Incentive to obey
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Incentive to Obey
Incentive to Obey
Sometimes in life we are expected to do something, obey someone, or follow some orders, without knowing the reason, or perhaps not even respecting the person giving the orders. You could ask anyone who has served in the military, and most likely they will tell you that at some point they had to follow an order that didn’t make sense; or, they had to follow an order that came from someone they did not respect.
When I was a young Marine, I was once tasked with raking a parking lot. It was a gravel and dirt parking lot, and a visiting general was in the area, so several of us raked the parking lot of the mess hall, so that the General would be duly impressed if he were to come to lunch there. There was much grumbling among us who were raking that parking lot, and even more so when the General never showed up for lunch anyway.
At other times, I was under the charge of someone who I personally felt should have no authority to give any orders whatsoever. You would wonder, “How did this person get promoted?” How could they possibly be given any authority at all? And certainly, no matter what political spectrum you come from, there has likely been times where you viewed a public leader with disdain or derision, because they were very difficult for you to resect. While this isn’t the point of this sermon, I would urge caution for all in how you think of and speak of anyone in leadership, because God himself is above all, and He is the one who puts into place the rulers.
I remember years ago, and I won’t give the exact year, but there was a lot of angst in the area I lived immediately following a presidential election, and I was driving past a church and the marquee sign out front that simply said “Romans 13” Romans 13:1-2
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
But this is easier said than done. What if the authority seems to be incompetent, or even evil? What if it seems the election was unfair, or people voted not knowing something that would have changed their vote? Notice though, that Paul does not write that we are to be subject to the governing authorities we like or agree with. And further down, he says give respect to whom respect is owed and honor to whom honor is owed.
Yet in nearly every case since I have been paying attention in my lifetime, the majority of those of the party opposite the current president have held that president in contempt. They do not show proper respect or honor. And we seem to have a hard time balancing our responsibility to be engaged in our republic and advocating for issues important to us with being respectful and decent. I doubt not one of us in this room could say we have perfectly kept Romans 13.
So we struggle with authority, particularly if we disagree or if we think the one in authority is wrong or immoral, or whatever we think of them. What can help us is to be reminded of what should be our proper motivation to be good followers. Romans 13 is one scripture that guides us here. We are given an incentive to be subject to the governing authorities. One incentive is that authority comes from God, and authorities that exists have been instituted by God.
Not only that, but in Romans 13, Paul reminds the reader that governors bear the sword, that is, they are responsible to punish wrongdoers. So if you want to avoid punishments, you obey the law, the only exception scripture gives is if following the law puts you at odds with God’s law. But if you do good, you will not need to fear those in authority. Again, a clarification is not made here that this only applies to leadership if you voted for it, or if your currently appreciate the direction they are going in.
So from national politics down to the local level, we are to obey laws and leaders. Even in the HOA, and I can tell you, having recently attended my first homeowners meeting, that many of the people certainly had not read Romans 13 that day.
This morning, after a two week break, we return to Deuteronomy 4, and we have seen in this chapter so far that Moses commands obedience. He has taught the people rules and statutes, which are from God and passed down through Moses, so that Moses is not the author or really the one in full authority, but rather God himself has made these decrees. These statutes are to be made known to future generations as well.
We will see this recurring theme in the next few chapters, the theme of obedience to God and His commands, and the charge to teach these things to your children, grandchildren, and every generation. So you may have seen an email from me a few weeks ago, and the governing board has been having discussions about bringing Sunday School back to Oasis Church, and the curriculum we are looking at is called D6, and D6 has a couple of meanings. One, it is based upon Deuteronomy6.6-7
And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 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.
Second, the 6 also represents that the curriculum goes through the entire bible every six years.
And throughout the rest of the spring and summer, we will be seeing again and again this theme of obedience to God’s commands, the repetition of them, and the charge to every generation to teach and pass down God’s law. And this is to be the highest goal and the most important task for parents and grandparents in particular, but to the whole community. You are to always be talking about what it means to live for God. It is to be a constant theme in your conversations. So when you are sitting, when you are walking, or driving, when you are getting ready for bed, when you are waking up, you should be constantly reminding yourself and those you are given to care for of the things of God.
So as we learn about these things over the next few months, and are reminded again and again of this charge, my prayer is that as you hear God’s Word, especially regarding your responsibility to be part of a community that is constantly engaged in reminding ourselves what following God is all about, that you would be challenged and if need be convicted to do the work God has given you; If you are a parent with kids at home, that you would feel the need and conviction to obey these scriptures. If you don’t have your own children, you may be given spiritual children to train up. But as a church, we at Oasis must be obedient to God’s Word and foster a culture of always talking about these things. So this is why I take very seriously my highest charge as your pastor, to make sure there are opportunities for every believer, young, old, new to the faith, mature in the faith, and everyone in between, to engage with God’s Word in a way that challenges us each to live it out.
So Deuteronomy 4. we started out with a command to obey, and to make these things known to each generation. then in 15-30, we saw a prohibition against idolatry. God is a consuming fire, a jealous God, He will not tolerate anything being held higher than Him in our esteem, and certainly not pathetic idols that are made by people. This morning we will look at 32-40.
And here we see some incentives for our obedience. You see, when it comes to obeying God, it isn’t like obeying a person. We may wonder about orders from a person, whether they make sense or not. You contemplate things like that as you are raking a parking lot. But we need never to question God’s rulings. We don’t question His authority, we don’t question His reasoning. We don’t question whether He is qualified to be in charge or not. In our passage this morning, this is what Moses is reminding the people.
“For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”
Notice one of the first things Moses brings in as an implication is the creator and creature relationship we have with God.
“For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of.
Moses often reminded the people of the creation, and indeed, in many of the Jewish rituals, God as creator is a prevalent theme. Devout Jews today still read the creation account routinely.
Drawing back to the creation, Moses is basically saying this: That from man’s perspective, that is, in human history, there has not been the sort of signs and wonders the people of the exodus have witnessed.
Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live?
Of course, this refers to God speaking from the pillar of fire, and here we should note that is important that God is not the fire itself. Yes, I know Moses had earlier used the phrase that God is a consuming fire. Keep in mind this is not literal in the sense that God exists as a fire, or as any other physical thing. Jesus told the woman at the well, “God is Spirit”.
And so Moses does not use the language that God appeared to them as fire, but rather, that he spoke out of the midst of the fire. The people of the Exodus witnessed this, and there is a level of amazement stacked on another level of amazement in that the first amazement if that the people witnessed this; Not only did they witness this, but they survived. You heard the voice of God and lived.
This speaks to the holiness of God. You may remember Isaiah’s fear at encountering God: Isa6.1-7
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
We know that even those beings that are simply God’s messengers struck fear into the heart of just about everyone who encountered them. From Zechariah in Luke 1, to many other encounters that people had with God’s messengers, we see the common statement of those angels, “fear not”. They say that apparently because the response of people to an angelic encounter is fear and trembling.
If the holiness of angels is enough to make men tremble, how much more the holiness of God! In fact in human terms, no one of us would survive in the unfiltered presence of God. The only reason we can even encounter God is that He protect us from his own holiness. He provides for us to approach His throne room through the provision of His Son, Jesus.
The people of Israel had heard the very voice of God, and lived!
Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
Another rhetorical question. The clear answer is no. No other god has done this. Of course, this is not some admission by Moses that there are other Gods. Remember, in scripture, just as in literature today, literary devises were used, and this is a rhetorical statement. Really it is a statement made as a question, probably for making the point stronger. Clearly there is no other God, and even the gods men have made for themselves have not done what God has done, in selecting for himself a people, and bringing them out through trials, showing signs and wonders, making war on their behalf against Egypt.
To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him.
Again and again God had proven himself to Israel. So many signs and wonders, from the plagues of Egypt to the parting of the Red Sea, to the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud, to the provision of food and water in the wilderness, to the snakes and the remedy of the brass serpent, to the victories in battle, God had proven himself.
Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.
Moses is well aware of the fear that hearing God’s voice brought. It was a form of discipline to them. Remember the difference between discipline and punishment. Even though sometimes punishment and discipline are the same thing, it is not necessarily the case. Sometimes punishment comes that does not bring any learning or result in increased obedience. Discipline is not just punitive. Discipline is to help someone grow into their potential. Loving fathers discipline their children. They don’t simply operate out of wrath, but out of love.
If a child is misbehaving and they hear the voice of their father, then they may be jolted out of their disobedience into obedience. They may stop immediately. Why? is it fear, or respect, or both? Hopefully both. Respect is that I want o bring honor to my father who is God’s authority in the life of a child, and fear is that if I do not correct my behavior, a consequence will be forthcoming.
Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. Additionally, he let them see the fire, and he spoke from the fire.
And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.
God proved his love to their fathers, he brought them out, he drove out nations greater than them. Based on all that we have said so far, the people are to realize one thing: The Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.
You see, the people of God are not asked to obey some crazy orders that have not much sense to them. He doesn’t ask us to obey someone whose authority we are unsure of. God has already proven himself to the people of Israel in all of these powerful ways, and therefore, they have every reason to trust him, every reason to love Him, every reason to obey him.
God would have every right to demand complete obedience and allegiance, even if he had told the people nothing yet, had done them no favors, had shown them no signs. And yet, God gives to them many proofs and reminders of his steadfast love, his faithfulness to his covenant, his trustworthiness.
And based on all of this, Deut4.40
Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”
He has given so many incentives to obey. All of the proofs, and all of the promises. the promises will be elaborated on at another time, but the basic promise is here: keep his statutes and commandments, that it may go well with you. Our God does not require us to obey without offering incentive. His incentives come from his loving nature. Even the ten commandments begin with an incentive to obey: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Only after this reminder do the ten commandments, or the ten words, begin. God always gives us an incentive to obey.
Yet while we can apply some of Deuteronomy to ourselves, we cannot say he brought us out of Egypt, or delivered us from slavery, can we? Well, on the first point, no, as far as I know, no one here was delivered from Egypt. However, if we are in the faith, he has delivered us from slavery.
No, we did not come from Egypt, but we came from weakness. We were the ungodly. We have an even greater incentive to obey God.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
We have many wonderful commands from Jesus, and obeying them brings us further and further into freedom. And we have every incentive to obey; Jesus gave us a new commandment to love one another, and the incentive is that the Son of Man is glorified.
Do you love Jesus? Then that is an incentive to keep his commands John 14.15. And does He leave us to do this on our own? No, for he said he would give us a helper. So in John14.15-17
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
So here we see one of the reasons we are given the Holy Spirit: to help us to prove our love for Jesus by helping us to keep His commands.
So just as Moses gave incentives in the form of proofs to the people to obey God based upon what God had done for Israel, so the Christian today has incentives in the form of proofs based upon what Christ has done for us. And just as Moses gave the incentive in the form of promises, so we are given incentive in the form of promises.
In the Revelation, we see some of these promises for the future glory those in Christ can look forward to: The new city, the river of life. But we do not obey the commands of Christ because we will earn eternal life. We have eternal life, so we obey the commands of Christ.
We obey because He has proved himself, and we obey because he has promised us future glory. The people of Israel were not asked to obey based on a command only, they were given the incentive when God showed them His mighty power in rescuing them from Egypt and bringing them to the promised land. They were told that this obedience would also make their lives better, and so the same is true for ourselves.
We don’t obey to get good things in this life, we don’t obey because we hope to earn eternal life. We obey because we have received love, and we love. He proved Himself in a great act of love, and in response, if we love him, we obey.
We all have missed the mark, we all have fallen short. How can we do this? How can we obey Christ? The reality is, we cannot even do it without his help. Thankfully, he provided that help, so we can ask the Holy Spirit, and he will give us strength to live a life of holiness.
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.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me,