WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.879 If you're visiting with us today, we just to let you know we've been going through Romans 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:09.400 in our morning worship for a number of months. 00:00:09.400 --> 00:00:16.960 We did take a break from it, but we're heading towards the end of the book. 00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:24.560 And the first eleven chapters are really dense theology, talking a lot about who God is. 00:00:24.560 --> 00:00:29.839 And then from chapter twelve onwards, we have the implications of that, which are absolutely 00:00:29.839 --> 00:00:31.879 significant for us. 00:00:31.879 --> 00:00:38.960 Last Sunday morning, Bob Ackroyd preached about our responsibility in society with those 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:46.159 who lead us, our government and our politicians and those who collect our taxes and all these 00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:47.159 things. 00:00:47.159 --> 00:00:49.960 So it's very much dealing with society. 00:00:49.960 --> 00:00:53.719 So we're beginning to look at it in context. 00:00:53.719 --> 00:01:03.799 And now it becomes more personal in how we live, how you live and how I live in society. 00:01:03.799 --> 00:01:12.039 And what's really great about this is it reminds us we live, and we need to remember 00:01:12.039 --> 00:01:15.359 this, we live in time and space. 00:01:15.359 --> 00:01:22.960 So our daily lives out of here, you know, whatever else they are, our daily lives out of here 00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:25.159 is the stuff of God. 00:01:25.159 --> 00:01:26.399 It's the stuff of God. 00:01:26.399 --> 00:01:34.639 He created the life and the world that we go out tomorrow into and go out today into 00:01:34.639 --> 00:01:36.599 and we're in today. 00:01:36.599 --> 00:01:39.339 And He's redeemed that world as well. 00:01:39.339 --> 00:01:41.399 This is where we live. 00:01:41.399 --> 00:01:42.879 This is where He wants us. 00:01:42.879 --> 00:01:49.679 He wants you to be where you are in your work, in your life, in your family, in your holidaying, 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:54.880 in your study, when you eat, when you laugh, when you cry, when you breathe, it's the 00:01:54.880 --> 00:01:57.280 stuff of God. 00:01:57.280 --> 00:01:59.920 That there is no sacred secular divide. 00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:07.000 You don't come to church for some kind of spiritual fix which drains throughout the 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:09.280 week until you come back. 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:12.400 That's a really wrong impression of our lives. 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:18.280 Our lives are the stuff of God, all of it. 00:02:18.280 --> 00:02:25.759 And Christ was born into this life, God, God the Son, was born into this life. 00:02:25.759 --> 00:02:28.400 He entered history. 00:02:28.400 --> 00:02:29.400 He lived here. 00:02:29.400 --> 00:02:32.319 He walked the ground that we walk on. 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:33.879 He made things from wood. 00:02:33.879 --> 00:02:34.879 He had a family. 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:38.199 He knew loss within that family. 00:02:38.199 --> 00:02:40.280 He had siblings. 00:02:40.280 --> 00:02:49.400 And He came into this world to redeem us as those who are separated from Him, to redeem 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:54.960 us and this world from death and destruction and from the hell of evil. 00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:57.879 The hell of evil. 00:02:57.879 --> 00:03:05.759 Our guilt and His just judgment for the choices we make to reject Him, He took on Himself. 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:06.879 And we remember that. 00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:08.560 We know that and we understand that. 00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:10.759 And it was into this world He came. 00:03:10.759 --> 00:03:12.599 It's not a figment of the imagination. 00:03:12.599 --> 00:03:17.439 It's not just a symbolic spiritualization, of course you know that. 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:23.680 And as Christians, what Romans is reminding us of, it's a letter to a church, is that 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:25.199 He is Lord. 00:03:25.199 --> 00:03:29.960 So He's Lord, you know, at the end of that verse it says, you know, put on the Lord Jesus 00:03:29.960 --> 00:03:35.000 Christ, we take Him as Lord and we recognize Him for who He is. 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:41.039 His mercy is to us, His love for us is incomparable, His grace is priceless. 00:03:41.039 --> 00:03:47.800 So you'll come and you're going to hear the same old stuff again and again here. 00:03:47.800 --> 00:03:50.479 Because our tendency, my tendency is to forget. 00:03:50.479 --> 00:03:55.120 And I hope that as we look at God's living word, we're reminded, but I hope you're not 00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:58.639 bored by that. 00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:01.080 Because it's hugely important and practical. 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:09.880 In the ordinariness of our lives, He wants us to live with Him as our Lord, okay? 00:04:09.880 --> 00:04:14.760 In everything we do, that's the fruit of the Spirit. 00:04:14.760 --> 00:04:18.480 So what we're reminded of when we come to church, I guess, or when you read your Bibles 00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:20.879 or when you pray, is salvation, isn't it? 00:04:20.879 --> 00:04:24.879 It's the grace of God in that you're saved to the cross of Christ. 00:04:24.879 --> 00:04:33.159 And really, what that's saying is that your salvation is at the heart of absolutely everything 00:04:33.159 --> 00:04:37.120 that you are and everything that you and I do. 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:40.519 It's not just the snippet of the Sunday morning. 00:04:40.519 --> 00:04:43.680 It's not just the spiritual feel-good thing that we do. 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:45.879 It's at the core of everything we are. 00:04:45.879 --> 00:04:51.759 So that's why Paul can speak here about authorities and about tax collecting or the taxes that 00:04:51.759 --> 00:05:00.360 you owe, and now talk about neighbors and the outstanding debt we have to our neighbor. 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:01.800 And that's what he's speaking about here. 00:05:01.800 --> 00:05:06.920 And it's great because he's talked about the various debts that we have in the previous 00:05:06.920 --> 00:05:12.240 that Bob looked at last week, you know, that we have, you know, whoever it is that you have 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:17.480 anything to owe to them, whether it's respect or whether it's honor, whether it's revenue, 00:05:17.480 --> 00:05:20.159 whoever it is, pay what you owe, you know, in society. 00:05:20.159 --> 00:05:21.159 That's what he's saying. 00:05:21.160 --> 00:05:23.080 You know, pay your way in society. 00:05:23.080 --> 00:05:25.360 He says, pay your taxes. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:28.000 It works to live a debt-free life. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:32.320 Live, he says, within your means. 00:05:32.320 --> 00:05:36.600 In time and space, he says that, except in one area. 00:05:36.600 --> 00:05:42.879 He says, live within your means in one area, in every area of life, without debt as much 00:05:42.879 --> 00:05:45.920 as you can. 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:51.920 Pay what you owe, pay back what you owe, except in one area. 00:05:51.920 --> 00:06:00.400 There is an outstanding debt that we keep needing to pay, and that is to love one another. 00:06:00.400 --> 00:06:05.400 Oh, no one, anything except the debt to love one another. 00:06:05.400 --> 00:06:07.879 So that's what he moves on to. 00:06:07.879 --> 00:06:12.480 He's talking about society and he moves on to how we live every day, the debt of love 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:14.759 to our fellow human beings. 00:06:14.759 --> 00:06:17.879 There's no point in your life when you can say, okay, I've loved that, I've loved my 00:06:17.879 --> 00:06:21.639 neighbor enough, I've paid my debt. 00:06:21.639 --> 00:06:29.039 There's no final check, there's no due paid, there's no time when we stop serving our neighbor 00:06:29.039 --> 00:06:31.399 and living in society as a Christian. 00:06:31.399 --> 00:06:36.639 We don't say I've lived enough as a Christian this week. 00:06:36.639 --> 00:06:43.839 Now I'm just going to raise all hell because I've done my due. 00:06:43.839 --> 00:06:45.839 I've been obedient enough. 00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:50.000 And now I just want to live any old way, whether it's loving or not. 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:52.439 He's saying that's not what it's for. 00:06:52.439 --> 00:06:54.319 That's not what the debt we owe. 00:06:54.319 --> 00:07:03.000 And he's speaking here very much, not primarily about our behavior in church, our behavior 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:04.000 with fellow Christians. 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:05.279 It includes that. 00:07:05.279 --> 00:07:07.559 Our neighbor can be our fellow Christian. 00:07:07.559 --> 00:07:13.479 It's still in that theme of how we live our lives in the world with whoever it is we come 00:07:13.480 --> 00:07:14.480 into contact with. 00:07:14.480 --> 00:07:17.920 Where would you go for the great definition of who's your neighbor in the Bible? 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:18.920 We all know that, don't we? 00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:19.920 It's a rhetorical question. 00:07:19.920 --> 00:07:24.040 Feel free to answer, but we're not used to it. 00:07:24.040 --> 00:07:25.879 It's Jesus, isn't it? 00:07:25.879 --> 00:07:28.640 Because someone asked that question, who's my neighbor? 00:07:28.640 --> 00:07:29.640 Who's my neighbor? 00:07:29.640 --> 00:07:31.480 So we go to Jesus for the answer to who's my neighbor. 00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:33.160 And who did Jesus say? 00:07:33.160 --> 00:07:39.520 He said the good Samaritan, or the person that the good Samaritan helped to give the 00:07:39.520 --> 00:07:41.240 parable of the good Samaritan. 00:07:41.240 --> 00:07:45.560 So he was giving this defining description of who the neighbor was. 00:07:45.560 --> 00:07:48.480 That was, therefore, anyone. 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:51.079 It wasn't someone who was a Jew. 00:07:51.079 --> 00:07:53.120 It wasn't someone who was a disciple. 00:07:53.120 --> 00:07:56.439 It wasn't someone who was the same type of person. 00:07:56.439 --> 00:07:59.000 It was someone really who was just in need. 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:01.920 Happened to be a Samaritan that the Jews hated. 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:02.920 Someone who was in need. 00:08:02.920 --> 00:08:07.519 Someone who comes across our life who needs shown mercy to you. 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:14.000 So really what Jesus is saying is you don't ask questions before you love your neighbor. 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:16.399 You don't judge their character and say, well, I'm not sure. 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:20.359 I'll wait and see whether they're worth loving. 00:08:20.359 --> 00:08:25.359 It's not being moralistic about who we help or love in our lives. 00:08:25.359 --> 00:08:29.919 We treat everyone we come across in our lives, in our workplace, in our neighborhood, in 00:08:29.919 --> 00:08:34.840 our home, whatever happens on our university campus, whatever it happens to be, we treat 00:08:34.840 --> 00:08:38.759 them with the love that Christ has treated us. 00:08:38.759 --> 00:08:45.399 We never can repay the debt of love we owe to Christ, and we never stop loving our neighbor. 00:08:45.399 --> 00:08:48.320 So there's really no, what I'm saying is in terms of who our neighbor is, there's no 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:49.320 qualification. 00:08:49.320 --> 00:08:56.680 You know, it's not the famous, again maybe this is an ageist comment, the Charles Schultz 00:08:56.680 --> 00:09:04.600 campaign, cartoon or other of Linus, who was Snoopy's best friend, shouting or with a banner 00:09:04.600 --> 00:09:09.080 saying, I love mankind, it's people I can't stand. 00:09:09.080 --> 00:09:14.360 You know, and that symbolizes so much of what we sometimes think, isn't it? 00:09:14.360 --> 00:09:20.480 As Christians, we speak in generalities about loving people, or mankind, but actually we 00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:23.360 can't stand people. 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:27.159 And that's what's exposed by Jesus here. 00:09:27.159 --> 00:09:31.279 He says, you can't live your Christian life in generalities. 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:35.879 You can't live it with pietistic sound bites. 00:09:35.879 --> 00:09:41.559 It's the way we live in our day-to-day life that is so significant. 00:09:41.559 --> 00:09:48.159 This is the stuff of God, whether it's someone who's homeless, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, 00:09:48.159 --> 00:09:58.120 black, white, gay, straight, gender-confused, atheist, believer, racist, addict, proud, 00:09:58.120 --> 00:10:03.399 humble, liberal, conservative, you know, I don't need to go on. 00:10:03.399 --> 00:10:08.360 How we make all these categorizations of people and decide and make decisions of whether 00:10:08.360 --> 00:10:11.200 they're worth our love. 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:13.879 And yet Jesus says that's not how it's to be. 00:10:13.879 --> 00:10:21.639 So He tells us in this great passage how we live in society today, living in society today 00:10:21.639 --> 00:10:26.639 and also living in the light of society to come as Christians. 00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:29.960 So that's the two things that I'm just briefly going to speak about this morning. 00:10:29.960 --> 00:10:31.960 Living in society today. 00:10:31.960 --> 00:10:37.279 In verse 11 He says, besides this, you know the time. 00:10:37.279 --> 00:10:43.799 Or you could say, you know the present time, the time in which we're living, you know it. 00:10:43.799 --> 00:10:51.120 And I'm going to refer back to the verses before that to explain how He wants us to live in 00:10:51.120 --> 00:10:56.000 this present time today, today, today, this world, today. 00:10:56.000 --> 00:11:03.000 And He says, we are to live by loving our neighbor because that fulfills God's law. 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:05.000 Love does no wrong. 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:10.200 Verse 10, to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 00:11:10.200 --> 00:11:13.080 Now remember He's speaking here to Christians. 00:11:13.080 --> 00:11:17.960 He's speaking here to people who know they can't keep the law, who know they have broken 00:11:17.960 --> 00:11:22.279 the law, who know they are sinners and are saved by grace. 00:11:22.279 --> 00:11:27.399 So it's not moralism and it's not, this is how I live in order to make myself right with 00:11:27.399 --> 00:11:28.559 God. 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:34.679 But as believers He's saying, this is how you're to live because you're saved and because 00:11:34.679 --> 00:11:36.720 you have got the Holy Spirit in your life. 00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:38.799 It's an astonishing statement. 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:40.799 He says, we fulfill God's law. 00:11:40.799 --> 00:11:42.799 We read the catechism. 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:43.799 Perfect obedience. 00:11:43.799 --> 00:11:49.240 And we fulfill the God's law in the light of what Jesus has done. 00:11:49.240 --> 00:11:51.199 That's what chapters 1 to 11 are for. 00:11:51.200 --> 00:11:55.879 That's why they're so important because we must take this passage within the context of 00:11:55.879 --> 00:11:58.040 what Jesus has done for us. 00:11:58.040 --> 00:12:04.320 He's fulfilled both parts of the law perfectly in the way the commandment, the catechism 00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:05.320 speaks about. 00:12:05.320 --> 00:12:11.480 He loves God perfectly in fulfillment of the law and He loves His neighbor perfectly. 00:12:11.480 --> 00:12:18.360 That's the 10 commandments He fulfills that perfectly. 00:12:18.360 --> 00:12:23.440 So when we have, in our failure, and He has punished for our failure, but with His love 00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:28.440 in our hearts, we have the faith to do the impossible, the miraculous. 00:12:28.440 --> 00:12:33.240 So you are able to do that as you go into your day-to-day living. 00:12:33.240 --> 00:12:42.200 So the 10 commandments that you often bulk at, and people often bulk at, are God's laws 00:12:42.200 --> 00:12:43.200 of love. 00:12:43.200 --> 00:12:44.200 That's what they are. 00:12:44.200 --> 00:12:45.200 Remember that. 00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:47.159 They are the core of the universe. 00:12:47.159 --> 00:12:52.480 They are pit law and love against one another. 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:55.519 Never cheaply say, oh, I don't believe in the law anymore. 00:12:55.519 --> 00:12:58.159 I just believe in the love of Jesus. 00:12:58.159 --> 00:13:01.000 That is a wrong statement. 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:02.439 It's very core. 00:13:02.439 --> 00:13:09.959 It's a deep, deep misunderstanding of the gospel because Jesus reminds us that law is 00:13:09.959 --> 00:13:14.439 the fulfillment of the law, that love is the fulfillment of the law. 00:13:14.439 --> 00:13:16.679 And we recognize that. 00:13:16.679 --> 00:13:25.479 However, our obedience is never to be moralistic or self-righteous or harsh. 00:13:25.479 --> 00:13:29.679 But neither is it just to be gushy and emotional. 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:35.479 It is to be loving in the way Christ intends us to love. 00:13:35.479 --> 00:13:42.519 So as we live our lives, we're fulfilling God's law to our neighbors in society when 00:13:42.519 --> 00:13:44.439 we love them. 00:13:44.439 --> 00:13:46.120 And what does that love look like? 00:13:46.120 --> 00:13:49.360 I think there's two things at least. 00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:51.360 One is it's protective. 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:52.360 It's absolute core. 00:13:52.360 --> 00:13:53.360 It's protective. 00:13:53.360 --> 00:13:57.039 Verse 10, again, love does no wrong to a neighbor. 00:13:57.039 --> 00:13:58.039 Okay? 00:13:58.039 --> 00:14:00.039 Can you apply that today? 00:14:00.039 --> 00:14:02.799 Just apply it just now. 00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:08.799 When you think about your neighbor, the person that you regularly come into contact with, 00:14:08.799 --> 00:14:17.559 a difficult boss, a student that just gives you a hard time, a teacher. 00:14:17.559 --> 00:14:26.559 I don't know, but my husband, whatever it might be, you know, it's the core of our challenge 00:14:26.559 --> 00:14:35.919 is to protect, to do no harm, to do no wrong to our neighbor, no harm. 00:14:35.919 --> 00:14:42.199 Because harming people, harming another person belongs to the deeds of darkness, and he speaks 00:14:42.199 --> 00:14:44.559 about these deeds of darkness, doesn't he? 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:50.719 And they're just an outworking of the law of God, you know, orgies, drunkenness, sexual 00:14:50.719 --> 00:14:54.199 immorality, sensuality, quarreling, or jealousy. 00:14:54.199 --> 00:14:55.360 You break down these things. 00:14:55.360 --> 00:15:01.399 They all are acts of darkness, and they harm ourselves or other people. 00:15:01.399 --> 00:15:02.919 It might be cheapening sex. 00:15:02.919 --> 00:15:06.279 It might be angry responses and violence. 00:15:06.279 --> 00:15:11.839 It might be anger itself here that it's so broad, isn't it? 00:15:11.839 --> 00:15:12.959 It's the cheapening of life. 00:15:12.959 --> 00:15:18.039 However, it's framed not caring about the addicted, the vulnerable, the demented, the child in 00:15:18.039 --> 00:15:22.039 the womb, the disabled, whoever it might be. 00:15:22.039 --> 00:15:29.399 If we don't love our neighbor by having an attitude of harm towards them, taking the 00:15:29.399 --> 00:15:32.799 property of our neighbor's greed in all its form. 00:15:32.799 --> 00:15:38.159 It's harming our neighbor, wishing they were dead in order to get what they have, being 00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:39.479 jealous or covetous. 00:15:39.479 --> 00:15:42.919 All of these things are deeds of darkness. 00:15:42.919 --> 00:15:43.919 They're harming our neighbor. 00:15:43.919 --> 00:15:46.000 It's not acting in love. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:47.519 So its core is protective. 00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:53.319 So you take the Word of God today and you apply it, as I must do, to how I will act 00:15:53.319 --> 00:16:01.199 tomorrow, or today even and tomorrow from here, that the love we show to our neighbor, 00:16:01.200 --> 00:16:06.040 whoever it is that comes into contact with us on a day-to-day basis, usually, we are 00:16:06.040 --> 00:16:07.040 to show them no harm. 00:16:07.040 --> 00:16:10.200 That's how we are to live our lives in society as Christians. 00:16:10.200 --> 00:16:15.480 That's why it's no good just floating about waiting for heaven. 00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:17.200 That's not what we're asked to do. 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:20.560 We're asked to live for Jesus Christ here. 00:16:20.560 --> 00:16:28.120 So its core is protective and its character is grace-led engagement. 00:16:28.120 --> 00:16:33.720 We are to be led by grace and engaged in the world that we live in so we know our neighbors 00:16:33.720 --> 00:16:37.320 and we are able to love them. 00:16:37.320 --> 00:16:40.240 And it's not simply human love. 00:16:40.240 --> 00:16:42.399 It is the love of God. 00:16:42.399 --> 00:16:43.840 It's the love of God. 00:16:43.840 --> 00:16:45.759 It's loving God as He loves us. 00:16:45.759 --> 00:16:51.720 It's not liking everyone and being nice and being a doormat and at the same time compromising 00:16:51.720 --> 00:16:53.399 God's truth while we do so. 00:16:53.399 --> 00:16:57.039 It's not being popular in order to be popular. 00:16:57.039 --> 00:17:04.920 It's our identity as believers is to love with the authority of God behind us and His 00:17:04.920 --> 00:17:08.799 truth guiding us in all things. 00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:12.599 But it's never monastic. 00:17:12.599 --> 00:17:18.920 Never use your faith in Jesus Christ as a reason to disengage from society or stay apart 00:17:18.920 --> 00:17:21.599 from society or live in a Christian ghetto. 00:17:21.599 --> 00:17:25.720 There's no place in Scripture for that in our lives. 00:17:25.720 --> 00:17:27.319 Look at the life of Jesus. 00:17:27.319 --> 00:17:34.039 But if we want a model for that, we find great, great model, shadowy models that are given 00:17:34.039 --> 00:17:35.839 in the Old Testament. 00:17:35.839 --> 00:17:37.759 The Old Testament had that. 00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:39.960 Everything in the Old Testament points forward. 00:17:39.960 --> 00:17:45.319 But we have this great picture of a people in exile, don't we? 00:17:45.319 --> 00:17:47.839 And of how to live in exile. 00:17:47.839 --> 00:17:52.120 The people who were not yet or banished from the Promised Land, they lived in exile and 00:17:52.120 --> 00:17:53.839 God told them how they were to live. 00:17:53.839 --> 00:17:59.399 And it's a model for how we live, as it were, in exile because this is not our home. 00:17:59.399 --> 00:18:03.119 This is not the land flowing with milk and honey that we look forward to. 00:18:03.119 --> 00:18:09.039 So God's model is given to us in the Old Testament for how we fulfill the law of God in the New 00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:10.799 Testament in our lives. 00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:15.319 And Jeremiah 29, 47 is a great example of that. 00:18:15.319 --> 00:18:20.919 Thus say, this is the command God gave to the people who are exiled in Babylon, how 00:18:20.919 --> 00:18:22.839 they were to live in exile as believers. 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:27.119 See the Lord God of the exiles who I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, 00:18:27.119 --> 00:18:30.879 build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce, take wives and have 00:18:30.879 --> 00:18:35.279 sons and daughters, take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage that they 00:18:35.279 --> 00:18:41.000 may bear sons and daughters, multiply there, do not decrease, but seek the welfare of the 00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:46.319 city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf for it in its 00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:51.119 welfare, you will find your welfare. 00:18:51.119 --> 00:18:57.399 And mercy, they were not asked to lose their identity, they were not asked to compromise, 00:18:57.399 --> 00:19:04.119 but they were not to live in ghetto, they were not to live in monastic circumstances, obeying 00:19:04.119 --> 00:19:11.799 the Lord yet seeking peace and prosperity of the city, loving their neighbors that they 00:19:11.799 --> 00:19:14.319 met every week showing mercy. 00:19:14.319 --> 00:19:18.000 The great other Old Testament example of that is Daniel, isn't it? 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:22.480 Of course, in the same kind of circumstance, who knew what God wanted and knew what God 00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:32.160 asked, undefiled Daniel, undefiled yet fully engaged at the top level of politics in his 00:19:32.160 --> 00:19:40.200 society, fully engaged, always aware that it wasn't his home, but never resorting to 00:19:40.200 --> 00:19:48.160 living in a ghetto and hating his neighbor and rejecting the opportunities to live out 00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:51.240 grace in the society in which he lived. 00:19:51.240 --> 00:19:58.960 These are the great Old Testament examples of how you and I are to live our lives today. 00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:01.920 Don't make the sacred secular divide. 00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:12.080 Live out your faith respectfully and above all lovingly to your neighbor. 00:20:12.080 --> 00:20:13.279 Love your neighbor. 00:20:13.279 --> 00:20:15.840 Show mercy to those that you meet every day. 00:20:15.840 --> 00:20:21.400 That's what we're commanded, maybe especially to those who you feel deserve at least. 00:20:21.400 --> 00:20:27.080 So living in society today, that's a summary of what he's saying here. 00:20:27.079 --> 00:20:36.679 But also we live in society today, whatever you are, in the light of a better society 00:20:36.679 --> 00:20:38.079 that is to come. 00:20:38.079 --> 00:20:43.240 You know, besides this he says, you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake 00:20:43.240 --> 00:20:44.240 from sleep. 00:20:44.240 --> 00:20:47.399 For salvation is neater to us now than when we first believed. 00:20:47.399 --> 00:20:50.319 The night is far gone, the day is at hand. 00:20:50.319 --> 00:20:56.039 Now what he's saying there, he's saying, yeah, live absolutely in society. 00:20:56.039 --> 00:20:59.079 But remember that you're living in the light of a society that is to come. 00:20:59.079 --> 00:21:04.839 We're to understand the time we live in, the moment that God has that we're living in and 00:21:04.839 --> 00:21:06.639 who we are. 00:21:06.639 --> 00:21:12.279 This is kind of, if you use the sunrise kind of idea, it's the world kind of living in 00:21:12.279 --> 00:21:17.000 twilight, that's where we're living, at the breaking of dawn. 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:18.000 You know that time. 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:20.720 And interestingly, what did they say? 00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:24.359 Very often people say it's darkest before the dawn. 00:21:24.359 --> 00:21:27.759 I'm sure that's right. 00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:29.959 Not tested it that much. 00:21:29.959 --> 00:21:34.759 But in some ways, it's a little bit like that for us just now, isn't it? 00:21:34.759 --> 00:21:41.559 Spiritually, it might seem very dark, but we do know that Jesus is coming back to usher 00:21:41.559 --> 00:21:43.439 in a new society. 00:21:43.439 --> 00:21:48.839 In other words, we live and we love our neighbor in society. 00:21:48.839 --> 00:21:50.039 We're fully engaged. 00:21:50.039 --> 00:21:51.959 We're fully immersed. 00:21:51.960 --> 00:21:57.480 But we're different because we recognize that this is not our home. 00:21:57.480 --> 00:22:02.039 This is not our end destination, even though we're fully engaged. 00:22:02.039 --> 00:22:04.000 We know His kingdom is coming. 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:11.519 We know that because He's already brought His light into the darkness of our experience. 00:22:11.519 --> 00:22:15.559 And heaven is getting nearer, and the new heavens and the earth is getting nearer every 00:22:15.559 --> 00:22:24.359 day when we will see Christ face to face, and His order of a new society with its renewal 00:22:24.359 --> 00:22:27.799 and righteousness will be fulfilled. 00:22:27.799 --> 00:22:34.960 That is cataclysmic, hugely significant that we live in the light, not just of today and 00:22:34.960 --> 00:22:41.119 living fully for today, but we live in the light of a society that is to come. 00:22:41.119 --> 00:22:47.039 Why can we say that? because He says that we have woken up from our sleep. 00:22:47.039 --> 00:22:48.039 We're alive. 00:22:48.039 --> 00:22:54.079 It's a kind of death to life metaphor, sleeping to waking metaphor, obviously. 00:22:54.079 --> 00:22:56.039 A new day has dawned for us. 00:22:56.039 --> 00:23:02.159 So you're living in the light of a spiritual truth that has hit you, a spiritual truth 00:23:02.159 --> 00:23:03.959 that you've taken into your heart. 00:23:03.959 --> 00:23:05.519 There's been a huge change. 00:23:05.519 --> 00:23:07.159 Night and day, we talk about that. 00:23:07.159 --> 00:23:09.919 It's as different as night is from day. 00:23:09.920 --> 00:23:13.440 And that's what's happened, death to life. 00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:17.160 And what's evidenced of the difference between night and day? 00:23:17.160 --> 00:23:20.160 Well, we often think differently. 00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:22.320 We often act differently. 00:23:22.320 --> 00:23:24.320 We often dress differently. 00:23:24.320 --> 00:23:31.480 I was reading, I'm doing this Dynamics of Biblical Counseling course, and one of the 00:23:31.480 --> 00:23:43.440 essays was about a guy who had a lot of sexual issues in his life, and when he came to faith, 00:23:43.440 --> 00:23:44.440 he was same sex attracted. 00:23:44.440 --> 00:23:48.680 And when he came to faith, his whole life was changed. 00:23:48.680 --> 00:23:57.039 But he found the 10 minutes just before he went to sleep, the hardest 10 minutes of his 00:23:57.039 --> 00:24:03.399 life physically went into the darkness of sleep, and his mind and his imagination and 00:24:03.399 --> 00:24:12.000 his past all attacked and closed in on him at that moment. 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:16.000 And we recognize sometimes that there's that difference of way we think just before we 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:18.319 sleep, maybe just before we wake up. 00:24:18.319 --> 00:24:23.000 And so we recognize the difference between night and day. 00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:27.640 And spiritually, that's what Paul is saying here in the second section. 00:24:27.640 --> 00:24:34.720 He's reminding us that we have to take responsibility because we are saved by Jesus Christ and 00:24:34.720 --> 00:24:37.880 He's God has gifted us new life. 00:24:37.880 --> 00:24:42.680 We're just at the dawning of a new day, a new hope, and we rise to the challenge every 00:24:42.680 --> 00:24:48.359 single day and live as those who are no longer in the darkness but are in the light. 00:24:48.359 --> 00:24:52.480 And he explains how we are not to live. 00:24:52.480 --> 00:25:00.120 He shows us from his own law the list of things that he doesn't want us to live in that way 00:25:00.120 --> 00:25:07.599 with our neighbor, where to get rid of the harmful, dark, damaging behavior, both to ourselves. 00:25:07.599 --> 00:25:16.440 And to others, the immorality, the sexual immorality, the sensuality, the drunkenness, the jealousies. 00:25:16.440 --> 00:25:20.279 He's saying these belong to a different world. 00:25:20.279 --> 00:25:26.960 They belong to a world you don't belong to anymore because you've woken up and the night 00:25:26.960 --> 00:25:29.759 is passing and the day is about to come. 00:25:29.759 --> 00:25:33.920 So he's saying you're living in the light of a day that is to come. 00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:40.960 Yes, you're living in society now, but you're living with a different understanding and 00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:42.240 perspective. 00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:48.960 And so he uses an illustration and he says, therefore you are to dress appropriately, 00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:53.519 cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. 00:25:53.519 --> 00:25:57.079 Let us walk properly and put on the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:25:57.079 --> 00:26:00.720 So he's using an illustration he uses a lot, armour or clothing. 00:26:00.720 --> 00:26:05.079 New Testament uses that illustration quite a lot about what we wear spiritually, what 00:26:05.079 --> 00:26:06.079 we put on. 00:26:06.079 --> 00:26:09.720 You know, there's a responsibility there and there's a knowledge of wearing the right 00:26:09.720 --> 00:26:10.880 thing. 00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:15.400 And it goes back a little bit to a couple of weeks ago when I talked about the mirror 00:26:15.400 --> 00:26:16.400 image. 00:26:16.400 --> 00:26:21.840 Remember, and some of you might remember the first thing we tend to do in the morning? 00:26:21.840 --> 00:26:24.400 We look in the mirror. 00:26:24.400 --> 00:26:26.280 He applied that spiritually. 00:26:26.280 --> 00:26:31.240 Well this is kind of a follow on from that because usually after looking in the mirror 00:26:31.240 --> 00:26:35.280 or maybe before or after, we put clothes on. 00:26:35.280 --> 00:26:39.440 We put on clothes that are appropriate for the day. 00:26:39.440 --> 00:26:43.920 And he's saying just as we do that physically, every single day we put on the clothes. 00:26:43.920 --> 00:26:53.160 He says so spiritually we are to put on the clothes that befit our status as children 00:26:53.160 --> 00:26:54.759 of the living God. 00:26:54.759 --> 00:26:59.320 He says, put off the deeds of darkness. 00:26:59.320 --> 00:27:02.039 So, okay, image here. 00:27:02.039 --> 00:27:08.560 You put off your pajamas or your nightie and you put on the clothes for the day. 00:27:08.560 --> 00:27:12.360 Now generally, unless you're feeling really cold, probably, and this is where the illustration 00:27:12.359 --> 00:27:17.919 breaks down, you don't put your clothes on top of your pajamas or your nightie. 00:27:17.919 --> 00:27:22.679 Okay, there's probably someone here still wearing their pajamas underneath because 00:27:22.679 --> 00:27:23.679 they're really cold. 00:27:23.679 --> 00:27:25.159 But generally speaking, you don't. 00:27:25.159 --> 00:27:27.519 You take off and then you put on, don't you? 00:27:27.519 --> 00:27:28.839 And that's what he's saying here. 00:27:28.839 --> 00:27:32.639 It's not like you're putting on a, it's not like you're a hypocrite. 00:27:32.639 --> 00:27:42.119 You've got all these lustful, terrible thoughts inside but you put on that an outward way 00:27:42.119 --> 00:27:44.519 of living that maybe is attractive. 00:27:44.519 --> 00:27:48.199 You're saying no in your heart of hearts because of what Christ has done. 00:27:48.199 --> 00:27:49.199 It's not a mask. 00:27:49.199 --> 00:27:52.239 It's from hearts that are transformed by God's grace. 00:27:52.239 --> 00:27:53.959 It's not moralistic behavior. 00:27:53.959 --> 00:27:58.839 It's saying what He has done changes who we are in our hearts. 00:27:58.839 --> 00:28:10.039 So we daily we're putting off the deeds of darkness and putting on love, loving our neighbor, 00:28:10.039 --> 00:28:17.559 not living in these ways, not gratifying the desires of our sinful hearts, but doing no 00:28:17.559 --> 00:28:25.039 wrong, doing no wrong, no harm, no harm to ourselves, which also in us and no harm to 00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:27.519 others. 00:28:27.519 --> 00:28:29.000 And we're to do that thoughtfully. 00:28:29.000 --> 00:28:31.200 Make when he says make no provision for the flesh. 00:28:31.200 --> 00:28:33.639 He's saying don't think about it. 00:28:33.639 --> 00:28:38.200 Don't get up in the morning saying, well, you know, I'll give the Lord a few hours, but 00:28:38.200 --> 00:28:43.680 then I really want to go this way and think about how we can gratify sin. 00:28:43.680 --> 00:28:45.960 How can I do this so that no one will find out? 00:28:45.960 --> 00:28:50.840 We're going to do it silently, secretly, whether it's pornography or whether it's what we're 00:28:50.840 --> 00:28:52.840 watching or what we're thinking. 00:28:52.840 --> 00:28:55.640 I can think lots of things because nobody sees these things. 00:28:55.640 --> 00:29:01.799 But these are damaging not only to others because it changes our attitude to others, 00:29:01.799 --> 00:29:04.440 but also to ourselves, of course. 00:29:04.440 --> 00:29:10.000 Don't make provision for gratifying our sinful desires, because what he's really saying here 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:15.000 is as you think about your future and you're putting on the clothes of day as you're moving 00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:21.080 towards heaven, the perfect righteousness that is there, you are to live now for what 00:29:21.080 --> 00:29:25.720 you're hoping then, what you believe then to be your experience. 00:29:25.720 --> 00:29:31.559 And in other words, we are what we wear spiritually. 00:29:31.559 --> 00:29:35.240 I think that's true physically sometimes as well. 00:29:35.240 --> 00:29:40.599 Maybe it's not a perfect illustration, but I think sometimes our dress, what we wear 00:29:40.599 --> 00:29:43.079 does affect our behavior. 00:29:43.079 --> 00:29:49.399 I think I act differently when I'm wearing a kilt or a suit compared with a boiler suit. 00:29:49.399 --> 00:29:53.799 You know, kind of stomp about with a boiler suit and I don't mind if I get things messy 00:29:53.799 --> 00:29:59.480 and I'm wearing a suit, sharp gear and tie and kind of more upright in a walk, but carefully 00:29:59.480 --> 00:30:01.680 and I've got a different self-image. 00:30:01.680 --> 00:30:04.279 We are, you know, we are who we wear. 00:30:04.279 --> 00:30:09.680 But in Christ, we wear grace. 00:30:09.680 --> 00:30:11.960 You wear grace. 00:30:11.960 --> 00:30:12.960 That's what you're to wear. 00:30:12.960 --> 00:30:19.039 That's what I am to wear, because we've received grace and that should change every step we 00:30:19.039 --> 00:30:26.360 take, every conversation we have, every decision that we come to, every film we choose to watch, 00:30:26.359 --> 00:30:33.599 every behavior we choose to engage in, we wear grace and we are seeking to strip off 00:30:33.599 --> 00:30:39.559 the sinful desires that damage us because they are deeds of darkness and they have no 00:30:39.559 --> 00:30:42.279 place in our future. 00:30:42.279 --> 00:30:47.000 We live not only in this society, we live in the knowledge of the society to come. 00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:52.879 So the debt of love to our neighbors is lifelong. 00:30:52.879 --> 00:30:55.000 It's never paid in this life. 00:30:55.000 --> 00:31:00.920 It's who we are and it's who you are and it's who I am. 00:31:00.920 --> 00:31:07.720 And the only right we have to claim to live this way is because we're children of God 00:31:07.720 --> 00:31:12.319 and because we've called God Father. 00:31:12.319 --> 00:31:26.960 So please remember that His Word is a living, powerful model of how you should go from here 00:31:26.960 --> 00:31:30.159 every moment of every day, whatever circumstances. 00:31:30.159 --> 00:31:34.679 And you think it's easy for you to say from the pulpit, impossible. 00:31:34.679 --> 00:31:38.639 I know that. 00:31:38.639 --> 00:31:39.639 I know that. 00:31:39.639 --> 00:31:41.639 I recognize that. 00:31:41.640 --> 00:31:43.280 Of course it's impossible. 00:31:43.280 --> 00:31:45.480 It's impossible by nature. 00:31:45.480 --> 00:31:52.560 It's impossible because it's against everything that we're told to do and live in the society 00:31:52.560 --> 00:31:56.480 that puts self first. 00:31:56.480 --> 00:32:02.360 But we have dethroned self because of Jesus Christ and the impossibilities and the weakness 00:32:02.360 --> 00:32:11.240 and the failure drives us back to Him for the things that are not impossible with Him. 00:32:11.240 --> 00:32:16.039 We live that way when we fail, we seek forgiveness and we move on and we seek forgiveness from 00:32:16.039 --> 00:32:19.519 others because that's all part of it, isn't it? 00:32:19.519 --> 00:32:25.000 Loving our neighbor is being truthful enough to say, well, I'm sorry, I screwed up there. 00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:26.000 Screwed up badly. 00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:27.000 I'm sorry. 00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:29.160 That's part of it. 00:32:29.160 --> 00:32:30.160 That's part of it. 00:32:30.160 --> 00:32:34.519 It's not a council of perfection. 00:32:34.519 --> 00:32:37.759 It's that recognition of living in the light. 00:32:37.759 --> 00:32:42.879 The night is far gone, the day is at hand, let us cast off the works of darkness, put 00:32:42.879 --> 00:32:44.680 on the armour of light. 00:32:44.680 --> 00:32:46.640 It's a slightly different illustration. 00:32:46.640 --> 00:32:48.599 It's not just clothing, it's armour. 00:32:48.599 --> 00:32:52.960 It's what protects us and what keeps us from harm. 00:32:52.960 --> 00:32:55.400 You know, we're talking about harm. 00:32:55.400 --> 00:32:59.200 Loving is doing your neighbor no harm, no wrong. 00:32:59.200 --> 00:33:03.279 And so as we wear the protection of God, as you know the Bible, as you know His truth, 00:33:03.279 --> 00:33:10.559 as you're relying and as your roots are firmly grounded in Him, as we sung about the fruitfulness 00:33:10.559 --> 00:33:17.160 of our Christian lives are based on where our roots lie and our roots must lie in Him 00:33:17.160 --> 00:33:19.039 and in His grace. 00:33:19.039 --> 00:33:27.000 And I hope and pray that we go from here, not just to each other, but in our lives when 00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:33.119 maybe nobody is watching and there's no Christians anywhere near that we are loving our neighbor. 00:33:33.119 --> 00:33:40.599 In ways that are counter-cultural and impossible and radical and grace-filled. 00:33:40.599 --> 00:33:41.919 Let's pray. 00:33:41.919 --> 00:33:48.879 Father God, we ask and pray that you would forgive us because we see the standard of Scripture 00:33:48.879 --> 00:33:56.679 and we know we fail miserably, but we really ask that we would not use that as an excuse 00:33:56.679 --> 00:33:59.799 just to give up. 00:33:59.799 --> 00:34:03.759 Because we've accepted by you, we're loved by you because Jesus has done what we could 00:34:03.759 --> 00:34:11.360 never do, but that's never, Lord, may that never be for us a reason to be complacent 00:34:11.360 --> 00:34:15.480 because it's a total misunderstanding of grace. 00:34:15.480 --> 00:34:20.880 And may we not live our lives as it were, treading water as Christians in this nasty, 00:34:20.880 --> 00:34:25.800 big bad world until Jesus comes again and rescues us. 00:34:25.800 --> 00:34:34.480 But may we see the Kingdom of Heaven is here through your people and we are to live out 00:34:34.480 --> 00:34:38.960 grace in community, loving our neighbor and loving God. 00:34:38.960 --> 00:34:41.320 Help us to do that, we pray. 00:34:41.320 --> 00:34:47.960 And as I look in front of me at this congregation, I see a people who will spread out into the 00:34:47.960 --> 00:34:55.240 city in this working week, many on their own, many in situations with no other Christians 00:34:55.239 --> 00:35:02.399 with a lot of opposition and maybe darkness and difficulty spiritually anyway. 00:35:02.399 --> 00:35:08.439 And we pray that they might go in your strength and in reliance on you, seeking to live out 00:35:08.439 --> 00:35:19.439 the impossible and seeking to be pure and loving and patient and peaceful and not violent 00:35:19.440 --> 00:35:25.000 and not angry and not discontented and grumbling. 00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:31.039 And Lord, we pray that we would all find that that makes a radical difference to us and 00:35:31.039 --> 00:35:32.039 to those around us. 00:35:32.039 --> 00:35:39.679 May we dress as appropriately, as appropriate to our calling as believers, covered in the 00:35:39.679 --> 00:35:43.039 grace and living out the grace of Jesus. 00:35:43.039 --> 00:35:52.279 Amen.