Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we're at Deuteronomy chapter 6, the first eight verses or so. We are at the great Shema here, O Israel. We're at the love of the Lord, the v'havta. So why don't we have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your word. Lord, we thank you that your Holy Spirit is working in our hearts and in our lives. Lord, we pray that as we read your word this morning, you would help us. Help us, Lord, to understand these things. Help it to apply to our lives. Teach us to follow after you. Lord, we pray that we would love you. With all of our heart. In Jesus's name. Amen. All right. So here we go. We are at Deuteronomy chapter six, verses one through eight.
Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded you to teach, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you and your sons and your grandsons all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Therefore, hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as Jehovah God of your fathers has promised you, a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 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. 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. We need to ask ourselves the three devotional questions.
A, what's this about? B, the best verse to summarize this and C, what are we called to do? So A, what is this about? Well, we've just looked at the Ten Commandments. We've just seen that the Lord's desire for people to actually keep these commandments and prosper and thrive. And now the Lord is giving what Jesus says, the greatest of all the commandments.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Now Jesus includes within soul, your liver, or in the Greek, your cardia, also your mind, right? Because in the Hebraic understanding of the inner person, your mind and your heart are intimately tied together. And so this point is with your whole being, right?
Every part of you is to be loving the Lord. And the commandments, how are you going to show that you love the Lord? Not just following the commandments, but also the desire to pass them on to the next generation. To have them presently, constantly before your eyes. Or having them written on your heart. And so this whole idea is that it's the Lord whom they love and it's his law that they keep in their heart. And so as they're doing this and following him, doing it by faith.
Now, this is the interesting thing as we go through. So what is this about? Well, this is about the greatest commandment, the love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. What's the best verse to summarize this? Well, in my Bible, I would underline verses four and five.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. It's Yahweh, it's Jehovah, Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, the sacred tetragrammaton that is the Lord. He is our God. He's one. And so, He is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. That word there, by the way, strength, my we memorize this and sing it as a family. My my youngest son, when he was younger, he would go, Oh, yeah. Oh, your veryness. I think that's the best verse to summarize this four and five. Well, let's go ahead and jump in to see calling. What are we called to do?
I don't think that God is giving this to them. It's just a bare commandment for legalism. No, no, because if we're honest with ourselves, if any Jewish person was honest with himself or herself, they wouldn't keep the commandments perfectly. don't love the Lord perfectly.
Even though they would make their philocraties long, right? Even as they would make, they would actually write out the commands, put them on their hands, make leather straps and wrap them around and around and around, put it between the front lids of their eyes and tie it around their heads, literally having the Ten Commandments here. They would have the mezuzot, the commandments written on the doorposts of their house. And every time they would come in and kiss a mezuzot, right? They would write it on their gates, on their doorposts, on their foreheads.
The issue is on the heart. The issue is their hearts. The issue is my heart. The problem is that I'm a sinner. The problem is that we're all sinners. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, whether Jew or Greek. All of us. have violated the Lord's standard of righteousness and holiness. So what do we do with that?
Well, thanks be to God for Jesus Christ. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. It is Jesus Christ who kept the covenant of works. It's Jesus Christ who fulfilled the Mosaic covenant. It's Jesus Christ who is the one who's perfect. And so yes, I need to love the Lord with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. That's still there. I need to love my neighbor as myself. That's still there.
But my right standing before God, Not based upon my keeping of the works. No, because by faith. By faith, we are justified in Christ Jesus. The righteousness which we receive from Jesus is not our own. But it is given to us, imputed to us, counted on our account. At the cost of his blood. And our sin was taken away. and counted on Christ. This is the beauty of the gospel. That we have hope, that we have peace, that Jesus Christ is in everything necessary for us.
And because of that, even though we fail and we try to love the Lord, but we mess up. We know that our heavenly father, we know that he's not, get away from me, you bunch of horrible sinners. No, we fight against sin. We fight against our own heart. We fight against the inner man that wants to go and chase after other gods.
We have to remind ourselves again and again, no, no, no, remember what Jesus has done. Remember who our heavenly father is. Remember the great king who loved us so much that he sent his own son to die for us. That's what this command calls us to do in the new covenant.
Because it's in Jesus that we have life and we have hope. Hope that that's your hope today. I pray that you rest in Jesus. And that through Jesus, you learn to love God more and more every day. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that Jesus did not come to destroy the law.
But to fulfill it. Lord, we thank you. That you have given us such a hope. To follow after you. to have peace with you because of your son. Lord, we pray that your Holy Spirit would apply the redemption to our hearts and would sanctify us more and more, that we would love you and that as our hearts are set upon you, that we would keep your commandments more and more. Please, Lord, help us.
You are a great God. Thank you that you are one. Thank you. you have revealed yourself to us and have given us your son and are working by the power of your Holy Spirit in Jesus's name. Amen. May you love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And may you love your neighbor as yourself as the Holy Spirit empowers you to walk by faith. I'll see you next time. Bye.