♪ Of endless day ♪ O grant us, through grace, almighty Lord ♪ To read and mark your holy word ♪ As truths with weakness to be seen We come now to the reading of our text for this morning, Mark chapter 12, starting at verse 28 and reading through verse 34. The questions continue. Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees, and now a scribe, which is a very general term. Theoretically, a scribe could be a Sadducee or a Pharisee. So we get only the barest detail about this one now who comes and asks another question, a slightly different question. Mark chapter 12, beginning at verse 28, and we shall read through verse 34. Let us hear God's holy word. And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, Which commandment is the most important of all? Jesus answered, The most important is, here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and 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. The second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said to him, You are right, teacher. You have truly said that he is one and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength and to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions. So far the reading of God's holy word. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, there is a phrase from the Old Testament, which the Jews were supposed to recite every day. This was the the guidance, the tradition from the religious leaders. This verse was to be memorized from a young age. It was a required part of prayers, morning and evening prayers. It was an important phrase, an important verse. This was true for more than a hundred years before Jesus was born. This is true. for Orthodox Jews to this very day. What verse is that? Well, it is what is sometimes called the Shema. It is Deuteronomy 6 verse 4. It is the verse with which Jesus begins his answer in this passage. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And now this serves as the introduction. And Jesus combines this passage and the command in that passage in Deuteronomy chapter six in the very next verse. And he combines this with a verse from Leviticus as well. And he so answers the question about what is the most important commandment? And so we have here verses which Jesus is not explicitly saying that these traditions were a good thing. He's not saying, yes, these need to be part of a prayer every single day. But he is saying, look, here's a verse which you recognize as important, and I'm going to use it in my answer to this question. What is the most important command? And indeed, even as Jews still recite this prayer, Orthodox Jews every day, do we not also read these verses almost every week? It is the summary of the law. It is a distillation. It is in short form the summary of what God requires. It is important. It speaks to us regarding what important morals are, how they are defined, how they start. They start with God himself, the Lord God of Israel, who is one. But then, beyond important morals, Beyond this question and answer, there is a second part to our passage. A second part which makes it clear that understanding, understanding what the most important morals are is not enough. And scripture says that to us in many ways, but this, this stands out as a vivid and clear, clear teaching of that reality. Understanding important morals is not enough. And so we consider two points together this morning. First, most important command, and then the most important sacrifice. So what is this most important command? Let us note as we begin this, people of God, again, this is in a series of difficult questions. As J.C. Ryle said a long time ago, we can give thanks that these difficult questions were asked because now we have a treasure revealed to us, plainly written for us in the Gospels of seeing how Jesus answers these difficult questions. We might wish that a more difficult question and answers were recorded for us, but we give thanks that God even used these difficult questions to give us answers to these difficult matters. And so it's recorded for us. And before us now this morning, this question, not an easy question, which commandment is the most important of all? It had been counted very carefully that there were 613 commands in the Old Testament, including all of the ritual related commands. And so the scribes and Pharisees said, well, there's 613 commands. Which one is the most important? Well, that's not an easy question, but here we have for us the answer from Jesus himself. And he gives that answer combining those two passages, that so often repeated passage from Deuteronomy chapter 6 and also some words from Leviticus 19 verse 18. Notice this is often how Jesus answers questions. This is often how Jesus teaches, combining Old Testament images or verses or ideas and taking them into one truth together, showing how they are related, showing how they reveal truth to us. In this context, it is the very commands of God. And so he takes this verse from Deuteronomy 6 and this verse from Leviticus 19 and says, this is what summarizes for us. This is what summarizes for us what we are to do, love at the center. But of course, Jesus does this with regards to himself in a very beautiful way, time and time again. He combines Old Testament images from all different places throughout all of the Old Testament and shows us how they teach us about himself. And so this is commonly how Jesus teaches. And we see that Alan Cole has said this, that Jesus is quote, son, servant, son of man, Messiah and King, sacrificial lamb. Where are those images coming from? They're coming from the law. They're coming from the prophets. They're coming from Daniel. They're coming from the Psalms. They're coming from all of the Old Testament. And Jesus combines all of those images and says, look, I am. I am the son of man. I am the sacrificial lamb. I am the servant of Isaiah. I am the Messiah and King. I am the true son of David. Jesus combines all of these things. And so, as Jesus does that in his very person, in who he is, so he does it now. He combines these two Old Testament commands and says, this is how we summarize. This is how we can say, in a nutshell, what the most important command is. This is the definition of morality. And of course it begins with, it must begin with God. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. We so often read from Exodus 20 for for the 10-part summary of the law. How does Exodus 20 begin? And God spoke all these words saying. That is what must come at the beginning of these things. These things must be understood as God Himself defines them. They are correct. They make sense when we begin with God Himself. Otherwise, we could define love in all kinds of wrong ways. We could define neighbor in all kinds of wrong ways. But we begin with God himself. And then the first command is to love God with everything we have. That's the first command. Everything begins with God and the first command is to love God Himself. To love God with everything we have. To love God more than we love ourselves. To give everything for His honor, for His glory in worship and praise to Him. And so sometimes this is listed with three things. In Deuteronomy chapter six, it says, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. Jesus says it here with four words. In verse 30, he says, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. When the scribe essentially states it back to Jesus in verse 30, In verse 33, he says, with all your understanding, with all your strength, with all your heart. And so we see sometimes it's listed with three things, sometimes it's listed with four. Why is that? What's going on? It always comes down to this, love God with all you have. That's what it is. Jesus adds the word mind because In the Hebrew, you don't have to add that. In the Hebrew, when you say, love God with all your heart, the Hebrew word for heart is already including that very obviously. In Greek and in God's providence, in English, that connection is not as clear, and so it's helpful to add the word mind. But whether we're using three words or whether we're using four words, the point is this, love God with everything you have. Everything. Everything for Him. Everything to Him. Love God. So it is a command that all be given to God. And it is a command that in the second part that we would love our neighbor as ourselves, love your neighbor as yourself. Notice this is much different than the first part of the command. There is a balance here. You cannot love your neighbor less than yourself. That would be disrespectful. That would be selfish. You cannot love your neighbor more than yourself. That would be foolish and idolatrous. You love your neighbor as yourself. Why is this? Because we together with all of mankind are human beings made in the image of God. We all stand at this level. God is above all of us. We must never look down upon fellow human beings, nor stargaze up at fellow human beings. We are on the same level, and we are commanded to love all of our neighbors as we would love ourself. Not more, not less. This is much different than the first command, which is to give everything to God, to worship Him. And then, of course, to come back to the beginning, that all of this starts with hearing, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord who is one. Well, that reminds us again that these things cannot be turned into something apart from what God defines. So we cannot love our neighbor by defining love ourselves. We cannot love our neighbor by defining neighbor in our own way. This was done often in in Jewish circles, even the Jews of Christ's own day, they defined neighbor. They took Leviticus 19 and they said, oh, look, the sons of your own people are who you ought to love. And so we're commanded to love fellow Jews, but we're not commanded to love Gentiles. Although when we look at Leviticus 19 in context, it says, love, yes, the sons of your own people and also all those who sojourn. And of course, the Old Testament makes it clear that Abraham was to be a blessing to all nations. And then Jesus, of course, shatters any narrow view of this in In Luke chapter 10, when he gives the parable of the Good Samaritan, and there he defines who defines who neighbor is that ought to be loved. Jesus defines that. Jesus defines that. And when he gives the parable of the Good Samaritan, of course, that's the person who the Jews were most likely to hate. Jews and Samaritans did not get along. Jesus says, no. Your neighbor, I define who your neighbor is, and it's everyone. It's every fellow human being. And love, how is that defined? God defines love. Here, God. Here, the one who is one. Here, the one who is the God of truth. This is the summary. Love is essential, but who defines love? God defines all these things. God defines all these things. Now the scribe may have expected this answer to some degree. He may have expected this because that phrase from Deuteronomy chapter 6 was something which the Jews said every day. So he might have expected Jesus to see this as an important word. He also We also know that there was one scribe, lawyer is another name for scribe, who did understand this. In Luke 10, we have an interesting parallel passage. Before that Good Samaritan passage, Jesus is speaking to a lawyer, a different time, a different place, so it's not exactly a parallel, but these two commands are combined again. Because a lawyer, which is another word for scribe, comes to Jesus in Luke 10, beginning at verse 25, and says, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus turns it back to him and says, what is written in the law? How do you read it? And the scribe answered, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. So we know that this was sometimes at least understood. That these verses were often repeated, that this is something that was sometimes understood. We can almost say it this way. Remember this is the last in a series of questions and there were three foundations very important to Judaism. variously misunderstood as Jesus corrects the Pharisees, but not always completely misunderstood. And so they saw great importance in the temple, great importance in the people of Israel, great importance in the law. What has Jesus done? Jesus has corrected has corrected the misunderstanding of regarding the people of Israel. He says, let the Gentiles into my house of prayer. Let them hear. Jesus has corrected their views on the temple. He has said, no, this temple will be destroyed and you cannot depend merely upon this temple. And Jesus has corrected their views on the law, but not in exactly the same way. He's actually saying, look, you have this passage right. This is an important matter. We can almost say it this way. The Pharisees say, Jesus, you've corrected us on these two things, or you've stood in opposition to us on these two things. Are you going to stand in opposition to us on this matter as well? And Jesus Jesus does not in the same way. It's almost as if Jesus is saying, no, you do to some degree have this right. This is the most important command. So Jesus gives the answer. And We can stop here already and see the applications. It is good for us to consider what important morals are. This is not an unimportant question. It is not an unimportant thing to get correct. There are, we can even say it this way, people of God, essentials to the law, right? Sometimes we ask a question like this, right? All of God's Word is God's Word. So, you know, should I only memorize some verses? You know, like, how can I just memorize this when all of God's Word is God's Word? Well, it's not wrong to memorize certain verses. Certain verses do summarize things. Certain verses are focused on essential truths. And so it's not wrong to memorize Deuteronomy 6, verses 4 and 5, and not to memorize Ezekiel 17, which isn't memorized as often, right? I mean, that's one thing that we see here. Jesus is saying, yes, focus on the essentials. He's saying what the essentials are. We might think of it in this way. The Apostle makes it clear that there are matters where there can be disagreement. He speaks about this in 1 Corinthians 8. He speaks about this in Romans chapter 14. He says that there are some who say that we cannot eat the meat sacrificed to idols. And we need to bear with those brothers and sisters. In fact, even though they are wrong, even though we do have the freedom to do that, the apostle says, don't do it. Don't do it because it's not something where it's essential to correct them. Just bear with the weaker brother. These are essential matters. Love God, love neighbor. There are some details which are difficult and where we have to not only leave room for disagreement, but even bear with those who are over-interpreting the law. I heard of a pastor once. We don't have meat sacrificed to idols sold at our markets anymore. But I heard of a pastor once who thought, yes, scripture makes it clear that drunkenness is wrong, but to have some alcohol is not wrong, this pastor thought. Then he came to a church where nearly everyone in the church thought that you should, as a Christian, never drink any alcohol ever. and this pastor didn't drink alcohol. He did not see that as an essential matter where he had to speak, where he saw it as meet sacrifice to idol. He says, this is not at the heart of the law. I can bear with my brothers and sisters, even though I disagree with them on this matter. There are some matters where we can do that. There are some matters where we cannot. Now, if the church thought that it was okay to be drunk all the time, then the pastor would have to speak even directly to that. That's something which scripture clearly says is wrong and would have to be confronted. But there are other things which are not at the very heart of the matter. There is such a thing as most important And then, let us say this, there's most important, and then there's other things which are more difficult details. Let us say it that way, people of God. Important morals teach us much, and they are to be before us, always starting with God Himself and how He defines these things. As has been noted many times, this two-part summary can very easily be seen as a summary of the Ten Commandments, as what we sometimes call the two tables of the law. These are important morals. These are words which we hear almost every single week. But is knowing these commands enough? In other words, they are important, But is there something more important? Certainly there is something even more important than this. And that's what takes us into our second point. There is something more important than understanding important morals. The scribe shows that he gets the answer of Jesus. Now he uses the word teacher. And Mark tells us that there is at least some sincerity here. This is not like the Sadducees who came and said teacher in a mocking way in verse 19. There is some sincerity here, Mark tells us. Now Matthew says when he came first, Matthew 22 says when he first came there was an idea of testing. But the combined picture of Matthew and Mark is that he's moving from testing Jesus to saying this Jesus of Nazareth really does answer according to the scriptures. He's moving to that. And so, in his answer, he quotes more scriptures, right? Jesus, in his answer, went to Deuteronomy 6 and to Leviticus 19, and now the scribe is speaking back to him, and he's basically saying, yeah, Deuteronomy 4, again, they didn't have chapter numbers back then, but now he quotes Deuteronomy 4, that there is the Lord God, and there is no other besides him. and we can almost see the wheels turning in this scribe. You are right, teacher, you have quoted these scriptures and yes, they agree with Deuteronomy 4, don't they? And with those clear passages from 1 Samuel 15 and from Proverbs 21 and from Hosea 6, which all clearly say that to to give you a righteous heart, to worship you with our heart, is more important than mere sacrifice. That's clearly stated in the historical books, in the wisdom books, in the prophets. Yes, you are right. We almost see his mind turning and coming to a point of saying, I cannot disagree, I cannot find any fault with this teacher. Amen! Here is a scribe who did get what the important morals were. Now those three clear passages, 1 Samuel 15, Proverbs 21, Hosea 6, which all speak about that much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices, to love God is more important. They had been reinterpreted. There are ancient Jewish commentaries which say the only reason why it says that is because love is itself becoming an offering in these verses. There are some ways in which there were attempts to kind of restate that. But this scribe understands it. This scribe is showing in his answer to Jesus, he really does understand. He really does answer, verse 34, wisely. Jesus sees this. He answers wisely. He has an understanding of the most important morals. He has a wisdom to him. He has gone so far. And Jesus says, you are not far from the kingdom of God. How can Jesus say that? He has gone so far. Hasn't he gone far enough? Do you see everything which leads up to that challenge by Jesus Christ in verse 34? We have been talking about important things and this scribe shows that he really did understand these important things. But what has he missed? What has he missed? He has missed that the reason why all those burnt offerings and sacrifices will be done away with is because there's a once-for-all sacrifice. Isn't that clear when we consider this passage in light of all of the Scriptures? Isn't this clear when we remember that Jesus is in Jerusalem, Jesus is in the temple, Jesus is days away from his own sacrifice on the cross. You see, in some ways our outline is breaking the rules of sermon writing today because Jesus isn't explicitly talking about his own sacrifice. But is that not an obvious implication of what Jesus is saying here? Jesus is saying, yes, yes, you understand what the commands are. You understand that those Old Testament, all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices were not enough. But why have you not gone far enough? Because you do not see that the reason why those sacrifices are not enough is because the one who is the ones for all sacrifice is standing before you. There does need to be one sacrifice for the removal of sins. There has to be. There has to be one death which will remove sins. Because don't these commands also show you that you are completely inadequate to fulfill the law of God? Who worships God with everything they have? who truly loves his neighbor as he ought. Yes, to love God is more important than all those Old Testament sacrifices, but only because there is one New Testament, once for all sacrifice, that all of those sacrifices were pointing to. There are most important morals, and they are important. They are more important than all the Old Testament sacrifices, but they point to all the commands, all of the sacrifices, all of it points to the one sacrifice and the one who kept all of those most important morals perfectly. It's all directed to Christ. He is in Jerusalem. He's standing before you. He can probably see the hill where he's gonna be crucified just days from now. You are not far from the Kingdom of God, but if you cannot see Christ standing before you, you are not there yet. Even if you get not only the essentials right, but even all the details right. Even if you do have a wonderful biblical understanding, not only of what the summary of the law is, but even the details, even if you follow that contentious fourth commandment as you ought, even if you only drink exactly the right amount of alcohol, even if you do all of it just like you should, you are still far from the kingdom of God if you do not trust in Jesus Christ at all. must come down to Him. Morals are not enough. Jesus alone is enough. And this question of Jesus is a question of great love. because he's saying, look, you are wise, but come, come. We see that We see in all the New Testament that there are Pharisees who did not get this far, right? Who twisted the law around, who wanted to please man. This scribe has come a step further. He really has called Jesus teacher. And there are many who have said, I love the Bible. I love what it says. I think it has great commands. I think Jesus was a great example of how to love others. But if you do not trust in his sacrifice, you do not have life. How many people must answer this piercing question of verse 34? Must you answer this piercing question of verse 34? Really, that is the turn we must come to, that is the final application we must come to, is it not? It is possible to grow up in the church and have a great understanding of morals, to have wisdom, which is not unimportant, to be close and yet so far away. Jesus Christ alone, His perfect sacrifice. You must go all the way. Did this scribe, with this piercing, loving question of Jesus, meant to show him he still had to go yet to the cross of Jesus with repentance of sin and trust in him alone. Did this piercing question of Jesus bring the scribe fully into the kingdom? We don't know. We don't have an answer to that question. John chapter 19 reminds us that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, two Pharisees, were involved in burying Jesus. Acts chapter 6 verse 7 tells us that a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. Was he one of those many priests? One of those many religious leaders of Acts chapter 6? Someday we'll find out, but we don't know. And the reality is that even as many of the priests became obedient to the faith, the reality is there have also been many in the history of the world who sadly have been close to the Kingdom of God and yet far from it. Jesus alone. His sacrifice alone. His perfect obedience alone. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord, perfect teacher, perfect savior. Show us always our need of you. And let us never be close to the kingdom, but yet far away. But draw us always out of any dependence upon our own wisdom or morality, but always into complete dependence upon you. That is, we know, the most important. So we pray in Jesus' perfect name. Amen. Jesus is the Savior. He is the Savior and we need his teaching. 493, Savior, teach me day by day. Let's stand and sing all the stanzas together. day. Love's big lesson to obey. Sweeter lesson cannot be. Loving Him who first Come to serve and follow me, Loving Him who first loved me. Teach me thus my steps to trace, Strong to follow in Thy grace, Learning how to love from Thee, ♪ Loving him who first loved me ♪ ♪ Morning, morning, night and boy ♪ ♪ Little weed and smaller joy ♪ ♪ Never knew that joy will be ♪ ♪ Loving him who first loved me ♪ People of God, let us receive then the parting blessing of our God and then close with the doxology number 567. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, amen. From whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above the heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. you. you