A Daily Walk

Guest (Male): Coming up on this our weekend edition of A Daily Walk.

John Randall: Jesus sums up the decalogue, the 10 commandments by saying, love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Sums up the 10 commandments in just two. Love God with everything that's in you. Could you imagine if we actually did these two things? If we loved God with everything that was within us and we loved people the same way we love ourselves, what would the church look like? What would your family look like? What would your marriage look like? What would the what would it look like in the workplace? Much difference. What would it look like on the campus?

What would it look like in this world? What would it look like in the Ukraine and Russia and everywhere else if we did these two things? Love God with everything that's in us and love people as ourselves. It'd be a different place. It would look nothing like it looks now.

Guest (Male): We're developing our study of Matthew's Gospel here on A Daily Walk. Thanks for joining us this weekend. In chapter 22, Jesus again is under the scrutiny of the religious leaders trying to trap him, question and accuse him. The lamb of God was examined, but he stood the test. Let's see together how he handled these accusations and how we should as well when we're falsely accused. Here is Pastor John Randall.

John Randall: In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, Paul exhorted this church that had every gift in operation and yet he said, brethren, he said, I couldn't speak to you as spiritual people, but he said as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. He said, I fed you with milk and not with solid food for until now you're you're not able to receive it. And even now you're still not able, for you are still carnal. What how did he recognize the carnality? Here's where this is the manifestation of carnality. You ready? Here it is. Where there is envy, strife and divisions among you, you are carnal.

And behaving like mere men, the answer to that question is yes. When those things are present, envy, strife, divisions, do you know what that's a sign of? Absolute carnality and a lack of understanding of scripture and immaturity spiritually speaking. When the writer of Hebrews wrote to the believers there, he was concerned about them. And he said in Hebrews chapter 5, he said, by this time you should be teachers. You should be. You need someone however to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

He went on to say, everyone who partakes only of milk, well they're unskilled in the word of righteousness for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age. That is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised both to discern good and evil. By going from the milk of the word onto the meat of the word, you will grow spiritually. You will mature. That's the desire. That's the goal. It's one thing when a baby is born and he walks around with a bottle. It's natural. That's what babies do.

But if that same child is 25 and he rolls in here with that, you know something is not right. Something is not right. There has been arrested development, a lack of spiritual growth, physical growth. You understand where I'm going. This was Paul's concern and this was the reason the Sadducees were so uninformed. Now Jesus enlightens this group of deceived spiritual leaders and he gives them insight into eternity. Now listen carefully. In verse 30, Jesus said, in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like angels of God in heaven. Pause there.

In the resurrection, which means there is a resurrection, to be sure. There is a resurrection of the just and of the unjust. To be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord. Jesus had his resurrection. Every single person will have their own personal resurrection. Where you go when you are resurrected depends on what you do with Christ here and now. There's a resurrection to eternal life in heaven and there is a resurrection to eternal life in hell. Choose the former. Choose the first one by the grace of God. But here's the thing.

Jesus said, when we are resurrected, understand this, we are not going to be like we are now married, but be like the angels. What does that mean? It means you're not going to be married when you're in heaven. Oh, are you kidding me? I thought we were going to have our own little mansion together and have barbecues and people would come over. We'd do like we're doing now. No. No. In heaven, you're not going to be a couple. Everybody's single in heaven. Interesting. Married to the bridegroom, obviously Jesus. It's different. Now for some of you, you're like, that's so sad.

Others of you, you need counsel. You view something you say, really? Okay, I'm going to make it. No, no, no. No, no. No. That's not even funny. I'm sorry. But in heaven we're we're not going to be married. You see that and and for many of us that that's that's I mean why? What what's going on? I mean that it seems like that that's so sad. Why wouldn't we be married in heaven? Because God has something even as wonderful as marriage is, something more wonderful than we could even imagine. And when it says that we're going to be like the angels, it doesn't mean we're going to have wings flying around from cloud to cloud playing harps, you know?

That's not what it's referring to. It means we're not going to be procreating. We're going to be worshiping the Lord. We're going to be raining, ruling and raining with Christ for eternity. Again, it is difficult for us this side of heaven to fully grasp how amazing that can be because the experiences that we have let let's say for example the the greatest experience you've ever had, the most pleasurable, the most joyful, the thing you love more than anything else. If you could take all of those things and you could put them in into just into collect them all together and you were to somehow try to compare it to heaven, there would be no comparison because I hasn't seen and ear hasn't heard and it hasn't entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those that love him.

The Bible says we know in part. We know a little bit. We see through a glass dimly, but then we are going to see him face to face. I mean heaven is going to be so much more glorious and wonderful. We can't imagine. We don't even know what it's going to be like, but it's far better than anything you could experience here on earth. And so knowing that by faith I realize, okay Lord, this is going to be amazing. It's going to be wonderful. But then Jesus makes another statement here which opened the eyes or at least attempted to of the Sadducees.

When Jesus quotes from one of the first five books of the Bible that the Sadducees claimed to be believed and yet they denied the resurrection. Jesus quotes from Exodus chapter 30. Notice verse 31. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read? Apparently they hadn't. What was spoken to you by God saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at his teaching. Jesus quotes from Exodus chapter 3.

What happened in Exodus chapter 3? That is where Moses saw the burning bush there on Mount Sinai. And he went before the burning bush and the Lord was there and he spoke to Moses, take your sandals off. You're on holy ground. Remember he took his shoes off, bowed before the Lord and the Lord speaks to him. And what did the Lord say? It says it right here. Notice this, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Not I was the God of Abraham. Unfortunately he passed away. I was the God of Isaac. May he rest in peace.

I was the God of Jacob. He's in a better place. No, he's saying I am right now presently the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. What does that tell you? They are alive. There is a resurrection. Do you understand? He quotes from the books they said they believed that point to the resurrection. They were like, I never read that. I They didn't know what to say. What do you say? You just got shut down by the son of God. You don't you obviously do not know the power of God. You do not know the scriptures.

How can you contend with God's word when it says it right there? They couldn't. And that's why it says the multitudes heard it. They were astonished at his teaching. Folks, Jesus said that he was the resurrection and the life. And though a person may die, yet he will live. There is life beyond the grave. You end here. You start there as a believer in Jesus Christ. It's the hope of every believer. And he who has this hope in himself purifies himself just as he is pure. What a blessing to know that this is not all that there is.

There is a resurrection. Well, following the answer to the political question on civil authority and the theological question concerning the reality of the resurrection, there was yet another question. Third question, Jesus was approached by a lawyer. Oh, it's getting serious now. There's a lawyer, you know, a scribe, somebody who knew the law. And he comes to Jesus with an important question in verse 34. When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, well they gathered together and then one of them who was a lawyer asked him a question testing him saying, teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?

And this was of course an important question. The religious leaders held to 613 commandments. Oftentimes we read about the 10 commandments. They actually had 613 that they sought to live by. 248 of them were positive and 365 of them were negative commands that you sought to live by. Imagine trying to be made righteous by keeping 613 commandments. Impossible. But they thought they were righteous. So what's the greatest commandment of all the ones that we've been given? Jesus responded to the question in verse 37 and he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all of your soul and with all of your mind.

This is the first and great commandment. And he said the second is like unto it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Jesus quotes the first and greatest commandment. He goes back to Deuteronomy chapter 6 which is the Jewish confession of faith known as the Shema. And there in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 4 and 5 it says, hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.

And the second commandment, Jesus now quotes from Leviticus chapter 19 verse 18 where it says, you shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. When Moses was given the decalogue, that is the 10 commandments, there were two tablets. The first tablet dealt with man's relationship to God. The second tablet dealt with man's relationship to his fellow man. Jesus sums up the decalogue, the 10 commandments by saying, love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Sums up the 10 commandments in just two.

Love God with everything that's in you. Could you imagine if we actually did these two things? If we loved God with everything that was within us and we loved people the same way we love ourselves, what would the church look like? What would your family look like? What would your marriage look like? What would it what would it look like in the workplace? Much different. What would it look like on the campus? What would it look like in this world? What would it look like in the Ukraine and Russia and everywhere else if we did these two things?

Love God with everything that 's in us and love people as ourselves. It'd be a different place. It would look nothing like it looks now. This is the greatest commandment. Love God with everything that's within you. Friends, let's pause there and ask ourselves a question, do I love God? How do you know if a person loves God? It shows not just by the things that you say with your lips, but the life that you live demonstrates the love that you have for God. Listen, God loves us. Let's be clear on that point. He loves us more than anyone could ever love us.

His love is eternal. His love is perfect and it casts out all fear, the Bible says. That's how God loves you. God demonstrated his own love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Greater love has no man than this that he laid down his life for his friends. God so loved the world. That's us. So we are loved by God and when you know that you are loved by God, the response, the proper response is to reciprocate that love back to God. Jesus asked Peter, Peter, do you love me?

Peter said, Lord, you know I you know I love you. I'm fond of you. I like you a lot. He asked him again, Peter, do you love me? Lord, do you know I love you like a friend. Peter, do you love me? I mean this is the question. Do you love him? Do you love him? And then the second is, do you love your neighbor as yourself? I mean here's what I've learned as a Christian and walking with the Lord for many years that unless I am loving the Lord on this vertical level, I find it far more difficult to love people on the horizontal level.

It starts with in this order, loving God and then what follows is loving people. And that is not always easy to do, is it? But this is what God asks of us to love him first and then to love others. How do I love them? But like like you love yourself. Do you love yourself? I just don't think I love myself enough. I think that's my problem. No, I think we love ourselves too much and that is the problem. Listen, love people like you love you. Care for them like you want to be cared for.

This is the greatest commandment. Jesus sums up the entire Old Testament when he said, you'll notice that he said on these hang all the law and the prophets. That is a reference to the Old Testament. In other words, the entire Old Testament could be summed up in just loving God and loving people. Jesus had withstood the accusations and the questions. Political questions, ah those are difficult. Theological questions, those are deep. Now talking about relationship with God, questions concerning the priority of God's law, also important. And he answered each question. But now having been examined, what Jesus does is he cross examines.

Here's where it gets good. Jesus now turns the tables and he's asking the question and his questions I mean look at look at what he asks. It says in verse 41, while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them saying, what do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? And they said to him, the son of David. Jesus now poses a question to his accusers. Who do you think the Christ is? And when you read the word Christ, that is the equivalent of the Old Testament Messiah, Christ the anointed one, Old Testament Messiah, new the Christ.

You need to understand this. Some people think Jesus Christ as if that's his last first and last name, Mr. No, no, that's his title. Jesus is his name. He's the savior. Jehovah is salvation. Christ the anointed one, the Messiah, the one that the prophets foretold and pointed to. Jesus said, what do you think about him? Whose son is he? You know what the proper answer was? He's a son of David. And why is that? Because if you go back to 2 Samuel in chapter 7, David was told when he wanted to build God a house, God said, you can't build me a house.

I'm going to build you a house. And by the way, in building you a house, I'm going to let one of your descendants rule and reign on the throne forever. In other words, one of David's descendants would be the Messiah. David heard that. He was so amazed that God would promise something like that to him and said, God let let it be done. Whatever great. So everybody knew and not just from 2 Samuel, you can go through Psalm 89, Amos chapter 9, Micah chapter 5, Ezekiel chapter 37, Jeremiah chapter 23 and so on to find that the Messiah had to be not only the son of Abraham, but he had to be the son of David.

That is why when you come to the New Testament and you read the genealogy of Christ, it comes through the line of David because he had to be connected to David. So everybody knows that. That's the right answer. But then Jesus has a follow-up question. And he quotes from Psalm 110 which is a powerful messianic Psalm meaning that that Psalm speaks prophetically of the Messiah that would come. Has nothing to do with David. He's not the subject. The Messiah is the subject of Psalm 110 and it gives clear evidence to the person of the Messiah and every Jew knew this to be true.

So Jesus now quotes from Psalm 110 in verse 43. He says to them, how then does David in the spirit said, call him Lord saying, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Verse 45, if then David calls him Lord capital l o r d, how is it that he is his son? Oh, okay. All right. I see where I mean this is a tough question. Why is it what's so difficult about this question? David would have never addressed one of his descendants as Lord. Never.

Kurios in the Greek, the Hebrew equivalent would be Yahweh, Jehovah, Lord. And yet David prophetically speaks about this one who would come from his line, who would be the Messiah and he calls him Lord. Father would never call son Lord, but here he does. And so the question is, if he's the son of David, then why would David call him Lord? It's a fair question. The reason why he would call him Lord is because he was not only a son of David. Listen, he was the son of God. The son of God. He was both son of God and son of David, both God and man.

Where does this come together? You know where it comes together? In the incarnation of Christ. When Jesus was born of a virgin, fully God and yet fully man. And so he asked him this question and the reason why it is significant is because when Jesus throughout his ministry would point to his deity, the Pharisees accused him of blasphemy every time. You being a man make yourself equal with God. When Jesus stood before Caiaphas in the Sanhedrin in that illegal trial, Caiaphas tore his clothes when he put Jesus under oath and said, are you the Messiah?

Are you the I I you know adjure you? Calls heaven as witness and Jesus said, it is as you say and you will see the son of man coming on the right hand of power and glory. And he tore his clothes, accused him of blasphemy. They covered his head, spit in his face, plucked out his beard saying, what further testimony do we need? He blasphemes. He they they knew that he was referring to himself as God. And therefore Jesus asking this question confounds the Pharisees because they knew the Messiah was the son of David. Ah, but also he was the son of God.

How did they respond? Well, it says in verse 46, and no one was able to answer him a word nor from that day on did anyone dare question him again. All right, you know what? We're good. We no further questions at this time. We have book you what are you going to say? You can't say anything. When you come to the temple, in that day at the Passover, you have your lamb. You would bring it before the religious leaders and they would carefully look through, try to find some kind of discrepancy, some kind of blemish, some kind of spot which would make the sacrifice unacceptable.

And if they found it, it was dismissed. It wasn't sufficient. Oh, but when the lamb of God came and was examined, questioned repeatedly, he was without spot, without blemish, the perfect sacrifice for the atonement of our sins and the sins of the world. He passed the test. But how tragic it is that although Jesus answered his critics and they were confounded, they were not converted. They were amazed, but they were not saved. One person noted that the next time they would answer Jesus, it would be with whips, nails and a cross. Folks, I wonder if you know who Jesus is.

Have you brought your questions to him? He is the lamb of God. He is the one who takes away the sins of the world. And he has done that for us. The lamb was examined and he stood the test. And I'm so grateful for that. I pray that you are as well.

Guest (Male): You're listening to the weekend edition of A Daily Walk with our Pastor and teacher John Randall who today continued our study in Matthew's Gospel. You can hear the program again at adailywalk.org and then share the content with friends and family. You can also hear John's messages through our free app. This is a great way to listen to current and past teachings from Pastor John. Search for Calvary South OC. Has this ministry blessed and encouraged you in your daily walk? If it has, we'd like to know. You can email us at adailywalk@gmail.com. Pastor John would be so encouraged by what you have to say.

So tell him which station you listen to as well. That's adailywalk@gmail.com. Here in the month of June, we picked out a resource from R. Kent Hughes. It's called Disciples of a Godly Man. If your desire is to be a Godly Man, then this is a must read. You'll be encouraged to grow in Godliness through disciplines like purity, devotion, prayer and leadership. It's available for the cost of $11. Ordering is really easy online at adailywalk.org or just call 877-242-0828. And please remember us in your prayers and your giving to the Lord. We want to help as many people as possible in their daily walk through the teaching of God's word.

And you can help to make that possible through either a one-time gift or ongoing monthly support. Donations can be made online at adailywalk.org or call 877-242-0828. We're going through the Bible with Pastor John. So join us each day as we do. God bless. This program is brought to you by Calvary South OC and made possible through your generosity.