The Glory of God and Man's Response

[I don't remember when I presented this lesson but it was on a Wed nght Bible study...I think sometime in the summer of 2006.]

Our text this evening comes from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 & Jeremiah 9:23-24. The reason I have chosen these two passages is because I hope, the Lord willing, to share with you how the two are linked...or at any rate, how the two come together in my mind.

In our study last week we looked at faith...therefore tonight we will look at the object of our faith...God Himself!

The first passage we look at this evening, in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Verse 4 is commonly known as the "Shema," (pronounced shaw maw) which according to Albert Barnes is also known as "the creed of the Jews." For those of you who are familiar with the Brock and Bodie Thoene novels, "The Zion Chronicles" and "The Zion Covenant," then you are probably aware that this passage symbolized to the Jews the essence of their identity and their relationship with God.

Since we have just recently completed a study on "The Seven Sins of Bible Study" I want to start off by saying right away that my approach to these passages this evening is in how they apply to us. These passages have a historical context, and they have a spiritual context...and I want us to look at them from the perspective of spiritual Israel...which we are all a part of if we have repented of our sin, confessed it to God, and submitted to Him as Lord and Savior of our lives.

Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Again, the first verse we see here is called the Shema, and it is called this because of that first word we see in verse 4, "hear." The Hebrew word is "shema" and it is the pivotal call in this verse. Moses is saying, to the nation of Israel AND to us here in this room tonight...to spiritual Israel, "Pay attention," "Listen," "This is important!"

And why should we pay attention?
Why should we listen?
Why is this important?

Because through His prophet Moses, and through His wonderful Word here tonight, the Lord is about to inform Israel who He is and what He wants from us!

Ask) Is this worth paying attention to? I pray the answer of the Believer is "AMEN!"

"Hear O Israel"

Notice carefully whom the Lord is calling upon to pay special attention. For whom are these words intended?
Israel!

In other words, the Shema is a call from God to the Believer! You who believe, listen closely!

The lost, the unrepentant, the spiritually dead who do not know Christ...they cannot obey this command, but the Believer, whether physical or spiritual Israel, MUST obey! It is not an option...it is a command! "Hear O Israel" Pay attention, O Israel!

"The Lord our God, the Lord is One!"

The Hebrew words here are "Jehovah (Lord) Elohim (God) Jehovah (Lord) Echad (one)"

Brothers and Sisters, do not miss the beauty of this phrase! Do not fail to recognize that this is a declaration of the mystery of God, the Tri-Unity of God, the Oneness of our Triune God!

Listen to me Believers...

What kind of phrase is "the Lord is one"?

It would make no sense unless we understand that God is here revealing Himself in a mighty way! He is not hinting at His nature...He is proclaiming it to Israel! The tragedy is that so few of today's Jews recognize this!

God is saying "I am One!" The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit are One Entity! How does the old hymn go? "God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity"

You know, there are many concepts taught in the Scriptures that seem incredible to the human mind. We may try to understand them, but we will never have complete understanding...and this is especially true when it comes to any aspect of our holy God. For example, God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.

What does this mean?
Omniscient: God knows all things
Omnipotent: God is all powerful
Omnipresent: God is everywhere

Do you think that we can ever, as humans, truly comprehend what this means? Indeed, we can have a minute understanding, but we can never completely grasp these attributes of God!

Why, then, do we believe that He is all three of these things?

God's omniscience:
1 Kings 8:39 tells us that God "know[s] the hearts of all the sons of men."
1 Chronicles 28:9 says that God "searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts."
Psalm 44:21 says that "He knows the secrets of the heart."
Luke 16:15 says that God "knows [our] hearts."

God's omnipotence:
In Genesis 18:14, the rhetorical question is asked, "is anything too hard for the Lord?"
The greatest verse describing God's omnipotence is in Genesis 1:3..."Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light."

God's omnipresence:
In Jeremiah 23:23, God Himself says, "Am I a God near at hand...And not a God afar off? Can anyone hide himself in secret places, so I shall not see him?...Do I not fill heaven and earth?"

Again, why do we believe that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent?

Because the Scriptures tell us He is so! How does the children's song go?

"Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so!"

Before I get even further away from the original point, however, let us return to the text!

Remember, "The Lord our God, the Lord is One" is in Hebrew Jehovah, Elohim, Jehovah, Echad!

Each one of these is the name of God and He is One!

From the Shema, we jump to verse 5, in which we see that we are to love the Lord with some of our heart, soul, and strength, right?

NO!

With ALL of our heart, with ALL of our soul, and with ALL of our strength!

Understand that this is more than just another command...remember that we are being called to pay special attention!

God the Father, through His prophet Moses, is telling us that He wants our complete obedience, our complete devotion, and our entire lives!

And guess what? God the Son commands the same!

Read Mark 12:28-30

It is not an option for the Christian to obey His Lord...it is a command! In fact 1 John 1:4 we are told that "He who says, "I know Him." and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."

Does this mean the Christian is unable to sin? Absolutely not!

What it does mean is that it is IMPOSSIBLE for a true child of God to remain in habitual sin without remorse, without repentance, and without turning away from the wicked path.
So we see that we are to love our Lord God, and that we are to love Him with everything we've got! We are to love Him with fervency, with passion, with a total disregard for the consequences of demonstrating that love before the world!

"And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart"

I would encourage all of us to memorize this passage! Why? Because by doing so we obey the Lord!

"You shall teach them diligently to your children, 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 up."

While it is perfectly acceptable to apply these verses to the idea of teaching our children from the Word in general, or to use them to support home schooling as many do, but you must understand that "you shall teach them" refers specifically to Deuteronomy 6:4-5!

Are you convinced that our God is One? That He is the great Jehovah, the great Elohim? Then make it a point for your children to know it too!

And brothers and sisters, if you love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, and strength then make sure someone who visits your house knows that it is a house dedicated to the Lord! By this I do not mean that you need to have cute pictures of Jesus, or a Bible prominently displayed and gathering dust...NO!

I mean that BECAUSE you love the Lord your God with every fiber of your being, then He should be what you talk about the most! I love Joy, and I talk about her a LOT!

But I love God more than I love Joy...she knows it and I expect that she would rather be rid of me than be rid of our Lord! Therefore, our house should be filled with talk of God! Because He is what we think about, His Word is what we spent most of our time contemplating...and when I say "we" I do not mean Joy and I...I mean US in THIS room!

Does anyone disagree with this? Hopefully not!! :)

And before we leave this precious verse let me say that, as mentioned above, this is a wonderful verse for how we should teach our children ALL of the Scriptures! What does 2 Timothy 3:16-17 say?

Now read Ephesians 6:4

Notice who is being addressed..."fathers"

Men...do your jobs! Be worthy of your holy calling!

"You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates"

Now realize that conservative Jews take this literally! If you've seen the stereotypes of Jews it is of them with frontlets hanging from their foreheads...and little boxes on their wrists...and they also write verse 4 in little reeds and attach them to the doorposts of their homes...

Is this what we need to do?

Matthew Henry says the following:

"[Just as the Jews consider it] binding in the letter of it...[so it should be for us] in the intent of it, which is that we should endeavor by all means possible to make the word of God familiar to us, that we may have it ready upon all occasions, [as] our restraint from sin and our direction and excitement to do our duty. It must be as that which is graven on the palms of our hands, always before our eyes. [A]lso, we must never be ashamed to own our religion, nor to own ourselves under the check and government of it. Let it be written on our gates, and let every one that goes by our door read it, that we believe Jehovah to be God alone, and believe ourselves bound to love him with all our hearts."

Are there any questions or comments?

Very well then, we have seen that:

A. God reveals Himself to us (verse 4)
B. Having revealed Himself to us, He wants our love, in fact, He commands that we who are His MUST love Him (verse 5)
C. What we learn, we are to teach others, especially our children (verses 6-9)

So He has told us how He is different, how He is unique, how He is the only God...and we know now that we are to love Him and teach our children to love Him.

Now let's look at another passage. A passage in which we learn more of how we are to respond to God, BECAUSE of how He has revealed Himself to us!

Read Jeremiah 9:23-24

For the sake of completing this study tonight I will not spend as much time on this passage as on the first.

The most important thing to remember is that as we look at this passage we keep in mind the first one...God has revealed Himself as the omnipotent God, as the one who stands alone. He has, in a sense, revealed His glory to us!

NOW, I want us to look at this passage as a warning to keep our eyes focused on Him and what is more, a REASON for why we should!

"Let not the wise man glory in His wisdom"

Our frail wisdom cannot reveal God to us! In fact, in our society who are the most rabidly anti Christian people out there if not the so called intelligentsia...the so called scientific minds...they all deny God and claim to be wise...but Psalm 14:1 says that it is the fool who "has said in his heart, there is no God." And it is in Romans 1:23-24 that we learn that those who exchange the glory of God for that of corruptible things are fools who profess to be wise! Does this not accurately describe the "wisest" people of our times?

So glory not in a wisdom that is not based on what God has taught us...for it amounts to nothing when weighed against eternity!

"Let not the mighty man glory in his might"

The strong man, the valiant man, the champion, if you will...CANNOT use his strength to save himself from the fires of hell! No man is strong enough to save himself from death...therefore why have pride in that? The strength of the Lord alone can save us!

"Nor let the rich man glory in his riches"

Just as human strength and human wisdom cannot earn us our salvation...money cannot buy us a place in heaven.

Why, then, should we spend so much time seeking after it instead of spending most of our time seeking Him and serving Him?

Note verse 24:

"But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord (Jehovah), exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth..."

Read 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

John Gill says the following:
"[H]e that understands himself as a creature dependent on God, and especially as a fallen sinful creature; and still more as one regenerated by the grace of God; he will never glory in himself, but in the Lord; and so, if he understands divine things, and the scheme of salvation by the grace of God, and not by the works of men; and if he knows the Lord, he will never glory in his own wisdom, nor in his own strength, nor in his riches, nor in his righteousness, nor in any man or creature, but in the Lord only"

In other words, when we realize who God is (and remember He has revealed Himself to us in Deuteronomy 6:4), and just how much we need Him...then we cannot help but glory in Him!

And God exercises lovingkindess...for He has saved us when we did not deserve salvation.

God exercises justice and pronounces judgment...for He did not lay aside His just demands but fulfilled them in Christ our Lord.

And God exercises righteousness...for by Christ it is imputed to us! Read Romans 8:1-4

Finally...

"For in these I delight, says the Lord"

Two things we see in which God delights...in the exercising of the above attributes...for they magnify Christ. And also in our taking pleasure and pride in understanding and knowing this about Him.

So do you remember I said that in this passage we would see a reason for why we should keep our eyes focused on Him?

This is the reason! Because it brings delight to our God!

So I hope that you have seen with me how in the first passage our God reveals Himself to us...reveals His nature to us...

And in this second passage we see how He must be the only worthwhile boast in our lives!

Read Galatians 6:14 and then close with prayer.