Congregation before we put our Psalter hymnals away will be in the Heidelberg catechism again tonight in a moment And we will have arrived at Lords day 34 which begins on page 46 And goes on from there as we'll see in a moment, so we'll have our Psalter hymnal to help us there in the Heidelberg catechism, but But first tonight, we return to where we were this morning in Deuteronomy chapter six, if you wouldn't mind, Deuteronomy chapter six. It looks like that begins in the Pew Bible on page 284. And tonight we read again, but just Deuteronomy six, one through nine, and we'll pay particular attention to verse five. And there's plenty there in that one helpful verse. So Deuteronomy chapter 6, beloved, beginning at verse 1. These are the commands, decrees, and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. so that you, your children, and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey, so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. And of course, beloved, the summary of the law that we come to tonight, we take it up. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. But let's then be helped by that summary that we have of the scriptures that we find in the Heidelberg Catechism. Now, let me just say, beloved, as we're going through this, and we're going to read all of this, I'm going to speak out loud each of the commandment numbers. You see that they are bold type in our text. Psalter hymnal in the back section here. So I'll Say each of those before we actually read each of the commandments. Okay, and then we'll turn the page and come to The application of it in a minute So then Lord's Day 34 congregation, what does the Lord say in his law? God spoke all these words the first commandment I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. The second commandment. You shall not make for yourself a graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. The third commandment. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. The fourth commandment. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work. You or your son or your daughter, your manservant or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates, The fifth commandment The sixth commandment The seventh commandment you shall not commit at all truth. The eighth commandment, you shall not steal. The ninth commandment, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. The tenth commandment, you shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his maidservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's. Turning the page then, congregation, how are these commandments divided into two tables? The first has four commandments, teaching us what our relation to God should be. The second has six commandments, teaching us what we owe our neighbor. What does the Lord require in the first commandment? that I, not wanting to endanger my very salvation, avoid and shun all idolatry, magic, superstitious rites, and prayer to saints or to other creatures, that I sincerely acknowledge the only true God, trust him alone, look to him for every good thing, humbly and patiently love him, fear him, and honor him with all my heart, In short, that I give up anything rather than go against it. What is idolatry? Idolatry is having or inventing something in which one trusts in place of or alongside of the only true God who has revealed himself in his word. Well, dear congregation, many words for us to speak together out loud, but what a privilege that we just spoke those words together out loud. That is very uncommon in the world, but a rich blessing for Christians. Let's ask the help of our God as we go forward tonight then, shall we? Let's pray. Most merciful God, how we praise you for the unity that we have, which now was just expressed outwardly, where we heard one another saying what it is we all believe. But oh Lord, we want to know further, deeper, richer, with its applications, what it is we've just said we believe. And so by your spirit, help us tonight, Lord, teach us that we would grow in these very things. We ask for that help now in Jesus' name, amen. Well, dear congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Here is what it is God calls us to in a spiritual relationship. what he calls us to in a loving marriage, as we'll see in a moment, that God has placed us into. And it's significant to think in those terms, as the book of Deuteronomy, which in Hebrew is the book of words, and we just used a lot of words tonight, That book given to the people already delivered, as we focused on significantly this morning, that people already delivered but now about to enter the promised land. How were those people to live? What was the calling laid upon them? How were they to show forth the evidence of such a deliverance out of Egypt and to have been given now a new life? Well again, one of the better ways to understand that and a way to characterize what they are called to do, it would help us to put it into a marriage context. Israel was to live as a married people. They are wed to the Lord. Married, that is, to God. Because you see, a given faith creates a new relationship. A given faith, and that's what we're noticing here historically in the terms of what God has done for his people, creates an essentially new situation. So that they are in a relationship, as it were, with Almighty God, the God who delivered them, their husband, their deliverer. They are the people who, by faith, are in this new relationship with God. Beloved, as we think of perhaps Ephesians 5, we realize that's exactly our situation in Christ. And what a blessing it is to be in that marriage with God. A blessing, but yet also a burden. And so in that relationship, a given faith, faith strives to an unchallenged love for God. Faith strives to an unchallenged love for God. Do you see, of course, in verse 5 that what we're dealing with is marital language? Love. Love the Lord your God. And so we need to stress this tonight in these three ways. Faith does not adulterate itself. Faith fixes on him from the depth of our being. And faith fights all to do his will. Faith strives to an unchallenged love for God. Now, if I were to make a list for myself and catalog the ways that I do not yet have personally an unchallenged love for God, that list would probably be longer than I like. And I think if we're honest tonight, we would each say the same thing. And that's what we want to also consider tonight. If we make a list with two columns, On one side, those things which show that we have a love for God above all other loves. And on the other side, a list which shows there are still things in our lives that reveal we love things or people or situational issues more than God. How long would each of those lists be? Because it drives us back to the basic and significant consideration tonight of what is the word love? What does it mean? Love the Lord your God with all your heart. And this is what God was challenging Israel to, calling Israel to, as they're about to enter into the promised land. Love God, love me, says the Lord, with all your heart. Now, let's just press this a little bit further in terms of the analogy of a marriage. There's that young man and that young woman, and the young man has a conviction that's growing in his heart that maybe that young woman actually loves him, and maybe she really wants to be married to him. And so he's working on that conviction, and one day he gets up enough courage, he buys the ring, he bends down on one knee, and he asks her the question. And that is a public statement, what he is doing, because that news, once it is revealed, she says, yes, is going to be spread far and wide. What's been going on here? there's a love which is expressed outwardly. He acts on that in terms of commitment. But that action, you see that commitment, that growing belief that she also loves him, began in his heart. And he trusts, he believes, that the same heart activity has been going on with her. that she is saying, thinking, believing something similar. Well, beloved, in the scriptures, the Lord has revealed to his people that he has wed himself to them, that he declared them to be his bride. Now that's shown to us often and in several places in the scripture, and we're going to get to some of those illustrations in a moment, but we need to understand that what God is saying now through Moses is there are various responsibilities to this marital relationship. Paul picks up on this, and I said it already to us tonight, in Ephesians 5, and he says, very clearly does Paul there in Ephesians 5, that the relationship of Christ to his church equals the relationship of the husband to the wife. It is essentially a marital relationship. It begins in the heart. So that when I say to you tonight, kind of developing a little more that analogy of the young man who's got a conviction about a young woman and he buys the ring and he asks the question. When in that context, I say to us tonight, language like this, have no other, it becomes very clear what that means, doesn't it? Have no other. Faith does not adulterate itself. That kind of language then, have no other, as the catechism alludes to, is exceedingly relational language. And a true and lasting relationship is always a heart relationship. All kinds of other things are added to it, yes, in life that happens regularly and it builds on that, but the basic, the core, is a heart relationship. And here, beloved, is where we need to understand, now listen, the third use of the law. The third use of the law is called the rule of faith for the believer. It is a rule. It is a law. It is a rule and a law which enters into a relationship and begins to define the parameters of that relationship. I don't have to tell you tonight, but I will say it anyway, that the Lord Jesus Christ said to love me is to what? You thinking the answer to that? Keep my commandments. The Apostle John, of course, picks up on that in almost the entirety of his first epistle. First John is an explication of that, is defining what it means if we say we love God, we're going to keep his commandments. Now think of the many illustrations in the Bible that go in the other direction. Think, for example, of the rich young ruler. If I asked you the question tonight, thinking of your biblical knowledge, you're in a biblical knowledge exam just now for a moment, and I said to you, asking you it this way, did the rich young ruler have a love in his heart? How would you answer that question? Yes, he did. What was the love that possessed the heart of the rich young ruler? It was called money. And so you see, at a basic and a core and an essential level, there was a love in his heart. But it wasn't the Lord. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart. The catechism does us a wonderful service as a correct summary of the scripture when it, pulling up from Deuteronomy 6.5, says that loving the Lord with all our heart needs to be analyzed. It is a claim that can be assessed. And here the catechism is extremely helpful. What does the Lord require in the first commandment? Now look at the second paragraph of that first answer. That I sincerely acknowledge the only true God, trust him alone, look to him for every good thing, humbly and patiently, love him, fear him, and honor him with all my heart. So the catechism and our dear fathers in the faith who were used to write it say to us that there are genuine ways to assess and come to an answer. Are we faithful in this marriage? This marriage we've been placed to Christ in by grace, through faith. There has to be for us a right time to ask and assess what does love God mean? What does it mean? Because there can be an awful lot of kind of. Less than concrete ways to answer that question, what does love for God mean? Those less than concrete ways really are not very helpful. I've got a warm feeling in my heart, say the Mormons. I've got a burning sense that God loves me, say other people, but beloved, are there not concrete ways to assess that? I don't want to make it sound too hard. But look again at the question in the catechism 94. Look at the question in the catechism in 94. What does the Lord require? In the First Commandment. If you believe that to be a biblical assessment, a biblical question, then we are already agreeing, listen, that God has definitions of the marriage relationship. Is God allowed to define the parameters of the marital relationship, that is the relationship that we have been placed in with Christ? Well, we must answer yes to that question. Well, what are they? We are called to a marital fidelity in our relationship with God because love is the rule. We need to rightly acknowledge one. We're still dealing with what does it mean to love God with all our heart and what is required in that is to have a singular love for God. Trust him alone. And we think about that in terms of the relationship now. We're the bride, he's the bridegroom, so if we can, for a moment, understand the relationship that the wife has to the husband. The wife is to submit to the husband out of love. The wife is to expect good from the husband because of love. The wife is to honor the husband because of love. Now all of those things I could say at a wedding. I could say those things from the pulpit if I'm looking at a couple who's about to be married, and I could express to the wife that she is called to love and expect good from her husband and to honor her husband, and we would all nod our heads and say, mm-hmm, right? But we're, as the wife, in our relationship with God, And love language from the scripture goes like this. Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart. And I want to say to us again this evening, like we noticed it this morning, that that love language is couched in the broad definition of commandments. The relationship is found to be a relationship of love which is defined by obedience. Now, what we just said about marriage and what I could say at a wedding ceremony, we would all nod our heads, yes, that's right. All of what is true about biblical marriage, now listen, beloved, is true because it flows from the relationship of Christ to his church. It is not the tail wagging the dog as if the husband and the wife in human terms defines what God has said, but rather it is what God has said about himself with us that defines the marital relationship, you see. God has put us into a marriage with Christ by grace, and to love him is the call. You shall, say the commandments, you shall God requires then that we rightly acknowledge him, trust him, submit to him, expect all good from him as if we were in a marriage relationship, and in all of our lives, from our heart, put him first. What happens when we don't? When we don't, then we're dealing with question and answer 95 of the catechism. What is idolatry? Idolatry is having or inventing something in which one trusts in place of or alongside of the only true God who has revealed himself in his word. I wanna say something pastorally to you tonight, which is gonna betray not any particular names, I'm not gonna mention any names, but it's gonna betray a regular recurring issue that pastors have to deal with in terms of adultery. And the recurring issues that pastors often have to deal with in terms of adultery is one of the spouses in the relationship saying, well, I haven't had a physical adultery, but I only want to call him, and he's not my husband. Or I only want to be with her, and she's not my wife. We don't do anything physical, but emotionally, we seem to be linked to one another. And beloved, that is, of course, the essence of adultery, isn't it? where we have some other who is outside of the marital relationship who is more important to us. And beloved, if I might caution us in this regard, if you are married, always beware that we ought to love our spouse above all other and only want to be with him or her in that relationship, in conversation, in fellowship, in intimacy, in all of those things. And this, beloved, is what indeed the Lord is cautioning his people about. And Hosea, for one, among many other prophets in the Old Testament, revealed how that went with God's people, didn't he? That adultery was such a significant problem in the marriage relationship between Israel and God. But how do we consider that at a heart level? Do we love God more than money? Do we love God more than our hobbies? Do we love God more than our job? Do we love God more than our family? Do we love God more than our time? Our health? What's on the list? Faith does not adulterate itself. Love the Lord your God, notice the word, with all your heart. All of it. Well then secondly, faith fixes on Him from the depth of our being. Because beloved, notice the second thing, love the Lord your God, would be the language it would carry over, with all your soul. And the soul is the conductor of both the mind and the heart in our relationship and our interaction as a person. Calvin makes a statement about this in his commentary. He says that this is why our Lord, and I put this in air quotes, added mind in the Gospels. If you're thinking about what Jesus says as the answer to what is the summary of the law, he says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Why does he seem to add or include mind when it does not occur in Deuteronomy? Because of the significant effect of the soul on our person. There is within us a soul which directs our decision-making processes. Think of how differently the believer and the unbeliever consider the same possibility or the same situation. Let's just take one so very basic, I hardly have to mention it. Why are you in church tonight? Because as a believer, you consider the opportunity to do other things and you said, your soul directing you, I want to be in church tonight. Your mind may have considered some things and your heart was wrestling with some things, but a spiritual reality within us, our soul, directed both the mind and the heart about what we would do. And so when the Lord through Moses here is talking to the people and saying, you have a soul, you have a spiritual nexus, a spiritual conductor within your body, that soul, that decision-making process within you, needs to love me more than anything. The soul, beloved, directs our thinking. Can a believer think through a philosophical problem in a way similar to an unbeliever? Yes, but the believer and the unbeliever will come to a very different conclusion about that philosophical problem. Can a believer and an unbeliever wrestle with an ethical issue and use the same sort of logic and processes and working through that ethical problem, let's say abortion or any other kind of ethical problem, will they wrestle through those issues? Yes, but they will arrive at a vastly different conclusion. Why? The soul. The soul is the software program that directs the conclusion that the hardware of our actions works out. And so God is saying here that something that is so central to your being needs to love me, to love me entirely. And beloved, we need to consider that, especially in this way, that as Christians in this world, we are not yet perfected. We are not yet completely sanctified. We still struggle the new nature against the old man. Paul makes much of this in Romans 7. Romans 7 is addressed to the believer. Romans 7 is about the Christian. And so that struggle is real and we're going to be conflicted in various ways. What's the answer to that conflict? The way the Lord directs Moses to tell the people is, one of the answers comes with, Loving God in the essence of our being and our soul. So that in the soul, when temptation comes, the soul says, no, that's garbage. Go to the garbage pile. And in the level of the soul, we begin to think about those things which are true and noble and just and pure and lovely and admirable and of good report, of good repute, virtuous, praiseworthy. Those are the things that the soul leans towards and wants. And so beloved, love the Lord with all your soul. And I might say also that this is the particular area where the competing false religions are so deadly. Because those competing false religions are always aimed at the soul. Because the enemy wants the soul. If he can get the soul, the mind and the heart will follow right along. If you can get a hold of the spiritual essence of a person, then that false religion is very good at doing that through its traditions and routines and patterns and promises, which are lies, of good things and gloriously peaceful living when the false religions lie about those things like Roman Catholic Church often does. It is a issue directed at the soul. You can have all of this peace and all of this joy and all of these good things if you will just give to me your soul, said Satan to Eve in the garden. The answer, the action to combat such a powerful foe is to throw away the lies, to run away from the sources of idolatry, To as the Apostle Paul much later will say, flee. And he's talking there about sexual immorality, but it applies to so many other things, especially that. Flee. Why flee? Because if we get too close, we're going to be drawn in. And so wisdom from Proverbs 4. directs fleeing away from those things which might affix themselves to your soul. And beloved, you this evening know exactly what those things are for you. And they're different for every person, though they are similar in categories. May I say this to us a little bit in a more pointed way? You each have an issue that appeals to your soul, which is an ungodly issue. Please do not think that you don't. For some, it's money. For some, it's a promise of health. For some, it's sexuality. For some, it's greed and pride and envy. And the list goes on and on, doesn't it? But we each have an area that can affix itself very easily and has many times probably to the core of our being. Love the Lord your God with all your soul. How do we do that? Let me add just this tonight, there's so much more we could say, but let me add just this, that the most effective defense is to have a good offense. Are you feeding your soul? Are you feeding your soul with the word that will grow stronger love for God in the essence of who you are? When are you doing that? Now, I just asked the question in a very generic way. Are you doing it? And you could, in your mind, nod your head. You could think, yes, I am. But answer the question right now, tonight, here before God in His house, in your heart. How am I feeding my soul? Yes, you're in God's house, and praise the Lord morning and evening, many of us. But aside from that, and that, of course, is the primary way. But aside from that, regularly, Monday through Saturday, morning to evening, How are you feeding your soul? How are you chewing on the gold? Isn't that a strange way of putting it? Chewing on the gold of God's word? Taking in the richness so that your soul is satiated, fed, nourished, delighting in God? Idolatry is kept at bay only by souls richly fed by the means of grace and the devotions at home. When we're not feeding our souls, our souls begin to hunger for something. And there are so many things in the world out there wanting, as an offer, to feed our souls. And it's actually, of course, poison. And so, beloved, may I say this again tonight? Make sure you have a good offense against all that would come as an assault against your soul. What does God require in the first commandment? That I give up anything, notice the last paragraph, that I give up anything rather than go against his will in any way. And that means thirdly, that faith fights all to do his will. Love the Lord your God, With all your strength. With all your strength. Now I wonder, I'm just thinking out loud here tonight, and maybe you can come up to me and tell me afterward, if this is something that's easier for men, young boys, to think about than it is for ladies and girls. Now maybe I'm sounding sexist, I don't intend to sound that way, but when we're talking about fighting and doing battle, Is that something that is more appealing to men to think about than it is to ladies? I don't know. You can answer the question for me. But the text says, God says, love the Lord your God with all your strength. That means be ready to fight. Be a fighter. Be one who's ready to do battle. Isn't it interesting how the Apostle Paul, now when we're thinking what we said earlier about him linking Us to Christ in a marital relationship in Ephesians 5. Where does he then go in Ephesians 6? Do you know the answer to that question? The sword. The armor. The battle. The fight. We have to fight. We have to love the Lord our God with all our strength. But we want to do that in an informed way. This is again what Solomon was saying to his sons. He'd learned from his dad, David, and he wanted to bequeath, hand off to his sons, have knowledge. Because the most informed soldier is usually the most effective fighter. Well, where then does that knowledge come from? And now we're building on what we just said about how we're feeding our souls. Do you see, beloved, the natural consequence of the one leading to a benefit in the other? A feeding of the soul leads to a growing knowledge of the word, which equips us more effectively to fight the battle. Do you know the word? Now I ask you again tonight, not meaning to make us feel uncomfortable, but asking us in terms of ways that we will meditate on this week. Is my knowledge of the word growing? How am I accomplishing that in my life? Am I reading through a chapter? Am I reading through a book of the Bible? Am I striving to memorize a scripture passage or two? We've given you quarterly now Bible verses this year to memorize. The newest one is in the back on a magnet that you can stick on your refrigerator. Use that. That's fine. But otherwise, beloved, how are we growing in our knowledge of God's word onto the battle that surely comes to every Christian regularly? If you don't think it comes to you, I'm sorry, but it does will probably already has You know of my love for the movie Chariots of Fire. I can't help but once in a while quote from that movie. There's a scene where the, quote, star, who will become later the missionary, Eric Little, is sitting in a room with his grandpa and his father there in that room. And as they're contemplating what it was that the world needed in 1924 in terms of an answer from Christianity, the grandfather said to grandson Eric Little, Eric, what the world needs today is a muscular Christian. Now, he might have been talking about running to show forth the glory of God and having people ask about why he ran the way he did, and that's surely true, but beloved, isn't it still true for us today that what the world needs is a muscular Christian, spiritually speaking, to be able to do battle, to have strength, and now notice this from the text, strength which is dedicated to God, To have everything that is about us, that is strong and robust and healthy, devoted to God. Because the opposite is always the temptation. To use our strength for ourselves. Now what do we mean here by strength? We mean those things that are given to us by God as included talents and skills and abilities that we want to continue to use and continue to grow in our abilities in those things and have talents that grow and glorify God. To use all of those things as strength for his glory as opposed to using any of those things in worldly pursuits. Which is for the Christian a constant temptation. I can't help but think out loud about a particular Christian artist, and this is the danger in contemporary Christian music, by the name of Amy Grant, not meaning to diss on somebody, but who when she first began her musical career, it seemed in her songs that she was dedicated to the glory of God and that was her purpose, that was her love, that was her intent, but it wasn't long in her musical career when the money started coming in, I suppose, that her songs changed. Now we don't want to be unduly critical, only God knows the heart, but beloved, what are we doing with our strengths, with our talents, our abilities, What God has given to us as gifts to be used for his glory. Are we not called in these ways to love him with those things? To say this talent, this ability, this skill I have is devoted to God. And I want to use it for his glory. We're doing battle in that way, beloved. You see, we're doing battle. We're using strength to show forth love. Now we might need to add tonight and think about this, that it is impossible to do any of these things that the text is calling us to, loving God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength. It's impossible to do any of those things if we're living in disobedience to his commandments. And that's where we're gonna need to go as the catechism begins then to unfold the applications of the Ten Commandments. Or to put that now in a positive way, the life of a believer who loves God is a theocentric life. It is a God-centered existence. It is an existence where we use everything that is of us, everything that is about us, for Him. And that means, beloved, that we're going to be wanting to know, God, what are your commandments? What are your stipulations? What are your expectations? So that we will then, at the end of every day, say with the psalmist, oh, how I love thy law. Because I love my heavenly husband. As a Christian, I love the relationship that I've been placed in with God, and I want nothing to come into this marriage, this relationship between God and me. Nothing takes over first place. God alone owns first place. Love the Lord your God. Entirely. Amen. Heavenly Father, how thankful we are that Christ has freed us from an unbreakable love for sin, and has freed us to putting love for you first. But oh, Heavenly Father, there is always a battle there. There's always a challenge. We want to love you first. Help us, Lord, to do that, because you are the God who has delivered us Lord we want to love you and show how thankful we are for such deliverance Strengthen us in these ways we ask tonight in Jesus name. Amen Well, let's sing again tonight dear congregation at 402 glorious things of thee are spoken we'll stand to sing