The Bottom Line of the Bible - Life of Christ Part 77

I want to start this morning by asking you a series of questions, and they all start with the little phrase, what's the greatest?

And you can kind of give me your ideas of what you think, okay? What's the greatest vacation spot in the world? Hawaii? Colorado? Vermont?

Anywhere in the Caribbean? How's that sound? Yeah.

Okay. What's the greatest classic sports car of all time? How about a 63 Corvette? That's pretty close, huh? Yeah, anybody own a 63 Corvette?

So I can come over and visit? Alright, great. Well, what's the greatest sports record of all time? Greatest sports record of all time? Hank Aaron, 755 home runs, Will Chamberlain, 100 points in a game in the NBA. Mark Spitz, 7 gold medals in an Olympics. How about Byron Nelson, 1945, 11 straight PGA Tour victories.

Closest person that's ever come to him is 4 in a row, and that was in 1952. I don't think that'll ever be broken. Well, alright, what's the greatest place to shop for ladies fashion? Based on my upbringing, you know, I would say Kmart, but that's probably wrong. I think what this points out is when you start taking some of these subjects and going, what's the greatest? Golly, it's pretty hard to get people to agree, isn't it? In the passage that we have in the Bible today, some folks come to Jesus and ask him a question that starts with, what's the greatest? And their question is, what's the greatest commandment in the Bible? And yet when he gave the answer, everybody sat around and went, well, yeah, that makes sense. I guess that's right.

So it must have been a pretty incredible answer, huh? We want to look at that and then ask the really important question, so what difference does that make for me? And so I want you to take a Bible and let's open it together to Matthew chapter 22. And if you didn't bring a copy of the Bible, we're just really glad you came. And we want you to borrow our copy of the Bible, which you'll find on the back of the seat in front of you, and we're on page 699 of our copy of the Bible, or Matthew chapter 22 in your copy. Now I want us to begin at verse 34, so let's look together.

Verse 34, Matthew chapter 22. It says that when the Pharisees heard that the Sadducees, the Bible literally says that Jesus had gagged them, or Jesus had muzzled the Sadducees. Now you've got to understand the Pharisees and the Sadducees were two religious parties in ancient Israel, and they got along kind of like the Democrats and the Republicans, you understand? And so when the Sadducees were embarrassed and humiliated and outflanked by Jesus, the Pharisees said, hooray!

This is great! Now why they then thought they were going to do any better and came to ask a question themselves, you got me. But they did. And so they come to Jesus and they ask Him a question as well. And here's their question, verse 35, one of them, an expert in the law, tested Jesus with this question, Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law? Now you have to understand that the Pharisees had gone through and boiled the Bible down to 613 commandments. You say, that's boiling it down?

Well, yeah. And then they ranked those commandments internally between weighty, they called them, and light, or the big hitters and the little hitters. And so you might say, well, Lon, what were a couple of the big hitters that might have been a candidate for the greatest commandment in the Bible? Well, maybe the law about circumcision because, you know, you only became a member of the nation of Israel through circumcision. Maybe the law of the Sabbath. I mean, if you read the New Testament, you know how these guys felt about the Sabbath. Maybe the laws of sacrifice at the temple because that's where you came to worship God.

Those are some candidates. But they said, Jesus, let's see if we can entrap you. Let's see if we can get you to trip on your own words. What is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus answers the question and says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. It comes from Deuteronomy chapter 6. The passage in Deuteronomy 6 starts off by saying, Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad, Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God.

He is one Lord. And then it says, And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. Commentators argue they spend pages after pages after pages about where the heart is, where the mind is, where the soul is, where the lines are drawn, how you delineate it. Do you think that's really the point?

I don't. I think what Jesus is saying is you're to love me with your whole heart, your whole mind, your whole strength, the whole enchilada. Don't you think that's the point?

What difference does it make where the lines are? The point is I want you to love me with the whole nine yards of what you are. That's the point. Kind of goes along with the first of the Ten Commandments. It says the basic same thing.

Listen to it. The basic Ten Commandments starts off and says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other God before or beside or except for me. You shall not make any idol. You shall not worship or fall down or bow down to them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, and when it comes to your love, your devotion, and your loyalty, I don't want to share you with anybody.

I want no rivals for your love. I had a guy in my office not too long ago. He and his wife were having some problems, and the reason they were having some problems is because he had finally confessed to her, she had actually caught him, that he had had a number of relationships with other gals down through the years. They'd been married for a number of years, and he'd have one gal in Texas and another gal here, and he would stop off to see them on business trips and take them to dinner and write them letters, and they'd have long phone conversations and take long walks, and there was a number of these women, and he said to me when he was telling me his story in the office, he said, Butlon, he said, I never had sex with any of them, and I turned to his wife and I said to her, I said, is that the point? Now ladies, is that the point?

What would you say? Is that the point that he never had sex with any of them? No, that's not the point. The point is he had another woman, what, besides his wife. And I said to him, you know what, buddy, your wife could probably deal with it easier if you did have sex with somebody, and it was a one-night fling, she could write it off as just passion, libido, but the fact that you had in some cases for two or three years a running relationship with another woman where you rode her, took her to dinner, took her for long walks, stopped off to see her on business trips, that's worse, that's worse, because that means there was another woman that you were intimate with beside your wife. See, when you marry somebody, that's jealous love. You have the right when you marry somebody to demand and expect 100% fidelity. Guys and gals, if you're not ready to grant your partner 100% fidelity, I tell people you're not ready to get married. That's what marrying love is all about. It's a jealous love. And God says, I am a jealous God, and when it comes to my love for you and your love for me, I want no rivals, I want 100% fidelity, and I don't want anybody else in that role.

I don't want to have to compete with anybody or anything. I don't want 51% of the stock in your life, I want it all, God says. I don't want to be the chairman of your board, I want to be the one and only board member. And I said to an admiral that I led to Christ not too long ago, you understand what you're doing, don't you? When you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, your transfer and your flag, buddy, it's not on your ship anymore. You understand that? Well, he understood that.

You obviously don't. But he understood Navy talk, and he got that. Okay, well, so much for that. Now, the point is, Jesus said, this is a vertical commandment, and this is the first and greatest commandment in the Bible. But then he didn't stop there, he went on and he said, but here's another one that's just like it, and the second one is like it, you shall love your neighbor, your fellow person, your fellow man, as yourself. Another exact quote from the Old Testament, Leviticus chapter 19. And this quote, it really says, you know, every one of us is wired automatically for self-preservation.

Unless you're mentally ill, nobody ever intentionally does anything to harm themselves, you in any situation in life, and I guarantee you, what you'll do is you'll look around, figure out what is the most beneficial thing that can happen for you, and that's exactly what you'll set out to accomplish. That's the way we all are. That's the way God wired us.

It's the way we're born. Now, the Bible doesn't condemn that, but what God says is, you know that you're that way, how you're always looking out for yourself and what benefits you. Well, the second greatest commandment is that we should be as careful about doing what is beneficial for other people as we are about wanting to always do what's beneficial for ourselves. It's just another way of saying the golden rule, Matthew chapter 7. Jesus said, so in everything do to others what you would want them to do to you. Remember the old 60's song, walk a mile in my shoes? Well, that's really what Jesus is telling us to do.

Before you do something, put yourself in somebody else's shoes and see what it would feel like. We play a little game around my house called put yourself in the other person's place. You say, is that a fun game? No, I hate the game. We play it around the table with my children. You say, well, how come you play it if you hate it? Because they haven't figured it out yet. As soon as they get it right, we'll stop playing it. I don't like the game.

Here's how it goes. We say to them, you know, when you say or do something stupid, did you want to be laughed at and made fun of? No. Well, then why did you do it to your friend at school?

I don't know. That's why we keep playing the game. When you blow a ball on the ball field, when you mess up a play and the team loses the game, do you want to come back into the dugout and have everybody go, I can't believe you did that.

You caused us the game. What's wrong with you? Is that the way you want to be treated? No. Well, then why did you do that to your friend on the ball field? I don't know. That's why we keep playing the game. When you're in a group setting and you took a friend and they don't know anybody, and then you run off, would you want them to run off with all their old buddies and leave you standing in the corner all by yourself at the high school group and they don't know anybody in there? No. Why did you do it to them?

I don't know. Gosh, I wish they'd figured this game out. You know, this is a good game for big people too, isn't it?

It's a good game for big people. And this is what Jesus is saying, that if we really treat other people the way we would want to be treated in that situation, all the rest of the Bible, all the commandments of the Bible wouldn't even be needed. Because if you love your neighbor like that, you won't lie, you won't cheat, you won't steal, you won't take their wife, you won't gossip against them. All the things the Bible does that fleshes that out, you won't do it anyway. Jesus said that sums it all up. And so Jesus says, verse 40, all the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.

Everything else in the Bible can be placed under one of these two commandments, Jesus said. Now what's Jesus done here? Friends, he's given us the cliff notes version of the Old Testament.

You understand what he's done? He's taken it and put it in the trash compactor, compacted it down, and when it spits it out the bottom, all you've got, the bare essentials, are one vertical component, love God supremely, and one horizontal component, love your fellow man the way you'd love yourself. And Jesus says, this is the bottom line of the Bible.

This is it. Now what's really interesting is that Jesus said in Luke chapter 10, and you don't need to turn there, but listen to this, there was a rich young man who came to see Jesus one day and asked him a question. Here's what he said. He said, Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said, well, you know the law, how do you read it? He said, well, the way I read it is I need to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love my neighbor as myself, and Jesus said, you've answered correctly, do this and you'll live. You want to earn your way to heaven? You want to merit eternal life? Jesus said, I'll tell you how to do it.

Love God supremely, love your neighbor as yourself, do it perfectly, you can work your way to heaven. That's important to know, because in a moment we're going to take a test to see how we're doing on all this. That's the end of the passage, and you know it leads us to a question. What's the question?

So what? Now here at McLean, we talk a lot about the horizontal stuff. We talk about forgiveness, we talk about personal ethics, we talk about having a serving spirit to others, we talk about people being number one, we talk about humility, we talk about that a lot. But you know, we don't talk about the strict vertical component all that much, and this is a great opportunity to do it.

So I'm not, listen, you could preach a series of messages on either one of these commands, but I just want to focus in this morning on the vertical command, and you show love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. I want to answer the question, Lon, how can I tell how well I'm doing on that? How can I tell where I stand? How can I tell kind of if I'm A, B, C, D, or F on that? Well, I'm going to give you a little test. Okay, I want everybody to take this test. We know you don't have to tell anybody what you made, but I've got six indicators of how you can tell whether or not you love God, and I want you to grade yourself one to ten. If you give yourself a one, it means I'd rather have a tooth pulled, okay? If you give yourself a ten, it means, Lon, I'm so good at this that I ought to be up there speaking instead of you. So that's how you grade yourself now.

Ready? One to ten, here we go. You don't have to tell anybody your score, but here's six ways you can evaluate how much you really love God. Number one, when you really love somebody, number one, you want to be with them. You yearn to be with them. Isn't that true? How many of you were in love in high school, thought you were in love in high school?

Let's try that. What's wrong with the rest of you people? Everybody thinks they're in love in high school. Didn't you go to high school?

What's wrong with your memory? Everybody thinks they're in love in high school. I thought I was in love with this girl in high school, and I remember one time I came home from school, I had the worst stomachache I've ever had in my life. I laid on my bed, I pulled my knees up under my chin, and I just groaned for about three hours.

You ever had one like that? And, man, I was in agony, but I had a date at seven o'clock. And at seven o'clock, with the girl that I loved, I thought, I got out of the bed, I dressed, bent over. I'll never forget, I put my pants on like this, I put my shirt on like this. And my mother came in the room and she said, are you nuts? Are you crazy?

You can't even stand up. You can see her tomorrow. You don't have to see her tonight. Go to bed.

No way. Because why? I'm in love! And I got to see her when?

You got it. And so I drove a car, like this, and I went to see her. Because when you're in love, you really want to be with that person, right? Now, you can evaluate, you can tell how much you love God by how much you want to be with Him. If you really love Him, you're going to want to be with Him. That's the way love works. How much time you set aside for prayer, how much time you set aside for meditation, just to be alone with God and just spend time with God. If you really love God, there will be a major component of your life that's dedicated to just being with Him. Grade yourself one to ten.

How do you do on that? Number two, if you really love somebody, you want to get to know them better. You want to build a relationship with them. You want to explore who they are. You want to learn what makes them tick. That's why if you see young couples in love, they take long walks, they sit out by the water, they talk, they look in each other's eyes for hours at a time.

Why? Because they're in love and they're trying to figure out what makes this person tick. And friends, when it comes to God, if you really love God, you're going to want to learn who God is. You're going to want to understand God. You're going to want to know God.

And since God explains who He is in the Word of God, you're going to be spending time in the Word of God, not reading it for theology, but reading it to find out who is this God that I love? What makes Him tick? What are His values? What is He like?

How do you do on that? Grade yourself one to ten. Number three, if you really love somebody, you want to please them. Isn't that true? You want to make them happy. If you really love somebody, you want to make them happy. Men, isn't it true if you love a woman that you want to find out what her favorite restaurant is so when you take her out, you know where to take her? You want to find out what her favorite vacation spot is so when it's time to go on vacation, you can go somewhere she really wants to go. You want to find out what kind of flowers she likes the most so when it's time to bring her flowers, you bring her the one she likes. I hope you bring your wife flowers. You want to find out what her favorite activity is so if you got Saturday afternoon free, you know where she'd like to go and enjoy it.

You'd like to find out what her priorities are for the home and for the children so when there's a little extra money, you know how she wants to spend it so you can make her happy. Isn't it true if you love a woman that you try to remember her birthday, the anniversary, Mother's Day and Valentine's Day, the day of your first date, the day you got engaged, the day her cat had kittens and all kinds of stuff like that. Why do we put ourselves through that agony? Because we love this woman and that makes her happy.

That's why? Listen, Jesus told us in the Bible how to make God happy. He said, if you love me, John 14, you will obey what I tell you. You will do my commandments. And if we really love God, part of that's going to mean we want to please God. And if we want to please God, Jesus said it's easy to do. We have to have a commitment and a dedication to doing what Jesus told us in every situation in life. Doesn't matter what you feel like.

Doesn't matter what's best for you. Doesn't matter what the world tells you to do. What does God say? Let's make Him happy because I love Him. I love Him. How do you do on that one? Grade yourself one to ten. Number four, if you really love somebody, isn't it true that you're loyal to them?

If you really love somebody, you're prepared to put yourself on the line for them. I was watching on television. I caught the end of it about this pediatric heart transplant.

Did any of you see that on television this week? And I was sitting down. I was just sitting down to eat like a little mushy apple. And I sit down and turn it on. I got this guy's chest cracked open and they're putting a new heart in him. And the thing's kind of quivering and beating.

And all of a sudden that apple didn't look quite so good as it did when I first sat down. It's kind of like, nah, I don't think so. But anyway, it was real interesting.

Kid about eight, nine years old. Then they went on at the end of the program to interview his mother. And his mother had tears rolling down her face and she said this. She said, if they could have done it, I would have said take my heart out of my body, take this heart and put it in my boy and you wouldn't even be talking to me here today.

I'd be dead and in my grave because my heart would be in my son's body. Now do you believe that woman meant that? Man, I do. I think she meant it a hundred percent. Why would she be willing to take her heart out of her body and put it in her son?

You tell me, because she what? She loves him. That's right, she loves him. And when you love somebody, you're going to be prepared to put yourself on the line for that person. The apostle Paul said, Acts 21, I am prepared not only to be in prison, but to die for the name of Jesus Christ. That's because he loved him. And friends, you can tell how much you love God by how you react when you're given a chance to stand up and be counted for him.

In the office, at the workplace, in your community, in your family, when given the chance to stand up and be counted, how do you do? Because if you love somebody, you're not going to care what anybody thinks, you're going to stand up and be counted for. Grade yourself one to ten.

Number five, I got to hurry. If you really love somebody, you're anxious to tell other people about them. If you ever been around somebody that's in love, around a girl that's in love, it's like, oh, Billy, I love him so much. He's so fabulous. And no matter what subject you start on, you end up on Billy.

You ever been in that kind of a conversation? You can start with nuclear fission, and by the time the discussion's over, you're back on Billy again. Oh, Billy, he's so great.

If he built a reactor, it would be perfect. And guys are just as bad. They're like, Susie, I love Susie, Susie, my woman, I love her. Guys aren't quite as verbally adept at this, but the same thing is there.

I love her, my woman. And no matter where you start, that's where they come back to. Why do they do this? I mean, you find yourself saying, would you shut up about Billy and Susie? I'm so sick about hearing about this.

Would you shut up? Well, but they're what? They're in love. And when you're in love, you want to talk about the person you're in love with. Well, David said, Psalm 34, I will extol the Lord at all times. His praise will always be on my lips. He wasn't obnoxious or offensive. He just said, I love God, and I love talking about him, and anybody that will listen, I'll talk about him.

How do you do on that? Grade yourself one to ten. Last of all, if you really love somebody, that person will become the central focus of your life. I look at those people in Oklahoma, and I'll tell you, my heart breaks for those people, because you think about losing a fiancé, losing a husband, losing a wife, losing all your children in a building like that. Can you imagine how that will change the priorities of life for those people? You say you think it will?

Of course it will. If you lost your wife, your husband, your fiancé, all your children in some horrible automobile accident, and suddenly they were all wiped out in an instant, would that change the way you live your daily life? Would it change the way you spend your time? Would it change the way you spend your money? Would it change your weekly schedule?

Well, if you love them, it sure will, because they were the central focus of your life if you loved them. And friends, I wonder for us as Christians, if God were suddenly yanked out of our lives, would it really make that much change in our weekly schedule? If God were suddenly yanked out of our lives and didn't exist in our life, would it make that much difference in how we spend our time, money, and energy? If he's the central focus of our life, it should. Grade yourself.

If God were yanked out of your life, how much difference would it make, 1 to 10? Now let's total it. Ready?

Here we go. How many people got 60? Got a perfect score. Okay. How many people got 55? 50.

45? Okay. Say, Lon, thanks. This is great, man. I really appreciate this.

You bring me here to bum me out, depress me, ruin my whole weekend. Really appreciate this. God bless you. Are you crazy? No, no, no. No, no, no. Listen, I think there's something actually kind of exciting in all this. You say what? In the fact that I failed this test dismally, pathetically, that's exciting?

Yeah, it is. Because what's really exciting is that even though you and I did so pathetic on the test, Jesus Christ, if he were given the same test for you, would score 60 every time. I think that's pretty exciting. I like it that the Bible says, 1 John 4, This is love, not that we love God. This is love, not that we got a 60 or a 55 on the test. This is love, not that our performance was so good that we deserve God's love. This is love, not that we love God the way we should, but what? That God loves us.

That's exciting. The unconditional love of God, that God loved us and sent his son to die on the cross and pay for our sin. John Newton, the great hymn writer who wrote Amazing Grace said, The purpose of God in showing us the evil of our hearts is to make us prize more highly the unconditional love of God. And friends, the more God shows us who and what we are, the more we take a test like this and the worse we do, and yet we realize that God would score 60 every time in terms of his love for us, the more it makes us appreciate the deep love of God for you and me, that it's unconditional.

It's not performance-based, not two more things and I'm done. Number one, let me remind you that if you're here and you're planning to work your way to heaven, if you didn't score a 60 on the first and greatest commandment in the Bible, then before Jesus even says, Gentlemen, start your engines, you're out the race. This is the first and greatest commandment in the Bible. And Jesus said, if you're going to work your way to heaven, you got to do it. If you didn't score a 60, uh-oh, we got trouble.

We got big trouble. And that means you need plan B. Plan B is a plan not based on human performance but based on the mercy of God. None of us can perform up to this standard.

It's impossible. No human being who's honest can ever score a 60 on this test or even a 55. That's why the Bible says, not by works of righteousness, which we have done because we can't do them, but by God's own mercy shown on the cross by dying for our sins, He saved us. And if you're here this morning and you're planning to work your way to heaven and you took this test and didn't make a 60, I got a piece of advice for you. Give it up while you still got time.

Go to plan B. Abandoned performance is the way you plan to get there and embrace the mercy of God that God showed on the cross that's over and above your performance. And one last thing and we're done, and that is, Lon, how am I going to do better on this test? If you give me this test next year, how am I going to do better? How can I grow in my love for God? I'd like to improve my score.

How can you do it? Simple piece of advice. Dedicate yourself to getting to know God better. You know, there's a little saying called familiarity breeds contempt. Now, I never knew what that meant until I got married.

Understand what I'm saying? I don't think my wife knew what that meant until she got married. What that means is when you marry and live intimately with another sinful human being and find out what they're really made of, it's very easy to start despising them when you begin seeing that they're not a perfect being, right?

Everybody who's married knows what that phrase means. And yet I want to tell you, when it comes to God, that's not true. Familiarity does not breed contempt when it comes to God, but familiarity breeds love because God is a perfect being. God is a loving being. He's love personified. And the more we get to know Him, the more we get to understand Him, the more we get to appreciate who and what He is, the more you'll fall in love with Him. I promise you familiarity will breed love. The best way I can tell you to fall more in love with God is to get to know who He is. There's no way you can help but fall in love with Him. Where do you get to know Him? Right here. This is where you get to know Him.

There's no place else. You're not going to get to know Him in Newsweek because He doesn't read it and they don't feature Him. He's not going to get to know Him in Time magazine because He doesn't read it and they don't feature Him.

The Washington Post, ha! I'm not even going to dignify it by responding. If you want to get to know who God is, you've got to go to where God tells you who He is and that's right here. And if you want to fall more in love with God, you spend time in this book reading it, not for theology, but to get to know God, the living God. And I promise you, the more you get to know who God is, the more you'll find yourself loving Him.

It'll work. Jesus said, love the Lord your God, all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the reason I wanted us to talk about this today is not to condemn us, not to make us feel bad, but to motivate us to want to go deeper in our vertical relationship, in our love relationship with Almighty God. God will let you go as deep as you want to go. God would be thrilled to have you go deeper than you are now. All you've got to do is commit saying, God, show me who you are so I can fall in love with you more. And I hope you'll do that.

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I'm so grateful for the Word of God that makes it clear to us what the bottom line actually is. To love you with our heart, our soul, our mind, our strength, the whole enchilada, and to treat our fellow man the way we'd want to be treated.

Lord, you know, as human beings, we are hopelessly unable to score 60 on these tests, even 50, even 40. We're sinful, selfish human beings. And I'm so grateful, Lord, that your love for us is not based on our love for you. I'm so grateful that your acceptance of us is not based on our acceptance of other people and in treating them right. Thank you that you have a love for us and an acceptance for us that is unconditional. And I pray every one of us here would make that our hope, our assurance of both eternity and life here on this earth, the unconditional love of God. But in the meantime, Lord, we want to do better.

We want to improve. Help us to go deeper in our understanding and our appreciation of you, our knowledge of you from the Word of God, so our love for you might grow and might deepen. Thank you that this is love, not that we loved you, not that we scored 60, but that you love us. We're grateful for that, Lord. Thank you for loving us that way. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.