But this is what I call in games people play part three You know they're asking Jesus questions. He's debunking them. He's turning their questions on their head He's showing them the folly of playing games with the living Christ, and so this is part three part one We saw a couple weeks ago when the Pharisees the Herodians come to him, and they say ah what should we do about this poll tax? We're in our land, we've got pagans who are in our land charging us tax. Should we pay taxes to Caesar or not? And Jesus says, quit playing games. You recall that I've come into Jerusalem. I am the King. I'm the Messiah who's come in as the Son of God, to whom you must bow your knee and pay homage to. Quit playing games with trifling little matters like politics. And so the first game was what we called skirting the issue, or changing the subject game. Christ says, you are to worship me. Render to God the things that are God's. And they're saying, well, what should we do with our money? Which is important, but the central issue in all of life, from your first breath to your last one, is the central issue is, who are you paying homage to? Christ says, I am Lord. There's no other name by which you can be saved. There's no other name by which repentance and forgiveness of sins are proclaimed. There's one King, one true and living King, Jesus Christ. That's the central issue of life. And what people do is they start skirting the issue. And they get involved in little political campaigns and they say, well, I'll give part of my life here, but I won't bow my knee to Jesus Christ. And Christ says, it's all mine. Quit playing games. You're gonna die one day, and you're gonna stand before me and give an account. And so we encouraged you to think about, is Christ your Lord, or are you playing games? Then we saw the second game was the, I can't think of clever names for this, but it's basically toying with scripture game. The Sadducees, they only believe in the Pentateuch. That's the first five books that Moses wrote, Genesis through Deuteronomy. And they came to him with the huge question, okay, a man had seven wives, A wife had seven husbands, they all died, none of them had seed. Who is going to be married to her in the resurrection? And Jesus says, quit playing games. Because the Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection. Why? Because then if there's no resurrection, there's no final judgment, therefore there's no final account, no throne to stand before. And so Jesus says, I am Lord, you're going to give an account to me, quit playing games. Quit trying to limit scripture. I shall show you from Exodus chapter 3 that God is the God of the living, not the dead. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still living. And you will die, and you will stand before the living Christ. And so he exposes that game as folly too. And then the third game is what I call the all talk no walk game. They are content just sitting in their ivory towers discussing theology. Go to a liberal seminary. Go to a lot of churches. They'll talk and talk and they'll say, what is this? Or what is the Greek word for this? And a certain scribe or expert in the law this morning comes and says, what is the greatest commandment? And Jesus is going to turn that question on its head, he's going to expose the game and he's going to say, you need to not just talk about what is the greatest commandment, you need to start living it out. Knowing is not sufficient. Knowing that you should love God with everything in you and knowing you should love your neighbor is not enough. And so Jesus, I think, is challenging this man. Quit talking about theology with your bodies and start living it out. Quit playing games with scripture. We're playing games with theology. And as I said before, all the games, in their various forms, are seeking to deny Jesus' Lordship. It's the central issue of every person's life. They're either going to embrace Christ's authority, or they're going to deny it. And I've talked about that for the last three weeks. If you want to be fruitful, to be fruitful, you accept Christ's authority over your life. You deny yourself, pick up your cross, and you follow Him. You don't deny him, let him carry his cross and follow yourself. That's fruitlessness. That's folly. A lot of people do that. They deny Christ and they play games with scripture to justify it. And that's what Jesus is exposing in the scriptures and perhaps in some of our hearts, even as a Christian. I love talking theology, but it's a lot easier to say, well what's the most important command? Or what's command number eight? Or have you memorized the Ten Commandments? Kids, you can memorize the Ten Commandments until they come out every orifice. It doesn't matter until you obey them by loving God and loving your neighbor. You can memorize the whole Bible and still go to hell. So hopefully Christ will expose the all talk and no walk game so many of us play. We deny Christ as Lordship, we say Lord, Lord with our lips, and we deny it with our life. And I have in my notes, this is insanity. But pride is insanity, isn't it? Like, if you're a regenerated believer in Christ, you see how foolish it is That the Lord of Life, whose burdens are light, whose commandments are not grievous, says, pick up your cross and follow me. And you say, yes, life is found in Christ. And we see people playing games and you say, that is the essence of foolishness and stupidity. It's insanity, really, to see people putting on masks, whether of religion, or of just atheism or denial. And it's foolishness, because ultimately, God has put it on their heart that they're going to stand before Him. Every person has it deeply entrenched within them that they are going to give an account. And they waste their lives playing games, trying to pretend that it's not going to happen. Everyone will die unless Jesus Christ comes back in the next 50 years. Everyone here will die. And your games will either be exposed through the preaching and reading of the Word, or will be exposed. When you stand naked, Hebrews 4.13, you'll stand naked before the living Christ. All the masks you put on will be taken off and Christ will say, you did not bend your knee away from me, you who practice lawlessness. Good news. Boy, I always start off so somber. Good news is that Christ is sovereign. I believe this man came with ill intentions. If you read the parallel account in Matthew 22, he came to test Jesus. He's no different than the Pharisees, the Herodians, or the Sadducees. He came to test him. And by the end, he's sort of wavering. He's on sort of that precipice where you don't know, is he going to enter the kingdom or is he not? And Christ is sovereign enough to remove our masks and expose our hearts. The games we're playing, Christ is greater than our wicked, sinful hearts. I know that in my own life because I played another game. It's the barter game. You know what it means to barter? They used to do that before they had lots of money and currency and banks. You would exchange things. And the barter game I played with God in my third year of university was, God, I will read and pray if you get me into dentistry. I went to church on Easter Sunday. It's the barter game. That's the most sacred Sunday, right? No, I think every day is equal if you're in Christ. But anyways, I was playing the barter game. God, I'll do this if you do this. Get me into dentistry. God did so much more. I came with impure motives. You know what God did to me on that Sunday? He raised me from the dead in Jesus Christ. Just like this guy here, he came with impure motives. You might be sitting here playing all kinds of crazy games. You know what my hope as a Calvinist is? Is that the Spirit will take the Word of God, He'll rip off the mask and He'll say, your heart is wicked, repent. Here's Christ, He's beautiful. Follow Him. Deny yourself. Pick up that cross. Embrace Him as Lord. There's good news that Christ can not only expose our games, but He can change our hearts so we don't even want to play those games anymore. So let me read the scripture. Let me read the scripture. Let me pray over it. Let me expound it. Warning. Just because Christ is sovereign and He can take off our masks, let's not get presumptuous. This is only one of the scribes. You're still called upon to believe and to love. Okay, so let's pray after I read that the Spirit will not only show us, but will actually make us willing. Mark chapter 12 verse 28, And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another. And seeing that Jesus answered them well, asked him, Which commandment is the most important of all? Jesus answered, The most important is, Hear O Israel! The Lord, our God, the Lord is one. 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. Second is like unto it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said to him, you are right, teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other 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 oneself, is much more than all overt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, You were not far from the Kingdom of God. And after that, no one dared to ask Him any more questions. Let's pray. Father, we come to You and we ask, for the sake of Jesus Christ, that You would send forth Your Spirit and great power. And Lord, that not only would You expose the malice and the sin, the deceit in our hearts, but You would also replace it with the fruit of the Spirit. Lord, for those who do not know Jesus Christ in spirit and truth, we pray, Holy Spirit, that you would blow over them, that you would raise them from the dead, that you would cause them to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, which is kept reserved in heaven by a sovereign God through their faith. You can do this. And so we ask that you would. With faith, Lord, we ask that you would give us more. And Father, I pray that even as we leave here, that those of us who do know the Lord Jesus Christ, that we would understand with a greater insight. We would be wise like this man and understand all that you require is what you supply, and that is to love you and to love neighbors. And Lord, we pray that our church would never fall into legalism, but others would know that you are in our midst because we love the brethren. And we love the world. This is supernatural, Lord. We love ourselves and not our neighbor. And so we ask that you would do a great work in every heart here. Either regenerate or sanctify. You must do this. And so we come humbly pleading, but asking as children to a good and benevolent Father. Open up the scriptures, Lord, I pray this morning, and give me grace to make them clear. Hide me, Lord, behind the cross. May all that is preached here focus on Christ and no one else. We ask it in His name. Amen. We recall that this is still Tuesday of Passion Week. Remember, Jesus dies a couple more days. He's crucified on what we call Friday, Good Friday. So, he's had a long day. Remember, he's come into Jerusalem. This is the third time he's sticking around for a long day of debating and teaching. That's what he's doing on Tuesday. He's cleared the temple the day before. The Sadducees, they don't like that. He's destroyed the arguments of the Pharisees. Don't like it. And so now one of the lawyers or one of the elders, scribes, whatever you want to call it, comes. They've got a beef with Jesus too. You need to understand that it was the scribes or the experts in the law, they sort of ran the synagogue services. They would be the ones who would often preach and extemperate, extrapolate, whatever the word is, upon the scriptures. They would preach them. And Jesus in chapter 1 is already undermining their authority. What kind of new teaching is this? Ah, teaching with authority, not like the scribes. And so we have a scribe here, according to Matthew 22, who belongs to the Pharisees. He's coming. He's singing along. One of them comes with a question. And I don't know what his motive is, other than to say that it was to test Jesus. Matthew 22. He comes to test Him. Just like all the other questions were to, perhaps, smear Jesus' reputation. You need to understand that the scribes had counted 613 commandments in the Old Testament, in the Torah. And he says, ah, let's get him. guessing which is the greatest commandment. There's a lot to choose from. This guy, he's an expert in the law. He's devoted his life to 613 commandments, and he's sort of delegating or deciding which is the most important. And so, Jesus trumps the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees, and he's thinking, ah, maybe I'll be the one who can trump him. His motives are likely impure. And we see that Jesus again trumps him and exposes his wicked heart and invites him to repent. I hope you see that Jesus isn't just trying to expose hearts to show the folly of it, he's exposing hearts and entreating people to repent. Jesus loves them so much that he exposes their wicked hearts and says, ah, you're wicked, you need a substitute, you need to trust in the living Messiah. And He'll do that to you. He's not just here to show you how stupid you are with your games. He's here to expose your sinful heart and say, come unto me. You who are laboring with all of your games, come to me and I'll give you rest from those games. I give you a burden but it's light because I will give you strength to carry it. And so on this Tuesday, this elder comes, this scribe, and he asks him, which is the most important command? He's trying to trump Jesus and Jesus again trumps Him. Despite His sincerity, Jesus knows the hearts. Jesus answers him. You want to know which the most important commandment or the greatest commandment is? It's very simple, it's love. If you were to read in Matthew 22, it says, the Law and the Prophets, they hinge upon love. Right? What good is it to do all kinds of things with an impure heart, right? All of our works of righteousness with a dirty, filthy, selfish heart are about what? Filthy rags. But read Psalm 51. Read Psalm 50. God doesn't require our burnt offerings and our sacrifices. You know what He desires? A heart that is broken and contrite. And according to Isaiah 66, a heart that trembles at God's Word, that has reverence and love for the Almighty. Christianity is so uniquely sweet. You know what most religions are doing? They're laboring to do. Let's keep all 613 commandments. You know what? You can try your best to keep them. And we saw last Sunday night, you can't. You can't keep them. And so Jesus says, let me make it really simple for you. You devote your life to study, love. The law is fulfilled in this one word, Romans 13, 10. Love your neighbor as yourself. Galatians 5, 14. Same thing Paul is saying. You want to keep all the law and the commandments? Love. Actually, read Romans 13. If you truly love God, you will truly love your neighbor. And then I don't even need to say, hey, don't commit adultery with your neighbor. Why? Because you love your neighbor. You don't want to destroy them. Hey, quit ripping your neighbor off. Be a good worker. I don't need to command that. Because you love your neighbor. You don't want to rip your neighbor off. You want to work as unto the Lord when you're serving your neighbor. Love your wife. I don't need to command you to do that. Because you do love her because Christ has given you the example of love, Ephesians 5.25. So it's nice and simple. Christianity is really simple. When you're telling people the gospel, don't get caught up in all kinds of little jots and tittles. It's very simple. Love the Lord your God with everything that is in you, and love your neighbor as yourself. How come it's so easy? It is, and it's impossible. I've said this before. Christianity is the easiest, hardest religion in the world. All you have to do is love God and your neighbor. Unfortunately, in your unregenerate state, you cannot. Anyone memorize Romans 8 verse 7? I quote it so much. The natural mind is at enmity with God. It does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. There's that word dunamai. Beth Moore uses it so I can use it too. Ability. The unregenerate man has no ability to love God. So, I put you in a catch-22. I say it's so easy and yet you can. Which is why we pray on Wednesdays. Which is why we pray on Sundays. Which is why you need to say, God give me love because it's not inherent in the flesh. The reason a lot of us don't love is because we just don't ask to love. I can't love you. I need to say, God, give me love for these sinful people. And you need to say, give me love for this sinful pastor. Trust me, you need to ask it. You're not going to naturally love me. And if you do, you don't know me. And so here's the easiest, hardest religion. But there's good news. Remember when I said Christ is sovereign? That means He's in control. That means that He can change hearts. That means He can speak life into existence. That means that in chapter 3 of Mark, He can say to Peter and his brother, and to James and John and his brother, FOLLOW ME! And they can follow Him. And as I preach the Gospel, Jesus can say, LOVE ME! And just as He created the heavens and the earth by mere power of His Word, He can bring about love. in rock-hard, flinty hearts. He can do that with the power of His Word. That's what salvation is. Christ speaking life and love into a dead heart. Giving it life and love flowing through living hearts. Jesus says that the whole duty of man is summed up in one word. Simple. Love. If you're writing notes, it's Romans 13.10. I think it's Galatians 5.14 or 5.12. It's something like that. This is what makes Christianity so unique. It's not do out of fear, and I hope I don't come across that way. Sometimes I think I preach, do or you're gonna go to hell. That's not the message of Christianity. It's part of the ramifications if you don't. But you know what Christianity is? Love because you have first been loved. Serve Christ out of what Piper calls the dangerous duty of delight. And so here's my application, which I'm going to reiterate at the end. How can you love? Gaze upon love. And I'm getting all hippie new age. Christ, God is love. I have a real hard time loving. You know what my solution is? Gaze upon the cross of Jesus Christ. Here is love, vast as the oceans. I see God's perfect justice. and His immense mercy kissing a guilty world in love. That's what we sing. That's the song. Here is love. So if you have a hard time loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself, maybe quit looking in the mirror of your wicked heart and gaze upon Jesus Christ. The Spirit as we gaze upon Christ will conform us into Christ's image. Think deeply. That's why we have the Lord's Table. Right? Not just to say, good, my guilty conscience is removed, which it is. It's also encouraging us, yes, we are loved. Now I am free to love. For freedom Christ has set us free. Only though we use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. So gaze upon the liberty that Christ has given you by shedding his precious blood out of a motive of love. And that's what Paul says in Galatians 2.20. The life I now live, I no longer live for myself. Rather, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Paul, why do you labor more than everyone else? Yes, Christ's grace. But ultimately, I think Paul never lost sight. of the immense sacrifice Christ paid for us. Right? Paul, why are you going to prison? Why are you doing this for those wicked Corinthians? All they do is slap you in the face, Paul. You love them more, they love you less. You open wide your mouth to them, they shut theirs up to you. Why do you keep loving them, Paul? Because Christ loved me and gave himself for me. And so, I don't want you to think, oh, it's so easy. Love God and love neighbors. But you can't! And so here's the solution. If you're getting sleepy, Christ. Christ is the answer for everything. If you don't go to Sunday school like me, the Sunday school answer is always Jesus. But it's very good to teach your kids that. Because the answer always is Jesus. How do you love more? Jesus! Don't try to pull up your love socks. He can't. So Jesus says the whole duty is summed up in love, which makes Christianity so different. I don't see Muslims blowing themselves up for love of God or love of their neighbor. They're doing it for love of themselves and out of fear of an idol named Allah. I want seven virgins for eternity! That's not Christianity. All that Islam is doing is feeding love of self. Right? Within the heart, slander, murder. So you have religions like that, that appeal to the flesh. Christianity does not appeal to the sinful nature. It says you need divine love, and that comes through divine love. I'm just asking for it, you know? Reading the scriptures and saying, Father, show me the immense love. I read it. Spirit, show me the immense love of Christ and change me by that. That's what will change you. I know it sounds hippie-esque, Christ's love will change you. So firstly, Christ teaches us the whole duty of man is summed up in one word, love. Secondly, He teaches us that this love is not hippie love, right? All you need is... Love. Anyone know who sings that? Yeah, there you go. My friend Lennon. It is John Lennon. I listen to the Beatles all through university. I should research that. All the world does need is love, but do you notice how Jesus qualifies it? What's the greatest command? Look in verse 29. It's not a command, it's a statement. The first part of Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5. It's not a command. It's a statement. The first command is this. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, Yahweh our Elohim, is one. The Lord is one. The Lord is God. And so, it's not just hippie love. It's well-defined love in the true and the living God. This is what I'm going to call orthodox love. Right? It's not just say, oh, I love the flowers and I love... That love will send you to hell. That's not God love, that's not orthodox, it's not true love. You can worship, but you must worship in Spirit, capital, and or small s, and Truth, John 4, 24, or something like that. And so we must love in Spirit, but we must also love in Truth. And so that's why it says, with the most important commandment, fixate yourself upon the true and the living God, and love that God. Don't love idols. Idols will fail you. Idols will be like an anchor tied around your ankle that will plunge you to the abyss. Idols are not life rafts. Idols are anchors. Okay, so Jesus says this. One God. Worship Him. Love Him alone. And I have no problem when it says the Lord our God is one. It says husbands and wives are one. You know in Genesis 1 and 2, they became one flesh. Wait, there's two and they're one. I have no problem with saying there's Trinity and yet they're one. Okay, so love this Lord. And for us in Christianity, it's Father, Son and Spirit. The Lord Yahweh is one. This is the God you love. This is why we're created, by the way. Sometimes I make it sound like we're created for fruit. And now I'm saying we're created for love. Are those two? I love when people are preaching that to me. Shane said, they're both the same. Exactly! By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit. By this is my Father glorified, that you love one another. The fruit of the Spirit is, true love, which comes from the true spirit. So God has created us to bear fruit, but ultimately, bearing fruit comes out of love. 1 Corinthians 13, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm like a really crappy drummer. Have you ever heard people try to play drums that just don't have rhythm? That's you trying to be a good person without love, true love. It's like a gong, just out of tune, clanging cymbal, toms that just don't match. If I have faith to move mountains, if I do all kinds of crazy things and jump in fires yet have not loved, I'm nothing, it's a waste of time. And so this is doing things bearing fruit, namely loving. If you love God and love others, You can't help but bear fruit. I guarantee that. If you love God and you love others, you will bear fruit. Jesus is also teaching that not only are we to love God, but we're to love Him with everything that is within us. Right? Love Him with all of your heart. Notice how he doesn't say just with your mouth? Did you notice that's not one of the three in Deuteronomy 6 or the four in Mark 12? He's saying he's getting right to the issue of things. Don't just tell me you love Christ with your lips. And you know it. You know it in your deepest recesses of your heart if you love Christ. I don't need to guilt you into it. I'm a sinner, but I know. I'm with Peter. Lord, Thou knowest I love Thee. Remember that? After he denied Him three times, John 20. You know all things. Lord, You know I love You. Can you say that? If you can't, you're not a Christian. I'm not saying, are you perfect. I'm saying, do you love Christ? Though you screw up and fail numerously like me, can you say, Lord, I love you. If that is the cry of your heart, you're bearing fruit for God's glory. You love Him with all your heart, with all your mind. A lot of Christians struggle with that. They don't like theology. I know the body is different. I know not everybody is called to read thick theological books like me. I understand that, and I praise God, because all we would do is sit around and talk theology, and nothing would get done. But, I'm not... I remember once, in the Pentecostal church I went to when I got converted, the idea was, bring... as you come in the door, leave your mind at the door. Just let loose and worship God. Don't think! That's anti-scriptural. You love God with all of your mind. Think great thoughts. Memorize your scripture. Worship God not just with your affections and your emotions. Worship Him with your mind. God's given you a thinker to think. Understand, what is propitiation? Because often the mind will inform the heart. Well, I understand that propitiation is more than just a big fancy word for preachers. And I understand that Christ swallowed the wrath of God for me. Man, I want to love God with all of my mind. I want to think about Christ dying on a cross for me. Love Him with all of your strength. If you're young or you're old, give your body to Christ. Love Him with everything He's given you. He's given you a heart, a mind, understanding, a soul, and strength. and everything else in between to be a channel of love. So, my question is, are you loving God with everything? Right? And I would encourage some of us who think, well, theology's not good. Or some people think, well, affections aren't good. You know what? I daydream all the time. All the time. And you know what I long to see? I know the power of suggestion is strong, so don't take this as if I'm trying to trick you. I long for the day when we will, as Baptists, also love God. Because, as Reformed Baptists, we love God with all of our minds so often. But sometimes it's not so evident with our hearts. You know, like we're afraid to let our emotions out. God forbid we would ever say Hallelujah when we're singing or, you know, I don't know if... You know what, this is my theory. When we baptize people, This is not in notes and it's not scriptural, but this is just thinking. When we baptize people, I think what I do is I pinch something here. So I baptize them and I pinch hard, and then they can never lift their arm above their head. So you can never raise your hand to worship the Lord as Baptist. That's kind of... Isn't that funny? I thought it was funny. I should... I'm going to test these with my wife before I embarrass myself. But, when I daydream, I imagine people, like I love that about the Pentecostal Church. They were worshipping with all of their emotion, with all of their heart, and yes, their mind was at the door. I guess I stepped on a couple of the minds on the door leaving, because they didn't come back to them. But the thing is, I long that we will be worshipping God with all the faculties He's given us. It's not just pick or choose. Okay? And Jesus also teaches us that we are to use these faculties to the full. Notice how he says it. It's so emphatic in verse 30. You shall love Yahweh, your God, with part of your heart, and with part of your soul, and with part of your mind, and with part of your strength. It's very easy. It's simple. I'm not going to preach. Your life is to be a living sacrifice. All of it. Right? Not just part of your mind, not just part of your strength, not just part of your heart, not just part of your soul, everything. And I think that's the language of Paul in Philippians 3 when he's saying, I strain forward, right? He's thinking of the racing metaphor. Every ounce of energy I have, every brain cell, every neuron that fires, may it be used to love and worship and serve the living Lord Jesus Christ. So, yes, the law is fulfilled in love. And then we love God, which overflows into love for neighbors. But this love is to be with everything that is within us, and everything in everything that is within us. You got it? You say, I can't. Ask. God, I'm a lazy slugger and it's hard to love you. I have so little strength. Those who wait on the Lord, Isaiah 40, 31, what happens? God gives them the strength. You just can't even keep up with them. You think you get old? If you wait on God and you ask Him, He will give you that strength to love Him. I guarantee it. What Brent said last week, he woke up an hour earlier. That does something to your body. Sleep is good. So, I'm not going to preach. It's simple. Love God to the full with everything He has endued you. If God's given you a good mind, Susanna, He's given you a good mind. Love God with every brain cell He's given you. Some of you are good hard workers. Continue, continue to love Him with all of your strength. Continue to love Him with all of your heart. We're all to do these, but God, I'm just saying, let's do this. If we grasp this and the Spirit starts putting His fruit in us in love, the world will see. Right? Because love is a verb. It's not a noun. Ooh, that's pithy. That's so deep. It's true. Love is more than just, I love you. Love is an action. Right? Think of Jesus. He says, oh, I'm thinking of another quote now. Anyway, He says, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things that I tell you? He says, if you love me, you will do or you will keep my commandments. So let's ask that we be a church that gets what Jesus says. Yes, there's 613, and oh, I'd love to read the Hebrew. Ultimately, let's love God, and as we love God and gaze upon God and Christ and that overflows to love others, let's love God and love others with everything in us and everything in everything that is within us. I've killed that. Finally, Jesus teaches that our love for God is evidenced in love for others, made in God's image. God has made us to love Him, but also to love others. That's hard. So I want to show you just a couple passages in 1 John chapter 4 that hammer this idea home. Because a lot of people I've seen, especially in the books I've been reading, I love God, I just don't love His people. Do you love God? I love God, I just don't love this church. Well, Christ died for His church. Right? If Christ loves the church, and we say we have Christ's love in us, we should love what He loves. 1 John chapter 4, verse 7 and 8, and then I'll read a couple other verses. Beloveds, he was talking to Christians. Let us love, this is a commandment, let us love one another for Here it is, love is from God. So this is, when I said you have to ask for God's love, it doesn't say love comes in within you. Not divine, truthful, orthodox love. Self-love comes from within. But the love the Apostle John is writing about comes from God. Self-sacrificing, self-emptying love. So it says here, let us love one another. Why should we love one another? Because love comes from God. That's why the four is there. And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God. Why? Because God is love. And so to say, I belong to God but I don't love. They butt heads. You can't say that. Right? Because God is love. So I love You say that you know God, who is love, but you don't love. Um, let me see, I have it in my notes. Verse 20 and 21, it's the same idea. Trust me, I'm going to get back to 1 John chapter 4, so you can leave your finger in there if you have an expensive Bible with a ribbon in it. I'm going to use this to hopefully motivate us. Verse 20, if anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen." And this commandment we have from Him. Whoever loves God, must. Boy, those are those words you just wish weren't there. Must. Whoever loves God must also love his brethren. And so Jesus is elaborating. This is the new commandment Christ gives us. This is the law of Christ. Love God and love one another. And if you love God truly, in spirit and in truth, it's like a nice river that just cannot be contained. That love overflows for God. and is expanded to love for others. Why? Because God loves. For God so loved the world. I belong to God but I hate the world. Boy, that's hard because it says do not love the world. But you know what I mean. Sinners. Okay? I love God. One hand. I hate sinners. I don't evangelize to them. I couldn't care less if they go to hell. Does that person truly know God? I don't think so. Right? Mocking people. God does not mock. God loves the world. Do you believe that? Do you believe God loves every single person? I do. Does God save every single person? No, but God loves every single person. And if we claim to know God, then we should love every single person too. But what if they're an enemy and they screwed me over? Love them. Jesus forgave those. who crucified Him, right? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. So someone gives you, you know, they shaft you. Love them. Think of how much God puts up. We're saying it! Look how much God puts up daily with us. And so if we get love, and we get God's love, we'll be forbearing, and we'll actually start loving the Mormons who come to our door, and the JWs. They know our arguments. They know them. I'm not going to convince them. So maybe I should love them and pray for them. Not just try to trump them. Not pray, you know, oh, I'm smarter than you. I hope you go to hell. That's not the love of God. And so our love for God is evidenced in love for others who are made in His image. You know why there's a death penalty in Genesis chapter 6? Because to kill another human being is to slight and make an attack on God's very image. And to say that you love God and you don't love those who are the pinnacle of His creation and whom He is well pleased with in creation, you can't have that. So the encouragement is, let's show that we know God by loving one another, especially the brethren. Galatians 6. Do good to all, especially to the household of saints. Describe answers. See my watch served as a bookmark Brent. Pretty witty, eh? Back to Mark 12, though I'm going to go back to 1 John 4. Describe answers. You are right. Well done, you could translate, teacher. Truly you have said that Yahweh the Lord is One and there is no other besides Him. So He's Orthodox. He can talk the talk. He's still playing the game. Right? There's a lot of people who believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world. They believe that there is one God. They believe in Jehovah. And yet they only talk the talk, and yet do not walk the walk. And so he keeps going, and Jesus is going to challenge him. And to love him with all the heart, and all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than all whole-birthed offerings and sacrifices. And the text here says that this man answered wisely. He answered correctly. Do you understand that? I just want to pause on that before I plead with you. Do you understand that? This man answered wisely. He's right. To love God and to love neighbors, in the Greek, it's such an emphatic word, is so much infinitely more valuable. You know, it's much more. That's a good translation, but it's so strong. It's incomparable. Sacrifices, killing animals. God doesn't care about that. He cares about your heart. Right? Look at Psalm 51. David says, you don't desire that. You don't want my offerings. You want my heart. You want a penitent heart that asks for forgiveness and a heart that forgives others. Then, he ends, I will sacrifice and then you will be pleased with my sacrifice. And that's the danger with religion. Play games. We think that if I just go to church enough, if I carry my big Bible with me to church, if I, you know, put some money in the plate, I worked with a guy this week, and he was saying how valuable he was to the church by how much money he put in the plate. And he's so bitter. If he would have let me talk, maybe I would have been able to have said, you know what? All that is refuse. It is much better to love God and to love your neighbors, and therefore forgive them, than to put all the... First of all, I don't know how much anyone puts in the plate, and number two, I don't want to deceive you into thinking that if you put money in the offering box, as if somehow that's going to make you right with God. God's not pleased with that. Some people, they put in a big check in there, and then they go and they slander people, and they live in sinful lives. Know from Scripture that that's not right. God does not care about those trifling little offerings. They're defiled. Right? Wash your hands, James says in chapter 4 or something like that. You sinners. Purify your minds. He answers wisely. God doesn't want your sacrifices. God wants your heart. He wants your life. He wants your soul, your mind. That's what He wants. And the sweet thing is, is that if God does have all your heart, soul, mind and strength, He'll have your wallet as well. And so you'll still be giving, and yet it'll be acceptable now in God's eyes. But see, that's the danger of religion. Do, do, do, do some more. Do, do, do. Remember when I said that? That's what legalists do. They take that railroad of grace, and they rip it up and say, ah, if I just give some more, or if I just, you know, read some more Bible, then I'm alright. Reading the Bible is good, but reading the Bible doesn't save you. Believing in Jesus Christ, evidencing it with love for God and love for others, proves that you're saved. And so Christianity is not do, do, do, do, do. Christianity is done. And now we are free to do. You see that? So we're trying to attain stuff with religion. I've got to get here. This is salvation. If I can just climb there, just a couple more burnt offerings, a couple more ewe lambs, just seven like a bimilac. That was in Sunday school. And then I'll get salvation. Christianity says, salvation accomplished in Christ. Now I can start giving those year lamps, which are now a sacrifice that is pleasing to God. And Jesus says to him, you're not far from the kingdom, you're near the kingdom. And so he answers wisely, he gets it, he understands that it's all about love, and we don't know where he goes. He either will play the game, They'll say, okay, I know to love God is the right way. To know that loving God and loving others is how you enter the Kingdom, is that enough? It's not. You can know that Jesus Christ died on a cross for sinners. That's not going to save you. Jesus says to him, you understand, and you're very close. There's only one more step. And that step is bowing your knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. You're near. You're standing in the presence of God, Jesus says. I've made my demands. Pick up your cross. That's what Jesus is saying. Follow me. I am Yahweh. I am that One. You're very close. You almost got it. It's like almost being saved. Right? How many people are in hell who are almost saved? You're very close. You almost got it. But now you've got to do something. So we love the sovereignty of God who opens up the eyes, and yet the Bible says you must believe. You must love God. And so if you're near, the exhortation is, and the prayer to the Spirit is, love! Do you love God? And I command you, love God and love your neighbors. Don't just be near the kingdom. Enter into it by faith and love and hope. And you say, well how do I get this love? Right? I don't want to be near the kingdom. I want to be in the kingdom. I don't want to play the game of just talking the talk. I want to walk in the kingdom, not just talk about it. I want to experience it. Go back to 1 John chapter 4 and I promise I'll close here. So I read verses 7 and 8. But 7 and 8 are in the context of 9 and 10. So it says, let us love one another. That's my plea to you. You evidence that you're in the kingdom by loving one another. Those who are born of God, love. Verse 9. How do I get this love? Pastor, I want in the kingdom. I want this love. In this, God's love was made manifest among us. that God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. And this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. So do you see what John's doing? I think even what Jesus does. He commands us to love, and then we say, but love comes from God, so how do we get this love? And He says, let me define what love is, and it will induce you to love. Think about God's love in sending His Son on the cross to be the propitiation for our sins. Sometimes we go so quickly over the cross and we mention it. I think some of the most frightening words, probably the most frightening words ever spoken were in Jesus' Eloi, Eloi, sabachthani, or however it goes, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Now think about that. Why was the Son forsaken? Because according to 2 Corinthians 5.21, He became sin. Right? Because holy. Sin cannot dwell with God's blessing presence. God turns away. Not just out of lack of love, but ultimately because He's pure. Right? Light turns away darkness. And so, we have here sin that God cannot dwell with. And all of a sudden that sin is dumped upon the Son. The motivation is love. I don't know how this works, but I know it works in my life. If I'm lacking love, Christina can attest that there's times when I'm unloving. I often ask that God would show me the cross. That's why the gospel is preached for believers every Sunday. Because we still struggle with loving others. And so he says, this is love. It's not that we can somehow just love God, pull up our love socks, rather thinking, God, for some crazy reason, love, sent His Son, who willingly came, out of love, and didn't just get lost a few times and crucified. Ultimately, the worst thing that the son endured was the forsaken strickenness of the father. And every single person in this room deserves that. Did you catch that? You deserved to be stricken. forsaken, cut off from the land of the living because of your sin. And yet, God, out of His immense love, gave a substitute for you. If you get that, you will not have a hard time loving. You can know it here, but oh, that the Spirit would take it and drop it in here, and then we would love God with all of our heart as well. We need to meditate on Christ's love. For God so loved the world that He gave. I love that, not just sent, He gave. I don't know, sometimes I wonder within the Trinity, was it harder for the Father to give the Son or harder for the Son to send Him? You know, that's that glorious Trinitarian love. God so loved sinners like me and like you that He actually gave His Son. I don't know if any of you are parents. That would be a lot to give. Did you give your son to someone else? Let me turn to Romans 5, because it just reminded me of something. You can turn there, too, if you want. Here's a good verse, or a good section of verse. Romans 5, verses 6 to 8. While you're tuning, I have, as we meditate on God's love for us in Christ, the Spirit will well up within us, love for God, which spills over to love for others, which is the same love God has for us. So as we meditate on God's love, His love permeates us and spills over to others. The very same love we meditate upon becomes ours. Let me just read these verses. Let me just ask that the Holy Spirit would give us this love. I'm serious. I don't care if praying in the middle of a sermon is unorthodox. Spirit, give us love for Christ and for others. For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for good people. He died for the ungodly. That's everyone here. Even the pastor, just in case you're wondering. 4. One will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So, you see it, right? No one's gonna die... Here's the argument. We were weak, helpless, God sends His Son to die for us. And God is saying, if there was a perfect or a good person, very few people would die. He says, and yet Christ dies for wretches, ungodly. Very few people are going to die for good people? Imagine that God would die for wretches, because there are no good people. Right? There's a good person, no one's going to die for him, and yet God shows his love for us while we're dead wretches who hate God in our mind, still send his son to die for us. See, this is a nice hinge. This is like life transforming. If the Spirit gets hold of you, and shows you how much Christ loves you, day by day by day, and you ask God to show you the cross, and his love poured out through that cross, If you get it, if the spirit hammers you with that, you'll start loving God on a whole new scale, and you'll start loving people on a whole new scale. And this world will see who we are as zealous. We're peculiar people. Freaky because we actually love people at no cost. We have the same mind in ourselves that Christ had. He poured Himself out for good people. No, though being God, He comes down, born in a pig trough, dies for sinners. God, not just a prophet. Then we can do Philippians 2, 1 and 2. Esteem others as more important than yourselves. Well, how do I do that? Think about the cross. How do I love my neighbor? Think about the cross. How do I love the person who keeps slandering me, and slaps me, and spits in my face? Reminds me of a scene in Fireproof. I'm right there at the tree. And he's saying, how can I love my wife? She keeps spitting in my face, and she keeps just destroying my honor in the house. And the guy turns around, and there's the cross there. And basically he's saying, You can do that because Christ suffered all that reproach and reviling from you, and puts up with you day by day. The only way you're ever going to put up with other people is to understand that Christ, in His immense, long-suffering, forbearance, patience, grace, mercy, and love, not only put up with you, but died for you. Let us as a church, then, meditate much on God's love for us in Christ. I hope to cross this every sermon, and not just so I can fit in the little Piper Club. Because that's cool nowadays, right? Everybody wants Christ. But I mean it with all of my heart. You guys need Christ. God's love is unmerited and undeserved. A life of love, here's my closing exhortation, is the life that pleases God. Do you want to please God? Love Him and love your neighbor. You can't. Love comes from God. Dwell on the cross. Ask for that love. It's a fruit of the Holy Spirit. If you're dead in your sins, cry out that Christ would save you. When you're born again, the Spirit comes in. You confess Christ as Lord. You repent of your sins. The Spirit comes in and seals you, gives you gifts, and then starts being fruit in your life. I want love. You need to be born again by the Spirit. How does that come about? Ah, let Him come. Regenerate. Confess Christ. You will start to love. Love is the thing that endures forever, 1 Corinthians 13. This will characterize God's people throughout eternity. Right? These three abide, faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. That's what heaven's, the new heaven's, the new earth, you know what that's all about? us gathered around the throne, expressing our love with all of our mind, with all of our heart, soul, strength, and whatever the fourth one is, I can't remember. Everything that's within us, we're going to be around the throne. I've got to quote Augustine. Love, has anyone ever heard this? Love and you can do no wrong. Of course, the love is in light of the Shema. The Lord our God is One. Pithy. That's something to write down. Love and you can do no wrong. Not hippie love. God's love. Right? That's what I want our church to get. I want to see our church explode, and I want to see us planting churches, taking the love of Christ to the ends of the earth. Let's pray. Father, thank you. This is sweet news. I thank You for how simple Christianity is and yet how impossible it is and yet how You've made provisions for that impossibility by sending Your Son to die for us and give the Spirit who can regenerate us and give us love. And so, Lord, I pray that You would give us love. For the hearts here that don't want love, take out that heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Father, if there are some of us here who are Struggling with unforgiving spirits and hearts Help us to understand that if we profess to know you that we must love our neighbor Lord if there's some of us who are selfish and don't want to help others convict us of that sin Father may this be a community of true love Father I pray that you would fix all of our eyes upon the Lord Jesus Christ and his death his resurrection and and his ascension to your right hand for the remainder of this week and the remainder of our lives. May our kids see that we're unique, we're not just religious, that we've been born again, that we have a love that is not our own, and that they would see this, and they would want it, and you would use that love in our lives to transform them as a means of grace to save them. Reach Lethbridge, Lord. Use us and use the love you've given us in Christ. And Father, we thank you. that ultimately we can love You because You first loved us. Thank You for sending Your Son. Jesus, thank You for giving Yourself. Spirit, thank You for filling us. Truly, You are love. And we praise You for that in Jesus' name. Amen.