Love Series #8 - Part 2

… but let’s go to Leviticus 19 now because where we started out was – you love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul and being. The second is like unto it – you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Now Leviticus 19 I think is really quite interesting. And if you go back and study the whole chapter of Leviticus 19 you’re going to see a lot of New Testament doctrine in here. You just are. Let’s pick it up here in verse 18: “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.” Based upon God’s existence. That’s something isn’t it?

Now let’s come back here to Deuteronomy 11. It continues right on with verse 1. And you can see this is a foundation of love. When we get to the New Testament we will see that it is based upon a personal relationship with God, and God loving you and you loving God on an ongoing basis, because God in the form of Jesus Christ came to the earth. Verse 1: “Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep His charge [Put in your margin there Genesis 26:5 because it talks about Abraham “who obeyed My voice and kept My charge and My commandments, My laws and statutes and judgments.], and His statutes, and His judgments, and His commandments, alway.”

Now let’s go to verse 8: “Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it…” Now, remember what happened? They went in and the whole city of Jericho fell flat just at the shout. I mean they didn’t even have to raise a bow or arrow or spear. So they said, “Hurray, the Lord’s with us. Hurray, the Lord’s with us.” Then they went to the city of Ai and one man there, Achan, he said, “Well now, look at all of this little gold that I can get just for the picking up.” So they went in there and lost the battle and came back crying, “Boo-hoo, boo-hoo. Why did we lose the battle?” Then they had to go through the high priest and the Urim and Thummim and it finally came out that it was Achan who took the things that he shouldn’t have taken. So you see that’s why He’s saying here “that you may be strong.” If you don’t keep the commandments of God with all your heart then you become weak.

Now let’s continue. Come over here to verse 13: “And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto My commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.”

Now verse 16, again here comes a warning. Notice He goes along and says all these good positive things and then He says – Warning: “Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them…” Now how do you prevent that? Verse 18: “Therefore shall ye lay up these My words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” So there he goes. Let’s come down here to verse 22: “For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to cleave unto Him…” Again, over and over and over again.

Now let’s come to verse 26. The rest of Chapter 11 sets the tone for all of the rest of the chapters between at the end of Chapter 11, beginning with Chapter 12 on up through to Chapter 30. All of those chapters fit in under the subtitle of what we’re going to read here beginning in verse 26: “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; a blessing, if [there is that clause again] ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: and a curse, if [so it’s our choice to make] ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known” (Deut.11:1, 8, 13-16, 18-19, 22, 26-28, KJV). Then all the rest of the chapters, coming up to Chapter 30. So let’s make our way over to Chapter 30. And this is the same thing that we find in the way that God inspired all Scripture to be written. He’s going to tell you in summary what He’s going to tell you. Then He will tell you what He’s going to tell you, and then He will tell you what He’s told you in summary of what He did tell you.

So we find that here in Deuteronomy 30:11. We find the same thing. Verse 11: “For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?” It’s not in Tibet either. No, it isn’t. What is happening here is, God is giving a promise to His descendents of Israel that they would always have the Word of God available in a language that they understood. Has God fulfilled that promise? Yes, He has.

“Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.” In other words in a language you can understand. I don’t think there’s anything I’ve read today that any of us misunderstand. Is there? No. “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil…” That goes right back to the thing that was given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, correct? Yes. “…In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if [there it is again, the “if” clause] thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear…” It’s interesting, isn’t it? The heart turns away and then you refuse to hear. Why? Because every way of a man is right in his own eyes, and the only way he can tolerate rejecting the commandments of God if his heart turn away is to not listen. So then he refuses to hear, closes the ear and shuts the heart and goes on his way. So if your heart turn away and you will not hear that’s a decision you make and it’s a long term protracted decision. “…But shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them…” I mean we have a living example today. “…I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish…” Have we not had a recent example of that? Yes. “…And that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you…” Same thing that Jesus said, right? Yes. “…I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: that thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them” (Deut. 30:11-20, KJV).

Now then Moses had one parting thing to say, and it’s the Song of Moses. And that Song of Moses is all of Deuteronomy 32. We won’t go through it, but let’s come to Deuteronomy 31:28. And he knew this. Now I tell you, if there’s anyone who is going to rejoice when the Kingdom of God comes it’s got to be Moses. Can you imagine leading this people around the desert for forty years? And he only did one little thing not right, and he did that out of frustration. All the people came and said, “Give us to drink.” And he got mad and talked back to the people and came to God and said, “What am I going to give them?” God says, “Go over and speak to the rock and it will bring forth water.” And the people came chiding him, “Give us drink, give us drink,” almost like a riot pressing. So he went over and he hit the rock, which he did before. Before God told him to strike the rock. So he went and did the same thing and then God said, “Now because you did that you’re not going into the Promised Land.” So when the Kingdom of God comes and Moses is going to be there, I imagine he’s going to be so happy. I imagine he’s going to be so thrilled having all this burden lifted from him and now able to be in the true Kingdom of God. My, my, just think on that sometime if you think “maybe I can get away with something.”

Let’s pick it up here in verse 24: “And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee. For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?” Now think of it. If they did all of these things seeing the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and the manna every day and they still did all of these things, what’s it going to take to get through to them?

“Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them. For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves [after all the repeating of it they still will], and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.” Now you take that as a prophecy for the latter days and just look at what we are doing. That’s something. So if you ask the question: How far is God going to go in fulfilling prophecies? I don’t think we really fully understand or comprehend how far God is going to allow it to go. “And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended” ( Deut. 31:24-30, KJV). That’s actually the introductory verse for Chapter 32.

He starts out the same way that God does. “Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth” (Deut. 32:1, KJV). All of the witnessing that God does is by Himself – “I am the LORD” or “by heaven and earth.” Those are something to base the veracity of your word on.

Now let’s go to the book of Psalms. The book of Psalms is very important, very intriguing, and actually in studying through it has a whole lot less about the love of God than you would suspect at first hand. It has a lot about the mercy of God, the compassion of God, the lovingkindness of God, but directly the love of God with the exception of David who had a special and particular relationship with God, it doesn’t teach us all that much about it. But here in Psalm 91:14: “Because he hath set his love upon Me…” Now this was perhaps a psalm of David. “…Therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him My salvation” (Psalm 91:14-16, KJV). All based upon the love of God because “he set his love upon Me.” And when you understand that, that is sill New Testament, isn’t it? What is it about God that we are told in the New Testament that’s the very basis and foundation for the covenant? “For God so loved the world [again, setting His love upon us], that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16, KJV). We don’t find anything like that in the Old Testament.

Now let’s go to Psalm 18. The love that is exemplified here in the Old Testament is a love because of what has been done to the individual, namely David, in this particular case. And even in spite of that did he not in a way, sin and turn his back on God temporarily with the affair with Bathsheba? Yes, he did. Verse 1: “I will love Thee, O LORD, my strength.” Now this is after God had done a miraculous and fantastic intervention on behalf of David. “The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in Whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the LORD, Who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies” (Psalm 18:1-3, KJV). You can take this and put a spiritual application on it today asking Christ to intervene for you. Now many of the psalms are good examples for us in prayer, but when we pray let’s go ahead and put it in today’s terminology so we can understand it a little bit more.

Let’s go to Psalm 116:1: “I love the LORD, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live.” This he said after he was healed from being sick. He said: “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and He helped me” (Psalm 116:1-6, KJV). So that’s a tremendous psalm for us to go by.

Let’s go back to Psalm 17 now. Here’s another example for us. So you see, this is a little bit different than when you are reading the epistles of John. Especially I John 4 where it talks so much about God and the love of God and so forth. Let’s pick it up in verse 1: “Hear the right, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips. Let my sentence come forth from Thy presence; let Thine eyes behold the things that are equal. Thou hast proved mine heart…” If you want to know one thing that God is doing with everyone – right there that’s it. God is going to test and prove our hearts. “…Thou hast visited me in the night; Thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. Concerning the words of men, by the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer. Hold up my goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps slip not. I have called upon Thee, for Thou wilt hear me, O God: incline Thine ear unto me, and hear my speech. Shew Thy marvellous lovingkindness…” Now through the Old Testament and the Psalms in particular “lovingkindness” is more of an expression of God’s love. “…O Thou that savest by Thy right hand them which put their trust in Thee from those that rise up against them. Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of Thy wings…” (Psalm 17:1-8, KJV). And again that ties in with Psalm 91 about the protection of power and hiding under the wings of God.

Now let’s go to Psalm 119. Now Psalm 119 is a psalm which gives what I say is a converted attitude to all the commandments of God. Now the carnal mind is hostile and enmity against the laws of God, not subject to them. But here in Psalm 119 is just the opposite. Now I did two sermons going through and breaking down the various categories there. So if you don’t have it we’ll see if we can get it to you.

Now let’s come to verse 47. Notice the attitude here: “And I will delight myself in Thy commandments, which I have loved.” Now you will see in all of this there’s not quite that personal relationship that we have in the New Testament. And unfortunately if you try and run a church on the basis of Old Testament love it will never be satisfied or fulfilling. And I think that’s one of the mistakes that we’ve made. Verse 48: “My hands also will I lift up unto Thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in Thy statutes.”

Now let’s go to verse 97. We even have a song in the hymnal listed after this, “How Love I Thy Law.” Verse 97: “O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day. Thou through Thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me.” Quite something.

Verse 113: “I hate vain thoughts: but Thy law do I love.” Continuous, ok? Let’s come here to verse 119 now: “Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross: therefore I love Thy testimonies.” Now “testimonies” are important things. You have a testimony, you have one kind which you relate what God has done for you, like Psalm 118: “Thee will I love O Lord, my Rock, my Fortress, my Deliverer, my High Tower because You have fought the battle for me.” Another testimony is a testimony from God or from someone else which says, “If you do this which is wrong you shall surely die,” or whatever it is. So there are two kinds. One of adulation and one of warning.

Now let’s come to verse 127: “Therefore I love Thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.” Now this would be an interesting test, wouldn’t it, if you had enough gold to do this? Put a big stack of gold, and then another stack of fine gold, really fine purified gold, put it on the table and right along side it place a Bible. Make sure it said “HOLY BIBLE – Word of God” and then bring people in and say, “Which would you rather have?” You know the gold is going to be gone nine times out of ten, which means that this is a deeply converted attitude. I would dare say any of us who have lots of bills and debuts if we looked at it we might be tempted, wouldn’t we? (Audience comment). That’s right. You would have to preface it this way: The gold will not bring you eternal life. The Bible can. But I think there’s a lot of people that I know of who would choose the gold today. I’m sure of that. But as the comment was made, hopefully we’ve progressed beyond that that we would choose the way of God and the Word of God. This is a deeply converted attitude here to understand this.

Notice what else it says here. He gives a concluding statement in verse 128: “Therefore I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to be right [everything that God has said, thought of, done, created, made, “all Your precepts”]; and I hate every false way.” Boy, that’s something, isn’t it? That is.

Ok, verse 132: “Look Thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as Thou usest to do unto those that love Thy name.” Now let’s go to verse 159: “Consider how I love Thy precepts…” We’re talking about loving the commandments, loving the laws, loving the precepts, loving the testimonies and so forth, and loving His Word. “…Quicken me, O LORD, according to Thy lovingkindness. Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of Thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.” Pretty profound statement.

Let’s go to verse 163: “I hate and abhor lying: but Thy law do I love.” Verse 165: “Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” Verse 167: “My soul hath kept Thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly.”

Now let’s close it off by reading here verse 174: “I have longed for Thy salvation, O LORD; and Thy law is my delight. Let my soul live, and it shall praise Thee; and let Thy judgments help me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Thy servant; for I do not forget Thy commandments” (Psalm 119:47-48, 97-98, 113, 119, 127-128, 132, 159-160, 163, 165, 167, 174-176, KJV). So there shows graciousness and hope and everything like that all the way through.

Now let’s go back to Psalm 63. And this shows what God wants from us more than anything else, and we’ll conclude with Psalm 62 and 63. And this shows what God really desires out of it, and shows more of the type of love which now is reaching up into more of a New Testament fulfillment of the love of God, especially when we get to Psalm 63.

Psalm 62:1: “Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from Him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved.” Verse 5: “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation: He is my defence; I shall not be moved.” Now what you might want to do there is put Matthew 7:23, building upon a rock and the winds come, the rains come, beat upon it, didn’t fall because it’s on a rock.

Verse 7: “In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us.” And that’s what we need to have as something that we do. Pour out your heart to God. “Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie [Oh have we seen that, haven’t we? Yes.]: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them.” I think we’ve seen lessons upon that too, haven’t we? “God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God [that is the power to receive riches]. Also unto Thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for Thou renderest to every man according to his work” (Psalm 62:1-2, 5-12, KJV). That sounds a little bit New Testamentish, doesn’t it? Revelation 2 and 3, “He that has an ear, let him hear.”

Now Psalm 63. Psalm 63 is quite a unique psalm, especially when you understand that when David brought the Ark of the Covenant back from Kirjath-Jearim after it was sent back to Israel from the Philistines, he put it in a tent right where his house was. And when he played the psaltery and when he wrote a lot of the psalms he was right there in front of the tent where the ark was, because the ark did not go back into the tabernacle until the setting up of the temple by Solomon and then they brought the tabernacle from Gibeon and they brought the ark from the house of David and it was united back together again. So David could sit in front of this tent, and I imagine he could pull back the drapes and look into the holy of holies there, as it were, and this psalm is based on it. It couldn’t be based on anything else, especially when we come to verse two.

And here’s the whole purpose and whole attitude of what we need to have, verse 1: “O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee: my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; to see Thy power and Thy glory, so as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary.” So David was able to see God. That’s why he had such tremendous psalms and was a man after God’s heart. That’s why his sin with Bathsheba was so dastardly and why God said that’s the only thing that he held against him. “Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life [greater than just living in the flesh], my lips shall praise Thee. Thus will I bless Thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in Thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips: when I remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches. Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after Thee…” That’s what God wants all of us to do. We’re going to have plenty of troubles right and left on every side of us as we go down in this society toward the end of the age but if we’re following hard after Christ He’ll bless us. “…Thy right hand upholdeth me. But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes. But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by Him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped” (Psalm 63:1-11, KJV).

And so this is the love of God in the Law and in the Psalms. And I think when we get into the New Testament as you go through the studies that we do, in particular in John 14, 15, 16, and 17 where the apostle John brings us the very words of Christ to magnify the love of God for us, we’re going to see it’s really fantastic and wonderful indeed, brethren.

Love Of God #8

Scriptural References

1. Matthew 22:37-40

2. Deuteronomy 4:29-37

3. Psalm 78:32-41

4. Deuteronomy 5:7-10, 27-30, 32-33

5. Matthew 5:17-18

6. Deuteronomy 6:3-8, 10-12

7. Deuteronomy 7:6-15

8. I Corinthians 1:26

9. Deuteronomy 8:1-6

10. Deuteronomy 10:12-19

11. Colossians 2:2-12

12. Romans 2:17-29

13. Leviticus 19:18

14. Deuteronomy 11:1, 8, 13-16, 18-19, 22, 26-28

15. Deuteronomy 30:11-20

16. Deuteronomy 31:24-30

17. Deuteronomy 32:1

18. Psalm 91:14-16

19. John 3:16

20. Psalm 18:1-3

21. Psalm 116:1-6

22. Psalm 17:1-8

23. Psalm 119:47-48, 97-98, 113, 119, 127-128, 132, 159-160, 163, 165, 167, 174-176

24. Psalm 62:1-2, 5-12

25. Psalm 63:1-11