The Basis of Obedience | Sunday, October 4, 2020

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; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. (Deuteronomy 5:6–10)

Why does God's ancient law still command our obedience? Because before He gave it, He rescued us — and relationship is everything.

Taking Responsibility and Becoming a Parent

This last week, in one of the Coffee Time episodes, I shared about the importance of men taking responsibility in life. We need boys to grow up to be men who take responsibility, and one of the evidences of that is when a guy begins to check off the boxes of adulthood: finishing an education—whether academic, an apprenticeship, or a trade—getting a job, getting married, starting a family, and hopefully buying a home. That last one may prove more difficult for many in our day, but you understand the essence of what I'm saying.

The Apostle Paul said it like this: "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." One of the greatest evidences of a boy becoming a man and putting away childish things is when he becomes a father and takes responsibility for being a dad. As an aside, Pastor Garrett became a dad this last week—his wife Grace delivered a healthy baby girl—and fatherhood looks pretty good on him. Congratulations also to Christian and his wife Sierra, who had baby number three on Wednesday.

Establishing Rules and Values

When you become a dad, responsible to lead your sons and daughters, you have to establish what your rules and values are. This is an incredibly important time for a family, and it can be a real challenge, especially if you didn't have the best example in your own upbringing. One of the other things that becomes blatantly clear is the success or failure of those around you at doing the same.

Right around the time you become a parent—and especially in the year or so after your first child—you begin to pay particular attention to the parenting strategies, or lack thereof, of others around you. You intuitively rank the strengths and weaknesses of their approaches. It's almost impossible not to. People can become pretty passionate about their parenting, so you learn quickly that if you want to maintain friendships, you won't give your input about others' weaknesses—but in your mind, you do judge a little, if we're honest.

In a very short period of time you can begin to see whether a couple's approach to parenting is going to be productive or not. As we often say around Cross Connection, wisdom is justified by her children. Outcomes are important.

"Parent Your Kids"

But here's one of the unspoken rules of parenting for a lot of parents: I will parent my kids, and you need to parent yours. I'm not going to take it upon myself to parent your kids—they're not my kids. For those of you in my parents' generation, you think that's a weakness of my generation, because you remember a time when the neighbor would have no problem correcting a kid that wasn't theirs.

But understand: we no longer have a mostly cohesive core code of ethics and morality in our culture. Everything is relative and subjective in 21st-century America. When you grew up being parented by someone who wasn't your parent, there was more of a unified morality. That's not the case anymore. So the unwritten rule of 21st-century parenting is: parent your kids.

This becomes really clear when your kids are between the ages of 7 and 12—which happens to be the ages of my four kids. At that point your kids begin to say, "But so-and-so gets to do this, how come I don't?" And every parent knows the answer: because so-and-so is not my kid. You are.

The Basis of Obedience Is Relationship

What does any of this have to do with Deuteronomy? Way more than you might think, because the basis of obedience is relationship.

In our study, we have finally come to the actual statutes and judgments of God. I've been teasing you with this for months, but we are finally here. As we begin to talk about what are commonly referred to as the Ten Commandments, it is important to see deeply that the basis of obedience is relationship.

Why do I want to drive home that point? Because there are people who regard these statutes as unimportant, as nothing more than a 3,400-year-old moral code with no relevance for life in 2020. And if they are irrelevant in your mind, then it is likely that you have no relationship with God. God is speaking these statutes to His people.

God's Prior Relationship with Israel

Rewind 40 years before Deuteronomy 5, to the point that God was initially calling Israel to be His people. In Exodus 6 we read:

And God spoke to Moses and said to him: "I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name LORD I was not known to them... I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant. Therefore say to the children of Israel: 'I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm... I will take you as My people, and I will be your God...'" (Exodus 6:2–8)

Fast forward 40 years. Just as God promised to deliver Israel from bondage and bring them into their own promised land, He has done it. He is no longer just "the LORD," as He called Himself in Exodus 6:2. He is no longer just "God Almighty," as in Exodus 6:3. He is their God. He is the LORD that brought them out, that rescued them from their 400 years of bondage, the Redeemer who revealed His power by judging the Egyptians and rescuing Israel. He is their God, and they are His people.

God's Relationship Makes His Commands Relevant

So on the basis of all of that, He says, "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." God's prior relationship makes His present commands relevant.

If you remove verse 6 from the equation, the command in verse 7 is irrelevant. "You shall have no other gods before Me"—why not? Who are You? Why should I listen to anything You have to say? It doesn't fit; it doesn't connect. If I command one of your kids to do something and they're not my kid, I should expect them to say, "Who are you? You're not my dad." The command lacks power without relationship.

The relationship is everything. It provides the basis for the law and the expectation of obedience to it. God spoke to those He had redeemed and said, "I've saved you, I rescued you from bondage, and I'm going to give you a blessing in the promised land. Therefore, because of who I am and what I have done, you shall have no other gods before Me." He didn't say that to the general population of Canaan; He said it to His own people. These statutes and judgments are relevant only for those living in relationship with the God who gave them.

"If You Are Without Chastening"

So you may find these things unimportant or irrelevant—but that doesn't mean they are. It might just mean you don't know God as Redeemer and Rescuer, or as Father. To put it as the book of Hebrews does:

For whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. (Hebrews 12:6–8)

To get the full sense of the word "illegitimate," you should read it in the old King James—but I won't, because this is a family show.

As it relates to God's law, relationship is everything. God rescued Israel from Egypt because He is loving, gracious, merciful, and faithful to His covenants. Later, in Deuteronomy 7, we read:

But because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 7:8)

He rescued them before He gave them His law. Now He says, "I will be your God, and you will be My people, and you will enjoy My blessing in the promised land—if you remain in relationship with Me."

No Other Gods, No Idols — Because Nothing Compares

God says, "You shall have no other gods before Me," because He saved them. And "you shall not make any idols," because nothing else compares to Him. He alone is merciful, and He has an abundance of mercy for those who love Him and keep His commandments.

The commandments written here may seem irrelevant to you. Many non-Christians will say they're just the moral code of an ancient people in a place far, far away. And some Christians will think them equally irrelevant, saying, "I'm a New Testament believer; these things have nothing to do with me." But such views fail to recognize that the God who, according to His grace and mercy, redeemed and rescued Israel from Egypt 3,400 years ago is the same God who redeems and rescues us from our bondage to sin and death through Jesus's gracious and merciful act upon the cross.

God calls us out of bondage and out of sin to live in relationship with Him—a relationship animated by obedience to Him and His statutes. For while it is His grace that saves us, and not our obedience to the law, it is our obedience that proves we are His people. In Romans 1 we read, "Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations." By grace we are adopted as God's children, to live in obedience as His people.

An Invitation to Receive God's Grace

If you've never experienced the forgiving and saving grace of God, I want to give you an opportunity today to do so by turning to Jesus in repentance and faith. It's as simple as A, B, C. First, you admit that you are a sinner, that you've broken God's command and are not perfect and righteous before a holy God. Then you believe that Jesus died on the cross in your place to atone for your sins. And then you confess your sins to Him and commit your life to Him in faith.

The book of Romans, chapter 10, promises that if we confess Him as Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, then we receive His forgiveness, His grace, and His salvation. We will not be ashamed on the day we stand before a holy God, because we will be clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might receive the righteousness of God in Him.

If you'd like to do that today, would you bow your head and pray with me? Prayer is simply talking to God and trusting by faith that He hears you:

Dear Lord Jesus, I recognize that I am a sinner. I understand that there is no good work that I can do to undo and fix my sin, but I trust that You died in my place on the cross for my sins. I pray that You would come into my life, that You would forgive me of my sin, and that You would help me to follow You. By faith, in Jesus' name, amen.

If you prayed that today, I would very much like to know about it. We at Cross Connection Church would love to pray with and for you, and potentially send you a Bible if you don't have one. Just go to commit.lifeinconnection.com and fill out the form, and we'll be in touch.

Closing Prayer

Father, as we look at all the things going on in our world and in our nation right now, it is very clear that we need Your grace in a huge way. So God, I pray right now that You would move in a powerful way in and through Your church, nationwide and worldwide. Pour out an extra measure of Your grace, Your mercy, and Your peace. Fill us afresh and anew by Your Holy Spirit, and enable us, Your church, to be the light shining in a dark place. Just as You spoke about in the Sermon on the Mount, may people see our good works as Your people and be drawn to glorify You, our Father in heaven. Use Your church to be a preserving agent, as salt in this world, and as light to a people in darkness, because it is clear we are in desperate need of a move of Your Spirit in our time. So God, we pray for revival; we pray for You to do a work through Your church. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.