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, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 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 should anyone obey God's commands? Because relationship comes first—and it changes everything.

Becoming a Man and Taking Responsibility

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 evidence of that is when a young man begins to check off the boxes of adulthood: finishing an education—academic, apprenticeship, or trade—getting a job, getting married, starting a family, and hopefully buying a home. The last may be more difficult in our day, but you understand the essence of what I'm saying.

The Apostle Paul put 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 last Monday, and fatherhood looks pretty good on him. Congratulations also to Christian and his wife Sierra, who had baby number three on Wednesday.

Establishing the Rules of the House

When you become a dad and you are now responsible to lead your sons and daughters, you have to establish for your family what your rules and values are. This is an incredibly important time, and it can be a real challenge, especially if you didn't have the best example in your own upbringing.

One of the things that becomes blatantly clear when you and your spouse are establishing such rules and values is the success or failure of those around you at doing the same. Right after you have your first child, you begin to pay particular attention to the parenting strategies—or lack thereof—of others, and you intuitively grade the strengths or weaknesses of their approaches. It's almost impossible not to. People can become passionate about their parenting, so you learn rather quickly that if you want to maintain friendships, you keep your input to yourself. But in your mind, you do judge a little, if we're honest.

In a short period of time you can begin to see whether a couple's approach 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"

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 may 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 twenty-first-century America. When you were growing up, there was more of a unified morality. That's not the case anymore, so the unwritten rule today is, "Parent your kids."

This becomes really clear when your kids are between about seven and twelve—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?" or "So-and-so gets to watch 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? Far 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—what are commonly called the Ten Commandments. I've been teasing you with this for months. This last week I had a small group in my home for a watch party, and as the message started, it became clear I wasn't going to be talking about the commandments yet. Someone turned to me and said, "You mean you're not going to talk about the commandments?" But now we are.

As we begin to talk about these statutes and judgments, it is important to see deeply in our minds that the basis of obedience is relationship. Why drive that home? Because there are people who regard these statutes as unimportant—nothing more than a thirty-four-hundred-year-old moral code with no relevance for life in 2020. And if they seem irrelevant to you, it is likely that you have no relationship with God. God is speaking these statutes and judgments to His people.

What God Had Already Done

Rewind forty years 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 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 and with great judgments. I will take you as My people, and I will be your God...'"

Fast forward forty years. Just as God promised, He has delivered Israel from bondage and is bringing them into their own land. He has done what He said He would do. He is no longer just "the Lord" or "God Almighty"—He is their God. He is the One who brought them out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, the One who rescued them from four hundred years of bondage, the Redeemer who revealed His power by judging Egypt. He is their God, and they are His people.

"I Am the Lord Your God"

So now, 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.

Remove verse 6 from the equation, and 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 come to one of your kids and command them to do something, and they're not my kid, I should expect them to look at me and 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. God spoke to those He had redeemed and said, "I saved you, I rescued you from bondage, and I'm going to bless you in the promised land; therefore, because of who I am and what I have done, you shall have no other gods before Me."

Only Relevant to Those in Relationship

That's not to say God won't judge all people according to His law—but that's another study for another time. At this point we simply say that God's prior relationship in redeeming and rescuing Israel provided the basis for the relevance of His commands and His expectation of obedience. These statutes are relevant only for those living in relationship with the God who gave them.

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

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.

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

Rescued First, Then Given the Law

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.

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."

God says, "You shall have no other gods before Me," because I saved you—and "you shall not make any idols," because nothing else compares to Me. I alone am merciful, and I have abundance of mercy for those who love Me and keep My commandments.

The Same God Who Rescues Us

The commandments may seem irrelevant. Many non-Christians say they are just the moral code of an ancient people far away. Some Christians say, "I'm a New Testament believer; these 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 thirty-four hundred 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 sin to live in relationship with Him—a relationship animated by obedience to His statutes and judgments. 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 Grace

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

Romans 10 promises that if we confess Him as Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we receive His forgiveness, His grace, His salvation—and 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 that He hears you:

Dear Lord Jesus, I recognize that I am a sinner. I understand that there's no good work 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'd very much like to know about it. Go to commit.lifeandconnection.com and fill out the form, and we'll be in touch to pray with you and help you begin your walk with the Lord.

Closing Prayer

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