THROUGH THE BIBLE - Deuteron..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Deuteronomy chapter 4. And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you and do them, that you may live and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers is giving you.

You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal Peor, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor. But you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today. See, I have taught you statutes and rules as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. keep them and do them.

For that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God to us whenever we call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I have set before you today? Only take care and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children.

How on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, gather the people to me that I may let them hear my words so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth and that they may teach their children so. And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire, to the heart of heaven wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form. There was only a voice.

And he declared to you his covenant. commandments and he wrote them on two tablets of stone and the Lord commanded me at the time to teach you statutes and rules that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess therefore watch yourselves very carefully Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourself in the form of any figure, the likeness of a male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven And when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the hosts of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance as you are this day. Furthermore, the Lord was angry with me because of you.

He swore that I would not cross the Jordan and that I should not enter the good land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. For I must die in this land. I must not go over the Jordan, but you shall go over and take possession of the good land. Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden, for the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. when you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land.

If you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. you will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. And there you will serve gods of wood and of stone and the work of human hands that neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him.

if you search after Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey His voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that He swore to them. 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 God speaking out of the midst of fire as you 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 mighty hand and 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 beside Him. out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might discipline you. And on the 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 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 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 has given you for all time. Then Moses set apart three cities in the east beyond the Jordan, that the manslayer might flee there in one he kills his neighbor unintentionally without being in enmity with him in time past.

He may flee to one of these cities and save his life. Beza, the wilderness of the Tablelands for the Reubenites, Ramoth in the Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manasites. This is the law that God set before the people of Israel. These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the rules which Moses spoke to the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt, beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon, the king of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the people of Israel defeated when they came out of Egypt. And they took possession of his land and the land of Og, the king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites who lived in the east beyond the Jordan from Erer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, as far as Mount Siron, that is Hermon, together with all the Araba on the east side of the Jordan, as far as the sea of the Araba, under the slopes of Pisgah.

Amen. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord, it remains forever. Let's just come to our Lord in a moment of prayer. Lord, we come to this time where we've opened your word and we've read, Lord, the inerrant, inspired word that is brief. from your very being.

We acknowledge that your word has the supreme authority of God himself. So now we sit under your word. We ask, Lord, that you would help us to have faith to receive from you this evening. Lord, I pray that you would be with your servant. I pray that you would keep my mouth closed to anything that doesn't correspond to truth.

Only Lord, I pray that from this pulpit will be spoken that which is truth, that which corresponds to your heart, the very words, the very teachings that you intend for your people to receive and to treasure in their hearts. We ask that you would be among us and bless us in this way. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, brothers and sisters, what a chapter we have before us.

This is a tremendous, tremendous chapter. And those of you who know me know that I prefer to take one or two verses and spend some time in that. But when you have a chapter like Deuteronomy chapter 4, there is so much in this chapter, so much rich theology about who our God is. that one would be able to quite comfortably spend many weeks and even months in this chapter. But we have given a commitment to you before the Lord that we will work our way through the Bible one chapter at a time, one chapter per week.

So that's what we'll do this evening. But that's needless to say that we'll be leaving many things on the table this evening. But one thing I want us to go away knowing and acknowledging And I think, which is the primary point, at least what I see in this fourth chapter in the book of Deuteronomy, is I want us to go away thinking and acknowledging the importance of the Word of God for the people of God. The utmost importance of the Word of God for the people of God. And I think we can see that all through this chapter.

Now, as we've started the book of Deuteronomy several weeks ago, about a month ago now, and I've reminded you back then, I keep reminding you through the series, that this is the context, the immediate context of this chapter, or this book at least, is Moses, the prophet of God, the mouthpiece of God, speaking to the people of Israel, the second generation after some 40 years in the wilderness. there on the plains of Moab, speaking to them and exhorting them to trust in the Lord God of the universe, the God of Abraham, the God of Jacob, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. These are people who are on the brink or on the very verge of going over the Jordan to engage in a conquest, a battle against the Canaanites. and Moses is here now exhorting them. You can almost say the book of Deuteronomy is like a sermon series, an inspired sermon series from the lips of Moses to his people to prepare their hearts for the conquest, but not only for the conquest, to prepare their hearts to acknowledge how they ought to conduct themselves.

as the people of God in the land that the Lord God has given them, the land that they will possess, the land flowing with milk and honey that was promised to their father Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. As I said earlier, I believe there is one main theme, one main lesson, a thread that runs through this chapter and in fact throughout the whole book of Deuteronomy, and that is that the Word of God is absolutely essential for the people of God. The Word of God is absolutely essential for the people of God if they are to conduct themselves in a way that is pleasing to God. Because it's one thing to be able to know that God is going to give them the land flowing with milk and honey, and He said He will, He promised, and that will take place. But it's another thing completely for them to continue to enjoy the blessings of God.

to continue to enjoy residing in that land that God has promised to give them, because that residing and that continual blessing, as we've worked our way through the Old Testament up until this point, is predicated on an if. And that if is obedience. The Old Covenant was predicated upon the people of God, the people of Israel, upon their obedience to Yahweh. So if they were going to continue to live in the land and enjoy the blessings that God had given them, then they need to obey the Word of God. Obedience is absolutely essential.

Beloved, If they would obey the Word of God, then first they need to acknowledge it is the Word of God. that they need to acknowledge that God speaks. And as I said earlier, I believe Moses has that in view, that the utmost importance is given to the Word of God and its supreme authority upon the people of God. And I believe that because even in the very beginning, from the very first chapter, this is how he starts his exposition, or this sermon series if you want, to the people of Israel. This is how he starts.

The very first words, after we're giving a few verses of context, there in chapter 1, this is what Moses writes or says to the people. He says, The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, turn and take your journey. The Lord our God said to us. The Lord our God said to us. Beloved, listen to those words.

Sometimes we just, we may read the words and we just keep going because we get used to them. But listen to those words. The Lord our God said to us. Beloved, we know Moses for the first three chapters has had the people looking back at the journey, at the things that they've experienced thus far, the ups and the downs over that 40 years or four decades in the wilderness. But without understanding and believing those few first words that have been uttered from the mouth of Moses back in chapter one on the plains of Moab, everything else is meaningless.

Unless they come to understand. that God is a God who speaks. But how else? How else are these people going to understand what has transpired over the last four decades? How else are they going to understand?

Why is it that this God has rescued us and delivered us from the bondage under the Egyptians? Or as Moses says here in verse 20, the iron furnace, the fiery furnace, that's the difficulty that they experienced. Why do we have the favor of God? We've already said this many times before, they were no different to the Egyptians and they worshiped the same gods. How else are they going to understand the events that have taken place over the last 40 years where thousands upon thousands of their own number, their parents, their uncles, their aunties perished across the wilderness.

Testimony to that is their corpses in the desert wasteland. How else are they gonna understand why those curses came upon the people they love and know apart from knowing that God is a God who speaks? How else are they going to acknowledge how is it against all odds that here we are? We still exist as a people despite all the turmoil and the difficulties and the dangers thus far. We're still here.

God has still preserved us as a people. Why is God showing us favor like this? God is the God who speaks. How else are they going to understand how it is that over that period of 40 years their clothing didn't wear out, their sandals didn't wear out. How else are they going to understand how a simple people who have known nothing but being slaves under the Egyptians are able to go into battle against formidable armies, the formidable kingdoms of King Sihon and King Og, mighty fortified cities.

How are they going to understand? How is it that we as a simple people are able to engage in battles like that and then come out victorious and not completely slaughtered under more powerful nations than us other than a God that their God is a God who speaks. Their God said you go and fear not and I will give you the victory. They believe in a God who speaks, the Lord our God said to us, the very first words of the prophet Moses to his people in this book, the Lord our God said to us, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the only true God of the universe, beloved, is a God who speaks and when he speaks, he delivers on his word. Yahweh was pleased to open His mouth, His glorious mouth, and utter words that come from the being of God and carry with them the authority of God.

And not only did He open His mouth, beloved, but He also, we're told in verse 10 here, that He was pleased to let the people listen to His words. You see, it's one thing that God speaks, but if he withholds hearing from his people, then what benefit will it be to them? But he says in verse 10 that he allows them to listen to his words. No less than seven times in this chapter, Moses says, or reiterates or emphasizes God's voice, God's word. He emphasizes so many times that it is a God.

He is a God who speaks. And the experience of these people thus far bears witness that not only is God a God who speaks, but He is a God whose words make a difference. Because the approach or the attitude of the heart of the one who hears the Word of God is critically important. Because when the God who speaks, speaks, you have a decision to make. Either you obey, or you disobey.

And all through their experiences, as they've looked in the past over and over again, they've seen that obedience comes with life and blessing, and disobedience comes with curses and death. Listen to what Moses says from verse 1. He says, And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them that you may live. and go in and take the possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you. You shall not add to the words that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.

Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal Peor, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal Peor. But you who held fast to the Lord, your God, are all alive today. You see, not only is God, the living God who speaks but he is a God who demands obedience. This is what they've experienced and this is why Moses is putting their eyes back towards what they've already experienced over the last 40 years and he's showing them over and over again that God is the one who speaks and when he speaks he demands obedience. They know he speaks.

I mean, they've heard his voice. Can you remember? Do you remember when they came to the base of Horeb or the base of Sinai, when they heard the rumbling voice of God and the fiery mountain? Do you remember what they said to Moses? Please, no, no, no.

You, you go and speak to God. You do that. You speak to God and then you mediate on our behalf. You come and tell us what God says. We will obey, but don't let us listen to that voice again.

It's terrifying. But how is it that they are able to stand under God's words and not perish? That's the thing that Moses is saying here. When God speaks, he demands obedience, but God also, God also, his voice carries with it the supreme authority of God. And these people knew it, and they were absolutely terrified.

These people know that the Word of God is among them. They know that Moses is a mediator of God's Word, he's a prophet. They know that God is a living God, a God who speaks. And before long, they're going to engage in battle into the land of Canaan, and they're going to be confronted with nations who have different gods, small g. They're going to be confronted with a nation that has gods made out of wood and steel and gold.

Moses is saying, don't you dare. Don't you dare turn your back on the God, the living God who speaks, who has given you his word, and bend your knee to these false deities. Don't be tempted to do that. Don't be tempted, because you remember when God spoke to you on the mountain, when you were trembling in fear, did you see His form? No.

You heard His voice, but you didn't see His form. So therefore, be content and joyful that God has chosen to reveal his words, his instructions, his laws, his statutes, his precepts to you. But don't you dare put a form to this God and violate the second commandment. Don't you dare do anything like the nations. Don't you dare repeat what you did at the base of Sinai with that golden calf incident.

That is infinitely offensive to God. Don't add. Don't subtract. Receive his words. Receive his statutes.

And by faith, obey them. The Apostle Paul says something similar to that, doesn't he, in 1 Corinthians 4 when he says, do not go beyond what is written. Don't add and don't take away. This is the Word of God and carries with it the reverence and the authority of God himself. But I want you to realize how Moses says in verse 1, not only is God living, And not only is he a God who speaks, but he's a God who demands obedience, and that obedience is necessary unto life.

Did you see that there? He says, and now, in verse one, and now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them that you may want. Beloved Yahweh's words carry with them life itself. They've experienced that already and Moses gives them an example. They've experienced that disobedience will bring forth death.

Moses gives them an example of Baal Peor. You remember the incident back in Numbers chapter 25 when the men of Israel give themselves over shamefully to the women, the Midianite women, so they bore themselves with them. And if you remember, we're told that they bend their knee to the gods of these Midianite women. And Moses says that that disobedience brought with it death. But the fact that you are here before us, the fact that you are still alive, verse 3 means you clung to this God.

You held fast to God. You held to His Word. You spoke. You recognized by faith that God is God who speaks and He demands of it. And in love and in joy you embraced this God.

You didn't turn to foreign gods and that's why you are still alive. You see what Moses is saying? Moses is saying here as clear as day that your attitude towards God's word will determine whether you live or whether you die. Your attitude towards God's word will determine whether you live or you die. The question is, will you believe what God has spoken?

Will you believe his word and choose life? And this was the experience of the people. From verse one through eight in our chapter before us, Moses has them looking back and imploring at what has taken place. And he looks back and says, God is faithful. Don't do like your parents.

And from verse nine through 24, he has them looking forward and saying, when you go into the land, you're going to be in the land flowing with milk and honey. Make sure that you obey God and you keep his statutes and his precepts, that you don't do like the Canaanites, that you kicked out of the land and worship false gods False idols don't be that way. Teach your children, teach your children's children the precepts that I am giving you because God has given you his word. But then in verse 32 through 40, he gives a reason why they are to keep these precepts. And that is because the words are not Moses's words only, but they are God's words.

And he's the only true God. See that there? He is the only true God. There is none beside him. The origin of the words that are coming out of the mouth of Moses, the recognized prophet and the mediator on behalf of God, he speaks the words of God.

The respect ought to be because the words are coming from God himself. And this is the only true God. Listen to verse 39. And lay it to your heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. There is no other.

And then in verse 40 he says the response. The response of his people who recognize that this is the only true God. Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commands. Remember, obedience to his word is life, and disobedience is death. Now, you might realize that when I began to read this chapter, I emphasized certain words.

You might have thought I had a speech impediment or something, but I was emphasizing those words on purpose. And those words were, like verse 1, where Moses says, listen to the words of God and do them. And then verse 5 he says, he says, do them. And in verse 2 he says, keep my commandments, keep the commandments of God. Keep them and do them in verse 6.

Teach them to your children in verse 10. Do them in verse 14. That's just to name a few in this chapter, but you get the picture. This chapter emphasizes God has spoken and his word is life and if you choose life you will obey the word of God. That's what Moses is imploring the people throughout the book of Deuteronomy.

Obey the word of God. Seek him for who he is. Trust in Him and bring obedience to your heart, so you can bend your knee to this God and what He has spoken. Do not veer to the left and do not veer to the right, because God's Word is life. Actually, in Deuteronomy chapter 32, towards the end of this book, listen to what Moses says.

He says, take heart all the words by which I am warning you today. that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law, for it is no empty word for you. It is but your very life. But your very life. And by this word, you shall live long in the land that you are going over to the Jordan to possess.

Obey the word of Yahweh, because this is your very life. God is a God who has spoken. As I said earlier, the only rightful response by His creatures is one of obedience to His commands. Life depends on it. Life is bestowed.

Life is sustained through the Word of God. You might be thinking of 2 Timothy 3.16. All Scripture is God-breathed. It's the breath of God.

comes from the being of God. The one who is the source and the substance of life is the one who spoke his word. And you might see that the breath of God is the very thing that brought life to Adam in the garden. You remember, God breathed upon him. Or you might think of the breath of God when in Ezekiel chapter 37, the Valley of Dead Dry Bones, you might remember where God said, look, son of man, you've got these dead bones that are dry.

And he says, prophesy to them. Speak the word of God to them. And then God's breath comes through the word of God and raises those bones into a mighty army. The word of God carries with it. It communicates life.

Apart from His Word, there is no life. And this is the crux of the matter. What sort of obedience to His Word does he demand? If you cannot live apart from obedience to the Word of God, then what sort of obedience does God demand? Is it partial obedience?

Or is it full of meanings? Nothing short of perfection will enter into His presence. You break on one of His commands, on one of His words, and you have sinned. And the Bible teaches us that the soul that sins shall die. That's the standard.

Perfection, a single sin, a violation of one of the commands, one of the statutes, one of the precepts of the Word of God will bring forth death. And we've always said that the things of old will point to the more spiritual fulfillment of the new that is found in Jesus Christ. We've said that over and over again. So let me ask you this question. How did Israel Here you have Moses imploring the people there at the base, at the plains of Moab.

He's imploring them to obey him. He's already shown them the faithfulness of God. And he says, look, now by faith in this great God who speaks, you need to obey or these curses will come upon you. We know the rest of the story. So let me ask you, how did they go?

How did Israel go with their obedience to the word of God? Or did Moses prophesy correctly when he said in verse 27, otherwise they will be destroyed and only a small remnant will remain, only because God is faithful. So let me ask you another question. How did Moses go with obeying the word of God? perfectly as God would command for him to obey.

We looked at this last week. In verse 22 he says, I must die on this side. He was not allowed to go into the promised land because he disobeyed. God said speak and Moses struck. So let me ask you a third question.

How are you going with obedience to the word of God? You know what? If it was dependent upon your obedience, then you would be in the same state that I'm in, we would be under the air of destruction that we are worthy of as sinners. But beloved, this passage and throughout the old and the new were taught over and over again, that life comes through perfect obedience to the word of God and you and I are unable to obey in that way. We are absolutely unable to obey in that way, but there is one who has.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. I love that. that the incarnate Word of God will become flesh, that the eternal, my apologies, Word of God will become incarnate, will become flesh, to dwell among the people of His own creation in order to fully and completely and faultlessly obey the law and the statutes and the precepts, the Word of God, to absolute perfection, so that those who trust in the incarnate Word of God will be treated as though they are perfectly obedient to God. Beloved, it is incredible news to us to know that it is not by our obedience that we are saved. It is not by our obedience that we enjoy life and eternal life.

It is by the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ whereby by faith in Him, by faith in Him, we are deemed before God as innocent. as perfect, just as the Son is perfect. And He creates in us a desire. He creates in us a longing to obey. We can't do it on our own, but if we have come to trust in Him in this way, He has given us of His Holy Spirit, and His Holy Spirit is the one who empowers us to look to God's Word and to obey with the obedience that He empowers us to.

God has spoken. Perfect obedience is required. We have not. No man has obeyed in that way. But Christ has.

So those who come to trust in Him will enjoy life. There is life in no one else. And that's why our Lord is able to say, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father but by me. Let's pray.