Well, good morning and welcome
to our continuing study in Luke, and we're in chapter 10, and
today's scripture concerns verses 25 through 28, but we're going
to have to back up a little bit just to kind of keep things in
context, which we always try to do because that's the way
things are written. So we'll back up here a few verses,
starting in verse 20. Notwithstanding in this, rejoice
not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice
because your names are written in heaven. And in that hour,
Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Even
so, Father, for it so it seemed good in Thy sight. And remember,
we kind of read some other Scriptures where He says, I know you always
hear me and it's not really necessary that I speak aloud these words,
but because there's people here and there are people that need
to know this, that's why I'm saying them so they'll be recorded. He says, all things are delivered
to me and my father. He says, you've hidden these
things from the wise and prudent and revealed these things unto
babes because it seemed good in thy sight to make that distinction
and to do that. All these things are delivered
to me and my father, and no man knoweth who the son is but the
father and who the father is but the son, and he to whom the
son will reveal him. Just like that hymn we just sang. And he turned him unto his disciples
and said privately, blessed are the eyes which see the things
that you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings
have desired to see those things which you see and have not seen
them, and to hear those things which you hear and have not heard
them. And behold, a certain lawyer
stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life? And there's the, our message,
the title of our message today is In Love with Doing. What shall
I do to inherit eternal life? And he said unto him, what is
written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering
said, 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. And he said unto him, this is
Jesus answering him, said unto him, Thou hast answered right. This do, and thou shalt live.
But he willing to justify himself said unto Jesus, and who is my
neighbor? And we'll kind of cover that
issue with the Samaritan next time, but we wanted to deal with
this issue of what shall I do to inherit eternal life? So,
there's just a lot of things that draw our attention to this
block of Scripture, and some particulars in direct contrast
to what we saw in the previous regarding, rejoice because your
names are written in heaven. You know, it's always interesting,
the Lord, He always answers or gives things in a deep spiritual
sense. For those that have the ears
to hear and the eyes to see, and to others, they say, well,
I don't get that. I don't know what that's about.
And it's just hidden to them. But here a certain lawyer is
introduced. And you know, it's interesting
that he was among them. He was among those disciples
and ones that were with the Lord. He stood up. And you know, his
motive is plainly declared in this Scripture. He stood up and he tempted Christ
saying, Master, it's almost kind of like a slight, almost. This man was
a lawyer, and that word lawyer in the scripture indicates that
he was probably an expert in the law, and maybe even a teacher
of the law. And so he calls Jesus Master, like he's on an equal footing
with him. So anyway, he asks a question
that's asked by many in all ages, who seem to really have a religious
bent, while at the same time they're really still relying
on their own abilities or works, what shall I do? They love to
do because of all that implies. It implies some merit. It implies
putting the Lord under some kind of an obligation. If I do this,
then you owe me that. It implies a sense of contribution
or even complete control over one's destiny. I've complied. I've done what was said that
I should do. And boy, we see so much of that
in religion. Repeat after me. If you repeat
after me and say these words, then voila. you're saved, or
you sign here, or repeat this prayer, or say these words, or
it's all those things that we run into in a religious sense. And it gives one a sense of,
well, I have some control over that. But if I like that hymn,
it just said, here's what happens, and if God reveals that to you,
hallelujah. And that's what has to happen.
So the answer of the Lord, to whom all things are naked. You
know this lawyer that stands up? He has no idea who he's talking
to. He has no idea of the all-mightiness
of him. To him, to whom all things are
naked and open, and to whom you can have no secrets from. He
thinks, well, I'll just play a little word game with him and
test him a little bit. The Lord gives him a spiritual
law to a law question. What shall I do? What shall I
do? So, you know, again, it seems
like here as in many other places where we read in the Scripture
that the lawyers and the Pharisees and the scribes were often to
be found mixed in, mixed in the company of the disciples and
those that were coming to see Jesus. And most of the time,
their motives were not good. Their motives were not pure.
They were there to find something against Him, to catch Him in
something where they might accuse Him. And in Luke chapter 7, back
up a couple of pages to Luke chapter 7, all the people that heard Him
and the publicans, the regular folks and the tax collectors,
the sinners, they heard Jesus and they justified God. They said, He's right. He's righteous. And we're just sinners. They
justified God being baptized with the baptism of John, who
said, bring forth some evidence of a change, of something that's
been worked in you from a divine aspect. And we see them kind of mixed
in, and John says, who warned you vipers to flee from the wrath
to come? You're not coming for the right
purpose. So there's a message here for
the church that, you know, we can expect the same. There'll
be those that are trying to infiltrate with their ideas of motives of
works. Just as in Luke 7, verse 30,
it says, the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel
of God against themselves. not being baptized of John. And the Lord says, where shall I
liken this generation to? They're like children sitting
in the marketplace and calling to one another and saying, we
piped unto you and you've not danced. We've mourned to you
and you've not wept. You just don't hear, you don't
care, you don't see. And so this lawyer You know,
if you break this down, he was... He was like Saul of Tarsus. He said, I'm a Pharisee of the
Pharisees. I was schooled by Gamaliel, who is the master teacher
of the law. He knew all the words. He probably
had much of it memorized. And this lawyer here that we
are dealing with may have fallen into that same realm of just
knowing a lot of Old Testament scripture and memorizing it,
and memorizing the here's the stuff to do. And he should have been an instructor
in the law where Jesus said in John chapter 5 verse 39, he said,
search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal
life, but they are they that testify of me. And that comes
to the same question we have here. What shall I do to inherit
eternal life? And yet he was a master in these
scriptures that testified of Jesus, and yet those things were
hidden to him apparently. He did not know whom he was talking
to, and he did not know whom the scriptures were speaking
of. So one that should have been
taking those scriptures, like Philip, starting in Isaiah and
preached unto him the Lord Jesus Christ. He just said, well, here's
a bunch of stuff. Here's a bunch of, here's some
word salad for you that I don't understand, but I've memorized
it. So this lawyer who believed the
key to eternal life was found somehow in keeping the law. That
was his interpretation of it. And he tempted Jesus by asking
him this question. He really wasn't interested in
an answer so much as he wanted Jesus to say, you've been doing
a good job keeping the law. Your reputation is well known.
Keep up the good work. You're on your way. And that's kind of what people
desire. I tithe, I fast, I pray three
times a day, I do all these things, and I'm glad I'm not like that
other guy. that just said, have mercy on me, a sinner. So like many in religion, he
knew enough jargon to ask a question, testing the person to whom the
question was put. He says, what should I do to inherit eternal
life? So he knew about eternal life
from the Old Testament. That was clear. And he knew it
was an inherited thing. So he knew certain things from
the words. And he knew certain biblical
facts which are plainly recorded, but he didn't know the Christ
of whom they testified of, like we read in John 5, verse 39. And clearly, he kind of implied
his belief In the necessity of keeping the law, to which the
Pharisees and the lawyers and the scribes, they prided themselves
in doing. Like we just kind of paraphrased
others, ones that were recorded, that all that I do this and I
give tithes of all I have. those kind of things. So this
lawyer seems to imply that as a matter of course, he kept all
the laws from his youth up. And we find that, another one
recorded there in Matthew chapter 19 and in Luke 18, another lawyer
that said, all these I've kept from my youth up, what lack I? What do I lack? I've done everything
that needs to be done. What lack I yet is what it says
in Matthew 19, 20. And so, you know, clearly he
knew some scriptures regarding eternal life and the inheritance
of it. And, you know, those things are pretty well spelled out clearly
in the prophets, but, you know, not so much in the actual five
books of the law. on eternal life and the inheriting
of it in direct words that just say, if you do this, you will
inherit eternal life. You won't find that really spelled
out that plainly in the books of the law. But clearly in the
Old Testament, Job and Isaiah and Ezekiel, those things are,
and Daniel speaks clearly about those things in direct terms.
Daniel 12 says many of them that sleep in the dust shall awake,
some to everlasting life. So eternal life there is spoken
of in direct terms. Job said, though my body be destroyed,
Yet in my flesh I know that I shall see God. Paraphrase of Job 19,
25 through 27 there. Isaiah 26, thy dead men shall
live. Ezekiel 37, the dry bones. You're all familiar with that.
I will cause you to come up out of your graves and I will cause
these dead men's bones to live. And so those things are pretty
clearly spelled out, but in the law, in direct phrasing, not
so much, but it's interesting here. It's just, I had to kind
of slap myself in the forehead when I was reading this because
It's so plain. Let's read it again here in verse
25. Behold, a certain lawyer stood
up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal
life? And Jesus said unto him, What's
written in the law? What is written in the law? How
do you read the law? That's an interesting slant that
he puts on that question. You read the law and are they
just words or how do you read them spiritually? How do you read? How readest
thou? And this lawyer, he answering
in verse 27, he says, He whips out this answer, Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and
with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor
as thyself. And Jesus said, Thou hast answered
right. This do and thou shalt live.
So what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He gives this scripture
from Deuteronomy chapter six, verse four and five. And the
Lord says, that's the right answer. It doesn't say one word about
eternal life in there, does it? But the answer, the implication
of it is clear. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy mind and
all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself. How do you read that? And you know, when we read this,
we kind of think back to all the evidences of grace that we
read and talked about in the previous. Rejoice, because your
names are written in heaven. You didn't write them. Your name
was written in heaven before you were born, before you did
any works, either good or bad. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. Before you were born. in Ephesians
chapter 1. You were chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. All those things that we talked
about that indicate works of grace apart from any merit or
works or any worth And quite the contrary, we find
that once a person has had Christ revealed in them, they just have
a greater sense of how unworthy they were for the grace that
was bestowed on them. So here we are back at what is
written in the law. What is written in the law? Hear,
O hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. That's very
important to the context of this because he is talking to the
one Lord. as we speak there, as he wrote
this. The Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all
thy might, from Deuteronomy. And it's repeated a couple times
there in chapter 6 and then later on. This thou hast answered right. This do and thou shalt live.
So again, the key to eternal life contained in that verse,
the problem for man lies in the this do. This do. Love the Lord thy God
with all thy soul and all thy might and all thy heart and all
thy strength. You know, that's just a problem
for man. We love the this do part. as this lawyer said, I've
kept all the law. What lack I? What else do I need
to do? I've tied all my stuff. I attend all the feasts. I do
the sacrifices as required three times a year. I go to Jerusalem.
I do all the things required by the law. What else do I need to do? I feel in my mind that I have
complied. Therefore, you owe me. I put you in an obligation
because I have done in my mind what you say that I need to do. And you know, always in these
instances where the people say these things to the Lord, what
do I need to do? He always gives them something
that just strikes them a blow right to the heart. You know,
the rich young ruler. He says, well, sell all you have
and give it to the poor. I'm not doing that. No. You should love the Lord thy
God with all your strength and all your soul and all your might.
And the guy says, I like the doing thing. I like the keeping
the law thing, because I feel I'm successful at that. But they
don't really look at it in the real terms, you know. The Lord
says, well, you know, if you look at a woman to lust after,
you committed this in your heart. Or, you know, if you had an evil
thought, well, you committed it in your heart. You're just
as guilty. And if you're guilty of one,
you're guilty of them all. And it's a slippery slope that
ends in a bad place when you start doing that. So the problem
for man lies in this do clause of this command. And, you know,
When the Lord reveals Himself to us, we find that He's taking
care of that. The this-do is not negotiable. It must be. And how can we do
that? It seems, and it is impossible
in our natural frame. You know, a lot of times, I'll
be laying there in bed, and I think, well, I need to talk to the Lord
a minute. And about 11 seconds later, I'm
in a coma or something. I can't focus for that long on
something spiritual, it seems like. It's like Paul said, the
things that I want to do, I don't seem to be able to do, and the
things that I don't want to do, my mind goes off on a tangent
on, oh, I need to work on this project tomorrow and do this
or that, or I've got some upcoming thing that I need to focus on.
And I'm trying to communicate with God, and my mind just goes,
often left field or right field. So I'm so far from loving him. When we think about all of our
strength, all of our mind, that's like 100% focus on something
all the time. It's just not, well, whenever
it's convenient for me or for as long as I can muster up, it's
100% of the time. And we just fail at that. So how can we do that? Well, in Colossians 2, verse
10, it says, Thank God you are complete in Him, which is the
head of all principality and power, in whom also you are circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands and putting off the body
of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. you know, our inability
to do that. It's, you know, one acquainted
with the fall in Adam by experiencing the new birth, and you don't
really have an inkling about that fall until you've been reborn. It's a non-issue with you. But
you surely come to realize that thou shalt love the Lord. And
you know that word, Lord, is the Jehovah, the self-existent,
eternal one. It talks about the nature of
God being eternal. Thou shalt love Jehovah, the
self-existent, eternal one, thy God. That word God is the supreme,
almighty God. Those two terms, they kind of
get lost in the fluff of scripture in the translation into the English
because they don't really say all that those words contain
in the original language because the original languages tell us
so much about that attribute of God in that name each time. And when we just keep saying,
Lord and God, Lord, God, Lord, God, Lord, God, it kind of loses
some aspect of its meaning to us in the English. But it's always
good to remember our pastors, very all the time, he's telling us,
capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, what does that
mean? And he tells us, and the Lord of hosts, and all those
things that he brings to our attention that describe God to
us in those terms, that we kind of lose in just the English translation.
I can't remember how many times Lord and God are used in Genesis. There's so many different aspects
of his attributes and nature that are described to us in the
original language that are just missing in the English. So pay
attention to that. But thou shalt love the Lord
the eternal almighty God with all thy heart. Can't divide it
up and say, well, I'm going to give 10% to here and 10% there
and 50% to and 40% to God and loving Him with all your heart
and all your soul and all your strength. It just can't be done
by us in our natural state. We just devote so little to each
of those listed here in our lives in this world. I like what was
written in 1 Corinthians 5. The first five verses of 2 Corinthians
says, For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle
were dissolved, we have a building of God and a house not made with
hands, thank God, and eternal in the heavens. For in this we
groan. You only groan when you're struggling
with this issue. Earnestly desiring to be clothed
upon with our house which is from heaven, and if so being
clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this
tabernacle do groan, being burdened. Not for that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
Now he that is wrought, for us this self-same-thing as God,
who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit." So God speaks to us and rots in
us this knowledge, this revealing of Christ completing all things
for us, and He gives us the earnest of the Spirit. You know, by grace
we find, though, Everything God demands, everything God requires,
He supplies. Otherwise, we'd be doomed. You know, we used an example
of eternal life in Ezekiel in the valley of the dry bones there
in Ezekiel 37. Well, in chapter 36, We're fond of reading this scripture
from time to time, but we'll read a portion of it here in
verse 22 through 26 of Ezekiel 36. Verse 3-27, Therefore say unto
the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for
your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake.
And then what he said here, You reveal things because it seem
good in thy sight. I don't do this for your sake,
but for my own holy name's sake, which you have profaned among
the heathen, whither you went. Boy, there's man. I will sanctify my great name,
which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned
in the midst of them. And the heathen shall know that
I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified
in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among
the heathen, and gather you out of all countries." And we always
mention that it's always a good idea to highlight all the I-wills
of God in this block of Scripture, because there's a lot of them. Not the you-wills, but the I-wills. "'I will take you from among
the heathen and gather you out of all countries and will bring
you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you You shall be clean. You're just a recipient of the
washing of the water by the word. You shall be clean from all your
filthiness, from all your idols. Will I cleanse you? A new heart
also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. and I will put My Spirit within
you and cause you to walk in My statutes and you shall keep
My judgments and do them. So when Deuteronomy 6 says, Thou
shalt love the Lord God with all thy heart, He gives you the
new heart to do that in the Spirit through Christ. When He says,
Thou shalt love with all thy mind and all thy strength and
all thy soul, and love your neighbors yourself, well, you shall keep My judgments and
do them, because He has created that in you. So, all that He
demands in Deuteronomy chapter 6, He supplies. We find that in Deuteronomy chapter
30. And we find that this was quoted
here a little earlier that we read in Colossians chapter two,
but in Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse six, and the Lord thy God
will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed to do what? To love the Lord God with all
thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest live. He cuts away the dependence on
the flesh. That's what that circumcision
picture's cutting away of the flesh. The dependence on the
flesh for your own righteousness, your own dependence there. And
this dependence on self in the flesh is circumcised by God and
believers and is cut away and discarded and never to be relied
on again. And the result will be in the
Spirit, they through Christ actually do love the Lord. With all their
heart, all their mind, all their strength, and all their soul,
ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality
and power. In whom you're circumcised with
circumcision made without hands. It's not a physical circumcision. In putting off the body of sins
of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. That dependence on,
I've kept all the law. I do this, I do that, I signed
this, I said that, all these things that we do. And so the question becomes,
do you love the Lord God with all your heart and mind and soul,
or do you love what you do with all your heart? And the two things
are a world apart. We love Him because He first loved us, not
because we were lovable or because we did anything that would earn
that or that would cause Him to do that. So it seemed good
in His sight. 1 John 5, verse 1 says, Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone
that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of
him. And by this we know that we love
the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments,
for this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments,
and His commandments are not grievous, they're not burdensome.
And verse 12 says, He that hath the Son hath life. And he that
hath not the Son of God hath not life. Christ kept all the
law that we could not. and that we seem to fail at so
often in this life. And He imputed His righteousness
unto us in the church. And we, through Him, do love
the Lord with all our strength. You know, it tells us that in
the Old Testament, Exodus chapter 15, verse 2 says, The Lord is
my strength, because I have none of my own. He's my strength and
my song, and He has become my salvation. He is my God, and
I will prepare Him in habitation. My Father's God, and I will exalt
Him." So, He supplies that strength that we must love Him with all
our strength while we have no strength of our own. He supplies
that. Deuteronomy 36, the Lord will circumcise thine heart and
the heart of thy seed to love the Lord God with all thy heart
and all thy soul. Colossians 3.12 says, "...put on, therefore,
as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, all those fruits
of the Spirit that we acquire from the rebirth, completely
fulfilled in Christ." We're complete in Him. This certain lawyer stood up
and said, what shall I do? And the Lord says, you answered
correctly. You should love the Lord. And
he was looking right at him. If you love me, you'd love my
father. That's what the scripture says. Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God. Or do you love that I did all
those things. What lack I? So that's kind of
our segue into the next lesson here concerning a certain Samaritan
and a Jew that was beat up and robbed. One that was in bad straits and
no way to take care of himself, no way to pay the The debt of
whoever was going to be taking care of him, he had nothing.
And then we find that the law couldn't help him. No one could
help him but this Samaritan. You know what? That's what they
called Jesus. They said, you are a Samaritan. It was a curse word. You're a
Samaritan and has the devil. So we'll stop there and continue
on in Luke chapter 10 next time, Lord willing. Until we get together,
be free.