WWUTT 288 Who Are You to Judge Your Neighbor?

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If we love God and we desire to do what is pleasing to the Lord, then we will obey
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His commands. And one of those essential commandments is that we would love our neighbor as ourselves when we understand the text.
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You are listening to When We Understand the Text, an online Bible ministry so that we may know all the riches freely given to us by God.
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For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We're in James Chapter 4 again today, looking at verses 11 and 12.
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And this kind of closes up a section that James began all the way back in Chapter 2.
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We're not going to try to finish up Chapter 4 today because, in fact, the last five verses of Chapter 4 go with the first six verses of Chapter 5.
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So we're going to cover all of that as one section on Monday. Today, verses 11 and 12.
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But to keep these things in context, let's go back to verse 1. James Chapter 4, starting at the beginning of the chapter.
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What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
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You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.
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You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.
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You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
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Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, He yearns jealously over the spirit that He has made to dwell in us.
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But He gives more grace. Therefore it says, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
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Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
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Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double -minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep.
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Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the
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Lord and He will exalt you. Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.
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The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law.
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But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy.
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But who are you to judge your neighbor? So yesterday we looked primarily at verses 7 and 8 and wanted to understand these two verses in a proper way considering that most of the teaching that you'll hear out there says that we need to engage or personally rebuke the devil in some way.
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But James says here that we need to submit ourselves to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you, draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
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So by drawing near to the Lord, that's how we resist the devil. So we looked at that yesterday to understand it in a right way but I want you to keep it in context now with what we are talking about concerning the ways that we fight and quarrel with one another and how this shouldn't be, we should not be passing judgment on our brothers but rather speaking with grace.
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So the reason why we are being ungracious to one another is because we're not drawing near to the
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Lord. We are giving in to temptation because the devil is kind of having his way with us and we're letting that happen because we're not glorifying in God.
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If we all are glorifying in God together, if we are seeking what is to the glory of God instead of what is best for ourselves, then we're not going to fight and quarrel with one another.
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So once again we put these things into context when how is it that we can avoid fighting and quarreling?
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It is by drawing near to God. It is giving glory to the Lord. It is looking for what gives glory to God, what is pleasing to God and what delights the
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Lord. When we're looking to do those things, then we're not fighting and quarreling with one another because all of us are kind of doing that together and then we glorify
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God together. Brotherly love spreads throughout the church, throughout the body of believers.
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Perhaps you've heard this illustration before that if a husband and a wife are pursuing
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God together, then they're drawing closer together. You draw this out like a triangle. You have
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God at the top of the triangle. You've got the husband on one side and the wife on the other. So as the two of them are drawing closer to God, they draw closer to one another.
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The two sides of the triangle get closer to each other as you're pointing up to God. And if you can imagine this, while I'm on this side of the microphone,
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I'm actually making this gesture with my hands, with my fingers. I'm talking this out.
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So perhaps you've heard that as it pertains to a husband and a wife. Or maybe you've heard it as an engaged couple, a boyfriend or a girlfriend.
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There are things that the two of you should not be engaging in right now. As it says in Song of Solomon, do not awaken love until the proper time.
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So as the two of you are running headlong to the Lord, as you are pursuing God, you will draw closer together.
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So we hear this in the man -woman intimate relationship sort of aspect. We'll apply this to the church.
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Same sort of concept. If all of us as a church are pursuing God, we are glorifying
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God, worshiping God together. We are seeking what delights the Lord. And as we do that, all pursuing
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God, then we're all drawing closer together. And in fact, the
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Apostle Paul creates this very word picture in Ephesians 4 beginning in verse 11.
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He says, He gave the apostles and the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the
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Son of God, to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.
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Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
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So this is the very picture that Paul is creating here. As we are joined together into the head who is
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Christ, we're all joined together. We're building the body up in love.
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So let us pursue Christ, drawing near to the Lord, and in doing so, we're drawing near to one another.
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And it helps to solve those quarrels, those problems that are arising in the body, when we are fighting with one another, which should not be.
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These things should not be happening. And once again, as I said, James is finishing up a context that began in chapter 2, where there he talked about the tongue being a fire.
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And with the tongue, we bless God, but we curse those that are made in the likeness of God.
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My brothers, these things should not be. So if we're pursuing the righteousness of God, if we are drawing near to God, then there should not be this fighting and quarreling that's going on within the body of believers.
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If such things are happening, then it's because we are not pursuing God. We're pursuing our own interests.
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We are asking God for things, but not receiving because we ask wrongly to pursue our own passions, to feed our own passions.
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That's what we're asking the Lord for, instead of what is best for the body of believers. And again,
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I come back to something that Paul says in Philippians chapter 2, verse 3, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
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Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. I've heard somebody say once that if it doesn't matter who gets the credit, there's really no limit to the things that we can accomplish as the body of Christ.
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Are you doing what you do in the church among the body of believers because you want to be recognized for it?
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Hey, somebody give me some love. Show me some gratitude here. Give me some praise and make sure
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I get the recognition for what it was that I just did. Or do you do what you do for the body of Christ regardless of whether or not anybody says anything about it.
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Now, I would still put it on the body of believers that if there is somebody who is doing something and making some great sacrifices,
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I think that he should be thanked before the body so that everybody is aware that this person has been doing this work.
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And so we all know to praise and kind of lift up that person, lift their spirits, so to speak, and thanking them with proper gratitude for the work that it is that they have done.
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We as a body of believers need to be aware of those kinds of personal sacrifices that are being made in the body.
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But for you yourself, when you are working for the body of Christ, don't think of doing what it is that you do so that you can gain some recognition for it.
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It's not about you. It is service to the Lord. You know that God is watching you. And ultimately, everything that we do is supposed to be first to the service of the
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Lord, even with your job, even in the way that you serve in your family, the way that you love your spouse, the way that you serve your children, that you lead in your family, whether that's the discipline of your children or the way that husbands, the way that you are the spiritual provider for your bride, wives, the way that you submit to your husbands and even encourage him in his pursuits, in his job, and some of these kinds of things.
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In all of these things that we do within the family, we are first serving the Lord. God sees each and everything that we do, even if we don't feel like we're receiving the proper recognition from our spouse or from our children.
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We are serving the Lord Christ. And so this also applies to the way that we do our job.
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And the Apostle Paul says this in Colossians 3, you are serving the Lord Christ before you are serving men.
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So the way that you do your job, perhaps your attitude about your work is, I'm only going to do the amount of work that I think that the paycheck that I receive requires, and that's it.
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I'm only doing the bare minimum according to my pay, and that's all. It's not the right attitude to have because you need to work with your whole self to the pleasure of God, pleasing the
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Lord, knowing that He is looking upon you, even though nobody else sees you, and perhaps your paycheck doesn't reflect the amount of work that you do at your job.
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Can you stand before the Lord and say, I did faithfully and responsibly what would have pleased you.
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And that's how we need to approach any task that we do, whether it's with our job, within our family, within our church, within our community, the way that we help friends, family, neighbors, or strangers.
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Let it all be done to the glory of God. And the reason why in a church, fights and quarrels will break out is because we're not working and serving to the glory of God.
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In chapter 2 was where James talked about faith without works is a dead faith.
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If we see somebody in our brotherhood, if a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body.
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What good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead. So if we say that we love one another in the body of Christ, we need to show that love in service to one another, even if it means, and especially if it means that we're not going to receive anything in return, because that's what love is.
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We love unconditionally, not to get anything in return, but because we're serving the Lord Christ first and foremost.
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Yeah, I've heard, who is it? DC talk back in the 90s. Okay, the free at last album. First song on that album.
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Love is a verb. There you go. So if you're going to say that you love somebody, there's got to be action behind it.
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Otherwise, the statements that you make, the doctrine that you hold, the things that you claim that you believe, faith without works is a dead faith.
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And then it's in chapter 3, where James says that it's with our tongue. We boast of many great things.
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Very selfish, right? If you're boasting, if you're prideful, it's all about you. We get to chapter 4, where James gives a warning about worldliness.
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And this is what we've been reading. And we've got fights and quarrels still erupting among brothers and sisters in Christ because we're pursuing worldly things instead of pursuing
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God, instead of pursuing what glorifies God, instead of storing up our treasures in heaven, instead of on earth, for where your treasure is there, your heart will be also.
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So if you are longing for glory, with God forever in His heaven, if that's what you are longing for, then your heart is there, and you are showing kindness to the members of the body of Christ because you know that everything that we are doing here as a part of this body is in preparation for glory.
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And all of the things that we suffer and endure here on this earth cannot compare to what awaits us in glory, which
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Paul talks about in Romans chapter 8. So once again, however far
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I've rabbit -trailed on this, do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law.
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But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. And what is being talked about here,
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James is talking about judging one another in an improper way. This is not encouragement and admonishment the way that Paul talks about in Colossians chapter 3.
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To admonish means to correct with goodwill. That's not what James is talking about. To admonish is itself a judgment, but here we're talking about judgment as a condemnation.
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And if we're condemning one another, especially when it's over insignificant, petty things, once again, this is not in the same context as, say, 1
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Corinthians chapter 5, where Paul is talking about purging the evil person from among you.
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That's a different instruction entirely. There is a judgment that must happen there.
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If we're talking about a brother or sister in the body who is guilty of sexual immorality, greed, an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler,
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Paul says, do not even eat with such a one. Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?
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God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you. So that's a church discipline matter totally different than what is being talked about here.
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This person is not doing their job as well as I could do it, and so they need to be removed from this position and let me do this job.
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Or I need to show this person how to do it. Or I need to do it because I will get greater recognition for it, which is probably the reason why you're so upset with your brother or sister anyway is because you want the recognition for that job instead of the recognition that they're getting for that job.
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And it's because of the selfish pursuits that we have that causes fights and quarrels among us.
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It causes us to speak evil of one another and we make judgments of one another that should not be.
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Does nothing to benefit the body or build one another up in love. And so we speak evil against one another and then we're also speaking against the law because as James has already said that the royal law is love your neighbor as yourself.
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That's James 2 verse 8. And so we're speaking against the law when we don't love our neighbor as ourselves.
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We are already inclined to love ourselves because we're selfish people as we love ourselves.
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So we should instead direct that love toward one another. And if we are not loving others more significantly than ourselves, then we are judging the law and we are speaking against the law.
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Verse 12. There is only one law giver and judge he who is able to save and to destroy.
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But who are you to judge your neighbor? So James talks about the law and it's in Leviticus 19 where we first see the command to love your neighbor as yourself.
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Look at that in context too and you see some deeper instructions there. Leviticus 19, 16 through 18.
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You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor.
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I am the Lord. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor lest you incur sin because of him.
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In other words, you sin because of bitterness in your heart or you cause your neighbor to sin because they have bitterness toward you.
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You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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I am the Lord. It is the Lord that has decreed this. If we desire to worship and please
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God, we will love our neighbor. In Matthew 22, the
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Pharisees asked Jesus, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?
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And you can tell the way that they ask that question that they're talking specifically about the Decalogue or what we know as the
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Ten Commandments. So of those Ten Commandments that were heard by all of Israel at Mount Sinai, which is the greatest commandment?
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And Jesus said to them, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
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This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Now understand what
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Jesus was saying here. The Ten Commandments are basically split into two. The first four commandments are vertical commandments.
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They deal with man's relationship with God. The next six commandments are horizontal commandments.
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Man's relationship with man. This is referred to as the first and second table of the law. So basically,
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Jesus' answer was this. Which one's the greatest commandment? Well, I'm going to go with Commandments 1, 2, 3, and 4.
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And then, you know what? Commandments 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. That was basically
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Jesus' response. The first and second table of the law, it's all important. You'll love the
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Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. If you're doing that, you're obeying the first four commandments. And you will love your neighbor as yourself.
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And if you're doing that, you're obeying the next six commandments. And if we do not obey those commandments, if we do not love our neighbor, then we become a judge of the law.
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We're saying, you know what? This law doesn't apply to me. I don't have to do this. And then we will incur judgment on ourselves.
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There is only one lawgiver and judge. He who is able to save and to destroy.
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But who are you to judge your neighbor? Who are you to condemn your neighbor? Brothers and sisters in Christ, we should be defending one another and sticking up for one another.
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Encouraging, loving, strengthening, growing together into him who is the head,
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Christ Jesus, over the church. Who gave himself up for us. Laid his life down for the church.
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Purifying us by the washing of water through the word. Getting all of this from Ephesians chapter 5, by the way, we go back to this illustration of husband and wife.
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The way that a husband loves his wife, the way that a wife submits to her husband, is the way that Christ loves the church, laying his life down for her, and the church loves
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Christ, submitting to him. So again, James chapter 4 verse 7, submit yourselves therefore to God.
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Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
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Let me conclude with Psalm 50. So in this Psalm, God speaks and summons the whole earth, so therefore, he expects all of mankind to listen to him.
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And he says to Israel that they should not become dependent upon the sacrificial system that they have to earn the righteousness of God, but they need to have a heart for the
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Lord. And so I want to read this Psalm so that we would understand that, you know, our religious practices are not what brings favor to God.
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The fact that you go to church or read your Bible, even listening to this podcast, or pray a certain way, these kinds of things are not what is pleasing to the
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Lord. We need to have a heart for God, and we also need to have a heart for his people, and God addresses that in this
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Psalm. Psalm 50, The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
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Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. Our God comes.
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He does not keep silence. Before him is a devouring fire. Around him a mighty tempest.
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He calls to the heavens above and to the earth that he may judge his people. Gather to me my faithful ones who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.
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The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge.
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Selah. Hear, O my people, and I will speak. O Israel, I will testify against you.
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I am God, your God. Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
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I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds. For every beast of the forest is mine.
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The cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills and all that moves in the field is mine.
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If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
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Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and perform your vows to the Most High. And call upon me in the day of trouble.
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I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. But to the wicked
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God says, What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips?
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For you hate discipline and you cast my words behind you. If you see a thief, you are pleased with him and you keep company with adulterers.
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You give your mouth free reign for evil and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother.
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You slander your own mother's son. These things you have done and I have been silent. You thought that I was one like yourself, but now
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I rebuke you and lay the charge before you. In other words, when that person was speaking against their brother and slandering their mother's son, they thought that they were doing so to the pleasure of God.
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They thought that God was on their side. But now, the Lord says, I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.
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Mark this then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart and there be none to deliver.
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The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me.
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To one who orders his way rightly, I will show the salvation of God.
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Once again, draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
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Let us pray. Our God, as we wrap these things up today, I pray that we would be convicted in our hearts to love the people that you have loved.
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That you died for to redeem to yourself. You redeemed us to you. While we were lost sinners, you died for us so that we would be reconciled back to God and also reconciled to the people of God.
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So if we love God, we should also love his people. Loving one another.
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Let us look out for the interests of others. Doing what is good for their benefit.
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Building one another up. Not looking for recognition for something that would benefit ourselves but for the betterment of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
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You have shown such patience with us. And so let us show patience and love toward one another with the same grace that you have showed to everybody in your church.
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Let us do this for each other. As we grow in this process of holiness and sanctification in the name of Christ in whose name we pray.
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Amen. This is a production of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.