Final Words: Honoring God

The Book of Deuteronomy is the epic conclusion to the Torah, and spoiler alert, at the end Moses dies. He sees the Promised Land from the summit of Mount Pisgah, but he’s not allowed to enter because at a place called Meribah, Moses disobeyed God, robbing God of His glory. Lesson: God takes His own glory seriously.

The Book of Deuteronomy consists of three sermons Moses preached to the Hebrews just before they entered the Land of Canaan. It’s why I’ve entitled this short series Final Words. The first sermon is found in chapters 1-11. Much of it is a history lesson with Moses reviewing the highlights of the Lord’s dealings with Israel after he established a covenant with them at Mount Horeb. The congregation of Israel Moses now addresses were children when their parents made the fateful decision to believe the minority report of the Hebrew spies sent to reconnoiter the land. Due to their lack of faith they were forced to wander forty years. Moses now recounts the last forty-one years to a generation who are unfamiliar with their history. He summarizes the nation’s successes and failures en route to the Promised Land. The climax of this first sermon is Deuteronomy 6 4-9; “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4–9, NIV84). It’s called the Shema and is Israel’s fundamental confession of faith. It was repeated twice a day, and emphasized Israel’s exclusive commitment to their God — the One, true God.

After presenting the historical sketch, Moses reminded the new generation of Israelites of their special privileges as recipients of God’s grace through His covenant with them. He encourages the people to honor the Lord by carefully following the statutes and ordinances God had revealed to them. They must also pass these teachings on to the succeeding generations.

In this passage we see the three-fold pattern that honors God ...

Listening to God’s Word

Obeying God’s Word

Teaching God’s Word

I. LISTENING TO GOD’S WORD

1. Moses now urges the Israelites to live according to God’s law

“ “And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.” (Deuteronomy 4:1, ESV)

a. Moses moves from history to exhortation, urging Israel to perform the law he is about to explain

b. the sermon shifts from memory of the past to encouragement for the future

A. LISTENING TO GOD IS THE PREREQUISITE FOR HONORING GOD

1. And now ... listen points the people forward to everything Moses is about to say

a. the word listen — literally harken — means more than auditory perception

b. it means to put into practice the words that are being said

ILLUS. Every parent here this morning knows the difference between hearing and harkening when speaking to your children. The “auditory perception” is there, but their “listening” is dulled — especially if their attention is focused on the T.V., the X-box, or their iPhone. You might as well be speaking to the proverbial brick wall.

2. Moses intends for new generation of Hebrews to obey the Lord’s teachings, but first they must hear and understand them

a. beginning in chapter 5, Moses is going to begin teaching them God’s statutes and judgments

1) God’s statutes refers to all the ordinances and commands respecting their religious practices and the acts of divine worship

a) God demands to be worshiped rightly — not as Israel’s Canaanite neighbors worship, with their multiplicity of gods, superstitious practices, and child sacrifices

2) God’s judgments refers to all the laws of how to live with one’s family, and neighbor, and even the stranger in their midst

b. taken together, God statutes and decrees embrace the totality of Israelite life

1) every part of their life is guided by listening to what God says and obeying what they hear

3. these statutes and judgments were summed up in Israel’s confession of faith

“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:5, ESV)

a. and in Leviticus 19:18 Moses adds, “Oh, and love your neighbor as yourself”

b. Israel’s faith and practice was not to be expressed in an outward legalism only, but in a full-orbed love-relationship with God that fleshed out His statutes and laws because they lead to abundant life

c. for Israel, that abundant life includes the land the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you

B. LISTENING TO GOD MUST AVOID THE BLUNDERS OF HUMAN PERCEPTION

“You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.” (Deuteronomy 4:2, ESV)

1. since the Fall men have had a propensity to either make God say what He hasn’t said or to make God mute where He has clearly spoken

ILLUS. We see an example of this in Eve’s conversation with the serpent in the Garden. There was one particular tree in Eden that God had commanded Adam and Eve not to eat its fruit — the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The warning was clear; “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”” (Genesis 2:17, ESV). God is concise and clear. But in her conversation with the serpent, Eve adds, “ ... and you must not touch it.”

2. here is Eve putting words in God’s mouth that God never said

a. now, in Eve’s defense, she may have been making a reasonable assumption — if you don’t touch it, you’ll never eat it

1) still, she has God saying something He never said

b. ever since, we’ve been either adding to or subtracting from God’s Word

3. religious people have the tendency to add to God’s Word

a. the word for this is legalism, and is something the Rabbis of Israel were notoriously good at

ILLUS. We see this especially in the commandment to Remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy.” Well that begs the question ... how do you keep the Sabbath holy? So the Rabbis put their minds to it and came up with all kinds of activities that were considered unholy and to be refrained from. There were 39 activities that were forbidden, including carrying, traveling more than two-thirds of a mile, tying a knot, or untying a knot. To this day, Shabbat Laws in Jewish communities are complex and even overwhelming. Activities that are forbidden include; writing, erasing, and tearing; business transactions; driving or riding in cars or other vehicles; shopping; using the telephone; turning on or off anything that uses electricity, including lights, radios, televisions, computers, air-conditioners and alarm clocks; cooking, baking or kindling a fire; gardening and grass-mowing; and doing laundry.

b. and of course conservative churches can also be guilty of legalism

ILLUS. A popular 11th Commandment of Baptists says, Thou shalt not drink, and thou shalt not chew, and thou shalt not date girls who do.

4. non-religious people have a tendency to subtract from God’s Word

a. the word for this is antinomianism (literally, against law)

ILLUS. Among non-religious people, anything the Scriptures have to say about sex, and sexual purity, gender and gender roles, and marriage and divorce is considered an antiquated ethic, and can simply be ignored.

b. unfortunately, moral and theological revolutionaries are found everywhere — including the Church

1) they deny that God says what He means, and means what He says

c. Western culture ignores God’s Biblical injunctions to their detriment

5. we need to be careful hearers of what God says

a. Jesus told his disciples, “Take care then how you hear, ... .”” (Luke 8:18, ESV)

C. LISTENING TO GOD LEARNS THE LESSONS FROM THOSE WHO DIDN’T

1. Moses reminds this generation of Israelites that there are consequences to not listening to and obeying God’s Word

“Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal-peor, for the LORD your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor [BAY uhl-PEE awr]. 4 But you who held fast to the LORD your God are all alive today.” (Deuteronomy 4:3–4, ESV)

a. many among this generation of Israelites where old enough to remember what happened to their parents when the nation came into the land of the Moabites

ILLUS. The story is found in the 25th chapter of the Book of Numbers. King Balaak of Moab had hired the prophet Balaam to come and curse Israel. Balaam, however, was unable to curse Israel because the Lord would not allow him to do so. As a matter of fact, every time Balaam tried to curse Israel, God would bless them instead. Balaak, in desperation makes a final plea to Balaam as to what to do. Balaam tells the King to encourage the young women of Moab to flirt with, seduce and marry the young men of Israel, who will then turn to the gods of their Moabite wives. It almost worked! Numbers 25:9 says, “So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them.” As a judgment against the Israelites’ sin, God sent a plague among the people.

b. only the devotion of a man named Phinehas, son of Eleazar the High Priest, prevented Israel’s total apostasy

2. Moses called attention to this incident to remind the people that only those who remained faithful to the Lord by harkening to His Word were worthy to enter the Promised Land

... God’s People Need to Listen to God’s Word and There Are Consequences When we Don’t

II. OBEYING GOD’S WORD

“Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?” (Deuteronomy 4:6–7, ESV)

1. here it is ... we honor God, by honoring God’s Word

a. the Hebrews were to carefully follow the Words of the Lord

2. Israel is to carefully keep the statutes and decrees of God as a witness to the idolatrous nations around them

a. the Lord had not chosen the Israelites so they alone could be His people

1) with great privilege comes great responsibility

2) part of Israel’s responsibility included their role as a witness of God’s greatness to the nations

b. in the very beginning, when God chose Abraham, promising to make his descendants into a great nation, God declared that those descendants would be a blessing to the rest of the world

“I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”” (Genesis 12:3, ESV)

3. the Prophet Jeremiah predicted that a day is coming when all the nations of the world will honor God’s Word as true, and they will worship the One true God

“O LORD, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit. 20 Can man make for himself gods? Such are not gods!” 21 “Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the LORD.”” (Jeremiah 16:19–21, ESV)

a. in other words, the pagan are to look at Israel and confess, “How could we have been so blind to the truth. Yahweh is Lord!”

A. GOD’S PEOPLE MUST LIVE IN A WAY THAT REVEALS GOD’S WAYS ARE BEST

1. if the Scriptures are God-given, and if the Scriptures are authoritative, then we have no grounds for negotiation, all we can do is submit to Biblical truth, and understand that it is God’s perfect will

a. Israel was not to speculate about God’s decrees or debate God’s laws, but to follow them with a whole heart

2. if they will keep God’s decrees and laws they will be wisdom and understanding for the people

a. God’s moral and ethical principles are so distinctive, that living by them will lead to human flourishing

b. the Hebrew word wisdom in this verse represents a way of thinking and an attitude toward life that involves God in every part of one’s life

1) today, we sum that up in one word — worldview

a) a worldview is a collection of attitudes, values, beliefs and expectations about the world around us, which inform our every thought and action

2) Moses is encouraging the Israelites to have a God-centered worldview that originates in God’s Word

c. a God-centered worldview will instruct the Israelites in civic responsibility, sexual relationships, moral reasoning, and religious rites

3. by doing this, the Hebrews would honor God in every aspect of life

a. God still expects His people to apply His wisdom and understanding in their daily living

B. ISRAEL’S GODLINESS WAS TO BE A LIGHT TO THE WORLD

1. Moses tells them, “ ... the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

a. if God’s people will live righteous lives — lives that follow His decrees and laws — then the idolatrous nations around Israel will see a nation flourishing and conclude, “There must be something to Israel’s God!”

2. the deities the Canaanite revered were remote and inaccessible

a. the remoteness of their gods contrasted greatly with Yahweh’s nearness

1) this nearness was especially reflected in God’s hearing and answering the prayers of His people

2) there was also the visual nearness of God in the Shekinah glory that stood over the Tabernacle wherever the people brought it

3. one of the great truths about Yahweh is that He is both transcendent over and immanent in the world He created

a. as transcendent, He is exalted above and over His creation

1) King Solomon understood this

““But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27, ESV)

b. as immanent, the Lord is present and involved in His world, and in our lives

1) King David understood this

“O LORD, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. 5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. 7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” (Psalm 139:1–10, ESV)

a) no Babylonian author writes this about Ishtar, Tiamat, or Marduk

b) no Egyptian priest writes this about Anubis, Osiris, or Horus

c) no Canaanite theologian writes this about Baal, Dagan, or Molech

c. in the Book of Exodus we read “When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses. 10 And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. 11 Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. ... .” (Exodus 33:9–11, ESV)

4. none other religions in the history of the world have claimed such intimacy with their god or gods

a. only Judaism, and later Christianity in the incarnation of the 2nd person of the Trinity — Christ the Lord — worships a God who is unfathomable, but knowable

... God’s People Honor Him Through Their Obedience to Him

III. TEACHING GOD’S WORD

“And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? 9 “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children—” (Deuteronomy 4:8–9, ESV)

1. a nation is not great because of the number of its people or the extent of its territory, but because its foundation is the very Word of God

a. Moses compares the statutes and decrees God has given Israel to the nations surrounding Israel

1) he asks rhetorically which of them has rules so righteous as do we?

2) the answer, of course, is none

b. no other nation possessed such God-centered legislation

1) through His decrees and laws God demonstrated His interest in all aspects of human life

2) God delights in the worship and sacrifices of His people

3) but God also delights in being involved in the daily decisions and activities of His people

2. the great danger is that this generation of Israelites would somehow fail to pass on their experience with God, and knowledge of God’s ways to succeeding generations of Hebrews

A. FORGETFULNESS IS THE GREAT ENEMY OF FAITHFULNESS

1. the forgetfulness of which Moses speaks is not primarily a problem of mental alertness, but of spiritual laxity

a. once they had settled into the land, Israel began a large-scale defection to the idolatry of the Canaanites

b. this happened because they had forgotten Yahweh’s name — He had simply receded from their consciousness

1) the word forget in vs. 9 means an intentional forgetfulness — literally to ignore

a) even for Christians today, there is the temptation, and the tendency to ignore God when life is going well, when it’s smooth sailing, and everything is hunky-dory

2) in time, the Israelites became so distracted by the passing pleasures of life, that they barely gave God a thought

2. notice the spiritual digression Moses outlines ...

a. if you don’t diligently watch over your soul, then the things you’ve witnessed with your own eyes will begin to fade from memory, and once the memories have faded, your heart will become jaded — perhaps for the rest of your life

b. therefore the command is to keep the soul — to watch over your soul as a shepherd would watch over his sheep lest a predator attack scattering and killing

B. FAITHFULNESS REQUIRES SPIRITUAL DILIGENCE

1. only as the people remembered their past experiences with the Lord and the covenant obligations they had accepted at Mount Horeb could they remain faithful to God

a. Godly living is a process that requires daily renewal

b. one of the ways we renew our faith is by teaching our faith to others — especially our children

2. God wants to preserve and prosper Israel, and that can only happen if they keep God at the center of their lives, and the center of their culture, and that they pass their experience with God, and knowledge of God’s ways to succeeding generations of Hebrews

... We Honor God by Teaching the next Generation about God (bless those of you teaching our children and teenagers)

IV. LESSONS AND APPLICATION

1. I hope that some of the application has been obvious as we’ve worked our way through the passage

A. GOD’S WORD REMAINS OUR SOURCE FOR FAITH AND PRACTICE

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16–17, ESV)

1. we must hide God’s word in our hearts so we don’t sin against him

2. through the Scriptures we get to know God’s character, His mind, and His heart

a. and the world most clearly knows God through Christ, the Lord

“but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. ... .” (Hebrews 1:2-3, ESV)

B. OBEYING GOD IS A MATTER OF THE HEART

1. in this passage, Moses indicates three things that endanger the faith

a. 1st, God’s people can forget what God has done, said, and given to Israel

b. 2nd, God’s people can forsake what they have heard; they can lose heart and not care for these things anymore

c. 3rd, God’s people can fail to pass the word of the covenant on to the next generation, so that the children of the covenant miss it

2. in Israel’s history, all three of these things occurred

a. while the new covenant comes with the power of the Holy Spirit these three dangers remain for Christians

1) if we do not renew our minds with God’s word, we will continue to think like the world

a) such thinking leads to affections for the idols of the world

2) likewise, without the word of God changing our hearts, we can give ourselves to various idols, so that it becomes difficult to remember or rejoice in the truths of God

3) when this happens the people of God lose their power, and when such power is lost, the ensuing generations are also jeopardized

C. WE NEED TO TEACH THE FAITH TO OTHERS

ILLUS. The author of Let Others See Jesus in You is B. B. McKinney. He was one of the most prolific hymn writers of his day. Fifteen of his works are found in our hymnal. He taught and led mu sic all over the Southern Baptist Convention, and would regularly tell congregations, “Be sure you mean the words you sing.” The third stanza of Let Others See Jesus in You tells us ...

Your life's a book before their eyes,

They're reading it through and through;

Say, does it point them to the skies,

Do others see Jesus in you?

Let others see Jesus in you,

Let others see Jesus in you;

Keep telling the story, be faithful and true,

Let others see Jesus in you.

1. teaching is always necessary for the people of God

a. the Christian faith is endangered by forgetting the Word, forsaking the Word, or failing to pass on the Word

2. we must teach the Word formally, in the Sunday School class room and from the pulpit

a. but we must also teach it though our lives, because the Christian faith is as much caught as it is taught

b. and if others are going to catch the faith from us, we’d better have a good case of it!

Truly, we can give thanks for the greater grace of the new covenant. But we must learn from the Old Testament. If we do not renew our minds and let the word of God wash our hearts, we too can stray. Worse, the children growing up in our homes, not seeing the power of God, can give themselves to others gods, because for them the truths of the gospel are words without power.

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