That You Might Observe Them | Sunday, July 5, 2020

As we have now come to Deuteronomy chapter 4, we are in a new section of the book. Last week, we began a new series of teachings that I am calling "Statutes and Judgments." Those words come from the opening verse of the chapter, where we read, "Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live and go in to possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you."

Our studies through the first three chapters of Deuteronomy I entitled "Bordering Blessing." This was because Israel, at the point that Moses is preaching the messages that make up the book of Deuteronomy, is on the border of blessing, outside of the promised land, preparing to enter in. As Israel enters the promised land as the people in covenant relationship with God, they must live under His statutes and judgments. The promised land of blessing was for God's chosen people, Israel. However, to be God's chosen people, it was necessary that they live in covenant with Him, and the stipulations of the covenant are His statutes and judgments.

In this, there is an important lesson for us. Even though we are not coming into a physical promised land, if we desire to experience the blessing of abundant life as God intends, then we must live under His statutes and judgments. I believe that our study in this section is going to be worthwhile. It is important for us, as God's people living under the New Covenant, to understand God's statutes and judgments.

Now, it is worth making the point that these statutes and judgments do not bring God's salvation. Salvation is only found in Jesus Christ. However, I would suggest to you that living according to God's ordinances does invite His blessing. An individual or society that disregards or rejects these things will, I believe, experience destabilization and ruin. Therefore, the statutes and judgments of God become very important if you desire the blessing of an abundant life over the curse of a life in ruin.

I don't think that it is a coincidence that as our nation has progressively drifted away from the knowledge and observance of the precepts of Scripture, we have witnessed increased cultural destabilization. Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I...

Teach you to observe that you may live. As we shall see, these will be Moses's final words. He has one last message for Israel before he dies and they enter into the Promised Land. When they enter into the Promised Land, they will do so under the leadership of Joshua.

God's first commissioning words to Joshua are these, in Joshua chapter 1, verses 6 through 9: "Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them. Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, My servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

The life of prosperous blessing and success we desire is found in and through the Scriptures. The statutes and judgments of God are essential if you are going to experience abundant life. These things point to blessing; they orient you in the direction of finding life and rest in Christ.

Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.

When the founders of the United States gathered and wrote the Constitution, they did so with the expectation that the governing document would be amended over time. They constructed both it and the government it would stand over in such a way that it would change over time. Not so with God's law. God's law is unamended. This is because God's law is an expression of God's character, and God, the Scriptures tell us, does not change. In Malachi 3:6, God says, "I am the Lord; I do not change." The Apostle James wrote that with God...

There is no variation or shadow of turning. Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." These and many other verses in Scripture lead us to a theological conclusion on what we refer to as the immutability of God. Since His law is an expression of His character, His law is unamended; it is not to be changed or adjusted. "You shall not add to the word," Moses says, "nor shall you take away from it," so that you may keep the commandments. This is really important.

There certainly have been ways in which the people of God have adjusted and reinterpreted things in Scripture through the lens of their culture and their time. The danger in this is that, in doing so, you may live according to your reinterpretation of the law, but you will not be living in accordance with God's actual expectation. This is exactly what happens when an individual attends a church that adds to the expectation of Scripture and says, "You must be baptized in this church to be saved." So then they are baptized in that church and think that they are saved. They console themselves by their baptism, but they may very well not have ever trusted in Christ for salvation. They feel okay because they have followed the ordinances of that specific church, but they may not be right before God because they have not followed the precept of Scripture.

This is exactly what happened in Israel at the time that Christ came. The people had made the Word of God of no effect through their own tradition. This is what happens when we live in a society that rejects God's Word and says prostitution, adultery, divorce, and abortion are permissible. We call evil good and good evil; we put darkness for light and light for darkness. Then we are surprised when our society breaks down.

So how do you promote adherence to the precepts of God? Deuteronomy chapter 4, verses 1 through 4 states, "Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal Peor."

For the Lord your God has destroyed from among you all of the men who followed Baal of Peor. But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you. Note this well: the seriousness of the law was evidenced by the swiftness and completeness of judgment.

In verse three, Moses is reminding Israel of an event in Israel's history chronicled in the Book of Numbers, chapter 25. There we read of a time in which some of the men of Israel engaged in prostitution, which also involved idolatry with the women of the nation of Moab. God's response to this idolatry and immorality is found in Numbers 25, verse 4: "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Take all of the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before the Lord out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.'" The seriousness of the law was evidenced by the swiftness and completeness of judgment.

Now, you may be wondering, "Myles, are you saying that idolatry and immorality should be capitally punished?" Do I think that prostitution and adultery should result in capital punishment? No, in the same way that I don't think that you should cut off your hand or pluck out your eye, as Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, if they cause you to sin. However, we should understand and maintain the seriousness of sin.

There is a way in which we can read the Scriptures too literally. Some in the early church, including some of the early church fathers, did this. Some of the early Christian mystics, called the Desert Fathers, did insane things out of an overly literal reading of the Scripture. Somewhere between a casual reading of the Bible and a literal reading of the Bible is probably a nice balance. If you're wondering what I'm talking about with an overly literal reading of the Scriptures, just Google the early church father Origen of Alexandria.

A more serious reading and understanding of the Scriptures is undoubtedly in order in our day. Moses said, "You who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today." Life and blessing are found in the hearing and heeding of God's Word. Deuteronomy 4, verse 5 states, "Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land."

The statutes and judgments you may go to possess might seem too restrictive and strict to you. That's perfectly fine; you're free to live apart from these laws. The law of God was for the people of God living in the kingdom of God in the promised land. You can choose to live outside of that. Many people have done that, and many people do that. Those who don't want to submit to God as Lord don't have to, but they also can't enjoy the kingdom of God without the King.

Our nation has been incrementally rejecting the King, yet we still want the blessings of His kingdom. However, if you reject the King and His rule, don't be surprised if you end up losing the blessings of His kingdom. We want the kingdom without the King, and that's impossible. When you reject God as King, you will invariably end up ruled by harsh taskmasters. This is the cycle of the Old Testament.

The independence that we celebrated yesterday on July 4th is a downstream result of the blessing of the statutes and judgments of God. In Deuteronomy 4, verse 6, we read, "Therefore be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear these statutes and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'" The wisdom of God's law is seen in the blessings that result from keeping it.

This is one of God's aims under the Old Covenant: that the peoples of the nations would see the blessings of the people of God and be drawn to Him. This remains one of God's aims for His people in the New Covenant. God's desire is that the people we interact with on a daily basis would see the evidence of God's grace and Spirit at work in us and be drawn to Him through our witness.

Would to God that our lives as His people would be attractive to the people we work with, live next door to, and interact with daily. Would to God that the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control of our lives would shine through so that people would see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

God desires that the blessing of Him overflowing from our lives would provoke jealousy in those who observe us. What great nation is there, as stated in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 7, that has God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us? For whatever reason we may call upon Him, what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?

Only take heed to yourself and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen and they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Teach them to your children and to your grandchildren, especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord God in Horeb. When the Lord said to me, "Gather the people to me, and I will let them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children," you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain. The mountain burned with fire in the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. The Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words but saw no form; you only heard a voice.

He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform: the Ten Commandments. He wrote them on two tablets of stone. The Lord commanded me at that time to teach you the statutes and judgments that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess. God desired that His people would know His word, that they would hide His commandments, statutes, and ordinances in their hearts, and that they would seek to live after these things. They would daily meditate upon them, and as they did, they would begin to transform their lives.

This is exactly what God wants to do in my life as well as in your life. He wants us to hide His word in our hearts so that we might be transformed by the renewing of our minds. This transformation would enable us to show the world in which we live what is the good and perfect will of God. That is God's desire for us as a church here at Cross-Connection Church: that we would grow in God's Word so that He would be able to shine brightly through our lives. It is my prayer, even though we are not gathered together here.

On Sunday mornings here in our sanctuary, God has scattered us throughout the community among our next-door neighbors, with the families that we are a part of, and with the coworkers that we work with. He has scattered us around to be able to share the good news of the glory and grace of God in Christ Jesus. It is my prayer that that light would only begin to shine more brightly as we are living in a time where we are seeing more and more people in our nation reject and stand against the good news of the Word of God.

As that happens, even though we may see the continued destabilization of our culture, the light of Christ will burn so much more brightly. May it be that God would bring a Great Awakening once again. That is my prayer: that God would shine through us and bring people to the grace of the gospel through our witness.

Father, we pray as we see these truths in the Scripture, as we even see in this passage the importance of teaching these things to our children. For the parents in our church, God, I pray that You would give us a deep desire to impart the truth of Your Word to the kids that are a part of our families. Lord, may we raise them up to know You, to serve You, and to honor You. By the witness of us and our children, may we see the continued transformation of our culture. God, work in Your church, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Before we cut to one last song of worship, I want to encourage you with something very important from this text. We will be looking at this a lot more over the next weeks and months, but it is very important what we see there at the end of verse 10: these words were to be taught to the children of the children of Israel. It was the moms and dads, the grandmas and grandpas, and the great grandmas and grandpas who were to teach the kids the truths and principles of Scripture.

That is the calling that God has for you. If you are a mom or a dad, a grandma or a grandpa, or even if you are an aunt or an uncle, God wants you to be ministering the truth of Scripture to your kids. Starting today, July 5th, we are beginning a new program here at Cross-Connection Church called the New City Catechism. This is for the parents of our church to begin to disciple their kids.

This is really an answer to a problem that we've been faced with. As we're not gathering together here on Sunday mornings and we don't have our children's ministry going on, this has been a real burden for me as the pastor of the church and for our leadership. We have been praying about how to deal with this problem going forward, but also to equip you, moms and dads, even after we are gathered together again on Sunday mornings.

We want to encourage you to begin to be involved in the discipleship of your children as they grow. This is exactly what the Bible says, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. We will see it very clearly when we get to Deuteronomy chapter 6. We will see it again, as we have talked about many times, in Ephesians chapter 6, where we are told that parents are to train up their children, as the Psalms and the Proverbs instruct us, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord from the Scriptures.

We want to invite you, moms and dads, to register for the New City Catechism. It is completely free. You can go to our website, newcitylifeinconnection.com, and register there. We are starting this program today, and we hope and pray that this will be a great blessing to you and your family. So please take a moment and go check it out.

Your hidden glory in creation now revealed in You, our Christ. What a beautiful name! Nothing compares to this beautiful name.

The wonderful night is here. What a beautiful occasion!

God, we thank You for Your continued grace upon Your church, and we ask that You would pour it out in abundance so that it would overflow from our lives to others. Help us today and in this week to be a conduit of Your love and Your grace to other people, and shine brightly through Your church in a way that we really would, as we were considering in Deuteronomy today, provoke people to jealousy. Even though that may sound weird to us, that's exactly what the Scriptures say in Deuteronomy, and then Paul quotes it again in Romans. You want to use our lives to stir other people to come to You, so do that work in and through Your church, we pray.

Enable Your church by Your Spirit to be witnesses of You in our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth, we pray in Jesus' name.

And now may the Lord bless 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.