You can go ahead and turn, if
you would, to the 13th chapter of Romans. That's where we're
going to mainly be throughout our study this morning. And what
we're going to do is we're going to begin at verse 8. The title
of my message is Love, the Fulfilling of the Law. Now, I'm going to just go ahead
and dive right into the message this morning. We'll begin with
verse 8, begin the reading of verse 8 here in Romans 13 and
go through the rest of this chapter here that we're going to deal
with. Paul here writing to the church at Rome, he had already dealt up through
chapter 11 with all the doctrinal messages that he had to this
church concerning our justification before God, being based entirely
on Christ, on his righteousness alone, as God has charged it
to our account. And Christ has came in time and
fulfilled all righteousness on our behalf. This is how we're
justified before God. So as we think about all these
duties and responsibilities of a believer, We, whatever we do,
we don't need to lose sight of our justification before God.
And these things that Paul is telling this church here and
all believers is that he does admonish the church to do certain
things, duties and responsibilities that we need to do and perform.
But at the same time, knowing that our justification has already
taken place in the person of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
And so, in verse 8 here, Paul says, he says this, he had just
got through talking in the first part of chapter 13 concerning
our duties and responsibilities of obeying authority, submitting
to authority. And he says here in verse 8,
O no man anything, but to love one another, for he that loveth
another hath fulfilled the law." As believers, we are to seek
to pay all our debts. This not only applies to money
that we may owe someone, but also to do with proper respect,
honor, and obedience to civil authority and civil law. All
financial, legal, and moral debts are to be paid. Here he forbids
them to owe any man anything, that is, don't withhold from
any man what's due to that man. A perfect example of this in
a spiritual sense is the suretorship of Christ. He paid the sin debt
of all his people by the death of the cross. Our salvation was
procured and settled. by Christ paying the redemption
price of his blood as full payment for all the sins according to
God's justice. Our debt became Christ's debt
by imputation, a debt that he owed by imputation. God in old
eternity legally charged the elect's sin to God the Son. He
was fully responsible to pay it all, and he did by his obedience
under death. According to John 6.39, it says,
And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, this is Christ
speaking here, the Father's will that sent him, that of all which
he hath given me, all that the Father give him in that covenant
of grace, give him and legally he became responsible for all
those, all of God's elect that were given to him. Christ says,
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. Then it says here in verse eight,
but to love one another. It says, owe no man anything,
but to love one another. The only debt that we will always
owe is we can never fully repay it. This is a debt of love, a
love that we owe to God. We as justified sinners, We do
not owe a legal debt to God. Christ satisfied our legal debt,
but we will always owe a debt of love and of gratitude to God
for his grace and to one another as God's commanded us to do.
The debt of love can never be fully exhausted. This debt of
love to God and love to our fellow man can never fully be paid by
us because this love is an eternal obligation. Then Paul says here,
for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. So far as
we love God and one another, so far we fulfilled the law.
This cannot be done perfectly by us because of our sin, because
of our weakness in the flesh. This is why salvation could never
be conditioned on our love to God or our love to our fellow
man. While in this life, our love
will always fall short of the standard of righteousness in
the law, that standard of righteousness which Christ perfectly obeyed. He did love. He loved the Father
and he loved all men perfectly. The Bible's clear that the law
of God does not just deal with outward performance though, but
it reaches to the thoughts and desires of the heart as well
as to words and actions. Now, as we walk this earth, outwardly
we can look at individuals and we can see some of the actions
that they do as they do charity work as they help individuals
that might need help, help the poor. But we can't see their inward
thoughts. And we know that our inward thoughts,
that's what God looks at. He looks at the entire, not only
your outward deeds, but your inward thoughts. And because
of that, we know that there's no way. that we can perfectly
love our neighbor. The motives, so many times, when
we look at our immediate family or either friends or whatever,
so much of the time, all of our love toward these individuals
are tainted. It's tainted by self and what
we do or don't do. Also, this passage does not lend
itself in any way to the doctrine of justification by the sinner's
works. Since our best works are imperfect,
even those that might spring from love to God and our fellow
man, for our love's imperfect. Christ only has fulfilled the
law perfectly. Christ who loved us and gave
himself for us is the fulfillment of the law for us. Romans 10.4
says, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. to
everyone that believeth. Righteousness, that perfect satisfaction
to God's law and justice. Perfect love, however, is to
be our goal, not according to our standards or our feelings,
but according to the standard of God's law set forth by Christ.
What love we have stems from the believer's knowledge that
we see how God loved us first. According to 1 John 4, 19, where
it says, we love him. We love God because we see how
he first loved us and sent Christ to stand in our place and save
us by his grace. However, these verses are clear.
We should love one another. We as believers should do everything
within our power to strive toward perfect love to God and our neighbor.
We should do all within our power not to give way to those desires
of the flesh that we still have. We should do all within our power
not to give way to those desires, those natural sinful desires
that we still have that would cause us not to love God and
our neighbor as ourselves. Now, the only one who could ever
say that he perfectly fulfilled the law, as I said, was Christ.
Look at what is said here in Matthew 3.17 concerning God the
Father being well pleased with the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. According to Matthew 3.17, this
is when Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, it says, and
lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. God the Father is well pleased
with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's also well pleased
with all who are in the Son, all whom the Son represented,
all of the election of grace, all that the Father gave Him. Now, still speaking of loving
one another, Paul here in verses 9 and 10, goes back to the Ten
Commandments law written in Exodus 20. He also quotes Matthew 19,
19 in these verses here, where Christ was responding to the
rich young ruler. Romans beginning at verse nine
here says, for this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt
not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness,
thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment,
it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no will to his neighbor,
therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. The whole law is
summed up in two commandments, love to God and love to your
neighbor. Look at how our Lord responded to this scribe here,
or this interpreter of the law, a lawyer, who was attempting
to trick him with the law of Moses. Mark 12, beginning at
verse 28, It says, and one of the scribes
came and having heard them, he's speaking of the Pharisees previously
and the religious leaders that were trying to trap Christ. He said he heard them reasoning
together and perceiving that he had answered them well. Speaking
of Christ answering them well. Ask him, ask Christ, which is
the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, the first
of all commandments is Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is
one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord God with all thy heart,
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment.
And the second is, namely, this, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. There is none other commandment
greater than these. Perfect love would work no harm
to your neighbor. even our worst enemy. If we would
love our neighbor, we would never desire any harm to come to him. If you love someone, you wouldn't
do anything. You wouldn't go about trying
to steal from him. And if you loved him, you surely
wouldn't want to kill him. If we could perfectly love, if
we could love perfectly, we would fulfill the law of God. Again, perfect love is to be
our goal as we seek to follow and be conformed to Christ in
our character and conduct. Love for God and our neighbor
is a gracious motive for all obedience. Love to God and love
to your neighbor. Not to be justified before God,
but love which proceeds out of love and out of gratitude to
God for what he's already done for us in the person of his dear
son. In verse 11 here, Romans 13,
says, and that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake
out of sleep. For now is our salvation nearer
than when we believed. Our time here on earth is a limited
time. It's a limited time in our opportunity
to show forth our love for our neighbor ashore. We must not
let time pass by abusing or neglecting these opportunities or going
to sleep, is what the scripture says here, is the meaning of
it, when we should be awake and ready to serve the Lord and serve
one another. We are put here on this earth
to glorify God and to serve Him. Our salvation by the grace of
God has already been secured by Christ. And our final glory,
as this verse says here, is nearer than when we believe, or when
we were first regenerated and converted. The assurance of hope
and final glory we have in Christ is the motive for awakening out
of this sleep here, or this sleep of inactivity and complacency,
and awaken to diligence and obedience and service. I know that the
cares of this world is always on us every day. Working in order
to make a living for our family is always a time-consuming task,
with attempting to rear children, with their schooling and all
the other activities they're involved in. However, as we go
about to attend to these temporal matters, we need to realize that
all of these things are temporal, and believe me, The time that
we have on this earth is short, and some of us that do have a
little age on us can attest to that. Now, time goes by so fast. I'm 67 years old, and in a sense,
I can remember back in elementary years a lot of times, and in
one sense, it don't seem that long ago. And in another sense,
it seems like a long time, but it's a short time. The primary
reference in this verse here that we just read is to believers
who may have grown careless or indifferent in their responsibilities,
their relationship to Christ and to one another. It's time
to wake out of indifference, carelessness, or divided attention
and be about the master's business. Our relationship with Christ
and with one another should be our main concern. Then Paul continues
here in verse 12. He says, the night is far spent.
The day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. The
night is far spent here. Robert Haldane, an old writer
that we're familiar with, says, and I quote, the night here must
be the time of the believers being on this earth. For his
earthly state, with all its comparative light, is but night with respect
to the light of heaven. The day which was at hand was
not the day of judgment, but the day of death with respect
to those being addressed here." Close quote. Also, John Gill,
he made this statement. He said, this world is like to
the night. and which, in the best of saints,
is attended with imperfections, and darkness, errors, and mistakes,
in principle and practice, in doctrine and conversation. However,
it is far spent, and in a little while will be over." Close quote. This refers to the time of our
earthly pilgrimage. It is called night because even
though as we as believers have seen the light of Christ, we've
seen the gospel, and have the light of his truth, we're still
sinners and the flesh is still in us. But we as believers should
walk in the spirit and not in the flesh. Look at Ephesians
5.8. Ephesians 5.8 says, for ye were
sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord. Walk as
children of light. 1 Thessalonians 5.5 says, you
are all children of light and the children of the day, speaking
of believers. We are not of the night nor of
darkness. This present world is enshrouded. in moral and spiritual darkness,
and is opposed to the light of the gospel of God's grace in
Christ. We are in this world, but we are not of this world.
Our time in this world is nearly over. It's short. Paul says that
the day is at hand. The time of our entrance into
glory is near. Now, because of our age, some
of you young people might not understand exactly how near it
is, but like I said earlier, all of us that have been here
for a while, we understand these things. Now, King David understood
it too. He said of himself in Psalm 39
beginning at verse 4, Lord, make me to know mine end, and to measure
my days, what it is, that I may know how frail I am, Behold,
thou hast made my days as a hand breath. And that hand breath
is, which is a short, it's like the width of your palm, of your
hand, which symbolizes it's a short period of time. And he says,
mine age is as nothing before thee. Verily, every man at his
best state is altogether vanity. Vanity here is excessive pride
in one's appearance, qualities, abilities, achievements, and
so forth. It's a character of quality of
being vain, conceitful. Then it says, see lie. Verse
six says, surely every man walketh in a vain show. Surely they are
disquieted in vain. He heaped up the riches and knoweth
not who shall gather them. And now, Lord, wait. What wait
I for? My hope is in thee. King David
says that all things on this earth is vanity, is worthless. He had no hope in earthly things.
His hope was in Christ and Christ alone. Then it says that we are
to cast off the works of darkness, lay aside all deeds, attitudes,
and motives, and goals that oppose the light of the gospel of Christ. We are to put on the armor of
light which is the same as the whole armor of God that is spoken
of in Ephesians 6, verse 11-18. I won't go through all of these,
but you all are pretty much familiar with this where it says, put
on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand the
wiles of the devil. And then it goes on, you all
can mark that and read that a little later if you like. Paul uses this imagery that the
whole armor of God that he's talking about, who had dressed
himself in nightclothes to sleep. As day dawned, the commander
orders him to wake up, take off his nightclothes, and put on
the armor that he needs to fight the day's battle. Armor is made
of warfare, made for warfare, and its purpose is to protect
the one who's wearing it. Our armor is all from, by, and
to the glory of Christ, our Lord and Savior. By the indwelling
of the Spirit working through us in Christ, we not only have
every resource necessary to forsake the deeds of darkness, but also
every resource we need to put on that armor of light. In Romans
13, 13, says, Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting
and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife
and in envy. Let us strive as we are driven
by the Holy Spirit, motivated by love and grace, gratitude toward God to conduct
ourselves in the way that honors Christ and his word. We should
never do anything that would dishonor God or bring shame and
reproach on the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us walk
honestly, decently, or properly in behavior of which we would
not be ashamed as openly in the light of day. Let us conduct
ourselves obediently, not in carousing and drunkenness, not
in sexual immorality, not in quarreling and jealousy, which
is the meaning of some of these words here in this verse that
I just read. We who have been saved by God's
grace in Christ and so freely blessed in Him are to be living
proofs and example of the perfect will of God. Look at Romans 12,
1 and 2. It says, Paul says, I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. And be not conformed to this
world, not walking in the flesh, but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God. Now, our last verse that
I'm going to go over this morning is verse 14. says, But put you
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provisions for the flesh,
to fulfill the lust thereof. We are to clothe ourselves with
the Lord Jesus Christ. God has already clothed us in
Christ by imputation of His righteousness to us. As far as our justification
before Him, when we are born again, we put on the Lord Jesus
Christ by faith, believing in Him as our whole salvation, Now,
having the foundation of grace and faith established in our
hearts as believers, we are to be about the business of putting
Him on by continuing to believe and rest in Him, looking into
Him always for our strength and assurance, and in seeking to
be conformed to Him in all the ways of truth and godliness.
We are to seek to imitate Christ in the exercise of grace, to
walk as He walked, love as he loved, forgive as he forgave,
submit to the Father's will as he submitted. Then this verse
says, make not provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lust
thereof. This involves fighting the warfare of the flesh and
of the spirit. Galatians 5, 16 through 18 says, this I say then,
walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh. And these things are contrary one to another, so that
you cannot do the things that you would. But if you be led
by the Spirit, of the Spirit, you are not under the law. We
are not under any kind of legal obligation for our salvation. That has been taken care of by
Christ. We should walk in the Spirit,
always looking to Christ. and to Christ alone for our salvation.
Walking in the flesh, it not only deals with, it might be
immoral things or self-righteousness, religious pride, all these things,
walking in the flesh. Walking in the Spirit is looking
to Christ and Christ alone. And as we do these things, we
see how God has saved us by His grace and out of love and gratitude. We should love the brethren.
We should love God supremely. As sinful human beings, we cannot
completely control the sinful thoughts and desires of our fallen
human nature. But we can and should, by the
Spirit's power, declare war against it, so as not to fulfill its
lust by making provision or paving the way for it. Now in closing,
let's look at a couple of verses here that the Apostle Paul is
writing to the church, to the Corinthians here at Corinth.
In 1 Corinthians 6, 12, Paul says this, all things are lawful
unto me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful
for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Also,
1 Corinthians 10, 23. Paul says, all things are lawful
for me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful
for me, but all things edify not. In these scriptures, Paul
knew that his justification before God was not based on his law
keeping. The liberty that Paul had was
not liberty to sin, but liberty to serve God, to glorify God,
and to exalt Christ. And this liberty here that Paul
had, he knew where his justification was. He says, all things are
lawful unto me. I'm not under law, I'm under
grace. But then he says that he wouldn't be brought under
power of any of these things. And also, he says that all things
do not edify. Now, as we look at these things
this morning that we've gone over, I pray that God would grant
us the ability to love each other as God has commanded us here,
but all of it, not motivated by fear of being cast into eternal damnation or
anything, not in any way fearing our justification before God,
but all of it motivated by love and gratitude for what God has
already done for us in his dear son. May we do all these things
knowing that the time is short and our salvation is nearer than
when we first began this journey that we're on right now as believers.
Amen.