Good evening and welcome to our evening service. It's really lovely to see you all here again. We give you a very warm welcome. If you're watching online, we just hope that you feel part of our fellowship. And it's lovely to have on our service again this evening Bill Ferris. Bill hasn't been here for a while with his health. And it's lovely to see Margaret Weir also in our service this evening. Do continue to pray for Billy Weir at this time. Now, on Tuesday, our Bible study recommences, so half past seven, Bible study and prayer meeting, and we will be looking at 1 John, and the pastor will be looking at chapter two this week. The ladies have their first ladies' fellowship meeting of the year, and that's at half past seven, and the speaker is Grace Stewart from Prison Fellowship. There will be a missionary offering, And also if you want to take one of those little leaflets from the back give it as an invitation to a friend and come along on Wednesday. Next Sunday our own pastor will be speaking in the morning service at 11 and then again at 6pm. For members our quarterly church business meeting is on Thursday the 12th of September at half past seven. So please put that in your diaries. And then as I said this morning we are having a baptism service on Sunday the 29th of September. If you're one of the ones who is being baptized would you please let the pastor have your full contact details. These are all the announcements of course they're all made God willing and I'm going to ask Mark to come and lead us in prayer. Okay, let's close in with the Lord and ask his blessing upon the meeting this evening. Heavenly Father, we commend your presence, Lord. We just want to say thank you, God, for this, the Lord's Day evening, Father. Thank you, Lord, once again, that your house is opened here for the teaching and the preaching of the gospel. Lord, we thank you, God, for what our ears heard this morning. And our Father God, we do pray, O blessed Savior and King, Lord, although it was a heart-searching meeting this morning, but Lord, we just want to say thank you for what we received out of your truth. Lord, also we give you thanks, our God, even around the table of remembrance also. And our Father God, we thank you, Lord, our God and King, Lord, that we're able to sit here as a church this evening to sit under the sound of your truth this evening, and Father, we just ask you, God, O blessed Holy Spirit of God, will you come and be one of our number here this evening? And Lord, would you go from seat to seat, Lord? And Lord, would you, Lord, open our ears that we would hear and our hearts that we would understand when we hear your truth? Father God, we also ask you, God and King, and Lord, for those, Lord, who cannot attend this service this evening, Father, and Lord, we just simply ask you, Lord, for those, Lord, who are at home, and Lord, are watching it online, Father, and Lord, maybe because of infirmities or sickness, Lord, they just can't get out, Lord, and we just ask you, Lord, that you would just draw near. Father, we do pray for James and Margaret West, Lord, Lord, we know, O God, that they're not well. And we pray our Father in heaven, Lord, that you will give them that precious touch that they need, Father, that this sickness would leave them. And Father God, we do pray, Lord, for Nicola's sister once again, Angela, Lord. And finally, we pray, O God, Lord, that you will visit her again, Lord, and Lord, that you would help her to come to an understanding that she needs Jesus. Father, we do pray for Angela's mommy and daddy. And we pray God, Lord, that you will just meet them at the point of their need, Father. And Lord, we pray for David's sister, Father. Annie, Lord, who's in hospital. And we ask you, Father God, that you will undertake with Annie. And Lord, that you will just draw extremely near to your Lord, and Lord, you know what she needs. Lord, we do meet her at the point of her need. We do pray for her mommy, Father. Lord, that you'll undertake with her mommy as well. Father, we also ask you God, our King and Savior. Lord, if there be any in this meeting tonight, Lord, who know not Christ as Savior, Lord, maybe even a backslidden state, Lord, that you would, oh God, draw them to yourself, Father. Lord, that they would close in with you, Lord, and repent from their sin. Father, we do ask you, Lord, that you would again, once again, Lord, anoint our pastor with your precious, precious Holy Spirit. And Lord, as he opens up your truth, your living word, Father God, we pray, Lord, that you will help him, Lord, and bring all to his remembrance what you want him to say. Father, we just ask you, God, for Anne, for Anne, through her husband, Lord Freddy, and Lord, we just pray, God, Lord, that you'll help them, and Lord, that you'll meet their need. Oh, blessed Savior and King, once so faithful in the things of God, around the doors, witnessing for the master. But Lord, we ask you, Lord, that you would minister to them, even this evening, Father, and bless them. Lord, we thank you, Lord, that we've seen Bobby Gilliland out this morning, and we pray for him, Lord. Lord, even in the procedure, Lord, of the cancer, Lord, it has been through, Lord. We pray, God, that you'll still strengthen him, Lord, You would look down upon Sally, his wife, father, and Lord, meet her at the point of her need, Lord. And Lord, thank you again, Lord, for all that Jim Cameron's went through, Lord, and you brought him out this morning, Lord, we just thank you, Lord, for this pillar of your house. And we pray, God, that you'll bless him. Lord, would you undertake our father for those, Lord, who are gonna be singing the songs of Zion. Oh, Lord, anoint them. anoint their voice, O Father. God, help them. Help the music team behind us, Lord. And Lord, help the AV team upstairs, Lord, as they would send it out online, Father, that others would see online and hear the truth of Thy Word. So, Lord, receive our thanks, we pray in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Good evening, everyone. It's so nice to see you in church this evening. And we've all come here because we want to be here. We want to be in God's house. And we all have something else in common. We all have brought our voices here tonight. and we were at a service on Friday night over at the Shankle Baptist and there was a wee man doing the leading and he was 95 and he wasn't far for God so we are going to lift our voices to the Lord as we sing bless the Lord oh my soul and we'll stand as we sing please. when she is gone. Oh, Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave Oh, my soul, worship Him! Oh Yes, I worship your holy name. If you could just stay standing, we're just going to go into the second one, which is Majesty. Thank you. This hymn is called I Would Rather Have Jesus Than Silver and Gold. This is our offering hymn, so please remain in your seats. Before we sing, I would like to read from Psalm 119 and 72. The love of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. Amen to this. Please let's sing together. Oh Blessed Friend, Heavenly Father, Abba, we come before you in the name of your precious Son, Jesus. You are the King of kings, Lord of lords. You are the giver and provider of all things. There is none like you, O Lord. Father, we thank you for who you are and for what you have given. We ask that this offering will be honored and used for your kingdom in Jesus name, amen. We're gonna sing Redeemed. Before we sing, I would like to read from Isaiah 44 and 22. I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist. Return to me for I have redeemed you. Let's please stand up and sing this wonderful hymn together. ["Pomp and Circumstance"] I In every strife. a a Good evening. Sometimes I would just love to keep singing. Excellent, let us pray, shall we? Lord, we wanna thank you that we, who are followers of you, can say that we are redeemed. Not because of anything we have done, but because of everything you have done. And so now we come to your word, Lord Jesus, your living word, your active word, and we pray, Holy Spirit, bring these words alive for us this evening, that, Lord, not one person may leave this building tonight without knowing we've been in your presence, knowing what you would have for each and every one of us to do. So just come and speak, for we're listening. Amen. It's very interesting, the songs that we sing. One of the verses there, that well-known hymn we sang about how pleased we are with the law of God. Really? Do you get up and go, the law of the Lord is my delight? Or do you sort of, you know, that one's not really for me, but I know who it's for. The psalmist says the law of the Lord gives light to the eyes. It revives the soul. The law of the Lord, the precepts, the commands of the Lord make wise the simple. I bet you didn't know that about the law. Because so many times we hear the law in a negative context rather than in a positive. And the law of the Lord is a wonderful thing. We're going to be turning to a book that is full of the law. No, it's not Leviticus. It's Matthew. We're going to turn to Matthew. If you want a title for this evening, if you're taking notes, it's this. On this, the law hangs. On this, the law hangs. Okay, so we will be looking at a bit of the law this evening. But I wanna read some very well-known verses. Matthew 22, Matthew 22, starting at verse 34 to verse 40. Matthew 22, starting at verse 34 through to verse 40. And it says this. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him and saying, teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great command. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. On this the law hangs. It's a fascinating passage, and again, they're very well-known words, very well-known verses. I'm sure you've heard many, many sermons on these verses, but I want us to step back a bit and look at how two groups interact with Jesus. Sadducees, you do know why they were called Sadducees. because they were sad, you see. And you wanna know why a Pharisee is called a Pharisee? Because they're not fair, you see. It's a good way to remember those, because you see, we're gonna deal with these two guys, these two well-established groups in the time of Christ, and how he interacts with them in this passage. It is interesting to note that this part we have read is the second question, or the second test, or the second attack, whatever way you want to look at it, in this chapter that Christ has faced. The first one is from the Sadducees, the second one is from the Pharisees. And so we've got these two groups, these two very well big, renowned, they're not only religious groups that made up the Sanhedrin, but they were political groups as well. And you have these two groups that attack Christ based on what the law teaches. And so we're gonna look at that. The first one was on how Christ understood the afterlife. resurrection. The second one was on his understanding of the law. What is the greatest commandment? So we're going to not necessarily spend a lot of time on the first one but I think it's very important to understand this. You see in verse 34 we have, I've entitled this, it's our turn now. Because the Pharisees were told, they have heard, how Christ has silenced the Sadducees. And you have to ask, how has he silenced the Sadducees? We've broken in here to this part in the narrative, in the chapter, and it just says, and the Pharisees heard that Christ had silenced the Sadducees. Well, how has he silenced the Sadducees? Well, you have to go back to the beginning of the chapter. And it's fascinating when you see this. So the Sadducees and the Pharisees, I want to just give you a bit of a background to this so we can, just so as we address scripture, we know where we're going. The Sadducees and the Pharisees comprised, as I said, of the ruling class of Jews in Israel. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were both religious sects within Judaism during the time of Christ. Both groups honored the law. Many of us would say, well, one did and the other one didn't, but both groups honored the law. And I think it's very important when we deal with this passage. The Sadducees, although they considered themselves conservatives or the old believers, perhaps if you had a Pharisee and a Sadducee sat together, the Sadducee would say, well, you realize I'm right, because I'm one of the old believers. Perhaps that's the way that they would talk. They probably thought of themselves of having a more authentic faith, deeper faith. This is because they accepted only the written law of Moses. And I think that's very important to understand, that they accepted purely the written law. So the five books of the Bible, the first five books of the Bible, what's known as the Torah, they accepted that. The Pharisees will have taken that and the prophets. Okay, so you get this real bit of a division already beginning to happen. But the problem with the Sadducees is they differed from the Pharisees in that they did not believe in things like the resurrection. That's why they were sad, you see. They denied the doctrines held by the Pharisees and by Christ. This has included the resurrection, the existence of angels and spirits and the meeting out of rewards and punishments after death. Man, if you don't believe in the resurrection then you don't believe in heaven or hell. Do you really? There's no point holding on to that one. if you don't believe in the resurrection. So this is where they differed from the Pharisees. And Christ silenced them, because if you look back from the beginning, in chapter 22, from verses one to 14, Christ tells about the parable of the wedding banquet, what's gonna happen in heaven. In chapter, in verses 15 to 22, he gives the teaching about giving to Caesar what is Caesar's, giving to God what is God's. Interesting, he follows that teaching, follows the reality of the afterlife, and you're either in God's family or you're not in God's family. We are to give to God what is God's. And then he follows that in verses 23 to 33 by the marriage of the resurrection. Now that must have wound up the Sadducees, because he talks about the resurrection. They didn't believe in the resurrection. So what we have up to this point is a great discourse in what happens after you die. The afterlife, the resurrection, the Feast of the Lamb. We're there in the marriage Feast of the Lamb. We're there in heaven. And Christ is discussing this with the Sadducees. And he corrects them on so much. So here, Christ challenges the Sadducees on what happens at the resurrection and something they didn't believe. But Jesus' response is this. Notice to his response, and his response is key here. Because many times we can debate, and if you go onto social media, that seems to be all it is these days, is debate about what you think or what you feel. Listen to what Christ says to the Sadducees. And this group held to the five books of Moses. First five books of the Old Testament. Listen to what he says. Christ says in verse 29, you err because you do not know the scriptures. Oh, that must have hurt. Can you picture that? These guys, they're one of the sects within Judaism. They love the law of God. They read the Old Testament, the Torah, the first five books. Yes, even Leviticus, they read Leviticus. And yet Christ says, you are an error because you don't know the scriptures. I would like to say, how much more is that today? There's so much error about because we do not know the scriptures. And I'm not pointing the finger and I'm not making an accusation. I'm not saying the younger, the older, I'm not talking about anything like that. I'm just talking about today in our world, there's so much error because Christians know a lot about what sermons should be like, but they don't know the scriptures. They know what fault everybody else has, but they don't know the scriptures that one day, personally, I'll have to give an account before God, not what my neighbor will do, but what I will do. Christ is so clear here, as we come up to this passage we've read, that there's so much error because we do not know the scriptures, and if we really knew the scriptures, boy, life would be different. Let me let you into a bit of a secret. If I was to say to you, tell me a book in all of Scripture, in the 66 books, which book would you go to if you wanted to talk about grace or mercy? Just think about that, which book? Okay, quick question, and I would love to see hands go up here. Who thought of Leviticus? None of you? Do you realize in Leviticus, especially at the beginning, there's so much mercy and there's so much grace because God says, bring a lamb. If you can't bring a lamb, bring this. If you can't bring this, bring birds. If you can't bring birds, bring this. But bring something. He's giving a way for people to connect with him on a way that will honor him. He's not just saying, bring a lamb. If you can't bring a lamb, boy, you're stuffed. He's not saying that. He says, if you can't do it this way, bring this. There's so much mercy and there's so much grace, especially in the beginning of Leviticus, and we lose it because we're so caught up with the rest of it. You know the bit that we skim over so quick between chapter six and the end of the book? Because it's all laws, isn't it? And we think it's dry and boring. In fact, I had a Bible school lecturer who used to say, Beware of Leviticus. Because let's be honest, who reads that often for their quiet time? None of us would get it out first thing in the morning and go, well, I'll have a cup of coffee, let's read Leviticus. We don't, but yet there's so much mercy and there's so much grace in there. And the reality is Christ speaking to the Sadducees, the ones who took only the first five books. He says, you're an error. What was their error? They didn't believe in the resurrection. Why? Because they didn't believe the scriptures, interestingly. So he silenced them because he brought scripture to play when they disbelieved something. He tried to correct them on the basis of scripture that they would see in the first five books of the Bible, the beauty of the gospel. a God of holiness and justice and mercy and grace, that they would see a resurrection. He corrected them in that sense, not out of hatred or anger or I know more than you, but in a sense that their eyes would be open and they would understand who he is. Okay, and now we get to verse 35. That's the background, that's the context of this. The two parties that we're talking about, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and that's the context that this is all about the resurrection. He silenced them because of the word of God. And then you get the Pharisees turn up, and you have them say, answer this question. Answer this question. Now, I think they're being a bit brave on it, They've either been out to lunch and haven't seen how Christ has dealt with the Sadducees, or they're thinking, well, they didn't believe in the resurrection. Anyway, we do, but I'm gonna trick them. And they go after him. And instead of talking about the resurrection, instead of talking about something the scripture teaches, interestingly, they go after the law. What is the greatest commandment? That's what the lawyer asks. Now, I did a bit of research here because I've heard this preached many times, I've read it many times, but I've never really wanted to know what it meant by greatest, interestingly. So I looked it up. What does it mean by great or greatest? And the Greek actually means exceedingly great, high, large, loud, mighty, strong, very great, elder. It can be referred to what the Greek word used here for greatest can also be referred to as elder or oldest. So here you've got this great debate going on and they turn up and they say, what is the greatest command or what is the one that's the most strongest or the one that's the oldest? Give us the first one ever said that we can believe that one. So here's the question I had, why did they ask that? Question, why did they need to know which of the law is greatest? Why did they need to know it? If they were good Jews, if they were good Pharisees, do you remember what Paul says? I'm a Pharisee of the Pharisees. I touched the law blameless. They studied the law. They knew the law. So why did they have to ask which is the greatest commandment? There's only two things I could come up with. If you think of more, you can come and speak to me afterwards, okay? But the two that I came up with was this. One, it was because they wanted to know which law was the best one to obey to get eternal life. Which one must I obey? And which ones do I not really have to obey? Let's grade them. Which ones are the most important? Which ones are, yeah, they're good, but they're not important. You know what I mean? Which ones? Where do we work here? Perhaps that's what they wanted to do. And trust me, this is not far off. I may approach it in a slightly different way, but I've heard many, many people say, well, what do I really have to do? What laws do I really have to obey? I think it's important we understand that even the Pharisees asked this. What is the greatest command? What do I have to do? Which one or ones will get me saved? Perhaps that's the way they approached it. Perhaps that's why they did it. We don't really know. They don't say why they asked it other than to trick Christ. This led me to the second possible option, and it was this. They wanted to, they were hoping that Christ would give some answer that would somehow get them to point the finger and go, see, you disparage the law. You mock the law. You don't even follow the law. And they were hoping somehow in his answer that they could discredited him completely. So it's either, which law do I have to follow to be saved? Or let's hope he messes up and we can get him because he gets rid of the law. Please remember, they were jealous of him. They hated him. They were feeling that all the people were running after him and not after them. They were losing some of their power and authority over the people, and so perhaps they wanted to get rid of him. So perhaps it was one or both of these. We'll never fully know. I am just trying to guess about why they asked this question. It doesn't seem to make sense other than a simple trick. to try and trick him out. So maybe it was one, or maybe it was both. But we read this. But notice what Christ does here, and you don't have to be a Bible scholar to do it, because they normally put it in the footnotes, okay? Have you ever read the footnotes on the bottom of your page? When he says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength, he actually quotes from Deuteronomy 6.5. He quotes the law, the Old Testament from the first five books of the Bible. Deuteronomy 6.5, he says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. He brings them, here is what the law says. It's almost like, do you disagree? But then he doesn't stop there. He says, that's the greatest command. And the second is like it. And for that, he quotes Leviticus 19, 18. Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18 says, you shall not take vengeance. nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord your God." Do you get that? He quotes from Leviticus, love your neighbor as yourself. So here he goes. They say, what's the greatest command and what does he do? He takes two commands. From the Old Testament, and he goes, here they are, the first and the second. These are the ones. And he goes, all the law hangs on them. All the law and the prophets hang on those. I wonder what their face was like at that point. I wonder what their face was like. You see, I don't believe that was a very unknown thing for them because I am informed that these two verses, Deuteronomy 6.5 and Leviticus 19.18, were often coded In rabbinical ethical discussions, if you got rabbis together and you're having a bit of a rabbinical discussion on ethics, because we all love ethics, they would have brought these two scriptures out just to have this ethical debate. It was a common thing that was well known and yet somehow Christ elevates them to the first greatest command and the second. This is it. This is what the whole law hangs on, the morals and the ethics. It all hangs on these two. And so they were familiar with it. On focusing on the two halves of the Ten Commandments, I remember hearing somebody say this, that all 613 commands, I struggle with this bit, 613 commands are condensed into Ten Commandments. Okay, now, I struggle with that because some of the 613 had to do with sacrificial laws and everything else, but I do agree with the 10 commandments are further condensed into two. If you struggle with 10, God says, here's two, love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Those two commandments are what's known as the two tables of the law. You can see how the Ten Commandments fits into those two laws. So he says to them, you want to know what the greatest commandment is? Well, there's 10 of them. In essence, he says the Ten Commandments. He says that's the greatest. You follow that. So the Ten Commandments come to play. But listen to this. If you eager scholars out there, if you're taking notes, I want you to note this, that Mark will also use the same passage about what is the greatest commandment. It's in Mark 12, verses 28 to 31. But in answer, Christ adds Deuteronomy 6.4. It's known as the Shema. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Every Jewish man would say it when they wake up in the morning. Even today, I'm told, an Orthodox Jew will start his day by, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. That's Deuteronomy 6, 4, followed quickly by, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. So here's the reality. Mark adds, there's only one God. There's not multiple gods. There's not many big gods and small gods. There's only one God, the creator of all that is. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Now, now that we've cleared up that, you have to love that God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. Everything that you are, everything that you are, you have to love God with that. Wow, now that must have rocked a boat of all the Pharisees. Then if you want to keep going and look chapter 10 verses 25 to 27 again, you've got the same sort of conversation. But this time Christ is asking or is answering a question. question the question was what must I do or what must be done to inherit eternal life and he says how do you read the law and they reply love the Lord your God with all your heart your soul your mind and your strength and love your neighbor as yourself he says you've answered correctly So somehow, if we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength, and we love our neighbor as ourself, then we will inherit eternal life. Why? Because those two laws encapsulate all ten. Do you get the point? This is what he's talking about. What I find fascinating here is how they reply. The first law is love God completely, in every way, with every part of us, with your mind, how you think, what fills your mind. Not that we run away from thinking about things. I remember someone used to say, it doesn't matter what you think about stuff, just have faith. And I thought, my faith is based on what I think about. what I know, what I know about Christ. I have faith depending on what I think about Christ, what I know about Christ. So love God with all your mind. I would challenge you, I challenge the young folks, I would challenge everyone, it doesn't matter what problem the world throws at us, engage our mind, bring it to it and say, what would God do? What does God say? What does God's word say about this? We think it through, we love God with all our minds, what we think about, how we think, and what fills our minds. We love God with all our strength. Every bit of energy. One of the things that struck me before, I was speaking to a Messianic Jew, and they said, Rodney, do you wanna know why Jews do this when they pray? I went, no, but I'm sure you're gonna tell me. He went, yes, I am. And he says, because scripture says, let everything that has movement praise the Lord. We translate it breath. but they have the word movement. We worship God with our whole strength. Everything that's within us, we worship God. What we do, when we do it, where we do it, we're active in worshiping God. Everything is a worship offering to God and how we think and how we speak and what we do. We love God completely. Now, if you can do that, please come tell me, because I struggle sometimes. I know it's not easy, and I'm not trying to say it is easy, because we all fail at it, but this is the command, the first and greatest command, that God is preeminent in our life. He's not just an attachment to our life. And that's the problem of the Western church. We've made God an addition to our life. Salvation is all about God being our life. We love God first in every way with every part of us. And then we love our neighbor. We love our neighbor. This is the qualifier. Notice what it doesn't say as opposed to what it does say. Let's not confuse this with the golden rule. Do you know the golden rule? Do unto others before they do to you. No, sorry, do unto others as you want them to do to you. This isn't the golden rule, okay? We confuse this with the golden rule. It's not. It's not do to them what you want them to do to you. It's love them as you love yourself. Notice it doesn't say if they deserve it. or if they do something good for you. It's none of that. Christ says, love God with everything that you are, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. Not the way you want to be loved, but as you love yourself. So here's the whole reality. We love God, and we love, because we love God first, we love God's community, and we love the world that don't know him yet. That's the first and second greatest command. And this is the context here, because he's just talked about the resurrection. He's just talked about what happens after we die. He's just silenced one group, and then another group who come up who think they know the law well, and they get silenced. But we're not finished yet. Oh no. Please remember, It takes us from a specific requirement to a God-like attitude. This is about having a God attitude towards others and towards our Father. This is about love. We love God, why? Because he first loved us. We love each, we love others, not because they're friends, because doesn't the word of God say to love your enemies and to pray for those who persecute you? The last time I looked at it, those who persecute me aren't my friends, but I still have to pray for them. Here's a challenge. Try in your heart to hate somebody and come to God and pray for them. You'll not get very far. Trust me. It's very hard to pray for somebody if you don't love them. Very hard. We pray for those who persecute us. We are meant even to love our persecutors and that's hard. I'm not trying to say it's easy. I'm just saying here the reality is if we love God the way he loves us, if we put him first and we model ourselves on God, then we will love God's community and we will love those who don't know God yet because we want them to get to know God We will love, so love God and love your neighbor. The last bit is on this the law hangs, verse 40. On these two commands hang all the law and the prophets. Now, we must understand this very quickly, even though time is going, that the Pharisees were great. Pharisees were a wonderful bunch. If you wanted to know how to circumvent a law, you spoke to a Pharisee. And I mean that with the most honor, most highest respect, because, for example, do you know how far you are permitted to walk on the Sabbath? Does anybody know how far you're permitted to walk on the Sabbath? about half a mile. Anybody walk more than half a mile? If you have, you've broken the law. Okay, if we're going to be strict by the law, that's it. You walk about half a mile. I walk about half a mile to the coffee pot and back every day. I'm back and forth all the time. Okay, I would have broke the law just getting a coffee. But here's the reality. The Pharisees were great. They were phenomenal. Okay, so here's, in case you're wondering what's half a mile, okay, you can't quite work in miles, let me just give you this. A Jew was permitted to travel 2,000 cubits, about 1.2 kilometers, about three quarters of a mile, about 3,049.5 feet, if you're still into feet and inches, okay? That's about how far they were permitted to walk. So around half a mile to three quarters of a mile, okay? Now, the Jews were brilliant. The Pharisees were fantastic because what that law says is you couldn't walk, say, on a Sabbath, okay, we're not going to argue if it's a Saturday or Sunday, but on the Sabbath, you couldn't walk from here to Kerek. because that's more than half a mile. I could just about make it from here to Rathcool, because that's, you know, we can make that work in half a mile. So picture that, I'm trying to give you an idea. But the Pharisees were so good because the law states that if there was more than half a mile's distance between one house and another house, or between one house and the temple, they couldn't walk that if it was more than half a mile. So what the Pharisees did was they built a fence around everything. So that was looked upon as one property, so they could walk as far as they wanted with inside the fence. They could walk from one side of the city to the other side of the city and they weren't breaking the law. So in essence what they did was they made all these other peripheral laws in a desire to keep the law. Didn't Christ say that you make the law a burdensome thing? You put yokes on people. They were so multiplying laws and how to circumvent the law without breaking the law. How do you bend the law without breaking the law? They were so good at working all this out. And that's what Christ was speaking into. In case you're wondering, how do I know how far they could walk? Then read Exodus 16 verse 29 and Numbers 35 verse five. It will tell you how far a Jew could walk on the Sabbath. Sabbath. But here's the reality. Notice that Matthew, he will use the law more than any other of the gospel writers. Why? Because he's writing to the Jews. He births everything. You read time and time again, it is written. Why? Because he's referring to the law. Or you've heard it said he's referring to teachings that were given by the Pharisees. He talks about how laws are being fulfilled. He births everything in the law of God because he's writing to the Jews. In fact, it is said, and I wish I had time to go into this, but there are five great discourses or teachings in Matthew, five of them. And it is said by a Messianic Jew that every time someone hears the word five, like we're going to have five discourses, the first thing they think about is the law, the Torah, five books. So Matthew has crafted his gospel in such a way that will take the law and have it point to Christ and have every Jew have their eyes open if they read it and understood it. But here's what he says in Matthew 5 before he launches off onto his first discourse, which is the Sermon on the Mount. This is what he says in chapter 5, verse 17. Do not think I have come to destroy the law or the prophets, I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Now here's the reality. John is putting, or sorry, Matthew is putting forth this teaching that the greatest command is to love God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. In essence, if I could borrow the words of Christ, Father, not my will be done, but your will. In essence, that's what he's saying. And to love your neighbor as yourself. God demonstrates his love for us in this. That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's what we remembered this morning. And so here, he says, I haven't come to abolish it. But to fulfill it, now here's two things. Every time I came across that, I was always thinking about breaking, destroying, bringing to an end, overthrowing the law. But in the context of what's happening here, I don't believe that's what he's saying. This concept of abolishing and fulfilling, or to abolish and to fulfill in the first century Jewish mind was to either give a bad teaching or to give a full teaching, a good teaching, to explain the law properly. So Christ is saying, I haven't come to give some bad teaching on the law. Abolish it. I have come to give you a sound teaching, good teaching, a full teaching on the law. And what is the full teaching on the law that he has just said? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. If you keep those, that's what the law hangs on. And if we were to keep those, if we were to live those, if we were to breathe those, just think what God would do in our day and age. I remember chatting to a guy one time and he says, God has called me to love someone, not to like them. And I thought, how on earth do you love them if you don't like them? Which made me think, how do you pray for someone if you don't love them? How do you do it? And that's the problem. We have this wonderful thing about words. You know, we're called to love but not to like. As if that gives us an excuse. As the body of Christ, we're called to love one another. And it's hard, I know. It's hard. I'm not trying to make it easy. I'm just trying to state as it is, the full teaching of Scripture, the full teaching, the good teaching of Christ is that we love God with all our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength, and we love each other. We love each other. Now, you may be here and you say, Rodney, if you knew what I knew, guess what? God does. God does. I don't need to. God does. And what I would ask for each of us is you say, God, I'm bringing this person to you. And trust me, I know what it's like. For people who have hurt you, you lift them up and you say, God, I'm gonna pray for them. Because you cannot pray for someone unless you begin to love them. And if you begin to pray for them, you begin to love them, and all of a sudden, who knows, perhaps you'll sit beside them in church. You can never tell, perhaps, who knows? The reality is this teacher of the law, this Pharisee said, what is the greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God, love your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. Oh, and the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. 10 commandments rolled into two for us. How does that work out for us? John 14. 15 says, if you love me, keep my commandments. If you love me, keep my commandments. What is his commandments? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. I can keep going on this all night. Scripture is right through Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. It doesn't change the whole way through. Here's something, and I love this when I came across this. Again, it's from a Messianic Jew, and it got me thinking. We talk about if we stay faithful to the law, the teaching of Christ, then we'll be good. There's always a law about working on a Sunday, isn't there? We shouldn't work on a Sunday. The Sabbath is a day of rest, amen? Exodus, you're all worried now what's coming, aren't you? Okay, Exodus 35 to work shall be done for six days, but on the seventh day shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. Ooh, severe, okay. Leviticus, we're back to Leviticus again. Leviticus 23 verse 3, six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it. It is a Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. Isn't that great? Don't do any work. But what do we mean by work? We always jump to the command. And here's the thing that struck me when I was preparing this. Exodus 20 verses 8 to 11. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. You shall do no work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the seas and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Can anybody tell me who was missing from all that list? No? I'll read it again, okay? You, your son, your daughter, male servant, female servant, cattle, and the stranger in your gates. Who's missing? The wife. So sorry, women. There's no rest for you lot. Oh, perhaps I'm wrong. Isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting? I'm not trying to be tricky here, but we jump onto these things, and yet we don't read fully what the scripture says. I believe in a rest. I believe in a rest for all people. I don't want to upset all the women. I believe in a rest for all people, okay? But we have to understand what Scripture means by work. And here's the thing, though, if we read the law clearly, specifically, in what it says, do you know what it would say if I dare repeat the commands again? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. If I love God with all my heart, my soul, and my strength, guess what? I don't have a problem working for six days and taking a seventh off. I don't have an issue. I'll take it off, because it pleases the Lord. And I love the Lord with all my heart, my soul, and my strength. This is the reality at work here. Again, I could go on. In Matthew, in chapter 12, Christ challenges the Pharisees. He says, which one of you, if you had a sheep and it went down a hole, you would pick it up on the Sabbath? Yet, somehow they got upset with a man being healed, and he says, who's of more importance, the man or the sheep? Again, love your neighbor as yourself. Mark 2 says, and he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Now, I'm not giving an excuse that we should all go out and work on the Sabbath. Please do not misunderstand me. What I'm saying here is even Christ knew that the whole purpose of the law was to take us to love God with all our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength, and we'll love our neighbor as ourselves. That means I will take a day off. Because oh please God. So please understand that. But here's what Paul says in Colossians. So let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or new moon or Sabbath. Don't let anybody judge you. Why? Because the world will say what it wants to say. But our God says, Have a rest. Then we can have a rest. Why? Because we want to worship him, love him, serve him with everything that we have. Every bit of energy, every day, every aspect of our life, we will serve him and we will serve our neighbors, love our neighbors as ourselves. So what is the greatest command? I'm not going to repeat it because I've said it enough and I'll be told I'm repeating myself. On this, the law hangs. On this, the law hangs. The love for God and the love for your neighbor. All the law hangs on that. So, do we love God first? To love God with all that we are and to love our brother and our sister in Christ, and our neighbor, as we love ourselves. These are the two greatest commands, and on those, all the law and the prophets hang. Amen. We're gonna sing our final hymn. I got the, there it is, it beat me. Blessed Assurance, because I got this morning's one wrong. Blessed Assurance is there. Oh my God. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all day long. I'm That's great. Lord, we want to thank you. We want to praise you all day long. Lord, we know that our days are not always filled with joy or not always filled with happiness. They're not always filled with ease. Sometimes they're a battle. But you're there with us and we we know that we can worship you in the midst of them. We thank you that even in the midst of the fire, the storms, the flames, even in the midst of the battles, In the midst of the good times, you are there loving us. Lord, I pray that we would love you with all our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength. And in so doing, we would be quick to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Lord, Again, as always, we pray, take what's not from you. Take it away. We don't want that. We only want your truth. And we pray, Lord, that you would apply your truth to our hearts, that we will be changed to be a people who are known as people who love God and love each other, that as they look at us, they will see you, because that is what our heart's desire is. So we just give you praise and ask you to continue to mold us to be the people you want us to be. Take us to our homes safely and bring us back again to worship you, the one who is worthy of all honor and praise. Amen.