The books of the Bible are diverse. There's prophecy, wisdom, poetry, and there are letters. We have lots of other books that are much more full of the exposition of the blessings and the grace and the mercy and the goodness of God. But we need the book of Deuteronomy too. To remind us precisely that life is serious and that these things matter.
And to remind us. that when the threats are most dire, There is a mediator. As Christians today, we can sometimes misunderstand the law of God.
Sometimes we so emphasize the law that we think keeping it makes us right with God. That's what we call legalism. Other times we assume that because we're saved by grace, we can live however we want. that the Lord really doesn't care how we live or if we sin. That's what we call antinomianism.
Well, today on Renewing Your Mind, W. Robert Godfrey helps us understand how Deuteronomy informs how we should think about law. and grace. I hope you've been enjoying this series. It's been so helpful to dive deeper into this Old Testament book.
And while we're only studying a portion of the book, you can study the entirety of Deuteronomy with Dr. Godfrey as your guide when you give a gift at renewingyourmind.org. We'll send you the DVD set, unlock the digital version in your teaching library, along with the study guide. Be quick as this offer ends tomorrow.
So, how does Deuteronomy help us understand law and grace? Here's Dr. Godfrey. We come now to chapter eight of Deuteronomy. We're continuing with looking at these warnings.
That the Lord gave to Israel various ways in which he warned them to be careful to keep the law. And here in chapter 8, he's speaking to Israel as a nation and particularly speaking to them as the sons of their fathers and the call to be faithful to the covenant that God gave to their fathers. And here in chapter 8, we find a particularly interesting statement. Verse 3 of chapter 8. Moses says, And he, God, humbled you.
and let you hunger. and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know. That he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, But man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God. That's a famous statement, isn't it? That is the verse that Jesus quotes at the first temptation in the wilderness.
Jesus had been in the wilderness. For forty days. Fasting. Not eating. And the 40 days are meant to make us think about the 40 years in the wilderness.
Jesus has been. In the wilderness, Jesus is the new Israel as well as the new Moses. And here he is now in the wilderness, and in that wilderness, he's facing the temptation of hunger. A temptation that Israel didn't face well. Israel complained about not having food deeds.
Not having meat to eat. Not having water to drink. Think for a minute of the subtlety of the evil one in coming to Jesus. What's implicit in what the evil one says is to Jesus?
Well, God gave his people manna in the wilderness. How could it be wrong for you to turn stones into bread? God gave bread to his people in the wilderness.
Well, that's true, isn't it? If God gave Israel bread in the wilderness despite its sinfulness, How could it be wrong for Jesus to have bread in the wilderness? in light of his righteousness.
Well, of course, it wasn't wrong for Jesus to have bread. What Jesus is showing is that it's wrong to take advice from the devil. The devil never has helpful advice. The devil never has advice that's genuinely encouraging. And so Jesus quotes this verse, a verse that does indeed refer back to the manna that God gave his people.
But Jesus is saying, what God told us is we're to live by every word. that proceeds from the mouth of God, not by bread alone. Buried in the Tempter's temptation was to make Jesus live by bread alone. And Jesus is not having any. It's interesting that this Hebrew word.
live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. is actually a word that usually means commandment. Every commandment that proceeds from the mouth of God is how we're to live. A commandment has direction. We're to be directed by God, not by the evil one.
That's the point. that Jesus is making here. And here we show how the Old Testament can be used so profitably, so helpfully. Two. Deepen our understanding of what the Lord is doing.
Some of you may have heard my lecture on Psalm 78, which is a reflection on Israel in the wilderness and then in the promised land. What we see there is there are three great temptations that Israel faces. Temptation about food, a temptation about power, and a temptation about worship. And Israel fails all those temptations. And those are exactly the same three temptations that Jesus faces in the wilderness: one about food, one about power.
throwing himself down from the temple. What about worship? Bow down and worship me. And Jesus passes all those temptations. Because he lives by every commandment that proceeds from the mouth of God.
And so here is the direction that is being given to Israel in the Old Testament for their good. But direction that is really only fulfilled in Jesus and in the perfection of his life. Jesus does not make a good effort. Jesus pulls it off. Jesus accomplishes it.
Jesus fulfills it. And we see that being foreshadowed here. I don't think it's too much to say. that Jesus is alluding to Deuteronomy. Eight in the Great Commission.
Teach them to observe all things. that I have commanded you. They are to live by all the commands that proceed from my mouth. Jesus is establishing himself as Lord and God of His people, and very much in the spirit of Deuteronomy 8, is saying that what he teaches. is how his people are to live.
because he is the God in the midst of them. and we are to be a holy people. Under him. And so all of this, I hope, is helpful as we think about the call to serve the Lord and to honor Him. And again is the reminder in verse 17.
That as they enjoy the gifts of the Lord. They are not to think that it is their own power that has given these things to them. Verse 17 of chapter 8, Beware lest you say in your heart, My power. and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. Maybe that's a A bit of a reflection on what Jesus was thinking in the wilderness.
I'm waiting for God's timing in the wilderness to provide what I need. And remember, after the temptations are over, God sent the angels to minister to Jesus. He's depending on God and on God's power and on God's time, not on what he will accomplish on his own. You shall remember, verse 18: The Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to his fathers. As it is this day.
And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.
So here is this constant, we might almost say drumbeat. There's a rhythm to this. There's a constancy of statement, warning the people and directing them. And again, as I said at the beginning, you'd think they might be able to remember this. It's not that hard, children.
No idols. Listen to the Lord. But they. or not very attentive. They are not very careful.
And so in chapter nine, Moses almost comes back to what he said at chapter. Five. Namely, when you get into the promised land, don't forget what happened at Horeb. Don't forget the giving of the law. And then in particular, where does he focus?
he focuses on the golden calf. It's interesting how often Moses returns to the incident of the golden calf. It has to have been one of the most traumatic moments of his whole life. There he comes. From fellowshipping with God in the most intimate way on the mountain.
Receiving from God's own hand the summary of the law and the ten commandments And coming down the mountain to see the whole people of Israel. Including Aaron. Involved in the worst sort of betrayal of the Ten Commandments. And so this golden calf incident. just lives in his heart and in his memory.
Really, one of the very lowest points in the whole history of God's people. It wasn't just that they made an image. That was bad enough. But they made an image and they called it Yahweh.
So it's not just that they made an image of another God, but they have taken God's own holy name and applied it to this image. that they made. And Aaron is consenting to all of this. And Aaron offers one of the worst justifications of this that you could find almost anywhere in the Bible. I just took the gold they gave me and I threw it in the fire and out came this calf.
Who believes that? Nobody believes that. It was the kind of story children tell to justify things that are clearly wrong, and the justification is clearly untrue. But This horror Moses holds up again here. And he says, this is why it is so important that you be careful.
that you be thoughtful. that you do not allow these things to happen again. He rehearses this for the people: how the Lord wanted to destroy them. For this sin. And Moses had to.
Offer his own life, his own spiritual eternity in their place. The Lord didn't demand that of him, but he was willing to do that as the mediator, the intercessor for this people. And here is a beautiful picture of intercession and mediation. One offering his life for another. But this is how terrible this moment was in the history.
of Israel and how Moses had to plead for the people. Uh and beg for them to be spared. And then it's interesting, isn't it, how When he comes down, it's not enough for the image to be destroyed. It has to be ground into fine powder and scattered. Maybe think a little bit about The trial of the Nazi leaders at Nuremberg after the Second World War.
Almost all of them were condemned to death and they were hanged. And um Then the allies had to decide what to do with the bodies. Because if you bury the bodies. You run the risk of establishing a shrine where there may be pilgrimage. And so the bodies were burned, and the ashes were scattered at sea, so there could never be any resting place found.
for these monsters. That's what happens here, in a sense. Not a particle of this image is allowed to remain. to be a snare to the people, but it all must be destroyed. Um so that the Lord will Bless them.
The Lord will ensure They Remember who they were. Verse 4 of chapter 9 is so important. I think key in a lot of ways to understanding what's going on in Deuteronomy. Do not say in your heart, Deuteronomy 9 verse 4, After the Lord your God has thrust the nations out before you, It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me to possess this land. Whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you.
Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart. Are you going in to possess the land? But because of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord our God is driving them out from before you, that he may confirm the word that he swore unto our fathers to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Know therefore that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness. for you are a stubborn people.
Anyone who wants to argue that Israel is inheriting the land because of its righteousness, because of its obedience, because the Lord is rewarding them for their goodness, Moses says that's absolutely the opposite of the truth. He's giving you land despite who you are. Despite what you've been. despite what you're going to be. He is rescuing a stubborn people.
He is not rewarding a righteous people. And I think we have to keep that in mind. when we think about ourselves as well. We indeed have been the recipients of grace. Not because we've deserved it, but because of the sovereign mercy of God beyond all deserving.
It's the wonder of grace that we possess in him and through him. Then Moses goes on to offer a few more examples of their disobedience in the wilderness. Verses 22 through 24 of chapter 9. He offers these examples. And uh Particularly, I think verse Twenty-three is important here.
And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barna, saying, Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you. Then you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God. and did not believe him or obey his voice. Then he goes on to say, You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you. This is not the cheeriest farewell sermon ever preached.
But it's really bringing home to the people their spiritual need. But I think what's interesting here is to see his statement: you neither believed the Lord nor obeyed him. Because sometimes we set belief against obedience, as if they were in conflict. And obviously, if you're trying to earn your righteousness by obedience, then it is in conflict with faith. But that's not what Moses is saying here.
He's saying, The Lord called you to believe, and out of that belief, to obey. The obedience is a fruit of the believing. And I think that's exactly what we find in Hebrews chapters 3 and 4.
Sometimes the Lord is speaking very passionately to the church about the importance of obeying, but when you read it all in context, you see that it really is that obeying is to reflect their believing. It's to flow out of their believing. In that context, when we're not talking about justification, we don't set obedience over against believing, but the two are both fruits of the Spirit in the life of the Christian. And that's what we see here, and I think is so important. Then Moses tells the story about how the law had to be given again, how God wrote the law a second time on the tablets of stone, and he brought it down to them.
And then almost as a kind of parenthesis. In chapter 10 at verse 6, We're told about Aaron. And about the death of Aaron. The people of Israel journeyed from Beros Bene Yaachim To Moshe Ra. One of the great Joys for children in attending church is when there are Old Testament readings and they watch the minister stumble over long Hebrew place names, so we can all.
Enjoy that today. And then we read, There Aaron died. And there he was buried. and his son Eleazar ministered as priest in his place. Here again, we have a parenthesis on leadership, don't we?
On transition. Again, we could say, well, why pause here and talk about the death of Aaron? And you could say, well, I guess you have to talk about it somewhere, stick it in. But no, he's always bringing us back to think about leadership, about how there's going to continue to be people doing the work of the Lord. And although Eleazar won't amount to much, you see this transition, this continuation that's taking place and is so critical.
Now, here in this section of warnings we've been looking at from chapter 5 to chapter 10 at verse 11. There's one great Truth that summarizes it all. You may be thinking now, why didn't he just summarize and get on with it to begin with? But the great summary is this: I will bless you. As you keep my covenant.
and I will punish you as you fail to keep my covenant. And the promises are very strong here, stronger perhaps to Israel than we see them any other place, because Israel is a picture. of what's going to happen to the people of God throughout history. Uh but it remains generally true, doesn't it? that the Lord blesses his people when they're faithful to him.
And he punishes his people when they're not.
Now that's a truth that can be badly abused. It's been turned into a prosperity gospel by some in our own time. It says, if you really. Follow the Lord. He'll make you healthy and wealthy.
Well, I don't think the Lord has promised that anywhere. And I don't think it's true. Except for the preachers who preach that when people send them money. The Lord hasn't promised that to His people. that he will Bless us all with health and with wealth.
We probably all know wonderfully devout Christian people who die young. Have they been punished? Have they been disobedient? Uh well not more than in general, they're not being punished in a particular way. And particularly, we need to remind ourselves that the blessings we ought to be seeking today as Christian people are spiritual blessings.
The forgiveness of our sins. The sanctification of our lives. The inheritance of eternal life. These are the great blessings that we should be seeking and that the Lord will certainly give us in Christ. But here is a warning laid out for us to remind us that there are consequences to the lives we live.
And that's sobering. But it's also very important for us as the people of God. That's why. in the book of Deuteronomy. There is a good deal of effort on.
The commands of God, what we ought to be doing. What is the obedience to which we're called? There's also a good deal of emphasis on threats in the book of Deuteronomy. I don't think it's too much to say that if we only had the book of Deuteronomy, that might be unbalanced. But we don't only have the book of Deuteronomy.
We have lots of other books that are much more full of the Exposition of the blessings and the grace and the mercy and the goodness of God. But we need the book of Deuteronomy too. To remind us precisely that life is serious and that these things matter. And to remind us That when the threats are most dire There is a mediator.
Now, that's so important here in Deuteronomy chapter 9 in particular. Uh when it looked like all was lost for Israel. There was a mediator who came and prayed for them. who came and spoke the word of God to them. And who God listened to, and who God used to lead them away and to lead them ultimately to the promised land.
And so all of these things have to be kept in the right kind of balance. I had a friend who used to say, living the Christian life is walking a tightrope. And the trouble with a tightrope is there are two ways to fall off. And the devil really doesn't care which way you fall as long as you fall. That's sort of true.
We have to walk the tightrope of keeping the balance of the scriptures. Both the mercy of God And the holiness of God together so that we will know that and love it and grow in it.
So Deuteronomy, first ten and a half chapters. We've been looking at history, step one of our pyramid. Then we've looked at warnings, step two of our pyramid. And now we'll come to the heart of the book, the center of the book, which is an exposition of the law. And we'll see that law.
First, in terms of the laws to love God. And then laws relative to the leaders of the people. and laws about loving the neighbor. And so we're going to have a fair bit of law, but all of it is, I hope, we'll find interesting and spiritually profitable and causing us to think about what does love look like. And how does love relate to commandment?
and to see that love and commandment are not set against each other. Our Lord said, didn't he, if you love me, You'll keep my commandments. These are not things in conflict, but things that should encourage us. to learn more about what it really means to love God. and love our neighbor.
So we'll return to that third step. of our step pyramid. A law is about the love of God next time. Jesus said, If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. What doctor Godfrey said is true.
Many of us can pit law and love, law and grace, against each other. But when we study Scripture, both in the New and Old Testament, we see that loving God and keeping His commandments are parts of the Christian life. That was W. Robert Godfrey with a message on Deuteronomy. and you're listening to the Wednesday edition of Renewing Your Mind.
In chapter 6 of Deuteronomy, we were told to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind. Jesus quoted these words, telling those present with him and us today that the greatest commandment is to love our Creator. And that commandment to love God is made clear in this series on Deuteronomy. If you'd like to continue your study in Deuteronomy, we'll unlock the entire teaching series and its study guide in the free Ligonier app. Plus we'll send you a copy of the DVD.
when you give a donation at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343. And for our global listening audience, the digital-only version of this offer is waiting for you at renewingyourmind.org slash global. Request this series today and learn more about our great and gracious God. Will I be seeing you at our national conference? In just two weeks, Christians from around the world will be joining us in Orlando, Florida for Ligonius 2026 National Conference.
The topic will be crucial questions and our trusted teachers will be answering questions like, what is my purpose? How should I endure suffering? And does prayer change things? I'd love to see you there, and there's still time to register. Visit ligoneer.org slash 2026 and secure your spot today.
In his message today, Dr. Godfrey showed us how law and love go together in Scripture. We'll pick up on that idea tomorrow and study laws about loving God.
So be sure to join us Thursday here on Renewing Your Mind.
