The Law of Gospel Love.

Steve Gentry

[0:00] Alright, go ahead and have a seat. [0:01] Welcome to Village Church. [0:03] If this is your first time here, my name is Steve, I’m one of the pastors here at Village [0:06] Church and as always I’m thankful and grateful to see each and every one of you. [0:12] It is Mother’s Day, so happy Mother’s Day to any of the mothers in the crowd this morning. [0:18] I’m thankful for mothers, I wouldn’t be here without one, biologically.

[0:23] So I’m thankful for my mom. [0:25] Now I’ve got a great mom, a wonderful wife that is also the mother of my children. [0:29] I’m married too. [0:30] So if you are in here and you are a mother and you are thankful that there is a day [0:38] for Mother’s Day, celebrate well. [0:40] We have a God who celebrates, a God who is the happiest God, because He’s the only God.

[0:47] And so please children, give them a good day. [0:52] They only ask for one. [0:54] You can ruin, you typically give them a tough time, the other 364, so give them a good [0:58] day. [0:59] But if you’re in here and Mother’s Day is not a joyous event for you, I don’t know [1:05] what the situation is.

[1:07] Maybe you’ve lost your mother, maybe you are a mother who has lost her children, maybe [1:12] you are someone who has struggled with fertility issues and because of that this is not a day [1:17] that is marked by celebration for you, but a day that brings up some pain. [1:24] I want you to understand that you can celebrate today just as much as someone who seems like [1:31] she’s got more kids than she even needs, and that’s because both categories are not to [1:39] find their identity in being a mother or in not being a mother, but rather find your

[1:45] identity, find your hope, put your worship in Jesus Christ. [1:51] Because He is the God who visits us both in our celebration as well as in our pain. [1:59] He is completely self-sufficient. [2:01] So in times when we want to celebrate the good things, we have a God that comes in with [2:05] us and He celebrates right alongside with us. [2:07] He drinks some good drink, He eats some good food, and He enjoys life with us.

[2:12] That’s heaven. [2:13] That’s what it’s going to be like. [2:15] But He’s also the God who because of His love that He had for us when He saw us in the [2:23] pain of the curse of sin in this world, lowered Himself into the deepest depths of suffering [2:29] that man has ever known, and He did that for you. [2:34] And He’s also done that so that in those moments that are difficult in this life, and there

[2:40] are many, you can look and say there is a God who understands. [2:46] There is a God who has not abandoned me in my pain, but rather He sees me in my pain, [2:51] and He loves me in my pain. [2:53] He loves me to the extent that He’s taken my pain onto Himself, onto the cross, so [2:59] that I can hope for a day where this pain will be here no longer. [3:04] And that is a God worth finding your identity in, worth finding your hope in, and worth

[3:10] giving your worship to. [3:12] So this morning, just as every Mother’s Day, the gift that I’m going to give my mom, my [3:18] wife, your mom, your wife, and you, is I’m just going to preach the gospel like I do [3:23] every other Sunday. [3:25] It’s a special Mother’s Day sermon, Romans part 56. [3:30] I wrote it just for today, founded in Romans 13.

[3:34] So if you have your Bibles, turn them to Romans 13, verses 8 through 14. [3:40] And my hope this morning is that as we go through what really isn’t one of those coffee [3:46] cup sections of the book of Romans, but what I want to point you to is one of the more [3:52] impactful sections for understanding how obeying God and viewing His law in your life will [4:00] lead to true gospel saturation for your life. [4:05] Now if you’ve recently joined us, or if maybe this is your first Sunday with us, you may

[4:09] have seen Romans part 56. [4:12] Well, okay, I’m a little bit behind. [4:14] That’s okay. [4:15] I’m going to sum up pretty much the first 11 chapters that we went through in a couple [4:20] of sentences here. [4:21] And someone challenged me after the first service, and they said, well, if you could

[4:24] do it in a couple of sentences, why has it taken you 56 sermons? [4:28] I have no answer other than, hey, there are some intricate details we got to work through [4:32] here, folks. [4:33] We don’t want to miss anything. [4:36] So what I want you to understand is that in the first 11 chapters, an apostle named Paul [4:41] unpacked our need for redemption from sin.

[4:45] He also unpacked how God worked to redeem us from sin through Jesus and why God is trustworthy, [4:51] both with the power to actually save us and the faithfulness to keep his promise of salvation, [5:00] the redemption of our sins. [5:02] We are now in a section of Romans that is showing the effect of faith in the gospel [5:07] of Jesus on our everyday living. [5:10] The gospel transforms quite literally the way that we think.

[5:15] If you’re a follower of Jesus, then your mind should be conformed to God’s revelation of [5:20] himself through Jesus and his word, rather than what Romans 12 calls the pattern of [5:27] this world. [5:28] God calls us to build our identity in what Jesus has shown us about God. [5:35] And he’s shown us that God loves us, and his purpose is for us to use the giftings that [5:42] he’s given every single one of us individually as he shows us his love in Jesus, for us

[5:48] to build his people in this world called the church of Jesus. [5:54] But to do that, we are to seek and to show and to tell the good news of Jesus to the [6:01] world around us. [6:03] And we do that in word and in action. [6:06] In Romans 13, 8-14, what we’re going to see is that he’s going to connect what God has [6:11] done throughout the history of the Bible to show the gospel builds a life of love through

[6:17] obeying Jesus as we trust in Jesus. [6:20] It is in finding the law of God as being fulfilled through Jesus, and therefore inspiring rather [6:26] than condemning, that we can give real love to every single person around us and every [6:32] single person in this world. [6:34] So look in Romans 13, 8, and we’re going to begin reading. [6:38] The apostle writes to the church at Rome, he says, Oh, no one anything except to love

[6:43] each other. [6:44] For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. [6:48] For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall [6:52] not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word. [6:58] You shall love your neighbor as yourself. [7:00] Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

[7:05] Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. [7:10] For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. [7:15] The night is far gone, the day is at hand. [7:18] So then, let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. [7:23] Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual [7:29] immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ

[7:35] and make no provision for the flesh to satisfy its desires. [7:42] Number one this morning, I want to just start unpacking this straight away. [7:45] Number one, the first thing that we see in this passage by Paul is that the law of God [7:49] is loving. [7:51] The law of God is loving. [7:54] There was a time in my life when I was following Jesus and I struggled to put the law of God

[8:01] together with the grace of God in my life. [8:03] I mean the law is seen throughout much of the New Testament and is painted and the [8:08] parts that we focus on the most are the parts that say the law has come condemning us, showing [8:14] us our sin and showing us our great need for a savior and Jesus has come in as that great [8:19] savior, the liberator of all people to free us from the weight of sin. [8:24] And then we live this life where we are free in Christ and I struggle to coincide that

[8:29] with what we see in places like Psalm 19 where it says the law of God is good. [8:34] It is refreshing or reviving to the soul. [8:40] And in that time of my life I struggled to say if the law is something that puts a weight [8:45] on my shoulders that I cannot bear, that I cannot walk with, how then is it something [8:52] that I can look at and say hmm that’s refreshing. [8:56] Man that really gives me life.

[8:58] When the pictures painted often time lead me to a place where I say no but doesn’t [9:03] it give me death and then Jesus actually gives me life. [9:09] So as a follower of Jesus the law can be something that opinions vary on and our thoughts even [9:15] in ourselves struggle in to say well I can’t measure up to the law but doesn’t God call [9:20] me to be perfect as he is perfect. [9:23] And so often times we are left with this kind of faith that is kind of paradoxical

[9:28] and often contradictory where we are both attempting to be free in Christ and also attempting [9:33] to bear the weight of the law on ourselves at the exact same time trying to measure [9:38] up to what God says he looks like in his law. [9:41] Or what could also be a problem is that you look at the law of God in the Old Testament [9:46] and you make the statement which is not a true statement either. [9:49] Oh well that is Old Testament.

[9:51] That is not New Testament. [9:52] We don’t need that. [9:54] Didn’t God come to get rid of the law so that we could just live lives filled with [9:58] his wonderful grace. [10:00] So I don’t need that stuff. [10:01] Let me just focus on Jesus.

[10:04] I’ll say neither of those options are good because neither of those options are the story [10:09] of scripture. [10:10] Neither of those options are what we see in the Bible. [10:13] Specifically Paul here is trying to drive into us what a proper view of the law of God [10:19] and the life of a Christian should actually be like. [10:22] And he is actually pointing us to the reality that you cannot hope to love people in this

[10:29] world with the love of Jesus Christ apart from the law of God. [10:35] I mean note what he says. [10:37] He says if you love another you have fulfilled the law. [10:40] Look at the commandments if you want to know what this looks like. [10:43] He says don’t commit adultery. [10:45] Don’t commit murder.

[10:46] He says don’t steal. [10:47] Don’t covet. [10:49] Any other commandment is summed up in this. [10:50] You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

[10:55] He is saying you can’t know what loving people is all about apart from the law of God. [11:03] He is saying they are very simple commands. [11:05] Specifically if you look in what is called the ten commandments in Exodus. [11:10] If you want to love somebody it is pretty problematic if you are cheating on your spouse [11:13] all the time. [11:13] That is not a very nice thing to do.

[11:15] Probably wouldn’t be thankful if you killed them. [11:18] You know it probably wouldn’t be thankful if you went to their house and stole everything [11:21] that they had and stood in their front yard and said hey I love you. [11:24] Probably wouldn’t work. [11:26] Probably don’t want to just harbor animosity towards people because you think you deserve [11:31] everything that they have.

[11:32] That is not really going to kindle the flames of love in your heart for them or their heart [11:36] for you. [11:36] These are going to be problematic areas in your life. [11:40] So what we have to answer in this part is frankly if you want to love people he points [11:47] us to the law and says the law is fulfilled when we love other people is the law then [11:52] binding on the Christian.

[11:56] The answer to that is complicated because it is yes and no. [12:00] You might say well that is a contradiction is it not? [12:04] But let me explain what I mean by that. [12:06] Paul was clear in Romans 8 if you were with us a few months ago when we went through [12:11] that if you trust Jesus nothing can separate you from the love of God. [12:18] Through faith in Jesus sin cannot separate you from the love of Christ.

[12:23] Salvation has been made complete through the work of Jesus as the free gift of God’s grace [12:28] to you. [12:30] Jesus did what we cannot do. [12:33] He obeyed the law fully as our substitute and his obedience has been credited to our [12:41] account. [12:42] That means the condemning aspect of the law that stands as the judge against our lives

[12:48] has been removed if we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. [12:54] Through Jesus you can hold your head high when confronted by the law because Jesus [12:59] obeyed it for you. [13:01] So you don’t need to measure up any longer. [13:05] There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. [13:11] Then the end of Romans 8 he goes on this long exhaustive list he is saying absolutely

[13:17] nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. [13:23] Friend if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ for the redemption of your sins I want [13:28] you to understand that you can walk through this world with your head held high as someone [13:36] who is counted by God himself as a person whose life has already measured up to every [13:46] command in the Bible. [13:49] Not because you did it.

[13:51] That’s why you needed Jesus in the first place because he did it for you. [14:00] So in that aspect you are not bound by the law that condemns any longer. [14:10] There is no condemnation. [14:12] And when the law is fulfilled as Jesus fulfilled it completely you are free to love it [14:23] and be inspired by it to redefine life and love by God’s standards. [14:32] So as someone who has put his faith in Jesus Christ I tell you that when I look to the

[14:40] Old Testament the commands that are reiterated in the New Testament and the things that [14:44] seem like new commands in the New Testament I don’t look at them and say I’m in trouble.

[14:53] I’ve got to measure up here or else God is not going to love me.

[14:58] That’s not faith. [15:01] That’s not the life that God has for any of us. [15:03] That’s not the life that God wants for you if you have placed your faith in Jesus. [15:08] Now if you have not placed your faith in Jesus if you’ve not trusted in him as your [15:13] Savior that’s all you can do is look in here and see where you fall short. [15:20] That’s what your life is defined by is everywhere that you do not cannot and will not measure

[15:29] up to the standards that God has for you. [15:33] But through Jesus my relationship with the law of God has changed completely. [15:41] Rather than condemning the moral aspects of the law stand as a testament to the holiness [15:46] of God and how he designed and defines love. [15:52] And that is Paul’s point. [15:54] So yes when it comes to what loving people actually looks like the law absolutely applies

[16:02] to you in every area of your life. [16:06] In Matthew 22 37 through 40 Jesus described the law as being easily summed up in two categories. [16:16] He said you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with [16:19] all your mind.

[16:22] And a second excuse me this is the great and first commandment and the second is like it. [16:27] You shall love your neighbor as yourself. [16:29] On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets the first pointing us to God [16:37] and the second pointing us to others. [16:39] If you want to love people your life must be pointed to God so that you can then have this [16:45] love poured through you to other people.

[16:48] The law of God is ultimately about God. [16:51] Jesus in this text he is not nullifying the law. [16:56] He is not belittling the law. [16:59] He is not giving us a brand new interpretation of the law. [17:03] What he’s saying is is that every aspect of the law that deals with God is showing you the love [17:10] for God that he desires to be in your life and every area of the law that deals with other people.

[17:18] He is showing you the love that he desires to be in your life to go out into the lives of other [17:25] people and then of course the converse of what it shouldn’t look like when you’re attempting to [17:30] love other people and then in that Jesus says you get love for God and love for people. [17:36] Two things that you will never live up to yourself. [17:42] So Jesus did it for you and then he says in me you walk through this life without the condemning [17:49] aspect so that you can simply focus on the loving aspect of what it looks like to love God and what

[17:58] it looks like to love other people. [18:00] Therefore to abolish it to deny it or to live in rebellion against the law of God is ultimately [18:12] unloving.

[18:16] And so when we get ourselves into a cycle of life where we are attempting to give a type of love [18:24] that we can only get from God without God at best we are only going to be capable of giving a [18:36] deficient counterfeit love because the author the designer the creator the inventor of love has not [18:46] been silent and left it subjective to be defined by me what love actually looks like. [18:55] He’s been clear he’s given it to us in his word he’s shown us from his heart this is love. [19:03] Now love people and do it through Jesus because it’s through Jesus that you measure up it’s through

[19:11] Jesus that you see what God’s love is really like in sacrifice and servanthood in holiness and in hope [19:19] and this is walk and the love of the law has given completely in Jesus.

[19:26] Friends Jesus lived his entire life completely obedient to the law of God. [19:35] I mean every jot every tittle every part he obeyed it fully he was perfect in every way he was totally set apart [19:46] for God by God through God I mean even his motivations for obedience were absolutely perfect and it all [19:55] followed from the law of God. [19:58] So to think that you are going to follow the Jesus who loved the law to the extent that he submitted himself [20:08] to it and obeyed it perfectly without the law being involved is crazy talk.

[20:15] It’s crazy talk. [20:16] That’s what Jesus is obsessed with. [20:18] That’s what Jesus makes his purpose about is obeying the law. [20:22] Therefore a huge aspect of the mission of God is about applying God’s law in the every day in your life. [20:31] Jesus himself said I have in no way came to abolish the law. [20:37] I’ve come to fulfill it and in fulfilling it he gives us the hope that we can be revived by it.

[20:46] To do that you have to understand number two that loving others is rooted in obeying God. [20:51] He tells us his love in verse 10 love does no wrong to a neighbor. [21:01] Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

[21:07] So oftentimes what we will do in this aspect of will say love fulfills the law. [21:13] That’s right.

[21:17] The first part of that is love does no wrong. [21:20] Well how do you define wrong.

[21:23] See here’s where we fall so short and here’s where the rebellion and our sin shows so much is that we would all have a different definition if left to our own devices as to what it means to not do wrong to a neighbor. [21:40] Mine would be different than yours and yours would be different than mine. [21:44] How to love is something that in our current culture and in our current society seems as though we would prefer for the definition of what loving is to be thrown into the air and just caught wherever you want. [22:00] And how to apply it is up to your subjective feeling. [22:05] The problem with that then is that my feelings at 6 a.m. look a lot different than my feelings at 11 p.m. [22:12] And so therefore my definitions of love still would never even if left into my authority.

[22:21] It would never be consistent. [22:22] They would never be faithful. [22:23] They would never have a foundation. [22:26] And therefore what you are often attempting to do and what you are often trying to do is actually be the author be the authority be the designer be the definer of what love is. [22:39] And however you see fit and whatever seems to come natural to you at this point in this time in your story is the type of love that you want from other people. [22:51] And then you try to give to other people.

[22:54] The main problem with that is if you do that you are giving a love that is not from God is not what God created is not what God designed is not what God defined. [23:09] Therefore you are doing wrong to your neighbor.

[23:15] Any attempt to love another person. [23:22] Opposed to God’s design for what love is defined as in the scriptures is by nature unloving. [23:35] It is sinful. [23:37] Therefore the only hope that you have for giving real love to anyone else is to find God’s design for love. [23:50] We’re called to love people out of the freedom that Jesus gives us when we sum up the law in love and any condemning aspect that the law could give has been fulfilled. [24:02] Then we are free to love out of a heart that has met every standard that God has set forward.

[24:08] And if you live as one who has been fulfilled by Christ then you will not have fake love. [24:16] But instead you will have genuine love. [24:18] But do not allow that to be a place in your life where you claim well since I have the grace of God I am free to give any type of love that I desire to give. [24:33] That is not faith. [24:35] That is not the fulfillment of the law. [24:38] That is not worship of Christ.

[24:40] That is not freedom in Christ. [24:42] At best what you are trying to do is put the bondage of sin back onto yourself that you’ve been freed from and actually doing harm to another individual because you are seeking to give them a love that you are claiming you. [24:59] Excuse me. [25:00] You’re seeking to give them a love that you are claiming to have actually been freed from because that love is sin. [25:07] And it’s actually not love but rather it is hate.

[25:13] What kind of love then do we need to give to people. [25:18] See love emerges from a relationship with God. [25:21] There’s no genuine love to be found apart from God. [25:24] It’s all counterfeit. [25:26] The prerequisite for loving people and not doing them harm is that you are reconciled with God. [25:33] God has brought you in.

[25:34] He has shown you the ultimate love through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. [25:38] He’s given you reconciliation. [25:40] Therefore your relationship with him has been made whole. [25:42] Therefore reconciliation changes your life. [25:45] It transforms you as Romans puts it. [25:49] In our sin we are conditioned to believe that love does not put restrictions and limitations on us.

[25:58] And that is a lie. [26:00] It’s a complete lie. [26:01] It doesn’t even make sense. [26:03] If you’re married, that puts some limitations on you. [26:07] There’s an expectation. [26:09] Even if you have what’s called the most open of marriages.

[26:14] There are boundary lines that you are not to cross. [26:17] In every relationship that’s the truth. [26:20] There’s boundaries in every good loving relationship just as in our relationship with God. [26:28] He reconciles us to himself. [26:31] He is the offended. [26:33] We are the offender.

[26:35] Jesus brings us back into relationship with him. [26:38] He frees us of the condemnation that we so rightly deserve. [26:41] And then he says, now you can live as you were designed to live. [26:45] And the question is, God how was I designed to live?

[26:49] And he says, follow Jesus. [26:52] Or is Jesus going to lead me? [26:54] He’s going to lead me headlong into the law of God. [26:58] And he says, in that life of discipleship you will be set apart for God’s purposes. [27:03] You will have God’s love poured into you. [27:05] And so my friend, if you are struggling.

[27:09] If you’re struggling with love. [27:11] If you’re struggling relationally with people. [27:14] If you’re placing expectations on people that they were never meant to meet. [27:18] Because only God can meet those expectations on you. [27:21] The problem is not the way that other people are loving you. [27:26] The problem is the type of love that you’re seeking to find can only be found in reconciliation with God.

[27:32] And then God will restore your fellowship with him. [27:35] And lead you into a life filled with boundaries. [27:38] He’s like he calls us into his yard. [27:40] And then he builds a fence. [27:42] So that we will not run headlong into a street to get hit by a car. [27:45] And then we say, God how dare you build a fence to keep me in.

[27:50] He’s not keeping you from joy. [27:52] He’s keeping you away from pain.

[27:57] Friend don’t be foolish enough to self-inflict yourself with the pain of redefining what God has already defined.

[28:07] You see all truly loving relationships immediately have limitations. [28:11] Note what Jesus says about our relationship with God here. [28:15] In John 14, 15 he says, If you love me, you’ll keep my commandments.

[28:22] If you love me, you’ll obey me is what Jesus says. [28:27] And there he puts boundary lines to say, there are things that are loving towards me. [28:32] And there are things that are unloving towards me. [28:35] Therefore if you love me, obey me. [28:39] And friend, what God has put limitations on, understand, he will also put limitations on what goes out of you into the lives of others. [28:48] Because he’s designed it, he’s defined it, he’s authored it, he’s invented it, he’s created it to work certain ways.

[28:56] The law of God is the freedom to live as we were designed by God to live. [29:02] To live otherwise would be unloving. [29:05] When we embrace that vision of loving limitations, then we have love to offer to others, but not without it. [29:12] You say, but the law has judged me, the law has condemned me, not in Christ.

[29:20] You see, in Christ the law goes from judgment to justified. [29:27] And then you look at the law and you say, I love it because I’ve met it. [29:32] Therefore I can offer the love that God has given into my life to a world that so desperately needs it. [29:39] Note, another thing that you see in this passage is the sufficiency and primacy of scripture in all things. [29:46] You see, if I was talking to a couple of you about love or if I was to go somewhere just around town and I was to say, you know, let’s talk about love. [29:53] Let’s talk about what it looks like to love others.

[29:55] Where would our conversations go? [29:58] You can’t even tell me because you don’t know. [30:00] Who knows where our conversations would go? [30:02] Some of it would involve deep intimacy, some of it would involve deep seduction, some of it would involve deep romance. [30:08] Some of it would involve probably some really good things because God in His grace revealed His natural law to us on what good things look like. [30:16] But the reality is we don’t need all those.

[30:18] We need the one that’s true. [30:20] And in having this conversation with us, the apostle Paul, what does he point us to?

[30:25] Scripture. [30:27] He says, if you wanted to find love, you’ve got to know the word. [30:29] He says the scriptures, the primary indicator as to how your life with God is going. [30:35] And the issue that many of us have in our discipleship and in following Jesus is that we are always looking for a new way to love. [30:47] We’re always looking for a new method to grow. [30:51] A couple of years ago, we laid out personal discipleship groups in our church and we said, this is what we want you to do.

[30:56] We want you to get in just relationships with two or three people. [30:59] It’s not really going to have a leader in it, but you’re just going to meet in your daily lives, breakfast, lunch, dinner sometime, [31:04] and you’re going to go through the Bible together and you’re just going to learn straight from God’s word. [31:09] And by and large, it was accepted by a whole land. [31:12] People have grown so much, but there’s still a few of you holdouts that say, the Bible? [31:16] I can’t grow from the Bible.

[31:19] I need a better book. [31:21] What?

[31:25] You say, I say that in jest, but I don’t think you understand what you’re actually saying when you say that.

[31:33] Friends, the problem with our lives is we’ve gone to too many other places.

[31:40] The waters become so muddied because we’ve given so many things authority over this rather than giving this authority over that.

[31:50] So Paul drives us. [31:51] He says, how do you love your neighbor? [31:52] He says, look at the law. [31:54] Look to the scriptures. [31:56] Look to the source. [31:58] It’s tough.

[32:00] Sometimes you’re dreading water.

[32:03] But the Holy Spirit over time softens your heart and teaches you the word of God. [32:10] It’s sufficient. [32:11] It’s primary. [32:13] It’s what we need. [32:15] That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 712, he says, whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. [32:22] Now stop there.

[32:24] Because that’s the golden rule, right? [32:26] I mean, a lot of you may not have even known that was in the Bible. [32:28] You thought that was some ancient Chinese proverb. [32:30] No, it’s actually in the Bible. [32:32] Jesus himself said it’s the golden rule. [32:34] But that’s where we stop.

[32:36] And the problem with that is when we define it, we’ll do unto others as you would have them do unto you. [32:42] Sometimes the way that I would have them do unto me is not holy. [32:46] It’s not defined by God. [32:48] And so there we rob authority from God and we say, OK, that’s the golden rule. [32:54] But that’s not how Jesus defined it. [32:57] Jesus goes on.

[32:58] He says, for this is the law and the prophets, even in as simple of a matter as doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. [33:10] Jesus is very quick to remind you. [33:13] And the way that you want them to do unto you needs to be defined by the law and the prophets.

[33:21] What do you want? [33:23] Well, in this scenario, you want love. [33:25] What should you give them? [33:28] You should give love to other people and they will give love to you. [33:32] How do you get that love to give people, though?

[33:37] And that’s what Jesus was answering at the end. [33:41] He says, the law and the prophets. [33:43] And what do the law and the prophets reveal? [33:46] They lead you to Jesus. [33:48] You want to love others? [33:49] Start by living for, loving through and obeying Jesus, all of Jesus, from Genesis to Revelation.

[34:02] Why? [34:04] Thirdly, this morning, because a lack of gospel urgency leads to immorality. [34:11] See, in ending Romans 13, the Apostle Paul, sometimes we have looked at this section of scriptures and we said, man, he totally changes the subject here. [34:19] No, he doesn’t. [34:21] He’s talking about the same thing starting in verse 11. [34:24] It’s like when you’re having a conversation with someone and you want them to take something more seriously than they’re currently taking it.

[34:31] So you have to then go into a different type of voice. [34:35] If you’re a parent, you know exactly what I’m talking about here. [34:38] There’s an urgency to clean your room 10 minutes after you first asked it than there was the first time you asked it. [34:45] It’s like, oh, no, no, no, no.

[34:50] And so in verse 11, Paul kind of does that in his letter. [34:56] He’s very unique in authorship. [34:58] The way that he’ll do that is he’s saying you need to love your neighbor as yourself. [35:03] Love does no wrong. [35:06] And he says, therefore, love is fulfilling the law. [35:09] And then he just puts the pedal to the metal.

[35:10] And he says, besides this, you know the time.

[35:17] He says, you’ve got to stop fooling around. [35:20] You’ve got to start living for the gospel because it’s in the gospel that loving others is found.

[35:29] This is the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. [35:33] Salvation is nearer to us now than we first believed. [35:36] The night is far gone. [35:38] The day is at hand. [35:39] Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness. [35:42] Put on the armor of light.

[35:44] Walk properly as in the daytime.

[35:50] Just wake up.

[35:54] You are not urgent enough about the law of God and about the life that’s found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. [36:02] You see, you have an urgency to live by faith. [36:06] And the truth of Jesus is what will lead to loving others. [36:13] Oftentimes, Paul, we may want him to get to this. [36:16] And he’s like, OK, love is fulfilled in the law. [36:18] OK, now let’s get some practical tips.

[36:22] Let’s move past the gospel onto applicable things. [36:26] Instead, Paul doubles down on the gospel here. [36:29] He says, if you want to love people, live for the gospel. [36:33] And when you’re done living for the gospel, live for the gospel a little bit more. [36:39] Life is too short. [36:41] The return of Christ too imminent.

[36:43] The mission of Jesus too great for us to waste our time on anything less than real love. [36:50] And to love others, you must realize that everything that flows out of your life needs to flow from a life saturated in Jesus.

[37:02] What happens if you do not take this call to love people by loving God seriously? [37:08] Well, he tells us the cycle of sin in your life will continue. [37:13] Paul directly connects a lack of passion for Jesus to destructive lifestyles of sin. [37:21] Look at what he says. [37:23] He says, let us walk properly in the daytime, not in orgies, drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, [37:32] but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.

[37:38] Know what he did there. [37:40] He completely contrasted the law of God with a list of immorality. [37:46] And he says, if you do not take seriously this call to follow Jesus as if his return is more imminent today than it was yesterday, [37:58] what will happen in your life is you will take what God has defined as love, [38:03] you will turn it in your head and you will live a completely unloving lifestyle of immorality. [38:12] And then at the end of the day, you will look back and you will say, that is what love actually is.

[38:21] And is that not what we are now seeing in the culture around us?

[38:29] You see friends, the morning is here, the night is over. [38:36] Wake up.

[38:39] Your life and the way that you live and the way that you define love and the way that you define obedience to Jesus Christ is important. [38:51] I want to ask every one of you, because the world needs desperately to see what the love of God actually is. [39:04] And to deny the law of God is to deny the gospel.

[39:11] If you seek to redefine our responsibility in following Jesus, [39:15] to submit our lives to God’s design for all things contained in scripture, then you do not believe the gospel. [39:22] The contrast here is too obvious for you not to see it.

[39:27] He is telling us, he is saying, if you want to love your neighbor, do not cheat on your wife.

[39:36] You be faithful to her. [39:40] And wife, be faithful to your husband. [39:41] You say, he is not good to me. He is not the kind of guy I want. I do not think it was ever God’s will for me to marry him. [39:47] You see what you are doing? That is idolatry.

[39:51] What God is supposed to give in to you, you are seeking to get out of a man or a woman and then you have the audacity to blame them for not being God.

[40:05] There are many biblical grounds that we could go through for what a biblical divorce probably looks like. [40:11] But friend, the reality is, is that in a culture of no fault divorce, the problem is that we have defined love by a standard other than God’s. [40:21] Just because you do not like the way he or she looks in the morning does not mean that you walk away. [40:27] It means that you are faithful to the end. It means that you find your fulfillment that they are not giving you in the gospel of Jesus Christ. [40:34] And you love that person well to the day you die.

[40:43] It is not sexual immorality.

[40:47] If you want to have sex, marry the person. [40:50] It is still the best thing going today. [40:52] I was burning man. So I got married. And it was good.

[41:03] Amen.

[41:08] Well, sensuality. [41:12] You see, he goes to a couple of different categories, but note that he’s very specific about sexual sin being in the limelight here for us to understand that all of our faulty definitions of love are really going to be centered around the idea of sex. [41:30] He’s saying how you find your fulfillment sexually is very important in how you love God and love others. [41:41] Therefore, let’s get real here. If you are struggling with pornography, just throw your computer away for a while.

[41:50] And that’s not going to fix your heart, but it certainly isn’t going to hurt. [41:55] But understand, get deep down inside of who you are and find out how do I need to love? [42:02] Well, well, God, pour your love into me and then change me so that I can love my wife, so I can love my kids, so I can love my friends, so I can love my boyfriend or girlfriend, not with the love that comes from me, but with the love that comes only from Jesus Christ.

[42:23] There’s no place for any of that in our lives. [42:27] There’s no place for adultery. There’s no place for fornication. There’s no place for hatred. There’s no place for racism.

[42:37] There’s no place for anything other than what God has defined as love for God’s people. [42:45] And we would say, well, but I think we’ve learned a few things. You’ve learned more than God.

[42:55] He doesn’t stop there.

[43:01] Friends, do you have an alcohol problem?

[43:05] It’s because you are not pursuing the gospel. [43:09] And don’t don’t be trivial. Don’t be trivial. Don’t be trivial. Don’t be trivial. [43:14] See, it’s not a problem. I just need a little bit at the end of the day. That’s a problem. [43:21] That’s a problem. But I’m gonna tell you, man, I cannot deal with coming home without it. That’s a problem. [43:31] I cannot make it through the night without it. That’s a problem. You need to pursue Jesus in that area. [43:37] Do you struggle with always looking for drama? That’s quarrelsome.

[43:45] Then you are not pursuing the gospel. [43:48] Do you struggle with comparing yourself to everyone and measuring your worth by being better or worse than others? [43:54] Then you aren’t pursuing the gospel.

[43:59] See, what Paul does here is he loads the shotgun with birdshot. [44:02] This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s all gonna hit you somewhere. [44:06] And he just fires. And if you don’t know anything about shotguns or hunting, that was totally lost on you. [44:11] But I don’t have time to unpack it, so Google it after the service. [44:14] I just mean that he shot real wide so that he could nail every one of us in this list.

[44:23] Friend, a life, number four, of gospel focus leads to loving holiness. [44:28] A life of gospel focus leads to loving holiness. And I mean that in two ways. [44:31] The first way I mean that is that you will love holiness.

[44:37] You will love holiness. [44:38] And then secondly, I mean that you will have a loving holiness to give to the world around you.

[44:45] You will have a life that is distinct. So how do you pursue the gospel?

[44:52] Holiness is to be set apart for God’s purpose. That’s the simple definition of holiness. [44:56] You really don’t need much more than that.

[45:00] When you follow Jesus, it will create distinction. He’s already said it transforms you. [45:04] Paul is unpacking that transformation. [45:07] It creates a life that is distinct to those who do not have Christ. [45:12] If it doesn’t, then you don’t have Christ. [45:14] It creates three distinctions in this specific text as a whole. [45:19] And just real quick, I want to run through those three.

[45:22] The first one is that if you are living a life of gospel focus, you will be distinct in identity. [45:27] You will be distinct in identity. [45:31] You will measure your life by who God says you are and what God says you exist for above any other measurement. [45:40] You are free in Christ. So do not be overcome by guilt and shame for your sin.

[45:48] You are not condemned by God if you trust in Jesus. [45:51] This is your identity. This is what you seek to believe. [45:55] And trust in every day with every situation. [45:59] That is the first brick that you need to build your life on. [46:03] I will go as far as to say, if you do not deal with how you are viewing your identity, [46:08] you cannot fix any area of disobedience in your life,

[46:11] because it will all just be moving the chairs around on a sinking ship.

[46:16] Your identity is number one. You are in Christ. Therefore, you have God’s love all the time. [46:24] But number two, you will be distinct in inspiration. [46:27] What motivates you to do the things that you do?

[46:31] What drives your life?

[46:34] Why are you making the decisions that you are making?

[46:38] The follower of Jesus does not need to earn acceptance or validation. [46:43] God has given it to you. And it is a free gift.

[46:47] You are not to live afraid that the hammer of God’s wrath will drop. [46:52] You measure up to the law because Jesus did it for you. [46:54] And you never will ever be condemned, because you already have God’s love. [46:59] And your inspiration is that love. [47:02] And so the question you need to ask there is, [47:05] what is the motivation for the things that I am doing?

[47:08] And is that motivation, are my decisions guided by my identity in Christ, [47:13] who God says that I am, or am I motivated by other factors outside of that identity?

[47:22] So you will be distinct in identity, and you will be distinct in inspiration. [47:27] And then thirdly, you will be distinct in action. [47:32] You will be distinct in action. [47:34] Those things drive you to know more of God, to have more of God in your life. [47:40] In love, you want to please God. And God has been loving enough to gift us [47:46] what pleases Him, right here, in His Word.

[47:50] And so your identity and your inspiration will drive an action of seeking to know more of God [47:57] so that you will have more of God to give people in everyday situations. [48:03] You will seek to line your life up with the vision that God has laid out in His revelation of Himself to us. [48:10] And as you learn Jesus, you live His mission,

[48:18] and live to offer the blessing of God in the Gospel to everyone around you.

[48:26] See, that’s what holiness is. [48:29] Where is your identity? Where is your inspiration? [48:33] And what are your actions?

[48:38] They will define why you live the way you live, why you do what you do, [48:46] and why you love the way that you love.

[48:52] And as you learn those things, what you’re going to see if you’re doing it through the Gospel is, [48:57] is that the closer you get to Jesus, the more of that false identity, [49:02] the more of those bad motivations, and the more of those wrong actions [49:06] you’re going to repent of and you’re going to turn from. [49:09] And what I’ve found in my life is, is that if I can just look at one area and say the question, [49:15] how am I set apart for the purposes of God in this one area?

[49:20] And as I look at those three distinctions, and I repent in that area, [49:25] it sets off a domino effect in other areas of my life.

[49:32] Friend, one at a time, steal with why you live and love the way that you live and love.

[49:42] As the band comes up, I am so thankful for the grace of Jesus.

[49:52] Mostly because as I go through a section of Scripture like this, [49:55] I am so tempted to find my identity and how I’m measuring up.

[50:01] So man, I’m quarrelsome here, I’m jealous over there, I’m a little drunk over here.

[50:10] But the reality is, is that in every one of those moments where I don’t measure up, [50:17] Jesus did it for me. [50:19] And so when I feel the shame of failure, which I don’t necessarily think is a bad thing, [50:25] it’s just what I do with it that can be a bad thing, [50:29] is that I’m drawn into a Savior who looks to me and says, [50:34] that’s not where your identity is.

[50:37] That’s not where my inspiration should have taken you. [50:40] That’s not the action that I would have done.

[50:44] And then he looks at me and he says, I love you, and I forgive you. [50:50] Walk with me some more.

[50:53] Your story is not over. [50:55] It’s just beginning, mostly. [50:58] If you’re in here and you don’t know the type of love that I just talked about, [51:04] friend, you need to trust Jesus today. [51:06] You need to follow Him the rest of your life. [51:09] And He will give you a love that will last you for the rest of your life,

[51:12] and then it will last you for the rest of eternity. [51:15] If that’s you, there are people on the floor that would love to talk to you about it, [51:18] that would love to tell you how to become a follower of Jesus Christ. [51:23] But if you’re in here and you are a follower of Jesus, [51:25] what we’re going to do now is we’re going to partake of the Lord’s Supper, [51:30] the greatest testament in my life to the love that Jesus gives me.

[51:35] The bread that’s on the five tables in the back and in the front [51:39] represents the broken body of Jesus. [51:41] The cup represents His shed blood, broken and shed to pay the penalty for all of my sin. [51:50] And as you eat and as you drink, what you’re proclaiming to everyone in this room [51:55] is I need the love of Jesus in my life. [51:57] I want the love of Jesus in my life.

[51:59] And praise God, I have the love of Jesus in my life.

[52:07] And then I want you to leave this place, [52:09] and I want you to give that love to those that are going to be around you this week. [52:17] When you’re ready, come.