Good morning, oh, it's loud, scared me a little bit. We are still camped at chapter 4 of Deuteronomy, it's a long chapter, we've seen from verses 1 through 14 where we talked about a call to obey, we talked about what obedience looks like, and then last week, Eric preached a wonderful sermon on worship, reminding us that we are made, we are called by God, to worship Him, and to enjoy Him forever. And so Moses continues to write to his people, reminding them of who God is, and that's what we're going to pick up this morning from verses 32 of Deuteronomy, chapter 4. So I'll ask if you're able to stand, please do so so that we may honor the reading of God's Holy Word. So ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on 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 tempted to go and take a nation for Himself from the midst of another nation by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, a mighty hand, and an outstretched tom, 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 lets you hear His voice, that He might discipline you, and on earth, He 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 the nation's greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for inheritance as it is this day, know therefore today and lay 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 commandments, which I command you today, that they 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. Father, we are greatly humbled by you that you will choose to know us, that you will choose to reveal yourself through these pages that we just read this morning. What a wonderful privilege it is for us to be known by you. And now, Lord, as we consider your word, we ask that you may help us to know you even more. Illumin your words this morning, that we may truly hear the things that you are speaking to us. And this in Christ's name, amen. Please be seated. I don't know about you, but have you ever had your five seconds of fame yet? If you haven't, I hope you do get to have your five seconds or ten seconds of fame. You see, mine came a while ago, about seven, eight years ago. Most of you know that my all-time favorite Christian artist is Michael Card. That man I love dearly. So I had the opportunity to go see him at concert in Seabring, Florida, with my friends, and after the concert, I was a little disappointed because he disappeared, he never let anybody applaud him. But I stuck around at the church afterwards, and he actually came out after everybody had gone, and I was able to shake his hand, we were able to sit down and talk for close to and now. It was just the best thing ever. But you know, something special happened, you know, they said that friendship is not official until you invite it to be friends on Facebook, right? So soon after that, Michael Card invited me to be his buddy on Facebook, so he became legitimate that we were actually friends. A year after, Michael Card shows up at Reform Theological Seminary in Orlando for a talk. And I walk into the library to buy one of his CDs so that he can sign for me, and he sees me and says, hey, Josiah, how you doing? And of course, I got all the looks from other people thinking, how does this Kenan guy get to know Michael Card? And they're on first term, you know, first name basis, but that was not my five seconds of fame, my five seconds of fame came as he made his introductory words before his speech and he said, you know, it's so good sometimes to go to places where you never think that you know someone, but it's so refreshing to be here and to be able to relate and to reconnect with my friend Josiah, and everybody just turned and went like, I felt special, I felt honored because I was recognized, because you see, the truth is we have a desire in us, right? We want to be known, don't we? We want to be recognized. We want people to see us and appreciate who we are. We want to have a relationship with someone, especially people that we consider famous, popular, powerful, influential. We seek to have that relationship because it makes us feel favored, it makes us feel wonderful. But what a humbling thing it is for us to think that the God of the universe himself, the king of kings, the great God who has made us all would seek to have a relationship with us. What a humbling thing. What a great privilege to know that we could be known by God Almighty. See, J.I. packing his wonderful book, Knowing God, says, and I just paraphrase it, it is such a peaceful thing, a wonderful assurance of knowing that you could know God, that you could be known by Him and that the relationship that we have with God, Him knowing us, guarantees God's favor, not just now, not just tomorrow, not just in life, but also in death and in life to come. You see the covenant that God is having with His people, Israel, the relationship that God is having with His people, Israel is not just a relationship that is just knowing about God, it's a relationship that's experiential, a relationship that God's people are called to know Him personally. They can call Him Father, they can call Him their God, it's a personal relationship. An incomparable relationship with the God who alone is the living God, the Creator, make all of all things, it's not as we like to sit down and theologize about God and talk about all this wonderful things that we know about God, it goes beyond that and that's why we have these passages that we just read this morning that remind us that God Himself reveals Himself to us so that we may know Him, we may know Him as who? We may know Him as the only true in living God and there is no other. We must go further than that too. What does it mean to know this true living God? What is He like? What's His nature? What's His character? When we come to know Him and the first thing I want us to consider is that we know Him. God wants us to know Him as a merciful Father. God wants us to know Him as a merciful Father. Looking at verses two, the section here that we just read begins with the litany of questions, rhetorical questions that don't need answers, right? For us now of the days that are past which were before you since the day that God created man on earth and asked from one end of the heaven to the other where there's such a great thing as this has ever happened or has ever been heard of. These are questions that are meant to help God's people to remember and to know that these things have never happened before but also that God is revealing Himself as the Creator of all things, your Creator, but not just that He made us, He made all things but that He actually, He's sovereign, He controls history, that everything that has come to be and will be has been ordained by God Himself. And so Moses reminds God's people of these two experiences, of these two events that have happened in history, one, as did you run me legs to point it out, using the word moutori which is Sinai, where God gives His Lord to His people and He speaks through the fine, they give them the Ten Commandments, the Exodus, where God is rescuing His people and delivering them from this mighty, powerful Pharaoh. The Sinai experiences, one that we have to know, actually both of them we will, but if you really think about the Sinai experience, it wasn't just that the people of God were able to hear Him speak. It was the fact that they were able to hear God speak and have this direct experience with God and actually live, okay, because such a direct experience with God and evidence of His existence, contact with the deity was something that was fraught with grave danger. You only have to go to Judges, chapter 6 and Exodus, chapter 3 and read and there you will hear that you do not see God and live, but that Moses and the people are able to live after this experience really does add to God's uniqueness His character, His majesty, His glory, His all this unique images and unique character of who God is, something that they were not supposed to forget, but you just think of it, a wonder of wonders, isn't it? This sinful, rebellious and faithful people with this glorious, holy God coming together and this holy God revealing Himself to these rebellious people, bridging that relationship. The Exodus experience was one that was never heard off in any other part, I mean some gods might have claimed their power but they were able to do all this miraculous and great things, but there is no evidence of that happening. The only evidence that is there is God Himself revealing Himself to His people through this actions and His presence in history, through the tests and signs and wonders and miracles and rescuing His people and God was showing His grace, His mercy towards His people rescuing them from slavery, from Egypt. It is proof of His grace and mercy, acting in history to redeem and to rescue His own people. Do you know what solidified the faith for people of God? What made them know that their faith was real? It was looking back to these events, to this God would reveal Himself in Word, in Mount Sinai, to this God would reveal Himself through actions by delivering them from powerful Pharaoh. But they had to go further than that, that this mighty God was able to do such miraculous, redeeming acts in history was also able to continue doing the same as they moved along with Him. But why does God show them these things? Why are these events there for God's people? Look at verses 35, He tells them, to you it was shown that you might know that the Lord is God, there is no other besides Him. That's how God's people came to know, God through revelation, especially through these two primary sources. See, Israel's hope and as God's people were about to embark to get into into into into Canaan, their hope of restoration, their hope of being redeemed, not just now but hereafter, and their mission rested on this confession that there is only one God and there is no other. See, from the very beginning of Scripture, the Bible really presupposes that the existence of the living God, doesn't it? To ask the question, does God exist while relevant was not really a question for the Israelites to ask? The question was, is He the only God? Is He the only real living God? And I would argue that He must be the question for us as well. It's not about whether He's there, He's there. It's about whether we know Him. See, this is a warning for God's people to remember, to be, you know, God's people knew, there were where there were other gods that the Egyptians had gods, that the Syrians had gods, that the Babylonians had gods, that all these other tribes and groups of people had other gods, but the only true and living God was Yahweh, was their God alone proof of His existence that laid not enough philosophical argument or scientific empirical evidence, but laid in the fact that God Himself has chosen to reveal Himself to them through Sinai, through the Exodus.
These three events were a display. It was God showing His people look at me and see my divine grace and mercy and power that lays before you through these two events, and not just through creation, but throughout human civilization, to the future. Events that haven't been witnessed by any other nation, the God's people were supposed to stand before Him and say, look what the Lord has done. Look at what the Lord has done. What do we have to look at as a church to see what the Lord has done? What is the one event in our life that reminds us that the God that we believe in and trust in is the only true and living God. We're about to celebrate Christmas pretty soon aren't we? The incarnation is the one event that we look to not that the Sinai and the Exodus events are not important for us. They are, but when the fullness of time came and God sends His own Son, Jesus Christ, to be born of a woman and to live a perfect life and to die on the cross and rise again on the third day so that He may redeem us. That to us is one historical event that we see God speaking to us through His word, which is Christ, and through the event of Him dying and rising again to a life that knows no death. It is to the cross that we behold and see Almighty Savior, redeem our merciful Father that stands before us to save us and He is the true and living God. Yahweh alone, God alone is our Savior. There is no other than can determine the destinies of humankind only our God is able to do that. And you see as we saw last week through Eric's preaching is that God's power in history is actually proof of the emptiness of the claims that other God's make. That's why God's people are not supposed to make images. Why? Because you cannot capture God's glory in an image. You cannot liken God toward He has created. He is not moon or star. It's a creature created distinction that we have to to notice to to understand. He is beyond and above and sovereign over time and space. He cannot be identified with what he has made. He is one. He is free. He is sovereign. But he can only be known when he chooses to reveal himself to those whom he chooses to reveal himself. We don't come to know God. We don't choose to know God. He decides who is going to get to know Him. Isn't that at the heart of the doctrine of election and redemption? That God before all times will choose you to be His Son and daughter. And that the doctrine of election is grounded upon one thing and one thing only God's mercy upon you and nothing else. Nothing else. That God has been so merciful to His people to bring them out of slavery. That God has been so merciful and gracious to them reminding them that He is not going to abandon them, not in the present, not in the future. And that He will not abandon them either in any other way. But He would continue to be faithful to His people. Listen to how verse 31 that we didn't read this morning but was read last week says, 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. That is the basis of what Moses is speaking about. In this verses we just read this morning, God's mercy. See the purpose of God revealing Himself through the signs and wonders and all this was not so that God's people may be so terrified and afraid of God that they would obey out of fear of punishment. It wasn't the purpose was so that God's people may come to see, to know Him as a merciful Father, as a redeemer, as their Creator, as their Savior, a God who loved them with unfathomable love. Peter captures this in second Peter in first Peter 2.10 he says, once you are not a people but now you are God's people, once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy. We come to know God. We come into a relationship with God only because God has chosen to have mercy upon us and by that same token of His mercy He says, I am the one who is going to sustain you. I am the one who is going to provide for you and I am the one who is going to protect you
though we are a sinful rebellious people mercy does for us what we couldn't do for ourselves.
Mercy has done for us what we couldn't do for ourselves, freeing us and granting us blessings that we don't deserve. See the Hebrew word for mercy has said reminds us that we cannot exhaust God's mercy because that's what we keep running to, right? That's what we keep running to when we struggle with sin. That's what we keep running to when we are tempted. That's what we keep running to when we are sorrowful. That's what we keep running to when we're downcast. That's what we keep running to when we're confused and anxious. That's what we keep running to when we grieve. That's what we keep running to when we lose hope in life and we cry out to God and we say, Lord have mercy, Christ, Christ, have mercy, Kierier, L.A. is on, Christ, L.A. is on. Lord, have mercy, Christ, have mercy. You know what is beautiful about running to Him? This merciful Father never says no, and He hears us. Secondly and closely related to God's character of mercy is His love for us, His amazing love for us. That's how God wants us to know Him. It's living true God wants us to know Him as a loving Father. Why do I say that? Because the covenant that God had provided for His people was actually a covenant that saw a Father's Son relationship or a Father-daughter relationship, if you will, God as the Father and Israel as the children. Verse 36, out of heaven, He let you hear His voice that He might discipline you. God disciplines those whom He loves, doesn't He? But the idea of discipline here is not about punishment. The idea of discipline here that was given in Mount Sinai was actually about education and training. Remember what was going on in Sinai? What did God give His people? The Ten Commandments. What is He about to do in chapter 5 as we shall see? The Ten Commandments. It is so that they may be trained as God's people that are loved, that have been chosen by Him. See, the reason for Sinai and the Exodus are now given in verses 37, let's read together. It says, and because He loved your Father's and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with His own presence by His great power. Two of the most important words in covenantal theology, love and choice. I loved your forefathers and chose them. They never loved me. They never chose me. I, God, chose them. I, God, love them. To love is to choose and to choose His to love. See, the living God out of His love and out of His own goodness would choose their fathers. In particular Abraham, He called Abraham not because he was a righteous man, but He called them out of the goodness of God. He would deliver them from Egypt in verses 37. He would drive out all these tribes in Canaan and make an inheritance for His people. Really should tell them to see that Yahweh is the only true God in heaven and on earth. There is no other besides Him. But what is important to note here for us this morning is that the Exodus event is predicated on Israel's prior election by the Lord. What do I mean? It is precisely because God loved them. That He chose them before they were in their mother's womb. That God would choose to act upon redeeming them and setting them apart for Himself. Only that. Now because there were special people, now because there were a favorite people, now because of their obedience, not because of their righteousness, not because of anything that they had done because God so loved them, that He chose them. So it is with us. God's love for you, God's love for me, God's salvation for me is not based on Mary. Because love for us is an electing love so to speak. It is purely based on His everlasting mercy and grace. What a grace. What an undeserved favor that we get from God. A God who embraces us, a God who loves us, though we don't deserve to be loved, unworthy, sin for sinners. Notice the love and the choice comes before the giving of the law. Notice the law is rendered out of love. It is because God loves His people and chooses to save them. He brings them into His fold and then He gives them the law. Salvation comes before obedience. See, we don't obey so that we may be more loved by God. You were already loved before. You knew what obedience was. Obedience does not earn salvation. Obedience does not sustain salvation. Grace tied us to 11 through 14. Grace is what sustains our salvation. Obedience therefore is a response to God's love for us. That's why He says, if you love me, if you love me, see in a world where so many things do clamour for attention. In a world where there are so many other false loves out there that seek attention, that promise to satisfy our deepest desires and yet only end up disappointing us. But in so many ways and in so many incidences we find ourselves toiling, not really toiling, but toying with temptation. We begin to entertain the thought that maybe, just maybe money, power and fame and all these things will do it for us. There is a reminder for us, God's people, that there is only one true love and that's God's love because He Himself is love, it's not just something that He gives to us. Everything that God does for us is out of His love because He is love. God's love is a love that will not let you go as we sang this morning, isn't it? It's a perfect, pure, undefiled, giving, sacrifice in love, a love that seeks to have a relationship with us, a love that comes from God who first loves us, a love that is steadfast and ending incorruptible, incomparable, immeasurable, unfathomable, and that God wants us to know we are more loved than we could ever imagine, does that? Even begin to make sense in our hearts that you are more loved than you could ever imagine. So I ask you, friends, this morning, do you know Him? If you do, who is He? What has He done for you? What does He expect for you? See for us, as believers, there is only one place we can go. There is only one place where we see the supreme expression of God's mercy and His love and that is at the cross. There is an event for us that stands to remind us forever that we have received God's mercy, that we have received God's love, to know Him, to know this living true God is to experience His mercy and His love. Father, we thank you so much this morning, but you have loved us so dearly, that you have given yourself to us, that we may come to know you, Lord, I pray in those places where we forget who you are, that we will look at the cross, pray in those moments where we forget what you have done for us, that we will look at the cross, pray that when we forget what you expect from us, that we will still look to the cross, pray this in Christ's name, amen.