“Spiritual Growth, Part 25” by Romans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy21vd6jSps
Tonight, we are continuing in and finally concluding our Series, Spiritual Growth with this 25th Installment. We have seen over the previous weeks and months various components that contribute to our Spiritual Growth. God calls on us to add some components to our lives, and, as we have also seen, there are things that we need to put away in order to grow.
Our first component, tonight, is that Spiritual Growth involves Friendship: Ecclesiates 4:9-10: “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.”
Think of this chat room and the various ministries that are carried out here: besides the friendships that have been developed, there are coaches and accountability partners... You are living examples of being there for that person who has fallen, and in so doing have seen to it that he or she is not alone, and that he or she does have “another to help him up.” And I thank you all for that labor of love, and remind you that God will not forget it.
Galatians 6:2: “Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” Of this, Adam Clarke writes, “Bear ye one another’s burdens - Have sympathy; feel for each other; and consider the case of a distressed brother as your own.
And so fulfill the law of Christ - That law or commandment, Ye shall love one another; or that, Do unto all men as ye would they should do unto you. We should be as indulgent to the infirmities of others, as we can be consistently with truth and righteousness: our brother’s infirmity may be his burden; and if we do not choose to help him to bear it, let us not reproach him because he is obliged to carry the load.”
Also, regarding friendship, Jesus said in Jesus said in John 15:13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” But I want you to keep this in mind: Jesus said, “Greater love hath no MAN, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus did not apply this to Himself for two reasons: First, He was not merely a man: He was God in human flesh, 100% God and 100% man.
Second, when He laid down His life, we were not His friends! Notice in Romans 5:6-7 “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” That was all of us... that was each of us before we met Jesus... before we accepted His sacrifice. We were the ungodly... sinners... not friends, but enemies! And also in Romans 5:10: “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”
With that in mind, let's read again Jesus' words to us and about us in John 15:13: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Albert Barnes writes this, touching on the complete picture: “No higher expression of love could be given. Life is the most valuable object we possess; and when a man is willing to lay that down for his friends or his country, it shows the utmost extent of love.
Even this love for friends has been rarely witnessed. It greatly enhances the love of Christ, that while the instances of those who have been willing to die for friends have been so rare, he was willing to die for enemies - bitter foes, who rejected his reign, persecuted him, reviled him, scorned him, and sought his life, 1 John 4:10; Romans 5:6 and Romans 5:10.
It also shows us the extent of his love that he gave himself up, not to common sufferings, but to the most bitter, painful, and protracted sorrows, not for himself, not for friends, but for a thoughtless and unbelieving world. “O Lamb of God, was ever pain was ever love like thine!”
We are told in Ephesians 2, and beginning in Verse 10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us...”
That invisible wall, separated Jew from Gentile was removed being pictured by the veil of the Temple being ripped in half from the top down showing that it was initiated by God, and not by men. But let's finish Paul's complete thought in Romans 5, it is as if Paul was commenting on what Jesus said regarding laying down one's life for your friends, Paul adds the following in Verse 7:
“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him...
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”
We have now been atoned to the Father through the love, the Life, the Death and the Resurrection to Life Eternal of Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of His flock, and the Author and Finisher of our faith.
Jesus gave us this overarching statement regarding how our friendship should be lived: “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12-13).
Alexander MacLaren writes of this: “John 13:34-35: ‘AS I HAVE LOVED’: Wishes from dying lips are sacred. They sink deep into memories and mould faithful lives. The sense of impending separation had added an unwonted tenderness to our Lord’s address, and He had designated His disciples by the fond name of ‘little children.’ The same sense here gives authority to His words, and moulds them into the shape of a command.
The disciples had held together because He was in their midst. Will the arch stand when the keystone is struck out? Will not the spokes fall asunder when the nave of the wheel is taken away? He would guard them from the disintegrating tendencies that were sure to set in when He was gone;
and He would point them to a solace for His absence, and to a kind of substitute for His presence. For to love the brethren whom they see would be, in some sense, a continuing to love the Christ whom they had ceased to see. And so, immediately after He said: ‘Whither I go ye cannot come,’ He goes on to say: ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’
He called this a ‘new commandment,’ though to love one’s neighbour as one’s self was a familiar commonplace amongst the Jews, and had a recognised position in Rabbinical teaching. But His commandment proposed a new object of love, it set forth a new measure of love, so greatly different from all that had preceded it as to become almost a new kind of love, and it suggested and supplied a new motive power for love.
This commandment ‘could give life’ and fulfil itself. Therefore it comes to us as a ‘new commandment’-even to us-and, unlike the words which preceded it, which we were considering in former sermons, it is wholly and freshly applicable to-day as in the ages that are passed. I ask you, first, to consider-
I. The new scope of the new commandment. ‘Love one another.’ The newness of the precept is realised, if we think for a moment of the new phenomenon which obedience to it produced. When the words were spoken, the then-known civilised Western world was cleft by great, deep gulfs of separation, like the crevasses in a glacier, by the side of which our racial animosities and class differences are merely superficial cracks on the surface.
Language, religion, national animosities, differences of condition, and saddest of all, difference of sex, split the world up into alien fragments. A ‘stranger’ and an ‘enemy’ were expressed in one language, by the same word. The learned and the unlearned, the slave and his master, the barbarian and the Greek, the man and the woman, stood on opposite sides of the gulfs, flinging hostility across.
All over the Empire a strange new sense of unity was being breathed, and ‘Barbarian, Scythian, bond and free,’ male and female, Jew and Greek, learned and ignorant, clasped hands and sat down at one table, and felt themselves ‘all one in Christ Jesus.’ They were ready to break all other bonds, and to yield to the uniting forces that streamed out from His Cross. There never had been anything like it.
No wonder that the world began to babble about sorcery, and conspiracies, and complicity in unnameable vices. It was only that the disciples were obeying the ‘new commandment,’ and a new thing had come into the world-a community held together by love and not by geographical accidents or linguistic affinities, or the iron fetters of the conqueror.
You sow the seed in furrows separated by ridges, and the ground is seamed, but when the seed springs the ridges are hidden, no division appears, and as far as the eye can reach, the cornfield stretches, rippling in unbroken waves of gold. The new commandment made a new thing, and the world wondered.
Now then, brethren, do not let us forget that, although to obey this commandment is in some respects a great deal harder to-day than it was then, the diverse circumstances in which Christian individuals and Christian communities are this day placed may modify the form of our obedience, but do not in the smallest degree weaken the obligation, for the individual Christian and for societies of Christians, to follow this commandment.
Every Christian man is under the obligation to recognise his kindred with every other Christian man-his kindred in the deep foundations of his spiritual being, which are far deeper, and ought to be far more operative in drawing together, than the superficial differences of culture or opinion or the like, which may part us.
The bond that holds Christian men together is their common relation to the one Lord, and that ought to influence their attitude to one another. You say I am talking commonplaces. Yes; and the condition of Christianity this day is the sad and tragical sign that the commonplaces need to be talked about, till they are rubbed into the conscience of the Church as they never have been before.
Do not let us suppose that Christian love is mere sentiment. I shall have to speak a word or two about that presently, but I would fain lift the whole subject, if I can, out of the region of mere unctuous words and gush of half-feigned emotion, which mean nothing, and would make you feel that it is a very practical commandment, gripping us hard, when our Lord says to us, ‘Love one another.’
In the measure in which we are filled with Jesus Christ, in that measure will that expression of His spirit and His life become natural to us. Every Christian has affinities with every other Christian, in the depths of his being, so as that he is a great deal more like his brother, who is possessor of ‘like precious faith,’ however unlike the two may be in outlook, in idiosyncrasy, and culture and in creed, than he is to another man with whom he may have a far closer sympathy in all these matters...
So, for individuals and for churches, the commandment takes this shape - Go down to the depths and you will find that you are closer to the Christian man or community which seems furthest from you, than you are to the non-Christian who seems nearest to you.
Therefore, let your love follow your kinship, and your heart recognise the oneness that knits you together. That is a revolutionary commandment; what would become of our present organisations of Christianity if it were obeyed? That is a revolutionary commandment;
what would become of our individual relations to the whole family who, in every place, and in many tongues, and with many creeds, call on Jesus as on their Lord, their Lord and ours, if it were obeyed? I leave you to answer the question. Only I say the commandment has for its first scope all who, in every place, love the Lord Jesus Christ.
But there is more than that involved in it. The very same principle which makes this love to one another imperative upon all disciples, makes it equally imperative upon every follower of Jesus Christ to embrace in a real affection all whom Jesus so loved as to die for them. If I am to love a Christian man because he and I love Christ, I am to love everybody, because Christ loves me and everybody, and because He died on the Cross for me and for all men.
II. The example of the new commandment, ‘As I have loved you.’ That solemn ‘as’ lifts itself up before us, shines far ahead of us, ought to draw us to itself in hope, and not to repel us from itself in despair. ‘As I have loved’-what a tremendous thing for a man to stand up before his fellows, and say, ‘Take Me as the perfect example of perfect love;
and let My example-un-dimmed by the mists of gathering centuries, and un-weakened by the change of condition, and circumstance, fresh as ever after ages have passed, and closely-fitting as ever all varieties of human character and condition-stand before you;
the ideal that I have realised, and you will be blessed in the proportion in which you seek, though you fail, to realise it!’ There is, I venture to believe, only one aspect of Jesus Christ in which such a setting forth of Himself as the perfect Incarnation of perfect love is warrantable; and that is found in the old belief that His very birth was the result of His love, and that His death was the climax of that love. And if so, we have to turn to Bethlehem, and the whole life, and the Cross at its end, as being the Christ-given example and model for our love to our brethren.
What do we see there? I have said that there is too much of mere sickly sentimentality about the ordinary treatment of this great commandment, and that I desired to lift it out of that region into a far nobler, more strenuous, and difficult one. This is what we see in that life and in that death: First of all, the activity of love: ’Let us not love in words, but in deed and in truth’;
then we see the self-forgetfulness of love: ’Even Christ pleased not Himself’; then we see the self-sacrifice of love: ’Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ And in these three points, on which I would fain enlarge if I might, active love, self-oblivious love, self-sacrificing love, you have the pattern set for us all.
Christian love is no mere sickly maiden, full of sentimental emotions and honeyed words. She is a strenuous virgin, girt for service, a heroine ready for dangers, and prepared to be a martyr if it be needful. Love’s language is sacrifice. ‘I give thee myself,’ is its motto. And that is the pattern that is set before us all-’as I have loved you.’
I have tried to show you how the commandment was new in many particulars, and it is for ever new in this particular, that it is for ever before us, unattained, and drawing faithful hearts to itself, and ever opening out into new heroisms and, therefore, blessedness, of self-sacrifice, and ever leading us to confess the differences, deep, tragic, sinful, between us and Him who-we sometimes think too presumptuously-we venture to say is our Lord and Master.
Did you ever see in some great picture gallery a copyist sitting in front of a Raffaelle, and comparing his poor feeble drawing, with little of the divine beauty that the master had breathed over his canvas, even if it preserved the mere mechanical outline?
That is what you and I should do with our lives: take them and put them down side by side with the original. We shall have to do it some day. Had we better not do it now, and try to bring the copy a little nearer to the masterpiece; and let that ‘as I have loved you’ shine before us and draw us on to unattainable heights?”
Spiritual Growth also involves helping others including friends, strangers and enemies. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had two things to say that we are going to look at, tonight: First, in Matthew 5:16: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Then Jesus said in Matthew 5:46-48: “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” These sayings are all interrelated, and have a direct impact on, and being evidence of, our Spiritual Growth.
Matthew Henry writes of this: “First, Publicans love their friends. Nature inclines them to it; interest directs them to it. To do good to them who do good to us, is a common piece of humanity, which even those whom the Jews hated and despised could give as good proofs as of the best of them.
The publicans were men of no good fame, yet they were grateful to such as had helped them to their places, and courteous to those they had a dependence upon; and shall we be no better than they? In doing this we serve ourselves and consult our own advantage; and what reward can we expect for that, unless a regard to God, and a sense of duty, carrying us further than our natural inclination and worldly interest?
Secondly, We must therefore love our enemies, that we may exceed them. If we must go beyond scribes and Pharisees, much more beyond publicans. Note, Christianity is something more than humanity. It is a serious question, and which we should frequently put to ourselves, “What do we more than others? What excelling thing do we do?
We know more than others; we talk more of the things of God than others; we profess, and have promised, more than others; God has done more for us, and therefore justly expects more from us than from others; the glory of God is more concerned in us than in others; but what do we more than others?
Wherein do we live above the rate of the children of this world? Are we not carnal, and do we not walk as men, below the character of Christians? In this especially we must do more than others, that while every one will render good for good, we must render good for evil; and this will speak a nobler principle, and is consonant to a higher rule, than the most of men act by.
Others salute their brethren, they embrace those of their own party, and way, and opinion; but we must not so confine our respect, but love our enemies, otherwise what reward have we? We cannot expect the reward of Christians, if we rise no higher than the virtue of publicans.” Note, Those who promise themselves a reward above others must study to do more than others.
Lastly, Our Saviour concludes this subject with this exhortation (Matthew_5:48), Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Which may be understood, 1. In general, including all those things wherein we must be followers of God as dear children. Note, It is the duty of Christians to desire, and aim at, and press toward a perfection in grace and holiness, Philippiasns_3:12-14. And therein we must study to conform ourselves to the example of our heavenly Father, 1 Peter 1:15-16.
Or, 2. In this particular before mentioned, of doing good to our enemies; see Luke 6:36. It is God's perfection to forgive injuries and to entertain strangers, and to do good to the evil and unthankful, and it will be ours to be like him. We that owe so much, that owe our all, to the divine bounty, ought to copy it out as well as we can.”
The Apostle Paul also had this to say regarding our helping friends, strangers and enemies: “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10). There is one other thing about being good to and helping strangers that I don't hear often mentioned. It is found in Hebrews 13:2 “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”
When Paul admonishes: “let us do good unto all men,” Jesus makes sure that we understand that these words include all men. He commands us, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).
We don't always know who our enemies are, but we know what it means to do good to someone; we just don't want to do good to those whom we recognize as enemies. We claim to not know how to love our enemies, but Jesus tells us how: do good to them, bless them and pray for them. This is not a natural response to being hated and persecuted. We cannot do this on our own. It takes God's indwelling Holy Spirit to move us and empower us to obey Jesus in this regard.
Finally for tonight, and for this Series, Spiritual Growth involves The Future:
Proverbs 16:3: “Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.” How does this work, and how does it relate to the future. Let's read it, again: “Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established”?
Matthew Henry says of this: “Note, 1. It is a very desirable thing to have our thoughts established, and not tossed, and put into a hurry, by disquieting cares and fears, - to go on in an even steady course of honesty and piety, not disturbed, or put out of frame, by any event or change, - to be satisfied that all shall work for good and issue well at last, and therefore to be always easy and sedate.
2. The only way to have our thoughts established is to commit our works to the Lord. The great concerns of our souls must be committed to the grace of God, with a dependence upon and submission to the conduct of that grace (2 Timothy_1:12); all our outward concerns must be committed to the providence of God, and to the sovereign, wise, and gracious disposal of that providence.
Roll thy works upon the Lord (so the word is); roll the burden of thy care from thyself upon God. Lay the matter before him by prayer. Make known thy works unto the Lord (so some read it), not only the works of thy hand, but the workings of thy heart; and then leave it with him, by faith and dependence upon him, submission and resignation to him. The will of the Lord be done. We may then be easy when we resolve that whatever pleases God shall please us.”
Jesus said in Luke 9:62: “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” If we commit our works unto the Lord, we both establish and reinforce in our own minds, that we have put our hands to the plow, and have not looked back. And that makes our future more sure.
Albert Barnes says of this: “Luke 9:62: No man, having put his hand ... - To put one’s hand to a plow is a proverbial expression to signify undertaking any business. In order that a plowman may accomplish his work, it is necessary to look onward - to be intent on his employment - not to be looking back with regret that he undertook it.
So in religion. He that enters on it must do it with his whole heart, He that comes still loving the world - still looking with regret on its pleasures, its wealth, and its honors - that has not “wholly” forsaken them as his portion, cannot be a Christian, and is not fit for the kingdom of God.
How searching is this test to those who profess to be Christians! And how solemn the duty of all people to renounce all earthly objects, and to be not only “almost,” but “altogether,” followers of the Son of God! It is perilous to tamper with the world - to look at its pleasures or to seek its society.
He that would enter heaven must come with a heart full of love to God; giving “all” into his hands, and prepared always to give up all his property, his health, his friends, his body, his soul to God, when he demands them, or he cannot be a Christian. Religion is everything or nothing. He that is not willing to sacrifice “everything” for the cause of God, is really willing to sacrifice nothing.”
Adam Clarke adds to this, “Luke 9:62: Put his hand to the plough - Can any person properly discharge the work of the ministry who is engaged in secular employments? A farmer and a minister of the Gospel are incompatible characters. As a person who holds the plough cannot keep on a straight furrow if he look behind him; so he who is employed in the work of the ministry cannot do the work of an evangelist, if he turn his desires to worldly profits.
A good man has said: “He who thinks it necessary to cultivate the favor of the world is not far from betraying the interests of God and his Church.” Such a person is not fit, ευθετος, properly disposed, has not his mind properly directed towards the heavenly inheritance, and is not fit to show the way to others. In both these verses there is a plain reference to the call of Elisha.
1. Considering the life of mortification and self-denial which Christ and his disciples led, it is surprising to find that any one should voluntarily offer to be his disciple. But there is such an attractive influence in truth, and such a persuasive eloquence in the consistent steady conduct of a righteous man, that the first must have admirers, and the latter, imitators.
Christianity, as it is generally exhibited, has little attractive in it; and it is no wonder that the cross of Christ is not prized, as the blessings of it are not known; and they can be known and exhibited by him only who follows Christ fully.
2. It is natural for man to wish to do the work of God in his own spirit; hence he is ready to call down fire and brimstone from heaven against those who do not conform to his own views of things. A spirit of persecution is abominable. Had man the government of the world, in a short time, not only sects and parties, but even true religion itself, would be banished from the face of the earth. Meekness, long-suffering, and benevolence, become the followers of Christ; and his followers should ever consider that his work can never be done but in his own spirit.”
And there it is, Spiritual Growth in 25 weekly Installments. I hope you have been instructed or admonished or encouraged or benefited or edified or ~ all of the above ~ by this Series. As I write these words, I do not know where I will go next week. I don't know if I will begin, God Willing, another Series, or I will initiate a parade of stand-alone, one-night-and-done Discussions. In either case, I invite all of you who are hearing or reading my words to join me at this same place and time.
This concludes this evening's Discussion, "Spiritual Growth, Part 25, Finale`”
This Discussion was originally presented “live” on July 12th , 2023.
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