When Jesus declared that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God, and the second one is like unto it, to love your neighbor as yourself. was he putting to an end? the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament? Today on Truth for Life, Alastair Begg looks at the proper place of God's law in the lives of followers of Christ. We'll be hearing another listener favorite message from our Encore 2025 series.
Well, I invite you to turn to Matthew and to chapter twenty-two. And follow along as I read.
So from verse Uh after the account of the parable of the wedding feast. We read. Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, teacher. We know that you are true.
and teach the way of God truthfully. and you do not care about anyone's opinion. for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us then. What you think?
Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax. and they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this?
They said, Caesar's. Then he said to them, Therefore, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. When they heard it, They marveled. And they left him and went away. The same day, Sadducees came to him.
who say that there is no resurrection, and he asked him a question saying, Teacher. Moses said If a man dies having no children, His brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.
Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother.
So too the second and third down to the seventh. After them all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, Whose wife will she be? for they all had her. But Jesus answered them, you're wrong.
Because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what it was said to you by God? I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He's not the God of the dead, but of the living.
And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. Teacher. Which is the great commandment in the law? And he said to him, You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.
Now, while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question. 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 is it then that David, in the spirit, calls him Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.
If then David calls him Lord, How is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word. Nor from that day. Did anyone dare to ask him? Anymore.
Questions? He turns the table on them masterfully, doesn't he? is quite wonderful. Without being unkind in any way, he leaves them in absolutely no doubt about what's going on.
Well, I hope that what he had to say to them there, you're wrong because you don't know the scriptures of the power of God, could not be applied to us. As we come to the study this evening, it's the end of a long day. And we have been enjoying the ministry of the word, and we've eaten a number of meals, as it were. And now here we have another one of all things at this point. There will be three parts to it.
All right, part one. In which I want to make some general observations about the place of the law. in the life of the Christian. Secondly, when we consider what it means to love God. And thirdly, to consider what it means to love our neighbour as ourselves.
I do think that before we look at the great commandment, It is very, very important that we are clear about the place of the law in the life of the Christian. If you survey contemporary evangelicalism, which is not difficult to do. you discover That many of the elements that are represented in our contemporary culture, in our church environments, Are marked by a number of things, which I want to suggest to you are directly related to a misunderstanding or a misapplication or a misappropriation of the place of the law of God in the life of the Christian. For example, An absence of a true and realistic understanding of the seriousness of sin. A superficial kind of preaching.
that appeals to men and women's felt needs. A general listlessness and lawlessness in the lives of professing Christians. An absence of the fear of God in public worship. And in private. Living.
A wholesale capitulation to the culture. on the matter of the Lord's Day. Churches relying on strategies borrowed from business and from psychology. And a growing confidence in ourselves. and an accompanying loss of confidence in God And in his word.
I hope you don't feel that that is in any sense a harsh judgment or that I sit in judgment. I recognize that these things point back towards us. It's nothing new. Martin Luther in his day encouraged all who fear God, especially those who intended to become ministers of the gospel, to learn from the Apostle Paul, he said, the proper use of the law. Four quotes, I fear that after our time, The right handling of the law will become a lost art.
Even now, although we continually explain the separate functions of the law and the gospel, we have those among us who do not understand how the law should be used. What will it be like when we are dead and gone? That's Luther. That's not some disgruntled old minister in the 21st century.
So, without expanding that really at all, let's just lay down certain things as being foundational. We need to understand and embrace The all-demanding nature. of God's law. A law which was given in the context of redeeming grace. The Ten Commandments were laws for God's redeemed people.
He did not take them out of Egypt because they kept the Ten Commandments. They were to keep the Ten Commandments because he took them out. The moral law has an abiding place in the Christian's life. For it is the law of God which informs us of what God requires. And the Spirit empowers us to fulfill what God.
requires. To talk in this way is not immediately amenable to contemporary thinking. Let me just quote my favorite John Murray for a moment, writing again in his collected writings. The kind of thing that I have just said, Murray says. The statement of such a position is exceedingly distasteful to many phases of modern thought.
Both within and without the evangelical family. And remember, he's writing a good time ago. It is agreed that the conception of an externally revealed and imposed code of duty. norm of right feeling, thought and conduct. is entirely out of accord with the liberty and spontaneity of the Christian life.
You hear this all the time. We are told that conformity to the will of God must come from within. And therefore, any stipulation or prescription from without. In the form of well-defined precepts. is wholly alien to the spirit of the gospel.
It is inconsistent, they say, with the spirit or principle of love. Don't speak of law. Nor of moral precepts, nor of a code of morals, speak. of the law. of love.
I just contextualize that for a month. Think about where you are in the church, people you've met with, you've been counseling with, listening to, perhaps your children, perhaps a neighbor or a friend. And it's not uncommon for them to say, well, you know, we just go with whatever our heart teaches us.
However, our heart teaches us, and we're able to know if we're on the right tracks, because then our heart will affirm this for us.
So how what would control your heart? What good would give guidance to your emotions? What would determine Your activities. And very quickly, if you engage in conversation, somebody will immediately go to Romans chapter 6 and verse 14, and immediately out it comes: we're not under law, we're under grace. First of all, you have to read the whole of Romans 6 and the Romans 7.
Frankly, read the whole book of Romans. That'll help as well. But. The answer to that is very straightforward. What is Paul saying there?
No, setting aside the moral law. He's making clear to the readers that the Christian is not under law as a way of justification. That the Christian is not under law as it relates to Mosaic legislation. And the Christian is not under law as if law were the dynamic of our sanctification. That's what he's saying.
Oh, well, says somebody, okay, I'll give you that. But what about John chapter 13? Where Jesus seems to be setting aside the law. Remember. I have just got a new commandment for you that I give to you, that you love one another, and so on.
And they say, see, that's the kind of thing we like. That's what we can deal with. Do we think for a moment that Jesus is setting aside the moral laws so that his followers can live free of its demands? No. Nor the newness that he's referring to.
Is the new years found in loving one another in a way that is only possible now in the discovery of how Jesus loved his disciples. I want you to love other people the way that I have loved you.
Well then how will I know what it means to love other people? And so far from setting aside the law, the Lord Jesus in his ministry underscores its abiding relevance and its application. Do not think, he says, Matthew 5, that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them. But to fulfil them.
So then we can safely reject the notion. That the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament have been reduced. to just two In the new. Again, that's what people say.
Well, there used to be Ten Commandments. We used to have that kind of thing. We used to write them up on the wall, you know, in the old day. But now that we've moved beyond that, Explain to me why there is such lawlessness in contemporary evangelicalism. Explain to me why it is that we have done such a horrible job in dealing with the matter of sexuality as expressed in a form of perversion.
And I'll tell you what the answer is, because we've done such a horrible job of dealing with the matter of sexuality in the teenage population of our congregations, and the existence of premarital sex is directly related To the absence of the strident, clear parameters of God's law. It's there. And here we find ourselves. All the law and the prophets, he says. hang on these two commandments.
In other words, Jesus is providing a summary of the summary. The summary is in the Ten Commandments. And the summary of the summary Is in the Great Commandment. which we've just read here in Matthew chapter 22. The first table of the law expounding Love for God.
And the second table of the law, expounding the nature of what it means to love. Our neighbors.
Now, the wonderful liberating aspect of this is that, as the followers of Jesus, we're not left to try and figure out our own what love. will look like You see, law. is guidance In loving.
Now I I I may be influenced by other factors, I'm not sure. And I certainly don't want to be judgmental in my observations But it seems to me that contemporary church life is awash in sermons. that appeal to the listener's sense of well being. Whatever else happens. Make sure.
that they are feeling comfortable. and that they can leave comfortable. And that there will be nothing that will make them distinctly uncomfortable at all. And as a result of that, Much of the cut and thrust of the law as it points ultimately to the gospel. is lost.
Congregations are quite prepared to be coaxed. But they are not prepared to be issued with calls. to duty. David Wells, in one of his books, observes That We're looking for a God that we can use. rather than a God that we must obey.
A God who will fulfill our needs. rather than a God before whom we must surrender our rights to ourselves. Packer, when he writes along these lines, he says, is the root cause of our moral flabbiness. The root cause of our moral flabbiness is we have neglected God's law. Seems to make sense, doesn't it?
Now, the law sends us to the gospel that we might be justified. said Bolton. And the gospel sends us to the law again to inquire what is our duty in being justified. The law sends us to the gospel in order that we might be justified, and the gospel returns us to the law so that we might discover what our duty is as living as those who are justified.
So that the tram lines, if you like, are established there in God's moral law. And the engine of our lives runs on those tram lines, and the Holy Spirit empowers us in order that we might run along those tracks. Not that we might run all over the place and redefine marriage and redefine our view of this and redefine whatever we want to do. Not for a moment. No, God loves us far too much to allow us to do that.
That would be like a God who, as a terrible parent, said, Well, you just go out and do anything you want. It doesn't matter. Just go on the basis of how you feel about everything. And we'll talk about all that later on. No parent is going to do that with a genuine love for their child, for their son, or for their daughter.
No, these things are to be upon your hearts. You shall bind them around your wrists and strap them on your forehead. And you will teach them to your children when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you get up. Why? In order to restrict and spoil their lives?
No, in order to say, God made you for this very purpose, God has written this into your DNA.
So that even those who make no pretense of a knowledge of God themselves have the moral law of God in part impregnated in their very being. That doesn't mean that they then go to love God. No, that often doesn't end in piety. It more often than not ends in idolatry. But the reason that all of that happens is because men and women are made in the image of God.
Now, I should move on to part two. I think you perhaps agree. But let me give you Dale Ralph Davis, if I have him with me. I've had this in my book for a very long time. Davis I know some Christians have and have allergic reactions.
When they are told They are subject to God's moral law in Exodus 20. This they fear is legalism. and an effort at salvation by works. But that fear misunderstands the function of the Ten Commandments. The law comes in the context of grace.
Yahweh lays down the pattern in Exodus. He delivers his people. Then he demands. He works his redemption. before he sets down his requirements.
He first sets Israel free. And then tells them how that freedom is to be enjoyed and maintained. Glad obedience. to God's moral law. is simply our logical act of worship.
So You say, well, that was a very long introduction to our text. I acknowledge that. It's more than an introduction. It is the first point and only two to go. Back in Matthew.
But when the Pharisees heard that he'd silenced the Sadducees, which must have made them very happy, they gathered together. And then, one of their bright boys decided he would ask him a question to test him. And of course, that gives rise to the answer that Jesus provides. First of all, you will love God. You will love God.
Now he says that to a group of people who were very, very particular about obeying rules. They were Pharisaical in that. They had, we're told, some 613 of them. 248 were reckoned to be positive and 365 negative.
So they weren't content just with 10 commandments. They wanted to take it up a couple of notches up to 613. The problem, of course, as becomes perfectly clear when you look at the surrounding context into chapter 23 of Matthew, 23 and 28, you also are outwardly appearing to be righteous to others. but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
So Jesus is putting his finger on that. that they were masterful at an external show. But an external show was all That was there. Because without love for God, the appearance of religion was an empty form. And let me just say a word to those of us Yeah.
Um dreadfully concerned, and rightfully so for our children and our grandchildren. Without causing undue harm to anybody. It is my observation. in some forty five years in pastoral ministry. That parents have the capacity to turn their children into Pharisees.
They do not have the capacity. to see them regenerated by the power of the Spirit of God. It is not sufficient. For them simply to have become conforming to the standard of practice in whatever congregation in which we find ourselves. Only God opens blind eyes, only God softens hard hearts.
That is not an argument about doing anything less than what we're doing, but it is to acknowledge the fact that what Jesus said to them is true of us, it's true of parents, it's true of elders in churches. who are very, very good on the externals. And Jesus says, Well, your problem is actually. On the inside, because loving God starts with inward cleansing. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alastair Begg, and we'll hear more about Jesus' command to love tomorrow.
Loving others can be easy at times, but it can also be quite challenging. And the book we are recommending today, called Making Good Return: Biblical Wisdom on Honoring Aging Parents, addresses this. It's a book that acknowledges how emotional and demanding it can be for us to care for our loved ones. Whether there's a difficult diagnosis involved or aging is simply taking its natural course, caretaking for our parents can be stressful, even painful. But it's also an opportunity to honor our aging parents.
So, how do you handle the challenges with grace? How do you care for your loved ones in a way that is pleasing to God? The author of the book Making Good Return draws from scripture and personal experience to offer five spiritual truths to help you respond with humility, respect, compassion, and faith. Ask for your copy of the book Making Good Return when you donate to Truth for Life at truthforlife. org slash donate or call us at eight eight eight five eight eight seven eight eight four.
Thanks for listening. We'll hear the conclusion of today's message tomorrow and find out what it really means to love God and our neighbors. Hope you can join us. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
