***THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT***
MATTHEW 22:37
Audio Link to listen to sermon: http://chirb.it/rI6mC3
INTRODUCTION:
1.) Man wonders about his primary duty to God.
A.) Jesus came into this world, that He might teach us an acceptable way to worship and serve.
B.) Once we have come to that place of an obedient saving faith in Christ, our Lord would encourage us to be motivated by His love.
C.) The distinguishing characteristic of the Christian religion is that it is built on and expresses itself in terms of love.
D.) The very heart of the Gospel is that God loves man and has revealed His love in the gift of Jesus Christ.
2.) The writer of the book of Ecclesiastes understood man’s duty in terms of obedience.
A.) “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecc. 12:13)
B.) The eighth Century BC prophet Micah defined mankind’s duty to God in a remarkable statement”
ba.) “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”-Micah 6:8
C.) It remained for Jesus to define the duty of man toward God in terms of love.
ca.) You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” -- Matthew 22:37
I. THERE ARE TWO MAIN REASONS WHY MEN DO NOT LOVE GOD.
1.) Men find it difficult to love God because they have not been taught that God is lovable and worthy of their devotion.
A.) They have been told dark and hard things about God which cause them to be frightened.
B.) Sadly, God has many times been misrepresented.
C.) From the beginning of human experience the Evil One has been misrepresenting the character of God.
ca.) That old serpent, the Devil, supplied Eve with a subtle suggestion that the Creator God was not a good God.
cb.) The devil gave Eve the idea that she and Adam would be deprived of life at its highest and best by the prohibition to eat from the Tree of knowledge of good and evil.
cc.) From that day to this, by every method at his command, Satan has implied that God is not worthy of man’s faith and trust.
2.) Many do not love God because they do not understand His commandments.
A.) When the nature and purpose of God are not understood as being motivated by love, it is only normal that man in his natural state will misjudge the commandments of God.
B.) It appears that his divine commandments are too restrictive on the one hand or too demanding on the other.
ba.) John the Apostle interpreted God’s commandments for us.
baa.) 1 John 5:3
II. GOD IS LOVABLE AND SHOULD BE LOVED.
-- 1 John 4:19
1.) In order to love genuinely we must recognize the object of love as being worthy of our adoration, devotion, and confidence.
A.) The properties of love are said to be two:
aa.) The desire to please.
aaa.) Part of what it means to love God with all our hearts, is that we have a desire to have a life that is pleasing to Him.
aab.)When a couple are in a loving relationship with each other it is only natural to want to please that special person in our life.
aab-1.) In a romantic relationship with another person each partner normally has a desire to please the other person.
aab-2.) It is only natural to bring that person gifts, to spend time with them, do acts of service for them, or whatever it takes to please that person, and show that we are thinking of them, and giving ourselves for their benefit.
aac.) It is no different in our relationship with God.
aac-1) If we are honest about loving God and wanting a relationship with Him, it is only natural that we will want to please God as well.
aac-2) We should find it as natural to love Almighty God in much the same was we would our spouses, or special others.
aac-2i.) We should naturally have a desire to do things for Him, to spend time with Him, to give Him gifts, and just to give ourselves for Him, and Him alone.
ab.) The desire to enjoy.
aba.) The other side of a relationship and expressing our love to God is just desiring to enjoy Him and our time with Him.
abb.) For any relationship to be successful it needs both parts: We need to give of ourselves to them, but we also need to take the time to enjoy them as well.
abb-1.) God wants us to not only give of ourselves to Him, he also longs for us to enjoy Him, and his company.
2.) God is lovable.
A.) He is our Creator.
aa.) The fact that God created us and is greater than us should in no ways make us to feel down about our relationship with Him.
ab.) In fact, it should make us to rejoice that He has made this entire world especially for us because of His love for us.
B.) He is our Redeemer.
ba.) When we picture God and His Son, Jesus the Christ as our Redeemer, it gives us a very special and powerful picture of the Love of God for us.
bb.) Somehow, the picture and realization of God loving us so much that His son was willing to lay down his life for us, is a powerful scene.
bc.)Part of our modern wedding ceremony portrays man as a defender, redeemer, and ultimately one who loves his bride so much that he will lay his life down for her welfare, just as Christ did the church.
bca.) We see this symbolized in the placement of the couple for marriage.
bcb.)The bride stands at the left side of the groom.
bcc.) The reason for this goes back to the knights, and days of chivalry.
bcd.) Most men are right-handed. In the marriage ceremony the bride is at the left hand of the groom so that he could have his right hand unhindered and free to grab his sword, and defend, and even die for his bride.
C.) He is our guide.
ca.) When Jesus was preparing to leave this earth he said he was going away, but would send another comforter or Counsellor to be with us.
cb.) The presence of God’s Holy Spirit with us today should be an encouragement to the Love of God, and how great is that love for us.
3.) God’s love is immeasurable.
A.) John 3:16
B.) When God could give his only son to die for us it says very strongly how unmeasurable God’s love is for us.
C.) Any of us can have a strong love for someone else. Yet if you were asked to give your son or daughter’s life for another person, I am very sure that most of us would find our love is measured.
ca. ) I suspect that if the test of our love for another human being was to sacrifice our child for them we would probably everyone fail that test.
cb.) Yet the love of God does not have that measure placed on it. God’s love for you is so great that He was willing to give even the best He had.
cba.) Certainly that should encourage us in our love back to God.
4.) God’s love is unfailing.
A.) Our love does fail.
B.) Even those of you in marriage relationships, and good marriage relationships have seen times that you have failed your partner, and your partner has failed you.
C.) Yet unlike us, God who is always perfect never fails.
ca.) Many times the Psalms speak of the unfailing nature of God’s love.
caa.) Psalm 31:16
cab.) Psalm 33:5,18,22
III. THE DEMONSTRATION OF OUR LOVE FOR GOD.
--Psalm 116:12
-- There are at least three ways we can demonstrate our love.
1.) Glad obedience.
A.) One of the greatest ways of loving God is to obey Him.
B.) Jesus said “If you love me you will keep my commandments.”
2.) Undivided loyalty.
A.) There is no greater love we can give to God than a heart that is undivided in our loyalty to Him.
B.) Eliza Hewett had written the hymn: Give Me Thy Heart
ba.) Here are a couple of the verses of this Hymn: “Give Me thy heart,” says the Father above— No gift so precious to Him as our love;Softly He whispers wherever thou art, “Gratefully trust Me and give Me thy heart.” “Give Me thy heart,” says the Spirit divine; “All that thou hast to My keeping resign; Grace more abounding is Mine to impart—Make full surrender and give Me thy heart.”
3.) Unselfish service.
A.) Just giving ourselves freely in service to God can be such a rewarding experience, and a powerful way of giving our love to God.
IV. THE QUALITY OF OUR LOVE FOR GOD.
1.) Our love should be sincere.
A.) Truly, God wants our love, but he wants it to be sincere. He wants us to be genuine in offering it to Him.
2.) Our love should be supreme over all other love.
A.) God wants first place in your heart.
B.) There is to be nobody including your spouse who has a place as special in your heart as what belongs to God.
C.) Many will get this order backwards, but if God gets the first place that person will be happier with the love you give them when they are second place than they will be if you put them first, but miss the point of life.
3.) Our love should be firm and steadfast.
A.) It is easy to waver in our love as our emotions reach highs and lows.
B.) Those emotional changes are natural in each of us, but we still need to remain firm and steadfast in our love for God.
ba.) Ancient Israel, and many Christians today have missed this.
bb.) When the bad times come there is a tendency to draw near to God. When the good times come it is easy for our faith to weaken.
bc.) God wants us there all the time.
V. THE RESULTS OF SUPREME LOVE FOR GOD.
1.) It will elevate us to the highest possible manhood and womanhood.
A.) When God has the first place in our lives we will become better workers, husbands, and wives, better friends, neighbours, citizens, parents, and children than if He does not have first place.
2.) It will enrich our lives beyond our fondest dreams.
A.) When God wants our supreme love it is not that he is so terrible, but that He knows us better than we know ourselves.
B.) He knows that the more we give ourselves in complete love to him, the greater will be the joy we will receive back in life.
3.) It will cause others to come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour.
A.) Ultimately, when the world around us see a true, genuine, and complete love for God in us, God will become more attractive to them that what he would otherwise be.
CONCLUSION:
1.) When the love of God for us is perfectly understood, a response of love from us will be forthcoming.
2.) We can best discover His love by a visit to Calvary where “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.”
3.) It was there that God “made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
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[Note 37.1% of this sermon (Main Outline points, Introduction and all of the first point) are from the 1988 Zondervan Pastor’s Annual, ]
