The Greatest Commandment Bible Study #2

Yesterday we saw that God declared from Mount Sinai that we are according to Deuteronomy 6:5 (KJV) …love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Jesus reiterates this as the greatest or the most important commandment of all in Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, and Luke 10:27 We tried to talk about what love is - While it is almost impossible to simply define - love - agapao love is a love that Is an action oriented love - a love that is at times unconditional and self-sacrificial. (Think 1 Corinthians 13 the word Charity) This kind of love is used in the Bible in at least four different ways Love for things - Usually in a negative sense - Love for one another - Love for God/Christ - God's Love for mankind - God's Love for Each Other -

TODAY - I want to look today at our "Our Motivation for Loving God and Loving Others"

God tells his people - Love me - He demands their love, commands it. The command to love God is found at least 12 times in the book of Deuteronomy alone. and many more times throughout the Bible.

Now I was just a little boy when my grandparents passed away. I don't even remember them at all. But I have watched my boys with their grandparents.

One of the first thing that happens when we go and visit them. Is Grandma (both of them) will usually say to them, "Come here and give me a hug"

Now While they are told to do it, and sometimes it might take a little convincing if they haven't seen them in a while - it isn't usually because they don't love or appreciate them, it is because they don't know them real well.

But here God tells his people - Love me - He demands their love, commands it, at least 12 times in the book of Deuteronomy alone. and many more times throughout the Bible.

The Driving Force of Love for God - Why should we love God? What is our motivation our DRIVING FORCE?

If we just take this verse or command by itself it sounds strange, complicated, even somewhat like a tyrant.

This God of Creation that created everything thundering down from the top of the smoking shaking mountain - "THOU SHALT LOVE ME"

I have read many stories of forced wives who have escaped or were rescued. I would have to think that would be one of the most miserable ways to live.

But this is not the kind of relationship that God is setting up with his people.

What you love will determine what you do: Your actions, attitude and lifestyle. It will motivate you

Some people are motivated by a "love of Praise" John Gives us a commentary on the Pharisees in John 12:42-44 as being like this - 42 Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: 43 For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. 44 Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.Some people are motivated by their love of unrighteous wages - KJV 2 Pet. 2:15 Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; Some are motivated by their love for the world and the things of the world - we as Christians are forbidden to do Some are motivated for their love of this present worldKJV 2 Tim. 4:10 For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.

Some are motivated by their love for darknessKJV Jn. 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

John captures what should be the impetus of our Love and the Love that God was wanting and asking for from these people as well as us in:

1 John 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.

We should be motivated to love God because God first loved us.

I see at least three reasons God's love motivates us to Love God and Love Others:

1. God's Love is Real

2. God's Love is Unconditional

3. God's Love is Eternal

God's Love is Real - I've experienced God's love, you've experienced God's love - God's love is real. But God's love is more than just experiential. I think we make a grave mistake when we look at the God of the Old Testament vs the God of the New Testament - It is the same God - manifested, revealing distinct different entities of this same God - but the Same God Did you know that Jehovah - Yahweh - the God of the Old Testament is capable of Love??? I want us to look at three aspects of the God of the Old Testament's Love:

1. He Declared Love

2. He Demanded Love

3. He Demonstrated Love

God's love is something we can't fully comprehend or understand - I think it has to be as Paul says in Romans 5 shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit to even begin to grasp it

God Demanded Their Love - Demanded "LOVE ME WITH ALL THAT YOU ARE" But I want us to notice God demanded that love only after Deut. 4 where …

God Declared His Love For Them - Declarations of love are extremely important for a relationship. I hope the only time you told your spouse you love them wasn't on a date before your marriage. Surely you tell them at least once a day. I read an article a few years ago about a new tradition in that started around 2008 in Japan. On January 31st is a day they call "Beloved Wife"

The Japanese men who are usually quite reserved and reticent gather in a park or public place and scream out their feelings for their wives.

One was reported to call out - "I'll love you forever"

Another thanked his wife for the homemade lunches

Another man who was well dressed yelled, "I'm sorry that I've gained weight over the last seven years, but that's because the meals you cook are so delicious." The wives are often so moved by these words, and declarations of love they will cheer and clap sometimes crying it is a real moving event. But to think that God, the same God who created everything, who made us who is almighty all knowing all powerful stands up and takes His turn at declaring HIS LOVE FOR HIS PEOPLE!!!

God begins with a declaration of His love for their ancestors - KJV Deut. 4:37 And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt; This is wonderful news - To think that God, Jehovah, Yahweh loved my father, and his father, and his father and so on. But God doesn't stop there - He shows them something ever deeper KJV Deut. 7:8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. It's one thing to know that God loves, that God loves people, it is a whole other thing to know that GOD LOVES ME!!!

George Beverly Shea wrote one of my favorite gospel songs of all times back in 1957. He wrote no doubt being overcome by this great truth that God Loves Me! There's a wonder of sunset at evening, A wonder as sunrise I see; But the wonder of wonder that thrills my soul Is the wonder that God loves me Oh the wonder of it all The wonder of it all Just to think that God loves me!

God Demands Love - He demanded it boldly, loudly, unabashedly "Thou Shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul and might"

God has declared His love - not just in the verse I shared but many times - anytime you find the word "MERCY" that means "LOVING-KINDNESS"Anytime you find the word "CHOSEN" that is talking about God's love in choiceGod has just as loudly declared His love for them as He did his command for them to love Him!

This Love that God demands though is not motivated by God's Declaration of love but should rather be motivated by God's Demonstration of love. Lets look at God's Demonstrated Love KJV Deut. 7:8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. God is saying - I have shown my love by two specific things I Brought You Out - My what a miracle that was and is - a bunch of beat down, intimidated bullied slaves are able to group together and immigrate to form a whole new nation and country - they couldn't do that on their own. But a God who loved them made a way where there was no way. A God who's heart was bursting with love moved Pharaoh's heart, opened rivers and seas, gave them cities, victory over great armies, got them through the deserts, Went before them as a Pillar of fire - whatever needed to be done. He provided Manna from heaven Water from a Rock Shoes and clothes that never wore out or went threadbare They spoiled the Egyptians leaving with a "High Hand" Not just because He is God - but because GOD IS LOVE!!! One songwriter wrote several years ago - "God would bankrupt heaven to meet my need" God was demonstrating His love before he ever made the command to love Him

But it wasn't just that The LORD brought them out but that HE REDEEMED THEM - By using the word "Redeemed" he is saying there was a price paid for their deliverance from evil. What happened when Moses told them this? When you experience and understand just a taste of Love like the Love of God you want to reciprocate. They promised they would "LOVE GOD" - but We know that promising and doing are two different things - they didn't always abide by this promise, and Brother Stettler has down a tremendous job at preaching about that.

Now that was then - that was just one Old Testament example to the Children of Israel- I don't have time to cover all of the other examples in the Old Testament.

But what about the New Testament and Us today?

Jesus proved standing there that day in front of the Scribe that the greatest commandment is to "LOVE GOD"

God is still demanding our Love - But…

God has also declared His Love to us through Christ- John declares emphatically in 1 John 4:8 - "GOD IS LOVE!!!" We read in John's Gospel 15:9 Jesus says, "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you…"

Not only does God demand our love - and not only has God Declared his love for us - but…

God has demonstrated His Love to us - Romans 5:6-8 (KJV) 6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

8 But God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

In Due Time - At just the right time -

Ungodly - Here is how Paul describes ungodly later in the chapter- Romans 5:10 (KJV)

10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Commendeth - Demonstrated

And then there is - Ephesians 2:1-7 (KJV) 1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Titus 3:3-7 (KJV)

3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Tit 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

I hope you are getting the point - that God's Love is real - and should be our motivation to Love Him with all of our heart, soul, and mind.

As the hymnwriter put it so many years ago: Oh love that will not let me go I rest my weary soul in Thee I give Thee back the life I owe That in Thine ocean depths its flow May richer fuller be. .…. .

Christ died for the ungodly - The old Scottish preacher John Brown noted that "Christ did not die that God might love man; He died because God loved man!"

LOVE TOOK HIS BREATH AWAY

Verse One:

Thunder shook the hillside

Darkness took the sky

Some came just to mock him

Others said goodbye

The grief that wracked His body

was beyond what words could say

but when He thought of you and me

Love took His breath away

Verse Two:

His mother stood in silence

with tears of bitter grief

“How could this happen?”

She cried in disbelief

Then in one final tremble

His passion was displayed

When for the sake of all mankind

Love took His breath away

Chorus:

Love in all its glory,

Love in all its pain.

Love was crucified and crushed

Beneath what our sins weigh

As blood flowed down

And stained the ground

He felt Himself give way

But it wasn’t the nails or the cross, you see,

Love took His breath away

So you see friends, God isn't just demanding our love - God has declared His love to us, and God demonstrated that great Love of His in Christ Jesus.

God's love is REAL!!! But not only is God's love real…

God's Love is Unconditional

You don't deserve God's love - that is a humbling thought but the verse I quotes awhile ago - Romans 5:6-8 (KJV) 6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

8 But God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

You don't earn God's Love 1 John 5:2-4 King James Version (KJV)

2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

What John is saying is God's love is not performance based. It's not out of duty but delight. It's not law but love.

Need scriptures? Want proof?

How about the whole Bible. Or whole books in the Bible - Read the book of Hosea. (You should do this in one sitting sometime.) You will recognize God is trying to show His love even when the other part was not reciprocating and returning that love.

God loved even when there was disobedience, rebellion, and total disregard of His Word.

How about the teachings of Jesus - read the Parable of the Prodigal Son - that whole parable is a parable of Love - The love of the Father for the prodigal Son, the lack of love of the elder brother. The father in the Parable who seems to represent God - never quits loving even when the son goes prodigal.

If the commandments are burdensome, brings you into bondage, or is galling you need to check your heart - what is your motivation, why are you doing what you are doing.

I don't want to offend anyone here today and I trust I won't -

Up in MO years ago a preacher came through who preached any saved and sanctified woman would wear and only wear black dark black hose. I heard a woman testify a Godly lady tol in her later years that she remembered as a young person trying to walk in all the light she had, wanting to please God she complied - but she felt so embarrassed, so humiliated, so beat down - finally the Lord got through to her that she was not following Him but someone else -

Not only is God's love real and unconditional

But God's Love is Eternal - Infinite, Enduring, Exhaustless God's Love is eternal - from the past Jeremiah 31:3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have LOVED thee with an EVERLATING LOVE: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. John 3:16 For God so LOVED the world … God's love is eternal - now - that right now in the present moment - as we live here God Is Love

That "I AM SO GLAD THAT JESUS LOVES EVEN ME!!!"

But it's not just that God loved in the past, that God loves here in the now -

But …God's love is eternal - forever

1 Peter 1:6-9 (KJV)

6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

Romans 8:35-39 (KJV)

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It's not just those verses but sometimes I think of that scripture that tells me one day "the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first and we that are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the LORD I don't know what that shout, or that trump will sound like - but I've often wondered if it won't sound like that precious call in the Song of Solomon - We will hear our "beloved speak unto us - Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away"

And God's love that has only been felt, experienced, demonstrated, realized, thought about, talked about, seen through a glass darkly - will in that moment become a reality. Will become visibly tangible and beyond all expectation.

I don't know what it will be like - but I just wonder if it might be like Spurgeon preached: “Yea, beloved, I believe when we get to heaven we shall want no subject for meditation there, except Jesus Christ. I know there are some divines and learned philosophers who have been telling us that when we go to heaven we shall occupy our time in flying from star to star, and from one planet to another; … and all the host of celestial bodies. We shall behold all the wonders of creation; we shall explore the depths of science, as they tell us, and there are no limits to the mysteries we shall understand.

My reply to people who imagine thus of heaven, is, that I have no objection it should be so, if it will afford them any pleasure; I hope you will have, and I know my Father will let you have, whatsoever will make you happy.

But, while you are viewing stars, I will sit down and look at Jesus; and if you told me you had seen the inhabitants of Saturn and Venus, and the man in the moon, I would say, Ah! yes— "But in His looks a wonder stands, The noblest glory of God's hands; God in the person of His Son Hath all His mightiest works outdone." But you say, You will become tired, surely, of looking at him. No, I should reply; I have been looking at but one of his hands, and I have not yet thoroughly examined the hole where one of the nails went in; and when I have lived ten thousand years more I will take his other hand, and sit down and look at each gaping wound, and then I may descend to his side and his feet:— "Millions of years my wond'ring eyes Shall o'er his beauties rove, And endless ages I'll adore The wonders of His love." It will be no doubt much like one brother said a few years ago - When I see Him face to face - I'll know why His presence felt like it did. The beauty the splendor - the Love of God

My whole point this morning is to show you that we don't have to live in bondage - or grievieously take this way -

But we can do what we do joyfully and happily because we are motivated by a genuine love for God A love that says I will do whatever makes you happy - you have done so much for me.