The Two Commandments
The Two Commandments
Matthew 22:34-40
Introduction
· Chief Justice Roy Moore. Alabama Supreme Court. Removed from office for defying a federal judge’s order to remove a 10 commandments monument (2.6 tons) from the state Supreme Court building. (2003)
· We really don’t need the 10 commandments.
· From our text: 10 commandments boiled down to 2:
1. Love God
· Jesus said the greatest of the commandments—love the Lord with all you heart, all your soul, and all your mind. Love the Lord with all of you.
· What does it mean for me to love the Lord with all of me? For the sake of our own understanding we’re going to consider loving God from three different angles of our being.
· First . . .
a) I am to love him emotionally: A plea for enthusiasm
· Emotions—some of us are scared of them—don’t want to get too carried away.
· The charismatics—I’m sure I’ll always struggle with parts of their doctrine—and we say they’re so emotional—too emotional. I’ll say this—most of us could use a little of that emotion.
· Let me be clear—in no way am I saying we need to forget our brains. The Christian life is not to be void of intellect nor is it to be void of emotion! Both are essential.
· Don’t want to undermine the biblical concept of joy—that inner sense of fulfillment that’s independent of circumstances. But friends, don’t keep singing to me about the joy, joy, joy, joy down in your heart when your face looks like you just kissed a sour lemon.
· Christianity should make us feel good! Christ in us means Christ in all of us including our emotions. We could address many aspects of our emotions but tonight I want to zero in on enthusiasm—I want to make a plea for enthusiasm.
· Presbyterian minister who lived in Scotland. The man was orthodox in belief but was unusually reserved in the pulpit. One woman in his congregation was exceptionally warmhearted and full of love for the Savior. She was in the habit of saying "praise the Lord" and "hallelujah" whenever she was blessed by something he said in his message. This disturbed the minister, so one New Year's Day he went to see her. "Betty, I'll make you a promise," he said. "If you'll stop saying `praise the Lord' and `hallelujah' during my sermons this coming year, I'll give you two woolen blankets I hear you've been wanting." Betty was poor and the offer sounded so good she promised to try. Sunday after Sunday she kept quiet. One Lord's Day when the pastor had laryngitis, he asked another preacher to deliver the sermon. This servant of God was bubbling over the zeal for the Lord. He preached on the forgiveness of sins and all the blessings that follow. As the joy of Betty's salvation grew brighter and brighter, her vision of the blankets began to fade. At last she could stand it no longer. To the astonishment of all she jumped to her feet and cried, "Blankets or no blankets, HALLELUJAH!"
· David upon the return of the ark to Jerusalem danced before the LORD with all his might (2 Sam. 6.14)
· The psalmists understood this idea of enthusiasm, especially the one who penned the psalm we know as 100.
· Psalm 100—SHOUT for joy to the Lord!
· Personality—some of us will, of course, express our enthusiasm differently—in terms of our own personality. But how can a one of us not be enthusiastic about God who is so big loving us—so small? How can our excitement ever fade when we consider the abundant, eternal life we enjoy courtesy of our Lord’s cross? Get my drift? Extreme enthusiasm should be the mark of every believer!
· Enthusiasm is contagious.
· Get on fire for God and men will come to see you burn - John Wesley. Talking about preachers but it applies to all of us.
· What does it mean to love the Lord with all of me? I am love him emotionally and . . .
b) I am to love him volitionally: A plea for obedience
· One of those $100 words—don’t ask me to spell it.
· The human will—the choices I make—the actions I perform. Here, of course, I am appealing for obedience.
· A very clear expression of our love for the Lord comes in the form of obedience. Jesus himself said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”
· We hear this preacher—that teacher. This conference—that seminar. Read this book—listen to that tape. Have revivals, etc. My goodness we’ve got access to all forms of biblical instruction. Not to mention the multitude of Bible most of us own. And yet, there’s one very critical component missing in many of our lives—being doers of the word and not just hearers only! Obedience!
· Imagine that you work for a company whose president found it necessary to travel out of the country and spend an extended period of time abroad. So he says to you and the other trusted employees, "Look, I'm going to leave. And while I'm gone, I want you to pay close attention to the business. You manage things while I'm away. I will write you regularly. When I do, I will instruct you in what you should do from now until I return from this trip." Everyone agrees. He leaves and stays gone for a couple of years. During that time he writes often, communicating his desires and concerns. Finally he returns. He walks up to the front door of the company and immediately discovers everything is in a mess--weeds flourishing in the flower beds, windows broken across the front of the building, the gal at the front desk dozing, loud music roaring from several offices, two or three people engaged in horseplay in the back room. Instead of making a profit, the business has suffered a great loss. Without hesitation he calls everyone together and with a frown asks, "What happened? Didn't you get my letters?" You say, "Oh, yeah, sure. We got all your letters. We've even bound them in a book. And some of us have memorized them. In fact, we have 'letter study' every Sunday. You know, those were really great letters." I think the president would then ask, "But what did you do about my instructions?" And, no doubt the employees would respond, "Do? Well, nothing. But we read every one!" Charles Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity, p. 242
· We say we love the Lord—are we doing what he said?
· Let’s get down—Christian, how different are you from the average unbeliever out there on the street?
· You see we’re telling the world how wonderful the Christian life is—what a difference Jesus makes. And they’re asking—is it? Does he? The world continues to shout to us: Don’t try to sell me your Christianity unless you first practice what Christ taught! The world is waiting to see if it’s really for real!
· What does it mean t love the Lord with all of me? To love him emotionally, volitionally and:
c) I am to love him intellectually: A plea for knowledge
· I heard a TV preacher the other night yelling at his congregation to put their minds aside—that’s baloney! The call to Christ is not a call to eject our intellect—quite the contrary—it demands full use of our mental faculties under the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit.
· Being puffed up
· Romans 12.2—Be transformed by the renewing of your mind!
· See esp. 1 Cor. 14.13-17 Paul instructs them to include the mind. Note v20—Paul wants them to be mature in their thinking!
· Leon Morris—The Christian life is considerably more than a mental exercise, but anyone whose mind is unfruitful is not being true to his Christian calling.
· Many areas we could consider—thought life—general knowledge, etc.
· Never stop learning!!
· Defend the truth. Define apologetics. 1 Peter 3:15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; NASB95
· Saturate yourselves in the God’s truth and learn how to defend that truth!
· The assault on real Bible-believing people continues. It’s not enough for us to ask, why do they pick on us? It’s not enough to simply say—I believe the book. We must prepare to stand toe to toe—and head to head with them—to prove the reasonable nature of the faith within us.
· Faith of a child—not blind faith—but dependence.
· Paul—dependent upon the Spirit—BUT he used every ounce of intellect to convince people to come to Christ. Examples of this abound in Acts . . .
· Thessalonica—Acts 17.2 In the synagogue he reasoned with them from the Scriptures
· Corinth—Acts 18.4 Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
· Ephesus—Acts 19.8-10 Arguing persuasively—daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.
· Athens—Acts 17.22-31 Bastion of secular learning—Paul makes a case for the faith.
· Love God and . . .
2. Love People
· Love your neighbor as yourself.
· This is nothing new: Le 19:18 (NASB95) ‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.
· Love thing down—they knew how to love self.
· Neighbor? There was apparently quite a bit of discussion among the religious leaders as to who this was.
· I think we’ve got the love of self part down pretty well. Don’t need to spend time on that. The real question is: Who is my neighbor?
· The person next door. The person like me. Who is my neighbor?
· Jesus answered that question in a very familiar story:
· Lk 10:25-37 (NASB95) And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. “And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. “Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. “But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. “On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”
· Relationship between Jews and Samaritans were strained to put it mildly.
· Mishnah: “He that eats the bread of Samaritans is like to one who eats the flesh of swine.”
· Who is my neighbor? All people are my neighbors.
Conclusion
· Keeping these 2 commandments is our task. If we can do them everything else will fall into place. Love God. Love people.
Hymn: