Pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers has introduced people all over the world to the love of Jesus Christ and has impacted untold numbers of lives by presenting profound truth simply stated. Thanks for joining us for this message.
Here's Adrian Rogers. God Himself says, for as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ, that is Christ and His body. And God says that He made us different and dependent upon one another in order that, and I begin reading now in verse 25, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another.
I want you just to underscore that phrase, one for another. That's what I want to talk about, but I want to review, first of all, what we said this morning, is we talked about the fact that the church is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is His mystical body. Christ is the head. We are the members of that wonderful body called the church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and we talked to you about the function of a body. A body manifests the person that lives in it, and Jesus is to be manifested by the way that we live. The way this world will know the Lord Jesus Christ is through His body, the church. He mediates and manifests Himself through us, and so a body reveals the person inside that body. The church is to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ.
The body has life. The life of the church is the Holy Spirit. The Bible has a purpose, and it is to do the will of the person who owns the body, who lives in the body, and what is the purpose of the church? To do the will of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all of the parts of the body function together just as we are to function together to serve our Lord.
There will be no disunity, but we're to have a common purpose and a common function and a common goal. So we talked to you about the function of the body. Then we talked about the formation of the body, how when we get saved, the Holy Spirit of God baptizes us into the body of Christ. That's spirit baptism. Water baptism is a symbol of spirit baptism, spoken of in verse 13, for by one spirit have we all been baptized into one body. When you get saved, the Holy Spirit comes into you, and then the Holy Spirit puts you into the body of Christ. So he's in us, and we are in him.
Hallelujah. And so a Christian is in Christ, and Christ is in the Christian, and we are in the body, and Christ is the head of the body. Now we talked to you about the fellowship of the body, and we said that we are to be in fellowship.
Why? Because we share the same life. We show the same love. We serve the same Lord. Now we didn't get time to just kind of bear down on the part that I want us to look at tonight again and look at it in verse 25, that there should be no schism, and that means division in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another. I want to talk to you tonight about caring for one another. You know, that's what makes Bellevue the wonderful church is that we do care for one another.
That is God's plan because we're members one of another. There can be no arrogance. I can't be proud and arrogant if I have a gift that you don't have, or you can't be proud and arrogant if you have a gift that I don't have. You can't be proud if you're an eye and I'm a foot.
Oh, no. There can be no arrogance. There can be no envy. I shouldn't envy your gift.
You shouldn't envy mine because the Bible says God put every member in the body as it pleased him, and none of us have anything that God didn't give us. Isn't that true? And then there should be no rivalry. When you prosper, I prosper. When I prosper, you prosper. And so I want you to prosper so I can prosper.
If you are a member of a body, you want the rest of that body to be healthy, don't you? No member of the body can say, I don't need you. You need me.
I need you. We need one another. There certainly should be no disunity, no schism in the body.
When the body begins to war against itself, you are tragically sick. As a matter of fact, we could call that cancer in the body of Christ. Now, we are to care one for another. I want to mention some ways tonight that you as a brother or sister in Christ, we need to care for one another. In the Bible, God gives some one another commands. We call these reciprocal commands.
Now, there are many of them. As a matter of fact, I looked them up, and there were so many of them that I dare not even begin to try to elucidate on or expound on all of the one another commands in the Bible. But I do want us to look at chapter 12, verse 25, where the Bible says we should care for one another.
And then I want to mention some ways that we should care for one another. The first one is found in John 13, verse 34. Here's what Jesus said. Jesus said, A new commandment I give unto you, that ye should love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. Now, all of the commandments had been given in the Old Testament. But now along comes Jesus, and he says, I'm going to give you a new commandment. You're to love one another. This was the last commandment he gave before his arrest, his mock trial, his crucifixion.
He said, I give you this command that you love one another. Now, we don't need, as members of Bellevue Church, one of those little birds on our cars for people to know that we're saved. We don't need a lapel pen with a cross or a fish.
That's fine. As a matter of fact, I like that kind of thing. I think it's very wonderful. But that's not the way that people are to know that we're the disciples. Do you know the badge that the Christian is to wear?
It is the unseen but always seen badge of love. Listen to this verse, 1 John 4, verse 20. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? Again, the Bible, Jesus said, By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. The Bible commands us to love. Now, this love is not optional, but it's not automatic.
If it were automatic, we wouldn't be commanded to do it. Now, what is this kind of love? Why did Jesus say a new commandment, I give you that you love one another? In the Old Testament, we're told to love. Well, what is the new commandment? The new commandment is that we are to love as he loved.
That is with a new quality. Now, the love that Jesus is talking about here is not just merely doing our neighbor no harm, but it is seeking opportunity to do him good, even when he doesn't deserve it. That's what Jesus did for me.
God commandeth his love toward me, and that while I was yet a sinner, he died for us. Do you know what real love is? Love is not your giving me what I deserve.
It is giving me what I need. Love is not giving me even what I want. Love is giving me what I need.
Love says, you will do me good, regardless of what I do to you. We are to love one another. That's the way we care for one another, according to 1 Corinthians 15.
Now, not only are we to love one another, here's another command. We are to receive one another. Turn this time to Romans chapter 15, and just look at this passage of Scripture.
It's a very interesting passage, Romans chapter 15 and verse 7. Our Lord says here, Wherefore, receive ye one another. There's our word again, receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God. How are we to love? We're to love as he loved. How are we to receive? We are to receive as he received.
Now, folks, this is one of the most needy commands in all of the Bible, that we make people feel loved and welcome when they come in to the church. If you look at the early church in the New Testament, what a background, what a mixture of backgrounds there were. The people came from all kinds of religious backgrounds. Many of them had been raw pagans. They came from social backgrounds. Many of them had been divorced. Many of them had multiple marriages. Some of them were polygamists. Many of them had mixed marriages. Various races had married together. There were Jews and barbarians and Greeks. There were slaves that were free. There were rich, poor.
They were educated and ignorant, young and old, mature and babes in Christ, and they were all a part of the body of Christ. We have to make everybody who wants to worship God feel welcome. Now, we must do that, folks. We must love one another.
We must receive one another. Turn to the book of Philemon for just a moment. That's over near the end of the epistles and see if you can find it.
It's a very short little book. And in the book of Philemon, it's on page 1488 if you have a Bible like mine. There was a man named Onesimus. He was a slave.
He ran away from his owner. Paul met him in prison. Paul led him to Christ and sent him back to his owner. And look, if you will, in Philemon, beginning in verse 15. Here's what Paul tells Philemon.
"'For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him forever. Now, not as a servant, but above a servant, a brother be loved specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord.' And then Paul said, "'If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself.'" Paul said, "'You take this runaway slave and you receive him now, you the rich man, you receive this man, receive him as a brother.'" And then Paul said, "'You receive him as if he were an apostle.'" What's that gonna tell us about anybody who walks in those doors?
Now, if anybody comes to disrupt, obviously, we can't allow them to disrupt. If anybody comes to mock, obviously, they must be dealt with. But anybody who comes to worship God must be received.
Say, amen. We're to receive one another. Turn, if you will, to 3 John here for a moment. And you know, the country preacher said, 1 John, 2-eyed John, and 3-eyed John. You turn to 3-eyed John, if you will, here. Back almost to the book of the Revelation, and let me show you about a man in the Bible who caused a lot of trouble in the church. I'll look, if you will, in 3 John and verse 5, I believe.
Let's look at it here for a moment. 3 John, verse 5. "'Beloved, thou doest faithfully, whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers.'" That is, do faithfully to a stranger as you would to a brother.
And then skip on down to verse 8. "'We therefore ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers in the truth.' I wrote unto the church, "'But Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth, praking against us with malicious words, and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbideth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good.'" What does that tell us?
It tells us we must receive one another. Now, there are people in this church who don't hold as high a standard as you may hold. They're weak in the faith. They don't understand the deep mystery of God.
Is a person like that to be made to feel unworthy? Are they to be looked down upon if they come into your Sunday school class and they don't know the books of the Bible? Or they don't understand theology?
Or they don't understand all of the dispensational truth that you think you understand? Do you know what Romans 14, verse 1 says? Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. What does that mean?
Don't argue with him about Tweedle Dee Dee and Tweedle Dee Dum. In the living Bible, it is paraphrased this way, receive a brother into the church even if he scarcely believes Christ can save him. That doesn't mean that we put a premium upon weak faith, but who is it that needs love?
Who is it that needs care if it's not somebody who's weak? This is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. We are to love one another.
We are to receive one another. That doesn't mean we're to receive heretics or willful sinners. Any church has a right to screen out the bugs when it lets in the light. We're not talking about heretics. The Bible's very clear about that also. 2 John, verse 10, If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed. We're to have soft hearts and not soft heads.
Now, here's the third thing. When we're to care one for another, that means we're to love one another. That means we're to receive one another. It also means because we love and because we receive, we are to greet one another. Look again now in Romans chapter 16, verse 16, what Paul said to the church at Rome, which is a very cosmopolitan church. Romans chapter 16, verse 16, Salute one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you. And then in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse 20, All the brethren greet you, greet ye one another with a holy kiss. 2 Corinthians 13, verse 12, Greet one another with a holy kiss. Now, three times he said that, so I want you to turn to the person next to you. He's going to wait a minute, pastor. Do you see who's sitting next to me?
If you think for a minute. But what does this mean? What does this mean? Here it is, salute one another with a holy kiss, greet ye one another with a holy kiss, greet one another with a holy kiss, three times it's mentioned. We are to greet one another. Now, what is a holy kiss? It's not an erotic kiss. It's not a kiss on the mouth. In the Bible, people would kiss on this side and kiss on that side. The men would kiss the men, the ladies, the ladies. That'll clear a lot up right there.
And it was just an embrace. As a matter of fact, they do that in Spain. If you go in the Middle East, they do that in the Middle East. They still do that. Not a thing in the world wrong with that, but that was a custom then.
Customs change. The Bible says that we are to render custom to whom custom is due. What that really means is show acceptance in a very warm and in a very wonderful way. By the way, there's absolutely nothing wrong with a holy kiss.
If you want to do that and feel comfortable, that's fine. But what this is saying is simply this, that we must demonstrate our love. There must be love. There must be receptivity. And there must be the demonstration of that love and that receptivity. People need to be loved. They need to be greeted. This greeting needs to be personal.
It needs to be warm. It needs to be impartial. You can't do it by radio and television or through mail. James chapter 2 and verse 9, but if ye have respect to persons ye commit sin and are convinced of the law as transgressors. We call our radio television ministry love worth finding. Do you know what we need to do, folks? We need to show and demonstrate warmth and love to every person who walks in those doors. Not just say you're welcome to come and sit down, but we need to move toward them with a smile, a handshake, an embrace, and, yes, a holy kiss if that's appropriate. But what he is saying is this, that we need a warm fellowship. Does that make you uncomfortable when somebody touches you?
Or if I say now reach out and take hands across the aisle and let's say we're one in the bond of love, you just kind of want to go, you don't want to touch anybody. Do you know folks like that? Hey, folks. There are people going to die and go to hell because we're so self-centered. You say, well, some people just don't like that. That's true. Some don't.
But most do. The more we get, the more loving we need to become. Now, I'm not talking about pawing over people.
I'm not talking about manhandling people. I am just talking about being warm and loving and caring one for another. We're to treat one another as members of the same body. We are in the family together.
We are to greet one another. And then I want you to turn to Ephesians chapter 5 with me for a moment. And here's another time the Bible speaks of one another and it speaks of submitting one to another. Look, if you will, in chapter 5 verse 18. It's a command to be filled with the Spirit and be not drunk with wine wearing his excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Why did he say don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit? Why didn't he say don't commit adultery, but be filled with the Spirit? Or don't steal, but be filled with the Spirit? Because being drunk with wine is the devil's substitute for being filled with the Spirit.
He's talking here not only in contrast, but in comparison. Being filled with the Spirit is a lot like being drunk with wine. On the day of Pentecost, Peter said, they were not drunk as ye suppose.
They were drunk on new wine. They were filled with the Spirit of God. And when they were filled with the Spirit of God, they were, became free in their spirit. And then verse 19, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's our one another verse, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. We are to submit ourselves one to another. What is biblical submission? It is one equal willingly and lovingly placing himself under another equal that God may therefore and thereby be glorified. Now, in a body, the various members of my body at various times have to submit to the other parts of my body.
That's just all there is to it. We're in the body of Christ and we care for one another. Therefore, there are times when I must submit to you. I am the pastor, but I must submit to you. You must submit to one another. All will come to a place in times when it is right to submit and somebody else to lead. I think it was Bill Gothard who said, when you show people their rights, you'll have a revolution.
Show them their responsibilities and you'll have a revival. When a man says, I know my rights, what rights does a dead man have? We are crucified with Christ and we need to learn how to yield and give to one another and submit one to another. I want to mention another one now. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 1, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, now here's our one another, forbearing one another in love, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And notice the next phrase, there is one body.
Do you see that? Let's look at it, forbearing one another. Now turn to Colossians and look if you will in chapter 3 and verse 12, look at it. Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, here it is one more time, forbearing one another and we'll get to this next one in a moment, forgiving one another. But we're to forbear one another. What is forbearance? Why does he say this several times in the Bible? We're to forbear one another.
Forbearance is graciously enduring in putting up with the displeasing, offensive, or sinful attitudes or actions of other people. Now folks, everybody in this church is not lovely. As a matter of fact, only one out of three is. Would you look at the person on either side of you?
If it's not them, it's bound to be you. In all seriousness, if you were to start with a pastor, the man standing up here, and look me over real good, you'd find so many faults in me it'd be embarrassing. And in any member of this church, the same thing would be true. Amen?
Amen. And I know that I have habits and faults and foibles and idiosyncrasies that may rub you the wrong way. And I think you just might have one or two. You know what we ought to do every now and then?
Just go stand in front of the mirror and take a long look. Would to God some gift would give us to see ourselves as others see us? Isn't that what Bobby Burns said, only he said it in that accent, would to God some gee would gee us to see ourselves as others see us?
So, what we need to do, folks, is to understand that we're in it together and we have to forbear one another. There'll be some who say, why don't we have more music like those four guys sang tonight? There'll be somebody else say, why do we have to have that grasshopper music in church? There'll always be somebody who'll say, man, the sound system is great.
Somebody else will say, we're gonna tune that thing down. It's so loud. Somebody else will say, why do we always have to clap?
It's not a theater. Somebody else says, oh, I love it when we praise the Lord and say, clap your hands, all you people. If you were pastor, what would you do? Hey, folks, do you know what it takes to make a great church?
Forbearance. Say, amen. I mean, we're different. We don't all like the same thing, but we love Jesus and we love one another. You see, we're to love one another. We're to receive one another. We're to greet one another. We are to forbear with one another.
Tell you something else we're to do. We're to confess to one another. Look in James 5 verse 16. Confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed. Criticize one another, pray for one another. The confession of a fault is not a call to criticism. It's a call to prayer.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. We're to confess one to another. Did you know that the failure to confess to one another holds back revival, forgiveness, and healing?
You confess to one another so that we pray for one another so that we're healed. Do you know what real revival is? Real revival is not just getting the roof off.
That's fairly easy. Real revival is getting the walls down. You say, what do you mean? Well, getting the roof off is saying, oh, forgive me, here's thus and thus and thus have I done. But when we go to one another and we confess our faults one to another and pray for one another, that's when that real koinonia begins. That's when that real fellowship, that caring for one another.
Hey, there are a lot of us tonight who need somebody to pray for us, don't we? But we're either so rotten proud or else we don't trust that person that we don't confess our faults one to another. Now, be careful here.
The devil can take anything and take it to an extreme. The circle of confession ought to be as big as the circle of need. Sometimes there's some very personal and private things. Be very careful to whom you confess that. Sometimes there's somebody that you have wronged and you need to confess that person.
Very private sin, private confession, personal sin, personal confession, public sin, public confession. But what we need to do is to begin to pray for one another. None of us is perfect. No, if there were less criticism in churches and more prayer, what a mighty healing there would be physically and spiritually. Now, I'm coming to the close, but I think all of these kind of come to a head in this last one, Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 32. Be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Again, as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. An unforgiving spirit has ruined so many churches. Has somebody done you wrong?
So, what's new? When you fail to forgive, refuse to forgive, you destroy the bridge over which you yourself must travel. For Jesus said, if you forgive not men their trespasses against you, neither shall your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses against him. That brings up a very interesting question. Can you forgive somebody if they have not yet repented?
No. The Bible says if your brother sinned against you seventy times seven and come and say, I repent, you forgive him. Now, if he's not repented, you can't forgive him, and yet you cannot have an unforgiving spirit.
So, what do you do in a case like that? Well, if he repents, you always forgive him. But what if he continues to sin against you? You can't just say, well, I forgive, I forgive. Even Jesus didn't forgive like that. God doesn't forgive unless there's repentance. When Christ was on the cross, he didn't say to those who were nailing him to the cross, I forgive you. He prayed for their forgiveness.
I believe that prayer was answered on the day of Pentecost for many of them. Well, what do you do in a case like this? I mean, when there's somebody who has perhaps egregiously sinned against you, and you don't wanna carry that bitterness in your heart, and yet you cannot forgive because they have not yet repented, what do you do? What you do is you put that forgiveness in the bank in escrow.
From your heart, you say, there it is, Lord. I forgive them. And whenever they write a check of repentance, it's already in the bank, ready to be drawn on.
You see what I'm talking about? From your viewpoint, you've already forgiven. But from their viewpoint, that forgiveness is not yet received until they do repent. But as far as you're concerned, you have already forgiven. Isn't that what God has done when Jesus died on the cross? There is a legacy of forgiveness for every one of us, but it never becomes ours until we claim it by repentance and faith. Yet in the great loving heart of God, he died for every one of us. And that's the spirit we've got to have, folks, in this church.
That's what we've got to have. This church is a body. We are the body of Christ. We're to care for one another. We're to love one another. We're to receive one another. We're to forbear one another. We're to greet one another. We're to confess one to another. We're to forgive one another. And when we begin to do that, folks, I mean really do it, this church or any church will become a little colony of heaven. What a fellowship. So let's just kind of make ourselves a committee of one to get it started. Father, let that love be the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. Amen.
