Ep 46-Marks of a Mature Christian Pt 6

We are so glad that you joined us again for it’s all greek to me, we’re in the epistle of James chapter two and we’re looking at the king, the King of Kings were looking at the kingdom Voce Ilia to fill the kingdom of God of Assyria to renew the kingdom of Heaven and of Odysseus, the king. And or no, most Vasiliki chose the Royal law, all having to do with the king and he rules with this law. Vicki and I are going to get into the discussion. We’re gonna be talking about the old, the old testament laws and also this incredible new law for the next few programs and come and join us. We’re having so much fun learning from James on how we can become mature believers and deal with the pressures of life externally. And the temptations from within as well, join us right now. So here we are again with uh it’s all greek to me. And we’re studying in James and chapter two, especially with the Royal Law, The greatest law and the greatest principles that should govern our whole life. And jesus kind of Edited everything in the Bible down the 613 vehicle laws into love God love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. And here he it edits down even further, the 613 mosaic law Vehicle laws are edited down into just two, jesus said, Love God with all your heart, soul mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself. And the important thing is that here in James, he edits down further and he says this, he calls it the royal law. And he says to love your neighbor as yourself. So let’s let’s go back to where Jesus actually said this in Matthew 22 34 through 40. So why don’t you pick it up Vicky and read it and then discuss it a little bit. When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the saddest ease, they gathered themselves together and one of them, a lawyer asked him a question testing him. Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law. And he said to them, you shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind, this is the greatest and foremost commandment, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole law and the profits. Now it also says the same thing in Mark and with a little bit of a variation, One of the scribes came and heard them arguing and recognizing that he had answered them. Well asked him what commandment is the foremost of all, and jesus answered the foremost is hear O. Israel, this is Deuteronomy six and verse five. Hear O Israel. The Lord, Our God is one Lord. This is referred to as the chama, The jewish people still practice this and repeat this daily. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and you shall love and with all your strength that was added here and the second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Uh and then and then he continues in Mark 1228-34 describes that damn right teacher, You have truly stated that he is one and there is no one else beside him. And to love him with all your heart and with all your the understanding and with all the strength and to love one’s neighbor as himself is much more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices. When jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, he said to him you are not far from the kingdom of God. And after that no one would venture to ask him any more questions. Uh pick it up in lieu Vicky and a lawyer stood up and put it. These are the, these are all different people, different people coming to jesus asking the same question and jesus going back to the same scripture which is the most important thing. And the lawyer asked him, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, what is written in the law, how does it read to you? And he answered. You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, you have answered correctly, do this and you will live but wishing to justify himself, he said to jesus and who is my neighbor? Yeah, that’s pretty interesting. Now the interesting thing about what we just read was there were three different accounts with three different people and uh you know, but jesus goes back to that one principle. So you may have religious people, lawyers, other people that you come in contact with workers. But there is one key royal law, the law that Jesus Christ presented to the whole world to love God with all our heart soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourself. And here in James like I said, it calls it the royal law in chapter two and it really is talking about loving our neighbor as ourselves. So Vicky you had some unique things you wanted to share about all this, right? I was thinking I had read some things in my study about, Well I thought about, you know, our bodies, you know when we’re really sick were very worried about our hearts how they respond. And so we go to a specialist to get a heart checkup and jesus says he wants to us, he wants to give us a heart checkup and I was thinking about our heart is the seat of all of our passions in our life. And uh when it’s broken it affects our mind. When we have a heart that’s broken in the sense broken away from God and that we don’t really love him, like we’re supposed to love him, we we really don’t practice the truth. And so even even we get tormented in our mind, we can have mental problems also when our hearts not healthy, it affects the way we behave. Also how we treat somebody, how we do things, God doesn’t want a legalistic, ritualistically Heart. He wants a heart of love. He says, do with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your passion. And love me with that kind of love. Really, it’s the way that we want to be loved. You know, if we ever fall in love like tom and I we’ve been married 50 years we love me a same passion, same love. And it’s it’s a genuine love and God wants that from us. And so we need to let the Lord jesus, who is the great physician, give us a heart checkup. And he’s going to ask you in your spirit, do you love me like this? You know? And that’s what the Lord put on my heart. That’s really wonderful. And you know here in the greatest commandment, those who love God and Deuteronomy 79, know therefore that the Lord your God, he is God the faithful god who keeps his covenant and his loving kindness to 1000 generations with those who love him and keep his commandments. Now this is repeated, Those who love him In various places in Nehemiah 15. Um maybe you want to pick that up honey and I said, I beseech thee O Lord, God of Heaven, the great and awesome God who preserves the covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments in psalm 74. Let all who seek the rejoice and be glad in thee and let those who love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified daniel 94. And I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, Alas, O Lord the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments in romans 8 28 in that great sanctification victory chapter in uh in the Book of Romans, in the new testament, we know and we know that God causes all things to work together for good. To those who love him, To those who are called according to his purpose. It’s important to remember as the Children of God who loved God that he is working his plan in our life, even though it goes against our own pleasure or desires or plans. He’s got his plan that he is working in our life because we love him and first Corinthians 2 9. But just as it is written, the things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not entered into the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him Isaiah 64 4, that’s where it comes from. It’s quoting Isaiah 64 4 1st Corinthians 29 that God’s got a lot more planned for us than we could possibly imagine. James 1 12 were at the passage that we are teaching the book of James Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial for once. He has been Vokey Mazo approved for success and for growth. That’s what we want to be tellus to be mature to, to come to a point of maturity in our christian life, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. The way I view this is like we’ve just graduated from the University of Life and that means that you go through trials and tests and all the stuff that we’re going through in this life. God never promised the Children of God, those of us who believe in christ that we’re going to have an easy life. But he has promised to transform us And make us into the image of Christ No matter what our life is like. And then finally in James 25, the text that we’re on Vicki listen, my brethren, my beloved brethren did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him. Yeah. So we we got a lot to be thankful for and a lot to look forward to his kingdom and his righteousness is just fabulous. So I just want to encourage you Vicki if you have any final thoughts about the the power of love. And you know many songs have been written I think of uh Celine Dion and the Beatles and all the people that we grew up with listening to way back when love is such a huge theme. But so many people are not able to identify what it is for them and what it is for God. He loves the unlovely, he loves when everything else has fallen, Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous, doesn’t brag, is not arrogant, bears all things, believes all things hopes, all things endures all things. In fact one translation says when everything else has fallen, it’s the only thing still standing. We need to be standing as men and women who love God and who love those around us and we display it in our life by the way we treat people. That’s what chapter two is all about. The thought when I had shared before about our heart, you know that Jesus is the great physician. When a medical doctor starts telling you the things wrong about your heart, you’re not going to give your human answer and give defense mechanisms towards them and say well you know, he knows better. And so we do that. If you’re willing to really let somebody, your wife, your Children, the people you work with talk to you about, do they see you as a loving Godly person? Be willing to let the test be made without opening your mouth in a defensive way and God will reveal to you. Sometimes you don’t even realize that the way you speak or the way you treat other people, they don’t feel loved by you and we want the people that were close to to really know that we love them and we attract them to christ and not push them away from him. You know, the most important thing is to let your Children, let your wife and your Children and grandchildren speak into your life. I’ll never forget when my first oldest grandson was little and you know we were having breakfast and something happened and I was really not speaking right and acting right. And my grandson Dougie said to me, pop the snake is coming out, you know, and I’m like, what’s he talking about? And yet the little kids can see they know they here and uh we have to be examples, you know, to the least of these and to the precious little Children, they need to hear us speaking words of love and they need to see deeds of kindness and even when people are wrong and hurtful, we need to learn to keep quiet. That’s something that I’m still learning. I’m I’ve been a christian 50 years. So don’t get discouraged because hey, you didn’t arrive. Am I right or wrong? That’s right. So we want to be on the easel and we’re not going to be perfected fully in this life that when we, when we get called and we’re glorified will be fully perfected. But while we’re here, were to surrender our life, our emotions, our mind, our words, our actions to the Lord, jesus christ so that we can love uh, you know, I love people that hate us, love people that you know, mistreat us. And that’s what his objection objective rather was love your enemies do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you pray for those who, despite what we use you. So important that we may prove to be Children of God. You’re not a child of God. Because you say I went forward at a meeting or I prayed the prayer. But how has it changed our life? And practical always. Yeah. So until next time. So here is the king of kings, the lord of lords as the messiah now. And he’s leaving from judea and going up to galilee and it says in john chapter four and verse three, he left judea and departed again into galilee Verse four, he had to pass through Samaria. He came to a city of Samaria called psych are near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, joseph and Jacob’s well, was there, Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. Here’s here’s Jesus, who was so much a man that he got tired of a journey and sat down, but it needed a drink, but he was also at the same time, God the God man, that he could actually give the woman at the well a drink. As you read on in the story, there came a woman of Samaria to draw water, Jesus said to her, give me a drink for his disciples, had gone away into the city to buy food. The samaritan woman, therefore, said to him, how is it that you being a jew? Ask me for a drink, since I am a samaritan woman, for jews have no dealings with Samaritans. That’s an incredible thought, Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God and he, who it is, who says to you give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. And of course, she said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw within the well is deep, Where then do you get this living water? You’re not greater than our father? Jacob? Are you? Who gave us the well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle, Jesus answered, and said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. And of course he uses the word pe there’s a difference of two years of flowing water flowing Artesian well the the other word, it means a stagnant pool frayer. It’s just incredible how the Lord uses these beautiful words, Talking about himself and how he could now give her water the living water that will feed and refresh her soul. And this is the God man, the Lord Jesus Christ. So let’s look at some of these insights and we know the great things that happened here and the conversation that our Lord had with uh with the Samaritan woman and and uh in John Chapter four. So you have the woman at the well and jesus is gonna talk to her. She’s very surprised because jews have no dealings with first of all Samaritans and second of all samaritan women. It’s just an amazing story of God’s grace and the king stooping down to go and greet the subjects and there in his eyes, ju Samaritans, gentile, male, female moral immoral de Monje, there’s no he’s not a respecter of persons. He loves each one and meets the need of each one, every broken life is precious in his sight. And in verse four, we read, he had the to pass through Samaria. There’s an interesting word because this must needs the properly. What must happen. What is absolutely necessary is inherently emphatic combining the idea of necessity and obligation. What ought to be must happen. It goes on. What is mandatory. In light of the situation, this usually calls for the crucial need to act as a must. He had to go there. Why? Because of his love, his love drove him to go and meet the need of this special person who was so lonely in her life. Notice the the judea with the location and most people would go around across the Jordan river, go on the other side and get up to galilee. That was the typical way to avoid going through samaria. The simplest way is to go right through samaria to go up to galilee. And that’s what jesus did when he went examples of using this word. Do not be amazed that I said, you must be born again. It has to be, you can’t get to heaven, Jesus said, you can’t see the kingdom of God without being born again In John 330 he must increase, but I must decrease again a necessity. And then of course John 44, he had to pass through Samaria. This is an incredible display of the fact that in his heart he had no possible limb. CIA no respecter of persons, oh she’s a woman, oh she’s a samaritan. Uh I’m not gonna talk to her, I’m looking to talk to something I know about her that she had five husbands and the man she’s living with is not her husband. I mean this discussion went on like that didn’t matter to him. He wanted to save her soul, he wanted to change her life. He wanted to transform her. So when they had that discussion, when they had that discussion he says to go call your husband, she says I have no husband says you you rightly said you have no husband. The man you’re living with is not your husband, but you had five husbands. And right there she was like, well I think you’re a prophet of course. And so jesus christ is the king, He rules by the royal law of love. He treats other people the way he would want to be treated. Can you imagine what it’s like to have been such a beautiful woman. You know, maybe she was the first century Elizabeth taylor, Elizabeth taylor had seven husbands. This woman had five husbands and the guy she was living with, the man was not her husband, but she must have been beautiful enough that each person wanted to have her and she was lonely, she realized that people wanted her for what they could get from her. She thought she was using them but they were using her. How sad and then the women of the town were not with her. She was not only morally broken, she was socially broken. She had to go by herself. She was ethnically broken. She was a samaritan and didn’t have the respect of the, of the jewish people. It was just a very sad situation. Uh as you look at her john uh chapter four verse four Ellicott says he must needs go through samaria. He must needs go through samaria following the shortest and most usual road. The one we find him taking from galilee to Jerusalem. Just affirming what I said before, uh that Josephus also spoke of this as the customary way of the galilean is going up during the feast at Jerusalem, Jesus didn’t go the way everybody else was going. He went the shortest way to get to her the quickest way to expose his love to her. And when I talked about being broken, she was broken ethnically, she was a samaritan socially. There came a woman from Samaria to draw water, Jesus said to her, give me a drink and then morally he said to her, go call your husband and come here, the woman answered and said, I have no husband, Jesus said to her. You have correctly said, I have no husband For you have had five husbands and the one whom you now have is not your husband this, you have said truly And spiritually she was broken. You worship what you do not know verse 22. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews, Jesus said, Salvation is from the Jews. He didn’t say from the hebrews. He didn’t say from the Israelites, he didn’t say from the Greeks or from the romans with somebody else. The Egyptian, salvation is of the jews. It was prophecies that the messiah had to come from Abraham, Isaac Jacob Judah, that that was the line ju Comes from Judah and that he was to be born in Bethlehem and he was to come 483 years after the rebuilding of the temple and that he would all these 365 prophecies that had to be fulfilled for him to come. But this is the main one. Salvation is from the jews, everything flowed from there, that all these other prophecies. And so when you consider today that jesus christ is jewish and just because you’re jewish, that doesn’t make you holy, but jesus, the messiah had to be jewish. He was crucified and buried. He was raised from the dead and this was the prophecy concerning the gospel from Isaiah, 53 from Psalm 22 from daniel chapter nine. That the messiah would come and he would, he would deal with the sins of the people that he would make atonement for the sins of the people and that he would rise from the dead, not just the jewish people, but all the people as it tells us in john chapter three, In verse 16, for God, so loved the world that he gave, his only begotten son. That whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life because God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him should be saved. Strange that we’re talking about a very specific people. The jews God did that. So we know and we knew what the prophecies were concerning. His messiah, not to say these people are better than those people because in Deuteronomy chapter A were clearly told that the jewish people were a stiff necked people. They were rebellious. They didn’t listen to God and yet God consistently love them and his promises and his covenant with toward them. It’s the same thing with believers today. You accept jesus christ, you begin to walk with God and then you all of a sudden turn and God doesn’t say, forget you, I don’t want you anymore. No, because God’s God is consistent with his love. He will never leave us or forsake us. He’ll deal with us where his Children, but he won’t forsake us and he’ll punish us. He’ll bring us to a point where he has to spank us, but he does it always in love. He never breaks us. Uh totally. So she was spiritually broken. And that is the story of this, this fantastic king that came from heaven. The king of kings. The Lord of Lords who came in for the samaritan woman, he came for people like Zach ius who was the chief of the tax collectors? He came uh you know when you consider that he came for the worst of the worst of the worst, he didn’t come and just go to palaces and rich people’s homes and you know, he came for tax collectors like Matthew, Matthew threw that party for jesus. And so I’m telling you that the king demonstrated in his own personal dealings with the world, the royal law that he told us to live by, to, to do onto others, to love other people, like we want other people to love us. Whether it was the Demo Niac and Luke chapter eight, whether it was and we’re gonna look at this a little further in the next program, whether it was the disciples that he chose right from the common people. You know, he didn’t choose the brightest lights, he didn’t choose the wealthiest or the strongest people. He chose common people that really were uneducated grandma tee it says in in Acts chapter four, we’re gonna look at this, but what an amazing principle to live by that he treated everyone, not just some of the time, but all of the time. The way he wanted to be treated, that’s the royal law that we’ve been talking about, that’s the man, jesus christ who was not a respecter of persons who was not partial? And he’s our example to live like him. Are you living like him? Are you loving other people as much as you want them to love you? God bless you as we continue? It’s all greek to me, Okay.