I would like to introduce this
message by reading a passage from 2 Kings, Chapter 7, if you'll
turn there. 2 Kings, Chapter 7. And there were four leprous men
at the entering in of the gate And they said one to another,
why sit we here until we die? If we say we will enter into
the city, then the famine is in the city and we should die
there. If we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come
and let us fall into the host of the Syrians. If they save
us alive, we shall live. And if they kill us, we shall
but die. Now you see what they're saying.
There's food with the Syrians, and they say if we stay here,
we'll die. If we go back to Jerusalem in
the city, we'll die. If we go into the host of the
Syrians, we might die, but we may live too. Who knows? Verse five, and they rose up
in the twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians, and when
they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold,
there was no man there. For the Lord had made the host
of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots and a noise of horses,
even the noise of a great host, and they said one to another,
lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites
and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us. Wherefore, they
arose and fled in the twilight and left their tents and their
horses and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled
for their life. And when these lepers came to
the uttermost part of the camp, They went into one tent, did
eat and drink, and carried then silver and gold and raiment,
went and hid it, and came again, and entered into another tent,
and carried then also, and went and hid it. Then they said one
to another, we do not wail. This is a day of good tidings,
and we hold our peace. If we tarry to the morning light,
some mischief will come upon us. Now therefore come, that
we may go and tell the king's household, So they came and called
unto the porter of the city. And they told them, saying, we
came to the camp of the Syrians, and behold, there was no man
there, neither voice of man, but horses tied and asses tied,
and the tents were there, and he called the porters, and they
told him to the king's house within. Now, Elijah had said,
by this time tomorrow, you're gonna have plenty to eat. And
this is how he brought it to pass. And these lepers, they
come into the city, they fill their bellies, they're very excited,
they get silver and gold, and they go to get more, and they
say, we're not doing right. We're under responsibility to
tell our brethren, the children of Israel, about this. And that's
what they ended up doing. We owe it to them was their thinking. Now, I've entitled this message,
Pay What You Owe. Pay What You Owe. Now, without doubt, the scripture
teaches absolute sovereignty of God. Now, about the best way
I know to give a definition of the sovereignty of God is to
say that God chose who would be saved before time began. He
gave those people to his son. Christ died for those people.
And every single one of them must and will be saved. Because God is sovereign. He's sovereign in salvation.
I believe in the absolute sovereignty of God in this sense. He's the
first cause behind everything. There's no exceptions to that.
Are you saying that God is the author of evil when bad things
happen? I'm saying God is in control
of everything. And I like it that way, don't
you? God is absolutely sovereign. That's why we can say and we
know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are thee called according to his purpose. God is sovereign. And I believe that men, I know
the Bible teaches that men are completely responsible for their
actions. You and I are responsible to
believe the gospel. We can't use God's sovereignty
as an excuse for disobedience, as a reason to rest in disobedience,
saying, well, God hadn't enabled me to. I mean, he's the first
cause behind all things. And if he hadn't enabled me to,
I can't do it. We can't talk like that. We can't
think like that. Yes, God is sovereign. Yes, man is responsible. I'm responsible to do what God
tells me to do. Now, verse 8 of Romans chapter 12. I've entitled
this message, Pay What You Owe. Verse 8. Owe no man anything but to love
one another. Now I think it's interesting
that some people have used this verse to say believers should
never be in debt. Owe no man anything, but to love
one another. Now I'm all for being debt free.
It's miserable to be in debt. It's miserable to owe money.
It's miserable to have that cloud hanging over you. And you'd be
a lot better off and I'd be a lot better off if we were debt free.
No doubt about that. But how many people can buy a
car without borrowing money? I don't know many. How many people
can buy a house without borrowing money? I don't know any. This passage of scripture is
not dealing with not being in debt to anybody. We should seek
to not be in debt. We should be generous with the
money God gives us, and we should not live above our means. I realize
that. You know, I always admire people who live below their means,
people who could live more ostentatious, and they don't do it. But this
passage of scripture is not dealing with stay out of financial debt.
As a matter of fact, verse 7 gives us what he's talking about. Verse
7, render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute
is due, custom to whom custom is due, fear to whom fear is
due, honor to whom honor is due, owe no man anything but to love
one another. Now that's what you owe everybody,
to love one another. Now in the context, obviously,
he's speaking of respecting authority. But this is a concept found throughout
the Bible. Pay what you owe. Pay what is due you. Pay for what is due to those
around you. And in the context, he says,
somebody is due respect, you give them that respect. If someone
is due fear, you give them that fear. That's what you owe them.
If someone has tribute coming to them, you pay that tribute.
If they have custom coming to them, you pay that custom. You
pay what you owe. Now, I owe you. Everybody in
this room, I owe you. I owe you giving myself to prayer
and to the ministry of the word. I owe that to you. I owe you
to give myself completely to that and you should expect no
less. That's what you should expect
out of me. I remember Hearing somebody say to a preacher saying
to someone who was not being blessed in the preaching said,
would you expect to be blessed every time you hear the word
preached? He said, yes. Yes, I do. I do. I want to hear a
message that exalts Christ and edifies my heart every time I
hear. Yes, I expect that. And that
should be expected. I owe you that. And if I don't feel a sense of
obligation and duty in that, I don't have any business preaching.
I owe you that. And if I do, give myself to prayer
and to the ministry of the word. If I do seek to preach the gospel
to you and feed you from the word of God and teach you from
the word of God, and I give myself wholeheartedly to that, and if
I do that to you, you owe me love and respect and support. So I can give myself to that. Pay what you owe. Now this is a huge concept in
the scripture. And I was thinking about this
passage of scripture. I was telling Lynn while we were driving over
here, there's some people who say this is salvation by works,
but it's not. It's not. If you've heard me,
you know I don't believe in salvation by works. I believe in salvation
by the sovereign grace of God. And so if somebody says, well,
that's works, you're wrong. It is not. So listen to me. Pay
what you owe. Paul said, though I be free from
all men, yet have I made myself servant to all that I might gain
the more. Now I want to give a bunch of
scriptures regarding this concept, and I lack the ability to give
them in the order of importance. I don't know how to do that.
So I'm going to give you the order in which they come in up
in scripture with this word of what we owe, what we owe. Pay what you owe. And the first one is found in
Luke chapter 11, verse four, where the Lord taught us to pray,
forgive us our sins, for we forgive everyone that's indebted to us,
who owes us. Now, we're to say to the Lord,
forgive us of our sins. Can you ever pray without praying
forgive us of our sins? It's always there, isn't it?
My sin is ever before me. My sin is such a grief to me.
It's there. And the Lord taught us to pray
that way. Forgive us of our sins. Somebody says, well, I don't
need to pray that every time I pray. Well, I pray. Well, I do. I do. Forgive us of our sins, for we
forgive everyone that is indebted who owes us. Now it is mine and
your positive duty to forgive everybody. Forgive. Be quick to forgive,
even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Now that's
your duty. That's commanded. As a matter
of fact, if we don't forgive, the Lord says we won't be forgiven.
That's how important this thing is. Now I want to be somebody
who's quick to forgive and I owe you. I owe you. If you sin against me because
of Christ's forgiveness to me, I owe you forgiveness. Luke chapter 17. Why don't you
turn there? I guess we ought to turn to all
of these. Luke 17, verse 10. I love this. So likewise you,
when you shall have done all those things which are commanded
you. Do you know anybody that's done that? I don't know anybody that's done
that. But let's suppose there is someone who has done everything
that was commanded them. What are they to say? You know, just thinking about
this, if I'd done everything that was commanded me, somehow
I'd want you to know about it. I know me. I'd want you to know
about it. But what is that person who has done everything that
was commanded of them to say? Verse 10, so likewise you, when
you shall have done all those things which are commanded you,
say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done that which was our
duty. That's the word, which is our
duty, which we owed God. We're nothing but unprofitable
servants. Now we're not to congratulate
ourselves for doing the right thing. It's what we wish or we
should always do. Do the right thing. And don't
congratulate yourself about it. As a matter of fact, if you do
the right thing, what does that add to God? You know, Job said
somewhere, I think somewhere in Job 35, he said, does your
righteousness add anything to him? It doesn't. Anything you
do good, what, does that add to him or increase him in any
way? No, but still it's always right. It's always right to do what
is right and to not glory in it. I love what Walter Groover
said when somebody said to him, they said, are you happy? He
said, what's that got to do with anything? Really? Don't seek to be happy, seek
to do what's right. You'll be happy if you do that.
But when you've done all things that are commanded of you, say
this about yourself, I'm nothing but an unprofitable servant.
I've done what was commanded me to do and nothing more. John chapter 13, verse 13, you call me master
and Lord and you say well, for so I am. Don't you love that?
I love the way, look, you call me master and Lord, you're saying
the right thing. I really dislike people talking about Jesus. It's
disrespectful. None of the disciples came up
and said, Jesus do this, Jesus do that. I mean, Jesus, no, they
called him Lord, Lord, Lord, Master. And the Lord says, you
call me Master and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. Amen, he is, isn't he? Verse 14, if I then your Lord
and Master have washed your feet, You also ought, it's your duty,
it's what you owe one another, to wash one another's feet. Now that, you know, some churches
have what foot washing ceremonies and so on, and if somebody wants
to do that, I'm not going to say not to do it. You know, the Lord
washed their feet, but that's really not what that's talking
about. Now we're clean. Look up in verse 7, Jesus saith unto him what I do,
thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know thereafter. Peter
said unto him, thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered
him, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter
saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands
and my head. Jesus saith unto him, he that is washed needeth
not save to wash his feet, but he's clean every whit. You're
clean, but not all. He was talking about Judas. But
here's the point of this thing of foot washing. I'm clean every
wit. You know what that's talking
about? Justification. Justification. I'm clean every
wit. When God looks at me right now,
he looks at someone without seeing. I'm clean every wit. And I walk
through this world, and you know what happens? My feet get dirty. And as you walk through this
world, your feet get dirty. You're seeing. Makes your feet
dirty, doesn't it? Well, how can you say you're
justified and yet your feet are dirty? Well, the Lord said it.
The Lord said it. That's enough of a reason for
me so I can say it. Yes, I'm justified. I'm perfect.
Yes, as I walk through this world, my feet get dirty. And you know
what I need? I need my feet washed. I need
you to preach the gospel once again to me. I need to hear the
gospel and my feet get washed. I go to bed that night with clean
feet. I get up the next morning and get them dirty again. And
I need to hear the gospel again. And that's what foot washing
is. We get our feet dirty, don't we? And how we need our feet
cleansed. And to think of the Lord washing
his disciples' feet. I understand Peter saying that.
You'll never wash my feet. I would say the same thing, too.
I'm embarrassed to see anybody see my feet without shoes on.
My toes getting crooked and funny looking toenails. And I don't
worry about washing my feet, but I want the Lord washing my
feet. You ought also to wash one another's feet. He did. Acts chapter 17, verse 29. For as much as we are the offspring
of God, we're God's creatures, we ought not to think that the
Godhead, the living, invincible God, the God of glory, is likened
to gold or silver or stone graven by art and man's device. We ought
not think fleshly human thoughts of God. He's the God of glory,
and the Bible only is to give our view of God. not men's thoughts
and devices and things men say about God. No, that's wrong as
it can be. I'm to think of God as he is,
as he's revealed in his word. And it's wrong as it can be to
make some kind of false conception of God. I love what Luther said
to Erasmus. This was his introduction to
his book on the bondage of the will, where Erasmus was making
this big issue about free will. And he said, Erasmus, Your God
is too human. And that could be said of the
God of this generation that preachers are preaching. He's too human.
He's too human. People think, you know, well,
I'd be this way. Surely God would be this way. No, we ought not
think that God is a God of man's device. He's the God of the Bible
as he's revealed in God's holy word. Romans 1. I love this verse of scripture.
Paul says in verse 14, I am a debtor, I owe this. I owe this, I'm a
debtor. Both to the Greeks and to the
barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. So as much
as in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you that are at
Rome also. Now I owe everybody, if God saved
me, I owe it to you to tell you how God saved me. We owe that
to everybody we're around. I love this definition of preaching.
Preaching is one beggar telling another beggar where he got bread.
And we owe that to everybody we come across as the Lord opens
up a door to preach. I'm a debtor to all men, whoever
they are, to tell them how God has saved Go home and tell your
friends and family what great things God has done for you. Should I preach the gospel to
everybody? Well, didn't the Lord say, go preach the gospel to
every creature? That's what he said. And yes, I owe that. And so I'm asking God to open
up doors, open up opportunities for me to preach the gospel.
I'm a debtor. You're a debtor. We owe that. Turn to Romans 8, 12. Therefore, brethren, Romans 8,
verse 12. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors. I love this. Not to the flesh. Not to the flesh. To live after
the flesh, for if you live after the flesh, you shall die. But
if you through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body,
you shall live. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Now, we're debtors. Everybody
agrees with that. We're debtors. But it's not to
the flesh. We're debtors to God. We're debtors
to Christ. When I stand before thy throne,
dressed in beauty not my own, When I see thee as thou art,
love thee with unsinning heart, then, Lord, shall I fully know
not to then how much I owe. No, we're not debtors to this
flesh. This flesh is our problem. It's our trouble. We're debtors
to God. We're debtors to Christ. We're
debtors to God the Holy Spirit. We're debtors to his grace. Oh,
isn't that a pleasing debt? Don't you like being in debt
to him? Now, I don't like any other kind of debts, but I like
being in debt to him. debtors to his grace. Romans chapter
15, verse 1. We then that are strong,
mature in the gospel, mature in grace, we ought, this is our
responsibility, this is what we owe them, we ought to bear
with the infirmities of the weak. and not to please ourselves.
If you're strong in grace, you know what you owe that person
who doesn't have the strength and light you have? Bear with
their infirmities. They've got plenty of them and
you do too. And your responsibility and my responsibility to that
brother who's weak in the faith, whatever that means, It doesn't
mean he denies the gospel. Somebody denies the gospel is
not a brother. There's this guy that he's always calling me. I mean, I maybe I don't think
I'm being hateful. Maybe I am, but he always he
calls me brother. I say you're not my brother.
He's not. He doesn't believe the gospel.
I mean, he believes salvation by works, and I just can't stand
it when he calls me brother. I'm not your brother, you know. So when I'm talking about a weak
brother, I'm not talking about somebody who doesn't believe
the gospel of God's grace. But good grief, they're weak,
weak in themselves. We're all weak, aren't we? And
we all need his grace, and it's the responsibility of every believer
to bear with the infirmities, the weaknesses of the weak, and
not to please ourselves. First Corinthians 7. Let, verse 3. Let the husband
render unto his wife due benevolence, the goodwill that's owed them,
and likewise also the wife unto the husband. She owes him goodwill. The wife hath not power over
her own body, but the husband, and likewise also the husband
hath not power over his own body, but the wife, defraud ye not
one the other, except it be with consent for a time." Now what
he's talking about, this goodwill, he's talking about an intimate
relation between the husband and the wife. He said, you give
them do benevolence, and if you don't do that, you're defrauding
them. So you owe something to your spouse. You owe this goodwill,
and that's what he's speaking of. Second Corinthians chapter 12. I'm going too slow. I'm going
to speed up, you all. I've got quite a few more, so I'm going
to keep it to the right. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 11, I am become a fool
and glorying. You know, Paul was The Corinthians
were questioning his faithfulness and questioning his preaching
and so on. And he said, I'm the glory after
the flesh. And he starts telling them about
what all he'd done. He'd suffered for Christ. He'd been beaten.
He'd been stoned. a night and day in the deep.
He'd had been beat with a cat of nine tails five times. And
he ends up saying this, I've become a fool and gloring. I
didn't want to do this, but you compelled me to, for I ought
to have been commended of you. For nothing am I by hand of the
very chief apostle, though I be nothing. Now, Paul knew he was
nothing. He says that. He said, I'm not behind the very
chief apostle. I don't take a back seat to Peter,
and I'm nothing, and he's nothing, and I ought to have been commended
of you rather than you bringing me down. And what that means
is whoever's due commending, commend them. He says, I ought
to have been commended of you. And to fail to do so is to not
pay what you owe. Ephesians chapter 5. Verse 28, so ought men to love
their wives as their due. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. Now, I love the first application
of this. This is Christ's love for the
church. When he loves the church, when he loves his own body, he's
loving himself. Now, that's how close the union
is between Christ and the believer. When he loves me, he's loving
himself. That's hard to get hold of, isn't
it? But it's so. That's the union between Christ
and His people. When He loves all of His elect,
all of those the Father gave Him, He's loving Himself. So
ought men to love their own bodies. Christ loves His own body. When He loves His own body, He's
loving Himself. And so ought men taking men toward
their wives. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. Now, you love your wife, men,
you're loving yourself. You're the one that gets the
benefit out of it. So, love your wives. Second Thessalonians chapter
one. Or first Thessalonians. No. Second Thessalonians chapter
one, verse three. We are bound, we are obligated
to thank God. It is our duty, we owe to God
thanks for you, brethren, as it's meet, because your faith
grows exceedingly and the charity of every one of you toward each
other aboundeth. Now, I think it's funny when
preachers thank people for being there. I don't like that, do
you? Oh, we thank you for being here.
You ought to be thankful to be here. You ought to be thankful
God's given you a will to be here and a desire to be here.
And that's the way that works. And wherever there's growth,
wherever there's an increase in faith and love and so on,
we're bound to thank God for that. If there's any growth in
you, who gets the credit? God does. Turn to 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. Here's another bound, an obligation.
Verse 13, but we are bound, it's our duty, we owe this to God,
but we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. You know, election is a doctrine of divine thanksgiving
and divine praise, isn't it? I'm so thankful for election,
the free, sovereign election of God, where he chose who would
be saved before time began. You know what I do? I thank God
for it. You know, people argue with it and get mad at it. Not
this sinner. I'll tell you who led the elect. The election is
the elect. Every single one of them do.
Now, the non-elect, they get upset with it. Nothing I can
do about that. I mean, I wish you could rejoice in it. But
if you're a sinner, oh, what good news free, unconditional
election is that God chose who would be saved before time began.
We're bound to thank God for that. This next one is interesting. Hebrews chapter two. They're
all interesting. Hebrews chapter 2. Verse 17, Wherefore, this is
talking about the Lord Jesus. Wherefore, in all things it behooved
him, and that's the word, he owed them this. Wherefore, in
all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and a faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For
in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to
suffer them that are tempted." Now, it was because the Father
gave him a people before time began. It was his duty, he owed
it to them to be made like unto them. Means to take flesh and
to become a man and to be made sin. That in all things he might
be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God. Now, when God the Father gave
God the Son a people, It became his responsibility to do everything
that was necessary for their salvation, to make reconciliation
for them. I'm glad he paid what he owed,
aren't you? He surely did. Look at Hebrews
chapter five. Verse one, for every high priest
taken from among men, it's talking about the order of the Levites
is ordained for men and things pertaining to God that he may
offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin. Who can have compassion
on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way for that he
himself also is compassed with infirmity. Now, this is talking
about the high priest. Before he could offer up a sacrifice
for the people, he had to offer up a sacrifice for himself, because
he himself was encompassed with infirmity. And for him to be
able to offer up a sacrifice for himself, something had to
be done about his sin. And now the Lord Jesus didn't
have to do that because he had no sin of his own, but the high
priest did in order to typify our great high priest. And I
think it's interesting the scripture says he himself is encompassed
with infirmity. And by reason thereof, he ought
as for the people, so also for himself, that's the word, offer
for sins. He had to do this in order to
be a merciful and hateful, hateful, faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God and to make reconciliation for the sins of
the people so he can have compassion on the ignorant and them that
are out of the way. he had to offer up this sacrifice
for himself, then for the people. Hebrews chapter 5 verse 12, for
when for the time you ought, there's the word, you ought to
be teachers You have need that one teach you again, which be
the first principles of the oracles of God. Now you ought to be a
teacher by this time, he says to the Hebrews. You ought to
be a teacher, but yet you have to be taught again what are the
first principles. You have to have the foundation
laid over again for you. Now, every one of us, every one
of us, We ought to be teachers. We ought not have to have the
ABCs of the gospel brought to us again. What I mean is not,
we want to hear them every time we preach, but I mean where you're
not grounded in them. And he tells us what those ABCs
are in Hebrews chapter six, verse one, therefore leaving the principles
of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying
again. Now what happens if you have
to lay again a foundation? That means the superstructure
is not up, doesn't it? If you always have to lay again
a foundation, you're never gonna get the building up. And he said,
we shouldn't be having to lay this again. The first thing he
mentions is repentance from dead works. You ought to know, this
ought not have to be something you're taught over again. You
ought to know that every work before God saved you was nothing
but a dead work. That there was no salvation in
it, no saving efficacy in it. You ought to repent of every
work before God saved you as being a dead work, there was
nothing to it. And the next thing he speaks
of is faith toward God. Isn't that what faith in Christ
is? Faith toward God, reliance upon Him. The doctrine of baptisms,
and baptism represents union with Christ. The doctrine of
the laying on of hands, which is talking about the priest laying
on his hands on the head of the sacrifice and the transference
of sin. Oh, I love that. My sin. was transferred to Christ and
it became his. And sin can't be in two places
at once. If it went to him, I don't have
it anymore. It's gone. And then he speaks
of the resurrection of the dead. When Christ was raised from the
dead, I was raised from the dead. Why did God raise him from the
dead? Because he accepted what he did. He was completely satisfied
with what he did. End of eternal judgment. Everything
God does is eternal, isn't it? Everything that God does in time
was already accomplished in eternity. All the works were finished from
the foundation of the world. Now, you ought to be teachers,
he said, and not have to be taught again these foundational truths. 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2. Verse six, he that saith he abideth
in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. Now, how ought you to walk? Even
as he walked. First John chapter three, verse
16. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren. That's what we ought to do. That's
what we owe our brethren. Third John, verses 7 and 8. Third John. Third epistle of John. Verse 7, because for his name's
sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles, we therefore
ought to receive such, that we might be fellow helpers to the
truth. Now anybody that preaches a gospel,
I want to be on their side, don't you? I want to help them, I want
to receive them, I want to do anything I can for them, that
I might be a fellow helper to the truth. Now go back to our
text in Romans chapter 13, let me wrap this up. Pay what you
owe. Verse eight, owe no man anything
but to love one another. Now here's a debt that we need
to pay each other. It's the debt we owe each other.
It's what I owe to you, and it's what you owe to me, to love one
another. For he that loveth another hath
fulfilled the law. Verse nine. 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's briefly comprehended in
this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Now, if you love somebody, if
you love your spouse, you're not going to commit adultery.
If you love somebody, you're not going to murder them. You're
not going to kill them. If you love somebody, You're
not going to steal from them. If you love somebody, you won't
lie to them. And if you love somebody, you
won't covet what's theirs, and you'll be glad to have it. And
even as I read that, I think, well, evidently my love's not
perfect because, you know, there are people who love people who
do them wrong. That's because of the old nature,
the sinful nature. That's always there. And for
someone, I'm not going to get up and say, well, if you love
somebody, you'll never do this. Yeah, you will. There's no sin you
won't commit apart from the grace of God. But here's your desire
if you love somebody to not sin against them and to treat them
as they ought to be treated. Verse 10, love worketh no ill
to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling
of the law. Now pay what you owe. You know what you owe to Christ? Complete trust. You owe that to Him. You think
of what He did. He put away your sin. He gave
you His righteousness, and you're the very righteousness of God
in Him. And right now, He is at the right
hand of the Father as your representative, making intercession for you.
Now, you know what you owe Him? Complete, implicit trust. I don't need anything else. I
am complete in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't you owe Him that?
Complete trust. All the unbelief and the lack
of assurance, that's because we're not looking to Him. We
owe Him complete trust. And it's our duty to do what's
right. It's an obligation we have. We
owe love to men, specifically the brethren, but we owe love
to our enemies. The Lord said, love your enemies.
Pray for them that hate you and despitefully use you, and do
good to them. And it's our positive duty to
love everybody, really. That's an obligation, and it's
a pleasing duty, isn't it? I like having this duty, and
I want to fulfill it. Love the brethren. Now may God, by His constraining
grace and love, enable us to pay what we to render to all
their dues. May God give us grace to do it.
Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you enable us to owe no man anything, to always pay what's
due to them, But Lord, let this debt be continual to always owe
them love. Especially love to your people,
love to the brethren, love to our enemies, love to those who
don't know you. May we be men and women of love. Lord, how beautiful is your law
that's comprehended in this one saying, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. Lord, give us the grace in every
instance to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
Bless this message for Christ's sake. In His name we pray. Amen.