I Owe You - Part 1 (Romans 13:8-14)

Romans chapter 13, now verses 8 to 14. We are now in a brand new section of Romans chapter 13, and uh, this uh, next few weeks, we'll be bearing this title. I owe you. I owe you. And it's true. I owe you. But uh, because our Christianity uh operates on a two-way street, you owe me. And you'll see what that means in a moment. You owe one another. And um, what, what, what could all this mean? Well, I think it's going to become clear in Romans 13, starting at verse 8. I'll read the even-numbered verse. If you guys read nice and loud the uh, odd-numbered verses. Paul says to them, uh, "Owe no one anything except to love one another. For he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandment, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witnesses, you shall not covet, and if there's any other commandment, all are all summed up in this saying, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Verse 10, love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. And do this knowing the time that now is the high time to awake out of sleep. For our salvation is nearer than we first believed. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of the light. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision opportunity for the flesh to fulfill its lust."

Father God, we pray that these very words, these eternal truths that have been written down on page for 2,000 years would be our life's example and our life's purpose. May we live these truths out to your glory in Jesus name. And all God's people said, amen. Amen. You may be seated, church.

And so this title theme, "I owe you," comes on the heels of that great and awesome uh challenge that we read in our previous study in Romans chapter 13, uh verses 1 through uh 7. And uh, that is the call to you and I uh to be citizens, obedient, loving, standing for what's right, doing what's right, and that we would not fear, we wouldn't have to fear the government, that uh instrument of righteousness. Those first uh seven verses spoke about that we would be a people living in such a way that our life has been ordered by God, and we, we, we've been reminded of this. And now, and yet, I'll say it again, uh, we need guidance, we need uh leading, and that's where the Holy Spirit comes in. And those first seven verses taught us well that uh, God has given us his rule, and we are to obey that. And uh, if we go outside of that, uh, we can punish the, we can get punished, punished by the consequences. Uh, and God says that because he loves us. And uh, that's kind of something that is resistant in our culture today, which is wrong. Uh, meaning this, that if we love someone, especially our children, think about that, we are going to give them instruction. And when they disobey those instructions, they must pay a price. Why should they pay the price for what they did wrong? The answer is because you don't want them to keep doing that thing. It's not like, "Oh, I'm so glad you stepped out of line, Junior. Come over here because I've been waiting to give you a wallop." That's not parenting. That's insanity. But when your kid does wrong, that's what we learned in those first seven verses. Or when a culture does wrong, what are we supposed to do? And that is this, that you are punished for those acts of disobedience so that you don't do them again.

And uh, I was in a store yesterday and um, I noticed that the woman at the register was incredibly distracted. And I said, "Is there anything I can do to help you?" And she said, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She said, "People back near the back of the store, they've been coming in here and other stores around here, and they've been robbing stores. They've been taking of of stuff, and I got my, I got my associate back there." And she's keeping an eye on it. I said, "Well, who's in the store right now?" And she said, "Well, it's just me and my associate." I said, "How many of them?" I said, "Where are they?" And she moved her eyes this way. And I said, "Let me move, let me put my back to them so you can look at them and talk to me." I said, "What are they doing right now?" And she's telling me. And I said, "Have you notified the authorities?" And she said, "We kind of stopped doing that." And then on top of it, we were told by corporate not to do that anymore because they don't want us to get embroiled in some shootout or some tangle with some bad guys because frankly, the shoes we sell are not worth the life of of one of our associates." Said, I said, "That's wise. That's wise." And she said, "But you know what? It's horrible and it's getting worse." She said, "Nobody does anything about it anymore."

And so, um, I'm not going to tell you how the rest of the story goes, but I will say this that, um, where there is no fear of ramifications, you have lawlessness. And lawlessness is evil. It is evil. And so in verse seven of last time, last week, it says, "Render therefore to all their due." Watch how this goes right into this study today. "Taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, and honor to whom honor." Honor. And that word honor meant this interesting. The word is *phobos*. Yes, *phobos* in the Greek is the word for fear. But listen, like many of the Greek and Hebrew words, or maybe even English words, context determines the meaning of words that have multiple meanings. One word can have multiple meanings. And *phobos*, if you have phobias, okay, I have, I don't know if it's a phobia. I'm not sure if I have any phobias. I'm not exactly sure. Maybe I have a phobia of being ignorant of phobias. I, I don't know. But uh, I don't like snakes. Do I have a phobia of snakes? I don't. I mean, I don't lay awake at night thinking, "Is there a snake in my room?" I don't like snakes, and I don't like weird bugs. I don't like weird bugs. I could never have been a missionary. I'm sure God, when God was deciding on sending out missionaries, they said, "We can send anybody but Jack. He won't do well with a bug with a with a 5-foot long snake in his tent or this, you know, this 12-inch spider. He's just going to pass out. He won't be able to do anything." So that's me. And um, but you might have a phobia of some sorts. Uh, some people have the phobia of heights or whatever. This word is also translated in a good sense that you are to have this incredible reverential awe and honor to love others. Have you ever thought about that way? That love is to be operated in the believer's life with a sense of awe. We are commanded to love one another. Tremendous words.

And so we now focus on what we could say is a greater section regarding God's law. Last week we talked about the government of God. Well, what could be more important than that? The love of God operational in our lives. Just two introductory verses. Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18. Please write it down. Leviticus 19:18 says, "You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself." And look at the, because this is the why. "I am the Lord." God says you are to, you are commanded to love one another. And we're going to talk about that today. And I'm going to, I'm going to warn you right now. Um, I cannot, I must not uh, pull any punches because this sermon here, this message, this text that's before us demands that we address what is known as church discipline. It's in the Bible, but it's rarely ever practiced because, I think, for the fear of man. So, for example, this church is packed out right now, first service. There's a chance, and I'm not being cute about this, there's a chance that if I'm true to the word of God this morning, you may not come back next week because you won't like it because you might get hit right between the heart over some of the things that are brought up here today. And yet, God will be saying to you right now, "I'm hitting you right now with my spiritual paddles, clear boom, to drive home a truth to you that I love you and I want you to depart from this particular thing or of this or that, and I also have commanded you to love." And so today, I think there's going to be a lightning rod of division between the Christian and the pretend Christian, the Christian and the almost Christian. And there's going to be a, I think, a great awakening in our own heart over this. God says, "You will love your neighbor as you do yourself." Why should I do that? Because I am the Lord. Amen. If there was ever justification for the word, it's because it's coming from God. "You will do this. You're my kid. You're my child. And you will do it because I am the Lord."

And then it's 1 John chapter 4, verse 18. 1 John 4:18 and 19 says, "For there is no fear in love. Perfect love cast out all fear. Cast out fear. Because fear involves torment." Wow. Think of this for a moment. Are you loved? If you're really loved, it's void of torment. If you're really loved, it is not a terrifying situation or experience if you're really loved. But he who fears has not been made complete or perfect in love. We love him, that is God, because he first loved us. Foundation love. Mark it down, church. Number one, it's this: "I owe you." And it's this, verses 8-10. And it's, "I owe you love." It's obvious. That's where we, we begin. "I owe you love." And we see it in verse 8. It says, "Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law." So write this down if you would please. Verse eight is this: "I owe you the law of love." And it's this. As a Christian, don't raise your hand. Don't make any movement. If I say, if we say we are Christians, it's a huge statement to say we're Christians. It's to say I'm a Christ follower. I wish people would stop saying that they're Christians. Isn't that a terrible thing to say? I wish people would stop saying that they're Christians just to make things clear. And I, I wish we would adopt this: "I'm a Christ follower." Because I think if we move from Christian to Christ follower, we might lose some of the chaff that has muddied up the witness of being a Christian. So many people assume they're Christians because they have an American passport. "Well, I was born in the Bible Belt. I must be a Christian." Christian by assumption, Christian by religion, and God knows nothing of it. What will be the criteria that would expose the reality or the truth that if you're really a Christian or a Christ follower? Is it church membership? Is it how much you serve? Is it how much you pray? Is it how much you give? No. None of it. What qualifies you and what causes you and I to be confirmed in our profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is if I am loving, biblical loving, not the love of the world, which is sick and perverse. The love of the world says things like this: "Love is love." That is a stupid statement. You don't even know what you're saying when you say that. "Love is love." God is the only one that is able to define love. Just as we learned last week, he's the only one who is able to define what government is because he's the, he's the creator of government. But regarding love, listen, he's not the creator of love. The Bible says he is love. He is love. What comes from him is from his very nature, his core. The very God of the Bible, he says of himself, "God is love." And that love covers the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Did you all hear me? Listen. Genesis to Revelation. And what do you see with God from Genesis to Revelation that exposes the very love of God? Well, what about this big event? What about the flood? He flooded the whole world and who knows how many billions of people perished. An act of love. Well, what about the book of Revelation when he comes back on fire? An act of love. Just because you and I don't understand it doesn't mean he has lost his love. He cannot lose love. His love doesn't go up or down. Isn't that wonderful? It doesn't diminish. It can't go any higher. He's the perfection of love. Amen.

And the Bible tells us here, for you and I to owe no man anything except to love them. Now, technically, this is a, an accounting term. It's actually, uh, words of accounting and math. And when it says, "Owe no man anything," uh, the word is, uh, on your recordkeeping, on your ledger, make sure that there's a zero balance in the area of owing people whatever you owe them. Now, let me explain this. You have probably heard this as I have heard this, that this pertains to money. It's, "Oh, this is a financial thing. Owe no man anything except to love them." And people, watch this, people. There's, listen, there's uh, there's financial advisors that are in the Christian world that will tell you, "Now, this verse here in Romans, it's telling you that you're to owe no man anything." They don't finish the rest of the verse, which says, "except to love one another." Don't owe anyone anything. Meaning you can't, listen now. Are you listening? It doesn't mean that you cannot take out a loan to buy a house. It does not mean that. But people want it to mean that. But it doesn't mean that. Listen, I say this safely. It doesn't mean you can't own a credit card. That's not what it means. It doesn't. Listen, in fact, throughout the Bible, there is great knowledge and wisdom in the Bible about paying your debts. Did you know that? In fact, watch this. To pay your debts, the Bible says we need to be faithful to be paying our debts. The Bible is no fan of bankruptcy. There's areas where, yes, bankruptcy is a law within the United States of America. And it is, and actually, I don't know if you know this, but the founding of bankruptcy was based upon redemption, to redeem you out of your slavery and have you start over again. Now, look, you and I live in an age because it's lawless. People use bankruptcy as a mode of of operating their lives and their financial life as a tool, and that is corruption. I just want you to know that it's lying. When it says, "Owe no man anything except to love them," it again, it doesn't mean that you cannot get involved in what is uh, known as a secured loan. Many of you in this room, uh, you don't own your home. You have a home. Well, actually, the bank owns your home. You live in your home that you call your home. And uh, this is important. You call it your home. And you say so by faith. You say so by uh, commitment. You signed a piece of paper, did you not? You said, "I am going to make payments to the bank to pay back this loan." And I signed it. And God expects you and I to make those payments. It's a very important thing.

It also means this. When you and I, as a believer, sign or say, do you remember in the old days? I tell you what, man. My dad was big on this and he did not mess around. Plus, my dad was scary and you, you didn't want to mess around anyway. My dad could care less if you signed any piece of paper because my dad's, my dad's old farm boy experience is this: anybody can hire the right attorney to make that signature go away. You think about that for a moment. Listen, you and I live in a new world. In early America, you lived like my dad lived. You shake on it. That's right. My dad was not a Christian, but he, well, I mean, thank God he died a Christian. He didn't grow up as one. But my dad would tell us, "Shake on it. Or if you said you would be there, or if you said you would do it, do it." And he said, "I don't care how much you have to suffer to keep your word. You do it." Listen, that's biblical truth that I, I didn't know my dad was teaching this Bible. Neither did he. "Let your yes be yes and your no be no." Keep your word. And when you say to your son or your daughter, or to your mom or your dad, or to your boss, or to your employees, unless some overwhelming issue mitigates what has just happened, and by the way, if it does, share it with them. You've got to keep your word. And when you stand before God in a wedding and you exchange your promises before God, the Bible says, "Keep your word." Amen. And the Bible tells us right here that we're to owe nobody anything but love. So for those of you who have been told you can't make payments on anything, you got to, that's, that's not true. Now, I have to insert this. This is not a financial seminar. But paying on your home is a good thing. There are certain financial advisors. I get it. I know where they're coming from publicly. They can't say what they really practice privately. Let me explain. It's not that they're hypocrites. It's that they can't trust people to actually discipline themselves. There are certain financial advisors in the Christian community, for example, that will say, "You can't, I don't even want you owning a credit card." They're very, very popular and they're extremely wealthy people also. They don't need credit cards. But here's the truth of the matter, and this has nothing to do with the Bible study except to give you just some, I think, Holy Spirit wisdom. If I'm going to go buy a battery for my brand new 1963 Ford pickup, which all of you are all of you are like, "That's it. It's going to fall apart any moment." That's why I bought it. It's, it's an act of mercy. I, it's a rescue truck. Everybody's asking me, "Are you going to fix it up?" No. It's going to remind me about my life and what Jesus did for me. And so if I buy a new battery, if that battery is $100 and I have $100 cash in my pocket, or if I have a credit card in my pocket that gives me points, I ain't using my cash. I'm going to use my credit card because I'm going to pay it off at the end of 30 days. I'm not going to let those people charge me interest. I'm going to make money from them. Don't use a credit card unless you can make money using their credit card. Use their money, not yours. Does that make some sense? Get your battery. Don't pay any interest, but get points and you're making money. Does that make sense? It's so simple. And if you operate that all your life, I've had the honor of doing that. My dad told us at the age of 18, "This is what you do. You, you just turned 18, you're getting a credit card right now, and this is how you're going to use it." Wow. Amazing.

Now, some people say, "Don't, don't say that. It's all wrong. It's wrong. Not everybody can handle that kind of freedom." Right? But when the Bible says, "Owe no man anything," do not become indebted to them on anything that causes your relationship to be, uh, on edge. Because when you owe something to somebody, there's a little division between you. You don't even say so. "Oh, but we're Christian brothers." Yeah, but you know what? I owe you money. And you know that, they know that you still owe them money, and it's there. You can feel it. Nobody says it, but you can feel it. And the Bible says, "Nope, don't do that. Don't do that." But, however, here's what you owe one another. Love them. Love them.

The Bible tells us in Galatians chapter 5, verses 13 and 14, "For you, brethren, have been called to liberty. Only do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." Listen to verse 14. "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" This is not an option. See, listen. This is why next week there'll be less of you here, and I'm fine with it. Stop playing the game. If you are not struggling to love people more, can, can I get an amen on this? Do you, don't you and I struggle to love people more? Here's the beautiful thing about it is, I'm struggling to love people more because I know I should love them more. And so I'm asking God to help me to love them more. When before I was a Christian, it was, I not only hate them, I am so happy to hate them. They make me sick. I can't stand them. And they just fell off the end of the pier, and I was the one applauding. That's how we used to be. And then God loved us and he changed our heart, and his love for us made us grateful. And then God says to us, "Now that I've loved you, you go love other people." And so when we read this, "to love your neighbor as yourself," you don't have to ask, "Who's my neighbor?" Remember that young man who said, "Jesus, uh, who is my neighbor?" And of course, he went on to speak of the great announcement of the Samaritan, where that man did not know that wounded man that was on the ground. The point was this man who was a Samaritan, not a Jew. Listen, he was a Samaritan. He's a half-breed, despised by the Jewish people. Jesus said, "A Samaritan came along on the road and helped this poor man that was near death." And that was a slam against those who thought they were loving their neighbor by themselves keeping the law. Meaning this, Jesus said that you think you keep the law because you tithe every bit of mint and every bit of herb and every bit of, uh, harvest that you have and you give it to God, and you study your scriptures, and you pray so much, and you think you're loving God by keeping the law like that, and you let someone suffer. Some, you, somebody in your life is hungry. You walk by and you see a man that is on the road, and Jesus said you walk around the man so you don't get near him, and then you say you love God. Jesus said, "You do not know God. You don't love God." It's impossible. That shocks us because we think, "Yeah, I mean, good works are important, right?" Listen, good works are important when they're in their place. Did you hear that? Good works are important when they are in their place. If you put good works ahead of loving God, you're messed up because you will trust in your good works and you're going to say things like this, "God, you got to let me into heaven because I've done a bunch of good things." And you've never loved God first. When you love God first and do good things, then those good things are accepted because why? They're packaged in love. They're packaged in love.

How many things do you and I actually enjoy? So, for example, have you ever had a better, let's say you go to a pizza place and and and the service is amazing. We just had this happen. I'm actually speaking truthfully to you. Lisa and I went to California Pizza Kitchen the other day and and we had this, we love this. There's a particular pizza there that's just incredible. We had it, but the, I was distracted. I was distracted because the waiter was so good. I told him, "You're amazing." He was so good. And I said, "Lisa, you've got to leave this guy a huge tip." You know what? I didn't have my wallet. We were, man, we're scrambling around. She's going through her purse. I'm going through her purse. We're just pulling out coinage. We're getting stuff. We couldn't find enough to to, we, we wanted to give the guy everything. You want to know why? There's better pizzas in the world. Didn't matter. It was him. Look, he made such an impression on a Sunday morning. I'm talking about him right here, right now. When something's packaged in love, man, that goes a long way. Well, there's better this, there's better that. But is it wrapped in love? There are people who pray longer than we do. There are people who give more than we do. There are people who witness more than we do. There are people who knock on doors more than we do. But they don't love God first. We must love God first. And the evidence of that is to see us loving one another as ourselves. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 4, you know it well. This is the very nature of God. The nature of Christ Jesus in the flesh. And this is the pursuit of the believer. "Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself. It is not puffed up. Does not behave rudely. Does not seek its own. Is not provoked. It thinks no evil. Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Speaking about love. Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." This is the love of God. And God turns to us and he says, "Now I want you, because you're loved like this by me, Jack, you now turn and love others like that."

Imagine if we live in a world, imagine if, imagine if half the world started practicing this today. You want to, how, listen, how, how bad I, I need to say this on a college campus. Uh, how bad do you want to stop, uh, world hunger? "Oh, stop world hunger." Everybody would agree with you on that. Doesn't matter what color their hair is. They're going to say, "Stop world hunger." Yes. Yeah. Really? Okay. Well, here's the deal. And everything would go fine until I'd say a certain thing. I'd say, "Love one another." "Yeah. Right on. Right on, man. Let's do it." And then, just to make sure that everybody understands, I would say, "Jesus said to love one another, to love your neighbor as yourself." "Who, Jesus said that?" "Well, I don't know if I can do that." The Bible says, "Love one another." Jesus' entire ministry was the display of his love for one another and his love for you and me. And imagine if we were to stop. You want to stop world hunger? If we start loving one another, this is how it would happen. People would stop going to war with each other. People would get along. People would actually do what we used to do back in the olden days. We would suffer ourselves for the better good, for the greater good. We would say, "Well, it's not going exactly my way." But if we meet halfway, we do see that the, that the hungry will, will be fed. Everybody's polarized in their own little universe. You want to know why? Because nobody loves anybody anymore. "The love of many have grown cold." Jesus warned in the last days. It's going to happen. It's one of the signs of the last days. A loveless world, a loveless culture. Why is there the law of God written on stone through Moses? To show us what's right and wrong. But listen, the greater law is the law of love. People get all caught up in keeping the law. In fact, among our Jewish friends, the biggest, the biggest conversation is, "Keep the Sabbath. Keep the Sabbath. Keep the Sabbath." Isn't it interesting that when the New Testament came along, written by Jews? Uh, it's never once brought up in the epistles about keeping the Sabbath. Keeping the Sabbath. Is it funny? I don't care if you keep all ten commandments. Good luck. You can't. But what if you did? Let's give you that. What's the first one? Anybody know? Anybody remember the first one? If you keep the first one, you don't have to worry about nine. If you love God, you're going to wind up loving your neighbor. You don't have to worry about all the other stuff. You're going to see that if I hurry up, you're going to see that clearly.

John chapter 13, verse 34. Jesus said, "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you." Isn't that interesting? By the way, it was not a new commandment the way that you're thinking, though. The Old Testament had said that. You just read it a moment ago in Leviticus. "Love one another." You said, "Well, what was Jesus saying? A new commandment I give you." Let me, let me tell you because Jesus was the one saying it right there, and that the Holy Spirit would soon be coming. When Jesus said, "A new commandment I give you," it goes like this: The new commandment I give you, this is the one you're going to do. Isn't it? It's not the one you're going to fail at. It's the one you're going to do. It's not on stone. I'm going to write it on your heart. And it's this: When you understand what I'm going to do for you at the cross and rise from the dead, you are going to find out how much you're loved by the almighty God. And you'll be so grateful. You're just going to just blow up into this blossom of love. And you're going to love those that are unlovable.

Look, this is graduation season, is it not? A lot of youth, a lot of stuff with youth. You, there's youth meetings, and I was, Lisa and I have been with some youth recently and just all this kind of stuff. And and um, you know, when you're young, and I, I told a group of youth, I don't know how many, I don't know how many, maybe 200, 300 youth, I don't remember. Uh, just this last maybe Friday. I think it was Friday, not sure. Um, but I, I told them, I said, "It's time for you to grow up." And one of the things that you need to grow up, uh, is you as believers, you need to love each other and you need to put an end to cliques. And you need to put, I, I want kids, listen, I said, "You need to put an end to cliques right now." Well, we're, we're this group and well, we're that group and we're, we're the nerd group and we're the cool group and we're the athletic group and we're the, we're the whatever group. You need to stop it because here's the, here's the, here's the truth. And I told them this, "Right now, your cliques, they mean the world to you, but the only way to stop it is by loving one another." And kids, hey, guess what? You, you think it's tough right now, all this clique stuff. You're going to go get a job. Some, you're going to go to the university. You're going to go to work for a company. Oh, you want to talk about cliques? Oh, you haven't seen a clique. Those kind of clicks are throat-cutting clicks. Those kind of clicks will absolutely destroy you so the next guy can get to the top of the ladder to get your job and your pay and have you get fired. You want to talk about clicks, kids? You keep this going. If you don't, if you don't determine now to love even your enemies, you'll be constantly consumed by clicks because it's only going to get worse. And the only way to stop it is love. Practical, real, biblically based love.

And Jesus again, John chapter 13, I started reading that verse, uh, 34 and 35. He says, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another." Verse 35, "By this all will know that you are my disciples." Oh my goodness, everybody listen. By this you're going to know that you belong to me if you have love one for another. Practical living love. John 15:12. I'm asking you to write these down and then, then we'll move on. John 15:12, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends." We could all say amen to that. But that also means that those that are around you, listen, this is the easiest right now. We're in class right now. The people here, they're, they're your neighbor. Say, "Well, I have, I have neighbors in my neighborhood." You have neighbors in your neighborhood, but the love of God starts in the house of God first. You're to love one another, and you need to do that. And here's the truth of the matter. Listen, big church, big blessings. Big church, big problems. Anybody could come here at any given time. We have no membership. People could just show up, and they do. Some people come to cause trouble, and they do. But one of the greatest things, you can't, you can't capture this on surveillance camera or anything else. And that is an attitude. There are people who come in and out of this place. They might even be faithful to come, but they're as lost as the day is long. They don't care what Jesus has to say to them. They treat their husband like dirt. They cheat on their wives. They're all into porn. Or they beat their kids, or the kid is sneaking out of the house at night knowing his parents love him, but, uh, he loves pleasure more than he loves his parents. And he certainly loves pleasure more than God. People know, some people do, some people act in certain ways, and they, they keep coming to church. And some people say that God told me to tell you it's okay for me to have a woman on the side. Don't, don't, don't be surprised over this. You're not a Christian. You're going to really, you're a Christian? "I'm a Christian." "I'm a Christian adulterer." Yeah. Yeah. Really? If you're a Christian adulterer, then you're taking Jesus into your adultery. So, just remember this. The next time you're with that girl, open up the door and say, "Jesus, come on in." Because that's what you've done. Now, see, you're not really doing that because you're not a Christian. Can a man fall? Can a woman fall? Asked King David. But can you live like that? Christians cannot live like that. It's not possible. The Holy Spirit will not allow it. If the Holy Spirit dwells in you, he will make you repulsed at these things. And yet, there's people that come in and out through the doors of any church, and they think they're fine with God. They, listen, they insult his intelligence. They insult his spirit. They mock him. And they think that they are okay with God. They're not okay with God.

In 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 22, 1 Peter 1:22, it says, "Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart." My goodness, I could go on. 1 Peter 4:8, "And above all things, have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins." Not point them out, not point them out, not blame, not make it the other person's fault, but love will cover a multitude of sins. Mark 12:31, "And the second is like it, the law, that is the commandment. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. For there's no other commandment greater than these." And then finally, right here, Romans 12, verses 9-10. "Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another." And then church, in verse nine, we owe love to one another because, listen, "I owe you the proof of his love." And this is both, listen, in the negative and in the positive. In a negative article, by the way, I read this week regarding in preparing for this. In this article, it went on to talk about this, and I'll give you the, the quote here. It says, "The Jesus of their religion," this person was speaking about Christians. "The Jesus of their religion emphasized that loving others is as important as loving God. This command is the cornerstone of the Christian faith." These guys were laughing about this comment and the measure of true discipleship. They were mocking. They were laughing about that statement right there. But listen, read the statement. Is it not true? 100% true. But they were laughing because their particular exposure had taught them that it's not true. This is what they say, but it's not what they do. And Jesus would say to the unbeliever, "They're correct. They are correct about the assessment of the church at large is that loving God and loving one another is the cornerstone of their faith." But is it to be believed?

There's a quote by McGee, of course. He says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Now, you can almost hear his voice, right? "Can I do it? I'll try." "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Now, don't tell me that you love someone and are committing adultery with that one. You can, you can call that love if you want to, but it is nothing in the world but sex. It is licentiousness. It is fornication. And it is sin in God's sight. God hasn't changed his mind about it. And I, and that, that, that is powerfully true. If you and I love one another, we cannot be committing adultery. You have to be married to commit adultery. If you're, if you're having sex outside of marriage, that's called fornication. Marriage out, uh, sex that breaks up the marriage is called adultery. And you cannot be a Christian and practice adultery. You can be a Christian that falls and commits adultery, but that Christian will be the first one to jump up out of out of their skin, so to speak, and say, "I got my eyes off of Jesus. I fell. I repent." And by the way, when they repent, they have no conditions. Listen up, everybody. This is free. This is free what you're about to hear. When somebody comes back to you, when your spouse comes back and says, "I'm sorry." "What are you sorry for?" You know, don't fill in the blanks for them. You'll never know if they're repenting. When they say, "I'm sorry." You know, it's just some, you know, people do that. You know, throw them out. That's not repentance. That's not repentance. You won't, you won't have to solicit repentance from them. They will come on their belly with tears, never to do it again, hating the sin because it offended the holy God because they loved God first.

How can you love somebody when he says here in this verse, remarkably, he says, "You shall not commit murder." You know, I just, I just love you bunches, but I'm going to kill you. You can't. Listen. You can't love God, and you can't love your neighbor if you're stealing stuff from them. "Well, it was only a dollar." It doesn't matter if it was a penny that we are now not going to make anymore as a country. Doesn't matter. How do you, how can you love somebody and lie about them? Bear false witness. You, you don't love them. How can we love somebody if we covet what they have? "They got what?" Yeah. Did you hear? He just got a big promotion. He's going to make a million dollars a minute. He's what? And now you get all angst inside. "Well, what's your problem?" "Nothing." "Oh, I see. I see a little coveting going on there. I see." What? This is what this means. I don't want him to have it. I want to have what he has. I'm not happy that he has it. I should have gotten it. I deserve that. This happens at work all the time when somebody gets a promotion, or when somebody gets a pat on the back, or when somebody covets someone else's relationship. That could lead to dangerous things. If there is any other commandment, they're all summed up in this saying, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Verse 9 teaches us. Very powerful. James chapter 2, verse 8, the Bible tells us, "If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you do well." And so I'm going to give you a proof positive as to how it may be difficult for your, uh, friends, family, spouse to come back next week. And I don't say this to be funny, but I'd rather expose truth and you deal with it. Verse 10 ends by the scripture saying to us, "Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law." And that is, "I owe you everything good." Friends, listen. I, Jack, owe you everything that I can possibly do for you that is good. Do you understand? Watch this. Watch. Do the math. You owe me the same. But take me out of the picture. Put me in the pews and bring up Susie and put her here. And that equation is true. Do you see what I'm saying? If we were to bring every single one of you up in this service individually, one at a time, the equation's true. We owe you. And he would owe us. Do you see this beautiful thing? We would not do each other harm. The word means we wouldn't scheme or plot to somehow be up over the other at their expense. So yeah, this is church discipline built into this. It's not a happy thing, but it's a reality. It is important for us to make sure that our profession matches our actions. And I am pleading because not only does this church agree with what I'm about to say, but ministers that I know across the United States, we're all going through the same thing. There's a pandemic, and no mask is going to help you like it ever could. No vaccine can help you like it ever could. There's a pandemic that is far worse than anything that can be grown in a petri dish. There's a pandemic of the destruction of marriage right now like never before seen. Just in these last five months of this new year, the gates of hell seem to have been swung open off their hinges from coast to coast, border to border, where Christian homes are breaking up. You want to know why? Because somebody in the marriage decided to love themselves more than God. And everybody pays so you can have your jollies. And you have no idea, but you will pay for the damage that it's done to others' lives. And I, I, we cannot sit idle in this. This has put the fear of God in you. I hope so. I'm just a mere little man. I'm nothing. Can you imagine if Jesus were to say, "I know you called upon my name. I know you even had a Bible study group. You even did miracles. You cast out demons. Depart from me. I never knew you." Wow. My dear friends, please. Look, let's stand. I'll say it this way, but you have to stand. We're way over. Listen, I'll, I'll put it this way. Here's, here's the thing. You are invited to stop my grandkids. Ask them, "Who is your papa when he's not on the on the stage?" You stop my kids. Ask them, "Who's your dad when he's not on the stage?" Ask Lisa, "Who is he?" Tell us who he is. I owe you that. You owe me that. If I love you, I must stop you and say, "How's your husband doing? How are you guys doing?" To stop your kids. How are your parents doing? When a young girl, 16 years old, comes up to me last Wednesday night, starts, she's all nervous, and she starts to talk, and she starts, breaks, she starts balling, and I thought, "Oh boy, this is going to be an ugly story. This is going to be sad." Boy, was I surprised. She said, "I started coming to this church during COVID. It changed my life so much. My dad, tough LAPD, he saw the change going on in my life. My dad started coming to the church." She said, "My dad got saved." And I wanted to tell you, Pastor Jack, I'm here to report on my parents. This church has changed my parents' marriage. It's changed our home. And it's changed the trajectory of my life." She said, "That's what's possible if you love God first." In Jesus name. And all God's people said, "Amen."