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Levi Martin | His Law Is Love
Sunday Evening, January 11, 2026
Given by Levi Martin | Pastoral Intern, Christ Covenant Church
His Law Is Love
Heidelberg Catechism—Lord’s Day 2; Matthew 22:34-40
Well, good evening, Christ Covenant Church. It is a joy and privilege to be with you all this evening and to share God's word, so thank you for this opportunity. If you have your Bibles with you, please open them to Matthew chapter 22. Matthew chapter 22. Well, as we heard last week, we're beginning a new series through the Heidelberg Catechism, which is a helpful catechism to help us teach the whole counsel of God and all that he teaches us. And as we heard, the Heidelberg Catechism is broken up into three primary categories. Three primary categories – three G's if you will – and that is guilt, grace, and gratitude. Guilt, grace, and gratitude. And this captures the good news of the gospel, that we are guilty in our sin before God, but that God in his grace has sent his Son to rescue us, and we respond with faith and with gratitude. So, as many of you, I've never heard a series on the Heidelberg Catechism, but I'm really excited about it. I'm really excited to get to participate in this series. And as we go into Lord's Day 2, our second week, we will be going deeper into the guilt section. The guilt section.
So, how do we know our guilt? How do we know our misery? The law of God tells us, and the law of God is primarily summarized in the greatest commandment, as Jesus gives us in Matthew 22. So, my hope and prayer for our time together this evening is to look at the law of God and see how the law exposes our sin and misery and points us to our only comfort that's in Jesus Christ. So, please look with me now at Matthew 22. We'll be looking at verses 34-40 as we hear the words of the law of God from the lips of our savior Jesus. This is the word of the Lord.
“But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him: ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?’ And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’”
This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, we give you thanks for your word. Please open our eyes and ears that we may behold wonderful things in your law. Please convict us for our sin, reveal our misery, and point us to the comfort found only in Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. And it is in his name that we pray these things. Amen.
Well, I wonder when was the last time that you felt miserable? When was the last time you felt miserable? Maybe it was a long time ago, and life has been amazing. Or maybe you're feeling miserable this evening and find it daunting to think about a topic of misery. Now, there are lots of different reasons and lots of different kinds of misery that we may all experience in this life. For one, you may feel miserable in your body. Maybe you got a cold, or maybe you're just getting over a cold, or maybe you're experiencing something far more significant like chronic illness or cancer. Or maybe you have another kind of misery, of the heart and the emotion, where someone you love is no longer a part of your life like they used to be. Maybe through a death or miscarriage or a strained relationship. Or maybe something else horrible has happened, and you feel miserable for that reason. There's lots of kinds of misery and lots of reasons for feeling miserable. And while there are many different kinds, tonight we will be focusing on one specific kind of misery, which, though often ignored, if left unaddressed and untreated will lead to eternal misery in hell with no hope of comfort. And that is misery over sin. Not the worldly kind of miserable where you feel miserable for you got caught, right? That's worldly grief, worldly sorrow. This is the misery that leads to repentance and to conviction over sin. This is godly misery.
So last week we were comforted as we considered the truth set before us in question and answer one of the catechism – the comfort that we belong, body and soul, life and in death, to our faithful savior Jesus Christ. We considered that wonderful comfort last week. And as we heard in the second question and answer, in order to live and die in the joy of this comfort, we need to know three things. There are three important things that we need to know. First, how great our sin and misery really are. Two, how God saves us from our sins and misery. And three, how we must respond and thank God for this deliverance.
So, to get deeper into this comfort, to get this comfort that we all inherently long for, we must first come to know how miserable we are, how miserable sin makes us. Not for the end goal that we would feel more miserable – that's not our hope for this evening – but that we might know more the comfort that is found in Christ. So, to get this cancer of sin out and rest in the comfort of Christ, the word needs to cut deep and to convict us deeply. We can't just take Tylenol and pretend it'll be okay. Serious spiritual heart surgery must take place under the skill and care and power of the word by the Spirit. But the good news is what God wounds, he also heals. Hosea chapter 6, verse 1, said, "Come, let us return to the Lord, for he has torn us that he may heal us. He has struck us down and he will bind us up." Or, as Jesus put it in Mark 2, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Comfort is for those who know they are miserable. But maybe some of you are sitting here this evening and you think you feel already quite comfortable. You say, “I have a nice life. I have a nice family, nice things, and other than a little back pain, I can't complain. I don't feel miserable, and I'm not looking to feel miserable, thank you very much.” But the reality is that as long as you still have sin in you, on this side of eternity, you are miserable whether you feel it deeply or not. We have remaining sin, and it demands to be felt, and even if you don't feel it wholly in this life, you will in the life to come if not treated.
So, if experience doesn't tell you you're miserable for your sin, what does? Well, how do you know that Jesus loves you? The Bible tells you so. So, also, the law of God tells you and reveals to you that you are indeed miserable for your sin, which leads us to consider these three questions and answers of the Heidelberg Catechism this evening. So, if you'll please turn in your bulletin to the page that contains – it's page 11 in my bulletin. So, I will read the questions, and we will read the answers together.
Q: So, Christian, how do you come to know your misery?
A: The law of God tells me.
Q: What does God's law require of us?
A: Christ teaches us this in summary in Matthew 23:37-40. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.
Q: Can you live up to all this perfectly?
A: No. I am inclined by nature to hate God and my neighbor.
Well, by the grace of God, my prayer for the sermon is for us to be comforted from our misery by coming to know the depth of our misery. And to do this, we will consider how our spiritual misery comes from our failure to obey this law of God. So with that, look with me again to Matthew 22, as we come to know how our misery comes from breaking the law of God, expressed in these two commandments to love God and love neighbor.
So first, our misery comes from breaking the commandment to love God. Look back with me at verses 34-38 for context in the first point. Matthew 22:15-40 contains three controversies that Jesus interacts with. The first one is about politics. The second one is about life after death and the resurrection with the Sadducees. And this one, the third, is about priorities and the law, which he has with the Pharisees. And with his wonderful wisdom, in this context, Jesus had just silenced the Sadducees like animal control muzzles mean dogs. Now, the Pharisees, like other mean dogs, try to take another bite out of Jesus with a biting question. So one of them, a lawyer, an expert in the law, asks this question: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Which commandment is the big one, the most important requirement? Well, this lawyer was not trying to learn anything sincerely, for in verse 35, we see his intention to test Jesus, to trap him, to catch him in something that he might say that they might use against him to arrest him. J.C. Ryle points out that while this lawyer had no good intention with his question, we can give thanks, because we greatly benefit from the answer that Jesus gives. And this is a clear example of what man intended for evil, God intended for good. And in just a few beautifully spoken words, Jesus summarizes the Ten Commandments, which is a summary of the entire law. And Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." Mark chapter 12 and Luke 10, the parallels to this passage, include, "And with all your strength,” which is where the catechism gets all three.
So, the terms heart, mind, soul, and strength – rather than giving the essential ingredients that make up what a human is or giving a Lego kit instruction for how to put a human together, these terms are used to emphasize the whole and entire person, the whole person. So, love the Lord your God with all you have, with all you are, with every fiber of your being, everything that you're made of. And this calls for whole and entire devotion and obedience. Half-hearted and cold love is out of the question. Love the Lord with all you are and all you have. But what does it really mean to love God? This greatest commandment, summarizing the first four of the Ten Commandments, is a quote from Deuteronomy chapter 6, which is part of the famous Shema, which is the Hebrew word for “hear” or “listen.” “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” So, notice here the connection between listening and loving. Hear, O Israel, love the Lord your God. Listen and loving. The word “hear” in Deuteronomy 6 includes the call for obedience. To hear is to obey. We love God by listening, hearing, and obeying him. As Jesus says in John 14:15, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." This is the great and first commandment.
But wait, there's more. There's a second commandment, and it's like the first. Our misery comes not only from breaking the commandment to love God, but also from breaking the commandment to love our neighbor. Look back with me at verse 39: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” So, how is this second commandment to love your neighbor like the first commandment to love God? Well, they both require love. But what does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? What does the golden rule say? Matthew chapter 7: “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Now, this second commandment summarizes the last six of the ten commandments and is quoted in Leviticus 19, as we read earlier. And as we noticed earlier, these two commandments are distinct and yet they are inseparable. We cannot have one without the other. But how do these two commandments relate? How do they fit together? How do they go together? In this way: true love for God requires us to have true love for our neighbor. And inversely, true love for neighbor must come from the chief love and be motivated by love for God. You cannot say you love God if you do not love your neighbor. 1 John 4:20 says, "If anyone says, ‘I love God’ and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." On the other side, you cannot say, say you truly love neighbor if you do not love God. St. Augustine helpfully once said, "He loves thee (God) too little who loves anything together with thee which he loves not for thy sake." In other words, if you are to love your neighbor, it must be motivated by and empowered by chief love for God.
So on these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. If you break one, you break both. So, to take this law of love from the Old Testament, everything falls apart, just like if you were to pull the staples from your bulletin, it would fall apart. For as one theologian said, the entire Old Testament points to the love of God, which demands the answer of love in return. We were made and commanded by God to love him and our neighbor. And why? Because he first loved us. We love because he first loved us. But we have all sinned and have all fallen short of the glory of God, hating God and our neighbor. And to combine what the scriptures say the nature of our naturally depraved heart from Genesis 6 and Jeremiah 17, by our nature, every intention of the thoughts of our deceitful and desperately sick hearts are only evil continually. We are sick in our hearts from sin. And like Judas, we can be near Jesus, even if we're one of his disciples. We can be near Jesus and yet never truly love him.
One significant way that we sin against God and neighbor is by religious hypocrisy. Religious hypocrisy. We say we love God, but with our lives we do not show this love. We honor God with our lips, but often our hearts are far from him. We say we love God, but instead of listening to and obeying him, are we too busy with our phones or our sports or our careers or our hobbies? Husbands, you say you love God, but instead of gently leading and serving your wives, do you check on your hobbies more than you check on your wife's emotions? Wives, you say you love God, but instead of respecting and helping your husbands, do you grumble in your hearts as you clean up after them like one of your own children? Parents, you say you love God, but instead of diligently discipling your children, do you neglect their hearts or provoke them to anger? Children, you say you love God, but instead of honoring your father and mother, do you delay your obedience or talk back? Young professionals, we say we love God, but instead of using our time and energy to serve the church and to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, do we waste it away on trivial things, envying the things of others? Christ Covenant, we say we love God, but instead of giving our time, talents, and treasure for his kingdom in Matthews and around the world, are we only looking after our own interests? Have we loved the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, with all our strength? Have we loved our neighbor as ourselves? Friends, we must examine our hearts and our lives. We must take stock. We must pray for grace to see our sin more clearly and pray for grace to be miserable for our sin, for all we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned aside, everyone, to his own way. But the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
So, having considered how the law exposes our sin and misery, let us now look to the comfort that comes from belonging to Jesus. For Jesus has fulfilled the greatest commandment. He has fulfilled the law of love on your behalf and has taken your misery upon himself, suffering in your place on that old rugged cross. For he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. By his misery, you have been comforted. By his shame, you have been honored. He fulfilled all righteousness with his obedience. He kept the law of God. He loved the Lord his God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength, and he loved his neighbor as himself. And he was no hypocrite, for he showed his love not just in word, but in deed and in action. He showed his love, for while we were still his enemies, while we were dead in our sins, God sent his son to die in our place. Jesus, the God-man, showed his love for us by dying in our place, even while we were dead in our sins. And on the third day, he rose from the grave, and even now, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and from there, he shall come again to judge the living and the dead, to make us alive, and to bring us back to God, that we may love and worship him in spirit and in truth. This is the gospel of grace – God's riches at Christ's expense.
And as a church, as Christians, we cannot forget the law and gospel distinction, for by works of the law, no man can be justified, because of sin. The law says do, the gospel says done. Or the law says love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and your neighbor as yourself. The gospel says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life. One poem that I love puts it like this: “Run and work, the law commands, yet gives me neither feet nor hands. A sweeter thing the gospel brings – bids me fly and gives me wings.” While we could contribute nothing whatsoever to our salvation, Christ accomplished it all on our behalf through faith. Though we are not outwardly as evil as we could be, our bodies and our souls have been born in sin and stained by sin, and we are miserable, as the catechism rightly puts it. And so, Christ redeems and now owns us, body and soul, for the those who belong to him.
R.C. Sproul has a helpful and delightful book called The Priest with Dirty Clothes. The Priest with Dirty Clothes. I believe it's in the book nook if you would like to check it out at the end. But it's a fantastic book for kids, for all ages really, and it gives such a clear picture of the gospel that I'm going to slightly adapt for this sermon. So, imagine this. Just before the service started, I'm walking outside, and I trip and fall into a big pile of mud. I got mud all over my clothes, and I can't preach like this. I got mud on my clothes. I can't do that. This is such a nice stage. I can't do that. But all of a sudden from Florida, Pastor Kevin jumps up and trades suits with me. So now, what are you gonna do? So now he wears my muddy suit, and I wear a clean suit, and I can stand here before you all in clean clothes, able to present this sermon to you. Ridiculous illustration, but in a similar way, Jesus takes our dirty clothes of misery that we earned by breaking the law, and he gives us his clean clothes of righteousness that he earned by obeying the law. And now we can stand before God in the righteousness of Christ with robes not our own in the comfort of belonging to Jesus, our elder brother. So, friend, are you weary and heavy-laden with your sin? Maybe you've tried everything you can think of to be rid of this miserable weight, but you just can't do it. You've tried to escape this misery, this guilty conscience. You've fled to porn, to alcohol, to social media, to money, to sex, to fame, to popularity, to success, whatever it is. And if that's you tonight, if you feel the misery of your sin, just hear this. Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Ask him, and he will take away your sins too, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Come to him, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and he will give you rest.
And as I asked at the beginning, so I ask at the end: do you feel miserable? Would you have your sins and miseries washed away? Would you know the comfort that pursues you in life and in death? Whoever you are, whatever your misery, you can know this comfort of having a clean conscience today. And yet, even if misery remains all your life and comfort seems so scarce and so small this side of eternity, know for certain that abundant and lasting comfort, fullness of joy, pleasures forevermore are yours when Jesus comes again. All misery will be gone, but when Jesus comes again, he will wipe away every tear from your eye. Death and sorrow and sighing will be no more. And the good news is he's almost here. So friend, do not rest comfortable until you rest in the comfort that Christ offers. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Let's pray.
Our gracious God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, I pray this evening for your Holy Spirit to take your word, to pierce our hearts, and to bind us up again. Wound us, and heal us. Slay us, and make us whole. And in wrath, remember mercy. In our misery and affliction, send us your comfort, and by your Spirit, may we be made into instruments of comfort for others. Come Lord Jesus. We pray in his name. Amen.