HEAR TO DO GOD’S WORD
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8 September 1, 2002
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8
1 Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.
6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." 7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
Each one of us values the senses that we have—taste, sight, smell and hearing. Scripture reminds us that without the sense of hearing, you and I would almost be lost. The Lord reminds us that ‘faith comes by hearing the message and the message is the word of God.’ Hearing God’s message is only just the beginning. It is the very first beginning of our faith worked in our hearts by God’s powerful word. This morning we’re reminded of hearing and doing God’s word.
In the New Testament, Jesus gave us the account of two people. One built his house upon the sand. With a foundation like that, when the storms came and the winds blew, the house came down with a great crash. Then he tells of the person who built his house on solid rock. It had a rock solid foundation and the winds came, the storm blew and it stood. In the conclusion of the matter, Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (MATTHEW 7:24) That’s what we’re going to build on this morning. We will build on that solid foundation of the word of God, which is our sure foundation. We are here to hear, aren’t we? Here to hear to do God’s word.
HEAR TO DO GOD’S WORD
I. Not adding nor subtracting to it
II. But appreciating God’s wisdom
I. Not adding nor subtracting to it
Moses is speaking to the children of Israel. They are getting ever closer to the time when they are going to go into the Promised Land. He knows that when they’re in the Promised Land, they are going to have many things to distract them from God and His Word. Maybe they will even forget about God and His Word. You and I know that in the history of the children of Israel, they did just that. They turned to other gods.
Moses comes to them and says: Pay attention—pay attention to what the Lord God is telling you. Our text begins by saying, ‘Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you.’ He wanted them to remember the commandments that God had given them. In the first four chapters of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses gives a brief history of the children of Israel. He tells them time and time again how God was faithful to His promises to them. Then he has to remind them sadly how time and again the people were unfaithful to God and His promises.
Now he says to them, ‘Listen, children of Israel. Here are the laws and decrees. They are there for a purpose. They are there that you might appreciate God’s wisdom.’ He goes on: ‘Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.’ He didn’t give them the commands, the laws and the decrees just to give them. He gave them as guidance for them and direction. Moses reminds his people to follow them. He tells them why. They are going to be a benefit for you as you live in the Promised Land. He reminds them that it is the God who made this promise to their fathers who is giving these laws to them. Now they are going to enter into that Promised Land. We call it the Promised Land because God had promised it to their forefathers—Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Now the people were going to enter there, and God says, ‘Here are my laws’. They are important, they are valuable. They are so important and so valuable, He gives them these directions, ‘Do not add to what I command you, and do not subtract from it.’ God’s commands are good enough there is nothing more to add. God’s laws are good enough we don’t want to take anything away from it. This, Moses says to the people of Israel as they are about to enter that Promised Land. He says do not add to it, do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.
God in His wisdom gave the people of Israel the Ten Commandments. Before that time, the law had been written in man’s heart, in his conscience. We remember Moses going up on the mountain and coming back with the Ten Commandments so that they would have them written down for them. Yet in that short time, from the time they had gotten the commandments and in less than one generation before they got to the Promised Land, they broke them time and again. They forsook God. In fact, when Moses came down the mountain the first time, what happened? He found the children of Israel worshipping false gods already. In the short time Moses had been visiting with God on top of the mount, Aaron and the children of Israel created the golden calf from gold. In anger, Moses broke those first tablets of stone.
Now, you and I are removed many generations, not just one generation from that giving of the law, that writing of God’s commandments on the tablets of stone. We come to the natural conclusion that certainly in between those generations, we might be tempted to add to what God says. We might be tempted to subtract from it, thinking we know a little bit more than God Himself. Isn’t that the society in which we live? People, in reality, have put themselves in the place of God. They think they can determine their own destiny. They are the masters of their own fate. They add to what God’s word has to say. It’s an age-old problem. We heard a little bit of it in our first lesson this morning…Jeremiah, wondering about the people, if they were ever going to listen. Wondering about God’s people, if they were hearing what God had to say. That will always be a question to the very end of time. Will God’s people listen and do God’s word? “To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the LORD is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it.” (JEREMIAH 6:10)
In our day and age, we find many who close their ears. They shut off their hearing to that precious word of God that gives eternal life. Yet you and I know as we gather together today, that that is not the reason that God gave His word, that people might reject it. God wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. God wants His word preached so that hearing that message might save some. Yet man, in his sinful nature and his stubborn will, turn against God. God has chosen something special for each one of us; He has chosen eternal life. Man, in his stubborn willingness, has chosen for himself destruction. A person who is lost for eternity makes that choice for himself. A person who is saved for eternity, God has made that choice for him. Why do people turn away from God’s word? Why do they reject what God has to say? It doesn’t seem that important sometimes; it’s just an old book. The Lord says that’s part of peoples’ sinful nature. From the book of Acts we read: “For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.” (ACTS 28:27) Even though mankind would try to reject God and His word, He still invites them, still wants them to come to Him and find salvation.
It might not seem that important that some might add to God’s word or they might subtract from God’s word. Yet when we come to the end of the Bible to the book of Revelation in the last chapter, the Lord says ‘Woe to those who subtract from God’s word. Woe to those who add to God’s word.’ He says those who add to God’s word will be added to their punishment in eternity. There are churches that add to God’s word. It doesn’t make sense, so their human reason adds to God’s word what makes sense for them or they subtract from it. What does the Lord warn us about here? In Revelation He says: “And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” (REVELATION 22:19)
The Lord warns us not to add to it or subtract from it. He tells us instead to do God’s word, not adding or subtracting from it, but appreciating God’s wisdom.
II. Appreciating God’s wisdom
That is what Moses wants to remind the people of as he reminds us this morning. God in His wisdom gave all of His word that you and I might believe for generations to come. In verse 6: 6 Observe them carefully. In the original it says more than observe. It says listen to that word and keep that word or do that word. ‘Observe that word’ meaning for the children of Israel not just to hear it and say, ‘Oh, yes, that’s Moses speaking or Joshua just says those things,’ but to hear them and keep them. Then they would share their wisdom and understanding, not just among themselves or for themselves, but ‘for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."’ Remember the children of Israel were going to the Promised Land, a land that already had people living in it. They would drive most of them out. Some would stay. Other nations would see the children of Israel, who followed these laws and decrees, were a nation of wisdom and understanding.
There would be a testimony to God’s wisdom and understanding because of the laws He had given them. 8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today? Other nations who didn’t have any law and order would find that Israel’s laws and their order was part of God’s wisdom again. He calls them righteous decrees and laws. He also says that they would recognize that God was close to them.
‘7What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them’…the unbelieving nations talk about multitudes of gods. We know it’s just one God. 7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? Moses reminded the people that of the foreign nations that were among them and their false gods who were far off couldn’t help them. Here was the Lord God Almighty who had given them the commandments and was near to them whenever they would call on Him.
This is the same Lord God who is our God today. He’s not a God who is far off, but He’s a God that is near each one of us. In fact, in the New Testament, the Lord God reminds us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. God dwells within us because of and by faith. Imagine that! Christ is a part of our lives. The psalm-writer reminds us: “The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth” (PSALM 145:18) Just like Moses said, He’s near to each one of us when we pray to Him or turn to Him, and He’s never far from each of us, even though we might forget that from time to time. We appreciate God’s wisdom, His word that reminds us of His closeness.
How close is He? He’s as close to us as the Word, which reminds us that you and I, even though we are sinners who ought to be condemned to hell, are saints who are saved by the precious blood of Christ. We are sinners as God’s word proclaims by His law, but we are believers who are saved by God’s gospel as He proclaims it. Through Christ’s blood we have redemption and forgiveness of sins. How close is the Lord? He’s near to us in His very body and blood when He says in the bread and wine, ‘This is my body, this is my blood.’ That’s God’s wisdom that is His word that you and I appreciate and cherish. Listen to what Paul says: “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.” (1 CORINTHIANS 1:30) The Lord is our holiness, righteousness and redemption…and God’s wisdom. Because of this, our lives are changed, aren’t they?
We live in a world that is darkened by sin. We live in a world that as you turn on the television, seems to have gone wild. There’s nothing normal about being normal anymore. How sad that is. In a sense, you and I lead protected and sheltered lives by not being so much in the mainstream of the big suburban lives that makes people wonder. As such, we still are reminded to be shining lights in this sin-darkened world. You and I by hearing God’s word enjoy the precious blessing of knowing there is a future and a hope for us. In this world that lives the way it wants to live, where it places man in the place of God, many only find disappointment and sadness. They find despair. When something bad happens or when their plans don’t work out, they have no place to turn to and no one to help them except themselves. They always fall short. You and I have the Lord on our side. We know that no matter what happens in this life, it is for our good. It is according to God’s purpose, and thus we can look at the future in the eye with boldness and confidence and be shining examples. Paul writes to the Philippians and he reminds us this morning: “That you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.” (PHILIPPIANS 2:15) First of all, he calls us His children. That gives us reason to shine like stars because we are God’s children. By hearing God’s word, we want to do God’s word. We’d be lost without listening as God has determined ‘It is by the foolishness of what is preached that we would be saved.’(1 CORINTHIANS 1:21b) Not that preaching is foolishness, but the fact is that many wouldn’t find power in listening to God’s word. By listening to God’s word, it is planted in our hearts. As it is planted in our hearts, it grows, springs up and bears fruit…fruit that will last for eternity
We build our faith on the solid rock of the foundation of Christ. Not only do we build our faith on that, we build our lives on that as we realize we are to do God’s word. There’s nothing to add or subtract. We simply can appreciate God’s wisdom and enjoy His blessings.
What does He say about His commands? “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” (1 JOHN 5:3,4) God has given us faith, that we would not add nor subtract from His word, but appreciate the wisdom of His decrees for our life, for eternity. Amen.
Pastor Timm O Meyer
