SPEAKER_00: Turn w with me, if you will, this morning to Nehemiah chapter eight and verse eight.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah chapter eight and verse eight.
SPEAKER_00: The title of my message today is Love God with Your Everything and Love Others as Yourself.
SPEAKER_00: I hope shortly that will become clear why we chose that particular title, but Love God with Your Everything, Love Others as Yourself.
SPEAKER_00: So we have been attempting to preach through the great doctrines of the church in the form of what's called catechism, which is a series of questions and answers.
SPEAKER_00: And we have for the last several weeks been dealing with the question, what do the scriptures principally teach?
SPEAKER_00: And the last several Sundays we have attempted to answer the question of the scriptures principally teach two main things.
SPEAKER_00: The first part of that is what man is to believe concerning God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we spent the last several weeks studying.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning we're going to look at the second half of the answer to that question.
SPEAKER_00: What do the principally the scriptures principally teach?
SPEAKER_00: And that question is what duty God requires of man, what duty God requires of man.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I directed your attention this morning to Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 8, because I want to attempt to explain this one verse and I want to give you a story.
SPEAKER_00: So we read in Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: So they read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly, and gave the sense and cause them to understand the reading.
SPEAKER_00: Well, every pastor should pay attention to this verse.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, this is when God's men attempted to explain the law of God to God's people.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, I'm not here to preach at you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here to get out of the way and to teach the Word of God as best I can.
SPEAKER_00: To help, to come alongside, to help you understand what the Word of God is trying to say.
SPEAKER_00: Well, so here in Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 8, it says, so they read in the book in the law of God distinctly.
SPEAKER_00: So the first thing they did when they were reading the people, they read the law.
SPEAKER_00: They read the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so a pastor's job is to read to you the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm supposed to preach the Word.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not supposed to get up here and give my opinion.
SPEAKER_00: Well, then look what they also did.
SPEAKER_00: And gave the sense and cause them to understand the reading.
SPEAKER_00: I could get up here and I remember Dave Ramsey, some of y'all may be familiar with him.
SPEAKER_00: He is a Christian financial counselor.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that he talks about is that he says you shouldn't invest your money with anybody who's not a teacher.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he was uh over the course of his uh very long career in finances, he has helped many people, athletes, and uh even more prominent people with their finances.
SPEAKER_00: And he said uh in particular, he helped uh one uh football star that uh had millions and millions of dollars.
SPEAKER_00: And when the man came and met with Dave Ramsey to begin with, he said, Well, Dave, you're probably gonna be mad at me uh because he said, I have all of my money in CDs, every bit of it.
SPEAKER_00: This man had millions and millions of dollars.
SPEAKER_00: And Dave said he smiled.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Do you understand how CDs work?
SPEAKER_00: He said, Yes.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Man, I couldn't be more proud of you.
SPEAKER_00: You and I should not invest our money in things that we don't understand, things that are above our pay grade, or or we should have a teacher or somebody who comes alongside of us who explains these things to us in a very logical and understanding way.
SPEAKER_00: So he was he was uh telling this uh football star that he said, you've done better than most of your uh cohorts that have invested in, you know, uh who knows what kind of financial scheme or whatever and lost half their money or in Uncle Joe's tire shop that's lost money, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You've literally invested your money in what you understand.
SPEAKER_00: Well, why am I telling you that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, in Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 8, God's law had not been read in a long time.
SPEAKER_00: And it was the and it was the job of God's ministers to read the law of God to the people and help them to understand the sense and the reading that, in other words, what does this mean?
SPEAKER_00: What is this scripture trying to tell us?
SPEAKER_00: What is the word of God trying to convey?
SPEAKER_00: Now, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, in uh typical preacher fashion, uh several years ago, probably to the tune of over a decade now, probably longer than that, uh, I had gotten up here on a particular Sunday morning and attempted to preach on uh Jesus' quote when he summarized the Old Testament law of uh, you know, he was asked, Master, what are the great commandments in the law?
SPEAKER_00: To love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and all thy mind.
SPEAKER_00: The second is likened to it to love thy neighbor as thyself.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's in Matthew chapter 22.
SPEAKER_00: And I had spent, brothers and sisters, uh, and y'all could probably bear witness to this, uh, probably about an hour attempting to explain that handful of verses.
SPEAKER_00: And uh on our ride home, I asked our children, uh, Ivy, my youngest back there, I said, Did y'all understand what daddy preached on today?
SPEAKER_00: And Ivy said, Dad, we're supposed to love God with our everything.
SPEAKER_00: Do y'all know that my daughter did a better job giving the sense and causing them to understand the reading than I did in attempting to preach for an hour.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all got me?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, we shouldn't make things overly complicated.
SPEAKER_00: The financial folks that are helping you should come alongside of you and be a teacher and help you to understand.
SPEAKER_00: Dave was so proud of the football star because this man understood where all of his money was and how it was growing.
SPEAKER_00: And as opposed to the all of these movie stars and football stars that have no clue what their money is invested in or how it's growing or not growing or where it's going.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have this man understood exactly what his money was doing, how, because that's what he understood.
SPEAKER_00: And Dave was going to come alongside and help it grow even more, and so he was coming alongside as a teacher to show him how to do that a little bit better.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, pastors are supposed to do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: We are not supposed to make things complicated, we are supposed to purposefully make them simple and understandable.
SPEAKER_00: And that particular day, whenever we were going home, my daughter did a better job at communicating what I had attempted to communicate for an hour, and she did it very briefly.
SPEAKER_00: That, Dad, that passage of scripture, when Jesus Christ said that we are supposed to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind.
SPEAKER_00: This is the first and great commandment, and the second is likened to it, to love thy neighbor as thyself.
SPEAKER_00: And what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Dad, we're supposed to love God with our everything, with every fiber of our being, with our mind, with our energy, with our money, with our time, with our physical presence, with us showing up, with reading the word, studying the word, being obedient to the word, teaching the word, loving the Lord, loving the Lord's people, and so on and so forth.
SPEAKER_00: We know that.
SPEAKER_00: But she summarized it very well.
SPEAKER_00: We are supposed to love God with our everything.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you and I have been attempting to study through the catechism, which is basically a series of questions and answers about religious things.
SPEAKER_00: And we've talked about what do the scriptures principally teach.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, what is the subject matter of the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: It is what man is supposed to believe concerning God.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God has self-revealed himself in his word to tell us about himself.
SPEAKER_00: So man is not supposed to devise some kind of opinion about, well, I think God is this and I think this.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: God has shown us in his word exactly who he is, and we're supposed to believe him.
SPEAKER_00: Well, also, he has shown us in his word what man's duty is in regard to God.
SPEAKER_00: He not only has shown us who he is, but he tells us what we're supposed to do.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Brother Josh, I don't just get to make it up as I go along.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think I want to honor God this way or I want to do this for God.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to do what God tells us to do in his word.
SPEAKER_00: We don't do this in order to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: We don't do this to achieve salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I want to take you to the New Testament, if y'all would.
SPEAKER_00: Turn with me to Acts chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: And again, I'm going to try this morning to purposely slow down and not be in a hurry.
SPEAKER_00: So that we can understand the sense and the meaning of what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts chapter 4, we're going to begin reading in verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 4 and verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand before you hold, he had healed a man.
SPEAKER_00: This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, in other words, y'all have rejected him, which has become the head of the corner.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ is the cornerstone.
SPEAKER_00: Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
SPEAKER_00: So one of the things that the Bible clearly teaches is that salvation is only through the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: That if somebody said, Well, Brother Josh, I believe that the Bible teaches that man, if he does a series of good works, that he can work his way to heaven, then you are not reading the Bible correctly.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews took the Old Testament and they believe that there is salvation and works righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: They rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, that he was the Messiah, he was the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: They rejected him.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible tells us here, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I want to take you to one other place in the book of Romans, chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: And then we're going to dive into the content of our message.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give this by way of preliminary.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 3 and verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul writes in Romans 3 and 20, therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.
SPEAKER_00: For by the law is the knowledge of sin.
SPEAKER_00: That verse is telling us that there is not a human being, not a man, that is born of men and women.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who's ever lived a sinless life.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul is talking about everybody else here.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh, no man or woman, be justified in his sight, in God's sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, if you and I read the Bible for any amount of time, you and I realize that you and I fall short of God's mark.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what is the purpose of the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: To communicate God's plan, to communicate who God is, and to communicate what man's duty is to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you and I don't work our way or earn salvation by living according to the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, you and I see how far, far short we fall in that we cannot earn salvation when you and I read the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: This verse, by the deeds of the law, or by you and I being obedient to the law, we cannot be justified in God's sight.
SPEAKER_00: It says in verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and a prophetess.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means he's about to tell us that the Old Testament has witnessed a righteousness that is acceptable to God that comes apart from mine and your obedience to the law.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he's saying, look, human person, you can't be made right with God by you living according to some set of rules.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: It is absolutely impossible.
SPEAKER_00: No flesh shall be justified before a holy God by living according to the word.
SPEAKER_00: But the old, thank be the Lord, that there is a righteousness that comes from God, that is apart from the law, that the law talks about, and the law witnesses to it.
SPEAKER_00: And what is that?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, you notice in that verse it says, it didn't say by the faith in Jesus Christ, it said by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means that God is telling us that the righteousness that is acceptable to God is the faith that Jesus Christ gives us.
SPEAKER_00: It had its origin in Christ, that you and I are a product of Him, a product of being born again, and therefore you and I believe in God.
SPEAKER_00: He has implanted the Holy Spirit in us, and then as a result of that, he has cleansed us and made us acceptable in the sight of the Lord, and you and I did none of that whatsoever.
SPEAKER_00: So by the deeds of the law, you and I are not being declared righteous in the sight of God.
SPEAKER_00: It is only by the faith of Jesus Christ, the finished work of Jesus Christ, that you and I have been declared righteous in his sight.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's all human beings save the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why is all that important?
SPEAKER_00: Let's get into our message.
SPEAKER_00: So, in studying through the catechism, what does the Bible say that God requires of men?
SPEAKER_00: It's actually very, very simple.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing that the Bible says that God requires of men, or the let me give you this, that the purpose, why does man exist?
SPEAKER_00: Man exists to glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Whatsoever you and I do in word or deed, you and I are to do it all to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Everything we do.
SPEAKER_00: Whether I'm out there in the field planting a garden, uh if I'm at my job working, if I'm rearing my children, if I'm a husband trying to provide for my family, if I'm a mother or grandmother trying to help uh my family, whatsoever you and I do, in word or deed, you and I are supposed to do it to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's found in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 31.
SPEAKER_00: Everything you and I do is supposed to be to God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Well, how do we go about doing that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, first off, you and I are supposed to glorify God, and the Bible says that you and I are supposed to enjoy Him forever.
SPEAKER_00: If y'all will turn me to Psalm 73, I hope this is going to be an encouragement to you.
SPEAKER_00: I found it very beautiful in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 73.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm chapter 73, we're going to begin reading in verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 73, 22.
SPEAKER_00: So foolish was I and ignorant.
SPEAKER_00: I was a beast before thee.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, I am continually with thee.
SPEAKER_00: Thou hast holden me by my right hand, thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
SPEAKER_00: Whom have I in heaven but thee?
SPEAKER_00: And there is none upon the earth that I desire beside thee.
SPEAKER_00: My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.
SPEAKER_00: For lo, they that are far from thee shall perish.
SPEAKER_00: Thou hast destroyed all them that go ahooring from thee.
SPEAKER_00: But it is good for me to draw near to God.
SPEAKER_00: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.
SPEAKER_00: Now why do I tell you all that?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says here in verse 26 that my flesh and my heart faileth.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, that means that one day you and I are going to die.
SPEAKER_00: That my physical body, my flesh, and my heart is going to fail.
SPEAKER_00: That one day I'm going to perish, I'm going to die.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't matter how much wealth that I have amassed in this world.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what righteousness that I have attempted to do.
SPEAKER_00: But God is the strength of my heart.
SPEAKER_00: That word literally means that God is our rock.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we sang earlier about the rock that is higher than I.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, God is our rock.
SPEAKER_00: He is our foundation.
SPEAKER_00: He is literally the strength of our heart.
SPEAKER_00: In my portion forever.
SPEAKER_00: When you and I die, when you and I die, you and I cannot take any of our wealth with us, not a single bit of it.
SPEAKER_00: The only thing that you and I will have on our deathbed is the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Brother Josh, why do you say all that in the midst of this?
SPEAKER_00: Is that, well, y'all tell me what are the most important things in life?
SPEAKER_00: Number one, to glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how do we do that?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give you three points.
SPEAKER_00: Love the Lord above everything else.
SPEAKER_00: Fear God and keep his commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Love thy neighbor as thyself.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Brother Josh, it can't be that simple.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, it is.
SPEAKER_00: According to the Bible, the way in which you and I go about to glorify God is three things.
SPEAKER_00: Love the Lord above everything else.
SPEAKER_00: Fear God and keep his commandments, and love thy neighbor as thyself.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Brother Josh, that's pretty simple.
SPEAKER_00: It is.
SPEAKER_00: It's not some 10-step program.
SPEAKER_00: I think Paul said in the New Testament, he said, I fear lest ye be led away from the simplicity of the gospel or the simplicity that is in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we just read in Romans that you and I fall short of the glory of God, of glorifying him, but you and I are supposed to glorify him.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how do we do that?
SPEAKER_00: First, love the Lord thy God above everything else.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all turn away to Mark chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to spend a few minutes here.
SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: This addresses the first point of what man's duty is toward God.
SPEAKER_00: God has told us in the Scriptures how man is to go about glorifying God and enjoying Him.
SPEAKER_00: How does man do that?
SPEAKER_00: Man does that by loving the Lord above everything else.
SPEAKER_00: And we read about that in Mark chapter 12, beginning in verse 28.
SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter 12, beginning in verse 28.
SPEAKER_00: So we read, and one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him.
SPEAKER_00: He asked Jesus Christ, which is the first commandment of all?
SPEAKER_00: So this scribe in the New Testament came asking Jesus, teacher, master, please explain to me in your opinion what you believe the scriptures teach is the greatest commandment in all of the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus was asked.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus answered him in verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: He says, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 30, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength, and this is the first commandment.
SPEAKER_00: What does all that mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means exactly what my daughter said over a decade ago.
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to love God with our everything.
SPEAKER_00: The word heart here means our thoughts and our feelings.
SPEAKER_00: So do I think about God on a daily basis?
SPEAKER_00: When I get up in the morning, do I, when I get ready to plan out my day, is God on my thoughts?
SPEAKER_00: Is God in my mind?
SPEAKER_00: Do I have godly and biblical intent in my mind?
SPEAKER_00: All right, well, Lord, you know, I've got to go to work today.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've got to cut the grass today.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a weekend, and you know, I'm not looking forward to this burning up heat outside, but you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I need to take care of my family.
SPEAKER_00: I need to do all the needful things.
SPEAKER_00: How can I glorify you in cutting the grass?
SPEAKER_00: Well, that seems like a strange question, Brother Josh.
SPEAKER_00: Is it?
SPEAKER_00: How about a grandmother who's preparing a lunch for their family?
SPEAKER_00: I gotta get up and bake rolls or cook the chicken.
SPEAKER_00: How can I glorify God in the preparation of this meal?
SPEAKER_00: You don't think that uh when that grandmother got up and prepared the meal that and she got up before everybody else did, and she spent labor and time and energy and effort, and she had bought or grown or provided these groceries, and then her, you know, so that if she had done this service, she had done this for her family, so now her family could literally just come and have a wonderful afternoon and enjoy this meal and have a time of wonderful fellowship where everybody could gather around a table and eat together, and and the other people that were there didn't have to fuss and worry and fret and prepare and spend money and spend time.
SPEAKER_00: And so this lady actually took all of that time to do all of those things.
SPEAKER_00: So she made the way easy, she made the way plain, she prepared a place so there would be a good place for the plane to land, a good place for the family to come, and they wanted to be there.
SPEAKER_00: She made it a joyous occasion.
SPEAKER_00: Is she not doing some of the Lord's work when she does that?
SPEAKER_00: Sure she is.
SPEAKER_00: So we're supposed to love God above everything else, and we're supposed to love him with our heart, and that means with our thoughts and our feelings.
SPEAKER_00: So, is it a selfish thing that the grandmother had a good idea that, you know, I'm going to be thankful that all my family has gathered around me today?
SPEAKER_00: No, that was a good thought, not a bad thought.
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to love the Lord with our soul.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: The word soul literally means our breath and our spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Have y'all uh ever known anybody that has a fiery spirit?
SPEAKER_00: That they seem to be kind of a fighter?
SPEAKER_00: They seem to be somebody who just doesn't back down for lack of a word, they're kind of like a bulldog that just latches on to something they don't let go.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how about somebody who has that same spirit who uses it for the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to love the Lord with our heart, with our soul, with our mind.
SPEAKER_00: That means our understanding and the exercising of our mind.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, Bill Josh, I know there are a lot of people in the world who are very, very smart folks.
SPEAKER_00: Scientists and professors and all these things.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, I would venture to say that many of you are extremely smart.
SPEAKER_00: Do y'all know that I have not figured out yet how to cook an entire meal and get it all on the table where it's all hot at the same time?
SPEAKER_00: That is amazing to me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not joking, and ladies, I'm not making fun.
SPEAKER_00: If I if it's my job every now and then to prepare a meal for my family, there might be something that is piping hot and something that is just stone cold.
SPEAKER_00: It is a it takes exercise, it takes experience, it takes practice, it takes coordination, it takes planning to coordinate all the things.
SPEAKER_00: As uh Hannibal off the A-Team, he says, I love it when a plan comes together.
SPEAKER_00: I can't make the plan come together sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: That's a difficult task.
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't matter if we're preparing a meal, if we're preparing a sermon, if we're preparing a scientific study, everything we should do should be to the glory of God, and we should apply our mind to that end.
SPEAKER_00: It also says that we're to love the Lord with all our strength.
SPEAKER_00: That means our ability, our power, our fierceness.
SPEAKER_00: Well, so I've just spent several minutes trying to explain this verse that we're supposed to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and all our strength.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what my daughter says.
SPEAKER_00: You and I are supposed to love God with our everything.
SPEAKER_00: Every day, all the time, you and I are supposed to apply our mind, our heart, our soul, our strength, our time, our energy, our effort, our money.
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to apply that to focusing on the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that, Brother Josh?
SPEAKER_00: Because when we die, we don't have anything else.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have money, we don't have, we only have the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He is our rock, he is our strength, he is our hope, he is our refuge, he's all we have.
SPEAKER_00: Our whole life is supposed to be centered around glorifying Him.
SPEAKER_00: So whatsoever we do in thought or word or deed, we do it all to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: That is the chief end of man.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible has revealed to us what the duty of man is, is to love God.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing that man is supposed to do is to fear God and keep his commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all will probably know that sounds familiar, and it does, because it's in the last chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes, when Solomon, as an old man, was concluding what the quote-unquote whole duty of man is, he says in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 13, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
SPEAKER_00: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Brother Josh, that's pretty simple.
SPEAKER_00: You're telling me that the Bible says about itself that men are supposed to be obedient to the commandments of God.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I want to clarify that.
SPEAKER_00: Because in the New Testament it actually says something directly related to this in 1 John.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 John chapter 4, we read about commandments, but we also read about God's love and how these two tie directly together.
SPEAKER_00: So in 1 John chapter 4, we're going to begin reading in verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John chapter 4, verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: So John writes, There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torments.
SPEAKER_00: He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you read that, Brother Josh?
SPEAKER_00: Do y'all know that I'm not supposed to get up here and appeal to you to run to God and serve God because you're going to die and burn in the devil's hell?
SPEAKER_00: Do y'all know I would be preaching incorrectly if I told you that?
SPEAKER_00: Because instead, I'm supposed to appeal to you that you should want to love God and serve God because He saved you.
SPEAKER_00: Because He's God.
SPEAKER_00: Because we owe Him that.
SPEAKER_00: If I say you should want to serve God because otherwise you're going to burn up in a terrible, damnable fire, that violates this verse.
SPEAKER_00: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment.
SPEAKER_00: He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
SPEAKER_00: You and I should be motivated to want to serve God and love God because of how much he's already loved us.
SPEAKER_00: You mean, Brother Josh, that Jesus Christ was sinless and that God offered up his sinless son on behalf of me, a criminal who deserved to go to hell?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I deserve to go to hell, but Jesus Christ didn't, and God put him to death, and Christ willingly laid down his life to die for me.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that makes me feel ashamed.
SPEAKER_00: That makes me feel like I didn't deserve that and I don't, and you don't.
SPEAKER_00: And you and I should want to follow after him because of what he did for us.
SPEAKER_00: You and I should want to give our lives to him every day, all the time, forever until we die because that's what he deserves.
SPEAKER_00: You and I deserve hell, but he gave us heaven when you and I couldn't earn it and didn't want it.
SPEAKER_00: But he did that for us.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he loved us.
SPEAKER_00: And his love is what motivates us to want to serve him.
SPEAKER_00: It says in verse 19, we love him because he first loved us.
SPEAKER_00: If a man say, I love God and hateth my brother, he is a liar.
SPEAKER_00: For he that loveth not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
SPEAKER_00: How can, oh, I love the Lord, but I hate that man right over there?
SPEAKER_00: God says, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: You're not loving the Lord right.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean I'm not loving the Lord right?
SPEAKER_00: I love you, Lord, but I hate that man.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord says, No, that's not the way you're supposed to act.
SPEAKER_00: If you love me, you're supposed to love your brother also.
SPEAKER_00: You're supposed to forgive that man of what he's done for you.
SPEAKER_00: Well, brother Josh, what that man did to me is just unforgivable, really.
SPEAKER_00: Christ has forgiven every single sin that you and I have committed against him.
SPEAKER_00: So therefore, he does not ask you and I to do anything that he's not already done of us.
SPEAKER_00: So no sin that any other man has ever committed against us are we not to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying it's easy.
SPEAKER_00: But Christ has forgiven our every sin.
SPEAKER_00: If a man say, I love God and hateth my brother, he is a liar, for he that loveth not his brother, whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
SPEAKER_00: In this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God loveth his brother also.
SPEAKER_00: First John five.
SPEAKER_00: Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.
SPEAKER_00: And every love one that loveth him that begot, that's Father God, loveth him also that is begotten of him, that's Christ.
SPEAKER_00: By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Notice this.
SPEAKER_00: This is the key to the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous.
SPEAKER_00: See, when Solomon said, For this is the whole duty of man to fear God and obey his commands, he's saying exactly the same thing as John is when he says here, for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Jesus Christ is telling us we're supposed to love the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means we're supposed to obey the scriptures, the word of God, and why do we do that?
SPEAKER_00: Because we love God.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, we want to obey the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be a good husband.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to cheat on my taxes.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to lust after other women.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be a drunkard.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be a righteous workman who honors the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Why do I want those things?
SPEAKER_00: I want those things because I love God.
SPEAKER_00: And you want those things because you love God.
SPEAKER_00: And therefore, we are to spend our lives being obedient to God's commandments, telling us what to do and what not to do.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we revere Him, we love Him, we see that He is our hope, our refuge, our fortress, our foundation, our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: We're not our Savior, He is.
SPEAKER_00: So therefore, I'm going to spend my entire life working for my Savior, not to go to heaven, but to honor Him for what He's already done.
SPEAKER_00: So this is not some grievous requirement that, oh those Josh, you Christians, y'all talk about all these rules and regulations.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, I want to be a faithful husband.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: I want to be a student of the word of God and hide it in my heart that I might not sin against him.
SPEAKER_00: My desires have changed over the years as you and I spend time in the Word.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want the bad thing now.
SPEAKER_00: Our flesh at times craves those things.
SPEAKER_00: And what do we want to do with that?
SPEAKER_00: We want to kill them.
SPEAKER_00: We want to crucify them.
SPEAKER_00: I hope, brothers and sisters, in 20 years I look less like Brother Josh and more like Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: May he increase and may I decrease.
SPEAKER_00: So we're supposed to love the Lord and fear God and keep his commandments.
SPEAKER_00: The last thing.
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to love our neighbor as ourself.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, that was Mark 12, 31, on these two things, to love the Lord with all our heart and then to love our neighbor as ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: On these two things, hang all the law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: Brother Josh, you spent this whole sermon of now 45 minutes when you could have just told us what Ivy said and we could have all gone home.
SPEAKER_00: And you haven't even talked about the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: We haven't, but we have.
SPEAKER_00: In the Ten Commandments, the first four commandments, and again, I'm not quoting them to impress you, I'm quoting them to show you their content.
SPEAKER_00: The first four commandments are thou shalt have no other God before me.
SPEAKER_00: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
SPEAKER_00: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, and remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first four commandments.
SPEAKER_00: That's referred to as the first table of the law.
SPEAKER_00: That refers to man's relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus in Mark chapter 12 said that we're supposed to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and all our mind, he is referring as a summary to the first table of the law.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is actually giving us a commentary as a preacher saying, Let me explain to you, children of God, what those first four commandments actually mean when he says that we're supposed to have no other gods before him and not make any graven image and not take the Lord's name in vain and remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, to come back to church Sunday after Sunday after Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: What does all that actually mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means that we're supposed to love the Lord with our whole heart.
SPEAKER_00: God is supposed to be the number one priority in our lives above everything else.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ is a preacher in the New Testament, is summarizing the Old Testament Ten Commandments, the first table of the law, which is the more important table.
SPEAKER_00: Love the Lord above everything else.
SPEAKER_00: That's what those mean.
SPEAKER_00: What about the second table of the law?
SPEAKER_00: Honor thy father and thy mother.
SPEAKER_00: Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house.
SPEAKER_00: All of the remaining commandments have to do with our relationship with other human beings, with our parents, with other people that we come in contact with.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not supposed to lie about them, I'm not supposed to covet what they have, I'm not supposed to kill them, I'm not supposed to steal from them, so on and so forth.
SPEAKER_00: That's the second table of the law.
SPEAKER_00: Love thy neighbor as thyself.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: You know what else I haven't mentioned?
SPEAKER_00: The golden rule.
SPEAKER_00: The golden rule is a scripture that's found in Matthew chapter 7 that is in Jesus Christ's Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus Christ was also summarizing the law when he was concluding the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm lost, Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: I know right where it is, can't find it.
SPEAKER_00: But in Matthew chapter 7, look at verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.
SPEAKER_00: For this is the law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he's saying, if you go up to the drive-thru and you're having a bad day, and they get your order wrong, don't yell at the little girl in the drive-thru.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you were the little girl in the drive-thru, you don't want some old guy yelling at you when she actually didn't even make the order.
SPEAKER_00: She's just handing it to you out the window when somebody else made it and they got it wrong.
SPEAKER_00: So don't yell at the little girl in the window, right?
SPEAKER_00: Or when you call the folks at the bank and something got messed up on your account that had to do with a computer thing, and you're hollering at the man on the other end of the phone because you can't get your money today, and it has absolutely nothing to do with that man, but yet you're upset.
SPEAKER_00: You need to treat that man or that young lady like you would want to be treated if somebody else was actually talking to you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said that the law can be summarized in this.
SPEAKER_00: And y'all know the golden rule do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
SPEAKER_00: What is that?
SPEAKER_00: That is a summary of the second table of the law, the last six commandments in the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: It's how you and I treat other people.
SPEAKER_00: So, Brother Josh, what does the Bible teach?
SPEAKER_00: In closing, what do the scriptures primarily teach?
SPEAKER_00: We've already talked about what we're to believe about God, but what do the scriptures primarily teach about what God requires of man?
SPEAKER_00: He requires us to love him above everything else.
SPEAKER_00: He's supposed to be number one priority.
SPEAKER_00: He requires us to fear God.
SPEAKER_00: That means to revere him.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't fear him out of the fear of hell and damnation.
SPEAKER_00: We fear him out of, that's my heavenly Father, that's my Savior, look at what he's done for me.
SPEAKER_00: I fear not honoring him, not glorifying him.
SPEAKER_00: I fear uh failing my daddy, failing my savior.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, to love thy neighbor as thyself.
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to treat other people, all the other people, how you and I would want to be treated.
SPEAKER_00: And when we do that, we are actually physically putting boots on the ground of what the scriptures are telling us to do in these commandments.
SPEAKER_00: What did Jesus tell them in the New Testament?
SPEAKER_00: Uh when he separated the sheep from the goats.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I was hungry and you gave me food.
SPEAKER_00: I was thirsty and you gave me drink.
SPEAKER_00: I was naked and you clothed me.
SPEAKER_00: I was in prison and you come visit me.
SPEAKER_00: And he and Jesus said, Whatsoever ye have done unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying, when we do these things, we are putting boots on the ground of what these scriptures actually tell us to do.
SPEAKER_00: That is their physical manifestation in the life of a Christian in the world when we're doing those things.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what does the Bible teach us that it's our duty as men to do?
SPEAKER_00: To love God above everything else, to fear Him and love other men.
SPEAKER_00: And we're supposed to live that out in our lives, every day of our life.
SPEAKER_00: That is supposed to be our primary concern above everything else.
SPEAKER_00: And brothers and sisters, may the Lord help us all to do better at that.
SPEAKER_00: I know I certainly need it.
SPEAKER_00: Oh I don't know that I did a good job today of explaining the message.
SPEAKER_00: If I didn't do a good job, that's me.
SPEAKER_00: If you got anything out of it, that's the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We love you all very much.
SPEAKER_00: I want to ask Brother Don if you wouldn't come up and help us close in a word of song.
SPEAKER_00: The church doors are always open if you desire to unite with the membership of our church.