here, is it? Excuse me, let’s come to nineteen hundred whatever this is. The Jews and Gentiles here don’t fuss with one another, do they? Now, why not? Why? Because you’re all Gentiles. Let’s find out if you are all Gentiles; let’s see if we have this problem. Are you ready? Are there some of you who just feel like every day is just the same, and some of you who honor a certain day? Okay, we got past that one.

Do some of you really get into signs and wonders? Miracles, dreams, and visions? Nobody here in this whole group? Audience: We gave it up for Lent. (laughter) Okay, I don’t believe this, but I’m going to prove it. Do some of you look down on people who are getting signs and wonders? Okay. Do some of you really enjoy learning a lot about the Bible and about things to come? And there are some of you who are really into…and have got all these big, thick books—all the lost books of the New Testament and the things that are to come. I know that. I know that Brother Rufus is really into that. As soon as I stepped into your home, I looked at this incredible library. He’s got books in there I wouldn’t even attempt to understand.” Do some of you look down on that, though? Well, I’ve got news for you—this room is full of Jews and Gentiles, because these are the conflicts between the Jews and the Gentiles. You don’t have to be circumcised or uncircumcised to be a Jew or a Gentile. I’m sure none of you in this room are legalists. I’m absolutely sure of it. I’m sure that none of you are drunk on grace either—co-libertines in all that you do. No Jews and Gentiles in this room, and this keeps recurring—those of you who are dividers of the body. Now catch this: dividers of the body, a spirit of disunity, always those who are coming in with a minority and contentious view, and those who are filled with strife. Now that’s appearing in four different chapters, and it’s all the same thing.

Now there is one other person—and that is the person who (I don’t know, you may not have this person in your church; if you do, don’t look at him)—the natural flatterer. That one who flatters others. I don’t know if you’ve got this person, but I would ask you this: Can you be flattered? It’s just as bad to fall for it as to do it. We should not…I’m just telling you what you do; I didn’t mean to exhort you here, but flattering other Christians is always for the purpose of influencing.

Now, brothers and sisters, I only have one thing to say to you: you’re the most gosh-awful bunch of people I’ve ever stood in front of in my whole life. Just look at this – four pages! Four pages of nothing in the world but some of the worst stuff I’ve ever seen or read about. Even the heathen couldn’t get along with folks like you. And the sad fact is—we’re all this way. I’ve said to a group of Christians on several occasions, I said, “You’ve got a beautiful bunch of Christians living in community, and I’m telling you, you stand up there and look at them and know that you’re looking at robbers and thieves. You’re looking at wife beaters, husband beaters.” That’s right. “You’re looking at homosexuals and lesbians, kleptomaniacs, compulsive liars…and those…those are your church leaders. That’s telling the good side. (laughter) Yeah, those are the well-adjusted ones. Those are the ones who cause the least amount of trouble.

I tell you, brothers and sisters, the Church of Jesus Christ is psychotic. I want you to know that I used to have dark brown hair—almost black, darker than yours, but not quite as dark as yours. I had hair up here. And you know, you know who took it away from me? Christians stole it! Night and day, day and night, you poured peroxide on my hair and pulled out those hairs one at a time, until now, I’m old, wrinkled, gray, and bald. My brother has a full head of hair. My granddaddy died with every hair he ever had still on his head. I am the only bald member of my family. My brother’s hair is still dark and beautiful, and you, Christians, have made me who I am today.

Audience member – “Happens to the best of us!” Get that man’s name—I want him to be excommunicated! (laughter) Oh no!” It happens to the best of us. I think, brothers and sisters, I really think that step one in all of this is acceptance, and for each of us, our greatest strong point is always our greatest weakness, and our greatest weakness is not always our greatest weakness. I think every one of us feels he’s strong somewhere; that’s going to cause you trouble. None of us has any right to boast or to think of ourselves as higher than anyone else. Your time comes, and so does mine.

And that’s true even of the most broken vessel of God. It seems that the most broken vessel of God, as he or she walks down the journey of life, one day the card turns over and they face something; this holy, holy person faces something that they absolutely cannot handle, in an area of their life they did not believe was vulnerable, or perhaps they didn’t even know that area of their life existed.

You start off with a great deal of tolerance with one another. I wish that all Christians did live in community, and I’ll tell you right now, there would be a lot fewer Christians. You’re saying, “Gene, you want more people to go to hell?” No. I’m just telling you that we should never have gotten off on evangelism the way we did, evangelism outside the church or outside the community of believers. Are you following me at all? If evangelism had always been within the community of believers, most people would turn down the Christian faith. A lot of us just took out life insurance and went on our merry way. I don’t know of anything on this earth more demanding than the church. It will take everything on earth you’ve got. It will test you again and again and again. And those of you who live in Rome, Italy—starting the day after tomorrow night—we’re going to learn a little bit about how to live with one another. Not a lot—and there’s no panacea. Let me warn you ahead of time, I can cure no diseases. The best we’re going to do is what the British do—we’re going to muddle through. That’s the best we can do.