Two Great Commandments
There is nothing new under the sun. The devil is up to his old tricks. Our sin nature keeps raising its ugly head. In Matthew 7 Jesus continued his sermon on the mount…. We’re all judged according to the standard of the truth of the Word of God. How can we sit in a seat of judgement to judge others? We ourselves are judged according to God’s righteous standard.
Jesus continued, seek and keep on seeking. Knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened unto you. Ask and you shall receive. God, our loving Heavenly Father has in store only that which is good for his children. His nature is to abundantly bless those who come to him with a heart to love him above all.
Pete recalls that as a brand new Christian, he went into a drugstore and a book by Billy Graham caught his eye. The book was Peace with God. When Pete read this book he understood the meaning of peace, goodness, and self control. As he read, Pete prayed, God, I know I’m not the man you intended me to be… Lord, please make me that man…. This is a prayer that God longs to answer.
Jesus sums up his sermon in Matthew 7:12…. As ye would that men should do unto you, do ye also to them. Treat others as you would have them treat you. The context of this “golden rule” is hypocrisy. If you want to bless and encourage others, if you want to correct others, then get the log out of your own eye. The log is the 2 x 4 of judgementalism. If we think that we can judge others because we’re superior, then the attitude of self righteousness is the plank in your own eye. Before you can take the splinter out of your brother’s eye, you need to yank the plank of self righteousness.
You cannot legislate righteousness…. Righteousness is only in Christ. We were all born sinners… it’s part of the nature of the flesh we inherited from Adam. Without righteous men, you cannot keep the peace…. You cannot hire enough police. Righteousness is through salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. For he who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
The world is obsessed with self. There are over two hundred words in English that begin with the prefix “self.” There is selfish, self centeredness, self aggrandizement, self fulfillment, self satisfaction, and self actualization.
There are only two commandments that sum up all of the commandments in the Old Testament law. The first commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength. Only in keeping this first commandment can we keep the second great commandment: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The keeping of the Old Testament Law starts with loving God above all.
According to Isaiah 6:1-7, In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory,
4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
In the presence of our Holy God, we are all undone…. In his presence we are humbled and fall on our knees in awe and wonder, overwhelmed by his holy presence.
God condescended to our level…. He bowed down to our level in order to communicate with our feeble minds.. To bless means to bow down… He blessed us before we could receive his blessings and then bless and bow down in awe and reverence to him in return.
Grace is God’s giving us what we did not deserve… it is a gift given of God’s unconditional love. For by grace are ye saved through faith, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should work.
The most often used descriptions of God in the Old Testament KJV is “loving kindness and tender mercy.” Other translations translate this phrase as “steadfast love.” Mercy, grace and love is the nature of God himself.
Jesus Christ is the picture of God’s grace, mercy, and justice side by side. God is also a God of Justice… the scales of his righteous judgement must be balanced according to God’s righteous standard. All have sinned and come short of God’s righteousness…. Thou art weighted in the balance and called wanting…. However, Jesus Christ died in our stead to balance the scales of God’s justice… for he. Who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him.
To come to the Lord Jesus Christ is to forsake the god of self. This is a hard lesson to learn… the kingdom of self is heavily defended territory. What brings a man to repentance… to the inflection point of turning from self and unto the Lord? Peter had said, though everyone else will forsake you, I will never leave you. Jesus said to Peter, Before the cock crows twice you shall deny me thrice.
Peter thought that he could follow Jesus in his own strength. While Peter was warming himself in the courtyard of the high priest, a girl said to him. I recognize you as one of those Jesus-followers. I recognize by your accent that you are one of those Galileans who follow him. Peter cursed and said, I know not the man. Then the cock crowed the third time and Jesus from inside the judgment hall looked at Peter in the courtyard. They locked eyes. Peter realized that he had denied his Lord. He went off and wept bitterly. A broken and a contrite heart, the Lord will not forsake.
When we turn our eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, the things of this world will grow strangely dim… in the light of his glory and grace.
John said, Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved.
According to Ephesians 2:4-10:
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, whic God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
…. That in loving God above all and our neighbor as ourselves, we may live to the praise of the glory of God’s grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
