Deuteronomy chapter six, we'll read verses one through nine. Starting in 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 are going over to possess it. so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. O 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. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is 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, These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall 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 shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates. Well, may the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word. Let's seek the Lord. Our great God and King, we come before your holy throne this morning. We come to you as those who feel their utter inadequacy, as those who know the shortcomings of today and of yesterday. But Father, greater than our shortcomings, greater than our sin, greater than the judgment that is deserved by it, is you. Greater than that is your super abundant grace to us. As we looked at and as we prayed in our prayer meeting, we see that your steadfast love pursues us. It prevails upon us. For every child of God here, for everyone who belongs to you, we can say that we have received grace upon grace, undeserved favor after undeserved favor. Like after we've gone to the beach and set our feet there, taken the shoes off, peeled the socks off, and then all of a sudden there is refreshing wave after refreshing wave coming upon us. And just when we think it is too good to be true that another comes, it does. Father, that is true of our souls in regard to you. In Christ, you give us refreshing wave of grace after refreshing wave of grace, whether it has been in the time of great blessing or it has been in the dark night of the soul. We know you in that way. So, Father, we ask that you would remind our hearts, remind our very souls of that reality, that as we've come to worship you this morning, that grace will come upon grace once more. And as was prayed in the prayer meeting, we ask that it would be transformative, that it would be that which alters the state of our lives. God, what would it be that a people gathered together, professing faith in your name to worship you, the true and living God, would walk out and their lives would bear the weight of such a message that their lives would demonstrate your saving power and the ongoing conformity that is only in Christ. Father, we ask that the things that we've sung so far in this service would be the things that lift our hearts to you. We've come to worship a king. You have spoken glorious things about us in Christ. Now, as we would look to you once more, we ask that you would give us eyes to see you, give us ears to hear you, give us hearts to respond in glad obedience to you. Father, we ask on Ryan's behalf that you would give him a spirit of liberty. Fill him with Your Spirit. God, we ask that the man who is about to stand in this pulpit would be filled with Your Spirit. That there would be an unction as he preaches. And that it would be undeniable that You have worked a work through the preaching of this Word. That You've been pleased once again to use the weakness of men in order to demonstrate Your great strength. Oh God, we praise You. We rejoice in You. Father, we don't want to miss the opportunity as well to pray for Ryan and the efforts that will be his going forward next year as they will move to Erbil, Iraq, and they will seek to do your will there. Father, as we prayed in the prayer meeting, that the nations would praise you, that the peoples would laud you. We ask that you would prepare the church that he's going to there in Erbil. that you would prepare them to be ministered to, that there would be a harvest ready to be collected among your people, that you have sought and claimed as your own from before the foundation of the world. And we pray as well, Father, for Grace Community Church, that as you have provided for them in these past 12 years so graciously, that as Ryan and his family would go to Erbil, Iraq, that you would continue to provide for them there. We entrust Ryan and his family into your hands. We entrust Grace Community Church into your hands and ask your blessing to be upon them. Father, now as Ryan comes, give us what we need. We ask it all in the mighty, saving name of Christ. Amen. Ryan. Sweet, sweet privilege to be with you guys. If you would turn to Deuteronomy. Chapter six. Let's call out to the Lord again in prayer. Father, thank you so much for your word. We believe it, Lord, that your word is living, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, Lord. We believe it, God. And I pray, God, that you would use your word this morning for the glory of your name. Conform us, Lord, to the image of Christ. Stir up our affections for Christ, Lord. Give us submissive and humble hearts to obey your word. God, I pray for every scripture that is read, every explanation of it, Lord, that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear, hearts to understand. God, we need your help. We confess the glory of Your Word, the importance of it, Lord, and how much we need Your help to receive it. We confess that, God. Help us. Help us, O Lord. Thank You, Lord. Thank You for hearing us. In Jesus' name, Amen. So as we get ready to meditate on this passage, Deuteronomy 6, verse one through nine, I wanna say just a few things about Deuteronomy as a whole. So the book of Deuteronomy is Moses preaching, it's a record of Moses preaching to the people of Israel. And it's the people of Israel that are on the verge of entering in to the promised land. So this is that second generation. So do you remember what happened to the first generation? because of unbelief, because of disobedience, they were barred from entrance into that promised land, and they'd been wandering 40 years in the wilderness, and we're at the end of that 40 years, this Deuteronomy is a record of Moses preparing them, preaching to them, and preparing them to enter in to the promised land. Now the opening paragraph, I'm gonna read chapter one, verse three, and verse five, Now opening paragraph, it tells us how Moses is gonna prepare them for the promised land. In other words, what is he gonna say? What's he gonna preach? Deuteronomy 1 verse 3. In the 40th year, on the first day of the 11th month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel. According to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them. So what's he what's how's he going to prepare him? What's he going to preach to him? Everything that God has said he's bringing to them the words of God and then look at verse five Beyond the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying..." And then the rest of Deuteronomy is the preaching of Moses as he's laying before them the law of God, the Word of God, and he's explaining or expounding or teaching the law of God. And so what we have in chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, leading up to chapter 6, is Moses giving these reminders to the people of Israel, the second generation of what God has done to them, what God has done for them, who he's been to them. And so we see reminders. Now, two of the major reminders are, number one, God delivered you, redeemed you out of slavery in Egypt. So he reminds them of that in great detail, that you were enslaved in Egypt and with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, God delivered you, number one. And then number two, he reminds them of how he, Moses himself, has become their mediator. And I wonder if you remember how that happened. So in the previous chapter, in chapter five, we've got record of Moses reminding them of when God came down on Mount Sinai in power. Do you remember it? The mountains trembling. The cloud, the thick darkness, the lightning, the thunder, all that. And then the voice, the audible voice of God booming out of that mountain, the Ten Commandments. And he reminds them that you you entered into this covenant and God revealed himself to you in this way. And then do you remember what the people of Israel did? with fear and with trembling, they went to Moses and said, Moses, please ask God to never do that again. Because if God speaks to us like that again, we're gonna die. We're gonna die. And in this really unique moment, maybe the only time that this happens, God looks at Moses and says, Moses, the people are right. They're right. And Moses begins to be the mediator between God and the people of Israel. He begins to mediate between God and his people. So here's these two reminders in Deuteronomy 1 through 5, these reminders of God redeemed you out of slavery in Egypt, one. And two god has provided for you a mediator And the mediator is moses himself and having reminded them of those things in chapter six He's going to begin to do what he said in 1 5. He's going to begin to explain the law He's reminded them of the Ten Commandments in chapter five. Now he's gonna begin to expound on the law, explain the word of God. He's gonna begin to teach. Now that teaching, that teaching, that exposition of Moses to the people of Israel, it really begins in chapter six, verse four. what many people have called the Shema, because of that first Hebrew word there, hear O Israel, the Shema. So that's where the teaching begins. But before we get there, let's go back to verses one through three. And we're gonna read this again, and I want you to hear in this. These are Moses's last words to prepare them for the teaching. Let's start in verse four. The last words to prepare them for the exposition that he's about to give, the explanation he's about to give, beginning in verse four. So let's read it again. I want you to hear. He's calling them to listen, to hear and obey God. Listen to it again. This is the commandment. the statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I commanded you all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord, the God of your fathers has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey. So think about, did you hear in that charge, in that call, did you hear a call to hear what God, I'm about to teach you, verse four, it's coming, get ready to hear it and obey. Hear it with obedience. And so what we see here, I call this obedient hearing. Obedient hearing. Now I say hearing because again, we just read it, verse one, he says, I'm about to teach you, get ready to hear it. Verse three, he literally says, hear O Israel, When the teaching starts in verse four, hear O Israel, hear. So it's hearing, but it's not any kind of hearing. It's the kind of hearing that hears and I want to submit to what God has said. I want to yield to the word of God. And we see that with the language all around it, like verse one says, do them. I'm gonna teach you these things that you might do them. Or verse three says that you might carefully do them. So it says it twice here, that he's calling them to hear in such a way that they would have a heart to do God's word. Now, that sounds a lot like James 1.22, doesn't it? Be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourself. Now it says not just do them, but he's calling them to be careful to do them. In other words, this isn't a passive call. This isn't a casual or a lighthearted thing, but be careful to obey God's word. They're to be very careful and obedient in the way they listen and plan to respond to God's word. Brothers and sisters, I know you know this but that is not just an old covenant thing as I just said James 1 is in the in the New Testament be doers of the word not hearers only Jesus said take heed how you hear Take heed how you hear and right after that He says he says this my mother and my brothers are those who hear the Word of God and do it. I So our conclusion should be, this is Old Testament, this is New Testament, that a call to obedience is not legalistic. A call to obedience is not works righteousness. Now many people would claim that today, that a call to obey God, especially careful, diligent obedience, any kind of call like that, that's automatically legalism. That's a very common thing in our culture and where we live. And yet, the scripture is clear. I think these verses are clear that that's not true. Now, let me say this, calls to obedience, they could, they could potentially be legalistic. They could be works righteousness. And let me try to explain very quickly how. If the call was something like this, obey God and be justified. Obey God for your justification No, you don't need a Redeemer. You don't need to be redeemed. You don't need a mediator between you and God It's just you before God's standard and if you just obey God, you'll be right You'll be justified if that's the way the call to obedience is priests. It is legalism It is works righteousness and I hope you understand and I think you do that that will not work. I Think that you can be justified by your own obedience to God is to demean God's righteousness and elevate your own is to underestimate God's perfect standard of righteousness and overestimate your ability to actually keep that standard and It's wrong, no one has ever been saved by their own works and their own righteousness. The scripture teaches us that God is absolutely, perfectly righteous. Just judge a gloriously sinless righteous God is who we serve and yet for us Isaiah 64 6 says we are all like unclean things and all of our Righteousness is our righteous deeds are like filthy rags that means God's perfectly righteous and us even on our best day and Even on the best day, all the days of your life, and you grab the best day of righteousness, that verse says, it's like filthy rags in his sight. And no one can be right with God by your own goodness. Sinners like us cannot become right with God by our obedience. We need redemption. We need a mediator. And here's something beautiful. The place in the scripture that we're in, Is this there's these old covenant shadows that that bear witness as it says in romans 3 21 the law bears witness that bear witness to these new covenant realities of redemption and of a mediator Think about chapter 5 of deuteronomy here verse 6 the preamble the preamble that comes right before the ten commandments is what He reminds them God Delivered you this is a shadow of a greater deliverance, but he says God Delivered you out of the house of slavery So he reminds them in 5 6 you've been redeemed out of the house of slavery now Here's the Ten Commandments. So understand the shadow there. It's not Do the 10 commandments, chapter five, and then you'll be redeemed out of slavery. It's not that. It's you've been redeemed out of slavery, now obey. And that's a world of difference. It's a world of difference. Think about chapter five mentioning Moses being the mediator. They come to God, they recognize God's holiness, they recognize their own sinfulness. They say, God, we can't deal directly with you because we're gonna die. And God does not say to them, they're right and there's no hope for you. He says they're right and he provides a mediator. So the shadow that we have in Deuteronomy chapter five, it's not just God and his people, and that's it, now obey God. It's God has provided a mediator for his people. Redemption and a mediator now. Obey God. And again, that's a world of difference. And brothers and sisters, as you know, these are shadows of new covenant realities. We have a better redemption in Christ than Israel had. They had redemption, they had this slavery in Egypt, and we were enslaved to sin, enslaved to death, destined for hell. And we have a better redemption, not out of slavery to Egypt, but a redemption out of slavery to sin. The scripture says Christ Jesus came into the world, 1 Timothy 1.15, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And when he went to the cross, he was dying a sinner's death. He was absorbing the wrath of God in our place so that we could be set free from the slavery of sin and the determination of hell to come. He's a good redeemer and he's a better redeemer than Moses. And Can't we have a greater mediator in this sense? First Timothy 2.5 says there's one God. One God and one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for us all. If you just keep reading, keep reading Exodus and reading Deuteronomy, and you see Moses as a good shadow and a good mediator, but you see failure and you see failure. And when you see the Christ, zero failure, but rather one that gave his life. as a redeeming price, a redemption, a ransom that was paid for us. So we in Christ Jesus, here's these shadows, don't miss it. We have a greater redemption in Christ and through his blood and we have a greater mediator and the one that rose from the dead and always lives to make intercession for us. Glory to Christ, glory to Christ. And so what do we do? We need to remind ourselves we had this redemption In the blood of Christ and we had this great mediator now what? Be doers of the word Be doers of the word and not hearers only that's what moses is doing in chapter 6 verse 1 through 3 as we look at the shadow in 6 1 through 3 moses having reminded them of their redemption And reminded them of their mediator that's been provided. He calls them to hear the word of god with careful obedience. Now, all of that is him prepping them for this exposition, this explanation that he's about to give to them as he explains the law. And that begins in verse four and verse five. Let's read it again. 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 So that's the very beginning of what Moses has been prepping them for the Lord your God the Lord is one you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your might there's found in those verses a call to know God and a call to love God what we see here is a foundational truth about God in verse 4 the Lord our God the Lord is one and Then a foundational duty of God's people in verse 5. You shall love the Lord your God. So no God verse 4 and Love God verse 5. So let's start with that foundational truth about God in verse 4 Yahweh the covenant name of God is repeated here So in other words, not just a God not just any God, but but he's knocking on their door Israel your God The Lord's your God you've seen his mighty works that God Yahweh He mentions the covenant name of God and think about what he says here think about how Moses begins this teaching the people have just come out they've come out of Egypt a pagan land full of false gods and They're headed into Canaan, a pagan land full of false gods. And here Moses starts off with the monotheistic mantra, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Yahweh, no beating around the bush here, Israel's God, Yahweh is described as one, as the one true God. He and he alone is God. Moses does not say, as they get ready to enter the promised land, this pagan land, he doesn't say, Israel, your God is the best and the brightest of the gods. Rather, he completely discredits, completely disregards all the other gods and says, God and God alone, your God and your God alone is the one true God, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Now the prophet Isaiah would go on to say similar things. Isaiah says these things about what God says about himself. Listen, before me, this is from Isaiah, before me, no God was formed. Just disregard all other gods. Nor shall there be any after me, God says. Besides me, there is no God. I am God and there is no other. Isaiah is letting us in on Isaiah's version of this monotheistic mantra, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. There is no other. And this is how Moses begins his preaching. In other words, Israel, I want you to know God and I want you to know this God. Don't, don't be like, don't be like those Samaritans that Jesus addressed in John chapter four. Do you remember them? He said, Jesus says to them, you worship what you do not know. Isn't that an interesting phrase? Jesus doesn't say you're not worshiping. He says, you're not, you're, you're, they're worshiping, but you're worshiping what you don't know. It's a worship or a love that's not rooted in the knowledge of the one true God the real God And so he's calling him here. No verse 4 Deuteronomy 5 6 4 know this one true living only God so that you might worship him and love him rightly which leads us to verse 5 the foundational duty of God's people You shall love The Lord's your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. Now, why do I say this is foundational? I say it's foundational for two reasons. One, it's foundational because of the placement of this in Moses' exposition here. Think about it, he's prepping them for what he's about to say, he's prepping them for this preaching that he's about to give, and the first thing he says, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, love the Lord your God. It's foundational. People knew this before Jesus even said what he said in Matthew 22, which I'm about to reference. But before he even said that, people had an understanding that this is the foundational commandment of the law. You shall love the Lord your God and partly because of where it's placed right here. But we also know this because of Jesus's words in Matthew 22. In Matthew 22, Jesus is asked, what is the great commandment? What's the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus responds, he quotes Deuteronomy 6.5, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And then he says, he also mentioned, you shall love your neighbors yourself from Leviticus 19. And he says, on these commandments hang or depend all the law and the prophets. So everything hangs off of this. This is the foundation of the law and the prophets. All the rest of the law and the prophets hang off of this command. Love the Lord your God. It's massively important. It's foundational. Now, since it's so foundational, I think it does us well to get some definition around it. What does it mean to love God? What does it mean? Let's put some definition around what does it mean to love God? Now, I think it's helpful sometimes in defining things to say what it doesn't mean. So let me mention some things that it does not mean. Love for God is not baseless emotions. It's not baseless emotions. In other words, I'm hit by a Cupid's arrow and I just feel something. This is the way the world thinks. I feel something. I don't have any certain reason to root in of why I feel the way I feel, but I feel something and therefore that's love. True love for God, biblical love for God is not baseless emotions. Think about what we have in our text. We've got five chapters, first five chapters of Deuteronomy of Moses reminding them of who God is and what he has done and then love the Lord your God. It's not baseless, it's that God. It's the one who has done this and the one who has acted like this. That's the God I'm calling you to love. Think about what we just read. Verse four comes before verse five. So verse five, love the Lord your God is rooted in the Lord, the Lord our God is one. It's not baseless, it's rooted. Love is not baseless feelings, it's rooted in who God is and what God has done. Love is also not merely feelings. It's not merely emotions that doesn't terminate in some sort of submission to God and longing to obey God. So it's not merely feelings. Now we see that again in our passage in Deuteronomy 6, right? So love God in verse five, but what do we see all around that? You shall do his commandments. Carefully do his commandments. So it's not just feeling not rooted or leading towards obedience to God. And that's clear from our text and it's clear from what Jesus said. In John 14, 15, Jesus said, if you love me, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. John 14, 21, he says, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, it's he who loves me. So Jesus is making the same observation. Love is not just merely feelings and emotions, but rather if you love me, he says, you'll keep my commandments. He who has my commandments and keeps them is he that loves me. So love is not baseless emotions. Love is not merely feelings. But let me hasten to say this. Love is not emotionless. Love is not emotionless. I believe some people have made an error. And I call this error the love is obedience error. or obedience is love error, the mistake that people make, that they make these things exactly synonymous, that to love God and obey God, that these two things are the same. But listen, the verse I just quoted, John 14, 15, dispels that argument. Think about what Jesus says. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. If love for God is defined as commandment keeping, then think about what that verse says. If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. If you keep my commandments, you'll keep my commandments. It doesn't make sense. Jesus' words tell us that there's something deeper, there's something underneath called love for God. If you love me, if you love me, there's something underneath. It produces this thing of commandment keeping and obedience, but we don't equate these things. Love for God is not emotionless. Thomas Watson said it like this. It is a holy, this is his definition of love. It is a holy fire kindled in the affections whereby a Christian is carried strongly after God as a supreme good. Something about the affections, deep in the affections towards God is in Thomas Watson's definition here. Jonathan Edwards said it like this. It is the soul's relish of the supreme excellency of the divine nature, inclining the heart to God as the chief good. In other words, according to these brothers, love for God gets down into the affections of the heart. Love for God gets down into the heart. There's a way you can honor him with your lips, but your heart be far from him. It gets down into the heart, into the affections. It's not emotionless. And we see this in our passage. We see this in our text. The greatest commandment does not stop with love the Lord your God. It continues with this with all your heart. with all your soul, with all your might, it keeps going. In other words, with everything that you have, with all that you have, love God, deep in the affections of the heart, love God, an undivided heart for God, longings after God, yearnings after God that leads you to this life of submissiveness and obedience to God. Do you yearn for Him? Is the question of the greatest commandment. With that definition in place, Christ Church, I want to take a moment to try to exhort you, and I want to exhort you to examine your heart. that every one of us here would examine our hearts. Where's your heart as it relates to loving God? Biblical definitions included. Where's your heart as it relates to loving God? Now, love for God is something that can increase more and more. Philippians 1, 9. And love for God is something that can grow cold. Matthew 24, verse 12. So what I'm asking everyone to do is to examine, examine the inner man, the inner woman, examine the heart. Is your love for God on the increase to love him more and more and more? Or has your love for God grown cold? Now, this is not a casual thing. This is not an insignificant thing to consider. I want to really encourage you to remember Revelation chapter two and the warning that was given to the church at Ephesus. Do you remember it? Jesus addresses the church at Ephesus and says, look, you got all these things that you've done well. He mentions stuff about sound doctrine. He mentions things about their pursuit of holiness. So he mentions things, he commends them for things that they've done well. And then he says this, but this I have against you, you abandoned the love that you had at first. You abandoned the love that you had at first. And I think sometimes we think about that warning to them almost like, hey, you're doing really good, but you're just missing the icing on the cake. You're doing really great, but you're just missing the cherry on top. But here's the problem with that. This is the foundational thing. Love for God is the foundational commandment, this love for Christ is at the very foundation. So it's not just icing on the cake. In fact, the warning that follows to the church at Ephesus is what? He says, repent of this abandoning of the love you had at first. Repent of that or I'm going to come and I'm going to remove your lampstand from its place. Translation, I'm going to remove you church from my presence. It's a heavy warning. It's not an insignificant warning. And so when we examine our hearts, brothers and sisters, when you examine your heart, do you find there a love for God, an increasing love for God? Or do you find there love that has grown cold? Could you say things like this? Just think about these scriptures. The prophet Isaiah said, your name and the remembrance of you are the desire of our soul. My soul yearns for you. Can you honestly say that from the heart? Or Psalm 63, verse one. Oh, God, you are my God. Earnestly, I seek you. My soul thirst, thirst for you. Talking about a real love for God. Now, let me at this moment just remind you again, we're not talking about brothers and sisters love God so that he'll love you. We're talking about you've already been loved by God. And now love him first john 4 19 we love Because he first loved us. It's not obey him love him and then he'll redeem, you know It's you've been redeemed. You've been given a mediator. You've been loved by god now obey him and love him Now this sort of this sort of self-examination. Is my love for God growing cold? Is my love for God increasing? That sort of self-examination, it always provokes in believers a question. And the question is, how do I watch over my soul in this area? In other words, how do I cultivate in my heart this love for God? How do I do that? And the answer is simple. Believers need to see God. The more a believer justified, regenerated, brand new heart, the more a believer with spiritual eyes begins to see God more clearly and see God more glory. The more they see Him more rightly, what increases? They love Him more. The more they see Him, the more they love Him. That's just true for a believer. But then it brings us to another question. But how do you see him? How do you see him? And the answer is simple also. You see him through God's word. You see God through his word, which is the reason that the rest of our passage today, verses six through nine, is all about us being a people saturated in the word of God. So let's look at verses six through nine. I wanna read it. And I want you to see here, coming right out of the command to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, coming right out of that, is this call to have word-saturated scripture, word-saturated hearts, word-saturated homes, and word-saturated conversations. Look at it beginning in verse six. 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 doorpost of your house and on your gates. Did you hear that there? That's a call to a Word-saturated life. Hearts, homes, conversations, saturated in the Word of God. And I want you to understand this very clearly, understand this, that the Word of God produces in believers proper affections for God. The Word of God produces in believers some means, it's a means that God uses in the life of believers to produce in them the proper affections. Now it's interesting. We saw an example of that in verse two. We read it a moment ago. Now we kind of skipped over it, but if you glance at verse two again, look at it. It says, that you may fear the Lord your God. And that's an interesting phrase. That you may fear the Lord your God. So what? What's in verse one? It's, I'm about to teach you something, hear God's word. I want you to hear, listen, hear God's word and what does it produce? That you might fear the Lord your God, this affection of godly fear. Now notice, it didn't say fear the Lord your God so that you might hear his word. That's true actually. But what's the focus here is hear the word of God, hear it with this obedient heart that you might fear Him. Now, a very similar thing happens in Deuteronomy 17, verse 18, 19, and 20. The king is told in Deuteronomy 17, the king is told to read these words. He was supposed to have his own copy of the law. And it says, and you shall read in it all the days of your life. Why? That you might learn to fear the Lord your God. This hearing God's word, reading God's word, producing in the believer what? Proper affections like godly fear, a fear of the Lord. Now it's interesting, back in chapter five of Deuteronomy verse 29, When the people of Israel are trembling at that mountain, remember that? They're trembling at Mount Sinai. God says this in 529, Oh, that they always had a heart to fear me. So they have a godly fear of God in that moment. And he says, oh, that they always had this heart to fear me. Because what does God know? Well, what happens when I'm not quaking this mountain? What happens when I'm not speaking audibly the 10 commandments from this mountain? My booming voice is not coming out like thunder. What happens then? Will they fear me then? Will they fear me then? And what we have in 6.2 is through the teaching of God's word, or Deuteronomy 17, through the reading of God's word, through the hearing of God's word, the godly fear of a believer is produced. So what we see here is how do believers normally cultivate this proper affection, the fear of the Lord in their hearts? It's not normally by quaking mountain, but by an open Bible. It's by God's word. And in the same way, what about the love of God? Well, think about our passage. Verse five, love God with all your heart. Next verse, the words I command you today shall be in your heart. The word of God producing in the believer love for God. Love God with all your heart. Verse five, verse six, these words I command today shall be in your heart, on your heart. And so I want us to take some time to lean in to this verse six through nine and the exhortations that are found here about our hearts, about our homes, and about our conversations. So first one here, verse six and eight says that, tells us that we need to have, we're called to have word-saturated hearts. Verse six says these words, look at it, these words, all of them. The, you know, verse one says the commands, the statutes, the rules, all of them, the promises, the knowledge of God, the stories, the narrative, the scripture, these words, all these words, these words shall be where it says they shall be on your heart. What a phrase. What a phrase, the word of God on your heart. What a phrase here. Get them in your heart. Know the words by heart. Let your thinking be dominated by scripture. Consider the Bible a treasure that's worthy of your affection. Let them be in your heart. Let them be on your heart. David said this, his law is my delight. It's my delight, I love it. I love the words of God. It's in my heart. His law is my delight. Sounds very similar to Psalm 119, 11, doesn't it? Many of you know that one. Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Sounds very similar to Proverbs 22, verse 17. It is a pleasant thing if you keep them, the words, if you keep them within you and let them be ready upon your lips. Your words I've hidden in my heart. Let these words I command you be in your heart. Let them be in your heart. Verse 8, if you glance down at verse 8, you shall bind them, these words, bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Let the word of God be so deeply ingrained in your soul that they're like signs on your hands and like frontlets between your eyes. Now this is not to be taken literally as some Orthodox Jews have of making a little box and putting little scriptures in there, little phylacteries. Not that, but it says, let them be as signs on your hand. Let them be as frontless between your eyes. Let them be as if they're tattooed on your works, they're tattooed on your life, they're tattooed on your hands, your forehead, on your very soul. That's what he's calling to a word-saturated heart. And what's the purpose of all of this? That you might know God and that you might love God. That you might know God and you might love God. Matthew Henry said, he that loves God loves his Bible. And that's true. And I think it's true if you flip it around the other way as well. The Christian that loves his Bible increases in his love for God. The Christian that loves his Bible increases in his love for God. So have the word of God saturating your heart. Now, we're also called in this passage to have the word of God saturating our homes. Look at verse seven. Verse seven says, you shall teach them, these words, you shall teach them diligently to your children. Teach them diligently to your children." So not only in your heart, but in your home. Moses is exhorting the people of Israel, pass the faith on to the next generation. Pass it on to them by giving them the word of God. So he's concerned not just with that second generation, but all the generations that would follow. And Christians are called to have the same concern. Ephesians 6 4 tells us that to bring up our children in the training and in the admonition of the Lord It says teach them the word. In fact, it says here in verse 7 teach them diligently saturate your home with God's word, teach them diligently. This is not casual, this is serious. This is diligent teaching of God's word. In other words, don't work the teaching of the Bible around everything else in life, but work everything else in life, work your schedule around the teaching of the words of God. The Hebrew word here has been translated as impress these words upon your children. or repeat these words to your children. It's just this saturation in your home with God's word. Look again at verse nine. Verse nine says, you shall write them, write these words. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Everywhere I look, it's scripture, it's God's word everywhere, a home absolutely saturated with the word of God. Now I would send you later to go back and read Psalm 78, especially the first part. Psalm 78, verse one through seven. And there's actually a response in Psalm 78, one through seven, a response to this command that Moses gives. And he says that, he says, God commanded our fathers that they would teach them, teach these words to their children. And verse 7 tells you the reason. It says that they might set their hope in God. So why a word-saturated heart that you might love God? Why a word-saturated home that you and the following generations might love God, might hope in God, might know Him more deeply and love Him more deeply? As the Apostle Paul said in 1 Timothy 1.5, he says, the aim of our charge is love. What's the aim? What is the aim of the teaching of the word of God in the home? It's not just to have nice kids. It's love, it's that love would be in their souls for the God that deserves it. So word-saturated hearts, word-saturated homes, and the last thing I wanna mention here is we're called to word-saturated conversations. Look at it in the middle of verse seven. And shall talk of them, the words, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and, when you rise. So the word of God is not just to be taught to God's people, but it's to be talked about by God's people. That's the call here. When should the word of God be discussed? This says, when you lie down and when you rise up. That's morning and night. That's all the time. That's Psalm 34 verse one. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Where, where should God's word be discussed? This verse says, when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, in your home and by the way, in your home and outside of your home, everywhere. Who, who should be discussing God's word? Is it just theologians, just scholars? And the answer is obviously no. This is all of God's people discussing God's word. All of God's people, moms, dads, kids, farmers, white collars, blue collars, doesn't matter. Just talking about the word of God because you love it. One commentator said it like this. The law, according to Deuteronomy 6, 7, the law, the written word of God, was to be the topic of ordinary conversation in ordinary homes, in ordinary life, from breakfast to bedtime. I love that quote. I'm going to read it again. The law was to be the topic of ordinary conversation in ordinary homes, in ordinary life, from breakfast to bedtime. This is part of God's plan for His people that we might together see God more clearly and increase in our love for God. There's actually a command in the New Testament, Hebrews chapter 10, where it says that we're to consider one another in order to stir one another up to what? Just be nice people? To stir one another up to love and good works. That's for how do we do that? How do we consider one another and stir each other up? It's by these holy words saturated Comber Conversations is mentioned here in Deuteronomy 6 verse 7. So I want to encourage every Christian in the room Christians must learn how to have word-saturated conversations. You must learn how to regularly involve this in your life. And you're a participant of this in your life. You have to learn how to do this. Do it at the dinner table, at family worship, in the car, on the way somewhere, at soccer practice, wherever you're at and whatever you're doing, learning to have these conversations that are saturated with the word of God. Why? That we might see him more clearly, that the church might love him more deeply. Now, I want to encourage you not to overthink this. Here's just a simple fact. The simplest of truths, the simplest of truths in God's Word are enough to encourage the wisest saint. Do you understand that? In other words, don't get handicapped by well, you know, Pastor Chuck knows so much already. He already knows the word of God so deeply. What can I share with him that he doesn't already know? Don't get paralyzed by that stuff. The simplest of truths, the simplest promise that you think everybody else knows already. The story in the Bible that you think everybody else already knows the story. The command that you're trying to obey, that's just the simplest command. It has a way because God's word is living and powerful of encouraging the wisest saint. So don't be, don't hold back from this holy conversation because you think you don't have something to give. Did you see something in God's word? Rise up in holy conversation and encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ with it. Do you know somebody like this? That in a godly and humble and loving way, they seem to always bring the conversation back to Bible, back to scripture. Admire that person. and please seek to imitate that person. And let me close with this, and this is just me telling you, you know, so many people at our church in Jackson, that told us to give greetings. Greetings, so let me just say it. Greetings from Grace Community Church in Jackson, Mississippi. We love you guys from a distance. You are often in our prayers as a church, and here's, based off of this text of scripture, here's one of the prayers that we pray for you. that you would be a word-saturated people, hearts saturated with God's Word, homes saturated with God's Word, conversations saturated with God's Word, and that through that, there would be this increase in the knowledge of God, to know Christ, to be reminded of His glorious gospel and Christ crucified, that that would increase, and that through that, your love for Christ would never grow cold at Christ Church, but your love for Christ would increase more and more. This is our prayer. for you, and I'd like to pray that now. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much again that we get to meditate on your word together. And I wanna pray these things specifically for Christchurch. Thank you so much for these brothers and these sisters in Christ and the way that you have opened their eyes to the glorious redemption found in Christ. And you've opened their eyes to a glorious mediator in Christ. Thank you for the salvation, God, that you've brought to souls all across this room. I just praise you for it, God. We praise you for it. And I just ask you, God, that you would protect them from being like that church at Ephesus that had abandoned the love they had at first. Protect them, God, from a love that has grown cold. God, I pray that you would protect them from thoughts about promises and commands and stories in your word that just becomes casual. Lord, make them, Lord, more and more a people that tremble at your word. That every time it's open, Lord, that they're... God, it's just as real and just as authoritative as your booming voice from Mount Sinai. God, I pray that they would hear your word. They would love it. It would saturate their lives, Lord. And God, that you would increase their knowledge of you. Lord Jesus, that they would know you more deeply. And Lord, that their love for you would increase and increase and increase more and more in their own hearts. and into the next generation. We love you, Lord, and commit this to you. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, we'll close with the benediction from the letter to the Hebrews. In verse 20, we read, Now the God of peace who brought you up, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.