Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal Peor, for the Lord your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal at Peor. But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you. Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. Therefore, be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon him? And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. and teach them to your children and your grandchildren, especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb, when the Lord said to me, Gather the people to me, and I will let them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children. Amen. Father, thank you for your word, and I pray that you would enable me to faithfully communicate it, and that our hearts would be drawn to love your law. With David, may we be able to say, oh, how love I thy law. It is my meditation all of the day. In Christ's name, amen. You may be seated. Well, after citing several different ways in which our nation has drifted incredibly far from our Constitution and from other founding documents, Judge Michael Luttig said this, America can withstand attacks on our Constitution from without but she is helpless to withstand them from within." And he pointed to several ways in which our own people have been eroding the liberties originally gained by America's founding documents. It's really not the external enemies that have been messing America up, it's been our own people. And I started with this illustration, not because of how important the Constitution is, but to illustrate how disintegration of a nation often comes from within. And that was certainly true of Israel with regard to its founding document, the Bible. And Moses pointed out that Deuteronomy, probably more than any other Old Testament book, constitutes a law code that brings liberty and success to the nation, if the nation would follow it, if the nation would value it. And we'll see hints even in this section that Moses believed that this book would be the foundation for the liberties of any nation, even the Gentile nations that were around them. And that's why in the New Testament, James has no problem saying that the Old Testament law code was the perfect law of liberty. Check it out sometime, James 1 verse 25. Do we really believe that Deuteronomy is the perfect law of liberty? Now if it's perfect as written, to take away any portions from it diminishes its perfection and actually erodes our liberties. And yet I think it has been Christians who have come up with all kinds of reasons why we don't need to take the laws of Deuteronomy very seriously. It's been Christians, I think, that have constituted some of the most dangers in eroding the freedoms of America because we haven't been involved and we really haven't been seeking the Lord the way that he intended us to do. And so these first few verses of chapter four are designed to motivate us to value every jot and tittle of this wonderful book. And to the degree that we abandon God's beautiful blueprints for life in this book, to that degree, we are going to lose life and liberty that it promises. Well, let's dig into the text. Verse 1 is one of numerous verses in this book that say that the whole book of Deuteronomy was intended to be a manual for kingdom living. And it's far more important than any man-made constitution or document. In fact, over time, It is our prayer that various governments would make their legal documents conform more and more to the words of this perfect law of liberty. To the degree that any individual, family, church, or nation deviates from that, they're deviating from liberty. So verse one says, now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe that you may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you. Now, even though going through Hebrew words may not be the most interesting lesson that I might give from the book of Deuteronomy, there are some words here that I think we need to understand as we go into the rest of this book. And the Hebrew word for teach is millimede, a word that deals with practical training or the application of God's law. Now, in the next section, we're going to be seeing that God's law is the Ten Commandments, and then the statutes and the judgments show very tangible, practical ways in which those Ten Commandments are applied to various areas of life. And here's how Moses is going to do it. In chapter 5, he's going to list the Ten Commandments, and then in the order that those commandments are given, he's going to be giving all kinds of applications. So there's a whole bunch of verses dealing with the First Commandment and the Second Commandment, all the way through to the end of the book. And so the bulk of the book shows us examples of how God's law is applied. That's what that word is dealing with. It's a paradigm for success in every area of life, from our inner life to our outer life, from us as individuals to the national level. And it was intended to not just be an academic exercise, This verse says that the book is designed to teach you to observe that you may live. So it's a book that's designed to give us principles for success in every area of life. For example, this book we're going to be seeing will show us how essential it is that we approach the law of God by grace. The law without gospel loses its power, and the gospel without the law loses its focus, its direction. Okay? Gospel empowers believers to live out the law in a way that will make them successful. So even though chapter four is only a small introduction to the law, it's a very important introduction that gives us some pivotal themes that we're going to be seeing develop later. The next phrase indicates that this book is designed to give instructions for successful inheritance of the earth. The Hebrew word yarash. refers to possession, inheritance, conquest, taking dominion. So he does not want us to take dominion of any area of life without the guidance of his word. And recently you've heard me picking on Stephen Wolfe in his book, Christian nationalism, the idea of Christ's lordship over life, yeah, he's got that great. But he has substituted natural law for biblical law. Now, you know that we believe that natural law, in other words, the law written on our hearts, is identical to biblical law. The only difference is, because of our sin nature, natural law is more fuzzy. We don't tend to understand it completely, whereas biblical law is very clear, it's objective. But Wolfe's idea of natural law is different than biblical law, and even at points, very clearly contradicts the laws of God. So If you want the tools, to have the tools needed to take dominion, we need to take the book of Deuteronomy seriously. And even the Hebrew words that are used as synonyms for the law, I think, give us hints ahead of time of why this is important. Verse one gives two of the various words used to describe God's law. Hebrew word for statutes in verse one is defined as the decrees of a king. Decrees of a king. So God's statutes are the decrees of God as king. Every statute is a decree from our heavenly king. God manifests his rule through these statutes. And if you toss out one of the statutes of this book, you're rebelling against God's kingship. A king without statutes is a contradiction. There is no such thing. And you might think, well, God has changed his statutes. And you know, I don't believe that's true. Psalm 119, 112 says that God's statutes are forever, and verses 6 and 8 of our chapter here indicate that God's statutes were not just designed for Israel, as many people try to claim. No, they were designed for the Gentile nations around them. Now, later we're going to be seeing that the case laws themselves are temporal examples of how to apply the universal principles of God's law. And so if you don't plow with cattle, The case law that talks about not having animals unequally yoked, that's not going to apply to you just as written. But Paul says the universal principles that underlie that law continue to apply in various areas, such as not being unequally yoked with unbelievers in marriage. Now, if you live in Africa, in a country that has very similar culture to where Israel lived, you're going to apply that law very, very literally. And we'll get into how those laws can be applied in our current culture in the future, but the point is that the case laws reflect God's kingship over us. If God's kingship continues, then his statutes have to continue in some way. Next Hebrew word is mishpat, and refers to the judicial judgments or decisions of God as a judge. Not as king now, but as a judge. To ignore God's judgments is to fail to submit to him as the judge of all the earth. and to the degree that America's courts have dismissed God's judgments as they have, They are failing to submit to the Supreme Court of the universe. You could just think of it that way, as the judge. Psalm 119, 160 says that his righteous judgments, same word, endure forever. They don't pass away. And many passages indicate that Gentile nations themselves must not rebel against God's righteous judgments. Jeremiah 4, 2, Ezekiel 5, there's quite a few passages. So if God continues to be the judge of the universe, as the New Testament clearly says that he does, then his judgments continue to be binding. The next description of God's law is words, and focuses upon the fact that God's law is his objective revelation to man. So this includes not just laws, but also warnings, promises, the prophecies of this book. And since God is not a God of contradictions, his natural revelation in our hearts which does exist, praise God, will not contradict his inspired revelation of the word. And that's why verse two emphasizes the fact we cannot subtract from what he has written or add to it, okay? Even the ceremonial laws that were fulfilled in Christ continue to teach us about sin, grace, Christ's work on our behalf. They have incredible value because they are God's infallible gift, his revelation to us. Verse two has another word for the law, commandments. This refers to any order from God that men and nature must obey. It shows God to be an authority figure. So here's the question, do we stand under God's authority? Well, if you ignore God's commandments, you're rejecting his authority. And you can only have authority yourself, we're going to be seeing later in the book, you can only have authority yourself as you stand under God's authority. And I can't get into detail on any of these words today, but we're just kind of introducing you to the concepts. Another synonym for the law of God is testimony, which Kohlenberg's dictionary defines this way. Testimony is a formal written copy of the precepts and stipulations of a covenant. It's a covenantal word. To break the law is to break covenant with God. And some people think, well, the new covenant replaces the old covenant. Well, that's not actually true. It's better to say the new covenant fulfills the old covenant and showcases that Christ alone could keep the old covenant perfectly. New Covenant also shows us how to keep the Old Covenant laws. We keep them by grace and by grace alone. And that's why Jesus said, do not think that I came to destroy the law of the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. That's Matthew 5.17. And Jeremiah 31, which is the passage that predicted the coming of the New Covenant, It makes it very clear the same laws that God wrote in the Old Testament are now going to be empowered to be on our hearts so that we love them, we live them out. Hebrews 8 does say that the ceremonial parts of the Old Covenant are obsolete because the Christ they pointed to has come, but Hebrews shows us how to benefit from—I mean, it didn't just ignore the ceremonial laws. It teaches us from the ceremonial laws, just like we're going to be teaching you, how to live out these things in the New Covenant era by God's grace. They point to Christ. But the New Covenant affirms over and over again that the moral law continues unchanged into the New Covenant. The point is, this word testimonies, without law, there is no covenant. The word Torah or law can refer to the entire Pentateuch or to the laws, regulations, instructions in it. The last word is ways. Deuteronomy 5.33 says, you shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you that you may live and that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess. And so that word ways shows that Deuteronomy is helping us to see the direction, the paths that God wants us to go into, our conduct, behavior. They give us direction. Each of those words drills down into various facets of the law of God, which was given to instruct us. Now, I'm not going to spend more time on that, but in verses one through two, God gives some additional instructions to outline the kind of obedience that is pleasing to God. Attempted obedience without grace is not pleasing to God. This explains why the Pharisees were not pleasing to God. Even though they had a rigid code of conduct, they should have known better. First, God wants obedience that comes from a hearing heart or a heart intent on listening, not making up our own laws. He says, now, O Israel, listen. So there's a key word. Listen to the statutes and judgments which I teach you to observe. There's another key word. So there is a kind of listening from a regenerate heart that enables us to observe the law without condemnation. Now, this generation had that kind of a heart. The previous generation did not. And notice that it's both listening and observing God's word. First, there is the importance of intent, listening to God himself. This is one of the things that we really emphasized with our kids after they heard a sermon or they were reading a devotional, is how much were they really listening And how much is the spirit impressing upon their hearts? We would quiz them afterwards to just get a sense. What is the spirit doing? Is he giving them a listening heart? So he wants us to listen to his instructions, not to new instructions or laws that the man have come up, new rules. God doesn't want us guessing what he wants. He just says, just listen, I'll tell you what I want. On the other hand, listening without obeying makes for a hypocritical heart that becomes harder and harder. Now, the previous generation knew God's laws intellectually, but they did not desire to live them out. And the book of Numbers shows how they progressively became harder and harder in heart. Jesus emphasized the importance of not just hearing, but doing. He said, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock, Matthew 7.24. So you can memorize vast numbers of scriptures, you can listen to all kinds of sermons, but if you don't live out the word, it's useless. Some people complain, you know, that they're very unhappy in their marriages, but as you start counseling them, you realize, well, they have been deliberately ignoring biblical principles of love and respect and communication and forgiveness and selflessness and humility and other principles that Deuteronomy very, very clearly lays out for successful marriages. Listen and observe is a pattern that leads to joyful growth in Christ. Listening without obeying leads to more and more hypocrisy. Verse 1 goes on to say that Moses wanted them to know that obeying God's law had a good purpose, that you may live. That's a great purpose, isn't it? That you may live. Now, of course, believing that the law is good for life takes faith, doesn't it? Now, the word for live in the dictionary says to keep alive, to preserve life, to revive, to recover, or to restore life. And so the man who is walking by grace in fellowship with the Holy Spirit finds that the word of God revives and strengthens his soul. But if we approach the law of God without the gospel of grace, all it's going to do is condemn us because not a one of us keeps God's law 100%, right? But when we approach the law through security by our union with Christ because of his grace, wow, we find that these blueprints in Deuteronomy are life-giving, even though we may only approximate the living out of them. But the gospel gives us security while we imperfectly live out the law. These words then revive us individually. They restore families and churches and nations. It's a growth process. But we're not gonna be motivated to grow if we don't see. Yeah, this is intended for our good. Verse one goes on to say that the law is essential for dominion and inheritance, that you may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you. When Israel stuck to God's law, they found God backing up their dominion. When they rejected God's law, they found God ruining their dominion and eventually disinheriting them. It's obvious to me that the church in America is not convinced that God's law is needed for their dominion or inheritance, because they don't like God's law, and they certainly don't follow it. But the kind of obedience to God that is pleasing to Him is an obedience that values God's blueprints for life over against man's blueprints for life. It's really a trust issue. And then verse 2 shows that God doesn't want us picking and choosing what we're going to follow and what we will reject. It says, You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you. And you might think, well, yeah, sure, Israel was not supposed to add to the law or take away from the law. But hey, we live in the new covenant. We can add to it. We can take away from it. But that's not true. Isaiah 8, verses 11 through 22, is a prophecy about Jesus and the new covenant period and the closing of the canon. And in that context, it says to anybody that tries to add to God's law, to the law and to the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." And so the kind of obedience to God that is pleasing to him does not supplement the law with man's laws, supposed natural law, church tradition, any other authority. And I find it so ironic that the very people that don't like God's law, add all kinds of man-made rules and regulations that are legalistic. It almost inevitably happens. In any case, verse 2 says that God wants us to follow a sola scriptura authority. 2 Peter 1.3 does the same thing. It tells us that the Bible gives to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. That's the guarantee that the Bible is sufficient. We don't need to go beyond the Bible for ethics. Now, having briefly introduced us to the benefits of God's law, Moses moves on to teach us how to approach God's law properly, and the first lesson comes from history. Those at Baal Peor who had not been transformed by God's grace found God's laws burdensome rather than joyful. They were not able to say with David, oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. The unregenerate man, according to the Apostle Paul, is hostile to the things of God. He cannot love God's law. It takes God's regeneration to make us love his law. Look at verse 3 here. Well, we'll read 3 and 4. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal Peor, for the Lord your God is destroyed from among you, all the men who followed Baal of Peor, but you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you." Now, at Baal Peor, the men committed harlotry with the women of Moab who invited them to sacrifice to their false gods. They thought that Moab had a much more fun liturgy than the liturgy that God had, and so they involved themselves in that. And when you abandon the God of the law, the law of God is no longer a blessing. All it brings is judgment to those who are outside of Christ. But he points out those who had survived and were with him here this day, had rejected such idolatry and had held fast to God. For them, the law brought blessing, life, and the fulfillment of the promises. And so that brief reference to Numbers 25 was simply a reminder to Israel that it takes God's grace to love the law and keep it. God is not interested in a mere formalistic adherence to the law without adhering to the God of grace. He wants a relationship of love with his people, and his law helps to define the boundaries of what love looks like. And you'll see that over and over again in the New Testament, that it's the Old Testament law that defines God's love relationship with his people. I'll just give you one example. Romans 13.10 says, love is the fulfillment of the law. And those who love God, love his law word, and God loves to bless them. Psalm 100, 19.165 says, great peace have those who love your law, and nothing causes them to stumble. Praise God. But that's just the beginning. Verses five through eight give further reasons why we should love and value God's laws. First, Moses says that the laws he gave to Israel are laws revealed by a perfect God. Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them. So this is not just an issue of following Moses. It was an issue of following the God of Moses who would reveal those laws for their benefit. And Moses didn't go beyond what God had revealed. If a perfect God gave these laws, then these laws are perfect. They're meant for our good. Last phrase of verse 5 gives one of those benefits, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. So this was to give success in their dominion. You know, the Great Commission will never be fulfilled until both gospel and law are kept tightly together, just like they're kept tightly together in the book of Deuteronomy. In Matthew 28, Jesus said, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." So it's not just gospel, it's gospel then teaching them to observe everything that Christ commanded. Well, what has Christ commanded? In Matthew 5.18-20, he said, For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, which as far as I know hasn't happened yet, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." So Jesus is commanding us to keep every jot and tittle of the Old Testament law. Jesus was the only human who has ever done that. Okay? He was perfectly kept it. But when we are bound to Jesus, even our imperfect adherence to the law brings increasing blessing. The gospel makes law keeping a joyful success because those who embrace gospel and law have both Christ's justifying righteousness, that gives us security, and his sanctifying power abiding with them to the end of the age. And that the gospel and law contained in Deuteronomy were intended for more than just Israel is hinted at in verses six through eight. And by the way, each part of the Great Commission I just read is highlighted here. Verse six, therefore, be careful to observe them for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. So by keeping all of the things that God had commanded them, they became a lighthouse to the Gentile nations. This means that the law itself had an evangelistic purpose. A lighthouse not only warns of the dangerous shoals and rocks that a ship needs to avoid, but it gives those ships direction of what is the safe way forward. And so Israel's obedience to God's statutes were meant to function as a beacon to the surrounding nations in verses six through eight. Their lives were supposed to be a visible testimony to make the Gentiles long to have what Israel had. And it was very successful. You study the centuries of history in the Old Testament and you see many Gentiles became converted. Some of them remained Gentiles in the land and others became Jews. They were drawn by what they saw in Israel to want the same God. and to have the same laws. And so Moses said that when other peoples hear your statutes, they will conclude, surely this is a wise nation. By the way, Romans 10 through 12, Paul quotes from Deuteronomy, and he gives the same conclusion. And he says that when gospel and law is lived out properly by a nation, it will provoke other nations to jealousy. What is jealousy? It's wanting to have what they have, right? So in America, I don't think there's much to be jealous about. We're a mess because we've abandoned God's gospel and his law. But just as in the Great Commission, God's nearness was also promised in these verses, a nearness so obvious that the Gentile nations could not help but notice. Verse 7 says, for what great nation is there that has God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us? For whatever reason, we may call upon him. So God answers our prayers because he's near to us, and he's near to us because we value his grace and we value the book that he's given. When Israel was walking in fellowship with God by receiving his grace, following his law, other nations could become jealous of what Israel had. Why? Because Israel is being more and more characterized by the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible. In any case, the law was not, it was never intended to be a burden to his people. It was intended to drive people to Christ and enable them to experience his empowering grace. And when we're walking hand in hand with God, this verse indicates God's quite willing to answer all of your prayers. Okay? And he's willing to make you a success. Again, this shows that God's law was not designed to be a curse. Now, certainly it's a curse to those who don't know God or those who are trying to earn their own salvation. They'll never achieve it. It's a total curse to them. But to those who are already saved, following God's laws ensures God's continued nearness, and he loves to answer our prayers. And that's what this verse says. We're going to be seeing incredible blessings later on in this book. Next, verse 8 assures them that God's law code was superior to any other alternative. And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? Now, the implied answer is that there is no other nation's alternative law code that could even remotely compare to Deuteronomy's law code. The Bible is the world's only inspired source of practical wisdom and understanding in all things. Now, as we're going to be seeing later, the Bible includes all the principles of logic. Okay, that's God's standards for thinking, right? They're embedded in this book. It gives us principles that make for fantastic marriages, principles for child rearing, education, godly war, financial success, investing, many, many areas of life. In Deuteronomy 31, God said that little children, even strangers in the land, were supposed to learn the law, Deuteronomy 31, 9 through 13, and they were supposed to pass it on from generation to generation, Deuteronomy 32, 46. Did you realize that Jesus quoted from the book of Deuteronomy more than any other Old Testament book? In fact, it's the most quoted book in the whole New Testament almost 200 times. So to me, that means Jesus was taking the book of Deuteronomy a lot more seriously than many pastors do. In any case, Moses considered this message so important that he said this, set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe, all the words of this law, for it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life. If Deuteronomy is so important that it could be said to be your life, we certainly ought to become familiar with it. And God says that Deuteronomy was intended for the life and the well-being of every segment of society. According to Acts 20 verse 27, Paul taught the whole counsel of God and expected the church to live in terms of all scripture at 2 Timothy 3, 14 through 17. And let me just quote a small portion of that passage. It says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable Profitable for what? He says it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. If we neglect the book of Deuteronomy, we're not going to be equipped for every good work. If Deuteronomy is that foundational, we really need to familiarize ourselves with it. You can tell I'm doing a sales job on my future sermons. It's an important book, okay? First, he says, only take heed to yourself. Well, let me first of all point out, Moses knows our nature and he knows how easy it is for us to become forgetful. So in verses nine through 10, he warns them, be on guard against forgetfulness. He says, only take heed to yourself, and literally the Hebrew means guard yourself, and diligently keep yourself, which is literally guard your soul, your nefesh, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Now it's very, very easy for any of us to grow dull and then to backslide, and it usually happens fairly innocently. You know, you start by being just too busy to have devotions on a daily basis. That becomes a lesser priority. And so you're not being convicted by God's Word on a daily basis, which means you're not being driven to God's grace. You take God's grace for granted. And when you do that, It can lead to small compromises which lead to larger compromises. It's kind of a snowballing effect. But none of that downward progress into forgetfulness and eventual hardness of heart happens instantly. Right? It's an inevitable result of forgetting to diligently guard our souls from the attacks of demons and the temptations of our environment. Well, this in turn can lead us to become lazy in passing on our diligent pursuit of God and his word to our children. It is hard work. The second part of verse nine says, and teach them to your children and your grandchildren. Now we have an entire generation of Christians that has disobeyed those words by sending their kids to the pagans to have the pagans teach them in the pagan government schools. And so the next generation loses out on having a comprehensive worldview where the Bible is the foundation for every discipline. You know, just as a side note, before I die, I really, really, really hope that I can get my website completed, the Great Axioms Project, where exegetically I derive from the scripture, and I've completed quite a bit of it so far, but it's not going public yet, but the axioms for every discipline, and then contacting scholars from around the world to write textbooks based on those biblical axioms. And the reason I want this to happen is if people could see that the Bible has the foundations for every discipline that is out there, it will give them a confidence in the sufficiency of Scripture. That's my prayer, and I would encourage you to pray to that end. I may not be able to finish it in my lifetime, but I think it would be cool if we could pass something on to the next generation. In any case, verse 10 says that when we become forgetful of our need for scripture, it is easy for both generations to begin to lose the fear of God. Verse 10 says, especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb, when the Lord said to me, gather the people to me, and I will let them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me. That must be important to him, that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth and that they may teach their children. So he's talking about the importance of gathering together for worship and for mutual accountability. That's a key component for not being forgetful and gradually backsliding. The people certainly feared God when they saw his presence on the mountain. That was a scary moment for them. But even that fear was eventually lost when Moses didn't come down, and over time they just got used to that. You know that story in the book of Numbers. But it was because their hearts were not really in it that they lost this fear of God. By the way, if you want a great book on how to develop the fear of God in your own life and in your kids' life, there's a Baptist writer, Robert Morey, who's written a book, I think it's titled Fearing God. I highly, highly recommend it. It was an incredible blessing to me. But Scripture indicates that the fear of the Lord is not only the beginning of wisdom, but it produces strong confidence. Proverbs 14.26 leads to life. Proverbs 19.23 produces humility. Proverbs 22.4, and there's many, many other virtues that are produced when you begin instilling the fear of the Lord into your own heart and into the heart of your children. But the fear of the Lord can only be maintained when we walk in his presence every day, we value his word every day, we experience his grace every day, we gather for worship, and we're accountable to each other, and we pass those covenant realities on to our children. But when we do follow the principles we've looked at today, God powerfully meets with us through his word and he transforms us. Hebrews 4, 11 through 12 gives a similar lesson saying, let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." When you approach God's law by grace, it has that kind of transforming power in your life. But when verse 11 is not true of us, in other words, when we lack God's grace, we fail to gather to him, God's word does not transform us from the inside out. It just becomes a formalistic thing. It becomes a dead letter. My prayer for each one in this church is that we would come to love God's law because we love the God who gave the law and because we want to please him and be transformed by his word. May it be so, Lord Jesus. Amen. Father, I thank you for the Scriptures, even some of the tougher sections of the Scriptures that you have given to us. We know that they are intended for our good, and I pray that each of us would come to love the book of Deuteronomy and see this as a beautiful manual for kingdom living. Bless us, your people, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.