Well may it please Almighty God
to bless us together this morning as we meditate in his word. We'll turn to the Gospel of Mark
and chapter 13 and we'll read verses 32 to 34. The Gospel of
Mark chapter 12. Gospel of Mark chapter 12 and
reading from verse 32 to verse 34. So Mark chapter 12 verses 32
to 34. And the scribe said unto him,
well master thou has said the truth for there is one God and
there is none other but he. And to love him with all the
heart and with all the understanding and with all the soul and with
all the strength and to love his neighbour as himself is more
than all but whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus
saw for the answer discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not
far from the kingdom of God, and no man after that durst ask
him any question. This account in the 12th chapter
of Mark is where one of the scribes comes to Jesus and he asked him
a question. And the question was, which is
the first commandment of all? Well, of course, we don't know
what was in this man's mind or heart, but probably He was expecting
something rather interesting that he would be called upon
to do, but in fact the Lord answered him very clearly and very succinctly. And this is what the answer was.
He said, the first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel,
the Lord our God is one Lord. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment
and the second is like namely this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. There is none other commandment
greater than these. So that was the Lord's answer
to the question from the scribe as to what the first commandment
of all was and how true it was and how true it is for us today
and the great blessing is if the Lord does give us grace to
love the Lord with all our heart with all our being and also to
love our neighbor as ourselves. And it's very important to realize
that this scribe, he clearly had a good knowledge of the scripture
and a good knowledge, therefore, of the truth of scripture, because
he begins by saying, well, master, thou hast said the truth. he
understood what the word of God spoke and what the words of Jesus
were. And although of course the Lord
Jesus had really quoted Moses, here were the words that this
man was able to reiterate. And he said, well, master, thou
hast said the truth. And then he tells us, for there
is one God, and there is none other but he." Well, what a great
truth that is, and how we live in a world today when there are
many gods which are worshipped. Perhaps we should correctly say,
sadly, that the vast majority of mankind worship false gods. They do not worship the truth
it would seem quite clearly there is a minority that worships the
true God. And it would be therefore a wonderful
blessing if you and I worship the true God. And again if we
think about this and have a thought as to why we worship the true
God, because had we been born perhaps into different culture,
into a different nation, we might well have worshipped a false
god. We might well have worshipped
the Hindu god. We may well have worshipped the
Islamic god. We may well have worshipped the
god of Baal and so many other gods. And no doubt the people that
worship in this way, some are very sincere in their worship. Very sincere and very concerned
and perhaps often more sincere than we might think about true
believers. I remember years ago when I was
out in India and there used to be many people who had prayers
written on a reel a little reel often a little tin reel it was
on a string and they sat twirling this little string and this little
can as it were and the can rotated and as the can rotated they believed
that their prayer was being said to their god and sometimes people
would sit virtually all day twirling these cans round, believing that
their prayers were being said so many times to their God, and
therefore the more times they said these prayers, the better
chance there were of these prayers being answered. But you see how
sad it was, and so sad it is, to realise that they were worshipping
a false God, Indeed, a God who was not God, a God who was totally
dead, totally inactive, no ability to do anything. Well, that was
a good few years ago, and I'm sure the same situation exists
today in many parts of the world. Many people think that by their
much saying, their God were here. Well, The sad truth is their
God will never hear. I think I referred to it last
Lord's Day about when Elijah lived on the earth and there
were all those worshippers of Baal. And there was the great
need to find out who was the true God because there had been
a drought, drought for over three years and no God had answered
the prayer to send rain upon the earth. And there was this
great concern. Therefore, Elijah called all
the prophets of Baal, there were 400 of them, great company, they
all gathered together to Mount Carmel. And Elijah suggested
that he built an altar and the worshipers of Baal, the priests
built an altar, and they cut up a bullock and placed it on
the altar, they poured water on the altar, and then they prayed
to their God. And the God who answered by fire
would be acknowledged as the true God. And Elijah said, well,
you're many, I'm by myself. You go first. Therefore, all
these priests that they did as Elijah had suggested, built an
altar and laid a bullock on it, covered it in water and then
they prayed to their God. And what happened? Silence. Silence. No God answer. And Elijah mocked them and he
told them to shout a bit louder. perhaps their god was asleep,
he needed to be waked, or perhaps he was on a journey, perhaps
he'd gone away. And so he mocked them and they
did all they could, including cutting themselves with lances
so that the blood gushed out, but all to no effect. There was no answer. And then
when it came towards the evening, the time when Israel offered
up the evening sacrifice. Elijah came and he built the
altar. He built it with those stones,
those 12 stones representing the 12 tribes. He placed on it
the killed ox and bullock and covered it in water, dug a trench
around the altar, filled that with water. Then he told the
people to come near. that they might truly observe
and that they truly might hear his prayer. So he prayed to his
God and he prayed to the true God that God might manifest himself
as the true God and he prayed and he finished praying immediately
fire came down from heaven and it consumed the sacrifice, and
it consumed the altar, and it consumed all the water. There
was therefore no doubt. Who was the God? And all the
worshipers of Baal, they referred to this great God, who had heard
Goliath's prayer, and they said, He is the God. He is the God. And so, Did you follow on that
account? It wasn't very long before the
Lord graciously sent a wonderful rain. But it's very interesting
to read that Elijah's faith was tested because he told the king
there would be an abundance of rain. It didn't come immediately. and he spoke to his servant he
said go up to the top of the hill and see if the rain's coming
he went up and he came back and he said well there's no sign
of it there's nothing and i just said go again and did go again
seven times and in the seventh time he said well he said yes
there's a little cloud arising about the size of a man's hand
Elijah said go until I have there is an abundance of rain and so
it was the rain came what a wonderful evidence of the God of all the
earth gave to Elijah on that occasion and so now many years
later this scribe is able to come and declare before the people
these great words for there is one God and there is none other
but He. That was true 2,000 or so years
ago. That is still true today. And may all of us in our lives
realize there is still one true God and that God is a great God
And that God is the Almighty God. And we must realize the
Word of God speaks to us about that God, and it describes that
God to us. And it describes to us that He
is the God who created all things. In the beginning, when there
was nothing, God spoke the world into being. That is something
today, as it always has been, is impossible for our natural
intellect to understand. But nonetheless, God gives faith
to believe the words in the first chapter of Genesis are indeed
true, that God created all things, everything, created the earth,
created the sun, created the moon, created the stars, created
man, everything the Lord created. Before him there was nothing.
And we today are privileged to realize this God is so great
and indeed the Bible tells us Almighty God consists of three
persons in one. again, something that you and
I cannot understand. But this is the true God. And
the true God is God, the Father, and God, the Son, and God, the
Holy Spirit. Sometimes in the Word of God,
the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ is referred to as the Word. And how good it is that you and
I might recognize this as the wonderful truth. Indeed, the
Apostle John, when he began the Gospel, the first chapter in
the Gospel of John, he tells us, In the beginning was the
Word, and it has a capital W, and it means the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. same was in the beginning with
God all things were made by him and without him was not anything
made that was made in him was life and the life was the light
of men and the light shineth in darkness and the darkness
comprehended it not those are the glorious first five verses
in the first chapter in the gospel of john how wonderfully true
it is and how good it is for us today if God has wonderfully
and gloriously given us faith. Faith. Faith is the gift of God. What a good thing it is to possess
God-given faith. It's a wonderful mercy and it
comes from God. It's not something that you and
I just developed ourselves. And the apostle Paul tells us
what faith is. When he wrote to the Hebrew church,
the Jewish people, way back some 2,000 years, in the first verse
he says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen, for by it the elders obtain a good report.
Through faith we understand the worlds were framed by the word
of God, as we've already commented so that things which are seen
were not made of things which do appear and then he goes on
and in this 11th chapter there is an account of many people
who did wonderful things because God gave them the wonderful wonderful
gift of faith and we should never ever underestimate the need there
is for this faith to be received and when Paul again he wrote
to the church at Ephesus in the second chapter and the eighth
verse again he refers to this great blessing of faith this
is what he says The eighth verse says, by grace, and grace is
the unmerited favor of God. It's nothing that you and I can
produce, nothing that you and I deserve. It's something that
God gives. Don't forget that grace is the
gift of God. And that's what he tells here.
For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And therefore, I hope we can
appreciate, therefore, that these things are done in this way and
in this order, so that little man, puny man, sinful man, cannot
think, well, I did this and I did that. It is all God's work. It is all of His grace. And what a blessing for you and
me today to know that you and I can come to this great God,
this eternal God, and we can pray to him. We can come to him
in prayer and we can come to him in prayer because the Lord
Jesus Christ died upon that cross at Kelvin. He made that way for
us. He now today sits in heaven he
sits in glory he sits on the right hand of the father on the
throne in heaven there to take our prayers and present them
to his father so that our prayers are received and our prayers
are answered well what a wonderful favour it is then if we have
some appreciation of this great truth as this scribe was able
to say well master thou has said the truth for there is one god
and there is none other but he now let me just pause perhaps
and say this this man clearly had been taught
the truth of god and therefore he was able to remember that
the word spoke those things which Jesus has spoken, able to report
them, able to give a good account. But the great truth is that you
and I might have what we term a head knowledge. That means
that you and I have learned things from the Bible in our minds. We may be able to report things
and may be able to remember things and may be able to quote things
just like this scribe did, but it doesn't mean to say that you
and I possess the wonderful blessing of being born again by the Holy
Spirit. We may still be spiritually dead. And the Lord spoke to this man,
and he spoke to him in this 34th verse, when Jesus saw that he
answered discreetly, and this word discreetly really means
to speak prudently. Yes, the man spoke prudently.
He said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. Now we don't have any evidence
in the Word of God that this man was in the Kingdom of God. But all of us, you and me, we
need to know that we are in the Kingdom of God. And to know that
we are in the Kingdom of God is to know that God has loved
us and that we have loved God. That's really why the Lord spoke
in these very wonderful and very gracious words which this scribe
was able to reiterate when he came and said, and to love him,
this is the God that the scribes refer to, this great God and
there's none else but he, and to love him with all the heart
and all the understanding all the soul and all the strength
and to love his neighbor as himself. This is what you and I need to
be able to do and it's something that you and I naturally will
not be able to do. We need the great and wonderful
gift of God to come and touch our hearts to know that he has
indeed loved us. Now, let me first of all just
refer you to a word in the letter of John, the epistle of John,
the first epistle and the fourth chapter and the 10th verse. And
this is what John says, here in his love, here in his love,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sins. That word propitiation
really means atonement, that really means to make ourselves
one with God. This is the great issue, this
is the great point you and I need to appreciate. that if we love
God, it's not because we suddenly decided, well, this is a good
idea. I think I must turn and love
God. It will be, if we truly love
God, it will be because God has loved us. And if it's because
God has loved us, it won't be because there's anything good
in us. not because we're a good person,
it's not because God saw we were going to be a good person. No,
not at all. And we have a wonderful illustration
of this. When in another account, a lawyer
got up and spoke to Jesus. And the Lord has spoken to him,
or the multitude about loving God, And this lawyer asked Jesus, he said,
what is written in the law? How rude is thou? And Jesus answered,
thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind,
and thy neighbor as thyself. He was a lawyer. He was a clever
guy. He thought he'd show how skillful
he was. therefore he came and he said and who is my neighbor? Of course Jesus knew how to answer
that and he answered it very ably by what we refer to as the
parable of the good Samaritan and it is an account of much
instruction for us with regard to God's love to us and how this
Samaritan He received the love of this Samaritan. And how in
our spiritual life, we perhaps may be very similar to this man. And Jesus says, a certain man
went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Well, the simple truth is that
Jerusalem was the place where God was to be worshipped, not
Jericho. Jericho was an ungodly place and this man was going
the wrong way. perhaps many of us may have been going the wrong
way, turning away from the things of God. You may have said well
I've had enough of the things of God, I'm leaving the church
of God, I'm leaving perhaps the chapel, I'm leaving the house
of God, I'm going my own way. Therefore it may be that we're
going down to Jericho. Well this man he fell among thieves. They stripped him of his clothes
and they wounded him, and left him half dead. There he was on
the roadside, half dead, couldn't do anything, helpless. Then we're
told by chance there came a priest, a religious man, and when you
saw him you passed by on the other side. And a Levite, when
he was at the place, came and looked on him and passed by on
the other side. Two religious people, they didn't
want to be involved. Well, in fact, of course, they
didn't have any true ability, didn't have any love for this
man, didn't have any desire to heal him. And so they went on
their way. But a certain Samaritan, now
Samaritans were despised people. The Lord Jesus Christ is a despised
man. And so we read, certain Samaritan
as he journeyed came where he was and when he saw him he had
compassion on him. This helpless man, what a blessing
it is for God today if he comes to us in our helpless condition
and has compassion upon us. So he came bound up his wounds
pouring in oil and wine You might think of this in a spiritual
sense of the gospel, because if you and I are wounded spiritually
and are half dead and able to help ourselves, what a great
blessing it is when we hear the gospel preached, we hear the
good news of salvation, we hear the wonderful account of the
Saviour, how good it is. And remember, the Samaritan came
to this man where he was, God in his sovereign grace and mercy
comes to his people today where they are, wounded, half dead,
no ability to get up. No, God came to this man and
therefore he bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, set
him on his own beast, brought him to an inn, took care of him,
and on the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence, gave them
to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him, and whatsoever
thou spendest more, when I come, I will repay thee. Which now
of these three thinkest thou was neighbour unto him that fell
among the thieves? Well, it was clear it wasn't
It was the Samaritan. I wonder what this man felt,
what this man thought. Here was a stranger. Here was a Samaritan, a despised
man, who had come to him and had healed him and had provided
for him. It is indeed a very wonderful
and a very glorious account. So as we go back to this account,
and surely we realize that man who fell among thieves would
indeed have loved that Samaritan. And what a blessing today, if
you and I have experienced the love of the Lord Jesus Christ
to such an unworthy person. not deserving any mercy, going
the wrong way, going against God. The Lord knows where we
are. Other people may have ignored
us. Other people may not have understood us. Other people may
not have wanted to speak to us and also not to come and help
us and do us good. But this man, that Samaritan
came. Today there is a greater than
the Samaritan. There is indeed the glorious
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And if the Lord does, if he has
come to us, only you and I know that in our
hearts through the wonderful favour and the wonderful grace
and the wonderful mercy of God And therefore, two things. Firstly, we're able to come and
say, for there is one God and there is none other but He. And because of His great and
wonderful love towards me, an unworthy sinner, the result is
that I desire truly a God-given desire to come and to be like
this as the Lord said and as described so ably reiterated
when he said it is to love him with all our heart, not a divided
heart, not a heart which only loves the Lord a little, but
to be blessed with this wonderful grace, this wonderful favour
of loving the Lord with all our heart and with all the understanding. It's not a blind love, it's a
God-given love. And we understand why we love
him, because he first loved us, because he loved us so much that
he came down the sinful world to die that death upon that cross
at Calvary, that death which was acceptable to God the Father
in taking away our sin so that we are complete in him. We are
healed. We're forgiven. What a wonderful gospel. What
a great truth. And therefore, God gives us this
spiritual understanding to realize, yes, the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world to save me, the Apostle says, of whom I am chief.
I believe when the Holy Spirit convinces us of our sin, we stand
alongside the Apostle Paul and say, yes, I am the chief of sinners. But blessed be God if he's come
and given us an understanding and therefore to love him with
all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength. And then the result is the effect
of this love. is also to love our neighbour
as ourself. These are the important things. You see, this man, he goes on
to say, and it's more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. It wasn't just an outward performance. People do things sometimes to
try and convince people. They say things sometimes to
try and convince people that they are a believer. but you
see mere words and mere actions are good in their way, but my
friends you and I need to have the personal, personal evidence
that the blessed Lord Jesus Christ has died upon Calvary's cross
to redeem our souls, that we are therefore eternally safe. What a great blessing it is,
what a great mercy it is, and to realize therefore you and
I haven't followed, we might call it cunningly devised fables,
that's what the apostle Peter calls it in the second epistle,
the first chapter, the sixth verse he says, for we have not
followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the
power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses
to his majesty. The Apostle Peter is able to
recall that wonderful occasion on what we refer to as the Mount
of Transfiguration, when he and James and John were taken up
the mountain and the Lord Jesus Christ was transfigured before
them, clothed with a wonderful white garment and spoke therefore
to Elijah and Moses a wonderful testimony that Jesus was the
Lord God. That's why Peter refers to he
couldn't forget it and you and I will not forget the time perhaps
when by the grace of God the Lord Jesus Christ becomes precious
to our soul. I believe it's this when we are
led to the cross of Christ. And when the light of the glorious
gospel shines into our heart, we view there the suffering Saviour
dying upon that cross in order to redeem our souls. And to know therefore that we
today have this one God, you know the Apostle Paul when he
wrote to Timothy and told him about this true God The only
mediator, this is what he says in the first epistle to Timothy
in the second chapter of verse 5. For there is one God. Same words as the scribe uses,
the same words. For there is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. The only
one. by which we can be saved, the
only one through whom you and I can approach unto our Father
in heaven. A worldly natural priest cannot
present our prayers to our Father, there is only one, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and he is jealous for his glory. Never let us remember
it is only through what Christ has done. It's only through his
intercession that you and I can come to our Father in heaven. So therefore, how relevant, how
necessary, how important when we come in prayer to God to realize
that we come only through the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore
to come and say at the end of our prayer, to present our prayers
for Jesus Christ's sake. What a blessing that is, how
important it is, how relevant it is. And so this scribe tells
us, and to love him with all the heart. You and I be concerned
that Christ is so glorious and precious to us that we desire
to love him with all our heart. He is worthy of our love. We will only do that When we
know God's love toward us, we will stand amazed that Almighty
God, the creator of all things, should look down upon us in our
sinful condition, in our lost condition, our ruined condition,
and show to us, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love,
and therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Therefore
to love him with all the heart, with all the understanding, spiritual
understanding, not just a natural understanding, there will be
a natural understanding, there will be a spiritual understanding,
which has moved our heart, moved our spirit, to love this God
who first loved us, what a mercy then, and to love him with all
our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength, and
to love our neighbour as ourself. Well, may God graciously come
today and show to us that we are amongst those who God has
loved with everlasting love and in return we are drawn to him
and we love him, whom to know is life eternal. May it be our great concern to
be amongst the true believers those who believe in the Lord,
in spirit and in truth. Amen.