Pastor Babij examines Jesus’ answer to the question posed by the scribe, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus answered by connecting the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) and Leviticus 19:18: “Love God with everything you are” and “love your neighbor as yourself”. Pastor Babij explains how these two principles hedge against two dangers: mysticism and humanism.
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okay let’s take our Bibles this morning and turn to the gospel of Mark going to say Matthew Mark chter 12 Mark 12 we’ll be looking this morning at verse 2 8 through verse 34 let’s pray together morning Lord this morning as we come before you I I ask you Lord that you would just uh clear our minds help us to uh calm our hearts and uh put our eyes upon the word of God so we can understand it and then also Lord so we can evaluate if we’re doing it or not or to what level we’re doing it I just pray Lord you would help us to do that today or I know that found in this text is one of the most important passages in all of God’s word and I Lord I pray pray you would just impress it upon our minds and hearts so we can every day um do what you say and I pray this in your name amen amen okay so in Mark chapter 12 we’re looking at um we’re looking at a remember this is still Tuesday in the passion week it’s been a long day for the Lord there’s been one controversy this is actually considered the controversy section in um the gospel of Mark there’s one controversy after another and it’s interesting the way that Mark actually writes this gospel uh it’s like we’ve been there it’s like we we we were in the crowd when one uh wave slammed against our Lord and another wave came after that and it slammed against our Lord and every single one that came against him Jesus just showed his humility he showed his knowledge he showed his wisdom and he showed that his authority could not be rivaled even by the highest political and religious bodies of his day so this morning we meet another person that uh approaches Jesus uh this person is an expert in the law uh and of course if you notice in verse number 28 it says this in Mark 12 it says one one of the scribes came one of the scribes came now remember the scribes were they were the phds they were the experts in the Torah and they were capable of issuing binding decisions with their interpretations of scripture of course these teachers of the Torah had a reput reputation of Honor they would uh people would call them rabbi or great one they usually had a seat at most tables if they were invited somewhere scribes were legal jurists these scribes really combined the office of a Torah Professor teacher moralist and civil lawyer all in one package they were very very powerful influential leaders and so it must be that the group of of scribes sent one representative scribe uh to Jesus matter of fact in scripture there’s only one positive reference to scribes in scripture and it’s found right here in the gospel of Mark in the verses that we’re going to look at there’s 18 negative references to scribes because they were always portrayed for the most part as antagonists of jesus’ mission his message and everything that he was teaching uh his very uh teaching they were again so the scribes were occupied with things by this time infinitely small scribal teaching was occupied with mint and anas would come in in lents of fringes on a particular garment they were uh concerned about washing cups and platters about washing your hands before you eat they even were concerned about the particular quarter seconds when the new moon and the sabbaths began they were into all that detail and no scribe ever gave an interpretation or judgment on his own he would always begin in his teaching that there is a teacher that said this or would quote some authority of his particular day or his particular sex again they have put so many fences up around the word of God that they really never get to the word of God and that becomes a danger of of making rules on how you ought to live as a Believer and then following those rules without the very principles of the word of God guiding what you really the way you live so In this passage of scripture this particular scribe did not seem to come to Jesus with any trick questions he became interested in Jesus because he was one of those in the crowd who carefully listen to the arguments and and the disputes being brought against Jesus in other words his Encounter With Jesus is very amiable in fact the scripture gives us three words that describe this lawyer’s demeanor if you notice in verse number 28 of chapter 12 it says first of all one of the scribes came and heard them arguing so he came hearing he was listening to the Pharisees the herodians the Sadducees disputing with Jesus and then secondly uh the second action word is is he was recognizing something it says in verse 28 and recognizing that he had answered them well so in other words he was thinking Jesus answered his opponents with excellence and had a skill of handling scripture that could not be ignored and then a third action was that he inquired it says there that he asked him something in verse 28 in other words he thought this was his chance to ask Jesus a question that had been disputed for years and he was wondering listen if this guy called Jesus can answer these hard hard questions with such excellence and such respect for truth I cannot pass this up I have to ask him about this question and so the question is found in the end of verse number 28 this is what the Scribe asked notice he says he asked him what commandment is the foremost of all now is that important uh yes it it is not only important to the Scribe it’s important to every single one of us and I said in my prayer that this is probably the most important passage of scripture in all of scripture so that means it it should be very uh interesting to us and helpful in examining ourselves when we look at the details of how Jesus answers this question now either he is asking what quality in a Divine precept is it that makes it rank as first of all or he is asking which one specific precept must be rated as the very first now of course one has to ask why is even he even asking that question well remember the rabbi said that there were Commandments 248 positive and 365 negative of these some were important or they would would be called heavy Commandments and some were less important and those were called light Commandments now how should one decide out of those 613 commandment which one comes first which comes second which comes third you know is that important or is that not important well see should they be picked by the severity of and and Punishment connected with them should they should the Commandments about sacrifice and worship be first what about ones connected to the Sabbath laws or the ti the dietary regulations or or dress or circumcision and so on and so forth it went on see the essence of this question is which commandment supersedes everything and is incumbent incumbent upon all human not just the Pharisees not just the scribes not just the sades and not just any disciple what commandment is binding on all Humanity see Jesus answers the Scribe directly he answers it him directly from scripture and he answers them from a scripture that he would be very very aware of he answered with what the Jews called the shama in the Hebrew it means to here the shimad was a staple scripture for the Jew and it is found in Deuteronomy I want you to turn to Deuteronomy and look at it there first in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse number 4-6 and then verse 7-9 so this was a very important scripture for the Jew and notice what it says here the first word it says in verse number four of Deuteronomy chapter 6 it says here o Israel that’s where they get the word shamama from The Lord Is Our God the Lord is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your might and these words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart so that’s what the shama is in fact these scriptures were so important to Israel parents were instructed to hold them in high regard before their families look down at verse number seven of Deuteronomy chapter 6 it says and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets on your forehead and you shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your Gates see in other words every day and in every place a Hebrew was to be exposed to these lifegiving truths they could never forget this and yes these passages were so important in Israel’s history and in Hebrew scriptures that they were put in Little Boxes called Fates and strapped to one’s forehead or to one’s wrist in fact when you if you ever get a chance to go to Israel if you have been there you’ll see that uh people are walking around all the time with these these leather straps that strap them right to their forehead it’s a little box and and to their wrists and it wraps around their arms so they can’t fall off and inside that a box is usually the shama this scripture right here from Deuteronomy so they would not forget it in fact their doorposts were to be lined with these particular truths and their Gates everywhere they went and entered into they were to be reminded of this particular passage of scripture so if the Shema the Shama was so important in the life of Israel how did they drift away from it why wasn’t it that important how come this scribe could not even answer his own question actually Jesus kind of answered the question already back in Mark chapter 7 verse 6-9 where he says he said to them rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you Hypocrites as it is written this people honors me with their lips but their heart is far away from me but in vain do they worship me teaching as doctrines the precepts of men neglecting the Commandment of God you hold to the tradition of men so in the sense that that’s that’s the reason why they have forgotten what was the most important thing in the life of not only the Israelite but the life of the Christian the life of the believer in Christ what is the most important thing for you and I well it has to be what Jesus says here now turn back to Mark chapter 12 and notice in verse number 29 here is the first there’s two he asked for one precept he asked for the most important Jesus says I’m going to give you two precepts the first commandment or precept incum upon the disciples and yes all humanity is this one to love love to the Lord our God is to fill the sphere of the whole heart of the human being for Jesus actually again answers describe with as I said two precepts and notice the first one in verse number 29 and 30 Jesus answered the four the it says the foremost is here o Israel the Lord our God is one Lord and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind and with all your strength so he says first of all in that particular command he says list listen first we have to love the Lord for who he is and who is he it says in scripture here o Israel the Lord our God is one Lord see the names for God ex Express different things about him the word Lord actually is the word Yahweh that means the unchanging promis keeping Covenant keeping God all right when he makes a promise he keeps it he is faithful to those who are his children he is faithful to his people and then he uses another word the word god which is the word Elohim and that means The God Who employs all his power in behalf of his children in behalf of the nation of Israel in this case so he is the one the living one the absolute God he is God he alone is God and there is no other that’s what we need to know about God first of all and foremost and to know the one and the only true God in all his greatness and all his power and all his loving kindness and his mercy and his grace and his Justice is also to turn to him with your whole being to worship him alone out of out really out from your whole heart and of course to always keep in mind the danger of idolatry the danger of having a double full minded heart a heart that is split in two different directions God does not want us to live in that with that kind of of mind and that kind of heart he wants us to live with a heart that first understands who he is in his character and then secondly that leads to in ver in verse number 30 you shall love the Lord your God in other words the to love to love the Lord with all you are to love the Lord with all you are now how does he break that down in the scripture well to love him out from your whole heart all right and what is the heart the heart is the center of our being really the real personality who we really are and then of course to love the Lord thy God from your whole soul that is really the the self-conscious part of your life and then to love the Lord from out of your whole mind that is the power that we have to reason a place where we have thoughts ideas convictions and if you notice if you did not notice Jesus is really displaying his authority right here while he is talking to the Scribe because he adds one Deuteronomy only had three he adds a fourth one and the fourth one is that we are to worship god of out out of our whole mind all right he adds a fourth response from those who are hearing what he is saying that the Lord to love the Lord God with one’s whole mind and one’s whole understanding that our very thoughts are to be so order that our thoughts are worshiping God on a regular basis so you can’t be somewhere else in your mind when it comes to worshiping God you have to be focused on who he is and what he’s done to actually carry out these passages this this very precept that is binding on all of us and of course he says it leads to the the uh next one out of of your whole strength that that’s the power we have to do things the power of will to now decide to do something that we’re to love God out of that in fact when we love God this way love for God usually results in Devotion to him trust in him praise to him it comes out of you it flows out of you love for God also leads to obedience and to service Jesus said if you love me what you’ll keep my Commandments right that is something that you and I really need to consider quite seriously but it also leads to service that I obey God and I serve because my life is no longer my own my life is the Lord so whatever the Lord wants me to do I want to do I’m not there just to sit on my Duff I’m there to do something for God but I’m there to do it for God because I love him not out of I must do that I want to do that see that’s a a a tremendous shift from what was being thought of in many of the Old Testament organizations like the scribes and the Pharisees and and those and and those people the Sadducees and of course love for God is connected to Drawing Near to God even James brings this up when he says in uh the Epistle of James draw near to God and He will draw near to you and then he says this cleanse your hands you Sinners and purify your heart you double-minded so what is always hedging against putting this particular passage of scripture into into practice is that I am not double-minded as a Believer can’t serve God in money can’t serve God in possessions can serve God and have other gods understand that right there could be only one God that we serve and he we he he wants our full and complete devotion other than that it is not worship other than that I don’t know what you’re doing or what I’m doing when I get into that particular State matter of fact to love to the Lord our God is to fill the sphere of our whole heart and that means every part of our heart is to be open to the Lord It’s amazing when you go back to the Old Testament when you think about some of the most reforming Kings or one of the most reforming kings in the Old Testament is King Josiah Josiah understod that Israel drifted away from this particular precept and once he identified this in the word of God he wanted to reform the nation but the nation was so far far gone he couldn’t do it but he sure tried to do it and it says in the word of God that King Josiah turned to the Lord and tried to turn the nation to the Lord but could not do it and this is what it says in second Kings chapter 23 and it says before him there was no King like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart with all his soul and with all his mind and might according to the law of Moses nor did any like him arise after him and but the nation didn’t this is what it says about the nation however the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath with which he his anger burned against Judah because all the propagations which Manasseh had provoked him in other words that day had gone so far it was too late and what where did they move from they moved from this precept this is where we all go wrong in our Christian walks we get we get pulled in directions that take our whole focus on something other than it may be good as far as good is uh but it’s not what the Lord wants us to do it has actually taken us away from our attention on the Lord and has put it on something else and you know what when I look at a past like this too it begs questions that come up to examine ourselves just asking ourselves do we enjoy spending time with the Lord do we actually enjoy it not you know do we do it but do we enjoy it hopefully you do it also do you have an ever expanding growing affection for the Lord to tell him that you actually love him and are you increasing in doing things that please him are you anxious to tell others about the Lord and to Comm communicate to them his gracious Plan of Salvation know it was Ben Benedict Arnold everybody heard of Benedict Arnold he was of course that’s equal to traitor he was one of George Washington’s key men in the Continental Army but somewhere down the line he got double-minded and instead of being loyal to the Continental Army and to his commanding officer he began to make Bargains with the British around 1779 and of course they offered him position they offered him Authority and they off offered him a large sum of money so what did he do he took it and instead of fighting for the colonists he fought against them and why did he do that he did it because his heart was now divided see that could happen very quickly in our walk with the Lord I tell you this loving God means you don’t have a divided heart loving God means you have a single-minded heart you have a single-minded devotion and this becomes an all important precept in command in all of our Lives we cannot get away from this this is something that should be before us every single day of our life how are we doing in this area are we worshiping God like this are we giving him everything we have now that leads to the second one they both go together this man was not necessarily asking asking for this particular precept but Jesus gave it in fact in verse number 31 of Mark 12 the second important precept incumbent on all humanity is one you have I have not you you you and I have heard it before love your neighbor as yourself for look what it says in verse 31 the second is this you shall love your neighbor as yourself there is no no other commandment greater than these see Jesus if you didn’t notice again Jesus actually combines two Commandments that were not bound together before because you don’t find this passage of scripture in Deuteronomy chapter 6 you find this one in Leviticus chapter 19 so Jesus Takes Two things and puts them together for the first time in the mind of the in the mind of the believer he combines the love that one should have for God with the love that spills over from that relationship to the love we ought to have for one another to our neighbor and the reason why he brings this up for the Scribe is because the Jews considered their neighbor to only be Jews non-israelites were not considered to be neighbors your enemies were not considered to be neighbors Jesus changed and expanded the idea of what it meant to love your neighbor in fact Luke chapter 10 really brings this out without turning there you know the story it’s the story about the Good Samaritan right Jesus in that context under What’s Happening Here says to them gives them a story that’s the way the Lord taught he gave them a story and he said listen uh there was a he first of all he says he gives this precept and then he and he said to him you have he tells the Scribe you have answered correctly giving back to him what he said about the sh shama and then he says listen The Scribe says to him who’s my neighbor and Jesus says replies to them with him with the story that a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among Rock s and they stripped him and beat him and went away leaving him half dead on the road and by chance a priest was going down on the road and when he saw him he passed on the other side and likewise a levite also when he came to the place and saw him he passed on the other side and then it says there and a Samaritan came now a Samaritan was really rejected by the Jews because they were kind of half Jews because they inter breeded and kind of like were no longer pure so they were not considered neighbors anymore and so the Samaritan though when he came upon him he felt compassion on him and he banded up his wounds poured oil and wine on them and put and he put him on his own beast and brought brought him to an inn and took care of him and on the next day he took out to daer gave them to the inkeeper and said take care of him and whatever more you spend when I return I will repay you and Jesus says to him which of the which of of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor well of course he said very clearly those who showed Mercy toward him and then Jesus says go and do the now that means this that if he was connected to Israel and should have already been loving God the way he ought to have been loving God he would have done the second part but like I said Jesus now definitely combines these two from Deuteronomy 6 chapter 4 and 5 or or chapter 6 verse four 4 and 5 and Leviticus 19:8 which says this you shall love your neighbor as yourself I am the Lord so in other words that this kind of love is measured in at least two ways this kind of love is measured by the care that you have for yourself all right now if you notice what it says in the scripture it says very very clearly that you are to love you are to love your neighbor as yourself now that is not self-centeredness here that’s not what it’s talking about as you extend your care of yourself measure your love for your neighbor by the love that you already have for yourself CU we have plenty of love for ourselves don’t we don’t you take care of yourself don’t you wash yourself feed yourself don’t you get good things for yourself don’t you watch out make sure that you’re safe and that you’re doing things to yourself that are benefiting yourself see everybody does that nobody really uh everybody’s involved with taking care of themselves and so in other words he is saying to you and I and to describe listen you are to live in a way to care for others with the same consideration that we extend to ourselves that’s not hard to figure out right there are some things you like right you like to be treated in a certain way why would you think someone else doesn’t want to be treated the same way you liked it why would you think that way you like certain things you like certain foods all right and so other people like certain foods and have certain tastes we we need to recognize someone and respect them so they’re taken care of now what is amazing is that if I were to say to you listen break down make me a list on some of the things that show you and I what it really means to take care of our neighbor or love our neighbor we would probably have different lists maybe there maybe some similar things we may put on that list but you know that the Lord already gave the list in Leviticus let’s look back there for a minute look at Leviticus chapter 19 this is where the passage comes from in verse number 18 but if you back up to verse number 10 you’re going to find that In this passage of scripture there’s a pretty good breakdown on what it means to love one’s neighbor in fact this list is based on the Ten Commandments and notice what it says look at verse number 10 of Leviticus chapter 19 he says the first thing is this take care of the poor look what it says you nor shall you glean your Vineyard nor shall you gather the Fallen fruit of your Vineyard you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger and look at how he says it I am the I am the Lord your God verse number 10 10 second thing verse number 11 you shall not steal nor deal falsely what’s the second thing how do you love your neighbor don’t steal from them right is that something that’s we can actually do yes also thirdly don’t lie to him it says in verse number 11 nor lie to one and then verse 12 and you shall not swear falsely by my name so as to profane the name name of your God I am the Lord that’s how you love somebody you don’t lie to them tell them the truth right it’s a lot easier to tell the truth than to tell a lie you know that right because if you tell a lie two months later you have to go back and figure out what how you lied and you’re never going to get it right but if you tell the truth it’ll always be the truth right and is the truth harder to tell yes but it’s always the best thing and it honors God and it shows you love your neighbor and you love the person who’s standing in front of you that’s who your neighbor is who’s near you neighbor means those who are near me right around me those who I rub elbows with those who I have contact with it’s not just it is the church first that’s the F first and foremost but it’s everyone as a Believer right and then in verse number 13 how do I love my neighbor fair business dealings look at verse 13 you shall not oppress your neighbor nor Rob him the wages of hired men are not to remain with you all night until morning don’t withhold wages from somebody if you’re in business do fair business dealings I think uh car salesman may have a hard time with that one I never like Heart High pressured salesman you know I always go in there saying I don’t want this I don’t want this I don’t want this I that’s it give me the bottom line they don’t like me third thing or next thing is to care for the deaf and blind in verse number 14 you shall not curse a deaf man nor place a stumbling block before the blind but you shall rever your God I am the Lord verse 15 deal justly with all it says you shall do no Injustice in judgment you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great but you are to judge your neighbor fairly and then of course verse 16 avoid slander you shall not go about as a slander among your people and also verse number 16 not to jeopardize the life of your neighbor it says there and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor I am am the Lord you’re looking out for their safety as well as your own safety and then of course in verse 17 you shall not hate your fellow countrymen in your heart and then verse 17 rebuke your neighbor when necessarily only for his good you may surely reprove your neighbor but shall not incur sin because of him and then verse number 18 don’t take revenge or bear a grudge against others you shall not take Vengeance nor bear a grudge against the sons of your people but you shall here it is love your neighbor as yourself I am the Lord that’s what the Lord connects in mat in the gospel of Mark and in the gospels he connects these two things and so very simply this is what it means to love our neighbor do we want to be treated like all these things all of us want to be treated like this well then treat other people like that and when you do that you actually exemplify what it means to love God and then what it means to love your neighbor all right and of course the Lord adds something to that in the gospels he said that even love your what enemies pray for those who persecute you he goes Way Beyond what every anybody would ever imagine he says pray for my enemies love my enemies if they’re hungry give them something to eat what yes because when we do that we show the love of God we show that our hearts are connected to the Lord see the the quality and High character of both these precepts these Commandments are are alike none can be placed the head of these two neither can they be reversed the one about God must come first and the other about man must come second they cannot be reversed in fact the gospel of Matthew adds this on these two Commandments depend the whole law and profits so this becomes the most important thing for every one of us right here these two things these show how you’re doing now it was one commentator who said when these two are combined they in fact help us hedge against two dangers and that’s the danger of mysticism mysticism would be something like this being detached from the love of God I love God but I got something else going on over here I’m detached from it so it helps us to hedge against that and then a second danger it helps us to hedge against is humanism see reference to human beings without reference to God that’s why you can go and do humanitarian projects all over the world feed people all the world and if you don’t go there with God and with the gospel you are just humanistic that’s all you are so we have to have both we have to go them showing them the love of God by what we’re doing but also by the message that we bring them that they have not yet heard so in other words love for God releases the love of God in our lives first John says this to us in chapter 4 beloved if God so loved us we also ought to love one another we love because he first loved us if someone says I love God and hates his brother he is a liar or the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen can he cannot love God whom he has not seen and this commandment we have from him that the one who loves God should love his brother also but a second thing that comes up concerning this particular message is found back in in our passage in the gospel of Mark and it’s found in verse 32 and 33 and it’s what the Scribe brings up it it’s it’s really profound what’s going on in the scribe’s mind because in the Jewish mind the most important thing you could do to show that you love God was to prepare your sacrifices to confess your sin and to bring your sin your your your animal to the priest so he can sacrifice it so you can be forgiven so your relationship with God can be restored so so in his mind it was the doing part of it alone that was foremost in his mind see not only this kind of love is measured by the care that you have for yourself but this kind of love reveals the real heart behind sacrificial Duty see the The Scribe responds to Jesus in a an agreeable manner because Jesus answered him excellently with his heart actually with with his answer being based in the truth of scripture he was amazed by this so the Scribe what he does is he restates what’s already been said and if you notice in verse number 32 and 33 it says this the scribes said to him now the scribes talking back to Jesus write teacher you have truly stated he is one and there is no one else beside him and to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength and to love one’s neighbor as himself is notice is much more than all burnt offering and sacrifice that was a profound thought in other words he was getting it you understand that he was getting what Jesus was trying to say he was getting maybe for the first time what the Old Testament in Leviticus was act in Deuteronomy was actually teaching see these sacrifices the actually describe sees that there is something more that ranks Beyond burnt offerings and Slaughter sacrifices which was the center of worship for the Jews these sacrifices all the burnt offerings and sacrifices stand for all the altar offerings these are the kind that were consumed by fire and not eaten by the worshipper that means these were solely given to God so the Scribe agrees with Jesus that burnt offerings and sacrifice must yield had his mind on what Jesus said and he grasped it and then notice in verse number 34 and when Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently he said to him you are not far from the kingdom of God that must have been now that couple things could have been going on in his mind number one I thought I wasn’t the kingdom of God I thought that that’s what I’ve been doing this whole time but Jesus says no you are not far from the kingdom of God in other words Jesus is saying don’t stand outside the kingdom of God come all the way over all right take the next step this is a gospel message here this this guy’s getting what it means to worship God and so the Lord tells him take the next step to see that he did not love God nor his neighbor perfectly and that’s what it should bring us to the place that we really don’t love God perfectly or the way we ought to we don’t really love our neighbor the way that we ought to and and in his case it should reveal his sin see God’s one solution for his sin problem is going to be answered in just a few days right remember it’s Tuesday Thursday and Friday is coming right and then Saturday Sunday is coming so see Jesus is leading him to the place where he’s right at the Gate of the kingdom of God and of course by the end of the passion week Jesus would accomplish only what the Lamb of God could accomplish how do I get into the kingdom of God how does anybody how’s how does a Jew how does uh you know a Muslim how does anybody get into the kingdom of God they have to come through Jesus Christ that’s how you get into the kingdom of God you can’t get in it any other way and in the beginning of the Gospel of Mark I already introduced to you different people groups remember there was The Insider group and there was The Outsider group the scribes were already documented as official opponents of Jesus critics of everything that he had said and done however this scribe was on the verge of becoming an Insider he was sitting at jesus’ feet and really listening entrance to the kingdom of God was in his sight so what does it mean to take the next step well it means exactly what we started out the gospel of Mark in repent right repent from your sin and then believe to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and believe he is saying to them no it’s not you’re close to the kingdom of God try harder it’s not that can’t try to get somewhere you can’t get if you try harder rather enter ing the kingdom of God is not a matter of hard duty but a matter of heart devotion obeying rules and regulations will never get anyone into the kingdom of God because we never measure up to God’s perfect standard no we need a new heart by coming to the one who can bring a sinner and sinners into the kingdom of God we must do it by coming to Jesus well Jesus is right there the only thing in scripture is that it never says that he came I’m hoping he did I’m hoping after Jesus rose again he was in that group that came and became one of those influential religious rulers that came into the kingdom of God and now began to teach correctly the word of God see believing the gospel means to obey the message concerning our Lord Jesus Christ that he is the Son of God that he is God’s Own Way of Salvation that Jesus that God sent Jesus to the cross that God put all our sins on him and punished them in him see that’s what this man and we had to believe to enter the kingdom of God but remember the kingdom of God is not a matter of human effort no one can enter the kingdom of God without repentance without fleeing from sin and putting Trust In Christ Alone your response must be repent and believe yesterday we had a funeral Sandy black a memorial service Sandy black if you if some of you remember her she used to come in here with her two oxygen tanks sitting in the middle there and um I remember in 2002 uh I don’t exactly know how we I had contact with Sandy black but we visit her in her trailer home she lived in a trailer home back then and I I share the gospel with her and uh she was not happy about it the first time we went but I asked her can we come back again and she said sure So we did and the second time though from the time we went the first time time we came back the second time God was working on their heart the whole time and so I shared with her again and she trusted Christ as her Lord and Savior and she she from that day forward really she’d live for the she’d follow the lord and live for the Lord until the day that she actually went into the presence of God graduated right and she’s now face to face with him so see it took that for sanity to repent and believe it takes it for all of us to repent and believe and it’s really never by anything we can do it’s something that God offers us by his grace but the point in our passages here that God requires worship ship that comes from our heart and it is not divided in any way and as we worship God like that we will also love our neighbor it flows from it you can’t reverse it it must be love God first love neighbor second you can’t put them in reverse because it won’t be the kind of love that God really wants you to have so to be in the crowd to be in the in group you can’t waffle on the imperatives for entry into the kingdom of God once you enter you will also be the group who is sitting around Jesus learning from him worshiping him and growing in love for God and others that’s what will take place now when this encounter was over I want you to notice what happens in verse 34 and now I’m done look what happens after that this is the second part of the verse it says after that no one would venture to ask him any more questions what does he do he shuts their mouths they have nothing else to ask him you know why because they don’t want to get entrapped by how skillful he was with scripture to answer them back because they’ve been also you know they’ve been observing this all along so you see what we need to do today is we need to adjust our priorities and put what is first first and put what is second second we need to worship God wholeheartedly we need to serve men with a sincere heart because you know what this is the whole duty of humankind this is especially the duty of the church for us to love God and show that love of God to those who God brings around us and of course that love is also going to bring us to open up our mouth to share the gospel with them so they can really know God like we know God that’s what it’s all about so that’s what we have to do today we have to really look at ourselves how are we doing how are we all doing in that and to see if there’s any divided division in our heart anything that’s pulling us in a direction away from loving God like this and I pray as we do that that we would make some adjustments and get on track and every day we wake up these scriptures would be foremost on our mind because everything taught in the word of God hinges on these things so we can’t get ever get away from them God’s people said what amen let’s pray Lord this morning I thank you Lord for the word of God I thank you Lord Jesus that contained in it are things that we need to know contained in it are things that we do know need to be reminded of and so I pray Lord this morning that you may really grab our hearts that we can honestly evaluate ourselves especially in this area of Lord of these two important Commandments that are so connected to one another and I ask you Lord as we evaluate oursel we would we would be able to make the changes so we do not have a divided heart but we have a heart that is is wholeheartedly worshiping you mind soul strength and I pray Lord Jesus that as we do that from our life may flow a love for others that possibly we never were involved with before so Lord make the changes in our heart that you need to that these things take place and I pray Lord if someone does not know you as their lord and savior that today would be the day that they may come and repent of their sin and Trust In Christ Alone for Eternal Salvation And I pray Lord that you would help us in all these matters to Worship You from our heart and I ask that in Christ’s name amen