INVINCIBLE CHURCH 2-18-24

Invincible Church Sermon Notes
2/18/2024
How to be a True Follower of Jesus pt 2
Romans 13:8-10
Beginning to End
So last week we started this series talking about the first step in the process of being a true follower of Jesus is making the personal decision to receive the gift of eternal life in heaven by submitting to Jesus as Lord, Savior and King. It’s called salvation. Jesus said in…
John 10:27-30 NIV - 27 My Sheep Listen to My Voice … I Know them … And they Follow Me! … 28 I Give them Eternal Life … And they Shall Never Perish … No One will Snatch them Out of My Hand! ... 29 My Father … Who has Given them to Me … Is Greater than All … No One Can Snatch them Out of My Father’s Hand! … 30 I and The Father Are One!” … So, there's a process that starts at our salvation in Jesus!
Our eternity in heaven is 100% secure from this point forward because we’ve received the sacrificial gift Jesus gave when He shed His blood and died on the cross on our behalf. His acts of obedience and love for the Father paid the full price of our entire sin debt, which was death and separation from God. The Bible says in…
Romans 6:23 NIV - 23 For the wages of sin is death, but The Gift of God is Eternal Life in Christ Jesus our Lord!
Our identity in Jesus is established at the point of our salvation. Likewise, a person who never makes the decision to receive the gift of salvation through Jesus is separated from God. They basically concede to spend their eternity in hell. It’s the only other option for people who reject following Jesus.
Once we decide to receive salvation, we’re immediately ready to start the sanctification process of following and serving Jesus on mission and in ministry! We should also publicly declare our love for Jesus and our decision to follow Him by following His example of baptism by emersion in water.
At salvation we belong to Him. Now it’s time to go to work… and we ought to be excited about it because He paid the highest price that could ever be paid to get us! So, no matter what anybody else tries to tell us, we’re extremely valuable! And we’re locked and loaded with Holy Spirit power!
Which means we’ve got the potential to become an elite high speed operator as an ambassador, warrior, servant or saint for the Kingdom of God! We’re covered on the outside by the blood of Jesus and filled on the inside with the Holy Spirit power of God!
So, there’s no excuse! We have to stand up and fight for what’s good, right, holy and pure. We’re invincible against the weaker supernatural forces of evil and darkness. Sometimes it will be fun. Most times it will be a battle, but there’s always going to be sacrifice!
Matthew 10:38-39 NIV - 38 Whoever does Not Take Up their Cross and Follow Me is Not Worthy of Me! ... 39 Whoever Finds their Life will Lose It … And whoever Loses their Life for My Sake will Find It!
If we love Jesus, then we’re going to follow Him… and the way we follow Him is to follow His instructions. We know that His instructions are to love, pray, and be thankful for all things...go, make and teach disciples… ask, seek and knock on the doors of opportunity that God gives us to serve. Today we’re going to cover all that.
So, for a follower of Jesus, Love isn’t just a once a year kind of thing! It’s a daily process of self-sacrifice. And the only way to fulfill the Law of God is to learn how to love God the way He loves us… and love others the way we love ourselves. In other words, loving the way God loves is the only way to fulfill the law of God!
Romans 13:8-10 NIV - 8 Let No Debt Remain Outstanding … Except The Continuing Debt to Love One Another … For whoever Loves Others has Fulfilled The Law! … 9 The Commandments :> - “You Shall Not Commit Adultery!” - “You Shall Not Murder!” - “You Shall Not Steal!” - “You Shall Not Covet!”- and Whatever Other Command there may Be … Are “Summed Up” in this One Command … “Love your Neighbor as yourself!” 10 Love does No harm to a Neighbor! ... Therefore Love is The Fulfillment of The Law! …
In this passage Paul is saying that at our salvation, Jesus changes our sin debt into love debt. He gives us 4 of the 10 commandments as examples. The 7th, 6th, 8th and 10th! But we know that all 10 apply to the principle of love debt because he says in (vs 9) and “Whatever other command there may be.”
So, God’s law is summed up in one statement! “Love your neighbor as yourself!” The key to obeying the law is love! If we love, then we’re going to obey the law. It’s just that simple! To declare, “You shall not commit adultery!” is a moot point if we truly love somebody!
People never come to me for counsel and say, “I committed adultery because I love my spouse too much!” No… the problem is they committed adultery because they don’t love “Jesus and their spouse” enough! Unconditional/sacrificial love doesn’t defile the covenant of marriage!
True love doesn’t steal purity or rob holiness. That’s what lust and selfishness does. People don’t commit adultery and fornication when the love others too much. They can’t control their lust, so they do things like that because they don’t love God and others enough.
Same thing goes for murder. If we really love somebody, we don’t have to be reminded not to murder them. And if we really love people the way Jesus does, then it’s a moot point to say, “You shall not steal!”… because we’re not going to take things that don’t belong to us and…
If we really love God and others, were not going to covet the things other people have. So, love doesn’t replace the law… love fulfills the law. In other words, love gives us the bottom line goal for understanding how the entire plan and law of God can be fulfilled.
Paul’s telling us that God’s not just after our outward obedience. The pharisees all bragged about never committing adultery, murder, stealing or coveting. But they were full of it in their hearts! They hated Gentiles so much that they had murderous thoughts about them.
And they coveted things they didn’t have! They’d justify stealing things in their minds by creating false narratives against other people just like they did with Jesus. So, they were committing adultery against God in their hearts and minds. Sound familiar? Think about it…
We’ve got all kinds of laws with legal definitions, but people are continually scheming ways to skirt the law so they don’t have to fulfill the true intent of it. The Bible says, God’s intent for us is to love others sacrificially and unconditionally so we don’t want to commit sin against them.
The motivation for a lot of people to obey the law is trying to meet some kind of religious expectation or obligation. Other people are just afraid of getting caught and being punished. Now, the fear of getting caught works sometimes, but it’s not complete.
Some people just obey God’s law out of self-interest. They feel like if they live a moral life, then God will have to reward them for it! That’s not a pure motive. It’s selfishness… and then the thought of God’s wrath does keep some people from doing evil things…
All of these reasons might keep people from doing bad things. And maybe even motivate some of them to do good things but all of it is incomplete if they don’t love God unconditionally and love others sacrificially because they’re not fully obeying God’s law.
If we really want to honor God, then we’ll want to keep His commands out of love for Jesus! Not because we feel like we have to. We just really want to! God’s intention for the law is to help us develop true love in our heart. It’s the way God designed His law to be fulfilled inside His plan.
So, the foundational principle of God’s plan is unconditional/sacrificial love. To help us understand it, we’re going to look at how the 10 commandments are all about the Law of Love. The first four relate to the love for God. The other six relate to our relationship with each other.
The 10 commandments are in Exodus 20: 3-17. And I’m not going to read them all right now because we’re going to go through them individually. So, we can expand on how God has imbedded…
1) Love is Loyal – (vs 3) … 3 “You Shall have No Other gods Before Me!”
Loyalty to Jesus is a perfect description of love! Love is true. It’s single-minded. It’s not fickle. True love for God means there’s no higher love for some other deity or some other worldly pursuit. If we really love God, we’ll be faithful to Jesus and loyal to God!
2) Love is Faithful – (vs 4-6) … 4 “You Shall Not make for yourself an Image In The Form of Anything in Heaven Above … Or on The Earth Beneath … Or in The Waters Below! ... 5 You Shall Not Bow Down to them … Or Worship them … For ~I~ … The Lord your God … Am a Jealous God … Punishing The children for The Sin of The Parents to The Third and Fourth Generation of those who Hate Me … 6 But Showing Love to a Thousand Generations of those who Love Me … And Keep My Commandments!
True love keeps it’s promise! It’s devoted to and trusts it’s objective. True love is obedient. And where it applies, love is devoted to its subjects… and the most important thing is “faith and trust” in Jesus takes love to a whole other dimension.
3) Love is Reverent – (vs 7) … 7 “You Shall Not Misuse The Name of The Lord your God … For The Lord will Not Hold anyone Guiltless who Misuses His Name!
If we love God, we won’t curse His name. If we truly love God, we won’t use His name as a “cuss word”! It’s just disrespectful! For us to love God in the manner He deserves, we have to love Him in a deeply respectful way! It’s also the way we demonstrate the true love of God to others!
4) Love is Holy – (vs 8-11) … 8 “Remember The Sabbath Day by Keeping It Holy! ... 9 Six Days you Shall Labor and Do All your Work … 10 But The Seventh Day is a Sabbath to The Lord your God! ... On It you Shall Not Do Any Work … Neither you … Nor your Son or Daughter … Nor your Male or Female Servant … Nor your Animals … Nor Any Foreigner Residing in your Towns! ... 11 For in Six Days The Lord made The Heavens and The Earth … The Sea … And All that is In Them … But He Rested on The Seventh Day! ... Therefore The Lord Blessed The Sabbath Day … And made It Holy!
True love sets apart a time for pure, uncompromised, devoted, undefiled worship! Love recognizes the place of God! If we say we love God, we’re going to worship, serve and honor Him! We’re going to be faithful to Him, His commandments and His entire Word!
So, the first four commandments sum up what Jesus told the Pharisees in Matthew 22… that the greatest commandment is to, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength! If people would love God this way, it would fulfill all the law. It’s just that simple! It’s part of our job to show them and teach them how.
Now, the next six commandments are the ones that speak about love toward others. And the four commandments that Paul refers to back in our primary passage for today are part of these six! Paul didn’t use #5 in the passage, but it tells us that…
5) Love is Respectful – (vs 12) … 12 “Honor your Father and your Mother … So That you May Live Long in The Land The Lord your God is Giving you!
So, true love yields to authority. It respects those who are worthy of respect… whether it’s in title, office, position or action. If we love our “Mother and Father,” we’re going to honor them. Honor is a deep reverential respect! So, true love is respectful.
6) Love is Protective – (vs 13) … 13 “You Shall Not Murder!
God gives life… and makes everyone in His image. So, true love believes every life is sacred! True love doesn’t abort, slaughter or commit genocide against human life. God’s design for love is to protect.
7) Love is Pure – (vs 14) … 14 “You Shall Not Commit Adultery!
True love doesn’t defile other people! God’s love glorifies all that is holy, pure, good and virtuous! God’s love honors, trusts and endures covenants and promises!
😎 Love is Unselfish – (vs 15) … 15 “You Shall Not Steal!
True love doesn’t take what belongs to somebody else! God’s love is all about being humble… and willing to give people things they don’t have… not taking things that don’t belong to us.
9) Love is Truthful – (vs 16) … 16 “You Shall Not Give False Testimony against your Neighbor!
True love doesn’t spin up false narratives about other people for purposes of gaining power and control. God’s love doesn’t lie about people to tear them down. People who bear false witness and give false testimony about others are going to answer to God one day and it’s going to be extremely bad for them!
10) Love is Content – (vs 17) … 17 “You Shall Not Covet your Neighbor’s House! ... You Shall Not Covet your Neighbor’s Wife … Or his Male or Female Servant … His Ox or Donkey … Or Anything that Belongs to your Neighbor!”
True love is thankful and satisfied in all circumstances and situations. We have to learn to be content when we have very little or a whole lot! Whether things in our life are good… or bad. We’re not supposed to be jealous of what other people have.
The point to all this is true love fulfills the entirety of God’s law. So, numbers 5 through 10 fulfill the second part of the greatest commandment that Jesus quoted to, “Love your neighbor as yourself!” In other words, what Paul is saying is love sums up and fulfills the entire Law of God!
So, the entire law of God in the 10 Commandments is summed up in two things… “Love God… Love Others!” That’s it! That’s the fullness of the law! It’s all right there in those two simple things!
People say, but the Bible’s so thick, complicated and hard to understand. So, how are we supposed to know all the rules, instructions, commands and principles? Let alone abide by them! It’s very simple… love God… love others… then just do what’s right!
Then people say, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Nope… that’s exactly what it means! “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength… love your neighbor as yourself.” If you can live with that mindset and in those conditions, what we want will be exactly what God wants!
It’s how God’s law is fulfilled! Love people unconditionally and sacrificially. And loving ourselves isn’t talking about some kind of psychological “self-love”! It’s not saying we need to learn how to have a healthy self-image.
He’s just saying that we tend to take care of ourselves “more and better” than we take care of anybody else! So, we should be as concerned about the comfort, happiness, peace and joy of others as we are about our own!
It’s what the Bible is talking about when it says Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law or the prophets but to fulfill them! As His followers, we’re supposed to fulfill God’s law as well, but it has to come from a heart of love inside us… and that only comes when we trust in the work of Jesus Christ at the cross!
Jesus fulfilled God’s law obediently, perfectly and prophetically, which is also the perfect expression of God’s love! Every way Jesus was called to fulfill God’s plan, He fulfilled it with perfect love! So, we’re called to love and if we love we fulfill God’s law!
John 13:34-35 NIV - 34 “A New Command I Give you … Love One Another! ... As I have Loved you … So you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”
So, I want to read a paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13 that John MacArthur got from a mission group in South Africa! And it clearly explains how a true follower of Jesus is to think about the “Love of God and others”!
Paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13 from a Message by John MacArthur
“If I know their language perfectly and speak like a native, But don’t have God’s Love for them, I’m nothing. If I have diplomas and degrees and know all the up-to-date methods and technology, But don’t have The Mercy of God’s understanding Love, I’m nothing. If I am able to argue successfully against the false religions of the people and make fools of them, But don’t have God’s Compassionate Love, I am nothing. If I have :> - strong faith - great ideals - and magnificent plans, But don’t have The Love of Jesus that :> - sweats - bleeds - weeps – prays - and pleads, I’m nothing. If I give my clothes and money to them, But don’t explain The Unconditional Love God has for them, I’m nothing. If I give up all my plans for worldly wealth, leave my home and friends, make the sacrifices of a missionary career, But turn sour and selfish because of the daily annoyances and slights that the world throws at a follower of Jesus, And don’t have God’s Love that requires me to give up my :> - rights – leisure - and preferred plans, I am nothing. My Virtue will have ceased to exist. If I can heal all kinds of sickness and disease in an attempt to show that God’s Love is kind, But in the process I wound hearts and hurt feelings, I am nothing. If I write articles or publish books that win applause … But fail to Deliver The Truth of God’s Word and The Gospel of Jesus Christ with The Language of God’s Love, I am nothing.”
We owe a “debt of love” to Jesus and the only way we can repay Him is to love God and others the way He does! It’s possible because we have a new capacity. We’ve been given a new command, and the new command is that we love sacrificially and unconditionally!
God’s design is for us to fulfill His law! But His intention isn’t that we fulfill it through obligation, it’s that we fulfill it through the love Jesus provides us at salvation and then the sanctification we build the kingdom work we do through the Holy Spirit of God!
If there’s anything that marks a true follower of Jesus, it’s the expression of God’s sacrificially and unconditionally love from Him… through us… to the world! And the world is watching us … and so is Jesus!
It’s why it’s so important that our love of God and others aligns with Jesus in both the little things and the big things! It’s how God’s law is fulfilled through us… and our part of God’s plan is complete! We can be 100% confident that we have the ability to get it done because the Bible says…
Romans 8:38-39 NIV - 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from The Love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!
We know that the greatest example of love is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself! His love is the model… and His love is fully unconditional and sacrificial. He even gave Himself for those people who refuse “the gift”!