“20 In the future, when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?” 21 tell him: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 Before our eyes the Lord sent miraculous signs and wonders—great and terrible—upon Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. 23 But He brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land that He promised on oath to our forefathers.
24 The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. 25 And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.”
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If you want to follow Jesus, then you must be prepared to be different. That is true regarding your use of money. That is true regarding your use of your sexuality. That is true regarding how you treat other people. You must be prepared to be different in the midst of our culture.
What Jesus says about money doesn’t make any sense to our culture. Those days are gone. What Jesus says about sexuality doesn’t make any sense to our culture. Those days are gone. What Jesus says about how his disciples must treat others doesn’t make any sense to our culture. Those days are gone.
If you want to follow Jesus, then you must be prepared to be different. I trust that you young people know that. I hope that you know why you are called to be different. I fear that many young people leave the church and stop following Christ in any way that he would consider meaningful because they never knew why they were called to be different. They left because the culture made a good deal more sense to them than the Scriptures. They left because the culture’s views on money, sex, and responsibility towards others made a good deal more sense to them than the Scripture’s views on money, sex, and responsibility towards others.
You deserve to know why you are called to be different. Moses took that need seriously. In many ways, this book which we are studying is aimed at young people. “Deuteronomy is always aimed at the next generation,” as Old Testament scholar Patrick Miller put it.
Moses spoke these words thinking about young people who would grow up in the midst of other nations. They would grow up rubbing shoulders with people who had very different ethics and assumptions than they did. That sounds like our day.
You young people deserve an explanation for why you should live differently. There are compelling reasons for why you should live differently from the culture around you. That is the claim of this sermon: there are compelling reasonsfor why you should live differently from the culture around you.
We will study this in two points. First: the grace behind living differently. Second: the meaning of living differently. First, in verses 20-23 we see the grace behind living differently. Second, in verses 24-25, we see the meaning of living differently.
First: the grace behind living differently. You cannot assume that the idea that there are only two genders will make sense to the next generation. Two generations ago, no one should have assumed that the fact that a baby in the womb is still a baby would make sense to upcoming generations. Truth requires explanation; perhaps it shouldn’t, but it does.
There are any number of beliefs and practices in God’s word that will not make sense unless explained. Moses knew that. “Moses assumes,” writes Daniel Block, “that when faced with the challenge of competing cultures, children will ask their parents for an explanation of their way of life.”
‘Why do you we need to keep these commandments? Why do we need to be different?’ Those are the questions behind the question in verse 20, ‘In the future, when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?” tell him: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.”’
My guess is that you, whether young or old, have asked, ‘why?’ when it comes to the commandments. There are plenty of young people in churches asking, ‘Why is homosexuality wrong?’ There are plenty of young people asking, ‘what does it mean for the husband to be the head of the home?’ There are plenty of young people in the church who don’t know why they are called to be different.
I can only imagine how many times young people in Israel wondered why they didn’t live like everyone else. Notice how Moses did not answer their question. He didn’t say, ‘well, right is right.’ He didn’t say, ‘well, that’s just not how we behave.’ He didn’t say, ‘well, we are better than everyone else.’ Notice how he began his answer, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.”
Moses began by talking about grace. Discussing what man should do for God makes sense when you begin by talking about what God has done for man.
Moses told parents to begin by talking about grace. Why should your teenage son tithe out of his paycheck? It isn’t simply because right is right. It isn’t because that’s how good people behave. It isn’t because doing so will make him better than anyone else. He should give because of what God has given to him. If you want to understand why you should live differently, don’t begin with you. Begin with God.
Moses didn’t answer the young man’s question on the young man’s terms until after he explained the grace of God; he explained it in four ways. He first spoke about salvation. “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.”
Salvation calls for obedience. If you want to explain to your son why he should obey God, explain salvation. Moses reminded those young people of the Exodus; remind your son of the cross. Remind him that he was a slave of sin, but Jesus freed him with his own blood. Remind him that God loved him, and the whole world, in this way: He sent His one and only Son that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life.
Moses explained God’s grace in terms of salvation. He also explained it in terms of wonders. “Before our eyes the Lord sent miraculous signs and wonders—great and terrible—upon Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household.”
God’s call to live differently should be taken seriously because God should be taken seriously. Wonders tell you to take God seriously. Israelite parents reminded their children of the plagues of and the parting of the Red Sea. They reminded their children that God does act in history.
You are to remind your daughter that God acts in history. Remind her that the God she is considering obeying or disobeying gives proof of His power. Tell her about the miracles of Jesus that attest to the fact that what he taught should be believed. Remind her of the miracle of the resurrection. Remind her of what Tim Keller said, “If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said?”
Moses explained God’s grace in terms of salvation and wonders. He also explained God’s grace in terms of generosity. “He brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land that He promised on oath to our forefathers.”
Israel was about to enjoy cities that they did not build, gardens they did not plant, and fields they did not till. They would receive them all from God. It makes no sense to bite the hand that feeds you.
If you are a young person and you are rather baffled about why what is so very common in our culture is called a sin by God, consider the generosity of God. Consider that He is far more generous than anyone you have ever met. Consider that there is nothing which you enjoy that does not come from His hand. Consider that He who gave you His own Son will certainly give you all things. You take generous humans seriously; don’t you? You respect a man who does you good even though you can do nothing for him. Respect such a God enough to obey Him.
Moses will continue to explain why we should live differently, but his answer to that young man’s question so far is sufficient even though he hasn’t answered that question on its own terms. If you properly understand the grace of God, obedience to God will make sense.
That means that if you are living in some sort of sin, then you do not understand the grace of God as you ought. The fact that you live as if your money is your own shows that your understanding of the grace of God is quite incomplete. How can you rightly understand the grace of God dying naked and penniless on a cross and live as if the money which that God gave you was your own? The fact that you are viewing porn shows that your understanding of the grace of God is incomplete. How can you make peace with sin Jesus died to defeat? The fact that you find joy in slandering a man rather than treating him with basic patience and kindness shows that you have a diminished understanding of the love of Jesus. If you are not obeying the commandments of God, return to the grace of God.
If any of you have questions about the commandments of God, begin with the grace of God. Parents, your children have questions about the commandments of God. Some of their questions might point to the influence of the world. Some of their questions might point to the influence of the flesh. There are other sources, but, the fact is, they do have questions. You are there to answer these questions.
Is your family marked by conversations about God? Is what Patrick Miller said about this passage true about your family, “the picture is that of a family continually in lively conversation about the meaning of their experience with God and God’s expectations of them… these words are not simply to be recited or repeated. They are to be talked about—that is discussed, studied, and learned”.
Your children have questions about the faith. If you don’t know their questions, their questions won’t go away. They will simply be unasked and unanswered. Their questions will simply accumulate until, perhaps, the culture makes more sense to them than the Scriptures.
Is your family involved in a lively conversation about the meaning of their experience with God and God’s expectations of them? I do hope that you are part of the minority in this matter. According to a 2007 study, only twelve percent of youth have regular dialogue with their mothers about faith issues and only five percent of youth have regular dialogue with their fathers about faith. In that vast majority of those who don’t talk to dad or mom about faith, you can be sure that there are many who wondered why they should live differently and were never told.
Parents, you might be concerned that your children will ask you a question about living differently and you won’t know the answer. Don’t worry. If you don’t know an answer, say these liberating words, “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.” You can say that. Anyone respects that humility provided that there is follow through. Come talk with an elder. Talk with me. We all made vows when your child was baptized.
To this point, Moses has said nothing about the commandments. He has spoken only of the grace of God. Now he speaks of the commandments. That is our second point: the meaning of living differently.
The proper response to a gift is gratitude. GK Chesterton saw that and explained it in terms of sunsets and Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde was a nineteenth author who was quite well known for his plays. He was also well known for living a rather debauch life. Chesterton wrote that, “Oscar Wilde said that sunsets were not valued because we could not pay for sunsets. But Oscar Wilde was wrong; we can pay for sunsets. We can pay for them by not being Oscar Wilde.” The proper response to a gift is gratitude. The proper response to the gift of a sunset is gratitude to God and you show this gratitude by living a life that pleases God.
To this point Moses has spoken only about the grace of God. The proper response to grace is gratitude and gratitude consists of living differently. The proper response to grace is gratitude and gratitude consists of living differently from Oscar Wilde. This grateful life is outlined in the commandments and that is where Moses now turns; verse 24, “The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees.”
In many ways, this obedience was our application throughout our first point and so we will move on to the fear of the Lord. The commandments are the proper response to the fear of the Lord. “The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God.”
The fear of the Lord is not a matter of intimidation; it is a matter of respect. It is a matter of reverence. If you respect God, the commandments come naturally. If you revere God, the commandments come naturally.
If you fear the Lord, your disobedience to the commands will distress you. You will have the sense that you disrespected someone who deserves the utmost respect. You will not merely have the sense that you have broken some arbitrary rule; you will have the sense that you have dishonored someone to whom you owe honor.
Someone is the center of your universe. The fear of the Lord puts God at the center of your universe. He is the gravity well around which everything rotates. This, in part, is why Proverbs says that, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Once you get the center right, everything else finds its place.
The commandments express the fact that you are not the center of your universe. Your will must become submissive to the will of God. His will could never be submissive to yours. You revere Him. He does not revere you. You revolve around Him. He will never revolve around you.
The commandments are to have this humbling effect. The hypothetical young man of verse 20 seemed to ask his question respectfully, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you.” That isn’t always the case when it comes to questions about the commandments. Such questions are often motivated not by curiosity but by an unwillingness to submit.
I see that in my own heart, and I imagine that you do as well. I find the word ‘guidance’ more palatable than the word ‘commandment.’ I find the phrase ‘becoming like Jesus’ more palatable than the word ‘obedience’ even though those two mean the same thing. I want to imagine that God merely has the right to guide me rather than the right to command me. I still want to be in charge of my own life.
The fear of the Lord trains you in the art of losing control of your own life. Jesus, of course, is the perfection of this. He lived what he said, “I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.” Jesus lived in fear of the Lord in the best sense of those words. He took his Father seriously. He took his Father far more seriously than he took the Pharisees. He took his Father far more seriously than he took Pilate. He was free to live for God alone because he feared God alone. The commandments are the proper response to the fear of the Lord. If you want to know why you should obey God even if it makes you different, ask yourself if you fear God.
The commandments are also the path to life as it ought to be. “The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today.”
It should not surprise us that since God created the world and governs the world that obedience to Him brings blessing and disobedience to Him brings trouble. I imagine that each of us in this sanctuary can agree from personal experience with the words of Proverbs 13:15, “the way of the transgressor is hard.”
The commandments are designed to keep you from such ruin. Jesus made that clear. He said, “everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
The young man Moses had in mind wanted to know why he should keep the commandments. He should keep them, in part, for his own sake. If you want to ruin your life, disobeying the commandments is a quickest way to do it. Lie to people. Never be generous with anything you have. Hate others. Envy everyone for everything they have. Live as if your life is about you. You will learn the logic of verse 24 rather quickly, “The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today.”
The commandments are the path to life as it ought to be. The commandments are also evidence of righteousness. “If we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us, that will be our righteousness,” according to verse 25.
Now, this language of righteousness can be difficult for us Reformed types because we are rightly quick to say that no Old Testament saint or no New Testament saint has ever saved himself by keeping the law. It seems to us that Moses might be saying that a man can become righteous by keeping the law and we don’t know what to do with that.
Well, it certainly true that no Old Testament saint or no New Testament saint has ever saved himself by keeping the law, but it is also true that no Old Testament saint or no New Testament saint has ever been saved without keeping the law. Don’t imagine for a second that you can be righteous and disregard the commandments of God.
No born again man can disregard the commandments of God. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
Moses wasn’t saying that a man could save himself by his own righteousness; he was, however, saying that no saved man could disregard righteousness. If you are never moved to follow God’s decrees, you are not born again. If you consider obedience to God to be unnecessary, you are not considered righteous by God. You can’t imagine Jesus calling obedience unnecessary; you can’t consider a follower of Jesus calling obedience unnecessary. Moses will not call obedience unnecessary.
A man who is born again will be different. He will live a life that is different from the men and women of the world. These differences are, in many ways, clearer than they were a generation ago. Young people will want to know why they should be different. You might be wondering why you should be different.
You should be different because of the grace of God. You should be different because of the fear of God. You should be different because what is normal leads to ruin. You will be moved to be different if you’ve been born again. Being different is not bad especially when being different means that you are God’s. Being different is not bad especially when being different means that you are becoming like Jesus. Amen.