The Ten Commandments were not given to us as a way for us to earn our salvation. Instead, They help us see our need for a Savior and Today on Truth for Life, we'll find out why. The commandments Jesus gave to love God and love others don't replace the law, they sum it up. And we'll learn what it really means to love God and our neighbors. Alistair Begg is teaching today from Matthew chapter 22.
So, loving God starts. Jesus says, with a cleansing that only God can perform. With a cleansing that is on the inside. We all know what it is to be able to put on a show. to say the things that need to be said or to not say them.
But God searches our hearts and He knows us, and He knows whether there's a genuine reality in this or whether it's just a passing show. They had rules, they had rituals. They look the part. And they liked the fact that they looked apart. But what they loved was something more than their love.
For God. We might say that they had actually made an idol of their religion. We might say that they had made an idol. Off there. reformed soteriology.
We might say that they had just made an idol. Of that. which in the providence of God is an indication of divine blessing. If you think about this, and I know you do think. When Jesus says to his followers in such dramatic terminology, he means what he was saying.
We don't do this at the moment. I don't think anybody's got the courage really to give much of a talk on this. The great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, If anyone comes to me, And does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he can be my disciple. Really? I'm devoted to my wife.
They'd been married for forty-seven years. But I'm not to love her more than I love Jesus. I love my children. I want the best for them, so do you. But I'm not to love them.
more than I love Jesus. And the higher the position something occupies On the scale of divine blessing. The more subtle is the temptation to worship it. to worship it.
Some brother was mentioning it would be good to reconvene an evening service here and there. It's virtually gone. It has to do with a number of things. It has to do with football. It has to do with children's sports.
It has to do with the pastor's ego. It has to do with a whole ton of things. We recognize that. But it has to do ultimately with forms of idolatry. that stand and stare at us.
and convict us. Those of us who want to be able to explain that the great commission is to go into the whole world, and the great commandment is that we're to love God with all our hearts and all our soul, and so on. You see, the point in it all is, of course, that God had promised A new covenant. He had promised his people that he was going to put a law within them and he would write it on their hearts. In other words, that he would fashion their hearts, if you like, as a perfect mechanism for receiving and obeying and loving God's law and God's word.
The basis upon which he was going to do this Uh on account of his divine dealing with sin. Jeremiah Who speaks of this in Jeremiah 31? I will put my law within them, I will write it on their hearts. How is that going to happen? For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
In other words, the basis upon which all of that divine blessing Falls. is on account of his divine dealing with sin. Matthias in his own little witticisms. Reflecting on that, says how the Lord proposes to do the work of forgiveness, Jeremiah doesn't say. Maybe he felt that Isaiah had already said all that was needed to be said.
on the point. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. And in Jesus the blood sacrifices, with all their blessedness for forgiveness and for atonement, were made and were consummated and were ended. Hence we are able to say there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins.
So that the fountain from which our love to God flows. Is the love of God?
So unless we have been embraced by the love of God, then there's no real idea possible of love flowing from us. Unless it flows to us in the gospel, it will not flow from us. in our lives. It doesn't. This is love.
Not that we love God, but that He loved us. Send his Son to be the propitiation for our sins we love because he first loved us. Listen to how Sinclair puts it, the law maker. became the law keeper. But then took our place in condemnation as though he were the lawbreaker.
In him requirements have been met. fulfilled in him. Its prescriptions fully obeyed, its penalties finally paid. All that remains is for this to be imputed to us in justification and imparted in us in sanctification through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that sheds God's love abroad in our hearts, so that faith in Christ is the true spring.
of the love of God. Faith in Christ is the true spring of the love of God. That we fall in love with Jesus, that He comes and pursues us. I found a friend, oh, such a friend, He loved me ere I knew Him. He drew me with a course of love.
It always surprises me when people say, Oh, you know, this idea that God loved us before we would ever love Him. I don't like the sound of that. I always say the same thing to them. Imagine, are you married? I say, Yes, I am.
Would you. What if you told your wife? That before ever you met her, You had seen her. in the quadrangle, or you'd seen her in the common room. and you set your love upon her.
And you began to love her without even knowing her. Do you think your wife would be annoyed with you? Oh no, he said, I think she would be pleased. That's it exactly. What are you worried about?
That God loved you with an everlasting love. That He chose you before the foundation of the world, That unnumbered comforts to your soul His tender care bestowed, Before your infant heart can see from whom those comforts flowed, When in the slippery paths of youth With heedless steps I ran. Your hand, unseen, conveyed me safe and brought me up to man. What kind of love is this? Seeing nothing in us.
And yet loving us. is what we're talking about here. Unless it is ours by grace through faith. It is a call to put on a mask. for your own Christian form of Halloween and pretend it.
You may not be regenerated. You may not be converted. You may be here because you're interested in theology. You may be here for a million reasons, but I say to you, young or old. God's love is a pursuing love.
God loves saving people. And when that saving love of God takes hold, then he says. This is what the great commandment is: to love him. with all your heart. with all your heart.
Love him. With all your heart. with all your soul. Synonymous with the spirit, isn't it? The seat of our emotional, spiritual exercises is our souls.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ's soul was Very sorrowful. The psalmist says, Why are you cast down, O my soul? All my heart, all my soul, all my mind. You see Coordination Or recognition by uh God's enabling. then is the ground of our emotion.
Tis what I know of thee, my Lord, and God that Fills my heart with praise, my lips with song. This is what I know of thee. I don't know how I'm feeling. But it's what I know. In fact, I'm not feeling good.
I'm disappointed. I'm concerned. I'm stressed. My family's in disarray. I've got problems beyond expectation.
I'm a mess. Tis what I know of thee. I want to love you with all my mind. I want my mind to be brought under your jurisdiction. The love of God is not a mere feeling.
I think it's wrong actually to consider these things almost in separation. What is being said by Jesus is this. the totality of our love is in response to the prior love. of God. Out of mere feeling.
But a love which decides A love which acts A love which dies.
Well, that takes us to part three. And we need to say something here about this second aspect of it, as it were. The whole man is the object of God's divine love. And therefore it is the whole man that is claimed by God himself. himself.
This character here, this lawyer, Um probably one of their one of their brightest. Was put forward to ask him the question, I would guess. And it wasn't because he needed an answer, it was because he was testing Jesus. And uh Jesus answers with great clarity, this is the first and the great and first commandment, and a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. It's the conflation of Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy chapter 6.
You can look it up later on. And let's just say again so we don't miss out on this. Love Does not replace the commands. Love provides The motivation. Love your neighbor.
as yourself. You say, well, how am I going to love my neighbor? You can't be long in pastoral ministry before somebody comes and tells you, you know, I've got a dreadful problem, my wife. or my husband is a is a pain in the neck. Oh, I said, how big of a pain?
You say, well, pretty big pain. Yes, they will tell me. Uh well how would you say your marriage is?
Alright, it's not so good. It's uh y do you think it's uh do you think it's worse than you expected? Oh yeah, I think it's definitely worse. I said, well that's good. I'm glad you mentioned that because you signed up for worse.
You signed up for worse. You said for better or for worse.
Now you're here to tell me that it's worse? That's okay. You signed up for worse. We can work with this. Oh no, but that's not it.
Because I met a lady at the office and she's not at all like my wife.
Now she's very amenable. My wife tends to be a little sarky at times, and this lady is just much nicer. She never says any of these things to me at all. And when we have coffee, as we've begun to do, and before you know where you are, you're right down the royal road. And the person's going to play his ace card, which is, of course, God wants me to be satisfied, God wants me to be healthy, and He wants me to be happy, and He wants me to live in love.
And since I can't live in love within the present context, I'm sure that He would be much happier if I lived over here with Mrs. X. Absolute rubbish. All lies of the devil spat out in secular culture and reinforced by lousy preaching. And before you know it, you've got a great disaster on your hand, and so does that family.
No. Love. does not replace the commands. It provides the motivation.
So if we want to know how to love our neighbor, we don't have to make it up. No. Uh do you want to know uh how to love your mom and dad? Oh no, it can't be that straightforward, does it? Yes, it is, actually.
Honour them. Honour them. when they're When they're crusty? When they're old. Honour them.
Do you want to know how to love the people up the street? Don't kill them. You see?
Okay, we can leave that alone. Um You want to love your next door neighbor? Don't go in his house and steal his tools out of his garage. You shall not steal. You want to know how to love your neighbour?
Don't tell lies about him. At the local golf club.
Well, he said this is pretty straightforward. Do you want to know how to love the guy next door? Don't cover this car. Don't covet his wife. Don't cover it.
See, covetous is really hard, isn't it? Because nobody could see it. Except God.
So I could appear to be really loving people. 'Cause I didn't kill him. I haven't run away with a lady next door. But I may have a dreadfully covetous heart. Whoever loves God.
must love his brother also. When this is recorded for us, Uh in one of the other gospels Maybe Luke, I can't remember. Might be Mark. But You can find that for yourself as homework. Jesus tells the story of a good Samaritan.
Remember? Man seeking to justify himself. Say, well then, who's my neighbor? Jesus has told them, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And the man, seeking to justify himself, said, Who's my neighbor?
Now, what he was trying to do there was draw a circle around his area of influence and responsibility. As soon as he could just find the people that he had to be nice to, then he'd be nice to those people and didn't need to be nice to anybody else at all. That's when Jesus tells the story. He tells a story that sticks it. to the scribes and the Pharisees.
Because the religious leader said status. The religious leaders legitimized themselves by their work on the temple. The religious leaders were regarded as models of exemplary piety. and their actions would be regarded as self-evidently Righteous. No matter what they did.
So Jesus says, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves who stripped him of his raiment and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance, A priest came down the road. Don't you love that by chance? That's for your homework as well. I'll leave that with you.
By chance, a priest came down that road. Contingency is under God's sovereign plan. By chance, a priest came down that road and he had a look at him and he buzzed by on the other side. Because if he stopped, then he's going to get all messed up, especially if he touches him, and then that'll spoil him, and he will. Be out of commission for 10 days or two weeks.
Likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place, he had to look at him as well, but he said, Nah, I'm not going to touch that. But a Samaritan, is he journeyed? Came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion on him. And he came to him.
and he bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. And he set him on his own donkey. and brought him to an inn. and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, this is King James Version, really, isn't it?
And on the morrow when he departed, He gave to the innkeeper. A supply of money. And he says, look after this chap. And if what I'm leaving you now is insufficient to cover it all. Then I'll deal with it when I come back.
And Jesus turns and he says, now which are these guys? was the neighbor. The guy couldn't even get the word Samaritan out of his mouth. He says the one who showed him mercy. And Jesus says, well, then I want you to go.
and do likewise. You see the action of the Samaritan. is not the way to life. the action of the Samaritan is to be the way of life. are those who love God.
with all their heart. and their soul and their mind. Because we remind ourselves, we have to remind ourselves. I found myself, because I knew I'd just speak about this tonight. I was in a situation today where somebody was dealing with a cash register.
It seemed to me that she'd never seen a cash register before in her life. I mean, she punched so much stuff, I hadn't a clue whether I would ever get out of the place at all. But there she was going. And my instinctive reaction was, oh, why can't you figure the thing out? I mean, this, and then the Lord says, no, no, no, that lady was made in God's image.
She was made in God's image. You mean she's I gotta A lover? Like my neighbor? Yeah, you got to repent of the fact of your initial reaction. Where would we be tonight but for the grace of God?
Some of us might be out there. with one of those newspapers. Trying to sell it for three pounds. There's no saying where we would be.
So, Jesus is laying this down for his followers.
So that if you think about it in our churches, if you think about going out with the Great Commission. We go out with the great news. That God reconciles sinners to Himself. And we call out With an overflowing great love for God. which reveals itself.
in the love. for our neighbors. The real question is. Am I a neighbor? in the way that God wants me to be.
I have to confess that when I read that story in the Good Samaritan, I think I see myself much quicker in the priest or in the Levite. Reminding me that I am consistently in need of God's pardon. That I am a lawbreaker. That it were it not for the fact that Christ has paid it all. fulfilled it all.
done it all. And comes by the Holy Spirit to empower our life so that we might love God in this way, that we might love our neighbor in this way, that we might pursue these things. Jesus Fulfill the command perfectly. Jesus silenced the law's condemnation. And therefore the law is free in Christ.
To become to as a means of grace. A minister of life. to those who have set their feet. in its paths. Alec Mitia again has a wonderful little bit.
I can't remember. It's in Luke to the Rock, where he says, You see, in Jesus, what happens is the prohibitory. You shall not. becomes The promissory. You shall not.
You shall not. You shall not. Why? For God has done what the law we can by the flesh could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemns sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
And when Jesus Gets a response to it. It was in Luke, I think, the parables in Luke, in Mark's gospel. when the the response comes back from the Pharisee. He gets the question right. And Jesus says to him, remember?
You are now far from the kingdom. You're not far from the kingdom. In other words, he He was convinced. But he wasn't converted. You may be here tonight and that's just you.
I do believe these things about God's law, and I do believe that I should be that, and I might be the next thing. But the gap between what I know and what I am is so vast. You're not far from the kingdom. And the invitation of a king. is the invitation.
to come. And rest in him. and trust in him.
so that out of his immense love Our love for God may flow. and our love for our neighbours. Awesome. You're listening to Truth for Life. That is Alistair Begg wrapping up our Encore 2025 series of listener favorites.
If you missed any of the messages in this series, you'll find the complete set on our website at truthforlife.org. All of Alistair's messages are available to stream or download and share for free. Speaking of free, if you have not already downloaded our free e-book offer, name above all names, don't forget to take advantage of this August special. Alastair co-wrote this book with his friend and fellow pastor Sinclair Ferguson. Together they explore the different ways Scripture unveils Jesus' identity and describes his ministry.
This book helps you expand your view of Jesus as you investigate seven descriptions of Him from both the Old and New Testaments. The insights from these two seasoned pastors will give you an even deeper appreciation for who Jesus is and all that He's done. And this is a book for everyone. Whether you're newly curious about Jesus or you've been following Him for years, here's what the authors had to say. Our joint prayer is that this book will help some who are not yet Christians be an eye-opener for those who already are.
serve as an encouragement for mature believers. and be a pleasure, for all who love Christ. Visit truthforlife.org/slash name to download the name above all names ebook. and its companion study guide today. Thanks for listening.
Tomorrow we will learn why it's imperative for Christians to be confident in the truth and power and relevance of the gospel. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
