Amen. Thank you, team. And thanks, Alan, for writing that song. You mentioned there that one-third of the Psalms are laments, and that is true. There are more lament Psalms than any other type of Psalm in the Bible, but we don't sing like that very often in church. We don't sing about our pain as much as we can and as much as we probably should, so thanks for that. I want to invite you to open your Bibles, if you have them with you today, to Mark chapter 12, verse 28. That's on page 848, if you're reading from the Pew Bible. This is one of the best known and most beloved stories in the Bible. I'm sure you've heard it before, or maybe you've heard snippets of it, but we'll read it all the way through. We'll try to understand it, and then we'll attempt to respond to it as the Lord would have us do. Hear now the word of the Lord, beginning at verse 28. One of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another. And seeing that he 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, with all your soul, 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. 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, with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God. And after that no one dared to ask Him any more questions. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Well, as we've mentioned numerous times, near the end of Mark's Gospel, he presents us with these sort of three climactic confrontations with the various groups that represent the leadership cadre of Israel. The first conflict story, maybe you remember, is with the Pharisees and the Herodians. And that conflict was about taxation and civil authority. And then the second conflict story is with the Sadducees. That one was about the doctrine of Scripture and the hope of the resurrection. And then this last meeting here, this last confrontation is with a single solitary scribe. and he doesn't appear anywhere near as hostile as the other two parties. Seems like a reasonable guy, seems like he's been searching the scriptures, and that he recognizes in Jesus an authoritative teacher, a person of remarkable insight, so he comes and asks him a question about the heart and substance of the law. It's a very interesting conversation, and we hear in it a variety of useful things. First thing, we hear is some remarkably valuable instruction. Jesus answers a question here in a way and with some content that I assume that we're all very interested in. James Edward puts it this way. He says, the fact that Jesus adds the commandment from Leviticus 19.18 to the Shema indicates that it takes both commandments to realize the one will of God. That's a compelling phrase, isn't it? The one will of God. We're all very interested in that. Many of us are interested in that. Maybe the most common question that I get asked as a pastor is, Pastor, how can I know the will of God? Well, here's your answer, right? What Jesus says here is the answer. The one will of God for your life is that you would love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. If you are doing that, you are doing what God wants you to do with your life. Now we tend to get obsessed with the details. Yes, but Lord, where shall I do that? With whom shall I do that, right? Those are the fine details. Main thing is this. You want to know what God wants for your life? This is it right here. Love the Lord your God with all of who you are. All your mind, all your soul, with all your strength. Love the Lord your God with all that you are. and love your neighbor as yourself. If you do that, you are well on your way to doing the will of God for your life. This is very, very valuable instruction. So let's just take a minute and make sure we've understood exactly what Jesus is saying here. First thing you probably want to know is that actually Jesus is not entirely unique in this teaching. Other Jewish rabbis had actually said this or something very like it before Jesus, and I think that's useful to note. Certainly, Mark has shown us a lot of occasions where Jesus was in conflict with Judaism. I don't know if you can remember, but when we started this series, one of the first series of stories in Mark's gospel is a series of conflict stories. I think there were six conflict stories where Jesus basically disagrees with Judaism in several critical ways. And absolutely, we are right to recognize that there is fundamental discontinuity between the way of Jesus and the way of first-century Judaism. First-century Judaism had lost its way, right? Which I think is interesting, because a lot of Christians today think that to get at the heart of Jesus, they somehow need to get in through the door of first-century Judaism. And yet, one of the dominant notes in Mark's gospel is that first-century Judaism had completely lost its way. And yet, that is not to say that Jesus just simply knee-jerk rejected everything about first century Judaism. I'm always nervous about people who are always and invariably contrary. Aren't you? If you say up, they say down. If you say white, they say black. If you say good, they say bad. I don't trust people like that. But I'll tell you this, I also, and in fact, I far less trust people who agree with everything they hear. I don't trust people who just parrot the crowd. If the crowd says good, I say good. If the culture says good, I say good. I don't trust those people either. Don't you want a leader who looks like he's an independent thinker who's able to think above the level of the culture? The easiest thing to do is parrot the culture. The second easiest thing is just to hate the culture. But Jesus, he steers an exalted path, doesn't he? He's not afraid to say, hey listen, they're on the right track here, but they're not on the right track here. And that speaks of a whole different level of perspective. Here, interestingly, Jesus agrees with some of the better currents in first century Judaism. This wasn't the first time this had been said. Do you know that 20 years before Jesus, when Jesus was a little boy, Rabbi Hillel was asked a very similar question by a Gentile actually. It's become a bit of a legend in Judaism, this encounter. I don't know whether it actually happened. I assume it did, but some stories get better over time and maybe this is one that did, I don't know. But anyway, the story goes that a Gentile came to Rabbi Hillel around 20 years before the birth of Jesus, or 20 years, I should say, before the time of Jesus, and said to Rabbi Hillel, give me the sum and substance of the Old Testament. The Old Testament's a long book, and so it's perfectly natural for people to want a bit of a summary. And he says, give me the summary of the Old Testament, give me the summary of the law of God, but here's the thing, you gotta do it while I'm standing on one leg. Because I don't know if you know this, but sometimes preachers give really long answers to really simple questions. And so he thought, this is how I can get something I can take away. I want something I can sew on a piece of paper and stick in my pants and go away. That's what I'm looking for. So give me the sum and substance of the law while I'm standing on one leg. And this is what Rabbi Hillel said. He said, what you yourself hate, Do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole law. The rest is commentary. Go and learn it." That's not bad, right? That's what he said while his brother was standing on one leg. And it sounds an awful lot like what Jesus said here. Basically, they sometimes refer to that as the reverse golden rule. But what Jesus says here actually is one better. Because he goes back to the very foundation. He says you can't love your neighbor until you love the Lord your God. Until you're reconciled to God, until you're in right relationship with God, there will be nothing true, nothing real, nothing of God to overflow into the life of your neighbor. Jesus is saying loving God is primary, and loving neighbor flows logically out of that. That was the unique contribution of Jesus. No one had ever said that. before. No one in Judaism had ever put those things together in exactly that way. But this, of course, becomes standard Christian fare. Apostle John, for example, says in 1 John 4, if anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he's 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 also love his brother. See that? Christians early on understood that these things have to go together, and they have to go in the right order. You've got to love God, and if it's real, that's got to overflow in love for the neighbor. Now, I guess there's a sense then in which good theology is like good plumbing. I actually don't know a lot about good plumbing. I know a little bit about good theology, and they seem similar to me. I can swap a toilet out, that's about as far as I get with plumbing, but I got a little further in theology, and it does seem that there's a similarity here. I think the point that Jesus is making is that it doesn't really matter, thinking in plumbing terms, whether you got all your pipes in place to move water laterally within the house. If you're not connected to the source, right? If you're not connected to either the well, if you live in the country, or the city main, if you live in the city, then it doesn't really matter how good you are at moving water throughout your house. The horizontal movement depends on the more primary, the more foundational vertical movement. You understand? Right? That's what the Bible's saying. That's Christianity in a nutshell. And of course, if you miss this either way, you end up in a heretical and unhelpful ditch. If you love God with no reference to your neighbor, that's mysticism. There's no mandate for that in the Bible. That's mysticism or monasticism, however you want to call it. This idea that I'm going to go out in a cave, cut off from all people. Don't you find out, aren't we all holier in a whole? If you could hide me in a cave for a month, I'm not sure I could sin if I tried. It's interacting with other people that is the tricky part about Christianity, is it not? There's no mandate for holy in a hole. There's no mandate for monasticism or mysticism. That's trying to love God without any horizontal dynamic, without any interaction with neighbor. That's unhelpful. That's heretical. But then on the other hand, trying to love neighbor without any reference to God is humanism. And it's ultimately idolatry. Because you know what happens in humanism, humanism is when you try to, by the way, humanism is the dominant religion of the school system. And of Canadian culture in general. Humanism is when you try to be a good person, you try to love everybody without any reference to God. It very quickly becomes idolatry. Because you make created things ultimate things. And it also very quickly becomes an exercise in pride because you begin to define yourself in relation to other people who always need your help. It creates a codependency, a victimhood that we feed off of in order to feel exalted and moral. Doesn't work, it's not sustainable, it's not God-glorifying. It's ultimately idolatrous and prideful. Christianity insists that those things have to be kept in proper tension and in proper order. You gotta love the Lord your God. And you've got to overflow in loving relations with the neighbor. Now, in terms of how Jesus phrases this instruction, he gives the first commandment, the great commandment, the greatest commandment, he gives that in words borrowed from Deuteronomy 6.4. Let me read that to you. Listen carefully. If you're a careful reader, you'll notice something here. Deuteronomy 6.4 to 5. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. Now this passage is sometimes called the Shema. Maybe you've heard it called that. Maybe you've heard Jewish people reciting it. Maybe you've seen that on TV or YouTube. Maybe you've heard it in the airport. This is essentially the Jewish version of the Apostles' Creed. It's their essential statement of faith. They said it every morning. Now what did you notice though about how Jesus used the Shema in replying to the scribe? What do you notice? He added something, didn't he? Look carefully again. The Shema says you've got to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. What did Jesus add to that? with all your mind. Right? That's not there. That's not there. The Shema talks about three ways to love God. Jesus adds a fourth. You can do that if you are God. Right? You can add to the Bible. You can add to the Word of God because Jesus is the Word of God in the flesh. By the way, that is what Jesus did that was constantly amazing to people. In Mark 1 27, people are saying, what is this? They've just heard Jesus teaching. What is this? A new teaching with authority. By the way, if anyone in our church ever says that, you should take me behind the church and stone me. The only reason Jesus gets away with this is because he is God. Right? And this set him apart from all the other teachers of the day. In fact, Mark comments on that in Mark 7, 29. It says he, Jesus, was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. Scribes didn't invent new bits of the Bible. Scribes' job was to read the Bible and explain what it meant. Jesus is always, always doing this. Do you remember when he taught on the Ten Commandments? You can see it most clearly, or maybe most memorably, or most succinctly with the Seventh Commandment. Remember that? Jesus said, you have heard it said, do not commit adultery. So there he is opening up the word of God to people. Now he doesn't say, but I tell you, go ahead. Go ahead and commit adultery. God doesn't even care about that anymore. It's all grace now. No, he doesn't say that. That's what a lot of evangelicals think he says. He doesn't say that. He affirms the seventh commandment. You've heard it said, do not commit adultery. Then he goes on to expand. He says, I tell you, don't even look at a woman with lust in your heart. So now Jesus is saying, it's not just about having improper relations with your neighbor. It's actually about what's going on in your mind, what's going on in your heart, what you set before your eyes. Jesus adds a whole other thing here, which you can do. if you are God. And that's helpful for us to see because it helps us understand how the Bible goes together. The New Testament doesn't contradict the Old Testament. It clarifies, fulfills, and expands the Old Testament. That's what Jesus is doing here. Now when it comes to the second commandment, the second most important commandment in the Bible, Jesus gives that to us in the language of Leviticus 19.18. Now I'm going to read that to you from my Bible, and maybe you should too. So if you have a second, just flip there. Context is king, particularly when you're hanging out with rabbis. Rabbis used to play games with each other. So they would sometimes quote a verse to see if you could quote back to them the verse that was before or the verse that was after it. Now Jewish legend says that a fully trained scribe could, now you never would, but could stick a knife through a Torah scroll and tell you every verse that it pierced on its way through to the bone. That's how well they knew the Bible. So they play games with each other. So anytime you got scribes talking to each other, rabbis talking to each other, and they're quoting Bible verses, you always want to read it in the original context, because they're not just quoting the verse. They're quoting the verse before, the verse after, and probably everything you'd pierce with a knife on your way through, right? So Jesus knows how to play this game. We love the second greatest commandment, right? Love your neighbor as yourself. But that's all of it we ever quote. Helpful to read the whole paragraph that Jesus is citing here, Leviticus 19. Starts in verse 17. You shall not hate your neighbor in your heart. Well, that makes sense. Loving is the opposite of hating, right? So Jesus is pulling us back from where we're inclined to go. Or the Bible here, we're in Leviticus in the Old Testament. So God's pulling us back from where our hearts want to go. Shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, reasoned frankly. If you have an NKJV, if you have a New King James Version Bible in front of you, it's actually more interesting. It says, you shall rebuke your neighbor honestly from the heart. And it goes on to say, lest you incur sin because of him. Because right, if you're not speaking truth to your neighbor, and your neighbor carries on merrily on the road to destruction, ultimately God's going to hold you accountable for that. That's the scariest thing I've ever thought of. Goes on to say, you shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. You hear that? So isn't it interesting? The Bible doesn't deal in airy-fairy sentiment like we do, right? We're a culture that is suspicious of content and that idolizes sentiment and, you know, pleasantries here in Canada. And so we throw these terms around without ever thinking about what they actually mean. We say, oh yes, oh yes, so important to love your neighbor. What does that mean exactly? We're loathe to define that. Well here the Bible defines it. To love your neighbor according to the Bible is two things. It's first of all not to take vengeance. Right? Don't take vengeance on your neighbor. And then secondly it's to speak truth to your neighbor. Have you ever thought about it? That's how the Bible defines loving your neighbor. Be merciful and speak the truth. That's interesting. And it's interesting because that is the opposite direction of our hearts. By and large, human beings fall into two categories on this issue of relating to the other. They're either revenge seekers or conflict avoiders. And then your really messed up person is both. Avoiding conflict but seeking revenge. Those are the passive aggressive people. I don't understand them. But that's how human beings act. And if you're disputing that, if you say, no, no, no, I think people are better than that, just come on over to my house later this afternoon and watch my kids play. You'll be able to spot, you see a group of kids, you'll be able to spot which ones are revenge seekers. You take my toy, I smack you on the head with said toy and take it. And which ones are conflict avoiders. You take my toy and I make you a muffin. You can watch that pretty quick. And you probably know who you are. I know who I am. By nature, by nature I am a revenge seeker. I'm the youngest child, right? My older brother was a problem creator, and so to survive, I became a revenge seeker. All the best stories in my family revolve around my brother being a problem creator and me being a revenge seeker. We tell them now, now that we've grown up in theory, we tell them now for laughs with the grandkids at Christmas dinner around grandma's table. One of the favorite stories in our house is the time where Uncle Mark, my older brother, decided he was going to stab me with a fork. My older brother Mark is six years older than me and more advanced in all forms of sin as children. So mom was making us breakfast over there at the stove. She had her back turned to us, and we were sitting at the table, and Uncle Mark thought it'd be a good day to stab me with a fork. It's always a good day to stab me with a fork. But I was growing in my revenge-seeking capacities. And so he stabbed me with a fork, and I picked up the glass Skippy peanut butter jar and knocked him unconscious at the table. Boom! And then ran for my life, because I knew he'd wake up eventually. But that's me, that's my thing. In my flesh, I'm a revenge seeker, I'm a counter puncher. Now, of course, I sought out a conflict avoider. That's what we revenge-y folks do. You know, I've often said, if you can get into a fight with my wife, there's something seriously wrong with you. She speaks nicely to telemarketers who call her house at dinnertime. Nicest person. In our hearts, we all have this default. Are we revenge seekers? Are we conflict avoiders? Do you struggle to say the hard truths to people that you know in your family you need to? You're just letting them go merrily on their way to destruction? Can never bring yourself to say the loving truth? Is that your struggle? Or are you the revenge seeker? Is it all you can do to not stab people in the eye with a fork when they start getting on your nerves? Who are you? Well, this commandment speaks to everybody in the room. It says you can't give yourself to those tendencies. You've got to love your neighbor as yourself. Where's that going to come from? Because that's impossible. You're born with that. So where's it going to come from? It's going to come out of the overflow of your relationship with God. I just find it fascinating how Jesus weaves these things together and how he presents them. It's so different than how we speak of these things. Do you notice that Jesus speaks about love in the language of the law? That in itself is fascinating. Because in the contemporary church today, we tend to talk as though love and law are opposites, like they've got nothing to do with each other. But not in the Bible. That's not how the Bible does it. In the Bible, love is framed and defined by reference to the law. Right? Jesus talks about love for God by quoting from Deuteronomy. He talks about love for a neighbor by quoting from the holiness code in Leviticus. There's a point just in that. He's saying law is what informs how we love. You see that all in the New Testament. Love is the fulfilling of the law. Think about that. That's the function of the law. The first four commandments of the ten tell us how to love God. Just walk with me through this. First commandment says if you want to love God, it has to be exclusive. You don't get to love God and other gods. God's not going to be a part of your life. He's going to be the center of your life or he's not going to be in your life. If you want to love God, it's got to be exclusive. First commandment. Shove no other gods before me. Number two, if you want to love God, you've got to let Him define Himself. Right? You don't get to say, well, I think God is like... No, no, no. You've got to let God define Himself. What's the second commandment? Don't have any idols. Idols are gods you make. If you want to love God, you love God as He is. Third commandment. You want to love God? Get to know who He is and how He works, and learn to love who He is and how He works. Don't take the Lord's name in vain. Fourth commandment, you want to love God? Set aside priority time every week to be with Him. That's how you love God. You want to love your neighbor? Okay, now we're into Commandments 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Fifth commandment, you want to love your neighbor? Start with your family. Start with your parents. Love your neighbor. Love your parents by honoring them. Obey them when you're young and take care of them when they're old. Want to love your neighbor? Don't kill them. People super appreciate that. Sixth commandment right there. Don't sleep with your neighbor's wife, right? Don't disrupt those relationships. More than that, let's be deeper than that, because Jesus was, be faithful to your wife, your nearest neighbor, or your husband, your nearest neighbor, with your eye, your mind, your hand, and your body. That's loving, isn't it? Wanna love your neighbor? Don't steal his or her stuff. Respect your neighbor's property. Want to love your neighbor? Tell the truth and never tell a lie about your neighbor. Do you know what's interesting? The ninth commandment about lying is the commandment most frequently cited in the Psalms. Why? Because it's super hurtful when people lie about you, isn't it? There's nothing more hurtful than that. Want to love your neighbor? Be content with what you have. Don't covet your neighbor's stuff. It's really hard to build friendships with people whose lives you want to assume as your own. Wanna love your neighbor? Be content with the sphere of influence and the possessions that God has assigned to you. Isn't that interesting? Isn't that how the law functions? It teaches us, it directs us how to love God and how to love our neighbor. That's the goal. That's the instruction in this passage. But there's more that I want you to see. We'll move a little faster now. Don't you worry. Next thing I want you to see is the warning. Look at the end of the story. Jesus and the scribe basically get on the same page. You don't see that very often when Jesus is interacting with Jewish leaders. They basically get on the same page. They agree on the sum and summary of the law. They're making great progress here. So that's good. Except look at what Jesus says at the end. He said to him, you are not far, not far, from the kingdom of God. When you first read that, you're like, alright, not far. But far is still outside. And if you know anything about Jesus, you know that outside is very bad. Jesus told a story once about people who were close. but still outside, and it wasn't a good story. It says that these people came and they began to knock on the door. They called out to the master and said, we ate and drank in your presence. Like, we're close. We know you. We like you. You taught in our streets. We came to church. But he will say, I tell you, I don't know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil. And in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus didn't have any good news for people who were close but still outside. Outside is bad whether you are close or far. This isn't horseshoes, right? In the kingdom of God, you're either inside or outside. What Jesus is saying here is that understanding and agreement do not equal conversion. And I would imagine in a room of this size, there are several people that need to hear that. This brother agreed with Jesus, said, Jesus, I think you've got it. I like the way you read the Bible. I like your take on things. So he agreed with Jesus, and this fellow had a fantastic understanding of the Old Testament. He understood what it was really about, and he understood what it wasn't really about, because that's a huge thing. Did you notice he said that really what he said is obeying God, loving God, and loving neighbor is far more important than the sacrificial system. By the way, that's an incredible statement from a first century Jewish leader. He was basically recognizing that not everything in the Old Testament was enduring. I mean, you've got to read deep into the New Testament before you really have a handle on that, what stays and what doesn't. He's got it over here. So this brother is brilliant. This brother has a depth of understanding and a fairly broad agreement with Jesus, and yet, he's still outside. He's still unsaved. Interestingly, the Apostle James said the same thing to the same sorts of people later on. He said, you believe that God is one, also quoting the Shema. You say the Shema every day. You got it memorized. Good for you. You're super-duper Orthodox. You do well. Even the demons believe that and shudder. The demons have great theology. The demons agree with everything Jesus ever said, and still they shudder. Why? They shudder in anticipation of final judgment, and so should you, James says, because they're not saved, and you're not saved. If that's all you've got going for you, you're smart and orthodox, if that's all you have, You're outside. Like this brother. He was close, he was wise, he was nice, but he was outside. And that means that he was above all people most to be pitied. Jesus said that. There's nothing worse than the person who's close but outside. Jesus said that in Luke 12. He said that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act accordingly will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given of him, much will be required. For from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. Do you hear that? Jesus says, you understand, the more you understand the will of God, the higher the bar will be for you at final judgment. The worst thing in the world is to be like this guy. Smart, wise, understanding, and unsaved. If you're going to die in your sin, Jesus says, you want to be able to say that you've never even seen a copy of the Bible. You don't want to be the one who had a perfect attendance record at church and who had a PhD level understanding of your Bible and still did not act accordingly, did not do what you should have done with respect to God and others. You don't want to be that guy. I mean, my goodness, if this brother knows the Bible this well and still hasn't understood the fundamental problem of the Old Testament, which is that God is holy and we are not and we need a Savior, if he's got all the details but has missed the forest, that's the worst possible outcome. Better, and I'm being facetious here, but better to know nothing of the Bible, better to be completely confused by every story in the Old Testament, but to at least know this, God is holy, I'm a sinner, I need Jesus. If you've got that and nothing else, you're way ahead of that brother. That's what Jesus is saying. When it comes to the kingdom of God, you're either in or out. And that, of course, begs the question, right? How do I enter the kingdom of God? That's the implied question in the text. That's where he wants this brother to go. He's trying to get him to ask a better question, or at least to ask his questions in the right order. Because you can't love God, and you can't love neighbor, until you have been healed, restored, rescued, and filled with the Holy Spirit. Isn't that kind of the point of the Old Testament? You read the Old Testament and you get to the end and you're like, what is wrong with these people? God has given them every advantage, he's revealed to them everything about his goodness, his glory, his mercy, his kindness, and still they can't love him and they treat each other terribly. And you ask the question, what is wrong with these people? And you come to the conclusion, there is something fundamentally wrong with all of us. We don't need instruction, we need salvation. We need to be healed and changed. We need a new heart. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And only then can we make sense of the instruction we've been given. Isn't that true? Right? So that's the implied question. Well, how can, so if that's what's got to happen first, right? That's the question. How do I get that? How do I get saved? How do I get reconciled to God? How do I get into the kingdom of God? That's where Jesus wants to take this fellow. It's important to see that, because sometimes we see, well, this is good. This is kind of a turning point in Jesus' relationship with the scribes. No, it isn't. Keep reading. Look at what comes next. Have your Bible open. Look at it. Next, he says, well, we've got to talk about Messiah. So he starts talking about Messiah. Who is Messiah? He's basically saying, because you don't understand who Messiah is and what he came to do, you don't understand that he's got to suffer and pay for your sins, because you don't understand how holy God is. You don't understand how sinful you are. And that's why you don't understand why I've come and what I'm talking about. He says, we've got to talk about that. But because you're not there, because you're not ready, look at what he says in verse 38. He tells the people, beware of the scribes. This is the nicest guy Jesus ever talked to. And here's what he turns around and says to the crowd. Beware of the scribes. who like to walk around in long robes and like greeting in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor of the feast, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation. This is the nice guy I've ever met, but I want you to know he's on his way to the deepest pit of hell. Can you believe that? Jesus says that these people, these scribes, are not ready to be the leaders of Israel. because they haven't been reconciled to God. They haven't been healed. They haven't been filled with the Holy Spirit. That's why they're marked by pride and hypocrisy, which is where leadership always goes when it's unconverted. Oh, watch out for them. Have nothing to do with them, he says. These people are on the fast lane to the deepest pit of hell. Do not be following them. That's what he says. That leads us to our final discovery in this text. There is an implied invitation. I'm sure you have seen it. Jesus doesn't hate this man. He's not angry at this brother. He's trying to lead him where he needs to go. Look at where Jesus takes the conversation. This entire conversation, these three conflict stories, happened in the last week of Jesus' life. They all happened on a single day, a single session, sitting in the temple, right? Jesus is sitting in the temple. He's speaking, he's teaching. People are hitting him from every side. That's what's happening here. But of all the people who've come to him on this day, this brother is the nicest, this brother is the closest, yet even still this brother is outside. So look at where Jesus goes. Look at verse 35. He asks the question that everyone else in the crowd should have been asking. Look, look what he says. He says, how can the scribes, again, Puts the brother on the spot. How can the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of God? David himself and the Holy Spirit declared, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son? Jesus says, listen guys, I've been having a great time chatting with you all. Oh, I enjoyed our conversation about taxation and civil authority. That was great. Oh, I enjoyed our conversation about the doctrine of Scripture and the hope of the resurrection. And I especially enjoyed our conversation about the sum and substance of the law. That was marvelous. But can I tell you what we really need to talk about? We really need to talk about the identity and mission of Messiah. Because until you understand that, fellas, you're never gonna understand anything. So, here's the question, boys, Jesus says, scribes, Pharisees, Herodians, Sadducees, here's what we ought to be talking about. Here's the question, who is Messiah? Now you all think, Jesus says, you all think he's the son of David. And of course he is. But he's more than the son of David. Did you know that? Have you thought about that? David thought about that. David said in the Psalms, David in the Psalms said that my son, the Messiah, speaking about Messiah, is also my Lord. Jesus says, have you ever thought about that? What does it mean that David addressed his son as his Lord? What does it mean that David equates his son with his God? Have you ever thought about that? Because you should. David meant for you to think about that. That's why he wrote it in the Psalms. Did David understand that? Not fully. But in the Spirit, he saw it, and in the Psalms, he wrote it, and he left it for you to think about. You should be thinking about that, Jesus says. That's what we should all be talking about. If you want some help with that, Jesus says, I can help you with that. That's the implied invitation in the text. Come unto me. Do you want to understand these things? Do you want to understand what Messiah has come to do and who Messiah really is? Then come to me. If you want to get right with God, if you want to get this all sorted out, come to me. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Want to get right with God? Jesus says, come to me. You said yourself, scribe, that all the sacrifices, that whole burnt offering, that all of those things, those things are not the point. You said that. You want to know the point? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus says, I'm the point, brother. Come to me. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and I will give you what you're looking for. I will heal you. I will atone for your sins. I will heal your heart, and I will give you the Holy Spirit, and I will bring you home to God. And more than that, I can teach you how to live with your neighbor. I can help you love your neighbor. I can give you my spirit, supply you with grace upon grace. I can show you and lead you in the path of love and mercy. Only Jesus could say something like that. And he does. He says, come. Come unto me and be saved. That's the invitation. That's the gospel. And this is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, how thankful we are for these words of Jesus Christ. Lord, we could go all around the world. We could climb up the mountain to speak to a Buddhist monk. We could go anywhere in the world, speak to the wisest people. and we'd never hear anything more useful than this, that the sum and substance of your will for us is to love you with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our minds, with all our strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. And Lord, you didn't leave us to wonder what those things meant, you told us. You gave us 10 beautiful, marvelous laws, a law that shapes and directs our love. And then more than that, Lord, since we wouldn't be capable of following that map with our broken hearts and compasses, you gave us Jesus to heal our hearts, to take away the stain and infection of our sin, and to give us the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God. Amen.