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

For 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 lived?... To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; there is none other besides Him... 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 with your children after you. (Deuteronomy 4:32–40)

When you think you've finally seen it all, another "naked cowboy" shows up—but the Lord alone is God, merciful when we fail, and worthy of our faith.

"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 attacks. It was my first time in the city, and it's hard to describe New York to someone who has never been there—especially under those circumstances. Manhattan is phenomenal, end-to-end high-rise buildings, the city that never sleeps, a mash of every possible culture with every kind of food at every hour.

One day we began in lower Manhattan, near where the Trade Center had been. The power wasn't even fully on. There was an eerie silence, broken only by generators and power washers still washing the dust off the buildings. The smell was unforgettable—an acrid smell of burnt plastics and electronics. I spent part of that morning in Battery Park talking with a man who had watched the buildings fall from that very spot.

Then we walked back up to midtown, to Times Square. The contrast was crazy. Lower Manhattan looked and smelled like a depressing war zone; midtown looked like an upscale, chaotic mall, business as usual. There I saw the epitome of Times Square—the Naked Cowboy, clothed in nothing but white cowboy boots, a white cowboy hat, whitey-tighties, and his guitar. Right after that astonishment, a man 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."

2020: Another Naked Cowboy

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 pretty much all of life, professional sports on hold and then cardboard cutouts of fans in the stands, chaotic protests and riots, 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 now the ramp-up of an all-absorbing political circus. Just when you think you've seen it all, a Naked Cowboy is bound to show up. If Jesus decided to return right now, I don't think any of us would object.

This is our 23rd Sunday under lockdown as a church. Labor Day weekend will mark half a year of church online. When this began on March 15th, I expected two or three weeks at most. I thought surely we'd be gathered for Palm Sunday, then Easter, then Mother's Day, Father's Day, the Fourth of July. But just when you think you've seen it all, another Naked Cowboy shows up. Through all of it, 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 will continue to seek to remain faithful to Him.

Why Continue in Faith and Faithfulness?

Why do you continue to have faith in God? Why do you remain faithful to Him through the ups and downs of life? 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 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: "In the presence of God and these witnesses, 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. God pledged to be faithful to them, and from what we know of Him 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 said, "All the words which the Lord has said we will do" (Exodus 24:3). In essence, Israel said "I do" twice:

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." (Exodus 24:7)

God Is Merciful When We Fail

Those who have read Exodus know that Israel committed spiritual adultery through immoral idolatry less than fifty days after making that declaration. One complaint 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 mercy. He is merciful when we fail—and that is a blessing, 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 earlier:

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. (Deuteronomy 4:31)

This passage is the result of 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 prior, when their father Abraham first followed God by faith. God said to Abraham:

Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, 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 you shall be a blessing... and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12:1–3)

A few years later He repeated it: "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able... So shall your descendants be." Abraham trusted God, and now, more than 400 years later, those promises are being fulfilled here in Deuteronomy 4.

Did This Really Happen—and Why Does It Matter?

One question we face is: did any of this really happen, and why does it matter to me? 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. 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 time God made 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 need to hear that this morning.

One byproduct of the 2020 shutdown has been a return to things you thought you'd left in the past. Statistically, 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. Let me remind you again: God is merciful when we fail. If you feel you're not where you should be with the Lord, 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 he desires that when they fail, they'll 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. 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, hide our sin, lie about it, shift blame. We spiral toward more sin, and the more we do, the more we think we cannot come back to God. We begin to experience what Scripture calls condemnation, and in this cycle we start thinking it's easier to stay in our sin 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." He wants Israel to search history and see whether the gods of any other nation ever did what their God did. Did the gods of Egypt, of the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, or the Canaanites ever do anything like this?

What did God do for Israel? God in heaven came down to Egypt to rescue His people from bondage. They heard His voice. They beheld His presence in the form of fire. By plagues, signs, wonders, and war—His mighty hand and outstretched arm—He brought down Egypt with great terrors before their eyes. The people saw this.

Know: The Lord Alone Is God

Why did God do this? "To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; there is none other besides Him" (Deuteronomy 4:35). There is mercy and deliverance in no other. There are other things you can trust in and give devotion to—other gods, small-g gods—but no other brings mercy and deliverance. In fact, the other things you trust in 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 which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. (Deuteronomy 4:23–24)

We'll see this stipulation again 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. You shall not make for yourself any carved image... You shall not bow down to them nor serve them... 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?

Why We Remain Faithful

Why should we continue in faith and faithfulness? 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 of judgment, though the judgment is in effect 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—alcohol, money, sex, drugs, power, possessions, achievement—has ultimately left you dry, despairing, and in bondage. 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: That It May Go Well With You

You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with 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. (Deuteronomy 4:40)

It is true that we ought to remain faithful because God alone is God and has all we need. 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, they reveal just how imperfect we are—but they direct us to the only One who can give us blessing: the Lord, who fulfills the law and gives salvation.

A Word to Those Trying to Keep the Law

I want to speak to those of you who have tried to live according to the law—maybe the Ten Commandments, which we'll look at over the next several weeks—and you've 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 and 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 trying to live by your good works, hoping they'll one day stack up greater than your failures, 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 that you could receive His righteousness. How do you receive it? By turning to Him in faith, calling out to Him in prayer, and asking Him to forgive you. If you'd like to do that this morning, 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 prayer—to receive the Lord today or to recommit your life to Him—we'd love to know. You can go to commit.lifeinconnection.com and let us know about your decision to follow Jesus.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank You that, just 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, who 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 coworkers, family members, friends, whoever we encounter during this socially distanced time. I pray that You would shine through us with Your grace and Your truth to others. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.