Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The Decalogue, literally ten words, written by God on tablets of stone, the Ten Commandments defined proper behavior. On a higher plane, believers follow an eleventh. Today, how Jesus summed up the Ten Commandments. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr.
Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, is it true that the command of Jesus replaces the Ten Commandments God gave to Moses?
Well, Dave, as you know, Jesus said, I'm giving you a new commandment that you love one another even as I have loved you. But in answer to your question, Dave, is it true that this somehow replaces the Ten Commandments? Of course not. In the Bible, love is defined. Herein is love that you keep my commandments.
The reason I feel so deeply about this, we're living in a culture in which, well, love is love. And if you love something, it seems to make it right, no? You can love evil. The Bible speaks about that, men and women loving darkness.
So love is defined. And love does not negate the Ten Commandments.
Well, very quickly, this is one of the last days we're making available for you a book I've written entitled Why Holiness Matters. For a gift of any amount it can be yours. Here's some contact info. Hope that you have a pen or pencil handy. Go to rtwoffer.
com. Or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Remember the title of the book, Why Holiness Matters? because holiness matters. Yeah.
We've come through a series of messages on the Ten Commandments. Ten, thou shalt not, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal. And on and on the list goes. There's something within us that doesn't like the Thou Shalt Nots. In fact, if you want someone to step on your lawn, You know, if this is your great goal in life, put up a sign: do not step on the lawn.
Because as people walk by, even people who hadn't even thought of stepping on your lawn. will now see that here's an opportunity. to do something that had escaped their attention earlier.
something within us that we don't like the law. And yet God says, Thou shalt not, thou shalt not, or thou shalt not. And of course, as we stop to think of it, every single commandment, though it's stated negatively, really has a positive aspect. Thou shalt not steal means positively thou shalt respect thy neighbor's property. Thou shalt not bear false witness means thou shalt speak the truth.
But undergirding all of the commandments is the basic heart. of the Bible, and that is the love. Back in the 1960s, when situation ethics was popular, Joseph Fletcher wrote a book entitled Situation Ethics. He said that it was okay to commit adultery, lie, steal, kill, whatever you have to do, just do it lovingly. Do it because you have a loving goal in mind.
Do it because you're going to help somebody, he taught. But actually, that definition of love is totally contrary to the New Testament. Because in the Bible, love is defined as keeping the law. For example, in Romans 13, Paul says, love is the fulfillment of the law. For this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, and then he lists other commandments and says, if there is any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
And we read in the epistles of John, in 3 John, it says that he that says he loves him, that is, loves Christ, ought to keep his commandments.
So, in the Bible, love and law are not in conflict. They are actually a unity. You show your love by your Obedience. That's what the New Testament teaches.
Now, as we talk about love, I want us to turn to the twelfth chapter of Mark, Mark chapter twelve, because we would like to define today three objects of love that we as believers ought to have. And the first, as found in the Gospel of Mark chapter 12, is love toward God. Love toward God. Mark chapter 12. Jesus is giving a sermon of all things on the resurrection when suddenly a scribe interrupts him because he's impressed with Christ.
It says in verse 28: One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognized that Christ had answered well, and said to him, What commandment is the foremost of all? And Jesus said, It is this: Hear, 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, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. Let's stop there for a moment. Jesus actually picks up The book of Deuteronomy. Remember in the sixth chapter, I believe it is, of Deuteronomy that you actually have this quote.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God. That is the first and the greatest commandment. The greatest commandment is not, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal. The first and the greatest commandment is, thou shalt love the Lord thy God. As I read Christ's response to the scribe.
Can't help but realize that Christ is saying we should love God with intensity. Notice how he just multiplies here all of the faculties that we might have. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. Biblically, the heart is really the center of man from which his attitudes and thoughts and everything flows. Love him with all your heart, with all your soul.
Very probably a reference to the emotions. With all your mind, that is with your thought processes, and love him with your might. Everything that you have. I read that text and I say, we ought to love God with passion. With zeal.
There ought to be something within us that responds when it comes to love for God. We ought to guard our love toward Him because He is special and He ought to consume all that we are with passion. As David said, as the deer pants towards the water brook, and you sometimes have been thirsty, just as that deer is just longing for the water, so he says, My soul pants after thee, O God. Where can I go to get enough of God? We should love with intensity, but also we should love with exclusiveness.
Notice what the text says: You shall love the Lord your God, and here's some words that you can underline: with all your heart, all your mind, and with all your mind, and all your strength, all, all, all, all, four times. God says that our love toward Him should be so exclusive that there is no competition, there is no rivalry, there is no sense in which we have a divided spirit, no rival worship within us. Exclusively, we love God. We love God.
Now, there are some Christians who hate God because of circumstances, usually because of the tragedies He's allowed in life, maybe their upbringing or whatever. Fortunately there are only few of those, but there are some. But I speak to those today who do not hate God. I speak to those who verbally love God. I speak to myself.
Do we love God with intensity and with passion? Or do we insult him because of our neglect? of him. Neglect. of God.
the silent hidden insult. Yeah. I read this text to scripture and I'm just overwhelmed. I mean, if you love somebody with all your mind and your heart and your soul and your strength, you're constantly thinking about them, you are planning with them, you have your focus of attention directed toward them, you are consumed by them. And Jesus said, that is the first commandment.
It is to be people who are God-intoxicated, people who are consumed. with the love of God. And the Bible says in 1 John chapter 4, verse 8. He that doesn't love God doesn't know God. For God is love.
Don't hurry over that text. What it is saying is that if we don't love God, we really do not know God.
Now human things must be known in order to be loved. For example, we tell a couple that went together, they maybe go together for two weeks, and we say, Do you know each other well enough to be married? And we may question it if they know each other for two weeks. We say to couples, do you know each other well enough? Because human things must be known in order to be loved.
But notice this: God must be loved in order to be known. The text says, if you don't love God, you don't know Him. Ah, to love God with intensity and passion. Why is this the greatest commandment? It's the greatest commandment because if you loved God the way Jesus mentions here, you would take care of the first four commandments, wouldn't you?
Thou shalt have no other gods before me, the text says.
Well, certainly a person who loved God with such passion wouldn't have a rival worship. The Bible says, Thou shalt not make any graven image or bow down to it. That certainly is disrespect for God, that infinite and perfect Spirit, in whom all things have their source, support, and end. And then it says, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. No one could treat God with such lightness if he loved him with such intensity.
And then it says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. That would be an easy command to keep if only we loved God instead of insulting him by our neglect. That's the first responsibility. The first object of love is love toward God. But then, secondly, I want you to notice that Jesus combines Deuteronomy with Leviticus.
It says in Leviticus 19:18, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And so that's the second object of love. Verse 31: The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these, said Jesus.
Now, you see, what God is saying is that once we love Him with intensity, it'll be very easy for us to love our neighbors and our friends. One day, Jesus encountered a young lawyer. You know, lawyers like to be sharp, and many of them I'm sure are, but the text says that a lawyer came to Jesus. And this young man wanted to sort of sharpen his wits on the razor of intellect. He wanted to just rival Christ with a question and answer period.
And so he said to Jesus, What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? asking the question that all the philosophers and the theologians are concerned about. And Jesus, instead of saying to him, Now, have you ever heard of the four spiritual laws? does something different. He says, Now, you know the law.
What do you read? And the young man quotes this text of scripture, the Shema from the book of Deuteronomy, and says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. And Jesus said, That's right. He says, Do it. And you'll live?
Jesus was saying, if you fulfill that commandment, you'll be saved, because obviously, if you're perfect, you don't have to worry about coming into judgment. And then the Bible says the young lawyer tried to justify himself and said, because he added the words, and your neighbor is yourself, he said, and who is my neighbor? He thought that maybe if he could define that word neighbor to refer to his friends, maybe he'd make it. But Jesus told an interesting story. He said, One day, there's a man going from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among thieves, and they stripped him of his raiment, and they robbed him, and they left him half dead.
Then Jesus said that one day As the man was lying there that afternoon, a Levite came. A Levite was somebody who was working in the temple. And so the Levite sees this wounded man, and he passes by on the other side because he's got to hurry to Jerusalem to preach a sermon on love to all the people.
So the Levite bypasses the man. And then a certain priest comes by, and the priest looks upon this man, and he doesn't want to be bothered either, because priests are busy counseling people, and they've got schedules to keep, and people are waiting for them.
So the priest passes by on the other side, and he leaves. Then Jesus said, A certain Samaritan came. And he chose the Samaritan because he was a half-breed. Despised by the Jews. And Jesus said, A Samaritan came and he had mercy on the man, and he took the wounded stranger and put him onto his own donkey and took him to an inn.
And then he said to the people, You keep him here until he's well, and if you spend anything more, I'll pay it. And he left some money. And then he left on his journey. And Jesus turned to the young lawyer and said, And who do you think was a neighbor to the person that fell among thieves? And this young man so despised Samaritans, he wouldn't even allow the word Samaritan to come out of his lips.
That's how much anger and animosity he had.
So he simply said, Well, the one who showed mercy on him. Why, that's interesting. You see, Jesus answers there the question of who is my neighbor? The answer is: My neighbor is anyone that needs my help. That's who my neighbor is.
It isn't just someone who shares the street with me. It is somebody that I can help. That is my neighbor. And the first and the greatest commandment is: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and thy neighbor as thyself. With the same kind of care and respect and concern that I have for myself, I have to share that with those that are in need and people that I can help, not just simply financially, but in any other way.
That's what the commandment means. And so, your neighbor is anyone that you can help, Jesus said. And when should I love my neighbor? That was also answered by the parable that Jesus gave. The answer is: I should love whenever I see a need.
Countless opportunities come before us every single day, and sometimes we do not reach out our hands because we do not want to be concerned with people who are a nuisance and a bother to us. when we have our own schedules to keep. You know, it's one thing to prepare a message intellectually, it's another thing to prepare your heart. And as I was thinking about this last night, I was agonizing in the presence of God, thinking of all the times that I bypassed opportunities to help people simply because I thought my schedule was more important than their need. The text of Scripture says that the greatest commandment is that you shall love those who have needs and love with imagination, because sometimes people don't throw out distress signals.
It's just that they are there and you know that they have a need, and it's your responsibility and my responsibility to love them as we do ourselves.
Now we've talked about love toward God. Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul. Love towards your neighbor, to love your neighbor as yourself. But now there's a third group of people that we should love, and for that, turn to the 13th chapter of John's Gospel. John chapter 13.
I want you to notice that Jesus here is in the upper room and he is sharing some interesting words with the disciples before he dies. Judas has just left. And then Jesus says that He's going to give them a new commandment.
Some people who saw the topic of my sermon in the bulletin, an eleventh commandment. asked with perhaps just a touch of sarcasm whether or not the pastor of Moody Church was qualified to add one to the ten.
Well, actually, I'm not doing that, it's our Lord that did it. Notice what he says. Verse 34, a new commandment I give you. You shall love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
Now, when Jesus was in Mark chapter 12, that was not a new commandment. Because the commandment that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul comes from the book of Deuteronomy, and the fact that you should love your neighbor as yourself comes from Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18. And so Jesus took two passages of Scripture from the Old Testament and he simply combined them together and said, These on these hang the law and the prophets. These are the great commandments. Those weren't new commandments.
But here Jesus said, A new commandment I give to you, an eleventh commandment. What is that commandment? What Jesus is saying is that you love one another, and He's speaking about Christians loving other Christians now. And notice the standard. This is new.
As I have loved. You.
So I have loved you. Uh We should just pause and let that sink in. What would that mean if the Church of Jesus Christ were as loving toward one another and toward Jesus, of course, as He was toward us? That would change everything. I've written a book entitled Why Holiness Matters, and this is the second to last day we're making this resource available for you.
I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy so that you can write this down. We want you to connect with us because we believe that this book will help you in your spiritual journey. Here is what you can do. Go to rtwoffer dot com. And of course, as indicated, for a gift of any amount, this book can be yours.
why holiness matters. That info again, rtwoffer.com or call us at one eight eight eight. two one eight ninety three thirty seven. One of the burdens I have on my heart is the fact that the Church of Jesus Christ is very fragmented.
Now sometimes separation And conflict is necessary. But I look around and I see oftentimes it is unnecessary. What we should be doing is pursuing holiness. Once again, that contact info, go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. It's time again for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question you may have about the Bible or the Christian life.
Having a troubled past can be a millstone around one's neck. Nancy from Ohio writes I've listened to your sermons on Breaking the Cycle. I was raised by a father who was an inwardly troubled person, and his scarred emotions spilled over into our family life. I was not one of the favourites in the family. and his actions towards me were very mentally and physically abusive.
My self esteem was below ground level, and my inner scars were deep and many. My mother was a true Christian. And it was probably because of her that my life was saved, and somehow I managed to make it to adulthood. I'm glad she never stopped loving me. My brother claims that even though God forgives our every failure, He is keeping track of them all, and when we get to Heaven our past sins will still have to be accounted for on Judgment Day.
If that's the case, I know I'll stand some day before my God hanging my head in shame. Because my sins were so many. Pastor Lutzer. What do you think? Nancy, thank you so much for writing, and I hope that you are listening, and I hope that you benefit from what I have to say.
When we receive Jesus Christ as our Saviour, as you have done, our sins are legally forgiven. Past, present and future is put away. In fact, the Bible says that God doesn't regard them any more. He doesn't throw them in our face any more. Your brother, however, still does have a point, because the Bible says in Second Corinthians chapter five, verse ten, that we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account for the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad.
So how do we reconcile that? There is a way that God is going to evaluate our lives. since our conversion. In order to know how to reward us. And there is no doubt that some people's reward because of faithfulness is going to be much greater than other people.
Who were unfaithful, no question about it. If we do see our sins in any way it will be represented to us as forgiven. Because God is not going to throw them in our face. Will we be embarrassed?
Well, the Bible does say that some will have shame at His coming. But keep in mind that throughout all of eternity together we as God's people will sing His praises and will sing His grace. Tell your brother that he himself has to be very careful. Because the more honest we are the more we realize how great our sin is. And if we do poorly at the judgment seat of Jesus Christ, all of us will.
But thank God for his mercy, Paul also says in 2 Corinthians that in that day all people shall have praise of God. You'll have praise of God, Nancy. And I will have praise of God. all because of God's undeserved mercy. Don't live in fear.
But live rather for Jesus Christ with joy knowing that your sins are forgiven, they are washed away, Your life is important. And the judgment seat will not determine whether you go to heaven or hell, It is a judgment to determine how How much God can reward you. I hope this helps. God bless you. Thank you, Nancy, for sharing your heart with us.
Thank you, Doctor Lutzer, for sharing yours. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer dot com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer, or call us at one, eight eight eight, two one eight, ninety three thirty seven. That's one eight eight eight two one eight ninety three thirty seven. You can write to us at Running2Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Life is hard when our labors are not fueled by the love of God.
That's why Jesus gave his great commandment to love God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves. This fulfills the law and pleases our Creator. Obeying this commandment means obeying all ten of the ones God wrote on tablets of stone to give to Moses so long ago.
Next time on Running to Win, Erwin Lutzer takes a final look at the 11th Commandment, noting that not a one of us lives up to its true meaning. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
