13 lesson 52b
Romans 12:9-13 · Mike Doyle · May 10, 2020
Romans (2018-21), No. 111
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261918452815

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We are in Romans, chapter 12, and we're studying verse 9 through 13, which is lesson 52. And we had made it to question four. And so let's just to set it up, let's read the verses. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. be devoted to one another in brotherly love, give preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in prayer, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. I think that's the all-time refrigerator list right there. It's actually really kind of cool because it comes to us in the form of a command or an imperative, but it really relates to all the things that are, I want to use the word spontaneous, as the life of the Lord Jesus has lived through us. So, we finished up last week talking about honoring, honor one another, be devoted to one another, in brotherly love giving preference to one another.

So, question four is, is the doctrine of grace, how is the doctrine of grace worked against us by Satan? Obviously it is. What would he have believers do? We're down to, actually I probably ought to set this up, we're down to verse 11 where my version says, not lagging behind, indeligence. So that word lagging behind or delay is slothful. How would, we as believers live under this umbrella of grace. Positionally that's what we're under and actually conditionally to whether we recognize it or not and so the question is How is the doctrine of grace worked against us by Satan?

What's the number one thing? He does you guys it's okay with me if he answered, how would he work against grace? Well, I don't think he wants anything but strife between us our old man was nothing but a me, me, me to be in control of everything and the top of the mountain in every way and to not care about my brothers and sisters. So anything that could stumble me from just naturally loving my brothers and sisters, because Christ can do that through me, Satan's trying to get me off track.

Grace is unmerited and unlimited mercies of God based upon the totally adequate work of Christ. If that's the premise, and that's the principle, it's unlimited, means it has no bounds, and it's totally unmerited, which means you can't merit any of it, and it's blessings from God, then how would I fight against that if I was Satan?

I would try to convince you that that wasn't true. And also try and convince you that you have to be doing something. That's exactly right. And that's how you convince them. That's how you convince somebody it's not true. You've got to be adhering to some sort of command in order to improve your standing before the Lord. I think it's interesting using that definition from Macaulay. It would be an effective effort Satan to Convince you that it was it is limited. Thank you. You're not going to get enough of it and you're going to run out So you're gonna lose it. That's right.

Yeah, and then also you have to earn it It's not a marriage that you do have to earn and is it really about Christ or is it more about you? So if you just put that whole definition around right basically, that's that's a good definition of what you know the the evil at be would be trying to convince us of. No, I think you're right, JD, because especially when there's a circumstance, well, a trial.

As soon as a trial shows up in your life, at least in my mind, the first thing that hits my mind is, what can I do to get out of this? So what have I done? I've asked a legal question. What can I do to get out of this? which means that somehow the spigot of God's grace has turned off and now I've got to go to work and figure out how to turn it back on again. And that's how he does it. It's the real subtle thing that something's happened.

So connect that with the loss of fellowship when you sin. The loss of fellowship when you sin On his side of the coin, he's going to condemn you and try to convince you that what you did was, God can't forgive that, or to keep you enmeshed in the guilt as long as he can. On the Holy Spirit's side, his job is to restore you, and how does he do it? He does it by showing you the grace and how it was accomplished.

The cross of Christ took care of your sin. So what's confession mean to say the same thing? What is God telling us in grace and about the cross of Christ? That every single sin and all the guilt associated with it was handled, taken care of at the cross.

If you read the Hungry Heart this morning, it was this very thing. about, you know, that our sins are all paid for and why are we worried about them. The other thing, two things too on this too, is that the flesh, you know, has been taken care of, not the flesh, the sin nature has been taken care of, but the only way that the flesh has worth is by wanting us to do something. This falls right into the category against grace, is that the sinful flesh wants to do something, tries to convince you that you have to do something.

The second thing is I remember when we first started teaching Grace and some of this about how some of the people, so Grace you just don't do anything. You sit in a room and you just do nothing. Is that what Grace is? Yeah. And you know that you, it's this thing that if you Grace means you don't do anything. Well, grace is a motivator that allows you to manifest Christ, be able to, you know, show Him to the world and to be, you know, used by Him. That it's something that you are, that this one's slothful where you're just doing nothing. That's where I think Satan tries to convince you that you have to be doing something.

You can't just sit there and not do... It's interesting that you say that because in verse 11 it says, not lagging behind in diligence. I think sometimes one of the wiles is that you can't do it anyway, so you might as well just stop trying. Just live in the situation you are in. You don't need to be diligent about walking in the Spirit. You just can't do it, so just get lazy about it.

Donna has got a question. I was looking at Zodiatus and what he says When God is said to bless us, He acts for our good as He sees what we need most and not what we desire. And I think the way Satan works against that is that we think blessings are what we desire, but we think hurt. Did everybody hear that? No, I can't hear the question at all. Okay, she was looking at Zodiatus and to paraphrase what she was saying is that Zodiatus says that the Lord looks at it, in every circumstance, what is most beneficial to us.

And what Satan tries to do is to get you involved in what you think is most beneficial to you and they're not necessarily the same thing. because of the sin nature and because of flesh, I'm always looking at it, well, what do I think benefits me most, where the Lord looks at it as to, from His perspective, from a sovereign God Father perspective, what's the best thing for you in this circumstance? And that's how His grace operates. And that's from Zodiatus, and that's a pretty good, because that's right, that's what really happens.

If you look at the verse 11, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, there's no question that we end up a lot of times disheartened because we don't seem to have enough earnestness to carry out what we think we should be doing, especially those who are, when the Lord calls you to be like This is a good time to use moms as an example. The Lord calls you to be a mother and He graces you to be a mother. But I know it can be incredibly frustrating sometimes because kids don't appreciate what you are as a mom. But the exhortation here is keep on. Be diligent. Same thing with walking in the Spirit. Keep on. Be diligent.

For us to think that we're not going to have opposition is a pipe dream. There's nothing but opposition. But the Lord seems to use, or He does use, opposition, trials and tribulation, and all these kinds of things to cause us to grow. And without them, I don't think we would grow very much.

I was reading an article last night by by a guy about this very thing. His premise was that if you don't have opposition in your life or you're disappointed because you do have opposition and you think, well, I shouldn't have this kind of opposition because I'm a Christian, that that's not the proper perspective in terms of how God works with us. I think we can expect it, but at the same time we live under grace and it's something that God is doing for our good and for our growth and for our approval. I think that's really important from an attitudinal standpoint. Question five.

Is Paul speaking about the Holy Spirit here or human spirit? And what he's talking about in verse 11, fervent in spirit, what's he talking about there? Is it your spirit or is it the Holy Spirit? Just to give you... Well, it's not capitalized, so it must be your spirit. Oh, that might be it. How about this? The word spirit refers to the human spirit as that part of the human man which gives him God-consciousness, or to the attitude or disposition of a man as that man's spirit is good, or does it refer to the Holy Spirit? Here's the problem.

In Greek, the definite article is in front of the word spirit. What does that tell you? It's a specific spirit. With the definite article, that appears in the Greek text, the absence of the Greek definite article would emphasize character. If the definite article was absent here, the reference would be to the disposition or attitude of the person's spirit. The presence of a definite article points to the Holy Spirit.

So Paul exhorts to fervency in the Christian life which is engendered by the Holy Spirit not produced by the flesh. You see, that's the flavor engendered by the Holy Spirit. That's a really important part. I don't know if you've noticed, I'm sure most of you have, that there is a process going on of creating dependence by us on the Holy Spirit to do and to implement this life that we have in our position because Because we are who we are, we always think that God needs some of our help, that it isn't going to happen unless we implement some of our own energy. And so when it says here, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, it has to do with the service of the Lord and the diligence of the Spirit.

The line that Paul exhorts to fervency in the Christian life which is engendered by the Holy Spirit not produced by the flesh. So let me ask you a question. Thinking about the way that that is worded, how do you personally Maybe it's a negative question. How do I not have the flesh trying to produce what the spirit only can do? Walking in the spirit. Walking in the spirit?

Is that what you said, Mike? Yeah. How do you do that? Abide in your position. How do you abide? You've already been placed there. Okay. So abiding is recognizing that I already am there? It's hanging out with the Lord. Oh, that's good. Hanging out with the Lord. How about this? Anybody else? Anybody else want to take a shot at that? All I see is red mics. Yeah, I agree with Mike.

Definitely. To put a biblical term to it, Courtney would love to have probably chimed in, but it's a faith-based thing. That's exactly right. It's faith. There are just situations and times where you know what the Word of God is, you know what He talks about in terms of your position, and you know what? You just have to trust Him and believe Him.

Even one thing that I got there. One thing I will say is that I'm not sure that every day I think there are instances where folks have. maybe have trouble with the faith side of things and they they see it as being more than what it is and that is simply um beholding him in his word as as as as true and as uh whatever that truth is that they're they're struggling with the the bigger problem is they don't understand their position right and that's where we always harp on it it's not just believing it's believing in specific details about yourself in Christ and people lack what they believe in. They want to believe, I mean, in some cases. In some cases they don't, but they don't know what to believe, and that becomes a difficult thing for people to produce that walking in the Spirit.

I think you're absolutely right, J.D., because your faith has to have an object, and the object has to be the Word of God, which leads to the person of Christ. But, you know, the phrase, thus saith the Lord, is a really important phrase because If you, as you spend time in the Word, you find that the Lord and the writer, through Paul, especially through Paul, has covered every nuance of my life. There isn't anything that is not answered in the Word. And it all comes down to, do I believe Him about whatever is in front of me?

Or do I rely on somehow the manipulation of the circumstances? or the elimination of the circumstances, or do I go into some sort of... I saw an email about a month ago that there was an exhortation to solve the coronavirus problem by everybody engaging in contemplative prayer. Really? And so, gee, it must not work because it's still here. Well, not everybody engaged in contemplative prayer. Well, that's the problem. I mean, you know that the more people praying, it's like God is hard of hearing. Right.

So you've got to make it louder and you've got to get a bigger crowd when in fact You know, faith is just trusting God and what He said. And if you don't know what He said, like J.D. has guiltfully articulated, if you don't know what He said, what is your faith based on? Most Christians' faith is based on the birth truths, that Christ died for their sins and they're saved. But they're so ignorant about the growth truths, identification, position, condition, this whole thing about grace. All of that is the life to be lived By faith alone. By faith alone.

Not by sense and reason, and not by experience. Not that it's without experience, but it's by faith in what God has said. And if you don't know, or your faith is in Deuteronomy somewhere, not that the Old Testament isn't applicable, or we shouldn't be spending time there. Yeah, we should. The real issue is, who am I? What blessings do I have? Who's the Lord Jesus? And where am I? I'm in Christ. If I don't know that, then my faith hasn't got the firm foundation just to rest on, I think. That's the problem.

And so, again, back to the previous question, how has the doctrine of grace worked against us by Satan? I would say, how has everything worked against us by Satan? It's really interesting. His whole goal is to keep us earthly minded and doubting our position. That's his whole goal. And if he can do that, we walk in the flesh and we are always trying to achieve something that we already have. And our fleshly mindset doesn't even allow for God to be as gracious as he is. Unlimited, unmerited blessings. Not based on anything I did, but based on what Christ has done. Okay?

You know, the one thing is, even though you guys have explained why we don't really work at it ourselves, that verse makes it sound like verse 11, not lagging behind in diligence, serving the Lord. It's hard not believe that Well, I better get with it, and I better be after it. That's right. Well, all of these verses, starting with verse 9, you know, it sounds like, that's why I called it the refrigerator list. You need to, you know, number one, love without hypocrisy. Number two, hate what is evil. Number three, cling to what is good.

Okay? That's Monday. Tuesday, is be devoted to one another in brotherly love and give preference to one another in honor. That's Tuesday. Wednesday, not lagging behind in any deal. Well, you know, you're going to get real tired real fast. You're not going to make it to Friday.

And so, what do you do? You have to recognize, like J.D. said, what's the Word of God say? All of these things are part of the life of Christ and you already have the life And it's the Holy Spirit's job to implement that life through you. And all of these things are who He is and who He is through you. Do you understand that? Yeah. And that's how grace works. Okay? Yeah, that helps. Okay. All right. Moving on to question six.

How is rejoicing in hope relevant for today? And that's verse 12. Rejoicing in hope. How is it relevant for today in May 2020? I mean, you guys are all sitting behind a camera or a microphone, and we're having Sunday school through an electronic media. You're not real joyful about that. I can't understand it. Well, I'm joyful about it because I can tune in from Canada. Good answer. Notice the verse, rejoicing in hope.

You want to talk about what hope is? What is hope? Give me the definition of hope, somebody. Okay, Tom just said it's a sure expectation that what God has promised he will do. So, give me an example, a concrete example of what you would have hope about today as a Christian, as a believer. My growth in Christ. My growth in Christ, have hope about that?

What else? Would you say the rapture is something hopeful? A new body is something hopeful? A face-to-face with Christ, unobstructed, is hopeful? My position in Christ. My position in Christ is hopeful? Is that what you said? Yes, it's a fact. So hope is based on facts. But what's the difference between hope and faith then? Because faith is based on facts. Isn't one future and one already, well, isn't hope future what will happen? Yeah, hope is, Courtney's right, hope is an absolute certainty. It's a fact.

But I may not be experiencing or have entered into it yet. I have a position in Christ. My faith is based on all that's true of that position, but I'm still living in a cranky old body that doesn't want to work too well, and I know I've got a new one coming. I have hope about that. I'm living in, love the terms, shelter in place today. I'm really hopeful that that's going to end.

But that's not biblical hope. That may not be a fact, though. Right. When I think of hope, I think of tribulation, work of patience, experience, and then hope. Oh, that's cool. That's really cool. It's kind of the fourth piece of that. Yeah. Romans 5. Yeah.

Now, and by the way, to maybe expand the translation here, It's rejoicing in the sphere of hope. And when earthly prospects are dark, the believer's rejoicing should be in the sphere of hope that the Lord will send deliverance and in the meantime take care of his afflicted ones. And you see that all the time, you know. I'm enamored with the with the television people that always talk about the same thing, that we're saving lives.

What does that mean? From their perspective, if you somehow can avoid leaving the planet today and get to stay in the cesspool, you've saved a life, right? where believers think this is a cesspool I want to be home with my Lord and I'm here just to serve him and that's the whole reason I'm here to serve and glorify him no other reason and he'll take me home I get to go home when he has determined that my work is done and so off I go great day it's just a great day so it doesn't mean he isn't going to comfort us in times like this it doesn't mean that he won't take care of any and all that are afflicted, but it doesn't mean that he's about the business like NBC says, saving lives. What does he mean, saving lives? It means that you don't get to leave the planet?

That's what they mean. So our hopes are bound up with the Lord's coming, I think. Yeah, I was just going to add, I think I have a repetition in some of the things that I say, but I can join Courtney in that with faith. Thank you. But at the end of the day, hope is in a person, right? So we have an expectation that what Our savior has said will be true of us and of certain future events and of himself. Yeah, and so Hope is ultimately The object is yet again a person and what he has said, right, right? It's not it's not a man. I sure am hopeful Of you know us getting out of quarantine, you know, it's not a unknown um unknown thing that is related to a potential possibility. It is a known fact of a person. So I just thought I'd add that. That's pretty good.

Rejoicing in hope and persevering in tribulation. Tribulation is one of those really interesting words that, like you were being track down like a prey and everything's closing in on us and we're having a very difficult time. Persevering is probably a word that can be translated as patient. It has to do to remain under the test. Don't get out from underneath because this is a God-honoring thing that's going on. You don't really seek to escape. But I really want to learn the lesson that God is teaching me.

I know that believers have a totally different attitude about this COVID-19 thing than non-believers do. We know that the Lord has allowed it. We know that it's to approve us in some manner. We know that for especially or in particularly believers, that there's a lesson to be learned. And really, you know, as much as we would like to be out from under it still, the attitude is, well, we probably ought to stay here until the Lord has finished teaching me what he has to teach me.

And that takes the fear away. The biggest emotion that drives this whole thing from the world is fear. And believers, because they have a sovereign God, they know what He's doing, they know that He uses all things for good, all of them, for every one of us, because He loves us, it takes away the fear. So we have this endurance that will last For however long it takes. But when I was talking to Les about it, I was like, is it really fear the opposite of hope?

Totally. Totally. Yeah. Not to be repetitious. Oh, God forbid that you'd be repetitious. No, I don't ever do that. You know, this goes back to the very first thing, the only thing I really memorized was the James verse. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that testing of your faith will produce endurance. Let endurance have its perfect result, that you're perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Yeah, that's what Alan was talking about. There's another section, maybe that's what Alan referenced, that's very similar to that. then the trials are not meant in a malicious way, going back to my repetitious end of Romans 8, where we can't be separated from His love. So whatever the trials are, they're not meant for any way of malice or punishment.

It's in love. And again, when you realize all that, then you have the peace. You do? It's from His hand, He's openly in control, He loves you, and these trials are meant to manifest Him more, to use for His glory, all these things. Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's absolutely right.

Last part of that verse, devoted to prayer, does some of your verses say pray without ceasing? Tell me about devoted to prayer, what does that mean? Is it possible, is it possible to be a person who's devoted to prayer and you pray all the continually, continuing instant in prayer? To persevere in prayer? Is it possible to do that? Absolutely. To give constant attention to it? I mean, I think everyone that I can see on the screen has a TV in their house. So at some point you're watching that and not praying.

You know, I've told the story a hundred times about the guy down on the mission. When I was working down the mission as a new believer, a husband and wife had what they called a coffee and counsel thing for street people. We had a Wednesday Bible study for him and other people that worked down there. He came in one day and he said, you know, we asked, you know, what have you been up to? He said, well, he said, I'm praying without ceasing and I'm up to 65% of the time.

Well, that's exactly what my reaction was, is what your reaction is, you know. So let's talk for a minute about this, this says to continue, continue or to persevere, giving attention or devotion to prayer. What does he mean by that? I'm just, I'm going to add something real quick, maybe it'll spark a little conversation.

A lot of times we think of prayers being very official, right? So there's a, you know, it's almost like a letter to God that we're reading out to him about things that we are talking through or that are about the day or whatever. There's an opening, there's a pleading, and then there's kind of a closure. There's this term that stuck with me a long time ago, thinking God's thoughts after him. And as we do that in communion with him, I really think that prayer is not, it doesn't need to be an official entrance and exit and beginning and closure.

It's simply thinking his thoughts after him and engaging him through the process, right? The more the word is on your heart, the more you're going to be thinking his thoughts, and as you're thinking those thoughts, you're beholding him. And as you do, you know, make requests, those are specific things, but you can be operating in a walk of faith where you're thinking his thoughts, and you're communing with him, you're abiding with him, and that's a prayerful state, I think.

Yeah, I think that's good. On top of that, that goes back to the Abba father, the intimacy. You know, you don't go into your dad, your earthly dad, with a letter and start off with a formal request and a formal ending and all that. Sure. You go in and talk to him as an individual, as a person.

And it's the intimacy, I think, that's the prayer, is that you're just constantly having Him before you. All the time I'm thinking about the Lord and all sorts of different situations. So yeah, I agree, it's not the formal prayer like, we start this meeting or end this meeting. I think it's to have the Lord before you and the Father before you in all parts of your day. And it's the intimacy that allows us to have that prayer, that communication with the Father and the Son. Yeah, and who is the one who facilitates that whole environment? We just went through that. The Holy Spirit. Yeah, that's exactly right. So here we are back to where we started, and that is a dependence upon the Holy Spirit to do what he says he's going to do.

What did he say he would do? The Lord Jesus said, look, I'm going to send a comforter and he's going to bring to mind everything that I've taught you. So it's his job to create and maintain this intimacy with the Lord Jesus on a basis of the Father to the Son or the Lord Jesus to us and back and forth. And there's a presence or an awareness of being united to Him that the Spirit fosters. That's what He's doing.

Formalized prayer is a total indication that the intimacy is turned off. Because I don't think our Father wants us, if we're a son, You know, like you say, Courtney, I don't want to go to my father and say, oh dear father, in a long pompous situation, and then maybe because I'm polite enough and pompous enough, he's going to hear me. No. He just wants me to talk to him.

Make all my requests known to him. Every single one of them. Even if I'm in a situation where it may even be sinful. Make all your requests known to him. Talk to him about everything. And that's what he will create and foster in a believer's heart, that there's never a time that you can't. There's always the opportunity, always... Is that the first or second one? Is that the second bell? It's your first one. How many minutes I got? One? A couple. We'll give you a couple. We'll cut you some slack. Okay.

I was just going to say, Mike, there is one time when you can't pray. Well, maybe a couple times when you're operating a machine or any kind of thing where your eyes need to be open. Yeah. Because you have to keep your eyes closed when you pray. Why? You must pray a lot in bed at night. Don't pray while you're driving. Yeah, don't pray while you're driving, JD. That's right.

I pray a lot at night. I'm kind of half awake and I find myself praying about different things and then I fall back asleep again. I figure that's just what the Lord has got me thinking about and praying about. Everything that comes into my mind in those times is always praying about somebody or something that's happening. Like I found myself this week praying about Ethan. I respond when I see the emails, but every once in a while he's on my mind. talk to the Lord about him, that he'd comfort him, and that the transplant would take. That's my wish, but I also look at him and say, well, if that's not what you want to do, that's okay with me. You do want to comfort everybody involved in the circumstance, but whatever you want to do is okay with me.

All right, we've got to quit. Courtney rang the bell. So I didn't quite finish. We've got a couple of questions to go. I'll send out, we'll get to going with the rest of this and then on to 53 next week. And so anyway, thanks for attending. And it was a great discussion. I really appreciate it. So let's pray. You know, OK, go ahead. Afterwards, don't everybody disappear. OK.

Thank you, Father, for this opportunity to, again, spend time in your Word. We're so grateful, and to fellowship with one another and the input we get. We recognize that your Spirit works through every one of us, and we're thankful for that. We pray in your Son's precious name. Amen.