In Romans chapter nine and verse
12, he begins, or chapter 12 and verse nine, reverse that. Yeah, chapter 12 and verse nine.
The apostle starts this by saying, let love be without dissimulation. Abhor or hate that which is evil
cleave or cling to that which is good. There's three exhortations
that are a blessing of the grace of God. Love without dissimulation. Now first of all he's talking
about godly love and we need to understand that this godly
love is the kind of love that none of us have by nature. This
is the divine love. You've heard the Greek word agape. This is what that is. That's
a divine love. It's the kind of love that God
has for us, his people, which is unconditional towards us. And I'll often put it this way,
that in God's love for his people, His love towards me is unconditional
because His love does not take in consideration any worthiness
in the object of the love. In fact, we're unworthy, we're
sinners, we're enemies of God by nature. And so His love towards
us is unconditional. But there are conditions for
God to love us, but they're not on us or in us, they're in Christ.
And the Bible puts it this way in 1 John 4, 10, for example. Herein is love, not that we love
God. If you wanna understand the truth
and reality, the concept of God's love, this divine love, then
you gotta start here. Herein is love, not that we love
God. In other words, His love is not
a response to our love for Him. He doesn't say, I'll love you
if you love me. But not that we love God, we
didn't. By nature, we don't have this
love in any degree. Now, by nature, men and women
love their idols, which is a reflection of themselves. Really, that's
what idolatry is. It's a reflection of self-love
and self-worship. You thought I was one likened
to yourself, God said. That's who man worships by nature
himself. So man by nature has self-love. He can have love for brethren,
in other words, not love for, not the divine love that binds
true believers together, but just what we call brotherly love,
you know, humankind, that kind of thing. He can have love for
his country, all that kind, love for his wife, love for her husband.
Erotic love, we can have that, but we don't have this love at
all by nature. This love is a gift of God. If
it's in us at all, it's because we are saved by the grace of
God based upon the conditions that Christ met in order for
God to love us in a just and righteous way. You understand
that now because this is how the gospel message is to be set
forth. Whatever God does, whether he
loves or whether he hates, and his love is a sovereign love.
God loves who he wants to love and he hates who he wants to
hate. And that hatred now, remember that, it's not emotional or sinful
like us. It's his righteous indignation. Jacob have I loved. Jacob didn't
deserve the love. Esau have I hated. Esau deserved
the hatred, the wrath of God, the justice of God. So if we
have this love in any degree at all, it's because we're saved
by his grace. It's a fruit of the spirit. Now
he's talking about love that binds believers together. And what we see here and what
Paul's talking about here is that God's grace is more than
just words. I mean, we can go all the, you
know, people all the time, you know, they say, I love you, I
love you, I love, and they don't. And that's why he, it's a hypocritical
love. And that's why he says, let your
love be without dissimulation. That word dissimulation is hypocrisy. You know, don't put on an act.
Because this love is not just words spoken. It's not a Hallmark
card. It's not emotions and feelings. This love is like God's grace,
as I put in your lesson, it's a dynamic power within us. And it's the Holy Spirit's way
of guiding us, inspiring us, and energizing us, For the for to obey God as willing
loving bond slaves and to come together and to stick together
By be bound together in the truth of the Bible God's truth and
If you notice any time we talk about God's love and and the
love of brethren It always has to be in the context of the truth. I In other words, love under
a lie, the preaching of a lie, is dissimulation, it is hypocrisy. Now there's a lot of things that
bind people together in this world. Age, common likes and
dislikes in the things of the world, but this is the love that
binds sinners saved by grace together in the truth. John put
it this way. in 1 John and 2 John, he talks
about love in the truth. This is the kind of love, be
without dissimulation, without hypocrisy. This is the kind of
love, and I'll talk about this a little bit later, that causes
us, as sinners saved by grace, to receive others who are saved
by grace as brethren. whether they're the same kind
as we are, the same likes and dislikes. You may like one ball
team, I like another. And we're never gonna come together
on that. But big deal. What does that mean? That's nothing. But we believe the same gospel.
And that's what binds us together. And we may not always get along.
Now, we should get along. And we're gonna see that here
in just a moment. I mean, they're believers, they'll argue, they
get mad at one another. They'll neglect one another,
which we should never do. But they're still bound together
by the grace of God in love to God and love to Christ, love
of the truth, love of the brethren. And this love is the motivation
for our obedience. God's love for us and our love
for him. So again, understand, no sinner
has this love by nature. This is a gift from God. Now,
he says in verse nine, he says, abhor that which is evil. Well,
what is that? What was he talking about? Anything
that's evil. We're to cultivate a hatred for
anything that dishonors God. We're to cultivate a hatred for
anything that denies Christ. And so he says cleave or cling
to that which is good, that which honors God, that which exalts
Christ, that which promotes the salvation of sinners, not the
damnation now. That's a very significant point
you need to understand about this love. that which edifies
brethren. I want to build us up in the
faith. I don't want to tear us down.
I don't want to beat you down. It's like, you know, a lot of
preachers who claim to be, to believe grace, well, and just
about every preacher does, you know, you know that, but they're
legalist and they'll beat the people up with the whip of the
law. Well, that's not edification.
All that is is cause people to look to themselves rather than
to Christ for salvation, for righteousness. But we look to
Christ. So that when he says, abhor that
which is evil, well certainly he's talking about the immorality
of the world. We're to cultivate a hatred for
it. And we have to make an effort there. It's not because we're
saved by our efforts. But in our desire and our attempts
to be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ, we had to
cultivate a love for that which is good and a hatred for that
which is evil. So certainly that includes the
immorality of the world. We're not to claim to be God's
children and then go out and, in love for the immorality of
the world, but it also includes something else that we need to
understand. It also includes a hatred for the world's false
religion, even for false Christianity. How many times have you been
accused of being unloving because you won't accept a person as
a brother or sister in Christ when they don't believe the true
gospel? Because the world, you know,
see the world today, their love is, well, let's just receive,
you know, we don't preach doctrine, we don't divide over doctrine,
let's just get together and hoop and holler and praise the Lord
together no matter what we believe. And they call that love. And
they would look at us and say, well, that's hatred. But you
see, whenever we receive, and somebody says, well, you're saying
you can tell who's saved and who's lost. Listen to me now.
The only way we know the difference between brothers and sisters
in Christ and those who are not brothers or sisters in Christ,
the Bible says, is by the doctrine of Christ. Second John nine. He that transgresseth and does not keep in the doctrine
of Christ, hath not God. Now, what is the doctrine of
Christ? Well, it's the doctrine of his
person. Who is Jesus Christ? If we have brotherly love that
binds us together, we believe the truth of the Bible concerning
who Jesus Christ is. He's God manifest in the flesh. Now, if you don't believe that,
then I cannot receive you as a brother. There's no brotherly
love. Now, I can still love you as
a human being because we're commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves,
but that kind of love will tell you the truth and pray for your
salvation. You understand what I'm saying?
In other words, I'm not going to speak peace to you and call it love. One old writer called that a
spurious love, hypocritical. So if a person comes in and says,
well now, I believe that we're saved by grace, but we're preserved
by our works, all right? I gotta tell them, you're not
my brother. I love you and I pray for your
salvation, but I can't speak peace to you and call it love.
They may walk away and say, well, you're just a hateful person.
See what I'm saying? What is the doctrine of Christ?
It's the doctrine of His finished work on the cross. I'm gonna
talk about that in today's message leading up to the Lord's Supper.
How we show forth His death till He come. Well, what is His death? His death is my salvation. His
death is my forgiveness. The forgiveness of all my sins.
His death is my righteousness before God. Now someone comes
in, they say, well, I believe he died for everybody upon condition
of their doing something. I cannot receive you as a brother
if that's what you believe. At this point, you show no evidence
of being a child of God in the family of God. So that's what
he means, let love be without dissimulation. hate that which
is evil, cling to that which is good, even at the cost of
being criticized by the religious world. Do we worship the same
God? Well, if we do, we're brothers
and sisters in Christ. If we worship the true God of
the Bible, the God who justifies the ungodly, based upon the blood
of Christ, based upon his righteousness imputed and not based upon our
faith. Do we believe in the same Christ, who he is and what he
did, why he did it, where he is now? He's risen, seated at
the right hand of the Father in heaven making intercession
for us. That's the doctrine of Christ. And John, over there
in 2 John, he went on to say, he literally who transgresses
and has gone too far and does not continue in the doctrine
of Christ hath not God, but he that continues in that doctrine,
he hath both the Father and the Son. And he says there, he says,
if any come unto you and bring not this doctrine, Receive him
not into your house. Now the house that I believe
he's talking about there is the church. He's not saying that
you can't let any unbelievers in your home. Because that's,
you all have family who are unbelievers. You might have a worker come
in, you might have even a visitation with a friend in your home, and
they're unbelievers. What I believe he's talking about
there is we don't receive them into our church family as full-fledged
members. So somebody comes in, they say,
I want to join your church. And I say, well, now, do you
understand what we preach? Do you believe what we preach?
Do you have faith in this Christ, and have you repented of dead
works? And if they have, and all we can do is go by what they
say now. I'm not setting myself up as
judge, jury, and executioner. And if they fool us, that's their
problem. You understand? But I tell them
what it is to join the church. If a person's a believer, they've
already joined the church, haven't they? God put them in the church. So that's the way we have to
operate. Years ago, there was a lady that came here. She came
here maybe three or four times, and then she come to me and said
she wanted to join the church. And I told her to wait, because
I could tell from her speech that she was really clueless
about what we believe. And I told her, I said, well,
wait and just listen to the message and we'll talk about it. And
she got so angry, she never come back. Now I could have said,
oh yeah, sister, come on in, you know, peace, peace. That's
not love, that's hypocrisy. That's not what the Bible tells
us, see? So let your love be, now look at verse 10. He says,
be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love. in honor
of preferring one another. What he's saying there is simply
be kind to one another. Don't be mean. Don't go around
with a chip on your shoulder in honor of preferring one another.
Now he's not talking about gifts and offices here. What he's talking about is don't
be self-centered, always wanting to get your way. Give in, that's
what he's saying. He's not saying something like,
well, I think I can preach, so I'm gonna get up here and you
sit down, preferring you to me. That's not what he's saying at
all. God has put his offices and his gifts in the church as
he sees fit. And there are certain things
that some of you cannot do, and there's certain things that I
can't do. But we have those, but what he's saying here is
in our daily activities to get along with one another, be kind,
be affectionate, in brotherly love, and don't be trying to
get your way all the time. Paul dealt with that in Philippians
chapter two when he's talking about, I think it was two women
in the church there who were just butting heads over something.
You know, they both wanted their way. I don't know, maybe what
kind of flowers you put down here or something like that.
Don't do that, give in. Don't give in on the gospel now.
Don't compromise the gospel. But we can give in on what kind
of flowers we put here in front of the pulpit. We can give in
on how we decorate. We can do that, you know. No,
I'm gonna get my way. Paul says, the Holy Spirit here
says don't do that. Prefer one another. It's not
worth it. That's what he's saying. In matters,
in non-essential matters, it's not worth it. Now in doctrinal
matters of life and death, it is worth it. We don't give in
there. But he says in verse 11, he says,
not slothful in business. I believe he's talking about
the business of the church, but certainly we could say that God's
people are not to be lazy people. Christ said, I must be about
my father's business. Well, what was his father's business?
The salvation of his people. So we're to be engaged. We're
to be fervent in the business of the church, the gospel, evangelism,
living godly lives. He says fervent in spirit, zealous. I know sometimes we take it for
granted, don't we? I think it's one of the biggest
dangers that we have. We come here each Sunday, we
hear the gospel preached, and sometimes we have a tendency
just to take it for granted. But we should. We always should
be zealous. We have to cultivate that, don't
we? Sometimes, you know, we get a little discouraged because
there's not that many here and we're just a few people. But
see, we're not in the numbers game. Now, in saying that, I'm
not saying that I don't want to see more numbers. I'd love
to see more numbers here. I'd love to see these walls busting
out, how about you? But I'm not in the game of trying
to make that happen. Because I was taught early on
by Brother Mahan, who you've been listening to, the moment
that a preacher asks what can I do to get more people in here,
normally he's going outside the word of God. Now certainly we're
to invite people to church, to the service, to hear the God,
give them a CD or something, you know, a book, and hope that
they'll read it or hope that God uses it to stir them up to
seek Him. So we can do that. But we're
to be zealous, and he says, verse 11, serving the Lord. That's
the key. Whatever God says, do it. Serve Him. That's what we're
doing here. We're serving the Lord. And we're
serving not to be saved. We're serving not trying to establish
a righteousness of our own in order to be just. We're serving
because God has already graced us with those things. I'm gonna
talk about that this morning. All the promises of eternal life. Look at verse 12. Rejoicing in
hope. Now that hope has to do with
our ground of salvation. Because that hope is the certain
expectation of our eternal life and glory based upon the merits,
the worthiness, the blood, the righteousness of Christ. And
in that calls to rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. Always rejoice. Now, I look back at 2018 and
2019, I can tell you I had a pretty rough couple of years there.
Things that I didn't rejoice in because of my selfishness,
really, if you think about it. But when I look at it from the
perspective of the word of God, I made this statement, I think
I got a bulletin article coming out maybe next week. talking
about how we're to look at things through God's eyes. Well, how
are we gonna do that? Is that some kind of a mystical
thing, you know? Or does that mean that the preacher's
the conduit? No, we look at things through
the eyes of God because he tells us in his word. And here's what
he tells us. He's sovereign in all things.
There's nothing gonna happen. what we see as positive or what
we see as negative, that God did not foreordain. That's right,
isn't it? I believe that. I believe that
who's not here this morning and who's here, that's the work of
God, that's his purpose. But he tells us secondly, that
it is all for his glory and all for our good. Now I admit it,
there are things that happen in my life I can't really understand
and how in the world is this gonna be good for me? Well I know it is though. You
know why? Because God said it. That's his
purpose for his people, to glorify himself in their complete salvation. Whether you cry a lot of tears
that day or whether you laugh joyfully that day. There's a
song that James Thompson up in Ashland sings all the time about
a mountain. He said, when I'm on the mountain,
when I'm in the valley. Still, God hadn't changed. God
is in control and it's for his glory and for the good of all
of his children. So rejoice in hope. Patient,
in verse 12, patient in tribulation. Patience has to do with endurance. It's not patience like waiting
in the doctor's office. Be happy about that. I go to
the doctor, and most of the time I get right in, but when they
put me in that room inside, I have to wait and wait and wait, and
I get upset. That's not what he's talking about. I'm like
the woman who said, Lord, I want patience, and I want it right
now. Patient and tribulation. What he's talking about is endurance
in the time of trial. because that too is the operation
and work of God. And he's gonna bring us through,
and you can read Hebrews 12 on that, the chastisements of the
Lord, where they're grievous, going through those things are
grievous. He's not telling us that when we're going through
a sore trial, that we're to act like we're happy when we're not.
That's hypocrisy. But he's saying that as we're
going through that trial, that we rely on Christ, we look to
him, and he's gonna bring us through to that peaceable fruit
of righteousness, which is you come out of that trial by the
grace and power of God, looking to Christ, clinging to Christ
even more. That's what that's all about.
He says, continuing instant in prayer. That doesn't mean we're
to be on our knees all the time. There's nothing wrong with getting
on your knees in prayer in your closet. It's a good thing. But we're to have an attitude,
a prayerful attitude, praying always. A prayerful attitude,
saying God help me. God be with me. Teach me, oh
Lord. Bring me through. Look at verse
13. Distributing to the necessity of saints. What he's talking
about, that word distributing is the same word that is translated
sharing, communicating, and even fellowship. Distributing. And what he's simply
saying here is we're to help our brethren in need. If a brother
needs food or a sister needs clothing or shelter, we're to
help them. We're to help them in physical
matters. You know, John said, don't love
in word, just love in deed. And that love manifests itself
in the smallest acts of sharing, like giving a thirsty brother
or sister a cold cup of water. And it goes all the way up to
giving our lives for our brethren. You remember what John said there
in 1 John chapter three? Now I admit, that for me or any
of you all to give our lives for each other, that's gonna
take the grace and the power of God to give us that kind of
courage. But you know, there were saints
in the past who were murdered for the cause of Christ. Think
about Stephen, our brother Stephen, standing there before a hostile
crowd, telling them not what they wanted to hear, but what
they needed to hear. And then, after they started
stoning him, he said, Lord, don't lay this to their charge. Boy,
now I tell you, for me to do something like that, it's not
gonna be me. That would take the power and
the grace of God. And that's what brought Stephen
through. So when he talks about distributing to the necessity,
and that's why he's talking, he's not talking about a welfare
state here. He's not talking about putting
people on the payroll, just in some kind of a socialism deal
here. He's talking about somebody in
need, especially the brother or sister who is in need because
of their identification with the gospel. You know, back in
these early days, many of these folks, they lost their jobs,
they lost their homes, Some lost their lives because they were
true believers who testified of Christ. And he says, when
that happens, you help them whenever given opportunity, given to hospitality. Now, he's not just talking about
social visits here, okay? But he's talking about being
receptive, helping, communicating, all of that. And I thought about
this. Well, he's not simply saying
that let everybody who claims to be a Christian into your home
or anything like that. I mean, he's given us brains,
he's given us some wisdom, but he's talking about the relationship
here of befriending strangers, those whom you have reason to
believe are brethren in Christ. And I'm gonna show you something
here in just a moment. But look at verse, that's verse 13. Given the hospitality, turn over
to 2 John. And here's the best application
of what I believe he's talking about there. Now we already read,
or I quoted, partially quoted, 2 John, verse nine. Think about, you know, there's
three letters, three epistles of John, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John.
1st John is a book that really sets the standard for our fellowship. It's a fellowship with the Father
and the Son. It's a fellowship of light, not
darkness. It's not binding us together
under a lie. It's a light, the gospel, Christ
is the light. It's a fellowship of love, this
godly love we're talking. It's a fellowship of righteousness,
all of that. So you might say those are kind
of like the benchmarks of fellowship. And so he says, this is our fellowship
in first John, he describes it. And then in second John, he tells
us who we are not to have fellowship with. Look at verse nine, he
says, whosoever transgresses and abideth not in the doctrine
of Christ, hath not God. Now it doesn't matter how sincere
they are, doesn't matter how moral they are, doesn't matter
how dedicated they are. If they abide not in the doctrine
of Christ, they hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. Now if there come
any unto you and bring not this doctrine, this gospel, receive
him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed. For he that
biddeth him Godspeed is a partaker, a fellowshiper of his evil deeds. So here comes a guy and says,
I'm preaching out here and I want to go out and try to save souls,
but he's not preaching the true gospel. You're not to support
him. I have people all the time call and say, you know, I'm an
evangelist. I'm going to be in town. Could
I get in your pulpit? You know, I say, no, I don't
know you. I even have singing groups. I bet we could have a singing
group up here every Sunday. And I don't know what, I don't
know them, but I don't know what they believe. And so I'm not going
to receive him into our house. I'm not trying to be mean. I'll
tell him, I said, I'm not trying to be mean. I said, I just don't
know you. And I don't, you know, we'd have to get to know each
other and what we believe, all of that. So that's what he's
saying. Third John, he's telling us who
we are to have fellowship with. Now you remember there were strangers
and strangers was a way to refer to believers back then, strangers
in this world. And John had sent some preachers
upon his recommendation, now John the apostle, to this church
where there was a man named Gaius and a man named Diotrephes. But
Gaius received them upon John's recommendation, and I'd say that's
a pretty good recommendation, wouldn't you all? He received,
Gaius received, but Diotrephes would not receive them. And it
says there in verse eight, look at verse eight of third John.
We therefore ought to receive such that we might be fellow
helpers to the truth. Now, if we receive somebody who's
preaching a false gospel, we're partakers of their evil deeds.
And remember what he said? He said, cleave to that which
is good, abhor that which is evil. So John says we ought to
be fellow helpers of the truth. They're preaching the gospel.
And he says, verse nine, I wrote unto the church, but diatrophies
who loveth to have the preeminence among them receiveth us not.
John's including himself there. And so, wherefore, if I come,
I will remember his deeds, which he doeth, prating against us
with malicious words, and not content therewith, neither doth
he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would.
Not only would he not receive them, but he wouldn't let anybody
else, and he said, and casteth them out of the church. Now that's against the love of
the brethren, you see, that he's talking about. Bottom line, cleave
to that which is good, abhor that which is evil. All right.