Hold Fast: Deut. 4:1-40

Victories: 1. Thank you for 10 years of family and ministry 2.

Prayer: Upland Community Church Mark Biehl

Missionary Prayer: Pregnancy Help Center - Pray for women and men who are abortion minded

Intro

Many years ago now I had the opportunity to work for my mentor Bob Korthuis as he began the project that was his final ministry to the Lord. The name of that ministry was Preston Ranch Ministries and remains today as 4 homes for families who choose to adopt children out of the foster care system. This ministry began with the building of the homes and the very first home I got a chance to help with from pretty much start to finish. I remember being there after a huge rain to pump out the future basement and then as the floor when in and the first walls went up I helped in laying them out, and building them. I helped with the Electrical, the drywall, the lighting, and the finishing. It was a great experience for a young man who really didn’t know where I was going in life. The man in charge of the whole project had been a contractor for years and he was fun to work with, he taught me a ton, and was to my understanding very knowledgeable. However, what I didn’t know was that he had made a mistake. He had placed one of the large beams in the floor wrong and that meant that the load bearing walls from the basement up weren’t situated correctly and therefore the entire house was structurally unsound. Not to the point that it was falling down but to the point that it wouldn’t pass inspections. We didn’t realize this mistake till way too late and we couldn’t go back and fix it. Instead we had to have the engineers come up with an entirely different plan so that the upstairs load would be sound. It was a small mistake that had huge implications and it was done because the contractor had misinterpreted the blueprint.

Blueprints are kind of important to follow when you are building a house as I found out. That house is still standing but it took some pretty drastic methods to correct the mistake. I learned a ton through that whole experience despite the mistake. When I think about that time I am reminded of just how important it is to follow the instructions so that the finished product is safe and it turns out as planned. This is no different when we consider our lives. The way we live our lives especially the big decisions of life are made better when we have a distinct plan and we follow it closely. This can mean the difference between life or death. That is distinctly how God sees it and how He has set it up. When we choose to go against the blueprint that God has set in place we are indeed tempting fate and death itself, but when we learn to trust in the blueprints God has laid out for us our lives end up differently. We end up with less consequences, less brokenness and those are just two of the benefits.

In our scripture today we are going to see just that. We are going to be reminded by Moses that God has a plan, it is based off of God’s set of moralities not humanities and yet it is there for our all of humanities benefit. It will not be easy to follow and it will require us to go against our natural desires but if we will do it we will live a better life, not necessarily an easier life but a better life. These are the truths that Moses is telling the people of Israel to listen to. He knows that following them will be hard but they need to either listen and obey or disobey and the Lord will have to discipline them. Obedience is not our only lesson today because God’s plan also includes teaching future generations. God expects His people to share His Word with others and especially our children because that way the Word continues forward. The Lord must be shared because His goodness and truth is unlimited and therefore the more we share it the bigger and better it is for us. So we should not only live out the Lord’s blueprint but we should share it with all those around us. With those three truths in mind, God’s blueprint, Our Following the Blueprint, and Our Sharing the Blueprint, let’s read:

Bible Reading: Deut. 4:1-40

The Instructions

God’s Has a Plan

According to a recent study done by Lifeway research and the State of Discipleship study:

“...around 3 in 5 Americans who attend religious services at least once a month (61%) regularly read the Bible, including 31% who read every day and 30% who do so a few times a week. Some engage once a week (14%) or a few times a month (11%). Few say they read Scripture only once a month (5%), while 1 in 10 (9%) do so rarely or never.”

Reading frequencies have remained mostly steady since 2019, when Lifeway Research found 59% were regular Bible readers. Personal Bible engagement has increased, however, since previous studies. In 2012, 46% regularly read the Bible, including 19% who did so every day. Five years earlier, in 2007, only 36% of churchgoers were regular Bible readers, with just 16% who read daily.

According to Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “The portion of churchgoers reading the Bible a few times a week or more on their own has leveled off recently after rising dramatically since 2007, but the churchgoer population was also changing during this period. A lower percentage of Americans attend a Protestant church once a month today than when this series of studies began. Clearly, the remnant of Americans attending church each month are more willing to regularly read the Bible on their own than when churches were more populated.”

So what do we learn from this? Yea! You are reading your Bible more, but sadly there are less of you all in churches as a whole then 15 to 20 years ago. So, why is it that you all are reading the Bible more? I hope it is because you have found that the Bible is beneficial to your life. I hope that it has become something beyond just a habit and instead it is a necessity like eating and breathing.

Moses tries hard here in this passage to remind his people the Israelites of how they are to hallow the scripture. He does much to tell them, “Scripture comes from GOD, the one who has great power, the one who created them, the one who brought them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, the one who has been leading them through the wilderness, and the one who will bring them into their land giving them a home and a country. These words of God are great and they should be listened to and obey. Moses tells them there in verse 2 to never add to them or take away from God’s Words because they don’t belong to us they belong to God. They still belong to God. That is why we can never add to or take away from them. We don’t get to read between the lines when it comes to God’s Word because it is His Word and not ours. We may find things in this book that are hard to reconcile with our modern lives but that is not God’s fault it is ours. He is GOD and we need to bend our wills towards Him and not the other way around.

God’s Plan is Better

We do this by believing that God has a better plan for life than we do. And that scares us to death because we don’t want to believe it. In fact you may be here today and you we invited by someone so you came or you have listened to people tell you about God for years and just haven’t believed it. You think, “no worries all these thoughts about God that Christians believe is either a bunch of made up fairytales or at worst some of it is true but there is no way this so called “loving” God would condemn you to die.” What it is all true and your denial of His plan is what is truly wrong in your life. To believe that God has a better plan is to say that the plan that you have been following, the plan that has lead to all your suffering and brokenness, not only isn’t working but it never will because it isn’t God’s plan. This is why we should fear the Lord as verse 10 and verse 24 point out. God wants the best for us but in order to give His people the best He also has to keep us accountable to that which is right and what is wrong.

Following Instructions

Obedience isn’t Natural.

However, as you might know from personal experience, Christian or not, following God’s Instructions is not an easy task, and the reason its not easy is because it doesn’t come natural. What we want is for life to just come easily and for everything to just slip in to place. However, life is never easy. The people of Israel knew that full well as they dealt with slavery in Egypt and then the treat of danger, war, starvation, and countless other threats throughout. Obedience is what God calls us to but that does not mean that it will ever be easy or come naturally.

Have you ever bought a piece of IKEA furniture? I consider myself a pretty handy guy but the couple of times I bought something from IKEA or even just something like it I am amazed by the crazy amounts of parts that go into it. I mean insert this into that and that into this and then insert into slot A3 and turn counterclockwise. The truth is that every time I buy that kind of furniture the instructions aren’t a suggestion they are necessary. In fact to put this even into more perspective with what the Bible teaches. I fear the plans because I know that without them I will fail miserably and yet I also know that they will always be confusing and hard to understand. Friend you are infinitely more complex than a piece of IKEA furniture and therefore the parts and pieces that make up your life are even easier to mess up and get wrong.

Moses told the people there in verse 5 to act according to the statutes and judgement of the Lord. In verse 6 God told them not to forget them. In verse 11 He told them where they should go and in verse 40 God once again told them to keep them. God knows that it will be hard to follow His statutes and judgements but they will be better off if they do. If they follow God they will end up with a better life.

I know that if I follow the plans made by that Swedish engineer I am most likely going to end up with a nice bookcase or a chair but when I go against them I end up with junk. Friend if you go against the instructions of the Lord you end up with a broken life. This isn’t made up and it is not negotiable. You either Listen and obey or you disobey and death is your end.

Obedience Keeps us Safe

How do we know this to be the truth look at verses 30-31.

When we are in distress we are to call upon the Lord and when we do this it says that God will be merciful and He won’t destroy us or forsake us. But look back at verse 29. What is the catalyst to God’s mercy? Seeking the Lord with all our heart and soul. This is how we test the plans of the Lord, we put our faith in them. We expect that not only does God have a plan but that plan is infinitely better than our plan.

In verses 16-19 and then again in verse 23 we see that God tells them that belief in Him will keep them from idols. What is so bad about Idols? Well simply put the idol worship of the day was steeped in human sacrifice, sexual prostitution, and all sorts of other horrible customs. Those things are bad but today we don’t deal with such horrible idols so we are OK with a little disobedience right. No, sin is sin and it doesn’t matter if it is to this ancient idol worship extent or just a bit of idol worship or self worship is destructive and leads us to death.

God knows we will mess up, God knows we will turn to idols. He says it there in verses 25-28. But God also knows that we can be forgiven of it if we will turn back to Him which is why again He tells them in verse 29-31 exactly how to do this.

Teaching the Instructions

Hold Fast to Scripture

Take one more look there at verse 4 with me. Moses told the people that because they held fast to the Lord they were alive. Because they held fast to the Lord their futures were in God’s hands. because they held fast to the Lord they could expect God to look after them. The author of Hebrews echoed this thought in Hebrews 10:23 “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” God has done and is doing a great work. He kept the Israelites safe through the wilderness and by God’s grace and mercy He would bring them into the promised land and God will give them a land and a home. The same God is our God and we have the same promises given to us.

Hold fast to your faith. Hold fast to the knowledge that God is our God only He can save. Hold fast to the truths of God’s statutes and judgments because they bring life. Hold fast to the Hope of the Gospel because it changes lives now and forever. Hold fast because God is faithful, because God is just, because God will never let you go.

All might Hear and Obey

So what are we to do with this knowledge? Moses was told by God to teach the statutes and judgments to Israel in vs. 14 so that they will in turn teach them to their children and grandchildren. We are those children and grandchildren. We are the proof of Israel continuing to pass on the truths of God from generation to generation and then as the New Testament church began through the world of Christ on the cross the work of teaching the next generation never stopped. Today we are to continue this tradition and to do this we must teach these truths to our children and grandchildren, but don’t let it stop there. Teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone who will hear so that all may hear and obey.

Let me end it with vs. 39-40

Gospel

Do you know his statutes and commandments? Do you know the Lord? Let me introduce you to Him today His name is Jesus and He died for your sin, all of it. Because He did we can place our belief in that sacrifice. 1 John 1:9 says, “we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We have the promise of God that if we ask for forgiveness and believe in the saving power of Jesus we will be saved. And from the saving power of Jesus, we become new creations. 2 Cor. 5:17 states, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” This means that as Christians we get a fresh start we aren’t who we used to be and we have the power of God behind us to change who we are becoming. Glory to God in the highest for He has saved my soul and He can save yours to if you will let Him. If you aren’t sure then you can confess Him as your savior. If that is your desire today you can say this prayer with me. Bow your heads.

Dear Lord, I know that I’m a sinner. I’m sorry for my sin, and I ask you to forgive me. I believe you died for my sins and rose from the dead. I repent of my sins and I ask you to come into my life and take control. I make a commitment to follow you, and I trust you as my Lord and Savior.

Friend if you prayed that prayer today I ask that you come and speak to me after the service.

‌Benediction: Revelation 5:12–13 “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!” And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: “Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”