Sermon Outline

Love Fulfills the Law

Ephesians 1.15-19a; 3.14-19; Galatians 5.14

“For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” Galatians 5.14(NASB)

Introduction Ephesians 1.15-19; 3.14-19

Paul continually prays for the sanctification of believers. For holiness and love through knowledge and insight, and for God’s power in them. Not only to experience the love of God but also to express it to others.

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Love Fulfills the Law Galatians 5.14

1) Matthew 22.34-40 – Love God with all your heart and soul and mind; Love your neighbor as yourself. Love is the motive behind the commandments.

2) Romans 13.8-10– Love sums up all the commands of God. 1 Corinthians 9.20-21

3) Matthew 7.12 – The Golden rule of love.

The Problem of Sin

1) Sin has turned human love into selfish, self-centered love which is not willing or able to love God or others as they love themselves. Apart from Christ I love ME.

2) We are all sinners and need God’s salvation for the love of God to work in us and through us. Romans 5.5.

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Conclusion

Love for God and love for others is a sign of a life exclusively yielded to God for His use.

MEDITATIONS FOR THE WEEK

[Take some daily quiet time alone with God]

Monday: Read Romans 5.5; Galatians 5.22-23. As Christians with the Holy Spirit within us, we have the capacity to love. Take time to praise God for giving you His Spirit and His love in your heart.

Tuesday: Think about Romans 12.9-21. Here is the life of love we are called to live as Christians. Take time to thank God for His high calling and enablement in Christ

Wednesday: Read 1 Timothy 1.7. God has given us a Spirit of power to live a holy life, love to live it with, and a sound mind to understand how to live. Take time to ask God for greater understand, more power, and then yield yourself to God by serving others in love.

Thursday: Meditate on John 17.22-26. How much does God love us? How much of that love does God want to be in us? Take time to thank God for His love for you and the love He has put in your heart for Him.

Friday: Think about 1 John 4.7-21. It is worth reading this passage again this week. Love is the proof of our salvation and its purpose. Take time to worship this God of Amazing Love.

“Whatever you want others to do for you, do so for them; for this is the Law and the Prophets.”      Matthew 7.12

Act As If You Do Love

In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, “Do not waste your time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor, act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.”

Sermon Notes

Love Fulfills the Law Ephesians 1.15-19a; 3.14-19; Galatians 5.14

-Paul continually prayed for the sanctification of believers. …He prayed that believers would grow in holiness and in love, so that they would resemble Jesus, their Lord and Savior. …Paul prayed that believers would grow in knowledge and insight, and know God’s power, so they would live holy and loving lives. …We should regularly pray these two prayers of Paul recorded in his letter to the Ephesian believers when we pray for ourselves and for other believers. [Read 1.17-19; 3.16-19 and personalize them as my prayer].

-When Paul prays that we might “know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that we might be filled with all the fullness of God”, he is not only praying about our understanding and experience of the love of God but also about our expression of the love of God to others. …He is praying that our faith will find its true expression in love to others.

-The love of God is not something God gives to us only for our own comfort. …God’s love is given to us so that we can express God’s love to others. …God’s love is an active and giving love. …John 3.16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son”. …1 Corinthians 13 describes love as active and giving to others. …Sometimes love is active in holding back what others deserve. …Sometimes love is active in giving what is not deserved. …But all love is actively working for the good of the other person. …God’s love is to be expressed to others. …God has set you free from sin in Christ, not for you to indulge the flesh, but so you could serve others in love.

-As we serve others in love we also fulfill the law of God. …In Christ the Christian has been set free from the many demands of the Law and from the condemnation of the Law when he fails to keep it. …Even though the Christian is free from the demands and condemnation of the Law, he is not excused from what God intended the law to express. …The law was an expression of the Holy and Loving character of God, and to keep the Law was to express to others the holy and loving character of God.

-Now turn to Matthew 22.34-40.

-Jesus summed up the entire Law in two commandments, “Love God with all your heart, soul and mind” and “Love your neighbor as yourself”. …In verse 40, Jesus said, “on these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets”. …The word depend means, “to suspend upon or hang”. …Love to God and to others is like a towel rack upon which the whole Law and the Prophets is suspended. …At the core of every commandment toward God and toward man is the motive of selfless agape love.

-Without the motive of love a commandment is not truly being kept, and by love all the commandments are truly fulfilled. …True freedom in Christ is freedom from the slavery of sin to fulfill the law by the slavery of love to others as we walk in the Spirit.

-Now turn with me to Romans 13.8-10.

–Verse 8 reminds us of Galatians 5.14, “For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ ”. …Paul summarizes the 10 commandments and any other commandment into one word, “love”. …Love is the fulfillment of the Law both toward God and man. …As Christians we are free from the demands and condemnation of the Law, but we fulfill the law when we love God, and love others by the Spirit of God. …Christians are free from the burden of the Law but we are all obligated by the law of love. …Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9.20-21 that he is free from the Law but is under the “law of Christ”, meaning that his life is no longer ruled by rules and rituals and judgments, but he is ruled by Christ his master as he walks in obedience to the Spirit of God.

-Now turn with me to Matthew 7.12. …This is what is often called the golden rule, “Do unto others what you would have others do unto you”. …Jesus adds, “this is the Law and the Prophets”. …Like Paul, Jesus is saying here that love to others is the essence of the commandments of the Law and the teachings of the Prophets.

-The objective of God’s Law is that we are to love others as we love ourselves. …Now God helps us to learn how to love others by given us some details to follow in the Commandments. …Jesus taught that the commandments are issues of the heart, spiritual issues. …The commandments are not only negative prohibitions but also directions for good things we are to do to others. [Adrian Rogers tapes – A perfect 10 for families that win]. …Jesus is saying here that love to others fulfills the Law.

-Most religions have the golden rule as part of their teaching. …Most people believe that love is the solution to all our problems. …The Beatles sang, “All you need is love, love; love is all you need, love is all you need”. …Many naively call for the world to just love one another and live in peace. …You will hear teaching today that loving others, respecting others, serving humanity, being kind to others, tolerance, sharing our resources, is all that God requires of us to gain a place in heaven and to create heaven on earth. …There is no need to come to Christ? …There is no need for personal salvation. …There is no need for the Church. …Why can’t we just be good loving neighbors and worship the higher being of our choice, or no being at all, and have world peace?

-The problem is that human beings do not love others as they love themselves. …Human beings just love themselves. …We love SELF. …Apart from Christ I love ME.

-Sin has turned human love into selfish, self-centered love which is not willing or able to love others as I love myself. …It is only when God saves me from my sin and fills me with His Love by filling me with the Holy Spirit, that I can begin to love God with all my heart and soul and mind, and then love my neighbor as God commands. …By walking in the Spirit, and in God’s power I  can love God and I can love my neighbor, and can truly fulfill the law of God. …Sin is the problem with mankind and Jesus Christ is the only cure for sin. …Without the Holy Spirit there is no God motivated love.

-Let me make three points clear:

1) Every single person is born under sin and under God’s condemnation and on their way to hell. …Loving your neighbor cannot save you from sin and hell. …Only Christ can save you because he paid for your sin.

2) You cannot love God with all your heart, soul and mind unless God has put His Spirit into your heart. …Any expression of love for God without salvation in Christ is an expression of self-righteousness and trying to earn salvation. …You cannot practice agape love until God puts His love into your heart.

3) Most people can love their neighbors under favorable conditions that do not require sacrifice, inconvenience, and does not require them to incur loss on their part. …When favorable conditions are taken away then as the Scriptures say, “the love of many will grow cold”. (Matthew 24.12) …For the unbeliever, self-protection, self-satisfaction, self-concern drive the life, not the love of God.

-Biblical selfless love is not possible for those who do not have the Holy Spirit of God working in their hearts.

–Romans 5.5 says, “the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us”. …When we receive the offer of God’s salvation in the Gospel, God places His Holy Spirit within our hearts and that awakens a love both toward God the Lawgiver, and toward those around us.

-I remember having Bible Studies with a young woman who came from a rough background of drinking and fighting. …She became a Christian. …There was one particular woman that she passionately hated. …One day as we were having our study this young Christian shared that she had met the woman she so hated earlier in the week and upon meeting her suddenly realized “I don’t hate this woman anymore”. …God’s love was at work within that new Christian’s heart.

-Love not only fulfills the Law of God but also sweetly invites others to the fullness of fellowship with God. …The Law can be kept in an unloving, proud, self-righteous attitude, like that of the Pharisees, or it can be kept by loving others with the fruit of the Spirit, like Jesus. …The difference is seen in the attraction of the people to Jesus and their disdain for the Pharisees. …Love makes God attractive and adorns the teachings of God as Titus tells us (2.10).

-Finally as I mentioned last week, love is the sign of a life exclusively yielded to God for His use, His service, to fulfill His purposes. …Yielding to God is the key to walking in the Spirit. …Not only are we to say NO to the flesh but we are to fully yield to the Spirit by choice and show that yielded life by always loving others.

-When we get to heaven we will no longer need to live by faith. …Hope will be completely fulfilled and will no longer be part of our life. …But love will continue forever. …Let’s learn more about the love of God and pray as Paul did that we may “be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that we might be filled with all the fullness of God”.

Communion:

Romans 5.8

2 Corinthians 5.14-15

John 17.23-26