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The power of memory.
How does God want us to study him?
How should we learn about God?
In order to answer that question, we must look to how God has revealed himself.
God has revealed himself in two ways.
The first we would call general revelation.
This is what Psalm 19:1 is talking about when it says
“The heavens declare the glory of God!”
The created world itself screams the knowledge of the Creator.
18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, 19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse.
But what does general revelation lack?
It lacks the ability to speak words to us.
To describe to us our desperate need.
To articulate the riches of the gospel, which is a spoken word.
“If it is God’s good pleasure to restore a sin-devastated creation, and to re-create man after his own image and cause him to live once more in the eternal blessedness of heaven, then a special revelation is necessary.” - Bavinck
Special Revelation
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
At a simple level this is why reading your Bible is so important.
It’s why having a church that is centered around the WORD of God is so important.
“The first verse of the epistle to the Hebrews comprises the whole revelation of God, both of the old and of the New Testament, that of the prophets and that of the Son, in that one term: speaking” - Bavinck
1 Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. 2 In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. God has appointed Him heir of all things and made the universe through Him.
And when God speaks to us in His word, how does he do it?
Does God drop a systematic theology 5 volume set in our laps?
No.
He proclaims to us His mighty deeds.
Systematics support the story, not the other way around.
If our theology becomes divorced from the story than we will be scholars but not Christians.
"Preaching is not designed to teach us something new in every sermon...but to put us in remembrance, to call to mind things forgotten, to affect our passions, and engage and fix our resolutions, that our lives may be answerable to our faith."
- Matthew Henry
The reason why this is true is this is how God designed discipleship to work.
The best learning doesn’t happen behind a desk.
It happens when you’re fixing a fence.
When you’re changing a diaper.
When you’re teaching your kid how to bake cookies.
When you’re taking a long walk with someone older than you who mentors you.
And God knows this because he designed it that way.
Deuteronomy 6:6–8 (HCSB)
6 These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. 7 Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead.
Discipleship on the way.
It’s not rocket science.
Infuse the word of God into the lives of your children.
In the songs you sing.
In the games you play.
In the stories you tell.
Saturate their lives with the greatest story ever told.
A quick note on saturation.
We live in an over-saturated culture.
Our dopamine receptors are fried from constant stimuli.
Screens and what they convey are powerful.
Be very careful how saturated your children are.
If they are parked in front of a screen for the lionshare of their free time, it will be very hard to saturate them with song and story because they are already full to the brim with someone else’s song and story, vividly portrayed to them in 4k definition.
And what are we supposed to talk about? Sing about, tell stories about?
The mighty works of God.
This forms us AND protects us.
Moses warns the people:
10 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would give you—a land with large and beautiful cities that you did not build, 11 houses full of every good thing that you did not fill them with, wells dug that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant —and when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful not to forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.
And then he gives them a picture snapshot of what this discipleship looks like as it takes hold:
Deuteronomy 6:20–25 (HCSB)
20 “When your son asks you in the future, ‘What is the meaning of the decrees, statutes, and ordinances, which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ 21 tell him, ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand. 22 Before our eyes the Lord inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household, 23 but He brought us from there in order to lead us in and give us the land that He swore to our fathers. 24 The Lord commanded us to follow all these statutes and to fear the Lord our God for our prosperity always and for our preservation, as it is today. 25 Righteousness will be ours if we are careful to follow every one of these commands before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.’
This is what discipling kids should look like...
As they grow and ask questions, our answers must be rooted in the mighty works of God.
And for us, we have the mightiest work of God written down in technicolor for us in the gospels.
Our family lives must revolve around the reality and implications of the crucifixion and resurrection.
That Jesus was incarnate,
that Jesus lived,
that Jesus died,
that Jesus rose
These realities should be like the oxygen in our homes.
Not just for our kids,
but for everyone we come in contact with.
The Christ event ought to be so woven into our lives that it is impossible for someone to enter our home without there being an encounter with the living God and His story.
All of this was the intro to the Psalm.
But we will walk quickly through the rest.
This Psalm, the one hundred thirty sixth Psalm, was designed to aid God’s people in this task of remembering God’s mighty deeds.
And binding all of it together,
the undercurrent and goal of all of God’s mighty acts from creation to New creation is love.
And not just any love,
His covenant love.
His faithful love.
His lovingkindness.
The Hebrew word is Hesed.
The word for God’s loyal love.
So here’s what we are going to do. We are going to re
Creation
Creation
Verses 1-9 declare God’s mighty act of creation and our duty and joy to give thanks to Him for his goodness.
Redemption
Redemption
Verses 10-24 concern the story of how God beat up all of the bullies.
Focus in on verses 18-21
God slew the mighty kings.
Wicked wicked men like Sihon and Og.
King Og
God wrests the kingdoms from these men (and therefore the gods they served), and gives it to His people.
But this land was just one bit of land.
Israel is a nearly microscopic sliver of land when you compare it to the whole earth,
which up until the crucifixion, belonged to Satan.
So now turning our attention
13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves.
When Satan visits Jesus in the wilderness and offers him the kingdoms of the earth.
5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”
Satan didn’t offer for this for nothing.
There’s one truth and one lie in his statement.
The truth is that Satan really had authority and rule over the nations.
4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
The lie was that the way for Jesus to get this authority was by worshipping Satan.
No, what did Jesus do instead?
He crushed his head, tied him up in the corner, and now Satan gets to watch while he takes all of the kingdoms away from him anyway.
And that’s where we find ourselves in this Psalm.
We are God’s people,
and Jesus has defeated the king of the world and become the rightful king.
18 Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
And what does he do with that authority?
He gives land.
19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
What are nations?
Real physical places with administrations that have borders.
And just like ancient Israel was a nation in the midst of all of the other nations,
so is the church.
The church is a, to use the words of 1st Peter:
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Both of our churches are embassies of the kingdom.
Our captain has given us instruction to band together.
To build an embassy that is stronger
1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!
But here’s the kicker.
God has to go with us.
41 “You answered me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ Then each of you put on his weapons of war and thought it would be easy to go up into the hill country. 42 “But the Lord said to me, ‘Tell them: Don’t go up and fight, for I am not with you to keep you from being defeated by your enemies.’ 43 So I spoke to you, but you didn’t listen. You rebelled against the Lord’s command and defiantly went up into the hill country. 44 Then the Amorites who lived there came out against you and chased you like a swarm of bees. They routed you from Seir as far as Hormah. 45 When you returned, you wept before the Lord, but He didn’t listen to your requests or pay attention to you.
If we charge without God, we will experience failure.
Our identity is fully found in the mighty acts of God.
This is what is proclaimed to Moses in the cloud.
5 The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed His name Yahweh. 6 Then the Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed: Yahweh—Yahweh is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth, 7 maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving wrongdoing, rebellion, and sin. But He will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ wrongdoing on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation. 8 Moses immediately bowed down to the ground and worshiped.
We are a people who are shaped by and continually identified with the mighty acts of God, rooted in his faithful love.
He has promised us success, but only when we remain in covenant with him.
And that’s where our last two verses come in.
Restoration
Restoration
The last two verses… 25 and 26.
They speak of God’s provision.
God gives us a special covenant meal that nourishes our covenant with Him.
When we feed on these elements we feed on Christ.
Christ feeds us just like the root of a vine feeds its branches.
If you have been baptized into Christ then you are one of these branches.
And God will sustain you.
Even in the midst of your weakness, your sin, your struggle, God will remain faithful to you.
But we are not just a collection of individuals, we are a church.
We are a body.
A unit that moves together.
God has made promises to US.
God will remain faithful to US.
So lay hold of the promises that are afforded to you in His word, in baptism, and in the Lord’s Supper.
He will never leave or forsake you,
For behold, He is with us always, even to the very end of the age.