LBC Annual Bible Conference 2021 Session 5/3-14-2021 Sunday Sermon

I'd ask you to take your Bibles this morning and turn to Deuteronomy chapter 32.

Deuteronomy chapter 32. I've departed, of course, from our exposition of the book of Hebrews because I thought it would be wise to end our

Bible conference with this from God's word. Our Bible conference was on the word of God.

And so what we want to do is to end by looking at what the Bible says about the word of God.

And so that's why we're departing from Hebrews today and going to Deuteronomy. Before we look at the text, let's pray.

Father, once more we come to you and thank you for the marvelous grace you've shown us in Jesus.

We thank you that that is the grace that moves us to hear your word and then listen to it and then to obey it.

We thank you, Father, that you've not left us in our sins but because of Jesus, you've delivered us from the guilt of those sins, that we are free of condemnation before you.

And thus, Father, free of that condemnation, that grace then empowers us to walk in obedience.

Now, Father, we pray that you would help us to understand this text and what it means to us so that we will be profitable servants of yours.

But more than that, that we will show the glory of God, we will reflect that glory all around us.

We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. This last week,

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we spent time in the word of God, listening to one who told us about that word and gave us an exposition of what the word says about itself how it's a powerful word, how it sanctifies us, how it exposes us, how it gives us direction, all of these things.

And now, I'd like you to turn to this passage in Deuteronomy in order to help us understand our relationship to the word as it's declared to us.

And as we end our conference, at least finish it up, I want you to listen carefully to what

God says about his word and our response to it. Now, we're in the book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy is a great sermon preached by Moses before he died.

It is essentially his last will and testament. And in this sermon, Moses rehearses the history of God's gracious dealings with his people in delivering them from Egypt and bringing them to the place where they will finally now enter the promised land.

But he also rehearses the covenant they have made with God, that is the word that they had agreed to live by.

As God descended on Sinai and gave them that law covenant, it was to be a covenant between his people and him.

And they had said, yes, we will live by this covenant that you have given us, this covenant given to us after you graciously, gloriously delivered us from horrendous slavery in Egypt.

Yes, we will live under these commandments. That covenant contained blessings and cursings that they would experience as a result of their obedience or their disobedience to that covenant.

And now in Deuteronomy, having renewed that covenant with God, Moses stands before the people with his successor

Joshua at his side, and he wants to impress upon them the proper response to that covenant, to that word from God.

And we find those concluding words in chapter 32, verses 44 through 47.

You follow as I read them. Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua, the son of Nun.

And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, he said to them, take to heart all the words by which

I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law, for it is no empty word for you, but your very life.

And by this word, you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.

Here you find God's word, not only intended for those Israelites, this is intended for us, included in the scripture for God's people today.

And here is where we need to learn the response to the proclamation of God's word.

How do you respond to the word of God when it is preached, when it is declared in your presence?

God has something to say about that this morning. Here's the first, heed God's word carefully.

No surprise there, right? Heed God's word carefully. Moses had declared

God's word to that generation. And now in this generation, we ask the question, what will you do with God's word once it's been declared to you?

This entire book is a declaration of God's word to his people. Moses had carefully and solemnly explained and declared what

God expects from his people. That proclamation was so important that in chapter 30, he had said this to them.

This day, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.

Now choose life so that you and your children may live and that you may love the

Lord your God. Listen to his voice and hold fast to him.

Now, what Moses declared in this book is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. We don't get this directly from Moses.

It comes to us through Jesus. We're under a new covenant. By the way, even though we're under a new covenant and this is part of the old, this is still

God's word to us. But now we look at it through the lens of Jesus. All of what he says here has come to us through Jesus.

All of this points forward to the person and the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, which fulfills it so that as we obey what

Jesus tells us, and as we look at this, as we obey what Jesus tells us, we're going to obey what this tells us.

We're gonna obey what God intended for his people, or we're going to, it's what's going to happen in our obedience to Jesus.

This will happen in our lives. This teaching is what we need to hear.

And even though we're under the new covenant, the challenge remains the same. You have the word of God proclaimed to you week after week.

The word of Christ has solemnly been declared to you on a consistent basis.

What do you do with God's word once it's been declared to you? What do you do with it?

Do not treat the proclamation of God's word, do not treat God's word as idle words.

Notice how he puts that in this text. For it is no empty word for you.

It is no empty word. The word, don't treat them as vain and empty words, okay?

How do you respond to a commercial that you see on television or on the internet or wherever you see it?

You see, remember, I'll say it right now. Everybody, immediately, we'll get this in your head.

Geico Insurance. You see a little green lizard, which in fact, if you didn't know, is a gecko.

All right? You see this little green lizard, and we notice this little green guy with an

Australian accent telling us that we can get 15 % off of our car insurance, right?

Everybody knows that. What I've just said, you've seen 1 ,000 times, right? You have seen that little gecko telling you over and over that Geico will give you 15 % off your insurance.

All of you here, I would bet not one of you is in the dark of what I'm talking about right now, right?

And we talk about it and we laugh about it, we remark how clever it is and how much we enjoyed that commercial.

Yet, I'll bet, I would, no, I'm not a betting man, but I would bet that there's probably not one of you has switched to Geico and gotten your 15 % off your insurance.

I'll bet you none of you have done that because of that commercial, right?

We treat the commercial in accordance with its character, it's vain and empty, right?

It's vain and empty. But you know what we do with God's word? We treat it as God's commercial to us.

We look at it, we hear it, right? We hear it and we look at it almost as if it's a clever enticement.

Please, just do this, you'll be better off, right? That's kind of how we approach the word of God and his commandments.

We think it's interesting. Sometimes we think it's beautiful. Sometimes we think, wow, that's really well put together.

And we talk about it and about the things we remembered in the sermon and what we liked about it.

We mentioned how much we enjoyed the sermon. We tell how biblical it was and how it blessed us.

But like the commercial, it has no significant impact on us, right? Like the commercial, it has no significant impact.

We treat it the same way as the commercial, nothing more than idle words. You say, well, what are you talking about?

What do you mean by that? Well, let's just say this. There's a couple of people, let's say in our congregation.

They have a problem. They have a problem that's come between them.

It's gonna happen in a congregation of people fighting against sin. And now it's gotten to anger.

And now they're avoiding each other. And they're letting it fester, grow day after day.

And the relationship finally breaks and they don't even talk to one another. In fact, they start sitting on other ends of the congregation.

One of the elders finds out. So he goes and says to one of them and says, what's going on here? What are you gonna do about this?

And the reply is, well, what do you mean? I mean, that's the way life is sometimes.

There's some people that just can't get along. I mean, that's just what happens. Now, if that was me, if that elder was me,

I'm ready to pull the rest of my hair out. And I wanna say, where have you been the last 35 years?

How many times have we talked from this pulpit about how important relationships are and how

God commands us to love one another? And there's a whole process that you use when you can't get someone to be reconciled.

And here you are ignoring everything you've heard for 30 years. Not that I've ever thought that.

You see, they've treated God's word as mere idle words. I've heard this for 30 years, but you know how it is, right?

Over the years, I've spent times with people and families that are coming apart, opening the word of God and solemnly declaring the counsel of God.

God calls you, I'll say to the man, to love your wife even if she does everything wrong.

You are commanded to love her. In fact, you're commanded to lead her to holiness.

And the reply is, I'm done with that. Let her change, let her do something.

She's the one ruining this relationship, not me. And I plead and I show that the way out of the abyss of misery is to obey

Christ's commands to love that woman and sow fruit to the spirit, that the way of joy is to walk the path.

The way of joy is not to abandon it, not to leave it, not to throw her under the bus, even though as you're sitting there, you think, well, maybe you should throw her under the bus.

No, you don't have that option. You love her. That's what God commands you.

But those words are treated as idle words, a refusal to do what God commands and believe his promises.

Another way that happens, I've heard this, when someone says, well, pastor, I've tried doing it

God's way and it didn't work. I've got to do something else. There is no other option, treated as idle words.

It's interesting how God speaks to the prophet Ezekiel about his people in Ezekiel 33.

Here's how God described his people to the prophet Ezekiel. As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and all the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, come and hear what the word is that comes from the

Lord. And they come to you as people come. And they sit before you as my people.

And they hear what you say, but they will not do it. For with lustful talk in their mouths they act.

Their heart is set on their gain. And behold, you are to them like one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument.

For they hear what you say, but they will not do it. Do you hear the description? It's just people are saying, hey, come.

Hey, you gotta hear this guy, come on. Hey, you know what? This guy, he is really good. You know, he's like a singer, man.

He can really put it together. It's like, he sings these love songs. It's, I mean, this guy can communicate.

That's what God is saying about his people. They're saying, Ezekiel, they love you, man.

They love how you preach. They can't wait to hear you preach. They can't wait to hear you preach.

But guess what? They're not interested in doing it. Oh, they love the sermons, but they're not interested in doing what the sermons say.

So don't treat it as idle words. But when someone declares the word of God to you, what does he say? He says in our text, take it to heart.

Take it to heart. What does it mean to take them to heart? What does it mean to take these words to heart?

It means to think carefully about what you have heard. Think carefully about what you have heard, rather than leaving and never giving another thought.

It means that you do not judge. Listen, you do not judge any proclamation.

You do not judge any sermon, any teaching. You don't judge by how clever it is. You don't judge it by how memorable it is, how enjoyable it is.

But you judge it by how it challenges you to change, okay?

That's how you judge it. I'm telling you right now, when you sit there every

Sunday and you listen to me, you are to sit there and say to yourself, this is only worth listening to if it challenges me to change.

It means you never enter the worship of God with a thought of how you will be entertained by that proclamation.

See, I don't come for entertainment. Listen, lots of people come to church for entertainment. There are churches that are overflowing with people only on the basis of this guy really knows how to preach.

There's tons of churches that are huge because of the ability of some men to be able to really put together a good sermon.

But you don't come in. You don't listen for that reason. You have to be asking, is it telling me, is it pointing me to Christ and teaching me how to change?

It means that you're determined to compare your life as it is to the word of God. And you're gonna give it some thought.

You're gonna give it some thought. It means you will consciously make changes in line of the word of God.

To take it to heart is to say, I've heard something today that calls me to change for the glory of Christ because I've heard it.

Because of the grace of Christ and I, by God, that grace, am going to change.

I'm gonna change here. Listen, this last week with Heath, man was

I challenged. I can already tell you, I can pick out things that I say,

I need to start doing that. I need to start doing that. I need to start believing that.

Not just changing in behavior, changing in my beliefs. I need to start believing that.

I have not thought deeply enough about that. That's what it means to take it to heart. Let me make some suggestions to you.

You will take to heart what God says if you determine to be here whenever God speaks.

There's entry level taking it to heart. You say, I'm gonna be there to hear

God's word preached. Now, can I make a little footnote challenge here?

This isn't part of my main text. But all of you who are watching me here now, out there on YouTube, let me challenge you.

When things start getting back to normal, you're gonna be tempted to stay home. And it's not good enough just to hear the word of God preached in your living room while you're drinking your coffee.

All right? And the children are not a problem because they're playing in the other room.

I'm saying to you folks, when things start lightening up, you're gonna be tempted to stay home.

And I'm saying to you, you need to be here. You need to be here as soon as you possibly can.

Now, I understand there's nuances there, right? There's some folks who understand that there may be some danger.

I get it and I understand that and that's fine. But when we start getting back to normal, you're gonna be tempted to stay home.

And I'm saying to you out there, you need to be here. To take these words seriously, you need to be with God's people.

God intended his word to be preached to people gathered.

This whole book is preached to a whole congregation gathered to hear it. Now, I'm not here to beat you up, okay?

I'm not making any accusations here. I'm just saying I know what the temptation's going to be. So entry level, taking it to heart is what?

Be here. Whenever the word of God is declared, be here. Take notes.

Now, I can't tell you what the authority of God's word to take notes. When this was originally preached,

I don't think every of the 2 million people of that day had quills in their hand and were writing.

In fact, in that day, they would have to do it in clay tablets with a stylus.

But what I can say to you is this. If something challenges you, jot it down. If you say, oh man,

I need to do that, jot it down. Take those notes home and make them a matter of prayer and a matter of growth.

That is, you not just determined to change. Yeah, you need to do that, but you need to cry out to God and plead with him for the grace that will help you to change.

It's not a matter of willpower. It's a matter of determination based on your belief that God will help you if you ask him.

Those are some suggestions I'd give to you. Taking it to heart means you should have a proper attitude.

Race car obedience as opposed to cruise control obedience. Say, what in the world is that?

Well, let me just say that this is not an original idea with me. Of course, if you must know the truth.

I don't know if I've ever had an original thought here in the 36 years I've been here, but someone has said pastors are all cut and paste guys, and that's absolutely true.

This comes from Jerry Bridges' book, The Disciplines of Grace. Here's what he called cruise control obedience.

What is it? When you have cruise control, and Becca will tell you this because she hates it when

I do this. I love cruise control. I love cruise control. If I'm going down the highway and I'm pulling up on a car,

I don't want to take cruise control off. I just want to find a way to get around it without ever having to use my feet at all, right?

Cruise controls, you know what it is. You push that button, you can take your foot off the accelerator, and you're going down the road at the same speed, right?

You're the same speed. Jerry Bridges calls... In fact, you don't have to watch your speedometer.

You didn't do anything. You just cruise, right? And Jerry Bridges says this, you can obey

God in the same way. We press the accelerator until we reach a certain level of obedience, which is most often determined by the level of obedience of the people around us.

And you hit cruise control. Okay, so I'm around these people, okay. I don't swear, I don't swear.

All right, I'm not going to be immoral. I'll come to church.

You know, I'll... I'll make sure I don't get mad at people, at least in public.

And I start fitting it in, and then I hit cruise control, cruise control obedience.

I'm at the same level as everybody else around me. Jerry talks then about race car obedience.

It's like you're driving a race car. You're not interested in blending those. You're not interested in blending with those around you.

You're out to win the race, right? And so you're totally focused on your obedience, on your driving, on your obedience.

Your foot is always on the accelerator. You're trying to push to the limits of endurance.

You're keeping your eye on the track, pushing the very limits of your skill. You keep pushing and pushing and pushing.

You see, if you had the attitude of a race car obedience, you'll devour the proclamation of God's word.

You'll stretch yourself in every way to conform to God's will. You won't let it go. You won't let it go.

So heed the word of God. Don't treat the proclamation of God's word, don't treat it as idle words, but take it to heart.

Now, the second thing he tells us here is, know why you should heed God's word carefully.

Know why you should heed God's word. Notice this, he says, "'Take to heart all the words by which

I'm warning you today "'that you may command them to your children, "'that they may be careful to do all the words of this law.'"

Why should you heed God's word, the proclamation of his word? Why should you heed that carefully? For the sake of your children, that's one.

For the sake of your children. You say, well, my kids are gone.

I have grandchildren now. I'd say, okay, do it for the sake of your children still, for the sake of your grandchildren.

You don't have less responsibility, you have more. All right, do it for the sake of your children.

You know you've taken the proclamation to heart when you start teaching God's word to your children.

That's one sign that you've taken it to heart. You start, you're not satisfied with just hearing something on Sunday.

You're not satisfied with just hearing something about the word. You're gonna start teaching it to your children.

Do you really love your children? Do you really love them? If you love your children, you'll want them to live lives in subjection to the

Lord Jesus and his word. You'll want that for them because that's the best life.

Take it to heart by teaching your children. And listen, okay, you know, and I could run off here and give you a whole other sermon on parenting.

Let me just say a few words here. Yes, that means at times, that means you do sit down and actually read the word of God and teach what's in it.

That's right. But let me tell you where most of it happens. Most of it happens in the give and take of life.

You know what? As our children were growing up, our dinner table was almost every night a dinner table.

A discussion about something, all right? It's like, what happened at school today?

My kids hated it. What happened at school today? Oh, nothing. How was it? Okay. It's like,

I'm wasting my tax dollars here. No, tell me what happened today.

Exactly what happened today. And we get some things and we say, well, what does God say about it? How do you treat someone who does that to you, right?

What are you supposed to think about what the teacher just taught you, right? And it was the idea of the word of God has something to say to my children in every area of their lives.

Even the literature they're reading, all right? So you know, you've taken the proclamation to heart when you start teaching

God's word to your children. You know, you've taken God's word to heart if your life reflects that Jesus makes a difference in your life.

If you're fighting and wrangling and tearing at each other, then don't expect your children to come to Christ.

What they will see are people for whom Jesus makes no significance difference at all.

And by the way, can I say this to you? If you're struggling with that, then you come and talk. Let's get it straightened out then so you can do these things for your children.

You know, I've been tempted at times to say to parents, do you want your children to spend eternity in hell?

Why should you expect them to flee to Jesus for mercy when he doesn't make any significant difference in your life?

You see, it's important that your children see that the word of God are not idle words.

They make a difference in your life. Heed God's word for the sake of your children.

Heed the declaration of God's word for your sake. Heed it for your sake. These words are not idle words.

What are they? What do they say? They are your life.

They're your life. Listen, you're gonna approach God's word as if, if I don't get

God's word, I'm going to die. Heath, these last, those four sessions we had with Heath, that came through loud and clear, didn't it?

Didn't it? You need more of God's word. That just rings in my head. You need more of God's word.

You need more of God's word, not less. You need more. Why? Because they're your life. They're your life.

Now, in Moses' day, God promised under that old covenant, a life of peace and prosperity and gladness and joyous worship of God in a promised land.

In fact, if you read through, for example, in Deuteronomy, I think it's 28 through 30, where all the blessings and curses are laid out.

When you read those things and you read it in, I think it's

Leviticus, some of the parts of Leviticus. When you read about what's gonna happen, it almost sounds like paradise.

It almost sounds like they're gonna enter, not just the promised land, they're gonna enter life that's almost akin to paradise.

It is unbelievable description that God gives them to say, if you obey, this is what your life's gonna be like.

It's like, wow. Wow. It's your life.

Now, we have to understand something. Okay, let's step back and get a little theology here. When you look at God's people, there's a history.

When you look at God's people like Abraham, they're in their tiny infancy.

When you look at people, and so God gives them some. When you look at the people now under the law covenant, they're like children, and so they need, and at this stage in the growth of the people of God, think of the people of God as growing up.

So at this stage, they're like children, and they get these rules and say, if you obey this, this will happen, and the rewards are very tangible.

If you obey me, you will have fertile ground, your enemies will never defeat you.

I mean, very tangible things, but now here we are at the end of the history of the people of God.

We're now in the adult stage. We don't have those necessarily tangible things.

I can tell you right now, you can obey God doesn't mean you're gonna get rich. I'm sorry,

Joel Osteen is wrong. I'm not sorry he's wrong, pardon me. But listen, we have greater rewards.

We have rewards of great joy. We have gladness and joy and peace that are promised to us, that are promised to us.

These words are not empty, they're your life. They have a marvelous effect on all of life when you heed

God's word about your work, when you listen and obey God when he talks to you about your work and about your spouse and about your children and about your finances and the way you think and about your entertainment.

In every area of life, it has a marvelous effect on you. And what happens is as you line up more and take seriously, take to heart the word of God, what happens is that life starts turning out the way it's supposed to be.

Now it's not gonna be perfect, not until glory, but you're gonna see still little bits of advance and more.

Wow, this is the way life should be. This is a verse, these verses stand out to me.

I want you to turn to John 15. I use these all the time. What do you say?

And you're gonna face this when you're talking to your friends. What do you say to your buddy who's saying, my wife's just making my life miserable.

And you say, well, God says you gotta love her. Is he then doomed? Okay, grit my teeth, love my wife, and I'll make it through a miserable existence until Jesus comes, right?

You know what I can tell guys? I can say to them this, look, your wife doesn't respond and she's making your life miserable.

You love her. Go after her. Just man, just go after her and love her.

Why? Watch this, John 15 verse nine. As the father has loved me, so have

I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you'll abide in my love just as I've kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

I think he means abiding in this sense of love. These things I have spoken to you, notice that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

Listen, you can do this and in you do it, you will have joy.

You will have joy. Jesus promises it here. John 10, 10. The thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy, but I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.

This is the same Jesus who said, hey, people are gonna hate you. Okay, explain to me now. All right,

Jesus, you said you're gonna give me life to the full and you say people will hate you and take up your cross, crucify what you want to do and do everything that I tell you to do, deny myself, all this.

And okay, so abundant life. Yeah, this way is the way of abundant life.

Jesus isn't a liar. So look, they become your joy.

You find a life of satisfaction even in the hardship of a sin -cursed world.

Obey God and find joy in life. Heed the declaration of God's word for your sake.

Well, how will you treat the proclamation of the word of God? I appeal to you.

Take to heart what you hear each Lord's day. Don't treat it as idle words.

Take it to heart. Don't treat them as idle words. Treat them as your very life.

This word, and by the way, this word always points in one direction. It points to Jesus. It is

Jesus who promises you'll have joy. You will have an abundant life.

In fact, his death guarantees it. His death guarantees it.

He will accomplish what he says he will accomplish. So take these words to heart.

Father, thank you for your word. I ask now that you would help us to become obedient to what we have heard today.

Father, you are not cruel. You are not playing games with us when obedience seems hard.

Instead, you are good. And when you tell us to do the difficult things, it is because that's the best for us.

And that that's the way of joy and abundant life. Oh God, help us to be those who hang on your word, who treat it as our very life.

Help us to do that so that we will live lives that are joyful and full and that we will live lives that show the world around us that there is something different about us.

Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name, amen.