Okay, you can turn to Matthew chapter 22. We'll look at the Decalogue as referred to by our Lord Jesus in a sort of a summary fashion. So I want to read beginning in verse 15 in Matthew 22, and we'll read to the end of the chapter, but our focus will be 34 to 40. So beginning in 2215, then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle him in his talk. And they sent to him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God in truth. Nor do you care about anyone, for you do not regard the person of men. Tell us, therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, Why do you test me, you hypocrites? Show me the tax money. So they brought him a denarius. And he said to them, Whose image and inscription is this? They said to him, Caesar's. And he said to them, Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. When they had heard these words, they marveled and left him and went their way. The same day, the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him, saying, Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. Likewise, the second also, and the third, even to the seventh. Last of all, the woman died also. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her. Jesus answered and said to them, you are mistaken, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, Have you not read 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. When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asking him a question, testing him, and saying, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? They said to him, The son of David. He said to them, How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord? Saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. If David then calls him Lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question him any more. Amen. Well, this particular setting is in the Passion Week. And what we find in this particular section is confrontation with the religious authorities. If you go back to chapter 21, verses 23 to 27, you'll notice that they challenge him in terms of his authority. Now when he came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted him as he was teaching and said, by what authority are you doing these things and who gave you this authority? So it's a question concerning Christ's authority and this sets off, as I said, multiple confrontations with the religious leaders. Notice, subsequent to that event, there are three parables. The parable of the two sons, the parable of the wicked vinedressers, and then the parable of the wedding feast. And each of those are calculated to expose the wickedness of Israel generally, and the religious leadership in particular. And then there is these four exchanges. They ask three questions of the Savior. And then the final sort of confrontation is Jesus asking them a question in verse 41. Or verse 42, what do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? So in verse 15, the Pharisees come and ask him a political question. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? In verse 20, the Sadducees come with an eschatological question. What's going to happen in the age to come? Now the Sadducees denied the age to come. They were liberals, theological liberals, so they had no sort of idea of a future state, but they want to nevertheless try to trip up the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the section that we're dealing with, we have a lawyer of the Pharisees that had come specifically to trip Jesus up by asking Him this question concerning the great commandment in the law. So we'll look first at the question posed by the lawyer in verses 34 to 36, and then secondly, the answer provided by the lawgiver. The Lord Christ does respond very effectively to that. So notice in terms of the setting, verse 34, when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. So again, this wasn't a religious dialogue where they're looking for information, they're exchanging ideas, they're trying to to grow and to learn and to exhort one another. No, they are trying to trip him up. This is confrontation. As I said, it's the Passion Week. It's the Tuesday. Later on that week, he would be crucified because of the sins of these particular people. So the Pharisees and the Herodians had asked Jesus about paying taxes in verses 15 to 22. The Pharisees had witnessed Jesus' response to the Sadducees concerning the resurrection. Now notice, the Pharisees would agree with Jesus about the resurrection. The Pharisees would disagree with the Sadducees, but nevertheless, they're all on the same side in their opposition against the Lord Jesus. There is certainly an allusion to Psalm 2 too, and the rulers take counsel together. That's strengthened by what we see later on in this particular section. What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? In verse 42. So you have a wonderful illustration of this mutiny against Yahweh and against His Christ in the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus. Now, in terms of the question, the questioner was, one of them, a lawyer. Now, the lawyer is a scribe or an expert in the law, a man learned in the law of Moses, that is, a scribe belonging to the Pharisaic party. So he wasn't a dummy, he wasn't a moron, he wasn't an ignorant person. He was a learned man. He understood the contours of the law. He certainly had interpreted it. He certainly had applied it. He was certainly probably one that persons had come to on many occasions asking similar questions. So he asks Jesus which is the greatest of the commandments. Now, the motivation for the question is given to us in verse 35. One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him. If you look at chapter 22, verse 18, Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, Why do you test me, you hypocrites? Show me the tax money. Turn back to chapter 16 in Matthew's Gospel, specifically at verse 1. Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing him, asked that he would show them a sign from heaven. We're seeing that in our study in John's Gospel, where we're at just closing chapter 6 down, we see this rising opposition to the Lord of Glory. He came to his own, his own did not receive him, and his own turned against him. And we see again, the religious leadership turn against him in such a way that they're trying to expose him as a fraud, as a charlatan, and as one that was contrary to the law of Moses. Turn over to chapter 19, verse three, the Pharisees also came to him, testing him and saying to him, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason? So again, the motivation behind the question here in our passage in chapter 22 indicates that the man is not looking for a legitimate discussion and debate and an attempt to grow. They want to expose Jesus, they want to show him to be a fraud, they want to pit him against Moses so that they can take him down. This has got a diabolical motive written all over it. Now in terms of the question, so the one previous was about eschatology, and the one previous to that was politics. Should we pay taxes to Caesar? This one is nomological. Nomological means having to do with the law. Namas is the Greek word for law. You've heard of antinomian, you've heard of neonomian. So this was a nomological question. The lawyer, the Pharisaic lawyer, asks him about the law. And the question was in fact debated by rabbis under discussions of light and heavy or small and great. If you turn over to 23. Chapter 23, specifically at verse 23, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith, these you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. So there were weightier matters of the law, not negating or not mitigating or not suggesting that all of the law is not important, but in terms of the law itself as a code, there were weightier matters. There were light and heavy matters. There were small and great matters. There were 613 laws in the Old Testament. You have 248 commands and 365 prohibitions. And so this was a question that was discussed among rabbis, which is the Great Commandment. But with reference to this, the question was designed to cast Jesus in a negative light. He doesn't ask this question so that he can be amazed by the answer. Rather, he wants to expose Jesus, as I said, as a fake, as a fraud, and perhaps anti-Moses in terms of his orientation. RT France says, any answer must risk pleasing some at the expense of alienating others. And therein, perhaps, is the element of test from an unsympathetic dialogue partner, particularly in view of the suspicion already noted in 517 that Jesus had come to abolish the law. If he differed radically from mainstream Jewish orthodoxy, this question ought to reveal it. So go back to Matthew chapter 5. where France notes that Jesus has already set down his commitment to the law of Moses. Remember the Sermon on the Mount? His popularity is spreading, it's growing. Persons are coming to hear what he has to say. And certainly it would be in everybody's mind, what does he think of the Old Testament? They wouldn't have called it the Old Testament, but that's what we call it. What would he think of Moses? So he wants to assure them that he's not anti-Moses, he's not anti-law, he's not come to abolish, but he's come to fulfill. So in 517, do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. So he's already had to deal with questions concerning the law. And so in this series of confrontation with these religious leaders, this one goes right for the throat in terms of which is the great commandment in the law. So that brings us to the answer provided by the lawgiver. In the first place, the first great commandment is the Shema. Notice in verse 37, Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. So he quotes from Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 5. Now the Shema technically is Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. So that was the central confession of Israel's faith, and then the response to that was in verse 5. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. In the parallel passage in Mark, he includes the Shema. So you have that statement, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Now here we have a bit of a stylistic change in verse 37. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. It's mind instead of strength that you have in Deuteronomy. Calvin says we know also that under the word heart, the Hebrews sometimes include the mind, particularly when it is joined to the word soul. Now, with reference to the great commandment, this should have gone without any difficulty whatsoever. In other words, Christ answers the question properly. He doesn't need me to sort of affirm that. But this is, in fact, the great commandment in the law. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Now, in terms of that particular confession, it is first and foremost a theological confession. Yahweh is the true and living God. He is unique and incomparable. I think John Gill explains it well. He says, "...the doctrine of which is that the Lord, who was the covenant God and Father of His people Israel, is but one Jehovah." He is Jehovah, the being of beings. A self-existent being, eternal and immutable, and he is but one in nature and essence. This appears from the perfections of his nature, his eternity, omnipotence, omnipresence, infinity, goodness, self-sufficiency, and perfection. For there can be but one eternal, one omnipotent, one omnipresent, one infinite, one that is originally and of himself good, one self and all-sufficient and perfect being, and which also may be concluded from his being the first cause of all things, which can be but one, and from his relations to his creatures as their king, ruler, governor, and lawgiver." So the greatest commandment, first and foremost, has to do with God. We acknowledge who he is in terms of a theological confession, and then we respond to that in terms of a heart commitment. This is also a personal confession. The Lord our God, it's a personal pronoun confession. He is the Lord our God. Paul says, with reference to Jesus in Galatians 2, he loved me and he gave himself for me. When Thomas lays eyes on the risen Christ, he says, my Lord and my God. So with reference to Israel, it wasn't just cognitive. It wasn't just sort of in their minds, but rather it was a heart approach. to the true and living God. It was a practical confession. It describes our response to God, to love Him with every fiber of our being. Intriguingly, as Jesus responds, you notice, In other words, everything in you is to be directed to God. When it comes to loving neighbor, you love your neighbor as yourself. You love your neighbor as yourself. Not with the same abandonment that you do with God Most High. You give God everything. You give God more than you give to yourself. That's the standard upon which we love our neighbor. But with reference to the living and true God, it's all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Every fiber of our being is directed to the true and the living God. And then in terms of that confession, it's a logical confession. Based on what God has done for His people, this necessarily follows. That He is who He says He is, that He relates to us in the manner in which He does, that we are able to call Him our God, then that evokes from the heart of the worshiper that love, that devotion, that adoration with heart, soul, mind, and strength. So the Lord Jesus answers the question very specifically, which is the great commandment in the law. It is to love God above all things. But he doesn't stop there. He goes on to detail not just the first table or summarize not just the first table, but also the second table of the law. Notice he says in verse 38, this is the first and great commandment, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. So here he's quoting not from Deuteronomy 6, but from Leviticus 19. Leviticus chapter 19. In fact, you can turn there because this is foundational to the summary statement concerning the Decalogue. And in short, the argument is going to be if Jesus summarizes the Decalogue, then that summary of the Decalogue is binding. But also the Decalogue which it summarizes is binding as well. In other words, Jesus wouldn't highlight this or point to this if it was abrogated, if it was abolished, if there was no Ten Commandments for the lives of God's people in this New Covenant era. Notice in Leviticus 19, 18, 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. And then turn over to verse 35. You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume. You shall have honest scales, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hymn. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Where is it though? It's right around here. He also repeats, love your neighbor as yourself. I'm sorry. Verse 34. Yeah. You shall love your neighbor, love him as yourself for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. So this is the summary statement of the second table of the law, so Christ presses that upon them. And as well, the Lord indicates that both are crucial. Notice the language. He says, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. So there is priority. This is the great commandment with reference to God, but that does not minimize or mitigate our responsibility toward man. The two commandments, the two sort of summary statements, belong together. The two commandments belong together practically. The former leads to the latter, and the latter gives evidence of the former. If we don't love God the way that we're supposed to do, we're not going to love one another the way that we're supposed to. All you have to do is read through the prophets and you will see when the prophets come to upbraid the nation of Israel, they typically do so in light of the Decalogue. They highlight first table transgressions and then second table. The idea is clear. If you reject God, if you despise God, if you loathe God, if you don't love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, you're not going to love your neighbor. If you look around at society, it's pretty easy why things are such a mess. Because men don't fear God. Men don't love God. Men don't worship and honor God. When you look at Romans chapter 1, it's first and foremost what we believe concerning God that leads to the vice list that follows. So, they knew God exists, but they neither glorified Him as God, nor were their hearts thankful. So they reject the true and living God, and then they turn into all manner of wickedness and evil. So these two commandments go together. The first table leads to the latter. The latter gives evidence of the former. If we're not loving men the way that we're called to love men, then there's no evidence that we love God. See, those things work hand in hand, and that's what Jesus is emphasizing in this section. The standard involved is consistent with creaturely love. We love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We're to love God with a love that far surpasses our love for self or neighbor. We're not to love the Lord our God the way that we love ourselves. We're to love the Lord our God far more than we love ourselves. We love our neighbor the way that we love ourselves. And that doesn't mean we fawn over ourselves. We look in the mirror and we just delight in our beauty and all that. It just means we don't ingest poison. We don't walk in front of trains. We try to engage in self-preservation. We try to eat nutritious meals. We try to exercise. We try to live in a particular way so that we don't keel over. So that's the kind of love that we have for ourselves. That's the kind of love that we're supposed to express toward our fellows. But the love for God is to be above that. It is to be with heart, soul, mind, and strength. If a man loves himself with heart, soul, mind, and strength, he is an idolater. He's in sin. He has rejected the first and great commandment. And then the rest of the New Testament highlights the importance of this command. Turn over to Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13. So the two summary statements summarize the entirety of the Decalogue So you've got the first four commandments our duty toward God and then you've got the last six Commandments our duty toward man and you see how the New Testament authors enter Engage these commandments in the life of God's people Christ's blood-bought children are supposed to keep the law not in order to be saved But as the reflex or as the response of having been saved Notice in Romans 13, 8. Now brethren, this is a very helpful portion of Scripture because he not only tells us to love, but he describes or defines for us what love looks like. Imagine if he just said, okay, in the church I want you to love each other. Well, what does that mean? Does that mean we bring each other flowers? Does that mean we bring each other coffee? Does that mean we take each other out for tacos? What does it mean to express love? Well, love is obedience in terms of God's commands. That's what love is. Love isn't nebulous. It's not subjective. It's not in the eye of the beholder. It is God-defined. Keeping God's law toward another human being is to love that human being, and that's what Paul says. So, oh no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment are all summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. Do you mean we're loving one another when we're not committing adultery with each other's wives and husbands? Yeah. We love each other when we're not murdering each other? Yeah. According to Paul, we love each other when we're not stealing from one another? Yep. Do we love each other when we're not bearing false witness or covenant? Yeah. It's concrete. It's tangible. It's objective. You're not left to wonder, what is it to love my brother or my sister? Don't sin against them. Don't steal their stuff. Don't steal their spouse. Don't covet after their stuff. Just be faithful in terms of your commitment as a brother to him. Turn over to Galatians 5. Again, you see this emphasis in these New Covenant epistles where practicality is in the apostles' mind. Chapter 5, verse 13. For you, brethren, have been called to liberty. Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, beware, lest you be consumed by one another. And then in James 2, he refers to what he calls the royal law. And in James 2.8, he says, if you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For he who said, do not commit adultery, also said, do not murder. Now, if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. So you go back to Matthew's gospel. Jesus is asked, which is the greatest commandment in the law? So he goes to the Shema to underscore that our love for God is primary. But that love for God is a summary statement of the first four commandments. You shall not commit adultery, you shall not make idols, you shall not blaspheme, and you shall not remember rather to keep the Sabbath day holy. And then this other statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, summarizes the second table of the law. So that brings us to some implications. In the first place, the two commandments summarize the entirety of the Decalogue. So what we've studied in Exodus chapter 20, as far as Jesus is concerned, these are the two that the Law and the Prophets hang on. The entirety of God's Word hangs on or depends upon the Decalogue. Notice in verse 40, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. And he means by that, these are summary statements. These are great, all-encompassing statements relative to our duty toward man and our duty toward God. Jesus does not reject the law, but fulfills it. And when we consider this particular passage, it really underscores what our confession of faith says in chapter 19 when it deals with the law of God. It says, neither are the aforementioned uses of the law contrary to the grace of the gospel, but do sweetly comply with it. So it's not that the law mitigates the gospel. It's not that the gospel obliterates the law. The law has its place and the gospel has its place. If we understand the place of the law and the place of the gospel, I think it was Spurgeon who said, then we have the whole system of divinity figured out. If we mess up law and gospel, we mess up the entirety of God's Word. Now, obviously, there's sweet inconsistencies. We might get some things right. But with reference to the law and the gospel, Jesus does not mitigate, abolish, abrogate, or get rid of the law in this New Covenant era. And we wouldn't expect Him to do so. Because we have the prophetic announcement in Jeremiah 31 that God will write his law upon the hearts of New Covenant believers. And so New Covenant believers aren't getting a brand new law. They're getting the Decalogue. They're getting that revelation of God's will, not only of who he is, but what he demands in terms of his creatures. Love to God and love to man. And it's not love to God and love to man undefined or ill-defined or subjective or left up to the person to sort of eke it out and figure it out. No, we love God when we're not engaged in idolatry. We love God when we don't blaspheme Him. We love God when we call the Sabbath day a delight and we keep it. We love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength when we have devotion to Him above all other things. And we love our neighbors as ourselves when we do them no harm, but when we engage in law-keeping relative to the people around us. And then the Lord Jesus answers perfectly and silences the Pharisees. Notice, on the heels of this, there's no statement. Back in verse 33, with reference to the Sadducees, it says, And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at his teaching. Same thing in verse 22. When they had heard these words, they marveled and left him and went their way. On the heels of this statement, with reference to, on these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets, it says, while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus then asked them. So Jesus turns the gun against them and asks them about Psalm 110. What Lord, or whose son is the Christ? But then notice how this interchange ends. Verse 46. and no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question him anymore." So after this series of debates or confrontations, Christ silenced them. He shut their mouths. He shut this Pharisaic lawyer by answering properly concerning the weighty matters of the law. He shut the mouths of the Sadducees by rejecting their presupposition that there is no supernatural. Notice how he responds to that. Verse 32, 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. Well, they would never have affirmed that. Jesus assumes that and answers them in most glorious ways. And of course, we know how he answers the question concerning paying the taxes. Whose picture is on there? Well, then go ahead and give that to Caesar. But make sure you render to gods what is God's. So everything that they threw at him, he was able to effectively answer, he was able to effectively counter, and he ultimately shut their mouths by a superior understanding of the law and the gospel, and he presses them with it. Now in terms of some application. In the first place, this context is of confrontation. This is a great example of not losing your mind under fire. Christ answers in a most excellent way in each of these instances. And brethren, as I've suggested, we live in an increasingly God-hating generation. We're going to be called upon to give answers. We're going to be called upon to give a rationale, to give reason. Many of us may end up in court for the things that we believe and the things that we hold to, So we better be able to reasonably and rationally and biblically answer those who would oppose us. As well, with reference to the law, the Lord confirms the abiding validity of the moral law. He doesn't do away with it. He doesn't abolish it. I think I've told you that new covenant dispensational theology and even new covenant theology don't have a place in new covenant Christianity for the Decalogue. Now, the New Covenant guys are a bit closer. They're all of the commandments except for one of them, the Sabbath. And of course, dispensationalists say, oh no, the Ten Commandments are not for us at all as the Gentile Church. The Ten Commandments will be again for the Jews in the Millennial Kingdom. That's not what Paul says. That's not what Jesus says. That's not what the apostles say whatsoever. They press the law of God. as it is applicable for the New Covenant people of God. So the Lord confirms the abiding validity of the moral law. He summarizes the Decalogue with Deuteronomy 6.5 and Leviticus 19.18. He therefore confirms the abiding validity, and if the summary abides, that which it summarizes certainly abides as well. So if you say, oh well, yeah, these are the two commandments upon which all the Law and the Prophets hang. Absolutely positively. The first four hang on the first one, and the last six hang on the second one. So the Ten Commandments, as a unit, is binding for the people of God. Now, there is a lawful way to use it, and there is an unlawful way. It is unlawful to try to take the commandments and keep them in order to be justified by God. Because we're sinful, we're not going to be able to do it. It's an impossibility for us as dead sinners in Christ. So if we try to use the law as a means of justification, we're using it unlawfully. But if we use the law to show sinners their need for Christ, that's a lawful use. Or if we use the law as blood bought, spirit filled believers who seek to have a pattern for sanctification. That's a proper way to use the law. And that's what we call normative. And that's the way the New Testament people of God should approach that law. The Lord demonstrates here. Excuse me. that he is neither an antinomian or a neonomian. As I said, namas means law. Antinomians are against the law. They're against it either doctrinally or practically. Now, I realize all of us have remaining antinomianism in us. Anytime we sin, that's our antinomian self rearing its ugly head. God says, don't do this, and we do it. That's antinomianism. That's anti-law-ism. But I'm talking about doctrinal antinomians. Typically, hyper-Calvinists are antinomians. That's just an interesting sort of connection that you find in hyper-Calvinism. But as well, there's others that see all that Christ has done is for all that we stand in need of. And while I'm certainly sympathetic to that movement, I am not sympathetic to, you know, we jettison the law. Jesus will later say in John 14, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. 1 John 4 tells us that the commandments are not burdensome, they're not grievous. The Apostle Paul, as we've seen there in Romans 13, 8 to 10, says this is the way you're supposed to love one another. So the New Testament does not uphold an antinomian reading. It just does not legitimize a getting rid of the law. But neither is Jesus a neonomian. And neonomian is more of a legalist, a new lawist, somebody that adds a few twists here and there to the law. And honestly, brethren, as we look at the church context today, I think most people would say antinomianism is the biggest problem. I disagree. I think neonomianism is the biggest problem. I think people are always trying to add something to the gospel. I think that people want to throw a little faith or little works in there, they want to throw a little faithfulness in there, and they want to twist things in a way that is not conducive to God's holy word. But be that as it may, whatever our prevailing tendencies are, whether antinomian or neonomian, Jesus was neither. He was a gnomian. He held to the law in a biblically balanced and proper way. And then the Lord defends the abiding validity of the moral law in a most sublime manner. He just answers the question and he answers it beautifully. Ryle says, how simple are these two rules and yet how comprehensive, how soon the words are repeated and yet how much they contain. how humbling and condemning they are, how much they prove our daily need of mercy and the precious blood of atonement. Happy would it be for the world if these rules were more known and more practiced." I think that's a great sort of an approach to that. We need the law. It's a blessed thing. The world needs the law. It's a blessed thing. But he also acknowledges that that law shows us constantly our need for the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us never forget that pedagogical use where it's a child tutor that shows us our need for Christ. That's not just for the pagan that we want to show him his sin so that he'll come to the Savior. It's for us too, brethren. Whenever we come to these law passages, we should be exceedingly thankful for the Lord Jesus Christ. Go back a little bit to the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7. Some people treat Matthew 5-7 as gospel. Brethren, it's law. It is law. When Jesus is commanding in the Sermon on the Mount, He is definitely encouraging and exhorting His disciples, those washed in His blood, those believing on Him, on how they ought to live in terms of the normative views. But He's also showing sinners their need for salvation. He's showing sinners their need for Jesus. And when we look at this, it ought to be apparent. Lloyd-Jones makes this observation concerning the Sermon on the Mount. Remember, Lloyd-Jones lived, preached, ministered in the early part of the 20th century, not long after neo-orthodoxy or liberalism sort of made its arrival. Neo-Orthodoxy from Germany, liberalism, theological liberalism, sort of was co-opted in the United States. And liberals got to the point where they were just looking at the Sermon on the Mount as the model for ethics. Read the Sermon on the Mount and just go be like Jesus. Well, brethren, that sounds good, but if you know yourself even that much, you'll read the Sermon on the Mount and say, I'm not going to go be like Jesus because I'm nothing like Jesus. This is law. I've got big problems. I've got sin in my heart. So Lloyd-Jones made the proper observation. There is nothing that so utterly condemns us as the Sermon on the Mount. There is nothing so utterly impossible, so terrifying, and so full of doctrine. Indeed, I do not hesitate to say that were it not that I knew of the doctrine of justification by faith only, I would never look at the Sermon on the Mount, because it is a sermon before which we all stand completely naked and altogether without hope. Well, J. Gresham Machen said similar things concerning the Sermon on the Mount. I thought I had it written down in here. I don't. Oh yeah, I do. The Sermon on the Mount, rightly interpreted then, listen to what he says. Brethren, this is rampant. Not neo-orthodox German liberals in our day are espousing this, but evangelicals and reformed people think that the Sermon on the Mount is gospel. Now, again, when you take commands that say, do this, live like this, that's law. And I'm not saying law is bad. I'm not saying the Sermon on the Mount is bad. But I'm saying if you don't appreciate that second use of the law, that pedagogical function, you're going to be crushed by the Sermon on the Mount. So he says, Machen says, the Sermon on the Mount, rightly interpreted then, makes man a seeker after some divine means of salvation by which entrance into the kingdom can be obtained. The Sermon on the Mount, like all the rest of the New Testament, really leads a man straight to the foot of the cross. That is absolutely true. If you don't, I mean, if you read the Sermon on the Mount and you come out the end of chapter seven and say, yeah, I got this. Man, good on ya. I hope you've got it, because it's a tough one. But with reference to the law, we ought not to ever forget that even as God's people, as blood-bought children of God, we can rejoice in the reality that Christ has paid our debt, that Christ has cleansed us from our sin, that Christ has stood in the gap, that Christ has fulfilled for us what God demanded, because we never did. We never will, and we never would. So we ought to praise God. In terms of the commandments and the believer, the believer must love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. Again, if that does not throw you at the foot of the cross, I don't know what will. We need to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Praise God for our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is the sole object of such love, worship, and adoration. And the Lord in His grace, having saved us, has given us the Holy Spirit by whom now we can love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Of course, there's struggles and difficulties to be sure. Spurgeon says, who can render to God this perfect love? None of our fallen race. Salvation by the works of the law is clearly an impossibility for we cannot obey even the first commandment. There is one who has obeyed it and the obedience of Christ is reckoned as the obedience of all who trust him. Being free from legal condemnation, they seek ever after to obey this great and first commandment by the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within them. See, that's the proper trajectory with reference to obedience, when we appreciate justification by faith alone. When we acknowledge salvation by grace through faith, when we rejoice in that precious blood of the Lamb who washed us and who cleansed us from all sin, and by virtue of that redemption He has given us the Holy Spirit as the seal, as the guarantee, as that on-board resident. So now we can see God. We can love God. We can worship God. We can express devotion to God. So the believer must love God with all his heart, soul, and mind. And the believer must love his neighbor as himself. Turn to 1 John 2. 1 John 2, again, the emphasis on love for our fellows is highlighted several times in the New Testament. 1 John 2, verses 9 to 11. 1 John 2, 9, whoever has been born of God does not sin, for his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. Now, the best interpreters explain as practice, not that we don't have remaining corruption, not that Wesleyan perfectionism is true, but we don't have it as a practice, a reigning power of sin in our lives. Verse 10, in this, the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brothers righteous. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. We know that Cain did not love his brethren because he took some sort of probably blunt force trauma and inflicted that on his brother. You don't do that when you love your brother. You don't hit him on the head and stop him from breathing. So we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. He's likening that person who professes faith in Christ but has no love for the brethren like Cain. Just like Cain was a vile, murderous wretch who operated with hatred in his heart and malice aforethought toward his brother, so is that professing Christian that does not have love for his brethren. Look at chapter 3, verses 13 to 15. I'm sorry, yeah. Oh yeah, that was the passage. Look back in chapter 2, I'm sorry. Chapter 2, verses 9 to 11. He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. So love to God, love to man. That's the summary of the Decalogue. We spent several weeks going through Exodus chapter 20. Jesus makes it a whole lot easier in terms of summary statements. Love God, love your neighbor. Ryle again says, we cannot have fruits and flowers without roots. We cannot have love to God and man without faith in Christ. And without regeneration, the way to spread true love in the world is to teach the atonement of Christ and the work of the Holy Ghost. Man, that is great wisdom. See, we look at behavior modification. We find out somebody is a fornicator, and we tell them, you should stop fornicating. We should tell them to believe the Gospel. We should tell them to come to the Savior. We should preach the atonement. and the work of the Holy Ghost. Now, when by grace they believe that gospel, then we tell them, stop living in sin. Now, there's a time and a place to tell people not to fornicate. I'm not suggesting otherwise. But we oftentimes deal with things in terms of behavior modification and not getting at it with the heart. And then finally, the commandment in the unbeliever. I think Heidelberg Catechism 3 to 5 is most excellent here. How do you come to know your misery? The law of God tells me. What does God's law require of us? Christ teaches us this in summary in Matthew 22. Can you live up to all this perfectly? No. I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor. That is our natural tendency, to hate God and to hate our neighbor. That's what we are in Adam. So you see, when it comes to evangelism, it is most helpful to point the sinner first to the law, to tell the sinner what God demands, what God requires, what God calls people unto. Jesus said, I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The law of God is a great way to show to people their sin against God and then to point them to Christ as the one who is altogether lovely and chief among 10,000. Well, let us pray, and if there's any questions, we can take those. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this summary statement concerning the law, and we thank you for your law. We know, God, it's good if we use it lawfully, so help us and hedge us in and cause us to use it in a manner that's consistent with what we find in Scripture. And we pray that this word would be proclaimed throughout the earth, that sinners would see themselves before a holy God undone. And they would hear of a Christ who has come to save his people from their sins. And Lord, we pray for revival in your churches. We pray for awakening among those who are dead in their trespasses and sins. And certainly in our country, there is great wickedness. and rebellion against you. So we pray that these things would go forth powerfully through the Christian pulpit, by the presence and the ministry of the Holy Spirit applying these truths. And we ask this in the name and for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.