2019-05-22 Mark 12

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Mark 12:28–34 CSB
28 One of the scribes approached. When he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which command is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. 31 The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.” 32 Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, teacher. You have correctly said that he is one, and there is no one else except him. 33 And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is far more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to question him any longer.
Mark 12:35–37 CSB
35 While Jesus was teaching in the temple, he asked, “How can the scribes say that the Messiah is the son of David? 36 David himself says by the Holy Spirit: The Lord declared to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.’ 37 David himself calls him ‘Lord’; how then can he be his son?” And the large crowd was listening to him with delight.

I. To obey God is to love God. To love God is to obey God.

Mark 12:28–30 CSB
28 One of the scribes approached. When he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which command is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

A. Obedience and love are not enemies but friends.

Mark 12:28–30 CSB
28 One of the scribes approached. When he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which command is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
Illus: We have redefined love in our day and age somehow pitting it against obedience.
We embrace God as a loving God, which He is, but we need to define what that means.
When people say God is loving, love for them means tolerant, and God is not tolerant.
When people say God is loving, they look at God’s grace as if his grace was not costly.
When we say God is loving we assume God loves us just as we are.
But God’s love is one which does not turn a blind eye to our sin. IN fact God’s love is so great that he willingly bore the penalty of wrath for our sin.
God’s love is so great that it calls us away from our sin.
To love God means to view God’s commands and love the same way He views them.
To love God is to also love what God has commanded.
John 14:15 CSB
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commands.

B. The first four commandments are the results and picture of loving God.

Mark 12:28–30 CSB
28 One of the scribes approached. When he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which command is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
Illus: Love is more than an emotion. Love must be the whole of the heart, soul, mind and strength. In other words, all of your should be loving God.
This is not you should feel the love of God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is your should actively love God with all of your heart. You should actively love God with all of your soul, you should actively love God with all of your mind. You should actively love God with all of your strength. This take pursuit on your part.
The text is not asking us to differentiate between the heart, soul, mind and strength… It is intended for you to say, Love God with your will, your volition, your thinker, and actions. Every part of you should be pursuing the love of God.
When God defines what that love looks life, he gives us the first four commands
Deuteronomy 5:6–14 CSB
6 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. 7 Do not have other gods besides me. 8 Do not make an idol for yourself in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. 9 Do not bow in worship to them, and do not serve them, because I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the fathers’ iniquity to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, 10 but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands. 11 Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses his name. 12 Be careful to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy as the Lord your God has commanded you. 13 You are to labor six days and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. Do not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or donkey, any of your livestock, or the resident alien who lives within your city gates, so that your male and female slaves may rest as you do.

II. To obey God is to love your neighbor. To Love God is to obey God’s commands for your neighbor.

Mark 12:31 CSB
31 The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”

A. The second six commandments are the results of loving your neighbor.

Mark 12:31 CSB
31 The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”
Illus: Let’s get back to our cultural understanding of love.
IN our culture loving someone is tolerating their actions. In our culture love is not judging anyone. Truthfully, making a truth claim, like saying that God has created a standard to follow is seen as hate speech.
The greatest way to love our neighbor is to keep God’s law. Even if it is seen as intolerant.
Let’s pause for a moment. God is not calling you to be a jerk. He is not calling you to be self righteous. He is not calling you to use the law a a bat to beat people on the head with.
God desires for his law to be kept through love. Our love leads us to keep God’s law. Our love for God produces loving law keeping.
The simple picture of loving our neighbor is the last 6 commandments.
Deuteronomy 5:16–21 CSB
16 Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and so that you may prosper in the land the Lord your God is giving you. 17 Do not murder. 18 Do not commit adultery. 19 Do not steal. 20 Do not give dishonest testimony against your neighbor. 21 Do not covet your neighbor’s wife or desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

B. Embracing God’s love does not lead us to discard the law, but instead to fully embrace the law.

Mark 12:31 CSB
31 The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”
Illus: I want to deal with one argument....
Since Jesus died for our sins, and since Jesus has forgiven us, why do we need to focus so much on the law and the commands of God? Why can’t we just focus on God as loving.
When you are saved, God places his Holy Spirit in you to lead you towards obedience. The way you show your love to God is through pursuing a life that honors and glorifies him.
What does a life that show you love God, honor God and desire to glorify God look like… It look like living out the commandments of scripture.
God’s love does not lead you to discard the law, but instead God’s love leads you to embrace, cherish and live out God’s law.
Romans 6:1–4 CSB
1 What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.

III. Real worship is whole hearted love.

Mark 12:32–34 CSB
32 Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, teacher. You have correctly said that he is one, and there is no one else except him. 33 And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is far more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to question him any longer.

A. Does your worship lead you to obedience and love?

Illus: This past Sunday I asked if you genuinely listened to hear God, and asked if you listened to obey ?
As you study scripture, do you allow it to convict you? When you hear it preached, do you pursue obedience?
If you love God, you will desire to obey God. When you obey God's word, you show your love for God.
1 John 5:3–4 CSB
3 For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden, 4 because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.
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