“Following God’s Law” Deuteronomy 4:1-14 February 7, 2010

SI: We’re studying the book of Deuteronomy.

The name Deuteronomy means a second giving of the law.

The Israelites were standing on the brink of the Promised Land.

They were about to cross the Jordan River

and take possession of the land promised to Abraham.

God told Moses to give them the law a second time.

So they would know how he wanted them to live in the Promised Land.

Moses began by reminding them of the history of God’s grace.

How he had saved them out of Egypt

and had been faithful to all the promises he had made.

In our reading this morning, Moses gets them ready to hear the Law of God

by explaining to them the purpose of the law in the life of the believer.

INTRO: When I was in seminary I remember an argument some students

got into about a preaching class we were taking.

The class dealt with techniques of public speaking. Rules of public speaking.

One student was very bothered by the class.

He said: What do these techniques have to do with preaching the Gospel?

We should study the word of God and preach from the heart.

Another student said, These are good tools and there is nothing wrong with them.

If you believe your message is important, you should use speaking techniques

to get your point across more effectively.

The other student said, No, there’s too much of a danger of misuse—

they’re artificial and manipulative.

So the student who was defending the class said:

Suppose you wanted to give your wife a great birthday because love her.

But, you don’t have any good ideas. You aren’t very creative.

You are in a bookstore and see a book “100 Birthday Surprises for Your Wife.”

So you buy the book, circle some ideas, do those for your wife, and she loves it!

Is there anything wrong with that?

Other student thought about it for a moment and said: Only if she finds the book!

You see what these seminary students were arguing about.

Does effective preaching depend on the use of rules

or is it a matter of preaching from the heart?

If you use rules and techniques, you might stop relying on the Holy Spirit.

Your sermons might be polished and pretty, but not be Spirit-filled.

On the other hand, if you say that you are going to be led by the Spirit,

give little attention to the rules of speaking and become an ineffective rambler.

It’s obviously both, but how do you stay balanced?

There is a similar tension in the Christian life regarding the law of God.

As a Christian, are you to follow the law of God or are you to follow your heart?

If your heart is in love with Jesus, if the Holy Spirit is within you.

If you love God with all you heart, soul, strength, and mind,

doesn’t it make sense to follow your heart as the Spirit guides you?

St. Augustine said: “Love God and do as you please.”

But we all know the problems that Christians get into when they

say they are going to follow their hearts instead of the plain words of God’s law.

We’ve all heard Christians baptize foolish and immoral decisions by saying,

my heart tells me, or I’ve prayed about it.

The heart is a master at self-deception and self-justification.

Obviously there is no real contradiction between a heart that loves God and

the requirement to follow the law of God in Scripture.

Jesus said if you love me, you will do what I command.

He said he did not come to do away with one jot or tiddle of the law.

The Psalmist says: “Oh, how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day.”

The Ten Commandments themselves quoted a dozen places in New Testament.

But we all know that an emphasis on law-keeping can have its own problems.

It can feed a spirit of self-righteousness that takes people far from Christ.

Ephesian church was one of the most law-keeping churches in terms of doctrine

and morality. The Lord praised them for that.

But do you remember what he said next?

“But I have this against you: You have forsaken your first love.”

This is an area of Christian life in which devil continually trying to sow confusion:

What place does law-keeping have in the Christian life?

What does it accomplish?

Does it save you? Does it keep you saved? Does it matter at all?

Individuals and churches have a tendency fall off on one side or the other—

To put the wrong emphasis on law, or to disregard it.

So before Moses gives the Israelites the law a second time,

for this new generation, he wants them to get this straight in their minds.

He tells them numerous times to follow God’s law, to keep God’s law.

But in telling them Moses is also very careful to put the law in the right place.

This passage shows us two things:

1. The wrong reasons for keeping God’s law.

2. The right reasons for keeping God’s law.

To live as a biblical Christian, you have to keep these straight.

Let’s look at each.

MP#1 The wrong reasons for keeping God’s law

There are three: To get in, to stay in, and to buy in.

First wrong reason for keeping God’s law is to get in, to get into heaven.

The name for this thinking is legalism.

It’s the belief that you are saved by obeying the law. By being a good person.

My status before God is determined by the way I live my life.

I’m certain all of you know that law-keeping doesn’t save.

But we need to hear it said sometimes because it’s the default setting of the heart.

We are all born with the instinctive belief that being good gets you in.

Ask most people if they are going to heaven and they will say yes.

Ask them why and they will say because they’ve been a good person.

This is such a natural way of thinking that it is always seeping into the church.

We see legalism in the Old Testament church—prophets fought it.

You think you are saved by coming to the Temple and offering sacrifices.

Jesus dealt with the legalism of the Pharisees.

And Paul fought it in several churches—especially in the Galatian church

where some were saying you had to trust Christ and be circumcised to be saved.

That’s legalism in its Christian form. Doesn’t deny the necessity of faith in Christ.

But it says that it’s faith plus obedience to the law.

Usually there is a list, or some particular laws chosen that must be followed.

Keeping these is the determining factor of whether or not you are a real Christian.

Tim Keller points out that legalistic conservative churches

and legalistic liberal churches end up with the very same message—

Jesus Christ plus your good deeds.

It’s just that the good deeds are different.

In conservative churches they are sexual morality and avoiding worldliness.

In liberal churches they are social activism and environmental concern.

So churches across the theological spectrum are capable of adding to Gospel.

Moses pushes back against this, throughout Deuteronomy.

He makes it clear that the obedience the Israelites are to give God is not for the

purpose of making them God’s children. They are already his children.

They owe him obedience because they are already in.

You get in through God’s grace alone.

The second wrong reason for keeping God’s law is to stay in.

I said a moment ago that I don’t think any of you in this church

believe you have to keep the law to get in.

But I’m sure that there are some of you, myself included,

who have at times felt that you have to keep the law to stay in.

That you have to keep the law to stay in God’s good graces.

You have to keep walking the straight and narrow or you lose salvation.

I’ve been a Calvinist all my life. I believe in the perseverance of the saints.

I believe in eternal security of believers, that we can’t lose our salvation.

But there have been times I have very strongly felt that I was going to lose mine.

And many times, I’m ashamed to say, I responded to that feeling of

worry about my soul by trying to keep the law more diligently.

But it doesn’t work. The more you try to keep God’s law to stay in,

the more that very law exposes your sin and your inability to keep it.

The greater your guilt becomes. More you realize you can’t keep yourself in.

Last Saturday I attempted to do some minor plumbing in the bathroom.

At one point I thought the water was off, unscrewed something and blast

of water hit me in the chest and some little parts from the faucet fell out.

I didn’t know what to do and I thought about going to Lowes and buying

a do-it-yourself plumbing book that I had seen there.

But then I thought. That’s crazy. If I have a book to follow I’ll dig a deeper hole.

Instead of tearing up the faucet, there is no telling what damage I’ll do.

So I resigned myself to calling a plumber. Allison was delighted.

If you turn to the law of God to try to stay in—the law of God will eat you alive.

It will expose more of your faults and guilt.

Bible tells you it’s not just actions, it’s thoughts too—

If you hate someone in your heart you’ve murdered.

If you lust after someone, you’ve committed adultery.

Not just thoughts—even matter of motive—Love God with all heart.

“All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone

who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

If you rely on law to stay in, you will soon realize you can’t do everything written.

You will dig a hole of helpless despair or give up.

That’s why, once again, you need God’s grace.

God’s grace gets you in and keeps you in.

Third wrong reason for keeping God’s law is to buy in.

What I mean by that is that many people, many Christians even,

think that they can earn the good things they want by keeping God’s law.

They would never say that they believe keeping the law saves them.

They would affirm that salvation is by grace alone.

But when it comes to the good things of life,

they think they can buy into God’s blessings by obeying the law.

Maybe it’s a matter of finances or marriage or health.

The thought is, If I obey, God will have to respond and make things right.

We once knew a couple who had a series of miscarriages. Professing Christians.

They told us that they had never tithed. But they had started tithing because

they though God would see their obedience and give them a baby.

What do you say to someone like that?

Donald Barnhouse, famous pastor of 10^th Presbyterian in Philadelphia

was speaking at a conference on the topic of prayer.

A man said: I’m living an obedient life. Why hasn’t God answered my prayer?

Barnhouse said: Because you don’t pray in Jesus’ name.

Man said: Of course I do. After every prayer I say: In Jesus’ name. Amen.

No, Barnhouse said, you’re praying in your own name.

You believe that God owes it to you because of your obedience.

Go home and repent of trying to manipulate God by your good works.

What about you? Why do you obey God’s law?

Let me ask you some diagnostic questions:

Are you critical of other people? Do you enjoy their moral and relational failures?

Behind that criticism and self-righteousness is a reliance on law-keeping.

You think your obedience and morality has secured your status with God,

and your criticisms of other people is the way you affirm that.

Not only will that make you prideful, you will be devastated when you fail.

Repent of your law-keeping and accept God’s grace.

Do you struggle with anger or despondency because of things missing in your life?

Behind both problem emotions is a denial of grace and reliance on law-keeping. Both come from the belief that God owes you for your obedience.

You’re angry because you think you’ve done good and God owes you.

You’re despondent because know haven’t lived up, but think it’s still up to you

to pull it together so that God will bless you.

Many of the pathologies of the soul that Christians suffer from come from

keeping God’s law for the wrong reasons.

Anger, despondency, touchiness, shame—trace them back and behind them

is often the belief that if I do good, then God owes me.

The answer is not to downplay the law of God, or say that we need to live

from the heart or something like that. God’s law is good. We are to keep it.

And if we keep it for the right reasons, it becomes a huge blessing.

So let’s consider now . . .

MP#2 The right reasons for keeping God’s law

First, you should keep God’s law in order to enjoy the blessings of obedience.

It might sound like I’m contradicting myself.

I just said that it’s wrong to keep the law to try to get things from God.

Or to think that God owes it to you to work things out in a certain way.

But we’re not talking about earning or demanding.

The Bible says that there are blessings that follow obedience.

And the Bible often motivates Christians to obey God’s law for that very reason.

In fact, that’s the first thing that Moses tells the Israelites.

He says I’m teaching you the law of God

so that things will go well with you in the Promised Land.

Follow God’s law and you will become such a wise and understanding and

blessed people that you will be the envy of the nations all around.

Will say of Israel, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

And then Moses goes on to say, Aren’t God’s laws great?

“What other people have such righteous decrees and laws as we do?”

None. Because none have a God who is as close to us as our God, the Lord.

In other words, God did not just choose some arbitrary laws to impose on us.

Instead, His laws reflect the way He has made us.

His law is the way for us to live happily and safely.

If you buy a new car you will find the owner’s manual in the glove compartment.

If you operate the car according to those instructions, you will get many years.

But if you break those rules. If you hitch up a plow and use it as a tractor,

it will soon be a useless pile of junk.

The law of God is our heavenly Father’s owner’s manual for human life.

If you want a full and rich life, live by God’s law.

If you are truthful, generous, loving, faithful. There will be blessings.

If you lie, steal, indifferent, unfaithful. There will be curses.

There are laws God has established to govern nature, laws to govern morals.

There is not a single commandment of God that will not enrich your life

if you obey it.

So the best thing for you to do is to keep all of God’s commandments

with care and attention to detail—the laws governing your time, your money.

your relationships, your responsibilities in the church, and in your family,

and to your neighbor.

Every command is a path to God’s best for you.

There are some of you whose lives are a shadow of what they could be for God,

and for other people, and for yourself because you aren’t keeping God’s law.

You think you know better than your heavenly Father what you ought to do.

You are being very foolish. Your life could be so much better.

You ought to love God’s law. You ought to think of it as his fatherly counsel.

Just like the counsel you give your children when you sit down with them

and tell them how to live if they want to be happy and holy.

This is the Bible’s teaching about the law of God in the Christian life.

It’s a gift of God’s love to his children whom he has saved by grace.

You ought to keep it because in doing so, you will be blessed.

And there is another big reason you should keep God’s law and that is

to show your gratitude to him for his grace.

When Moses talks about the law, he makes it clear over and over that the obedience

the Israelites are to give God is not for the purpose of making them God’s

children. They are already his children.

They owe obedience to God because he’s already saved them.

They owe it to him because they are already in.

He refers to the law as the commands of the Lord your God.

It’s not that he will be their God after they obey.

They were his people before he gave them the law.

In verse 7 Moses refers to the way that the Lord is near his people

to hear and answer their prayers. And in verse 10 how he gave them the

Ten Commandments at Mount Horeb after he had saved them from Egypt.

That’s always the order of the Christian life. It’s grace and relationship first.

And then, after that is established, you have the law to keep.

Parents, you don’t tell your children that if they obey you, then you will let them

become a part of your family and they will become your children.

No, you tell them that they must obey you because they are your children,

and it is right for children to obey their parents.

Deuteronomy is a book of grace.

It’s the saving work of God through Christ pre-figured in the Old Testament.

When Jesus Christ saves you from the curse of the law He draws you into the

deepest possible obligation of gratitude to Him.

And your gratitude and love is expressed in obedience to God’s law.

This is the way Jesus put it:

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

Where do you need love Christ more?

Where do you need to obey his law more carefully and diligently?

Maybe his laws about money and giving?

He has many commands about money. Don’t love money.

Be content with what you have. Give generously and cheerfully.

Maybe his laws about rearing your children?

He commands you to talk to your children about the faith.

To pray with them. To read them the Scriptures. Bring up in nurture of Lord.

Are you obeying those commands or forgetting them and letting years go?

Maybe it’s Jesus commands about marriage or forgiving your enemies

or guarding your tongue. All of us have different weaknesses and challenges.

Those places you struggle are where you can show your love for Jesus the most.

It is entirely possible to keep the letter of the law and not love Jesus as you should.

Love for Jesus is much more than just keeping God’s law—

it is having a heart that is completely committed to Him,

filled with gratitude and wonder that He has saved you and forgiven sins.

But even though love for Jesus is much more than just keeping God’s law—

it is never less.

In fact, the greater your love, the more you will desire to conform your life

in every way to God’s moral law.

Say with Psalmist, “Oh how I love your law. I meditate on it all day long.”

CONC: There is a poem about the law and the Gospel

written by the old Scottish Presbyterian Ralph Erskine.

“When once the fiery law of God

Has chased us to the Gospel road;

Then back unto the holy law

Most kindly Gospel grace will draw.”

He’s saying that first God’s law is like fire. It shows us our guilt.

It shows us hell and wrath. And that chases us to the Gospel.

Chases us to Christ for forgiveness and grace.

But what then happens? Do we forget the law? Are we done with it?

Not at all. After we are saved, the Gospel kindly draws us back to the law.

Why does it draw us back? Because it’s through the law that we express

our love for God as his sons and daughters, and our gratitude to Christ

for his great salvation.

The precepts of the law me show

What fruits of gratitude I owe . . .