Like a Good Neighbor
Notes
Transcript
This world’s problem is sin and you have the solution. Social media frustrations and removal. Dont stay gone too long. Your voice, your message is needed.
A prideful young man once asked his grandmother: You say unsaved people carry a weight of sin. I feel nothing. How heavy is sin? Is it ten pounds? Eighty?
She replied with a question of her own: If we laid a 400lb weight on a corpse, would it feel the load? No, a corpse is dead.
The spirit is what bears the weight of sin, and when the spirit is dead, it feels no load; it will be indifferent to its burden and flippant about its presence.
The Old Testament law was given for the protection of mankind. To place boundaries and provide a full life for those who lived inside them. But depravity lives in the heart of man, and it knows no boundary. Left unchecked by the power of the Holy Spirit, any man is capable of any sin.
The law could not save us because we are sinful and the law had no provision to do away with sin. Leviticus is full of ‘keep the law, love God’ statements. Not until Jesus defeated death was its power over man broken.
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.
13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
We are all transgressors. Guilty. We have sin which needs to be forgiven.
v10 whoever keeps the whole law but fails in ONE POINT has become guilty of it all. In both Hebrew and Greek, the word that translates to ‘all’ in English means: all.
18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
Praise God He uses all when He talks about the offer of salvation! Just like sin affects every person who ever lived, save one, so salvation is an option for every person because of that ONE!
Salvation changes for us what we could not change on our own.
Every attempt of man to reach the standard set by his Creator has fallen short. (perfection/holiness) We have missed the mark.
Its like two men running from an erupting volcano, only to find a 30ft wide lava flow blocking their only path. One runs and jumps only to go a few feet and be swallowed up by the lava. Then next runs and jumps TWICE as far but is still swallowed up by the lava.
Outside the redemptive work of Jesus, reaching the standard or hitting the mark is hopeless. But GOD...
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
Changed from death to life! From condemned to redeemed! From sinner to saint! And when we have been, we turn what we have received outward to a lost and dying world. As He has been to me, so I will be to others.
Our text says this change means we love our neighbor.
Years ago, on the back wall of a famous preacher’s church, there hung a clock known for its inability to keep proper time. Sometimes it was fast, sometimes slow and resistant to all attempts to fix it. Finally the preacher put a sign above it on the wall “Dont blame the hands, the trouble lies deeper”.
When we are called to love our neighbor we will see outward signs of inward problems. They will be frustrating and infuriating and disgusting. The are all just symptoms of an inner issue: sin. The same issue Jesus healed you from. The real trouble with people always lies deeper than what the surface shows.
We are still in a time of being careful with our health regarding COVID. We may think loving our neighbor is something we should put off til its not. Let me help you with that:
Loving your neighbor doesnt fit in box. Unless it is chocolate chip cookies left on the doorstep. That fits in a box.
Loving your neighbor as yourself is the royal law from our text. To see how I should love my neighbor, I need to be aware of how I love myself.
Physical - I’m gonna eat. Move past ‘if they are in need I’ll meet the need’. Do you only ever eat when and what you NEED to eat? Very few do. Then let’s love our neighbor like we love ourselves.
Emotional - A note of encouragement - dont we go to the word every day to be lifted up? We can do that for our neighbor! We can love them by starting the conversation with them.
Spiritual - Havent we made sure our relationship with the Lord is right? Loving my neighbor as myself means I help them do the same. Or at least offer to.
While that’s fresh lets have our invitation. We’ll have silent reflection for invitation time then sing one more time before we leave.