Mm. Welcome to Turning Point. If you knew that Jesus would return in a matter of weeks, what would you do? How would you live your life differently? Today, Dr.
David Jeremiah considers the importance of staying spiritually strong so that you can minister to others effectively. To share some insights from Romans chapter 12, here's David to introduce his encouraging message, stay strong. You know, I love the Bible because it is filled with instructions for life. We don't have to guess about most of the things that we should be doing every day. And here is a particular passage that has captured my attention for many years.
It's the book of Romans chapter 12, verses 9 through 16, and it's a perfect follow-up. to the teaching. of the book of Revelation. Here Paul gives instructions to the Roman believers about how they should live their life. And it reminds me of Francis Schaefer's question from many years ago, how shall we then live?
Well, we're going to find out today as we open our Bibles to Romans 12 and part 1 of the message, stay strong. We still have a few days left in the month of July for you to order your copy of Vanished, which is our brand new fiction book. I wrote this book with Sam O'Neill, and the book is about Grappling with the issues of today in light of what the Bible teaches concerning the rapture. Here's a man who has no interest in the things of the future, but because of what's going on in his life, he can't help but be intrigued by the testimony of some of his friends. As he deals with his life, In the world of today, he's confronted with what the Bible says, but he struggles with it.
And this is the story of his struggle. It's the first of three books in this series, and the book is called Vanished. This is more than a tale of survival. It's a soul. Stirring journey of redemption against the backdrop of biblical prophecy.
Come alive. This is a great book to help you deal with these issues in your life and to share with others who may be a little bit. Less than interested in prophecy. This will get their attention and help you talk to them about the real issues of eternity. Don't forget to ask for your copy of this book when you send your gift to Turning Point this month.
We're running out of time, friends, so don't wait too much longer. Make sure you get your request in. The book will be on its way as soon as we hear from you. Here's part one of Stay Strong. Yeah.
Yeah. Well today I want to talk about the importance of staying strong. Of being the kind of people who can minister to others. Of being not just a receiver during times like this, but a giver, somebody who's. Look to bring strength into a situation that we may face.
And I'd like to do this by teaching a portion of the Word of God that's found in the 12th chapter of Romans. Romans chapter 12, and I'd like to read the verses that we're going to look at. Romans 12, 9 through 16 almost looks like a grocery list, a list of things that Paul. Brings to our attention as he moves into the last section of this great book. He's going to help us understand the kind of people that we need to be if we're going to make a difference.
Never before in the history of the world Has the world looked for answers like they're looking for answers today. And we know that Jesus Christ is the answer. But somehow between Jesus Christ and the answer and the people who need the answer, we're the conduits that have to get the answer to them. And the Bible tells us there's some things we can do that will make it possible for us to be strong in this day and age in behalf of the Lord.
Now, the verses are Romans 12, verses 9 through 16. Listen to the word of God. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil and cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love and honor, giving preference to one another.
not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer. distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. After World War II, A group of German students volunteered to rebuild a cathedral that had been severely damaged by bombs during the war.
As work progressed, they became quite concerned about a large statue of Jesus. with outstretched arms, beneath which was the inscription, Come unto me. As they dealt with the reconstruction of the statue, they were having particular difficulty trying to restore the hands that went on the statue, and they finally gave up and realized that there was no restoration of those hands that had been so destroyed. After much discussion, They decided to leave the hands missing. and change the inscription.
And they changed the inscription from come unto me to Christ has no hands but ours. What a picture that is. Of how we are to respond in the world today. It is not just the description of a statue, it is the truth. In a very real sense, Christ has no hands.
But our hands. We become the hands of Christ. to the world.
Now, if you read with me the passage from the book of Romans and you rightly understand the passage, you will know immediately one thing. that it is not possible to love God and not to serve God. If you love God, you will serve him. I've run into people over the years who say, Well, I really love God, but don't ask me to do anything in the church, don't ask me to serve.
Well, if you love somebody, you will want to serve them. If you're a Christian, a genuine born-again Christian, if you really love God, and it's not just a spin thing you're doing. If you love God, you will find some way to express that love by serving others, by serving the Lord.
So then, how does a person who is committed to living a life of service to the Lord, how do they live? With what marks can we identify them?
Well, Paul begins by telling us, first of all, that such a person is going to be marked by a compassionate love. For God's people. Notice, in this brief section of Romans, Paul uses the words one another three times. He begins, first of all, with the commandment that we love one another. Be kindly, affectionate to one another with brotherly love.
Now, that is an interesting statement, coming as it does, where it does in the book of Romans, for this reason. If you study the book of Romans, you will discover that all the way through the first chapters of the book, all the way through the first 11 chapters, The word that is used for love, the love of God, which is a word we've come to know as the word agape, the love that God has for us, through the first 11 chapters, that word is used exclusively of God's love for us. But beginning in the 12th chapter, Paul begins to use that same word to describe the kind of love that we're to have for one another. It's as if he is saying, With the same love that you have been loved by the Father God, take that very same selfless love and use it to love one another. Be kindly affectionate.
To one another. Have love for one another in the same way that God has love for you. We all know that the Bible tells us that one of the most important commands for us to follow is the great commandment. That you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. And the second is like unto it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The believer's life is to be marked by his love for others.
Some of you may be like the folks that I've met over the years who say, you know, I like the church, I love God, I just don't like Christians. You know, I know people like that. To love the world is no chore, they say. except when it involves Christians. I don't like Christians.
Well, I'm sorry you don't have that option. Because if you love God, you're going to love the people that God loves. And God loves Christians with all of our flaws, as sorry as we can be sometimes. God loves us, and if you love God, you're going to love one another. That's what the scripture says.
Now, it's not the kind of love that you hear about in the world today, the simple little easy, I love you. No, no, no, the Bible puts some teeth into this command. Notice the criteria for this love. Love is to be without Hypocrisy. J.B.
Phillips renders the phrase: Let us have no imitation, Christian love.
Now the word hypocrisy is an interesting word. It's almost a direct transliteration from the Greek language. Hippocratos is the word, and it is a word that was used for a stage actor, for a person who played a part on the stage. And what Paul is saying is that when it comes to loving one another, this is not theater, this is real. We're to love one another, not put on a show, not put on an act, but we're to love genuinely.
Now, it's interesting to me that as I read the New Testament, this was obviously a problem in the early church. It's not just a current problem of people saying that they love one another when in reality they're not living as if they do. This was a problem in the church. Do you know how I know? Because in almost all the epistles that were written to the churches, The writer of the epistle addresses the issue.
Let me show you what I mean. Here's a couple of phrases. In 1 Peter 1:22, we read these words: Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently. With a pure heart.
Now, why would Peter write that? Simply because it was needed, and they were doing what we often do, saying that they loved one another, but it wasn't being expressed in any tangible way. 1 John 3:18 says it this way, my little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but let us love in deed and in truth. And 1 Timothy 1:5 says, The purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from a sincere faith. Ladies and gentlemen, when we love one another, let's really love one another.
Let's don't do it just by saying it. Let's don't put on a false front. The commandment that we love one another is followed by the criteria for our love for one another, but here's where the rubber meets the road. Here's the challenge: How do you know if you're really loving one another the way God wants you to love one another? Here it is: Romans 12:10, in honor.
Giving preference. to one another. Whoops. The phrase giving preference is a Greek word which means to go before or take the lead. And here the meaning of the phrase is that when we love someone else, we put them ahead of ourselves.
We place them in the place of honor. We don't climb up the ladder over them. We encourage them and strengthen them and we love them and we prefer them. Listen to what Paul said to the Philippians. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. We are called upon, first of all, to love one another. We're to love one another sincerely without hypocrisy, and we discover whether we're doing that or not when we look into our own hearts and say, Am I always climbing on top of other people to get my way, or do I sincerely care about my brothers and sisters and how they're faring? Mark number one, we are to be marked by compassionate love for one another.
Now, notice secondly, Paul jumps right from love to hate. Believe it or not. It's to be a life marked by clear standards of morality. Notice verse 9: abhor what is evil. and cling to what is good.
Two parts to this command. First of all, we're to hate evil. That's what the word abhor means. In fact, the word abhor is even stronger than hate, it means to passionately hate. We are to love God with all of our hearts.
We're to hate evil with all of our hearts. Not evil people, but evil itself. While at first these truths seem to be at odds with one another, when you put them together, you realize that they fit. For instance, Proverbs 8.13 says, is to hate evil. Psalm 797:10 says, You who love the Lord, Hate Evil.
Why do we hate evil if we love the Lord? Because the Lord hates evil. It was evil that caused him to send his son into this world to die. God hates evil with a passion. And if we love God, we will love the things that God loves, and we will hate the things that God hates.
The Bible tells us that God hates evil. In plain words, in Hebrews chapter one, but to the Son he says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and Hated. Lawlessness.
If we truly love the Lord, We will hate evil. And that's really the only safe defense we have against it, isn't it? To have a holy hatred for it. Unfortunately, in our day, We have forgotten this advice and rather than hating it, we tolerate it. And if we're not careful, we end up embracing it.
There's an old Puritan preacher by the name of John Owen. Theologian from many years ago, he used to teach his people this. He used to say that if you're not always killing sin, sin's always killing you. Boy, is that ever true, isn't it? Be on a rampage against evil.
Don't let it encroach into your life. That's what God is teaching us. We're to hate evil, but here's the part that is almost as hard for us to comprehend as the hatred of evil: we're to hold on to the good. We say, Pastor, that's a no-brainer. Sure, everybody who's a Christian wants to hold on.
No, no, no, it doesn't say admire the good. It doesn't say be positive about the good. No, it says hold on to the good. In fact, the word hold on is a word that means to be glued. It says be glued to the good.
Hold on to it. Don't let it slip away. Why is it that we have to be concerned about that? I believe, ladies and gentlemen, that in this day, this may be one of the most important things we can major on. How many of you sometimes look around and it seems like the good is slipping away?
slipping through our fingers. You know, every day, every week, and I hear it on the radio, I see it on television, good people, godly people, are aware of the fact. That because of our lack of vigilance and our unwillingness to take the stands that we should take sometimes, we've allowed so much that has been good. to slip away.
Now listen. This very command of the Bible reveals that there is a tendency in all of life to allow the good things. to gradually slip away from us. And Paul says, don't do that. Hold on to those things.
Hold them fast. The half-world of the mediocre has many inhabitants, and the dim path of compromise is well traveled. We must determine in our lives. To hold fast to that which is good, I won't let that slip away. God has called us His people to hold on to the good and not let it slip through our fingers.
We need to be able to look with great pride at the next generation and say, We're handing off to you what we got from our parents. And we're going to hold on to the good. Holding on isn't fun sometimes. Holding on makes you look like you're a prude or maybe you're just old-fashioned. But listen to the words of Paul.
Cling to that which is good. Hate evil, oh yes. But perhaps even more important Hold on to the good. A life that's marked by compassion for God's people and by a clear standard of morality.
Now, notice thirdly, your life should be marked if you're going to make a difference, if you're going to be strong in this day, your life should be marked by contagious enthusiasm for God. Notice that in verse 11, there are three kinds of enthusiasm to which we have been called. First of all, outward enthusiasm. Notice verse 11 says, not lagging in diligence.
Now this phrase could be a very good thing. be translated, not lazy in zeal and intensity. God says, if you're going to make a difference, if anybody's going to be attracted to the God you say you serve, you better have some diligence about your life. Don't let life just sort of Row merrily along until it's over, but be diligent about it. And this is about outward diligence.
And you know what? We can learn a lot from the secular world in this regard. In the secular world, successful men give unstintingly of their time and their energies, counting no sacrifice too great. If you look back over history, you will see illustration after illustration. Gibbon, the historian, spent 20 years writing the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.
Milton got up at 4 in the morning to work on Paradise Lost. William Cullen Bryant wrote Thanatopsis 95 times before he was finished. Noah Webster worked 36 years to produce the first edition of his dictionary. And many business executives, rightly or wrongly, work 10 to 15 hours a day, six or seven days a week, not because they have to, but because they are enthusiastic about what they do. They have diligence.
Sometimes it goes too far to the injury of their family or their health. That's not the point. The point is, we as Christians should not be left behind in the outward diligence of that which we believe. I've always loved the story about Alexander McLaren, who did what I do. He was a preacher.
He was very concerned because, as he looked around in his day, he saw a lot of other preachers didn't seem to work very hard. Didn't go to work very much, didn't seem to have a lot of energy.
So he made a point with God that he would not let that happen. He would get up in the morning to go study, and he used to get up in the morning and go study with his slippers on to be comfortable. But after he got concerned about this, he got up in the morning and he put on his big old. Work boots. Before he went to the study, So he wouldn't forget he was a workman.
Big old clodhopper work boots, most uncomfortable things you could ever put on. But every morning he studied with those boots on. to remind himself that he was a workman of the king. Proverbs 18:9 says, Who is slothful in his work is a brother to him who is a great destroyer. Here's a couple of verses that I love.
Ecclesiastes 9:10, whatever your hand finds to do, Do it with your might, for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you're going. What part about that we don't understand? This passage is my favorite verse. I write this in Bibles, and it's always been my favorite passage. I love this verse.
Whatsoever you do, do it heartily is to the Lord and not to men. Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. Galatians 6:9 says, Do not grow weary while doing good, for in due season, you will reap if you don't lose heart. Paul says, outwardly there should not be any lagging in your diligence. But notice, secondly, here's another term in this same little trilogy: outwardly diligent, but inwardly false.
Filled with enthusiasm. Notice the next phrase is fervent in spirit. Say that out loud with me: fervent in spirit. And you know, the word there is the word zoe, and it means to boil. Have a boiling spirit.
Have a spirit that's filled with excitement about what you have been called to do. One translation has it this way, aglow with the Spirit. I think that's a good rendering. We read in the New Testament about the man Apollos, who was a great preacher, and the Bible said he'd been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he was fervent in his spirit. Let me ask you this question: Are you fervent in spirit?
You know, when we look around and we wonder why people aren't attracted to Christians, it's because we believe what we believe so quietly.
So passively.
So easily. Brad Borders came to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Listening to Turning Point on the radio. And that's one of my stories that I love to tell because it reminds us that the Word of God makes a difference. But here's the deal.
Brad Borders was an atheist. I mean, an outright atheist. If you don't know what that means, that means he didn't believe there was a God, and he certainly didn't believe in the Bible. And he got saved listening to me teach the book of Revelation on the radio.
Now how does that work? He doesn't believe God, he doesn't believe the Bible, and he gets saved. Listen to Revelation. God must be sitting up in heaven just sort of smiling at all of this.
Well, one day after I heard his story, we were together and I asked him this question. I said, So, Brad, let me ask you this.
So, you're an atheist, right? Right, you don't believe God? No, you don't believe the Bible, no. Why in the world were you listening to the book of Revelation on the radio every day for three months? He said, Well, preacher, I didn't believe any of it, but you sounded like you did.
So, isn't that what we're talking about here? Do we really believe what we believe? Do we go through life with a kind of a Laid back, laissez-faire attitude about our faith, or is there a boiling in our spirit about the things of God? Oh, God, let it boil. Let it boil within me.
So he talks about an enthusiasm outwardly, an enthusiasm inwardly, and then notice he finishes it off with an enthusiasm upwardly, serving the Lord. Once again, we're back to where we started. Don't give me any nonsense about how much you love God if you aren't serving God. Because when you love God, you will serve God. And Paul reminds us of this importance of serving the Lord.
So, our life is to be marked by a compassionate love for God's people. By clear standards of morality, abhor evil, cling to that which is good. by contagious enthusiasm. outwardly, inwardly, and upwardly. And now notice, by a courageous faith under fire.
You know, our faith is really demonstrated when we go through difficult times. I've had that discussion with several people already this week. If your faith won't take you through difficult times, there's something wrong with your faith. We all face difficult times. We face times when we don't know the answers to what's going on with us.
But if we know God, We know we can trust him until the answers are made plain, or if they never are made plain. God is worthy of our trust, and when you go through tough times, your faith is strengthened. That's what we've been talking about today. We'll have some more of this from Romans chapter 12 tomorrow and part two of Stay Strong. Friends, we have a magazine that I am very proud of.
I don't have much to do with it except the articles that are in it and the devotionals. I have something to do with those. But this magazine comes every month to your home. and it brings with you material to help you get through every day. It goes along with the radio broadcast and it's yours for the asking.
When you request it, we'll send it to you. And we'll see you tomorrow right here on this good station. For more information on today's special message from Dr. Jeremiah, please visit our website where we also offer two free ways to help you stay connected, our monthly Turning Points magazine and our daily email devotional. Sign up today at davidjeremiah.org slash radio.
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That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue this special message from Dr. David Jeremiah here on Turning Point.
