"One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, "What commandment is the foremost of all?" Jesus answered, "The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these." The scribe said to Him, "Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that He is One, and there is no one else besides Him; and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions."
Good Morning my beloved,
We
welcome you to worship in the name of God the Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. I thank God for those of you who stand with me, that are
faithfully praying for me, for this ministry.
It's through those faithful prayers I find the strength in the battle, as I stand
against those demonic alliances around me, I thank God for allowing me
that opportunity to preach the Truth of God to those are deceived by false religion, a tremendous that I don’t take that privilege lightly. It's so wonderful to get to witness our amazing God at work. If God is using this ministry to impact your life
, or the lives of those around you, please write and let us know, we'd love to hear from you.
Love, is said to be the sweetest of all human emotions. Therefore, it's no surprise that to find, experience and maintain love seems to be the universal goal for all of humanity. For decades, men have attempted to capture the sentiment of love, having authored hundreds of songs in about every genre from country western to R & B, written countless books, poems, stories, movies, operas and even plays about love. In fact, a study on the "psychology of music" determined about 67% of lyrics in every song, every decade since the 1960's, were in one way or another about love. Interestingly enough, depression was a close second. I suppose it is natural for heart-break and depression to follow the initial emotional euphoria of love wears off.
In a world that defines love by the tolerance of everything, stripping away the basic Truths of what biblical love means, the church will not be an exception. I believe there is a great deal of confusion in our world today about what real love is, we tend to use the word "love" so carelessly, superficially.
As
God's children, I believe that we need to be reminded, that our
motivation for love is to conform our lives to
God’s standards, not redefine His to suit ours. In
John 13:34 Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love
one another, even as I have loved you that you also love one another." As Christians, loving the brethren is not something we can choose to do,
it's a privilege that we get to do, that makes our faith attractive before
the watching world! Love is a verb, not a noun, therefore, don’t let
your love become indifferent or grow cold. Let us not just love in word when someone has a
need, but demonstrate our love for one another in deed and Truth, that means having one another's backs. It's that love that the world sees that is our most powerful testimony of all, it's what
affirms that we belong to Jesus Christ. Worldly love is subject to the object of love, divine love is based upon God's character, and Who He is.
There
is so much shallow, superficial, even hypocritical love in the church
today, love that's not the supernatural love produced by the Spirit of
God.
1
Peter 1:22 says, "Since you have in obedience to the truth purified
your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one
another from the heart.." We are never more like Jesus Christ than when
we loving one another, a command, that extends well beyond our own families to those around us, that's where our true spiritual condition is revealed. I
would like to encourage you to think about the last time you had a choice between
meeting a need for yourself or sacrificing to really meet the need of
someone else, not just thoughts and prayers. True biblical love is a genuine love
takes an interest in meeting the needs of others, that stretches far beyond the limits that our own capacity can possibly reach.
How do you measure up in ministering to those who are struggling emotionally or
with a financial need? With that in mind, was it done as a requirement
with limitations or self-sacrificially under the control of the Holy Spirit, from a pure heart
, whatever it cost you?
Since the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, we have the God given capacity to love others supernaturally,
sacrificially, as Christ has loved us. Being born again is a complete change, it is only fitting that the way we love be changed,
after all, what kind of new birth do we have if it doesn't radically change us in someway?
I believe as Christians, too we often forget that. We've allowed salvation to become instant Christianity, "Just add Jesus!" Christianity is not to simply adding Christ to our lives, it's changing the way we live our lives, consistent with your new birth, in which
the will of God becomes the focus. That's the right response to salvation, you become a new creature, the old you is dead and buried, so that it's out of the reach. By the way,
1 John 3:10 says, "
Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God." I believe the church today really needs to call attention to that in a way that people understand,
anyone who does not practice righteousness has outward religion.
You can never be obedient to God if your faith is external.
John 5:42, "
I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves." Our love for God is what drives our obedience.
But because Jesus said we are commanded to love one another sacrificially as the pattern of our new life, knowing the command doesn't mean that compliance is easy, some people are difficult to love, that's why we must be intentional about it, dying to self daily. I need to mention not loving each other is disobedience to God's Word, it's a sin, I don't want to belabor the point, so I'll just say, how often do we see Christ's selfless, sacrificial, love consistently demonstrated among Christians, using the resources that God has given to us for His glory? It's easy to say that we love God, it's easy to say that we love others, it’s another thing to demonstrate that love
through our selfless actions. Sacrificial love is the greatest expression of our love. Even as I am thinking about myself, I suspect that most of us have failed, to one degree or another. Supernatural love is an act of our will, not our emotion.
Once a person becomes a lover of self, he has just made a decision that
will destroy the possibility of every meaningful relationship, and
wickedness will certainly ensue, because your agenda is you. That's why the apostle Paul warns us in
2 Timothy 3, "But realize this, that in
the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self,
lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents,
ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without
self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited,
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of
godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as
these." To be clear, Paul is not saying that we're not to evangelize the lost, but i
t can be hard to know where to draw the line, so just protect yourself, guard your heart. God washed you, don't allow yourself to become filthy again.
1 Corinthians 15:33, "
Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals."
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, thank You for Your Word. Lord, we want so much to love You perfectly, to love others the way You have loved us. Let us no be deceived with self-love theology that has consumed our culture on every level, may we not be content with kidding ourselves claiming to love You, love others, while indulging ourselves in whatever brings us pleasure. Help us to love as we have been commanded to love, so the world will know beyond all doubt that we belong to You. We pray that You will enable us to love sacrificially to the fullest capacity that You have given us, so that we can flood the world with Your love, the kind of love that pleases You. Father, raise up true spiritual, faithful leadership in Your Church, that will strengthen Your people to do that for Your glory. Lord, we pray that You would open the blinded eyes, the deafened ears, melt the hardened hearts so that no one would go away from this message without coming to Christ in saving faith. In His name we ask and pray.
Amen
Today's Message: Loving The Way Jesus Loved
Open your Bibles with me, if you will, to Mark chapter 12, verses 28-34.
Mark 12:28-34.
I trust you will be following along with me as I read to set the text in
our minds, as we open our hearts to hear what the Spirit of God has to say to us today.
"One
of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had
answered them well, asked Him, "What commandment is the foremost of
all?" Jesus answered, "The foremost is, ‘Hear,
O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these." The scribe said to Him, "Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that He is One, and
there is no one else besides Him; and to love Him with all the heart
and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love
one’s neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions."
Let’s look at verse 28, "
One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?" It's important to note that Matthew tells us in his parallel account "But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together," because it is the fulfillment of a prophecy in
Psalm 2, which says "
The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed." Notice Matthew says "That Jesus had silenced the Sadducees," he uses the Greek verb "
phimoó,"
for the word silenced, it means to muzzle or gag. It's the same word used in Luke 1, when Jesus rebuked and silenced a demon
.
So Jesus first silenced the Pharisees along with the Herodians, and they sent the Sadducees to trap Him which also failed, so they left stunned and speechless, they left because they didn't have a choice, there was nothing more that they
could say, so they needed to regroup to find a way to carry out their plot to get rid of Him because their previous attempts have failed as miserably. So the Sanhedrin reconvened again, to put their heads together to come up with a new series of questions to discredit Him, to turn the people against Him, because He was amassing too much popularity, people were in amazement of His teaching.
We know this was the fulfillment of the prophecy in
Psalm 2 because in
Acts 4, after Peter and John were released from being arrested "They went to their own companions, reported all the chief priests and
elders had said to them. And when they heard this, they lifted their
voice to God with one accord and said, ‘Lord, it is You who made the
heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, who by the
Holy Spirit through the mouth of Your father David, Your servant said’ Why did the Gentiles rage and the
peoples devise futile things? The kings of the earth took their stand,
and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His
Christ?" This is a quote from
Psalm 2 when the Sanhedrin gathered together against Christ, they were doing exactly what God had predetermined they would do in every detail.
So this scribe coming to Jesus was a man who was more learned than a typical scribe, he was half legal expert in interpreting biblical law and half theologian of Pharisaic legalism. We know this because Matthew uses the word "nomikós," which means Scripture-lawyer. So the Sanhedrin sent their champion scribe to question Jesus to affirm that His word that supersedes Moses, revered to be the greatest teacher of all, because he alone spoke face-to-face with God. In other words, they want to ensure that nothing is lacking this time. He's intrigued, stunned by the answers that Jesus gave which had silenced the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
Now, let's look at his question, "What commandment is the foremost of all?" Interestingly enough, it is a very important question, something that we don’t see in the other questions, perhaps that's why Jesus doesn’t answer it with another question of His own. His question seems genuine enough, it doesn’t seem to be connected with previous attempts to trap Him. He appears to be more objective, but not completely, keep in mind, he’s not looking for information. Matthew makes it clear, he’s sent to test Him for himself, they all agreed that Jesus' teaching was contrary to the Divine Law. They're all convinced of that His teaching is not found in the Law of God.
Verses 29-30, Jesus unapologetically responds to his question in supreme authority, He's painting a very graphic picture of what it means to love God, with a verse that is familiar that they already knew, "The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’" He's quoting Moses, the Shema is the affirmation of Judaism and a declaration of faith in One God. You just can't get any clearer than that! If you've ever seen a Mezuzah on the right side of the door, there inside is a tiny scroll of genuine kosher parchment, or "k'laf," with Deuteronomy 6:4-9 written on it with an ink well pen, facing toward you and the Hebrew word "Shaddai" facing inward. They
stop twice a day and recite verse 5. "You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." In
fact, in following Jewish tradition, every entrance should have its own
Mezuzah, on low end of the top third of the doorway.
I know many Christians who have never read the Old Testament are unfamiliar with Deuteronomy 6. It's even more disturbing that many Christians have never even read more than a few isolated verses in the Bible, typically found in a devotional. A person does not become a Christian just because they believe in God. Because of corrupted preaching, people think simply believing is simply enough, but James 2 plainly tells us that even demons believe and they shudder. When a Christian believes the Gospel, they have an all consuming love for God, they love what God loves and they hate what God hates. God hates sin, all sin. What better way for demonstrate our love for God than eliminating the sin in our lives and submitting to His commands in obedience? Let me tell you something, if you’re a Christian and you show absolutely no
interest in keeping His commands, if you're indifferent to obeying His Word, justifying your relentless, habitual sin because of grace, you do not love God.
Christianity
is not merely an acknowledgement of who Jesus is. Scripture requires us to
" follow Him," which means we must commit our lives to living by all that He taught us. In John 14:15 Jesus says "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." And in Luke 9:23, He says "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me." I strongly believe that the church needs to grasp the importance of what Jesus is teaching, true love is a love that obeys, with unceasing gratitude for the marvelous mercies of God, even though that obedience is imperfect. God has always wanted people who love Him and keep His commandments, that has never changed.
Now, to explain just how ridiculous their biblical interpretations were, in the Ten Commandments in Hebrew, there’s 613 letters, in keeping with that number, they decided there needed to be 613 laws, because certain laws were heavier than other laws, in terms of spiritual priority that pleases God. That's why Jesus said in Matthew 23, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!" They substituted the Law of God for the tradition of man, because the traditions were easier to keep. Nobody can keep all the commandments. That's why Paul wrote in Galatians 3:23-24, "But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith."
Then, in verse 31, Jesus says "The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these." Matthew adds, "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." Our love for others flows right our of our love for God. When you love God right, you love people right. That's what it means to be a Christian, love the Lord your God with everything in you, to lay down our life for Him, if necessary and love your neighbor as yourself. If you obey these two commands, there is no need any more commandments. Do you understand that?
If you love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength, you won't live in a habitual pattern of sin, you won't
take His name in vain, you won't have any idols. And if you love your
neighbor, you won't steal from them, you won't covet what they have,
especially their spouse, you won’t kill them or hurt them, or slander them in any way. If you love your spouse and your children, you don't have to be told not to hurt or abuse them or to care for their needs. You're not going to commit adultery or lust after other people. You will make sure their needs are met, even before your own.
Many Christians find it difficult to comprehend this, and are incapable of this kind of love, because they have not been taught the importance of sound doctrine. Instead, they go around pointing fingers, as if they are some kind of "spiritual police," judging and condemning other members of the church, talking behind their backs, saying things they wouldn't dare say to their face. If you say that you love God, examine your heart, and ask yourself if you are demonstrating God's love
toward others, even when they least deserve it! Only a genuine love for
God can enable a person to do that, you can’t do on your own! The truth of the matter is the Jewish religious leaders didn't love their neighbor, in fact, they abused
them, they bound people heavy burdens they couldn't carry, they stole
their money and made merchandise of them, making God's House of prayer a den of robbers! They didn't love God, they couldn't because they they didn’t know Him. They way we love others is relational to the way we love God. To love Him is to know Him. And the more you know God, you can't help but to love Him more, it's inevitable.
Jesus' answer his question perfectly, with absolute accuracy, in keeping with the Word of God as recorded by Moses, speaking familiar words that every Jew, was required to recite twice a day. There's no way they could reject His answer, they would have no choice but to agree.
Look at verses 32-33, "The scribe said to Him, "Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that He is One, and there is no one else besides Him; and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." This scribe understood exactly what Jesus was saying, and he's in complete agreement. What could be more important than to love God and to love others? I don't care how holy and righteous you think you are, you are only fooling yourself. We can never be perfect enough to satisfy God, we still sin. I know I'm not perfect, because I still sin occasionally, every day. The difference is when I do, I really hate it because I know that sin dishonors God. It's like Paul wrote in Romans 7:18-20, "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me."
That brings us to verse 34, "When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." The good news, is he was not far from the kingdom of God, but the bad news is being near is not good enough. How is he near? Because he understood that to love God with all the heart and with all the understanding and with
all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself, is much more
than all burnt offerings and sacrifices, it's not a sacrificial ceremonial issue, it’s an issue of the heart. I believe there is no greater danger than having been close to salvation, still remaining unsaved. This is a major problem in the church today, they think that a profession of faith means that they are saved, when,
in reality, they have never truly embraced the Savior, holding tightly to
their sin, parading around in the streets, holding up signs and chanting "Love is love!," as if this life is all there is. Folks, Scripture calls us to discern good and evil, just because the government legalizes sin, does not mean God has changed His mind. Hebrews 13, assures us "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." And warns us, "Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings."
This society doesn’t want to hear the truth of what God teaches, about their sin and it's damning eternal consequences because it makes them uncomfortable. They'd rather have their ears tickled. Scripture is clear, your true identity is not found in your sexual
orientation or preferred gender, but your authentic relationship with
Jesus Christ. Sexual sin was connected to idolatry, people who do that will not inherit the kingdom of God. Mark closes this passage with one final statement, "After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions." We need to understand that Scripture is the final Authority, not our "feelings." Jesus will always have the last word, and He says "Unless you repent, you too will perish!"
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Copyright © 2019-2024 All Rights Reserved
