Love The Word, Learn The Word, Live The Word

LOVE THE WORD, LEARN THE WORD, LIVE THE WORD

TEXT: Matthew 22:36-40

Introduction:

Jesus answered this question with finality. He was referring back to Deuteronomy 6:4-5, where Moses reminded the Israelites of what God had said – but more than just, “said,” He gave a “Commandment,” that we, His creatures, are to love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. God gives no reason for this order. He simply states it as something that MUST be done. This is not a “suggestion,” or a good idea to observe, it is an order! The problem is, is that it CAN NOT BE DONE. No human, unaided by the Holy Spirit, can love God at all, let alone with everything that is in us.

In Romans 10, the Apostle Paul tells us how God, who requires that we love Him, gives the method by which we can obey His command. In verse nine Paul makes a statement, that if anyone confesses with their mouth the Lord Jesus and believes in their heart that He was resurrected from the dead, SHALL BE SAVED, because with the heart, one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. In verse thirteen he makes another statement, putting a finer point on it, that if anyone is able in faith to call on the name of the Lord, they SHALL BE SAVED! Then, in verses 14-16 Paul asks a series of questions: 1) how can a person call on a God in whom they have not believed? 2) and how can they believe in a God they have not heard of? 3) and how can they hear of this God without a “preacher? The word, “preacher” is from the Greek, “kay-roos'-so,” and means, “to publish; to proclaim after the manner of a herald, always with…an authority which must be listened to and obeyed.” Paul then asks, 4) How can these preachers publish and proclaim this God unless God sends them?

And what is God’s way of accomplishing the goal He intends when He sends His preachers – His proclaimers of truth? “So, then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). John MacArthur comments on this section of scripture and says, “Paul’s main point in this series of rhetorical questions is that a clear presentation of the gospel message must precede true saving faith. True faith always has content—the revealed Word of God. Salvation comes to those who hear and believe the facts of the gospel.”

If people are to be saved, it is absolutely essential that they hear the Bible, the Word of God, because that is the method God has ordained by which we can learn about the God we are commanded to love, and isn’t it wonderful that the Word of God, applied by the Holy Spirit to our soul, will give us the faith we need to believe in Him? The Bible should be studied like no other book, because through it, God has chosen to reveal Himself.

We must realize that when we are listening to or reading or studying the Bible, we have come into God’s actual presence, and God is speaking His mind directly to us. Jesus Christ is the Word, (John 1:1), and the Word of God reveals Him. After His resurrection, we’re told of His encounter with the two men on the road to Emmaus. We read, "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself" (Lk. 24:27). He told the scribes and Pharisees who condemned Him for healing a man on the Sabbath, and who doubted His deity, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me” (John 5:39).

1) we are commanded to love the Lord; 2) we can only do this by learning about the Lord in the book He has chosen to present Himself: in the Bible; 3) if we follow these steps, we will live the Word of God, so we can present Him to a lost and dying world, that men and women, girls and boys, rich and poor, the high and the low, from every race and nation, can be saved!

I. LOVE THE WORD OF GOD

A. Loving the God of the Word through the Word of God is the chief of all mankind’s duties. Jehovah simply steps forth before His subjects – those whom He governs and issues His command” Love Me with all your heart.”

B. This is not an option - it is a command. His Word as revealed in the Bible is so important that Jesus said of it, "Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4).