Deuteronomy chapter four, reading the first 14 verses. Listen to the word of God. Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it. that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal Peor, for the Lord your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor. But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you, surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. Therefore, be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us? For whatever reason we may call upon him. And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? Only take heed to yourself and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren, especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb. When the Lord said to me, gather the people to me and I will let them hear my words that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth and that they may teach their children. Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven with darkness, cloud and thick darkness. And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form. You only heard a voice. So he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, the 10 commandments. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments. that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess. Well, my friends, this evening, we're going to look at worship as dialogue, worship as dialogue, or worship as conversation. For you see, worshiping God Worshiping God means listening to Him, listening to Him as He speaks and responding to Him. Worshiping God means listening to Him as He speaks and responding to Him. Now, we've been looking now for the last week or so at the whole idea of worship. What is worship all about? Well, We've been saying that there are three initials here we want to look at. SDP, worship is special, it is dialogical, and it is prescribed. Special, dialogical, and prescribed. So when we say worship is special, as we looked at last week, we mean that it is somehow different from the rest of life. There's a specialness to worship. Many times we say, when we come in prayer, we say, as we come into thy presence, not denying that God is everywhere present, but we are acknowledging the fact that we are coming, as it were, into the very throne room of God. We are, as it were, being lifted up to heaven itself. We are coming with an awareness of who God is. We're coming before him into his special presence. Worship is special. Secondly, worship is dialogical. It's in the form of a dialogue. It's in the form of the back and forth of a conversation. What a monologue is, is when one person gets up and speaks, gives a speech and so forth, But worship itself is a dialogue in which God speaks and we respond. We listen to what God has spoken and we respond to it. And then next week, Lord willing, we'll consider that worship is prescribed. That is to say it has been written ahead of time how we are to worship. But tonight, we're going to consider this back and forth nature of worship, this rhythm of worship, if you will. This rhythm of worship in which God speaks and we respond. And fundamentally, that's what worship is all about. Fundamentally, worship involves listening as God speaks. Listening, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Notice it is not fundamentally watching or seeing. It's not fundamentally the eye gate, but it is fundamentally the ear gate. It is fundamentally through the ears that we hear what God is speaking to us. Now as we look at our text in context, of course this is in the book of Deuteronomy. You all know what a deuce is, right? A deuce and a half truck, right? A deuce, two, so Deuteronomy means, nomos means law, so Deuteronomy means the second giving of the law. The second giving of the law. We find this in chapter five, just after our text, where the Ten Commandments are once again given to the children of Israel. But the first several chapters of the book of Deuteronomy tell us about the rebellion of Israel and their wanderings in the desert. Forty years they wandered in the desert because they would not obey God. And Moses himself was forbidden to enter the promised land because of his own disobedience. Deuteronomy 4 is obviously dealing with worship. This chapter is obviously dealing with worship. If you look at verses 15 through 19, the text tells us, Moses is speaking, take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a card image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animals on the earth, or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth, and take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has given to all the people under the whole heaven as a heritage." Last night, I was outside in the evening, and I looked up at the sky and saw, I don't think it was quite a full moon. Beautiful up there to see the full moon. Beautiful to see a crescent moon and beautiful to see the stars and Venus. I love seeing Venus in the evening and so forth. But you see the temptation that God is saying here is don't worship the creation even the heavenly bodies. Don't worship them. Worship the Creator. Don't look up into heaven and somehow worship those things. And certainly don't make a card image. Don't worship by means of images. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them." Don't do that. If you make a carved image like that in this religious sense, inevitably you are going to worship it or worship by means of it. And that's precisely what God prohibits. Don't do it, he's saying. Don't be like in terms of like the golden calf, you remember, where the children of Israel tried to worship the Lord by means of this golden calf image. So warning against idolatry as well in verses 25 and following. children and grandchildren have grown old in the land and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything and do evil on the side of the Lord your God and revoke them to anger. I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess. You will not prolong your days 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, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell." So first of all, we know this chapter is dealing with worship because of the warning against idolatry. But look at verse two as well, where we are told, you shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you." Again, this is what we call, what we refer to, to use a technical term, as the regulative principle of worship. You ever hear that term? You know that's what it's being referred to, the regulative principle of worship. That is to say, we are to keep God's worship pure and entire. We're to keep it pure, We're not to add anything to it, and we're not, we're to keep it entire, we're to keep it whole. We're not to take anything away from it, from the worship of God. Lord willing, we'll have opportunity to explore that more next week. But notice also that the people are pictured here as being in the presence of God. Verse 7a, for what great nation is there that has God so near to it? So near to it. Verse 10, concerning the day you stood before the Lord, you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb. when the Lord said to me, gather the people to me and I will let them hear my words that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth and that they may teach their children. And so again, being in the presence of God. Verse 12a, and the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. They were in the special presence of God, which is the essence of worship, being in God's special presence. More than that, the Lord spoke to them. Verse five, surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, this is Moses speaking, just as the Lord my God commanded me that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. God was using Moses to speak to the people. God is speaking, God speaks, and of course we are to listen to that. Verse eight, where it talks about what great nation is there has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law, which I set before you this day. It's the speaking to the people. Verse nine, and teach them to your children and your grandchildren. Verse 10, the Lord said to me, gather the people to me. I will let them hear my words that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth and that they may teach their children." Verse 13, so he declared to you his covenant which he commanded you to perform the Ten Commandments and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. So God is declaring to them his covenant, the law, specifically the Ten Commandments. He is declaring, he is speaking to them. And verse 14, and the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess. So the Lord speaks to them, is speaking to them. But then notice the end of verse seven. Verse seven, for what great nation is there that has God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon him. And there you see the other side of the dialogue. We are encouraged to call upon God. We are encouraged to communicate with Him. We are encouraged to respond to Him. And that's the dialogue of worship. And that's what you see here in Deuteronomy chapter four. Well, with that as a background then, let's first of all consider the ways in which we listen to God, listening to God. How do we hear for God to speak to us. How do we hear? Well, first of all, the reading of the Word. The reading of the Word. This is how God speaks to us. We read this evening from Nehemiah chapter eight, where Ezra, the scribe, read the Word of God. The people stood up for the reading. They listened to the reading of the word. Jesus himself, in Luke chapter 4, when he went to the synagogue, what did he do? He stood up to read the scripture, and he read from Isaiah chapter 61. In 1 Timothy 4, verse 13, Paul says to young Timothy, give yourself to reading or the reading. Give yourself, in other words, to reading the scriptures as one of the key things, one of the important things that as a young minister you are to do, to read the scriptures. And in Revelation 1 verse 3, we read this, blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near." In other words, not just are you blessed, are you happy, you receive a blessing if you are those who are hearing, but actually there's a blessing for those who do the reading of it, who read this prophecy to the people. Now notice what this means. There are some implications of this. One implication is this. There should be no responsive readings of Scripture. It is a one-way street. It is God communicating, declaring His will, communicating with His people. And therefore, there should be no responsive readings of Scripture. Secondly, in that regard, the reading should be done by someone who is authorized, whether it be someone like Ezra the scribe, or whether it be a minister, or an elder, or perhaps, for example, someone who is licensed to preach by the presbytery, who's in training for the ministry, but someone who is authorized to do it. And thirdly, It means that lengthy readings are appropriate and normal, not just a few snippets, not just a couple of verses here and there, but lengthy readings of Scripture. This is how the people of God are fed. This is how you are fed when you hear the Word of God. And you know that this is indeed God speaking to you directly from his word. And so listening to God, first of all, in the reading of the word, but secondly, in the preaching of the word. And this too is how God speaks to us his will. Now notice something very, very important. Preaching is not the same as the reading of the Word. Preaching is not the same as the reading of the Word. It is a distinct act. It is a particular thing that we do. It is different from the reading of the Word. The words of preaching are not inspired. My words are not inspired by the Holy Spirit. The words of preaching are not inspired. Preaching, furthermore, it has more application than the reading of Scripture. So preaching then is more applicatory, it's more application than simply the reading of the Word. The minister then gets up and preaches and he applies, knowing the congregation, knowing the situation, knowing the era, the age in which we live, he then applies the scripture to you by means of preaching. Now preaching then is both explanation and application. Just like we saw in Numbers, or excuse me, in Nehemiah, just like we saw in Nehemiah chapter eight. Just like we saw there, where not only were they reading, but they also then, notice Nehemiah chapter eight, Verse eight, so they read distinctly from the book in the law of God, and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading. And so it's explaining, okay, this is what the word of God means. So you explain what the scripture text means, you explain it, and then having explained it, you apply it. That's the essence of what preaching is. Preaching is also a prophetic declaration. It's like an ambassador who comes from a president, let's say, of the United States. He sends an ambassador to China or to North Korea or to France or whomever, to whatever country. And he declares the position, he declares the policy of the administration. Or to use another example, an ambassador is one who goes from a king or queen, and therefore he declares the position, declares the policy of that monarch, of that king or queen. It is therefore, again, just like reading, it is a one-way street. There's no back and forth in terms of the preaching itself. It is the proclamation, the ambassadorial proclamation. It is the prophetic proclamation of the Word of God. And at the same time, God speaks. What do we do? We listen. We listen. We receive that message. There is the hearing of the Word. You know, in Acts chapter 10, you remember in Acts chapter 10, how Cornelius, who was the Roman centurion, he was over 100 soldiers, a centurion, he had sent for Peter. In Acts chapter 10, verse 33, we read him speaking, so I sent to you immediately, and you have done well to come. Now therefore, We are all present before God to hear all the things commanded you by God. We are here to listen. We are here to listen, to hear all the things commanded you by God. James 1 verse 22 says that you should be not just hearers of the word, but doers also. And so you shouldn't be a hypocrite. But, of course, the point there is, among other things, that you should hear. You should listen as God speaks. There is a hearing that should be there. In Hebrews 4, verse 2, the writer says, for indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith, in those who heard it. The word which they heard, so they heard it with their ears, they didn't hear it with their hearts, the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. And my friends, tonight, let me say to you, if you are just hearing my words and you're not responding with the heart, you're not saying amen, amen. As we saw in Nehemiah 8, if you're not responding from the heart with sincerity, with faith, with repentance, then it will profit you nothing. As a matter of fact, it will condemn you the more in the day of judgment because you didn't listen. And so the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. So there must be the listening, but of course, the listening with the intention actually to act upon it and not be a hearer only, but a doer also of the word. So listening to God in the reading of the word. in the preaching of the word. But now secondly, responding to God. And how do we respond to God? We respond to God in the, first of all, in the praying of prayer. The praying of prayer. The offering up of our desires before God. Prayer is the offering up of our desires before God in the name of Christ with thanksgiving and with the prayer of asking for the Lord's forgiveness. That's what prayer is. And as we offer it up, do you know how many times we read in Scripture where the psalmist or where someone else would say, hear me, O Lord. hear my cry. Is this not what the Lord said to Moses? I have heard the cry of my people in Egypt as they are in bondage. I have heard their cry that has come up before me. And so we find in the book of Psalms, in Psalm 5 verse 2, give heed to the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for to you I will pray." Psalm 17, verse 1, hear a just cause, O Lord, attend to my cry, give ear to my prayer, which is not from deceitful lips. Psalm 28, verses 1 and 2, to thee I will cry, O Lord, my rock, Do not be silent to me, lest if thou art silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy sanctuary. I am crying from the depths of my heart. I am crying, O Lord, I am praying to thee. Psalm 39 and verse 12. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry. Do not be silent at my tears, for I am a stranger with thee, a sojourner, as all my fathers were. And Psalm 55, verse 17. Psalm 55, verse 17. Evening and morning and at noon I will pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice. And so prayer then is crying out to God. prayer is coming before God, responding to Him in this cry, in this prayer to Him. God, have mercy on me. Lord, have mercy. Lord, hear me. Lord, I need Thee. Lord, I need Thy grace. I need Thy mercy. I need Thy Son. I need Thy salvation. I need Thee. That's what prayer is. It's the praying of prayer. It's our response to God. in this rhythm, in this back and forth, this dialogue of worship. But we also see the singing of praise. And by definition, the singing of praise is directed to God. It is directed to God. It's not directed to ourselves, although there's an edifying aspect to it, as we will see in a couple of weeks when we deal with the whole question of psalm singing. but fundamentally, in this dialogue, it is directed to God. Psalm 47, oh, clap your hands, all you people, shout to God with the voice of triumph. Verse six, sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises to our King, sing praises, for God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding. Psalm 96 and verse 1. Psalm 96 and verse 1. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. 98 verse 1. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things. His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory. We sang tonight from the 147th Psalm. Psalm 147, verse one, as it says, praise the Lord for it is good to sing praises to our God, for it is pleasant and praise is beautiful. And Psalm 149, praise the Lord, sing to the Lord a new song. and his praise in the assembly of saints. And so in this dialogue of worship then, as we are responding to God, we pray prayer and we sing praise to him. But what about the occasional elements of worship? We often don't think about them very much. The occasional elements of worship. Oaths and vows. Oaths and vows. These two constitute response to God, as we are either promising God to do something or we are testifying to something in God's presence. What about fastings, abstaining from food and or drink? We are doing that in order that we might be more intense in our prayer to God. Fasting is always coupled with prayer. You see this in various places in Scripture in terms of where fasting is mentioned, it's always coupled with prayer, virtually always specifically coupled with prayer. But it's always understood, at least, to be coupled with prayer. Abstaining from food and or drink for an occasion in order that we might be more focused on God and our prayer to him. but also the opposite of fastings, thanksgivings, special times of rejoicing, again, coupled with prayer, prayers of thanksgiving. So, God speaks through the reading of the Word, the preaching of the Word. We respond in the praying of prayer and the singing of praise and these occasional elements. What about the sacraments? Well, you know what's interesting about the sacraments is that in the sacraments, the dialogue, in a sense, is that the back and forth is within each of the sacraments. You see, these other things are one-way streets, and when you have, well, you know, some of the streets around here ought to be one-way, quite frankly, but anyway, but those that are posted one-way, you want to make sure you don't go the wrong way, right? So they are one way, but in the sacraments, it's interesting, isn't it? They're two way, in a sense. For God in the sacraments comes to us and we go to Him. There's a reason why the Lord's Supper is called communion, because fundamentally, we are having communion with God. The conversation is within the sacrament itself. Think of baptism. God communicates to us His promise to be our God. I will be your God if you will be my people. But there is also, in baptism itself, there is a pledge to belong to God. In the case of infant baptism, the parent or parent's pledge, the child, of course, would later agree with that, would later affirm the covenant. But in the case of an adult baptism, The individual pledges and accepts God's covenant. The individual is responding, as it were, to that promise. You remember when Bill McCoy was baptized here back in February, and he took the vows of membership, and as he was standing up, he was saying, yes, I believe, and Christ is my Savior. I acknowledge that I'm a sinner in the sight of God, wholly deserving His displeasure, without hope except in His sovereign mercy. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of sinners, and I receive and rest upon Him alone as He is offered in the gospel. And so in baptism then, God communicates to us His promise to be our God. but we also respond in the very sacrament itself. The same with the Lord's Supper. Again, God conveys to us his promise of salvation. That's fundamental. But when we eat and drink, when we participate, when we eat and drink, we are responding to his promise. But again, it's the back and forth, isn't it? Again, it's the dialogue of worship in which God speaks, God communicates to us, and we respond. Now, I have three points of application. The first is this, pay attention in worship. Pay attention in worship. How many times has a parent said to a child, you're not listening, Now I know that would not be true of any of our young people here, so we don't have to worry about that. Not much. How many times has a parent said to a child, you're not listening? But how much more important is it to understand that we must listen to God? And you must listen tonight to the word of God. You must. And you must hear. You must hear what I'm saying. You must hear it. Not because I'm saying it, but because this is the message of God. And you must respond in faith and love and obedience. Pay attention, therefore, in worship. Pay attention. And secondly, by way of application, following on to that. Don't let anything interrupt the dialogue, interrupt the conversation. Have you noticed that that's why we do not take prayer requests? Why we do not make announcements during worship itself? We do that before the call to worship. We are very deliberate in that because we don't want anything to interrupt our conversation with God. That's why we try to be so careful in how we worship. If you were to have an audience with the Queen of England, perhaps, you of course would pay attention to what she is saying, or the President of the United States, some important person. You would pay attention to what that person is saying. You'd want to hear, you'd be privileged to have the audience, You'd want to hear and you'd want to respond. You wouldn't want to be chit-chatting among yourselves. You wouldn't want to be playing on your telephones. You don't want to be doing that, do you? Because God is speaking and you're supposed to be listening and you're supposed to be responding. Don't let anything interrupt the dialogue, the conversation between God and yourself. And thirdly, praise God that the law's loud thunder has ceased. We find this referred to in our passage here in Deuteronomy chapter four. In Deuteronomy chapter four, where Moses reminds them, verse 11, then he came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven with darkness, cloud and thick darkness. And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. Praise God that the law's loud thunder has ceased. Yes, God is still a consuming fire, Hebrews 12, 29. But my friends, the Lord Jesus has been accepted as the burnt offering. He is the propitiatory sacrifice, taking the wrath of God upon himself. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He is the one who has appeased the wrath of God. And it's on that basis that we are enabled to worship. that we are enabled to come into God's special presence, that we are enabled, not just with our physical ears, but with the ears of our hearts to listen to Him as He speaks and to respond to Him in faith and love. What is your response tonight? What are you gonna do with this message? Young person, what are you gonna do tonight? How are you gonna respond? May God give you the grace to respond in faith, repentance, and love. Amen. Will you please stand for prayer? And oh, our God, we bow before thee and thank thee for all that thou hast done. We know that thou art still a consuming fire, and yet we also acknowledge, Father, that that wrath the wrath of God has been appeased through the sacrifice of Jesus. We pray for each one here, Lord. Thou dost know the heart of each one. And so, Lord, we pray that each one would be saying yes to Jesus. For indeed, in Jesus, all the promises of God are yes and amen. So accept our worship this night, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. In closing, please turn to Psalm 95a. You'll notice that we'll be singing five stanzas, not just the four that are written with the music, but we'll sing the first five stanzas of Psalm 95, Psalm 95a, which again talks about coming into God's special presence. O come and to Jehovah sing. Let us our voices raise in joyful songs. Let us the rock of our salvation praise after the benediction, we'll sing 103D as a closing doxology. But now, Psalm 95, selection A.