In our last study together, we talked about the greatest need that your child has, and we said that was salvation. Tonight, I want to talk about another important need that your child has, and that is for them to be taught how to love God and how to obey Him. And to do that, I want to invite you to turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter six. Deuteronomy chapter six is here where we find the greatest instruction concerning obedience and love for God. Deuteronomy, chapter six. Says, beginning at verse one. Now, this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord, your God, has commanded me to teach you. That you might do them in the land where you're going over to possess it. So that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord, your God, to keep all of his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life and that your days may be prolonged. All Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey. Hero, Israel. The Lord is one. The Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. You should teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You should write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. The book of Deuteronomy was written to a new generation. It was written to the generation of those that were under 20 years of age when they came out of Egypt, and it's commonly referred to as the second law. But that designation as the second law had resulted from a mistranslation of Deuteronomy 17, 18 in the Septuagint and in the Latin Vulgate. This here is not a second law, but rather it is a record of Moses's words of explanation concerning the law. The Jews had identified this book by its first words that are found in Deuteronomy chapter one. It's the phrase. These are the words or they would use the phrase in Deuteronomy 17, 18, a copy of this law. They would also refer to Deuteronomy as the book of admonitions or the book of reproofs or the book of corrections. It was also known as the fifth or the fifth of the law. And here it was given the second time by Moses on the plains of Moab to that new generation before they entered the promised land. Deuteronomy is really a series of sermons or a series of discourses. And here Israel is gathered on the east bank of Jordan. They're ready to enter the promised land. And it had taken them 38 years to get there since their rebellion at Kadesh Barnea. Over in Deuteronomy 1, 2, it indicates that their journey normally would have taken 11 days, but they had wandered in the wilderness and they were led by a cloud during the day and by a pillar of fire by night. And now Israel is physically ready to enter the land. But Moses realizes that they must also be ready spiritually. The time of the year is the Jewish 11th month or March, according to our calendar. And you find, as you survey this book, leading up to chapter six, the first three chapters, Moses is reminding the people about God's guidance. He talks to them about their journey from Sinai to Kadesh Barnea. He talks about the nations that they avoided and the nations that they defeated. And in chapters 4 and 5, he reminds them of God's glory and His greatness, and instructed them about three dangers, which were the dangers of forgetting the Word, the dangers of turning to idols, and the dangers of neglecting His law. And now when you get into chapter 6, he reminds them of God's goodness, and he instructs them to obey and love God with all their heart. Notice verse one of chapter six. He says this is the commandment, the statutes, the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you. This here is referring to the law, the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments that he has just reiterated to them in chapter five. And he's giving them this so that they might do them in the land where they are going over to possess. In other words, he's giving them practical instruction to fit them for life in Canaan. Notice those words again, as we look at this tonight. When you look down at verses four through nine, he basically gives them four truths that they must be committed to as they enter the promised land, and tonight we're just going to look at two of them. And I believe that if we apply these four truths to our life, these are not only truths that will help us personally in our relationship with God, but it's also truths that we must pass on to our children and to their children. This is something that is to be built into every generation. So when we talked about last week, the greatest need that our children have is salvation. This second area that our children need is to learn about God. We need to talk about God among them constantly. And notice again how it reads. It says in verse four, Here, O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. And you should teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up and you should bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. And you should write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. In other words, it is to be everywhere. You know, it's amazing that many times in our homes, we don't pin up things about the things of God, we pin up things about the things of the world. Instead of pinning up worldly heroes on our walls, why don't we put up something like the Beatitudes? Why don't we put up something that is reflected of the word of God, of things that we are to be reminded about our God, what kind of God it is that we serve, the one true living God. And if we are to teach these things diligently to our sons and talk of them when you sit in your house, talk of them when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up, then we are to do those things that should constantly put the Word of God and put the God of the Bible before them. This is something that we are to apply diligence to. And so as we look at this tonight, there are four truths that I want us to see that we can apply. And again, tonight, we'll look just at the first two. The first one is found in verse four. Notice what he says. He says, Here, O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one. The first basic truth that they were to know and believe as they entered into the land was simply this, that God is one. This verse is referred to by the Jews, by the Hebrew word that occurs at the beginning of that verse, of verse four. It's the word here or in Hebrew, it's the word Shema. And the Shema included not just this verse, but it included verses 4 through 9. In fact, Jews would cite this section of Deuteronomy 6 twice a day as a creed. And they would also quote it along with Deuteronomy 11, 13 to 21 and Numbers 15, 37 to 41. And right here we find in this section the summary of the greatest commandment, which is also summarizing the first four commandments. Namely, that you should love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. And this, of course, is quoted by Jesus later as being the greatest commandment over in Matthew 22, 37 and Luke 10, 27. But notice the truth that you find there. He tells them, hear this, O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one. And you know, Scripture repeatedly teaches that truth. It repeatedly teaches that God is a monotheistic God. It's interesting that we find this here, because when Israel was in Egypt, they were exposed to the Egyptians belief in many gods. The Egyptians were polytheistic. But when God brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, they were taught that there is only one God and that he is to be loved and he is to be obeyed. In other words, they were to give their complete devotion to Him. You know, the Bible lists many foreign gods, false gods, idols that people bowed down to worship. For example, listen to some of these names that are listed here. You have a list from Mesopotamia, which was a center of idol worship. This is actually the longest list. You had Adrammelech and Amenelech. You had Baal, which was also known as Mardoch. He had Tywin, or Nebo, or Nabu. He had Nergal, Nishrak, Rafa, Sakuth, Sukathabinoth, Talmuz. He had Tartak. The Syrians were devoted to a god called Ahishamah and Rimon, who was also worshipped under another name, Hadad-Rimon. Israel's eastern neighbors, Ammon and Moab, they worshipped Milcom and Molach and Chemish. Although the Moabites also worshipped a local manifestation of Baal, the Philistine gods were Dagon and Beelzebul, which is the equivalent of the New Testament Beelzebul. One of the Canaanite gods, Baal, and two of the Canaanite goddesses, Ashtoreth and Ashtoreth, are mentioned frequently in the Old Testament. Ashtoreth was the same as the Mesopotamian Ishtar, which was also known as the Queen of Heaven. Then you had the gods of Egypt, which were represented only by two names in the Bible, which was Amman and Apis. Nippaz was also probably the Elamite god. Now that's the list, which, like I said, was a longer list from Mesopotamia. Then you had at least three Greco-Roman deities that are mentioned in the New Testament. You had the Greek goddess Artemis, which was known as Diana by the Romans, and the Greek gods Zeus and Hermes. which were also known as Jupiter and Mercury, respectively, by the Romans. The Bible clearly teaches that the gods of the nations, they have no objective reality, even though that they are worshipped sincerely and believe that they actually exist. The Bible says that they are no gods, Jeremiah 2.11, or that they are not gods. And the New Testament further declares of the idols that an idol has no real existence over in first Corinthians eight, four, and that God's made with the hands are not gods at all. But it's not surprising that when Israel began to enter other nations as early as the time of the exodus, they were told repeatedly that the Lord is greater than all other gods. Why do you think God would tell them over and over that these gods which the nations worship are no gods, but they are demons that they bow down to? See, it's almost like our society today. There are a multiplicity of gods in our society, in our world today. It is not just the God of the Bible. You have to ask today, which God? When someone says, I believe in God. Because everybody has a God of their own making. You have to say the God of the Bible. The God of the Jews, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, you have to say Yahweh, Jehovah God, the covenant keeping God. It's like when Mujahed was here, he was pointing out, say Jehovah God. Because Islam does not believe in Jehovah God. These gods were not worthy. Of Israel's attention or Israel's veneration, because there is only one God. And if they were to believe in any other God or more than one God, that was just blasphemy and idolatry. In fact, in the Ten Commandments, what is the first commandment? That you shall have no other gods before me. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one. And both times he uses there in verse four the Hebrew word, the Tetragrammaton, Yahweh. Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is Elohim. That's the word for God. Yahweh is one. And again, Scripture repeatedly teaches this, that our God is a one God. It says over in 1 Corinthians 8, 6, that there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through him. One God. You say, well, why is that significant? Why is it important that we teach that to our children? Because this is the foundation. You're laying down a foundation for them, everything flows from this foundation. You don't lay down multiple foundations when you start putting up the edifice, you lay down one foundation and the foundation is this, that God is one. In 1 Timothy 2.5, it says, For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. One God. You know, when Jesus was praying to the Father in John 17.3, He says, And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God. Even in Isaiah 45.5, it says, I am the Lord and there is no other besides me. There is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known me." There's only one God. And that is the Father, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, that is the Holy Spirit. Elijah Coles, that Puritan said, there can be but one infinite. And see again, because Israel lived in a polytheistic society, it's vital that they gave their allegiance to the one true God. But notice something else about this. It's not just that there is only one God, but there's something else that's found here when it says the Lord our God is one. Scripture also repeatedly teaches that God is a unity. Triune. That Hebrew word for one there in verse four is very significant. When you view it in light of the further revelation of the New Testament, it stands not only for absolute unity, but for compound unity. It's consistent with both the names of God that are used here in this first, as I mentioned, you have the first word Lord, which is equivalent of Yahweh, and that emphasizes his oneness. But you also have another word here, another name, and it's the name God in Hebrew. It's the name Elohim. An interesting thing about Elohim. Is that it emphasizes the plurality of this one God. God is one. But yet he exists distinctively in three persons, and that's revealed in the Bible from the beginning to the end. And, you know, the Old Testament expresses the plurality of the Godhead in its opening words. Just as it uses Elohim there in verse four, that same name Elohim occurs in the very first verse, it says in the beginning, God. In the beginning, Elohim. And that word Elohim, it has the plural suffix I am, the I am ending, and there it means that it's plural. It could be translated into beginning gods, but what keeps this from being polytheistic is that it is a singular word. So it's saying that this singular God exists in some form of plurality. People that struggle with the Trinity need to go just to the first verse of the Bible. In fact, in verse two, you have the second member of the Trinity mentioned. It says that the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. So there you have in the first two verses, but in that name Elohim, it is expressing the triunity of God. Over down in verse 26 of Genesis one, it presents the plurality of the Godhead. When it says this, then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Over in chapter three, after Adam and Eve had sinned and they were now chased out of the garden, it says, That the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us to no good and evil. And now lest he put out his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever. So man was driven from the garden. But notice in that conversation that you had a uniplural conversation within the Godhead. Over in Genesis 11, 7, when God was about to destroy the Tower of Babel, it says this, Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language that they may not understand one another's speech. Again, the plurality of the Godhead. So when you see there in Deuteronomy 6, 4, Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. It's not just emphasizing the fact that there's only one God, but it's emphasizing the fact that this one God is triune. The unity of God is plural. You know that not only are there distinctions there in the Old Testament, there are also distinctions that we find over in Genesis 19, which would be. Reflected of the Old Testament, let me have you go to Genesis. Let's go to chapter 18 first, I guess what I started to say, not only do you find it in the New Testament, but you find it also in the Old Testament. Let's first look at the Old Testament, Genesis chapter 18. You remember in this story. that three men appeared to Abraham. And it says in verse one that the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. And then it says in verse two, when he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him. And when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and he bowed himself down to the earth. One of the three men. Was an incarnation of God. I believe that this was Christ. Because Christ was the only one who became flesh, you had any kind of manifestation. The other two, as we understand from chapter 19, is that they were angels. But notice they appeared in a form that Abraham could could understand, Abraham could comprehend, and it says there that he saw three men. Well, when you get over there to chapter 19, after you go through the whole story of being a lot being rescued out of Sodom because God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of the homosexuality, the great wickedness that existed in the city. If you'll notice there in verse 24. It says that the Lord reigned on Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground. It's very interesting if you'll notice there in verse 24 is that you have the distinction there. It says the Lord reigned on Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. You have the Lord mentioned twice, but there seems to be some distinction here. Charles Hodge, he says, we find throughout the Old Testament constant mention made of a person to whom, though distinct from Jehovah as a person, the titles, the attributes, and the works of Jehovah are nevertheless ascribed. This person is called the angel of God, the angel of Jehovah, the angel of Adonai, or the angel of Jehovah and Elohim. He claims divine authority, exercises divine prerogatives, and receives divine homage. He says, besides this, we have the expressed testimony of the inspired writers of the New Testament that the angel of the Lord, the manifested Jehovah who led the Israelites through the wilderness and who dwelt in the temple was Christ. That is, the angel was the Word who became flesh and fulfilled the work which it was predicted the Messiah should accomplish. Now, that's not something unusual, because we've seen this before. We know that there existed in the Old Testament a super special angel that was able to say things and do things only that God did, and no other angel was like him. And we say that that was a theophany, that was a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. And when you get over in the New Testament, guess what? You don't hear any more about that angel, the angel of the Lord. And what Charles Hodge is saying here in Genesis chapter 18, also Genesis 19, that's what you have. Just as I mentioned there in chapter 18, the three men that appeared, two were angels and the third was the Lord. And who is this Lord? This is the pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. Now, not only are there distinctions in the Old Testament, but there are also distinctions in the New Testament. You have verses like this, Matthew three, verse 16, that Jesus is baptism. It says that Jesus was being baptized by John the Baptist. The Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove. And the father replied, this is my beloved son and whom I'm well pleased. You have all three members that are mentioned there in the same verse. Jesus is the one being baptized. The Holy Spirit is the one who's coming upon him. And the father is the one who is speaking. Or you'll have like in John 14, 16, where it says, And I will ask the Father. Jesus is speaking. He speaks of asking the Father, and He will give you another helper. And who's the other helper? The Holy Spirit. Or you'll have verses like this, 1 Corinthians 12, 4. In that chapter, when it talks about spiritual gifts, it says that there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are a variety of ministries and the same Lord. There are a variety of effects, but it's the same God who works all things in all persons. And there you have the Spirit, the Lord and God. Again, you're seeing those distinctions. Listen, all you have to do is read the Bible and you'll see this. That's why it's good that you join with us each year as we read through the Bible, because this will begin to form in your mind the understanding of the Scripture. And listen, beloved, this is what we are to teach to our children. It's important that you teach your children that God is one, not just the singular God. And he is the only God exists. And all these other gods, all these other religions, these are false gods and false religions. And all that these people are doing are bowing down to demons. You need to teach your children that. And then you need to teach them that God is triune. You need to teach them about the Trinity. God, the Father, God, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit. Because guess what? You're going to have people come to your door. Hi, we're from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Hi, we follow in the footsteps of Jehovah God. We're Jehovah's Witnesses. You have these two groups that come to your door. And if they can't answer. Teach them how to shut the door. I remember one time when I had somebody come to the door like that one day. It was the wrong day. It's a long time ago. I was living in Tallahassee. This person came to the door. I talked with him for a few minutes and this person would just so seeped in this false doctrine. And after a while, I said, you know what, this is really a losing battle. They're not interested in knowing the truth and I'm not interested in letting them have a platform to propagate their truth. So, you know, I said, guess what? See you later. Close the door. He said, well, that's so rude. Well, second, John doesn't say it's rude. It says that they don't come bringing the doctrine, don't receive them in your house, don't bid them a kind word. Send them on their way because they're propagating false doctrine and advocating that you can never talk to them. No, not at all. But if you're going to talk to them, you need to make sure that you're rooted and you're grounded in the word of God because they use lies and deception and they twist scripture. And I tell you, the people that they seem to pray on and seem to get a hold of many times are Baptist. Many times I remember as being a Southern Baptist all those years, one of the greatest convictions as to why I was that was that I felt that at least in the little corner, this little speck of the world that I was in, that God had me and that church that I was in, that maybe God would use me in some way to teach the flock that was there what they believe. That's what we're concerned about. That's what the whole point of all this is. It's the whole point of Deuteronomy 6-4 there, is that you know what you believe and you take what you believe and you pass that on to your children. In order to do that, you have to teach it to them. And it's teaching just one format, teaching just one format of just sitting down and saying, OK, open up your Bibles and now I'm going to teach you out of the Bible. You remember last time we talked about teaching in the Maloo? Remember what Lou Priolo was talking about last week as I shared that with you, teaching in the middle of the situations that they're in. Teaching them in the middle of life. As they're going through life, teach them God's Word. Teach them who God is. Teach them how to react in light of God's Word. That's everyday talk. That's talking about God in every situation. And listen, if Deuteronomy 6 says that you're to diligently teach this to your sons, then you've got to talk about it. You've got to talk about it when you sit in your house. You've got to talk about it when you're walking by the way. You've got to talk about it when you're lying down and when you're rising up. In other words, you've got to talk about Him all the time to your kids. All the time. And you might feel, well, I've got an infant. How am I going to talk to them about God? Listen, this is the best time to talk to them about God because they can't talk back to you. Right? They can't present to you that they know everything. Because they can't even respond. What happens when they get a little bit older is that they think they know everything and they begin to teach you, right? Learn to talk to them about God. Pray with them. As you pray with them, pray theology in your prayers. Teach them about God when you pray. Over in 2 Corinthians 13, verse 14, You find, again, another verse that speaks of that distinction in the Trinity and the Godhead there in the New Testament, it says the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. And there you have mentioned of all three members there in the same verse. Over in 1 Peter 1, 2. It says, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood. May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. And again, there you have God the Father, you have the Spirit and you have Jesus Christ mentioned there. That is the Trinity. Now, listen, what would you do if you had a Jehovah's Witness come talk to you? Maybe you had a friend. And that friend you have has a family member that has been targeted by Jehovah's Witnesses. I'm telling you, actually, I'm relating a real life situation that occurred. This situation occurred where at a church that I was at, where this particular member, her brother, worked with a man who was a Jehovah's Witness. So every day he was with him and every day that Jehovah's Witness was pounding into his mind false doctrine. till it came to the point to where he decided to go and visit the kingdom hall of Job's witnesses. Do I recommend you go there? No, I do not. You don't need to go there. That's false doctrine. They propagate false doctrine. You know they teach false doctrine. You know that they're heretics. Why do you want to go there and expose yourself to that and become a target for them? But no, he went there and he kept going back and he kept going back. And then they began to give him literature and he started reading the literature. And listen, by the time he was willing to sit down and talk with me, he was gone. You know what it felt like when I sat down to talk to him? It was like unscrambling an egg. You can't unscramble an egg. And I sat there and I talked to him about the Trinity. I dealt with any question he brought up. And we looked at the Scripture and talked about the twisting of the Scripture. And by the time he left, He was, again, affirming the right things. But as soon as he walked out that door, all of that stuff that he had been taught, all that stuff he was hearing from his Jehovah's Witness friend, all the stuff that he had been reading, came back and crowded out everything that had been untwisted. And we would go through that every week until after about a month, he was gone. And each time we met, I kept telling him, if you embrace this, you are denying Christ. I kept saying that over and over and over, because if you don't embrace the Trinity, you can't be saved. He who has the father has the son also first John talks about that, you don't believe that Jesus is God, you can't be saved. And so over and over, I kept teaching him that now again, why is all that important? Because you have these people that will rise up and they will have influences in the life of your children. And sometimes those influence will become greater than your influence, because after a while they tend to listen sometimes more to their peers than they do their parents. Isn't that what you did? Because that's what I did. I listened to more to my more to my peers, more to my friends that I was hanging around with rather than my parents. And after a while, I thought my parents didn't know anything. That I was smarter than my parents. And some of you, you've got little kids, you've got little babies. And right now you might not know what I'm talking about. But all I can say is remember how you treated your parents. And draw on that. So you've got to teach them about God. And what specifically should you teach them about God? You need to specifically teach them who God is. You need to teach them about Yahweh, Jehovah God. You need to teach them about Elohim. You need to teach them here, oh, Israel, here, oh, child, the Lord is our God. Jehovah is our Elohim. Jehovah is one. There's only one God, there are no others. So you're going to go out in the world one day and you're going to learn about this religion. You're going to meet this friend and this friend is going to go to this church or this temple or this tabernacle or this meeting place or this assembly hall. And you're going to find out that they believe something different than you believe. Are you rooted and grounded and able to deal with that or are they going to be able to sway you from what you believe? Did someone sway you from what you believe? Now, I'm asking this as a personal question, don't answer me because you might make yourself embarrassed if you do, but. All of us are vulnerable. And you loosen the grip of that vulnerability, the more that you're rooted and grounded in Scripture, you might think during the week that you don't need to spend as much time in here as we keep telling you you do, but. If you're not careful. You can be led astray. And you need to understand that there are false prophets in the world. And they come into your TV set or they come into your radio or they come into your Internet. Or maybe you have a text message to your phone, Joel Osteen's daily message, you know, or something like that. Listen, the technology is there. And false teachers have a greater opportunity now to get in your home and to get in your ears and to lead you astray. So the only counteraction that you can make to that is to root and ground yourself in the word of God, root and ground yourself in what the Bible teaches about God. God is one, God is three. J.I. Packer wrote, he says, Here we face the most dizzying and unfathomable truth of all, the truth of the Trinity. What should we make of it? In itself, the divine triunity is a mystery, a transcendent fact which passes our understanding. How the one eternal God is eternal, both singular and plural, how father, son and spirit are personally distinct, yet essentially one is more than we can know in any attempt to explain it, to dispel the mystery by reasoning as distinct from confessing it from scripture is bound to falsify it. Here is elsewhere, our God is too big for his creatures, little minds. We're talking about an infinite God, and we're talking about our finite understanding. Some of it is too big to comprehend. Faith takes over. I believe that God is one, only one God, not a multiplicity of gods in the world in which we live. I believe that God exists in a form of plurality. The word Trinity you won't find in the Bible, but you find the concept, you find the same three persons with the same characteristics and the same work and all three claim to be God. That's what we have to pass on to our kids. Now, I want you to notice the second truth, that first truth was down in verse four, the second truth is in verse five. Not only are we to believe and teach our children that God is one, but we're also to teach them to love God wholeheartedly. Love God wholeheartedly. And again, this is essential. This was essential for Israel in coming into the promised land. These were truths that were going to teach them how to live in the land. Listen, I find this so fascinating. Because here in this, you don't hear them saying, listen, here's how you're going to treat your neighbor. Here's what you're to do toward it. No, it focuses in first on God and who He is and complete devotion to Him. Verse five is a verse that speaks of complete, unabated, unswavering devotion to God. Look at what it says, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. With all your soul and with all your might. That is a call to total devotion. Total commitment. There's no room for half heartedness here. Half heartedness is disobeying this half heartedness is not a commitment. This is a full devotion. Listen. When a friend of mine was sharing with me the gospel, I knew exactly what he was trying to say, whether he phrased it this way or not. But what he was saying and what I was hearing was that God was calling me to a total devotion to him, no longer a devotion to myself, no longer a devotion to live any way that I wanted to live and do anything that I wanted to do, but now a total devotion to him and to his will. I knew that's what he was calling for. And I knew in my life that that meant an abandoning of many things. And you want to know, in a practical sense, why people don't come to Christ, especially the first time you talk to them, is because there are things in their life that they're holding on to. These are their gods. These are things that they've given their devotion to. And they're not willing to relinquish that devotion. In my case, It was the rock band I was in, the nightclub band I played in. I had to relinquish that. That was the God of my life. That's what was holding me back from a total devotion. Now, as I understand. Revelation, chapter two, and what happened at the church at Ephesus. That church did not maintain a devotion to Christ, they allowed other things again to come back in and crowd out that love they had for Christ. In other words, they had abandoned that first love, that love that they had received when they got saved. And that's something we have to guard our hearts against. Loving God right here, as it's mentioned in verse five, is the greatest commandment out of all the commands that the scripture gives. This is the greatest. How do we know it's the greatest? Well, we know it's the greatest because Jesus tells us it's the greatest. Let me have you to turn to Matthew 22. Matthew, chapter 22. It says there in verse 23, and I'm just going to read down to it so you can have the context. It says on that same or on that day, some Sadducees who say that there is no resurrection, they came to Jesus and they questioned him. And they were asking this teacher, Moses said, if a man dies, having no children and his brother as next of kin shall marry his wife and raise up children for his brother. Now, there were seven brothers with us in the first married and died and having no children left his wife to his brother. And so also the second and the third down to the seventh. Last of all, the woman died in the resurrection. Therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had married her. But Jesus answered and said to them, you're mistaken, not understanding the scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God? I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching. But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him. Teacher, Which is the great commandment in the law? And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets. On these two commandments, you fulfill all the law. And all that the prophets spoke of. You notice there again, he says, this is the great and foremost commandment. It's interesting that loving God was not the usual emotion toward a deity in the nation, in the ancient Near East. The emotion that gripped people as they served their gods was not love, it was fear. That was the common emotion. So to hear something like this, to devote yourself to Yahweh, to Elohim with love, was something foreign to many of their understanding. Because again, there were a multiplicity of gods. And here in this situation, all Israel had to do was please the one God, the one true God, not a multiplicity of God's because in a multiplicity of God, you seek to appease one. You might not appease the other. And you've got to go around appeasing this one, appeasing that one, appeasing another. And it's very interesting is in the book of Exodus that the ten plagues was each plague was an attack against an Egyptian God. And here. Moses was calling Israel to devote themselves to this one God, love him completely, love him wholeheartedly, love him without any reservations. And that would include both the emotion, the intellect and the will. Now, understand this as you look at this command, as you go back to Deuteronomy six. And you understand within the context, like of chapter five, the reiterating of the law. They are given the law of God again. This is given to the new generation. This is the generation that or rather the children of the generation that feared for their children and going into the land. You remember when they went and spied out the land? Numbers 11. And they went and spied it out and they said that the people are like grasshoppers. They're giants in the land. We can't go on and take this land. But Joshua and Caleb said, we can take it. And they got stoned in the process. So because of Israel's disobedience, because of them believing the report of the 10 spies, they were left to wander in that wilderness. And the children they feared that would be overtaken if they went into the land was the actual generation that went into the land. And so now when Moses is given this law, they're right there at the precipice. They're right there at the edge, ready to go in. And so that's why you hear him repeating things. That's why you see a second writing or a second mention of the Ten Commandments. He's reiterating to this new generation. And he's telling them this is the commandment, this statutes, these are the statutes, these are the judgments which the Lord your God had commanded me to teach you that you might do them in the land where you're going over to possess it and that you might Teach that to your son and your grandson to fear the Lord, your God, and to keep all of his statutes and his commandments. God is one, and you are to love this one God with a total devotion, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. See, loving. God. In this manner, this is the only motive. That is given for obeying his commandments, it's the only motive given. For obeying his commands, you have the greatest command of loving God and in being told to love God, this is the only motive that God gives for obeying him. This is doing it from the heart. See, they work hand in hand, you say you love God and obey God, that proves that you love him. But it's not just something that you do externally. It's not something that you do just on the outside, but it's something that you are to do internally, especially when he talks about that in verse six. These words which I am commanding you today shall beware on your heart. The heart is always the issue. Heart is the issue in everything we do. It's the issue in my living, period. It's the issue in how I relate. to one another. It's the issue in how I raise my kids. It's the issue in how I relate to them. As I give them instructions, my heart has to be right with God. Because if it's not right with God, guess what? It's going to be lifted up with pride, it's going to be lifted up with sin. And that's what I'm going to be passing on to them. If you wonder why your kids react a certain way to you, most likely they react that way because that's the way you react to them. If you're always yelling at your kids and they turn around and yell back at you and you wonder why they start doing that, or if you ever watch your kids playing one time and you see them over there playing with their toys or something and then they start doing things to their toys that you go, wait a minute, wow, that's something that I've said. You see them over there spanking their little baby Don going, I told you not to do that and whatever. And you hear them repeating your very words. Now, realize we know that they can exaggerate this or I'll give you that much. But there's some truth there. The parenting skills that you have show up in your kids every day. From the youngest to the oldest. And as we talked about last week, the most important thing you need to deal with them in their life is salvation, and you need to teach them those things. And the second greatest thing is doing this all the time, teaching them about the gospel, teaching them about the God of the Bible, the triune God. And the most important element out of this is loving him. Teaching them how to love God and listen, teaching them is more than just oral instruction. Teaching them is daily example. You know, you've heard me say this before and you know, and I'm not just saying this as a cliche because, you know, I have to study to stand up here and have something to say. But I do like it knowing that my kids see me studying. And I don't say that in a prideful way. I want my kids to know that I'm serious about my relationship with God as I talk to them about their relationship with God. I don't want to be a hypocrite when it comes to that. I don't want to say to them, have you read your Bible today when I haven't read mine? I don't want to ask them, have you prayed today when I haven't prayed? They might not know if I haven't read, they might not know if I haven't prayed, but I know my heart knows. And if I'm irritated and agitated and I'm snapping here and snapping there, it's reflective of my heart. My heart's not right, and I've stopped controlling my members. It doesn't matter if you haven't had enough rest or not. Makes it harder when you haven't had enough rest, doesn't it? Certainly. If you'll notice here in verse five, when he says, loving the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul and all your strength, notice that it's placed as the head, as the spiritual principle from which the observance of the commandments was to flow. See, it was in love. that the fear of the Lord and the hearkening to his commandments and the observance of the whole law were to be manifested. But love itself was to be shown by walking in all the ways of the Lord. It encompassed everything. Jesus said in John 14, 15, if you love me, do what? Keep my commandments. He said to him in John 15, 14, you are my friends if you do what I command you. Love from the heart is the issue. Just as we talk about dealing with behavioral issues in your children, you want to start with the heart. But again, before you can deal with them, you've got to start with yourself. So if you'll notice in these first few messages in the series on parenting, who am I dealing with? I'm dealing with the parent. I'm dealing with you. Because that's that's where it all has to begin. There are things that you need to be doing. Don't think that you come together and all we're going to talk about is just, you know, whether I should speak or whether I shouldn't speak, whether I should yell or whether I shouldn't yell or how to deal with behavioral issues. It's always the heart. That's what you've got to focus on. Look at the heart. Notice that the manifestation they're showing you right now in their behavior is reflective of what's going on inside their heart. And again, as you manifest these same things to them, or you manifest these same things to your spouse, you've got to realize this is coming from your heart. Out of the heart flow evil thoughts. Out of the heart flow those words that you say, well, I can't believe I said that. That has never come out of my mouth since I've been a Christian. Well, it came out this time because it came out of your heart. You weren't guarding your heart. You know, I used to have a filthy mouth. Very filthy mouth. Every time I spoke, something filthy came out. I cussed here and there and everywhere. Took a long time for that to be cleaned up. But for me to ever think that that could never come out of my mouth again, that's just stupid. You know what I mean? That's stupid on my part. You know, the Bible says, take heed where you stand, lest you fall. I don't think for one moment that that can never come out of my mouth. I don't think for one moment I can never be tempted to lie and follow through with it. or any other sin. So you have to deal with your own heart. You have to look at your own love relationship to God. Are you loving him with this kind of devotion that you want to teach your children? Because if you're loving God with that kind of devotion, it's going to manifest itself in the home. It's going to manifest itself in how you relate to them. Let me show you that in a few other places before we close. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 10. Look at verse 12. And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and what? And love Him. And to serve the Lord your God, how? With all your heart and with all your soul. Notice that. God requires that you fear Him, you walk in His ways, you love Him, you serve Him, But you've got to do it with a total devotion, with all your heart and with all your soul. Go to chapter 11. Look at verse 13. It says, And it shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments, which I am commanding you today. And what are they? To love the Lord your God and to serve him. How? With all your heart and all your soul. that He will give the rain for your land in its seasons, the early and late rain, that you may gather in your grain, in your new wine, in your oil." See, He's telling them, listen, He's commanding them to love Him. We all are to love God. We are all to fear Him. We are all to serve Him and walk in His ways, but He doesn't want it to be done half-heartedly. He wants it to be done with a total devotion, with all your heart, with all your soul. Look at chapter 13. Look at verse one. He says, if a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder comes true concerning which he spoke to you, saying, let us go after other gods whom you have not known and let us serve them. You should not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is what? Testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him, and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him and cling to Him. He said He's doing all this to test you. To find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Never in Genesis chapter 22. Abraham received such a test. And you know that test when he was told to sacrifice Isaac on an altar. You know, it says in the beginning, the first verse that it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham. And when he told him in this test, he said, take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you. What was the test? To find out if he loved God more than Isaac. That was the test. And he passed the test. He loved God more than his only son. He was willing to give up his only son. Because he loved God more. And, of course, we know from Hebrews 11 that he believed in a resurrection. He believed that if he was to take his heir, the one from whom all the blessing would flow and all the covenants would be fulfilled in, that God was going to have to resurrect him. He believed that. Over in Joshua 22, it says in verse 1, And Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Benassa. And he said to them, you have kept all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you and you have listened to my voice and all that I commanded you. You have not forsaken your brothers these many days to this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of the Lord your God. And now the Lord your God has given rest to your brothers as he spoke to them. Therefore, turn now and go to your tents to the land of your possession, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you beyond the Jordan. Only be careful. to observe the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, what was it? To love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, hold fast to Him, serve Him, how? With all your heart and with all your soul. Paul said to Timothy, 1 Timothy 1.5, the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. He told him in 2 Timothy 2.22 to flee youthful lust and to pursue righteousness and faith and love and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Love of the two things you need to. You need to have rooted deeply in your mind and in your practice is that God is one and you were to love that one triune God wholeheartedly with total devotion and you are to teach this to your children. Do you believe? That God. Is one and And are you loving him in that manner? You see, that's the question we need to ask. Again, before we can teach it to our children, we need to make sure that we are loving him in this way and we are serving him in this manner. I cannot express this enough. Doctrine matters and it forms behavior. What you believe will form your behavior. That's why it was so important that God laid down to the children of Israel that God was one and they were to be totally devoted to Him. That's why I've spent tonight emphasizing that to you. I want to teach my kids about God. I want to live that in front of them. But I have to be rooted and grounded in these truths first. How am I going to teach them these things if I don't believe these things? I can say I believe it, but does my life manifest it? So what you believe affects how you live. You need to teach your children these truths. The heart is always the issue you must put in the right stuff in order to have a right heart. Again, the issue is a pure heart. Now we're going to look at two more next time as we look back at Deuteronomy six. Let's go to the Lord in prayer for now. If you're here tonight, you have not come to believe in this one triune God. I want to call you to him right now. Act 1730. Says, therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is declaring to men that all everywhere should repent because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead. And if this is describing you tonight, I want to call you to repent and come to him right now and to surrender your life entirely to him. See that this God is one God, the singular God who exists in a form of plurality. And that he calls you to a total devotion. Father, we pray tonight that we will answer that call and that we will check our hearts tonight, seeing that that is the real issue and that we will transfer these things to our children and to their children. God, root these things deeply in our mind, realizing that this is a piece in the puzzle as we teach our kids to know you. We thank you for the study of your word tonight. And we pray now that we will apply these truths and we pray that in Jesus name. Amen.