Lesson 59ac & begin 15:8-13 Lesson 60a
Romans 15:1-7 · JD McCulley · Oct 25, 2020
Romans (2018-21), No. 135
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261920455855

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

For those of you that are joining in and haven't been in the class the last several weeks, we've been in chapter 15 of Romans, verses 1 through 7. It's our lesson 59. 59.1, 59.2, 59.3, 59.4. I'd like to attribute the fact that our lesson has gone so long because these verses are so pertinent for the day.

Um, we've been, we've been dealing with some very challenging thoughts, um, with regards to, uh, what Paul had to say, um, or has to say and, and, and how it relates to the, to the world we live in today. So, um, ultimately we're talking about the strong believer, um, and the weak believer. wherever you find yourself thinking you are, we've determined based on the scripture that it has to do with your understanding of the word. what you understand of the word and the liberties that you may have. And we've refused to call it the gray areas. And I don't like that term. These are not gray areas. God doesn't have gray areas. There's freedoms. Absolutely, there are freedoms. But he never intended there to be, this is open for interpretation.

No. Um, that's the Lord says, you know, your understanding of my word and your, your ability to, um, believe that. I think it's not just an understanding to Courtney's point. It has to do with your faith in that you understand it and then you believe it. Um, and that. the more limited you are in that understanding and that belief determines your strength or your weakness as a believer.

So we've gone through a number of questions. I'm going to wrap up the last two. I really do want Courtney to have an opportunity to to tell us what he has in mind today. But, you know, I left off with with question number eight, and I'm going to reread it. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it. We did cover it in half, but I want to make sure that that that we kind of button this one up. So question number eight says, how does a believer enter into being and quote, being of the same mind with one another, according to Jesus Christ?

So. Same mind. Do we all think each of us are of the same mind? What unites us is the mind of Christ. That's really good, Mike. You're exactly right. Does that work all the time? No. No. No. Why? Because we're selfish, all of us. where we have the self, like humans. We use the term, and you're exactly right, I think, Mike. We use the term, Christ in me has no problem with Christ in you. So why do we have a problem? It's lack of faith in what the Word tells us. We don't believe it a lot of times, or we don't follow it.

Okay. Anybody disagree? Or there's divisions over interpretations. There is, that's right. I think when it comes down to it, it's possible to have the mind of Christ and to be of the same mind as this verse talks about. Now does that mean, and we briefly touched on this last week, does that mean that you agree about every single thing? with another believer. We're talking strong-weak, right? Let's not get too big here. We're talking about the strong and the weak believer.

I spent a good portion of my evening last night talking to a friend who is convinced that he, and he comes from a Catholic, he's Catholic, he's convinced that He's unconvinced, which is kind of funny. He's unconvinced that he is saved. There's got to be something that he can lend to it. Now, is he a believer? We talked through the gospel. We talked through the death, burial, and resurrection, and the non-meritorious act of faith. it was, he was very confused. He thought that there has to be something more, there's got to be something more. So how do I how do I respond to him? As a, in this case, and I'll, you know, claim it in this case, the stronger believer to the weaker believer, how can we be of the same mind? How do I go about that?

Through the word, possibly? That's what I did. Well, it might take a while to break through the conditioning and teaching that someone might receive in that kind of church. I can attest to that personally. So it's just a matter of being consistent and coming alongside the person and checking in with them and, you know, No, I think you're exactly right. So there were two things that kind of came to the top of mind as I was dealing with this conversation. One is, this is going to take time.

You're wrapped up in a number of things that aren't grounded in the Word of God. And so that was the second thing is, here are the scriptures that communicate the things that you're dealing with. So I bring this up not to necessarily communicate my own, you know, life through this, these kinds of things, but more so to say that we as stronger believers or weaker believers, that The desire of Paul and the communication here in the book of Romans chapter 15 is that we have the same mind. That's where we're headed.

And it brings us to question number nine. And the question is, what is the purpose of this oneness of mind in Christ Jesus? What's the purpose of it? Why do we need one mind? It sounds crazy to a lot of people. It's like, you got to have your own mind. You got to be free to think your own thoughts. you know, especially during an election year. It's like, you know, you got to get out there and express your own opinions, your own thoughts. So here Paul's talking about oneness of mind in verse six, one voice. What's going on here? What do you think? Wouldn't that be a leap to communion and union?

Yeah, I think I think this also comes back to almost in the faith class when we have the unity of faith. One of the aspects of faith. It's the unity of faith in the word, faith in Christ. That's what this oneness of mind brings us, is that unity. It's like when you go and you travel and you know you run into believers. You immediately have that unity or that ability or that just different relationship. So, I think part of that is just the idea of faith, that we all have the same faith in the same Lord, same God, and His word.

That's really what it's coming to, is we have that one mind of Christ that brings us to unity. then trickles down into everything else we were talking about the stronger believer helping the weaker believer all those different things that um when you come across a like what you were talking about you you have a uh catholic friend you bring you come beside him and you bring the word again our our frustration is we want you know fast food microwave do it now have a result today That's our usual frustration is we want them to obviously know the truth and we want them to know it right now. But I mean, but it's again, it's a loving unity of faith, I guess is what the big term that I got. I really like that.

Yeah. Is it is it partly to because we're all members of one body and in we all want to be kind of going in the same direction and I don't know. I mean, if we're all going in different directions, then we're not much of one body, are we? Yeah, no, I totally agree.

And I'm going to quote a guy that I heard recently. When it comes to the mind of Christ, there's unity in the essentials, liberty in the non-essentials, and charity in all things. What do you think about that, David? Am I the only David? Yeah. Well, I think that that's a very wise way to look at certain things.

Like, I know I agree with what you said earlier about, you know, there are no real true gray areas when it comes to truth. But when it comes to that, I believe is talking about the essentials of the faith. In order to be able to have fellowship with another believer, there's just a handful of things, I believe, that you have to believe in, it's a saying, if you're going to have the mind of Christ on anything. You know that Jesus is God, that scriptures are inerrant in their original form, and that And you're saved by, you know, there's only a handful of things, I think. There's lots of other things that people can think that you won't be in agreement on, and we gotta be okay to disagree.

And that's where that maturity level comes in. Because to me, the stronger brother they're talking about is the more mature brother or sister. Not that they're strong, you know. They lift weights. They're weak in Christ, you know. But, so we are to let other people have the liberty to follow how God's leading them in certain areas, like drinking. You know, if God's telling somebody it's okay for them to drink, who am I to try to be the Holy Spirit in their lives? And that's a great, that's one of those gray areas that...

We're not talking about the truth of the scripture, but just the liberty that we have in Christ. Yeah, and I've just chosen to use the term liberty versus gray just so that There's not that confusion about the fact that God doesn't care about this. But He provides liberty here. The liberty with the mind of Christ.

So it's always governed by who we are in Him, in His life. It doesn't give us a free passage. you know, or or open up an area where he's not concerned. It just means that he's going to work with you, potentially different in a way that is that that looks, you know, quite, well, different to the other person that we're in different places.

Right. And I think that's important. I'm going to go to your question. Go ahead. Like you said, JD, I think it has a lot to do with learning the Lord's patience and his timing. I was I was going to talk today if I was going to talk today. from Chester McCauley.

I'm working on the first Corinthians chapter six where we are on main service talking about about how do you how do you deal with freedom? You know, I'm I'm a it's lawful for me to do anything everything but it's not expedient. It's lawful I won't be controlled by anything. The point that he made was that scripture tells us precisely what we shouldn't be doing. Sinning, of course. And scripture tells us precisely a few things that we should be doing.

But for the most part, for the Christian, there's this liberty there that you can make up your own mind. And the making up of your own mind, I think, fits with what we're talking about here. As you know the Word of God better and the mind of Christ is part of what you're in tune to and you do spend time in God's Word and the Spirit of God is active in you, you can make decisions that are in line with the Spirit of God a lot. You can talk to your brothers who are on the same wavelength. together sometimes the decision is made because they may have an insight into some question you have that you don't have.

Mike, the weaker believer would be under law whereas the stronger under grace and the weaker believer needs to hear the grace. Yeah, and you know, Paul said prior to these verses in chapter six that the stronger believer is to walk beside the weaker believer, and the weaker believer is not to be judging the stronger believer. So Courtney and I have had a lot of discussions about this issue, and we've decided we're going to walk along each other. We've done that in many instances.

And I guess I would say, I guess I would say it wouldn't always be law based. It may be just not, not knowledge. Yeah. Lack of understanding. So yeah, it's like I'm understanding. It's not just law based and what you have to do. It's just you, they just don't know.

And it's incumbent upon you as a stronger brother to bring them up in the word. Right. But that stronger, um, the stronger we know knowledge, But the stronger may know that it's time to keep his mouth shut. Right. And I should do that. The weaker and the strong believer are both under grace. Yes. But the weaker believer might not be aware of it. Good point. Yeah, we got a enthusiastic thumbs up from Russ on that one. The thing about me when I was first saved, boy, when I heard a little grace, man, I was right there. I wanted to be around that dude. Yeah. Grace is infectious.

Let's let's do question It says, verse 7 says, therefore accept one another just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. And here's the question, is acceptance on the basis of who Christ is and has done? Is that the basis for acceptance? Always, isn't it? It's always in Christ.

What unites us? Our minds, the mind of Christ. Yeah, our belief in what? The truth of the gospel. There's definitely more truths beyond that, but it's all founded in that central truth. Death, burial, resurrection, and it was for you and your sin. And he did it for you. Amen, brother. Yeah. The essentials of the faith that David mentioned. That's what we need to be united in. That's right. That's right.

I'm going to read this little last passage, and then I'm going to pass off the last 10 minutes here to Courtney. I keep wanting to call you Ingrid, because you're signed in as Ingrid. Yeah. I have her computer, and then I'm using mine so I can get my notes. I have the dueling computers here. He's way prettier than he is. She's in the dark background here. I see you back there. United we stand. That's right. We're soldiers. Listen to this and see if you agree.

Certainly, Christ did not receive souls for settling points of difference. He who died and rose for us is above the controversies and the suspicions and the self-importance of men. Our best wisdom, and this is key, our best wisdom is to worship and serve him who glorified God here below and is now you're glorifying him on high but wisdom is to worship him and you know, but most people don't know what worship is. Well, we at Holly Hills definitely know what that is, right? Because we're not confused and they got their spiritual antennas up. You know, JD, you're talking about the the the center of everything you do and everything that you are.

Allow him, I think maybe. Allow him and recognize from the word that he's recreated us in Christ so that we can do that. If you're not in Christ, there's no way you can glorify God in any respect. Amen, brother. I guess you know I got a Pentecostal background.

That's okay. as well. That's okay. Yeah. I'm just going to repeat. I like that quote. Who's that quote from JD? Um I'm going to check that one down. Alright, no problem. That word to glorify god is a is a I think that that comes that isn't really a serious I think after a while, you begin to realize, boy, what am I supposed to be doing? It isn't about my own spiritual growth or my this or my that. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's him. And glorify him, manifest his intrinsic attributes when and wherever he can do it through us. Yeah. I think that's Denny. Okay. Where that quote was from, yeah. All right. Okay, I'm going to fade into the background and let Ingrid, I mean Courtney.

Fade into the trees there, yeah. it will continue on its lesson sixty now and uh... you know it's a romans which has been awesome in it and for those of you who have not been in the class it has been incredibly powerful uh... what we've been seeing in thirteen fourteen and fifteen years of those are kind of a university uh... you know six seven eight are the real meat uh... and uh... christianity one oh one and now you know when you get in through uh...

You know, we transition from 9, go through 9, 10, 11, and 12, we're talking about Israel, and then we're into 13, 14, and 15 now, and how important that is during these times. We've talked about being subject to governments, authorities, and you know what we're going through right now with what the government is doing and face masks and restrictions and this and that and then you know with believers so this has been incredibly good it's and you know for those you haven't been i encourage you to read those chapters and think about what we're going through right now so Anyway, we're going through, on this lesson, chapter 15, 8 through 13, and I will read those, and then we'll get into the questions. So, beginning in verse 8 of chapter 15.

For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, and for the Gentiles to glorify God for his mercy. as it is written therefore i'll give praise to you among the gentiles and i will sing to your name and again he says rejoice oh gentiles with his people and again praise the lord all you gentiles and let all the peoples praise him and isaiah says there shall come the root of jesse and he who arises to rule over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles hope. And then 13, this is a verse I really, as we get further in the lesson, I really want to impact, and especially today as we go through all this stuff, put this in mind. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So Mike, as you're sitting in bed, in a hospital bed, think of that verse. Oh, it's cool. I really like it. I mean, when you're going through and we have COVID and we have restrictions and we have all these different things going on, Look at that verse and see what that means today. And we'll unpack that. And there's so much in verse 13. So I encourage you to look through that. And as we get to those verses, it's incredibly powerful and incredibly germane or pertinent. I got accused by my kids of using germane too many times. So pertinent to today.

First question, verses eight and nine. How does Christ coming to the Gentiles glorify God for his mercy? So that's in verse eight. For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, and for the Gentiles to glorify God for his mercy, as it is written. So, I guess I wanted to start out first.

How did Christ come? Did Paul say Christ came as a king or a messiah? The powerful king that the Jews were looking for? Came as a baby. Came as a baby. The Jew. Came as a servant. Yes. That's the important part. He came as a servant. Now, is this what the Jews were looking for? Did they think, oh, this is a guy, he's a servant, that's what I wanted. They were looking for something so far different than what is expressed in this verse, that he came as a servant. And in this, his first coming, he came as a servant. And so I always put myself in the perspective of the audience he's talking about, or talking to, Paul is. So these are the Jews, and he's now saying that Christ came as a servant.

And this has got to floor him a little bit, that, what do you mean he's a servant? He's not the king, he's not the one who's gonna get rid of these pesky Romans. He's not gonna get rid of all this, what, what? So the perspective is, you know, they have, through their whole life that the Messiah was going to come and save them. Now, Paul is saying he came as a servant.

So, the verse states that Christ became a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers. So, I said, for the Jews, Christ was a servant for the sake of God's truth, God's faithfulness, his veracity, and to confirm the promises given to the fathers.

So he was to do all that to confirm the truths. So I guess the question is, were there similar promises given to the Gentiles? Doesn't the mercy is revealed through Israel, whereas Israel sees the promises in the circumcision or the Gentiles? He confirms all the promises, but the question is, did he have something similar? Because he confirmed all that was in the scriptures.

If we go to Galatians 3.25, where it says that all of the law and everything was to point to Christ. And then once Christ come, we have no need of the law. That would be great. So that's all the pointing to and answering to the Jews, confirming it. But was there a similar promise to the Gentiles? The answer is no. That's right. There wasn't anything like that. Thank you, Russ. What's that? I said, thank you, Russ.

As far as Christ coming to the Gentiles and misdisplaying his mercy, doesn't that have to do with the fact he came to the Gentiles so freely? There were no covenants involved like there were with the Jews. And that's kind of what I was getting at. So what is the difference for the Gentiles versus the confirming promises given to Israel? And that's kind of it. It's different than the Jews, which had all these, you know, the scriptures, they were the chosen, all of these different things.

And then it came to the Gentiles. And so, it's reflected in for the Gentiles to glorify God for his mercy. So, it's talking about his mercy, which we received. We didn't have all the other things, but he came to us. And so, I guess the point is, it was a lot different to the audience of the Gentiles because they didn't have all the other, not baggage, but all the other things that the jews had in their history and and they're uh bringing up some people so now it's really the gentiles really had the promise of of this mercy that's what they had and that's we have is we were never under the law we were never under any of those things but uh we when christ came he exhibited just his mercy to us by again we say we're by grace through faith And it wasn't confirming all these different things about what happened to Israel and what's going to happen to Israel. Ours was by mercy. And so for the Gentiles, we glorify God for his mercy. So, well, through salvation, we have received mercy. Right, so the Gentiles get the, we have the mercy.

It's not confirming any history that he, the real promises about what was going to go on with the Gentiles. There are several verses that we'll see that in the Old Testament refer to the Gentiles as, but it wasn't the same, really the history and about the chosen people. So it's a different avenue that Paul's kind of going here with. Just the mercy that's expressed to the Gentiles, where all of what Christ did confirmed what the prophets and the old Israelites had seen in scripture.

It's just a different aspect for us. We get the mercy. We don't have all the other confirming things about the history. And in verses 9 through 12, we're going to get into a lot of different Old Testament scriptures. And so question 2 in verses 9 through 12, who do the verses refer to, and is there a progression in the verses? So I'll read them again.

As it is written, therefore, I'll give praise to you among the Gentiles, and I'll sing to your name. And again, he says, do so, Gentiles, with his people. And again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him. And again, Isaiah says, there shall come the root of Jesse, and he who rises to rule over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles hope.

So, in verse nine, who is giving praise and to whom? In verse nine. The Gentiles are praising God. Now, what does it say? Who is praising God? Christ himself. Christ himself. That's right. So Christ is giving praise to God from among the Gentiles. So he's giving praise. Christ is the one giving praise here. Well, that's all about the eternal covenant, right?

Right. That's the beginning. And that's right. Like I said, Newell brings this out. I hadn't really looked at it until he brought this out and how the progression goes. Because the very first thing is Christ giving praise to God. So that's the first set of verses that we get. And then in verse 10, who is now the focus of the praise and the rejoicing? It's a little tricky, but go ahead and see who's now the focus of this. That's where we're entering to the eternal covenant.

No, read the verse. Gentile. With his people. People. Yeah. His peoples are the Jews. That's right. So now, it's a little different. Now in verse 10, Gentiles join in with all his people, who is Israel. So the focus is now on Israel. The Gentiles join in, but it's all his people. It's talking about all his people. So, and the progression is just like scripture, as the eternal covenant and Christ giving praise to God. And now we go to the Gentiles with all his people. So the focus is really on all his people, which when in scripture that refers to Israel. So moving on into verse 11, now what is it?

And there's a slight twist in this that it's one word that gives it a little difference. All peoples? What's that? All peoples. Yeah. All peoples. The Gentiles with all peoples. What's missing there? It's not referring to what? His people. It's now all people. So it's a little nuance there, but the Gentiles with all the people. So this is everybody else. This is everybody else now. So it's not his people, but it's all peoples.

So, the progression is kind of interesting in these verses when you really lay it out as Christ first praising God, and then you have the Israel, and now the Gentiles. And that's how, you know, when you look at how scripture lays out, it's, you know, Christ praising God first eternally, the eternal trinity, and then it moves to Israel, and now to the Gentiles. And that's how they progress through, you know, from scripture and then in these. These verses ultimately, at the end, validate Christ's ministry to the Gentiles. I'm getting a buzz here. Getting the bell. Brian, you're supposed to be ringing the bell now.

We'll proceed in next lesson in verse 12 in question three. But yeah, I encourage you to really think about if you have time and if you're in class next week, we'll start getting into verse 13 in a lot more detail. But I really think in this time and as you're sitting in a hospital bed or you're sitting in quarantine or you're masked up running around and doing all these things, Ask yourself the question of verse 13. Are you abounding in joy? And some of those things. So I encourage you as we get into next week, we'll talk about that and how, again, pertinent it is to today and how we relate. And just there are a lot of cool things in verse 13 as we unpack it. So let's close with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, we just thank you again, just who you are. Beginning with the Eternal Covenant, and again, just your abundant love for your creation, and that you want no one to perish, and you have that eternal love for each and every one of us who are believers, and as seen in the Romans 8, where you have an eternal love for us that we can never be separated from. As we go through these tumultuous times in 2020, and we realize that you're a sovereign God, that you're in control of all this, even in all this, chaos and what's going on, you're using it for your purposes to draw people to your son and also to ultimately glorify you. So we rest in that fact and have a peace and rest that the world cannot have through any worldly avenues. So we thank you as your children in Christ. We thank you for, again, the peace and rest that we get through you. We just pray for Roger as he gives the message in the next meeting. Again, we pray throughout this day that all that we say and do will honor and glorify you. We do all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.