God’s Final Exam All Verses are from the New King James Version unless noted.

WHAT IF GOD GAVE YOU: AN EXAM? AN EXAM THAT DETERMINED YOUR ETERNAL DESTINY? AN EXAM WITH ONE QUESTION?

“WHAT IS THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT OF GOD?” EXAMINATION QUESTION

BELIEVE IN JESUS? BE GOOD/LOVE NEIGHBOR? LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART? “WHAT IS THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT OF GOD?”

BELIEF IS ESSENTIAL MARK 16:16 JOHN 3:16; 8:24 ROMANS 10:11 WOULD YOU HAVE CHECKED “BELIEF”? Make no mistake about it, “belief in Jesus” is essential to be saved!

“WHAT IS THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT OF GOD?” EXAMINATION QUESTION BELIEVE IN JESUS? SOME WOULD SCRATCH IN: “All you have to do is believe in Jesus!” ALERT! “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only” (Jas. 2:24)

Some Believed But Were Lost Because They Did Not Have LOVE John 8:31-43 “ 31 Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him… 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you… 40 But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth… 42 …If God were your father you would love me…”

EXAMINATION QUESTION BELIEVE IN JESUS? BE GOOD/LOVE NEIGHBOR? LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART? “WHAT IS THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT OF GOD?”

BEING “GOOD” IS GOOD! 3 JOHN 11, “Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.” 1 PETER 3:13, “And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?” JAMES 2:8, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well”

IS THE “EXTENT” OF CHRISTIANITY SUMMED UP IN: HELPING THE STRANDED? FEEDING THE POOR? OPENING DOORS FOR LADIES? VISITING THE SICK? BEARING ANOTHER’S BURDON ABSTAINING FROM HARMING OTHERS? ETC?

REFUSING TO DO GOOD WILL CANCEL OUR CONNECTION WITH GOD! “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (Jas. 4:17; cf. Is. 59:2) PRIEST/LEVITE/SAMARITAN (LUKE 10:30-37)

BUT THERE WAS A “GOOD” MAN WHO WAS “LOST” CORNELIUS (ACTS 10:1, 2) –“A DEVOUT MAN” –“ONE WHO FEARED GOD” –“GAVE ALMS GENEROUSLY TO THE PEOPLE” –“PRAYED TO GOD ALWAYS” HARD TO BELIEVE SUCH A ONE COULD BE LOST HARD TO BELIEVE CORNELIUS NEEDED “CONVERTED”

Implies he was lost! “Now send men to Joppa, and send for Simon whose surname is Peter. He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea. He will tell you what you must do” (ACTS 10:5, 6) WAS TOLD BY AN ANGEL: WHAT PETER RECALLED THE ANGEL SAID: “And he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house, who said to him, ‘Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon whose surname is Peter, who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved’ ” (ACTS 11:13, 14)

EXAMINATION QUESTION BELIEVE IN JESUS? BE GOOD/LOVE NEIGHBOR? LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART? “WHAT IS THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT OF GOD?”

GOD’S ANSWER

The Preeminence of Love “But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (Col. 3:14) “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13) “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6) “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 Jn. 4:16)

The Comprehensible Quality “ 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God…. 4:16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (Eph. 3:17-19; 4:16; cf. 1 Cor. 13:1-7)

What God Commands, He Has Done! “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 Jn. 4:19) “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16) –The first commandment is to love God with our whole heart –God made this easy by loving us enough to send His Son to die for us (2 Cor. 5:14, 15) –Must have the love of God while we search the scriptures in order to find Christ (Jn. 5:39-47)

Love Builds John 3:16 God Loved Us 1 John 4:19 We Love God and Keep Word John 16:27 God Loves Us For Loving Him 1 John 4:10, 11 We Love Brethren

LOVE 1 MODELED “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 Jn. 3:16) “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 Jn. 3:16) The Lord’s Example: Our Response

LOVE 2 MOTIVATED THE LOVE OF GOD MOTIVATED HIM TO SEND HIS SON (JN. 3:16) THE LOVE OF CHRIST MOTIVATED HIM TO DO HIS FATHER’S WILL –Jn. 14:31 “but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go hence” (RSV) OUR LOVE TO GOD & CHRIST MOTIVATES US TO OBEY HIS WILL (JN. 14:15, 23, 24; cf. Josh. 22:5)

LOVE 3 MANIFESTED LOVE MANIFESTS GOD’S PERSON (1 JN. 4:8) THE LOVE OF GOD WAS MANIFESTED TOWARD US IN SENDING HIS SON (1 JN. 4:9) LOVE MANIFESTS GOD TO MAN (JN. 14:21) LOVE MANIFESTS WHO WE ARE TO GOD THROUGH WHAT WE PRACTICE (1 JN. 3:10)

DO YOU LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART SOUL AND MIND?

TO ANSWER “YES” IS TO: Crucify self Obey, beginning with: – HEAR THE WORD – BELIEVE IN JESUS – CONFESS CHRIST – REPENT OF SIN – BE IMMERSED IN WATER ROMANS 10:17 ROMANS 10:9-10 ROMANS 10:9-10 ACTS 3:19 ACTS 22:16 “And as they went along the way, they came to a certain water, and the officer said, Behold, water; what hinders my being immersed?” (ACTS 8:36, Living Oracles)

DO YOU LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART SOUL AND MIND?

THE ANSWER IS “NO” If we leave today without obeying what the Lord requires of us in the gospel If we love something “in this world” so much that we cannot live without it If God is second to “anything” “When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, ‘Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (MK. 8:34)