Series: Romans
Title: Not Slothful but Fervent
Text: Romans 12: 11
Date: October 16, 2019
Place: SGBC, NJ
Romans 21: 11: Not slothful in business; fervent in
spirit; serving the Lord;
“Slothful” means sluggish, lazy, idle.
The words “in business” mean earnestness, diligence (Heb 6:11). “Fervent” means red hot, zealous.
Proposition: Christ calls his people to not be slothful in diligence,
but red hot in spirit, serving him.
Now, before anyone can serve the Lord, we must be born-again of God. “They that are in the flesh cannot please God”
(Rom 8: 8). It is only through faith in
Christ, by Christ, that our spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God. As the apostle Peter said of believers, “Ye
also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to
offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2: 5) But for you and I who are born of God and
brought to faith in Christ, remember, our Lord hates luke warmness. Christ is the Angel who spoke to the church of
the Laodiceans.
Revelation 3: 14: And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans
write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the
beginning of the creation of God; 15: I know thy works, that thou art neither
cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue
thee out of my mouth. 17: Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with
goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18: I counsel thee to buy of me gold
tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou
mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear;
and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. 19: As many as I
love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Every believer is
motivated, constrained by the love of Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:14: For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we
thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15: And that
he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto
themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
The phrase “the
love of Christ” is used three times in scripture; each time it is Christ’s
love for his people.
Romans 8:35
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...37: Nay,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Ephesians 3: 16: That he would grant you, according to the riches of his
glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17: That
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in
love, 18: May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth,
and length, and depth, and height; 19: And to know the love of Christ, which
passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God (Eph
3:16-19).
So it is in 2 Corinthians
5:14. The love of Christ for us constraineth
us to not live unto ourselves but unto Christ that loved us and gave himself
for us and rose again. You and I can
never earn a righteousness or make ourselves holy by obeying the exhortation in
our text nor any other. But Christ
fulfilled it and every other precept in perfection and paid all our sins of not
doing it. Christ alone is our
righteousness and our sanctification. Therefore,
if we would learn what the exhortation in our text means then we must look to
Christ.
NOT SLOTHFUL IN BUSINESS
Our Lord Jesus Christ was not slothful in
business. At an early age, he said, “I
must be about my Father’s business?” (Lu 2:49)
What was the Father’s business that Christ came to fulfill.
One, the Father’s business that Christ came
to do was to preach the Gospel. Tis he
did with diligence and earnestness. He
said,
Isaiah 61: 1: The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the
LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to
bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening
of the prison to them that are bound; 2: To proclaim the acceptable year
of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; 3:
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD,
that he might be glorified.
Mark 1:38: And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I
may preach there also: for therefore came I forth.
In the face of many dangers and severe
persecution, Christ let nothing stop him from proclaiming the gospel.
Two, Christ came to declare God’s
righteousness. He is the Gospel he came
to preach. As the Head and Representative of his
people Christ came into this world to live and die as the substitute of his
people that he might fulfill the law in precept and penalty for us. He came to bear the sin of his people that God
might be just to pour out wrath on him in our place. By doing so, God is just to shower his people
in mercy because our Substitute fulfilled every demand of the law for us,
justifying us from all our sins. He
obtained eternal redemption for us and reconciled his people to God. Christ began saying “I must be about my
Father’s business”; he ended saying, “It is finished!”
FERVENT IN SPIRIT
Our Lord Jesus was fervent in spirit. He had fervent charity for his Father and his
people. Peter exhorted us, saying, “above
all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the
multitude of sins” (1 Pet 4:8). Our Redeemer walked this earth zealous in
spirit with perfect fervent charity. Christ
was fervent for his Father’s house: he was filled with indignation at those who
turned it into a house of merchandise.
John 2: 14: And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and
doves, and the changers of money sitting: 15: And when he had made a scourge of
small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen;
and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; 16: And said unto
them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an
house of merchandise. 17: And his disciples remembered that it was written, The
zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
It is Christ’s fervent
zeal that saves us.
Isaiah 9: 7: Of the increase of his government and peace there
shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order
it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for
ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
Isaiah 37:32 For out of Jerusalem
shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of
the LORD of hosts shall do this.
The fervent love of Christ for the glory of his Father and the salvation
of his people moved Christ to fulfil all that was foretold concerning him. Remember, Christ’s work on this earth was
tiresome labor. He was touched with the
same feeling of our infirmities, yet without sin. He became tired, hungry, thirsty just as we
do. Our Savior is God but he really
united our humanity with his deity. We
read in John 4: 6, “Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied
with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour” (Jn 4:
6). In the garden of Gethsemane, his
disciple slept because they were tired. But
Christ did not sleep but prayed. He knew
he was about to endure separation from the Father he loved. Yet, his fervent
love made him say, ‘Not my will but thine be done.”
SERVING THE LORD
Our Lord Jesus did everything he did on the earth as the servant of God,
serving in perfect faithfulness. “Jesus
saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish
his work” (Jn 4:13). He said, “I must
work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no
man can work” (Jn 9:4). In the end he prayed
to the Father saying, “I have glorified
thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do” (Jn
17:4).
Brethren, by his zeal, by his fervency, by Christ serving God his Father
perfectly, Christ gives us everything we need for acceptance with God. He is
our eternal salvation. Christ freely
gives us that for which we did not labor: the gospel, life and a new holy heart,
faith and repentance, perfect righteousness, free justification, constant
protection and preservation from all our enemies and one day he will give us a
new, glorified, immortal body. He has
made us joint-heirs with him and we shall receive eternal inheritance with
him. He says to us, “I have given you a
land for which ye did not labour” (Jos 24: 13).
HEAR AND HEED
Knowing these things, let us, as his chosen, redeemed, regenerated
people, hear the exhortation in our text and heed it. Constrained by Christ’s love for us let us
follow his example. As we consider how
fervent Christ was in working out a righteousness for us, it is an easy and
light yoke for Christ to say to us, be “not slothful in business; fervent in
spirit; serving the Lord.”
Brethren, serving the Lord is not merely external and outward, it is a
matter of the heart, a matter of the conscience and of the affections. Serving the Lord is not starting and stopping;
it is a constant submission to the Lord all our lives. Serving the Lord is actually spending and
being spent, for the Lord, by his strength.
BY HIS STRENGTH!
The preeminent business of Christ’s church is to preach Christ and him
crucified.
Mark 16:15: And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach
the gospel to every creature. 16: He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
First, above all else, this is how we love
and provide for one another. Whatever else we do is to share their burden so
that they are not distracted from hearing the gospel preached. Therefore, each of us must not be slothful in
diligence, but fervent in spirit to hear the gospel and study the word of God
ourselves. Why? The apostle Peter said, “Sanctify the Lord
God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that
asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Pet
3:15). “Therefore we ought to give the more
earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let
them slip” (Heb 2: 1).
Secondly, whatever the Lord gives us to do in his church—no matter how
big or how small—let us be not slothful, but fervent in spirit, serving the
Lord.
Colossians 3:22: Servants, obey in all things
your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but
in singleness of heart, fearing God:23: And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily,
as to the Lord, and not unto men; 24
Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance:
for ye serve the Lord Christ.
As Christ’s preacher,
I want to do it singleness of heart
fearing God. If I am a musician I want
to be the best musician. If I am a
singer I want to be the best singer. If
I am mowing the grass I want to be the best mower. Whatever we do let us do it heartily as to
the Lord. Let it be said of us what Paul
said of our brother Epaphras:
Colossians 4: 12: Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of
Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye
may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. 13: For I bear him
record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in
Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis. (Col 4:12-13)
Brethren, it is a great blessing Christ has given us, to have a heart to
imitate Christ in providing for sinners in need. He said, “I have shewed you all things, how
that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of
the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts
20:35). The Hebrew writer said, “But to
do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well
pleased” (Heb 13: 16).
When we grow weary, let us remember how Christ served the Father for
us. By his grace, by his strength, let
us push on a little farther in whatever we are doing in his name. And whatever we do, it will be God who gets
the glory for his grace and strength working in us
2 Corinthians 9: 8: And God is able to make all
grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things,
may abound to every good work:
1 Corinthians 15: 58: Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,
forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
Hebrews 6:10: For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in
that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. 11: And we desire that
every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto
the end:
Amen!