Good morning. Well, it's always a great joy and privilege to worship with you at Providence Presbyterian Church. Just as we sing praises to the Lord and we hear His Word, His Law that convicts us of our sin, we know that the Lord does not leave us naked and exposed, but He reminds us that He has cleansed us with the righteousness of Christ. And it's a joy to sing with you and to hear the Word as we see in part what one day we will see in full, the glory of Jesus Christ fully. It's a joy to be lifted up and to taste that future glory that we will one day experience. So it is always a joy to be with my brothers and sisters here at Providence Presbyterian Church as we are united together as one in Christ and worship our Lord Jesus Christ. read the Scripture and preach the Word, I would like to ask you to join me in prayer as we seek the Lord's favor in the reading of His Word as well as the preaching of it. Please pray with me. Father, we have just read from Your Word that Your love endures forever. We have tasted of Your goodness this morning through reading and hearing Your Word, through singing praises to You, And now we ask, Father, pleading through our High Priest and Mediator, Jesus Christ, that You would send Your Spirit down and unite Your Spirit with Your Word. That You would make Your Word effectual into our hearts and our minds. We confess that so often our hearts and our ears become dull. that You are always speaking to us. And so often we do not hear Your voice because we crowd it out. But Lord, we ask now that You would open our ears, open our hearts and our eyes, that we can behold the wondrous things out of Your Word. And we pray all these things through Jesus Christ. Amen. If you want to open your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 4. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 4. And I'll read verses 4 to 9 to capture the whole context. Hear now the Word of God. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, 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. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children 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. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. We see here in verses four to nine what has been called throughout history as the Shema, getting its name from the first Hebrew word in verse four, here. It has been said that the Shema contains the fundamental duty, excuse me, the fundamental truth of Israel's religion and the fundamental duty founded upon that truth. In other words, it contains what we are to believe concerning God and the duty God requires from us. And so important is this verse that this is the first prayer taught to a Jewish child at the beginning of their life and the last prayer uttered at the end of their life. It is the prayer that serves as the centerpiece for morning and evening Jewish prayers, even to today. And so important is this verse that once a scribe came and asked our Lord Jesus, what is the greatest commandment? And Jesus replied, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You see, it is this verse in Leviticus 19.18, to love our neighbor as ourselves, which sums up the Ten Commandments. It is these two passages upon which the Law and the Prophets hang. It is this passage that captures the essence and the heartbeat of true biblical religion. Two things. Total deliverance by God and total devotion to God. Before we can speak of our total devotion to God, we must first speak of God's total deliverance of us from our sins. And so this morning we take up the first part of true biblical religion of total deliverance by God. And we see this in verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. The people of Israel are on the verge of entering the promised land of Canaan. They are in the plains of Moab, east of the Jordan River. And here we see that Moses delivers a final set of parting sermons and exhortations and commands to stay faithful to the covenant that God entered into them at Sinai. And so Moses is exhorting them and encouraging them to remember this covenant that the Lord has made. And as we look at verse 4 this morning, there are three things that I want you to notice from our text. I want you to notice the summons from God, the sovereign grace of God, and thirdly, the singularity of God. First, the summons from God. Moses begins in verse 4 by saying, Hear, O Israel. This phrase, hero Israel, occurs only six times in the entire Old Testament. And all six occurrences are found in the book of Deuteronomy. It is a unique and particular address and summons that Moses is using to the people of God, the people Israel. It's a summons that we find elsewhere, such as in Proverbs 1, verse 8, which says, Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching. Or when Jesus says in the Gospels, He who has ears to hear, let him hear, or truly, truly, I say to you. It's a call to listen carefully, to listen up, to hear and to receive every word that God is speaking to us. And we know that Israel was not just passive and uninterested spectators, but we know that they were there to receive divine revelation in God's words. And not only to receive those words, but then respond accordingly. You see, this hearing was to result in obedience. We read in Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 1, just the previous chapter it reads, And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them." And what's up with this hearing and doing? Well, you see, there is a constant temptation to divorce, to separate, hearing God's words and responding to them. to hear God's words in one ear, have it ricochet off our heart like a bullet hitting a concrete wall, and then fly out the other ear and not remember a thing he said. But we are to receive God's words, to let his word drive deep into our hearts and take root and transform our hearts and our minds and our lives. Now imagine that A man is on a date with his wife. And they're at a nice, fancy restaurant. And he, midway through the meal, goes to the restroom to freshen up. And he looks in the mirror and notices that there is a large chunk of spinach in between his two front teeth. He then proceeds to wash his hands, dry his hands off. He leaves the restroom and returns back to his seat with the spinach still intact. He saw the problem. and did nothing about it. Now you might be thinking, that's ridiculous. I mean, why would you do that? Why would you not fix that? That's not very attractive. And James, in his letter, is asking us that same question when he writes in chapter 1, in verses 22 to 24, saying, but be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. It's like the man at the restaurant who sees his imperfections and does nothing about it. But James does not stop with his indictment against such thinking. He says in chapter 2 and verse 19, you believe that God is one, you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder. You see, James is indicting those who think that they can simply hear God's truth and not respond to it. Who think that they can recite just verse 4 of the Shema, but never respond with verses 5 through 9. Our Lord Jesus likewise says in Matthew 7 and verse 21, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father. He calls us to be like that wise man who both hears and does the words of Jesus. Because after all, as Thomas Goodwin once reminded us, even Judas Iscariot heard all of Christ's sermons. So how about you? What is the posture of your ears and your heart this morning? Are you earnestly striving to receive that implanted word of God, to let it take root in you? Or have you built a nuclear bomb shelter around your heart so that the word can only come and just leave a little ding on the outside? Do you have open ears to hear and yet a closed heart, making a profession of belonging to Christ, of being attached to Him, and yet your life does not match up with that profession? Or do you humbly acknowledge that it is only by the sovereign grace and mercy and love of our Father that we can only hear and see and receive His Word with meekness and joy? Do you earnestly pray with the psalmist in Psalm 119, 18, saying, Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law? Or do you have ears to hear and yet do not hear and eyes to see and yet do not see? So Moses begins the Shema by calling upon Israel to give ear, to give careful attention to the Lord's words to receive them and respond in a worthy manner. But before we move any further in this verse, I want you to notice how he addresses and summons them. Did you see that? Hear, O Israel. What is crucial to see here is that Moses is addressing Israel as a nation. And think with me for a second as we reason our way backwards why this is so important. What's significant about this? Well, the Lord has already entered into a covenant with Israel as a nation. And what does that presuppose? Well, the Lord did that at Mount Sinai. And what's the significance of that? Let me ask you this. Where is Mount Sinai not located? It's in Egypt. The reality that Israel is receiving these words from Moses here in Deuteronomy 6, while waiting in the plains of Moab, east of the Jordan, tells us one thing for certain. That Israel cannot both be in Egypt and in Moab at the same time. Israel is no longer under the tyrannical rule of Pharaoh in Egypt. They're no longer enslaved with broken backs and blistered hands through their brick making. But the Lord, Yahweh, has come, and He has delivered them from their bondage, from their slavery, and from their oppression. He has destroyed their enemies and defeated them. It was Yahweh who heard their groans and their crying under the burden of slavery, and He came, and He brought them out of Egypt. It was Yahweh who remembered the covenant promises to Abraham and the patriarchs. It was Yahweh alone who brought them out of Egypt and entered into a gracious covenant with them. And so, within this summons from God, to hear, to receive, we see the beauty of sovereign grace revealed. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God. You see, this first verse in the Shema is not some empty vacuous, philosophical abstraction about God. It is full of meaning and significance because there is a reason why this is the first verse in the Shema and not the second or the last. And that is because when God deals with his redeemed people, he first declares who he is and what he has done, and then he calls them to obedience. The message of salvation and redemption in the covenant of grace begins, as J. Gresham Machen once wrote, with a triumphant indicative. It is a message that first announces and states and declares what is true. It declares what God has done for us, what God has accomplished for us in history. This message does not first begin with urgent imperatives and commands and appeals to obey first. God did not give Israel the law first and then said, if you will obey my law, then I will redeem you out of Egypt. But he first comes in, graciously redeems them, and then gives them his law. We read this in Exodus 19, in verses 4 to 6, which reads, You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself, the indicative, what God has done. Now, therefore, imperative, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. This is how God always approaches his people. His redeemed people. Earlier in the service, we read from the Ten Commandments. And we see in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 that the Lord does not begin with commands and imperatives first. Rather, He begins telling a history of what he has done. We see in Exodus 20 and verse 1 in Deuteronomy 5, 6, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. We likewise see all throughout Exodus through Deuteronomy when God gives them commands and laws. After he gives them the set of laws, he stops and says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, as if to remind them, listen, In case you forgot, your obedience to my commandments is in response to what I have done for you first. You see, law and obedience are set within the larger narrative context of the indicative, of the history of redemption. You see, the historical narrative expresses what God has done. Here is what has happened in your history. These are the things that Yahweh has done for you. Then the law comes and says, now in light of that, obey. The indicative of God's grace in history comes before and empowers obedience to his law. That is why it has rightly been said that history is his story. The history of redemption tells us of the biblical story concerning our sin and God's salvation. Our rebellion and rune and God's redemption and restoration. And that is why if you were to ask an ancient Israelite, who is this Yahweh that you worship and serve? They would tell you their history. They would tell you their story of what God did in Egypt. Listen to these words from Joshua, 24 in verses 1 to 15. I won't read the whole passage, but I'll just highlight the way Joshua pulls out the redemptive grace and acts of God. Joshua 24, and this is what he's referring to what the Lord has done. I took your father Abraham from beyond the river. I gave him Isaac. I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess. I sent Moses and Aaron. I plagued Egypt with what I did in the midst of it. Afterward, I brought you out. Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt. Your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites. I gave them into your land. I destroyed them before you. I would not listen to Balaam. I delivered you out of his hand. I gave the kings of the land into your hand. I sent the hornet before you which drove them out. I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant. Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness. Put away the gods of your fathers beyond the river and serve the Lord. Notice how Joshua begins with what God has done, what God only has done, and then he calls them to respond. And we see that also in Deuteronomy. The first three chapters, Moses is recalling Israel's history as they wander through the wilderness, telling them, hey, this is not just a history to remember, but a history to remember of God's faithfulness and God's promises. And so be faithful to the Lord the way he's been faithful to you. Now you might be wondering at this point, that's great, it's good to hear about these things, but that happened 3,000 years ago. How does the story of the Exodus impact my life? How does the story of the Exodus change the way that I approach the Christian life? Well, this history is our history as the people of God. But we know that God has spoken an even better word and our Lord Jesus Christ, who accomplished the final Exodus redemption. And he did that with his death on the cross for our sins. For example, earlier in the service, we read from Exodus 19, four to six, which I read earlier, which spoke of God redeeming Israel and then making them a kingdom of priests. And what do we read in Revelation during our scripture reading? to Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood and made us a kingdom of priests, priests whose God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. You see, before the Lord calls on the churches at Revelation to respond in faithfulness and obedience, He reminds them that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished the greatest and the final exodus redemption by delivering us from our slavery to bondage of our sins. or if you read Paul's letters, you will know that Paul always, always, always starts with what God has done for us in Christ, and only then he calls on us to respond in obedience. You think of Romans, the book of Romans. He begins with that great unfolding of the gospel, that we are condemned by God's law, that we are doomed, that we are deserving of His wrath, and yet God shows His grace and forgiveness to us in Christ. And then he continues to unfold what the gospel is all about, even in the Christian life from day to day. And then you do not even get any kind of command until you get to chapter 12, where it says, Now, therefore, I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, which we've just heard about in chapters 1 to 11, to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to our God. This is your spiritual act of worship, our imperative, our command. So we see in all these examples, both Old and New Testament, that the indicative of God's historical, gracious actions precede and empower the imperatives to respond in obedience. And that is why the Shema first begins by declaring God's gracious actions in history. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God. And in this declaration of deliverance, it tells us something about this relationship. The Lord our God. It denotes possession and ownership. But the only reason why Israel could say, the Lord, our God, is because God first said, Israel is my people, my possession, my firstborn son. It is what the Apostle John reminds us in 1 John 4, 19, saying, we love because he first loved us. But we have to ask a question. Why Israel? Why not the Egyptians? Babylonians or the Assyrians with their military power? Why not the Greeks with their wisdom and science? Why not the Romans with their law and government? Why Israel? Was it because of their power and might as a nation? Deuteronomy 8, 17. Beware lest you say in your heart, my power, my might have gotten me this wealth. Was it because of their moral righteousness and uprightness of heart and obedience? Deuteronomy 9.4, do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust your enemies out before you, it is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me into this land to possess it. Was it because Israel was a numerous and large nation of people? Deuteronomy 7.7, it was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. So why Israel? Deuteronomy 7, 8. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. You see, while every reason is given to Israel to obey the Lord and to love Him, nothing is ever explained about the possible motive why God loves Him other than His own character and promises. Did you notice the circularity of what God said? The Lord set His love on you and chose you because the Lord loves you. The Lord loves you because He loves you. And why does He love you? Because He loves you. God's love is the starting point of all explanation, not something that can be itself explained by something behind it or above it, except from it being a demonstration of his sovereign grace for the purpose of his glory. He says this very same truth to Moses in Exodus 33, 19, saying, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. He says elsewhere in the book of Malachi, Jacob have I loved, but Esau, I hate him. So why Jacob? Why Israel? Why you? Why me? A woman once came and in exasperation said to the preacher Charles Spurgeon, I cannot understand why God should say that he hated Esau. That, Spurgeon replied, is not my difficulty, madam. My trouble is to understand how God could love Jacob. You see, God does not choose us and love us because of who we are or what we have done, but rather he chooses us and sets his love upon us in spite of who we are and what we have done, because he is gracious and merciful in spite of our sin and our rebellion against him. So the question is, are you humble? Are you amazed by this? Are you comforted knowing that God's love for you does not change in Christ? Does this truth lead you to praise Him for His grace shown to you in Christ? Do you say with Paul in Romans 11.33, oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments, how inscrutable His ways? So we have seen the summons from God is calling Israel to listen carefully to His words. We have seen the sovereign grace of God by His gracious act of redeeming them and ultimately pointing to that gracious and final redemption that Christ accomplished on the cross for us. And thirdly, we see the singularity of God. The verse reads, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is one. mentioned earlier, verse 4 is not simply just some philosophical principle about who God is. Because the focus is on the life implications that this verse has for us. You see, when they confess the singularity of God, when they confess that God is one, what they are confessing is this. There is only one God who exists, and there are no others. There is only one God who exists, who reigns and rules over all things, and that is Yahweh. There's only one God who is to be worshipped and adored and served. And this is the God of Abraham. It is a confession of total exclusivity that God alone exists and God alone is to be worshipped. Because He alone has redeemed us. He alone provides true joy and satisfaction and delight. He alone has set us free from our slavery to sins. And that's why Moses, in Deuteronomy chapter 4, declares the exclusivity of God. And he reads these words in verses 32-39. Listen to these words. For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you since the day that God created man on earth, Adam and Eve, and ask from one end of heaven to another whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. Did any people ever hear the voice of a God speaking out of the midst of the fire as you have heard and still live? Or as any God ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation by trials, by signs, by wonders and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes. To you, it was shown that you might know that the Lord is God. There is no other besides him. Out of heaven, he lets you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth, he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. And because he loved you, your fathers, because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them, and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, to give you their land for inheritance, as it is to this day. Know therefore today and lay it to your heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. And there is no other. Exodus 15, 11, likewise reads, Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you? Majestic and holiness, awesome and glorious deeds, doing wonders. Who is like you? Answer, no one. But, there's a warning to Israel here. And a warning to us today that belief in other gods or pursuing other idols in our lives is simply a distortion of true reality in this world. Pursuing other idols is a denial of the true God and a denial of who and what we were made for. That is why in Deuteronomy chapter four, Moses warns Israel in verses 16 and 19 saying, Beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves in the form of any figure like the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that's on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven. And when you see the sun and the moon and the stars and all the hosts of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them. and serve them. And notice that Moses purposefully lists these objects of worship found in creation directly in opposite order to what you'll find in Genesis 1. As if to say, when people worship the creator, excuse me, when people worship the creation instead of the creator, when people pursue false idols and false gods instead of the true God, Our world and reality gets turned totally upside down. Our reality gets turned upon its head. We live and make a reality of our own sinful imagination. Now, you might be thinking, we're not like these silly, primitive people who worship the sun and the moon and the stars. We're not like these people of old who make golden calves and images and bow down and worship them. No, we are people of the 21st century, modern, savvy, and civilized, right? Right. Like people who use sophisticated technology such as Doppler radars to tell us that Mother Nature is bringing a storm out west. Now I grant that here in Edwardsville, we might not create golden calves that we bow down to or wooden statues that we worship. But when it gets right down to it, at the end of the day, no matter what it looks like, it's all made of the same stuff. It's all created stuff that takes the place of God. So the question is, you might not worship a golden calf or a metal image, But we do live in a culture that is consumed by greed and materialism. So maybe it's not a golden calf, but is your idol money? Is it the pursuit of wealth, of possessions? Sure, you may not spend hours chipping away at a piece of wood to create your idol. But is your job your idol? Does your job consume you unnecessarily, consuming you of all your time, your energy, your health, and everything else? You may not worship a human statue, but parents, do you try to find your identity and worth in your children or husbands and your wives or wives and your husbands? What are you trying to find for your true joy and satisfaction? Alcohol? Is it food? Women? Social status? Appearance? Acceptance? Are you enslaved by worry or fear of the uncertain? Are you consumed with lust or anger or bitterness? Sure, we confess that the Lord is one, that there is no other, that He alone is deserving of our worship and all of our praise. But if we're honest with ourselves, we often live our lives like practical polytheists. A little God here, a little God there, a little pleasure here, I'll dabble with a little pleasure over there. You see, instead of living a life marked by an intense love for the Lord, Our lives are characterized by insanity as we pursue idols that promise everything but never fail to disappoint. Listen to these words from Charles Spurgeon who once wrote, men are in a restless pursuit after satisfaction in earthly things. They will exhaust themselves in the deceitful delights of sin and find them to be all vanity and emptiness. They'll become very perplexed and disappointed. But they will still continue their fruitless search. Though wearied, they will stagger forward under the influence of spiritual madness. And though there is no result to be reached except that of everlasting disappointment, yet they press forward. They have no forethought for the eternal state. The present hour absorbs them. They turn to another and another of earth's broken cisterns, hoping to find water where not a drop was ever yet discovered. And that's why Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 9 verse 3 saying, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their lives and hearts throughout all their days. The only way to escape this vicious spiral of insanity is to realize that God alone exists. That He alone is to be worshipped. That God alone satisfies our deepest longings. That He alone fills the void in our lives. That He alone fills the emptiness that exists because of sin and brokenness. That He alone provides that remedy for our sin. He alone takes away our guilt. God alone gives us meaning in this life and hope for the next life. And John Owen once asked, do you pursue some one thing and some another? Consider, I pray, what are all your beloveds compared to this beloved? What have you gotten by them? Let us see the peace and the quietness, the assurance of everlasting blessedness that they have given you. Their paths are crooked paths. Whoever goes in them shall not know peace. Behold, here, a fit object for your choicest affections. One in whom you may find rest for your souls. One in whom there is nothing that will grieve and trouble you to all eternity. So we have seen in this verse the summons from God to first hear what he has done for us. And then we saw what He has done for us by observing His sovereign grace, that He has shown by forgiving us of our sins and delivering us from our bondage. And then we saw the singularity of God, that He alone exists, that He alone redeems, that He alone saves, and He alone satisfies. Now you might be wondering at this point, why belabor this point so much? spend an entire sermon talking about what God has done for us. Why not just briefly state what God has done and let's get on to the important stuff, what we need to do this week, how we need to respond. You see, I am convinced that the greatest spiritual malady and disease that pervades Providence Presbyterian Church is the disease of spiritual amnesia. No, I did not call Pastor Aaron this past week or I did not speak to your elders to confirm my suspicion. I know this is the case because this has been true of the people of God since Genesis 3. It was true of the nation of Israel after they had been delivered out of Egypt. And it is just as true for us today as God's people. It is still a real and a pervasive problem of spiritual amnesia. You see, as unique and important the word shema here is in the book of Deuteronomy, there is another word that is just as important in the book of Deuteronomy, shecha, forget. We only need to read a few chapters in Exodus to hear that even after Israel's redemption from Egypt, we see how pervasive the disease of spiritual amnesia had already taken root in their hearts. Even after God's mighty act of redemption, immediately they complained about not having water, about not having the meats and the foods they used to enjoy while enslaved in Egypt. They make a golden calf and worship that instead of God. They complain about the taste of the manna that the Lord provided miraculously from heaven. They constantly grumble and complain against the Lord and His leaders all throughout their journey to the promised land. And so Moses here warns in Deuteronomy and pleads with the Israelite people to not forget the past acts of God's grace, of bringing them out of Egypt, and to not forget the future acts of God's grace, of bringing them into the land and to enjoy life under His rule. He pleads with them saying, Deuteronomy 4 and verse 9, Only take care and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget." Shekha, the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Deuteronomy 4 and verse 23, take care lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He made with you. Deuteronomy 6, 12, take care lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Deuteronomy 8 and verse 11, Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His rules and His statutes, which I command you today. Deuteronomy 8 and verse 14, then your heart will be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Deuteronomy 8 and verse 19, and if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today, you will perish. Deuteronomy 9 and verse 7, remember and do not forget, shecha, how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came into this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. And the pleading of Moses 3,000 years ago is just as relevant for us today as it was for them. How quickly do we forget our first love, the Lord Jesus? How quickly do we wander off and pursue other false idols and false gods instead of the Lord? How quickly do we forget the precious price of Christ's blood spilt and shed for us on the cross as we go off and gladly pursue other vain idols and our pet little sins? How often do we continue to forsake the Lord and forget what He has done for us? Forget that He has freed us from our slavery to sin, and yet we want to rejoice and go back to those bonds of slavery, to be re-enslaved. You see, there is a close connection between remembering and obedience. Because God's redemptive grace that He has shown to us in Christ provides the compass to orient our lives each day. It orients us and shows us how to love the Lord and how to obey Him and how to pursue Him. And if we fail to use this compass each day, we will quickly experience the effects of spiritual amnesia. We will quickly fall into disobedience as we forget that past act of grace that God has shown to us at Calvary. As we forget those future acts of grace that He promises to satisfy us with joy and blessing and pleasure that crowds out every other idol and every other thing in our lives. One writer put it well when he wrote, to the extent that God's people deprive themselves of the knowledge of the history of His redemption. They are likely to stunt their spiritual growth and open themselves up to rebellion. But when they behold the God of grace and mercy in the story of His redemption, they are bound to draw near to Him and live in closer obedience to His Word. Are you suffering from spiritual amnesia this morning? Have you lost your way by forgetting and forsaking the redemptive compass that is supposed to guide our lives? Are you depriving yourself by forgetting to remember what God has done for you in Christ? Well, this morning, I encourage you and I urge you for us to reorient our lives around that triumphant indicative of what God has done for us in Christ. And I encourage you, both individually and collectively as a church, to remind yourself and to remind those around you that old, old story. concerning Him who loves us, and has freed us from our sins by His blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father. Because before we can hear the Lord's commands to obey and respond in obedience, we must first hear the good news of what God has done for us in Christ. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we do confess that there is a sickness and disease that still remains within our hearts. It is the disease of spiritual amnesia. So often, so quickly, we forget what you have done for us, Lord. We confess that there will be many of us, Lord, who will leave this service this morning. and will depart from this time of worshiping you and hearing from your voice through your word and will quickly wander off and pursue those vain idols that promise everything but give us nothing. Lord, we ask that you would so deeply embed your word into our hearts and in our minds that when we are tempted to go astray, that we would think of the cross of Calvary and how you have delivered us from our sins, and we would say, no, I do not need to go back to that way of life. You have freed me. You have given me a new life. You offer joy, true joy and blessing. You offer pleasure at your right hand forever. I don't need to go back to those things, Lord. Lord, would you remind us Each day, throughout the day, that you are our God, that we can only love you because you have first redeemed us and forgiven us and cleansed us and made us your people, your possession, your kingdom, your priest. We ask all these things to the one who has freed us from our sins. Amen.