Loyal Love (2)
Deuteronomy: Remember and Rehearse • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Years after the sermons of Deuteronomy, In the days of the judges, when survival depended on land, clan, and protection, a young Moabite widow named Ruth faced a choice. She could return to her people, remarry, and rebuild her life. No law required her to stay with her impoverished Israelite mother-in-law, Naomi.
Yet Ruth bound herself by covenant words: “Where you go, I will go… your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” This was not just a romantic saying. It was a pledge of obedience that meant hunger, danger, and obscurity.
Ruth followed Naomi back to Bethlehem and lived out her vow through daily faithfulness—gleaning behind harvesters, submitting to Israel’s customs, and trusting the God she had chosen. Her loyal love was proven not in her speech on the road, but in her obedience in the fields.
In time, God honored that faithfulness. Ruth was redeemed by Boaz and woven into the lineage of David—and ultimately Christ. What began as a quiet act of obedient love became a turning point in redemptive history.
Loyal love, Scripture shows, is love that stays—and obeys—when it would be easier to leave.
This is type of love God commanded of his people when he gave the law to them through Moses.
With Deuteronomy 1:1–4:43 as a historical and theological orientation, Moses begins his second sermon at Deuteronomy 4:44 that will continue all the way to 26:19, in which he calls Israel to obedience.
He starts at the very heart of what it means to follow the Lord alone: Israel must love him with all that they are (6:5), and they are to express this love by keeping the Ten Commandments (5:7–21).
God commanded them to be faithful to his covenant and that their obedience to his commands should flow out of a deep love for God and all he has done for them.
Tonight, God is calling us to exhibit this same loyal love to him.
He is calling us to trust in his word, to obey his will, and walk in his ways out of deep love for him and all he has done for us in Christ.
Yet, we have a problem. . . because, if we are honest, we often struggle to obey God’s commands. . . and Deuteronomy 5-6 will show us that our lack of loyalty to God stems from a lack of love for and fear of God.
However, our text tonight will not only expose our problem, it will also provide our solution. . . for the way we can truly love God, and demonstrate our love through our obedience, is by remembering his loyal love for us.
Therefore, our Key Takeaway for tonight is that by Remembering how God has shown loyal love to us, we can show loyal love to him by obeying his commands.
In short, True love is loyal.
1. To Love God, We Must Know Him.
1. To Love God, We Must Know Him.
We know him through his Commands.
He is Holy and Righteous.
He alone is God
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
7 “ ‘You shall have no other gods before me. 8 “ ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
Idolatry not only defames God, it devalues our worth as humans made in God’s image.
24 And you said, ‘Behold, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man, and man still live. 25 Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, we shall die. 26 For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of fire as we have, and has still lived?
God is a consuming fire.
This passage reveals the Holiness of God and sinfulness of humanity.
So, God is holy and righteous, but he is also loving and gracious.
He is Loving and Gracious.
He freely chose to reveal himself to Israel and made a covenant with them.
1 And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. 2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 Not with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today.
He made Israel his people and redeemed them from Egypt
Grace before obedience.
6 “ ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
God graciously gave his law to Israel so that they could enjoy him and enjoy the land they were entering into. He gave them the law so that they could have abundant life.
God’s commands are for our good. . . they help us know him, know how to please him, and know how to enjoy life.
Only through a mediator can we know him, understand his commands, and obey them.
4 The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, 5 while I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord. For you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain.
27 Go near and hear all that the Lord our God will say, and speak to us all that the Lord our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.’
2. We Love God by Loving and Obeying His Commands.
2. We Love God by Loving and Obeying His Commands.
Loving God implies three things. . .
Loving God implies fearing him and obeying his commands.
28 “And the Lord heard your words, when you spoke to me. And the Lord said to me, ‘I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. 29 Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever! 30 Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.” 31 But you, stand here by me, and I will tell you the whole commandment and the statutes and the rules that you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess.’ 32 You shall be careful therefore to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33 You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.
Fearing the Lord means obeying his commands.
We fear who we love because we don’t want to displease them.
Every time fearing the Lord is mentioned it is normally accompanied with loving the Lord and demonstrating one’s love and fear of the Lord through obeying his commands.
Disobedience results from not fearing the Lord.
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
2. Loving God implies loving and Meditating on his commands.
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Loving God is a full-time occupation and requires our entire being (all our heart, soul, and might).
When we sit in our house, walk along the way, lie down, and rise up (Deut. 6:8-9). . . “merism” to communicate “all the time.”
Meditating on God’s words in one’s heart would allow Israel to understand them and to obey God’s commands as an expression of their love for God rather than a legalistic practice.
3. Loving God implies teaching his commands.
7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
Loving God implies talking about his commands.
“Teach diligently” means to “repeat” and “engrave” God’s commands in others. . . “to drill them into your children.”
So because God has shown loyal love to us, we must show loyal love to him by fearing him and obeying his commands.
But can we actually do this ourselves? As I said at the beginning, loving and fearing God is something that we struggle to do, and we often fail, which is seen in our disobedience of God’s commands.
Response
Response
Know God through the Christ, the Word made Flesh.
Jesus is our mediator that allows us to hear, understand, and obey God’s commands.
The Spirit of Christ gives us understanding of the Scriptures and the power to obey them.
Jesus is our Savior who perfectly loved, feared, and obeyed God on our behalf.
It is through Jesus that we can know God’s love for us to help us then love him and others.
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
The only way of salvation is through Jesus. . . not turning to the right hand or the left. . . following the ways of this world.
It is only through the new covenant in Christ that our hearts can be transformed and fear the Lord.
39 I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. 40 I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.
2. Love God through Loving and Living Out His Commands.
This is the teaching of Jesus:
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
Reading and meditating on his commands.
Walking by the Spirit and not by the flesh.
“we wonder why we struggle so much in temptation and obedience. . .”
Resist “escapism.”
Teaching his commands to others (discipleship).
Talking about his commands.
Need for the church, accountability.
Obeying his commands means we will love others (Commandments 6-10)
