Deuteronomy 8:11-20; Hebrews 3:1-19

Solemn Covenantal Warnings

Preached at Sycamore RPC

Kokomo, IN

October 21, 2001

Scripture Text

11 “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today;  12 otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived  in them,  13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies,  14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.  15 “He led you through the great and terrible wilderness,  with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint.  16 “In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end.  17 “Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’  18 “But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as  it is this day.  19 “It shall come about if you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish.  20 “Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you would not listen to the voice of the LORD your God.

We face a dilemma in the church today. People who are members of the church but who do not behave as such. In our circles, where consistency with profession of faith is emphasized, we recognize that we have many friends and family members who are in the visible church but are failing miserably to live a godly life. If Guinness Book had a world record for “Nation with the Most Misbehaving Church Goers,” certainly our country would at least make honorable mention. Our dilemma is what do we do with them?

Treating them as non-Christians or true Christians does not solve the dilemma, only worsens it. Yet that’s what many choose to do. On the one hand, we just treat them as if they are not believers at all, and we use redundant phraseology to try to describe them. They are not “born-again Christians” or “true Christians” or “real Christians” we will say, as if there exists such an animal as a Christian who has not experienced the new birth, is false, and a fake. It worsens the dilemma, because we are making light of their church membership and profession of faith, and come across acting as their judge. On the other hand, many in the evangelical church just ignore the misbehavior of their fellow constituents, pretending that it is love to turn their head and look the other way regardless of how red-faced they are. The dilemma is not helped by either of these approaches. The first one fosters pride and further division in the church; the second one promotes wrong-headed love and not enough distancing between holiness and evil.

In an article about this subject, Douglas Wilson relates this dilemma to an adulterous marriage partner. If a man commits adultery, does it really help to say, on the one hand, he is not a true husband or a real husband? To make light of his marriage vows? He is still married to his wife! On the other hand, should we all, including the wife, just ignore what he’s doing? Hope that heaps of love and tolerance will make this embarrassing situation go away? No, he is still married to his wife! That’s the dilemma. What do we do? I already told you – emphasize what he has forgotten. He is still married to his wife.

You see, if indeed the conduct of many church-going Americans means we are living in record-breaking times, the answer comes in recognizing that something else is being broken. God’s covenant. These misbehaving Christians (the Puritans called them “false professors”) must be treated as covenant breakers. They are people like the ones we have been singing about in Psalm 106. Like men who forget the wife of their youth, these people have forgotten the LORD. They are forgetting His works and ways. By virtue of their membership in the church and profession of faith, they must be told they are committing adultery against the Lord. Moses was concerned that Israel would do that once they obtained the Promised Land. He looked ahead to the potential of this and saw its possibility as a serious enough matter to issue a solemn warning (Beware!); we do not live just with its potential but its reality and so must do the same.

With all the attacks and rumors, people fear for their physical safety these days. Yet the Lord told us that we were not to fear those things that can kill the body, but rather fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. We must issue a warning more solemn than those for anthrax: Beware lest you forget the LORD your God. How do you forget Him, break covenant with Him? You forget the LORD your God by…

I. … breaking His tri-fold covenant law (verse 11).

In verse 11, Moses tells Israel, “ Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His ordinances, and His statutes which I command you today .” Notice that he is warning them that one way they will forget Him is by not keeping, or in other words by breaking, the law they had been given. They were not to forsake that law.

We have been discussing lately how theologians often divide God’s law up into three parts. Just last week we saw how the Westminster Confession of Faith in Chapter 19 on the law refers to it as the moral, ceremonial and civil law. We have discussed on other occasions how the reformers defined three uses God had for His law. We even saw in an earlier message from Deuteronomy 4 that Moses himself seemed to indicate three differing aspects of God’s law in referring to it as the “statutes, testimonies and judgments.” Now here in verse 11, we see the three-fold description of God’s law as the “commandments, ordinances and statutes.” Yet rather than seeing these terms as differentiating between various aspects of God’s law, it appears that in giving virtually synonymous terms Moses is instead emphasizing the law’s completeness. Like the Lord telling us to love God with all our heart, soul, and strength, so we are to keep the fullness and totality of God’s law – we are to obey its commandments, statutes and ordinances – all of it!

Yet clearly most misbehaving churchgoers, intent on breaking new world records for licentious behavior, think obeying God’s law is legalism, even anti-Christian. They think Jesus’ followers are free from such concerns. This is where we must point out they are not following Jesus, that in forgetting His law they are forgetting their God.

In an essay entitled “Bible-breakers, Bible-benders, and Bible-believers,” Reformed Presbyterian theologian J.G. Vos refers to an incident in Jesus’ life where this is seen. Jesus claimed to be divine before the Jews in John 10, when our Lord stated that He was one with the Father. As the Jews picked up rocks to stone Him for His apparent blasphemy, recall that Jesus appeals to Scripture. He said, “Has it not been written in your law, ‘I said, You are gods?’ If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scriptures cannot be broken), do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said ‘I am the Son of God?’” I want to use the thoughts from Vos’ essay on this to make several points.

First, the statement that Jesus quoted, where He said it has been written in “your law,” was not from what we typically consider the law (Genesis –Deuteronomy). It was from Psalm 82:6. Jesus saw the Old Testament as an organic unity. All of it was the law, or the Scriptures, as He also says here.

Secondly, think of how this statement “you are gods” is almost an incidental statement. It was referring to the judges in OT Israel who were clothed with authority as God’s servants in administering justice. So in that sense the Jewish leaders that Jesus was addressing could be called “gods with a little g.” Note that Jesus takes this obscure little phrase from the OT Scriptures and uses it with great authority and application to address the Jewish leaders of His own day.

Thirdly, He says that the Scriptures cannot be broken. He obviously does not mean broken by us, for certainly it is possible for us to break His law. It means that God Himself will not break them, that its promises and its threats will be fulfilled. Jesus’ attitude toward the Scripture was always that the verdict of Scripture, of the law, was final.

Finally, this quote from Psalm 82 is from the context of threatening justice on the judges who failed to administer according to God’s ways. Let me read it in that context:

I said, “You are gods,

And all of you are children of the Most High.

7 But you shall die like men,

And fall like one of the princes.”

8 Arise, O God, judge the earth;

For You shall inherit all nations.”

Jesus takes this Scripture and is using it to warn the Jewish leaders that though they sought to stone Him, though they would eventually have Him crucified, instead it was their lives that were truly in danger.

Friend, consider what this means! If Jesus takes the law and applies it ever so finely, what will become of the ones who break not just the obscure parts of it but the very heart of His law? For instance, take God’s “top four” laws that speak of our relationship to Him. The masses of churchgoers who think Jesus is a way of salvation but not the only way, who fail to see this belief contradicts the first commandment against having other gods, what will happen to them? What about those false professors who show by their lifestyle - by the things they pursue, purchase, and peruse - the idolatry they have? What about those that use God’s name, use the blessed name of Jesus, more to swear by than to pray to and in? What will become of those that take the day we are to express our love to the Lord our God and use it to show what they really love? Beware! Be forewarned! Go forth and warn! Do not forget the Lord by breaking His covenant law. Follow its details; obey its stipulations; carry it out in its completeness.

For if not, then recognize you will also forget Him by…

II. … subtracting from His long-term covenant multiplications (verses 12-18).

At the risk of sounding like a catchphrase, health and wealth TV evangelist, let me say that when God is multiplying, don’t subtract from it. To risk sounding even more like one, let me say that God wants the nations where His church dwells to be wealthy and prosperous. Now let me explain.

How the Lord had blessed and would bless Israel! He took them as it says in verses 15-17 out of Egypt, out of the wilderness with its scorpions and serpents, the dry land with no water, the forsaken place where God had to provide manna for their sustenance, and He would bring them to a blessed land. He brought them through all of these things to do, as He says at the end of verse 16, “to do good for you in the end.” The goodness God would show them would be to give them a land where, instead of tents, they would have permanent homes in which to live. A land where they would see their flocks multiplied, their money multiplied, their children multiplied - everything they owned multiplied. Blessing upon blessing upon blessing would become theirs. Yet God warns they could subtract from this multiplication.

How? By forgetting from Whose hand these multiplied blessings flow. After telling them of the blessings to come, Moses says in verse 14 “then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God.” You will forget it was the Lord that accomplished these things for you. Then in verse 17, we see who they will begin to think accomplished all of this multiplication. Moses says to the people gathered before him that “you will begin to claim it was by the power and strength of ‘my hand’ that made the wealth.” (Notice how Moses personalizes this by using the phrase “my hand” in addressing the assembly. He is making it applicable to every person in the nation.) To fail to give due recognition to God for what He has done is to subtract from His glory.

O how we have forgotten! How our nation has forgotten! How churchgoers have forgotten! This country, forged by the faith and sacrifice of our forefathers (who in former generations laid down life and limb to clear and settle this land, endure attacks, and live and die through harsh winters), how it has forgotten. How it has forgotten that the blessings these sacrifices achieved came from the hand of God. These blessings God promises to nations who obey His ways. Though certainly we contend that our nation has not confessed openly Jesus as Lord, we recognize that many who founded did. Their colonial charters did. What blessings God has granted to us, and we do not even think about it. Most of you here use e-mail without considering the power you enjoy at your fingertips. In a matter of minutes you can communicate with almost anyone on the world. Kings a century ago would have given anything to have that kind of power, but instead had to rely on heralds and messengers to get their word out. On and on I could go listing the comforts, the blessings, the prosperity we enjoy. The blessings have been multiplied beyond belief. Do we see that it was indeed the Lord that gave the power to make this wealth (Read verse 18)?

In marriage counseling, when a couple is having problems, one of the first things one should have them do is to recall what brought them together in the first place. Get them reflecting on earlier times, thinking about what they found attractive about the other spouse in the beginning. Often this aids them in rediscovering their first. We must not only warn covenant breakers, but we must also show them how to remember. The Lord has granted means to help them remember Him. They can remember Him by keeping His day holy and undefiled. They can remember by keeping His sacraments (Young people who are this year preparing to become communicant members, realize this is what you are doing. You are looking at your life and saying, “I have not forgotten who blessed my parents with faith in Jesus Christ, blessed my home so I could be taught to know Him, and who has now blessed me with faith and good fruits. I know Who has blessed me, and I now want to remember Him and commune with Him). Remember the Lord by praising His name with these songs we sing. Remember to thank the One from Whom all this goodness has come!

One more way exists by which you can forget the LORD your God. By…

III. …denying His ultimate covenant demand (verses 19-20).

God has an ultimate demand. It is simply this. Love Him first, love Him foremost, and love Him only. It is the greatest commandment. In verse 19 we read that if we forget the Lord by going after other gods, by worshiping them and offering service to them, then God says you will perish.

We are witnessing something unprecedented in western history that was underneath the surface but has been brought out in the open since the bombing of September 11 th. It is the promotion of Islamic culture. Because you are bombarded, and even more because your fellow churchgoers are bombarded, by the media’s portrayal of this, the pulpits in this country need to pound with warnings against this trend. I say this is unprecedented because for centuries the west has struggled to keep itself from coming under the domination of Islamic influence. It always had a wary eye as it looked east, and could see the danger. But now, ironically after being bombed by those who strongly associated with Islam, our media and our government are doing all they can to say what a “great religion” Islam is.

Islam is not a great religion. It hurts people who live under it, as its very nature is prone to dictatorial rule. Sure, it has a few points of commonality with Christianity (the belief in one God, some laws that are similar). But the laws of Islam in many ways are directly opposed to God’s laws in how people are to be treated, how crime is to be punished, how a nation is to be governed. You cannot point to one of the over 20 countries ruled by Muslims and show where they allow Christianity to be promoted. As I have said, Islam will not tolerate rival religions. By the nature of their religion, they cannot.

I do not know if you have ever tried to witness to a Muslim. Though certainly I have not done so to the extent of our returning missionaries, I have been given some opportunities to do so. Each time I have found the ones I have spoken to, perhaps more trained than an average Muslim because they were on college campuses, to be quick to try and proselytize me. They quickly point out the great benefits the Islamic culture has brought to mankind through mathematics, science and literature. Then they sought to weaken our position by pointing out Christianity’s shortcomings, speaking about the Crusades to show the mistreatment they have endured. Yet they never point out that centuries prior to that Mohammedans took over northern Africa and parts of Asia and Europe on crusades of their own that brought far more suffering than the misguided Crusades. I am not excusing the Crusades, for they were atrocious. I am simply not going to let them be used as a basis for hiding the reality of Islam.

I saw a cartoon recently with two Muslim warriors in it, one of which was labeled as Osama Bin Ladin. These two warriors were getting ready to charge off to war. The one soldier says, “Wait a minute – I thought we Muslims were against Crusades.” The Bin Ladin character replies, “O shut up! This is not a crusade, this is a jihad.” We laugh at the irony, but do we recognize the reality? Islam, and every false religion, is on a jihad, is involved in a holy war. Islam wants the world, including this nation, to confess that there is only one God, and his name is Allah, and that Mohammed is his prophet. For a Muslim to desire anything less is to be unfaithful to Islam, and since this is one of their five pillars they have this goal constantly before them. At least they understand the nature of the battle and have a final goal in mind. Lazy, dulled American Christianity does not have the true vision of seeing every nation, including our own, saying, “No, there is only one God, who is Triune – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and the Son is the Lord and Prophet to whom we listen.” That our nation, our fellow misbehaving churchgoers, listen to those promoting Islam and join those worshiping Allah shows how far we have fallen from God. How idolatrous we have become. How dangerously close we are to failing to heed the final warning.

For look at verse 20. “Like the nations the LORD makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you would not listen to the voice of the LORD your God.” The LORD not only punished Israel for forgetting Him. He punished the nations that existed in Canaan before Israel for not remembering Him and His ways. And He has through the centuries caused nation after nation to perish who has forgotten to honor the LORD as their God. How we need to cry out, “Beware! Beware!” Do not forget the LORD our God. Stop going after and giving service to other gods, but instead bow your knee once again and remember the ultimate demand of the covenant God – confess Jesus as LORD, your One and your Only! Beware!