We love to ask, what is the greatest, or who is the greatest? Sometimes it's, what's the greatest sports player? What's the greatest basketball player? LeBron or Jordan? What's the greatest football player, or soccer player we say here? Messi or Ronaldo, who's the greatest? What's the greatest kingdom of the world? If we were to land up all the kingdoms in the history of the world. Oh well America has had the most power, but what about England? They've had the most land. What about Rome? They've reigned for the greatest amount of time. If you ask, what's the greatest president? Was it Lincoln? Was it Washington? We won't name any other current ones. So we like to ask the question, what is the greatest? Who is the greatest? What's the biggest mountain? Who is the fastest runner? Who is the greatest at this and that? Well, we do the same with the Bible. What is the greatest commandment? That's a good question, right? It's a fair question. And so let's ask, what is the greatest question today? And let's see what the answer is from the Bible. Let's see, ask the greatest question, or what is the greatest commandment, and let's ask our Savior here. And so today we're going to look at verses 28 to 34. God willing at this time, in the morning, we're going to look at verses 28 to 30. And then we'll do part two this evening, God willing, with verses 31 to 34. And so if you have an outline, you're both in the follow along. So today in this morning, we're going to cover the scribes' good question and Christ's great answer, the first part of Christ's great answer. And then tonight we'll look at the second part of Christ's great answer, the scribes' wise response, and the statement that you're not far from the kingdom. So verses 28 to 30 this morning, so we're going to see the scribes' good question. So in order to understand the context, we're going to again look at the surrounding context and remember where we're at. If you remember we're in the Book of Mark, so we're switching from second Corinthians from your regularly scheduled programming, to fit in here now in the Gospel of Mark. Where are we in Mark? And so if you remember the Book of Mark, it can be outlined like three books on a shelf with two little bookstops, bookshelves, whatever stops the books from falling over. Book ends, thank you. And so we have chapters 1 to the end of 8, more or less, it's giving the Jesus' ministry in Galilee. The little book end that holds up that is the introduction, the prologue, that introduces us from John the Baptist in verse 1, verse 8 verses. The second book on the shelf is going to be Jesus' Road to Jerusalem. So that takes more or less, it goes from chapters 9 to 10. And then we have 11 to 15 that's going to take us into Jerusalem and then all the way to the cross. And then the last book end is going to be the resurrection in chapter 16. And so we're here now in this last book, this last book, the three books on the shelf. We're looking, we're on the road to the, we're after the road to the cross, we are into Jerusalem. We're into Jerusalem and if you flip through your pages in the Bible, you see in chapter 11 and verses 1 to 11, how Jesus comes in the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We see him come with a fig tree that is withered in verses 12 to the, about around 26. And in between there Jesus cleans the temple. And so Jesus cleansing the temple and this fig tree that he curses and withers is a great statement of the emptiness of the religion in Jerusalem and how it's a great failure, it's a great failure to be, and so the fig tree that he curses is picturing the temple that he cleanses out and how the religion is worthless, how the true temple is there and how he's rejected and cast aside. And so after this event, this puts the persecution on steroids. This puts the persecution is now, from the religious leaders, they're going to go out and all out attack on Jesus. And so they can't do that physically because he has the great movement of the crowds and the crowds are enjoying his teaching and they're crying, Hosanna, they're thinking they're wanting a political kingdom to come and they're excited that there's a potential Messiah here in their eyes. And so picking up in the story, we begin in verse 11 verse 27 where we see the first of six confrontations. In verses 27 to 33, the chief prescribes and elders, they come and they come with an accusation of authority. Where do you get the authority to do these things? And then Jesus responds, destroying their arguments and establishing his own. In chapter 12 verses 1 to 12, he begins to tell them a parable of the wicked vine dressers and he does so teaching them of their rebellion against his true authority. And then in chapter 12 verses 13 to 17, the Pharisees and Herodians come and unlikely matching and they come together in order to try and question him, trap him with a question about taxes. But Jesus masterfully refutes their arguments by describing the truth to them about giving to Caesar the things that are Caesar and God the things that are God's. Then the next attack comes in the Sadducees in verses 18 to 27 and they come about the resurrection, not believing in the resurrection and Jesus masterfully opens the Old Testament and quotes how God spoke in verse 26 saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He's not the God of the dead but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken. And so Jesus is in the midst of a battle. Jesus is in the midst of having religious leaders attack him and he's doing so and it's recorded for us so that we would worship him. We would worship Jesus Christ and we would see from his great wisdom, his great explanation of truth. There's something that a difficult time or controversy brings out that is worthy to be worshiped. And here we see Jesus Christ worthy to be worshiped as he makes the truth clear by allowing these controversies and allowing them and so we have another. The fifth of the six controversies we focus in on and we read in verse 28, the scribes good question. Then one of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that he had answered them well. He said, yes, which is the first commandment of all? Go ahead and turn over to Matthew's account and we want to fill in the details from Matthew's account in chapter 22. We'll pick up in verse 34. This particular story we find it in Matthew and in Mark. It adds an interesting detail of the scribes good question here. When it says in verse 34, Matthew 22 verse 34, but when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them said, a lawyer asked him a question, testing him and saying, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law. Okay, so coming back to Mark now. We observe in Matthew, I said there's been this meeting, this meeting of the Pharisees, and one of them, a lawyer, volunteers to go and he volunteers to test Jesus. So when we compare the two, it's a little difficult to how they go together because one, in Mark's account, we see the good side of this scribe and then Matthew, we see the bad side of this scribe. And so putting these together, we can observe that it's how it may have gone together. Probably it seems as though they went together, the Pharisees coming together to plan to trap Jesus. Somebody says, I'll ask him a good question. I'll ask him a question and we'll see how he answers. And as this lawyer, this scribe, this expert of the law, we've seen who's coming now to him and then we see why he asks. He asks with a mix of testing Jesus, but then what does Mark say? Again, in verse 28, perceiving that he had answered them well.  We're on Tuesday, approximately Tuesday or Wednesday of Passion Week. We're only a couple of days from the cross. And so Jesus, this scribe, hearing Jesus respond to all these things, it seems as though Jesus has won over this scribe in some way, in some form. He originally coming to trap Jesus and now he seems to be perceiving that he's answered all things biblically, all things well. So we're looking at who's coming. We're looking at why he's coming to Jesus. We're thinking about what he heard when he's hearing Jesus. He begins to see some of the sin in his own group of the Pharisees. And so you know when like a baseball pitcher comes up to throw a ball and he decides, you know, I'm just going to throw this one right down the plate. I'm going to throw it as fast as I can, but I'm just going to throw it down the middle of the plate and we'll see if he hits it. Out of respect, I won't throw it slow. I'm going to see if I can throw it past him, but I want to see if he's going to hit it. And so this kind of way, this scribe comes with something evil, want to throw one by him and yet something good. I'm going to see if he's going to hit it. I'm not going to give him an attack, a trap question where there's no good answer. I'm going to give him a good question. I'm going to give him a good question and see how he answers. And so it is a good question. It's not like a question just trying to attack. It is a good question. And so what is the question then? What is the question? And so in verse 28, the question is which is the first commandment of all? What is the top in the rank of questions? If we could rank all the questions by number, what would be number one? What is the greatest of the commandments? If we could take, the scribes would say there's 613 commandments. 248 of them are positive. Do this. 365 of them are negative. Don't do this. What is the king of the commandments? What's on the top of the pile? What is the one that we're to look to? And in Jesus' time, this was a common question. If you're reading the Gospels in Luke 10, somebody else asked this question another time to Jesus. And another scenario. We have in rabbinical writings where they would debate and answer this question from Rabbi Simeon sent through centuries before responding and writing about this question. Hallel, who was well known in the time in his school of Hallel, was asked this question. Someone came in and asked this question, what's the greatest commandment? And he said, if you tell me in a short enough time, in the way he asked it, he said, I'm going to stand on one foot. If you can tell me what the summary, the greatest commandment of is, before I fall from my one foot. So tell me in a brief way, in a succinct way, tell me what is the greatest commandment. And so we see here, and we learn here about our religion from this commandment. We learn a great lesson by what is our greatest commandment as well. Okay, so now that we've seen verse 28, we've seen the scribe's good question. Let's begin to get into Christ's great answer. In verses 29 to 30.  This is the first commandment. So here's the truth, clearly stated. Let's begin to observe it. Let's begin to analyze it. Let's begin to meditate upon what Jesus says here. We love that Jesus is answering, and Jesus is answering clearly. He's answered much in a much shorter time than Hillel. We could hear his whole response while we're on one foot, right? So he begins by describing who God is, and then he describes how we're to live towards him. We are to love him. We are to love God. So first we look at who he is in verse 29, and then what we're to do in verse 30. Here's the fundamental heart of Judaism in the day. We remember this call, the first of all the commandments. He's quoting Deuteronomy 6, the Shema. Here always real, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. This is the text that they would put in the phylacter for Esor. They put on the little boxes that they would wrap around their hands and around their head. This is the verse that they would put in a little box by the door. So the idea is as you would look at the time, at your wrist, you would remember, as you would walk out the door, you would remember this great statement of who God is. And it would call to your mind this great commandment as well that we are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts and soul and mind. DeVal, Jews still recite this verse the morning and evening. So what is it describing? This great declaration is describing who our God is using His covenant name, Yahweh to describe the audience. Who should be listening? Hero Israel. Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. What's in a name, right? What's in a name? This name is communicating here that God is one. He is self-existent. He is the only one who is existed. We've talked before about His Asiety, about how God is the one who is the only one who exists, who has always existed. And He doesn't look to anything else as Creator. Everything else looks to Him as Creator. Everything else has their source in Him. Whether it's an angel, a mountain the ground beneath our feet the stars of the sky all of the universe finds its origin in Him that He is the only one who is self-existent. This name communicates His sovereignty that because He has this place He is the only one who decides what happens in all of history in all of His world with all of His creation. He is the one who rules and reigns over everything He's made. Absolute authority goes to Him. Absolute history is His. All that exists whether spiritual or physical is His. All that exists whether philosophical or whether laws of logic or math that we discover it is all His and from Him and to Him are all things and so because He's self-existent because He is the one that is sovereign and king over all this universe in all of time He's the one who we must be careful how we worship we must worship as He described we were to worship Him we must not use any sort of created image in order to worship Him because if we use any image if we use any thing of creation to try and worship Him and say like Israel here's an image worship your God by this image in order to help you that is a lie it's a lie and we're telling a lie about who God is because we're holding up a creature of any sort or fashion whether it's a painting of a saint or whether it's a statue of a calf and we're saying worship your God but we're telling a lie about who this God is and so this name is communicating many things it's communicating God's self-existence it's communicating God's sovereignty it's communicating His covenant relationship with His people when He declared it this is a name He's saying that this name is for you, my people it is not for all like my name like Benjamin will hear other people say Pastor Marcos and so sometimes in the house he'll say oh Pastor Marcos and I'll say no no no that's not my name, what's my name and it is Daddy it's a name that only He can have it's a name for Him and so Yahweh in the declaration of the Shema is communicating that His covenant people His people may have this name and it communicates His fidelity His faithfulness to them many things that this communicates to us and when we think about how all sovereignty is His and all existence is from Him it means that we owe Him much we owe Him our existence we owe Him our love you exist because He declared that you would exist all authority that we have is authority derived from Him so if you have authority in your job you have authority at your home as a mother or a father you have authority in the government you have authority in the church you derive that authority from Him because all sovereignty and authority comes from Him and so all authority that we have needs to be faithfulness to Him and also in this great declaration it communicates that the Lord our God is one we don't worship three Gods we worship one God I remember S.O.S. Johnson in the sermon about this text describing how in Deuteronomy the words that are being used in Hebrew is communicating a compound unity that He could have in Moses or God in this declaration could have could have used a other words that would describe an absolute unity in other words what's what's described here in a subtle use of the language is that it allows for three persons and so but we have one God we don't believe in tritheism we don't believe that there are three Gods and that we worship three fathers son and spirit as three separate Gods there is God as one essence revealed in three persons and so if we were asked like in the children's catechism are there more Gods than one the children should answer no, there is only one God if we ask the children and how many persons does this one God exist what should the children answer in three persons we want to teach this idea to our children right this great declaration that there is only one God we don't believe in modalism we don't believe that God comes in different forms that's another lie about who God is we don't worship three Gods and we don't worship one God that shows up in different forms in other words the father becomes the son and the son becomes the spirit like you have a cube of ice here who becomes a liquid and the liquid becomes a vapor and it's just the same water that turns into different forms no, we have three persons in one substance three persons in one power one eternity Charles Simeon said that these three persons do not act independent of each other like Thrytheism Thrytheism would be three separate persons acting independent of each other and so we have one God so we've seen who's coming we've seen why he's coming we've seen what he asks we've seen who the God that we're to love is the one true and living God and so here O'Clearnstone here O'Clearnstone the Lord our God the Lord is one and so what does he call you to do he calls you to love him you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength this is the first commandment we see the second part the second part of this one commandment there's two parts of the one commandment the second part says that you shall love your neighbors yourself there's no other commandment greater than these and so he says these plural in verse 31 and then he says singular in verse 30 this is the first commandment so this one commandment has two parts to it the first part love God it's a pretty simple thing right simple to say simple to write it's a lot harder to do easy to think about yeah love God when you go home talk to some of your family it sounds like the kids answer right let's begin to meditate upon it and it's the depth of it that humbles us and teaches us the important lessons the simplicity of it we enjoy and we like the depth of it is difficult and profound in verse 30 here's the definition I'm going to give you a definition of love from Stuart Scott and I want you to write it down I'm going to say it slow and I'm going to repeat it so that you can write it down and then I'm going to expand the definition in order to help you think about what it means what Jesus is saying here so here's the definition love is a selfless and enduring commitment of the will a selfless and enduring commitment of the will to care about and benefit another person to care about and benefit another person by righteous truthful and compassionate thoughts, words and actions so once more love is a selfless and enduring commitment of the will to care about and benefit another person by righteous truthful and compassionate thoughts, words and actions this is a comprehensive commitment Jesus is saying this all the law is going to hang on this why is this the greatest commitment because this commitment to love God to have a selfless and enduring commitment of the will to God to care about God and benefit God with righteous behavior, with righteous thoughts with truthful righteous truthful and compassionate thoughts, words and actions to act this way towards God is above all other goods in this life this is greater than all other pleasures there is nothing in comparison to God and so to love Him above all else is the greatest good that's why this is the greatest commitment is the greatest good why is it the greatest commitment because when you look in time before all of time before God made the world this commandment stood as the persons of the trinity loved one another with a perfect love so this commandment is the greatest because God is greater than all other things and he is in this greater because when we look at time it is the oldest of the commandments it is the greatest because God has the greatest value and to love Him above all else says to everyone else he is the one of greatest value he is the one of greatest worth he is the one who is worthy of worship this is the greatest commandment because to not do it is the greatest sin the greatest sin is not to love God and not to love your neighbor the second part of this greatest commandment do you do good and believe what is right only out of duty and not out of true love you understand we can sometimes we will obey and sometimes we will obey with all that we can and then when we look in the mirror we look at that obedience and that obedience is not all that God commanded it to be yes we have done something right and done something good done something holy but even as we look at the perfect standard of the law and then look at our obedience our obedience is not sufficient to this perfect standard of what God is calling us in this greatest commandment it does it takes all our efforts all the moral force that we can muster here when Jesus says that it needs to be done with all our heart soul all our mind all our strength Jesus is not here describing four completely other departments here as if we have a department of the soul and a department of the mind and a department of the strength and no he's describing overlapping terms here that are describing with all of our effort with all of our being with every part of us we need to love God we need to put our minds into it and think all that we can about God doesn't Pastor Rick push you to do that he doesn't think the way I think and so when he's describing things it pushes me when I listen to his sermons it pushes me to think a different way and to exercise my mind to love God you gotta love him with all your soul you gotta love him with all your heart everything in your mental faculties everything with your body all the strength that you've been given with all of the emotion that you have is to be given towards God he wants you to love him sincerely when you look at all these parts with integrity he doesn't want to fake it's something that only he sees in some aspects about your love for him why are you here today in this building did you come for him did you come to hear his voice did you come to hear his word did you come to pray to him you must love him supremely above everything else you must love him constantly at all times at all hours of the day when you wake up and when you sleep with all of your inner life with all of your will you have to love him in a selfless way you're gonna have to deny yourself that's the greatest commandment here to love God with all your heart soul and mind and you're gonna have to look at yourself in the mirror and when you desire something to love him you'll have to say no you'll have to be enduring with it it's gonna be difficult you have to persevere with it you'll have to be committed by your will your will will have to have an iron grip upon God and say I will love him above all else you have to care about him his desires his will, his plans what would benefit him above yourself above others only then when you do that make that commitment to him can you help others can you love others you must be guided by him in the way he wants to be loved how does he want to be loved what is a righteous way to love him he tells us by giving the rest of the law the rest of the moral law is communicating to us how he wants to be loved he says not to have any other gods he wants you to love him by in that way that is love for him that your true object of worship what you truly exalt in what you truly love above all else is him you must worship him as holy holy holy you can't use a graven image you can't use some sort of image to worship him you can't describe how you feel about him you must use the bible and the words that he has given that describe him in a way that our mind can see and not our eyes that's how he wants to be loved he wants you to love him by revering his name using his name in a holy way not saying oh my but not only not committing a blasphemy with his name but he wants you to speak about him wherever you go to seek to glorify him in conversations at all times he wants you to remember this day he wants you to remember one day out of seven and set it aside he wants to be loved by name he wants to be loved by the correct understanding of who he is he doesn't want you to replace him with something else with another god or another idea of career money or family or any other thing and he wants you to have his time he wants you to set aside this time here today to worship him with all your heart and all your soul and all your minds you have to ask yourself do you love truce about god and defending truce about god more than loving god you must love the truce about god in order to love god there's no other way to know him apart from his word you must love defending him it's necessary and we're called to and apart from that we will lose the truce about god but what are these things why do these things exist why do we defend the truce why do we love truce about god so that we may love him it is very easy to do something religious it's hard to actually love god as you do it it's easier to read your bible it's easier to come to church it's easier to pray than it is to love god you can do all those things and out of ritual and not love god this greatest commandment this greatest commandment is beautiful to look at it's hard to put on it is hard to put on you come to church but do you love him you pray do you love him you evangelize but do you love him you give but do you love him many times to the commandment it shines like the sun or something that reflects the sun when you say the commandment reveals a light that blinds me that blinds me that shows me my sin without loving him you can do no other commandment truly all other good works without loving him are not good works if you love people if you don't have true the true god with true doctrine and love him truly in a true way with all your heart with all your soul with all your might you can do no other good thing but once we love him truly we have the heart to obey all other commandments we can say truly now he has had mercy and compassion upon me the gospel is what gives us that heart to truly love him we don't love him perfectly and the gospel reveals that to us that we do not love him perfectly so this is what we have to look at today these are the truths described with a good question the application is key we need to spend more time now to move away from the exposition away from what it says now for me to take more time to say what is it how should it apply to you because leaving the cold commandment here will only send you to hell this commandment just laid out before you like I said is beautiful to look at like a like a beautiful set of clothes that once you put it on you can't bear the weight of it it may look nice it may even look nice on someone else but then once you try and put it on yourself you find yourself hopelessly unable so how should we apply this if this is the cold truth that you are to love God with all your heart soul and mind how should you apply it four ways four ways write them down one it shows us who God is two it shows us our sin three it shows us our need for a savior and fourth it gives us the guide of how to live so first it reveals who God is when you look at this commandment that we are to love him what does it teach us about God God would give us this commandment and he would say this one this one is the greatest one well it says something about God it says that he is deserving of love it says that it is our greatest good that it would be our greatest good in our lives if we love him above all else because of how worthy he is for anyone else to say love me it would be egotism it would be selfishness it would be a perversion but because God is the one who deserves all love and we exist for him it is our greatest good that he would give us this commandment because he is the greatest good it tells us that he is the one who is worthy of all love beyond our understanding he is worthy of love because of his greatness this commandment shows us his authority this commandment shows his holiness this commandment shows his purity this commandment shows his wisdom and how to show love to us by giving us the commandment to love him this commandment shows displays his omniscience his truthfulness and his faithfulness his sufficiency his kindness it shows he is our captain he is our prophet we hear the truth from him he is our priest he is our king he is our redeemer he has humbled himself to become our brother in humanity he is the husband to the church and he is worthy of all love when a man looks at Christ when a man looks at the means that God has given to love him the word of God when a man looks at the word of God when a man looks at church when a man looks at God and says, ah, he's not worth worshiping that says more about the man than it does about God like, I don't know anything about art like, I heard this is a great museum in Paris I probably never go there but I've heard it's really good what is it, the Lou? is that what it is? yeah, that's how you say it so then, what's there? the Mona Lisa and some of the greatest works in the history of the world so if I go there and I say, ah, that painting looks like I think Benjamin painted something that looks like that and I walk around and I say why there's no arms on this statue that doesn't make any sense whatsoever to me and I walk through at the end and I say you know that was a waste of time that says more about me than it does about the art I'm ignorant about those things I wouldn't know a good work of art if it hit me in the head so I need to be informed I need to be taught I need to learn what is good and what is right and why there are things in there are worthy to be looked at and so it's the same with us and God for us to say in our cold hearts you know, I'm happier if I worship something else I don't believe God I don't believe that well when you believe the lies of sin it says more about you than it does about God God is worthy to be esteemed worshipped and loved above all the things and so this describes who our God is and so what does it say about us what does it say about us you were given the ability to love because you were to love him he made you for this purpose you are different, you are not an animal you are different than the animals and so he's given you this very ability so that you would love him his great worth of God the commandment reveals God's great worth but then it reveals your great sin if I were to come today and tell you you are guilty guilty of the worst sin that God has described as the worst sin you have not loved him with all your with all your might the commandment crushes you it must crush you when you look at your own life your own life is a history of not obeying this commandment when you look in your mind when you look in your soul when you look at what you've used for your strength you have not obeyed this commandment for one day one 24 hour period you have not obeyed this commandment for this sermon this sermon you have not obeyed this commandment you do obey it for 15 minutes can you obey this commandment for 5 minutes can you love him with everything in your being with all your soul all your might all of the time and even do it for 5 minutes without an evil thought without a prideful thought without sin it's easy to come to church and slide into church mode and conform conform to the culture conform to what everyone else is doing and try and posture yourself as someone righteous we're not here to pretend that we're righteous we're not sitting here together to pretend like we're better than the people who were at the club or we're not we're here to hear the truth and the truth is we are guilty of the greatest sin in the bible and so what does this commandment tell us this commandment not only tells us who God is and only tells us what our guilt is this commandment tells us about our need for Christ this commandment teaches us about our savior when Jesus came and took on flesh he loved the Father he loved the spirit with all of his soul with all of his might with all of his strength all of the time in every word he did in every action in every thought he was righteous in every way that you failed look at 1 John 4 verses 9-10 about 2 years ago I preached the sermon on these texts we just want to remember how this commandment points us to these truths again in 1 John 4 we read in verse 7 beloved let us love one another for love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God he who does not love does not know God for God is love in this the love of God was manifested toward us that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him in this is love not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins beloved if God so loved us we also ought to love one another look at how God's love is manifested look at how God's love is revealed in verse 9 it's revealed towards us by him sending his only begotten son the father has loved us even though we did not love him what love is this that we can live through him that he would send a righteous son who would be the propitiation for our sins he would take the wrath of God that we deserve we have not loved him because you have commit the greatest sin you deserve for God to abandon you you deserve for God to leave you alone you know when someone hurts you in your past and you have said I won't spend time with them I will be away from them they are hurtful and they are unloving God should have done the same with you you have commit the greatest sin against him more than anyone has committed against you God should have abandoned you to be left to your depravity to your solitary to live in the disobedience to the greatest commandment but look at his love look at the love that he didn't abandon you rather he pursued you by sending his only begotten son this great commandment not only displays God's righteousness not only displays our sin God himself puts this commandment on display God himself loves in a perfect way because he loves he must judge all sin and so today are you found in him are you do you find your hope in him this this text this great commandment reveals your sin whether you feel guilty or not whether you see it or not it is reveals your sin it reveals you are a guilty sinner and God is a righteous God so stop and admit the truth that you need a savior and Christian you need to live off the gospel you need to live off of these truths when your own sin is revealed that you don't love God as you should Christian where will you find hope and comfort you must find hope and comfort that God loves the sinner and sends his son for the sinner we find our hope in the gospel not simply in our own the strength of our own repentance and so we sing and we say glory to his name we say glory to our savior we say what love has he poured out on us what great things he has done for us and how he has had compassion on us when he should have abandoned us and yet he died he sends his son to die on the cross in our place and only by this work by taking the wrath of God in that place and in that time it has a substitute for us those of us who believe upon him those of us who repent of our sin we have this great hope in his love in the gospel it's the freest love no one made him do it he didn't have to do it he took the initiative he made the plan he wrote the gospel he came personally his love is the truest love there is no hypocrisy in it in every percentage 100% perfect his love is the strongest love no one has had a love like him his love is the surest love it's displayed in what he has done in what he is doing for you now and what he will do in the future and Christian you know many of those gospel truths of what he has done what he is doing now and what he will do how he has justified how he is sanctifying you how he is interceding for you how he will glorify you how he will hold you fast to the end and so thinking about how to apply this great commandment thinking about how to apply this great commandment we are informed how to worship our true God and who he is we learn who God is we learn who we are and we are guilty of the greatest sin we learned about the gospel the commandment drives us to Jesus the commandment teaches us go to Jesus and then the commandment gives us light for our lives you want to follow Christ do you you want to be a Christian do you well start this way continue this way grow this way love him more love him more don't just pray pray and love him don't just evangelize do it and love him don't just come to church do it and love him through these things that he's given to you in order to love him humble yourself ask yourself where are the areas where I can grow and love for God is it work is it school is it my family is it church is it in private is it in prayer is it in public is it in witness where ask God to show you by his word and by the counsel of others where can you grow where can I grow in love for my God plead with him in prayer if you don't feel any guilt from this sin then plead with God to reveal it to you because you need God to show you in your own soul and your own life your own sin so that you may grow so that you may love him we are never done with this commandment we all must desire to grow and the Christian desires to have the light of the law to guide us in this in the true faith when we truly repent and believe we are given a true love for him and it is the mother of fruits in the Christian faith it is the most beautiful of the fruits to love him with all your heart and with all your soul and our love is not a perfect love but it is a true love it is a true love and that is what changes from a false Christian to a true it changes to be a true love for Jesus Christ we are able to obey this truth in difficult times in pain we are able to obey God we are able to obey God in trials because we love him we are able to obey him because in pain because we love him and so I say again what great things the Lord has done for you and had compassion upon you shouldn't we grow in desiring for him to come back covering for a lot of sermons on eschatology right in classes on eschatology how do you apply this commandment in eschatology you are to desire for his presence to desire for him to come back with all of your heart with all of your soul with all of your strength it is your duty it is your privilege to love him it is your honor to love him it is it makes you wise if you love him it makes you excellent if you love him the best thing that somebody could say about you is that that person loves God it is your necessity to love him you must do it it makes you useful to him you become useful to the body when you love him useful to others and useful to him it is your greatest delight Christian nothing would make you happier than to love him more you are made to love him and so loving him will make you the happiest Christian and by his spirit by his work and your soul in true salvation he has made you able to love him truly now in salvation and so ask yourself meditate upon Christ and his person you want to grow in love for Christ meditate upon Jesus and his work read the scripture and focus on Jesus Christ and focus on the gospel and you will grow in love for him pray that you would love him more trust him and you will love him more depend upon the spirit and you will love him more obey his commandments that is how he wants you to love him Jesus said if you love me you will keep my commandments love him by obeying his word love him by hating sin love him by growing in sincerity, willingness at all times to love him disciplines say no to the sin that comes up in you in order to love him this is my counsel to you to love him and so looking back to summarize we've seen this this confrontation this fifth of the sixth conversation passages in Mark we've seen who comes to him and we see what question he asks we've seen why he asks we've seen what Jesus says is the greatest commandment to see who God is and to love him with all your heart and soul all your mind with all your strength we've seen this commandment shows us who God is we've seen this commandment condemns us as guilty of the greatest sin and we see that Jesus is the one who has obeyed us in the greatest way in the gospel and all our hope is in him and we've seen how this commandment sheds light on how we are to live in every day in every way this commandment is beautiful hear it with a gospel truth hear it how it with the gospel so let's repent again believe in the gospel again and grow in our love for our great God let's pray we don't love you like we should we long to be with you we long for you to come back we long to be glorified so that we would love you perfectly today at this moment is not the day we're not the time we hope and pray that it would you would come back and so we pray help us Lord help us to see your great worth that you're worthy of love help us to grow in this help us to see our own guilt help us to admit it and not run away from it but to admit that we've not loved you like we should help us to find our hope for forgiveness not merely in in trying to love you more but in putting our hope in the gospel our trust in what you've done on the cross help us Lord help us to be guided by this great light that this is what you want from us to love you and help us to love you in all in your word by guided by your commandments thank you Lord for this day thank you that we've said this time help us to love you now in the baptisms help us to love you in the rest of this day help us to love you as we talk and encourage one another to love you through your word and us speaking your word to one another thank you Lord for this time and this time of worship we pray this way so that you would be loved Amen