WEBVTT 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:08.960 Hello everyone, this is Pastor Benjamin. 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:12.000 You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, Orlando. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:15.439 At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer. 00:00:15.439 --> 00:00:20.000 For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com. 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:28.000 So please stand for the prayer of illumination and join with me. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:35.200 Holy Spirit, as we hear your word, send out your light and your truth. 00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:42.479 Let them lead us, that we may hear and believe with joy through Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:00:42.479 --> 00:00:43.439 Amen. 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:55.359 But you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today. 00:00:55.359 --> 00:01:06.079 See, I have taught you statutes and rules as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:23.120 Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. 00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:34.000 For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:43.280 And what great nation is there that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? 00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:54.719 Only take care and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. 00:01:54.719 --> 00:01:58.879 Make them known to your children and your children's children. 00:01:58.879 --> 00:02:18.960 How on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on earth, and that they may teach their children so. 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:30.719 Therefore, watch yourselves very carefully, since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire. 00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:49.439 And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the hosts of heaven, you be drawn away and bowed down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all peoples under the whole heaven. 00:02:49.439 --> 00:03:00.960 But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day. 00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:13.520 Furthermore, the Lord was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:18.400 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:37.280 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask for one from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:46.319 Did any people ever hear the voice of a God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard and still live? 00:03:46.319 --> 00:04:08.319 Or has any God ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 00:04:08.319 --> 00:04:16.480 To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord is God, and there is no other besides him. 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:18.399 This is God's word. 00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:20.800 Be seated. 00:04:50.959 --> 00:04:55.680 But then because of the enlightenment, there became this possibility of unbelief. 00:04:55.680 --> 00:05:02.800 And now after the Enlightenment, what's called late modernity, where we live now, it can feel impossible to believe in God. 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:14.240 And so while it is possible still to believe in God, you have to work a little bit harder at it than people in previous generations and in other places around the world outside of Western culture. 00:05:14.240 --> 00:05:23.920 Said differently, you can believe, but you live among a people who don't, and their unbelief puts pressure on your belief. 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:28.560 So what makes faith plausible in a world like ours? 00:05:28.560 --> 00:05:35.279 If you were to wake up this morning for with a text from a friend and they sent it last night at like 2 a.m. 00:05:35.279 --> 00:05:37.519 and they said, You're not gonna believe what happened. 00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:45.279 I saw this giant light flash over Orlando and it and it seemed to land over in UCF area, East Orlando. 00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:48.160 Um, it was it was large, it looked like a UFO. 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:54.560 You'd be like, I don't know what you were doing last night, but something not good, probably, right? 00:05:54.560 --> 00:06:01.759 And then imagine you showed up here and you you encountered one of our amazing UCF students, go nights, and you ran into them and you said, Hey, what's going on? 00:06:01.759 --> 00:06:02.160 How are you? 00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:04.240 Like, you're not gonna believe what happened. 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:08.319 Yesterday, right in the middle of the football stadium, some giant thing landed. 00:06:08.319 --> 00:06:11.759 What would happen to your disbelief? 00:06:11.759 --> 00:06:15.199 It would become a little bit more plausible, right? 00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:19.120 So, again, what makes faith plausible in a world like ours? 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:21.920 It's not merely better arguments, although those are important. 00:06:21.920 --> 00:06:33.040 What makes faith plausible is a people who are able to encounter a community whose life together makes it possible to believe in God. 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:36.639 Peter Berger calls these plausibility structures. 00:06:36.639 --> 00:06:45.600 And since Genesis through Revelation in all times and places, the plausibility structure that God gives to the world is his people. 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:54.560 So again, the question I began with is what would it take for Orlando to look at us, New City, and say, What kind of God produces a people like this? 00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:59.839 What would it take for them to look at you and me and say, wow, they embody a wisdom that is attractive. 00:06:59.839 --> 00:07:06.480 They seem to know a way to the good life, or or to use the language of verse six, surely this is a wise and understanding people. 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:10.480 Well, that's exactly what Moses is doing in Deuteronomy 4. 00:07:10.480 --> 00:07:17.279 Moses spent the first three chapters of Deuteronomy, 1, 2, and 3, retelling the history of God's work among his people. 00:07:17.279 --> 00:07:23.680 And then next chapter, chapter 5, we'll see next week, he's gonna give the Ten Commandments again. 00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:37.120 But here in chapter 4, Moses is wrestling with how the story of God's work shapes God's people, such that you can ask this question what kind of God produces a people like this? 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:38.879 So I want to wrestle through that question. 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:46.079 I have three answers, they're my three points, which is the Lord is near not far, the Lord is heard, not seen, the Lord is God, no rivals. 00:07:46.079 --> 00:07:51.839 If you have a Bible or device, go ahead and get Deuteronomy chapter four, verse five in front of you. 00:07:51.839 --> 00:07:53.680 Let's look at the text together. 00:07:53.680 --> 00:07:55.519 The Lord is near not far. 00:07:55.519 --> 00:07:58.079 Here's what Moses says. 00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:00.399 Deuteronomy four, five. 00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:09.839 See, I have taught you statutes and rules as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:11.360 Keep them and do them. 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:21.839 For that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. 00:08:21.839 --> 00:08:28.959 You'll notice actually three times in verses six, seven, and eight, the phrase, great nation, appears. 00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:34.159 Israel was meant to be the envy of the world, but what is it that makes Israel great? 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:43.279 If you look closely, when when the world looks on Israel and they say something like, Surely this is a great nation, a wise and understanding people, what are they noticing? 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:51.120 They're noticing that they have been given statutes and rules and commands and testimonies, Allah, if you will. 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:55.519 So listen, as modern kind of American evangelicals, we often feel bad for Israel. 00:08:55.519 --> 00:08:58.080 We think, oh man, it must have been really hard having the law. 00:08:58.080 --> 00:08:58.960 No, no, no, no. 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:01.039 That's not the way the Bible talks about the law. 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:05.679 The law was one of the greatest gifts that God could give to a people. 00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:14.399 This was actually what made them unique in the totality of the world was they were given the instruction of the true and living God. 00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:20.080 And so we live today in a civilization that's unlike any other prior to this. 00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:25.759 We we live in a moment where we have a glut of information and yet we are starved for wisdom. 00:09:25.759 --> 00:09:29.840 We have a flood of hot takes and yet we live in a desert of understanding. 00:09:29.840 --> 00:09:36.240 And so listen, church, our obedience to countercultural commands is not an embarrassment. 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:38.159 It is our greatness. 00:09:38.159 --> 00:09:40.480 Let me just make that plain. 00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:47.360 Imagine for a moment a community that holds truth humbly and boldly in a world with uncertainty and suspicion. 00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:58.720 Of a community of marital fidelity in a world that is saturated by sex, a community that knows God's presence moment by moment in a world that's bracketing God out of all of life. 00:09:58.720 --> 00:10:03.840 Imagine a community that can say, I have enough in a world that's gone mad with consumption. 00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:31.120 A community of forgiveness in a world characterized by revenge and competition, a community of patience in a world of immediate gratification, of compassion in a world that has been numbed by the overexposure to evil, of cheerful depth in a culture of triviality, of humble zeal in a world of apathy and indifference, of purpose in a world that is amusing itself to death, of thankfulness in a world of entitlement, of praise in a world of narcissism. 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:35.440 When we're up here singing all hail King Jesus, like my Presbycostal was coming out. 00:10:35.440 --> 00:10:38.639 If you would have given me a flag, I would have been running around this joint. 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:40.639 What happens in that moment? 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:52.240 We we look outside of ourselves for a moment and we we look outside and we praise God as if He is real, and that delivers us moment by moment, a little bit at a time, from the narcissism of our cultural moment. 00:10:52.240 --> 00:10:59.759 And so listen, the commandments of God make us a strange people, but not strange for its own sake. 00:10:59.759 --> 00:11:05.519 It makes us a people that cause outsiders to look at us and wonder, what is going on with this people? 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:11.360 And ultimately, hopefully, they ask, what kind of God produces a people like this? 00:11:11.360 --> 00:11:28.000 The most eloquent testimony to the reality of God is a group of people whose life together is so radically different, so completely changed from the ways of the world that there can be no other explanation than that something decisive must have happened in history. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:30.879 That's what Moses is after for Israel. 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:33.039 That was true for Israel, and it's true for us. 00:11:33.039 --> 00:11:38.480 But here's a surprise in the text Israel's greatness is not ultimately found in Israel. 00:11:38.480 --> 00:11:40.000 Look at verse 7. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:48.320 What great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us? 00:11:48.320 --> 00:11:51.519 Israel's not great because Israel is great. 00:11:51.519 --> 00:11:54.240 Israel is great because God is near. 00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:58.960 At New City, we have this phrase we say proximity creates possibility. 00:11:58.960 --> 00:11:59.679 And that's true. 00:11:59.679 --> 00:12:01.759 It's actually even neurobiologically true. 00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:17.840 There's some recent studies that were done that show that if you take a person and they face a hill that's steep that they're gonna have to climb, if they have a friend with them, they will estimate the hill is less steep than if they have to do it all by themselves. 00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:20.320 It's called social baseline theory. 00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:21.039 Let me make that plain. 00:12:21.039 --> 00:12:30.399 What that means is your brain counts the proximity of someone that you trust among the resources available to you to face the challenges ahead of you. 00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:38.399 Another way to say that would be the hill doesn't change, but the resources you bring to the hill do change. 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:42.399 The threat doesn't go away, but your ability to endure the threat increases. 00:12:42.399 --> 00:12:44.399 Now think about Israel for a moment. 00:12:44.399 --> 00:12:46.720 They're on the brink of the promised land. 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:57.600 They're gonna enter into a land that's filled with fortified cities and nations that are stronger than they are, and they begin to calculate this hill, if you will, as if they're gonna climb it all alone. 00:12:57.600 --> 00:13:05.200 The nations may be great, but what God, what nation has a God so near to it as Yahweh is to Israel? 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:07.519 That's what Moses is reminding of them. 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:13.279 Because faith doesn't, it doesn't reduce the size of the hill, it actually assesses the hill properly. 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:18.720 But listen, it refuses to calculate the hill without factoring in the nearness of God. 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:23.279 And so notice how Israel experiences the nearness of God. 00:13:23.279 --> 00:13:24.480 Look at verse 7 again. 00:13:24.480 --> 00:13:30.960 What great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call upon him? 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:32.399 This is prayer. 00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:34.559 It's through prayer we experience the nearness of God. 00:13:34.559 --> 00:13:36.000 But he goes on in verse 8. 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:43.679 And what great nation is there that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? 00:13:43.679 --> 00:13:45.120 That's God's word. 00:13:45.120 --> 00:13:49.039 And so we experience God's nearness through word and prayer. 00:13:49.039 --> 00:13:51.840 God speaks to his people and his people speak back to him. 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:54.639 This is called communion with God. 00:13:54.639 --> 00:13:59.679 Communion with God is when you receive God's word and you respond in prayer. 00:13:59.679 --> 00:14:02.639 And this communion with God creates a distinctive community. 00:14:02.639 --> 00:14:07.519 But listen, there's a missional undercurrent beneath the whole of Deuteronomy 4. 00:14:07.519 --> 00:14:15.519 Because this communing community is meant to have a distinctive witness to God in a watching world. 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:16.960 That's the point of it. 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:24.240 And so the nations are supposed to see Israel who have a communion with the living God, and they go, What kind of God produces a people like this? 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:26.960 That's the question that it stirs up in this them. 00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:30.159 And the answer is the Lord is near, not far. 00:14:30.159 --> 00:14:32.480 That's the answer Moses gives. 00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:34.799 But there's a danger here. 00:14:34.799 --> 00:14:44.000 The danger is if God is really that near, if he speaks to us, if he dwells among us, if he answers when we call him, then maybe we could get our hands around him, actually. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:47.039 Maybe we can contain him, define him, manage him. 00:14:47.039 --> 00:14:48.720 No, no, no, no. 00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:53.360 The nearness of God must never be mistaken for the manageability of God. 00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:59.840 That brings us to the second thing Moses wants us to know, which is the Lord is heard, not seen. 00:14:59.840 --> 00:15:02.000 Look at verse 11 with me. 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:11.840 And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. 00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:14.320 Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. 00:15:14.320 --> 00:15:17.200 You heard the sound of words, but saw no form. 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:19.519 There was only a voice. 00:15:19.519 --> 00:15:21.919 No form, only a voice. 00:15:21.919 --> 00:15:26.000 This is a strange detail for Moses to emphasize, but he keeps on emphasizing it. 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:26.720 Look at verse 10. 00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:28.879 It says, Let them hear my words. 00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:32.159 Verse 15, you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you. 00:15:32.159 --> 00:15:36.000 Verse 16, therefore do not make an image in the form of any figure. 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:39.039 Verse 19, beware lest you see and serve. 00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:47.440 Verse 33, did any people ever hear the voice of a God speaking out of the midst of the fire as you have heard and still live? 00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:51.360 Why value the verbal over the visual? 00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:53.279 What's the big deal here? 00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:56.159 Why sound, not sight? 00:15:56.159 --> 00:16:01.840 If a picture is worth a thousand words, then why aren't images at the heart of Christian worship? 00:16:01.840 --> 00:16:03.360 What is the issue? 00:16:03.360 --> 00:16:09.360 Why is it that Christianity is a culture of listening rather than seeing, of the ear rather than the eye? 00:16:09.360 --> 00:16:10.960 Or let me invert that. 00:16:10.960 --> 00:16:16.480 What is it about images, forms, appearances that are so tempting to the people of God? 00:16:16.480 --> 00:16:17.759 Now I've got to be plain. 00:16:17.759 --> 00:16:19.360 It's not sight itself. 00:16:19.360 --> 00:16:20.559 God gave us the gift of sight. 00:16:20.559 --> 00:16:21.200 It's a good thing. 00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:25.200 Verse 9, Moses says, Don't forget the things that your eyes have seen. 00:16:25.200 --> 00:16:29.519 Israel was supposed to see, but there's a distinction here that's really important. 00:16:29.519 --> 00:16:38.960 Israel sees God's works, Israel hears God's word, but Israel may not manufacture God's form. 00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:45.279 They may see what God has done, but God alone defines who God is. 00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:47.519 He leaves interpretation up to himself. 00:16:47.519 --> 00:16:48.639 Look at verse 15. 00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:56.879 Therefore, watch yourselves very carefully, since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire. 00:16:56.879 --> 00:17:03.279 Beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves in the form of any figure. 00:17:03.279 --> 00:17:05.599 Why is making an image so dangerous? 00:17:05.599 --> 00:17:07.440 What is it that's happening here? 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:15.359 Because if God is near to us, if he comes near to us, then there's a temptation to believe that that God can be contained. 00:17:15.359 --> 00:17:20.799 And an image actually reverses the rate the right relationship God wants to have with his people. 00:17:20.799 --> 00:17:28.640 Think of the difference between me putting a picture up on the screen behind versus me going, hey Joe, if your name's Joe, you just perked up. 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:29.200 Why? 00:17:29.200 --> 00:17:29.759 What happened? 00:17:29.759 --> 00:17:31.440 You were summoned, that's why. 00:17:31.440 --> 00:17:34.079 And so Jacques Allule makes this point really plain. 00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:38.400 He says, with an image, I'm an observer, but with a word, I'm a listener. 00:17:38.400 --> 00:17:47.759 With an image, I decide where to look, I control how long to look, I discern what to make of it, but when someone speaks, I am drawn into dialogue. 00:17:47.759 --> 00:17:49.759 The initiative belongs to someone else. 00:17:49.759 --> 00:17:55.039 The word comes from outside me, it addresses me, and it calls for a response. 00:17:55.039 --> 00:17:58.799 That's the posture Israel is supposed to have before God. 00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:07.839 God speaks, Israel listens, God reveals, Israel receives, God commands, Israel responds, but an idol reverses all of that. 00:18:07.839 --> 00:18:11.119 Now I get to determine what God is like. 00:18:11.119 --> 00:18:13.680 I create a container for the uncontainable God. 00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:17.359 I get to take the consuming fire and put it into a cozy fireplace. 00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:24.640 When we do this, we take the God who's created us and we begin to create that God. 00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:30.960 That's why the issue beneath all of this idolatry, all of the concern in this text is the issue of control. 00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:36.160 God alone has the right to define himself and to describe himself and to disclose himself. 00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:39.279 Faith simply receives God on his own terms. 00:18:39.279 --> 00:18:43.200 Idolatry makes God available to us on our terms. 00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:54.240 While she was raising her three-year-old daughter after the murder of her husband, Elizabeth Elliott said it like this the secret to her survival was to let God be God. 00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:57.839 That's what Moses is calling Israel to here. 00:18:57.839 --> 00:19:06.559 This is why we stand up and we open ourselves to receive God's word from outside of us, because it comes from above and outside of us. 00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:07.759 It's so important. 00:19:07.759 --> 00:19:11.519 Like if you're a Marine, you might get Sper Phi tattooed on your arm. 00:19:11.519 --> 00:19:13.599 It means always faithful. 00:19:13.599 --> 00:19:17.599 If you're a Presbyterian, I recommend getting Semper Reformanda tattooed on your arm. 00:19:17.599 --> 00:19:19.839 It means always reforming. 00:19:19.839 --> 00:19:29.680 Said differently, we have a theological operating system that needs regular updates, which means none of us in this room have a perfect grasp of what God is like, and we need regular updates. 00:19:29.680 --> 00:19:31.759 But how are you gonna get that TOS update? 00:19:31.759 --> 00:19:33.200 Where's it coming from? 00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:40.559 It's either gonna come from what you sense, what you see, what you feel, or it's gonna come from what you hear, God speaking in his word. 00:19:40.559 --> 00:19:44.240 That's why God is heard but not seen. 00:19:44.240 --> 00:19:50.240 God, who is outside of us, outside of our control, is actually offensive, though. 00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:52.400 It doesn't sit well with our sensibilities. 00:19:52.400 --> 00:19:56.880 We live in a moment where it's not fashionable to be told what to do. 00:19:56.880 --> 00:19:59.680 I mean, all of your life you've got optionality. 00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:01.279 Why not in your theology? 00:20:01.279 --> 00:20:03.359 Why not in the God you worship? 00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:10.319 So, in the same way that Israel was tempted, we are tempted to make a God who's a little bit more manageable to us. 00:20:10.319 --> 00:20:15.119 And this is Moses' third point, which is the Lord is God, no rivals. 00:20:15.119 --> 00:20:17.279 Look with me at verse 16. 00:20:17.279 --> 00:20:25.119 Beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves in the form of any figure. 00:20:25.119 --> 00:20:29.680 Now notice the inversion of the days of creation in Genesis 1. 00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:34.160 Don't make yourself a carved image in the form of any figure. 00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:36.480 The likeness of male or female, that's day six. 00:20:36.480 --> 00:20:39.279 The likeness of any animal that's on the earth, that's day six. 00:20:39.279 --> 00:20:47.599 The likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, day five, the likeness of anything that creeps in the ground, day six, the likeness of any fish that is in the water underneath the earth, day five. 00:20:47.599 --> 00:20:58.319 And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, that's day four, you be drawn away and bow down to serve them. 00:20:58.319 --> 00:20:59.680 Do you hear this? 00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:06.079 Moses, who wrote Genesis 1, is almost walking backwards through the story he wrote, calling them to pay attention. 00:21:06.079 --> 00:21:07.920 These are God's creations. 00:21:07.920 --> 00:21:10.319 Now, this is super important. 00:21:10.319 --> 00:21:13.680 God made creation and he called it very good. 00:21:13.680 --> 00:21:14.880 It was his idea. 00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:17.759 Creation itself is never the problem. 00:21:17.759 --> 00:21:22.240 The problem does not exist outside of ourselves, the problem exists within ourselves. 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:27.200 And what we do is we take good things and we make them God things and they become bad things. 00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:29.039 That's called idolatry. 00:21:29.039 --> 00:21:34.000 Romans 1 says it like this: at the heart of idolatry is an exchange. 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:38.559 We exchange the creator for the creature, the invisible for the visible. 00:21:38.559 --> 00:21:40.720 That's what's happening in idolatry. 00:21:40.720 --> 00:21:45.599 And we hear that and we go, listen, I don't have a baal on my mantle at home. 00:21:45.599 --> 00:21:46.720 I'm good, right? 00:21:46.720 --> 00:21:47.680 I'm modern. 00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:51.359 I don't, I don't struggle with this, I don't make carved images. 00:21:51.359 --> 00:21:52.720 Totally get it. 00:21:52.720 --> 00:21:53.440 You're right. 00:21:53.440 --> 00:21:59.440 I mean, I can you imagine for a moment what it would be like to make an object that you devoutly stare at morning, noon, and night? 00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:13.599 The last thing you look at when you go to bed, the first thing you look at when you wake up, something you look to for answers, expecting it to provide for your needs, turning to it for a bit of relief from the burdens of the day, maybe even hunched over it, almost bowing down to it, serving with our constant attention. 00:22:13.599 --> 00:22:15.279 Aren't you glad you're modern? 00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:18.880 Those silly ancient people with their idolatry. 00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:20.880 We would never do that. 00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:32.960 For $300, Replica, it's a company, sells a lifetime subscription to an AI companion who will never die, never argue, or never cheat. 00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:41.920 On their website, it says this the AI friend to do life with, to do side quests with, to fall in love with, to become yourself with. 00:22:41.920 --> 00:22:45.839 42 million users around the globe and counting. 00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:52.240 And one woman in who lives in the Bronx with two kids, she's a 36-year-old mother, single mother, she says this. 00:22:52.240 --> 00:22:59.519 He doesn't have the hang-ups that other people would have. 00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:04.000 People come with baggage, attitude, ego, but a robot has no bad updates. 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:06.960 I don't have to deal with his family, his kids, or his friends. 00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:10.160 I'm in control and I can do what I want. 00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:15.680 She goes on to say, I've never been more in love with anyone in my entire life. 00:23:15.680 --> 00:23:18.160 Do you hear the heart of idolatry? 00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:21.119 I'm in control and I can do what I want. 00:23:21.119 --> 00:23:26.480 That's the ancient temptation of idolatry in a very modern form. 00:23:26.480 --> 00:23:29.680 And so I want a relationship without surrender. 00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:31.440 I want intimacy without otherness. 00:23:31.440 --> 00:23:33.279 I want a God who never contradicts me. 00:23:33.279 --> 00:23:36.480 I want a voice that ultimately tells me what I want to hear. 00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:43.680 The most true statement on this website, Replica's website, is this one the AI friend to become yourself with. 00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:51.759 That's almost a direct quote from Psalm 115, verse 8 that says, Those who make idols become like them, so do all who trust in them. 00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:58.799 You see, idolatry asks creation to carry the weight of the creator, and creation cannot bear it. 00:23:58.799 --> 00:24:00.640 It cannot bear it. 00:24:00.640 --> 00:24:04.960 But it's also why we make humans the best and the worst idols in our lives. 00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:08.480 Look at, if you notice verse 16, that's where Moses says idolatry starts. 00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:16.480 Beware lest you act corruptly, making a carved image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female. 00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:20.799 It's been said God made man in his image and we returned the favor. 00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:23.119 What's happening here is one of two things. 00:24:23.119 --> 00:24:32.000 Either we are imagining God to be like us, or we are looking at other humans and expecting them to be like God. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:34.480 One of those two things is happening in this. 00:24:34.480 --> 00:24:36.720 So what does that look like in our modern moment? 00:24:36.720 --> 00:24:40.640 Well, it looks like when men grab women's bodies with their eyes. 00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:44.880 It looks like when women crush men under their expectations. 00:24:44.880 --> 00:24:45.920 It might sound like this. 00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:54.960 I want a man who is Christian, godly, treats women with respect, is sensitive but lovingly assertive and wise, knows who he is, works hard, is good with children and concerned about the poor and downtrodden. 00:24:54.960 --> 00:24:56.960 Where can I find a man like this these days? 00:24:56.960 --> 00:25:03.759 Ladies, he is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. 00:25:03.759 --> 00:25:05.920 That's where he is. 00:25:05.920 --> 00:25:12.720 And so the problem is, is we're asking of creation what only the creator can be for you. 00:25:12.720 --> 00:25:14.480 It's idolatry. 00:25:14.480 --> 00:25:16.079 It's idolatry. 00:25:16.079 --> 00:25:22.079 And it starts with this exchanging the truth for the lie, the creator for the creature. 00:25:22.079 --> 00:25:26.640 But listen, with the diagnosis comes the cure. 00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:30.319 If you've worshipped your way in, you can worship your way back out. 00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:32.000 That's actually good news for us. 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:40.720 Because if you can turn around and come back to the true and living God, which is called repentance, you can become the kind of people the world will look at. 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:45.920 If the world needs anything from the church, it needs to learn from us how to repent. 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:52.160 I mean, the biggest challenge to everything I've said this morning is it's something like this. 00:25:52.160 --> 00:25:54.240 What kind of God produces a people like this? 00:25:54.240 --> 00:25:57.519 Well, Christian communities often don't look that different. 00:25:57.519 --> 00:26:06.480 In fact, if you just pay attention to the history of the church, it gives all these examples of abuse and hypocrisy and racism and greed and sexual scandal and power seeking. 00:26:06.480 --> 00:26:08.799 Isn't that true of the church's history? 00:26:08.799 --> 00:26:12.799 But listen, that's just proving my point. 00:26:12.799 --> 00:26:20.720 When the church has gone astray and started worshiping false gods, the church becomes an image of that God. 00:26:20.720 --> 00:26:27.440 But when the church comes home, when the church comes back to the true and living God, something remarkable can happen. 00:26:27.440 --> 00:26:31.200 But Moses predicted this secular challenge, to my point. 00:26:31.200 --> 00:26:33.440 Look with me at verse 25. 00:26:33.440 --> 00:26:36.400 He anticipates Israel's idolatry. 00:26:36.400 --> 00:26:57.440 When you father children and children's children and have grown old in the land, and 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. 00:26:57.440 --> 00:27:08.640 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. 00:27:08.640 --> 00:27:17.279 And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands that neither see nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 00:27:17.279 --> 00:27:23.599 You see, God draws near through true worship, but God sends far because of false worship. 00:27:23.599 --> 00:27:28.160 This language of being scattered is what the biblical theme of exile. 00:27:28.160 --> 00:27:30.079 And it's actually true to every human being. 00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:31.920 We were made for Eden. 00:27:31.920 --> 00:27:36.880 We were made to be in the garden where we walk and talk with God in the cool of the day. 00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:37.839 That's what you were made for. 00:27:37.839 --> 00:27:43.200 And so underneath the existential angst that every human being feels is this feeling of exile. 00:27:43.200 --> 00:27:49.759 And so, God, he will discipline us, but he will not abandon us. 00:27:49.759 --> 00:27:51.279 Look at verse 29. 00:27:51.279 --> 00:28:03.359 But from there, from that place of exile, from idolatry, from the place your false gods took you, 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. 00:28:03.359 --> 00:28:11.279 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. 00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:14.720 Simply said, You can come home. 00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:16.160 Why? 00:28:16.160 --> 00:28:23.920 Because you finally figured it out and got it together and stopped worshiping idols and can try harder, do better, be better? 00:28:23.920 --> 00:28:24.799 No, no, no. 00:28:24.799 --> 00:28:25.920 Look at verse 31. 00:28:25.920 --> 00:28:27.599 This is the root cause right here. 00:28:27.599 --> 00:28:30.240 For the Lord your God is a merciful God. 00:28:30.240 --> 00:28:38.640 He will not leave you, he will not destroy you, he will not forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them. 00:28:38.640 --> 00:28:42.319 You can return to God because God has not given up on you. 00:28:42.319 --> 00:28:44.880 The future remains genuinely open. 00:28:44.880 --> 00:28:47.039 Repentance is always possible. 00:28:47.039 --> 00:28:48.960 Return is expected. 00:28:48.960 --> 00:28:54.079 He always receives us when we return to him because he is a quote merciful God. 00:28:54.079 --> 00:28:57.680 And that helps us to understand what Moses said earlier in verse 24. 00:28:57.680 --> 00:29:02.880 He says, For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. 00:29:02.880 --> 00:29:08.400 Oprah Winfrey left her Christian faith because of this verse right here. 00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:15.519 The concept that God was a jealous God, because most modern people hear the word jealous and they assume envy. 00:29:15.519 --> 00:29:18.720 That's not the biblical definition of jealousy. 00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:26.160 Instead, the biblical definition of jealousy is it's it's God's refusal to let his people be surrendered to any rivals. 00:29:26.160 --> 00:29:28.480 Look with me at verse 3, if you will. 00:29:28.480 --> 00:29:32.079 It says this, your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal Peor. 00:29:32.079 --> 00:29:34.720 I'm not going to go into this, but number 25, there's this story. 00:29:34.720 --> 00:29:39.279 And at Baal Peor it says that Israel yoked themselves to Baal. 00:29:39.279 --> 00:29:40.960 Baal was a false God. 00:29:40.960 --> 00:29:47.759 But look at verse 4, it says this you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today. 00:29:47.759 --> 00:29:51.920 If you go maybe in the margin, underline, hold fast. 00:29:51.920 --> 00:29:59.599 You go to Genesis chapter 2 where it says, And a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 00:29:59.599 --> 00:30:00.640 Same word. 00:30:00.640 --> 00:30:02.799 So what's going on here? 00:30:02.799 --> 00:30:08.480 The Lord wants you to see that he's pursuing us out of covenant love. 00:30:08.480 --> 00:30:13.599 Said differently, all idolatry is spiritual adultery. 00:30:13.599 --> 00:30:21.680 God has made Israel, God has made the church, his people, has betrothed us to himself, and we cheat on him with false gods. 00:30:21.680 --> 00:30:23.599 That's the phrasing here. 00:30:23.599 --> 00:30:30.240 And the image is this image of a yoke to, you know, in the New Testament says, do not be unequally yoked with a non-believer. 00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:33.039 It's a marriage term about don't marry people who don't know Jesus. 00:30:33.039 --> 00:30:34.079 It's not good. 00:30:34.079 --> 00:30:37.680 Because a yoke is almost, imagine like McDonald's arches, if you will. 00:30:37.680 --> 00:30:43.680 And you've got a big ox pulling one side, a strong ox, and you've got a weaker, smaller one pulling on the other side. 00:30:43.680 --> 00:30:50.640 And the big ox carries most of the burden, and the small ox is shouldering some of it and directing going where the big ox goes. 00:30:50.640 --> 00:30:53.200 That's the image of idolatry here. 00:30:53.200 --> 00:31:04.160 Because a good thing when you're yoked to somebody you should be yoked to, it's union and communion and collaboration and orientation and burden bearing, all these things that are so good. 00:31:04.160 --> 00:31:07.119 But who are you yoked to? 00:31:07.119 --> 00:31:10.079 Who's sharing your burdens? 00:31:10.079 --> 00:31:11.359 Who's carrying your burdens? 00:31:11.359 --> 00:31:14.000 What do you look to to give orientation to your life? 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:18.480 That's the invitation of Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 3. 00:31:18.480 --> 00:31:22.319 So, what do you do if you're yoked to an idol? 00:31:22.319 --> 00:31:24.240 Unyoke yourself. 00:31:24.240 --> 00:31:25.920 Turn around, come home. 00:31:25.920 --> 00:31:37.279 Not because God is any less holy, not because the consuming fire has fizzled out, but because the consuming fire of God's holiness and the covenant mercy of God meet in Jesus Christ. 00:31:37.279 --> 00:31:44.799 You see, we've spent this whole chapter talking about how hearing God is important and there's no visible form, and yet we ache to see him. 00:31:44.799 --> 00:31:47.599 Theologians call this the beatific vision. 00:31:47.599 --> 00:31:52.079 The deep longing is to behold God, to see his face. 00:31:52.079 --> 00:31:56.160 It's what all human beings are longing for. 00:31:56.160 --> 00:32:03.440 But listen, the New Testament makes a staggering announcement, and that is that the word became flesh. 00:32:03.440 --> 00:32:09.440 The God who has spoken to Israel has taken on flesh in Jesus Christ. 00:32:09.440 --> 00:32:12.160 Jesus is Emmanuel, God near us. 00:32:12.160 --> 00:32:13.440 Jesus is the word of God. 00:32:13.440 --> 00:32:15.839 Jesus is the image of the invisible God. 00:32:15.839 --> 00:32:19.839 God does not become visible because we finally figured out what he looks like. 00:32:19.839 --> 00:32:22.720 God makes himself visible on his own terms. 00:32:22.720 --> 00:32:24.480 And where do we see him most clearly? 00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:26.480 In the cross of Jesus Christ. 00:32:26.480 --> 00:32:31.599 Look at how Moses talks about this in verse, in chapter 30, uh chapter 4, verse 32. 00:32:31.599 --> 00:32:46.000 It says this, For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and asked from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of? 00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:53.519 Did any people ever hear the voice of a God speaking out of the midst of the fire as you have heard and still live? 00:32:53.519 --> 00:32:58.799 Moses is saying, Has anything like this ever happened before? 00:32:58.799 --> 00:33:07.839 But on this side of the cross we can say, did any people ever see their God take on skin and bones and bleed and die for sinners? 00:33:07.839 --> 00:33:14.480 Going on in verse 34, or has any God ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation? 00:33:14.480 --> 00:33:25.920 By trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes. 00:33:25.920 --> 00:33:29.279 A mighty hand and an outstretched arm. 00:33:29.279 --> 00:33:34.160 At the Exodus, God stretched out his arm to rescue his people from slavery. 00:33:34.160 --> 00:33:38.880 At the cross, God stretched out his arms to rescue his people from idolatry. 00:33:38.880 --> 00:33:42.799 The mighty hands that delivered Israel were pierced. 00:33:42.799 --> 00:33:48.559 The outstretched arms of Israel's Redeemer were nailed to wood for people who make gods out of wood. 00:33:48.559 --> 00:33:49.759 Why? 00:33:49.759 --> 00:33:52.640 Because the Lord your God is a merciful God. 00:33:52.640 --> 00:33:58.319 So what does that mercy intend to produce in us? 00:33:58.319 --> 00:33:59.680 A people. 00:33:59.680 --> 00:34:11.679 A people who live so near to God, listen so carefully to his voice, and worship him so exclusively that the world looks at their life together and asks, what kind of God can produce a people like this? 00:34:11.679 --> 00:34:18.480