In preparation for coming to the table of the Lord next week, we turn now to the form for the administration of the Lord's Supper in page 91, in the back of the Psalter, page 91, and read the first part of the form. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, attend to the words of the institution of the Holy Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ as they are delivered by the Holy Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11, verses 23 through 29. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he break it and said, take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped, saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye, as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. That we may next week celebrate the supper of the Lord to our comfort, it is above all things necessary first rightly to examine ourselves. We skip to the next paragraph. The true examination of ourselves consists of these three parts. First, that everyone consider by himself his sins and the curse due to him for them, to the end that he may abhor and humble himself before God, considering that the wrath of God against sin is so great that, rather than it should go unpunished, he hath punished the same in his beloved Son, Jesus Christ, with the bitter and shameful death of the cross. Secondly, that everyone examine his own heart, whether he doth believe this faithful promise of God, that all his sins are forgiven him only for the sake of the passion and death of Jesus Christ, and that the perfect righteousness of Christ is imputed and freely given him as his own, yea, so perfectly as if he had satisfied in his own person for all his sins and fulfilled all righteousness. Thirdly, that every one examine his own conscience, whether he purposeth henceforth to show true thankfulness to God in his whole life, and to walk uprightly before him, as also whether he hath laid aside unfaintedly all enmity, hatred, and envy, and a firmly resolve henceforward to walk in true love and peace with his neighbor. All those then who are thus disposed, God will certainly receive in mercy, and count them worthy partakers of the table of his Son, Jesus Christ. On the contrary, those who do not feel this testimony in their hearts, eat and drink judgment to themselves. Therefore we also, according to the command of Christ and the Apostle Paul, admonish all those who are defiled with the following sins to keep themselves from the table of the Lord, and declare to them that they have no part in the kingdom of Christ, such as all idolaters, all those who invoke deceased saints, angels, or other creatures, all those who worship images, all enchanters, diviners, charmers, and those who confide in such enchantments, all despisers of God and of his word and of the holy sacraments, all blasphemers, All those who are given to raise discord, sects, and mutiny in church or state. All perjured persons. All those who are disobedient to their parents and superiors. All murderers, contentious persons, and those who live in hatred and envy against their neighbors. all adulterers, whoremongers, drunkards, thieves, usurers, robbers, gamesters, covetous, and all who lead offensive lives. All these, while they continue in such sins, shall abstain from this meat, which Christ hath ordained only for the faithful, lest their judgment and condemnation be made the heavier. But this is not designed, dearly beloved brethren and sisters in the Lord, to deject the contrite hearts of the faithful, as if none might come to the supper of the Lord but those who are without sin. For we do not come to this supper to testify thereby that we are perfect and righteous in ourselves, but on the contrary, considering that we seek our life out of ourselves in Jesus Christ, we acknowledge that we lie in the midst of death. Therefore, notwithstanding we feel many infirmities and miseries in ourselves, as namely that we have not perfect faith, and that we do not give ourselves to serve God with that zeal as we are bound, but have daily to strive with the weakness of our faith and the evil lusts of our flesh, yet since we are, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, sorry for these weaknesses, and earnestly desire us to fight against our unbelief, and to live according to all the commandments of God, therefore we rest assured that no sin or infirmity which still remaineth against our will in us can hinder us from being received of God in mercy and from being made worthy partakers of this heavenly meat and drink. Thus far we read the form. We now turn to God's Word in Matthew 22 again. This morning we saw Jesus' conflict with the Sadducees, and this evening we see the Pharisees' conflict with Jesus, or at least one of those conflicts between the Pharisees and Jesus, as we turn to Matthew 22, verses 34 through 40. Matthew 22, verses 34 through 40, and these verses are also our text tonight. But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. This is God's holy and inspired Word. May He bless it to our hearts this evening. Beloved congregation and our Lord Jesus Christ, the text before us relates a dramatic confrontation between the Pharisees on the one hand, and our Lord Jesus Christ on the other hand. That's almost an identical quote of the way we began the sermon this morning. In the verses immediately preceding, there was a conflict between the Sadducees and Jesus. And now in the verses this evening, there is a conflict between the Pharisees and Jesus, this other Jewish sect. this Jewish sect that did not have its fingers on the lovers of power as the Sadducees did, but who were nevertheless very influential among the Jews in Jesus' day. This was a day of conflict for Jesus, as one sect after another confronted him with what they thought were gotcha questions, what they thought were perfectly designed traps, to catch Jesus in his own words. That began in verse 15, that the Pharisees went and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. And Jesus turned their temptation away. The Sadducees came, and now the Pharisees come back again. We are told in the opening verse of this section that the reason for This confrontation was the hatred, the burning hatred of the Pharisees against Jesus. And that comes out in verse 34 when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence. They were gathered together. The Pharisees hated Jesus. They thought at the beginning of the day they could entangle him in his talk. He was not so entangled. They stood back while the Sadducees came, and they were turned away. And now the Pharisees come back again. They cannot leave Jesus alone out of hatred for him. We know a little bit what that's like. We cannot leave Jesus alone either, can we? We cannot leave him alone by the grace of God because we love him. We need to see him. We need to hear him. We need to be with him. Imagine what it would be to constantly be returning to Jesus out of hatred, out of a desire to silence him. And the Pharisees finally would get their chance to have him crucified a few chapters later. The Pharisees were operating out of perpetual hatred for the Lord Jesus Christ. But the Lord, recognizing even the motive in which the Pharisees came, answered their question and used their question as an opportunity to lay down for His church the great commandment in the law. The Pharisees were not here innocently seeking clarification on a point of doctrine, just as the Sadducees were not innocently seeking clarification on a point of doctrine. They were here to trap Him. But Jesus used that opportunity for you and for me to lay down for us clear doctrine of the Word of God. The doctrine that Jesus lays down in this confrontation with the Sadducees is the great commandment in the law. What is the great commandment? The great commandment is love God. That's the word of Jesus Christ to you tonight. Love God and His word to me. And there's another commandment. Though not the great commandment, it's like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself. That's his word to you and to me, love your neighbor as yourself. In light of those great commandments, the main commandment and the one like unto it, we are to examine ourselves in this week and every day and every week of our lives as we prepare to come to the supper of the Lord. How are you doing? And how am I in the great commandment to love God and to love the neighbor? And so this evening, we meditate for a while on the great commandment in the law. And that's the theme of the sermon too, the great commandment in the law. In the first place, consider what it is. In the second place, consider what it exposes. And in the third place, consider where it leads. The great commandment in the law, what it is, what it exposes, and where it leads. We learn here in verse 34 and 35 of the text that the Pharisees came now to tempt Jesus, and their spokesman was a lawyer. Verse 35, then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question. The purpose of the lawyer here was not to clarify doctrine. The purpose of the lawyer was to trap Jesus and make Jesus look foolish. That's evident from verse 35 where we read that the lawyer asked Jesus a question, tempting Him, tempting Him. And the tempting question that the lawyer asked was this, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Now let's look for a minute at what that question means, and then we'll look at how the lawyer intended this to embarrass Jesus. The question is, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? And when we hear the word law, we sometimes think of the Ten Commandments. That's right, that's good. The Ten Commandments are the law of God, but sometimes the word law can refer to certain books of the Bible, and that's the meaning of the word law here. The law that Moses gave, the books that Moses was inspired to write, which would be the first five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The lawyer was asking Jesus, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Now that question is a huge question because there are hundreds and hundreds of commandments from Genesis to Deuteronomy, many, many years ago. a couple thousand years ago already, some Jewish scholars sat down and tried to count every single command, every unique command in Genesis to Deuteronomy. And they came up with 613 unique, specific commands in the first five books of the Bible. Then other Jewish scholars came after them and said, no, it's not 613. You cannot count the specific numbers of the law because there are so many variations of some of the different laws in order to bring out different aspects of them. Well, whether there are 613 commands or more from Genesis to Deuteronomy, the point is there are hundreds of them. There are many of them. And this lawyer was asking Jesus to sift through all of those commandments and pick out the one that is the greatest commandment of them all. This question was a temptation for Jesus. It was intended to embarrass him by being a trap, a gotcha question. This lawyer was attempting to expose Jesus' ignorance. The man who asked the question was himself a lawyer. That's how he's identified here in verse 35. He's a lawyer. A lawyer was one of the scribes who had the specific task of interpreting Old Testament law for the Jews. Now the scribes were those who would copy over the Bible. In the absence of a printing press, they would have to make handwritten copies of all of the copies of the Bible that they had. And the scribe's job then was to sit down and write word for word a copy of the Bible he had in front of them. And the scribes were very meticulous in their work. When they were finished with one line of text, they would count how many words they had just read and how many words they had just written to make sure it matched. Line after line after line after line. And as they did this, the scribes became very familiar, deeply familiar with the written Word of God. They had no idea what it meant. They didn't understand the spiritual meaning of it. They misinterpreted all of it, but they were at least very familiar with the words. And then one class of scribes was the lawyers who not only copied over the words of the Bible, but who were to apply those and to rule within the nation of Israel. So this man was the expert of the experts in the law of God. This lawyer knew which was the great commandment of the law. And he's going to show Jesus ignorance by asking him, in the hearing of all of the people, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? And the trap worked this way. This Jesus, this Jesus thinks that he's a teacher. This Jesus thinks that he's the son of God. He wants people to believe in him. This Jesus has all the people following him. Well, I'm going to show that this Jesus isn't the leader he thinks he is. I'm going to ask him about all these hundreds of commands in the law of God, which is the greatest? And he's going to say, um, well, uh, and be shown and exposed as the ignorant man that he is, so thought the lawyer. Now, I know What is the great commandment? But I'm going to show everyone that this Jesus doesn't know. This is hilarious. This attempt makes us laugh. This lawyer thought he was going to expose some supposed ignorance of Jesus regarding the law You know how that law came to be? Jesus inspired it. He's God, the second person. As God, the second person, by the Spirit, He inspired the first five books of the Bible. The lawyer thought he was intimately familiar with the first five books. Well, how much more familiar? must the very one who inspired those books be. This attempt was hilarious and ridiculous on the face of it. That attempt would be something like somebody coming up to you today or to one of our elders or minister and trying to trap them and saying, okay, you think you're, or you say you're a Christian, you say you follow the Bible, but I bet you don't even know what the Bible teaches. Of all of the verses in the Bible, what is the main verse? What verse captures the main message? And what would you say, what would I say to that question? Which verse captures the main message? A few months ago, when we were in Genesis 3, we saw one strong possibility for which verse captures the main message of the Bible. Genesis 3, verse 15, the mother promise. I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. That one verse explains the rest of the message of the Bible. It's the enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, and the seed of the woman is Jesus Christ who's coming to save his people. Or one verse that might capture the whole message of the Bible is Mark 1, verse 1. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And that's the message of the whole Bible. The gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Another one would be Romans chapter 13. Romans 2. Nope, I have that wrong. Romans 11. Romans 11 verse 36, for of him that is of God and through God and to God are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. Good to have that verse memorized a little better than I did right now to answer that question. Romans 11 verse 36, all things are of God, all things are through God, and all things are to him to whom be glory forever and ever." One of those verses is a good contender for which is the one verse in the Bible that captures its message. So now if anybody tempts us with that question or tries to prove us, we can have an answer ready. But this temptation came to Jesus. Master, which is the great commandment in the first five books of the Bible? Jesus answered that question by giving to us the familiar summary of the law. Jesus said unto him, verse 37, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. Jesus' answer here teaches us which is the great commandment in the Law. This is a remarkable answer of Jesus. We might think that Jesus would go to one of the ten commandments and choose one of them as the great commandment. The first commandment, for example, thou shalt have no other gods before me. We could make a case that's the greatest, that's the most important of everything that's going to follow. Jesus doesn't go to the Ten Commandments. Jesus goes to a different place in Genesis through Deuteronomy and says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all of thy being. That's the Great Commandment. And the second commandment, there's another one that's like it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And then Jesus teaches, these two commandments are the summary of all of the commandments. Take that first great commandment, love the Lord thy God. That's the summary of the first four commandments of the Ten Commandments. Have no other gods, make no graven images, take God's name not in vain, and remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. How do you love God? By doing those four things. And the second commandment, love thy neighbor as thyself, is the summary of the last six commandments of the Ten. Honor thy father and thy mother. Thou shalt not kill, commit adultery, steal, lie, or covet. How do you love your neighbor? By doing those six things. Jesus summarizes all of the Ten Commandments with these two commandments. But Jesus goes a step further and says this is the summary of the law and the prophets. You asked about the first five books of the Bible, oh Mr. Lawyer, but I'm telling you this is the summary of every command. This is the greatest command of all of them in the whole Old Testament. There's no command greater than this. And these commandments are related. The first command, love God, is demonstrated by the second command, love your neighbor. If a man says he loves God and he hates his neighbor, he shows himself to be a liar. In other places of the Word of God emphasize that connection between the two. We show our love of God by our love of the neighbor. This is the great commandment. And that great commandment is comprehensive. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and as he adds in Mark 12, with all thy strength. What are those things? With all thy heart, that's the spiritual center of a man. So that from the very core of his being, from his heart, he loves God. What is his soul? His soul is the seat of his will. where he makes decisions. With our will, we are to love God, so that our obedience to the law is not some accidental thing that we kind of fall into, but our obeying the law of God is a deliberate thing. With all our soul, with all our will, we obey that law. Our mind is the conscious part of us. so that with all of our conscious activity we obey the law of God. And our strength then, as Mark 12 adds, our strength is all of our energy, so that we are zealous to obey that law. The Lord's Supper form summarizes all of that by saying, giving ourselves to serve God with that zeal as we are bound. Everything in us is to obey the law of God. And then we are to love our neighbors just as much as we love ourselves. How much do you love yourself and me, myself? So that we would do anything to prolong and to save our life almost. Well, with that kind of love, love the neighbor. All of that's familiar to us. All of that we understand. All of that is review. What we want to do now is see something new, something fresh in this command, this great commandment, and step back and see the beautiful, beautiful view that this law gives us of Jehovah God. The law makes God appear lovely and loving. When Jesus gives here the great commandment of the law, He says, not just thou shalt love God, but thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart. The Lord thy God, He's your God. Your God is not the God of those enemy nations around us. Your God is Jehovah. And He's a merciful God. He's slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. He's forgiving of your iniquities. Your God is not a cruel God or a harsh God to serve. Your God is God who is love, the God who is Jehovah. Sometimes we lose sight of how precious it is to have that God as our God, because there are other gods to have. Not real gods, not true spiritual entities who are sovereign like God, but there are other idols to serve. And those other idols are cruel. Think of some of the idols that were held by the nations around Israel. Think of Baal, that god of the Phoenicians who was first of all the god of the Babylonians. Sometimes we read about the Babylonian god Bel, B-E-L, Bel and Nebo, for example. Well, it was that Bel who was taken in by the Phoenicians who were just north of Israel, and they gave him the name Baal, B-A-A-L. But it's the same God. That was the sun God. Baal was the sun God. Baal was the God under whom we live then. Baal was the God who would give the crops or scorch them. The people worshiped this Baal and Baal was a cruel God to serve. Baal was a fickle God, a whimsical God. You never knew what Baal was going to do next. And so they would worship Baal, this sun god, by making many sacrifices to him, and on great high days making a human sacrifice to Baal. That's the god of the Phoenicians and the god of the Babylonians, Baal. He's not your god. He doesn't require that you choose one out from among you to die every year on the great high day. Or what about the god Ashtaroth? That was a female goddess who was said to be Baal's, not wife exactly, but Baal's consort. And Ashtaroth was worshipped by many pagan nations in those Old Testament days through acts of fornication. That was part of the worship of that goddess. People would go to the temple and commit fornication with the priestesses of Ashtaroth, and that kind of worship was taken up by many Greek nations as well, Greek states as well. That's cruel worship. How would the wives like it if this was the goddess that we served and that the men would be required periodically throughout the course of the year to go commit fornication with the priestesses at the temple of Ashtaroth? That's cruelty. That's not love for the people. Or what about the god Molech? That tremendously cruel god who required from the people their children, so that they would cause their sons to pass through the fire, which means that they would offer their sons upon the altar of Molech, killing them in the process, burning them in service to this God. That's cruelty. That's not your God. The law says something different. Your God is Jehovah, and you are to love the Lord Jehovah, your God, with all your heart. We might think that those cruel gods were only those gods of the Old Testament, but those cruel gods are around today. In Singapore, one of the members of the church belonged to a pagan family. when she was a little girl. And when her sister was born, they went to one of the holy men in the Chinese religions, and the holy men said to the father, you were born in the year of the tiger, that specific year in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac. You were born in the year of the tiger, father, and your daughter is born in the year of the tiger, too. And tigers cannot get along in the same home. You have to get rid of your daughter. This happened in our memory, in the living memory of one of the members of the church in Singapore, so that the family went home and gave their newborn infant daughter away to someone else who took her to Hong Kong. And they never saw her again. The parents never saw her again. That's the kind of gods that are out there today. and the kind of cruelty that those gods have. But that's not our God. The Lord, our God, is a merciful God. And that's one thing that those who are converted to the Christian faith see about this Jehovah. That the law shows him to be a God of love. The Lord, thy God, love Him. What a beautiful, beautiful view the law gives us of God. But what a beautiful view the law gives us of our life as well. Our life is a life of love. Love for this God who first loved us and gave himself to us to be our God. And love for our neighbor as ourselves so that with all of our being We give ourselves in return to God. And we look at our neighbor without selfishness, but with selflessness and ask, what can I do for this neighbor to show my love for him? Perhaps a neighbor that's very difficult to love. Perhaps a neighbor that hates me, but a neighbor nevertheless. How can I give myself in love for this neighbor? That's a beautiful life that the law sets out before us. And because of this beautiful portrayal of God, and this beautiful life with the neighbor and with God, we love the Law. We don't consider the commandments to be grievous. We don't consider the commandments to be evil. We say with Paul in Romans 7, the commandment is holy and just and good. The law is good, and I love that law. And as I meditate upon that law, I learn about God, and I learn about His calling for me. We love, adore, meditate upon, cherish the law of God. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. Love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Now when Jesus gave this as the summary of the law, Jesus was not making up something new. He had the right to do that. He's the law giver. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who inspired the law. But he didn't make up something new. Rather, Jesus quoted two passages from Genesis through Deuteronomy in order to show what this law is. The first passage he quoted was Deuteronomy 6, verse 5. Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. It might be possible, just reading through the Old Testament, to pick this out as the Great Commandment. Because this occurs in a very significant place. It's right after Deuteronomy 5, where the Ten Commandments are given a second time. Chapter 6 begins, These are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord your God commanded to teach you. This is leading up to something. Somebody might read through the Old Testament and come to Deuteronomy 6 and say, here it is. Here's the great commandment of all of the commandments of the law. But that's not the case with the next passage that Jesus quoted, Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18. In Leviticus 19, there's what appears to us to be an almost random list of laws. laws about idols, laws about reaping the harvest, laws about stealing, laws about swearing, laws about who may marry whom, and how far away the relation has to be in a family to marry whom. And then Jesus says in verse 18, thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord. This second law is almost tucked in a corner of all of these other laws. This would be a hard one to pick out. But the Lord Jesus Christ says, here's the second, which is like unto the first. Love God and love your neighbor and show your love of God by your love of your neighbor. The Lord Jesus Christ taught us by that, that everything we need is here in the scriptures. When he was tempted by this lawyer, when the lawyer threatened to expose Jesus as an ignorant man, though that's an impossible thing to do, the Lord Jesus Christ didn't have to make a new commandment. He could go back to the Scriptures that he had inspired by the Spirit and quote the Scriptures. And that teaches us that in whatever we face, we can go to the Scriptures and find there our answer. And so this law, The Old Testament is the great commandment. But that great commandment, beautiful as it is, and showing God in all of His beauty as it does, exposes us as filthy and wretched. That's striking. The law is good. The law says beautiful things, but when I take that law and hold it up to myself, I see in the reflection of that law a miserable, lost sinner in myself. The law exposes me and exposes you as committing sinful deeds. The law exposes us that way when it says, love God with all thy heart and all thy mind and all thy soul and all thy strength. The law is not satisfied with superficial love. The love that the law commands penetrates to the core of our being. It penetrates to motives and desires And the law says, with everything in you, obey. And now I look at my obedience and find that I'm not obeying with everything in me. I'm obeying by the grace of God. I have a new beginning, and you do, but not with everything in me. I find even that the good works I do, even they're polluted. because motives are not pure, not perfectly, perfectly pure in my heart. That's the testimony of Isaiah 64 regarding our works. Isaiah 64, verse 6, But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Our righteousnesses, our very best works, are polluted with sin. Take hold of that verse, take note of that verse, Isaiah 64, verse six. That verse is under attack in Reformed churches today. There are men who are associated with the federal vision who are reinterpreting Isaiah 64, verse six. What this verse says is that even my best works are polluted with sin. Even my best works need to be forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ. What men are saying about this verse today is that this is not referring to our good works. This is referring to the works that we do in the flesh. Our good works don't need cleansing in the blood of Christ is the implication of that teaching. Take note of Isaiah 64 verse 6 as you read today and see what men are saying about that verse. But this is what the law exposes about even my good works. that they need cleansing because they're not perfect. Not with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength have I obeyed the law of God. The law not only exposes my works as being evil, but the law exposes me as being evil in myself. There's something wrong with me as a person. Because I'm the source, I'm the fount of these sins. When I measure myself to the law of God which says, love me perfectly and your neighbor as yourself, and I find I don't measure up, that's because there's something wrong with the source of all of these actions. I myself am a sinner. God is not. He's beautiful as revealed in the law. The life of the godly is not polluted as revealed in the law. But when I hold it up to me, I am polluted. That's what Isaiah 64 verse 6 says as well. Not only our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, but we are all as an unclean thing. There's something wrong with me. When I look at all of that, then I have to conclude my salvation cannot come from my doing. My salvation cannot come from me. The law has exposed me and has convinced me and convicted me that my salvation cannot come from me. We have to hold that in mind because there are many who teach the salvation of our souls does come from us. Jesus exposed that in Luke 10 verses 25 and following another place where this great law and the second like unto it comes up. And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted Jesus, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? So now the question in Luke 10 is not to Jesus, what's the great commandment? Now the question is, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And the answer is nothing. There's nothing you can do to inherit eternal life. That's something God has to give to you by His grace received by faith. But Jesus, in order to expose what this lawyer was saying, answers him this way. He said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? And the lawyer answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast answered right, this do, and thou shalt live. And Jesus' point in answering that way was to show you cannot live this way. You cannot gain for yourself the inheritance and eternal life by living this way because the law says be perfect and you aren't. Don't take this passage in Luke 10 then to mean, here's an alternative way of salvation. One way might be over there through something God gives, but another way that I can be saved is by doing this and living. If I just do enough, I'll be saved. And that's the same teaching of the Apostle Paul in Romans 2 verse 13. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. Take note of that. Verse 2, Romans 2.13. The same men corrupting Isaiah 64 today are corrupting Romans 2.13. They are explaining this to mean that Paul is giving us the way to be justified at the final judgment. Be a doer of the law. Not the hearers of the law are justified, but the doers of the law shall be justified. Be a doer of the law, and you will be justified. That's not Paul's point here. Paul is not saying, be saved, be justified by your doing. Paul is saying, if we set this up as a hypothetical way to be saved, we will find nobody is saved that way. Because nobody can do the law perfectly. And our conclusion has to be, being exposed by the law, that my salvation cannot come from me because I am a sinner. How necessary for those preparing to come to the table of the Lord next week. We understand in the core of our being this week that we cannot make ourselves worthy of the Lord's table. We cannot make ourselves worthy of the Lord's presence. What a necessary truth for those who would be received by God to hear. But what then? Is there no hope for the child of God exposed in his sin by the law? The law was given to expose our sin for the very reason that we should be led to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no hope from me. But what about this God who is my God? What about this God who says, even in the law, I am thine? Can help come from Him? Of course, help can come from Him. The help and salvation that He has given is in His Son, Jesus Christ. Jehovah God, exposing us in our sin, has provided somebody who obeyed God's law perfectly. He loved the Lord, His God, Jesus did according to His human nature. With all His heart, mind, soul, and with all His strength, He loved His neighbor, His true neighbor, which is all of His people, as Himself, giving His life to cover all of our iniquities. So that when we see in the law the beauty of our God and the beauty of that life that is portrayed, and then we see our own sinfulness, we fly to the cross of Jesus Christ and find in His blood covering for all our sins. What an important truth for the people of God coming to the Lord's Supper next Sunday. Why do we come to that Supper? Why do we come to church for that matter? Why do we hear the Gospel at church for that matter? Because here we have proclaimed to us by word and sacrament the Lord Jesus Christ and His broken body and shed blood to cover all our sins, by whom we have access to God. Not only are our sins covered by His blood, But His perfect obedience, that beautiful life of obedience that we saw, He lived it. He lived it perfectly. And that beautiful life of obedience is counted as mine, though I didn't live it in myself, though I have only a new beginning by the grace of God. That perfect, beautiful life of obedience is imputed to me, so that I may stand before Jehovah God clothed with the righteousness and obedience of Jesus Christ Himself. You and I may come, believing in Jesus next week, to sit at God's own table. That's how righteous you are and I am in Christ. We don't have to be afraid of sitting at His table, in the presence of Jehovah Himself. covered as we are in the righteousness of our Lord. And then we desire to do better, to try harder in living a life of gratitude according to that command. And here, too, we depend upon Jesus Christ for our righteousness, yes, but also for our holiness, seeking from Jesus Christ, His Spirit, that we may walk according to all of these things, giving glory to God who has redeemed us, and showing our gratitude for the righteousness of Christ, by which we have access to Jehovah God alone. The law becomes our guide, and that's the other main use of the law. It exposes us, yes, but it becomes our guide to a life of holy living, a beautiful law, a beautiful revelation of our life with God. And so, beloved, we prepare in this week to come to the Lord's Supper next week. Do that preparation in light of the law of God, and let you and me be driven to our Lord Jesus Christ, and be assured by faith that in Him we have all our salvation. Amen. Our Father which art in heaven, we thank thee for thy word, and thank thee for thy law, beautiful, lovely, holy, just, and pure, and for the great commandment that shows us the very core and heart of our calling. We pray, Father, that thou wilt forgive all our sins against that law, for we have been exposed. Wash us clean in the blood of Jesus Christ. Count his righteousness to us. and strengthen our faith to take hold of these truths and receive from Thee salvation. And then give us a life of holiness according to Thy law, that we may express our gratitude and love for Thee for what we have in our Savior, in whose name we pray. Amen. Psalter number 321, 321. We sing here of God's law. We'll sing the four stanzas, all four of 321. ♪ When recent love has dimmed in us ♪ ♪ Then we should faithfully obey ♪ ♪ I will make my days now return ♪ ♪ Thy holy statutes true ♪ When at thy righteous judgment's door you ♪ Bless the Lord, ye saints below, who in his praise delight. ♪ I love this creature, let his name be adored and adored. ♪ Let all that breathe him praise unite, The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Amen.