Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20130317.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Deuteronomy: Moses' Great Appeal For Israel To Obey God For Blessing
Part IV: The General Call For Loyal Obedience, Deuteronomy 4:44-11:32
A. The Ten Commandments, Deuteronomy 4:44-5:21
1. The First Command: Loyal Obedience To Scripture's Gracious God
(Deuteronomy 4:44-5:7)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    We as a people face a lot of oppression today, and it can leave one wondering where to turn for relief, a fact we can easily illustrate:

    (1) Jean Howat's letter to the editor of The Hartford Courant, March 6, 2013, p. A12, in referring to the paper's March 3 story on the "devastating effects of . . . [the] Affordable Care Act," complained of the paper's "total lack of investigative journalism that left the people of Connecticut just now waking up to the reality of health reform math.'"

    (2) In the Facebook part (Ibid., p. A13) of the paper where the editor asked, "Should Connecticut bring back highway tolls to help pay for badly needed infrastructure repairs?", Wayne C. Kilburn replied: "The gas tax is for highway repairs and infrastructure improvement. Why don't they use that revenue for its intended purpose?"

    (3) Malcolm Makin, a financial adviser in the February 18, 2013 Barron's, p. S20 reported: "There's just a general frustration and almost anguish among clients at What in the world is happening to the United States?'" to which he responds: "I've quoted Churchill probably 500 times . . . Winston Churchill said the problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money."

    (4) The March 11, 2013 USA TODAY, p. 6A ran editorials on the Transportation Safety Administration's decision to let knives and other objects banned after 9/11 back onto planes. Laura Glading, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, chided, "One former TSA chief suggested the new rules should even allow for battle axes (and) machetes' . . . [but] TSA policies should do nothing to diminish passenger safety." (brackets ours)

    (5) Page 8A of the paper ran "liberal Democratic strategist" Bob Beckel's and "conservative columnist" Cal Thomas' "Common Ground" column where even Mr. Beckel admitted that "Medicare needs reform and so do other entitlements. Without entitlement reform that lowers the annual deficit, sequestration will continue for ten years . . . ." Cal Thomas added, "And we'll . . . move from crisis to crisis in Washington because politicians don't want to seek common ground."

    (6) The Talk of Connecticut radio show hostess Mary Jones on March 7, 2013 interviewed an authority on Americans' well-being, and this authority rated Connecticut low among the fifty states in emotional health, blaming oppressive pressures in our society as the cause!

    So, we ask, "How can I deal with oppression?!"

    Need: "With oppression at every turn, how can I effectively respond?!"

  1. After his Historical Prologue recalling God's goodness to Israel in the suzerain treaty format of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses called Israel to loyal obedience to God in Deuteronomy 4:44-11:32.
  2. The first part of this section has Moses describing the setting where he addressed Israel east of the Jordan (Deuteronomy 4:44-49), and calling the nation to obey God (Deuteronomy 5:1-5) before he began to repeat the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 5:6-21).
  3. Thus, the CONTEXTUAL FOCUS of this repeat of the Ten Commandments was WHY Israel should be MOTIVATED to HEED them, and the FIRST command on not having any other gods before the Lord (Deut. 5:7) is prefaced by God's reminding Israel that He had delivered her from Egyptian bondage, Deut. 5:6.
  4. So, in view of her OPPRESSIVE past trials, Israel was to seek after ONLY the GRACIOUS GOD of her EXODUS DELIVERANCE:
    1. God graciously delivered Israel from human oppressions in Egypt:
      1. God delivered Israel from government oppression, Exodus 1:8-11:
        1. When a Pharaoh rose in Egypt who did not know of Joseph who had greatly helped the Pharaoh in Joseph's day, and this later Pharaoh saw Israel's might, he felt threatened by it, Ex. 1:8-9.
        2. He thus set taskmasters over the people of Israel to enslave them in forced labor, Exodus 1:10-11 NIV.
      2. God delivered Israel from physical oppression, Exodus 1:12-14:
        1. The more Pharaoh's taskmasters afflicted the men of Israel, the more the nation "multiplied and spread," Exodus 1:12 NIV.
        2. This led the Egyptians to "dread" Israel, and to make them work "ruthlessly," Exodus 1:13 NIV. The Egyptians made life bitter for Israel in terms of much physical oppression, Ex. 1:14 NIV.
      3. God delivered Israel from oppression in family life, Ex. 1:15-22:
        1. Seeking more effectively to check Israel's growth, Pharaoh had told the midwives who delivered Israel's infants to kill all the male infants while saving alive all the females, Exodus 1:15-16.
        2. When the midwives who revered the Lord refused to heed Pharaoh, he directed all of his subjects to cast every male Hebrew infant into the River while saving the girls, Ex. 1:17-22.
      4. God delivered Israel from emotional oppression, Exodus 2:23-25:
        1. In the many days of her slavery, the Pharaoh who had put Israel into slavery died, but that did not end the slavery, Exodus 2:23a.
        2. So, in a sense of hopelessness, Israel "groaned" in her slavery and cried out for help in emotional duress, Ex. 2:23 NIV, ESV.
      5. God delivered Israel from financial oppression, Exodus 12:35-36:
        1. During the 400 years of Israel's bondage in Egypt (Acts 7:6), her people were obviously not well paid for their labor.
        2. However, God relieved this state, arranging for Israel legally to plunder the Egyptians of their wealth by simply asking them for their goods, and God moved the Egyptians to favor the people of Israel and give them all that they requested, Exodus 12:35-36.
    2. However, in delivering Israel from human oppressions in Egypt, God ALSO contrasted Himself with Egypt's oppressive gods:
      1. God hardened Pharaoh's heart ten times so He could perform ten plagues (Exodus 7:3) that we learned in our past study of Exodus extensively critiqued Egypt's many pagan gods, cf. Exodus 12:12.
      2. Now, the ancient Egyptian pagans saw their gods as oppressive:
        1. Pagans believed their pagan gods had created men to be slaves to the gods, Bruce K. Waltke, Creation and Chaos, 1974, p. 65.
        2. For this reason, pagan man lived in fear of the gods, performing rituals and observing various taboos to try to appease them, Ibid.
      3. In contrast, Scripture's God was benevolent to man:
        1. God created man in His image to rule the world (Gen. 1:26-28).
        2. God also kindly established the seventh day as a day of rest and refreshment for man opposite pagan man's fear that he would anger his gods were he to work on the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th days of the month marking the four phases of the moon, Ibid.
      4. Thus, God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt not only focused on His deliverance from human oppressions, but from Egypt's false, oppressive gods, meaning Scripture's GOD was to be sought as He was gracious OPPOSITE the oppressive gods in paganism!
Application: May we (1) trust alone in Christ alone for salvation, John 3:16; Acts 4:12. (2) Then, may we look to no other gods,' no other entities for fulfillment, for they can only oppress, but may we loyally seek after the gracious God Who is revealed in Scripture!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 (1) The last Sunday prior to my recent vacation, someone in our Adult Sunday School Class asked what Bible passage do we at Nepaug Bible Church use for not observing Lent.

Many in our Church are former Roman Catholics and know the Catholic Church teaches that Lent, the 6 weeks between Ash Wednesday and Easter, are to be observed to avoid being guilty of mortal sin. Even some area evangelical churches observe aspects of Lent. Roman Catholics used to have to fast the 40 week days before Easter, but in 1966, Pope Paul VI relaxed this rule except for Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Also, the rule to abstain from all meat on Good Friday has now been removed for Catholics, for one can then eat fish. (Loraine Boettner, Roman Catholicism, 1978, p. 275-276) In addition, a few years ago when Saint Patrick's Day landed on Good Friday, Church officials gave a "special dispensation" to area Irish Catholics so they could eat beef on that day in contrast to non-Irish Roman Catholics who were limited to fish as to meat in their diet!

However, I told the Adult Sunday School Class that, regardless what the Catholic Church or even some area evangelical churches practice, we do not observe any aspect of Lent, for Colossians 2:20-22 KJV reads: "Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances (touch not; taste not; handle not; which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?"

Lent is oppressive: totally apart from Scripture, it was authored and promoted by man upon the devout at the threat of committing a mortal sin if they did not heed it. Lent did not come from the gracious God of Scripture, so we do not observe it!

(2) After sharing this information in the Sunday School Class, little did I know that I had to apply it later that week to an oppressive "man-made" rule that surfaced in my own experience on my vacation, a rule that was rooted in my legalistic Protestant heritage! I myself had to get back to serving my God of grace!



May we all live in God's grace, and look only to Him as our Authority for faith and practice and God in all aspects!