Welcome to Mill Creek Church in Belleville, Texas, where our worship service is in progress. Today, Pastor Monty Byrd continues with his sermon series on the book of Romans. And now Pastor Byrd. Join me in prayer, please. Fathers, we open up Romans this morning and study it. I just pray that You'd continue to speak to us through Your Word. I pray, Lord, that we would embrace it and apply it to our life. In Jesus' name, amen. Please turn with me to Romans chapter 13 as we continue our study of not only the letter to the Romans, but also this particular chapter. And let me remind you that Romans 13, Paul is continuing to instruct the church of Rome how they should act among people, both believers and unbelievers. Romans 1 through 11 dealt with the presentation of the gospel. Romans 12 started with Christian behavior and he's continuing that on in the 13th chapter. Last week we concluded our study of 1-7, which is Paul's instruction on how the Christian should interact with government. And today we will look at verses 8-10. We're actually going to get 8-10 done today. But it involves how we should love our neighbor. And so Romans 13, starting in verse 8, Paul writes, owe no one anything except to love one another. For he 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 bear false witness, you shall not covet. And if there's any other commandment, all are summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. So as we study these verses, verses eight through 10, I'm actually gonna teach them 10 back to eight. And I think it makes sense once we complete this, at least I hope it does. I think it's easier to teach. So if you look at verse 10, Paul says that love is the fulfillment of the law. And it reminded me of Christ in Matthew 22, starting in verse 35, when a lawyer posed Jesus a question in verse 36, he said, teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? And I think that you need to emphasize the greatest commandment in the law to completely understand the answer that Jesus gives the lawyer, starting in verse 37. Jesus said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments hang all the law in the prophets. So in 40, he tells us that on these two commandments hang all the law, but yet he's telling us to love. Some people want to separate the law and love, but you can't. The law and love go together. In fact, John Stott said this, he said, love and law need each other. Love needs law for its direction, while law needs love for its inspiration. You can't decouple the two. And isn't it interesting that in today's world, liberal theologians try to remove the law from love. And in fact, if you think about it, liberal theology divorces law from love, but it can't be divorced. And the reason why is, is that love has to have a standard. Love has to have a standard. This is why Paul goes on in our focal passage this morning in verse 9. After he tells us to love one another, he says, for the commandments, you shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not covet. And if there's any other commandment, all are summed up in this saying, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Those two are together. The law and love are together. Is an adulterer Really, a loving person? No, they're selfish. Is a murderer looking out for someone else? No, that's the ultimate in selfishness, is the murderer is declaring their superiority over the victim. Does a liar look out for your best interest? No. selfish and self-promoting. In other words, you can't really be a loving person unless you are living according to the teachings and truth of God. It reminds me of 1 John chapter 5, When John wrote, whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone who loves him, who begot also loves him who is begotten of him. In other words, we love one another. And then in verse two, it says, by this we know that we are the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. So love is never separated. Love is never separated from the law of God. They go together. And in fact, if you think about the second tablet of the 10 commandments, all of those commandments that were given in how we interact with our fellow mankind, they were given so that we could show love. It is God's love in any church. that is willing to accept people that are living in sexual sin among the congregation, they are not only a false church, they're not only a false church, they are also giving a false faith. Now, we're living in a time where homosexuals, in all of the initials that go along with it, they want an exception. But let's be honest, the Bible says adulterers, fornicators, and the homosexual will not inherit the kingdom of God. They want to be excluded from the list. For the modern day church to not only wink at it, but in some cases promote it, not only are they a false church, but they are giving people a false faith, an apostate faith, because they're telling people that it is okay to wallow in your sin. But my friends, The church of Jesus Christ is a church of victory. It's not a church of defeat. We are to be victorious over our sin because Christ won the battle for us so that we can overcome. And in fact, the Bible tells us that we are overcomers, that we can overcome our sin. And this is the message of the church. And unfortunately, in Matthew 7, verse 21, Christ paints a sad picture at the end of time. When in verse 21 of Matthew 7, He says, Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Because that's the definition of sin, isn't it? The Bible says that sin is lawlessness. So we cannot adequately love unless we pursue righteousness. In fact, the Bible tells us that we will bear fruit and that fruit will be fruits of righteousness. Paul describes this in his letter to the Philippians. In Philippians 1, starting in verse 9, Paul wrote, and this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ. to the glory and praise of God. When we love, we fulfill the law. And we love with a standard that's not according to my standard, or your standard, or your neighbor's standard. We love according to the truth and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. in regard to that standard. The standard could be subjective. That's how the world looks at it. It's their standard. If you think about how the world defines love, the world defines love with reciprocity. I love you if you love me. I'll love you if you're good for me. It's all based upon how we interact with one another. That's the world's love. That's not Christian love. See, the Christian love is based on truth. World love is based upon reciprocity. Christian love is not based upon how I treat you and you treat me. Christian love is based on Christ. Christian love is not of this world. It's not how the world deems love. And the standard is, is loving your neighbor as yourself. That's what it says in verse nine. We already looked at 10. Now we're going backwards. Now we look at verse nine and it says, all are summed up in this saying, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Where did Paul get this? If you look in your Bible, more than likely in your translation, That's in quotation marks, means he got it from somewhere else. Well, he got it in Leviticus 19. If you look at Leviticus 19, 17, it says, you shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor and not bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself for I am the Lord. In Galatians 5, verse 13, Paul wrote, for you brethren have been called to liberty, only do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. James says the same thing. In James chapter two, verse eight, it says, if you really fulfill the royal law, according to scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. In other words, if partiality, some people are easier to love than others, right? We all know those people, that's why you're all gritty. Some people are hard to love. Let's just face it, they're difficult. But we don't get to pick, do we? We do not get to pick. We're told to love one another and love them as we would love our self. I've never had to worry about this, but some people inherit large sums of money in trust accounts. We call them trust babies, right? They have all these large money, and in that case, they have a, if there's a trust, there is a trustee. And what's the job of a trustee? Well, in trust language, you are given a fiduciary standard. Fiduciary standard. And what that means is, is that trustee has to act in the best interest of the beneficiary of that trust as they would treat themselves. That's how Christian love is. Christian love doesn't say, well, I'm going to give you a little bit of love, but there's limits. You don't deserve all my love. You're just gonna get a little bit of love. That's not Christian love. Because Christian love mirrors the love that you and I received from the Lord Jesus Christ. Which means that we have to love the unlovable. Now let's be honest. That's a tall task. That's a tall task. And sometimes we get tired and sometimes we get weary. But that's the standard. The standard isn't love a little and then when they mess up, stop loving. Our congregation, as we interact with society, as we interact with one another, should be based upon love. We should be a loving group of people. Which leads us to verse eight. We're obligated. It's not a choice. Love is not a choice. Look at verse eight. It says, owe no one anything except to love one another. Now, some people write commentaries and they get off in the weeds, in my opinion, of the financial aspect of this particular verse. And some people says that this proves that you shouldn't be in debt. That's not true. You should fulfill your debts. But Paul's point here is that we are obligated, we are obligated to love. we don't get a choice. We don't get to pick favorites. In fact, one commentary says, for the law itself is but love and manifold action regarded as a matter of duty. And when you really think about that, that makes perfect sense. In other words, You and I are commanded not to covet. We're not to covet our neighbor's things. And I could look at that with the coldness of a law, a law without heart, but that's not what that is. God is directing us in how we should interact with our neighbors and that involves loving our neighbor. And so therefore, when I don't steal, when I don't lie, when I don't covet, I am loving my neighbor. If you think about how Paul ended our focal passage, he says, there's no harm. There's no harm. If I love, if I love according to the law, there is no harm. which is why the commentary makes sense that law itself is but love and manifold action regarded as a matter of duty. And it is an obligation. Love is an obligation that is never completely fulfilled. Charles Hodge, the great theologian says, acquit yourself of all obligations except love, which is a debt that must remain ever due. Now, when you think about worldly debts, worldly debts come due. And when you think about If you have a car note, if you ever paid on a car, paid on a car, and then it's just that last payment. Boy, that last payment feels so good. Or a mortgage. You get to that last payment and you get your house note paid off. And I know that's a rarity in these days. And if you're old enough to remember, This used to be a popular thing when I was a kid. You got the last payment on the house and what did you have? You had a mortgage burning party. Do you remember those? You had your friends and family and you burned the mortgage. What does that signify? The obligation was due. Churches used to do that. I have this picture of my great granddad in Oklahoma and the church that they were a part of, they got together and they burned the mortgage because they finally got the church building paid for. That obligation to the lender was no longer in effect. It's not how love works. Love doesn't have a limit. You don't get to the end. You don't have the luxury of saying, well, this is it. I'm going to end loving you. How do I know that I'm loving? How do you know that you're loving according to the Christian standard? Well, you have to look at the life of Christ and you have to pick up his word. You have to compare yourself, not to your neighbor, not to a friend, not to a fellow church member. There's only one person that you can compare yourself as the standard bearer of love, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the standard. And when you compare yourself to Christ and you say, have I loved enough? The answer comes back with a resounding no. It's never fulfilled. We are to be an ever loving people because Christ loves us with an everlasting love. During the opening of the service, we, in our responsive reading time, I chose 1 Corinthians 13. And I just didn't pick that just because, oh, I'm preaching on love, so let's go to the love chapter, as it is known. But when you read 1 Corinthians 13 and you ask yourself, am I a loving person? I've never looked at that chapter and not come away with some conviction that I can love a little bit more, that I'm not loving enough. And that's what we have to do as Christians. As Christians, we have to look at the scripture and say, am I behaving in a manner that would be defined as love? And when we do love, with Christian love, It's a love that is different than the rest of the world. And we testify to the power and strength of Jesus Christ. Join me in prayer. Father, I just pray that we would be a loving people, that we would love one another, that we would care for one another, that we would love when we're not being loved. so that we can stand as a testimony to the power of the love that your son gave us. I pray, Lord, that if there's someone listening that has never accepted the offer of forgiveness and grace and acceptance through Jesus Christ. I pray, Lord, that they would ask Christ to be their Savior and Lord this morning, that they'd repent from their sins and turn to the love that only Christ can give. We ask all these things in your Son's name. Amen. Thank you for joining us as Pastor Bird continues this sermon series. If you wish to hear more, you may find him at millcreekchurch.org or go to sermonaudio.com slash millcreekchurch. Prayer requests may also be left at millcreekchurch.org. Our church services are as follows. Sunday morning Bible study is at 9 a.m., followed by our worship service at 10 a.m. We have Wednesday night prayer meeting and Bible study, and they are at 6.30 p.m. For more information and our mission statement, please visit our website millcreekchurch.org.