God's Light

Take and read. Take and read. Those two words had an amazing impact on Christianity for the last 1600 years. There was a young man named Aurelius. He was in a courtyard behind his house and he was weeping. He had agony over this call to believe in Jesus Christ. He had just heard testimonies of how others had forsaken the world in his own line of work and people who were like him and had pursued Christ. His mom had been witnessing to him since he was a little boy. And now at age 32, after spending some time with Christians and hearing their testimonies, he had to go out in the courtyard. And he was weeping because he did not know if he could leave what the world had behind for Christ. Then the words, take and read, take and read, it was like a song. And so he started asking himself, that's not a children's song. Where are these words coming from and what do they mean? And so he looked around and there's no children around and he thought to himself, this might be an angel. telling me to go take and read. And so he goes back into the room, and he takes the portion of Scripture they had, and he read, he opened it up, and he just read the first verse that was in front of him, and it was this. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision of the flesh to gratify His desires. That moment, he believed. We now know that man as Saint Augustine. That was his conversion. He had agony. He did not want to leave all those things that the world was clinging on to him with. And when he read this verse, he realized this is forsaking what is destructive and turning to what gives life. Well, this morning, I pray that as we look to this passage, We'd have a transformation. We'd be renewed in our minds. We'd transform to the image of Christ. We would realize we're not called to be conformed to this world. We've gotta resist that temptation. So as we come to this text, we have to submit to God's word, and I pray this is what we will do today. We're in Romans chapter 13. If you're new with us, this is found on page 948. If you want a Bible, there should be one in front of you. Please take it. Read it. It contains the words of life. We're in Romans 13 as we continue to walk through this letter from Paul to Rome. And we've been slowly going through this last half, and this morning we're going to begin in verse eight. A little context. Remember 12 is a key transition It's a call to, because of the mercies of God, to now worship. Your logical response, your reasonable service is to worship the God who has saved you. That call in chapter 12, verse nine, we're supposed to be a church, a community, where love is genuine. And here we're going to go back to that theme of love. Romans 13, verse eight. Here are the word of the Lord. Owe no one anything. except to love each other. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you should not steal, you should 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 fulfilling 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. Our message this morning can be summarized in the one sentence. Worship changes our love, our longing, and who we live for. Our love, our longing, and who we live for. And this is an outline for our text. Verses 8 to 10, love one another. Worship requires that we love one another. The law is fulfilled when we love one another. Verses 8 to 10. Verses 11 through the first part of 12, long for heaven. Long for heaven. And then the last part of 12, verses 14, live for Christ. Love one another, long for heaven, live for Christ. Let me pray for us. Father, help us to submit to this word. Help us to be overwhelmed by your love so that we do love one another, so that we do love our neighbor. Help us to see the great hope that you've set before us, that we would long for that world that we are no longer tainted by sin. And while we wait, Lord, let us live according to your word, help us to put on Jesus Christ, to cast off sin. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Love one another. Paul has been giving very clear expectations. 12 through the end of Romans, 12 through 16, much of it is what we now do, and we don't do these things to become Christians, we do these things because we believe in Jesus Christ. These things are reasonable. It's what we logically do now that we've been saved from darkness and brought into the kingdom of light. Again, we've been walking through these fairly slowly. Chapter 12, verses 3 through 8, that was a call to be one body. 9 through 21, it was a call to let love be genuine. And then last week, we looked at being submissive to authorities. And the end of it was, pay to all that is owed. Taxes, whom taxes are owed. Revenue, to whom revenue is owed. Respect, to whom respect is owed. Honor, to whom honor is owed. And then we see this transition. I think Paul is going to really focus in on the key to being a good citizen. Owe no one anything. Whatever you owe, you should pay. Now some have said that this should be interpreted that Christians should not have debt. Christians should not borrow. I think that's taking the text a little bit farther than what Paul is saying here. Because he's wanting to make sure that you pay or you give what someone deserves. And it goes way beyond property. Something much harder to do than return property, it's giving people honor, respect, truth, most of all love. This is what we're focusing on. Let love be genuine, chapter 12, verse nine. Now he's bringing it back again. He's been discussing being a community of love for quite a few verses. Love your neighbor. It summarizes all the commandments. If you want to fulfill the law of God now as a believer to worship God, it's simple. Love your neighbor. As a community, this is what it means to live with one another. Now we look at these and they're prohibitions, right? God has restricted. He said there's boundaries. So whenever you love, it's nice to know what that doesn't involve. It doesn't involve adultery, murder, stealing, covenant. That kind of makes sense, right? If you love somebody, you want them to live. Therefore, you don't murder them. If you love someone, you don't commit adultery. That goes for the person you're cheating on and the person you're with. If you love someone, you're not going to steal from them. You want them to have what God's given them and you want them to enjoy it. If you love someone, you don't covet what they have. You praise God they have it. Love does no wrong. Love seeks what is best and expects the best of the other person. We fulfill the law when we love one another. When you love someone, you desire their well-being, their blessing, and them to enjoy those blessings. The one thing that should make a church stand out is that it's supposed to be a community of love. Now, all that sounds pretty easy, right? Well, love, I just won't steal, I won't covet, I won't commit adultery, and I won't murder. If we really think about this, it isn't that easy. When we think about this call to love our neighbor, it's actually very frustrating because this is what the law is supposed to do. One, it teaches about God and His holiness. Two, it teaches us about our sinfulness. The law, when we look at it, what we're supposed to do is not start checking off boxes. Yeah, I've done that, done that, done that. No, that's not letting the law have its proper purpose. When you look at the law, we're supposed to see I have fallen short. of the glory of God. I see in the law how much I fail to love God the way he deserves and love those who are my neighbors and my brothers and sisters and my family the way they deserve. So let's just go here first that when we look at the law and what it really says and how high of a bar it sets, it's pretty easy to be overwhelmed with our failure. And so let me remind you of the great truth of Romans 1 through 11. where sin abounds, grace abounds. Where we have failed, Christ has come to forgive us. If we believe in the God who is holy, who's given this law, we believe that he sent his son, that he loves us, not because he kept any of these laws. He loves us because he loves us. He loves us even while we're sinners. to send his son so that we would not have to pay the guilt. We would no longer have to be guilty. He sent his son to demonstrate his love. So let us not be weighed down with how much we failed. Let us be overwhelmed with how much God has loved us to send his son to pay the penalty for all of our failure. And now, Because we've been given the grace in Christ, we've been given the Holy Spirit of Christ, we say, give me the grace to obey. Not to earn your favor, but because you deserve all of my love and all of my worship. As we try to figure out what is wrong with us and our love, we need to find exactly what Paul is talking about. when he summarizes the law very simply and clearly, and he's using Leviticus. I think more so he's actually quoting Jesus here, right? Jesus says, as we read earlier, as Matt read earlier, the whole law can be summarized in love God and love your neighbor. I believe he's quoting half of what the master has taught, the key message of Jesus Christ, love God and love your neighbor. Well, who is your neighbor? This is very important. Who is your neighbor? I want to answer this in two ways. First, your neighbor is whoever is next to you, especially that neighbor who you may not wish was so close to you. I don't mean like right now sitting next to you, so don't get all paranoid. But your neighbor is everyone who's near you. Secondly, your neighbor is the Christian Brother. I want us to think in two different categories. There's your neighbor, literally the stranger next to you, and then there's your neighbor who you're called to love, who's your brother-neighbor. It's different. And I'll try to explain that in a little while. So if you think about the neighbor as everyone first, especially the unpleasant neighbor, we see here that it's the stranger, the other. Jesus made this point very clear in the Good Samaritan. When asked, who's your neighbor, he talked about a Jewish man who had been hurt. He's there on the side of the road, and other Jewish men, other Jewish religious leaders, they came by and didn't help him. Who did help him? A Samaritan. Samaritans were despised by Jews. And so Jesus turns the table on them and helps them see that this despised one, he's actually the good neighbor. It's just not the people you like or have the most things in common with. Your neighbor is just the one who's not like you. So as we think about this, it's the neighbor who's not like us, the one who's close to us, those who bug us, those who are unlike us. And this takes us back to we're supposed to be good citizens, Christians. We're supposed to live peaceably with all men as far as it depends upon us. So our neighbors should be surprised about how peaceful we are. we shouldn't cause trouble with neighbors. I think it goes a little beyond that. Our neighbors should be surprised by how far we go out of our way to be kind and helpful. Yes, this includes the neighbor that does not clean up after his dog. Yes, this includes the neighbor whose tree makes a mess on your property every year. Love your neighbor. I want you to see something because this is a command that most people recognize as good and right. There's nothing uniquely Christian about this command to love your neighbor. However, Christians should keep this commandment uniquely. There's nothing unique about this command that's specifically Christian. but Christians above everybody else should be known for their love of neighbor. Now, we need to think about this word love, because it's one of the most sacred words in Scripture, but man, do we mess it up the way we use it. So, oftentimes, when we say, I love you, we typically mean this. I like the way you make me feel about myself. You oftentimes tell somebody you love them because you like the way they make you feel. That's just love of self and love of self. That's not loving your neighbor as yourself. I love the way you make me feel. The problem with that is, that's gonna change. Your love is going to be fickle. See, I love you is meant to be a declaration of intent. When you say I love you, what you mean is I am with you, I am for you, I will be for your good. I'm committed to you no matter how you treat me. I am making a declaration of intent. I love you means I'm with you, I'm for you. Christians, our love for one another should be a different kind of love because the intensity and the purpose is so much more clear in Scripture. The brother and neighbor, we have the same intent and the same purpose. It's to love God with all our hearts. It's to build one another up in the image of Christ. We have expectations and clear rules for how we're supposed to love one another. We have a clear goal that Christ would be glorified. The love among the brother neighbors should be easy. Because what we should be having is the love of Christ overwhelming us and then flowing out of our hearts to one another. Love your neighbor because you love Christ. Now, let's ask, what is love? Let's look to 1 Corinthians 13, four to seven. It gives us some descriptions of love, what love does. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love determines that the other person's good is my personal interest and responsibility. Love declares that the other person's good is my own personal interest and my responsibility. I want you to look at that, or think about that 1 Corinthians passage. Listen to how many different ways you've gotta deny yourself, which is a key to being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Deny yourself to follow Christ. Deny your sin to follow Christ. Deny Your pride. Deny my way. Deny my feelings. See, love is not demanding, it's kind. Love does not stand over you and remind you of all your failures. No, love comes alongside of you and seeks to lift you up by the grace of God so that you know that He loves you. Christians, this is what the community of Christ is supposed to look like. Now, let's back up again. Love your neighbor as yourself, this fulfills the law. There's two basic sides of love. First, you don't hurt them. If you love somebody, you don't hurt them. That's just simple. You're not going to try to hurt someone you love. The second is you desire their well-being. So if you want to fulfill this law, there's two sides of it. You don't attack them, And you decide to start putting your energy and effort into their well-being. To love someone is to give them the benefit of the doubt. To love someone means you have their best interest at heart. To love someone is to be proactive. It's a decision. Now, let me talk about something in our community of Christ. I think one of the clearest ways we should be showing love is in the midst of conflict. Right? We talk about the community of Christ, and it's supposed to be loving, it's supposed to be peaceful, it's supposed to be united, but we all know that that isn't always the case. Well, we can ask, why is that? And James 4 tells us it's because of jealousy, it's because of rivalry, it's because we love the world more than Christ. That's where quarrels come from. So as we think about this and what it means to love in the midst of difficulty, I want to lay out something that's very, very clear in scripture in that when someone sins against you, there is a very clear prescription in how God tells you to respond to that in love. The first thing you do is talk to God. If someone sins against you, in order to keep unity, in order to live peaceably with all men, the first thing you have to do is talk to God. And the intent there is to say, God, give me the grace to let love cover a multitude of sin. The hope there is that you're going to let God give you the grace and submit to him in prayer and say, I don't want to let this fester. I want to be abundant in forgiveness. I want to let love cover a multitude of sin. And so, Lord willing, most of our offenses, most of our being offended, it ends there. But if it doesn't end there, there's the next person you talk to. It's to the person that offended. Scripture is very clear, you talk to God, you seek the grace to let love cover a multitude of sin, and then if unresolved, if you do not feel peace, you talk to the other person. Let me be clear, you don't talk about the other person, you talk to the other person. This is so clear in Scripture. This is what it means to love somebody. To let them know they offended you and to let the gospel have an opportunity for reconciliation. This is how you love others. And let me remind you, church, that if somebody's coming to talk about somebody to you, the best way you can love that person is to ask them, have you talked to them about this? This is how we become a community of love. If unresolved, then you talk to witnesses. This is what it looks like. These things are so clear in scripture, and here's the reality, folks. We're all sinners. We're going to sin against each other. There's going to be conflict. Resolve it with God. If that doesn't work, resolve it with a person specifically. If that doesn't work, then you go and you talk to others. It's very clear this is how you fulfill the law of God and fulfill the love. I also want to challenge you in this. Church, the world is longing to see love. The church loves the idea of being in love. I'm sorry, the world loves the idea of being in love. The world is hungry and desiring for some experience of love, and here's what God says. This is where they should actually experience it. When they see Christians loving one another, they should be jealous. They're hungry for it. But we actually have to love Christ and love one another in order for them to truly see it here. This is part of our witness. So a way to be that community that worships, we love one another. Secondly, we long for heaven. We long for heaven. Notice the transition that Paul makes. 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. Now, this transition in verse 11, besides this, I believe Paul is simply saying, we've already talked about love, but let's come back to it. Chapter 12, verse nine, let love be genuine. We've talked about that. Now besides this, in addition to the command to love one another, let me remind you, Christ is coming back. Wake up. Notice that language. You know, the time, the hour has come to wake from sleep. Salvation is nearer to us now than we first believed. The night is far gone, the day is at hand. Now, what I believe the context is here is Jesus said, you'll see me again. These first generation believers were expecting Jesus to come back any moment. He was reminding them. Darkness has been defeated. The light of the world has been shining. You are now supposed to be walking in that light. Wake up. There's a phrase here we need to discuss. Verse 11. Salvation is near to us now. That's kind of an unusual phrase. Salvation is near to us. What does that mean? Well, let me make sure I say what's very clear, our salvation is absolutely clear and certain right now. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, your salvation is secure now. You can go back to Romans 5.1, a summary statement. You now have peace with God and Jesus Christ. Romans 8.1, there's now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 832, nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Your salvation is secure. So what does he mean by it's near? Well, your salvation is secure, but it's not yet perfected. Your salvation has been accomplished on the death of Christ when he said it is finished. He conquered death. When you believe in Christ, you are free from the guilt of sin. It's absolutely secure. But it's not yet perfected because we still have sin. Salvation is completed when we have a new body that no longer has the taint of sin that perverts and corrupts everything that God gives us that is good. So Christian, here's the good news. Next week we're gonna be looking back in history. Christ died, he rose again. That's the good news that we have to remember has already happened. We also have to remember Christ is going to return. And when he comes back, he's going to make all of his enemies his footstool. He's going to bring back the perfect order. He's going to take away death forever. He's gonna take away all your sin. Not just the guilt that's been removed, the sin that continues to corrupt hearts. See, here's the sad reality today. We cannot love our loved ones the way we want to or the way they deserve. Our sin keeps us from loving those that we love and desire to love the way we want to and the way we deserve. Because we're still selfish sinners. More so, we cannot love God the way he deserves. Because everything we have is still tainted by sin. So here's the good news, Christian. One day, will be overwhelmed with the love of God without sin hindering your ability to enjoy it. Today, sin is a boundary. Today, sin is a wall that when we choose sin, we choose we're not gonna enjoy that love of God today. But one day, you're going to enjoy God's love all day, every day, perfectly, and it's going to overwhelm you. And beyond that, one day, you're going to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, Sin will no longer exist in your being. It will no longer tempt you. Worship will not be distracted by sin. See, our problem in this world is we rarely see past our nose. Right? Our immediate circumstances are always dragging us and influencing us. We have to be hopeful. We have to be looking forward. We have to be longing for that day so that today we live according to Christ. So I ask you, what are you longing for? Your daydreaming time, what are you wishing for? You still hoping the Redskins are gonna give you a call? Come to training camp. It's not gonna happen. If you're a youth, are you longing for, as soon as I get my driver's license, I got freedom. If you're a youth, as soon as I become an adult, I can do whatever I want to do. That's not true, it's a lie. If you're an adult, are you longing for that next job promotion? Are you longing for that next job? We're always longing for something. Everybody in this room is thinking, if only I had this, and this is what you should be longing for. If only I didn't have so much sin corrupting all my love all the time. If only I had sin removed, I could enjoy God all day by loving him. See, sometimes we think heaven's really mysterious. Heaven's not mysterious. Here's what heaven is. It's a world of love. You get to be loved by God, and you get to enjoy loving God. Guess what you can do today? You can enjoy being loved by God, and you can enjoy loving God. Heaven is about God loving you, and you loving God, and today, even in the midst of sin, we can pursue that love and enjoy it. So what are we longing for? The other part of this is how expectant are we? How often do we think Christ could come today? How often do we meditate upon it and long for Christ to come, or are we, you know, I got a big vacation planned in a couple weeks, I hope Christ comes after that. You may not say that, but we got our bucket list, right? I got some things I wanna do before I go away to heaven. It's a world of love. It's a world of light. How expectant are we? Because you see, being expectant will determine your desire to worship and to be obedient. If you forget Christ is coming back and you don't think about that, you're lollygagging in holiness. We're supposed to be diligent. We're supposed to be watchful because Christ is coming back. Our third point, live for Christ. Second half of 12 through the end. Notice the transition. So then, because he's coming back, because the day of the Lord, it's near. Let us cast off the works of darkness, put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual morality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. but put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. So then, since we're waiting for the day of salvation, so then, since we're waiting for the day of the Lord, we've got something to do. There's three basic commands. Verse 12, cast off the works of darkness, put on the armor of light. Work properly, not in sin. Walk properly, not in sin. Put on Christ, make no provision for the flesh. See, there's three parallel commands, and each one has a denial and an affirmation. Don't do this, do this. It's very helpful to be that clear. Here's what you don't do, here's what you do. And I believe they're all saying the same thing. Stop sinning. You've been saved from that. Enjoy your new resurrection life. I want you to see something important in the transition. Because the day of salvation is coming, it's nearer, because the king of life has died for your disobedience, now obey him. The transition is clear, he's coming back. We're supposed to now walk according to his way. So we're gonna look at this set of three in order. So first, verse 12, cast off the works of darkness, put on the armor of light. We're supposed to stop doing deeds of darkness and we're supposed to put on armor that helps us live in the light. Now, why armor of light? We too often think of this world as a playground. I'm here to just enjoy myself. I'm here to soak up as much sun and enjoyment and activities and recreation as possible. This world's not a playground. It's a battlefield. There is a war raging. Satan is longing to conquer you so that you do not enjoy Christ, so that you do not obey him. Christ has come to conquer Satan and has defeated him and he's given us the Holy Spirit so that we do not have to listen to the temptation anymore. Sin seeks to conquer you, to enslave you, to remind you again how enslaved you are to him or you once were and Christ is saying, no, I've set you free. We have to first see in order to keep this commandment, this is not a playground, it's a battlefield. We're not here to play, we're here to fight. We've gotta fight against sin, we've gotta fight against temptation, and we do so only by trusting in Christ. So I want to speak to you, if you're not in a fight right now against sin, you are defeated. If you're not in a fight against sin, you're defeated. Pray that God would use his law to help you see which sin is defeating you and pray for the grace to fight. Pray for brothers and sisters who are gonna come around you and fight. If you are pinned down, brother, sister, that enemy's defeated. Christ crushed our enemy on the cross. It is perfectly, he has a perfect victory. Seek to live in the grace of that victory. put on the armor of light. Now when we read Ephesians 6, it actually goes a little bit more into detail about this armor of God and armor of light. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand, therefore. having fastened on the belt of truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication, To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. All those pieces of armor point us to one thing, what God has done for us and what God has said to us. That armor, the helmet, it's reminding us what God has said about us. That breastplate of righteousness, that's what God has done for us. That shield, it's God's truth that helps us realize when those flaming deceptive darts come, I know the truth. They're not gonna hit me, they're not gonna penetrate. That sword, it's God's word, I can trust it. It's what God has done for us, what he says about us. We are to cast off the darkness, put on the armor of light. We do this when we see all of this battle in light of Christ. We see sin in light of the light. When we are walking in the light, when we have the armor of light on, we see sin as it is. See, sin, it comes and it says, hey, come and taste, try this out, looks good. It's good for you, it won't hurt that much. You really want this and you need this. When you see sin in light of the gospel, you see past that lie. You see that it's destructive. You see that it's deadly. You see that it's a bomb wrapped in chocolate. They're trying to deceive you, but it's going to destroy you when you consume it. When you battle in the armor of light, you see yourself in the light of Christ. You see that He's died, He's risen again, and He is your victory. Let's look at verse 13, the second set. The basic point here is walk properly. Let us walk properly, as in the daytime. None of those things that we think hide are the darkness hides. Walk properly, as in the daytime. Not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual morality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. Walk in the light. This is proper. Let me ask you a question. How open are you to hear you're not doing it right? Paul's saying that there are Christians who just aren't doing it right. You're not living properly. To live properly as a Christian is to live faithfully and submissively and obediently. And what Paul here is doing is making it very clear, there's some who aren't walking properly. He lists sins for a reason. So we need to not be wise in our own eyes. We don't have to think too much of ourselves, things we've already heard from Romans 12. We're gonna be open to hearing, you're not doing it right. Here, Paul's calling them out, walk properly. As I've wrestled with how to explain this, at one level this could be like somebody trying to use the wrong end of a hammer to nail. That's not the proper way to use the hammer. Or it's trying to use a screwdriver as a hammer. You're not doing it properly. We have gifts and we're supposed to use them properly. Then the best example would be this. Think of a bride, dressed up on her wedding day. Hair's done, makeup on, white gown. It's about to be the ceremony time when everybody wants to see her walking down the aisle beautiful. But right beforehand she says, you know what, I think I need to go clean out the stalls in the barn. Let me go out in the barn, my white dress, hair done, makeup on, and I need to go and do my chores. That's not proper. because that dress is going to get filth all over it. Your hair is going to become undone. You're not doing it properly. You've not prioritized the right things for that specific day as you have been given a certain attire. That's actually just like us. Christian Christ has put his righteousness on us. Christ has put His holy garment on us, and then we go waller around and sin. We're not walking properly. We have to walk according to what Christ has done for us. We are His bride, beautifully adorned in His righteousness. So what does it mean to not walk properly? There's three parts. There's three sets. I believe you could categorize these as partying, living sexually in promiscuity, and arguing. You're not supposed to live in licentiousness, you're not supposed to live in perversion, you're not supposed to live in anger. We could say it a different way. Live soberly, in purity, and in peace. He has the negative, but we think about the negative, would it be proper to live soberly, live in purity, and live in peace. So let's look at this first set. He mentions orgies and drunkenness. I believe that word orgies, it really would be better translated as reveling or carousing. It's someone who's seeking a partying lifestyle, someone who just wants to be inebriated. This is not proper. Sexual immorality, sensuality, living for sexual finite pleasure outside of God's plan. It's the opposite of love, it's lust. That is not proper. This is where pornography falls. It's not proper. Quarreling and jealousy. These are opposite of love. Quarreling and jealousy, that's arguing, that's loving the world, that's having anger. So if you're a believer, let me make clear, if you have been engaged in one of these three kinds of sins, you have not lost your salvation. These are not the unforgivable sins. Christ came to die for us while we were these kinds of sinners. Christ came to die for us while we are these kinds of sinners. These aren't unforgivable. However, what Paul's saying here is if you are a believer, don't live this defeated life. Christ has something more for you. Don't live in this defeat. Christ still loves you, he forgives you, and he will give you the grace to overcome these sins that so easily entangle you. Don't stay down and defeated. Seek the grace that will let you once again walk properly, knowing his love and knowing his grace. I also don't wanna remind you, this is not the full list of things that are inappropriate or improper for Christians. This is three sets that he simply missions here. Finally, our last point, our last of the third, the third command here, put on the Lord Jesus Christ Make no provision of the flesh to gratify his desires. Put on Christ. He already declares us righteous. He takes away our filthy sin, the guilt of sin, and he declares us righteous, but here he's saying, put on that righteousness of Christ. Do not obey your sinful passions. Do not obey your sinful desires. Let Christ reform you. Let Christ renew you. Do not continue to be here conformed. You put on Christ first by resisting sin. Every time you choose sin, you're saying, I'm going to put on that sin and let it change who I am. Every time you seek to love Christ and obey Christ, you're saying, I'm choosing Christ and I'm going to let him change who I am. You are doing one or the other. We're either feeding that desire to love God, or we're feeding that desire to love sin. Paul here is very clear. It is proper for us to put on Christ by loving Him and resisting sin. Before we conclude, I want to help us see where we're going next. Look at chapter 14, verse 1. a continuation of Paul's argument here. As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. Paul is going to continue to give us clear expectations for what it means to be a community of love. And what we have to see here is there's clear commands in Scripture. Scripture's not fuzzy. There are things that are proper for a Christian and things that are improper for a Christian. And 14 is going to help Christians understand love means you don't quarrel over things that are opinion. This is why we quarrel in church often. We take our opinions and we pretend they're in scripture. See, Christians, when we come, We come to say, this is what is true. This is what is right. We're going to promote this among one another. I'm going to try to be very clear here. The church is not the place to impose our opinions. The church is not the place for validating our opinions. The church is where we seek to impose what is taught in Scripture. The church is where we seek to validate what God says by teaching it and practicing it among one another. We have to be clear and be careful of not muddying what is clear with our own rules and regulations. See, there's clear doctrines, there's clear convictions, and we have opinions. When we come with opinions and seek to impose them, here's what we're doing. We're trying to make everybody else like ourselves. When we come and we wrote the word of Christ, we're trying to build up the church to be like Christ. Friends, this is why we do this. We all have to submit to God's word together. We all have to say what he says is right and good and clear and true. We have to resist the temptation to make our opinions in need of being validated and imposing. As we think about this, we all once walked improperly. We all once were full of only deeds of darkness. We all once only gratified the desires of our sin. But now, Christ has conquered that sin. He's died on the cross to take away the guilt of that sin. He's risen again to give us new victory. So now let's, let's put on the armor of life. Let's walk properly, let's put on Christ Jesus, and let's be that community of love that the world is longing to see. Will you pray with me? Father, we praise you and we thank you for your kindness, for your word, may we learn to live according to it. May we have the humility to submit ourselves to it. May we have the humility to submit ourselves to one another according to your word. Lord, help us to love you and to love our neighbor. Help us to be a people longing to have that perfect love in heaven where sin will no longer taint our desire for you, where sin will no longer keep us from enjoying you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.