With Your Heart

Live & Love Like The Lord Is Always Near

9.1.24 [Deuteronomy 4:1-10] River of Life (15th Sunday after Pentecost)

Imagine you’re enjoying a cup of coffee on the patio of your favorite shop. For almost an hour, you watch a young lady implores people to sign her petition. Eventually, she sits down at the table next to you and reads the signatures. Name after name is clearly fake. She sighs with a deep frustration you can feel and crumples up the pages and tosses them near the trash can. Near, but not in. As you finish your cup of coffee, you walk over to that trash can and pick it up. You unfold it a little bit and read the heading: Prevent the Climate Catastrophe.

What would you think of her cause? That might be dictated by your presuppositions. If you shared her views, you might dismiss her behavior as a gaffe. You might be sympathetic to her frustration. But if you disagree, you’ll dismiss her cause. Why? Does her behavior really change the validity of her view? It shouldn’t, but it does.

Whether that’s fair or not is not really the point. It’s the reality of the situation and one we need to recognize. Why you may ask? Well, think about what we pray in the 1st petition of the Lord’s Prayer: Hallowed be your name. This petition is much like the petition of that young lady. It’s something important that we want to happen. But just like that young lady, our behavior impacts how others see it.

Our prayers do not make God’s name holy. God’s name already is holy because the LORD is righteous, without beginning or end. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, & all-present. Nothing we do changes any of that. But we are praying that God’s name might be regarded as holy on earth. How do we do this? When God’s Word directs our doctrine and God’s Word governs our lives. Israel is a cautionary tale about how quickly and easily God’s people profane the Lord’s name.

When Moses came to bring Israel out of Egypt they were excited. They Ex 4:31 believed & worshiped the Lord. But when Pharaoh retaliated by refusing to provide straw for their brick making and not reducing their Ex 5:8 quota, they blamed Moses. Ex 5:21 You’ve made us obnoxious to Pharaoh. It’s amazing how hardship can make people turn on God. Praise him one moment. Blame him the next.

When Moses went up to Mt. Sinai for the 10 commandments, Israel promised obedience but fell into idolatry. Before long they were worshipping a golden calf, claiming it delivered them from slavery in Egypt. They’d Ex 32:25 become a laughingstock to their enemies.

Even when God brought them back to the Promised Land again, they did no better. On the threshold of the Promised Land, the Israelites fell into idolatry, worshipping Num. 21 Baal of Peor. The men had sex with Moabite women and bowed down to their god, Baal. Despite all the Lord had done for them, Israel cheated on God on their honeymoon.

Moses reviewed all this history because he wanted to make sure the people didn’t forget 2 things. 1) They didn’t deserve the Lord’s love and faithfulness. 2) God is loving and faithful to his promises because the Lord is holy and righteous. God remained near them. Unfortunately, sinners see God’s love & faithfulness as something to be exploited rather than esteemed.

Just like Israel, our sinful pride and our tolerance of sin dishonor the name of the Lord our God. Our sinful pride tells us we know better than God and we add to God’s commands. Sometimes, Christians act as if what they don’t do is what defines them. No drinking. No dancing. No gambling. God warns against abuses, but forbids none of these things. But groups of people practice strict denial because they think what they don’t do is what makes them a good Christian.

We create policies about how many times we will forgive a person. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. We develop unspoken guidelines about what kind of people we will be associated with or friends with. We label people according to their weaknesses and discard them. He’s a thief. She’s a felon. He’s gay. She’s a home wrecker. They’re a toxic group. Instead of seeing these as battles against sin that these people need our help with, we think of them as red flags. We treat them as roadblocks & pride ourselves for not being like or around those people. Our rules always have one common thread. They make me look better than I really am.

And the rules that don’t, we ignore. We find ways to justify it. Oh, those laws can’t apply here. In a perfect situation, sure, I would do that, but I’m trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Our world demands tolerance of all kinds of sinfulness. And it’s sad how quickly we become silent when the Lord tells us to speak up. Nearly all of us face this one struggle. There is someone in your life that is dishonoring God’s gift of marriage. They might be straight, they might be gay, but they are living in sin. But because they’re nice folks or they’re family, you don’t say anything. Eventually, we trim God’s demands. We tell ourselves: it’s not a big deal, so long as they get married eventually. It’s fine, so long as they’re really committed. If they’re not hurting anybody, what’s the harm?

Like Israel, we wander from God because we’re prideful or fearful. Dt. 4:9 We forget the things our eyes have seen in the Scriptures and in the Holy Spirit working in our lives. We let the Lord’s love for us fade from our hearts. And our children see how we add & subtract to God’s Word. They notice how arbitrary our standards are. How we pick pet peeves to harp on and choose to turn a blind eye to things that don’t rankle us. We’ve shown them that we’re not so wise, that we don’t really understand.

The Lord our God knew that about us. He knew that instruction and correction would never be enough to keep us close to him. Because we are sinful and sinful people always and only flee from a holy God. Sinful people think they can run and hide, much like Adam and Eve in Eden. But just as he did then, the Lord comes to us. Our holy, righteous God, loved the people who dragged his name through the mud so much that he made his dwelling among us.

Think about that. How do you treat people who trash you behind your back or claim you said things you never did? How do you deal with people who doubt everything you say and challenge your intentions? How do you handle people who attack your character? You strike them, right? Or you cut them out of your life entirely. That is what we deserved.

But instead, God confirms everything he ever told us about himself. He is wise & powerful. He is loving & faithful. He is near!

We see that in his Son. Jesus Col. 2:9 is the fullness of our God in bodily form. And what did that fullness do? He loved sinners. He had compassion on lost sinners and yet courageously confronted their sinfulness. He didn’t give anyone preferential treatment. Whether you were a Pharisee adding to God’s laws or a pagan or tax collector who ignored God’s laws, he made it clear you were equally lost and loved. He wasn’t afraid that his association with any of them would ruin his reputation. But he also wasn’t afraid that his rebuking of them would ruin his relationship with them. He loved God’s law and he loved God’s creation. And he would not compromise one for the other. Because he came to satisfy the law’s righteous demands and to save the unrighteous.

Jesus’ character was attacked. Temple guards Mk. 14:65 blindfolded him & ridiculed the all-knowing Lord by sarcastically asking Mt. 26:68 Who hit you? Even as he was dying, people piled on. Mt. 27:39-40 Those who passed by hurled insults at him. “Come down from the cross if you are the Son of God!” The chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders mocked him in the same way. Mt. 27:42 He saved others but he can’t save himself. He trusts in God, let God rescue him now if he wants him. But Jesus refused. God sacrificed the holiness of his name, reputation, and his very self so that we might come to see his great righteousness, wisdom, and love. It is in his name we are saved. Acts 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.

It is the name of God that makes us holy. Jesus Christ is Tit. 2:11 the grace of God that has appeared offering salvation to all people. He gave Tit. 2:14 himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and purified us, transforming us to be a people who are his very own, eager to do what is good. It is him, the Righteous One of God, The One who embodies love in every way, who Tit. 2:12 teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. He shows us how to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age.

When God’s people live this way Tit. 2:10 then they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. Because the Christian faith is not first and foremost about what we do or what we do not do. It is about what Christ has already done for us. The salvation Jesus has achieved for us prompts us to see sin for what it is—temporal pleasure at a terrible cost. The righteousness that Christ has earned for us by faith prompts us to see the law of God for what it is—his wonderful way of keeping us close to him. Because we know the love of God in our Lord Jesus Christ, we want to live 2 Pt. 1:8 effectively and productively. Because we know the love of God in Christ, we want to love sinners as he loved them.

So love sinners enough to dine with them. But love them enough to be clear about God’s will. Love speaks clearly & directly. Call them to repentance and then encourage and support them in fleeing temptation.Love doesn’t rebuke and walk away, leaving the sinner to figure it out on their own. Love stays near, supporting them mentally, emotionally, and spiritually as they struggle with the wrecked that all wickedness brings. Love abides. This is how we hallow God’s name. May this be our first priority even as it was Christ’s. Hallowed be his name, in our hearts and minds, in our thoughts, words, and actions, on earth as it is in heaven, now and forevermore. Amen.