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Loving Obedience

Loving Obedience. Deuteronomy 10:12-22. Loving Obedience Introduction. Loving Obedience Introduction. Last week we looked at what Jesus called the first or the greatest commandment.

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Loving Obedience

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  1. Loving Obedience Deuteronomy 10:12-22

  2. Loving Obedience Introduction

  3. Loving Obedience Introduction • Last week we looked at what Jesus called the first or the greatest commandment. • Israel – and we – were told to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.

  4. Loving Obedience Introduction • Today we will further explore loving God. • We will see how that love leads to walking in his ways, serving him and keeping his commandments. • Read Deuteronomy 10:12-22.

  5. Loving Obedience Introduction “His loving ministry, His tender care, His thoughtful love — all should bind our hearts in affectionate devotion to Him, and quicken our steps in treading the path of loving obedience.” – C. H. Mackintosh (1820 – 1896)

  6. Deuteronomy 10:12-13

  7. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 • What does the Lord your God require of you? • It is a powerful question because: • God demands nothing outlandish or complicated. • Everything in this passage is understandable and very reasonable under the circumstances.

  8. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 • to fear … to walk … to love … to serve … to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord • Love without fear would subvert his authority. • Fear without love would make us gloomy and discouraged.

  9. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 • to fear … to walk … to love … to serve … to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord • Love and fear together make the walking, serving and keeping of God’s commandments a joy.

  10. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 • Love prompts us to service. • When love motivates, it naturally expresses itself in service. • Where no such expression appears, we lack evidence of love toward the one who is not served. • See John 14:15, 23

  11. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 • Israel had the commandments. • They had God’s word to the extent that he had revealed it to them at this time.

  12. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 • We have more. • We have a fuller revelation. • We also have the indwelling Holy Spirit. • We know God in a more intimate manner than they did.

  13. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 • I am commanding you today for your good • The doctor doesn’t typically ask us to enjoy our medicine. • The doctor asks us to take it. • It is for our good. • We may even learn to like it in the end.

  14. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 • I am commanding you today for your good • In the same way, not every command seems pleasant. • Not every command matches our natural inclinations. • They are for our good. • We may even learn to like them in the end.

  15. Deuteronomy 10:14-15

  16. Deuteronomy 10:14-15 • God is ultimate owner and creator of all that is. • There is no being higher than him. • What a wonderful place of honor he gave to Israel. • It all goes back to Genesis 12:1-3.

  17. Deuteronomy 10:16

  18. “Circumcise your hearts. Cast away all corrupt affections and inclinations, which hinder you from fearing and loving God.” – Matthew Henry (1662 – 1714)

  19. Deuteronomy 10:16 • Circumcise … your heart • All males among Israel had to be circumcised eight days after they were born. • This was symbolic of the real work of cutting away the flesh. • God takes our hearts inclined after the flesh and gives us hearts inclined after the spirit.

  20. Deuteronomy 10:16 • See also: • Jeremiah 4:4 • Ezekiel 18:31 • Ezekiel 36:25-26

  21. Deuteronomy 10:16 • God commanded Israel to do something for which they actually needed his help. • He showed them their need for an inner transformation. • We need the same inner transformation. • This should persuade us to cry out for this inner work.

  22. Deuteronomy 10:17

  23. Deuteronomy 10:17 • God reveals himself as the most powerful being in existence. • There is no god or power higher than him. • He is also perfectly just, showing no partiality to anyone.

  24. Deuteronomy 10:18-19

  25. Deuteronomy 10:18-19 • The fatherless, the widows and the foreigners were particularly helpless people in the ancient world. • This is still very true today. • James 1:27 comments on this same topic.

  26. Deuteronomy 10:20

  27. Deuteronomy 10:20 • 10:20Our service should be with the firmest confidence, truest affection, and persistent obedience. • The word serve includes a sense of worship, as in the service of the Levites. • Our word liturgycomes from Greek and Latin roots pertaining to public service.

  28. Deuteronomy 10:20 The word liturgy strictly means service; here service means adore, pray, and praise; worship outwardly, publicly, and privately with all the heart. We learn the essence of all true acceptable worship before God. Not material glory, ritual splendour; but depth of sincerity, intensity of love, the supremacy of God in the heart. – John Cumming

  29. Deuteronomy 10:21-22

  30. Deuteronomy 10:21-22 • The pattern with God is not that we work to receive blessings from him. • With God, the pattern is “Grace is given, obedience follows as a response.”

  31. Deuteronomy 10:21-22 • God’s past goodness is grounds for immense hope. • This was only the beginning. • God had so much more in store for the people of Israel. • He has more in store for them yet today.

  32. Deuteronomy 10:21-22 • God’s past goodness is grounds for immense hope. • Let’s also consider what God has done for us in the past. • Let’s trust in his promises for the future.

  33. Loving Obedience Conclusions

  34. Loving Obedience Conclusions • God gave Israel a special status – a unique and privileged place in the drama of the nations. • Our place is even more privileged. • We live after the cross. • We can see and experience God’s love in higher, deeper, nearer and more profound ways than Israel.

  35. Loving Obedience Conclusions • Yet far greater is our knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ … And this carries with it a higher obligation to serve Him, to love Him and to walk in obedience, than Israel’s obligation. – Arno Gaebelein(1861 – 1945)

  36. Loving Obedience Conclusions • What prompts our love for God? • Is it the benefits we have received?

  37. Loving Obedience Conclusions • What prompts our love for God? • Is it the benefits we have received? • Then God deserves from us the most love of all.

  38. Loving Obedience Conclusions • What prompts our love for God? • Is it the benefits we have received? • Is it the worthiness of the one to be loved? • Then God deserves from us the most love of all.

  39. Loving Obedience Conclusions • What prompts our love for God? • Is it the benefits we have received? • Is it the worthiness of the one to be loved? • Is it the amount or sincerity of love toward us? • Then God deserves from us the most love of all.

  40. Loving Obedience Conclusions • In the first creation He gave me myself; but in His new creation He gave me Himself, and by that gift restored to me the self that I had lost. – Bernard of Clairvaux (1091 – 1153)

  41. Loving Obedience Conclusions • If we are capable of any love at all - then our love rightly belongs to him. • He is the most deserving of our love by any measure. • And this love should prompt us to wholehearted, worshipful, loving obedience.

  42. Loving Obedience Conclusions • Let’s end with a story about Jesus, which includes a story that Jesus told. • It illustrates an ideal attitude toward him. • See Luke 7:36-50.

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