Opening illustration: Roland Allen tells about a veteran missionary who came up to him one day after he had delivered his sermon. The missionary introduced himself and said, "I was a medical missionary for many years in India. And I served in a region where there was progressive blindness. People were born with healthy vision, but there was something in that area that caused people to lose their sight as they matured."
But this missionary had developed a process which would arrest progressive blindness. So people came to him, and he performed his operation. They would leave realizing that they had been spared a life of blindness because of this missionary.
He said that they never said, "Thank you," because that phrase was not in their dialect. Instead, they spoke a word that meant, "I will tell your name." Wherever they went, they would tell the name of the missionary who had cured their blindness. They had received something so wonderful that they never forgot to eagerly proclaim it wherever they went.
Introduction: Moses directs to the duty of a prosperous condition. Let them always remember their Benefactor. In everything we must give thanks. Moses arms them against the temptations of a prosperous condition. When men possess large estates, or are engaged in profitable business, they find the temptation to pride, forgetfulness of God, and carnal-mindedness, very strong; and they are anxious and troubled about many things. In this the believing poor have the advantage; they more easily perceive their supplies coming from the Lord in answer to the prayer of faith; and, strange as it may seem, they find less difficulty in simply trusting him for daily bread. They taste sweetness therein, which is generally unknown to the rich, while they are also freed from many of their temptations. Forget not God’s former dealings with thee. Here is the great secret of Divine Providence. Infinite wisdom and goodness are the source of all the changes and trials believers’ experience. Israel had many bitter trials, but it was “to do them good.” Pride is natural to the human heart. Would one suppose that such a people, after their slavery at the brick-kilns, should need the thorns of the wilderness to humble them? But such is man! And they were proved that they might be humbled. None of us live a single week without giving proofs of our weakness, folly, and depravity. To broken-hearted souls alone the Savior is precious indeed. Nothing can render the most suitable outward and inward trials effectual, but the power of the Spirit of God. See here how God’s giving and our getting are reconciled, and apply it to spiritual wealth. All God’s gifts are in pursuance of his promises. Moses repeats the warning he had often given of the fatal consequences of forsaking God. Those who follow others in sin will follow them to destruction. If we do as sinners do, we must expect to fare as sinners fare.
What should we NEVER FORGET? (How can we NEVER FORGET GOD?)
1. God’s Commandments (Deut. 8: 11; Psalm 119: 108, 153, 176; Proverbs 3: 1)
Demands, orders and instructions ~ The commandments of God are sometimes called “patterns.” In other words, commandments are more than rules; they are the patterns of living that God follows. By living God’s commandments we can become in His likeness. God has the right to give us commandments because we are his children and subject to him. Because God’s commandments are his patterns of moral conduct, God gives us commandments as an act of love not because He is mad with us but to protect us. God’s commandments are designed to help us to become like him and experience the level of joy that God experiences. Living the commandments of God always leads to happiness, progression and liberty; disobeying commandments always leads to misery, regression and captivity. The challenge in understanding and living God’s commandments is to dig deeply enough to discover the reason for the commandments and to discover our loving relationship with Him.
Jesus summarized God’s Ten Commandments in two principles —
• Love God
• Love our fellow men:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matthew 22: 37-39)
Love, therefore, not rule, is the underlying principle of all commandments including God’s Ten Commandments.
2. God’s Judgments (Deut. 8: 11)
Rulings, verdicts and sentences ~ Is the judgment of God an outdated concept? After all, you don’t hear the vast majority of Christians talking about it anymore. You certainly don’t hear about it from most of today’s television or radio preachers. Mostly they seem to be concerned about "living your best life now" and getting as many "blessings" as possible now without preparing for eternity.
So is the idea of an all-knowing, all-powerful God that will ultimately judge all of humanity a concept that society is now moving past? Certainly atheists, skeptics and other critics of traditional Christianity point to a "judgmental, wrathful god" as one of the most objectionable points of the Christian faith.
Would a loving God pass judgment on someone? Would a loving God punish someone?
These are some pretty heavy questions to think about. So let’s think about them for a bit.
First of all, I would like you to imagine a scenario with me.....
Imagine a society where the police always caught the criminals. But after catching the criminals, the justice system of that particular society lets those criminals go every single time with absolutely no punishment for their crimes.
What kind of society would that be? Would that be a just society? Would that be a fair society?
What would it be like for criminals and murderers and rapists and child molesters to be running around knowing that even if they did get caught there will never, ever be any penalty for any of the crimes they are committing?
Would that be a society that you would want to live in? What would you call a justice system that had results like that?
Even though justice in our current society is far from perfect, at least there is an attempt to catch criminals and bring them to justice. But you know what?
A large percentage of Christians in America today believe that God is just like that justice system that never, ever punishes the criminals.
Today many Christians believe that God would never punish anyone for anything. After all, "judgment" was an "Old Testament" thing, right? Absolutely wrong.
The truth is that God is a God of perfect love AND of perfect justice, and according to the Bible the judgment of God is very real.
In 2 Timothy 4: 1, the apostle Paul tells us that God will judge the inhabitants of this world: “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead.”
In 1 Peter 4: 5, the apostle Peter echoes the same sentiments: “But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”
Let us not forget God’s judgment of the world during the great flood (Noah’s time) and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah … so that we would stay on the Godly path.
God is delaying His judgment so that many will repent and be saved in Christ Jesus. (2 Peter 3: 9)
3. God’s Statutes (Deut. 8: 11; Psalm 119: 83)
Acts, laws and bills ~ The Laws of the Old Testament were set as an everlasting covenant between God and His people. There are both conditional and unconditional aspects to God’s covenants with His people. It is written in Genesis 17 that God originally gave this covenant to a godly man, Abraham. That unconditional covenant promises Abraham that he will be the father of many nations, in which kings shall come out of him, and in verse 7 it says, "I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." The key word here is everlasting. Abraham is reminded of this unconditional covenant again in verse 19: "And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac; and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him" (Genesis 17: 19).
What exactly is a covenant? It is an agreement between 2 or more parties. There are responsibilities on both parts to keeping an agreement. God’s covenant with his people, the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and his son, Jacob/Israel is that he shall be our God and will give us the conditional blessings of being His special people, provided we keep up our end of the agreement; and that is to obey His voice, including the keeping of the laws that He has given us.
Now, some Christians, and indeed many false teachers, have said that the entire Old Covenant has been replaced by the sacrifice of Jesus. But, one very important thing to keep in mind here is that Jesus said, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” (Matthew 5: 17-18). Not one jot or tittle shall pass from the law. The sacrifice of Jesus was a new covenant, but that new Covenant was to replace ONLY the sacrificial laws, because Jesus died as the ultimate sacrifice for our atonement. In other words, the blood of the New Covenant, our Kinsman Redeemer, replaced the sacrificial laws of the Old Covenant.
So, with that being said, let’s talk a little about the consequences of failing to keep our part of the Covenant. Failure to keep the laws is called sin. Sin is the transgression of the law. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6: 23). Now do we really die when we sin? Maybe not right away, but then, no one is immortal, are they? Sin started with Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were immortal before they sinned. What happened after they sinned? There was sorrow, pain, banishment from the paradise given them, and ... they were no longer immortal. The wages of sin is death. And we all sin, hence we all die.
We must not forget that everything good or evil has consequences. Some things have greater consequences than others depending on the intensity and magnitude of the issue.
(A) Blessings with remembrance (Deut. 8: 18)
(i) Power to acquire wealth (Example of Israel and our nation)
Who among the rich and wealthy believes this saying? Who gives wisdom, understanding, skill, bodily strength, and health? Is it not God? And without these, how can wealth be acquired? Whose is providence? Who gives fertility to the earth? And who brings every proper purpose to a right issue? Is it not God? And without these also can wealth be acquired? No. Then the proposition in the text is self-evident: it is God that giveth power to get wealth, and to God the wealthy man must account for the manner in which he has expended the riches which God hath given him.
(B) Consequences for forgetting God and His ordinances (Deut. 8: 17, 19-20)
(i) Destruction & Perish (Example of Israel and has already begun with our nation)
To strengthen his admonition, Moses pointed again in conclusion, as he had already done in Deut. 6: 14 (cf. Deut. 4: 25), to the destruction which would come upon Israel through apostasy from its God.
Application: Is God missing in action (MIA) in our lives and the life of our nation? For the consequences we face individually and corporately talks about whether we have forgotten Him or not.
Let us not be individuals or a nation who have forgotten their creator and sustainer by disregarding God’s commandments, judgments and statutes. This NEON sign in Deuteronomy was not only a warning for the Israelites but is also a warning for us all and also for our nation. If we are on that road to forget God and His benefits, the repercussions are going to be enormous and making that change right now can get us back on track before it is too late.
