DONE 210926 Romans: The Christian is to be like Christ

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|INTRODUCTION|

The constant theme of the Christian, is to be like Christ, to have Christlike characteristics

One of His characteristics - that is utterly repulsive to the world is His humility PAUSE He humbled Himself by becoming a man. .. Think of what that must have been like… PAUSE… , to have been perfect in power, omnipotent and then to wrap Himself with the frail human body of a fragile baby, constrained in space and time, weakened by hunger, thirst and every other limitation. Think of what that must have been like, knowing full well what His purpose was and patiently waiting 30 years to fulfill it in the Father’s perfect timing. Limiting Himself to the leading of the Spirit. Restricting Himself to following every law, every rule, every regulation and tradition… Think about His humility.

It was His humility that marked His life as He walked throughout Israel, preaching of the coming Kingdom of God. |VERSE| Matthew 8:20 | 20 Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Homelessness, travel weariness, surrounded by wounded ,broken, sick, sin damaged humanity that's where He spent His time on earth. His humility marked the end of His life as well. He prayed in Gethsemane, |VERSE| Luke 22:42 | 42 saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

The Humility of Christ is monumental, massive, immeasurable.

Where is the indolence, pride and self-seeking domineering that is so normal we virtually always expect our leaders to exhibit it? Where is pugnacious, belligerent attitude? As Christ hung on the cross dying for those that hated Him, what were His words? |VERSE|

Luke 23.34 “But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

He said this while the Roman soldiers were tearing at His clothes and the Jews were mocking Him. He said, Himself that He could call 12,000 angels down to do whatever He wanted but yet, this most selfless, gracious GodMan gave up His life for you and for me. To achieve a perfect form of righteousness for us that God would never turn away, never say, “that’s not good enough...” or deny.

God accepted His perfect, humble, selfless sacrifice and I was declared right in God’s eyes because I believe that it is available for me. |VERSE|

John 3:16 | 16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

|INTRODUCTION|

The constant theme of the Christian’s life is to be like Christ. To be Christlike and have His characteristics. We are to be like our Savior in our interactions with His Church and with those that do not know Him in broader society. We are to be like Christ in our interactions with authority. |INTRODUCTION| We are to be like Christ in our interactions with the Father, submitting to His will. When we do this, when we act like Christ in our interactions with other believers, with broader society, with authority when we do this we enhance our testimony, showing we truly believe God’s Word.

|MAIN POINT| The main point of this message today is taken from 1 Peter 2:17 | 17 Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

As Christ followers we are to obey these commandments and we are going to see how that plays out in the book of Romans today. But before we go any further let’s go to prayer. |SLIDE|

PRAYER

Sovereign God, You have control over all things. You hold dominion over all of Your creation. You have ordained that Your grace and mercy be exhibited through the lives of the believer. SLOW You have seen fit to provide living breathing testimonials through the lives of Your servants to show the reality of our faith. This is not an easy task that You have given us. It’s a hard one, impossible really even. Having tried to manifest Christlike characteristics we know how difficult it can be. We cannot muscle it into reality, we are unable to. We believe that You require it in the Christian’s life and we believe that You have provided us with the Spirit of Christ to make it so.

Give us Christlike qualities, even if the cost is trials and testing and hardship because we want to be like our Savior. May those whom we love will see the reality of our faith in You as a result. May they come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and into the reality of relationship with You. You have required this of us, so make it so in our life for Your glory and exaltation. May all the world find our testimony true because of what You do in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

SERMON

PAUSE GET YOUR MIND RIGHT

Turn with me if you would to Romans chapter 12.

The context of the today’s message is this. |CONTEXT|

Paul is writing to the Roman church approximately 23 years after the crucifixion. |CONTEXT 1| In Chapters 1-8 He has elaborated on the doctrine of Salvation. He has shown humanities need for righteousness and he has also shown how it can be imputed or ascribed to the believer. |CONTEXT 2| In Chapters 9-11 Paul discusses the unbelief of the Israel and their rejection of Christ and the hope of future salvation in the last days… |CONTEXT 3| Now in chapters 12-16 Paul is teaching on the implications of the Gospel in the lives of the believer, what our conduct should look like).

Now that we have embraced Christ’s freely offered righteousness, how then should we live? Now that we are saved what should our life look like?”

Well, our life should like a sacrifice. A giving up of ourselves to the Lord. Romans 12 verse 1 |SLIDE|

I. The Believer's Life is a Sacrifice (12:1-2)

A. The believer's spiritual service of worship (12:1)

Romans 12:1-2 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

LONG PAUSE.... LET IT SETTLE INTO THEIR MIND....

This is what Christ did on the cross, He gave Himself up for you and me… He gave Himself up for poor, depraved, rebellious people that hated Him. Believer, having now entered into the body of Christ, you are called to emulate Christ. You are called to give up your prerogatives, your desires, your selfwill and present Yourself as Christ did. This is how we worship God in an acceptable fashion.

We do not worship God to the fullest and highest measure when our emotions are moved by powerful music or through hearing a great sermon. No, our fullest and highest worship is through daily sacrificing ourselves to God.

Living out His will. Verse 2 |SLIDE|

B. The believer is to live out the will of God (12:2)

2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

What is God’s will for our lives? What does God have in mind for us, now that we have been made new in Christ?

His will, His desire is that we present our bodies as a sacrifice to Him, conforming ourselves to Christ, becoming more and more and more like His Son and resisting this world’s insistence that we go with the flow. God’s will is that we have our mind renewed, changed, made different and alive by Him. What is the will of God? God’s will is that we do that which is good, and acceptable and perfect.

God’s word speaks plenty about His will, it is not a mystery. It is not something unknown that we have to search the heavens for an answer. If we want to know the will of God we have just to turn to His word and we can see what His will is. Plenty of passages talk about it.

God’s will is our sanctification, our submission and our service. Here are just a couple of verses |SLIDE| God’s will is our sanctification, meaning being set apart and being different than the world - not being driven along by our lusts. |SLIDE| God’s will is our submission, submission to those that He has placed over us. |SLIDE| God’s will is that we eagerly serve those that we have been entrusted with.

What is God’s will? Doing that which is good, and acceptable, and perfect in our service, submission and sanctification - that’s what God’s will is.

In order to do this we are going to have to think intentionally and clearly about how we interact with other believers

Verse 3 |SLIDE|

II. Our Conduct in Ministry (12:3-12)

A. The believer is to think clearly (12:3-5)

3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. 4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Our conduct amongst our fellow believers is not to be defined by pride, arrogance, pugnaciousness but by unity and love. This morning during Communion we looked at that. These things arrogance, being pompous and presumptuous are by products of insanity, craziness and they do not flow from clear thinking.

Let’s think clearly for a moment. It is good to be reminded of what true humility looks like... Humility is not putting on a sad face and moping around saying, “oh, I am so terrible...” Humility is not a self induced despondent attitude. No, those ideas those are a truly perverted form of pride and self focus which is not real humility.

True humility is understanding our situation in comparison to Christ. That because of His sacrifice we have been bought with precious blood which was freely offered as a gift so that no one could ever brag about how great they were. Christians are not so great because of their merit or because of their ability or their spiritual gifting.

A truly humble Christian knows that apart from Christ we could never extract ourselves from our own sin. A truly humble Christian knows, that they were dead in trespasses and yet Christ saved us. True humility is seeing ourselves clearly in relationship with Christ and with each other. We are all sinners, desperately in need of grace and kindness. Desperately in need of ministry and service.

And if we are thinking clearly, humbly, we will desire to serve our Lord through serving His people whom He loved to death. Verse 6 |SLIDE|

B. The believer is to exercise their spiritual gifts (12:6-8)

6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; 7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; 8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

God has granted the believer such incredible favor, not only to be saved from sin, not just to be redeemed from the eternal consequences of rebellion against Him but also the favor of serving Him and His people. PAUSE

All believers have received at least one spiritual gift. If you claim the name of Christ you have been entrusted with at least one gift to steward and use and maximize the use of.

This is not an exhaustive list in verses 6-8 is just a snippet, there are others in 1st Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4 for example… So don’t think you are limited to just these. God’s word just says, since you have a gift, use it. Maximize it, develop it and employ it to show that you are like Christ.

If you do this, if you maximize the use of your spiritual gift - while you are thinking clearly, then your exercise of your spiritual gifts is a joy, not a drudgery. If you can remember that you are only here by the grace of God then serving others becomes such a blessing - because you were made for your unique role. God made you just for this purpose and you will find your supreme pleasure doing just what God made you to do.

Verse 9 |SLIDE|

READ SO SLOWLY

C. The believer's attitude in ministry (12:9-13)

9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; 11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, 13 contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.

PAUSE

Again, the Christian’s job is to look like Christ, to have an attitude like Christ. The Christian’s job is to offer themselves up as a spiritual sacrifice of worship to the Lord. The Christian’s order is to think clearly like Christ and to honor God in our interactions with other believers....

But, outside these four walls are others. Others who do not know the Lord. Others who are unsaved, still in trespasses and sins. It is all fine to discuss being kind with other believers but what about society in general? What should our conduct be like toward them?

Well, in summary, we are to do good and refrain from evil... |SLIDE|

III. Our Conduct in Society (12:14-21)

A. The believer is to do good (12:14-18)

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16 Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. 17 Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. 18 READ SLOW If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Wow, what an amazingly contrarian command. So counterintuitive, so against everything that we would expect...

So far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Forego your rights, give up your prerogatives, forfeit your entitlements, surrender your privileges. Give it all up, so that the world can see Christ in you

If we are thinking clearly, humbly, if we are offering our up our lives as a spiritual service of worship we are going to look so different than the world.

Because of Christ we have a reason to do good and because of Christ we have a reason to refrain from evil… Verse 19 |SLIDE|

B. The believer is refrain from evil (12:19-21)

19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

A little perspective, while we are thinking clearly. |APPLICATION SLIDE|

The wrath of God is of a far higher caliber than any petty retaliation or payback we can imagine and those that are perishing ought to be pitied. When they wrong us, when they prove Christ’s words to be true from John 15:8, that we will be hated for Christ’s sake what do you think God will do? Will He sit idly by? He loved us enough to send His own Son to die for us. The Father and Son endured such a magnitude of suffering to redeem us and set us free! His love for us is so incredible, what do you think will happen to those that injure, harm or wrong us?

Their agony over millennia will be far worse than anything you can conjure. You must pity them because even after 200 hundred years of torture in hell they will not have finished drinking the wrath of God

Two further thoughts for your consideration… |APPLICATION SLIDE|

If we spend our idle moments daydreaming of hurting others that have wronged us, if we practice that extremely unhealthy habit then we may be in jeopardy. If we are unwilling to extend forgiveness to others then God will not forgive us - Jesus said so in Matthew 6:15. Our unwillingness to forgive and reconcile with others proves that we do not understand God’s grace and we are in need of deep repentance and sorrow.

|APPLICATION SLIDE|

Perhaps we can say, “well, I haven’t seen any persecution. The world hasn’t shown me any ill will. I don’t have any enemies.” SPEAK SLOWLY.... If the world doesn’t hate us, then perhaps it is because we are indistinguishable from everyone else. There is no need to hate us, we are just the same as they are, we are not holding back those that are perishing, we are neither an asset to Christ nor a liability to satan we are lukewarm, unusable and ready to be rejected. If there is no persecution in our life consider whether or not there would be, if you looked like Christ...

The Christian is to look like Christ. In our service, in our submission and in our sanctification. The Christian is to look like Christ in our interactions with believers and with unbelievers, with the church and with those in authority.

Verse 1 of chapter 13. The believer’s subordination to Authority

|SLIDE|

IV. Our Conduct Toward Authority (13:1-7)

A. The believer's subordination to authority (13:1-4)

1 Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. 3 For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; 4 for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

If we are to look like Christ, what does that look like with regard to authority?

It looks like a submissive attitude. It looks like a humble posture. Christ is King, He is omnipotent in power and yet, He humbled Himself by taking the form, the lowest form, the form of a bondservant. He humbled Himself before evil earthly authority to the point of death.

If we are to look like Christ will our lives look any different?

You say, “our government is evil,” yes. “It is incompetent,” yes. “It is ineffective, unjust, corrupt and cruel,” Yes… what does that have to do with anything. Does that impact our orders, at all? No, no it does not...

What did Christ do? He subjected Himself to the most barbarous and torturous death. He humiliated Himself to be spat upon… Believer, it is time to look like Christ. It is time to enhance our testimony by proving through our conduct that we truly believe God’s Word to the point of obeying its commands. To the point of obeying it in our life regardless of whether it is comfortable or neutral. Verse 5

|SLIDE|

B. The believer is to give to all what is their due (13:5-7)

5 Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. 7 Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.

Tough words to hear I know. But good words. When Christians show humility by submitting to God ordained authority, we enhance our testimony and remove fear from our lives.

Submission to authority is a supremely Christlike characteristic; believers, as Christ followers, are to cultivate and demonstrate submission in order to enhance our testimony, avoid a troubled conscience and remove fear from our lives. This glorifies God, which is what Christ did.

Now, a final point of clarification before I begin to wrap up… Does this passage mean that if the government orders us to reject the Lord we do it. No, Peter said it so clearly in the temple after Pentecost.

Acts 5:29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

That is our standing order as well. We must obey God rather than men… When the government or authorities that He has ordained demand that we disobey Him, that is when we may reject their commands, but not until then.

As we close let’s hear just a little bit more from Peter. Turn if you would to

1 Peter 2:13–19 | 13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, 14 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. 15 For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. 16 Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God. 17 Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. 18 Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. 19 For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.

|CONCLUSION|

In conclusion, I just want to hit a couple of points again. Christians are to look like Christ.

Christ came, not in pomp but in humility. His life and death were marked by deference to God’s will and obedience to it. The Christian is to emulate Christ’s example of obeying the will of God.

We discussed what the will of God was, that which was good, acceptable and perfect, in our sanctification, submission and service.

We also talked about some fairly provocative ideas.

That God’s wrath was greater than any petty revenge we could take. That failing to forgive others is an indicator that we have either forgotten or do not understand God’s forgiveness toward us. Lastly, we noted that if we fail to see any persecution in our lives it could be because we don’t look like Christ enough to warrant it.

We closed with a bit of clarification that in all our obedience of those in authority over us we must never disobey God. He is our King and worthy of our obedience and honor.

Please stand with me and I will close in prayer.