In the sermon 'Honor One Another' by Scott Brown, the focus is on the command in Romans 12:10 to prefer one another in honor, emphasizing the essence of genuine Christian community and the nature of true honor as originating from God. The sermon underscores the importance of esteeming others, linking it to a broader biblical framework of honor that includes God's authority as the basis for all human authority. Brown outlines ten manifestations of authority, including honor toward God, parents, church elders, civil governors, wives, the aged, and within the church community. He contrasts the biblical view of honor with the prevalent dishonor in society, especially in the context of social media and public discourse. The sermon stresses that honor is not innate but taught and cultivated, beginning with reverence for God and extending to all human relationships. Biblical examples and promises, such as those found in 1 Samuel 2:30, are used to illustrate the blessings of honor. The sermon concludes by reinforcing the idea that honoring others is a reflection of honoring God, and it is fundamental to a Christian's life and community.

Please open your Bibles to Romans chapter 12 and find verse 9. Verse 9. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter than honey word of God. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil.

Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another in brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing stead fastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the Saints, given to hospitality. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for these marvelous commands, how life-giving they are, how helpful they are, what a blessing it is to be in your church, the church that is like this.

So Lord I pray that you would take these things and teach us your ways. Amen. Please be seated. Our focus this morning is on just a few words of this chapter, giving preference to one another in honor. And to honor is to esteem highly, it is to prefer, and the Apostle is telling us one of the marks of a true church.

And of course as we've covered before, it is both a capability of the Holy Spirit. It is a work of God in the heart, the converted heart, who has been enabled to do things that they were never able to do before. At the same time, it's a command. It's a command of God because we haven't arrived. We are in process.

We are being sanctified. So the capability is the power of God in salvation to convert your soul and breaking the power of sin and the command is for all Christians because we haven't arrived yet. Now Romans 12 describes really the treasure of a local church. It was written to a local church as a pattern for every local church. And imagine a church like this, imagine a church where the Spirit of God is creating a culture like this, where the people have presented their bodies as living sacrifices and they continue to do so, Where they are being transformed, not being conformed to this world.

That they are proving the will of God. They are proving what is acceptable to God. They are not thinking too highly of themselves. They are members of one another, of one body. They're united by Jesus Christ.

They're all so different, united by Jesus Christ. Each member is exercising their gifts. They're doing the things that they are able to do in personal relationships in love toward one another. They're speaking the Word of God to one another. They're ministering to one another.

Some are teaching, others are exhorting, some are giving with cheerfulness, some are showing mercy. You have a picture of love but without hypocrisy. There's so much hypocritical love in the world, but in the church, God is designed to shape his people so that the love isn't hypocritical, not self-serving. It's a place where the people are abhorring what is evil. But they're not just abhorring what is evil, they're clinging to what is good.

And they are kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. So now we come to the next phrase here, giving preference to one another in honor. This is one of the one-anothers. There are probably over 50 one-anothers in the New Testament. All of them are so helpful to the church.

In the book of Romans, there are 10 one-anothers, and they all appear in these last five chapters. There are wonderful one another's just enrollments, we'll get to that later. But this command stands in very sharp contrast because we live in such a dishonoring age, the dishonor sphere is rolling all the time. And this generation and previous generations think that they can say whatever they want to say, whenever they want to say it, on impulse. And the social media environment absolutely creates that.

We have a society where people, Even people of high esteem do not govern their tongues according to the love of God They say whatever they want to say even there are most famous politicians Have made a cottage industry of mockery and yet we ourselves do the same thing But God has actually given us rules to deal with this matter of honor and dishonor. Here's the problem. Nobody was born with honor running in their hearts. You have to deal with dishonor. It begins right away.

It begins when a child begins to arch his back and you begin to deal with dishonor and self-will. You deal with it with children talking back tantrums in Walmart five-year-olds talking back children hitting their parents ignoring commands not governing emotions these are all matters of honor and dishonor some people dishonor physical spaces we see that in our society You can even sometimes see it in a local church. And so how should we understand this command to give preference to one another in honor. Well, here's what we know. Everybody is always under some authority.

I have several authorities in my life, and so do you. And quite frequently, I find, and I'm sure you do too, you need an attitude adjustment toward some authority in your life. You know, some of you go to chiropractors to get an adjustment. But most people need a attitude adjustment regarding their authorities from time to time. And sometimes that attitude adjustment is so necessary because a person is in a very dangerous situation because of their dishonor, which is actually proven here in Scripture.

I want to speak about ten manifestations of authority. I want to talk about the doctrine of authority. Actually, over the next few weeks, this is just sort of an introduction to it, I wanted us to understand the scope of God's authority and how it relates to the various authorities that all of us are under. And you see you have them in your outline here. First and foremost there is honor toward God.

All honor, the way that the Bible speaks of it, flows from honor toward God. There's a cascading relationship between honor toward God and honor toward authorities. You are aware of Exodus 20 verse 3, you shall have no other gods before me. This is the honor of God. Jesus Christ, he summed up the whole law with these words in Matthew 22 verse 37.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets and God makes many promises to those who honor One of the most pivotal promises is found in 1 Samuel chapter 2. God is speaking to Eli. He honored his sons more than he honored God.

And he and his sons ruled over the religious life of Israel, but their hearts were far from God. But he makes a remarkable statement, it's one of the most pivotal statements about honor in the Old Testament. He says, far be it from me, for those who honor me, I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed." This really sets forth the doctrine of honor. Those who honor God and those who honor authorities will be blessed. Those who do not will not be blessed by God.

It's a very sobering thing. If you have dishonor toward any of the authorities in your life you need to really understand how serious it is. And the Scripture here is for us to rescue us from such a thing. The second matter in the doctrine of honor is honor toward parents. And of course you have the pivotal passage about honor toward parents in Ephesians chapter 6 children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right honor your father and mother which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth this is a promise of success for children Proverbs 27 verse 18 underlines this with different language, whoever keeps the fig tree will eat its fruit, he who waits on his master will be honored.

Theologians throughout the centuries have declared that the Fifth Commandment is actually the pivotal commandment for all other authorities. That what is there in the Fifth Commandment referring to father and mother relates to all other authorities. Calvin said it like this, although father and mother are particularly mentioned, yet he no doubt meant to give us here a doctrine dealing with honoring all those in authority in general. That's actually the reformed doctrine of honor and particularly as it flows from the honor of God. The third matter of honor is honor toward elders in the Church of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 13 verse 17 reads like this, obey those who rule over you and be submissive for they watch out for your souls as those who must give an account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief for that would be unprofitable for you." And then Peter says, likewise you younger people submit yourselves to your elders, yes, to all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. And of course, we all know, it's very common for people to fall out of a spirit of honor toward their elders. Here's how it usually happens. It happens slowly along a few years and dishonor is built up and built up and then you're presented a little after five years you're presented a list of 15 things that you've done wrong because that person never actually dealt with their dishonor in an honorable way by going to your brother.

This is just so common in church life. Honor toward elders and then fourth you have honor towards civil governors. Peter speaks of it, he speaks of various matters of honor, but listen to how he concludes, honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. Romans 13, 7, render therefore to all their due taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor is due. Believers have a particular responsibility to honor the king, how those who have been placed in authority over us.

We'll talk about these things in time to come. And then fifth, let's talk about honor toward wives. Of course, we read in 1 Peter 3, 7, husbands likewise dwell with your wives with understanding giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers may not be hindered. This is one of the most important matters in a marriage that a husband honors his wife. She is different.

She's very different. But he's called to honor her even in her differences, even in the various weaknesses that she might have. God calls husbands to be very tender-hearted toward their wives. And then sixth, honor toward the aged. There are various places to go here.

I'll just read one of them which is a principle verse or Leviticus 19 32. You shall Rise before the gray-headed and honor the presence of an old man and fear your God, I am the Lord." And there are many places where the Bible speaks about honoring the aged. This is something that has gone way out of style in our society. Once you reach a certain age you really don't have anything to say. It's not true in every culture.

I mean we have there are many cultures around the world where older people actually are honored. And then seventh honoring one another. This brings us to Romans 12 10 honor one another the Apostle Paul used some very helpful language and When he was teaching the Philippian church, he said, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Imagine a church like that. You know, this is possible.

This is the way that God designed the culture of a church, that her members would esteem others better than themselves. And then He says in verse four in Philippians two, let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also the interests of others. What a blessing it is. You know, in our church, every week, I see that people are esteeming one another, caring for one another, they're praying for one another. We gather for prayer on Wednesday night and people pray for one another because they know what's going on in one another's lives.

It's such a blessing. And then eighth honoring the Lord's Day. The Lord's Day is to be holy unto the Lord, a different day separate from any other day. You set aside the normal things of commerce, and you set aside this holy day like no other. It is holy, it is honorable.

And Isaiah uses that same language in Isaiah 58. He says, call the day honorable. Call it that. It's not a burden. Call it what it is.

It's honorable. He says, and call the Sabbath of delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father." And then ninth, you have honoring employers. 1st Timothy 6 addresses this, let as many bond servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of honor so that the name of God and his doctrine may not be blasphemed." You know when people complain about their authorities they might not be thinking through what it looks like to the rest of the world. Here it says if you dishonor your employers, you are doing something that could cause the name of God to be blasphemed.

Constantly complaining about your employer and things like that is just another manifestation of dishonor. And then he continues, he says, and those who have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather serve them because those who are benefited are believers and beloved. Teach and exhort these things. Here he's saying Even if you have a Christian employer, you may be tempted to dishonor your Christian employer. He says, no, no, no, he's a brother.

And then 10th, honoring those who are not honorable. At some point, we'll deal with this matter. You have, many have parents who live dishonorable, disorderly lives, harmful, doing harmful things. And how do you deal with those who are dishonorable? How do you honor them?

And I think the Bible gives us tremendous wisdom for how to deal with that, but we'll get to get to that at another time. Open your Bibles here to a summary statement. This is in 1st Peter chapter 2. 1st Peter chapter 2. Verse 12, 1 Peter 2 and find verse 12.

Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works, which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. And then verse 13, therefore, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme or to governors as those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, for the praise of those who do good, for this is the will of God, that by doing good, you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. As free, yet not using Liberty as a cloak for vice but as bond servants of God honor all people Love the brotherhood fear God honor the king So I wanted us to see the the the breadth and the depth and the width of this doctrine of honor. It is so critical because if you do not understand what it looks like to honor, you will have trouble all the days of your life and you'll have so you'll you'll have complaints and you'll have broken relationships and all kinds of things. In all of these categories, if you do not understand what it means to be governed by God, your heart in honor.

So I wanted us to just see the spectrum here and how critical it is. Now I want to go back to the very first point, honor toward God, because all true and genuine honor flows from God. It is, as I said before, it's a fruit of salvation and the filling of the Holy Spirit. So all true and genuine honor flows from honoring God and all true and genuine dishonor flows from dishonoring God. This is how pivotal this is that you understand.

To dishonor one another is to dishonor God. That's the syllogism. You know there's a hierarchy here or maybe that's not exactly the right way to say it, but there is sort of a top level and then many, many results that flow from it. It begins with honoring God. And in our passage, you can actually see it, It begins with presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, and not being conformed to this world, but by being transformed by the renewing of your mind.

This is what it means to be a saved person. You have a capability within you to honor that you did not have before you were converted and there is this capability within the Christian to do it. So honoring God is like the headwaters. It's like an unfolding book with more to come. It's like a waterfall that begins, you know, with the fountain and it just keeps flowing in every area of your life, in these 10 areas that I've identified, at least these 10 areas.

And so what this means is that all honor and really all true Christianity begins with the person who has become convinced that God is great, that he is the awesome God, that he deserves to be adored and obeyed, to be placed under his authority. When a person becomes a Christian, here's what they're really saying, God I relinquish my authority. I'm putting myself under your authority. This is what it means to be a Christian. It isn't saying words about I believe in Jesus Christ.

It includes that, but that belief always must include placing your whole life under the authority of God to present your whole body as a living sacrifice to God. That's the headwaters of honor. And when we come to this matter of giving preference to one another in honor, you know, I read a commentator who said, it's like Jacob's ladder ascending from one level to another, from one place to another. So honoring one another in our passage in Romans 12 is really just a subcategory of a much greater picture of honor that we find in the Bible. And honoring one another is a fruit of honoring God.

Dishonoring one another is a fruit of disobeying God. That's how pivotal this is. Let that sink in. One flows to the other. And this really does go back to the first commandment, you shall have no other gods before me.

And Jesus saying you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first great commandment and what is connected to it. Loving one another, the two greatest commandments. This is how the Bible speaks of this matter of honor. So to honor God is to value Him.

It is to, it's translated glory in some places. The Hebrew word means heavy, to honor God. He is heavy And he is the great gravitational force of your life. That's what it is to honor God. That when you walk about, your eyes are lifted up to heaven to honor God in everything that you do.

And that's why giving preference to one another in honor is just an expression of obedience to God. Now further, another way to think about this to honor God and is actually to honor the law of God. The whole law of God, Jesus said and the apostles affirmed that the law of God is a law of love. Every command of God is a loving command. Every command of God is protective, not restrictive.

It only restricts you from what will hurt you. But every command of God is a law of love and every law of God is a blessing for the believer. And that's why Paul when he was speaking to the Galatian church, that local church in Galatia, he said for in Galatians 5 14, he said for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another. The whole law is fulfilled in one word, love.

The law of God is fulfilled when in the church the people are giving preference to one another in honor. This is an expression of the law of God. The Apostle Paul said a very similar thing in Romans 13 verse 8. We'll get to that soon. He who loves another has fulfilled the law And all of this is just an extension of you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.

Now we learned in Romans Already that the unbeliever does not honor God in chapter 1 verse 21 because they knew God they did not glorify him as God Nor were thankful, but they became feudal in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. The mark of the unbeliever is that he does not honor God. And it says in that section that he does not like to retain God in their knowledge. He doesn't like to think about the laws of God. The Christian does though.

The Christian wants to honor God by keeping his commandments. And there are many places that we can go to to speak about this Isaiah said and the Apostle Our Jesus Christ quoted this people honors me with their lips, but their hearts were far from me So the honor that we owe to one another is a fruit of our honor toward God. That's the big point that I want to make here. You know, there's a very interesting scene in the life of Eric Liddell, and he was a runner. You've seen the movie, Charites of Fire, probably, 1924 Olympics.

He was best in the 100 meters, but the race for the 100 meters was scheduled for Sunday. And so he was conflicted about it, but he said He would not run the race, but then he trained for the 400 meter race, which was on a different day. Somebody heard about his decision and he slipped him a slip of paper with 2nd Samuel 2.30 written on it. And 2nd Samuel 2 30 is, for those who honor me I will honor. And so he went and he went ahead and he ran his 400 meter race and you would think that he lost because it wasn't his best race, but he actually set a world record.

He went on actually as a missionary, survived you know much danger in wars. He ended up in a Japanese internment camp where he finally died in 1945. But that slip of paper from 2 Samuel, for 1 Samuel 2.30, For those who honor me, I will honor. This is the blessing of God on the person who honors. And I just don't want us to miss that.

And you people who are raising children, you have a job ahead of you to help your children with all of your heart to learn how to honor and and that happens from the very first days of their lives and it is it is you that's placed in the way of their dishonor to help them to understand what it looks like so that when they turn to finally turn to the Lord they will have understood it so much better. You know the Lord Jesus Christ had this same disposition toward his father. He said my food is to do the will of him who sent me. Jesus said I have not spoken on my own authority but the Father who sent me gave me command what I should say and what I should speak even the Lord Jesus Christ in his incarnation put himself under the authority of his father as an example for every child of God to put themselves under authority. You know, there are many manifestations of the honor of God.

When we gather to pray for our prayer meetings, we actually gather to demonstrate our honor toward God. And we pray, how load be thy name, how load be thy name. We gather for that and we gather to pray for one another. Our corporate worship services are demonstrations of our honor to God. That's why we hold these services, to bring everyone together to honor God all together, to sing, to read the scriptures, to pray, to fellowship with one another.

These gatherings are really designed to help us to honor God. And the very celebration of the Lord's Day is a demonstration of honor. We call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day honorable. And we see here, you know, from these outward manifestations of honor toward God, is that honor, it really lies at the heart of all of our relationships. J.C.

Ryle, he said it like this, the kingdom of God is no more, no mere matter of lips and knees and outward service. It must be within a man, seated in the best place of his heart. And I will not hesitate to tell you, I fear there are many living members of churches who are exceedingly dead Christians because the honor toward God does not exist in the heart. And that's the big question for all of us. Do you honor God?

Have you turned to the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you placed your whole life under his authority? You know, have you given your body as a living sacrifice? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that you want to follow him. Now honoring authorities is a test of faith.

Calvin says he desires to test our obedience and the love that we bear him by commanding us to conduct ourselves uprightly and honestly toward our neighbors and to live together in such a fellowship of peace is a test of our obedience. God gives us many tests and honoring one another is one of those tests. So at the headwaters of all honor is honor toward God. It's the beginning and it's a cascading, unfolding life of honor in the life of the believer. Now notice too there are one another's in the book of Romans.

I was reading Fisher's Catechism on the fifth commandment. He says this, what are the duties of equals to one another? In other words, he's talking about people in the church, you know, equals to one, we're all equals in a sense. Answer, to provoke each other to good works, to be kindly affectionate to one another, in honor preferring one another." Oh I was so happy to see that in the Catechism. And then the next question in the Catechism, what is the fruit and consequence of conscientious performance of these duties to honor one another?

Answer, outward peace and conquered will be better maintained between God and man, and likewise, The members of Christ's body will be knit more closely together in love. So there you have it. I think that said it very well. Let's talk about the one another's in Romans chapter, in Romans. We've already seen this.

Already be kindly affectionate to one another and brotherly love verse 10 giving preference to one another and honor So there you have that Then you get to chapter 13 verse 8, oh no one anything except to love one another for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. Romans 12 16, be of the same mind toward one another, do not set your mind on high things but associate with the humble. Romans 14 13 therefore let us not judge one another anymore but rather resolve this not to put a stumbling block or cause to fall in our brothers way. You get to Romans 13 and 14 there's quite a bit to learn about honor, details about how that works. Romans 15-17, therefore receive one another just as Christ has received us to the glory of God.

Romans 15 four, for whatever things were written were written for our learning that through patience and comfort, comfort of the Scriptures, we might have hope. That's not the right verse. I put the right, I put a wrong verse in there. Well, let's go to Romans 16, 16. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

The churches of Christ greet you right at the end of Romans. So there are many one another's. This one, give preference to one another in honor. You know, what kind of church will we be? What kind of church members will we be?

Growing in love. A society very different than the common society where children are disobedient to their parents and people are dishonoring one another all over the place. So we're gonna go on a journey on this matter of honor, and I'm not sure how many of these I'm gonna cover in detail, but next I'm going to talk about honor toward parents, and we'll sink in there for a while. But, honoring, honor toward God, honor toward parents, honor toward elders, honor toward the civil government, honor toward wives, honor toward the aged, honor toward one another. Honoring the Lord's Day, honoring employers, honoring those who are not honorable.

This is a flyover of the doctrine of honor, but remember it all begins when a person believes that God is great and that he should present his body as a living sacrifice and his life is not his own in the Church of Jesus Christ. Give preference to one another in honor. I'll close with one thing. You remember the Apostle John? They called him the Apostle of Love.

And the church father, Jerome, in his commentary on Galatians, he tells a story that when John was very old, probably in his 90s, he was too weak. He couldn't even walk up to the pulpit to preach. He had to be carried by the congregation. And each time in his old age he would say little children love one another and he would say it over and over again. And after hearing that message over and over again the people started asking him, Master why do you always say this?

And he said because it is the Lord's command and if this alone is done it is enough. So love one another. Let's pray. Father Your ways are pleasant ways they are so wonderful You've set us You've set us up Lord for so much success in our relationships and all the various relationships that you've given us. Help us help us not to dishonor you and cause shame and blasphemy on your name by our dishonor of any of those who to whom honor is due.

Amen.