Ask, Know, Keep | Sunday, August 16, 2020

For ask now concerning the days that are past which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard... To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; there is none other besides Him... Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and your children after you... (Deuteronomy 4:32-40)

When you think you've seen it all, another "naked cowboy" shows up—yet God alone remains all that we truly need.

"I Think I've Seen It All"

In September of 2001, three other leaders from our church and I worked with the Red Cross and the Billy Graham Association in New York City shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It was my first time in the city, and it's hard to describe Manhattan to someone who's never been there—end-to-end high-rise buildings, the city that never sleeps, a mash of every possible culture with access to nearly every kind of food at every hour.

I'll never forget one of those days. We started in lower Manhattan near where the Trade Center had stood. This was very shortly after the attack—the power wasn't even fully on. There was an eerie silence except for generators and power washers still washing the dust off the buildings. The smell in the air, an acrid smell of burnt plastics and electronics, is one you can't forget. I spent part of that morning talking with a man in Battery Park who had watched the buildings fall from the same spot.

Then we walked back up to Times Square. The difference was crazy. Lower Manhattan looked and smelled like a depressing war zone; midtown looked like an upscale, chaotic mall, everything seemingly business as usual. There in Times Square I saw the epitome of Times Square—the Naked Cowboy, clothed in nothing but white cowboy boots, white cowboy hat, whitey-tighties, and his guitar. Right after my astonishment, a guy stumbled out of a door in front of me and lost his lunch on the sidewalk. I turned to one of the guys with me and said, "Well, I think I've seen it all."

A Chaotic Year

2020 is one of those "I think I've seen it all" moments, isn't it? Consider what we've seen this year: a presidential impeachment in the House, COVID-19, toilet paper and bottled water shortages, a national shutdown of nearly all of life, professional sports on hold with cardboard cutouts in the stands, chaotic protests and riots after racially charged incidents of violence, efforts to defund the police, the explosion of more than five million pounds of ammonium nitrate in Beirut, school about to start but not really, and the ramp-up of what will be an all-absorbing political circus. Just when you think you've seen it all, a naked cowboy is bound to show up.

This is our 23rd Sunday under lockdown. Labor Day weekend will officially mark half a year of church online. When this began on March 15th, I expected two or three weeks at most. I thought for sure we'd be gathered by Palm Sunday, then Easter, then Mother's Day, Father's Day, the Fourth of July. Through it all, I want to encourage you: God is still on the throne. He is still actively working in and through His church. He remains faithful, and we continue to trust Him and seek to remain faithful to Him.

Why Continue in Faith?

Why do you continue to have faith in God? Why remain faithful to Him through the ups and downs of life? That's a good question. The passage we're in, Deuteronomy 4, is one in which God calls His people Israel to continue in faith and faithfulness—to trust and obedience, to devotion and loyalty to Him and the covenant they had entered into with Him.

This section contains the statutes and judgments of God's covenant with Israel. In fact, the bulk of Deuteronomy is the stipulations and terms of that covenant relationship. Those of you who are married remember vowing to maintain the stipulations of your covenant to your spouse: "I take you as my lawfully wedded wife, to love, honor, and cherish, in sickness and in health... forsaking all others, to be faithful unto you as long as we both shall live." In good times and bad, you promised loyalty and faithfulness.

Israel did that too. God pledged to be faithful to them—and from what we know of God in Scripture, He is faithfulness embodied. He pledged to be Israel's God and to bless them, then called them to faithfulness and devotion. They responded, "All the words which the Lord has said we will do" (Exodus 24:3). In essence, Israel said "I do" twice. We read in Exodus 24:7, "Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, 'All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient.'"

God Is Merciful When We Fail

Those who have read Exodus know Israel committed spiritual adultery through immoral idolatry less than fifty days after that declaration. One of the complaints about the Old Testament revelation of God is that He is harsh, despotic, ruthless, and merciless. But that isn't what we find when we actually read the Pentateuch. God's response to Israel's spiritual adultery is to act with mercy.

That's good to know—God is merciful when we fail. Because I don't know anyone who doesn't fail. Exodus 34 says He is merciful, gracious, patient, and forgiving; He forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. All of us have committed iniquity, transgression, and sin, and God is merciful when we fail. We saw this in Deuteronomy 4:31: "For the Lord your God is a merciful God, He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them."

Remember, this passage is Moses reminding Israel of these things nearly forty years after they happened, because Israel is about to enter the blessing God had promised hundreds of years earlier when their father Abraham first followed God by faith. God said to Abraham, "Get out of your country... to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great... and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3). Later He repeated it: "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able... so shall your descendants be... I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit." Abraham trusted God, and now more than 400 years later those promises are being fulfilled here in Deuteronomy 4.

Did Any of This Really Happen—and Why Does It Matter?

One question we sometimes face is, did any of this really happen, and why does it matter to me? In answer to the first, the most complete history we have of these things is Scripture, so in a sense we take it on faith that what Scripture records actually happened. Additionally, the preponderance of historical and archaeological evidence continues to support and substantiate the happenings of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

But why does it matter to us? Between the promise to Abraham and its fulfillment some 400 years later, there were a lot of failures. God never failed Israel, but Israel and their fathers sure failed God—and God is merciful when we fail. Some of you really need to hear that this morning.

One byproduct of the 2020 shutdown has been a return to a lot of things you thought you'd left in the past. Statistically, the shutdown has been a boon for alcohol sales, marijuana usage, illicit prescription drug use, pornography, and many other vices. We'd be foolish to assume such things aren't affecting Christians too. The isolating effects of this shutdown have been awful. So let me remind you again: God is merciful when we fail. If you feel like you're not where you should be with the Lord right now, He is mercifully waiting for you to turn to Him in faith.

The Compounding Effect of Sin

Moses is working to drive this truth into the hearts and minds of God's people, because he knows they will fail again, and it is his desire that when they fail they will turn back to God in repentance, seeking His mercy. One devastating reality of iniquity, transgression, and sin—which God mercifully forgives—is that these things have a compounding effect in our lives.

When we fall short of God's statutes and fail in our faith and faithfulness, we tend to persist in the downward spiral. We hide from God and try to hide our sin. We lie about it, we shift blame and responsibility, and as a result we spiral down toward more iniquity, transgression, and sin. The more we do, the more we think we cannot come back to God, and we begin to experience what Scripture calls condemnation. In this spiraling cycle, we begin to think it is easier to stay where we are than to repent and return. This is precisely what we see in the first illustration of sin in Genesis 3 with Adam and Eve. But God's desire is that His people would live in connection with Him and enjoy the benefits and blessings of that connection.

Ask: Has There Ever Been Anything Like This?

Therefore Moses says, "Ask now concerning the days that are past... whether any great thing like this has happened... Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?"

Moses is saying: remember what God has done for you. Search history and see—has there ever been anything like this? Did the gods of Egypt ever do this? How about the gods of the Moabites, Ammonites, Philistines, or Canaanites? God in heaven came down to Egypt to rescue His people from bondage. They heard His voice, beheld His presence in fire, and by plagues, signs, wonders, and war—His mighty hand and outstretched arm—He brought down Egypt with great terrors before their eyes.

Know: The Lord Alone Is God

Why did God do this? Deuteronomy 4:35 says, "To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; there is none other besides Him." There is mercy and deliverance in no other. There are other things you can trust in and give devotion to—other gods, small gods—but no other brings mercy and deliverance. In fact, the other things you trust in and serve are cruel taskmasters that bring bondage.

This is why God's first statute is, "Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God... and make for yourselves a carved image... For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God" (Deuteronomy 4:23-24). We see the same stipulation in the commandments: "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... for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God... but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments" (Deuteronomy 5:6-11).

It's one thing to say "You shall have no other gods" and "You shall not make any idols," but it is beneficial to give the why: God is merciful when we fail, and there is mercy and deliverance in no other. Why would you trust or be devoted to any other? "Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other."

We Remain Faithful Because He Alone Is God

Why should we continue in faith and faithfulness to the Lord? Yes, there are blessings for those who do, and yes, there are judgments and curses for those who don't. But more than that, the Lord alone is God, both in heaven and on earth, and there is no other. We don't remain faithful merely for blessings, though there are blessings. We don't continue to trust and obey merely because there are judgments if we don't, though that is true—and in effect the judgment is the absence of His blessing. More than all of that, we continue in faith and faithfulness because God alone is God. He alone is all that we need.

So Moses says, know this and consider it in your heart. That's something to think about this week. Every other thing you've ever been devoted to or trusted in—other than God—has ultimately left you dry, despairing, and in bondage. Alcohol, money, sex, drugs, power, possessions, achievement: the gods of this world are many, and they are lacking. Therefore know and consider that God alone provides what you desperately need and are searching for.

Keep: Statutes That Invite Blessing

"You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time." It is unreservedly true that we ought to remain faithful to God because He alone is God and has all that we need. But it is also true that God gives life and blessing to those who keep His statutes and commandments. His statutes do not bring our salvation, but they do invite His blessing.

This is part of why we're studying this section. As we go through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy in the coming weeks and months, we'll see that these things will not ultimately bring salvation. In fact, one thing we'll consider next time is that they actually reveal just how imperfect we are. But they direct us to the only One who can give blessing—the Lord, who fulfills the law and gives salvation.

The Law Points Us to Christ

Before we finish, I want to speak to those of you who have tried to live according to the law, tried to keep the commandments—maybe the Ten Commandments we'll look at over the next several weeks—and have realized you fall short. That is exactly what the New Testament says the purpose of the law is. In Romans 4 and Romans 7, and in Galatians, we find that the law is our signpost, our schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ, to show us how much we need a Savior.

Maybe you've been trying to live by some moral list of rules and you're not able to do it. This is exactly as it should be, because we are all fallen, all filled with iniquity, transgression, and sin—and only Jesus can bring forgiveness. If you've been hoping your good works will one day stack up greater than your failures, I want you to know that will not save you. Only Jesus can save you, and He calls you to turn to Him for salvation and forgiveness.

You and I cannot fulfill God's law, but Jesus did. He who knew no sin took your failures, your iniquity, transgression, and sin upon Himself on the cross 2,000 years ago, and bore the punishment for your sin so you could receive His righteousness. How do you receive it? By turning to Him in faith and calling out to Him in prayer, asking Him to forgive you of your sin.

If you'd like to do that this morning, wherever you are, bow your head, talk to God where you're at—He hears you—and pray along with me: Dear Jesus, I recognize that I cannot be perfect by my own strength. I understand that I have come short of Your perfect standard. But I thank You, Jesus, that You lived a perfect life and died in my place on the cross, and that You rose again the third day. I ask that You would come into my life, forgive me of my sin, and help me to follow You by faith. In Jesus' name, amen.

If you prayed that this morning, we'd love to know about your commitment. Go to commit.lifeinconnection.com and fill out the form, and we'd love to send you a Bible or help you grow in your walk. This week, read through the remainder of Deuteronomy 4 and into chapter 5, and perhaps refresh your memory of the Ten Commandments, which we'll look at in the coming weeks.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank You so much that, as we were considering, You took our sin upon Yourself so that we could have a right relationship with You. You are the one who reconciles us and restores us back to a proper relationship with God, our Father in heaven. Father, I pray that we would be filled with the joy of that relationship and be able to extend it to others—as we interact with co-workers, family members, friends, whoever we encounter during this socially distanced time. I pray, God, that You would shine through us with Your grace and Your truth to others.

And as we close, I pray for our nation and for our leaders. It is clear how important it is to have wise and understanding leaders. I pray for our leaders, whether on the left or the right, whether they have a D or an R after their names—we are all one nation, and we need leaders who have wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Would You do a work of giving our leaders wisdom and directing them into truth, especially as we go into the second half of this chaotic year? Be with Your church and Your people wherever they are right now; encourage them by Your word and by the presence of Your Spirit, and may Your joy be our strength. Now may the Lord bless you and keep you; may He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; may He lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.