Pastor Tom Horn's sermon, titled 'Thou Shalt Love The Lord Thy God,' explores the primary commandment as stated by Jesus in Matthew 22: to love God with all one's heart, soul, and mind. Pastor Horn reflects on how the Pharisees and Sadducees tried to challenge Jesus with complex questions, aiming to expose his unorthodoxy. However, Jesus responds with biblical exposition, affirming love for God as the greatest commandment. Pastor Horn emphasizes that love for God is a primary, personal, practical, and perfect imperative, yet acknowledges that humans struggle to fulfill this command due to inherent sinfulness. He connects the lack of love for God as the root of sin and argues that true transformation comes from understanding and pursuing God's love. Horn also touches on the impossibility of perfectly loving God, highlighting the need for Christ's perfect love to be imputed to believers, offering hope and salvation. He encourages believers to seek God and love him practically, relationally, and supremely, with the assurance that one day, they will love God perfectly.

Sometimes we forget, sometimes I forget, but the Lord is good and merciful to help us to remember this through His word. So turn with me. I have my assignment this morning is Matthew chapter 22. Matthew chapter 22. You'll turn there with me and as you do, let me ask us, let me, let me, Sister Tina, let me put a little primer down for this paint.

Okay? Do you love the Lord? Do you love the Lord? Do you, Do you love him as you ought to? Here, I'll help you all like I would help the people at church.

Everybody look that way. Go ahead, look that way. Now look that way. And now do it real fast. No, no.

No. We don't love him as we ought to. Why don't you? Why don't you love him as you ought to? How don't you love him as you ought to?

In what ways don't you love him as you ought to? And what does it mean that you don't? What does it mean that you won't? Well, let's read God's word together. Matthew 22.

We're going to jump in at verse 34, and we find, we read, but when the Pharisees had heard that he, being Jesus, had put the Sadducees to silence, that's in the previous context, they, the Pharisees, were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, a scribe, asked him, asked Jesus a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, What is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind this is the first and great commandment. If you are a student of the New Testament, if you're a student of the Gospels, you know that this scene that is described here was a common occurrence for Jesus. The Pharisees and the Sadducees, the religious and the social leaders of Israel, and even at times the Jewish political leaders, the Herodians, they were continually and constantly trying to, if I could put it like this, they were trying to trip Jesus up.

These groups, these three groups didn't really agree on anything except that they all wanted rid of this man Jesus and the ways that they they tried to accomplish this you know if it weren't pure evil it would be admirable solely for the ingenuity of how they went about this. On this particular day, after Jesus had just basically left the Sadducees completely dumbfounded with his correction of their biblical ignorance concerning the resurrection. The Pharisees here say basically, you know, hey, stand back boys. Stand back. We've got this.

We knew better to send in a bunch of boys to do a man's job anyway. So y'all just stand back. So on this day they send their resident scholar, their resident scribe into the ring. His specialty was the law of Moses. So of course his question would be about the law, but the ingenuity of his question lies in the fact that not even the scribes and the rabbis of Israel would commit to answer this question that he asked Jesus here.

They had 1613 laws, most of which they've made up themselves, and they would categorize them in different degrees from major or minor, but they would not commit at all to which was the greatest of the commands. So their scheme here was to expose just how unorthodox Jesus was by getting him to commit to an answer that they, the Orthodox of Israel, wouldn't. They're sneaky. They tried every which way they could to trip Jesus up. But you know, do you know what will expose the actual unorthodoxy of seeming orthodox?

You know what will Jesus does? It's biblical exposition. That's what will expose the unorthodoxy of seeming orthodox because that is exactly what Jesus does here. Actually, he did exactly the same thing just previously with the Sadducees. So this scholar, this scribe asks Jesus, okay Jesus, so tell us what is the greatest command of the law and what does Jesus do?

He goes directly, actually, he goes directly to the very standard for piety in the Jewish religion. They quoted this verse twice in the morning and in the evening, every single day of their lives. He goes to the Jewish Shema that is recorded in Deuteronomy 6.5 and he says, in essence, y'all in your so-called orthodoxy, y'all might not be able to agree upon it, but the truth, the truth has been there in God's word and even in your mouth the entire time. The truth is, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. So according to God himself, love for him is the greatest and foremost command.

Love for Him, if you glance down at verse 40, it says something else about this. Love for Him is the foundation. It is the true summation and supreme imperative of his law. See why I ask this, if you love the Lord. So according to Jesus, according to God, love for him is the supreme imperative, the supreme command of his law.

But let's dig a little deeper here in this text and also think biblically to make sure we understand this. Obviously, it is essential that we understand this, right? If it's the greatest, if everything is tied to this love for God, then surely we need to have a firm grasp on the reality of this command. So first again let's be sure that we see, let's be sure that we understand especially by Jesus's words in verse 38, this command to love the Lord is the first. The Greek word there is protos.

It's the protos, it's the first, and it's the great or greatest megas. So you hear our word mega from that. It's the first and the greatest. So this command to love him is the primary imperative of the law. It is the primary imperative of his law.

So think about this. In that God's love was given to humans, as we heard repeatedly yesterday and even this morning, in that God's love was given to humans like us, doesn't that mean that this love for our God or loving God is what we were made for? Is what we were created for? Do you know that you were created to love God? It's the primary command because that's what you were created to do.

You want to know the meaning of your life? The true meaning of your life and my life is to love God. It's to love God. This is why men of the past have deduced that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. That has this primary imperative.

That has this love written all over it. We were created to love God. When the apostle Paul said that without love, we are nothing but a nuisance. We usually think of his words as primarily towards people, of loving others, right? But what if he also meant our love for God himself?

Without love for God himself, we're just a nuisance. In fact, what can we be and what can we actually do without this primary love for God? Without this love for God, what is a nuisance breathing his air? What is a hindrance? Actually, what can we do?

What can we be apart from this primary love for God? Here's the answer to that question. If this love for God is the summation or the sum and the substance of the entire law, when we break, when we transgress God's law, which is what? Which is what? Sin, right?

When we transgress God's law, when we break God's law, that sin, if this love is primary, if all the law hangs on this love, then what must be the true root of all and every sin? What's the true root of your sin? We all have them, right? You know that? Oh no, no, I don't sin.

No. God said, if you say you have no sin, you are a liar and the truth is not in you. But what is the root then of that sin that we all have. Or let me say it like this, how does God himself see our sins? That's what's really most important.

How does he view our sins? Well, as a lack of love for him. That's what's at the root of all of it. All of our sin, great or small, is actually a lack of love, this love for God. For God.

This imperative of love is primary. It's primary. Second, it's also a personal imperative. In verse 37, when Jesus takes the biblical scholar and us back to Deuteronomy 6, he allows us to see, allows us to understand that when God said, you shall love the Lord your God, well, y'all bear with me he didn't really say that no no he didn't he said you shall love not someone impersonal not someone generic but you shall love someone specific. You shall love someone personal.

You shall love me Yahweh your God. You shall love Yahweh your God. You shall love God Yahweh the creator and owner and ruler of all things. You shall love the covenant God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You shall love the God of Moses.

You shall love the God of the prophets. You shall love God Yahweh, the God of Israel. You shall love the only God who is God and who owns and has even earned the right to be loved supremely. You shall love God Yahweh the God of the Bible. And speaking of the God of the Bible and this personal imperative to love him, his personal name that you just heard me repeat several times, most English translations replace that name with the word Lord in all caps.

If you go back to the Old Testament and you start looking, you'll find the word Lord in all caps. You'll find it all over the Old Testament. As a matter of fact, oh, almost 7, 000 times in the Old Testament. It is the most repeated noun in all of the Bible. This is telling us something very important.

In other words, God wants us to know Him personally. He wants us to know him by name. He wants us to know him. He wants us to love him, not abstractly, not generically, but relationally. Relationally.

We can see this just in his name. Unfortunately, many of our English translations don't help us with this. But if we study, we can sure see it. So we see this in his, how he wants us to love him relationally personally in just his name let alone in all of his ways and in all of his works. We've been making our way through much of the Old Testament in the books of Moses but also through the prophets.

I mean one of the central themes of the God's Word beginning in the Old Testament almost immediately in the Old Testament, is this relational relationship that he desires with his creation. He wants us to love him personally. Do you love God Yahweh personally? Do you love Him personally? So this is a primary and a personal imperative.

And third, it's a practical imperative. Let's be sure that we get this now. In this command, God is not calling us just to love Him religiously. He's not calling us to love Him privately, you know, from our heart. Now look at verse 37.

The imperative here is for us to love God Yahweh with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind. The parallel passage in Mark adds, with all our strength. But what does that mean? What does that mean really? Well, it means this, God is commanding us to love him fully.

God is commanding us for us to love him completely, completely. He is commanding us to love him spiritually, physically, socially, politically, entirely, supremely. Supremely. God is always commanding us to love him, to love he himself in his triune person, in his triune being, in his, He's commanding us to love his holy attributes, his sovereign ways and works. He himself, he's calling us to love him.

He himself personally, fully, completely, entirely, or if I could say it like this, he is to be the true and supreme love of our life and of our eternity. He owns that place. He has the right to that love because he created us to love him and enjoy him forever. By the way, that wasn't something that was lacking in him. It's not something that he's filled with pride to desire, no, it is what is true.

It is what is right to love him. Well, here, let me put it like this. This love in verse 37 is agape love. This is the very pinnacle. This is the love of all loves.

This agape love is the same love that God Himself is, and It is the same love that he himself loves his people, loves us with. So, are you good with God only loving you secretly from his heart? I'm not saying he doesn't. He does. But are you okay if that's where it stops?

Just loving you secretly from his heart? Are you okay? Are you good with him loving you in abstract? Are you okay with him loving you generically? Indifferently?

Indifferently? Instead of personally? Oh we wouldn't put up with that would we? Oh hang on no no no no no. But yet we expect God to.

We expect the one that deserves and has earned the right of this supreme love to be okay with us loving him indifferently and abstract and generically? Of course not. Of course not. In fact, speaking of this love being God's own love, In Romans 5-8 the Apostle Paul writes this wonderful thing. He writes there that God commendeth, or he demonstrates, literally it is that He put His love for us on display.

He puts His love for us on display. And how He does this? In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He puts His own love on display. If you want to see the love of God on display as God displays it, as God lifts it up before us and says, look, here is how I love you.

Look at Christ on the cross. Look at God who became flesh and emptied himself and gave himself to the death of the cross. There is God putting on display his own love. This is the ultimate display and the ultimate example of this love's practicality. It's not abstract, it's not generic.

No, it is God's love is, he puts it on display so that we can see how practical it is. It's practical. So will we love him like he loves us? Will we give ourselves for Him? Will we commit ourselves completely to Him?

Primarily, personally, practically, just because we love Him. Just because we love Him. I can tell you this, we can find infinitely more reason to love Him than He could ever find to love us. In fact, let us all realize this imperative is also A perfect imperative. All of God's Word ultimately has one overarching purpose and it is to bring us to the truth.

It is to bring us into agreement with what is true. Well, this supreme imperative to love God as we have seen primarily and personally and practically, this is all at its core about what is true. It's about what is true. Let me illustrate it for you this way. Let me give you a homework assignment.

In the coming days, search through this book. Search through this true revelation of God Yahweh Himself. Search through His Word of Truth and see if you can find anything about Him that should make you do anything but love him supremely. Search it out. Search every word.

Search every verse. Search every chapter. Every passage. And look and search and see if there's anything that should do anything except cause you to love him more, cause you to love him supremely. Search it out.

God gave it to us for us to search it out. Search it out. I continue this, I've by the grace of God been looking for nearly all my life. And I haven't found anything. Not one single thing yet.

When I have thought that I might have found something, someone mentioned yesterday how God commanded Israelites to kill and destroy everything that breathed when they entered the land of Canaan. So some people say, well, see how evil God is. But I can tell you this, when I might have thought I had found something like that, that shined a, that where there was a darkness in God, it always turns out it's because I'm looking at it the wrong way. I'm looking at it from my perspective instead of his. Always.

We have both of these covenants full of the revelation of God himself. He's given it to us to search him out. So search him out. Search him out and see if you can find anything that should cause you to do anything but love him more. Search it out to see if you can find anything that's ugly in Him instead of from one exceeding glory to another of beauty, splendor, majesty, and perfection.

Search it out. Let me put it like this. There is absolutely no reason in us that God should love us. No reason. There is no way that we deserve it.

None. And yet he does. Yet he does. But we, we, we have every reason to love him. He deserves it all.

He has earned it all. And yet we don't. We don't. Or at least not as we should, right? So yes, this supreme imperative to love God is a primary and a personal and a practical and even a perfect imperative, but it's also an impossible imperative.

This man, this scholar, the scribe, and these men that have gathered together against Jesus and sent this scribe, If anyone could have possibly kept God's law, it was them. It was them. I mean the Apostle Paul, you remember, he was previously one of these guys. He may have been in this crowd. And he even said of himself, writing under the inspiration of the Spirit now, he said that as far as technically, technically, as far as keeping the law, he was blameless.

He was blameless. So there is technically, technically, in a sense, these men were the very pinnacle of humanity. But even these men, look at them. Look at them in this revelation of them. Here they come to Jesus, they come to God himself, the God that they are commanded to love completely.

They reminded themselves of this twice a day, every single day, at least twice a day, every single day. They reminded themselves that they were to love God completely, this God, completely. But here in all of their religious zeal and favor, they come to the very God who their religion is supposed to love and serve supremely and they come to Him doing what? Tempting Him. Testing him.

They come to him with smoothness on their lips. Oh, master, teacher, teacher, rabbi. But with vile hatred and murder in their arms. Can we all see here how this clarification that they seek, quote unquote, seek from Jesus, it just condemns them all the more. And they were supposed to be the best of us, the best of humans.

In fact, this command is the first and greatest command in this way as well. It is just like the rest of the law, it is impossible for us to keep. It just proves again and again and again our inherent hostility against God. It just proves again and again our sinfulness and our imperfection just like all the rest of the world does. This supreme imperative is the foundation of all the law.

All the law hangs on it. All the law is tied to it and none of us, absolutely none of us, not them nor us, have or even can do it. What hopelessness, what utter hopelessness, right? If only there were a man, a true man. If only there were a true man who could and would actually love God for all of his worth.

And if only God himself would receive this man's perfect love for himself and account it as a horse. That sounds like pie in the sky, doesn't it? We don't love God. And because we don't love God, we've broken all of his law. There's no hope in us to keep this command.

All of humanity is in the same boat as we are, even the best of us fail miserably, completely. So if only there were a man who could first come and obey the command perfectly and love God with all of his heart, mind, soul, body, being everything, loving completely. And then if God would somehow impute his perfections, his perfect love to put that on our account, on our ledger, what would that be called? Unsearchable mercy. Unsearchable mercy.

A mercy like no other, mercy of grace, amazing grace. We sing amazing grace, but amazing grace is pales in comparison to what this truly is. And if there were this man, and if God would impute his perfection, his perfect love to our account, then we would have hope, right? If only the impossible were made possible if only the impossible were made impossibly possible and if the impossible were possible if there were such a perfect man and we knew him as our only hope, we could see that he is our only hope, we could look at His perfections and see how God would attribute and give them, give those, account those perfections to us. If we could know Him as our only hope, if we could know Him as our only Savior and Lord, then surely we would see the clear failure of these men to love God and not excuse our own.

No, never not excuse our own, but we would see our shame and theirs. And we would mourn, right? We would mourn, our hearts would be broken over how little we love God. And so what would we do? Would we get over there in the corner and cry our eyes out about how little we love God?

Or should this motivate us to search out and find and use all of the mouthful graces, the means of grace that God has has mercifully given to us for the primary purpose of seeing him clearly and knowing him and banning the flames of our love for Him as we see Him in His glory and in His beauty. All of these means of grace like this and this and these that God gives us to where like this weekend we could come together and we could marvel over this gift of love together knowing that it is founded and it comes forth from our God, the living God himself, knowing, seeing how he demonstrates and displays this love for us in his son, Christ Jesus. And we would use this and this and these that are love for him might be set afire. And then we would pursue loving him. We would persist in loving him and wait and hope.

Right? Child of God, you know that your love for God is not perfect. You also know how much He deserves it to be perfect. You know, You want to love him. It should be each of the greatest sin all of us have in common.

It's not loving him like we ought to. And we should so want to love him. Every page on this book, Every page in this book tells us and shows us and reminds us why we should love him and motivates us to love him. Though we want to and though we pursue to and though we're trying to use, we really want to use humbly. We're humbling ourselves like we just heard.

We esteem others greater than ourselves. We want to be like Christ because we want to see Christ in us and we want to demonstrate Christ to us and we need to see Christ in you. So we can be motivated and we motivate each other. And what we find out yesterday, the body is building up edifying itself together in love. And so we use all that God has given us and we pursue loving God and we wait and hope knowing that soon the impossibility to love God for all of His worth that even still resides in us, the redeemed, soon this primary personal, practical, perfect, and yet impossible imperative will soon be perfected.

The Apostle John tells us in his first epistle that when we see him, when we see Christ, when we see God at His appearing, we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is. Surely part of this is we will finally love. We will finally love like he loves and we will love him finally and forever for all of his worth. We will love him in the truth. What a day that will be, right, saints?

Even so come, King Jesus. Amen? Well, until that coming day when our love for him is perfected, Brother David is about to tell us how we today can practice and display our love for him. Brother?