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Our sunlight.
Dear, dear God.
'S heart.
I really.
Do.
Everything in your heart.
Is being hard to do.
I am very sick.
Have a better way of life.
And you close all day.
All together and bring it on.
Your.
OK.
Good Shepherd now has drawn us after thee and all. How we long to, uh, follow, and to follow faithfully.
Even even as Caleb of the old could say that he wholly followed the Lord. And so we pray that thou is blessed by word, as we open it together here in my presence, and that thy spirit might have liberty.
To use, uh, various ones to expound the passage and to draw from these, uh, few verses of Scripture that we read together.
Those little bits of instruction and teaching that are so necessary for us in this day and age and that our hearts might be knit with thyself like its savior and knit to one another. Two, that we might walk together and, uh.
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In the, uh, fellowship of, in love of the Saints. And so we pray for thy blessing and preservation and, uh, for thy, uh, guidance as we open up my precious word, our God and our Father, we ask it for the glory and for the blessing of our brethren here and the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Amen.
In the mind of the brethren to, uh, continue with this chapter or.
I think there's lots here for our enjoyment and learning.
Continuing some bursts.
3/3.
Romans chapter 12, continuing from verse 3.
For I say, through the grace given unto me.
Every man that is among you.
Not to think of himself more highly than the autism, but to think soberly according as God has helped every man the nature of faith.
For us, we have many members in one body.
And all members have not the same office. So we being many are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another.
Having been gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophecy according to the proportion of faith our ministry, Let us wait on our ministry for heated peace. If on teaching or He's exhorted on exportation, He that give us, let Him do it with simplicity. Be that rule is with diligence be the truth, mercy with cheerfulness, Let love be without dissimulation aboured that which is evil pleased to that which is good be kindly affection 1 to another.
With brotherly love and honor preferring one another.
Not slaughtering the business of urban hysterics serving the Lord.
Rejoicing and hope, patient and tribulation continuing instant and prayer distributing to the necessity of things given to hospitality.
Bless them which perfectly choose less than cursed, not rejoice with them that you rejoice, and weep with them that weep. He is the same. Mind one toward another Mind not hyphen, but condescend. And then of low estates be not wise in your own conceit. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men, if it be possible, as much as Lieutenant peaceably with all men.
Nearly beloved events not yourselves, but rather give place under wrath where it is written. Vengeance his mind I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger feed him. If he thirst, give him dream. We are in so doing. Thou shalt keep coals of fire on his head.
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
Before we go on, just to tie in a little bit what we said this morning with what follows here. We didn't really comment on it, but at the end of the second verse, he speaks about the will of God. And I want to say something very practical because.
I have many people come to me and say how can we know the will of God in our lives? It seems to be a question that's on many minds today and it's perhaps it's always been, but it seems more than ever in the world of confusion in the world when there's so many voices. Even in the so-called Christian world, there's many voices. How can we know the voice of the shepherd and the will of God? But I think it ties in with those things we took up in a practical way this morning.
If we're going to discern the will of God, first of all we have to give ourselves.
He begins the chapter by presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice. And this is not a question of ability or inability. It's a question of of availability. It's presenting ourselves. You know, so often we might say, well, can I really do this or that for the Lord? It's not a question of ability. It's making ourselves available and then realizing that whatever he has for us to do.
Whatever the path, whatever his will, he's going to provide everything that's needed. I've sometimes said to my wife, it's not a question of can we do this? It's a question of is it the Lord's will? And if it's the Lord's will, then all the resources.
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Both physically and spiritually are going to be placed at our disposal. So we give ourselves as a living sacrifice. Then he has this service, this intelligence service. Then there needs to be separation. There needs to be nonconformity to the world and separation from the world. We'll never know the will of God, brethren, if we think like the world will never know the will of God if we don't walk in separation, practical sanctification.
From this world. And as Brother Bill pointed out this morning, it's not the physical planet that we live on, but it's that system of things of which Satan is the God and Prince. And as we said this morning, the natural thought of the man is of man.
Is to place himself as the center of his world and do everything for himself. So there needs to be the renewing of the mind. And how are we going to do that? Well, we've spoken of it because it's pouring in the word of God. It's not to think like the world. It's to think as God would have us to, to think, bringing every thought into obedience under the every thought into captivity under the obedience of Christ And those scriptures that we've already gone over. We need to read the word of God. His word is what shows us his will.
My word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light under my path. There has to be practical moral purity.
In our lives, we need to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. We need to, uh, seek to walk in, uh, practical righteousness and holiness. And then as a result of that, we can rather prove what is.
That, uh, as he says at the end of the second verse, prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God because he wants to show us and if we don't know the will of God in our lives.
There's no hindrance on God's part. The hindrance is always on our part because it says in all thy ways acknowledge Him and He might direct our paths. Us not what the verse said, it says and he shall direct thy paths. If any man desire to do his will, and again it goes back to what we've been saying, there's that desire. If any man desire to do as well, he shall know. And so if we're going to know the will of God in our lives, these things must be in place.
Practically. And then he does want to show it. And he has a path, brethren. He has a will for us. And it's perfect. It's good, it's perfect, it's acceptable, and it's a path of faith, even through the tangles of this Dark World in which we live.
Exodus chapter 4. What is that in my hand?
Probably the.
Problem in many cases is our own wills are active.
Umm and uh, we failed to, uh, reserve the Lord's mind because you cannot divorce.
Guidance from Communion.
It's not like a computer you can put in information and get, uh, an answer from it, not showing the things of the Lord. There has to be communion with the Lord to, uh, discern his mind and will. Then there needs to be obedience and, uh, self judgment. That's very important, brother. I think we all.
And acknowledge that we need self judgment in our lives. It speaks here of holy acceptable unto God which is your.
Intelligent service. I'm going along with something in my life that is contrary to the word of God. Are unclean or some habits.
Spoke about thoughts this morning quite a bit. So a thought reap an action. So an action reap a habit. So a habit reap a character. So a character reap a destiny. So what we think about and pursue after as an object.
Is going to control our lives without doubt. I was thinking this morning too of.
Just gonna make that comment that won't be long here, but uh, second Corinthians?
Chapter 5.
Umm, well, we have umm.
Umm first umm.
14 With a love of Christ.
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Constrained us.
Because we must judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead.
And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves. That's what we did.
In our unconverted days we lived unto ourselves. Our object was to please self. That should not be our object now. But notice it says that unto him which died for them, and rose again. Now it does not say the love of Christ.
Should constrain us.
It says the love of Christ can strain a time.
The boys and girls know what a magnet is and when you were you'd like to play with a magnet and, uh.
Draw the nails up and so on. But you know the magnet is of no use if it is, uh, at A at a distance from the object.
Bring the magnet down and immediately there is a response.
Why is it that we are not more devoted to the Lord in service for Him? It's because we're living at a distance from Him. I speak for myself.
Peter followed far off.
Who? He denied the law, so it doesn't say the love of Christ should constrain us. But if we're in His company, in the enjoyment of His love, don't try to love the Lord any more than you do.
Sit down and and contemplate his love for you. There's going to be a response. It's going to be.
Uh, I don't like the word automatic, but there's going to be a, an immediate, A spontaneous result in our lives if we, if we.
Realize what he has done for us. Dedication is.
Giving something to the Lord. You have it in the Old Testament dedication where their hands were filled with certain things. In the case of the priest to do that in Exodus 29, their hands were filled.
They were giving something, offering something. Consecration. Is the Lord giving us something to use for him? Is that right, Jim? I got that right, yes, and Bill mentioned it too. Whatever is in our hand, we're to to use for this floor. And it's consecration means both hands full if you have both hands full.
You're not going to be doing anything else. They're full. And what are we to go through life with both hands full of Christ.
We might say if both of our hands are full in the service for the Lord, in consecration for him, umm, it's gonna be because of the grace of God that's worked in our souls. You know, I, I thought as we've been talking, uh, we've taken this passage up that we really started, we opened the letter and returned to the third, the third chapter, the third page and started reading.
And, uh, that was what the Spirit of God had in mind here. But we have, we have the teaching set before us in the 1St 11 Chapters of Romans. And it's extremely important for us to have the teaching of Romans, uh, to, uh, establish our souls and set us free just to, to help us to understand, uh, a life that's risen and, uh, in Christ and, uh.
If, if we, if we're establishing the trues of that, that that Roman said before us, what what will happen is we'll be established in the grace of God.
We'll realize that we've gotten to this point of having our hands full of the service of God.
Because of who God is and not because of what we've accomplished, not because of what we have have, uh, have, umm.
Set out to do it is the grace of God and Paul was established in this he realized that all of this had been committed to him he was on the road to Damascus he was about ready to.
Uh, take the lives of the Lord's children. And the Lord stopped him dead. In his tracks shone a light.
Gave him a revelation of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And turned him around and began to work in his soul, and he became extremely useful servant of God.
But never lost.
Cited the fact that it was God's work, it was God that had done it in his soul. And so he says here in verse 3 for I say through the grace given unto me. You know if any of us are if we if if we by the grace of God, if we presented our bodies a living sacrifice if we have.
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Umm sought to not be conformed to the to the world around us. If our hearts have been drawn away, we realize there's something better for our souls, something better for our life, a better object, a better focus. And umm if if this work has been done in our souls.
Because of God's grace and if if we do find ourselves about we're about ready to get into the the the function of the gifts that God has administered to the church. He's given each each member a a very special function to perform in the within the body of Christ.
Umm, and he's saying if this work has been done in your soul, if you are to this point where?
You are.
You have full hands, your gift is going to be exercised.
Just realize what a work of God has been done in your soul to bring you to that point.
And if if.
If these truths, the the truths that have been set before us earlier in the book of Romans are really found a a home in our souls and we enjoy them, the result will be that we'll be aware of what God's grace is. We'll be aware of what God is doing in bringing us into this blessing and.
And it goes on to say, umm, uh, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.
You know the opposite of grace is the law.
In in in the 7th chapter of Romans, we we we find deliverance from the law. The law has a tendency.
To make a man proud because.
If he feels like he's fulfilling the law, then automatically it's the work of the flesh, and the flesh begins to be proud.
But Paul is exhorting here. He's admonishing.
That we don't take up our gifts in service for the Lord and exercise it in pride.
Umm, because if we do, we don't really understand the grace that has been given to us.
We just think, Jim, that the, uh, will of God is connected with the Word of God.
You know, uh, we have here, uh, you were saying, how do we know the will of God? And we know that it's on the principle of grace that we're brought into the knowledge and intelligence of what we should do, but it's the word of God that we need. And Jonah had the word of God. He said, go to Nineveh.
Jonah didn't want to go and he just happened to find a shift going down in in the opposite direction. And so the will is set against God even in the Christian if he allows the flesh to act as will, as set against God. But in the mercy of the Lord, we have the word of God give us knowledge and the will of God connected with his word then brings in this spot of humility.
There's really only one man. There's room only for the exaltation and Christianity of one man is Christ.
Can anyone that seeks to exalt himself or his name above the name of Christ or alongside the name of Christ?
It never ever brings glory to Christ. It really robs Christ of some glory and soul. Here he speaks and very candidly says that, uh, through the grace that we've given unto him to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than the office bank, but to think soberly according as God has dealt with every man.
The measure of faith and soul, we're not to go beyond the gift that God has given us. And it's to be according to the, uh, humility of that perfect service in North Jesus.
Find.
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And I believe that our privilege is to, as you say.
But.
After it was all over, they saw Naomi say Jesus.
And I believe that's what God could tell us to see.
And in connection with doing his will, you know, the Lord said.
If thine eye be single.
Thy whole body 74 o'clock.
What does that mean? They have a single line. Does that not mean to have the Lord's interest at heart and to desire to glorify Him, to put the Lord first?
As far as the service is concerned.
Happy because you know you feel that fast.
This study group today is very wonderful he and the same reason and to find out that.
That seemed to be a little bit, uh.
And balanced on one scores. Somebody else brings up something.
Balances things out. It's very wonderful.
So just like a follow up with uh, the common umm with regards to the will of God.
There's not a one of us here.
That we found ourselves in a situation.
Where we're just not exactly sure what the Lord would have us do.
I think every one of us here have been maximizing the situation.
And I I've so appreciated the previous meeting and what's been brought out now in connection with these early 2 verses.
Here.
There are times in our life.
For there's absolutely no question in our mind as to what the will of God is, and we know absolutely what the will of God is. And what if you thought that is because it fell because specifically in the word, I'll just use an example, uh, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
There's not a question there as to whether or not we should know what the will of God is. We know exactly what the will of God is.
He says, proving what is that good and acceptable will of God, because there is a difference.
You remember the time the apostle Paul was seeking the Lord's mind and he decided to go to one place and the Spirit suffered enough.
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And there are those times in our life.
When we don't have it spelled out in black and white as to act actually what what the will of God is.
I would just make this uh, statement, particularly to those here who are younger.
F.
But if there are those things I know to be true.
You know, we, we would, we would really benefit by, by, uh, having an appreciation for, for each other's gifts.
And if we if we're doing those things that are definitely the will of God.
Then when those things come along and we're not sure just what direction we're supposed to take, it's gonna far better put us in a position where we'll be able to make a choice and feel the Lord closing along behind us and blessing us because we've been put in a position where we're going the direction that the Lord would have us to go. I just think that differentiates that that difference between knowing the will of God and proving the will of God within our lives.
Can illustrate it in a different way.
Turn to verse.
It's not another matter, but we'll start with verse 9.
Let love be without dissimulation.
Is that the will of God?
The only way you will know.
As if you prove it, and the only way you can prove it is if you do it.
And if you do it, you will find that it is a perfect will.
The It's been said this way, the only truth we truly know is the truth we walk in.
And uh, there are many things that we may be unsure of as to the thought of God, but if you take these exhortations of this chapter.
Take the very next one. Umm.
Uh, for that which is evil.
You prove it by walking in it, and if you walk in it, you will see that it is good.
And it is.
A perfect will of God.
The to back up to the little more generic sense of it, uh, to go back to the verses that John.
Uh, quoted in Second Corinthians chapter 5. The love of Christ constraineth us. He said he didn't want to quite go there to be automatic. I'll say yes, it is automatic in the sense that it's given in that chapter.
What it's saying to us is this.
The flesh of the natural man.
Is never constrained.
By the will of God.
There's nothing in our flesh that is constrained by the love of Christ.
If it comes to an issue between what I want and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, if my flesh is what's active, I'm going to do that.
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Whether I'm a believer or not, if the flesh is in action, it's not going to be constrained by the love of Christ.
On the other side of it, and it's what that chapter is bringing out, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation.
And the new man is automatically, completely, 100% constrained by the love of Christ.
The Lord Jesus, the perfect man.
Never had anything before his soul than 100% desire to do the will of God.
I delight to do thy will, O my God was his very nature.
As a man among men.
And God, to enable us to be like Him and for many other reasons, has given us that same nature.
The divine nature, and having imparted to us that nature in the life that He's given to us, it is fully, perfectly always constrained by the love of Christ.
The hindrance to us is that the flesh is allowed to act and it's never constrained in that way. But the only way that these things are made real and good in US is that they're lived out. And so these exhortations, if you look at them, each one of them, I don't think anybody here would say, well, I don't think that's the will of God.
When, when we're told, uh, be kindly affection 1 to another, uh, is that man's will or is, uh, no, no, that's God's will, He says. So right here, we don't have under difficulty to understand those words. It's not a difficult thing to us, but we'll only prove them if we live them.
And if we do not live them out, uh, we will not have the experience of what that means truly as to proving the will of God and uh, so even the Lord Jesus Christ.
In his own personal life instead of him.
Umm, he learned obedience.
How did he learn obedience?
Wasn't he a perfect man? Yes, he was, but he learned what obedience cost.
By the experience of what it costs.
And that way he experienced it in the sense of what it truly cost to be obedient. With him, there was never any question as to why he was going to be obedient or not, but he proved the cost of obedience.
By actually.
Going through the experience that it costs them everything as to this life and.
Our eternity.
Will be richer to our souls.
If we prove by action these things and.
Come to enjoy the result with God of having done His will. The Lord Jesus could look back and it speaks of him prophetically. He.
Learn the cost of obedience by what he went through. And when it was all done, would he look back on it and say it was a perfect will, a goodwill God, that you made me do this, and that I in obedience went all the way to death?
It says in Psalm 850, Isaiah 53, He shall see of the fruit of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied he has the eternal joy in his own soul.
Of what he proved.
Being a good and perfect will of God and will have the eternal satisfaction of the result of it, even though it cost everything to install. And brethren, may we be in our little ways enabled when it's all said and done and over with that we will look back on.
Life of having proved the will of God, and see that it was good and acceptable and perfect.
So here where you have in this scene, when we have the word of God that tells us a particular thing, we can say that, uh, we love without the simulation or without pretense. We know that we've done the will of God.
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And if we, umm, if someone offers us a business partnership and they're an unbeliever and we say no because it says be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
We know that it's not. It's it's the will of God that we don't go ahead and we sign those documents and become unequally yoked together.
But there are other occasions and I think Brother Dave, uh, alluded to it and I'd just like to refer to that, uh, 32nd Psalm there because it speaks of one walking in communion.
Verse eight of the 32nd song. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eyes. And so we need to walk closely with the Lord to be able to discern some of these other matters.
And often times we don't have an A distinct word from the Lord as to which piece of clothing to wear for the day, but we can say that we trust that we have the mind of the Lord and we go ahead in the path of faith one step at a time if it's not in directed for the Word of God.
Wheels are at work and so it's wonderful to be able to, uh, live in this way, humility walking with the Lord and to prove that perfect will of God.
Sometimes we when a situation arises, we don't aren't able to discern the will of God.
And very often, it's what's come before.
Umm, let me try to illustrate it this way.
There's lots of husbands and wives sitting in this room.
And if a certain situation came up?
We'll just take the husband's side of it for the moment. If a certain situation came up, who would we expect of everybody in the room to know the will of the life?
In that matter, it would be the husband.
Because there has been, uh, or should have been, a whole lifetime of communion.
And very often, knowing the will is more knowing the heart of the person and how that person will react in a certain situation.
Uh, why the?
Prior knowledge gained of that person.
And very often, brethren, if we want to know the will in specific circumstances of life, it doesn't work like Google.
You you don't Google up the moment you have a situation and say, oh let me find which chapter and verse that I can apply to this exactly.
Many times we get frustrated when we try to do it that way because sometimes the Lord is saying I've been trying to teach you my will for years.
And if you had been entering into me and who I am in my heart of love and life, when that situation came up, knowing my heart, you would know my will.
But then you're asking me to tell you my will.
Without bothering if I can speak this way, without bothering to know what's in my heart and in my nature as holy.
And so the Lord Jesus or the Jehovah in Deuteronomy chapter 8, uh, said to the children of Israel, when he put him 40 years through the wilderness, what did he say? His purpose in it was to humble thee, to prove thee, to know what's in my heart and sometimes.
Our inability at a moment on a specific situation to know the will of God.
Can stem from God is proving to us what's in our heart.
And he is making known to us that we have not, perhaps.
Submitted to him in our tenor of life in and so on, because he already says to us.
If any man the will has been talked about multiple times, if any man will to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine. Take it the other way. God is saying if you're not willing to do my will.
I may not choose to tell you my doctrine or my thoughts or my will.
In other words, submission of the will to God is a.
Something that God expects of us before he illuminates us as to His mind, so that we can then prove it by doing it.
But sometimes we seem to struggle.
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Because we wanna have.
The Duet.
But to do it, what we're supposed to do without really coming to know the heart of God. And if we can't do it in harmony with the word of will of God as expressed in his word, uh, and according to his own heart, it's, we can't prove the perfect will of God.
To say it another way.
This is just repeating what's been said many, many times.
If you did everything right.
I always say, well, I did the will of God, I did it right.
Uh, but, Scott said. Or the word has been taught to us. If you did everything right, nothing is right unless the motive is right.
And to do the will of God involves the motive of the heart, and we will not have necessarily a correct motive of heart unless we're in fellowship with the heart of God, and that isn't an instantaneous thing.
That's a walk.
You come here into the, uh, get on with the chapter. We're coming into a, a section here.
That has to do with, uh, servant, uh.
A very important aspect to me.
The, uh, importance of service for the Lord.
I know there's often, uh.
Presented worship and service together.
And they do go together.
I see umm, sometimes, uh, worship and service are are put together and uh, on occasion.
Worship is put above service.
Uh, uh, I don't feel that the scripture presents it that way.
Uh, through there is an order definite its first worship and then service flowing from it.
But I wouldn't put one above the other. And we're, we're, we're left here to be, uh, a testimony. We are a holy priest, uh, first Peter chapter 2, but we are also royal priests.
Now in Hebrews chapter 13, let us therefore offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks unto His name. That is definitely worship, and that should have the first place in our lives undoubtedly.
Uh, whether it's more today morning or at any other time, although Lord's Day morning is not properly at work of meaning, but uh, it brings forth worship from our hearts.
But the point that I'm trying to make is that service should flow out of communion and worship they closed out of.
Our fellowship with the Lord.
Our our Thanksgiving and our praise. And then we have a new motive. You might say we have a renovation of mine and we have a motive now to to energize us. But in our verse here in the third chapter, third verse.
Uh, through grace given unto me to every man that is among you, Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. All right, we all have.
A place in the body of Christ. We all have a work to do. We have a burden to bear to every man his work. When you were saved you had a natural ability, but God put into you a gift that you did not have before, a spiritual gift.
Uh, we read there in first Peter chapter 4. Umm.
The manifestation of the Spirit. You better look at that verse first. Peter chapter 4.
As every man has received the gift, now God has given to everyone in this room, sisters as well as brothers.
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A gift and ability.
It's not only those who are on the platform who are servants of the Lord. Uh, we each have a place in the body of Christ.
A work to do for him it may look very insignificant in the eyes of others, but the.
Others are not to judge of our, of our servants. So whatever that is, that ability that gives, we are to, uh, we are stewards of, uh, of, uh, talent OR a pound. And how are we using what God has given to us?
That is the point. Don't try to emulate someone else.
Don't get inflated thoughts about your own abilities. So God will have to.
To bring you down, uh, but remember that you have been given a place and a work to do, and you can be happy in that work the Lord has given you to do.
Especially for you, not for someone else. Don't envy someone else who's on the platform.
Uh, and you may not have that ability. It's, it seems that sometimes we connect gift with someone speaking publicly.
That's, that's not right. Uh, a gift, uh, can be, uh, it need not be public at all. In fact, some of these, uh, gifts that are mentioned in our chapter are not public, but we each have that service to do for the Lord. We can be happy in it. There will definitely be a reward for it, but let's not get to high thoughts of ourselves because God has given you all that he can trust you with if it's money.
He's given all that he can trust you with, uh, if it's ability.
Let's not complain. God there has given us. It all comes from Him. One Corinthians 4. It's nothing of ourselves, but we do have that wonderful privilege, brethren, of using what the Lord has given to us. We're stewards. We're stewards of our time, of our energy, of the gift that the Lord has given. Are we exercised to use that for the glory of God, not to pop up ourselves? That's what the Corinthians were doing.
They were using their gifts to assault themselves.
All had to rebuke it that we can do that as well. But may we seek the glory of the Lord and as to the will of God, yes, we, we do have those, uh, those difficulties. I think all of us. But I was thinking the will of God that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. So if you get out with the gospel and preach it and, and, and read souls, I think we can be sure that's the will of God. Don't you think that Phil.
I mean, we not may not be all called to do that work of an evangelist in the same way, but uh, the will of God that the gospel should go forth.
We've already had the love of Christ constrains us, and that's the correct order. Altova flows from that affection, but we like to reverse it and we want to show out our affection by our service. As soon as we do that, we put ourselves first. As soon as we put ourselves first, we run into the problems that we have here in the university. We start to think more highly about cells than the abort. And we in the book of James touches on some of the things we've spoken of that touches on.
Stock will touches on Pride. But we're ending and, uh, how's it going? We're ending.
And strike is there is confusion in every evil word.
You know, like I said, it's not us showing out affection for Christ and service, but it's our service flowing from that blood which constrains us.
And the tendency of the heart is to measure our service by man's standard of what we see on the outlet. And that's what the Corinthians, as John was saying, we're doing. And it's that's why he says to the Corinthians, men measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. That's what they were doing. The better they could express themselves in prayer or ministry or whatever it was, they were measuring things in that way.
But here in this chapter, and I know our time has gone, but we'll take it up another day, Lord willing. We find that he first of all uses in verse fi for the illustration of a natural body, and then he goes on to speak of it in application and connection with the body of Christ in the in the fifth verse. But we understand this in a natural body, every one of our members has a function. And if I lose a hand and if I lose a hand or a foot, I can get along through life, but not as well as with two.
00:55:35
And so every member has a function and there are func members that function.
In our body, brethren, that we don't even realize they're there they they handle some little function that keeps us healthy and happy naturally speaking. But if they broke down, if that function broke down, we'd miss that function. But and he takes it up at length in connection with the body of Christ in first Corinthians chapter 12 and so on. Every member has a a function and it may be a very.
What seems like a very mundane or small function.
But it's all important in keeping the body of Christ functioning healthily, healthily and happily for the good and blessing of souls. But it takes humility. If we're gonna exercise our gift. I don't. Just before we close, notice what he says, the measure of faith at the end of verse 3. Now in Ephesians 4, he gives the measure, a measure of grace in connection with gift visions. 47 You can look it up again. Let's remember.
Whatever.
He gives us to do whatever position He puts us in, whatever member of the body we are, so to speak. There's the faith to carry it out, and there's the grace to carry it out in the proper spirit. You see, it's not on our own. We don't do it on our own, brethren. And if we do it in humility.
With drawing on the faith and the grace that's given us, then we are going to function properly.
And we're not going to have high thoughts of ourselves. We're not going to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to.
One little thought after the measure of faith.
It matters not how much faith you have, the Lord said. If you have faith like the dream of mustard seed and you use mustard seed instead of a grain of sand, because it's a lie.
But the thought of the measure of faith.
Is not so much how much faith we have, but what it's attached to at the other end.
#17.
May the grace of Christ our favor.
And.
Problem.
No, I like when I get started on Earth. I haven't met her all over.