As always, it's a great joy to be able to minister the word of God to you. And we continue in our verse by verse examination of Mark's gospel, Mark chapter 12, verses 28 through 34 under the heading "God's Foremost Commandments," And this will probably take a few Sundays to really examine closely and apply. Let me read the text to you, Mark 12 beginning in verse 28, "One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, 'What commandment is the foremost of all?' Jesus answered, 'The foremost is, "HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH AALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIMD, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' The second is this, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." , There is no other commandment greater than these.' The scribe said to Him, 'Right Teacher; you have truly stated that HE IS ONE, AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE BESIDES HIM; AND TO LOVE HIM WITH ALL THE HEART AND WITH ALL THE UNDERSTANDING AAND WITH ALL THE STRENGTH, AND TO LOVE ONE'S NEIGHBOR AS HIMSELF, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.' When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, 'You are not far from the kingdom of God. 'After that, no one would venture to ask him any more questions."

Wicked people, especially those in power, can accurately be described as narcissistic control freaks. They absolutely cannot tolerate any dissent. And we see this certainly in progressive liberalism of the Democratic Party, their weaponization of every governmental department, both state and federal. They seek to control everything with their nefarious deceptions, and they propagate those deceptions through the media, through public schools, Hollywood entertainers, athletes. And worse yet, they criminalize righteousness, and legalize unrighteousness. And, of course, it's all part of God's judgment on America. God has given our country over to a worthless mind to pursue its iniquities and experience the consequences of them. And of course, these satanic schemes are not new to our country. And they also exist all around the world. But these things have existed countless times in every generation with every nation down through redemptive history. But you must understand that the religious leaders of apostate Judaism in the first century, were equally as immoral and corrupt as our political authorities are today in America; they absolutely hated the gospel message that Jesus preached. Moreover, they hated the fact that he was becoming far more popular than them. They were jealous. They were fearful of losing power, and prestige. Furthermore, they despised him because he exposed their hypocrisy and their ignorance of Scripture. So, they conspired together to defeat him.

You will remember earlier when Jesus healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath, and he publicly embarrassed the Pharisees. In Mark three verse six, we read, "The Pharisees went out, immediately began, conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him." And in our text this morning, we see them, shall we say, huddling together to run another play? If I can use a football analogy. I mean, it's fourth and long and time is running out here. So, they've got to do something. In fact, Matthew gives us this in his account. Chapter 22, verse 34, "But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing Him, 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?'"

Now, the historical context here; Jesus is about roughly two days from the cross. First, the Pharisees and the Herodians came to him to try to discredit him in the eyes of the people by asking him if it was lawful to pay the poll tax to Caesar. And then after the Pharisees and the Herodians, got finished then Sadducees come together with a baited question concerning the resurrection. Again, trying to make him look stupid. And now a scribe who was a scholar, a lawyer of the Law of Moses of the Old Testament of the rabbinical traditions--a scribe steps forward from the Sanhedrin and tries to take a stab at Jesus. And over the next few weeks, we're going to examine what happened here, under three headings, number one, we are going to look at the baited question. Number two, the indicting response. And then number three, the practical implications.

Let me give you a little hint about this. What does it really mean to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength? What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? Who is your neighbor? Does this include your enemies? How are we to love our enemies? For example, how do we love a self-loathing, sociopathic transgender, who comes in to a Christian school and starts killing children? How do you love that person? How do you love a demonic gangbanger that breaks into your home and threatens to rape your wife and your daughters? And kill your family? Are we to turn the other cheek? How do you love a terrorist? How do you love corrupt politicians that are trying to enslave us under a totalitarian Marxism? Does loving your enemies mean that you cannot protect your family? Does it allow us to be armed? To defend ourselves? If we are to love our enemies, why would God require Israel to exterminate the Canaanites? What about the imprecatory Psalms? Where David calls down judgment on evil people? That doesn't sound too loving. For example, why would David say in Psalm 139, beginning in verse 21, "Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with the utmost hatred; they have become my enemies." How do we understand those passages in Scripture? Where God states that he hates and abhors sinners? Seems to be a contradiction here. Why would Jesus use a whip and run money changers out of the temple precincts? I mean, how do we balance righteous indignation with loving our enemies? Well, these are the kinds of things that we need to understand. And many of them are addressed in this text as well as many other that help us understand what Jesus is saying.

Now let's look closely at the text. But remember now, the Sanhedrin believed that Jesus was a heretic, that he was a satanically empowered person whose message was contrary to the law of Moses. That's how they saw him. So they wanted to ask him a question that would put him at odds with Moses and thus betray him as a heretic. That way he could be discredited in the eyes of all of the people.

So, we come first of all, to the baited question. Notice verse 28, "One of the scribes came and heard them arguing and recognizing that he had answered them well, asked Him, 'What commandment is the foremost of all?'" Now, we must understand some of the historical background here. This was a hotly debated question among rabbis in that day. Rabbis were absolutely infatuated with what they considered to be a crucial exegetical tool called "Letterism." And since there were 613 letters in the Hebrew text of the 10 commandments, as recorded in Numbers, the consensus among the rabbis was that there were 613 laws in the Pentateuch book. And they were divided into 365, negative prohibitions and 248, positive affirmations. But with all these laws, they were faced with a dilemma. How can you obey all of them? And of course, as we understand Scripture, the answer is, you can't. That's why you need a Savior. That was the purpose of the law. Psalm 19 seven says that, "The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul." And Paul said in Galatians, three beginning of verse 23, "Before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law being shut up to the faith, which was later to be revealed. Therefore, the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith."

Well, they didn't understand any of this. They didn't want to understand it. So what did they do? Well, they divided the laws into two categories, "heavy laws" that were absolutely binding and then "light laws" that were less binding. And while there is no direct reference to this categorization in Scripture, there are allusions to it. In Matthew 23, for example, Jesus said in verse 23, "'Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.'"

Now, we also, in order to understand this passage of Scripture, must put ourselves in the mindset and see the world through the eyes of a legalist. And we must bear in mind the deceptive nature of legalism, which is really nothing more than external adherence to the law of God with no intimate love for him. In fact, RC Sproul put it this way, quote, "Basically, legalism involves abstracting the law of God from its original context." He went on to say, "The legalist isolates the law from the God who gave the law. He is not so much seeking to obey God or honor Christ, as he is to obey rules that are devoid of any personal relationship. There is no love, joy, life or passion. It's a rote, mechanical form of law keeping that we call 'externalism.'"

Now, bear in mind that all false religions teach some form of works-righteousness; some method in their system that would help a person merit salvation. And this was true of apostate Judaism in the first century. And frankly, we see it a lot today as well. I mean, they believe that one could earn his or her salvation by keeping the laws. So, to be sure, externalism, even today as we see it--this legalism--provides an illusion of spirituality. It makes you feel as though you're spiritual, when in fact, you might have no love for God at all.

So again, the ancient Jews were in a real dilemma here; how can you keep all of the laws? So they came up with a great solution. And this is how they thought, to kind of paraphrase it, they would say, well, let's impress God, by at least keeping the heavy laws, the essential ones, along with all kinds of other manmade traditions that they had come up with, that would be kind of easy to keep. That way you could kind of make sure that the scale is going in their favor, that the good is outweighing the bad. That's how they saw it. So they also had another problem with all of this and that is okay. Which is the most essential commandment. If we're going to focus on that one, what commandment is the foremost? Because if we can know what that commandment is, and we keep that commandment, then perhaps we can make the cut, like the rich young man in Matthew 19:16, that quote, "Came to Jesus and said, 'Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?'"

So knowing the scribe's motivation here, in the crowd, knowing what he was up to, knowing his bad theology, Jesus responds to the baited question with secondly, the indicting response. Verse 29, "Jesus answered, 'The foremost is, 'Hear, O ISRAEL! THE LORD UR GOD IS ONE LORD AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH. The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these.'" Now, this was all very familiar to the Jewish people. I mean, this was central to their worship. This was a central affirmation of Judaism. And frankly, it should be for all of us as well, as we will see. God gave this command to Moses as the Israelites were about to enter into the promised land. I read it in our scripture reading earlier. Let me read it again. Deuteronomy six beginning in verse four, it says, "'Hear, O Israel!'" "Hear", the Hebrew word is "šāma." And Hebrew lexicography tells us that this is tantamount to the concept of obey, especially in the context of covenantal loyalty. "'Hear, O Israel! the LORD is our God, the Lord is one!'" So, this emphasizes the absolute exclusivity of Israel's God, "Yahweh our God is the one and only Yahweh." That's the idea. "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul with all your might. These words which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." In other words, what he is saying here is, you are to love the one true God perfectly, comprehensively, singularly with the totality of your being. That's why he says, "with all your heart." The heart would be considered the conscious self, the inner core of who we are. "And with all your soul," the term carries the idea of the core of our personal existence; all the vital things that drive us and our desires; the seat of our emotions and will. And it's often translated "life" or "person" or "being" or "self."

Then he adds this "with all your might." could be translated with all your strength, the exertion of your mental and physical abilities. And by the way, these are overlapping terms. They're not different entities within us. So, together these terms describe the complete essence of man; the focused passionate devotion, our desires, our inclinations, all that we must use to love God. The foremost commandment therefore requires wholehearted devotion, undivided allegiance to the Lord our God. And we need to think of it this way--our love for him and his covenant demands are to be the dominant and passionate interest of our life. Even in this text it is to be the most fundamental of all truths that parents teach their children. So much so that this needs to dominate much of your conversation with your children. And parents, I challenge you to that end. But you say, "my this is impossible, how could you possibly do this?" Well, that's exactly God's point with the whole thing. You can't. I think of Ecclesiastes seven and verse 20, "There is not a righteous man on earth, who continually does good and who never sins." It's got my picture right next to it. And yours is right there, too. You see, the purpose of God's law was to demonstrate man's inability to keep it. It was never meant to be a means of salvation. As I read earlier, in Galatians 3:24, it is "our tutor, to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith." This is reminiscent of what Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew five and verse 20. He said, "'For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.'" And then he concluded that sermon with his summary statement in verse 48, "'Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.'"

You know, when I hear that I have to cry out like the sinner, the publican, in Luke 18, "God be merciful to me." Or think of the story of the rich young man in Matthew 19, that I mentioned earlier. Remember, he left Jesus defeated because he couldn't earn his way into heaven by keeping the law, nor could he buy his way into heaven.

By the way, the Jews believed that rich people had a better chance of getting into the into the kingdom, because they had more money than other people, therefore, they could purchase more sacrifices, and they could give more money to the temple treasury. In Matthew 19:23 and following, "Jesus said to His disciples," in that context, "'Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.' When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished, and said, 'Then who can be saved?' And looking at them, Jesus said to them, 'With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'" So Jesus gives the scribe, along with his hypocritical, murderous cronies, a very indicting response to the question concerning the foremost commandment, and basically, he's saying, again, you must love the Lord your God, perfectly, comprehensively singularly with the totality of your being. And at another time, I'm going to elaborate on that greatly.

But then he follows up with a second commandment. And this one is utterly contrary to not only what the Jewish Rabbis taught but was also the antithesis of how they behaved. In verse 31, "'The second is this, Jesus said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these.'" I mean, folks in an economy of words, Jesus just popped their elitist, self-righteous bubble. Now, it's interesting, while what Jesus said was a direct quote from the Mosaic law that they claim to revere, recorded in Leviticus 19 and verse 18, the rabbis taught something different. Here was their version, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." Jesus confronted them on this, for example of Matthew five, verse 43 and following, "'You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.'"

So here in Mark 12 and verse 31, Jesus exposes their hypocrisy. "'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBO AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these." In fact, in Matthew 22, in verse 40, we read, "'On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.'" Let me give you a little refresher course on the Law. There is a twofold summarization of the law in Scripture, the one that we are looking at here in Jesus' response. You are to love God and love your neighbor. And then there's a tenfold summarization beyond the twofold and that is the Decalogue--that is the 10 commandments--the tablets of stone, the Mosaic law given to Moses on Mount Sinai; Exodus, 19, and 20. Sometimes also called the Old Covenant; if you keep these laws, you will be blessed. If you don't, you will be judged. The first three in the Decalogue are how to love God perfectly, then you have the Sabbath, and then the last six how to love your neighbor. And then we typically say that there is what's called thirdly, a manifold summarization of the law, the words of the covenant in Exodus 24 and verse seven. That's the entire Book of Leviticus, great detail and expansion of the law. And what was interesting is, all of that was written down and it was placed in a receptacle on the side of the Ark of the Covenant, along with the tablets of stone that were inside the ark. We read about this in Deuteronomy 31, verse 26, "Take this book of the law and place it beside the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God, that it may remain there as a witness against you." You see, folks, once again, the purpose of the law was to expose sin in the light of the divine standard of righteousness stated in the foremost commandment and manifested in the second.

So, Jesus told the scribe and all of his co-conspirators "on these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." In other words, the entirety of the Old Testament scripture hangs on these two commandments to love. We must understand that all other commandments are derived from these. They point back to these they are summed up in these. That's why Paul said in Romans 13 and verse eight, "He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law." William Hendriksen, said this quote, "This twofold command, love for God and for the neighbor, is the peg on which the whole law and the prophets hang. Remove that peg and all is lost for the entire Old Testament with its commandments and covenants, prophecies and promises, types and testimonies, invitations and exhortations, points to the love of God, which demands the answer of love in return." John summarized this perfectly in First John four beginning of verse 19, “We love because He first loved us. If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he's a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen."

You see, friends, a genuine, wholehearted love for God must be initiated by God Himself. We are incapable of that. This requires the regenerating power of the Spirit of God, that work whereby he causes us to be raised from spiritual death to spiritual life, he opens our eyes and, in our hearts, and he gives us the gift of faith and conversion, and so forth. And therefore, according to Romans five and verse five, when this happens, the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. And then because we truly love God, by the power of the Spirit, albeit imperfectly, that love manifests itself in our determined decisive commitment to love others. But as we read in this text "we love because He first loved us." This is what the Jewish leaders needed to hear, what the people needed to hear, what we all need to hear. Dear Christian, don't miss this. Here, Jesus states, the two greatest commandments. The quintessential commandments these "summum bonum" or highest, the greatest, ultimate good; the standard of divine righteousness in which all moral values are included, and from which they all derive. This is so important, but we all fall short, don't we? And therefore, we need mercy. We need grace. We need forgiveness, we need a righteousness that is not our own. Therefore, we need a savior. That's why the Spirit of God was sent right? To convict the world of what? Sin, righteousness and judgment.

Now think about it, the Jews were fastidious in keeping certain laws and traditions. And like every legalist, they were fooling themselves into believing that somehow they were able to impress God, when in fact, in their hearts, they had no real love for God. I mean, folks, this is externalism. And this may be speaking to some of you, I don't know your heart. But you need to examine your heart. There are so many Christians today that are all sizzle, but no steak. A lot of smoke and mirrors, a lot of hollow hypocrisy.

Now, it's interesting as you study Judaism, in that ancient day, in particular, I mean, they took prejudice and sectarianism to new levels. I mean, if I can use a baseball analogy, there's T-ball, there's little league, there's college ball, there's minor leagues, and there's major leagues. This is major league prejudice; major league hatred of anybody that wasn't in their group. In fact, the Romans accused them of hating the whole human race. It's not a very good reputation. Now, what's interesting is they defined "neighbor" in the narrowest terms possible to accommodate their disdain for other people. In fact, in a similar incident that's described in Luke 10, verses 25 and following, the scribe’s final reaction is recorded in verse 29. It says, "But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?'" And then you remember, Jesus responded to him, gave him the story of the Good Samaritan. Remember, you want to know who your neighbor is, let me tell you a little story. And you know, the guy is hurt, he's wounded. The priest, the Levite, that passed by Samaritan comes along and helps him. And at the end of that passage, Jesus tells the guy, "Go and do the same." In other words, your neighbor is anybody that's in need. Doesn't matter if it's your enemy or who he is. But for the Jews, "neighbor," only referred to their preferred group. They hated everybody else. I mean, they hated the Gentiles in ways that you can't imagine. And they let them know it. They hated the half breed Samaritans; they wouldn't even walk through their region. And if they did, they'd shake the dust off their garments and off their shoes; made a big scene of the whole thing. They hated even other Jews. They hated the Jews in Galilee; "can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Remember? They hated tax collectors. We read this in the New Testament. They hated prostitutes. They hated the poor. They hated the diseased and the disabled, because they felt like they were really sinful people. That's why they were experiencing what they were experiencing. Basically, anybody outside of their favorite group.

One of the sects of Judaism was a monastic sect that lived on the edge of the Dead Sea. They were called the Essenes. That's the region--I've been there, some of you have as well--it's where we found the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Essenes lived there. And here's what they taught, quote, "Love all that God has chosen and hate all that he has rejected. Love all the sons of light, each according to his lot in God's community and hate all the sons of darkness." Now, it's remarkable to see how Jewish rabbis came up with all of this. They were very selective in their interpretation and their application of the law, and again, Leviticus 19 verse 18, that Jesus is quoting here it says, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." But the rabbis really did four things. The first thing they did is they ignored the meaning of love; in Hebrew, "ahavah." It comes from a Hebrew root, "ahav," which means to give. And the Hebrew equivalent by the way in the New Testament, and the Greek is "agapaó"; the agape love. A self-sacrificing love of choice, not necessarily of emotion. So they ignored the meaning of love.

Secondly, they defined "neighbor" in the most narrow terms they possibly could. And they ignored the last phrase "as yourself." That's a pretty indicting phrase, right? Love your neighbor, just leave it at that. Don't say as yourself, I mean, good grief, I really love myself, I'm not gonna love you like that. And then, worst of all, they added "and hate your enemy." Notice the entire verse in its context, Leviticus 19:18, it begins this way, "'You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.'" They also ignored other passages, I won't take time to list them all, but other passages that really broaden and help define "neighbor" in that whole context in Leviticus 19, which includes even loving your enemies. For example, in verse 16, God says, "'You shall not go about as a slander among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor,'" verse 17, "'You shall not hate your fellow countrymen in your heart.'" Verse 34, "'The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself.'" Isn't it interesting how we can conveniently pick and choose those passages of Scripture that help us justify what we think and what we do?

One of the stated principles of the Pharisees is as follows and I quote, "If a Jew sees a Gentile fallen into the sea, let him by no means lift him out fence, for it is written, 'Thou shall not rise up against the blood of thy neighbor,' but this man is not thy neighbor." I mean, folks, this is this is prejudice on steroids, right? You see a Gentile is drowning, let him drown. He's not your neighbor. Now, how did they come up with this nonsense? Obviously, Satan is the father of lies. But what Satan loves to do is take certain aspects of truth and twist it, distort it. And before you know it, you've got a total deception. What they did is they would arbitrarily extrapolate certain Old Testament texts, and then adapt them to themselves personally to justify their prejudices. For example, in Deuteronomy 23, beginning of verse three, we read, "'No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants, even to the 10th generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the LORD, because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt.'" So they would let's take this passage and then also take the passages like Deuteronomy seven where the Israelites were told to absolutely exterminate the Canaanites and slaughter the Midianites in Numbers 31. You could read about the rejection of the Amalekites and the Moabites in Deuteronomy 23. So they're taking these things, and you know, if God could do this, you know, I guess there's room for some real hatred here. Make sense to me, don't you? Then what about the imprecatory psalms? The cursing psalms like Psalm 69, beginning of verse 22, "Pour out Your indignation on them, and may Your burning anger overtake them. May their camp be desolate; may not dwell in their tents. For they have persecuted him who You Yourself have smitten, and they tell of the pain of those whom You have wounded. Add iniquity to their iniquity, and may they not come into Your righteousness. May they be blotted out of the book of life, and may they not be recorded with the righteous." Let's add that to our column here. Or Psalm 139 verse 21, "Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with the utmost hatred; they have become my enemies." But you see, what they fail to understand is the difference between personal injury and divine justice. God's judgment and curses on the wicked were and are judicial acts of an infinitely holy God and they have no application to us personally when we are injured. When we have wounded pride, they have no application in redressing an individual offense. God's purpose, for example, in eradicating the Canaanites was to cleanse the land from the most vile satanic savages that have probably ever walked on the face of the earth. I don't have time to take you into the types of things that these people did. But this was divine justice. This was a judicial act of God meted out by a holy war where he used his people to accomplish his purging purposes. God wanted to protect his people. He wanted to preserve for himself a righteous seed, from which the Messiah would come.

You read about this, like in Leviticus 18. But it is absurd to think that we can apply the actions of divine justice, or even the judicial law of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and somehow use them as an excuse to hate, even kill those that we do not like. I mean, that's God's justice, not mine. Romans 12 verse 19, "Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God , or it his written, 'VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,' says the Lord. 'BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.' Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good."

But what about the imprecatory psalms? Those imprecations, those calling for God's judgment on the wicked, like you would see in Psalm seven in Psalm 69. And I believe Psalm 35. Maybe in Psalm 109, I forget all of them. Well, those were motivated, dear friends, by David's passion for the glory of God. Not out of some frustration and vengeance for his own personal injury. I mean, this was righteous indignation. We read about this like in Psalm 69, beginning in verse nine, "For zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. When I wept in my soul with fasting, it became my reproach." You see, the imprecations, were statements that stipulated the kind of divine judgment that was necessary to befall upon those who violated the treaty. And here David calls upon the Lord for justice, for deliverance from the hands of these wicked people. And he calls upon God to be faithful to his covenant promises that he gave to Abraham, for example, in Genesis 12. And his motivation was not some kind of petty personal vindictiveness. For in this context, David is suffering as a representative of the Lord. His motivation for divine retribution upon unrepentant sinners is ultimately for the glory of God, not for the glory of David. Now, some will argue, "Well, hey, wait a minute now we're supposed to love our enemies, turn the other cheek, return good for evil; forgive those who mistreat us and so on." Yes, indeed, that's all true. But you must understand that those commands and virtues are aimed at the mortification of personal pride. That's the purpose for those, not the abdication of justice, or the vindication of righteousness. Jesus commands with respect to loving our enemies must be balanced with his role as the avenger of those who are violently opposed to him. They got all of that twisted around; conveniently so.

Once again notice Psalm 139, beginning of verse 19, "O that You would slay the wicked, O God; depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed. For they speak against You wickedly, and Your enemies to take Your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with the utmost hatred; they have become my enemies." See, again, this had nothing to do with personal animosity or personal spite, but zeal for God's glory. This is righteous indignation. This is not personal revenge. Would that we all have such hatred for the ungodly who dishonor God. But folks, there is no room for this, when it comes to those who dishonor us. In fact, David went on, in that very context, to ask the Lord to examine his heart, he went on to say, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way."

So we come to the question, how are we to respond to the wicked who persecute us? We are to love them. Matthew five, verse 43, "'You have heard it said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' But I say to you love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.'" The Greek term "agapaó," the term for love, is the love of choice, not mere emotion. It is a purposeful act of the will that chooses to love and to seek the highest good for another person, even if we don't like them, even if we can't stand being around them, even if they are wicked and vile. That's the idea of having a burden for the lost.

By the way, in the Greek, words for love are much more distinct. There's really four different words there is the "philia" love, the brotherly love that we would have towards another friend; like the love that I would have for you, or that you would have for me. And then there's the "storge" love. That's the kind of love that we would have towards a family member. I love my family in a different way than I love you. And you would be the same way. And then there's the "eros" love. That's the the love of romance that leads to sexual love. There's only one person in the world that I love that way, and that is my wife. And then there's the "agape" love. Love that is passionate and unwavering in its commitment to seek the highest good for another person, regardless of who they are. And this is a love of the will, not necessarily a love of emotion, where you've got all kinds of warm fuzzies. But always a love of action, not a love of abstraction. That's why you see all of the verbs in First Corinthians 13. Proverbs 25, verse 21, you see the action of love, "If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; For you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you."

I might also add that here in Matthew five verse 44. The verb is in the present imperative, which means it is to be a continuous attitude of benevolence, a continuous attitude of goodwill. It has to be a continuous desire to treat another person in a way that would hopefully bring them to saving knowledge of Christ, even those who hate us. And it implies meekness, does it not. It implies gentleness and implies humility. And this is indicative of kingdom citizens. That's why Jesus would say to the scribe, you know, you're close, but you're not in the kingdom yet. That's the point. This is the type of love that patiently endures evil; extinguishes thoughts of revenge. This is the type of love that starves those cravings of pride that would demand vengeance. Spurgeon put it this way, "Love and self-denial for the object loved go hand in hand. If profess to love a certain person, and yet will neither give my silver nor my gold to relieve his wants, nor in any way deny myself comfort or ease, for his sake, such love is contemptible. It wears the name but lacks the reality of love. True love must be measured by the degree to which the person loving, will be willing to subject himself to crosses and losses; to suffering and self-denials. After all, the value of a thing in the market is what a man will give for it. And you must estimate the value of a man's love by that which he is willing to give up for it."

As we wrap this up this morning, I want you to notice also what love includes. Matthew 5:44, "'Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.'" "Father, I don't like this person. Biblically, I have no reason to respect this person. This person is vile, this person is wretched. This person is utterly enslaved by their sin. But I plead with you to lavish your love upon them and by your mercy. Save them by your grace, even as you have saved me." Is that your attitude towards your enemies? That's what loving them looks like. It even includes praying for our wicked immoral, godless, Christ hating leaders. I mean, we have some of the most vile leaders in the history of the world, in charge of our country today.

Paul says in First Timothy two beginning in verse one, "First of all, then, I urge you that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgiving be made on behalf of all men." And then he adds this, "For kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity." In other words, we're to pray for their salvation. And we can also pray that God would protect us from them. Remember, Stephen, when he was being stoned, in Acts seven? He said, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." I mean folks, that's the work of the Spirit in a person. What did Jesus say on the cross in Luke 23. "'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.'"

I might also add you realize the blessings that God will lavish upon you when you love your enemies in this way. This is so encouraging to me. Matthew five, verse 10, Jesus said, "'Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you, because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.'" It's an amazing thought, isn't it? God sees all of that he knows all of that, but our attitude is to be one of love, that prays for these people and does everything it can to bring them to a place of saving grace.

So in closing here, Jesus responds to the scribe and all of his cronies standing around with a message of condemnation. And then it's interesting verse 32, "The scribe to said to Him, 'Right, Teacher; you have truly stated that HE IS ONE, AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE BESIDES HIM; AND TO LOVE HIM WITH ALL THE HEART AND WITH ALL TH EUNDERSTANDING AND WITH ALL THE STRENGTH, AND TO LOVE ONE'S NEIGHBOR AS HIMSELF, is much more than all burn offerings and sacrifices." In other words, he's affirming that. I mean, what else could he say, right? Even though in his heart, it's like that's not at all consistent with really who I am.

Then I love what Jesus says here, verse 34, "When Jesus saw that he answered intelligently, He said to him, 'You are not far from the kingdom of God.'" You're not in the kingdom, but you're not far from it. By the way, isn't it ironic the scribe comes to pass judgment on Jesus, and Jesus flips it around and passes judgment on him. It's an amazing thing. There's a lesson to be learned here too, by the way. Folks, you can have precise doctrine and be as lost as a goose in a hailstorm. The only thing that you must embrace beyond right doctrine is a wholehearted love for Christ.

Then it says, "After that no one would venture to ask Him any more questions." Well, this was a hard pill for them to swallow. But I hope you will see that there is no place in our life for hatred for prejudice, for personal vengeance. We are to love the Lord our God, the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the one and only true God, perfectly, comprehensively singularly with the totality of our being. And love our neighbors, as ourselves, including our enemies. And certainly, we cannot do that perfectly. So we need a Savior, and hallelujah, we have one right?

Let's pray together. Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word. As always, when we hear them, we find ourselves being convicted. But we also find ourselves being deeply encouraged. We are humbled by the love that you have lavished upon us and help us, by the power of your spirit, to love you and to love our neighbors, including our enemies as we ought. For the glory of Christ, in whose name I pray. Amen.