Romans 12:3-13 "Live as Godly Neighbors" Jack D. Terry, Jr.

Dr. Terry mentions the division of chapters in the Bible and the practical chapters of the book of Romans. He explains that the gifts and characteristics mentioned in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 are similar but not identical. He emphasizes the importance of love and grace in using these gifts. He mentions the letter to the Ephesians and the gift of grace given to everyone. Hello, I want you to know I am teaching under duress, Dr. Draper, because my sweet wife said to me this morning before we left, now you've got a chapter and a half to do today, don't tell stories. How can you teach and preach and not tell stories? It's an extremely difficult process, right, Brother Jim? You've got to tell a story, you've got to... Someone said an illustration in a sermon is a window that opens and lets in a little air. And so, you know, every now and then you've got to let in a little air because it does get kind of thick around here. All right, what I'm going to try to do today is I'm going to try to finish chapter 12 and go to 13. Now, quite frankly, I told you last week that Jerome in the 10th century was translating the Old Greek Septuagint, the Old and New Testament in Greek, into Latin, which he and the Catholic Church affectionately named the Latin Vulgate. And as he was doing that, he was the one who was dividing it by chapters. And so we didn't have any chapters until the 10th century, and he tried to divide it. And he did a magnificent job most of the way, but here he probably did not do a good job. He probably should have left chapter 12 and chapter 13 be chapter 12 because it really does talk to each other, and it talks about the same kind of things after the introduction. Now, let me... Pardon me. I seem to do that with a frog. Let me kind of help you understand what we're doing today. Last week I helped you understand what God did for you and for me through Jesus Christ and His propitiation of sin and bringing us into the kingdom and filling us with the Spirit of God. He has done for you what only He could do, and now He has put us in a place where we can do for everyone else only what we can do through the Spirit. And so the end of chapter 12 and 13 and 14 and 15 is what we call the practical chapters of the book of Romans. Up until chapter 12, everything was theological, telling you how you were saved, telling you how you continued in your redemption, telling you how you were being justified, telling you how you were going to be sanctified and working on your sanctification, eventually becoming glorified. All of that was in chapters 1 through chapter 11. But when you get to chapter 12, He puts those two verses in there where He recounts everything that He talked about from chapter 1 through chapter 11. And in those two verses He said, Now here's what God has done in order to prepare you, His children, His heirs, His joint heirs with Jesus Christ, in order to prepare you to do what you must do under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. And so beginning after the first two verses of chapter 12, He starts in 12 and 13 to give us very practical suggestions what it is that we should be doing. And He does them very well. In fact, in chapter 12, the latter part of chapter 12, He takes two very holy numbers and He lists in the early part, about verse 3 following in chapter 12, He lists seven gifts that He's going to give to the church. And these gifts are given to people in order that they might serve the body of the church. And so He's saying to you, I am giving these gifts to you in order that you might serve the body of the church and to serve one another. And then He's going to say, And then there are 12 major characteristics that you must demonstrate as a child of God while you're living in this age of this particular time of year. And so each of us lives in a different age. We're living in the age of the 21st century. But these people were living in the age of the 1st century. But they were still living within an age. And He said, and this is what the kinds of characteristics that you need to be doing. And quite frankly, the first characteristic is hate sin. Hello? Abhor sin. Hate sin. In fact, I said to you last week, the people who hate God love sin. Isn't that interesting? But the people who hate sin love God. Isn't that interesting? So you have the diametric opposite. And so we're going to look at those 12 characteristics. We're going to look at those seven gifts. Now, let me help you understand. Paul wrote the book of Romans from the city of Corinth. He wrote Galatians and Romans from the city of Corinth. And he sent them to the church at Galatia, which was one of his first churches that he visited up in Asia Minor, up in the area north of Syria. And he sent it to Galatia, where Timothy is from, by the way, from that part of the world. And then he wrote to the Romans from the city of Corinth. And then he left Corinth and went to Ephesus. And while in Ephesus, he wrote two more books back to Corinth. So he wrote Galatians and Romans in the city of Corinth. He went to Ephesus and he wrote 1 and 2 Corinthians from Ephesus to Corinth. And so what you see is you see these four books, one of them going to Galatia, one of them going to Romans, two of them coming back to the city of Corinth. And in the 12th chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians, he once again establishes the gift of the Spirit. In fact, in the 12th chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians, he says, as concerning the spiritual gifts. And then he starts talking about these spiritual gifts in the 12th chapter of the book of Romans, the book of 1 Corinthians, almost the same gifts that are here, with a little exception. The gifts that are here in chapter 12 appear to be more for us to work with the people of the church, whereas the gifts in the chapter 12 of the book of 1 Corinthians are more a spiritual note, ending in the last two, the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation of tongues. So you can see those gifts are a little different in their spiritual nature than are these gifts in chapter 12 of the book of Romans in their spiritual nature. But they're two sets of gifts. And each of them, some of them are the same. For instance, in chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, there is the gift of prophecy. In chapter 12 of Romans, there is the gift of prophecy. But in chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, there is a gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. But in chapter 12 of the book of Romans, there is no tongues or interpretation of tongues. And so the gifts are similar, not identical, a bit different. And so you need to study both sets of the gifts. And kind of interestingly, they were both in the 12th chapter. I think that's always of interest, that if you want to find out where the gifts were, go to the 12th chapter of Romans, go to the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians, and you got them. And you've got the gifts in Romans, and you've got the gifts in Corinthians. Now, later on, when he was in Rome in house arrest, the Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the church in Ephesus, where he had been pastor for a couple or three years, and it was called the book to the Ephesians. And in the book to the Ephesians, he talks about gifts in the 4th chapter. And in that 4th chapter, he says something that all of us need to hear, and I'm going to give you a reference as to why all of us need to hear. I have met some people who have said, and I'm sure Brother Jimmy has done the same, we have met people in the church who will say to us, I do not have a gift. Now, what they're saying is the following, I can't sing, or I can't teach, or I really don't know how to help people, I don't have the gifts of helping, I don't have the gifts of counseling, I don't have those wonderful gifts that I see in the lives of all the other people around me, wow, I wish I had some of those, I wish I could sing, I wish I could teach, I wish I could counsel, I wish I could prophesy, I wish I could do all these things, I just don't have any gift. That is not a true statement. Because in Ephesians 4, 7 it says, And unto every one is given the gift of grace. And Paul makes a very strong emphasis on the gift of grace. At least you can be kind. At least you can be graceful. That's what the gift of grace means. At least you can help people with your love. And by the way, when Paul finishes chapter 13, he's going to finish it with the statement, After all, everything that you need to do, you are doing it because of the love of Jesus Christ. And in 13 of the book of 1 Corinthians, he wrote about that love to the church. Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not love, I have become a sounding grass and a tinkling cymbal. And that whole 13th chapter is on what Paul is going to conclude chapter 13 today with. He's going to talk about if you really want to know how to use these gifts, how to use these characteristics, how to work in civic life, how to work in spiritual life, how to work in physical life, how to work in the church. If you really want to know how to do all these things, there is one word that covers it all. Love. Jesus said, Love one another even as I have loved you. And Jesus said, The bottom line is, For God so loved that he gave. And what Paul is getting ready to say here to the church is, Because Jesus loved you and gave his life, because God loved you and gave his son, because the Holy Spirit loved you and gave himself into you, now you are to love the members of the church and with all of these gifts which accidentally may fall onto your plate. I don't know what gifts you have. I know some of the gifts some of you have. Some of you have a wonderful gift of conversation. I've heard you. Use it for the kingdom of God. I wish Charlotte was here. Charlotte has a wonderful gift of conversation. You have a wonderful gift of kindness. I've seen it in your eyes. I've heard it in your voice. I've seen it in your life. You have all kinds of gifts because you've got that first gift, grace. You can be graceful. You can be kind. You don't have to be ugly. You don't have to be vicious. You don't have to be unkind. In the kingdom of God, you can practice those things which Christ emulated and demonstrated and said we should follow. And that is the gift of grace. You know that word grace is carisse, from which we get the English word carisse, for a beautiful woman. And we say it means to demonstrate gracefulness. And so all of us have the gift of grace. Now, in chapter 12, he's going to list seven gifts. Now, he's going to list seven gifts and twelve characteristics, both of which are very spiritual numbers used all throughout the Old Testament. Seven days of the week, seven and twelve and twelve. And so he's going to list these two. And I don't think that it's an accident that Paul started off and did seven gifts and twelve characteristics. And so the gifts he starts in, he begins in chapter 12, and he says, Now to everyone who is among you, you are not to think more highly of yourselves than you do of others, but to think soberly, because God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. God has given to each one of us faith, a grace through faith. And so he's dealt a gift, a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all members do not have the same function, for we being many are one body in Christ and individual members of one another. And now he gives an illustration of the body. And in these next verses he talks about does the eye try to do the work of the foot? Does the foot try to do the work of the hand? Does the tongue try to do the work of the eye? Does the hand try to do the work of the interior part of your body? No, each part of our body has its own function. Therefore, he says, God has given to the church gifts, and these gifts are given to each person as to their faith and a demonstration of their faith, and God knows what you are capable of doing, so he will give you the gift in order that you might do that. And so he begins by talking about these kinds of gifts. He said he will give first the gift of prophecy, the ability to demonstrate knowledge of the future, I have heard many of you prophesy. Now you may not know you were prophesying, but I have heard many of you talk about what the future is going to be like. I have heard many of you talking about how we are waiting for the return of Jesus Christ. I have heard many of you talking about what heaven is going to be like. When you are doing that, actually from your basic knowledge that is inside of you by the power of the Holy Spirit coming out of you, you are demonstrating knowledge that you have about the future, and the knowledge of the future is the knowledge of prophecy. And I have heard many of you prophesy. I have also heard many of you minister. I have seen many of you minister. Now the second gift here is ministry. What does that mean? The ability to have what I wish I had a lot more of, but I don't, and since I understand that, I try to overcome it. My sweet darling has about 150 times more than I have, and I have about 150 times less than she has, and that is the knowledge of compassion. You know, most of the time, Barbara will tell me some things that I need to be thinking about that I didn't think about, because that is not in my DNA. In her DNA, she has a wonderful gift of compassion. She has a wonderful gift of ministry. She is always wanting to minister to somebody. She is always wanting to send something to somebody. She is always wanting to do something for somebody. That is the gift of ministry. Now many of you have the gift of ministry. I have watched you, and I have seen that gift of ministry demonstrate itself here in the church. And so he says, to some are given prophecy, to others are given... Now, could it be that you might end up having all seven of these? Strong possibility. It is not irrational to think that you might. You are sure to have one. You have grace. Perhaps you have eight if you add grace to this seven. And so the gift of ministry is that gift of compassion. You love other people. You want to help other people. You want to see that other people are served. And then he talks about the gift of teaching. I don't have to talk about that. Brother Jimmy and I have the gift of teaching. He has the gift of preaching. I do not have the gift of preaching. He has the gift of teaching. I have the gift of teaching. And he also says, the gift of exhortation. That means counseling. How you sit down and exhort people and you help them to come to understand what it is they are to be doing. And many of you have that wonderful gift of sitting down with someone, holding their hand, and when you come out, both of you just crying your heart out. Because there was a gift of counseling exhortation. There was a gift of knowledge coming in. And he also said there is a gift of giving. That is my job at the seminary. I have seen many, many people with this gift. I have seen many people with a magnificent quantity of this gift. And that is the gift of giving. Now that does not only mean cash. It means time and effort, strength and resilience and cash. I mean, we can give a lot of things. And there are a lot of people who do a whole lot better giving other things than giving cash. But giving cash is also part of this gift of giving. Some people have the magnanimous gift of being able to give, not only monetarily, but they are able to give spiritually and relationally and physically to other people. And I have watched them give. I mean, how many times has someone brought a pie to your house just because they love you? Or how many times has it been someone picked up the phone and called you and said, you know, God has impressed me to talk to you. That is a gift of exhortation, a gift of giving. They are giving their time. Anytime time and effort is given, it is giving. And so the gift of giving. Then he says also there is a gift of leading. Several people have the gift. This is administration. Several people have the gift of administration. And they can lead well. And they can talk with other people. And other people will surround themselves around them and allow them to lead them, allow them to administer the processes going on, and they will follow that administration. And so they follow what the leader is doing. And the final one he gives here is the gift of mercy. And that is that feeling in to everybody's reason. And how many times have you seen somebody come up to you just put their arms around you and comfort you? That is the gift of mercy. You see, ladies and gentlemen, God had the gift of mercy and he comforted us in Jesus Christ. God had the gift of mercy and he gave us the comforter. God has the gift of mercy because it says, and God is merciful. And so he helps us to become merciful as well. And so these seven gifts are gifts that the apostle talks about to this church in Rome. And he's saying to these Roman Jewish Christians, he's saying to them, now look, in this church, all of these gifts are there because of the one gift of grace. And were it not for the gift of grace, these other gifts would not be there. You see, it is only by the grace of God that he has given any of these seven gifts to you. Now, pause there and go over to chapter 12 in Corinthians and there are some different gifts. Don't have time today to go over there and talk about them, but if you read those, they are a little bit different. You've got to admit, speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues is a little different from ministry. And so what you're seeing is a little bit of difference in the nature of the gifts. And then he closes that down and he says, however, this whole thing is based on the mercy of God. And he says in chapter, he says in verse 8, he says, verse 7, it says, Now are he who teacheth and who exhorts, and then he comes down here to verse 9 and he says, Let love be without hypocrisy. In other words, don't show love just because you know you need to. If you show love because you feel like you need to, that's hypocritical. Got it? That's what he's talking about here. Don't let love be without hypocrisy. Let it be without hypocrisy. If you're going to demonstrate love, don't be hypocritical about it. In other words, around people, don't act like you love them and away from people, you hate their guts. I don't believe that's love. I believe that's hypocritical. And so he's saying here, let that, so in that he's saying, and because of that, let me give you 12 pieces of instruction that you need to have as you walk the pilgrimage of this life. Now, Paul is very quick to indicate these are not commandments. They are not edicts. They are not something that needs to be forced upon us. They are ideas of observation. It's kind of evident that the Apostle Paul has observed in the life of Christian people these various and sundry characteristics. And he's coming to say, since I have observed these 12 characteristics in the lives of the people in the church, I want to share with you what I have observed and help you to see if these characteristics are part of your daily Christian life. Are they part of your daily lifestyle? Are they part of your new born-again Christian DNA? Is this the way you operate? Is basically what he's saying here. And then he lays in the 12 of these. And he begins by saying, hate sin. Hate evil. Abhor evil. In other words, he's saying, don't let evil take over your life, but hate evil. Hate everything that is sinful. Because if you hate and abhor everything that is sinful, then on the opposite side of that, you will love and enjoy everything that is righteous. And so he's giving you a... In fact, here is where the Apostle Paul starts that if-then activity. By the way, you do know that in the Old Testament there were a lot of old if-then activities. If you... Just remember the one we... If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and say... This is an if-then statement. They're all over the Bible. Then I will hear from heaven. If-then. So what you're going to have here is 12 if-thens. And he's going to say, if you hate evil, then you will cling to that which is good. It's an if-then situation. If you hate evil, you will cling to that which is good, which is number two. So you hate sin, you will cling to that which is good. Be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love. Be kind to one another. Let this be a daytime characteristic. Don't be obstinate with people. Don't show your ugly face. As the verse says, put on a happy face. And don't be hypocritical about your happy face. Because love does not attain to hypocrisy. And so he says, be kindly affectionate with brotherly love. He says then, honor one another. Honor giving preference to one another. Give preference to the people who are with you. There are people here in this class who do a whole lot more than Brother Jimmy and I do. There are people in this class who do a whole lot more in these characteristics and the gifts that we just talked about than any pastor I've ever seen do. You all have a lot of these gifts in store. And he's saying to you, live in preference to other people. And that's what you're doing. You're honoring other people by showing them that you are honoring them even though you may be in their eyes of great honor as is Brother Jimmy. At the same time, we are to honor them and give preference to them. Do you understand what we're talking about? And Paul is saying, be kind to these people. Give honor to them. Be preferential to them. Let them know that they are as of much honor as you are. Because, ladies and gentlemen, nobody has honor unless God gives it to them. God is the only one. And when we get to chapter 13, he's going to say that the ruler you have is there because God put him there. And every day, whether you like it or not, you're supposed to pray for him. Pray for the leaders. The Apostle Paul says that many times. And every day on your knees, you should be praying for Mr. Biden and our leadership. And you should be praying for the kingdoms of the world and their leadership. You should be praying that God intervenes in their leadership. Prefer others give honor to them. And then he says, not only that, not lagging in diligence. In other words, don't do this sometimes. Don't do these characteristics sometimes, but be diligent in doing them. Don't let them lag. Don't let them fall into non-entity. Don't let them fall into obscurity, he's saying. Don't let them get away from you. When you get these 12 characteristics, you be sure that you practice them daily. Don't let them lag. Don't let them fall away from you. And then he says, and be fervent in spirit. We can all do that. Loving one another, fervent in spirit, fervent in love, fervent in conversation. Have a spirit that is a spirit of goingness and givingness and opportuniteness and all of the things that you can do being fervent in spirit. Then he says, also rejoicing in hope. Hope looked out at a drowning man, faith looked out at a drowning man, and faith had not a doubt that someone would get a rope and pull the fellow out. Hope looked out at a drowning man, hope had not a frown that someone would grab a rope and not let that fellow drown. But love looked out at a drowning man and love had faith and hope, but love had more. His hand was quick. He threw the man a rope. You got it? That's what he's talking about here. Be sure that you rejoice in hope and be sure that you're rejoicing in hope. Be patient in your persecution. Be patient when people persecute you. Do you remember what the apostle Paul said? Do you remember what Jesus said? Understand that you will be persecuted. Understand that you will not be liked. Understand that there are a lot of people who don't like the Christian faith. By the way, in chapter 12, chapter 13 begins because of this very thing that was happening in Rome. There are a lot of people who are not liking the church in Rome. And because of that, you see in chapter 12 that one of the Caesars had to kick all the Jews out of Rome because what was happening was it was beginning to become a rebel rousing situation. And it was being reported that there was rebelness going on. We'll talk about that when we get to chapter 13. And that's why Claudius, in 49 AD 49, had to kick the Jews out of Rome of which Aquila and Priscilla made their way to Corinth and met the apostle Paul and later on were very important in the kingdom of God. Probably one to the Lord Christ during the Pentecostal day in Jerusalem. So it says be sure that you understand you're going to be in persecution. And then he says, continuing steadfastly in prayer. Never stop praying. Pray without ceasing. In other words, your mind and your heart and your spirit should always be in constant prayer for one another. I watch you very carefully. I know that you are in this boat. I know many of you pray without ceasing. Pray daily. And you may not have your heads bowed. You may not have your eyes closed but you're praying for somebody. And as you sit here, you're praying for people. I know you are. Because that's the way the Christian church operates. Pray always. Pray continually. Then he says, and then be sure you distribute to the needs that you see around you. Be hospitable. Give something to the needs you have around you. To the saints. Give in hospitality. And then he comes to the end of this chapter and he says, bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. That's difficult, folks. That's difficult to pray for your enemies. But Jesus said, pray for your enemies. Because in doing so, you will pour hot coals on their head. Pray for them who persecute you. Pray for those who are against you. Pray. In order to see to it that the kingdom of God is coming about, you pray for your enemies. And finally he says, rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind one to another. Don't think yourself high, but associate with the things that are low. Do not repay evil for evil. Have regard for the good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with one another. And Paul says, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with one another. 19 says, beloved, do not avenge yourselves. In other words, if somebody does you wrong, don't try to avenge. Because you'll mess it up. You'll mess it up. Who is the avenger? God is the avenger. God says, I will repay. You remember what he said? Therefore, he said, do not avenge. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I will repay. If someone does something to you in a vengeance manner, God will repay. If you do it, you'll mess it up. And you'll make an enemy for life as you mess it up. So let God be the person who does the vengeance. Therefore, if your enemy hungers, feed him. If he thirsts, give him drink. And for doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Proverbs 20. And finally, he ends this chapter by saying, do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. Then we go to chapter 13. In chapter 13, he says, therefore, five times. Now, if he says, therefore, five times, that basically means, he has five particular items he wants you to understand. He's going to give you five things to think about. And after he gives you these five things about which to think, then he's going to say, since I have given you these five things, therefore, here's what you need to do. Isn't it something that he always follows up with, here's what you need to do? Here's what it is, therefore, here's what you need to do. If you do get that, then here's what you need to do. It's a then situation. And so in chapter 13, he has five therefores. And he says it something like this when he begins chapter 13. He says, let every soul be subject to the government. Okay. Immediately, you understand that number one is going to be an instructional piece about how to be a Christian and how to relate to the government. And so, now, why did Paul do this? Let me pause for just a moment. Yes, I'm going to give you an illustration for just a moment. I'll hurry through it. There was a Caesar whose name was Claudius. He was a Caesar from about 49 to about 56, AD 49-56. He hated the Jews in Rome. In fact, he hated the Jews so much that in 49, he expelled all of the Jews from Rome. He sent them packing. If you were a Jew in Rome in 49, in AD 49, you would have been sent out of the city of Rome. Aquila and Priscilla were those two of those among others who left the city of Jerusalem. He told them either leave or die and they had to get out of town. And so, they left Dodge and went somewhere else. And so, he expelled them. Now, he died about 54. And when he died, he was replaced by a person whom you would think would be either like him or worse than him. He was replaced by Nero. And when you begin to think of Claudius and Nero and you remember more what Nero did than you do what Claudius did, then you would say, goodness, do you mean it was better under Nero than it was under Claudius? And the answer to that statement is yes. In fact, Nero had a feeling toward these Jewish people who were in Rome and he invited all of them. He lifted the embargo on Jewish people and he invited all of them to come back to Rome and to come back and be a part of Rome. Now, you got to admit, these Caesars were all despots. Every one of them was a despot. Every one of them had terrible characteristics, but all of them also had at one time soft hearts. And this was Nero's soft heart. So, he removed the expulsion and he invited all of the Jewish people who would like to, to come back to the city of Rome. Later on, in 74, he's going to burn all their houses down in the fire of 74. Now, actually, the truth of the matter is, Nero had his men to set the fire to the city of Rome. There evidently were a lot of flop houses in the city of Rome, a lot of buildings that were terrible, in which the Jewish and Christian people were living and he decided that he didn't like them and he was going to burn all their houses down. And then he blamed them for the fire that he set with his officers and then he persecuted them and that's when Nero, later on, when Nero became the world's worst persecutor, later on in his ministry, and he is the one who had Paul beheaded on the road outside the city of Rome. And so, Nero here was a hero. He had a compassionate heart. He allowed the people to come back. And so, what was happening was, there was a report that in this Jewish community there was a rabble about Christos. C-H-R-E-S-T-O-S Christos, under Claudius. Actually, Suetonius, the historian, thinks that they were trying to say Christian, but instead they said Christos. And so, because of that rabble-rouser, Claudius kicked them all out and because of that, Nero brought them back. Alright, that's what happened in Rome. And so now, Paul is coming to say to them, look, you need to give great honor to your leaders. And he says, in 13, let every soul be subject to the government authorities, for there is no authority except from God. And so, he talks here in these verses until he gets down to verse 5, where he says, therefore, and verse 5 happens to be one of those therefores, and he gets down to verse 5, he talks about the government, he talks about whosoever resists authority, the ordinance of God, those who resist will bring judgment on themselves, rulers. Rulers are not there for terror. If you obey the laws, you ought not fear the rulers. By the way, if you're on the highway driving and you're obeying the laws, they're not going to stop you. But if they stop you, and they put on the red and blue lights popping behind your car, there's something that you have done that's probably not right. And the law is going to stop you. You see, the law is not here for terror, the law is here for your protection. And that's what Paul is trying to tell these Romans. All these laws are to protect you. They're not to terrify you. And as long as you obey the laws, then terror, you should not be unafraid. For he is God's minister to you for good. But, if you do evil, then be afraid. That's true today. What do you feel like when those lights are popping behind your car? You always feel, oh, what did I do? Well, you zoom, zoom, zoom inside the cars and they stop you. Or you were going 55 or 35 miles on, and he's going to give you a citation. And so we sweat when we see those lights popping. It's not there to terrorize you. The police are not out there to terrorize us. The police are there to give us safety. And that's what Paul is telling these Christians in Rome. He says, therefore, since I told you that, you must be subject not only because of wrath, but also because of your conscience saying. What is your conscience telling you about obeying the law? What does your spiritual inside tell you about obeying the law? For Paul says, for because of this you also pay taxes. For they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. And so he talks about laws, and he talks about taxes, and he comes to another therefore in verse 7. And in verse 7 he says, therefore, to all their due, taxes to whom taxes are due, custom to whom customs are due, fear to whom fear, honor to honor, oh, oh, no one, anything except to love one another, for he who loves another is fulfilling the law. And so the apostle here is talking about taxes. Also, what did Jesus say about that? One day, one of the religious leaders brought a Roman coin that had Caesar's picture on it. And he showed it to Jesus, and he said, Jesus, to whom should we pay taxes? To Caesar or to the temple? And they were hoping to catch him in that trick. Because if he'd said Caesar, they would have all said, see, he's a man of Caesar, let's crucify him. If he'd said the temple, then they'd say, okay, he's against the king. I mean, there's no winning. He was in a position where either situation was not a win-win. If he said Caesar, they would accuse him of being a Roman. If he said the temple, they would accuse him that he didn't love the king. And so he was in a pickle. And they said, whose image is on here? And he said, Caesar. And he said, to whom shall we give taxes? To which Jesus said, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's. And unto God the things that are God's. In other words, in a few couple of weeks, I'm going to pay our annual taxes. And you are too. And aren't you grateful that they were reduced this year? Amen? Mine was reduced almost 50% this year. And we're going to pay, we're going to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. And we're going to send a check to the little lady downtown Fort Worth. Whatever county you live in, you're going to send a check to them. And you're going to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. But also, at the same time, you're going to bring your tithe here to the church. And you're going to give the things of God to God. That's what he's talking about here. Therefore, since you know this, give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and give to God the things that are God's. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder. And now all of a sudden, all of a sudden, he's talking about filling this responsibility and then he starts talking about the Ten Commandments. And he talks about the last five. He doesn't talk about the first four. First five. He talks about the last five. He talks about the five commandments that are person to person. Not person to someone else or person to God. The last commandments are person to person. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not, do not covet. Do not. They're man to man. And so, he talks about the last five and he mentions them here. You shall not covet. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not covet. And if there is any other commandment, all are summed up in this one. Namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Now ladies and gentlemen, he is moving toward the end of this chapter. Because at the end of this chapter, he's going to tell us that love conquers all. And that's true. Later on, in the book of Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, he's going to give us that wonderful chapter that ends, and there abides, these three. Faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. Jesus said, one day, talking to a young ruler, who asked him, Master, what is the greatest commandment? And Jesus answered him with the Shema. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy strength, with all thy soul, with all thy might. This is the first and greatest commandment. And he was right. But then Jesus looked at him and said, but the second one is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. To which the young man said, Okay, sir. Who is my neighbor? Ladies and gentlemen, when that young ruler, Jewish ruler, said that, here's what he was saying. The only people who are my neighbors are Jews. Period. And that's the way they felt. The only neighbor during the time of Christ that a Jew had was another Jew. Nobody else was their neighbor. And Jesus knew that. And so Jesus looked at him and said, Well, let me ask you a question. Let me give you an illustration. A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Remember? And at the end of it, when the Samaritan, the hated half-Jews, when the Samaritan took care of the Jewish man, Jesus looked at the kid and he said, Now, son, tell me, which one was the neighbor to which the young man turned his back and walked off? Because he knew he was right. And so he's talking about that here. He says, Love does not harm to a neighbor. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Here's the third therefore. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of law, against which there is no law. There is no law against love. In all of the Old Testament, there is no law that's against love. And Jesus says, Against that there is no law. The whole law fails and pales in sight when you put up the word love. And so he goes on to say, And do this, knowing the time that now it is high time to awaken out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. All of a sudden now, Paul is talking about the return of Christ. He's saying, You need to wake up. You need to stop slumbering. You need to stop sleeping. You need to get your eyes up. You need to understand. Look to the east. Redemption comes. And he says to them here, And do this. What? Do this, knowing the time is now and it's high time to awaken out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than it was when you first believed. Oh, by the way, how long have you been a Christian? Christ's return is much nearer now than when you believed. Christ is much nearer now than yesterday. And we need to wake up and find out that the things that Paul is telling the Christians in the church to be doing, these activities that deal with the government, that deal with taxes, that deal with relationships, that deal with one another. He's saying, You need to be doing these every day because you don't know when that time will come when Jesus steps into eternity and says, That's it. And the trumpets blow. And folks, we all disappear. We're all gone. Zip. Moment. As Paul says in Corinthians 15, twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. We're all gone. And so the apostle is trying to help these Roman Christians to understand. Oh, by the way, just in passing, did you know that Paul was persuaded that Jesus would come in his lifetime? As were all the other Christians since then. Brother Jimmy, are you persuaded he's coming in your lifetime? Sure, I am too. Aren't you? I'm persuaded he could come. In fact, you remember that beautiful sign that was made for us that said, Maybe today? I have one on my desk. I have one I wear on my lapel. Maybe today. Maybe before you eat lunch. You eat lunch in heaven. Maybe before you go to sleep tonight, you wake up in heaven. Wouldn't it be nice to be sitting here for one second and the next, you're in heaven. A beautiful metamorphosis. You're gone. Moment. Twinkling of an eye. Last trumpet. We're gone. So he talked about it. He said, Wake up! Be aware of the fact. This thing is happening. And Jesus is on his way. And the signs, Paul's talking about signs of times in his day. How many more of those signs of times have come to pass in our day? How many of these prophecies have been fulfilled in our day? How many are yet a few to be fulfilled before he returns? So we're closer today than we were. A night is far spent. A day is at hand. Here is the next therefore, the last one. Therefore, since this is what happened, the night is spent. The day is at hand. You can't work in the night. You work in the day. So he says, The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light and let us live properly as in the day and not as reveling or as drunkenness or as licentiousness or as lewdness does in the night. Isn't it interesting that most all of the stupid, scalduggery, ugly, vicious, drunken activities happen at night? Now you watch your television. When do most people get shot? They go all over our counties. When do they get shot? When are they out reveling? At night. And so the Apostle Paul, evidently they were doing that in the Roman Empire. In the daytime, they were working, doing their job. At nighttime, they partied. And Paul is saying, Wake up Christians. You're not in the night. You're in the day. And these other people are in the night. And in the night, there's reveling. You don't want to be there. And he ends up in verse 14. Now, I'm going to close with this. The Apostle Paul had two favored statements. If then, or one of them, he picked up from the Old Testament. Because there were so many Old Testament if then's. And the Apostle Paul does a lot of teaching with the if this happens, then this is going to happen. And you can begin now to pick up the if then's. He also had another process. And the process was put off and put on. And he said that a lot. He said, put off sin and put on righteousness. Put off rebellion and put on faithfulness. Put off drunkenness and put on soberness. Put off, put off. He had all kinds of put off. And through his letters, if you read his letters carefully, you'll run into all kinds of put off and put ons. This one is the last verse in this chapter. It's a put off and put on. Watch. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what you need to put on. And make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. Put on the Lord Jesus and put off what? The lust. Put on, put off. And you'll see it all through his words. Now, in chapter 14 and 15 that Brother Jimmy's going to be teaching, he keeps on talking about this thing. Now, you've got to remember, Paul in this chapter 14 and 15 to the end of the book, he's going to give us more characteristics of how to live. Chapter 12 and 13 were full of characteristics on how to live. My dear friends, if you want to know how to live, all you have to do is read chapter 12 and 13 and 14 and 15 over and over again and he'll tell you how to live. He'll tell you how to live now. He'll tell you how to live in the future. He'll tell you how to live. And he'll tell you where to live and where not to live. And he'll tell you what time of day to live and where not to live on the time of day. He does it all here. And he's going to continue. And next week when Brother Jimmy picks up chapter 14, he's going to be talking about some more. Put-offs, put-offs, and if-thens, you're going to do this? And so, he's instructing the Romans who were accused of being rabble-rousers in Rome because they were having such a wonderful spiritual time in the church, they thought they were drunk. And the Apostle Paul said, Don't be drunk with wine. But if you can be a rabble-rouser, be drunk with the Spirit. And that's what was happening in Rome. They were drunk with the Spirit. And Claudius thought that they were a bunch of rabble-rousers and called them Christos and kicked them out of Rome. To which they were all going to come back. And that's the story up to chapter 14, Brother Jim. And that's yours next week, my dear friend. So, God bless you. Here is the end statement. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. For love conquers all. Amen? And that's the story. Dear Father, we can love because in us You have put Yourself, our blessed brother Jesus Christ, and the holiness of the Spirit of Yourself into us. And because of that, You have put into us love. And Father, we can love. Not because we are lovely, but because You loved us. And because You first loved us, we can love You. And so, Father, thank You for this injunction. Not to be drunk with wine, but to be filled with the Spirit and to love one another. And that is our prayer in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen. See you next week. I got through, sugar.