Our Father in heaven, we come before you together as your people tonight. We ask that as we come to your word that you would send us your spirit, that you might illumine it for us, and that you might indeed speak to us, and that by your Holy Spirit you might take that word and dig deep into our hearts and plant the truth of your word into our lives. that more and more we might be transformed by it to look more and more like Christ. We are your people. We are gathered together tonight by you. And we ask that you speak to us for your servants are listening. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Our scripture reading this evening comes from Romans chapter 12. And we'll actually begin in verse 1, but we'll be looking in particular at verses 9 through 13 this evening. But just want to get a running start in Romans chapter 12 beginning in verse 1. That can be found on page 947 in your pew Bibles and continue on to page 948. So Romans chapter 12 beginning in verse 1 as we continue our studies in the book of Romans. Paul says this. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness, Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Some commentators say that there are over 90 images to help describe the church. Now, that number may be a little too large. Perhaps we could discuss the more obscure ones. But many of us know the more familiar and most common ones. The church is the city of God. The church is a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden. The church is the light of the world and the salt of the earth, the people of God. The church is the temple of Jesus Christ, the bride of Christ. But I suppose the imagery that comes to mind most often when we think about the church is the imagery in this passage that the church is the body of Christ. And actually one of the fascinating things about the picture of the church is that it's used by only one of the New Testament writers, only one of the apostles, the apostle Paul. And nobody's very sure exactly why he used it when apparently none of the other apostles left us any record of them using it. But part of the reason, I suppose, actually comes from Paul's very own life story. Perhaps Paul, in reflection on his first meeting with Jesus on the Damascus road, remembered Jesus' strange words to him. Jesus said to Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He didn't say, Saul, why are you persecuting my disciples? Saul, why are you persecuting my followers? But he said to Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? But when he was brought to faith in Christ and slowly discovered that he was persecuting those who so belong to Jesus Christ, that he recognized something. Perhaps the reason Jesus said, why are you persecuting me, was to underline the fact that as Saul thought he was persecuting the ragtag followers of the way of Christ, whom he despised, that when Christ said to him, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It underlined for him that as the people of God had come together, that as he was being brought near to Jesus Christ himself and being united to him by faith meant that he was simultaneously brought near to brothers and sisters and united to them in faith. and that this fellowship was not simply a new organization. It wasn't simply a new organization, but a living body, an organism. That what Paul was actually doing was persecuting the body of Christ. The church of Christ is a living, breathing, growing body. of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's this that Paul is speaking about here in Romans 12 when he describes the Christian church. And it's fascinating that in the first 11 chapters of Romans, Paul has been explaining for us and highlighting for us what he calls in chapter 12 and verse 1, the mercies of God. The first application of all the doctrine contained in the first 11 chapters of Romans. And it's really the very first thing that Paul turns to in chapter 12. It's that the fruit of the mercy of God is fellowship of the body of Christ. That what is all of this doctrine in the first 11 chapters of Romans supposed to drive us towards? that the mercies of God, the very fruit of the mercies of God is the fellowship of God's people and of the body of Christ. And I want us to notice two things tonight. The first is the makeup of God's people. And the second is the lifestyle of God's people. The makeup of God's people. How are we as God's people put together? Well, the foundation of God's fellowship begins with recognizing the unity of the body of Christ. Actually, look in verses 4 and 5. For as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. So we, though many, are one body in Christ. like members of the human body, like the hand or the arm, the eyes, the ear, the head, the torso, the back, the legs, the feet. They all need one another. They don't exist outside of the body. And that's what Paul is saying here, that though we may be many members, we are one body in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are brought together and made up, and like the members of the human body, we belong together and need one another. I actually think it was Dr. Ferguson who first used this illustration, that some people think of the church like an Amtrak train ride. They get their ticket, they get on the train, they sit down, and they stare at the back of the head in front of them, all the while waiting for the person driving the train to get them to their destination. But what Paul says about the body of Christ is that indeed we are the fellowship, we are the body of Christ, we're brought together, we're knit together. It's not a train ride that we get on and we get off. But the fellowship of God's people are knit together like muscle and sinew, like skin, like the whole body together. We are brought together as one. I can imagine someone saying, but I don't need anybody else. I came to worship on my own, by myself, under my own steam. I don't need anybody else. But you've been sitting here for 30 some odd minutes. When you came in, you needed the ushers to help you along. You needed someone to hand you the order of worship. You needed someone to have prepared that order of worship. You needed the sextons to get the building together. You needed the musicians to prepare, the choir members to prepare. You needed the work of your ministers. And it underlines for us that every Lord's Day, every service we come together, it's an active parable. that we need one another in Christ, that you are not by yourself, that Christ has not saved you to go out in the world and live unconnected, but that he's brought us together and knit us together. But what's the secret of this unity? How is it that we can be brought together, united together, and get along? How is it that we, though many, can become as one. Well, look in verse 3, it's what we saw last week. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment. He means that we're not intoxicated with our own sense of self-importance, but honoring my fellow believers as more important than myself, counting them more important. I ran across something this afternoon that I couldn't help but share with you. It comes from this little booklet called The Real Jesus. It's written by Rico Tice and Barry Cooper, whom some of you know and will recognize as the authors of Christianity Explored. Listen to this. In the first two paragraphs, he opens up. David Hasselhoff. David Hasselhoff. The actor, debatably the pop star, David Hasselhoff. is concerned that his role in European history is being overlooked. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, the actor and pop singer argued that he helped to bring down the Berlin Wall by singing his song, Look for Freedom. And he goes on to say, I find it a bit sad, said the ex-Knight Rider and Baywatch star, that there is no photo of me hanging on the walls in the Berlin Museum. That's not someone who is thinking soberly about himself. And sometimes within the church, we can even fall prey to this ourselves. We begin to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. But as Paul talks about being transformed here in the very first two verses of chapter 12, it's the humility that Jesus works in us as we're being transformed that brings us to serve one another. Having a humble estimate of ourselves that leads us in verse 10 in the second half to outdo one another in showing honor. Outdo one another in showing honor. Only Christ can transform someone so much that they begin to think about themselves less than others. And they begin to think about themselves in such a sober way that they look to honor others more than they're looked to be honored. I remember a story of a church that was in a larger city, in a larger state, and there was division in that church, as there are in many churches. And there was one faction within that church that wanted the property. And there was another faction in that church that didn't want that faction to have the property. And so one group sued the other. It ended up in civil court. The judge looked it over. He threw it out of court and said, take it back to your own church courts for litigation. It went back to their own church courts, and there was a tribunal set up in the congregation, and it was determined that one group would get the property, and the other group was out of luck. One reporter in that town was interested in what had happened, wanted to find out what the root of all of this was, and so he researched as best he could, and here's what he found out. As far as he could determine and trace it back, it went back to a church dinner when a leader in the church received a smaller piece of ham than the child sitting next to him. If they had only taken seriously the second half of verse 10, to seek to outdo one another, in honor, how different things would have been. And isn't that a great place to be competitive? Seeking to outdo one another in honor. And only Jesus can bring that kind of transformation. And the kind of fruit among us is a kind of unity that you do not find in any other society or in any other religion on the face of the earth. And that is what makes the makeup of God's people so unique. That we're united together, that though we may be diverse in all sorts of ways, in the way we dress, in the way we laugh, in the way we talk, in the way we like or don't like, in the way we wish things were this way or weren't this way or that way or weren't that way, in our giftedness or lack of giftedness in any particular area of life, that though we may be many, we are one in the body of Christ. And that's our makeup. that He takes us from all different walks of life and He brings us together in one body. And the secret to that unity is thinking soberly about ourselves and to seek to outdo one another in showing honor. Well, that's the makeup of God's people, but what about the lifestyle of God's people? Just like we can sometimes tell where people are from by the way they talk or the way they walk or the certain phrases they use in conversation, The church has a certain way of carrying herself too. And the thing that marks the very special way God's fellowship is to carry yourself is the love of Jesus Christ. And there's a quality to this love. Look in verse 9. Let love be genuine or real without a mask, no hypocrisy, no pretending. You probably already know that the hypocrites were the actors on stage, the ones with the masks. but the church must not turn herself into a stage. Love isn't theater, it belongs in the real world. And this is the first time he uses, Paul uses this word for love, agape, to refer to something other than God's love for us or our love for God. This is the first time he's used this word agape in something other than a vertical relationship. He now begins to talk about agape, loving one another, this God-like quality love horizontally, loving the brothers and sisters in the family of God. And we are to show that unstoppable God-like love that loves regardless of the circumstances, that intellectually determines it's going to love toward one another in the church. That is the love that we are to have if we are going to properly love. Moreover, it is to be without distinction. It is to be genuine. Nothing phony about it. Absolutely authentic. Love toward one another. A high type of love. We are to be devoted in this type of love. This little, simple statement. Let love be genuine. That little tiny statement, let love be genuine, is so foundational to the life of the church and so difficult to live out and to follow. Why? Why is it so difficult to live out and follow this type of love, letting love be genuine and real without hypocrisy, without pretending? Well, one reason is because we're surrounded by a culture that encourages us to put on masks. It lifts up people that put on masks, pretending to be something they're not, and encourages us to do the same. It's very enticing sometimes, isn't it? To put on masks. To look like the people that other people are lifting up. To put on those kinds of masks. But there's another reason I think that this is so hard, and it's because we've been raised, especially in the South, to use our manners, to use civility and cordiality towards one another. Now you and I both know, especially if you grew up in the South, you are masters at this. We are masters at this, aren't we? That sometimes we can use that cordiality and civility to mask the greatest animosity towards someone while we act like we are loving. Bless your heart. We do it all the time. I think there's a third reason it's very easy to deceive ourselves and imagine that we are loving when indeed we do not even think about or care about those that we say that we love. We think we're doing a great job. When in actuality, we don't really care about those that we say that we love. And we're surrounded by this. But if we are to love as Paul tells us, then we are to love without pretense or hypocrisy within the church. And if we are ones whose lives have been transformed by the mercy of God, then a life marked by this kind of love is not an option. This isn't Paul saying, listen, now put on these things when you're able to. And Paul's not even using this in a command sort of way. But Paul is saying these are markers of those who have been transformed by Jesus Christ. It's not an option, it's a necessity, it's part of what the Christian is. It has to be. Because as we follow after, as Neal Matthias said, our elder brother in the family of God, Jesus Christ, that we ought to be being more and more transformed by God's Holy Spirit, by His Word in our lives, that we look more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. that our love is not fake, it's not pretense, it's not a mask that we put on, it's not driven out of hypocrisy, but it's driven because we are ones who follow after our Lord Jesus Christ, who love Him with such fervor and zeal that we can't help but to want to be like Him. Look what He says, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good. That we are to be ones who shy away from evil. And wouldn't you call it evil to, in someone's face, act as if you love them all the while holding animosity towards them. All the while hating them in your heart. And Paul is saying, move away from evil and cling to, hold on to. It's like the word glue. That we ought to be glued to doing good, averting evil, loathing it, even hating it, abhorring it. That love, Christ-like love, actually moves us to hate something. And it moves us to hate evil and stick to good. We might be tempted I don't know how you could be tempted after that, but you might be tempted to think that this is a soft and easy kind of love. But as you just move through these few verses, this is love that has an aroma of Christ about it, the way of Christ about it. That we again are to abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good. But look in verse 10, the first half as well. that this type of love, we are to love one another with brotherly affection. Literally translated and roughly translated it means this, in brotherly love to one another, loving fervently. And there's two words there for love. One is Philadelphia. You know what that means. City of brotherly love. That's what Philadelphia means, not the city, but the brotherly love part. that we're to love one another with brotherly affection. But there's another word there as well, philostorge. And philostorge is different because it originally described the love a mother has for her infant and the infant for his or her mother, that automatic, deep, natural bond. It's not just brotherly affection. but it's storge as well, and here's what he's saying, you should experience family bonding if you understand the gospel. You should experience family bonding if you understand the gospel. And the original Greeks and Romans who saw brotherly love played out and practiced by early Christians knew how radical it was and also how offensive the idea was. Can you imagine a group thinking that the Christians, the early Christians who sought to love one another, it was offensive? But listen to what one Greek, early Greek writer who watched Christianity grow had to say about it. He didn't like it very much. He said their founder persuades them that they should be like brothers to one another and therefore they despise their own privacy and view all their possessions as common property. He recognized how radical it was to say that every other person who has experienced the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ is your brother and is your sister. He understood that that kind of thinking is radical. Do you? Do you understand that every other person on the face of the earth whose life has been changed by the Lord Jesus Christ, whom God has shown his grace to in the Lord Jesus Christ, is your brother or is your sister? Not just the ones you like. not just the ones who dress like you, not just the ones who think like you, but every other person who's putting their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ on the face of the earth is your brother or sister. C.S. Lewis in his book, The Four Loves, writes this about the word storge. Storge is not discriminating. Now just pause there for a second. Storge is not discriminating. It means that you don't audition people, you don't audition the people of God to see whether they deserve your love or not. You don't audition them to see if their likes are similar to yours and if this is going to be an easy road or not. That store gay is not discriminating. Friends and lovers, C.S. Lewis goes on to say, friends and lovers will say that they were made for each other. But the special glory of Storge is that it unites those who most emphatically, even comically, are not. Storge exists between people who, if they had not found themselves in the same household or community, would have nothing to do with one another. That's Storge. Now let me ask you something, for those of you who have brothers and sisters, and I presume that it's the majority of us in here. Did you choose your brother or sister? No. I know the answer to that question. You didn't choose your brother or sister. All you knew is one day things were great and the next thing somebody shows up on the scene who messes up what you had going on with mom and dad. You don't choose your family members. You don't choose them. They just come to you. And Storge exists between people that if they didn't find themselves together in the same household or community would have had nothing to do with one another. And this is what Paul is saying that the family of God is like. Look further, look beyond, look into the future in the 14 and verse 3, where he says at the end of 14 and verse 3, for God has welcomed him. He's talking there, Paul is, about not casting judgment on one another within the family of God. And what he says not to do that because God has welcomed him. God has brought them into the family of God. And who are you to reserve your love and care for them? God is the one who has birthed that new Christian into the family of God. We're to welcome them and love them and show them storge, that love that is there and automatic and deep and is a natural bond. C.S. Lewis adds humorously, dogs and cats should always be brought up together. It broadens their minds some. And that's what happens when we come into the family of God as well. We see all sorts of people. And what he's saying here is storge is a very special word, a deep sense of connectedness and bondedness with people that are just given to us, people that you wouldn't have chosen. And you sense that bondedness and see things that you never would have seen otherwise, because had you had the chance to choose them, you never would have chosen them. Now, of course, some of them you would have chosen. Some of them you would have chosen. I'm not saying that you don't have natural, easy friendships within the church, but Paul's not saying foster the natural, easy friendships within the church. He's saying, look, you're at a family reunion, and there's crazy Uncle Joe in the corner, you know, and funny Aunt Mary over there. What he's saying is you love them with the same affection, a Christ-like affection. And that sort of connection Paul is saying is there and must be practiced and seen by all Christians with all other Christians. And that's not easy. That's painfully not easy at times. But he goes on to say, and we don't have time to go through all of these, but we will pause just for a few seconds with some of them. Look what he goes on to say, that love is full of zeal, it is fervent. Fervent, it means burning. Our love is to be dispersed with a burning energy. Now, great ones in the church have often loved like this. They understand this type of love. We can look back through church history and see several of these lives that the love of God was burning within them. In fact, Martin Luther said that one year of his life he was so busy he didn't have time to change the sheets on his bed. That happened to me one year in college, but it wasn't because I was too busy. It was because I was way too lazy. John Calvin, who had a list of medical problems a mile long, was great in his productivity. John Wesley, it was said he rode 50 to 70 miles a day and preached three sermons a day. Alexander White, the great Scottish minister, when he went into his study, always put on his work boots to remind himself that he was to be in labor like those who were outside. It calls for energy to love within the church. It's not an easygoing love. He continues, not only should it be full of zeal and fervent, but love serves the Lord. It rejoices in hope. Notice it's patient in tribulation. It's constant in prayer. It looks out for the needs of others. We could do a many-part series on each one of these and unpack them. But that's the glorious love that Paul is talking about here. That's the old-fashioned gospel way. That's the way of Christ. And notice how he brings this to a climax in verse 13. He says, after all of this, and he adds, contribute to the needs of the saints. And he says, seek to show hospitality. Seek to show hospitality. I don't know what you think about hospitality. I don't know what you think about the need for it or how much Paul would underline it. But when Paul uses the word seek to show or the words in the phrase seek to show, he means to pursue or chase. In fact, it's a word that is sometimes used to denote strenuous pursuit. Have you ever thought about hospitality that way? To pursue hospitality with strenuous pursuit. So what is Paul telling us is that if we are to love within the church, we are to pursue hard and fast after hospitality. The idea is that the loving believer does not wait for the stranger to show up on the doorstep, but goes out and meets him. That those who seek to show hospitality, which ought to be every Christian within the family of God, we ought to be pursuing it. That we ought to be strenuously pursuing it. That we ought to be looking around, even as we mingle together. How can I show hospitality? And is this a novel idea? You think this is a novel idea? Origen in the second century said this, how finally does Paul sum up the generosity of the man who pursues hospitality in one word, for by saying that hospitality is to be pursued, he shows that we are not just to receive the stranger when he comes to us, but actually to inquire after and look carefully for strangers, to pursue them and search them out everywhere. Now you can do that. That is something that you can do. Paul's not talking here, I don't believe, to the rich Christians in Rome who might have bigger houses and therefore be able to take the congregation in and be able to have them in their home and house them in their home. Paul's talking, I think, to the entire congregation of Rome. that you ought to be showing hospitality when you come together. Now, practice hospitality. Be welcoming. Be welcoming as you come together. Look for strangers. And this is so important. This is so important because it shows us why every single one of us needs every other one of us. Because if some stranger comes among us and no one speaks to him or her, the person's here for a while and no more than one or two persons, people speak to him, they may be tempted to go away and say that that whole congregation was unfriendly to me. And if it's someone who's entered into a church or a service for the first time, what are they gonna think? about the nature of the God that we seek to praise and to worship and to live like? What are they gonna think of Jesus himself? If Jesus' people, his younger brothers and sisters are cold, who are corded off among themselves, you may be in cliques, but they're not welcome. What are they gonna think about your God and your Savior? It takes every single one of us to practice hospitality. You may think of yourself as a little old lady or a younger person on the fringe of the church. Don't think of yourself that way. Don't ever think of yourself that way. All it may take is a word from you to a stranger for people to go away and say, I met this wonderful little old lady and she seemed to shine with love. I have no idea why she was interested in me. I know why she was interested in you. Because she's interested in her Lord Jesus Christ. Do you remember the story that Dr. Ferguson tells? I think he's told it recently, otherwise it wouldn't be on the forefront of my mind and my memory, because it's not that good. But do you remember when he, as a 17-year-old, went off to college and he found the church that he would worship in for the rest of his college years? that as in that first service, this old man, I think his name was Bob Hardy, put his hand on Dr. Ferguson's shoulder and said, you must be new here. And it was just that little kindness, that little show of hospitality by Bob Hardy. Now this is humanly speaking, but that may have set off the trail for Sinclair Ferguson. to be in the church, to be our minister, and to have God use him in the way that he's used him. What if there's someone that God might use if you would just reach out and touch them and say, and run the risk of saying, hey, I don't recognize you. Are you new here? No, I've been here for 36 years. Run the risk. Say, sorry, I've only been here for 18 years. Run the risk. This is gospel love. You think it's not because it's so simple and it's so tangible. But this is gospel love and this is what the family of God looks like. You can do this. And the rippling effect of your love of Jesus Christ shown in you, that simple Jesus-like friendliness would be glorious. And the impact of that kind of hospitality, of that kind of love as we live the lifestyle of Jesus Christ in this city. What an effect it could have, not only in the city, but maybe in the state, maybe the country, and maybe even the world. so that as Jesus prayed for the whole church in John 17, this is the reason he prayed like this. In John chapter 17, he says, Father, I pray that this beautiful fellowship may be seen in the world, that the world may come to believe that you have sent me to be their Savior. The way we live speaks to what we believe. And if all of the doctrine of Romans chapter one through 11 don't reach out to the fingertips of your life, You've missed what all Paul has been saying. Listen, this has to be welling up in you by now. This needs to be coming out of you. The Lord is transforming you. He's making you into something and into the Lord Jesus Christ, more and more into His image. And the way we live speaks volumes to what we think about our Savior. And that's what Jesus was praying, that our lives might be lived in such a way that we show the reality of a Savior who is not dead, but who is risen and leads his church, of which we are the body. And you see it spills over. And that's what we'll be looking at in verses 14 through 21. We've looked tonight at nine through 13, the love shed abroad in Christ's church. Love at work in Christ's church. But as we see it spills over outside, if you can imagine this place as a cup, and it's spilling out over into Columbia and into the state and into the world. And that's what we'll look at in the coming weeks. But can you say this? I've given myself wholeheartedly to the Lord Jesus Christ. He has brought me into a family so full of His grace and power that something of the family likeness is beginning to be expressed in my own life. And that's what others see. What impact that would have on Columbia and who knows where else. It can happen. And may God more and more bring it about in our fellowship, the body of Christ, the family of God. Father in heaven, we praise you and thank you that you have redeemed us, you have bought us back, you have brought us into the family of God, that we now, those of us who have put our faith and trust in Christ, are part of that family. We are brothers and sisters in the Lord. And we are overwhelmed at your kindness and your goodness to us. But we ask because we know that we are so far short of living this kind of life, that we need your grace and your mercy, your Holy Spirit to work it within us. that we might more and more look like Christ. And more and more as we live together as brothers and sisters, as the family of God, that it might spill over out of this place to be seen before a watching world. That others may say of this place and this fellowship, they actually believe that Jesus Christ is real and he is risen and he lives. Father, work it in us, we pray, by your grace, and not for our own glory, but for the sake of Christ and for your glory. In Christ's name we pray, amen.