I invite you to turn with me tonight to Matthew chapter 22, Matthew chapter 22 as we read together verses 34 through 40, we do so in connection with Lord's Day 2, Matthew chapter 22, again, I think is one of those fairly familiar portions of Scripture. In verses 15 through 40, we find three attempts by the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the religious authorities, to trap Jesus. First of all, with the question of taxes, whether it's right to pay tax to Caesar or not. Secondly, the question from the Sadducees about marriage and the resurrection than the one before us for consideration tonight, that of the greatest commandment. The authorities, of course, we know were looking for a way to get rid of him. They couldn't just kill him. That's murder. They needed to try to get him to say something that they can use against him, that they can claim as blasphemy, or at least that by which they can discredit him before the people. But Jesus not only avoids the three traps, but in all three situations we know, He gives amazing instruction against which His enemies were not at all able to speak. And again, we read this and consider, especially verses 37 through 40, in connection with Lord's Day 2, it's the answer of the fourth question. I'll just read these. Question 3 asks, this is the first Lord's Day regarding man's misery. Again, what three things must we know in order to live and die in the joy of this comfort? First, how great my sin and misery are. So then the question says, how do you come to know your misery? Well, the law of God tells me. And what does God's law require of us? And we'll read that in a moment, taking the summary from Matthew 22. Then question five, can you live up to all this perfectly? No, I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor. It's with that in mind that we turn together to verses 34-40 of Matthew 22. Hear now the Word of God. Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with this question, Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus replied, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment and the second is like it Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. May God add His blessing to the reading and consideration of His Word tonight. Well, beloved in Christ the Lord, to be able to truthfully say that my only comfort in life and in death is that I am not my own, but I belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, In order to truthfully say that, that is a statement that is born of, it proceeds from, it depends on having true faith. One cannot truthfully say that without having true faith. And therefore, knowing the three things that we must know in order to live and die in the joy of this comfort also depends on having faith. even knowing how great my sin and misery are. Again, as we have said before, that's strange to us. It seems anything but comforting. But even knowing how great my sin and misery are depends on having faith. You see, without the work of the Holy Spirit, without the gift of faith, man may indeed increase in the knowledge to explore space or to find cures for all kinds of diseases or to figure out complex math problems or chemistry equations. Yet apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, apart from the gift of faith, man knows nothing of his own sin and misery. Because he knows nothing of the holiness of God. He knows nothing of God's standard of holiness. He's blinded to it. But for those whom the Holy Spirit has brought to faith in Jesus Christ, for those who trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. They have been brought to see their need for. Their eyes have been opened to their need for salvation because of their sin and misery made known to them by the standard of God's law. Of course, we know that one knows that they've done something wrong only when their actions are measured according to a specific standard. Boys and girls, if you are told not to do something and you do it, or if you are told to do something and don't do it, you've done something wrong. You have not lived up to the standard, the measure that was set before you. Or again, for example, breaking the speed limit, or in California, using your cell phone or texting while driving, or breaking the curfew that your mom or dad has given to you. And whether one understands and believes it or not, God judges all men according to the standard of His law. According to His righteousness. Now again, the believer is asked in question 3, how do you come to know your misery? Again, in order to live and die in the joy of this comfort, we need to know this, right? So how do you come to know your misery? And the believer confesses in answer 3, the law of God tells me. Beloved, the law of God is a light. And the law's penetrating light, first of all, reveals God's commands. It reveals, it shows us what God requires. And of course, we are familiar with the Ten Commandments, which in a sense summarize that all that God says in His Word, to do or not to do. Yet what makes for true God-pleasing obedience is the proper spirit, the proper godly virtue motivating one's actions, which is the answer that Jesus gives in response to the deceptive question of the Pharisee. Verse 34 begins, hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with this question, Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Now, it seems like an honest question, doesn't it? Jehovah was a law-giving God. The people were called to be a law-keeping people. That was a part of the covenant arrangement. So, on the one hand, it really was a good question. It was an important question. However, Scripture makes it clear to us that it was to test Jesus. It was asked with deceptive motives. The Sadducees, with regard to their question about marriage and the resurrection, the Sadducees had failed much to the Pharisees' delight because the Pharisees agreed with the resurrection. Yet, like the Sadducees, the Pharisees too were feeling threatened by Jesus. They were feeling threatened by the good news of the Gospel. And to them, it seemed like the law of Moses was being treated by Jesus as less important, which he really wasn't treating it that way. But even more important to the Pharisees, it seemed to them that their social status and their teaching among the people was losing its authority. And already by now, and especially later, we know that the Pharisees, that they would expand the law to 613 commands. 248 of them positive, you shall, and 365 of them negative, you shall not. So again, it seemed like a good question. Because they needed to make sure they had their priorities straight when it came to the commandments. But Jesus responds to the deceitful question of this tax expert with the unquestionable answer. They couldn't question his answer. Jesus replied, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. Again, we know that we call this the summary of the law. And that is what the catechism uses with this first part, man's misery. It doesn't use the Ten Commandments. It doesn't list them out. It uses this summary. This summary which Jesus, not falling into this trap, uses because one can keep from cursing and one can keep from murdering and one can keep from committing adultery as many unbelievers do. But that does not mean that that is obedience that God requires. That does not mean that that is obedience that God delights in just by not doing what God forbids. If it's not the fruit of love, it is useless. Godly love is the heart of God's law. Jesus points this deceiver to the true beauty of God's law of love that impacts every single command that in essence makes every command of God the most important. And beloved, love's quality is that it's not just a certain emotion or feeling that comes upon us once in a while. But this love's quality that Jesus is talking about is an act of the will. It is an action. A never-ending, ongoing action of the will that sees the worthiness of the object of love and places a value and importance on that object over and above and beyond oneself. Love's quality is that it is completely other-directed and sacrifices one's all for the other with one's whole being. Jesus says, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, or as yourself. Now, the Pharisees' obedience, we know, was for selfish reasons. It was not out of love for God or others. It was out of self-love. It was to benefit themselves. It was to make themselves look good in front of the people. And most of all, it was to endear themselves, they thought, to God. But the love that Jesus is talking about is selfless, and it expects nothing in return. And he points us then to love's first object. Love the Lord your God above all. With a response of love because of who He is and because of what He has already done. Loving Him above all. Understanding His greatness. That He alone is God. That He is eternal. That He is majestic and mighty. That He is the Creator and the Provider. That He is perfect and pure and holy. That He is powerful as Israel was remounted on Mount Carmel. God deserves to be loved above all if there needs to be no other reason than simply because of who He is. But because of sin, beloved, also loving Him above all, understanding what He has done. That in addition to who He is, He is also the Redeemer, that He is merciful and gracious and loving, and that love for God above all then results in voluntary worship and adoration and obedience of Him, not forced, not slave-like. This love for God above all, beloved, is the essence of that for which man was created, as the Westminster Shorter Catechism says, to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And Jesus says to do so with all your heart, with the whole heart. As someone has said, the heart is the hub of the wheel of man's existence. Proverbs 4, verse 23 says, Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. A beautiful image, isn't it? the wellspring the life flows from the heart it is the control center of one's being of one's thoughts and words and deeds and therefore jesus also says with all your soul with the whole soul and i believe that we are to understand the soul here as that animate that animating part of life that that animating life of man including including his personality and consciousness and emotional activity. And Jesus is with all your mind, your whole mind. Not just intellectual activity, but along with that also man's attitude and temperament and his way of thinking. Mark uses strength with all your strength. In other words, with your hands and your feet. And Jesus doesn't just pick this out of thin air, which he could have done and it would would have been just as right. But he points this law expert back to the law of God, back to Deuteronomy 6, verse 5. Love for God above all is to be with full and complete love. Man is called to love God with all of the faculties of his being, with the entirety of his life, with his life devoted to and revolving around God and His Word, delighting in all things, with every thought, every motive, every action, every word, delighting to do that which is pleasing to God. That's the call. Whatever powers belong to man ought to be devoted to love for God because as Psalm 100 verse 3 says, it is He who made us and we are His. Understanding that I have no existence, I have no being apart from Him, that He is the very source of life. And Jesus says this is the first and greatest commandment because it is the most excellent response to the most wonderful being. And because all of God's commands and all of one's life are to be measured against love for Him above all, there can be no other love for anything or anyone and there will be no true obedience to Him apart from this love for God. And therefore Jesus also points out love's second object, Love your neighbor as yourself. Again, he goes to the Old Testament. He brings this law expert right back to what he's an expert in. Leviticus 19, verse 18. Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said this is like the first. It is indispensable. It is to be practiced. It is like the first in that it includes full and complete love with one's whole being because it is to be done as yourself. No one hates themself. Even if we sometimes say so, the truth is we don't. But we do all that we can to care for and to improve ourselves. Notice Jesus doesn't say that we are to love our neighbor more than ourselves, but we are not to love our neighbor, that is, anyone whom God places in our path, we are not to love them less than ourselves. Instead, we are called to be devoted to them as much as we are devoted to ourselves promoting their life, promoting their reputation, promoting their spiritual good. The second is like the first, but the second indeed depends on the first. Because in sin, man is devoted to himself and he will never exercise true charity toward others unless the love of God and love for God reigns in him and love for God will not reign in one without producing love for others. The two go hand in hand. There will be love for others. Springing forth from the love of God and love for God. It flows from God's love, as John says in 1 John 4, everyone who loves has been born of God. And he says we love because He first loved us. Beloved Jesus responds to the Pharisees' question of the greatest commandment, with it the commandment of love. And in verse 40 he says, All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. All that the law and all that the prophets taught as to the manner of living a holy and righteous life hangs on love like fruit hangs on a tree. Receiving its life, giving nourishment from the tree. And godly love, therefore, we might say, gives each and every command of God its life. It gives it its substance. It gives it its genuineness. It is that which causes it to be pleasing to God. And at the very same time, the law's penetrating light not only reveals God's law, His commands, but in the second place, it uncovers man's sin. It uncovers what's in man's heart. Once we know that standard, once we know that measuring stick, then the law's penetrating light It also uncovers what's in man's heart. Just like the sun, the morning sun coming through the window, it doesn't bring the dust. It doesn't make the dust. But that sun reveals the dust. It illumines that dust that is already everywhere present. In Romans 7, verse 8, Paul says, For apart from the law, sin is dead. He does not mean that sin does not exist. Indeed, sin is present like that dust. But apart from the law, it is not recognized as sin. Apart from the law, it does not present itself to one's consciousness as sin. Sin, which is the essence of man's misery. The misery that the Catechism speaks of here, beloved, is not material misery. It's not physical or mental or emotional. We know that there are many situations and circumstances and things of life that bring discomfort and make us miserable. Not one of us would deny that. But the real cause is sin. So that question five does not ask, do you live up to all this perfectly? But it asks, can you? The question rightly assumes that we don't. But also the very ability to keep God's law perfectly is absent. It is nowhere to be found because the love that man was created to live with has been replaced with the presence of hatred. I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor. That is my direction. That is the path I follow. That is what I want in sin. Hatred. Man's misery includes that created to live for God but sold under sin, he lives only for himself, which extends hatred of heart and soul and mind and strength for God and for others and puts oneself before God and others. The late theologian John Gerstner said this, Man as sinner actually hates God, hates man, and hates himself. He would kill God if he could. He does kill his fellow man when he can and he commits spiritual suicide every day of his life. Beloved, all of this was obvious in the Pharisees and the Sadducees plotting to get rid of Jesus from their presence, plotting to get rid of this one who himself was love incarnate. Our life in sin, man's life in sin, has become the exact opposite of what God intended it to be. as sin is not only the essence of man's misery, but also the reason for man's misery. Again, we can only see by faith that I, that we are lost, that we are hopeless before God, that we stand condemned before Him, worthy of hell. That is our misery. That we are unreconciled to God in sin. That we are outside of His favor, but that we are very much the objects of His eternal wrath. That's our misery. And that means, beloved, that all of the results, all of the terrible effects of sin in this life that make us miserable, that those things that make us miserable are really tempered with God's mercy on this side of the grave because of what we truly deserve. Sometimes when we face a hard situation in life, we are quick to cry out, I don't deserve this. You know what, you're right, you don't deserve it. Because you deserve something much worse. Those things which make us miserable on this side of the grave are tempered with God's mercy, but they point to the unleashing of His wrath and the eternal fire of hell, which is indeed very, very real, which no one will be able to endure, suffering that torment forever and ever. The law's penetrating light, beloved, uncovers man's sin and selfishness. It shows us exactly who we are. It shows us exactly what we deserve. Measured against the standard of God's law. It uncovers man's sin and selfishness in demonstrating hatred for God with other gods. By having other gods. Demonstrating hatred for God by worshiping things. Or by violating God's name in His day. Demonstrating hatred for our neighbor by not promoting their life in all of its fullness but instead trying to promote myself at their expense. And beloved, once our eyes are open to this, once we are brought to see clearly how great is our sin and misery and what it is we truly deserve, the only response left for you and I to make is who is sufficient? Not me. Not you. But praise be to God that the law is penetrating light in the third place. Finally, illumines Christ's love. You see, God cannot be. God is not satisfied with less than perfection. The law of God reveals our sin and misery, which we can only know by faith, as we have said, with spiritual eyes open to see what God requires of us and also open to see all that we have failed to give. And as we have said before, as odd as it may seem to know, that is, to understand and to acknowledge our sin and misery and how great it is, it is to our comfort. As counterintuitive as that may be, it is to our comfort as that is evidence of and that provides a degree of assurance of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. apart from that, one absolutely would not care. And it comforts us as it lifts our eyes, as through that the Holy Spirit lifts our eyes to such a great deliverance, to such a great deliverer, Jesus Christ, who fulfilled the law of love perfectly. The law is penetrating light. And it shows us God's standard. And thereby illumines Christ's love by showing us exactly what it is that Jesus Christ did for us. It ought to be true. We can't wrap our minds around it. We can't even begin to fathom perfection, sinlessness. But that's what Christ has accomplished for us. That's Christ's love. Fulfilling God's law perfectly. As Scripture says in Isaiah 53, 9, He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. Or as John refers to Him in 1 John 2, 1, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. The one and only Righteous One. And dear beloved, Jesus Christ is the good news. The bad news, of course, is us. What we have done. The good news is Jesus Christ and what He has done. Who has loved God and His neighbor with perfect love. And His perfect love and obedience, beloved, is given to those for whom He died. It's ours by faith as if we had accomplished it on our very own. You know, we hear those words when we talk about justification. But do those words really penetrate? Do they penetrate our minds? Do they penetrate our hearts? That in Christ Jesus, God looks at us. We know our sin and misery. We must know it. But in Christ Jesus, do we know, do we understand, do we grasp, do we claim the truth that in Christ Jesus it is ours as if we had accomplished it on our very own? Apart from Jesus Christ and His perfect righteousness, the most horrendous misery is still to come without end. For those who do not know and for those who do not care, how great is their sin and misery. But by the grace of God, through the regenerating and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, those who by faith know how great is their sin and misery, and who by the grace of God, who believe in Jesus Christ, they have been given new life. They have been given a new life that understands what we deserve. A new life that is humbled by the undeserved gift of God in eternal life. And a new life that, in gratitude, is no longer terrified by the law of God because the curse has been removed. But instead, a new life that delights in God's law, loves it, and delights in love for God and others. And a new life that, led by the Holy Spirit, desires to demonstrate that love through obedience that exalts God above all and treats my neighbor as if I am that neighbor and as if my neighbor is me. Beloved, what's so amazing about our only comfort? God didn't wait for us to recognize our need and come to Him on our own, which we would never, ever, ever do. But in His grace, He brought us face to face with our need. And our comfort, beloved, but our salvation is His work from start to finish, complete in Jesus Christ. Indeed, we love Him because He first loved us. Amen. Let's pray together. Lord God, our Heavenly Father, we praise You and thank You for Your great love, for Your mercy and Your grace. indeed by showing us how great is our sin and misery, Father, You show us indeed how great is Your love. You show us not only our need, but You show us the beauty of how that need has been satisfied. Father, we thank You for that truth. Sometimes it's hard to be reminded of the truth of ourselves apart from You. And Father, even as we are reminded of our desperate condition more and more, even as we sink lower into that knowledge and understanding. We praise You that You lift us higher in the joy of such a great salvation in what Jesus Christ has done. Lead us, O Lord, by Your Holy Spirit. Cause our love for You and for our neighbor and for each other to grow more and more. And in all these things, may You be praised. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.