The sermon titled 'A Summary of the Ten Commandments' by Jason Dohm explores the significance and requirements of the Ten Commandments, grounding them in biblical texts such as Exodus 20 and Matthew 22. It emphasizes the need to love God with all one's heart, soul, and mind, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, as foundational to the commandments. The sermon highlights that the commandments require believers to welcome the truth of God's word, worship Him as revealed in scripture, and avoid minimizing His commands. It warns against rival affections and underscores the failure of humanity to obey the commandments without divine help. The sermon also portrays the commandments as an expression of God's love, teaching His holy character and leading believers to Christ. The failure to obey is contrasted with Christ's perfect obedience, illustrating the necessity of grace and transformation through Christ. The sermon concludes by urging believers to wage war against sin, recognize the commandments as non-burdensome, and embrace them as a divine privilege.

Today comes from Exodus 21 to 17. And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them.

For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. But showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.

In it you shall do no work, you nor your son nor your daughter nor your male servant nor your female servant nor your cattle nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the seas and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, you shall not covet your neighbor's house, You shall not covet your neighbor's house.

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. Come up here most Sundays that I preach reminded of Mr. Spurgeon's prayer that he had whenever he came up to preach. He would pray on his way up, I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Each step he took, and he knows how many steps he would take every Sunday. Yes, I believe, Church, My question is, do you believe in the power of the Holy Spirit this morning to help us? To enable you to listen, to remember where we've been, to thank Him, to continue to repent, and to be amazed at the mercy of Christ to save us. Ten Commandments. Ten Commandments.

Conclusion. A summary sermon this week. Next week, Jason will preach on Exodus 20, verses 18 through 21, right after this, on the people's response to it. It's a wonderful response. Wonderful response.

Glad we're going to do that. And then in two weeks we start in Jonah. Jason will start us off there. This is the 27th sermon that we've had on the Ten Commandments. The world was a little bit different 27 sermons ago.

We didn't know much about a pandemic, especially not in the United States. The cultural issues were not where, weren't even on the radar, close on the radar even, where we are today. This is the 27th sermon. For comparison, we did 33 sermons in 1 and 2 Peter, 42 in 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 34 in Ezra, 33 in Nehemiah, 25 in Philippians. This is our 27th on 17 verses and that is very good.

It is very, very, very good that we slowed this far down. Very good. This week on this summary I'm leaning heavily at the 27 sermons. This being the 27th, Jason did 23 of them. So of course like you, you'd be leaning heavily on the 23.

I'm leaning heavily on those 23. I don't think I quote Jason once in here, but know it. Know it. It is all throughout here from using my notes and looking back on that. It's very good to have this solid teaching.

It's great. Between Jason and Thomas Watson, those are my two sources. And the scripture abounded all throughout that. We're going to use the five points, you see on your handout, use the five points we've been going through to guide us through this. So let's pray.

Our God, thank you. Thank you. Thank you that you would give us these commands. Thank you for teaching us about you, for us seeing how we have failed, and then seeing Christ. We have no hope without Christ.

Oh, Holy Spirit, we have faith that You will give us eyes to see, ears to hear, that we would believe in your power alone to make any words that are said here, any thoughts that would go through our minds be effective to change our hearts and conform us to Christ to even save people today. God, would this be worship to you, praiseworthy to you, help us. Amen. So number one, what the Ten Commandments require. The Ten Commandments require.

Throughout this we spent a lot of time in Matthew. I want you to go ahead and turn to Matthew 22. Go ahead and turn right away to Matthew 22. This is the foundation. You may not need to turn to Matthew 22, you may know it pretty well, 34 through 40.

You may already know it. You may not have to turn there. But this is the foundation text for the Ten Commandments. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him, saying, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law.

Jesus said to them, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

So what do they require? What do the Ten Commandments require? That we love God with all our heart, with all our soul, all our mind, later on in market to add it, and strength. And this is Jesus not coming up with something new, he's quoting Deuteronomy 6.5. So this isn't a new commandment I give to you, right?

It's not one of those passages. He's quoting. He's letting them know this is the great, this is what the commandments require. Now, that's a foundational text. Now I go back to Exodus 20, verses 2 and 3.

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. We are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And God alone, the God of the Bible, is to be your God, none other. Who are you to love?

Your love, Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. Who is the God you are in love with all your heart, soul and mind? This God. And this God alone. That's what the Ten Commandments require.

Because without God, you have nothing. You have nothing. Without God, all you have left is a bootstrapped self-righteous morality. That's all you have. That's it.

And you may look good to the world, you may look good to your family, you may look good to me. But without God, you have nothing but your own self-righteous bootstrap, pull myself up, morality. That's all you have left. God alone is to have all your love, all your trust, all your affections. All your affections.

We read to you from 1 Thessalonians 1 Thessalonians 2.13. For this reason we also thank God without ceasing. The they, the we, are Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy. We also thank God without ceasing because when you received the Word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe." So what else do the Ten Commandments require? They require that you welcome the truth of God as the Word of God.

It's been taught to you for effective works, it says here. We'll talk about that. They require that. Not that you accept my words or Jason's words as the word of God, but the word of God as the word of God, and they work out effectively in you. And we should be thankful when we see that happening to one another.

So we love the Lord our God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. He alone is to be our God. We are to welcome His Word as truth, all of His Word, including the commandments. And we are to worship God as He has revealed Himself in Scripture. He is a holy, holy, holy, Trinitarian God.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are to worship Him as He has revealed Himself in scripture and be completely satisfied in him. Be completely satisfied in the way he has revealed himself in his word. He who loved us first. He who loved dead enemies first. We love him as he has revealed and we obey him as he is commanded and we do not minimize his commands.

I'm going to talk about that throughout here. But we don't minimize the commands. When we minimize them, We are missing out on a glorious life. We are. I hope I will set that out today for you.

And our neighbors are missing out on a tremendous blessing when we minimize the commandments. They are missing out. John 14, 15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Christ said that three times it's recorded in John. First John, John brings that back another three times.

If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. What else do the Ten Commandments require? Love of God and love of neighbor expressed in our actions of obedience. One way, you can turn to Matthew 5, we'll be in Matthew 5 quite a bit, You should have expected that. One way we minimize these is by shrinking who is my neighbor.

We shrink that down to who is my neighbor. Somewhat that's good sometimes, start with your neighbor before you start out there. If you can't love those right around you, don't be thinking you can love all those out there. If you have a hard time with your spouse or your children or your church, don't think you can be out there. It's the same thing that Paul Washer says often of missionaries, people that come to them that want to be missionaries.

Oh, I want to be a missionary. I want to go to Turkey or I want to go to Africa. I want to go to China. I want to go to North Korea and have my life on the hook. All right, what are you doing now?

Oh, I need to love that. I'm going to go love that neighbor. What are you doing with your spouse? What are you doing with your children? What are you doing with your church?

What are you doing with your co-worker? Matthew 5, 43-48. And you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven, for he makes his Son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the yes just. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?

Do not even the tath collectors do the same? If you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tath collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in Heaven is perfect. One thing we learn here is part of being perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect is how we love.

How we love our neighbor especially here. When we minimize loving to only those that love me, how selfish is that? How ego driven is that? That is not love. That's just trying to prop up somebody to love me.

It's a form of flattery actually. I just want more of that love. That's all we're focused on. But external patterns can be helpful in learning to love and demonstrating love. Our external patterns, things we do, Bible reading, prayer, how you spend your Lord's Day, prayer meeting, family worship, just a drip, drip, drip of life that we say often, help.

And we'll help you know, But we know we can do all things without a heart for a love for God. We know we can do these things out of selfish flattery. You can read your Bible, you can pray in a way that's selfish to make you appear like you're not who you are. Even family worship can be done with no heart. It still can.

People will come to us sometimes and say, but I don't feel like I'm in church, should I? I don't feel like I'm in a prayer meeting, should I? Yes. Yes. You don't gain affection for these things and learn about God by being away from God.

You're not going to do that. So perfect love is the requirement of the Ten Commandments. And this loving obedience, our loving obedience demonstrates the power of the Gospel to transform the dead to living. It's proof that we are alive in Christ. That's what the Ten Commandments require.

Let's talk about what they forbid. Number two, what the Ten Commandments forbid. I'm going to say a lot more in the fourth point, how we have failed to obey the Ten Commandments. And this sermon demands weight. Every sermon is going to have a different level of weight.

It's going to be there. And the summaries we look back, demands some weight and some good weight. And the weight is coming, right? It's coming. But because it needs a lot of weight, it also needs a lot of hope.

You have got to. If I fail at that, Holy Spirit help. There needs to be a lot of hope. And That's coming too, especially in points four and five. And the next one, what teaches about God, that is full of hope as well.

But based on what the Ten Commandments require, what I just said, here's what the Ten Commandments forbid, just two short points here. One, they forbid us loving God with anything less than our whole heart. The Ten Commandments forbid us loving God with anything less than our whole heart. Here's the weight of this. We fail at this every second of our life.

You're a failure. I'm a failure at this every second of my life. Yes, we're being conformed. I'm not negating that we are being conformed. I'm not negating that we are being sanctified, that the Holy Spirit indwells and moves us forward.

That there is increasing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I'm not negating that at all. We still fail every second because as We sang earlier, the race isn't complete yet. We're on a trajectory. God has us on a trajectory and it will be complete and we will be perfect.

We're not there yet. And we need to humble ourselves and recognize that. That's not an excuse to sin. It's an excuse to dig into the mercy and grace of God more, and His love. That's what it is.

Number two, the Ten Commandments forbid us having any rival affections for God. And we have so many. I'll talk more about this in the fourth point. But any sin is a rival affection for God. Any sin is saying, God, This circumstance is not right.

I need more. I need more stuff or I need a lie to get out of this or I need to do this situation different than you would want me to do. My wisdom, which is really my foolishness, is better than your wisdom. You don't know how to ordain these circumstances. I know how to handle these circumstances.

I know how to handle my emotions. This is okay for me. I can handle that sin. You get burned every time. If you're a Christian, you then repent and you see the sweet forgiveness of your Christ, the faithfulness of your Christ.

So what do the Ten Commandments forbid? They forbid us loving God with anything less than our whole heart. They forbid us having rival affections for God. Now number three, what the Ten Commandments teach about God. What the Ten Commandments teach about God.

They teach us about His holy, perfect, righteous character. They teach us about his holy, perfect, righteous character. We've said, Jason said often, God is his own category. He's not even a category amongst categories. There's all these categories.

He's not just a category to himself among categories. No, he's a category to himself infinitely away from all categories, including the redeemed of Christ, who with Christ, because of Christ's righteousness, God looks at you over here. But in and of ourselves, here's His category, the Triune God's category, our category is infinitely away without Christ. He's a category unto Himself. Not the best in any category, but one to Himself.

Deuteronomy 32, 39. Now see that I, Even I am He, and there is no God besides Me. I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal, nor is there any who can deliver from My hand. Isaiah 46.5 to whom will you liken me and make me equal and compare me that we should be alike? We're not alike.

We are not eternal. We're not eternal. We do not know the future. After death, we still had a beginning. Eternity has started for us.

But even after death, we've had a beginning. God didn't have a beginning. But even after death, I don't know how time is marked for eternity, but we will still not know the future. And even after death, God is ordaining every moment of your eternity. Think about that.

He is still after death in a category by himself. We're not infinitely away. We get to dwell with God. By the righteousness of Christ, he looks on us as perfect. We will have been made perfect at that point.

We will still be in that category. He was the teacher about God. He is the perfect law giver. He gives life. He has the authority to govern, to rule, and spend my time as he pleases.

And you should want that. You should want a holy authority commanding your time. You should not want me commanding your time. You do not want that. Now I'm a parent and I can command my children's time.

I have some authority there. But I'm not putting that in the same bucket. God has authority over all, to command all. And it's His holy authority, His holy command that are perfect. You want that.

So it teaches us about his holy, perfect, righteous character. The Ten Commandments also teach us that he loves us. That he loves us. So we've gone through here. Have you seen that?

Have you seen the Ten Commandments as an expression of God's love? Think about that. You've just seen the weight. The Ten Commandments teach us that He loves us. It teaches us what He loves and how to love.

That's good. He's not holding us back. He's preserving us for something good and worthy. His commandments demonstrate His love for us because They conform us to Christ. Is that loving?

Yes. They command us to love God with all of our heart. Is that loving? Yes. His commands lead us, prepare us for eternity.

Living a life of perfect holiness. Is that good? Is that loving? Yes. This was loving of God to write this out for us and give us the Holy Spirit to enable us to see our sin, to repent, and course correct back to the narrow way.

Is that loving of God? Yes. It's loving of God that He would create a Sabbath day, a Lord's Day for us to rest as a gift and blessing to set apart for worship to reset our minds on things above. It is loving of God to give us those 52 days a year seven weeks and three days to worship, to rest spiritually re-energized to focus on the worship of God, to encourage one another. When we deserve constant toil.

That's what we deserve. It's loving of God to show the world our complete failing and then drive us to a Savior. This is loving. See the Ten Commandments as loving. That's what they teach us about God.

Number four, how we have failed to obey the Ten Commandments. We are experts at shrinking the commandments to checklists we can manage. You've heard that probably every week Because it's true. We need help. The commandments are about God's holy character.

Listen to this. The commandments are about God's holy character. And when we minimize them, I am putting God in my category. We minimize the commandments, the law of God. I'm putting God in my category.

I'm presenting a God therefore that is not really holy. This is what I'm doing. This point, let the weight of our failure, our sin, our treason, deserving the full wrath of God to sink in. Go ahead and let it sink in. Point five is coming.

Let it sink in. Let these words be an observation. I'm not directly thinking of any one of you on any of these commands, but let the words be used by the Holy Spirit to observe you, to help you observe your soul. Where have I not changed? Where am I still resisting?

Where am I still kicking back at the commands of God? And may the Holy Spirit, as I go through the Ten Commandments here, may He open our eyes and cause repentance. Our eyes. And cause repentance. So number one.

Number one. We have other gods. We have other gods. Have we failed? We have other gods.

We give away God's preeminence to gods of pleasure, gods of lust, gods of cravings, of desires, of emotions, of feelings, of thoughts, of time, of hobbies, of money, they get our highest affection and love, often. Any of us have a physical idol. Astra, Baal, Buddha, whatever. We have them. Sale, Buddha, whatever.

But we have them. We have them. Number two, we fashion God into our image. What we think is right, wise and good. We're not satisfied with God as He's revealed Himself.

We need God plus something. We wouldn't ever say we don't need God. None of us here would say we don't need God. We wouldn't be that brash. But we say it functionally.

We don't regulate our worship by God. Jason and I try hard to regulate and organize what this would be but just because you go through the motions doesn't mean your heart's being regulated. You can still be kicking back at something. We don't eliminate the sneaky and not so sneaky influences against God, including all representations of God in any context, within our homes, in art, in movies, in books, and in worship. We fashion God our own image.

Not satisfied with them. Number three. Taking God's name in vain. We read Titus 1. Titus 1.

15 and 16. To the pure, all things are pure. But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.

It's not just the non-Christian. The Christian gets lumped in here as well if you profess to know, but your works are denying him. We take God's name in vain in an empty, worthless manner. We'll call ourselves Christians, yet minimize the law, thereby minimize the transforming power of the Gospel. Instead of careful reverence, Watson says it demonstrates a contempt for God.

So we're minimizing the transforming power of the Gospel. Number four, Sabbath or Lord's Day. We chase our own pleasures, work, and cause others to work on the Lord's Day. There are physical and spiritual real aspects to this. There's physical rest and a spiritual rest in this.

There should be a focus on worship, of building up and strengthening and conforming, and we don't want that. We want our own pleasures, and we cheat the opportunity for growth and we cheat others for the opportunity for growth. You're brethren, we're brethren. We love one another. We want to see the growth in others.

When we cheat this day, we cheat others. You cheat the others in your household first of all. And then you're encouraging them to cheat others as they interact with others. Number five, we dishonor parents. Dishonor parents.

We're immersed in a culture of dishonor. Emersed in it. We see that so clear now if you didn't see it before. It's not that it's different now than it was six months ago. It's really not.

We just see it more. Hearts have been revealed. Remersed in a culture of dishonor. And our disposition is toward dishonor. Don't look at the rioters and all that's going on and saying, oh, how awful is that?

You need to be looking at that and say, God, one, how merciful you are that you would save me and not have my heart have a disposition towards that. But God, where do I still have that disposition, dishonoring authority, dishonoring my parents here? It's still there. There's still something there. There always is.

There's still something. It may even be harder as you get to be an adult sometimes. You have your own family and all this. And who are my parents? We have a disposition towards this easily.

We dishonor God's wisdom in ordaining our parents. Number six on murder. We murder at least with thought murder, heart murder, anger murder. Turn back to Matthew 5 if you're not still there. We're going to be in Matthew 5 a little more often right now for these next few points.

Matthew 5 on murder. Remember how God, how we said that there are these categories, they weren't strict definitions. Back to our minimizing checklist. These are categories God was helping us with. Matthew 5, 21 and 22, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.

But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Rocka, shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, you fool, shall be in danger of hellfire." Murder, anger murder, heart murder, thought murder. We also have word murder, tongue murder, James 3, 8 and 10. But no man can tame the tongue.

It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Our tongues kill people, murdering people. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing my brethren, these things ought not to be so." Let me say this about murder. I said this before, I preached on this part, but we had a different world in many ways.

I'm going to say this again and please listen, hopefully in a more helpful way even. All people are image bearers of God. And we do not determine people's worthiness of living. When we have heart murder, when we have tongue murder, we are saying you don't deserve to live. God is wrong to have you still alive.

All people are image bearers of God and we do not determine people's worthiness of living based on color, abilities, age, conception to death, male or female. There are only two genders and God is imprinted on every single one of your 37 trillion cells. We don't determine people's worthiness on our feelings, on our emotions, on our desires, on our logic, or based on laws. I'm looking at you, abortion laws. We don't do it.

Euthanasia laws. We don't do it. But it's here. Where is that in any of our hearts? Expose it, pray for it to be exposed, and repent.

Back to Matthew 5 on number 7, adultery. Matthew 5, 27 through 28. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. We commit physical, heart, imaginary adultery.

That includes the category of any sexual sin. We don't flee places or situations we dwell on, we lust for, and we plan for. This, this sin, this failing, This sin is a rejection of Christ's love for his bride. Adultery is a rejection of Christ's love for his bride. Fidelity points us to the Gospel.

The sin says that His love is not enough. Number eight, on stealing. When we steal, we are unthankful for God's wise provision. We are unthankful for it. It's just pure and simple.

God, you're not wise. We're unthankful for it. When we steal things, We steal time, we steal from our employers, we steal from the government. We take credit for others' works, we steal in the way we tithe, we steal spouses that just talked about in adultery, and we help others steal. Number nine, false witnesses.

Back to Matthew 5. Matthew 5 verses 33 through 37. Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord. But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.

But let your yes be yes, and your no no, for whatever is more than these is from the evil one. When we fail, when we sin in this command, our testimony is not trustworthy. We tell what we think are safe lies or white lies. We represent the, Jason called it the different yous, saying the different me's. I want to personalize this right now.

You represent different me's depending on where I am. You have a private me, I have a driving me, I have a work me, a church me, a home me, A shopping me, a friends me, and a social media me. There's probably many other me's, a vacation me. A sick me, a flattering me. Should not be so.

God is the same forever. There is one God who has not changed in his holiness and never will. We also have in this false witness, something we have to fight against, our emotions and our feelings even lie to us. So not only do we bear false witness, have these different means, but our emotions and our feelings even lie to us and we'll believe those lies of our emotions and feelings and what do we say we even have a Phrase for that in this in this world now. That's my truth That's my truth.

Who are you to disagree with my truth? That's the way I feel That that's I feel like this. I feel like that. I feel like doing this and feeling that. I love this person.

How can... That's my truth. How can you be against my truth when it's really based on a lie? Even if you really believe it, it doesn't make it true. And like we read from the Thessalonians, right?

You're not willing. You're stubborn and dig in. I'm stubborn and dig in. And don't let the Word of God be the guiding truth. And change me.

And I refuse. Have you been there through this Ten Commandments in any way shape or form? You might even just lean on well I've never thought of it that way I need to think on it longer. You're letting me think on it longer to put off what you know is right. I wasn't raised that way.

Number 10, number 10 on coveting. We just had this last couple weeks. Inordinate desires and pining for anything or anyone where we are demanding God give us what we want or think we need God was not wise to give us only what we have That's what's functionally going on when we covet. I want you to turn to Luke 10. Please turn to Luke 10.

Luke 10, 25. This is the story of this lawyer coming to Jesus to ask about eternal life. And then you have the story of what we call the Good Samaritan. I'm only going to read the first part about the lawyer. It's the main thing I want to focus on here, Luke 10, 25 through 29.

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, tested Jesus, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Inherit, deserve it, it's coming to me based on my stature, based on who I am. So what shall I do to inherit eternal life? His question has, it's a sermon right there with so many issues. Jesus said to him, what is written in the law?

He's a lawyer, he's an expert. What is written in the law? What is your reading of it? What's your interpretation of it? So he answered and said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, and with all your mind.

And your neighbor is yourself. And he said to him, you have answered rightly. Do this, and you will live. But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? We see the depths of this man's self-deception, right?

Of his pride in his knowledge of what he thinks. Here's my question to us. My question to us, are we humbled anymore by our complete and utter inability to earn any favor from God? Are we? Have we moved beyond that because of our knowledge, our theological knowledge, our patterns, family worship, regulation of service, expository preaching?

Have we moved beyond it and we're not humbled anymore by our complete and utter inability to earn any favor from God? Have we minimized the commandments so much, So much that we act and talk and pray that we're almost complete. Almost there, God. Just a little bit more. And like the lawyer, I'm like, I've got my checklist.

I've got my checklist. I'm down to just one, maybe two more, but God, I'm not seeing anything beyond that. Help. Is there anything substantial left? I think I'm almost there.

I just want to make sure. So I come to Jesus like the lawyer did. I just want to make sure. I think I've done it all. Maybe there's one or two on this checklist I haven't quite completed, but I am almost there.

Is that where we think we are? We're having a hard time at this? We tell God during these 27 sermons now, saying, but don't tell me about my emotions. Don't tell me about my feelings. Don't broaden this any, God.

Don't broaden this. Wait, wait. You're the lawyer. You know the reading. This is not new, the broadening.

What Jesus is doing is not a new commandment. His broadening, hopefully you got this. I pray you got this. If not, get it now. The broadening that Jesus has here was not new.

Go spend a lot of time in Deuteronomy if you think this is new. Go. Go talk. You can't, but go look at Cain and Abel, go look at Abraham, go look at the patriarchs and how rough of a time they had. You think these are new, you think the categories aren't broad, especially read Deuteronomy.

You think these categories were never broad and That this lawyer shouldn't have recognized this already about his neighbor. Romans 3.20, therefore, by the deans of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, For by the law is the knowledge of sin. Galatians 3.24, Gary prayed this this morning. Galatians 3.24, Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Nothing else.

None of your works. None of your checklists. Go ahead and broaden that checklist because It doesn't justify you in the first place. You might as well enjoy the joy of new life, the freedom of new life. One of the purposes of the law is to show us the depths of our failing and drive us to Christ every second of the day, or I have no hope.

So drive us to Christ. So let's go to point number five. How the Lord Jesus perfectly obeyed the ten commandments. This is wonderful family. So wonderful.

Here is our only hope. Jesus is perfect from eternity past to eternity future. He is God. He is God. The key here, The key here, how Jesus perfectly obeyed the Ten Commandments, Jesus, just like the Ten Commandments, required that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Jesus perfectly loved the Father with all of his heart, with all of his soul, with all of his mind, with all of his strength. In John 14, 31, Jesus said, "'But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment so I do." Jesus obeyed perfectly. This is Jesus summing up the great commandment, the greatest commandment, summing up why he does what he does out of love for the Father. Why did He heal out of love? Why did He feed out of love?

Why did He feed 5, 000 who there had to be enemies amongst them? People that hated Him. People that didn't agree with Him. Out of love for the Father. And there were commandments.

Let's not, you know, Jesus' words should be enough. Let's see what the rest of Scripture says about Jesus' obedience. Hebrews 4.15, just take these in. Take these in. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 7.26, for such a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, category unto himself, and has become higher than the heavens. First Peter 1, 18 and 19 talks about how we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 Peter 2, 22, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. 1 John 3, 5, and you know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin." How well did the Lord Jesus perfectly obey the Ten Commandments? Perfectly.

With holiness and righteousness, demonstrating a love for the Father. So He did. Psalm 130, verses 3 and 4. Therefore, if you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared because there are no iniquities because there is no sin in us.

He can stand for us and does every moment of eternity. He is the way, the truth, and the life no one comes to the Father except through him because he is perfect as a lamb without blemish and without spot, who had the sins placed upon him. He was crucified as if he was the sinner, as if He had broken every command to the uttermost extent. For God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God." God poured out wrath on Jesus because our sin was laid on Him. When God looked on Jesus, He saw the worst, disobedient, hater of God of all time.

Wrath was poured out on Jesus as if he had heard other gods and worshipped them. As if he had taken the name of God in vain, as if he had hated the Sabbath, as if he had dishonored parents, murdered, been an adulterer, stole, lied, and coveted. Not just for one person that had done all that, but for all of his bride that did that. You can't even count your own number of sins for one of those. I can't count my own number of sins for one of those commands.

And Christ took the wrath for every one of me plus the countless others. I can't count but he can because he knows every sin he took the wrath for. And not one more sin more did he take the wrath for, for his bride. There's a result to this. Turn to Revelation 7, please.

Do you see the result of Christ's perfection? Perfectly obeying the Ten Commandments and saving a bride, making children of God. Revelation 7, verses 9 and 10. After these things I looked, and behold a great multitude which no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues. Standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice saying, Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

That's the result of Christ's perfection. Our failings, Christ's perfection. These are redeemed lawbreakers, innumerable image bears from every nation, tribe, people, tongue, proclaiming the salvation of God. For applications, For applications, there's really nothing new here. I don't think I've really said much new.

A couple of things, my own words. But One, you need a new heart. You need a new heart. You can't do it, not even a little. Not even a little.

On Wednesday at prayer meeting, Jim read from Romans 8, Romans 8, 8, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You can't. Stop it. In your flesh, in your flesh, that's the key point. In your flesh, as a Christian, you can please God because you have the righteousness of Christ your clothed in his righteousness don't think you can't please God by me saying that you fail that I fail every second of every day don't take that mean you can't please God you can through Christ through his work through his righteousness through his wrath taking sacrifice and then rose from the dead to give life to the dead.

You are a wretched, filthy sinner and it is loving to tell you that. That's one thing we get from the Ten Commandments. God's character is loving to tell us that. It is loving to tell you that our hearts need transformed first by the grace and mercy and love of God through Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit, then, then, then have the godly externals proclaiming the transforming power of the gospel. Then, only Christ can save you to have good works that proclaim the righteousness of God.

Number two, what are we to do with His commandments? What are we to do with this? Twenty-seven messages, there's one next week we'll see it's the people's response. What are we to do with his commandments? What are we to do with this?

27 messages. There's one next week we'll see it's people's response. But what are we to do with this? Read Deuteronomy. Again, I encourage you, Go back to Deuteronomy if you haven't been there in a while.

See what God tells us through that. But we're told to hear. Hear them, listen to them, obey them, observe them, keep them, walk in them, be careful with them, and teach them. Here, everybody knows I'm a note taker. Here are my notes.

Twenty-six sermons and I'll be adding these, twenty-seven and next week I'll add them. Here are my notes. Wonderful, I have a stack of notes. Terrific. Terrific.

What does that do for me? What does that do for me? All it proves is there's been a big deposit made to me. 23 of these are from Jason. Big deposit.

Big deposit. What do I do with it? Look back on all the notes if you take them, applications, listen to the messages again. Has anything substantial changed towards your love of God and neighbor? Or do you remain unchanged?

Substantial. Has there been repentance? Has anything been said that you say, when it was said or maybe even today, when It was said, it said, wow, God, I have been an utter filthy, wretched fool. Why was I so blind to that? Or why have I held onto that so long?

Or maybe not holding onto it so long. Or why did I? Why this morning? Why while sitting here? What are you going to do with this?

Do not leave this unchanged. We think this and say this about every time we leave a book or leave a section. We cannot remain unchanged. What does that say about the Holy Spirit? Is He effectual or not?

Does He dwell in you or not? In me or not? Number three. Number three. No, I've got to say this again.

One last time. Maybe Jason will say it one more time next week. Wage war against our sin of minimizing and shrinking and making little of what God hates into our own manageable list. Wage war against our sin of minimizing, shrinking, and making little of what God hates into our own Manageable list. This diminishes Christ's work.

Completely diminishes his work. We then say that his work was only needed because I failed at a point or two, and I've got just a little bit more. I got it. I think I've said this, I've said it recently to some people, I'm changing my prayer language to help me. And that's the word I'm changing, is help.

I'm starting, I'm not going to get on you if you use this word at all, but when I pray and I say, God, please help me with this, sometimes it comes across in my mind, me praying, I'm not talking about when you pray, but When I pray, sometimes it comes across my mind of, I got this, God. I just need a little bit more. I just need a little bit more. I'm trying to be more bold and more precise. God, I need you to change this in me.

I need you to open my eyes. I need you to cause repentance just like day one. Just like day one. You talk about your first love, that's been mentioned the last couple of weeks. Just like day one, God, I need you to do this because I am completely unable to do anything in my own power.

Thank you that you would make me to recognize I need you to do this. Learn and understand the broader applications. This will lead us to knowing and loving God more. This will lead us to understand the depths of grace and mercy needed to save us more. This will lead us to understanding and weeping over the work required to save us.

And this will lead us in weeping for joy for the gracious and merciful work of Christ to redeem and save the othermost, to make us children, to make us a bride, holy to Himself for all eternity. And then number four, last application here, Christian. Christian, I'm saying this to Christians, especially at this point. Christian, his commands are not burdensome. If you're not a Christian, his commands better be burdensome to you.

Or you're going to think you don't need saved. Say that to you, Christian. But to you non-Christians, those who have not repented and trust in Christ alone for salvation. But Christian, his commands are not to be burdensome. 1 John 5, 2, and 3.

By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. Is it really a burden to not murder with anger and tongue? Is it really a burden not to be adulterous? Is it really a burden to not steal, to not covet?

Look at our jails. You don't have to go there. You can think of your own life of how it's been messed up because of sin. You don't have to think of other examples. We've got them around us.

Look at the scripture, especially. I'm going to give Thomas Watson the last word here. Listen to this quote on his commands are not burdensome. Then I'll pray. He says, it is easier to obey the commands of God than sin.

Think about that one. It is easier, Christian, to obey the commands of God than sin. The commands of sin are burdensome. God commands nothing but what is beneficial. To obey God is not so much our duty as our privilege.

His commands carry meat, food, meat in the mouth of them. He bids us repent. And why? That our sins may be blotted out. He commands us to believe.

And why? That we may be saved. There is love in every command. As if a king should bid one of his subjects, one of his servants, one of his subjects, as if a king should bid one of his subjects to dig in a gold mine and then Let him take all the gold for himself. Our God, what great love you have.

Jesus, what a perfect God, holy Savior you are. Holy Spirit, how perfectly long-suffering and loving are You to indwell us, so patient with us, and to cause us to repent. How loving are You to give us Your Word. Thank you, O God, for your Word. Thank you for this God.

Amen.