What Does God Require of Us "So now..."

Intro: We “can’t, won’t (last week), and don’t (vv.1f)”

Being told every week in a former job about all my mistakes and then told to stop making them and fix it all. Didn’t help me be better. Just made me feel terrible, and ashamed, and want to quit.

Moses had just delivered a convicting reminder of their failures, like worshiping golden calf, but not just that.

“so now…”

(Harstad) “So, now that you know that you have no inherent righteousness before Yahweh but that every blessing you have comes from his grace, forgiveness, and faithfulness…”

Luther, “The law can show you the way to go, but it can’t give your legs the strength to get there. Only God’s good news can do that.”

requiring/“asking” - this is a Gospel motivation (Harstad)

The verb “ask” in some contexts can mean ‘ask a favor of’ or even ‘beg.’ This is a winsome word from God to his beloved people. He is a God who really want Israel’s wholehearted response and who has done everything possible to elicit it eagerly and joyfully.

“My child, would you please…” - God our Heavenly Father

Fear the LORD your God (revere)

Keil, this kind of reverence “first enables us to comprehend the mercy of God, awakens love, the fruit of which is manifested in serving God with all the heart and all the soul.”

PBC, “First comes awe and respect for God, which arises from an awareness of our sin and guilt but which is relieved by the good news of forgiveness. Then we can love him in return. Then we can walk in God’s ways and serve him with a new heart and life, and an outgrowth of faith.”

John 15:5 (ESV)

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Walk in all his ways

serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul

to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good

1 John 5:3 ESV

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

Romans 12:1 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

“Behold… [He is worthy and deserving]

v.14, “Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth and all that is in it.”

“Yet...” [God loved us anyway] (v.15)

“...the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers...”

“...and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.”

“Therefore… [We should] (v.16)

“Circumcise the foreskin of your heart”

John Chrysostom, “Be ashamed when you sin, not when you repent.”

Leviticus 26:41 ESV

so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity,

Deuteronomy 30:6 (ESV)

And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

Jeremiah 4:1–4 (ESV)

“If you return, O Israel, declares the Lord, to me you should return. If you remove your detestable things from my presence, and do not waver, and if you swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.” For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.”

Charles Spurgeon, “Do not be proud of race, face, place, or grace”

Romans 2:28–29 (ESV)

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

Colossians 2:11–12 (ESV)

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

God can break apart a stone-hard heart and soften it to the seed of the Gospel of salvation.

“and be no longer stubborn”

Stiff-necked

like an ox

Or a donkey

“For… [Why? Because of who God is and what He does] (v.17)

“the LORD your God is…” transcendant

God of gods and Lord of lords,

Or “The Most High God” etc.

the great, the mighty, and the awesome God,

and the LORD your God is…” also immanent

who is not partial and takes no bribe.

Romans 2:11 ESV

For God shows no partiality.

He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow,

and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

Unlike men…

Harstad, “The story of man contains chapter after chapter of the rich exploiting the poor, the privileged taking advantage of the underprivileged, the big dominating the little, once ethnic group thinking of another as inferior, and the locals suspecting the strangely different immigrants. Our world knows power plays, partiality, and influence based on bribes. The natural way of humanity is not the way of God.”

Shown clearly in

The Cross of Christ

Death

Judgment

Therefore...

(v.19) “Love the sojourner (alien), therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”

Remember how you need love? How God loved you?

1 John 4:19–21 ESV

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

1 John 4:11 ESV

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

His grace transforms us into givers of grace.

(v.20) “You shall fear the LORD your God.

“You shall serve him and hold fast to him,

“and by His name you shall swear.”

Your new identity:

(v.21) “He is your praise.” [Why? see next]

He is your God,

“… who has done for you these great and terrifying things your eyes have seen.” [Miracles of redemption, deliverance, and victory!]

(v.22) “Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.” [He was gracious and remember HIs promise!]