Revering the Word
Deuteronomy 4 The blessing and favor in revering the Word.
Good morning, everyone. This morning we're going to be in Deuteronomy 4, and it is a tremendous chapter. And this chapter, and so many like it to come, are what I love so much about the Book of Deuteronomy. Remember, they are about to enter the Promised Land, and God is giving Moses and Israel instructions, so that when the Israelites would enter the Promised Land, that they would be honoring to God when they got there. And here we have it, an amazing chapter, verse 1, "Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments, which I am teaching you to perform, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land, which the Lord God of your fathers has given you. You shall not add to the word which I am commanded you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandment of the Lord your God which I command you. Hallelujah." What we're seeing in chapter 4 here is an honor and reverence for the Word of God, and He is saying to them, "Do not forget the words that I have instructed you. Honor me. Honor my word when you get into the Promised Land." Now, I want to make sure that we understand today that, you know, when Jesus was being tempted by the devil at the beginning of His ministry, He said, "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." And He quoted Deuteronomy chapter 8, I think it's verse 3, if I recall correctly, when the devil was trying to get something, he was trying to twist God's Word and get Jesus to follow an incorrect interpretation of the Word of God. And Jesus is like, "No, I need to live and breathe and have my being on God's Word." And it's so important. Now, it hasn't changed, you know, like in this way. The significance of us living to honor the Word that God's instructed us is there today. It's something that God desires us to do today as believers, is to obey Him, to follow Him, to honor, treasure, revere the guidance that He's given us. Now, what we do need to do today is understand how to rightly divide the Word of God today, because we live in a new covenant, we have a new agreement with God. Not everything that was spoken in the Old Testament is something that is binding today. It's still our foundation, it's still something we should learn and know, but we have to understand how the New Testament wants us to apply the Old Testament law today. In some cases, Jesus has made it even more beautiful and even maybe more difficult. You know, we're, as the Old Testament, it said, "Do not murder your brother or do not murder Jesus "so don't even be angry." The Old Testament said, "Don't commit adultery." The New Testament says, "Don't even lust after another woman." So in some cases, God has given us a more bold command to follow, and we should seek to follow it, and thank God we have a Savior who's forgiven us and made us right even though we at times still struggle with sin, but that's not an excuse to not obey God's Word. It's just a reminder that sometimes we fail, and now let's repent and get back on track and following Him. What I'm trying to say though is this guidance, let me read to you verse two, "You shall not add to the Word which I am commanded, "you nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you." We are still supposed to honor the Word of God today, Hallelujah. Verse three, "Your eyes have seen what the Lord has done in the case of Baal-Pior, "for all the men who followed Baal-Pior, the Lord your God has destroyed them from among you." And we saw that in the book of Numbers, the sin of Baal-Pior, and then it says this, "But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you." Now this interesting story, I have a really good friend who at times lead worship, and you know, so mature, handled it so well, but there's a song in it. It's called "Hold Fast," and it's a fantastic song, and it's about how God holds fast to us. And I believe the song is true, that God does hold fast to us. We were reading in Bible study with the men yesterday from Philippians 1-6, and it said, "I'm not going to turn there," but it said something to the effect that "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion." So, you know, when we started our journey with Christ, He's going to help us bring that to completion. But I commented to my good friend regarding the song, because the song was all about God holding fast to us, and I looked at the Scriptures, and I already knew, but I just reviewed it again, and nearly every time, old and New Testament, when the Bible talks about holding fast, it talks about us holding fast to Him. That doesn't mean He doesn't hold fast to us, but I just want to make sure that we, as believers, don't see the responsibility that we have to remain in, to abide, and to hold fast to our God. And what it said in verse 4 is, "But you who held fast to the Lord, you who held fast to the Lord your God, are alive today, every one of you." And that's going to come up a bunch in this book and in this chapter. See, I have taught you verse 5, "Statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land which you are entering to possess it." And, you know, sometimes this is when I get sad, you know, I believe in predestination, I believe in election. But sometimes we can get so stuck in a reformed predestination election view, and we think what we do doesn't matter at all. And that's just not the message of the Bible, old and New Testaments. Yes, we're saved by faith in Jesus Christ, but it does matter what we do. And we want our tree to have good fruit, and we want to obey. And we want to show, as James said, our faith by what we do. And this is going to echo that strongly. Verse 5 again, "See, I taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them, or do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it." Listen, I saved you out of Egypt, I've provided for you in the desert, I'm going to give you victory in the promised land, but when you get there, I want you to obey me. God has a right to say that. So, keep, listen, verse 6, "So keep and do them, do the instructions that God has given us, for that is your wisdom and your understanding, not just to believe. Now, yeah, we're saved by faith, but that's not all that God wants us to do. He wants us to keep and do what God has commanded us to do. For that is your wisdom and your understanding and the sight of the peoples, who will hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is wise in understanding people. For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it, as is the Lord our God, whenever we call him, he was with them, he was with them in the tabernacle, you heard their prayers, Hallelujah, or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law, which I am setting before you today, and the law was good and right and it did show them their sin, but God wanted them to obey. Now, listen to what it says, verse 9, this is a tremendous verse. Only give heed or keep or guard to yourself and keep your soul diligently so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and that they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life, but make them known to your sons and your grandsons. Oh, not only keep and guard and do them, but make them known to the next generation. Some of the words there, you know, it's used twice to guard, to keep, to watch, and then it says, keep your soul, keep your inner being, your soul yourself, and then it says diligently, exceedingly, mightily, forcefully, keep it, Hallelujah. Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Whore of? When the Lord said to me, now he's going to recall some past history of their wanderings in the desert, assemble the people to me that I might let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children, and that's why the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The reverence for God's Word is so important to our lives. This echoes what I've been teaching our church and what I've been teaching on this podcast to revere the Word. This is why it's called Revere in the Word. You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, verse 11, and the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens, darkness, cloud, and thick gloom. Then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire, and you heard the sound of the words, but you saw no form only a voice. So we declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform. Isn't that something? We want to get away so much from what we do, and it's like, you know, He not only gave you the Word to believe, not only gave you the Word to know, but He gave you the Word to perform to do. That is the Ten Commandments. He wrote them on two tablets of stone. The Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments that you might perform them in the land where you are going over to possess it. So watch yourselves, or keep yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you at home from the midst of the fire, so that you do not act corruptly and make a graven image for yourself. Oh, He does not want us to make false idols or worship anything with Him alone. In the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below. Don't make an idol of anything else, but worship the Lord your God. And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars and all the hosts of heaven and be drawn away and worship them. Listen, worship God the one who created it all, but don't worship the creation, worship God in Him alone. And be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace from Egypt to be a people for His own possession as today. God has done this all for you, now honor Him. Now the Lord is angry with me on your account and swore that I would not cross the Jordan and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God has given you as an inheritance. And we've talked about that in the previous chapter. Moses wasn't going to get to go nor that first generation that left Egypt for their unfaithfulness. For I will die in this land. I shall not cross the Jordan, but you shall cross and take possession of this good land. So watch yourselves. He's not going to be there to remind them anymore. And he's trying to give them this doodle rod of meat reminder now that they do not forget. So watch yourselves that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you. And make for yourself a graven image in the form of anything against her to Lord your God has commanded you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. Don't put God to the test. Don't worship anything but Him. When you become the fathers of children and children's children and have remained long in the land and they're going to get victory through David and through Solomon, but what's going to happen? Well, God already knows and Moses already knows what's going to happen with the people. And act corruptly and make an idol in the form of anything and do which is evil in the midst of the Lord your God. So as to provoke Him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will surely perish quickly from the land where you're going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not live long in it but you will be utterly destroyed and sadly Solomon had many wives, many concubines, his children divided the Israel. They were at war against each other. They worshiped false gods. They worshiped all false altars and ultimately they were destroyed. And ultimately they did lose their land but God has not forgotten his promise. Israel has been restored to most of its land today and one day God is going to have all of it again when he returns. The Lord will scatter you among the people. See God already knew what was going to happen and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you. See and they were driven out of the land eventually. It's amazing how God knows everything beforehand. Therefore you will serve God's the work of man's hands, wood and stone which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and your soul. And man God is gracious and merciful and despite their awareness if you just but seek God you will find Him. And what a word that is today. If you just but seek God you'd find Him hallelujah. When you were in distress and all these things have come upon you in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God. And listen to his voice for the Lord your God is compassionate God. He will not fail you'll nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which he swore to them. And God is faithful. There are seasons where they pay for consequences of their sin and waywardness but God still is going to get done what he said. And he's brought back the land now and one day he will bring it in more fullness. Indeed ask now concerning the former days which were before you since the day that God created man on the earth and inquire from one end of the heavens to other. Has anything been done like this great thing or has anything been heard like it? Has anyone been a nation and been in slavery in Egypt and through a miraculous hand in ten plagues and the Passover and the parting of the sea brought you and done for you? Brought manna from the sky and quail has water from the rock. Has anything been done like this? Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from their midst as he spoke from the mountain on Mount Sinai? Has anyone had a God who resided in the tabernacle like he did with Israel? From the midst of the fire as you have heard it and survived. Or has a God tried to go take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and great tears as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes. Don't forget what God has done. Trust him in the future. To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord he is God. There is no other besides him. There is no other beside him church. Out of the heavens he let you hear his voice to discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire and you heard his words from the midst of the fire because he loved your fathers therefore he chose their descendants after them. And he personally brought you from Egypt by his great power driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you to bring you in and to give you their land as an inheritance as it is today. Know therefore today and take it to your heart that the Lord he is God and heaven above and on earth below and there is no other hallelujah. So you shall keep his statutes and his commandments which I am giving you today that it may go well with you. All the Lord wants it to go well and by obeying and honoring and revering the word our lives will go better than they would otherwise that it may go well with you. You're going to see that phrase throughout the book of Deuteronomy. I love it. Hallelujah. God gets favored to those who love and obey him. That it may go well with you and with your children after you and that you may live long on the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time. Then Moses set apart three cities across the Jordan to the east that a man slayer might flee there who unintentionally slew his neighbor without having enmity toward him in time past and by fleeing to one of these cities he might live. It's kind of an abrupt change here but Moses made places for people to go where if someone died accidentally and someone was maybe then challenged to say well you must have killed them and they're like no well you could flee to this city and not be harmed. And these cities might live in berser in the wilderness on the plateau of the ruminites and Ramoth and Gilead for the Gadites and Golan in Bishan for the Manasites. Now this is the law which Moses set before the sons of Israel. These are the testimonies and statutes and the ordinance which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel when they came out of Egypt across the Jordan in the valley opposite of Beth Beor in the land of Sihan king of the Amorites who lived at Heshpon, who Moses and the sons of Israel defeated when they came out from Egypt. They took possession of this land and the land of the king of Bishan, the two kings of the Amorites who were across the Jordan to the east and Eor which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon even as far as Mount Zion that is Herman. With all their Arabah across the Jordan to the east even as far as the sea of Arabah at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah which Moses was able to go up to see the promised land. So we end with just remembering some of the land and the victories that they had but I tell you this was a tremendous chapter about honoring and revering God's guidance to keep and watch carefully and to do and to perform. What God has instructed and I am thankful church that is not the only time we will celebrate words as glorious as these as we go through this great book. And we get this great reminder that oh when you get to the land please obey me that it may go well with you and I believe that's still true today that when you seek to not only know not only believe but seek to obey and honor and revere that guidance that God has given you it is going to go well with you. Oh keep your faith church and live out your faith before the Lord and you will have favor from him. God bless you all.