Requirements
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Deuteronomy 10:12–22 (KJV 1900)
12 And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, 13 To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good? 14 Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord’s thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. 15 Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: 18 He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. 19 Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. 20 Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name. 21 He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen. 22 Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.
I. Intro
A. Our life seems like it is filled with meeting certain requirements.
1. Before I could vote, I was required to be 18.
2. Before I could get my first real job, I was required to have a college degree.
3. Before I was married, I was required to take a blood test and get a marriage license.
4. Before I drive my car, I'm required to get a drivers license.
5. It seems like everywhere we turn we are required to meet certain demands before we can go on with life.
B. It's no different with God.
1. God has certain requirements that He places on us.
2. He originally gave these requirements to the Israelites who failed miserably.
3. God has not changed and He still places these requirements.
4. Read Deuteronomy 10:12-22.
II. What are God's Requirements? (vv. 12-13)
12 And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, 13 To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?
A. Fear the Lord your God.
1. Fear of the Lord begins when man realizes he is a sinner and God is holy.
2. Verse 17 says the Lord your God is God of gods.
17 For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:
3. It says He is Lord of Lords.
4. It says He is mighty and awesome.
5. It says He shows no partiality.
6. Verse 18 says He administers justice.
7. God requires that we see Him as He really is and fear Him.
8. Fearing God means that we respect Him, stand in awe of Him and see ourselves in proportion to Him.
9. Do you respect God?
10. Do you stand in awe of Him?
11. Do you see who you are compared to Him?
12. Do you meet this requirement of God?
B. Walk in His ways.
1. God's ways are not like the ways of the world.
2. God's ways don't always include fame and fortune.
3. God's ways are not chasing after the next new toy or climbing the ladder.
4. God's ways are not seeking after whatever feels good.
5. God's ways are not necessarily the easiest.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts:
And let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him;
And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are my ways higher than your ways,
And my thoughts than your thoughts.
7. Walking in God's ways means giving up (forsaking) the ways we are currently living.
8. Walking in God's ways means we give up being the center of our own little world.
9. Are you living your life without any regard to God's ways?
10. Is your world too small for God?
11. Do we meet this requirement of God?
C. Love Him.
1. God requires us to love Him.
2. Loving God is more than just saying the word love.
3. Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:18, NKJV)
18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
4. Loving God is living that love out in the world.
5. We are to love God so much that everybody around us knows that God is love.
6. Some love their girlfriends and their cars and their guns but they will know we love God.
7. Does your life reflect your love for God?
8. Are you in love with the Lord?
9. Do we meet this requirement of God?
D. Serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
1. This is where our lifestyle really comes into focus.
2. God requires us to serve Him with everything we are.
3. This is not serving the needs and wants of ourselves.
4. This is finding out and serving the requirements of God.
5. Are you serving God with everything you are today?
6. Are doing the things of God your number one priority today?
7. Do we meet this requirement of God?
E. Keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes.
1. God requires us to keep His commandments and laws.
2. God has decided what's best and we are to obey.
3. Looking back to Deuteronomy 5:6.
6 I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
4. Have you ever broken one of these commandments of God?
5. Do we meet this requirement of God?
III. God requires this of all people.
A. This is not the Gospel.
1. The word we translate gospel means good news.
2. The requirements of God are definitely not good news.
3. When we consider ourselves in light of meeting God's requirements, it doesn't look like good news.
B. No one can perfectly keep the requirements of God.
1. The bad news is that none of us can completely meet the requirements of God.
2. We can try all we want but we will never meet these requirements.
3. If we started today, it would be too late because we have already messed up.
4. God has issued these requirements and we can't keep them.
C. That leaves man and God divided.
1. There is a great gulf, a great division, between us and God.
2. Man cannot live up to God's standards.
3. God, because He is absolutely holy, cannot lower His standards.
4. Where does that leave us?
5. It leaves us as failures and sinners against God.
6. It leaves us without any way to reconcile to God.
7. We couldn't meet His requirements and He can't lower His requirements.
8. Man, including us, has absolutely failed to meet the demands of God.
IV. The Answer to our Absolute Failure is Jesus.
A. Jesus came to bring glory to His Father.
1. Jesus came to save us from our failure.
2. Jesus met and fulfilled absolutely every one of God's requirements.
3. And then He willingly died to pay our debt for failure.
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
B. God knows we can't meet His requirements.
1. We can't be saved by anything in us.
2. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
3. Faith in Jesus Christ frees us from the law.
4. God has wrapped up all His requirements in one person, Jesus Christ.
5. When we accept Jesus Christ by faith, our requirements are met in Him.
6. When we reject Jesus, who met God's requirements for us, we are taking on God's requirements on our own and we will fail.
7. Will you give up your failure and accept Jesus Christ?
8. Will you be saved by faith?