“A Church for God or a Church for Your Friends”

Romans 1:16

“¶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

 

Introduction

  A) Are you ashamed of the gospel?

• Paul was not.
• Why? “For it is the power of God.”
• To who… “everyone that believeth”
• “To the Jew (His chosen people, or saved) first, and also to the Greek (unsaved).

B) Why do we come to church?

• To worship God
• Is it to worship with friends and saved only?
• Is it to worship with God they way he wants us to or rather worship the way feel is necessary?
• There are many ways to worship God.
• We also come to learn of God. We do not know all there is to know about God.
• Others come that they may know God. There are those that know not God’s ways, what His commandments are, or anything.
• Some come to be with their friends. This is why most people come. To visit, to eat, and to share things with one another. These people are glorifying themselves!

I. “Mortify therefore your members…”

  A) Control by self denial

• Colossians 3:5¶ Mortify (Control your desires by refusing to do so) therefore your members which are upon the earth; (In other words, Christians and members of God need to control the following desires… ) fornication (Sex without marriage), uncleanness (dirty house, dirty bodies, dirty lifestyle), inordinate affection (To many affections), evil concupiscence (strong sexual desires that are ungodly such as homosexuality, animal sex etc.), and covetousness (Greedy or selfishness), which is idolatry (Because all these things mean that you are worshiping your own desires instead of what God wants for you.): 6) For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:”
• When we disobey what God has commanded and wants for us… we will suffer the wrath of God in His Divine judgement against us. .

  B) Why?

• Look at verse 7… “In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.”
• Because at one time, before we were saved may have done the same thing or even thought of doing the same thing.
• verse 8) ¶ But now ye also put off  (Don’t do) all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.”
• Because these things are of the Devil, not of God!
• Verse 9) Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;”
• In this verse 9… it is telling us to not lie to others by putting on a false face! Many people come to the house of God with false faces.
• Some even act like they are Godly people when outside the church.

 

II. “Forbearing one Another

  A) What does “forbearing mean?”

• Verse 13… “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”
• Forbearing; to have patience with those who hurt us. This means that we are to love this person, put up with their stupidity, their bad language, their sinful ways and… Let God take care of them, and let the Holy Spirit convict them!
• Many deaf do not come to church because so and so hurt my feelings, or so and so is not a member of our church, or so and so is not acting like a Christian.

B) Jesus preached to those that had no shepherd

• Matthew 9:36… “¶ And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 36) But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. 37) Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; 38) Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”
• First of all, note that Jesus had compassion on them, felt sorry for them because they knew nothing of God, acted like Satan and did the tings that God did not want them to do because they had no one to lead them as a shepherd (Pastor).
• Sheep must be lead and taught.
• We must have the compassion of Christ … to look beyond their faults and see their needs.
• Secondly, we must lead them, teach them, and show them in God’s word where they are wrong and need to repent of their ways.
• We must also show them by example.

 

III. “Forgiving one Another”

  A) Christ our example…

• Back in Colossians 3:13…it tells us “and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”
• When we accepted Christ as our Savior… He forgave us immediately!
• We also had to prove to him that we meant business about wanting to be a child of God rather than a child of Hell.
• We do this by following what he commands of us to do.

  B) From forgiveness comes Love

• In verse 14… “And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.”
• Christ forgave us because He loved us (Even though we were not perfect)

C) From Love comes the Peace of God

• Look into verse 15… “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”
• The peace of God will rule in our hearts if we love one another and forgive one another.
• “and be ye thankful” thankful that you are the elect (Chosen) of God

 

IV. Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You

  A) Teaching others

• Look into verse 16a… “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching.
• Teach them what? What we have learned, through love and obedience.
• How did we learn the things of God? By the examples of others, by the word of God and the Holy Spirit convicting us of our actions.

 

B) Admonishing (Advising) others

• Verse 16b …and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
• We do this for the Lord! We do this because we love Him!
• Verse 17) And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”