"For the Love of God" - Ronald L. Dart

I want to keep God's law not because I have to but because I love God now I've heard this a lot of times in my life it's actually a rather noble sentiment I even understand it the part especially about to have to I don't particularly like to do something because I have to being motivated properly is a lot nicer but there are some assumptions behind this that that are not entirely clear and I think might be worth us taking some time to explore one thing that's not entirely clear is how a person gets to love God in the first place you know to say I want to obey God and to keep his law not because I have to but because I love God presupposes that you love God now I know how I came to love my wife there are some mysteries of love of course that some of us never understand but in general we know how the process happens I know how I came to love my dad I know how come I love my mother I know how come I love my sister I know how come I love my friends I can figure all that stuff out but you know how is it with it with God whom you have never seen with whom you have it had no interaction as far as the kind of interaction that you and I depend on for our communication and for knowledge and for you know making friends and coming to love people we haven't had anything like that we know why we love people and we wonder of all the things that engender affection between people which of them apply to God now there's another thing about this that kind of bothers me and that is the obvious truth that one of the best reasons in the world for keeping the law of God is because you love yourself loving God is uh is fine I suppose but let's take this for this example in Leviticus 3 and verse 17 it says this it shall be a perpetual statutes for your generations throughout all your dwellings that you eat neither fat nor blood there's a simple law for you and then another one later says in Leviticus 723 speak to the children of Israel saying you should lead no manner of fat of ox or sheep or of goat now of course these are Old Covenant and they are abolished done away with right along with unclean meats and all that stuff right just do away with them well try telling that to Charles gross mr. gross for those of you who don't know I had a physical examination not long ago because he was experiencing some difficulty and they discovered that his coronary artery was 90% blocked he went in to have ng over an angiogram followed by angioplasty only to find out that he had to go further it wasn't good that he had to have a double bypass that was a very very unpleasant experience for mr. gross and since that time he has been going through all of the equipment by the way he is doing very very well he's coming out of it better than just about anybody has and of all the sequence of people have had through our Hospital down here because he of course is young and strong he is recovering very rapidly he's feeling much better he's brighter he's looking forward to coming back to work in fact getting very bored at home and chafed with having to stay put and very anxious to get back to work but however in the process of all the education mr. gross has been getting he has been learning that of all the things that he can eat one of the worst is animal fat and of course a long line of other things so they're you know they're they're overhauling for mr. gross a lot having to do with his lifestyle with his dietary habits with his exercise habits with so much of his life needs to change now you wonder when God told Israel now it should speak to the children saying you shall meet no matter a fat or ox of sheep or goat and so forth why he didn't say to them because it will clog your arteries of course Israel would have come back and said well Lord what's an artery they didn't know that stuff and in fact God didn't feel any particular reason why they needed to know what he just said don't do that lay off of that now here's my question how much do you suppose it really means to God for you to eat fat does it hurt his feelings I don't think so does it clog his arteries naturally not does shorten his life hardly if you abstain from animal fats what do you do for God now mind you I'm all the way back to my question now this or this statement I want to keep God's law not because I have to but because I love God and I my questions well what about loving you in the process of all this listen to this statement out of Jove in the 35th chapter of job now if you're familiar with the story job has undergone this terrible series of trials and the last trial which may have been the worst of all was having to listen to these three friends tell him everything in the lot in his life that had been possibly wrong with him that they imagined might be wrong with him well they could even have possibly have been wrong with him for hour after after hour after hour and when they got through the youngest of them Eli he said I've been listening to this I know I can hardly take it anymore and he was the one fellow that came along and spoke some sense and some of that sense is found right here in the 35th chapter of the book of Joe he'll I you spoke more over and said do you think this to be a right that you said my righteousness is more than God's for you said what advantage will it be to you and what profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my sins how much good can I do God and how much profit will there be to me for getting rid of my sins now this is a funny thing because almost in this concept here is the same concept that exists over in this well I want to keep God's law because I love him is the assumption that we are doing good for God by keeping his law that it will make him happy that it will make him better that it will add something to God that we are good enough to respond to God by keeping his law because we love him so much you know we love people we send them flowers we send them gifts we do things for them we look after them we try to protect them we do all kinds of things for people we love so God appreciates what we do well wait a minute he says you're taking the one advantage will it be to you or what profit shall I have if I'd be cleanse for my sin if I go to all this work to get it out of my life what difference does it make I will answer you and your companions with you look to the heavens and see behold the clouds which are higher than you if you sin what do you do against him tell me if you can exactly how you hurt God harm God take from God by committing sin or if your transgressions are multiplied what can you do to him if you are righteous what do you give him or what is he going to receive of your hand catch it if you are righteous what are you giving him so I want to obey God I want to keep God's law now because I have to then because I love him implies precisely this and then if I am righteous I am somehow giving something to God Elihu says I'm sorry I don't get it your wickedness may hurt a man like you are and your righteousness may profit the son of man your wickedness can hurt you your righteousness can help you but they don't do anything give anything to or take anything away from God now it seems to me that enlightened self love would lead a man to keep much of the law of God much I said there may that implies that there is some part of the law of God that may be enlightened self-interest maybe enlightened self-interest at least unless you take some far-off view of it might not affect what about those and what might those be if you'll turn back to Matthew the 22nd chapter Jesus was here challenged about a matter of law the Pharisees loved to find something they could challenge him about always trying to find some means of undermining the things that he was saying and do it in Matthew 22 and beginning in verse 36 one of those law ask him a question tempting him and said this master which is the Great Commandment in the law of all this great long list of commandments which of them is the greatest and Jesus said to him you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind this is the first great commandment so there is a side to this law then that does have to do with the law of God but I think maybe we sometimes get a little bit confused about which came first about the cause-effect relationship on this the second is like unto it you shall love your neighbor of its as yourself on these two Commandments hang all the law and the prophets now if you can imagine two pegs driven into the wall and draped over them on on farms exist every single item out of the law and the prophets on one or the other of these pegs the first peg you shall love the Lord your God with all your mind heart soul strength and everything that's about you and then here comes a whole string of laws that descend from and hang on and depend on that principle then is the other peg you shall love your neighbor as yourself and coming down from that exists all these Commandments like you shall not steal thou shalt not commit adultery you shall not cover up covet anything that is that your neighbors if you dig a hole where your neighbor might fall in it you put a protective thing around that hole so that no one gets hurt and all of the things that one might have to do having to do with one's neighbor then of course there are all those things that in a way I guess it would come under our loving your neighbor as yourself are those that have to do with loving yourself don't eat fat don't eat blood look out for your health stay away of these animals that are out here you shall not eat them not merely because you that will make you unclean they do that from a ceremonial point of view but apart from ceremony it says to start off with of these animals you shall not eat why well hey it's for you it's not for God isn't going to make him stronger it is going to help his arteries it's not going to make him live longer for you to obey this law so keep straight in your mind who it is that you're loving when you're keeping some aspect of God's law because it may not have that much to do with your love of God except incidentally far out as God loves you God would hate to lose you you destroy your own life and it harms God in the loss of a son but that's a little bit further than we normally take our reasoning when we deal with this kind of subject so this is the great commandment in the law now think about this for a moment tell me this can you command your feelings let's try a little experiment why are you sit there command yourself to get angry go right ahead command yourself to be angry is it working that isn't working is it you say be angry your body your mind says about what there's nothing happened now you could probably sit there and imagine some past wrong or harmful thing or what have you and be able to work up anger but but you don't do that just by commanding yourself to be angry doesn't come oncome and feelings don't work that way now that being the case look at this statement again what is the first great commandment of the law jesus said to it you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul with all your mind this is the first great commandment how can God command us to love him when we cannot command our feelings I can't decide that I'm going to love you I mean I can't I can't decide that I'm going to have affection for you I may if I know you well I may if I spend a lot of time with you I may if you and I go through hell together over some terrible problem and we strengthen one other hold each other up through it we may come out the other side of that with a great deal of affection love and trust for one another but we don't do it because we we are commanded to do it or because we decided to do it it comes about as a result of things that happen in our response to things that happen how then does God command us to love him if love is merely a feeling and therein may lie and important distinction that we tend to overlook from time to time we cannot even command ourselves to feel different and make it work so if love is the feeling then for God to command us to feel differently might be a little bit difficult for us to respond to now could it be that when we talk about love in this context I want to love God I want to obey God's commandments because I love him not just because I have to then what we are talking about is not feelings at all at least not from the beginning think about it for a moment in 1st John 5 and verse 2 there is this interesting statement made by this we know that we love the children of God how do you know I mean I say I love you how do I know I love you alright here's how it is by this we know it when we love God that's first and keep his Commandments for this is the love of God that we keep his Commandments and His commandments are not Grievous now if you know how to diagram a sentence you could just simply simply sit down and say this is the love of God that we keep his Commandments the love of God is that we keep his Commandments well then how do we work it around to where we say I keep his Commandments because I love God you begin to see that the problems that this presents for you from any type of logical structure things start cracking apart on you very quickly at this idea that well I don't want to love them obey God because I have to I want to keep God's commandments because I love God runs into logical problems if not you know real human problems on the ground right off the bat now if you'll turn back with me to Deuteronomy I'd like to try to make another step one little step at a time and trying to deal with this to deal with these assumptions and to understand what it is we're talking about Deuteronomy 11 verse 8 therefore shall you keep all the commandments which I command you this day that you may be strong and go in and possess the land where you're going to possess it now once again and I have often said these things and I will once again what's the point of the law why does God want us to keep the law what's the result that is to be expected he says keep the commandments why that you may be strong in other words the obedience to God the keeping of the commandments makes changes and you following the dietary laws has to do with your arteries with your stomach with your digestive system with your mind with your health with your life fair enough and keeping the commandments of God have to do he says with your strength not merely your physical strength but your moral character your strength of character the kind of people you are whether when you face an enemy you're going to face them with courage or whether you're going to face him with fear all these things are bound up in obedience to God believe it or not he said I want you to do this so you can be strong and go in and possess the land and that you may prolong your days in the land I don't want you to just go in there and live the age 50 and die I want you to go into the land possess it to become an old man and to see your children and your grandchildren and your great grandchildren and dandle them on your knee and be able to see them clearly out of your eyes that's what I want for you and that's what my law is about to enable that to happen for the land that you go in to possess it is not like the land of Egypt of which you came out where you sold your seed and watered it with your foot nor do you had to get out there with your feet and pump and carry water and water your gardens he said the land where you're going to possess it is a land of hills and valleys and drinks the what the water of the reign of heaven a land which the Lord your God cares for the eyes of the Lord your God are always opponent from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year and it shall come to pass if you shall diligently hearken to my commandments which I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul now this is interesting because it it takes off a little bit from what Jesus said of the great commandment that you shall love him with all your heart with all your soul and all your strength here it defines it to love your Lord your and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul one of the first suggestions we get then is that the matter of loving God is serving in other words it has to do with things that you do with your hands that I will give you the rain of your land at his new season the first rain and the latter rain that you may get it together in your corn and your wine and your oil I'll send grass in the fields for your cattle that you may eat and be full take heed to yourselves that your heart be not deceived and that you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them and then the Lord's wrath be kindled again against you and he shut up heaven that there be no rain in the land that the land yield not her fruit unless you perish quickly off the good land which the Lord has given you then he goes on to say therefore you shall lay up these with my words in your heart and your soul you are to memorize them you to study them internalize them make them a part of you into the way you live your life bind them for a sign upon your hand that there may be as frontlets between your eyes the forehead is the will the right hand is the work this is simply not this isn't merely talking about right wrapping things around your hands and putting them on your forehead that have God's commandments on them it's talking about the fact that the commandments are to be in your head and in your hand and you shall teach them to your children speaking of them when you sit in your house when you're walking by the way when you lie down and when you rise up you teach your children from the time the earliest time that they can remember one the law of God and two that the purpose of the law of God is for your good not for God's good not to make God better not to somehow you'll reach up to this this rather Stern harsh God who's going to get me if I don't keep his Commandments God for some children becomes very close to synonymous with the boogeyman who's going to come and get me if I don't do the right thing no no no your own ways will come and get you if you don't do the right thing but children from their very earliest days need to know that the law of God is true that it's right that it works that it's a way of living helps you all the way down to things like being healthy and being happy and having good friends and loving people and being appreciated and respected by people you shall write them upon the doorpost of your house and on your gates that your days may be multiplied why why so God will be bigger and better so God can live longer no no so your days will be multiplied in the days of your children in the land which the Lord swore to your father's to give them as the Days of Heaven upon the earth for if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you to do them to love the Lord your God to walk in all of his ways and cleave to him then will the Lord drive out all these nations before you now the structure of that little sentence there is a little little odd in a sense because what it is really saying is you keep the commandments to love God but that's actually the way you go about loving God it is not the other way around you love God and the other way around is you love God to keep the commandments what he is saying is you keep the commandments to love God there is a theology that says in so many words that if you love God you have kept the commandments this is a curious little thing you know there there are more strange and perverted doctrines having to do with the law of God than anything else I can think of it and it's not hard to understand because the truth is that the law of God gets in the way of our appetites the law of God gets in the way of our urges of the things we want the things we'd like to have it it suggests to us that the easy way doesn't work and that's not a popular idea and so man has more ways of disposing of the law of God the number of different doctrinal approaches to getting rid of the law of God is about as many as there are doctrinal denominations in this country I said I checked over 500 of them and I'm sure they're getting moving more by the hour from the Worldwide Church of God but the fact is that they're all over the place and every every outfit out there that once not to keep the law of God or some part of all God has their own peculiar little doctrinal structure about why it is that we don't want to keep God one of them is well the keeping the law is love therefore if you love God you have kept the commandments and so all these other gold Old Testament law aren't that very important because all the law the commandments are kept in this one thing that you have a good warm feeling toward God that's what it seems to be now back to the commandment that we should love God is the law an end in itself or is it a means to an end now this is a relatively simple question to the Pharisees and I would have to say to not a few people in the Worldwide Church of God it was the former that is the law was an end in itself their words what we're headed for here is the keeping of the law in one small way this is implicit in the statement that I started out with I want to keep God's law not because I have to but because I love God follow me I love God in order to whether that leads me to keep the commandments so that the love of God is a means to an end and the end is to keep the commandments and so it was really for the Pharisees that the commandment was the end it was the objective it was that which was honored I was struck once when I attended at a Bar Mitzvah in a synagogue as a part of the service date they opened up the place where the Torah was kept the scroll that they had and they took this through the scroll out and everybody stood up and there was a you know there was no representation particularly of God nor any conversation so much about God that all of the focus was on the law and and the scroll was carried around the room and as everybody stood while the scroll was carried about the room and I almost brought back little memories of down in Latin America where they will carry the statue of the Virgin Mary through the streets and all the praying and bowing and crossing themselves and so forth it was almost as though the scroll of the law itself had been made into an idol is it possible that the law of God could become an idol sure sure good if the law is the end justified by certain means leading up to it and that's what we live for if we live for the law then the law has become an idol but on the other hand if the law is a means to it in that it's important for us to understand the distinction between those and to understand where all that goes the idea of the Pharisees well you keep the law no matter what they even even built a fence around the law it generated a fear that God will get you if you offend in the least little item of the law and if you break some little twig out on the end of a branch on the end of a limb out way off the tree out here if you break that one little law God's going to get you and he's you know you're you're just in a whole lot of trouble and you're gonna have to go through all this trouble to make that one thing right in order to get yourself back right with God the truth is most of us fail clean out of the tree a long time ago much less breaking twigs and we need Jesus Christ somehow to bring us back to God and to him and to a love of him but mainly but one of the ways in which that takes place is by repentance repent of sin what sin sin is the transgression of the law so the law once again is not a means to salvation the law and our breaking of it is what causes us to need salvation in the first place you know one of the key differences is that those who think this way that is that the law is an end in itself do not learn much from the law they really don't they learn about the law they learn how to keep the law they they study the law to find out things like about mixed fabrics and whether it's alright to wear wool and Dacron or whether you know a linen Dacron mix will or whether it's alright to have elastic in your socks and and and you know the whole things they'll study the law and they'll but but they don't learn from it it is enough for some people simply to keep it and so they start the Sabbath 30 minutes before sundown and end it 30 minutes after sundown because whatever happens in our life we must not under any circumstances transgress the law for the law well that's like God and that sense now I do not belittle care in keeping the law but we need to understand what the law is it is a means to an end and what is that in what is that purpose well in this statement that Jesus made the great commandment of the law is you shall love God the Lord your God we are commanded to love God how do we do that where do you start what are you gonna do here you are you may not know whether you love God or not you know you want to love God you know you're supposed to love God but as far as feeling anything when I say the word God or I should pronounce his name is Jehovah or Yahweh or however I should do it if I should you know be talking about God perhaps if my skills are sufficient I might be able by talking about God to generate some sense of awe among us all about the greatness of his creation and the universe and all that but I'm not talking about that I'm talking about love of God where does this come from how would you actually make a start in determining whether you did or whether you didn't or if you did or didn't your dad to love God or to love God more the entirety of the law teaching device it is there to show us how with these two big pigs hanging appear one love your neighbor as yourself how do you do that well we go looking down the little strings hanging off of it to find little statements like you shall not steal okay I got that that makes us that makes sense to me I understand how to do that and what not to do you shall not bear false witness and there are all sorts of commandments and statutes and judgments mostly in the Old Testament we get a some interpretations of some of these things in the New Testament as well all of which though hang from that same peg we haven't yanked that peg out God's not going to yank that peg out of the wall let all this stuff fall because it is all important to us otherwise how can we know who's going to teach us who's going to explain to us how systematically to love our neighbor what to do for our neighbor what not to do to our neighbor all that is very important the law is there to teach us about human nature what works what doesn't the law is also there to teach us about the divine nature now tell me do you think you know enough about God of course not none of us feel that we know enough about God maybe afraid to learn a little bit more but but that fear passes quickly we really would probably like to learn more about God how do you learn more about God what is his value system what does he stand for what is he doing what does he intend to do how great is he really well I you know I'd like to know more about God I'd like to be able to grasp his greatness I'd like to be able to to know more about what he intends to do because what he intends to do could have a have a rather serious effect on my life in one way or another as time goes by well step one absolutely the first step of all those steps that would have anything to do with God is the thing called worship now worship is often thought of as an extreme form of love you know I absolutely worship the ground she walks on you know I don't really love this person I worship this person is a term that is sometimes used in our society but actually in the biblical sense worship has no emotional content really at all both Old Testament and New Testament leads one thing and one thing only and that is to do obeisance to the word means to bow down purely and simply sometimes to bow down extremely and to put one's face toward the ground to put one's head to the earth in the New Testament the word would the word for worship means roughly the same thing it actually means almost like in the the oriental expression up to kiss the hand toward in other words the kissing of the hand and moving in the handout to say you know it's like I'm kissing your hand as my Lord my master it is an outward sign that says I will obey you because in the word obeisance is the word obey and that is essentially what the word worship means so in that sense love the keeping of the commandments of God is connected to worship the Hebrew worship we're for worship means to bow down and in this sense in Genesis 23 verse 7 I won't turn there Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people of the land even to the children of Heth the Hittites so Abraham was not worshiping the Hittites he simply in that context he was in their land he stood up he bowed himself down saying I am obeying the laws of your land I'm going to be you know a citizen here I'm going to live here whatever it was that he was doing so there's not wrong in that sense for him to do obeisance in a human sense in that world at that time the signs of obeisance were well known they were to bow down depending upon the greatness of the person was concerned to prostrate yourself completely on the ground so this is what we mean in the Bible when we say worship so I say the place we start is with worship and sure enough when we pray we bow down we put our face toward the ground we humble ourselves before God and we say oh here I am now to bow down before God is only a start obeisance without obedience means what nothing maybe maybe it means hypocrisy but to do obeisance that is to bow ourselves down to say by the outward act and by the way body language is all we're talking about is but say by your body language I will obey you when we are not prepared to obey God his hypocrisy it's alive now back in Luke the sixth chapter this this theme of this idea is expressed very well by Jesus himself and Luke the sixth chapter and beginning in verse 46 why do you call me Lord Lord and do not the things that I say you know to call him Lord is to do obeisance it is to say I recognize you as my master you are my lord now why are you calling me that why are you using that language when you won't do what I say whosoever comes to me and hears my saying and does them I will show you what he is like he is like a man who built a house and dig deep and laid the foundation on a rock and when the flood arose the stream beat vehemently upon that house could not shake it because it was founded upon a rock but he that hears and doesn't do it it's like a man that without who without any foundation there's a house on the earth against which the stream did beat vehemently and immediately it fell and the ruin of that house was great we're talking about something real here and he is saying this that if you hear my words and you do them if you call me Lord and you keep what I say if you do obeisance and then obey it will have a real result in your life your life will be like a house founded upon a rock but I will tell you this that if you pretend to obey if you do obeisance and then refuse to obey if you won't actually live the life walk the walk if all you can do is talk to talk your life is going to be like a life founded on the sand and it will not stand up to adversity it just won't work it will not happen but you should also know this it is not obedience for obediences sake it is not obedience merely for the sake of obedience and it is through the commandments that we come to know God to understand his plan and to understand what he is doing through the commandments we come to know God to understand his plan and to know what he is doing and we also come to know that he is our Father there is a familiar little passage back in the 20th chapter of Exodus verse 8 very familiar to all of you remember the sabbath day to keep it holy six days shall you labor and do all your work but the seventh day is the rest of Jehovah your God now bear in mind at the word Sabbath simply means rest it goes on to say that in it you shall not do any work you nort you your son your daughter your manservant your maidservant your cattle your stranger that's within your gates why why is it that you and I are not supposed to work on the seventh day he says for in six days the Lord made the heaven and earth Jehovah made heaven and earth and the sea and everything in them and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it the seventh day is the rest of Jehovah when we rest in that day we do so because he created the heavens in the earth and seven days and the set of six days in the seventh day he rested that's why we rest we rest oh sure we rest because we're tired we rest because we need the rest we rest because it's good for us to be to get a good night's sleep and sleep in the next morning and have a little time for ourselves and our family but the first reason we do it is because he did it it's the rest of Jehovah so we rest and in that Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day and he halibut we honor him as members of his family by resting on his day of rest with him it is not ours it is his yeah Jesus made plainly the statement the Sabbath was not made for man but man I'm sorry the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath another guy that went backwards the law he said is not an indignant of itself it is a means to an end it's good per man it's not something that's just out there for a man to do can I worship God any way I please now remember we get a lot of abuse of the word worship nowadays don't we we're to worship basically the many people needs to go to church whereas in the Bible the word worship means to do obeisance it's what happens when we stand up you know when the scripture is what happens when we we kneel down when we pray are when we standing in church and we bow our heads and turn our faces to the ground it is a form of obeisance before God while one up here prays before God on behalf of all of us we come here to worship that is to do obeisance we also sing praises to God we are also taught out of God's Word which is again a form of obeying God in that sense so that we understand from all of this that this is worship but for many people it doesn't seem to mean a great deal again is there a right way to worship is there a right time is there a wrong time is there a right place is there a wrong place is there a right set of symbols is there a wrong set of symbols you know symbols after all are merely a form of language if you studied it very much you'll begin to realize that when you look down the page on your Bible and you see there the word prophet you see SPR opha t.o.p is a symbol R as a symbol always a symbol this particular combination of symbols we have all agreed upon means puffit well this pronounced prophet and we have all agreed that the symbol prophet as we pronounce it stands for something talks about a man or a woman who has received a message from God and is speaking under inspiration to people it's a symbol upon which we have agreed when we unleavened our homes in the spring we speak God's language we actually speak God's language when we get all the leavening out of our house in the spring of the year during the right day during the right seven days if we are out at sundown I'm sorry sunrise bowing down doing obeisance to the Sun and it's rising the language is all wrong if on December 25th we put up a tree in our house and decorate it tell our kids all about Santa Claus same time we're talking about Jesus Christ in a way in a manger and all this type of stuff the language is all wrong we cannot do obeisance to God or worship God in that way if we confess that we are strangers and pilgrims upon the earth and we keep the Feast of Tabernacles as a part of that of that confession at the right time in the right place the language is right the holy days are among the richest sources I have ever found of the knowledge of God I know more than I could ever tell you to the keeping of the holy days year in year out of the growth of the knowledge of who God is what he has done what he is doing what he is going to do why he is doing it where all the stuff is going and the process of observing these days and coming to know him I am coming to love him I am loving him by the keeping of the commandments but somewhere along the line there is that spark being fanned of what we call love or affection for God as father it's a it's a curious little emotion love in that sense and it does not come easily and it doesn't come automatically way today in that way which would you say then is more true we love God and so we keep his Commandments or we keep his Commandments and so we love God why do you love God why do you love anyone leaving out for a moment the Troublesome complications of the opposite sex who do you love of the same sex and how did you come to love them you came to love them because you shared some of the same experiences you have shared values you have shared beliefs you spend a lot of time together you depend on one another you have respect for one another sometimes you even have admiration for one another if someone gives us advice and we ignore it consistently what will they assume well they will correctly assume that we do not respect them and so it is that God who hands out his advice to us freely constantly and sees that advice ignored regularly will assume rightly that we do not respect him and there is no basis for love there is no place there is no spark there for us fan and to try to bring to life and to cause it to amount to something or or to come to be more than it now is there's an old saying to the effect that if you are ever in trouble and you need help do not go to someone you have helped before if you expect gratitude you will usually did be disappointed if you are in trouble and you need help go to someone who has helped you before because here is someone who cares about you here is someone who through the process of doing something for you came to appreciate you and to love you it is an odd thing we build much more love for a person by doing things for them than we do by having things done for us human beings I'm afraid are ungrateful wretches for the most part you learn to love over time with people don't you why should we think that it would be any different with God why should we think that with God we can have love at first sight you know part of the problem is so many people are looking for feeling there is a lack of feeling in their life there's a void down in the middle of everything there there's an emptiness a need to feel something relative to religion and they go looking for emotion and religion without looking for what causes the emotion if there is to be any to come to come into existence there is a difference between going looking for the emotion and looking for what makes the emotion it's like going looking for love without considering the fact that there are things that create love there are things that make love there are things that build love there are things that that make love grow and it wouldn't happen overnight when you go looking for love overnight well we know how much trouble people can get into with that but people do the same thing religiously they go looking for the emotion without looking for what lies behind it or might create it the search for emotion leads to emotional emotionalism religion to a kind of a sentiment without real heart there is by the way an artificial sentiment isn't there you can actually be moved to tears great tears rolling down your face by fiction it can happen reading a novel and happen in a movie you can be moved to great emotion by absolute fiction but you can also be moved to tears by a real love for a real person or a real God when that God becomes real and God does not become real overnight you do not love God overnight you don't fall in love with God you know it's a different interesting little distinction we know about God through the law and we actively love God by keeping his law but we come to know God through his son we come to know him through his son because we come at some point in our life to realize that all the law keeping I'm doing right now isn't doing anything about all the law breaking I've also been doing all my life and it can't put it right there's nothing I can do to put it right I keep the law because it's good for me I keep the law because of the process I learn about God but I cannot do anything when keeping of the law to put right all the hurts and the damage and that I have done to other people and the harm that I've done to myself and the destruction of my life by the past I can't do anything about that there's only one way that can be done and that is through the son of God through Jesus Christ I want you to turn back to Roman's the 10th chapter because there's something that's not easy to understand that I want to make a run at today to try to help you to grapple with in Romans the tenth chapter in verse 1 brethren my heart's desire and my prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God now what is this talking about well it's talking about a people to whom the law is an end in itself and they have pursued their own righteousness by works of law they are such good people that they're going to go out there and keep that law and keep it diligently and and find their righteousness in it all and they have not even begun to understand the objective of righteousness you know back in the Psalms the righteousness is defined very simply it says all your Commandments are righteousness now he continues to say for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes and I heard someone what's behind CC there Christ is the end of the law of the law is gone but wait there's another meaning for the word end it means the end and the sense of goal or objective I've been talking all through the sermon about the law is it a means to an end or is it an end in itself it's a means to an end all right what's the end Christ is the end of the law the objective of the law the purpose of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes who believes God God stands up and says to up to man this is the way keep my Commandments so you can live long on the land people will go charging out they're keeping all Commandments because if I don't keep them God will get me and because in keeping the commandments I become respectable or likable or righteous or good or I wear a badge and they have all the law laid out you know I keep the law perfectly in all of its fashions I'm not like that man over there I fast twice a week I give ties at all that I possess he said they have just not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God which is a matter of believing God when he says look you keep these Commandments so you can live long on the land I've given you you keep these Commandments so it will be well with you and with your children that the law is a means to an end not an end in itself obey me not because of me but because of you and what are you saying is you won't believe God when he tells you that that the obedience of God is a simple matter of faith I have the faith to believe that what God tells me is for my good it is for my good in my life with me and my children it is for my good that I may come to know God it is for my good that I will worship God in the right way and come to understand what he is doing is for my good that I can come ultimately to relate to God and I can come ultimately to love God not only with my hands and the things that I do but with my heart it was my mind so that I would feel somehow some day a real genuine love for God and then when I find myself standing on the sea of glass before him I would not be scared out of my wits but weave my heart my life would be bursting with a love what shall we call it that you and I probably could not quite grasp but at long last the affection the feeling the love would be there the righteousness of faith Moses describes the righteousness of the law but the man that does these things shall live in them he man actually makes his life better but the righteousness of faith speaks this way don't say in your heart who will descend into heaven to bring Christ down do you think you can go up there and get him and bring him down don't say in your heart who's going to go into the grave and bring you back up from the grave you can't do anything to accomplish your salvation what does it say the word is near you even in your mouth and in your heart that is the Word of Faith which we preach that if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you shall be saved well it's not something hard it's real close to you it's in your mouth it's in your life and now back in Philippians in Philippians the third chapter find just exactly where I want to start with this one I think burst one finally my brethren rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you to me is not Grievous but for you it is safe beware of dogs beware of evil workers beware of the concision all kinds of headaches troubles and so when we get in the church from people who who are of the circumcision they worship God we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit verse 3 and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh I don't I don't believe that there's a thing in the world that I can do with my life my body or anything else that can save my life I don't keep the law to save me I have I keep the law to love God as an expression of love to him well though I might also have confidence in the flesh if any man thinks he has where all you might trust the flesh oh I've got more than that I was circumcised the eighth day I'm at the stock of Israel I'm of the tribe of Benjamin I'm a Hebrew of the Hebrews touching the law I was a Pharisee you want to know about zeal I persecuted the church touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless if we're trying to avoid blame I made it I got there all the way out to the avoidance of blame as being that did law if the laws intend of itself I was at the end I got it I accomplished it all but what things were gain to me I counted loss for Christ yayyyy doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of everything and count them but dung that I may win Christ and may be found in him not having my own righteousness which I built up in the law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith remember all your Commandments are righteousness that the commandment keeping that is in my life would be a matter of faith because I believe God as a way of loving God as a response to God not only to to learn about him but to keep my own life on the right track why do I want to do all that that I may know him real simple that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the Fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the Dead to want to obey God because you love him is an admirable goal but to love God by obeying him in faith will take you where you want to go

Channel: BornToWinCEM

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Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Born to Win, Ronald L. Dart, CEM

Id: X6H1f6jsZF0

Length: 53min 34sec (3214 seconds)

Published: Sat May 23 2020