Romans chapter 12. The title of the message tonight
is, The Business of Love. The Business of Love. Beginning in verse 9, the Apostle
said, Let love be without dissimulation. Well, see, that means hypocrisy. hypocrisy, abhor that which is
evil, cleave to that which is good, be kindly affectionate
one to another with brotherly love, in honor preferring one
another, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the
Lord. Serving the Lord. Business of
love. The business of the church. And
this word business just means fervency. It doesn't mean like
a job or anything like that. It's the fervency or the earnestness as one would engage
in a business. This is the business of the church. Love. Love. Let love be without
hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil and
cleave to that which is good. Now Paul, having shown the church that we are as individuals to
offer our bodies a living sacrifice. Because of God's mercies, we
as believers, He said, offer your bodies a living sacrifice. We know this means a continual
sacrifice, a perpetual sacrifice, a daily living sacrifice. We are to offer our bodies that
we as individual believers are to be transformed, not conformed
to the world, but transformed, metamorphosized, and that's what
takes place in the new birth, is we have been transformed by
the power of the Holy Spirit, but yet we are constantly being
renewed in our mind. And the Scriptures say His mercies
are new every morning. They're new. And so we should
constantly be renewing our mind concerning who we are and who
He is. Concerning what we've done and
concerning what He's done. We've sinned. He's saved us from
our sin. This is a renewal of our mind
daily, constantly, perpetually. This needs to be done. but he also mentions this that
we as individuals are not just individuals but rather are part
of a whole he says, for I say through the grace given unto
me that every man among you not to think of himself more highly
than he ought to think but to think soberly according as God
has dealt to every man the measure of faith for as we have many
members in one body and all members are not the same office so we
being many are one body in Christ and everyone members one of another. In other words, we are no island
to ourselves. We are all connected. We are
all in union with each other. Every believer that has ever
existed and is now living in this world, we are connected
to them through the vital union of Christ. We are all in union
with the Head. And just as much as we are in
union with Him, we are in union with each other. We are in a
vital union with every believer. And as each member of the body
uses a body as an example, there's one head in a body, but yet the
body has many members, and that's what the church is. They are
members of the body of Christ. And what does each one of us
have as members of this body? We are given gifts differing
from one another. We are each given purpose in
the church. We have purpose. as a part of
this body, this church. We have gifts given to us to
perform. And how are we to perform these?
We are to perform them with haste. We are to perform them with zeal.
We are to perform them as in service to Christ. As in service
to our Lord. This is the business of the church.
This is the fervency of the church. To accomplish, to fulfill the
gifts that God has given each individual believer. You remember
those gifts we went over them last time? Pastors, teachers,
deacons, exhorters, rulers, all of these are gifts. Now listen, we have gifts differing,
but listen, no one in the church is without gifts. Now you may, usually, I know
this is the case, when I see someone have a gift, I want it.
I want it. I want that gift. No. Maybe you don't have that gift.
But that's alright. whatever gifts God has given
you. That's the gift that you are
to be exercising as a believer in Christ. Those are the things
that God has given you to do. And they're just as vital as
every other gift. They're just as needful as every
other purpose. And these gifts, they must not
be neglected, friends. They must not be You know, the Lord mentions the church
as being a candle. Do you put a candle under a bushel? Do you put it under a pot? Do you put it under the bed?
No! You put it on a candlestick so everyone can see. And so it is with the church.
Every one of us has gift. You may say, well my gift is
not important so I won't use it. Oh man! Someone who says that, they're
in trouble. They're in trouble. I'm going
to use this as an illustration. Go to Matthew chapter 25. Matthew
chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25 verse 14 our
Lord's talking about this this these stewards you remember these
three these servants of the Lord he says for the kingdom of heaven
as a man traveling in a far country who called on his own servants
and delivered unto them his goods and one of them he gave five
talents another two and another one and To every man according
to the servial ability and straightway he took his journey. We know
the Lord is this man traveling and he has servants. He has servants. These three servants here. After
our Lord had sacrificed himself and led captivity captive, he
ascended into glory and gave what? Gifts unto man. Each one of them having different
gifts. You notice that? The mounts there
that were given were different gifts. These three servants,
they represent all professing believers. Very important here,
all professing believers in the Church of God. We'll soon
see that only two of them were true servants. One of them was
a faker. One of them was not a faithful
servant. One of them was a wicked servant.
You remember the other two, the one that had five and the one
that had two? They were faithful stewards of the gifts that God
had given them. And this was His word when He
came again, well done thou good and faithful servant. They were
called such because they took the gift that was given to them
and they used it for the glory of God. And this is what every
believer does. Every believer does not use his
gift to shine light on himself, but rather it is for the glory
of God, for the good of the church. Everything that the believer
has is for that purpose, for the glory of their master. These
men used their talent for the glory of their master. They took
that money that he had and they put it out knowing that he should
receive more than he gave them. And that's exactly what we do
as believers. This is our desire, is it not,
to grow in the grace and knowledge that He's given us of Jesus Christ,
and He is our heart's desire. But this slothful servant, he
represents those who make a good showing. Now listen, those who
make a good showing, they have a talent, alright, and it may
be knowledge. They may have a lot of knowledge. But yet, only a good showing
in the flesh, but they don't have that new nature. And because they lack the new
nature, they are by nature just unfaithful. They just can't endure
long. Now, not all gods elect have
the same amount of gifts. or the same gifts, but they all
have gifts. And listen, this will be an evident
token of these gifts. They will be fruitful in their
gifts. Their gifts will flourish. Why? Because we abide in the
vine. If you abide in the vine, you
will bring forth fruit. Isn't that what Jesus said? Isn't
that what he said? Some 60, some 30, now differing. True. Not all the same amounts. Not all the same. But they all
do one thing. They all are fruitful. They all
bear fruit of the Spirit of God. Love, joy, peace, meekness, temperance,
faith. All of these you have, believer.
Every single one of these graces are given unto you. Yes, in a
measure, but they are given to you. You have them. Now, if you say you don't, you've
got to talk to God about that, because that's what He said.
You have these things. They're given unto you by the
Spirit of God. Now, if a man profess faith in
Christ and does not exercise himself in the service of Christ,
based on how little he's given, then even what he thinks he has
in the end will be taken away. And that's what happened to this
man in the parable. He says in verse 24, he says, Then he which
had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew, I knew
thee, that thou art a hard man. reaping where you have not sown,
gathering where you have not strawed. I was afraid, and I
hid thy talent in the earth, and lo, there it is. I return it to you. This man likens the Lord to Pharaoh,
doesn't he? You remember Pharaoh demanded
of them without providing the straw. And that's what this man
says. He said, you only gave me one
talent. You only gave me one talent. You only gave me that
little bit of money. And you're a hard man. You're
a hard man. Those of us who know God, do
we find Him to be a hard man? No. No, by no means. God has not given us a task or
a service to perform that He will not provide the ability.
Have you found that so? Just let's look at this with
faith. Faith. You believe? You believe? Well,
yes. Now, who provided the ability
for that? God did. And yet, here it is. You're believing,
aren't you? You're believing. He commanded
you to believe. And if you do not believe, it
is your own fault that you do not believe. How many encouragements
do we have in Scripture to believe? How many? If you will not believe, you
will die in your sins and you have your own self to blame.
You will not say God is a hard man. You will not say it. He's merciful, He's kind, He's
gracious. Long-suffering, plenteous in
mercy, plenteous in redemption. So whatever gifts God has given
us to do, listen, He will provide the ability to do it. The power. I'm gonna give you just the example
of preaching because it's one that I know. It's one that I
know. Preaching. No man, including the Apostle
Paul, has the ability in themselves to perform that task. You know what the Apostle said?
He said, there is no sufficiency in us. Isn't that what he said?
There's no sufficiency in me! But our sufficiency is of Him
who hath made us able ministers. Now who makes men able ministers?
It is God. We must, yet we must, preach. You know, I face that every Thursday
and every Sunday. I remember my pastor used to
say I would be in the back and I had to study for a message
I was doing at the hospital at that time. And it was Saturday
afternoon and man, I was, oh, I had nothing. And my pastor
said, what do you got? I said, I don't got anything. He said, well, you got to preach
something. And he was right. I had to preach
something. And it came every time, every
time. And it has, every time. I've
had something to preach. I've had Christ, in Him crucified,
to preach to you. Every time. And so it is with
all other gifts. Therefore, we are not to... We must not, nor will we ever
use our inability, then, as an excuse for lack of service. You cannot use your lack of ability
as an excuse for not serving. Whatever your hands find to do
in the service of Christ, dear friend, do it how? With all your
might. As unto God Himself. As though
God Himself were standing there and telling you to do it. You
should do it that way. Every time. This is what it is
to offer our bodies a living sacrifice. perpetual sacrifice. It is to use the gifts and talents
God has given us for the furtherance of his gospel. When we see a
need of our gifts and talents that we may supply, let us do
it with all of our strength. But let us do it nonetheless
and trust God for its outcome. Isn't that what most of the time
you're hindered about doing something because you're worried about
the outcome? Well, that just don't seem like it'll do anything.
Who cares what we think about the outcome? That's not our business. The outcome is not our business.
Our business is what? Serve the Lord. Serve the Lord
is our business. A man who is slothful in the
service of God and not faithful in the works of God, according
to his gift, is a wicked servant. Is a wicked servant. And those
people who will not use these gifts that God has given them
for the furtherance of this gospel and the glory of Christ, they
will find out they had no gift at all. And those who are faithful, they
render unto God what is God's. That gift we have is only by
the good grace of God, isn't it? Whatever it is you have to
do, isn't that by the grace of God you have? You have that by
grace. And being found in favor of God's
goodness. Does that not compel you to use
that gift? It should compel us to. It should
move us to use the gift that God has given to us. I remember in our congregation
there at Lincoln would there was a man there that mow the
grass every week trim the hedges in that church every week he
was never asked to he was never asked to he never desired anyone
to even know it was him the only reason I know is because he was
a he was a relative that's the only reason I know he did it
all He did it, not for praise of
men, but for the glory of God. One man in Don's church said
this, he said, I can't preach, but I can mow. He said, I can't
preach, but I can nail boards. I can't preach, but I can dig
dirt. Okay, do it. As unto God. whatever God has given you to
do now then Paul continues and he tells us now in our text not
only that we are to do this but rather we are to do this in a
certain manner with a certain attitude with a certain heart
and this is it it's summed up in this love love there's doing something
because you have to and then there's doing something because
you want to. When he says perform those gifts that God has given
you, do it as you want to with love. Let love be without dissimulation. Love, all service, all gifts,
all zeal, must be done in haste, they must be done in fervency
of spirit. But listen, unless they are done
in love, they're wasted. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, and have not love, I am a sounding brass
and a tinkling cymbal. Though I have the gift of prophecy,
understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and of all faith,
and could remove mountains, and have not love, what am I? Nothing. Nothing. Though I bestow all
my goods to feed the poor, if I give everything I've got, my
body to be burned, and don't do it out of love, it profiteth
me nothing. Now I know you've done many things,
And your heart has been cold and indifferent in doing them.
Listen, that's not to say it doesn't profit God's people.
It just won't profit you. He said it profits me nothing,
right? I don't know about you, but I... I like to feel love in my heart. I do. I want the joy of doing
things for the service of God. I want to know the joy of that. And the only way to know the
joy of that is love, if it's done in pure love. Love is a radical grace of every
redeemed sinner. No matter what your gift, if
it's as high as preaching or low as mowing the grass, it all
must be done in love. Love. And so Paul encourages
us to love without this. Love without dissimulation. The word means hypocrisy. You
know what a hypocrite is? He's an actor. a pretender. One puts on a smile and all the
while in his heart he's hating, he's frowning, he's pouting,
he's all kinds of different things. He's not really willing to love,
he just does it because it looks good. He puts on an appearance,
someone who pretends. We are never to pretend to love.
This goes against all of our fallen ideas of love because
most of that has to do with self, doesn't it? We're only born knowing one kind
of love, self-love. Self-love. If it pleases me, then I want
to do it. If it doesn't, I'm not going
to do it. That's love for self. That's natural love. We only
love because it pleases us. Our natural love is conditional. Now this is true even concerning
our salvation, isn't it? We love Him, why? Because He first loved us. We
can't love unconditionally. We just, it's not in us. We love
Him because He first loved us and because He loved us. Then
is that love manifested in our salvation when we cry, Abba,
Father. It's because of His love that
we have any love at all. He is love. And if there's to
be any true love in the believer, it comes from God. It comes from
our Father. So false professors, they'll
pretend to have the appearance of love, but not really possess
it. But true believers, true believers
are given genuine love. Genuine love, free from hypocrisy
and free from guile. And where is our love directed?
First of all, to God. first of all, to God. Very important. That is first directed to God.
We are to love God with all of our hearts, our souls, and our
minds. And we say, how can this be?
We've already broken that commandment, haven't we? How can we now fulfill
it? We have fulfilled it in Jesus
Christ. We have fulfilled that law. That
law is fully, completely fulfilled in Christ our Savior. It is by looking to Jesus, who
is God's gift of grace and mercy, that we see and know the great
love of God. How else can you know the love
of God except you see Christ? Except you know of Him, the greatest
gift of love, the manifestation of love, is the gift of God's
Son for sinners. And so then if we've been given
such love, such grace, we should not be slothful in
this love. Only a slothful servant would
use an excuse not to show love to Him. You remember Peter when he was
confronted with his sin. What was the question? Lovest thou me more than these? Have you heard that question
asked to you? In the very teeth of your sin, he whispers, do you love me?
Lord, thou knowest I love thee. Peter loved him. Now our Lord
didn't say, no you don't, did he? No, because he really did
love the Lord. And so do you. If you're a believer
in Christ, you really do love Him. You really desire to serve
Him. This is the grace in our hearts.
I love to tell the story. The old, old story of what? Jesus
and His love. To love without hypocrisy, to
love God without hypocrisy, is to continually look again and
again to the Lord Jesus Christ. Look to His suffering that should
motivate us to the gifts and the performing of these gifts. Believer, when you're working
in the service of God, do not look at the work for a reason. Do not look at the person you're
helping for a motive, but rather look at the cross. If you want
a reason why, look to Christ. Look into the eyes of the Redeemer
who took your sins and suffered in your stead. Look to Him who
has made sin for us, who knew no sin, that you should be made
the righteousness of God in Him. Look to the tree where He was
made a curse for us. who deserve nothing but blessings
and honor. On the cross crucified, in great
sorrow he died, this giver of life to me. Yet my Lord was despised
and rejected of men, this Jesus of Calvary. He was wounded for
our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquity.
Surely He bore our sorrows, and by His stripes we are healed. Look not to your own strength
to love God, but look to Christ who loved
God in your stead. Therefore, is your love perfected? Your love is perfect. You know
that? In Christ it's perfected. Look not to your own strength
to love God, but you should look to Christ. Therefore, Is there
any reason for us not to render love to Him by offering ourselves
in the service and performing the gifts that He has provided
in the strength that He promises to give? Is there any reason
that we should not love without hypocrisy? I pray that none of us here will
be found slothful in this service because of a false view of God's
love nor that none would withhold love from God because of some
false humility. Let our love to God not only
be with our lips but with our hearts and let our love be without
hypocrisy. See the man who professes and
yet he goes and lives in sin, what is that? Is that not love
with hypocrisy? So what is the believer to do?
Abhor that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good.
What is good? Christ. Cleave to Christ, and
flee everything else. Now number two, we are to love
not only God without hypocrisy, but each other. Look at the next
verse back in your text. Look at verse 10. Be kindly affectionate one to
another with brotherly love in honor preferring one another. Our Lord, the night that he was
betrayed, the night that he was to be taken in and crucified
he sat down with his disciples and he gave them this word he
said little children yet a little while I'm with you you shall
seek me and as I said to the Jews whether I go you cannot
come so now I say to you a new commandment I given to you that you love one another Now how much should you love
one another? He didn't leave it to your imagination. As I have loved you. Now please take that as far as
you can. and you haven't gone far enough that's how much we are to love
one another as I have loved you this is the word of Christ to
us that we are to love one another not as the world loveth how does
the world love? well they love today You tick
them off, they'll hate you tomorrow. You do something that offends
them, and they don't love you anymore. That's the world's love,
not that love. Not the flesh they love. The
world's love is based on what? Emotion, isn't it? Passion. This
is why men and women, when they get married, they're all passionate.
They love each other. They can't live without one another. Until when? not too long and
then they all of a sudden they they find out each one of them
just as wicked as the other one and they don't like each other
anymore that love is vain it's empty I remember brother Don
he told me when I was in such love with my wife he said there's
going to come a day when you ain't going to look at her and
you're not going to be able to say I love you with all the flowers
of emotion He said love is a commitment. It's a feeling. But more than
that, it's a commitment. A commitment. This love is a
bond between us. It's the cement that holds us
together. Love. holds the believer together. Our love for Christ unites us
to our head and our love for each other unites us to the rest
of the body. Love for one another is how men know that we are his
disciples. Now what he said in that passage,
he said, he said, by this shall all men
know that you're my disciples. You get that? Not by your faith.
They're not going to know that by your faith. They're going
to know that by your love. Not for him, but for each other.
How many people say, I love Jesus? Well, everybody says that. That's easy! It can't be measured,
can it? Except how? By your love for
one another. Faith is the evidence, individual
evidence, of our union with Christ. Love is the evidence of our faith. If you have faith, what are you
going to have? You're going to have love. For who? The brethren. The brethren. Isn't that what John said over
in John? Go to 1st John. Read it with me. 1st John chapter
4. 1st John chapter 4. Look at verse
7. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God, and
knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not
God. Look down at verse 12. He says,
no man hath seen God at any time. Well, you say you love God. Well, I haven't seen God, have
you? But I tell you this, I've seen my brethren. If we love
one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected
in us. Hereby we know that we dwell
in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us His Spirit. Look down at verse 19. We love
Him, why, He first loved us. If any man say, I love God, and
hateth his brother, he is what? A liar. Don't tell me of your
faith if you don't have any love for the brethren. See a man out
there all by himself don't have any... I don't have to go to
church to love God. No, but you got to go love brethren. How can you love the brethren
and never want to be around them? You can't. Don't feed me that lie. John said you're a liar. You're
a liar. You don't love the brethren.
For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he
love God whom he has not seen? And this is the commandment we
have of him, that he who loveth God love his brother also. So what is love? Love is a manifestation
of our faith. If we love the brethren, our
faith is genuine. We love God and we love the brethren. Some people say, well, you know,
pastor, I just can't love that person. He don't know what he did to
me. He just, he said too many bad things about me and I just
can't forgive him. I can't, I can't love him. You know what? You're that wicked
servant that has one talent. You think God's commandment's
too hard. He's a hard man. Tell me, forgive that man. Really? If he's forgiven you, how could
you not forgive that man? This is an excuse and nothing
more. Nothing less. Man say, I can't love this brother,
I can't forgive this brother. That's an excuse. And it's no excuse at all. It's
no excuse at all. If God commands it, it's no excuse
at all. If God commands it, He will also
give you grace to what? Do it. To do it. And how should
we do it? Kindly affectionate. With great affection. Great love. Let us be then committed not
only to be affectionate, but know this, preferring one another,
preferring our brethren above ourselves. Honoring them above ourselves. This is to value all others and
putting them in front of ourself. This, my friend, is not only
hard, it's impossible in our own strength to do. But again,
if God commanded you to do it, you have the strength to do it.
If you don't, it is only pride that keeps you from it. If you can't do it, it's not
because you don't have the ability, believers, it's because you don't
want to. Do you think that I think I have
the ability to do this that I'm doing tonight? Even now, do you think I think
I have the ability to do this? I'm doing this because God said
to. I don't. But I do. And when I do, guess
what? God gives the ability. And if
you determine to love, God will give you strength to love. Do
it. I'm going to give you this illustration
back in Joshua. You can read about it later.
Joshua, I'll give you the verses. You can read them to yourself.
Joshua 17, 12 through verse 18. You remember that tribe Manasseh
and Ephraim, those two big tribes? And they were only given one
plot of land. Remember that? And they come to Joshua, they
started complaining, we're great. We're a great people. We got
a large group of people here. And you gave us that one little
piece of land out there. We need more. We need more. We
can't live out there with that. And Joshua said, what about those
Canaanites dwelling there? Did you get rid of them? They
said, oh no, they got chariots. They're too big. They're too
strong. God said, get rid of them. And if God told you to do it,
you'll have strength to do it. Why didn't they get rid of them?
Because they loved the tribute. They started taking tax money.
And they loved that tax money. It's the only reason they didn't
get rid of it. Not because it didn't have power, because it
didn't want to. How often is that with us with
sin? We not pay tribute to sin? As long as sin pays tribute,
we kind of keep it around. What did God say? Get rid of
it. get rid of it you can't love that brother you know why you
don't want to you like the tribute and he also said this you have
a big old bunch of trees over there boys a forest in your land
won't you chop down that wood you have plenty of room then
in other words you lazy How many times we don't want
to exercise the gifts because we are what? Lazy. I've put off my shoes. How can
I put them on again? No. The sin of sloth. It is one we are very familiar
with. And so you cannot say you don't
have the ability, friends. You don't have the strength.
It's because you don't have the desire. Therefore, not slothful in business. Not slothful in business. Fervent in spirit. Doing what? Serving the Lord. And what are we doing here? What
are we doing? We should never play church. We're here to serve. Slavery is a bad word today and
people don't know slavery is bad. Not if we have the right
master. If Christ is our master. We should not be slothful in
our business. What is the business of the church,
love? Preach the Word, be instant,
in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering. Preach Christ. That's our business.
The souls of men are our business. We ought to be about our Father's
business. And if we're not, it's our fault. We can't blame God. He's promised us the strength
to do it. Now why wouldn't you do it? Love without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. Cleave
to that which is good. Be kindly affectionate one toward
another. preferring and honoring everyone
above yourself. Don't be slack in this business. Fervent. Fervent. May God bless us to be such a
church. Fervent. In what, love? Is there
anything wrong with that? Can you find one thing wrong
with those words? Love without hypocrisy. Is there
anything wrong with that? I'm not mistaking this. Last
week, some teacher made children, quote, I believe it was that
verse there, in her classroom. And I mean, parents were angry.
Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. And they
were mad. How could you be mad at that?
Only if you're dead in trespasses and sins. Why? Because that's
just right for a believer. Just right. We know it. Please,
help us to do it. Give us strength. Wisdom. I pray God will do this. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.