THE ONE TRUE GOD

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all His decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you.”

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

Deuteronomy 6:1-9

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In Deuteronomy, chapter 5, we found Moses, the leader of the Israelite people, reiterating the Ten Commandments verbatim to God’s people. It was obvious that the Lord definitely wanted to drive these expectations home as His people were about to finally enter into Canaan to take possession of the land He had promised them.

As we turn the page to chapter 6, we find Moses continuing to emphasize the importance of keeping all of God’s decrees and commands so that they might “enjoy long life” and see things “go well” which would include increasing “greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey” as the Lord promised they would. As we covered in yesterday’s message, the Lord wanted the best for His people then, just as He does today, but in order to gain His best, they (and we) need to live in obedience to His will, Word, and way.

We see this matter of obedience over and over again in the scriptures and for good reason because it really is at the center of where one lands in their relationship with God. Indeed, the human failure found in sin is completely grounded in willful disobedient against what the Lord has commanded. It is always counter to the way Jesus lived and to be a proper Christian, one needs to be Christ-like in every way. Nothing else is acceptable behavior.

A disciple of Jesus can read their Bible, pray, and go to church every week but if they aren’t committed to obedience, all in on being faithful and loyal to God, they are destined to fall in and out of sinfulness. And so the reason that God had to address obedience so is because the Israelites refused to show they had fully understood God’s expectations for them and if we’re honest, we will find too often find ourselves in the same situation, failing to show our Lord that we comprehend His demand for complete compliance with what He calls is to do.

Before I close today, we need to see where Moses gives us something further to consider when it comes to the matter of obedience for look again at these words from our passage:

“…The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

These verses served to challenge the Israelites, just as they should us in these present times. Anyone reading this should step back, reflect, and ponder these main points:

First, the Lord God Almighty is the ONE God. He is the only God and has no rival or equal. He is THE God, the God through which all things were created and the One who reigns supremely and sovereignly over all His creation.

Given this, He and He alone is the One worthy of all our worship, honor, glory, and praise...the One we should bow down to and obey.

Secondly, this supreme Lord of all things is the one and only God who should receive every ounce of our love. Not just some of it but all of it.

This means that we love God with every fiber of our being, spiritually and physically, with all our heart and mind and soul and strength. This is what God commands and therefore it is what we are to do.

This majestic God of everything in Heaven and on earth showed us how to love like this when we were sinners who were separated from Him and destined for an eternity of suffering in Hell. A Lord who lacked love or empathy or compassion would have just left His created people in that place. After all, they were going to get what they deserved.

But the one true God doesn’t operate that way. Yes, He is a God of judgment but He is also a God of great mercy and grace, no better displayed than in these verses found in the third chapter of John’s Gospel:

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. John 3:16-17

The God of all things knew that a sacrifice of epic proportion was needed to atone for the sin of all mankind. In the Old Testament, it was the blood of the Lamb that protected the Israelites in Egypt and resulted in death passing over them so they might be saved (Exodus 12:1-30). In the New Testament, Jesus was the one who John proclaimed to be the “Lamb of God” who had come to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). And indeed, He did just that, shedding His blood while nailed to the cross at Calvary and it was that blood that washes away the sin of anyone who simply believes in Him as Savior (1 John 1:7).

In other words, Jesus became our Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7) and this all was born from God’s total love for us. The least that we can do is to love Him the same in return.

Finally, we, as saved believers of Christ Jesus, need to tell others about the one true God.

God’s word exhorts us to tell all people about Him and His expectations and this includes our children. As believers, we are to allow the Word of God to dominate our lives, allowing it to be present in everything we do. This includes when we are sitting down or walking along, when we lay down to sleep or get up to begin a new day. We’re to make sure the Word is present in our lives, inside and out, and within our homes, in clear view of ourselves and anyone who might pay visit.

Truly, God wants everyone to know and understand Him and He wants to use us as instruments to this end.

And so the central question for us from today’s scripture passage is this:

Do we truly love our God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength?

If we’re honest, I think we all have room to get better in obeying this command and rather that condemn ourselves for it, let’s instead commit to get better at it each and every day. Let’s all strive to be hyper-sensitive about absorbing the Word of our Lord and sharing that Word with others, especially in regard to the good news of the Gospel, the Gospel that Jesus commanded us to share (Matthew 28:18-20).

For God has given us His all. It’s time to give Him ours in return.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.