LOVING AND SERVING GOD 2
MATTHEW 22:36-40
Introduction:
This is the continuation of that first lesson on Loving and Serving God. In the first lesson we looked at Experiencing God’s love in salvation and how He loved us first. Our love for Him is based on the fact that He loved us first.
Now we look at Responding to God’s love. Here we see what the Lord expects from His children.
II. WE ARE TO RESPOND TO GOD’S LOVE BY LOVING HIM.
Deuteronomy 6:4-7, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
A. Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine HEART, Deuteronomy 10:12, “And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,”
1. The heart is the “home of the personal life,” and hence a man is designated, according to his heart…
a. Wise, 1 Kings 3:12, “Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.”
b. Pure, Psalm 24:4, “He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”
c. Upright and righteous, Psalm 11:2, “For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.”
d. Pious and good, Luke 8:15, “But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.”
2. The heart is also the seat of the conscience, Romans 2:15, “Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)”
a. It is naturally wicked, Genesis 8:21, “And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.”
b. It contaminates the whole life and character, Matthew 12:34, “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”
c. Therefore the heart must be changed, regenerated, Ezekiel 36:26, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”
B. Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy SOUL [ the seat of will and purpose ], Philippians 1:27, “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;”
1. Consider Christ in this regard, Hebrews 12:3, “For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”
2. Consider the early Christians, Acts 4:32, “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.”
C. Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy MIND [the mind as a faculty of understanding, feeling, desiring], 2 Kings 23:25, “And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.”
1. The faculty of knowing with an evil significance, Ephesians 2:3, “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”
2. The faculty of sentiment, or disposition…
a. In an evil sense, or imagination, Colossians 1:21, “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled”
b. In a good sense, 2 Peter 3:1, “This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:”