Walk In Love, Walk In Light

Before we look into God's Word and hear Him speak to us, let's pray. Father, we have now opened Your Word to hear from You. We confess to You our sin of complacency that just would come and not just hear Your Word, but preach Your Word without serious thought of how we ought to obey it. I pray that Your Spirit would work in all of our hearts, that we might take to heart what Your Word says, that we would not just consider this another Sunday lecture, but would, again, think seriously about what You say here. we know that your spirit transforms us, that he changes us, but we also know that he uses our mind and our emotions, our will, in that whole process.

He uses us to bring about that change. And so I pray that our minds would be attentive, that our emotions would be moved, that our will would certainly bend to yours and seek to do what you tell us to do. So now open your word here. Give us food for thought. Give us power to change. For your glory and our good.

In Jesus' name, Amen. all of us at particular times in our lives get these coupon books they're not coupons that reduce the price of anything they're coupons that demand our payment you open it up at the beginning of every month and there's another coupon that you fill out and send with your check to pay for your house and usually have that coupon booked for 15 to 30 years, and it demands your payment every single month. There's no getting out of it. You said you were going to do it.

And if the coupon doesn't show up with your check enough times, then you out of a house It just the way it works There seems to be this perpetual obligation to pay for this place that you live in And we all want to be free of that obligation. We're looking forward to the day when no more coupon books arrive at the beginning of the year. We just don't want that anymore. well God makes it clear that we as Christians also have a few obligations to discharge and you find them in Romans chapter 13 verses 8 through 14 we're going to this is the last in our series of loving God and loving your neighbor we want to see what God says to us about loving our neighbor we we want to see what God has to say and what's closely connected with love is light in the scriptures.

And so here in this chapter, we see both love and light. We see two obligations that God causes us to discharge. We have a few obligations and here they are. Let's begin reading in chapter 13, beginning in verse 8. I'm losing my mind. I can't find it. now there's there's there it is because i'm in chapter 14 13 verse 8 isn't it awful to see someone aging in the pulpit as some of you have seen over all these years when you're a pastor you age publicly chapter 13 verse 8 oh no one anything except to love each other for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep.

For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. the night is far gone the day is at hand so then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light let us walk properly as in the daytime not in orgies and drunkenness not in sexual immorality and sensuality not in quarreling and jealousy but put on the lord jesus christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires Now what we find here from God are two gospel obligations. That you have an obligation to walk in love, you have an obligation to walk in the light. Now these are what I would call gospel obligations because these obligations do not earn salvation for you.

They do not make you fit so that God looks upon you and grants you eternal life. They are not obligations that we do in order to gain any favor with God. Either we are in Christ and have all of God's favor, or we are not in Christ and we do not have His favor. We are in one or the other. You cannot do anything more to gain the favor of God. In Christ you have all His favor.

And nevertheless, with that, He lays upon us these obligations. Paul has outlined in this book the essence of his gospel the book of Romans is his explanation of the gospel and in this he says that God has saved us God has justified us made us right with God without regard to any amount of obedience on our part he justifies us clearly by what Jesus has done. We cannot work for this, for God justifies the wicked who believe.

But because of these mercies in Christ, he expects us to live for him. Not out of some kind of obligation that if I don't, I'm in big trouble and he'll kick me out. But the idea that he has been so merciful to us, as he says in chapter 12, because of the mercies of God, this is what you must now do. And so beginning in chapter 12 of this book, he says, in light of all these marvelous mercies of God, you live for him.

You live for him because of what he's done for you. And so you have before you these two gospel obligations to walk in love and to walk in the light. First of all, he says you have an obligation to walk in love. God places upon you this perpetual obligation to love. Now, he's just told us in chapter 13, verse 7, this. Pay to all what is owed to them.

Taxes to whom taxes are owed. Revenue to whom revenue is owed. Respect to whom respect is owed. Honor to whom honor is owed. And so he says, pay your taxes. Pay the revenue.

But there one debt that you cannot discharge There one debt You can discharge your tax burden You can pay the revenue that you need to do You can be clear on that. You don't have to pay another dime. But not this. This is one area where you are not to discharge your obligation. You can't. It's impossible.

It's perpetual. You are obligated to love one another. One debt that you can never pay off. How would you like to get one of those coupon books, you know, those mortgage books, and you get to the very, you're on the very last coupon, and another one arrives, another book arrives. You go, okay, okay, maybe there's more I've got to owe. And you go through the year, and you write out the last coupon, you're going to send it in, and another coupon book arrives.

That would be awful frustrating, wouldn't it? It's like, is this debt ever going to be discharged? Now, you know, when it comes to paying your debts, you can discharge those debts. You can pay them in full, but this is one that you cannot. This is one that you cannot. You're to love one another.

You're to love your neighbor. You're to love your enemies. That's written across our coupon book. Love your brothers. Love your neighbor. Love your enemies.

Love them all. This is a debt you can never repay. It's the debt of love. One early Christian leader put it this way. Let your only debt that is unpaid be that of love. A debt you should always be attempting to discharge in full, but will never succeed in discharging.

And so you love as if you can discharge it, but realizing it will never, ever be paid in full. And you owe this to all men. You owe this to all men. He doesn't just say love those who are like you. We saw this last week, didn't we? You don't just love those who love you.

You love those who hate you. You love those who want to destroy your reputation. you want those who are going to treat you badly you want you want to love those even who are going to kill you that's the debt of love we owe to our enemies we owe a debt of love to our brothers those that we that we hold Christ in common with we are to love them and not only that we're to love our neighbors those who are close to us those neighbors who who maybe not know God but don't hate us and so the point is we got to love all men this this obligation can never be paid in full and we owe it to all men God says that you'll never be in a position to claim that you have loved enough You ever heard people say that, oh I love them too much? No you didn't.

You can never love someone too much. You can never love someone too much. Now why is that so? Why is this a perpetual obligation? Because loving others fulfills the law. Now there are some people around who are going to say, well because God loves me I've got no obligations, I don't have to do anything, He loves me regardless of what I'm like. he he saved me without regard to my obedience so obedience isn't required you couldn't be more wrong than that we meet such people in chapter six of this book where Paul says if grace abounds shall we just go on sinning and he says may it never be no that is not a proper understanding of grace but Paul has also told us that the gospel delivers us from the mosaic law as a system but he says here if you seek to fulfill the obligation to love you fulfill God's law the law in the old testament always was pointing forward to something greater the old testament law was always pointing to Jesus it was going to be fulfilled in him so that Jesus does everything the law requires and then some and it was always pointing to him it was always pointing to him And think of it this way, that the law in the old covenant looks like a tiny rosebud.

And the life we live, living as Christ lived and as Christ loved, is the rose in full bloom. It's what it always intended. God intended in the old covenant that his law would set his people apart. That they would be a special people that all the nations would look at and say, what a marvelous and wise God. They never did it. but God's not going to fail in the new covenant and that is that he's going to have a people that are going to be distinctive and he says this if you love all men and never discharge that obligation then you will be distinctive this will fulfill the law this will do what the law always was intended to do the law is fulfilled it is advanced it is brought to completion as you love one another as you love your enemies as you love your neighbors as you love all men that will fulfill the law.

We meet all the demands of the law then If we but love we will meet all the demands that the law ever made Now this also does something as well to us It keeps us from getting sloppy and sentimental in our love. I'll never forget hearing, and I'm not being political here, it's just an example, hearing someone once say, oh yeah, John Kennedy certainly had a lot of women, but he really loved Jackie. And my response is, no he didn't.

If he really loved his wife, he wouldn't be doing that stuff. But you know, we make love so sloppy and sentimental that if I have this great feeling of affection, that's enough. But it's not enough. It's not enough. And so what this does is gives us a reality check. when we want to get sloppy and sentimental and say well I really love you right but I want your wife too that's not love then that is not love so it fulfills the law it also gives us a reality check and what really love is but exactly how does love fulfill the law well when you look at these commandments right um when you look at these commandments you shall you know it says you shall not commit adultery not murder you shall not steal you shall not covet and any other commandment is summed up in this when you look at those commandments and all others that govern our relationship it can all be summed up in this one love your neighbor now Jesus is the one who took this command and made it central to the new era that he inaugurated he's the one who made this central he said in my kingdom this is still true love God love your neighbor and he taught that love and he lived that love that kind of love is truly loving your neighbor and that's the reason why that commandment sums up or gathers all the rest of these commandments together it's that love does no harm to your neighbors to put it positively love does good to your neighbor the old covenant law always pointed in that direction so So you see, that's how you fulfill the law.

You love. What if I told you I love you, man, and then ran off with your wife? What if I said to you you know I really love you and took the CD player out of your car What if I started telling lies about you around town Would you have reason to doubt my love for you Absolutely. Obedience to the command of love in the likeness of Jesus fulfills all the demands of the law.

Because the law will, because if you do that, you will not harm your neighbor. You're not seeking to harm your neighbor. If you love your neighbor, you'll not think of harming him. You're not think of doing those things. No matter what your mouth says, you will follow through in obedience to what God says. And he says this, now is the time to start obeying that.

Besides this, he says, you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. Now is the time to start obeying this command to love. Don't wait to start. The time is ripe. Go about the business of loving all men. What time is it?

It's time for the dawning of the new day when Jesus arrives. He could come at any time. You can already see the streaks of the dawn in the sky. Now is the time to get busy before he gets here. Now, my dear wife, Becca, grew up on the farm. we're totally different morning people okay me every night i set my clothes out because when i wake up in the morning i used to go stand in the closet and just stare like for 10 minutes and then wonder why am i in here right so i lay all my clothes out so that when i'm my alarm goes off and i'm still foggy headed i can do what i gotta do and get moving not her you know when the littlest light starts peeking through the window she's up she grew up in an environment where it's daytime we got to get up we got to get busy we've got a lot to do today let's get it done that's her whole life growing up right you don't waste a moment of daylight you get up you see the streak of dawn you jump out of bed you get dressed you do everything you do the chores before you ever eat breakfast and then you go out and do the work for the rest of the day that's what he's telling us here?

Now, not later. Don't wait. Don't lay there. Get busy. Now is the time to start loving one another and that what we need to do We need not to say I do it later Now the time Time short Now start loving But that not all In view of that glorious day he says you have an obligation not just to walk in love, but you have an obligation to walk in the light. Now, I think these two are vitally connected.

You cannot walk in love and not walk in light. all right you cannot walk in light if you're not loving those two are vitally connected and yet he wants to separate them for us here to give us a clear idea of what we're supposed to do in the waning days of this era this last epic of human history this last epic before Jesus returns this final era what are we supposed to be doing you have an obligation to walk in the light verses 11 through 14 besides this you know the time that the hours come for you to wake from sleep i think verse 11 is a hinge verse it applies to the what precedes and what comes what succeeds from it for salvation is near to us now than we then when we first believe the night is far gone the day is at hand so then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor or the weapons of light let us walk properly as in the daytime not in orgies and drunkenness not in sexual immorality and sensuality not in quarreling and jealousy but put on the lord jesus christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires he says look at what time it is it's the dawning of that new and glorious day here the apostle paul is saying in chapter 12 right look at verse 1 i chapter 12 verse 1 i appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of god to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship or your reasonable worship. He says, I'm going to appeal to you to do these things on the basis of what God has done for you in the past, on the basis of his mercies in Christ. Now, he says, you ought to be what you should be.

You ought to live, first of all, he says, live in the present based on what God has done for you in the past. now he says live in the present based on what God is yet going to do in the future either way live for God and so now he says look ahead because of that you need to live in the present the way you should before he says become what you are now he says become what you will be either way we're supposed to be busy doing what supposed to do. Think about a cadet in a military academy, all right? He's learning to become an officer.

He's learning to become a leader of men. He looks forward to the day when he receives his commission and they pin those lieutenant bars on his collar. He goes through those four grueling years of training with that future day in mind. And in all that training, he seeks to become what he one day will be. And that's the same with you. There's coming a day when Jesus returns.

We will all be loving then, but we need to become what we will be, right? We need to become what we will be. Well, what time is it? What time is it? He says the night is nearly over. The day is almost here, and it's time to rouse yourself from sleep.

Let me ask you, is 6 o'clock a.m. on Saturday different than 6 o'clock a.m. on Monday. There's a world of difference at the same time. There's a world of difference between that, right? 6 o'clock on Saturday comes and goes. It's no big deal. On Monday, you had better be ready to go out the door.

You've got to be to work. In God's timetable, it's 5.30 on Monday morning. Okay? It's 5.30. The day begins to dawn and you have to rouse yourself and get about your business. We're living in the last epoch of human history.

Now is the time to get busy. Time to get out of bed. Time to rouse yourself. Time to wake up and get about the business of walking in the light. We've got to be prepared. The night is nearly over.

The day is almost here and our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. You say, what is he talking about? salvation here. I thought we were saved already. One thing we need to remember is that salvation doesn't just include the fact that I've been justified and made right with God. That's just one part of the benefits of salvation. All of our salvation, the whole thing, involves the removal of the curse even.

It means that there's coming a day because of Jesus' death there's going to be a new earth all of that is part of our salvation living a life with no curse in perfect fellowship with God throughout all eternity that part of our salvation as well that part of our salvation has still not been given us okay you with me We not only saved from the penalty of sin right We're made right with God. We're not only saved from the power of sin, that is, sin no longer rules us, but we're also going to be saved from the presence of sin, where there'll be no sin at all anywhere, even in the earth. and so there's that part of our salvation coming so in light of God's promise of ultimate rescue we've got to get busy the day is dawning the salvation is nearer than it was from the very first hour we believed now is the time to get busy some of you are old enough to remember this do you remember Chicago I don't mean the city I mean the singing group some of you have most of you have total blank expressions on your face there was a group in the 70's called Chicago that was their name and they had a song whose lyrics said does anybody know what time it is does anybody really care if you never heard that look the song up I remember the title of it off the top of my head does anybody know what time it is does anybody really care and the point is you do know as christians you do know what time it is and you better care you better care so in light of of the time god summons you to action here he summons you to action the night is far gone the day is at hand so what so then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor or the weapons of light let us walk properly as in the daytime not in orgies and drunkenness not in sexual immorality and sensuality not in quarreling and jealousy God summons you to action now note these imperatives These commands are based on God's promises, what he's going to do for us. Here's the interesting thing you need to see about the commands in Scripture.

The commands in Scripture are always based on the grace of God. God never comes along and says, do it because it's right, because I said so. Does he have the right to do that Certainly But what he does is he tells us this is what I done for you I redeemed you i forgiven you i adopted you i justified you i sanctifying you i going to give you a glorified body i going to give you a perfect environment i'm going to do all these things now on the basis of what i've done for you now i want you to obey now i demand your obedience it's always on the foundation of grace god's commands are always on the foundations of grace it's never he never ever commands us to do something to earn anything it's a response to his grace either the response to his grace past or in this case his command comes as a response to his future grace to the grace that he's going to reveal yet but either way it's grace look at what god has done look at what god will do now because of that obey they they always rest on the foundation of grace and so he says put off the works of darkness and put on the weapons of light remember we still live in this dark epic we're not living there yet we're still in this dark epic there are still forces and habits and things that are part of the darkness that we need to reckon with that we need to guard against we have to put off what characterized our former way of life and put off what is so common in this age.

Put off the things that our age is constantly pressing upon us. Now, he says instead, put on the armor or the weapons. It could be translated weapons, and I think that makes more sense. Put on the weapons of light. Weapons like the gospel. There is a weapon of light.

The gospel, God's good news to you in Jesus. Put on the weapon of loving your enemies. Put on the weapon of families that love and serve God. Put on the weapon of thanksgiving. You know, one of the, just off notes now, okay? I'm taking a chance.

I'm going to go on a rant here. One of the most interesting passages to me is found in Ephesians 5 where the Apostle Paul says there should be no sexual immorality even named among you. There should be no sensuality, no impurity. There should be no coarse talking. There should be no filthy joking. But instead there should be, you know what he says, Thanksgiving.

What? Yeah Thanksgiving Do you realize that all sexual immorality flows out of an ungrateful heart I not satisfied with what God has done for me And you notice when you read those passages both in Ephesians and Colossians it identifies sexual immorality and impurity with covetousness. And so Thanksgiving is a necessary ingredient in your fight against sexual immorality and impurity.

Now, Thanksgiving then, that's one of the weapons of light. I've got to cultivate gratitude. There's worship, delighting in the mercies of God. That's another weapon of light. All these weapons, these are the things that we must use if we will fight against the darkness of this age. Weapons that defend and extend the light.

Older people, at work, what are you going to do at work? How are you going to look differently at work? What are the weapons of light that you use at work? Young people, what are your weapons of light? When you're at school, how do you go against the grain? Do you do your best in your studies?

Do you stand out as those who won't be involved in those things? Are you known as grateful people? Right? You at work, are you known as grateful? Or are you a complainer all the time? Use the weapons of light against this darkness.

Are you armed or are you unarmed in this battle? Are you armed or unarmed? Because of the time, he says, put off the filthy excesses and walk decently. when you look at the first two pairs of sin those don't surprise us right those are obviously let us walk properly is in the daytime not in orgies and drunkenness not in sexual immorality and sensuality those are sins that you once knew some of you have never been involved in those sins but can I say to you you can participate in them much easier today you just have to go to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon or cable, whatever.

You can participate in those works of darkness today. Even if you don't do them physically, you can sure get involved in it much easier. Don't even go there. Fight with the weapons of light. And isn't it interesting? These are the sins that occur under the cover of darkness.

Do you see that? Have you ever noticed? you even notice the Bible, you know, we were reading in Sunday school today, John chapter 3, where it says men love the darkness rather than the light. Okay, men love the darkness rather than the light. We can do whatever we want. No one can see. That's what he's saying here.

Get rid of those things. By the way, that also includes, note, that also includes quarreling and jealousy. Not just those obvious drunkenness, orgies, sexual immorality. Not just those, but also what? Dissensions and jealousy, right? That should not even, that's part of the darkness.

Those are the sorts of things that you want the darkness to hide. Instead of that way of life, what does he say? He says, live like you're in the day. Live transparent lives as if all of your actions can be seen all the time. Right? Now, you don't see, you know, in the movies, right?

In the movies, if someone's just murdered somebody and they're going to bury them in their backyard, right? You don't see them doing it at noon, do you? Right? Dragging a body out in the backyard and starts digging a hole and the light is out. right you don't do that you do it in the in the darkness that covers it and so he says live like you're in the light live like everyone can see everything that you're doing and are they going to look at you and say belong to Jesus right live every part of your life as if it's in the day and everyone can see it how are you going to look question is are you a daytime person Right?

Are you a daytime person? We all need to be daytime persons. And in view of that, he says, do not make provision for sin, but clothe yourself with Christ. So he says, put off the deeds of darkness, put on the weapons of light, live like you're living in broad daylight all the time. Now, he says, here's another put off, put on. Don't make provision for sin, but clothe yourself with Christ.

Don't make any kind of provision for sin. Now, what he's talking about is like this. Some of you guys are real campers. Some of you are going to head for Canada. I know some of you are going to Canada this week, right? You're headed for Canada, and you're going to go up there, and in order to go, you've got to stock up on what you need.

You're going to think ahead and make provision for that trip. You got to take this and this and this and the waffle iron and the fishing poles and everything else And you got to take those things You got to get ready because you going to need them later So you make provision you stock up you look ahead and you see what you going to need God says that you know when those sinful desires are going to show up and camp in your soul. So make it hard so that they can't set up camp.

Don't make provision for that. Don't make provision for that. don't have anything available for sin to set up camp. You with me? What does that mean? If you have a problem looking at certain images, then put your computer in the living room where everybody can see it. And if necessary, cut off your internet connections completely.

And not just for those images. You know, if you're a slave that you just can't go an hour without looking up the drudge report, and then you waste 20 minutes every hour reading what the drudge report says, then get rid of it. Don't make provision for it if that's a problem. If you really want to love your husband, then don't read those things and don't watch those things that encourages you to fantasize about the perfect lover.

Right? You don't want that. Don't. you know, I love to think of it this way. Women, get away from that stuff that says the perfect man is a guy who's brilliant and can answer any question and he can build his house with his own hands and he's a nice rough looking guy but he still loves kittens. And, you know, get rid of all that stuff. Right?

Don't dwell on those things. It's not going to be helpful. You're making provision for sin. Don't do that. Do you really want to love your enemies? Then be very careful.

All right? Be very careful watching those movies and reading those stories where the guy who's being persecuted finally destroys his enemies in the end. Right? He gets them all. Now that eliminates how many of John Wayne's movies right there. but don't don't don't make provision for sin by dwelling on the past and what people have done for you you see what he's saying he says don't make provision whatever it takes to keep sin from setting up camp get rid of it right don make provision don put stuff in place so that it ready to go when that desire arrives Instead, he says, clothe yourselves with Christ.

See Him revealed in the Scriptures and begin to love Him. Here's something that you can do. Take one of the Gospels. If you don't love Jesus enough, okay that means all of us you know we can do we can take one of the gospels and just read it and every day after you've read ask yourself this question what is there here that makes me love Jesus more what is he like that makes me love him more 15 minutes a day just reading out of the gospel of Mark gospel of Luke gospel of Matthew and ask that see him revealed in the scriptures and begin to love Him.

Learn His ways and live them. Learn His ways and live them. Watch how Jesus responds and say, that's how I want to be. Hear His words and speak them. How does He speak? In the same situations that you find yourself.

Put that on. See Him in the Scripture and believe Him. When He says to you, if they hated me they're going to hate you deny yourself take up your cross and follow me in order to have your life and at the and and at the other end you see i've come to give you life the thief comes to kill still and destroy i've come to give you life and life to the full okay wait a minute they're going to hate me if i follow you and that's a good life yes it is better than what you got now right he means it he means it see him in the scripture and believe him that's how you put on christ when you look at yourself do you see someone stocking provisions or learning jesus what do you see and so god lays upon us then these two obligations I need to love all men and I need to walk in the light and both of them are bound together Both of them are together As I walk in love loving all men as Jesus commanded me I will find myself walking in the light As I walk in the light, I will be able to love more.

And so we have these two obligations. You say, I can't live by these obligations. It's impossible. Some of you here may be saying, I don't want to live by those obligations. Can I say to you, very quickly, on the day of judgment, if you can imagine this, there's going to be emblazoned on the wall of judgment hall these words. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

And these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. There's the standard of judgment. and you need a Savior who lived that way and because he lived that way he can save you from the fact that you haven't and dear Christian let me say to you every day at the end of the day you can say well I think I've grown but you know what I didn't love I didn't love my enemy and I could have there and I didn't love God like I could have there you too remember your righteousness is Jesus and you can keep going. You can keep at it.

The next day you start over again asking for the grace that you need to do it. These are God's obligations on us. Let's ask Him to work in us. Father, thank You that You do not leave us wandering around wondering what we need to do because we belong to You. You and grace have embraced us in love through Jesus. And now you tell us to walk in love and walk in light.

Armed with the idea that these gain us no favor, but our expressions of gratitude help us to live thankful lives of walking in love and walking in light. Cause us to call out to you for power to do it. and cause us to remember that this is what distinguishes us in the darkness of this world. Help us then, Father, we pray, for your glory, that people will be able to look at us and say, God is real.

Help us to that end, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.