Sermon Tone Analysis

Deut 8:1-

Church, I believe it was my first semester of seminary that I took an Old Testament survey course.

In this course, we were required to read the entire OT.

I broke it down into sections and began to read systematically through the books and as I did I came to a realization.

I’d never read the entire Bible!

There were entire books I’d never turned to, and if I were being completely honest with you, there were 5 or 6 that I couldn’t turn to immediately!

I made it through the semester with my reading complete.

Mostly.

I remember thinking, “that wasn’t that bad, but I know for sure that I’ll never be an Old Testament scholar!”

I largely ignored the OT after my survey classes were complete, until I met the Professor of Evangelism.

I was talking to Dr. Tom Johnston one day and he asked me if I ever read .

As a good seminary student, I said yes, but couldn’t remember what it said.

Turn with me in your Bibles and we’ll look together:

Listen to an entry from his blog:

One December evening in 2008 I attended my Brother’s December graduation ceremony at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Bannockburn, Illinois.

D.A. Carson delivered the graduation message that evening.

He spoke from .

As he explained God’s admonition in , Dr. Carson briefly commented that God had commanded the King of Israel to “handwrite the Book of Deuteronomy in his own hand in Hebrew longhand.”

“Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites” ().

Immediately as Dr. Carson said the words “in his own hand,” I felt the Holy Spirit speak within my heart, “I want you to do that!”

The words “in his own hand” lodged in my mind.

But, as I travelled back to Kansas City, and I was not sure how to handwrite Scripture in my own hand—I had never done it before, nor had I ever heard of anyone doing it.

As New Year’s Day approached, I considered if there were any concrete actions that I could do to improve my spiritual walk.

It was then that the idea of handwriting the Book of Deuteronomy returned to my mind.

I determined to handwrite the Book of Deuteronomy in January 2009, one chapter per day.Since I do not make New Year’s Resolutions as promises to the Lord, I was not about to promise a length of Scripture that I would write every day.

But as I considered the task before me, one chapter a day for the month of January seemed doable.

So, on January 2, 2009, as the house was quieting down from all the festivities of the day before, I took out a 3-ring binder with paper and a pen, and began to handwrite copied word-for-word from the New American Standard Bible onto the loose-leaf paper in the binder.

I soon found that it took me between 30-60 minutes to write one chapter, depending on the length of the chapter.I instantly became captivated as I began writing the first several verses in chapter one.

Then I became more and more motivated the farther I went in the book.

While chapters 2 and 3 have some repetition, once I got to Chapter 4 I was hooked.

The first time I wrote the Ten Commandments in Chapter 5 my hands were shaking.

I kept making mistakes with my ballpoint pen, because I was assuming words and word order that were not in the text.

It was both frustrating and exciting at the same time.

It was at this point that the exact words and word order became very important to me.Within a week I would find myself waking up in the middle of the night and asking myself, “I wonder what will come next.”

On several nights, when I could not sleep, I went downstairs to the kitchen table to handwrite Scripture at 2:30 or 3:00 in the morning.

I handwrote 2 or 3 verses, clearly heard the voice of the Lord speaking to me through the words of His Word, and return to bed and slept like a baby.Every word became captivating to me.

The topics were wide-ranging, and yet there was a regular repetition of themes.

By the time I got to , was so captivated with every word that I even began writing down variant readings in the margin of my 3-ring paper.

I began to fall in love with the words of the Word of God—really for the first time.

Although I had memorized , it was not until January 2009 that I began to understand the words that I had previously committed to memory:

“Oh, how I love Your law!

It is my meditation all the day” ()

It was a truly amazing time for me spiritually.

I felt like my soul was being cleansed and plowed by the Word of God.

https://evangelizology.blogspot.com/2014/

The Lord Commands (1)

Friends, as we get into the sermon today, let me encourage you to study the Law alongside the gospel.

We often forget that the reason that the news is so Good is because the our sin and the penalty for that sin is so Bad.

The Law shows this to us.

It also shows evidence of a God who provides and loves for His people.

Let’s take a brief look today at “Listening to Him from the OT” and learn about His Commands, His Opportunities, and how He Provides.”

The Lord Commands (1)

Throughout the book of Deuteronomy, we see God’s commands.

The most popular and encompassing are found in

If you turn there quickly, you’ll see these are the Ten Commandments that are found in .

His Commands Demonstrate Holiness

God’s holiness is seen in His commands.

You see, as a holy God, it is His privilege and right to command His people to follow Him in the manner He dictates.

Take a look at again.

He says, “I am the Lord your God.”

Not only is He the Lord your God, but the one who brought you out of Egypt.

Deut 5:

He states His holiness by telling them that He is it; there is no other.

He tells them anything they make in the likeness of that which He made is idolatry.

We won’t look go through the rest of the commandments for the sake of time, but we see that His commands remind us of His holiness.

Friends, Jesus is God and He is holy

John 8:

Since Christ is holy, we need to be careful in how we present Him to others and address Him ourselves.

He’s not a buddy we share a back slap with, but a loving God who bore the punishment of our sin.

His Commands Demand Obedience

Notice says “you must be careful to observe”

When used relating to the Law, Sabbath, or a covenant, he Hebrew word for “careful” can mean “keep,” “observe,” “celebrate,” or “perform” in the case of a vow.

The Israelites were not only to observe the law, but they were to “carefully” do so!

Listen with me as I read

Lev.

10:1

Friends, God’s commands are to be taken seriously, because He is holy.

Friends, God’s commands are to be taken seriously, because He is holy.

As Christians we aren’t called to follow all the same laws as the Jewish people because Christ is the fulfillment of the law.

This does not mean that we can adopt an attitude of “I walked the aisle, I’m good!”

Listen to ; especially 20.

Matt

Friends, as believers, He’s commanded us to do what 18-19 says AND teach them to observe all He commanded.

His Commands Result in Multiplication

8:1 reminded the Israelites that careful observation of His law would lead to multiplication.

“that you may live and multiply”

Deut

In doing these things, He reminds them that they’ll not only live, but multiply.

And in multiplying, God was going to bless them in the promised land.

As a Christian, we can’t help but multiply when we are doing what He commands.

Again look to the Great Commission in

Most often the biggest struggle in our KBC churches do not relate to power or personality, but a loss of a passion for obeying the Lord’s commands to us and obeying them.

The Great Commission found in is a case in point.

The Lord Gives Opportunity (2-3)

Opportunities are Tough at Times

Christian, I know things are tough every now and then.

Sometimes not as tough as we’d like to make it out to be.

Not as tough as being tested and humbled, on purpose, for 40 years.

We looking at difficult opportunities of growth here.

The Lord led them forty years in the wilderness, sure they’d sinned, but God said He did it:

“to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.” .