This morning we're continuing our quick survey of Old Testament history. This is part four, lesson number four in the series. There's going to be about 15. This one's called Yahweh and his people. We started off, if you missed some of these lessons, we started off in Genesis and that's foundational. We learned how God created the world. And then in Genesis, very quickly, our forefathers rebelled against God and we're pulled into it. They disobeyed Him, and so the world was cursed, and sin came into the world. We are all corrupted by it. Now we're born, we're conceived with sinful natures. It just goes all through us, our sin. And in the book of Genesis, though, there's promises that God makes, and it just sets the tone for the rest of the Bible. So God promised to Eve that she was going to have an offspring who would crush Satan's head, but who would be bruised in his heel. And then later in the book, God called Abraham and he made promises to Abraham. We call it the Abrahamic covenant. Three key aspects of the promises that God made to Abraham and and Abraham's It's unilateral. Abraham doesn't have to do anything on his end to keep these. God just swore by himself to do it. He promised that he would give Abraham land, the land of Canaan, and offspring and blessing. Specifically that one of Abraham's offspring would be a blessing to all peoples of the earth. So then we watch Abraham's family as we go through the Old Testament because we're looking for who is this that's going to bring blessing to everyone. Right? So, then, we're going into Exodus, and the people of Israel, Abraham's descendants, they go into Egypt, where they're slaves. They grow into a mighty nation while they're in slavery, and then the Lord delivers them by His mighty hand from Egypt. When they come out of Egypt, they go into the wilderness, and they're on their way to the promised land that God promised to Abraham. But as they go, God takes them to Mount Sinai, and He gives them His law. There's another covenant that God makes here. This covenant's different than the one that he made with Abraham. There's responsibilities on both sides. We call it the Mosaic Covenant. I noticed in my MacArthur Study Bible this week, he's calling it the Sinaitic Covenant. It's the same thing. This Mosaic Covenant is between Israel and God. And the agreement is this. If they obey the law, if they obey, then he will bless them. So they make that agreement. The book that comes before Deuteronomy, Numbers, we looked at that, and the people go into the wilderness. And the first generation that came out of Egypt, they don't trust God. They don't obey Him. And so God says that that whole generation is going to die in the wilderness. And so Israel just wanders in the wilderness for 40 years, waiting for all of those people 20 years old and older to die. Now, when we come to Deuteronomy, that generation has passed, and the new generation, the people 20 years old and younger, are ready to go into the Promised Land. Moses isn't going to go with them, though. He's been leading the people ever since Egypt. He's about to die. And so we have Moses' last words to Israel in Deuteronomy. It's the center of Deuteronomy. It's three speeches that Moses makes to them. The book of Deuteronomy, that name, it comes from a Greek translation of the Hebrew for this book. Deutero in Greek means second and namos means law, so Deutero namos. This is the second giving of the law because it's a new generation. But this isn't just, it's not just law. You read the book of Deuteronomy and it's very personal. In a way, in Deuteronomy, it's like Moses We just all get to sit down in front of Moses and listen to him as he tells us about Yahweh, his God, and about what it means to be his people. That's what we have here in Deuteronomy. Moses is 120. He's about to die. And Moses, he knew God like few in history ever have. Let me give you a sense of that. Turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus. So, book number 2 in the Bible, Exodus 33, verse 7. Let's see this unique relationship that Moses had with our God. Exodus 33, we're going to verse 7. Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp. And he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up and each would stand at his tent door and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship each at his tent door. Thus, the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend." How many people have known God like this? They go into God's presence and He talks to them face to face like a man speaks to his friend. That's Moses. Moses wanted to know even more of God. Look there in Exodus 33, verse 18. Moses makes a request of God. Exodus 33, verse 18, Moses said, Please, show me your glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But he said, you cannot see my face for man shall not see me and live. And the Lord said, behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock. And while my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand and you shall see my back. But my face shall not be seen. So God says Moses, I will reveal myself to you as much as a mortal man can handle without being consumed Because if we see God in all of his glory, he's too great for us and we're going to be consumed and Moses wants to see God's glory. God says I'll show you my back. I'll show you everything that a man can see Look down to Exodus 34 verse 5 where it happens Exodus 34 5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. Moses sees God here, but what he sees, we don't get an explanation of. What we do find out in this, in this, this is the event where he comes and he shows him his glory. We, we don't, Moses doesn't tell us here's what I saw, but he does say, here's what I heard. Because as the Lord came and revealed himself to Moses, the Lord came speaking about himself. And it's more important for us to know what God said about himself than to know just what he looked like in this instance. I would argue that until Jesus came in the flesh, these next two verses are the greatest self-revelation of God that we have in all of scripture. Exodus 34, look at verse 6. So God is showing himself to Moses and as he does so, he's speaking. This is what God says as he passes in front of Moses. Exodus 34, verse 6. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the children's children to the third and fourth generation? And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. Moses it's one of the greatest followers of God in history. I want you to go ahead to the book of Deuteronomy I want you to see the end of this book. So Deuteronomy is book number five Moses wrote all five of these first books The very end of most of Deuteronomy is written by someone else because it describes Moses's death It could be that Joshua wrote these words. It could even be that Ezra wrote them. Centuries later, as he was bringing all of the scriptures together, by the inspiration of God, we get these words about Moses, who he was. A unique man. Look at what's written here of Moses. Deuteronomy 34, 10. And there has not arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face None like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all of his servants and to all his land and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. So Moses is about to die and go to heaven. And so he gathers the Jews, the new generation. They're going to go into the promised land. And he says, guys, I want to tell you about your God. Listen, I want to tell you about Yahweh and what it means to be his people. And so today we're just going to pretend to be Israelites and sit at the feet of Moses, this great man of God, and let him teach us about God. Now, not everything in Deuteronomy applies directly to us. We are not Jews. We are not part of the Mosaic Covenant, thank God. That arrangement that they made where they have to obey and then God will bless them. And yet what Moses says here about God, he is, I am. Our God doesn't change. He's not at all different than the God that Moses used to meet in the tent. And so what God, what Moses knows about God, that's our God. And also, much of how a human is to relate to God hasn't changed since Moses' day. Some of it's different because Moses is just, at this point, they're looking ahead to Jesus. Now we're looking back to Jesus. And so that changes a bit how we approach God and what we understand about him. But much of what it means to be his people is also the same today. So we're going to ask Moses four questions today. And remember, as Moses answers these questions for us from Deuteronomy, these are not just Moses's words. These are the words of God himself. He has inspired, he breathes out these words. And so it's true and reliable. Okay, what is Moses like? Now, what I tried to do with this whole lesson today, I'm summarizing the book. And so I'm trying to pull out things that are said over and over again, key themes. We only have 40 minutes and it's a long book. So to confirm that these are actually themes, you'd have to read through it yourself. So I encourage you to check it and see if I got the right emphases. I'm trying to pull out what I think the book is highlighting most. Okay, so what is Yahweh like? Our God, Yahweh, He loves His people. He loves His people. There's at least three different Hebrew words in Deuteronomy that, as you read through it, describe God's love for His people. Two that are used most commonly, this is one of them, This is the Hebrew word, you read it from right to left, it sounds something like ahav, and thankfully none of my Hebrew professors are here because they would shake their heads. But it's something like that, ahav. And this word for love, when it's describing God's love for us, it describes a strong affection that someone has for someone else. In scripture, this same word, ahav, it's used of Jacob's love for his wife, Rachel. Remember, he worked for 14 years for her, and it seemed like nothing because of his love for her. That word is used of Jonathan and David's close friendship between those two men of God. This word, ahav, it's used of Abraham's love for his only son, Isaac. Look over at Deuteronomy 10, 15. We'll find one of the places where this is used to describe God's love for his people. Deuteronomy 10 15. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them. You above all people as you are this day. Another word that is used in Deuteronomy of God's love for his people is this word. I do know how to say this one. I remember it from seminary because it's it's you say Chesed. And you have to put a ch at the front of it, and I just think that's kind of fun. Also, this is one of the key words for what God is like. You can translate it, love. The idea, though, is it's loyal love. In your New American Standard, very consistently when this word, Keset, is used, it's translated as loving-kindness. If you have the ESV, almost always it's translated as steadfast love. You can see some of the other translations of it in the Bible. God has a loyal, steadfast love for his people. Look over with me at Deuteronomy 7, 9, one of the places where this word is used. Deuteronomy 7, 9, Moses is teaching us about this God that he knows. Deuteronomy 7, 9, he says, Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love. There's our word. He keeps steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. God loves His people. Don't ever envision Yahweh as some kind of distant power. That's not who He is. If you are His, then God loves you like a parent loves their child, like a husband loves his wife, like a best friend is loyal to his friend. God has an affection for His people. John 3.16 affirms it's not just true for the Jews, God so loved the world. And so you can rightly look anyone in the eye and say, God loves you. Jesus didn't just love the Jews. He loves you. 1 John 4, 8 says, God is love. So what is our God like? He loves his people. Second, he is faithful. He loves his people and he is faithful. Look again at Deuteronomy 7, 9. We just read it because it has the word hesed in it, but also it talks about God's faithfulness, right? Look at 7, 9 again. No, therefore the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. And so Moses sits at the Israelites down and he says, now, as you go into the promised land, remember your God is a faithful God. If he makes a promise to you and to your children, then he will not forget that promise for your children or their children or their children. He says to a thousand generations, God is faithful. I was thinking about the Jews, Jewish nation. I don't think there's another nation in the world that's a people like that. The Jews went from Bible times to what was it, 1948. without a land. They had no homeland for almost 2000 years. There's no place where they could go. And this is their place. And yet still today, the Jewish nation is a, is a group. They stayed together with no him homeland for 2000 years. And you say, well, how could that be? It's because God had promised to Abraham that he would bless them. faithful to a thousand generations to his promises. I think we are about a hundred generations since Abraham, so we're just getting started in God's faithfulness. Right? He's faithful. Third, God is a gracious giver. God is a gracious giver. As Israel is about to enter into the promised land here, God wants to make very clear that He is giving it to them. In fact, in the book of Deuteronomy, the word give appears 175 times. And God wants them to understand, I am not giving you this land because you deserve it. I'm giving it to you, but it's not because you deserve it. Look over at Deuteronomy 9, verse 4. Deuteronomy 9, 4. The Lord said to them, do not say in your heart after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you. It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land, whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart, are you going in to possess their land? But because of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord, your God is driving them out from before you and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. See, God is going to keep those promises to Abraham no matter what people are unfaithful. And yet he's going to he's going to give him the land because he promised he would to Abraham. Look for six. No, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. If you want to know God, if you want to live with God in heaven, you have to know this about God. He is a God who loves to give good things to people who realize they don't deserve them. If you are trying to be good, and to earn His favor, or to be good and earn your way into heaven, you will never make it. But if you'll come to God and say, God, I've been stubborn, and over and over again, I don't do what's right, but I trust in Jesus, then God will grant to you. He will give you forgiveness. He will give you eternal life that you don't deserve. God loves to give good things to people who don't deserve them and realize they don't deserve them. It's called grace. This is the whole basis of any man's relationship with God. It is not on the basis of your goodness. You're stubborn. It is on the basis of God's grace. He is a giver. He loves to give blessings to those who admit they don't deserve them and then trust Him. What's Yahweh like? He is a gracious giver. Fourth, He is jealous. He is jealous for the hearts of his people. Turn back with me a few chapters to Deuteronomy 4. Deuteronomy 4.37. The Lord is jealous. Oh, I think I gave you the wrong verse. 4.23 is where we're headed. Deuteronomy 4.23 says, take care. lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. If you want to serve Yahweh, you must serve him and no one else. If you want to follow Yahweh, you must follow only Yahweh. He's a jealous God. To convey this, Part of the reason that He has created marriage for man and woman. God designed marriage and put that at the center of our families, right at the beginning of our creation. He designed marriage to be between one man and one woman for life, right? Until death do we part. This was God's plan. Later in the New Testament, the Lord explained the part of the reason why we've set the family up this way, why I made men and women is is to show the relationship that I or God have with you, my people, the relationship between Jesus and his church. Marriage is just a picture of that. And so part of that gives us the sense for why marriage is so holy and pure in God's eyes, so that if one person leaves their spouse, then it is an offense to not only that other person, but to God himself. He's designed marriage to be enduring, because this is how he is. And then he says, listen, I am a jealous God. And we understand jealousy because we we feel what it would have right marriage ought to be. And so if if somebody leaves their spouse for someone else, we sense and it's like it's right for them to be jealous. They've broken their covenant. Right. And this is what God says. This is how I am with you. I am a I am a jealous God. I'm jealous for the hearts of my people. And so if you will know God, you can't be loyal to Him and something else, right? He wants your heart and you must love Him and not something else. Okay, what is Yahweh like? He is jealous for the hearts of His people. Fifth, He is angry with sin and will not leave the guilty unpunished. He is angry with sin and will not leave the guilty unpunished. I'm going to skip back to Exodus 34, where God spoke to Moses, because we read this earlier. So the Lord's describing himself. He's revealing who he is to Moses. And he says, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger. What is our God like? Oh, he's slow to anger. This slow to anger in the Hebrew, it's very colorful, at least to someone that's not a Jew. Maybe it just goes by then. But their word for anger, it comes from the word nostrils. And the idea of anger is like you're snorting at the nostrils, right? And then the word slow, it's kind of like long, like a long fuse. And so literally this says long of nose. But the idea is God is very slow. It takes a lot. It's long before he becomes angry. And what a gift, because if God was not slow to anger, none of us would endure. This is who He is. He's slow to anger. But in the next verse it says, but He will by no means clear the guilty or He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. The Lord is slow to anger, but He does get angry with sin. And you do not want God Almighty to be angry with you. It says in the New Testament, it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. At least 16 times in Deuteronomy, Moses warns them against stirring up the anger of God. Look over at Deuteronomy 6, for an example. Deuteronomy 6, verse 13. Deuteronomy 6, 13. It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve, and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you, for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God. Lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. Okay, so we're sitting at Moses' feet this morning and asking him four questions about Yahweh and his people. First, what is Yahweh like? He is love. He's faithful. He is a gracious giver. He's jealous for the hearts of his people. He's angry with sin and he won't leave the guilty unpunished. OK, next question we're going to ask Moses, how does Yahweh relate to his people? How does Yahweh relate to his people? And the gist of this is God takes the initiative. Over and over again in Deuteronomy, this is emphasized. The way that I have a relationship with God, it's not that I go find him. He seeks me. God takes the initiative. So on your sheets there, how does Yahweh relate to his people? Well, he chooses his people. He chooses his people. 30 times in the book of Deuteronomy, we read of God's choice. He chose Israel. He chose the land that he would give to them. He chose their king they would have later. He chose the priests. Secondly, God rescues his people. He chooses his people and he rescues his people. 28 times in the book of Deuteronomy, God reminds them, how do we get here? I brought you out of the land of Egypt. You used to be slaves and I brought you out. He says over and over again, this is how we relate to God. He chooses us and he rescues us. Thirdly, we relate to his people by entering into a relationship with them. He enters into a relationship with them. Go with me to Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 37. A couple of these themes show up in this one little verse here. Deuteronomy 4, 37, for an example of how Moses talks all through the book. Notice God's choosing and his bringing them out. Deuteronomy 4, 37 says, and because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them, Brought you out of Egypt with his own presence by his great power He didn't where's it gonna go from there since God has saved you right since God has rescued you What he's gonna say is now you are his and he is yours when when God Chooses someone and and rescues them. He what his idea is. I'm gonna bring you into relationship with myself so in Deuteronomy we find the phrase the Lord your God and 280 times it says, the Lord, your God, and another 24 times we read the Lord, our God. The reason that God chooses us and rescues us is so that now we are his and he is ours. We are in relationship with him. God doesn't save people and then leave them distant from him. They're his. And if you know God today through Jesus Christ, it's the same way. If you know God today, it's because God in His grace chose you even before the world was made. Because He rescued you from your sins when you heard the gospel and believed. And now, forever, you are His and He is yours. There is a relationship. This is the way God relates to His people. He initiates, we respond. Third question we want to ask Moses. How should we relate to God? So we have learned about this God, and He is multifaceted, right? I mean, we talk about His immense love, and then we talk about His anger with sin. How do I relate to a God like this? What would be the right way to go? Now, we live in a different era. Jesus Christ has already come, and so there's some things that Moses didn't know. Moses is just saying, hey, there's somebody coming. We can look back and see what that person said. Now that Jesus has been here, we know that there is a first step to relating to him that it has all to do with Jesus. You see, for the Jews, how did you, in their day, how would you be a part of God's people? Well, you would be born a Jew. If you're a descendant of Abraham, by your birth, you're part of his people. But today, that's not how it works. It's not like the Jews are functioning as God's people that he's working in the world through. His role, you can't, you don't become his person by birth. You certainly don't become his child by having Christian parents and being born into a Christian family or by being born in America. None of those things are how it is. How is it that I become one of his people? I have to make a personal choice. Look here, it's, I think on your sheets it says, letter A, how do you, how should we relate to him? The first step is this, you must personally receive Jesus Christ. You must personally receive him. John 1 12, This is talking about Jesus Christ. It says but to all who did receive him who believed in his name He gave the right to become children of God This is the starting place If you're going to relate to God you relate to him through Jesus That's the only way because he has died on your in your place and he's the only one whose sacrifice is acceptable to God Okay, so that Moses didn't have that information. We do now you need to receive Christ. That's how it starts and But the rest of what Moses says about how to relate to God still applies to us. So let's look at Moses' themes. Letter B on your sheets. Moses says, you need to fear Yahweh. Fear Yahweh. Letter B. Go over to Deuteronomy 6, 24. I'll show you one of the places he says this. I think we've actually come across it accidentally in some of those other verses. Deuteronomy 6, verse 24. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good, always that he might preserve us alive as we are this day. Does this apply to us today? Because because Mike, like if I'm a Christian, if I'm a Christian, then God has forgiven all of my sins. And it's true. Even since you haven't even committed yet, God has forgiven. Well, if I'm if I'm a Christian and God has cleansed all of my sins and I'm not going to go to hell. Right? He's going to hold me in his hand. If I'm a Christian, do I really need to fear Him? Or is that just for them? Well, the clear answer of the New Testament is no. Today, we believers are to fear God. The command is repeated in 2 Corinthians, it's repeated in Colossians. And you say, well, why? Why would a saved, forgiven child of God need to fear Him? Here's one answer. It comes from Hebrews 12, verse 6. It says this, Disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives See child of God your father wants you to be holy like he is and if you disobey him Or if you start to love the things of this world instead of him He is still a jealous God and he is going to correct you He's going to bring he's just not gonna just let you go off away from him he is going to correct you and bring you to himself and Even if He has to take you through something extremely painful, He will do it for your good. The Lord still is angry with sin, even the sins of His sons and daughters. He's going to correct you. And so it may be, as a Christian, that you disobey Him, or you go off into some wrong choice, and because of that wrong choice, God is going to allow the consequences of that to flood your life, and you're just going to feel pain from it. It's God's discipline. It could be that even not just the consequence of your choice, God may bring some other pain into your life because there's something that you need to learn. You're going the wrong direction and He wants to pull you to Him. He's a jealous God. And so if you are His son, if you are His daughter, then you should expect if you're wandering away, He's going to discipline you. And so it is right to fear Him. Just because I'm forgiven doesn't mean I take God lightly. Look here at 1 Peter 117 from the New Testament. If you call on him as father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. Even Moses knew God's discipline. This great man, Moses. There's a key moment in Moses' life where he disobeyed God and faced God's discipline. Do you remember? We're going through the wilderness and these people of Israel. They they were complaining all the time No one wants to be Moses because it just wasn't fun right and so this one time they're complaining because they don't have any water and boy would that we have died in Egypt and that would be better for us and Again, and so God's gonna provide water for them So he says to Moses Moses go speak to this rock and water will rush out and you can and the people can drink and so but Moses is angry and He's had enough of these people. And so he comes up here in Numbers 20 verse 10, Moses said to them, here now you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock? And then he slams it with his rod, which is not what he was told to do. He's exalting himself. Well, the water came, the people got to drink, but then the Lord disciplined his servant Moses. Numbers 20 verse 12, and the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you did not believe in me to uphold me as holy, In the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them." And think of the disappointment for Moses. I mean, his whole life, I think he's pictured God would use him to deliver his people. He went into the land. He's led them through the wilderness for 40 years, and now God says, okay, you're not going to go. You're not going to get to enter the land. I'm going to send Joshua in your place. And it was because he needed discipline. And so Moses says to the people, God is a God of love. But fear Him. Don't take Him lightly. How should we personally relate to God? Receive Christ. That's the starting place. Then fear Him. Then obey Him. Third on your sheets, obey Him. And boy, this is constantly emphasized in Deuteronomy, the need to obey. It's partly because it's the Mosaic Covenant going on here. And so their arrangement with God was, you obey the law and he'll bless you. And so, boy, in so many different phrases and words throughout the book, they are told you need to obey Yahweh. Example, let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 12. Deuteronomy 10, 12. And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve your Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? Now, we are not under the Mosaic Covenant. Our relationship with God is not predicated upon our obeying Him, but upon His grace. So is it still important for us today Do we still, as New Testament believers, are we called to obey Him, to hear Him, to walk in His ways? The answer is absolutely yes. What's slightly different now, we don't obey Him so that we'll bless Him. We obey Him because He has blessed us. Because He's already forgiven my sins and given me eternal life, I ought to be filled with such gratitude that I just want to obey. Like, oh God, thank you. Now what do you want me to do? Right. And that's that's what we find in the New Testament. We're told that we are to obey this God out of gratitude and out of love in our hearts. Romans 6 17 is an example of that. But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to that standard of teaching with to which you were committed. And so we still have this standard of teaching and we are called to obey it from our hearts out of gratitude. So it's right. The only way to relate to God is to obey Him. And so how should we relate to Him? Receive Him, fear Him, obey Him. One more, one more way to relate to Him. There was a Pharisee that came to Jesus. And you remember this? The Pharisee came to Jesus and said, Jesus, what's the greatest commandment in the law? Do you remember what Jesus said? Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6 5 in answer to that question look there with me go to Deuteronomy 6 5 This is what Jesus says is the greatest commandment in the law Deuteronomy 6 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind with all your might so love him is the fourth way that we relate to God were to love him with all of our hearts and If you want to know how to relate to God, Moses, who talked to God face to face in the tent, says, you've got to love the Lord your God. Jesus Christ, who related to God the Father and God the Spirit in all eternity as part of the Trinity, he says, if you want to relate to God, here's what you do. Love Him. This is the core of being a follower of Jesus. And how do I relate to God? I love Him with all my heart. Four questions here for Moses that we're asking. How should we relate to him? One more, and we're just going to touch on this real briefly, but God gave Moses, when he was in the tent with him, God gave Moses some prophecies about the scripture, about the future. And so Moses, what did God tell you about the future? Like, what's coming, Moses? What do you know because you were so close to God? There's a couple of things in here. I'm gonna give you your blanks and then we'll look up a verse where they're at. What did God tell Moses about the future? Okay. A. Israel would break the Mosaic covenant and be driven out of their land. They're not even in the land yet, but God told Moses, hey, listen, they're gonna get in and they're gonna break the covenant and I'm gonna cast them out of the land. Letter B. God would restore Israel and they would serve him with all their heart and soul. The day coming when they would serve him with all their heart and soul. Okay, go back with me to Deuteronomy chapter four. This actually, this prophecy is in Deuteronomy several times, but the first time it appears is here. Deuteronomy chapter four, look at verse 25. Deuteronomy 425, when you father children and children's children and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord, your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands that neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell." Now, we're studying Old Testament history, so we're going to get there. They're going to be driven out from the land. This has happened. Look what he says next, though. After you're driven out, here's what will happen next. From there, you will seek the Lord your God and you will find Him. If you search after Him with all your heart and with all your soul, when you are in tribulation and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey His voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that He swore to them. As we keep going in Old Testament history, they're going to be driven from the land and then they're going to come back. And the promise here is that there's a time coming when they come back to the land and they, with all their heart and soul, worship Yahweh. And it never happened. They came back into the land, all right. But the great message of the minor prophets is, guys, we're back in the land. Serve God with all your heart and soul. And they didn't. We're still waiting for this to happen, where the Jews are going to serve God with all their heart and soul. Romans and Revelation tell us that that is yet to come. There's a day coming when Israel will worship God with their heart and soul, and that opens the door for God's kingdom, His eternal kingdom, to be established. That's what we're waiting for yet, prophesied in Deuteronomy. Now, we're at the end of Moses' speech. for the last seconds here, I want you to think, what did God want me to learn from listening to Moses today? Maybe it's something about God. Have you been believing wrong things about God himself? Maybe it's his jealousy and anger with sin that you need to come to grips with today. There might be some here today that are in a pattern and you know God views that as sin. And yet you haven't turned away from it. Maybe you're in some kind of sexual relationship that God has forbidden, or you're refusing to forgive someone, or you're refusing to admit your own faults, and you think it's okay, lots of people do it. Today, you need to believe what God is saying to you and see God rightly. He hates sin, and though He is slow to anger, He does not leave the guilty unpunished. Fear Him. Break off your rebellion before His patience runs out. You do not want Yahweh angry with you. Or maybe you're here today and what you need to grab ahold of is another part of God's character. Maybe today what you need to think about is the fact that God is love. Maybe you doubt that in your mind. Been through some difficult things in your life and you think, well, I don't know. I don't know if God really loves me. Here we read that God loves to give. You say, well, I've been through these hard things, and I know the Bible says God loves, but I don't think it's true. Do you know the only way for you to be close to God? You've got to believe what he says about himself. And here's what he says about himself and you. He says he loves you. He has an affection for you. He has a loyal love that he's offering to you. And so to move forward, maybe what you need to do is say, listen, God, you say you love, and so I'm going to believe it. And just come into his embrace as he extends his arms to you. This is the God that we serve. This is the God that we serve that Moses has described to us. And He is worthy of our fear and He is worthy of our obedience. He is worthy of our love. Let's offer our hearts and souls to Him today. Join me in prayer. Lord, thank you for this revelation of yourself. And you are, I am. So you never change. And we see you here displayed in Deuteronomy. We see you perfect in love and perfect in faithfulness and perfect in wrath against sin. In all these ways you are perfect and we are not. And so we just want to run to you, like Moses said, with hearts that are humble. We want to run to you in Jesus Christ with hearts that are cleansed. Help us to walk closely with you and to believe what you say about yourself and let that shape our lives. All these things is who you are and that's who you are with us. You are our God. For Christians, you're our God. And that's a joy. We rejoice in that today. Help us to live in that knowledge as we head into this week that's to come. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks, everyone. God bless you.