Sunday, February 10, 2013
LIFE IN THE SPIRIT -- THE LIFE OF LOVE
Two weeks
ago we celebrated Dale's conversion with him.
We rejoiced in his baptism. We
praised God that he is no longer the same man he used to be. As someone pointed out, we rejoiced with the
angels in heaven over one sinner who repented (Luke 15:10). Praise God!
For months
we have been looking at the Holy Spirit, who comes to dwell not only in Dale,
but in every person who has repented and put his faith in Jesus Christ. As we rejoiced with Dale, we also
participated in a thorough remembrance of the gospel. There is good news in Jesus Christ. Jesus, who had always been in heaven with His
Father, came to this earth as a man. He
came to live among people who were rebels against His Father. He not only lived among such rebels, but He
loved them. Despite everything they did
to Him, Jesus never retaliated, but committed His cause to His Father (I Pet.
2:23). And finally, Jesus voluntarily
gave up His life and died on that cross.
It was there that God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we
might become the righteousness of God in Him (II Cor. 5:21). Yes, Jesus bore the wrath of His Father so
that we might not have to experience eternal separation from God. That is the good news. Those of you who have not yet repented of
your sins and trusted Jesus, who have not run away from sin and run to the
Savior, we are praying that the truth of the gospel might weigh upon you. We are praying that you might understand
Peter's message applies to you, when He says, "God has made that same
Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36). God commands all people everywhere to
repent (Acts 17:30). You will have no
real rest until you come to Jesus, who said, "Come unto me, all you who
labor and are heavyladen, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28).
But that
isn't the end of the good news of Christ.
After He died, Jesus rose again.
He appeared on the earth for 40 days, and then He ascended to heaven. From there at the right hand of the Father,
He sends His Holy Spirit to everyone who repents and trusts in Him. Jesus is true to His promise, for while He
was on earth He said, "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another
Helper, that He may abide with you forever" (John 14:16). Yes, every true believer has the Holy Spirit
living within. "Do you not know
that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you" (I
Cor. 3:16).
Most
recently we have been exploring what it means to walk in the Spirit. Last week we talked about being led by the
Spirit. Praise God that the Spirit
doesn't just guide us into truth, though He certainly does that, but He also
provides power to live a life that is pleasing to God. Because God has graciously given us His
Spirit, sin will not rule over us.
That brings
us to the question with which we are going to deal this morning. What kind of life is it that pleases
God? If we walk in the Spirit, what will
our lives be like? We think we know the
answer to that question, but I believe we are very fuzzy in this area. I believe I tend to be fuzzy when it comes to
understanding what the walk in the Spirit looks like. So that is what I want us to deal with this
morning.
I. Little Poem with an Enduring Message
Please
allow me to ask a simple question:
_________, can you crawl? You
can? Are you sure? How long has it been since you crawled? Would you mind coming up front and
demonstrating to us that you can crawl?...
Okay, would all of you agree that ________ can crawl? Now let me ask you another question: Why has it been so long since you
crawled? Since you are able to crawl and
you do it so well, why don't you do it every day? I am quite sure you can crawl better than any
8-month old. So why don't you crawl on a
regular basis? Oh, I see. You prefer walking. Why?
Oh, it's faster and it's easier.
So even though you are able to crawl, you deliberately walk
instead. I suspect that until I asked
you the question this morning, you haven't thought about crawling in a long,
long time. Thank you. Now I want all of us to take this knowledge
about walking and crawling and keep it in mind.
Now let's
consider a man who has been converted.
Let's just give him the name "John." (John, that won't offend you, will it? We're not talking about anyone here whose
first or middle name may be "John."
We are talking about a fictitious man that none of us know personally). John has recently been converted. We rejoice that God has rescued him and that
He will spend eternity with the Lord.
However, we also know that when a person comes to Christ, he is a new
creation. Old things have passed away;
all things have become new (II Cor. 5:17).
So let's take a look at the difference in John's life...
Before
Conversion After
Conversion
Cussing
Excessive drinking
Some drug usage
Watches questionable TV/movies
Loses his temper often
Doesn't read the Bible
Doesn't go to church
Cheats on his taxes
That's what
his life looks like before conversion.
So what will it look like after conversion? Just go over to the other side of our little
table and under "After Conversion" state the opposite of what we have
under "Before Conversion."
Surely that should be a pretty accurate description of the change in a
man after he has been converted. What a
difference! This is the question I want
to pose: Is that the essence of the
change when a person comes to Christ.
As you are
thinking on that, along with your newly acquired knowledge about walking and
crawling, I want to introduce you to a little poem. A few of you know it well, but I want all of
us to know it. Let me read you the first
part of it. Before I do, I should tell
you that it isn't certain who originally wrote this poem. It seems quite certain that it is at least
250 or 300 years old. Some have
attributed it to John Bunyan (1628-1688), better known as the author of Pilgrim's
Progress. Charles Spurgeon quotes it
as the work of John Berridge (1716-1793).
Still others believe it was authored by Ralph Erksine (1685-1752). Regardless of who wrote it, it begins like
this...
"Run, John, run" the law commands,
But gives us neither
feet nor hands.
Do you see
the point the author is making. Yes,
John may need to run, but it's foolish to command him to run, if he has no feet
or hands. The feet do the running, while
the hands and arms give balance to the body as it speeds along. That is a fitting picture of the law. The law tells us what to do, but it doesn't
give us any means of doing what it commands.
The law says, "Honor your father and mother." A thorough study of the law will demonstrate
something of what it means to honor father and mother. But the person who wants to obey that command
cannot find the power to carry it out.
When it comes to the ability to fulfill that command, the law is of no
help whatsoever. That is the point of
those words in the poem.
Now if I
were going to finish the poem, I might write something like this...
"Run, John, run" the law commands,
But gives us neither
feet nor hands.
But when the Spirit comes to lead,
Then we can run with
blinding speed.
The law can command us to run, but it can't give us the
power to do it. But the Spirit gives us
the ability to obey the command. Isn't
that wonderful news! Brothers and
sisters, there is good news... and then there is better news. This morning may God enable us to rejoice in the
better news.
Whoever
penned this little poem had far more insight than the words I substituted. Listen to it...
"Run, John, run" the law commands,
But gives us neither
feet nor hands.
Far better news the
gospel brings;
It bids us fly and gives
us wings.
Think on
that for a moment. The gospel, the new
covenant, life in the Spirit, goes beyond what we would imagine. We would be stuck trying to figure out how to
run without feet or hands. But the
gospel comes and calls us to a far more challenging idea, that of flying. If I can't run, how can I possibly fly? The gospel doesn't just talk about flying,
but it gives us wings to fly.
Though
there a few exceptions (ostrich, quail, killdeer), the normal bird doesn't do
much running. Instead, it flies. Flying not only gets the bird there faster,
but it is much easier than walking.
Because the bird has wings which were designed for that purpose, flying
is no great chore for him. He delights
in it. It is very natural for him.
II. The Glory of the New Covenant
Now let's
come to God's Word. Read Heb. 8:1-13...
Now this is the main point of the things we are
saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the
throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the
true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. 3 For every high priest is
appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that
this One also have something to offer. 4 For if He were on earth, He would not
be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law;
5 who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely
instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, "See
that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the
mountain." 6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch
as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better
promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would
have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says:
"Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-- 9 not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by
the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue
in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. 10 For this is the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the
LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I
will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his
neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for all shall know Me,
from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to
their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember
no more." 13 In that He says, "A new covenant," He has made the
first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to
vanish away.
This
section of Hebrews (7:1-10:25) focuses on Jesus, as the guarantor of the new
covenant, and how Jesus and the new covenant are far superior to Moses and the
old covenant. There are a couple of
things we need to mention before we come to the main point here. As I have mentioned before, there is nothing
wrong with God's law. In Rom.
7:12 we read, "Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy
and just and good." So when our
author seems to imply here in Heb. 8:7 that there is a fault in the law, we
must read the context. Verse
8, "Because finding fault with them..." The problem wasn't with the law, but with the
people trying to keep the law. This is
very much parallel to what we find in Rom. 8:3, "For what the law
could not do in that it was weak through the flesh..." The law was weak, but the weakness was
actually in the powerlessness of those who were trying to obey it.
The other
thing we need to touch on is the people of the new covenant. Let's read all of verse 8, "Because
finding fault with them, He says:
'Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah...'" This is a direct quote from Jer. 31. Heb. 8:8-12 is a long quote from Jer.
31:31-34. The pressing question is
simply this: Can we apply this promise
to ourselves as New Testament believers, since the Lord said He would make a
new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah? The old covenant was certainly with Israel
and Judah, which were the two nations made up of God's covenant people. They had failed to live up to the conditions
of the old covenant, but He promised to make a new covenant with them.
Without getting into a deep theological discussion about the
future of Israel, we have to conclude that the author of Hebrews does indeed
apply this passage from Jeremiah to New Testament believers. It is not necessary to be a Jew in order to
claim the blessings of the new covenant.
Regardless of how this passage applies to the Jewish people, the
promises given here are clearly applied to all those who are in Christ, for
Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant.
So what is
the great significance of the new covenant?
Zac Poonen boils it down to its simplest terms when he asks the
question: "What is the essential
difference between the old covenant and the new covenant?" I'll give you a minute to think about
that. What is basic difference between
the old covenant and the new covenant? I
must confess that when I first heard that question, I'm not sure that I had an
adequate answer, but having heard it, I trust I will never forget it. I don't want you to forget it either. When you think of the old covenant, what
comes to mind? The Ten
Commandments. When God made a covenant
with His people at Mount Sinai, it was centered around the Ten Commandments,
which we first find in Exodus 20. And
what are the key words that occur again and again in each commandment? "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt
not." Thou shalt not have no other
gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto
thee any graven image. Thou shalt not
take the name of the Lord in vain. We
all know that. Thou shalt honor thy
father and thy mother. Thou shalt not
murder. And so on. God commanded them, "You do this. You don't do that."
But what
about the new covenant? Let's read it
again in Heb. 8:8-12...
Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I
will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah--
9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when
I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did
not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. 10 For this
is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and
write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall
be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother,
saying, 'Know the LORD,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the
greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.
Did you
catch it? Five times in this brief
passage the Lord says "I will."
No longer is it, "You shall" and "You shall not,"
but it is "I will." This
contrast is accidental. When the Lord
commanded those people at Mount Sinai to keep His commandments, they said they
would, but they found that they couldn't.
The law told them to run, but it didn't given them feet and hands. But in the new covenant, the Lord says I
will.
And what is
it that the Lord will do? It beings with
the promise that He will put His laws into our minds and write them upon our
hearts. He says He will be our God and
we shall be His people. He even says He
will be merciful and remember our sins no more.
There is no conditions for us to meet; He simply says He will do
it. These are the promises for His new
covenant people in this present world.
III. The New Covenant and the Primacy of Love
That's very
nice, but it still doesn't really answer the question with which I
started: "What does it look like to
walk in Spirit?" At this point, we
might just say that it means God will empower us to keep the law. Again, this is what we read a few weeks ago
in Rom.
8:3-4, "For what the law could not do in that it was weak through
the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on
account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement
of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but
according to the Spirit." The big
question here concerns what is meant by the righteous requirement of the
law. Is it simply the "Thou
shalts" and "Thou shalt nots" of the Ten Commandments, or is it
more?
If we want
to see the clearest picture of the fulfillment of the law, where do we
look? We look to Jesus, who fulfilled
the law perfectly. When you look at
Jesus, what do you see? Do you wonder if
Jesus was guilty of cussing? Did He take
the Lord's name in vain? Did you ever
wonder if Jesus committed murder, or if He stole anything from someone
else? Have you found yourself asking if
He was guilty of coveting another man's donkey, or another man's wife? Those issues don't come up in the gospel
accounts of His life. I read through
Mark this week, and I was reminded that Jesus' life was not about outward
morality. We don't read, "Jesus
didn't steal; Jesus didn't take the Lord's name in vain." I am not saying there is never any allusion
to these things, for we do read that He was subject to His parents, but this is
never the focus.
So what was
the focus? I suppose there are a number
of ways we could answer that question, including the fact that He submitted to
His Father. We have put an emphasis on
that, as did John, the writer of the fourth gospel account. However, if we could boil the emphasis of the
gospel writers down to one word, I believe it would be "love." Jesus loved His Father and He loved the
people to whom His Father sent Him. Why
was He willing to take the risk of being called a friend of sinners? Because He loved the tax collectors and other
outcasts. Why did He go to the
cross? Out of love for His Father and
love for us.
Come back
to that first promise of the new covenant in Heb. 8:10, "I will
put my laws into their minds and write them in their hearts." I have a tendency to think of this as the
Lord literally writing His laws on my mind so that I will be able to quote from
memory all commandments of the Bible.
No, I don't think that's the way the Lord fulfills His promise. I rather think the explanation is in that
verse we keep coming back to: "All
the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this:
'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Gal. 5:14). Yes, He writes His laws on our minds and
hearts, but He spells them L-O-V-E. When
love for neighbor flows out of love for God, we will not lie or steal or murder
or covet or have other gods before Him.
Now come
back to our little poem...
"Run, John, run" the law commands,
But gives us neither
feet nor hands.
But
when the Spirit comes to lead,
Then we can run with
blinding speed.
No, that
isn't it. With feet and hands John could
run, and he might run very fast, but his speed cannot compare with those who
have wings to fly.
"Run, John, run" the law commands,
But gives us neither
feet nor hands.
Far better news the
gospel brings;
It bids us fly and gives
us wings.
Do you see
it? When God sent His Son to die, raised
Him from the dead, and welcomed Him to the place of honor and glory, He then sent
His Spirit, that He might give us wings to fly.
The greatest news of the gospel is not that we can avoid murder,
adultery, and stealing, but that we can love the unlovable with His love. That doesn't mean that we still commit
murder, adultery, and steal from others; it means that we do far more.
Allow me
one more illustration. Do you know what
the land speed record is? This is how
fast a wheel vehicle can travel on land.
The current record is 763 mph.
That is a bit faster than any of the cars in our parking lot. A British team is planning to obliterate that
record by traveling at almost 1,000 mph.
But we understand that such speeds are not the normal for people like
us. My land speed record is less than
100 mph, and I kind of like it that way.
But even 1,000 is slow, if we do away with the word
"land." As long as we must
stay on the ground, our speed is limited.
Even the fastest has only traveled 763 mph to date. Now suppose we are not restricted to land
travel. Voyager I attained a speed of
38,500 mph. We can see that land speed
and space travel are in two different categories.
In the same
way, living under the law and the old covenant cannot compare with life in the
Spirit. The life of "Thou
shalt" and "Thou shalt not" is not in the same league with the divine
"I wills" of the new covenant.
The difference is like that between running and flying, between riding
in a car and flying in a spaceship. And
the key to this difference is found in the concept of divine love. If you are a believer, God has written the
language of love in your mind and on your heart. "...The love of God has been poured out
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (Rom. 5:6). And because He has poured out His love upon
us, now we can operate in His love.
"We love Him because He first loved us" (I John 4:19).
Jesus said,
"If you love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15). Or, if you prefer, "If you love me, you
will keep my commandments." When we
begin to look at the commandments of our Lord, we see that they are centered
around love. Jesus said, "A new
commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you,
that you also love one another. By this
shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another"
(John
13:34-35). A little bit later He
said, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for
his friends" (John 15:13). In the
Sermon on the Mount Jesus said...
Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an
eye, and a tooth for a tooth: 39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil:
but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him
have thy cloke also. 41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with
him twain. 42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of
thee turn not thou away. 43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt
love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for
them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the
children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on
the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the
publicans the same? 47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more
than others? do not even the publicans so? 48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as
your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
(Matt. 5:38-48)
Every command given here is in the context of love. I turn the other cheek, because I am ruled by
love instead of a spirit or retaliation.
You bless the one who curses you because you love him with a love that
is beyond yourself.
Or consider
what we call the Great Commission:
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I
have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the
age. Amen" (Matt. 28:19-20). The term "love" isn't used,
but love is the foundation of this great command. We make disciples of all nations because God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. We make disciples of others because the Lord
Himself has given us love for people, even the unlovable.
Brothers
and sisters, now we are talking about flying.
Trying to avoid certain outward sins is like walking in comparison with
the high-flying life of truly loving people around us. We may be able to avoid some sins by our own
power, but only the wings of divine love can empower us to lay down our lives for
undeserving men and women in this world.
Conclusion
I don't
know where to stop this morning. There
is no end to the love of God for us, and because that is true, how can we find
an end for the love He pours through us to others? No doubt, we will be coming back to this
concept again and again. I know this
little poem is not on a level with the scriptures, but I trust the Lord will
use it to remind us of great truth from His Word.
Let me
conclude with that precious little verse from I John 2:6, "He who
says he abides in Him ought himself to walk just as He walked." In other words, "If you say that you are
abiding in Jesus, then you ought to live like Jesus lived." Jesus lived a life of love. It was the Father's love which sent Him here
and it was the Father's love that flowed through Him every day He walked on
this earth. If we claim to be His
followers, then that same love ought to flow through us.
I have
shared with you before the attitude of John Wesley concerning this verse. We might be tempted to look at these words
and groan, "How can anyone expect me to live like Jesus lived. This is the heaviest of all
burdens." But John Wesley was
excited by this little verse:
"Imagine that. I can walk as
Jesus walked. Since God's Word calls me
to live as Jesus lived, God's Spirit will empower me to do it." Remember that God's commands are not
burdensome (I John 5:3).
We can sum
up how Jesus walked in these simple words:
"He loved." Because He
submitted to His Father, He loved people.
That love was not expressed as being nice to others, tolerating His
enemies, overlooking sin. No, Jesus
loved. Regardless of how others treated
them, He gave them what was best. He
laid down His life on behalf of God-defying rebels.
Surely I
don't have to tell you that this message is all about the ministry of the
Spirit. Living as Jesus lived is an
absolute impossibility without the continual working of the Spirit in our
lives. But with Him it is a possibility
and can be a reality. But this life will
never be ours until we long for it.
Don't expect it to just happen. Let's
ask ourselves some simple questions: Is
this the life I see in Jesus? Is this
the life to which He has called me? Am I
settling for something less? Have I
swallowed the religious idea that God has forgiven me, but I am still just like
everyone else in the world? Am I
satisfied to life a nice, moral respectable life? Have I made it my goal to get along and not
offend others? Do I see that the sin of
not loving goes deeper than drunkenness and stealing? Do I honestly believe that the Spirit of God
can empower me to live the life of love, that I can walk as Jesus walked? Those are searching questions that demand
honest answers.
Remember
how Jesus put it: "On the last day,
that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, 'If anyone is
thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
He who believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his innermost
being will flow rivers of living water.'
But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him
would receive..." (John 7:37-39). Praise God!
Life in the Spirit is a life of love!
It is the life of heaven on earth, a life that brings glory to God. And this life is for every believer, every
person who is in Christ. You say,
"That doesn't describe me."
But it can. For those of you who
already know the answer to those questions and are convicted by God's Spirit, let's
don't wait. Let's fall on our knees and
humbly ask God by His Spirit to enable us to live this life.
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