Déjà vu-teronomy Didn’t We Hear This Already?

We're going to turn our attention to God's word. We are in the book of Deuteronomy, which we're studying all this fall. We're going to be reading together from Deuteronomy chapter 10.

It's our custom to read God's word aloud. The words are printed there in your bulletin and also on the screen behind me. You can also, if you'd like to read it in the Bible, pull one of these out—we're reading in the Pew Bibles, page 161 in the RSV. We're going to read verses one through four and then 12 through 22. Would you join your voices with mine?

At that time, the Lord said to me, hew two tablets of stone like the first and come to me on the mountain and make an ark of wood, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark. So I made an ark of acacia wood and hewed two tables of stone like the first and went up on the mountains with the two tables in my hand. And he wrote on the tables as he first writing the 10 commandments which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the assembly and on the day of the assembly, and the Lord gave them to me. — Deuteronomy 10:1-4

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I command you this day for your good. Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it, yet the Lord set his heart in love upon your fathers and chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples as at this day. Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and he loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and cleave to him, and by his name, you shall swear. He is your praise. He is your God who has done for you these great and terrible things which your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt 70 persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as stars of the heaven for multitude. — Deuteronomy 10:12-22

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Lost and Found Stories

I know that we love good lost and found stories, so I've got a couple for you this morning by way of sermon intro. Let me put up this picture first. This is Chance, the Staffordshire Terrier. Chance was lost in 2005. He belonged to a family in the Northern part of Wales and he was especially attached to the young boy of the family who was 11 at the time. They searched everywhere. They put up posters all around town, they looked high and low, they asked all the neighbors, and nobody could find Chance. Ten years later, they get a call from a kennel that found a chip, and they said, "I think we have your dog." And Chance and the boy were reunited.

Second is Radhatul Jana. Radhatul Jana was a woman in Bangladesh. In 2004, she was four years old when a tsunami hit the country. Clinging to a piece of driftwood, she and her older brother were washed away. The parents were beside themselves. They searched week after week and never found her. Ten years later, her uncle sees a girl matching her description in a neighboring village walking along the road going to school and contacts the family. It turns out a fisherman and his wife had found her. She didn't know her name or last name, and Jana was restored to her family. Amazing lost and found stories, right?

Today I want to focus on God's law, and how in many ways for American Christians, it's kind of lost to us. It's not something we delight in. It's not something we treasure. And I hope today is sort of a lost and found story for you about God's law.

According to the Psalms, the law of God is delicious. As in delicious, delightful, de-lovely. That's what the Bible says about the law. I know that's the craziest thing that many of you could hear—the 10 commandments, all the laws in this book of Deuteronomy—delicious? Really? It's almost as crazy as saying you like boiled peanuts. Nobody really likes boiled peanuts.

People from South Carolina think they like boiled peanuts, but they're wrong because boiled peanuts are like snot. That's what they really are like. Nobody likes them. And lots of Christians feel about the law the way I feel obviously about boiled peanuts—worthless. I don't want it. I don't like it.

And yet, Psalm 19 tells us that the law of God is more to be desired than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the drippings of a honeycomb. But we don't believe it. So there's something we're missing, and that's what I want to connect today: how is God's law that delicious to the psalmist and not to me, not to you?

Here's how we're going to look at this today. We're going to paraphrase this 1970 song by the Temptations: "Law. What is it good for? Absolutely everything." That's what we're doing this morning.

I've got four things for you that are listed there in your bulletins—my sermon points, very concrete for you this morning:

• The law is like a billboard.
• The law is like an owner's manual.
• The law is like a thermometer.
• The law is like railroad tracks.

The Law Is Like a Billboard

First, what is a billboard? A billboard communicates something big and bold to you. A billboard communicates a message. Let's play a game—a little fill in the blank this morning. God's law primarily tells me _____.

Now, you might say something like, "What God requires" or "What I'm supposed to do." Those are okay answers, but that's not primarily what God's law tells us. God's law tells us primarily this: What is God like?

Every law has its root in who God is. It's not like God is arbitrarily going around doing crazy stuff, like, "What can I come up with that'll just really frustrate them?" That's not what God's law is about at all. God's law is always a reflection of his character. It's a billboard that tells you: this is what God is like. This is who God is.

Look at this passage from verse 17:

The Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and he loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. Fear the Lord your God and serve him. — Deuteronomy 10:17-20

Do you hear what's going on here? Why shouldn't you accept bribes? Because God doesn't accept bribes. Why should you care for the stranger? Because God cares for the stranger. Why should you care for the fatherless? Because God cares for the fatherless. Why do you not bear false witness? Because God doesn't do that. Why do you be faithful to your spouse? Because God is faithful to his spouse.

All of God's law is a billboard that shows us: this is what your God is like. And it tells a story, therefore, to the world. When we obey God's law, we are participating in that storytelling. We're showing the world: this is what God is like. When we break God's law, we're not just doing something bad. We're actually telling a lie about God.

You ever wish you could have a do-over in life? I think back over being a dad for a long period of time, and I wish, in some ways, I could have a do-over in some of my parenting. I think about the years we had young kids at home. It was hard, and we were stressed out, and we had like six little boys, and it was nuts. And I think back to how I disciplined them. I have a kind of a severe face. I can be very harsh. I'm not saying I abused my kids—I've checked in with them on this. But my anger communicated something to them about God. It told them: this is what God is like. And yet, God tells us what he's like. He's slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. He's gracious and compassionate. I wish I could go back and do that, redo those.

The law is a billboard. It shows us: this is what God's like. And we have an opportunity in following God's law to participate in that, telling the world: this is what God is like.

The Law Is Like an Owner's Manual

Second thing: God's law is like an owner's manual. If you open up the owner's manual for your car—the one that tells you how you're supposed to run your car—it tells you what you put in the gas tank: unleaded, diesel, 87, 91, 93.

And the law is also like an owner's manual for what it means to be a person. It's like an owner's manual for yourself.

If you ever need an owner's manual for you, the law of God really functions this way. It tells you how humans flourish. How we live our best lives is by God's law. So look at verses twelve and thirteen. A couple weeks ago, we studied the Shema, which is the hero Israel passage. It's their John 3:16. And this is what we said: the summary of the whole law was love God. Love God. And this passage kind of takes it and actually expands it out a little bit to make sure you understand all of what that means.

This is what it means to worship. Let's put this up here.

What does the Lord God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, and to walk in obedience to him, and to love him, and to serve the Lord with all your heart and all your soul, and to observe the Lord's commands and decrees I'm giving to you for your good.

I mean, do you want the secret to a happy life? I know you're like, really? You know it, bald guy? Yes, I know it. It is. A life of thriving. Love God. Obey Him. Walk in His ways. Cherish what He says. Make serving Him and delighting Him your great hope. Observe the Lord's decrees. Why? And it tells us here, for your own good.

Now I know how you hear that. When you hear the phrase, it's for your own good. How many of you picture a teacher or an angry parent like me going, this is for your own good, and they're like, no, it's not. I mean, that feels like the furthest thing from my good right now. But that word there, tov—t-o-v—you can write this down. Hebrew lesson for today. Tov, good, doesn't just mean it feels good. It means this: something good is something which fulfills the purpose for which it's created. It's what it means to thrive. If you want to be the most you, the fullest, most complete, healthiest version of yourself, the law of God—that's what it shows us.

Let's go back to the car owner's manual. Okay. Let's remember that. So you can choose to not obey the car owner's manual. You can read it and say, okay, they want 91 in my gas tank. I ain't paying 91. I ain't paying for premium gas or whatever the middle grade is. Why am I not paying for that? I like Log Cabin syrup. I love Log Cabin syrup. I think I'm gonna put that in my tank.

Now you are free to do so. No one will come out your house and arrest you for putting Log Cabin syrup in the gas tank of your car. But I got bad news—it ain't gonna work. Now why is that? It's not that you're breaking a law, you're breaking the design. You're breaking the design of the car. And the law tells us what's good for us, and when we don't obey it, we're breaking the design of ourselves. We're breaking how God has designed us.

Now the world is offering lots of Log Cabin syrup to put in the gas tank. Lots of other answers to like, what's going to make my life thrive? It's sweet, but it's going to clog your engine. It's going to destroy the engine.

You want to be a rock star in our children's ministry? Anybody would like to be a rock star in our children's ministry? This is how you be a rock star. Show the kids that are right now back there that the best life is a life with God. You want to be an awesome parent? Don't worry about college. Don't worry about all the lessons. Don't worry about getting it all right. Here's how: show them that the best life is a life with God in the middle of it. Like, this is what you're designed for. I don't care if you pick your nose sometimes. This is what you're designed for.

The Law as Thermometer

So we've gone through the billboard and the owner's manual. Now, the thermometer. The law has a third purpose. It shows us our sin. It shows us our need for a savior. Because here's the bad news: we can't do the law. We don't want to do the law, and we won't do the law. The one thing that would make us thrive is reading that owner's manual and doing it all, and we're all like, no. No thank you. Right? Nobody actually does all that stuff in verses 12 through 13. Nobody's like, I want to walk in his ways all the time and do what he says.

Did you notice the word circumcision in this passage? Anybody notice that? Good. You are awake this morning. Thank you for being with us today. Right?

Circumcise the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn.

Notice, the law shows us our stubbornness. The law shows us that you have an inner rebel, and so do I, that's like, with God—no. I don't want to do that.

In that way, it functions like a thermometer. If you're coming down with something, you put the thermometer in your mouth and it gives you a reading. It gives you a reading for the internal temperature of your body. Right? And now it's not telling you what you wish is the case, it's telling you what is actually the case, whether you have a fever, you have an infection, or whether you're okay. And you could be mad. You could be like, crazy stupid thermometer.

I don't want a fever right now, but that's ridiculous. The thermometer is just doing its job. It's just saying, "This is what's really going on inside of you." And so the law does the same thing. The law is the thermometer of the human heart.

I know it's not nice, but here's your homework for today. You ready? Go read the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy chapter five. If you want a 201 level of this, go read them in the Westminster Confession. But when you read them, I can guarantee what's going to happen. If you meditate on this, if you spend an hour with the Ten Commandments and you write them all out for yourself and you really think about what it means—not only to not murder, but actually to really seek the flourishing of other people, or to really not covet other people's stuff—do you know what's going to happen after about an hour? You're going to feel lousy. You're going to be like, "Stupid thermometer!" Because what it shows us is what's going on on the inside. I'm a stubborn, rebellious person. I'm a person who doesn't want to obey God. I don't want to do what he says. I have a feeling it's true for you too. The Bible says that. It's all of us.

The thermometer functions to condemn us. The law does that. So what do you need to do?

Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn. — Deuteronomy 10:16

Without being too graphic, let me just say this: circumcision means to cut away something so that you are not cut off. Circumcision means to cut away something so that you are not cut off. It was never just about little boys on the eighth day. It was always a symbol that if you're going to be a part of God's people, there's something wrong with you. There's something on the inside that is resistant to God that needs to be cut away or you will be cut off.

Now you know this already because you're a human being who lives in the world. There are times when if you wrong a person in a particular way, they cut off the relationship. Like if you're dating somebody and you lie repeatedly to them, they're like, "I'm kind of done." They cut the relationship off. Your boss—you steal from the company—your boss is like, "Kind of done with you," cutting off the relationship. Circumcision says, "There's something wrong in you that needs to be cut away or you will be cut off."

So what does that mean? There's something in us which needs to turn to God and say, "Something's wrong on the inside. I need to get rid of this."

If you read the Bible, in the eighteenth year of the reign of King Josiah—a young guy—he tells his secretary, "Go clean out the temple." And they're cleaning out the closets and sweeping up. I don't know what the temple cleanup looked like. But they discover the book of Deuteronomy. They discover what we're reading. The secretary blows it off and brings it to the king, and the king opens it up and begins reading it. And he begins to tear his clothes apart because he reads what God requires and he's like, "We are so far away from this. We are so rebellious. We're so far from this." And he tears his clothes. You can read about this in Second Kings and Second Chronicles.

That's what you do if you rediscover the law too. You read it and you're like, "Something's wrong with me. I need to tear my clothes. Something's wrong on the inside. I need to get upset about this."

When you let it read you, like the thermometer, it tells you: you need to cut away something or you will be cut off. Danger.

Testing Yourself

Would you like to know if you're a real Christian this morning? I've got two tests. This is the first one: Do you repent? We practice it every Sunday. We don't do the confession of sin just as like a moment of pause. It's to practice confessing our sins, of turning to God and saying, "God, there's something wrong inside of me. There is a hard heart. There's stubbornness. There's rebelliousness. I don't want to do what you say."

How do you know you're a Christian? Not by being all perfect, but by being a person who repents, who turns to God and says, "Something's wrong." That's the thermometer.

The Train Tracks

Finally, number four: the train tracks. The law provides the train tracks for people who are saved—Christians—to know how to please God.

Here's the deal though: we don't obey God to become righteous. We obey God because we have been made righteous. You know, a super common misconception among Christians is that the Old Testament was where they obeyed the law in order to be made righteous, and in the New Testament we just believe and we're made righteous. No. No. No. No. That's not how this works.

That was never the point of the law. The first four verses we read of this passage describe Moses receiving the two tablets from God, the 10 commandments on the mountain. Now in your historical timeline, when did that take place? Before they were saved from Egypt and rescued out or after? That was after. Right? After they were delivered from bondage in slavery, and they go out to the desert, that's when God gives them the law. After God has rescued them from Pharaoh, after they've been delivered through the Red Sea and the water pulls up on each side, they cross through after they're rescued, that's when they get the law, and it's always the case. And that tells us the law was always given not as a way to be saved. It was given as a billboard, it was given as an owner's manual, it was given as a thermometer, and it's given as train tracks, but it wasn't given as a vehicle for salvation. Nobody could earn this. It was never a guidebook or a compass for how to be saved.

How were people in the Old Testament saved? Some of you all are in our Galatians bible study right now, so you can answer this question. How were they saved? Says this, Galatians three:

No one who relies on the law is justified before God because the righteous will live by faith. — Galatians 3

Or Romans four:

Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, credited to him. — Romans 4

The Old Testament people were saved by trusting in God. The New Testament people of God are saved by trusting in God and declared righteous. How are you made righteous? Again, by faith and trusting in God, in his promise in Christ.

The law points us to Jesus, points us to our need for Jesus and God's provision in Jesus. Now Jesus didn't come to erase the law. That's what a lot of you think with a lot of Christians, they're like, glad to be done with that. No. Jesus came to fulfill the law. He's the only one who loved the Lord his God with all his heart and soul and mind. He's the only one who cherished God's ways and walked in them and obeyed them and said, this is delicious. Only person who's ever done that perfectly. You and I, not so much.

Jesus and the Tree of Life

Can I tell you a weird story? Jesus was cut off. This is the circumcision story about Jesus. It's kind of a weird story. So hang in. Adam and Eve, after they sinned, God kicked them out of the garden. God booted them from the Garden of Eden for a particular reason, because in the middle of the garden is the tree of life. And he knew, if you go in the sinful fallen state that you're in right now, and you go eat in the tree of life, you're going to live forever apart from me, which is another word for hell. That's another word for hell.

Instead, God kicks them out of the garden for their own protection and puts an angel with a flaming sword protecting the way in, so they couldn't come back in. And yet Jesus, the only perfect one, in a sense goes back into the garden, and he goes and he falls under the sword of the cherubim, of this flaming sword of the angel. He is cut off so that we are allowed to come into and eat of the tree of life. He has allowed back in made a way for all of us to go back in and eat of the tree of life. This is how you're saved because Jesus fell under the sword for you so that you will never be cut off, and you can willingly turn to Him and repent, you can run to Him and receive of the tree of life, and you can have fellowship with the Father.

Again, this transforms the law for Christians. It turns it into a railroad track. Not how to be saved because you already are saved, but how to continue on this pathway of pleasing God and knowing how to delight in God? Not because you can so you can be righteous, but because you are righteous.

The Mark of a Real Christian

You want to know, second thing, of whether or not you're a real Christian this Sunday morning. This is it. You want to please God. On some level deep down, even when you're conflicted, on some level deep down you're like, I do want to please him. I do want to do what he says. I can't do it perfectly. I can't follow this completely. There's something wrong in me that I need to repent of regularly, but I do want to please him.

A few weeks ago, I referenced the classic movie, The Princess Bride in church. So this is old enough that I hope I'm not spoiling anything for anybody here. I hope some of you will show this to the next generation. So in the movie, there's a young maiden named Buttercup, and there's a servant boy named Wesley. And Buttercup lives on this farm, and she's sort of the daughter, I guess, of the person who owns the farm, and Wesley is serving around the farm. And she puts him through these series of things. She has all this disdain for him. And she asks him to do chores for him for her, and he says, every time he does them, he says, as you wish. So boy, put that bucket on top of the shelf, as you wish. Clean out that stable, boy, as you wish.

And over and over, he begins to win her heart because over and over, she sees him perfectly doing everything that is required. This was my application a couple weeks ago. That's what Jesus did. At every turn along the pathway of his life, he turned to the father and said, father, as you wish, as you wish, as you wish. Over and over and over again, Jesus did everything that was required by the law in order that that could be credited to you.

But today, we're going to flip that on its head. This is how this applies to you. If you've seen what your savior has done for you, if you've seen both his perfect obedience for you and his falling under the judgment of God for you, this is fulfilling the law. This is the response of the human heart to Jesus. As you wish, Jesus. As you wish.

In every situation, just like Wesley told Buttercup, this is what you tell the Lord. With my money. As you wish. With my body. As you wish. Here's a hard one. With my free time. As you wish. With my thought life, Jesus. As you wish. With my online life, Jesus. As you wish. With my daydreams, Jesus. As you wish.

This is what it means to follow the train tracks. You read the law and you're like, this is what Jesus wants me to do? This is what it means to love him and follow him and walk in his way? Jesus, as you wish. I'm not gonna do it perfectly, but I'm a redeemed person, and I do it because I wanna please you. As you wish.

Four Uses of God's Law

So let me ask this for you this morning. Which use of the law do you need to hear today? Which one do you need to meditate on?

Maybe it's the billboard. Maybe you've forgotten what God is like. You have this picture of God that's really different from what's revealed to us in scripture. God's word reveals such an incredible compelling picture of the character of God. Go look at the billboard.

Or maybe you're a person here this morning who needs the owner's manual. You sort of have lost your way, and you've forgotten how you're supposed to operate, and you know you're not thriving. Go back. Read this law. Meditate on it. Lord, show me what it means to be human and to flourish in your way.

Or maybe you need the thermometer. Maybe you need to do the homework I assigned of going and reading from Deuteronomy 5 the Ten Commandments, and actually just seeing what's the internal temperature. How am I predisposed toward God today? Am I against him or am I for him?

Or maybe, finally, it's the train tracks. Maybe what you needed today is to say, I want to please you, Lord. I don't know how to. I'd like my life to more and more look like Jesus is in charge of my life. I would like people to read off my life that this is what God is like.

Maybe that's what you need today. But it's delicious. I hope you could find again the beauty and the glory of God's law. It's not our enemy, it's our friend, and it points us to Jesus.

Let's go to him together. Father, we thank you for your word. There is nothing like your word. We thank you that when we open up this book, when we read it, it has the power to read us.

We pray today, father, we're people who lose our way quickly, and we forget who you are, and therefore we forget who we are and what we're supposed to be about. And, Lord, we pray today, would you reorient us? Would you help us to see again, Lord, how beautiful and compelling it is a life with you, how we can't do it, and yet how you've given us everything in Christ.

Thank you that he fulfilled the law for us, that he was cut off for us so that, Lord, when we sin, we are not cut away. We're not cut off. Father, Lord, help us to bring our hearts to you this morning. Lord, make us into a people who love to do as you wish toward Jesus. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

Let's respond to God's word in music together, in song. If you'd stand with me, and we're gonna sing together.