Sermon Tone Analysis

One God

Throughout scripture, God at times shows himself superior than the gods of the pagans.

He shows himself superior to powerful kings and Pharaohs.

You are familiar with many of them.

Certainly Exodus records how God showed himself powerful.

In many of the battles of nations against Israel, God shows he is powerful.

Scripture also tells us stories of what happens when God is not properly regarded.

In acts, Herod was killed when he accepted the worship of the people.

Elijah proved God to be the only true God in his contest with the priests of Baal.

I want to read one account from scripture, though, that you may not be as familiar with, but it shows God’s superiority over idols, over man-made gods.

and this happens when the Philistines capture the ark of God.

Remember that the ark was a visible symbol to the people of Israel of God’s presence.

Here is what happens when the Philistines decide they want that ark:

It is dangerous to take lightly the one true God.

Now, you may be asking what this has to do with Deuteronomy chapter 6.

Well, I am using it as an illustration.

We are going to be in Deuteronomy 6 for the next few weeks at least, and my prayer has been that God would use the study of this text to draw us out of any complacency we may have regarding our own spiritual growth and that of our families and the whole community of believers who call Oasis home.

We are preparing to fully engage as a church in D6 starting in September, and this is the honest truth, that when I began our study of Deuteronomy at the beginning of the year, I had not known we would even be doing D6.

In fact, you may recall we were very limited in doing something like that because of our other building having been leased to another church.

But as things turned out, the board chose to not renew that lease.

I also did not know I would miss a few Sundays due to my health issues that I was dealing with.

I say that just to comment that I happen to think it is superb timing that here we are, arriving at Deuteronomy 6 in our preaching series, just before we begin that focus next month.

I wish I could take credit for some very clever planning to put us where we are at this moment, but honestly, it was not my timing.

But here we are.

Today our main focus is going to be a single verse, a very important verse; Deuteronomy 6:4 is a verse that is recited by the devout Jew multiple times per day.

Deut6.4

But before we dive into this, let remind ourselves where we have been thus far in Moses’ talk to the people, and where we are headed.

Moses has been recalling to the people of Israel God’s faithfulness and to an extent, Israel’s unfaithfulness, from the Exodus to the present time.

The present time this speech is being given is shortly before they are to enter the promised land.

Moses is recalling the commands of God, and charging the people to follow them.

Both before and after Deuteronomy 6, Moses is once again laying down the law of God.

Some have said that Moses’ main concern is to teach the people a holy fear of God.

Deuteronomy 6 immediately follows Deuteronomy 5. There, the Ten Commandments are recalled to the people, having first been recorded in Exodus 20.

Moses reminds the people of these commands, and also reminds the people how they trembled after seeing the manifest presence of God, and begged Moses to be their mediator between them and God.

Then Moses continues into Chapter 6; Deut6.1-9

Now, particularly with Deuteronomy 6:4-9, this is the basis that the people who put together the D6 curriculum started with.

There is a need for people of faith to be diligent in their teaching of the faith to each generation.

This principle is not only for the Israelites.

Certainly, they had many specific rules that applied to them that we do not have.

We are not concerned so much with teaching our children which sacrifice was for what purpose like they were.

But that does not mean we should not learn about those things, since they show us something about the character of God.

So this is not about teaching our children as though we are there listening to Moses.

But as followers of Jesus, we should greatly desire to know Him better.

Everything in the Old Testament points in one way or another to Jesus.

So while the New Testament may be our primary source of instruction in the Christian Faith, learning about the long history of redemption that God has prepared for us will greatly enrich our understanding and appreciation for what God has done for us.

So we are looking at getting some signs to put in both of our buildings with Deuteronomy 6.4-9 on them, so that we will be always reminded of what our focus is as a church.

We are focused on making disciples, and that includes equipping and spurring on parents, grandparents, single people, widows and widowers, any faithful person to Christ, to join us in raising up and teaching each new generation of believers what it is that Jesus demands from His followers.

Hear.

This is a clear command.

Hear.

wrapped up in this command is not only the need to hear what Moses is saying, but a need to believe what He is saying.

One of the best ways to find out what someone believes is by observing what they do.

For example, if someone told you that if you were smart, you would buy all the stock in a certain company you could, because that company was on a path of guaranteed success, and you learned that the person telling you this had never invested a dime, you may conclude they do not really believe what they are telling you.

I know a lady who has been very successful as a sales manager at various car dealerships.

And many years ago, she made a career move from a Ford dealership to a Volkswagon dealership.

Before the Ford Dealership, she was at a Chrysler dealership.

I remember asking her about it, thinking that must be really hard.

After all, day in and day out, for many years, you have been telling people that Ford is the best vehicle, and telling customers that they will be happiest if they buy a Ford.

I asked her how can she now go sell Volkswagons?

And her answer was, “Love the one you’re with”.

You see, I don’t think I would be able to do that.

If I spent years saying that Fords were the best, and sold many vehicles with that brand, I don’t think I could face any of my former customers and tell them that now VW is the best.

I think if I had sold you a Ford with all the sales techniques I knew, and called you back a year later and told you well, now I think you would be happier with a VW, you would have to ask yourself if I really believe that VW is the best.

Or, did I really think Ford was the best last year.

And certainly if it was discovered by that customer that I don’t personally own a Ford or a VW, but some other brand, that customer would most certainly be within reason to question

My point is this: You prove what you believe by what you do.

The people of Israel, in being commanded to hear, were also being commanded to believe.

The evidence of that belief would be in their actions.

Augustine said, “Love God, then do as you please”.

What did he mean by this?

Do as you please?

What Christian leader would ever teach his people this?

Well, it is a very deep statement.

If you love God, obedience would follow.

A desire to please Him would follow.

Wanting to be in His will would follow.

So Augustine was saying just the same thing in a much more clever way than I did.

So to hear is to obey

The evidence of your belief, the evidence of your love, is in the doing.

So said Jesus that the evidence of love for Him is in the keeping of His commands.

Hear, O Israel.

Hear, believe.

The Lord our God, the Lord is One.

In the Hebrew there are six words after the command to hear, and they have been translated in several ways:

“Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is One”

“Our God is Yahweh, Yahweh alone!”

“Obey, Israel, Yahweh.

Yahweh our God is the Unique”

“The LORD our God, the LORD is one”

“The LORD our God is one Lord”

And there are some more as well.

So what does all this mean?

Well, in these different translations we can see that this short phrase carries in it a lot of meaning.

Yahweh is one.

He was to be the only God to the Israelites.

Only he should have their love, their worship, their allegiance.

He is the Lord OUR God.

Not that he belongs only to them, but they are to live as though they belong to Him.

I like that third translation.

It got my attention more than the others.