Love Series #10 - Part 2

Now let’s continue on with the account here in Luke 4 and see what else. Because He had this love for God the Father and the Father loving Him, He was able to overcome the intense temptations that Satan the devil brought against Jesus Christ. Now that’s the same way with us, brethren. We are going to come to some of the most intense times that this world has ever seen. And the only way we’re going to be able to survive and go through them and be faithful to God is to love Him.

Now notice verse 5: "And the devil, taking Him up into an high mountain, shewed unto Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto Him, All this power will I give Thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will [desire] I give it." There’s always a catch. Whenever you do the devil’s bidding you must worship him. Now just remember that as what has happened with the apostasy within the churches of God. How many years ago did we say when you start compromising with the devil just a little bit he’s going to come back and you’re going to compromise a little bit more. And he is not going to be through with you until you worship him and deny God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Now notice verse 7: "If Thou therefore wilt worship me…" Just a simple little thing. Save all the pain. But it’s not a simple little thing. It’s life or death – eternal life or eternal death. "…All shall be Thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind Me, Satan: for it is written, Thou [that is, as a human being] shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." Now keep this in mind. Even the apostle Paul said, "You cannot serve God and your belly." Didn’t He say that? Yes. "And he brought Him to Jerusalem, and set Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down from hence: for it is written [so even Satan can come back with Scripture], He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee…" Now this is something that is true. There can be people come in and ministers come in an quote Scripture correctly but misapply it because they are applying it to circumstances which do not apply. Yes, the angels will keep you, but not if you deliberately leap because you’re tempting God.

"…And in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from Him for a season" (Luke 4:1-11, KJV). Left Him alone for a little while.

Now let’s look and see in Luke 14 that Jesus Christ requires the same thing of us. Jesus requires the same response from us to Him and God the Father in relationship to everything else that there is in this world; to Satan the devil, to the principalities, to the powers that operate in high places, the wickedness of this world, in relationship to our own flesh and blood. Now notice in Luke 14:26: "If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother…" This means to love God far more in comparison to, but your love for God is so great, that if your mother and father come to you and say, "If you love me you will do this…" and if "this" that they are asking is sin to do you will have to say, "I can’t do it." And they say, "If you don’t do it, you don’t love me." So be it. That’s the way it has to be.

Now notice: "…father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also…" that you’re not going to give in to temptation and sin just to save your own skin, "…he cannot be My disciple." There’s no power to make you His disciple. "And whosoever doth not bear his cross…" So you’re going to have a cross to bear, I’m going to have a cross to bear, whatever it may be. It can be family. It can be health. It can be other people. It can be a job. It can be whatever the cross is you have to bear, "…and come after Me…" Christ is not going to keep coming after you. The sheep follow the shepherd. Yes, the shepherd will go after the one that is lost. But you’re not going to be lost if you’re always following the Shepherd, right? So if you’re coming after Christ then you will make it. So you have to bear your cross and come after Him. If not, you "…cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?" Then He gives the couple of examples concerning that, the building of a house, the going to war.

Then He says in verse 33: "So likewise [exactly in the same manner, is what He’s saying here], whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:26-28, 33, KJV). In other words, He’s saying, "If you want salvation there is nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing in this world – " be it a person, be it a thing, be it a spirit, be it an idea, whatever. Because if you are loving God these things you will do just as Jesus Christ did. That’s why love is so powerful. That’s why it’s so important. And that’s what Jesus is teaching here through all of this.

Now let’s come to Matthew 10 and we’re going to see just a little bit different rendition of the same thing that He talked about, only this time couched in just a little bit different terms. Let’s pick it up here in Matthew 10:37: "He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me…" Why? Because Christ came in loving this world with the love of the Father, and when He was here He was loving the Father and the Father was loving Him, and He bore in His flesh our sins, and He was the perfect sacrifice, and so you have to love Him more than anything else. Now here’s something else you need to consider: if you love father or mother more than Christ you’re loving the created more than the Creator; is that not true? Yes it is.

"He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me. He that findeth his life shall lose it…" And brethren, this is happening to one of the largest churches of God we know of. And it’s also happening to another church of God because the leader did not love God. He loved his own carnal ways. So it is right here. "He that findeth his life [in this world] shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it" (Matthew 10:37-39, KJV). So that’s what you have to do. You have to lose your life in love for God the Father and Jesus Christ and you will find life; yes, and you will find eternal life.

Let’s go to I Corinthians 16:22 for just a minute. How important is this love of God back toward Jesus Christ in relationship to salvation? It is the whole key important thing of salvation. Notice what Paul says here: "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ…" Now think on this, because this is a pretty strong saying: "…let him be Anathema Maranatha." That is, double-cursed. So how important is the love of God? You can’t receive salvation without it. That’s how important it is.

"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." Why are they meek? Because you love God. When you love God you understand that you have nothing you didn’t receive. You don’t have some great big image to portray; you don’t have something you have to live up to. If you love God with all your heart and mind and soul and being, that’s what you have to live up to. God will bless you. Now it says here, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." Do you not know that if you truly love God the Father and Jesus Christ, what are you going to be doing? Hungering and thirsting after righteousness – Their righteousness. You’re going to hunger and thirst to know the word of God; to know even the great and the deep and marvelous things of God. And Jesus said, "you shall be filled." Tremendous promise, isn’t it?

So it’s not by might, it’s not by power, but it’s by the love of God through the Spirit of God. It’s not because you’re smart; it’s not because you’re intellectual; it’s not because you’ve been educated to know this and that and the other thing. Because you have to totally lose your life in Christ in order to love Him. Then He will fill you with righteousness. "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." Because if you love God and know the mercy you receive, then you will be merciful to others.

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." So you could have a pure heart, right, if you love God? Yes. All of these Beatitudes are based upon the love of God. Every single one of them. "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake…" Why? Because the love of God resides upon you if you are persecuted for true loving God and true righteousness. "…For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My [name’s] sake." Why? Because you’re loving God. "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you" (Matthew 5:3-12, KJV). Then He goes and shows that the Law was not done away; He came to fulfill and add and bring to.

Now let’s come all the way down here to verse 43. Then He gives us something that is very, very difficult to do. He gives us the hardest challenge of love that there is. Let’s read it: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy." That’s the way too many peoples’ love is. They live over here in this town and they hate them over here in this town. They live up on top of this mountain, the Hatfield’s, and they have the McCoy’s over here, and they hate and kill each other. Oh, they love each other, but they hate and kill each other. Now Jesus is saying "This kind of love is no longer going to stand." Because Christ, Who died for the world because He loved the world, and He’s going to eventually bring salvation to them because He loves them, how can you have it in your heart that you truly hate someone? Now you can hate their deeds if they are truly evil. Get away from them. Don’t be around them. Obviously, do not do that. You can love them from a distance, by being away from them and not getting into them. But if the situation is this, Paul said, "If your enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him to drink. For in doing that you’re going to be heaping coals of fire upon him." So if it comes right down to it, if your enemy is totally down and out, then love him in that manner.

But Jesus said: "But I say unto you, Love your enemies…" This is tough. Now there are enemies within the church, those that should not be enemies. And part of the problem we’re up against in trying to sort everything out that we’ve been through with all the churches of God is then, how do we bring brethren back together and let their wounds be healed when they maybe at one time were enemies but now God has called them to be brethren again? Now you need to think on how you can start resolving those things. You don’t resolve them by shooting your brother dead. You don’t resolve them by continuing to have hatred in your heart toward them. Especially if God says this: "…Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you…" and Jesus Christ lived by this, did He not? Yes He did. You go back and see the whole history of His arrest and crucifixion, right down to the very last words, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." And if those were not His enemies, I do not know what enemies are.

"…Pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you…" Now how can you do that? You pray and ask God to give you grace and favor in their eyes. You pray and ask God to put the right thoughts into their mind. Now you can’t correct them. You can’t go tell them what to do because you have no control over them. But God does, does He not? So you pray for them. And you ask God to change their minds, if it’s possible. Now this is especially true in a marriage situation. This is especially true in a brother-to-brother situation within the church. Now we’re bringing brethren together who have left at different times because of different reasons, and maybe went to this church of God for a while and found that that really wasn’t right, and went to another church of God for a while and found that that wasn’t right. And in both of these churches of God each other hated each other, and God isn’t going to have that either. So if that’s the case, drop all of this falseness and stupidity and really love one another as Christ wants you to.

Now let’s see what else He says: "That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven…" That’s profound, isn’t it? You want to be the children of God? You want to be the children of the Father? That’s what He says to do, then. "…For He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you…" And that’s so easy to do. You just get your comfortable little niche and clique of friends and you love each other, and you leave out those who are neglected, and you leave out those that you don’t love in the same way, and you leave out the widows and you leave out those that don’t fit into your clique. Brethren, did that not happen in the churches of God? Yes it did. Can we not put all of that aside now? Can we not let the love of God come into us, and let it flow into us, let Christ be in us so that we can do that and be the children of God?

Now let’s understand something else that Jesus said in Matthew 6:22, a very important thing we need to understand. "The light of the body is the eye…" Profound, basic statement. If you have the love of God in you, the light of life in you, He says, "…if therefore thine eye be single…" Single in purpose, single in hope, single in love, single toward Jesus Christ and God the Father, "…thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil…" And I’ve seen people who have evil eyes. Yes I have. Some of the most deceitful eyes in men I have ever seen are now leaders of churches of God. May that come to an end, please. "…Thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" There’s no hope of recovery from that.

Now let’s continue on in verse 24, because here’s an impossible thing you cannot do. "No man can serve two masters…" You cannot serve God, you cannot serve the world. "…For either he will hate the one, and love the other…" And if you’re rejecting God the Father and Jesus Christ and going back into the world, guess who you are going to end up hating? You’re going to end up hating God. You’re going to end up accusing God. You’re going to end up loving the world and saying of the world, "My, what lovely, wonderful things you have in Christmas, and in Easter, and all of these things." You’re going to end up hating God so much that you’re even going to say that the commandments have no effect today. That’s hating God. So you can’t split your mind. It won’t work. "…For either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:22-24, KJV). You cannot serve God and the world, you cannot serve God and money. You’re going to serve God with all your heart and mind and soul and being with the love of God in you.

Now let’s come to Luke 7, and let’s see that love takes action. Love requires repentance. Love brings about an attitude that is the opposite of self-exultation. Now let’s pick it up here in verse 36. You can read about some of the other things in the chapter leading up to this, but verse 36, it says: "And one of the Pharisees desired Him that He would eat with him…" So apparently Jesus was invited out to eat quite a bit. "…And He went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to meat. And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner…" Now those who are truly, truly sinners and live with their ugliness and their sin and they’re convicted in heart, they know they’re sinners. They’re not trying to fool anyone. And look what she did: "…when she knew that Jesus sat at meat [to eat] in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping, and began to wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment."

Now can you imagine the spectacle that this was to all these hooty-snooty Pharisees sitting around? Woo-ooh my. This was bad news. "Now when the Pharisee which had bidden Him saw it, he spake within himself…" And you always do that, don’t you? You always judge someone in your heart. When you don’t have the love of God in you, you always judge someone and impute motives, don’t you? Yes you do. Do you do that to people? You better have the love of God and get that out of you. You don’t know their heart. The most unloving thing you can ever do and say is this, that you know exactly what someone else is thinking. You don’t know what they’re thinking. Are you a mind-reader? No. Now you can guess. Now many times wives guess pretty close because they’ve lived with their husbands a long time. But still, they cause no end of grief by saying, "I know." You can’t know. You don’t know what’s in a person’s heart and mind and soul.

So here’s what the Pharisee is saying: "…This man, if He were a prophet [so therefore He’s not], would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him: for she is a sinner [He ought to know better]. And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And [in his sanctimonious pretending] he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell Me therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And He said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged." So He did this to trap him, to convict him out of his own hypocritical mouth.

"And He said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meat with Him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? And He said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace" (Luke 7:36-50, KJV). Now may it be that way with us, brethren. Let our faith and let our love save us. And may we come in peace, and may we go in peace, and may we put aside all of this that goes against the love of God.

Now let’s go to John 8:42. Let’s see something else. Let’s see how Jesus told the Pharisees here – this is quite profound. After they went through the whole argument – I’m not going to go through the whole thing except this one verse: "Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love [would have loved] Me…" So if you love the Father and He is your God, you’re going to love Jesus Christ. "…For I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of Myself, but He sent Me." Now why didn’t they love Him? Because their god was Satan the devil.

Now let’s come to Luke 10:25 please, and we’re going to cover three places here which are very important for us to understand, very important for us to realize. And there are three versions of this same thing, so I want to cover them all because this is important. "And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up…" Now this is one who knew the Law. And of course, lawyers are going to ask picky questions, right? "…And tempted Him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou?" Now many times you have to answer a question with a question.

"And he answering said…" So here, the lawyer answered: "…Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." This is the whole basis, brethren, of our entire relationship with God. And as we have covered before, love is the greatest. There is faith, there is hope, there is love, but love is the greatest. And Paul says the way of love is the most excellent way. Some people want to speak in tongues. Some people want to be important. Some people want to be teachers, some want to be recognized. But if you don’t have the love of God none of it is going to work, and here’s how you’ve got to love God – with all your heart. A total commitment. With all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. You don’t reserve a little corner of your mind over here for yourself. It all belongs to God.

"…And thy neighbour as thyself. And He said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live." So he’s willing to justify himself, because a lawyer always wants to bring a picky question. And, "…said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?" (Luke 10:25-29, KJV). So then we have the parable of the man who was robbed and left by the wayside. A Levite came by and looked at him and said, "Oh, I better not get involved with this." A priest came by and passed clear to the other side: "I’m on my way to do righteous, important work at the Temple, and I better not be defiled with blood." So here comes a Samaritan. And a Samaritan, if there was any hated person of the Jews, it’s the Samaritan. And he came over, picked up the man, took care of his wounds, put him at the inn, put wine and olive oil in his wounds and told the master of the inn, "Now you take care of him, make sure he’s well, and on my way back I’ll pay for it when I come." So your neighbor is whoever is your neighbor. That’s the whole story of it.

Now let’s come to Mark 12:28 and let’s see what was said here. Here’s another different version. Maybe a little bit different time, a different time setting. But it was always one of the scribes or Pharisees who was doing it. They wanted Him to say that something else was the primary commandment: "And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, Which is the first commandment of all?"

Now the "first" here in the Greek is protos, or the primary commandment; the most important commandment of all. "And Jesus answered him…" Here Jesus then is giving the answer this time instead of having the scribe give the answer. "…The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord…" And that means one in essence, not in number. "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God [here it is again] with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength…" And this is the foundation in the Gospel that we need to have so when we get into the epistles of Paul, when we get into the general epistles, then we will be able to build on that. This is the beginning, foundational thing that we need to have – loving God this way. And this is what we always need to keep in mind.

Now if you do this, are you going to serve yourself? No. You’re going to take care of yourself because you love your neighbor as yourself, that is true. But then are you going to have your mind focused on yourself? Are you going to have your own little pity-parties all the time for all the silly little things that you do, or other people have done to you? Are you going to be mad and angry and hold your anger forever? Or are you going to love God? Let that be the whole thrust of every thought that you have.

Now brethren, let’s ask ourselves a question: how close, or how far are we from the kingdom of God because we’re not doing this? And this is what Jesus said we need to do to inherit eternal life, correct? Now when it means "more than all burnt offerings," that means any physical thing that can be done. Take all the animals and all the offerings that were done under the Old Testament, they do not count for one minute of loving God. You take all the do’s and don’ts that men put down to judge you and corral you and bring you into a hypocritical, pseudo-Christianity, that is a sacrifice of a physical thing. You are to love God with all your heart and mind and soul and being. That’s how it has to be.

Now let’s see the version in Matthew 22:34, because here again He adds a little bit something in addition to what we’ve already heard. "But when the Pharisees had heard that He had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together." "Now how are we gonna get this guy? Well, let’s see if we can trip Him up on a question here."

"Then one of them, which was a lawyer [now this must be another lawyer; there were lots of lawyers around], asked Him a question, tempting Him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment…" megalos in this case; not protos, but megalos. Not just the primary, but the great, over-arching commandment in the law. And "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." Complete whole-heartedness to God. "This is the first and great commandment." So this is protos and megalos. "And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Now notice what He says in verse 40. Lest there be any doubt, that if you’re going to love God you do away with the commandments of God – never, never happen. Notice what Jesus said: "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:34-40, KJV).

So you have loving God and your neighbor, and then on this, from this, hanging down, proceeding from; loving God and loving your neighbor is the great foundation. The rest of it proceeds from. You cannot have law and prophets and expect to come to love. You must have love, and then you come to the law and the prophets. Jesus said "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15) He didn’t say, "Keep My commandments, and therefore you will have love." No, He said, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." Now that’s very important for us to realize, brethren.

So when we come to the love of God in the Gospels, what we find here is we find this great foundation of the primary and great commandment of loving God, the protos and the megalos, the great commandment. And on that then everything else is built. On that everything else hangs from. Now next time we will begin to understand more concerning John 3:16. Because here is one of the most profound things that has ever been written in the Scriptures. So profound that even those in the world who profess Christianity have an inkling of an understanding of this. And we’ll end here for this time, but next time we will begin here: "For God so loved the world…" Now there are some who are saying that God hates the world. God hates sin. God does hate the things that are wicked. He even hates wicked people. That is true. But who blinded them? God did. Why did He blind them? So that He can have mercy. So that He can call them in the second resurrection.

So this does not just apply to the church only. God does not just love the church only. He loves the church specially, but not only. He still loves the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He still loves the world because He created every man in the image of God, did He not? And He’s going to bring them salvation in His time and in His way. So when we read this Scripture, let’s think great. Or as the Greek is, megalos, broad, huge. The whole plan of God.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in [on] Him…" Your belief has to come into, as the Greek is. You are believing, coming out from your being into the being of Christ. And His Spirit is coming back into you, and this is an ongoing, two-way thing, all the time. Just like Paul said, from faith unto faith. From the love of God to you, and the love of you back toward God, and the faith of God to you, and the faith of God back to Him, and all working together, believing into Him, "…should not perish, but have everlasting life." That’s what God wants to give us. That’s why the love of God is so profound. Everything in the world is going to disappear. Everything in the world God is going to destroy and remake new. That’s why things do not count. You have to love God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul and all your being. Then verse 17 applies: "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:16-17, KJV).

And so, brethren, Christ loves you, the Father loves you. We need to love each other. So let’s take all of these things and put them together and build the love of God. Because that is the most important and the greatest. As Jesus said, it is the first and the great commandment.

Love Of God # 10

Scriptural References

1. Matthew 24:12 21) Luke 10:25-29

2. Luke 11:37-54 22) Mark 12:28-34

3. Luke 12:1-3 23) Matthew 22:34-40

4. John 5:36-47 24) John 14:15

5. Matthew 3:7-8 25) John 3:16-17

6. Galatians 1:10

7. John 3:31-34, 36

8. John 3:35

9. John 10:14-17

10. John 8:23-29

11. John 5:16-20

12. Luke 4:1-11

13. Luke 14:26-28, 33

14. Matthew 10:37-39

15. I Corinthians 16:22

16. Matthew 5:3-12

17. Matthew 5:43-48

18. Matthew 6:22-24

19. Luke 7:36-50

20. John 8:42