Christian Motivation

Romans thirteen, verses eight through fourteen. Hear the word of

the Lord. Oh, no one anything except to love each other.

For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

For the commandments you shall not commit adultery, you shall

not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet

and any other commandment are summed up in this word.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no

wrong to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfilling.

Of the law.

Besides this, you know the time, if the hour has

come for you to wake up from sleep, For salvation

is nearer to us now the one we first believed.

The night is far gone. The day is at hand.

So let us cast off the works of darkness and

put on the armor of light. 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. This is the word

of the Lord. Came home on a Boeing seven thirty seven.

This twin jet engine airliner. And that is the image

that I have in mind as we look at this passage.

These two engines, these two engines.

Of what we could call Christian motivation. Christian motivation, that's

the title of my message this morning. It won't be

up on the screen. That's what happens when I get

here too in the morning. You'll be able to track.

It's a two point message, Christian motivations.

Paul has been in.

Throughout Romans the twelfth chapter, in the first part of

Romans the thirteenth chapter, giving us all kinds of specific

instructions laying out what it means to live this life

of faith in Jesus Christ. Weave with those who weep,

mourn with those who mourn. Do not think more highly

of yourself than you ought. Submit to the governing authorities.

He's gotten all these instructions, helpful, need that guidance, need

God's word. But then in this way he zooms out

a little bit and he goes a little bit deeper

into what we could call Christian motivations. Why do we

do what we do? Will we find the power to

do what we do? How are we guided through this thing?

How do we keep this thing in the air good

thing too, in particular for Crossway Bible Church, because I'll

just tell you, the pastoral conversations that I have with

most of you are rarely about the details of Christian doctrine.

They are usually about Christian motivation pastor how do I

keep this thing in the air. And this passage gives

us two. Now I'm not saying that there's only two.

The scripture actually gives us a nice bouquet of motivations

in this Christian life. But this passage focuses in on

these twin motivations for this life of faith that we're living,

the heartbeat and the pulse of this life. For this

life of faith to fly right, we need properly operating motivations.

Here's the first one Paul gives us here, Christian.

Love. Christian love.

This paragraph is actually pretty fascinating.

It answers the question.

What is at the heart of Christian ethics, What is

at the heart of the moral choices that we're called

on to make individually and sometimes as a group. How

does it operate? What's it put together? Of Let's make

some observations. For one, start with this, Oh, no one

anything except to love each other.

Oh no one anything.

So what Paul's just keying in on the word that

was in the prior sentence, right, pay everyone whom they

are owed, honor to honor, respect to respect, taxes to taxes.

And then he says, oh, no one anything except this.

What he's saying is discharge all your debts.

Right.

That's not saying you can't carry a mortgage or anything.

He's just saying, hey, if you owe pay, if you

owe pay. And then he says, this here is an

ongoing obligation. You will never discharge this.

You owe all of your.

Life in Christ to love, he says, because love fulfills

the law. In other words, real love does what is right.

All the commandments, all the commandments of the law. He says,

this one, and this one, and this one and any

other commandment are summed up in this word. Love your

neighbor as yourself. All the law, all the law. Love

Love gathers all the commandments of the law into a net.

He said, Well, hold on a second, I thought Christ

fulfilled the law.

Yeah, you'd be right.

Christ has fulfilled all of the law. He has filled

up all the righteous requirements of the law. On our behalf,

praise the Lord. That doesn't mean we don't have a

law to live by. And yes, Christ also nullified part

of the law, the food law, for example, But that

doesn't mean that we don't have a law to live by.

In fact, Christ amplified the law.

Remember the Sermon on the Mountain. You've heard that it

was said, do not murder. But I say to you,

do not be angry with your brother. You've heard that

it was said to not commit adultery. But I say

to you, whoever looks at a woman lustfully has committed

adultery with her in his heart. Don't say we don't

have a law to live by. You can call it

the law of Christ. Just scan across the pages of

the New Testament, and you can see that Jesus has

a way for us to live. And if you net

it all together, it's love. Situation here amongst the Romans

is that there's a lot of debate.

Going on with.

Them about what's in and what's out this way that

Jesus has for us to live, Like what's what's a

part of that and what is not necessarily a part

of that? And and and Paul just comes in and

he just just cuts through the knot of the debate,

which is helpful for us too, because to this day,

everybody's always having this conversation like, what's the.

Part of what the way Jesus wants to live? What's

not a part of this way?

And Paul just cuts right through the knot of the

debate by getting to the heart of Christian morality. And

it's this, real love and right living go together. You

can't cut it in half. You can't cut it in half.

That's how he finishes the paragraph. He says, this love,

there's no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore love is the

fulfilling of the law right.

In other words, it goes both ways.

Real love leads to right living, and right living must be.

Tied to real love.

To quote my man, doctor Tom Shiner, probably my favorite

living theologian. He says this regarding this passage. If love

is cut free for many commandments, it easily dissolves into

formless sentimentality. But if one begins to focus on the

commands and lose his side of love, then rigidity, legalism,

and clever self justifying arguments are sure to follow. In

other words, you can't cut it in half reminds me

of you know wise King Solomon, who when two mothers

were disputing with one another, one was deceitful and one

whose heart was right and true, and which to tell,

how to tell which was which, because they were both

arguing over the same child, saying, this child is mine,

this baby is mine. And Solomon says, well, we'll just

cut the baby in half, and you can have one

part and you can have the other. And instantly the

one whose heart was right and true said, none of.

That's not gonna work.

You can't take something that's real and living and operating

and just cut it in half and expect to have

something living and real and operating afterwards.

You can't cut it in half.

And Jesus said he was on this earth in his

earthly ministry, continued to just call this out over and

over again.

You hypocrites.

You're so meticulous with what you think is the right

way to live, in tithing everything that comes out of

your garden, even and yet you neglect the weightier matters.

You're trying to cut it in half. And there's the

God of the universe just standing there amongst them in

the flesh, the God of love and the God who

wrote the law, saying, you can't cut me in half.

Right living must be tied to real love. You can't

cut it in half.

And yet how many of us, how often.

Slide to one side of thinking, maybe at some points

believing that it's just as long as we're warm towards others,

as long as we're have a general sense of affection,

then our moral choices don't matter that much real love,

at least right living. But maybe maybe others of us,

maybe more often give all our thought, or most of

it at least, and our energy to just continuing to

do the meticulously right things, with very little attention to

the affection and the goodwill and the forelness being for

the other.

That Christ calls for. You can't cut it in half.

When real love and right living are properly together, it

moves all kinds of things forward. It is a jet engine.

It revolutionizes things. There's no set of instructions for every

circumstance in life, individually or collectively.

So how are you gonna how are you gonna blast

through this thing?

How are you gonna keep this thing in the air?

Quite honestly, I don't think it's a stretch at all

to say some of the greatest most beautiful changes in

history have resulted from Christians collectively asking this question in earnest,

what does our ongoing debt of love.

Mean at this moment in history?

What does our ongoing debt of love mean at this

moment in history? That's the question that William Wilberforce continued

to call up in front of his fellow lawmakers over

and over again. You professing Christians, you, my fellow lawmakers,

what does our ongoing debt of love require of us

at this moment in history? And he would not let

that question go until the English Empire abolished slavery all

over the world. A replace the English flag flew and

that was the question that drove it. We oh love,

and we can get super meticulous, We can just to

fy ourselves in so many ways, trying to.

Figure out a way to cut Jesus in half.

You know, it doesn't just revolutionize the world, that question

and a revolutionize your own life. Now, I said, there

are two engines on this plane in this passage, these

Christian motivations. That's the first one Christian love. The second

Christian motivation answers this question, just how pressing.

Is all of this?

Like if I owe an ongoing debt of love? How

soon is payment due? Can I drag my feet on this?

When does payment do?

Y'all?

It's a three letter words, starts with N ends with our.

Paul gets at it right away. He just plants his

foot and pivots into that second paragraph with this, besides this,

you know the time, and he lays out his case

for Christian urgency. That's the second motivation, Christian love and

Christian urgency. He says, besides this, you know the time,

you know what time it is. It's time to wake up.

He says, we're closer than ever. Jesus is coming back,

and we're closer today than we were yesterday. The night

is far gone, the day is at hand. It's almost day.

He's talking here about the day of the Lord. There

will come a day and it's coming fast, and we're

closer than ever when Jesus' foot is going to stand

on this earth, and he's going to say, let's talk

about how it's been going. Let's talk about what you've

been up to. He said, you know what, seems like

he's been coming for a long time. Peter picked up

that objection the apostle Peter in his letter, his second

letter that we have. He says, don't think that God

is slow. He is coming. Don't think that he's slow.

He's not slow the way you think of slow. Remember,

with God, a thousand years is like a day, and

a day is like a thousand years. But he is patient,

is what he is. And he desires all who will.

To repent. He desires all who will to repent. He's patient.

And let me just say, Christian, whether the day of

the Lord.

Is this afternoon.

Or not.

The Lord can bring.

Discipline into your life this afternoon.

Jesus said, be ready.

I want you to have a posture of readiness. The

one who says that they're my follower and yet has

a posture of of laxness. The one who thinks, you

know what, I've got plenty of time. I can drag

my feet on this. I don't have to I don't

have to pay this now is walking in disobedience. You

you got one engine out. The engine of Christian urgency

should be running on your plane.

Paul says, you know what time it is.

It's time to cast off works of darkness, put on

the armor of lights.

Time to suit up. It's like like it.

Is it is mourning. It is time to get your

work clothes on. It is time to get your uniform on.

You know what time it is. And then in verse thirteen,

it says it's time to repent urgently of sexual sin.

It's time to stop, and it's time to turn. It

is time to commit to sexual purity.

You know what time it is.

It is time for you to delete your porn stash

and never go back. That's what time it is, and

he says it's time for you to urgently repent of

relational sin. Also in thirteen, he says, not in sexual

immorality and sensuality, and not in quarreling and jealousy.

You know what time it is.

It's time to go to those relationships that you have

damage through quarreling or jealousy or any other kind of

relational sin, and to the best of your ability, as

much as you can, to put those relationships back.

Together and never walk in that way again.

It's time to put that stuff away, put on your uniform,

and get after the things that Jesus is after. You

know what time it is, and Paul sums it all up.

In verse fourteen, he says, but put on the Lord

Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to

gratify its desires.

Meaning all of this, all of this.

Christian love, Christian urgency. This means going all in on Jesus.

This means going all in on Christ's character, his teaching,

his priorities, his desires, and completely bailing on the flesh,

on our selfish fallen priorities and our desires. And Jesus,

Jesus is right there, He has risen and reigning and saying,

put on me, don't just hold me off to the side,

pretend like I'm something that you interacted with three years

ago or thirteen years ago or thirty years ago.

Put on me, walk in me. We'll keep this thing

in the air.

This isn't justification by works by the way, this isn't

what saves you. This is what saved people do. And

if you're trusting in Christ, why would you not Why

would you continue in works of darkness? If you're living

this life of faith, why would you hesitate to fly

with proper motivations? The heart beat and the pulse of

this life is this Christian love, real love and right living.

You can't cut them in half. And Christian urgency.

It's time him to be about the things that Christ

is about. M