I invite you to turn with me again this evening to Deuteronomy chapter 12. Page 156, if you're using the Bibles in the seats, Deuteronomy chapter 12. We're continuing to look for Christ in the Old Testament and we do that because he tells us that it's all about him. And I've suggested that we might use six different words to think about as we're reading the Old Testament looking for Christ. Two P's, the progress and promises. Two T's, types and themes. And two C's, to compare and contrast. And those are just suggestions. There are other ways we see Christ, but at least for me, it's easy to remember those six words and useful for me to think about as we're reading the word of God. Deuteronomy, as I mentioned this morning, is the second law, the second giving of the law to the Israelites as they prepared to go into the land of Canaan, the second generation, the children of those who came out of Egypt and died in the wilderness. The context of chapter 12 is worship, but the overall context of Deuteronomy, second law, is obedience, obedience to God. keeping God's law because we love God. Before I read just this first verse, that's all we'll consider this evening, let me ask a question for you to consider. What are the things that God wants you to be careful about? What are the things that God wants you to be careful about? There are many things we could come up with as we look through the scripture. We saw this morning from this whole chapter a call to be careful in how we worship God. And the call this evening is to be careful to follow the Lord. And so listen as I read again just this first verse, and we'll consider it together. Deuteronomy chapter 12, verse 1. These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess. all the days that you live on the earth. Having heard from God in his word, let's seek him in prayer. Father in heaven, would you open our eyes to see Christ? Would you open our hearts to understand and to put into practice the word that is from you to us? May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our heart be acceptable in your sight. We pray in the name of Jesus, our Redeemer, amen. Be careful, be careful. We have here a call to carefulness and the carefulness is to keep God's law. Be careful, keep God's law. And we see this keep or observe all throughout the book of Deuteronomy. We have here a call and a reminder to keep these statutes and rules. And statutes and rules are paired up in the book of Deuteronomy 14 times. And six times, be careful, is connected to statutes and rules. I think we can safely conclude from that, though when I say this, I want us to always remember, if God says it once, God means it to be important. If God says it six times or eight times or 10 times, it doesn't mean it's more important than when he says it once, but God wants us to pay careful attention. Perhaps he repeats it because we're sometimes slow to hear. Be careful to keep God's laws. The particular words that are used here in the ESV, statutes, it's translated statutes or ordinances, decrees, and laws. And there's a beautiful image of Christ in a parallel text in the Old Testament that uses the same root word as the word that's translated here as statutes. And it's Genesis 49, verse 10, in which we read, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. A prophecy about Christ, and it's that ruler's staff that is from the same root word as these statutes. The picture is that Christ is the one who will come to enact and to ensure the statutes of God. The other word, the parallel word rules, often translated judgments or laws, has a similar messianic prophecy in the Old Testament. Psalm 72, verse 4, may he defend the cause of the poor of the people and give deliverance to the children of the needy and crush the oppressor. And that word defend is the word that comes from the same root word as rules. That is, he is the one who enforces the rules of God. And so keep God's statutes, keep God's rules, knowing that Christ is at work. And the motive given here is that we love God's law and we keep God's law because we love God. This is not legalism. Legalism is adding anything to the finished work of Christ. But we need to be careful because obedience can drift into legalism if we're not on guard. Legalism can be adding laws beyond God's law and declaring that they are the command of God. Legalism can be seeking to earn salvation by keeping God's law. That's the most common use of that idea. That one would say, if I just keep God's law good enough, God will accept me. And the scripture makes clear, first, that it's impossible to do that. And secondly, that to pursue after that is to reject a righteousness that comes by faith. But when we're aware of the work of Christ, we joyfully keep God's law. We recognize that we can add nothing to the work of Christ, but because Christ is working in us, we work out what he is working in. As Paul writes to the Philippians, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is working in you, both the will and the do according to his good pleasure. And so be careful to keep God's law. And then really this next point is a parenthesis, but I think not an unimportant parenthesis. It's a reminder that the Lord keeps you. We looked at that in the Aaronic benediction in Numbers a couple of weeks ago. The Lord bless you and keep you. And it's the same word here that's be careful to keep or be careful to do. We keep God's law because God keeps us. The Lord bless you and keep you. It's to exercise, as we looked at a few weeks ago, to exercise great care over. And because God exercises great care over us, it's not too much to ask that you take great care to keep the law of God. You remember that Jesus is the source of your keeping. And because of that, you pursue after keeping God's law. Be careful to keep God's law, remembering that the Lord keeps you. and do it all your life, do it all your life. The end of the phrase, the end of the verse there, all the days that you live on the earth is a reference to this being careful to keep the statutes and the rules of God. There is never a time that you're not to be careful to keep God's statutes and rules. Those like me who are more hackers than golfers, sometimes on the golf course hit a bad shot and take a mulligan. It didn't count. There's never an opportunity to take a mulligan in regards to keeping God's law. We can't disobey God and say, well, that didn't count, I didn't really mean it. I talked to someone who's in the context of New Year's revolution, not revolution, resolutions, had a new diet. Sometimes diets have built in a cheat day. That is a day that you don't have to live by your diet. And there's never a cheat day for the people of God who are obeying the law of God. Little children. are not allowed in their immaturity to break God's rules. Now, wise parents need to be discerning, because there is immaturity that's simply immaturity, and there is immaturity that's disobedience and sinful. And it's a wise parent who understands that themselves and who helps their children understand that. But little children are never allowed, in the name of immaturity, to break God's law. Teens are not permitted, though sometimes we have this mindset in our culture, they're not permitted to sow their wild oats and then get serious about God later. but it's not merely children and teens. Adults of all ages are not allowed to choose various times, various circumstances in their life in which they have the freedom to turn away from God's rules. Keep God's law all of your life, all of your days, and that's a theme throughout the book of Deuteronomy in this second giving of the law in chapter four. that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth. Chapter five, fear me and keep my commands always. Chapter six, fear the Lord your God all the days of your life by keeping all of his statutes and commands. Be careful to keep God's law, remembering that the Lord keeps you and do it all your life. and understand that this theme continues in the life of Christ in the New Testament. This call is part of Jesus' Great Commission. After Jesus had died for the sins of all that the Father had given Him, all who would believe on Him, after he had been raised from the dead to prove that death no longer had authority over him, that he had defeated sin and death, but before he ascended to heaven to be at the right hand of his father where he now rules and reigns. In that period of time, he meets with his disciples as Matthew records it in Matthew 28. He makes the claim that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. And then He gives the commission or the command to His disciples, go therefore and make disciples of the nation, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to keep everything I have commanded you, or teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you. And remember, he says, I'm with you always. He brings that encouragement. As you disciple, teaching people to keep everything that I have commanded, remember and teach them that I am with you always. The work of making disciples is the work of Christ, and in that work, we are to call people to keep Jesus' commands always, and to remember that he's with us always. So be careful. Be careful to keep God's law. to do what God has commanded, really just a parallel way of saying it, to do what God has commanded, but we can think of it similar to the context that we thought of worship this morning. Don't add to it, don't take away from it. The Pharisees of Jesus' day, who we need to remember, would have been the most moral of the Israelites in their behavior. They both added to God's law and took away from it. Matthew records Jesus' rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. You pay a tithe of mint, dill, and cumin, and yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. These things you should have done without neglecting the others, blind guides. You strain out a gnat, but gulp down a camel. You've ever been maybe riding a bicycle and riding with your mouth open and a gnat flies in. You know what it is to swallow a gnat. I doubt if any of you have ever gulped down a camel. But Jesus said these scribes and Pharisees were concerned about things that he wanted them to be concerned about. It is important to acknowledge that even the small plants that you grow maybe in your windowsill, they belong to God and to give God a tithe would be appropriate. But don't forget that there are more important things, justice and mercy and faithfulness. And then earlier in that same chapter, Jesus said to his disciples, he said, do whatever the Pharisees tell you and observe it, but don't do what they do because they don't practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry and they put them on people's shoulders, but they themselves aren't willing to lift a finger to move them. And so there's a warning from Christ, don't add to, don't take away from what God has commanded. But remember, with this call to do what God has commanded, that his commands are not burdensome. Unlike the Pharisees who were happy to heap heavy burdens on people, God's commands are not burdensome. They're not hard. Now it might be hard to resist the world and the flesh and the devil that tugs at you to disobey God's commands, but to obey God's commands, God's commands are not difficult. They're not burdensome. They're not hard. John writes in 1 John 3, his commands are not a burden. And Jesus offers this invitation, come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am lowly and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. God's commands are not burdensome. Jesus invites us to fit into his yoke. It's a wooden necklace, as you will, that an oxen would wear so they could pull a cart or a plow. And Jesus said, my yoke is easy. My burden, unlike the burden of the Pharisees, my burden is light. Do what God has commanded, remembering that His commands are not burdensome. And do what God has commanded in remembering that this is love. Keep God's commands. This is love. This is what love of God is, John writes in 1 John 3, to keep His commands, and His commands are not a burden. But we don't have to look to the New Testament to see that. Just look to the next chapter in Deuteronomy chapter 13, the first four verses. If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, that was one of the qualifications whether a prophet was speaking truthfully. If a prophet makes a prophecy and it doesn't come to pass, he's not a prophet. But here, one who had affirmed by what he said coming to pass, then says this. If he says, let's go after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, you shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and you shall serve him, and hold fast to him. Obedience is loving God. This is love. Keep God's commandments. Let me ask you children a very specific question. You don't have to raise your hands. You don't have to answer. But do you love your mom and dad? Do you love your mom and dad? Obey them. If you love one in authority over you, you will obey them. And parents have to sometimes remind their children of that. You say that you love me, obey me. This is love. Keep God's commands. So now a question for all of you. Do you love God? Obey Him. The New Testament summarizes the law as loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbors ourself. This is love. This is the law that we love God and we love neighbors. And we see a comparison. This is love, keep God's commands. If you love Jesus, keep his commands. It's a sad reality that people often try to pit God as he's revealed himself to us in the Old Testament with God as he's revealed himself to us in the New Testament. And somehow they want us to understand or think that the Old Testament and God in the Old Testament is all about laws. And Jesus, God in the New Testament, is all about love and grace. And Jesus is about love. And so he says, if you love me, obey my commandments. If you love me, obey my commandments. He repeats that in John 14. The one who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. and the one who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and reveal myself to him. Do you love God? Keep his commandments. Do you love Jesus? Keep his commandments. Do what God has commanded because you love the God who has commanded it. And if you happen to not love God, you're not free from the command to obey God's commands. In fact, God will hold guilty all who disobey His commands without faith in Jesus Christ. But for those of us who have trusted in Christ, We're not called to be disobedient because Jesus has paid the penalty for our sins. Rather, we're called to respond with love to the God who loved us, to the Savior who loved us and gave himself for us. And so, because Jesus loved me, I will obey him because I love him. And so, it must be for you. This, in fact, is why Jesus saved you. Jesus saved you so that you would obey God. One of the reasons for you being saved by grace, through faith, not by works so that none of us can boast is because we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. You cannot, I cannot obey God enough to earn God's salvation. But if God has saved you in Christ, he saved you to do good works. He saved you to obey God's commands. Be careful to keep God's law, to do what God has commanded. But then, I want to encourage you to keep seeking and finding God-given motives to obey him. Keep seeking and finding God-given motives to obey Him. Again, a question for you kids. You don't have to answer. But have you ever, in response to instruction from your mom or your dad, said, why? Suzy, clean up your room. Why? Billy, eat your peas. Why? And sometimes as parents, we need to instruct our children that they need to obey because we are their parents. And that's reason enough. And you and I need to obey God because he is our God. But God in his mercy and kindness often gives us reasons to obey him. And wise parents will often give their children reasons to obey them. It's an act of kindness to give motives to obedience. And it was fascinating to me as I was considering Deuteronomy in the context of the calls all throughout the book to be careful or to keep. defined what I regarded as at least 33 distinct motives for obedience. 33 distinct motives in the book of Deuteronomy for obedience. And I'm not gonna ask you to write these down. If you'd like, there's a handout on the table in the back and you can pick it up afterwards and look at it. But I encourage you to consider these motives all throughout the book of Deuteronomy. Motives for carefully following the Lord your God. To show your wisdom and understanding and witness for the greatness of your God. so that you don't forget what God has done, and so that your children and your grandchildren learn what God has done. Because the Lord delivered you and chose you as his inheritance, because your God is a consuming fire, so that you may prosper and live long, because of the covenant God made with you to receive God's love, Because you have a heart to fear the Lord so that you might fear the Lord in order to be righteous, in order to avoid God's punishment, which for the unbeliever is destruction, but for the believer is the discipline of a father who loves his children. To demonstrate to God your humility because God is prospering you so that you don't become proud for your own good. because you have seen God's great works for you, so that you might have strength, so that God will reward you, so that the Lord will defeat your enemies, to demonstrate that you love the Lord, so the Lord will bless such that there are no poor among you, so that your king may humbly rule. And I think we can, by application, apply that to our president and our governors and our mayors. so that the Lord will enlarge your territory, because you are the Lord's own possession, His holy people, so that the Lord will raise your nation above the nations of the earth, so that the Lord will establish you as His holy people, so everyone will see that you bear the Lord's name. To avoid the Lord's curse, so that you may succeed in what you do, so that the Lord may delight in prospering you, so that you may live and multiply, so that your children may learn God's ways, and so that you may live long. 33 motives in the book of Deuteronomy in the context of keeping the law of God, motives for obedience. And lest you think it's just an Old Testament idea, I wanna read 32 motives to obey the Lord found in the New Testament. And these come from a book that I've been reading by Kevin DeYoung of The Hole in Our Holiness. And again, they're on the handout in the back. I'd encourage you to read through the texts. But I'll just read the reasons. Motives for carefully obeying the Lord found in the New Testament. Because it's right. Because of God's example. Because of Christ's example. For assurance. To be effective as a Christian. Because Jesus will return. Because the world is not our home. To win over our neighbors. For the public good. For the sake of your prayers. because of the futility of sin, because of the folly of sin, because of the promise of future grace, because of the fear of future judgment, because of the surety of our inheritance, because of the communion of the saints, because of the good examples of others. because of the bad examples of others, because we were created for good works, because God is the master and we are his servants, because of the fear of the Lord, because of the love of the Lord, in order to make God visible in gratitude for grace, for the glory of God, to please God. to avoid the devil's snares for an eternal reward because Christ has all authority because of your love for Christ in order to have fullness of joy and because of your union with Christ. God gives many motives. If I could find 32 in a survey through the book of Deuteronomy, if I could find 33, if he could find 32, and he actually had more, but I just read his New Testament motives. God as a wise, kind, and loving Father gives you and me reasons, motives to obey Him. So be careful to follow God's law. Be careful to follow the Lord. Be careful to do what God commands. Why? Not in order to be saved. but because, if you are a believer, because Jesus saved you to do good works. And remember that this call to careful obedience reminds us that carelessness is sometimes the first step to disobedience. So be careful to follow the Lord, the God that you love. Pray with me that God would make it so. Our Father in heaven, we do ask that we would love your law, that we would obey because you have loved us and saved us in Christ and are continuing the work that you began and will bring it to completion in the day of Christ Jesus. Help us obey you because we love you. We say that to you, God, our Father. We say that to you, Jesus, our Savior. We love you. And because we love you, because you first loved us, we will devote ourselves to obeying you. We pray in Jesus' name.