Scott Brown's sermon, 'A Heart of Fear and Obedience,' explores Deuteronomy chapter 5, focusing on how God communicates His commandments to the Israelites through Moses. In a dramatic scene marked by fire, cloud, and darkness, the Israelites hear God's voice and receive His commandments on stone tablets. Brown emphasizes Moses' role in writing the Pentateuch and delivering God's laws at the end of his 120-year life. The sermon underscores the importance of having a heartfelt obedience to God's commandments, contrasting dead orthodoxy with a genuinely warm heart for God. Brown highlights seven ways God seeks to inflame the Israelites' hearts: casting a vision of victory, delivering His Word, instilling fear, demonstrating glory, judging the people's response, and reiterating a vision of victory. The message is paralleled with George Whitefield's spiritual awakening, emphasizing the need for a heartfelt, vibrant faith. Brown draws connections between Deuteronomy and Psalm 119, illustrating the joy and benefits of loving God's law. The sermon calls for self-examination, urging believers to move beyond mere religious formality to a deep, sincere relationship with God.

This morning I'll be reading from Deuteronomy chapter 5, 22 to 23. These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly in the mountain, from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness with a loud voice, and he added no more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. So it was when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness while the mountain was burning with fire that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders. And you said, Surely the Lord our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard the voice from the midst of the fire.

We have seen this day that God speaks with man, yet he still lives. Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we will die. For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God, speaking from the midst of the fire as we have and lived?

You go near and hear all that the Lord our God may say, and tell us all that the Lord our God says to you, and we will hear and do it." Then the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me and the Lord, and said to me, and the Lord said to me, I have heard the voice of the words of the people which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. Oh that they have such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep all my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever. Go and say to them, return to your tents. But as for you, Stand here by me and I will speak to you all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which you shall teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I am giving them to possess.

Therefore you shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess. Let's pray. Oh Heavenly Father, I pray that you would be with Scott as he preaches from this passage.

Let him be your instrument, your channel through which your truth and your mercy flow to us. I pray for the congregation that you would give us ears to hear, that we would be attentive and that we would apply these truths that we learn. And most of all, may all the glory be to Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen. Of course, our text opens this morning with verse 22 where we read, These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud and the thick darkness with a loud voice, and he added no more, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

So we pick up the text here in verse 22, but before we find ourselves working our way through it, I think it's important for us to sort of pull way back and just kind of get the Google Earth view of this text, you know, and what is happening here. So, Where are we? Where are we now? From verse 22. We've just finished with the Ten Commandments, and we've walked through each one of the commandments.

Let's just acknowledge this. This is a really highly charged scene. It's hard for us sitting in this nice comfortable place to get the drift of what Moses is saying and doing here. But this text was written perhaps, probably only days before Moses would die. And he's 120 years old.

He's going to die on his 120th birthday, which is really only a few days ahead. And what has he been doing? He's been writing the Pentateuch. That's what Moses has been doing. He's been collecting up the history of the world, and now he knows he's going to die.

He's really completing his very last work of his life, and he knows it. But he's lucid. He still has the ability to acquire understanding and to recall things. And so, just picture what has happened to this man. He's lived this long life, and now he knows he's going to die and he's just written Genesis, which is about the creation and the fall and the story of all of his ancestors.

He's just written Exodus where we learn about the great delivering power of God as God Almighty rips His people out of the jaws of Egypt as He does with all of His people in all of time. He has just written the book of Exodus where he's outlined what do we do about the stain of our sins and all the testimony of the tabernacle and and how one deals with the worship of God and And holiness He has just written the book of Numbers and documented God's faithfulness time after time in the wilderness wanderings among the people who complain and complain and complain against the Lord in his, even in the midst of his marvelous provisions. And so here Moses is in a highly charged moment at the end of his life collecting things together to prepare for his own departure. You see how hot a moment this is before the children of Israel. Now, how did Moses know all this stuff?

How did Moses know about the creation? How did Moses know about the fall? Remember, this is around 1400 BC, probably 1405 BC, something like that. You know, long, long after, long after the creation and the fall. He, It was probably Moses' grandfather Levi who told him about the creation and the fall, and passed down the record.

Now We need to understand that really Moses isn't living very many steps away from the very creation of the world, genealogically. Noah's son, Shem, died When Moses' great-great-grandfather was 50 years old, how's that? How close does that put you to the origins of the world? Isaac lived to be 180 years old, and he would have told his sons and his twelve grandsons. So here's what you have.

You have Moses and then Moses grandfather Levi and then you have his great-grandfather Isaac and then you have Shem and then you have Methuselah and then you have Adam. That's as far away as you are genealogically from the beginning of the world. And so Moses has just collected everything up, the whole history of the world, from the beginning of creation up to the time of the Exodus and then now 40 years later at the end of his life, at the beginning of the entry into the promised land. So that's where we are. And Moses has just drawn all of this together for the people of Israel.

Do you see where we are here? As we pick up the text here, we've just been focusing on the Ten Commandments. We've had our heads down with blinders on, and just looking at one commandment after another. But where are we? We're in this great, highly charged moment in the life of Moses and in the people of Israel.

And so Moses is calling with all of his heart. He's urging with really a mighty passion that the people would love God in such a way that they would always fear Him and keep all of His commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever. With their children forever. And so the setting is presented here in chapter 4. I'd like you to go back, because we're trying to set this narrative back in its context, as we've had our heads down here for a while.

So go back to chapter 4. Open and look at verse 44 in chapter 4 because you'll see what Moses is doing here. We have to go back to 444 to see how this all fits together. So Moses says in 444, now this is the law, or the text says, now this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Moses spoke to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt, on this side of the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth Pior, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, who Moses and the children of Israel defeated after they came out of Egypt.

So where are we? We are in the second speech of Moses. The first speech of Moses runs up to this point, to verse 43. And now there's the second speech. And Moses is gathering all the people together to give them a second speech.

Now, Moses is speaking from many, many different angles to try to accomplish the same thing. I really believe Moses is driving at one great principle for the people of Israel to sustain them. One great source of blessing, one beautiful fountain, one crystal clear spring that will fix all things, and that is a heart to obey. He's calling them to examine their hearts, not just whether they're doing the things that God has told them. He is asking them that for sure.

But He is calling them down deep into the recesses of their hearts to consider where they are. And that's what we should do today. This morning is really a call for the examination of the heart. That's why we're here today. That's what this text is all about.

And so I hope we can somehow grasp what Moses is doing. What are we doing this morning? Well, we want to do what God was doing with these people here. We're trying to get the voice of God for the Church by looking at what the voice of God for this Church was here in Israel. It's always for us to gather to find the voice of God in the Church.

And yes, His voice is often a voice of thunder and lightning. It's often a voice of terror, but it's also a voice of comfort and compelling, heartfelt appeal that calls people to remember how beautiful God is. That there's a reason that one should have his heart turned toward the Lord and that is because God is wonderful because he does bless his people. So what do I pray that we do today? That somehow we would get all of us together, the voice of God here and to somehow reflect what is happening with Moses and the people of Israel.

And what he is doing is he is finding lots of different ways to draw the people to the same conclusion, and that is that God's ways are pleasant ways, that it will be well with you if you keep His commandments and if you love them, love them from the heart. And so, Moses is constantly going back to stimulate the heart and the affections. And you know, God is so kind to us in this way, that He would provide help for our hearts. That He would thrill our hearts if they've gone dead. Has your heart gone dead?

If it's gone dead today, God has brought you to this text here to perhaps try to rekindle it, to fan it back into flame, to let it thrill again at the beauty of the name of God and all that He has in mind. He's desiring to keep you from a phony religion. He's trying to keep you from dead orthodoxy. He's trying to appeal to us from throwing off his authority, because we've lost the beauty of his kindness toward us and the perfections of his commandments, how good they are, how they prosper us, how they deal well with our hearts, how they make our relationships what they ought to be full of love. He's constantly appealing to these things to pull us back out, to pull us back out of deadness.

It is true that we fall into times of deadness. Are you in a time of deadness, right here this morning? If you are, God has sovereignly brought you here so that you might rekindle that flame that God would have rekindled. As Moses is doing here, what we'll see here in chapter 5, and 6, and 7, and 8, and 9, and 10, and 11, and 12, Moses just keeps on doing the same thing. He's fanning the flame.

He wants to bring the people out of a sense of dead orthodoxy that they have found themselves slipping into. And so he appeals to their hearts to obey. You know, this year we're reading the biography of George Whitfield. And Whitfield is important to us for a number of reasons. Here's one reason.

Whitfield is really important to us as an example, as a brother who went before us to help us learn about our salvation and our sanctification. In Whitfield's day, Christianity in many places was stiff and unfeeling. It was formalistic, and it was just programmatic. In the churches, you could find society. You could find good manners.

You could find people who had the sheen of goodness about them. But what you did not find, what you did not find often, was a thrilled heart in God, a heart that was hot, A heart that was warm toward God. A heart that wanted to dwell on every word, every distinct phrase, because the heart was hungry for it. The heart loved it. When they sang the songs, they didn't go from word to word and savor them and have them go deep within their hearts to thrill them.

No, they just sang them. When they recited Scripture, it was just like a monotone, it was like a machine gun. When they heard the preaching of the word, they couldn't wait to get to the meal. That's what was happening. So in this time, there were those who had what was called enthusiasm, which meant many things.

But one thing it did mean, or could have meant, is that there were genuine hearts thrilled by the love of God, and that from the depths of the soul there was a heat and a light and a love and a throbbing and a desire toward God. And so that was the scene. Now, George Whitefield, as a young man, was caught up in this same religion. And he tried very hard to make himself a religious person. At one point he almost fasted himself to death.

He would buffet his body, he would sleep in the cold, he would force poverty upon himself to try to make himself more righteous and nothing seemed to work. And then one day, after trying to become an ascetic, trying to appear to have love for God, yet not having it in his heart, he read a book. He read a book by Henry Schoogle called The Life of God in the Soul of Man. And the light went on when he read that book. The life of God in the soul of man.

And there he realized all of these matters of the heart that God desired for him, that God didn't care about all of his fastings unless his heart was warmed, that God didn't care about his poverty, unless he was gripped deep in the heart. And so Schuylkill writes this. True religion is a union of the soul with God, and a real participation of the divine nature, the very image of God, drawn upon the soul. And so when Whitfield understood this, he experienced true freedom, He says, I'm persuaded that the that the generality of preachers talk of an unknown and an unfelt Christ an Unfelt Christ. I think that's part of what Moses is driving at here, that there was an unfelt Christ in their lives that was so easily just turned into a golden calf.

He says the reason why the congregations have been so dead is because they have dead men preaching to them. How can dead men beget living children? And so, Whitefield's heart was set afire and nothing was the same again. And so Moses here is appealing to that same life of God in the soul of man. He's appealing for a heartfelt desire.

Have you lost that? I do believe that it is possible for a true believer to go through a period of spiritual deadness. This can happen. And there needs to be an enlivening. But there is something far, far worse.

And that is something whose heart has never been warmed, whose heart has always been cold but yet orthodox. That's the heart of the unbeliever. And Moses in this great, highly charged moment is really appealing, I believe, to both. Both problems of the human soul, where the flames have not been nursed and so they've they've waned and they just need to be fanned in the flame again or the heart of the unbeliever bound for for bound for hell because there's a formal religion but there's not a religion of the heart. And so Moses, I believe, is using every possible means he can to appeal to the heart that everything might change, and so that there would be obedience from the heart.

So, there are many ways to look at this text. And so I want us now to begin to move through the text. But I want us to see at least something of what Moses is doing here. And I want to give you what I believe are seven helps that God is bringing through Moses to inflame the hearts of the people of Israel, and perhaps they would inflame our hearts as well. So I want to give you seven things that are in this text that I believe are meant to inflame a heart.

The first is this. A vision of victory is cast in 5, 1 through 6. As we know, Moses has gathered the people together, he's explained the purpose, and there are three elements of this vision. He says, and Moses called on Israel and said, hear O Israel, the statutes and the judgments which I speak in your hearing today. The first, he's calling them to hear, to really hear, not just to let it pass into their ears, but let it go all the way down, to really hear.

Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the judgments. Now this term, hear, O Israel, appears four places in Deuteronomy. And it always announces a dramatic and beautiful principle. And we will go through those some other time in our study, that the word here is the word Shema, and it means more than just to hear audible noises, but it means to understand and obey. It reveals a, it reveals that that moment that you notice in your own soul when you see a word of Scripture and you love it and you want it And you're content that it is right, and it's all that you need.

That's what he's talking about. He casts this vision of victory, and the first part of it is hearing the word, and then to learn them. This is the second aspect of this vision of victory that God is giving, that we would learn them. Now we are a learning people. Education is important to us.

It matters what we study. And here it's the statutes and the judgments of the Lord that are to be learned. This should be the overwhelming focus of our life, to learn the statutes and judgments. By the way, this is one reason why we felt it was important to actually memorize Deuteronomy 5, 1 through 22, because the Ten Commandments are there in all their glory. We felt that it would be helpful for us to learn these from the heart.

So, and then to act upon them and be careful to observe them there in verse 1. To seek to obey. You know, this reveals so many things. It reveals a humble heart. It reveals a heart that says, your ways are better than my ways.

It's a heart of contentment. It's also something that really does something to the people of God. Christianity has a conservative element in it. Christianity holds you back from everything. And it focuses you on those things that are truly good and beautiful.

And so there are commands that would hand you in, that would withhold certain things from you. But on the other hand, though, it opens the windows of heaven for us. And so We hear them, we learn them, and we act upon them. And what are they? They are the statutes and judgments of the Lord.

And so this is the vision of victory that is cast. This is the first help that God gives His people to inflame their hearts. He casts a vision of victory for what they should do, to hear and to learn and observe. That's the vision of victory right there. And He lays it out right there in the first part of this chapter.

And then the second thing that God does to inflame these hearts is He gives them His Word. The Word is heard. Now the Word of God was spoken very clearly in these Ten Commandments that we've just gone through. Moses says that he stood between the people and the Lord to deliver the Word of God. That's what he was doing.

And he stood between them and he came and he gave them the word of God, verbally and on these tablets of stone. And so he delivers the commandments in order, I believe, in order to inflame the hearts, to give them a sense of the goodness and the beauty. Do you remember how we were studying these things? How we couldn't stop thinking about the goodness of these commandments. How every single command brings so much blessing into the heart of a person.

And so the Word of God is heard. That's the second thing that Moses does, that God does for his people. He gives them words. And God speaks in many ways. He speaks through a burning bush, through a donkey, through a dream, through a prophet, through an angel.

He speaks in many ways. Hebrews 1 says, God who at various times and various ways spoke in time past through the fathers, by the prophets, as in these last days spoken to us by His Son. And so God speaks in many ways, but God inflames the hearts of His people through His words, And He's doing it right here for the people of Israel. You know, God has already shown Himself so tender to them. He considers the way that they are and gives them commands to help them.

And he shows them, he's been showing them, and he desires to gratify them, that it might be well with them through the keeping of his commandments. And he assures them that it's their greatest advantage. Matthew Henry says, the only way to be happy is to be holy. And that's what Moses is calling for here. And so it will be well with those who would hear these words and take them into their hearts.

Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they might fear me and always keep all my commandments that it may be well with them and with their children forever. And so God is designed to inflame these hearts by giving them words that would cause bounty in their lives. But there's another thing that God does to bring to inflame the hearts of the people of Israel. Number three, the fear of God. The fear of God is inflamed in verse 22.

Now God desires to inspire fear in his people. Do you fear? Do you have a fear of disobeying God in his commandments? And here God is stimulating fear. Yes, God does desire to stimulate a holy fear of his commandments.

And so God is terrifying his people. Notice the atmosphere that he speaks of in verse 22. In the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud and the thick darkness. This is terrifying. God terrifies His people.

Here's what we learn. God is not your buddy. Here's what we learn. Yes, we can boldly approach the throne, but only under one single condition, And that is that the blood of Christ is the veil through which we enter. And this is a terrifying moment.

God does desire to terrify his people, to scare them, to scare them to death. And that's what he was doing on this mountain. Maybe you heard that story of that little boy that walked into church one Sunday morning. Little Alex was standing in the foyer of the church and he was looking up at a plaque. This large plaque had all these pictures of these men and then American flags by it.

He was just staring. This little six-year-old boy was staring, and the pastor came in and he stood by the little boy and looked up with him. And he said, what? Alex, what are you doing? He said, good morning.

Pastor, what is this? And he said, well, son, on a memorial, this is a memorial for the men who died in service to our country. They died in the service. And so they stood together staring at the picture. And the little boy, in a very soft voice, very fearfully, said, pastor, which service was it?

Was it the 830 service or the 1030 service? And this little boy had fear in his heart that somebody had died in the service. Well, guess what? People died in the service in the wilderness. God was terrifying his people.

And he threatened that if they came near the mountain, they would be shot through. That they would be killed. And so there is this fear of God that's being inflamed here. We know that some have taken communion in an unworthy manner and they've died. We know that Ananias and Sapphira, trying to exalt themselves by not telling the whole truth, died.

We know that there's a reason for fear in the church. And that fear, though, would drive us to obedience toward God. And so here God is doing all of His people a favor. He's doing us a favor by showing us that there is a reason to be terrified of disobedience. God is love, yes that is true, but God also is a consuming fire and we don't play games with God and he is not our buddy he is a consuming fire and then next another way that God is bringing to inflame the hearts of the people of Israel is that he's writing his words, verse 22.

He codifies his word. And it says here in verse 22 that he wrote them on two tablets of stone, and He gave them to me. So God is codifying, He's writing it down, He's inscribing it for the people and He does this to inspire love and fear in the people so that they would know how to live. And then he does a fifth thing. He demonstrates his glory.

Verses 23 to 27. He demonstrates his glory. Verse 23, So it was when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders, and you said, surely the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness." And so here what we find is that God shows his glory. They saw the glory of God. And his glory terrified them.

In this section here from 23 to 27, the word die appears twice, because they feared death as a result of his glory. And God is bringing all these things to stimulate, to inflame their hearts toward Him. Why? Why would He do all these things? So that there would be a response to his cry, oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear me and always keep all my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever.

So God, he shows his glory. Think of all the ways you've seen his glory. If you thought about it, you could probably write for the rest of the day all the different ways that God has explained his glory to you. Many, many facets of that. And so that's what God is doing here with Israel and then The sixth help that God brings to inflame the hearts of the people of Israel is That is that he judges the people's response The people respond to all of this, but God judges it in verses 28 through 30.

And so God responds, God is responding to the way the people responded and he says in verse 28, then the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me And the Lord said to me, I've heard the voice of the words of the people which they have spoken to you, and they are right in all that they have spoken. So It's acknowledged here that the people said the right thing. They had the right words. But was that enough? Because he says in the next verse, oh, that they had such a heart in them.

They had the words, but they didn't have the heart. Oh, that they had such a heart in them. They had the words, but they didn't have the heart. Oh, that they had such a heart in them, that they might fear me and always keep all of my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever. Jesus, I believe, repeats this.

I believe He draws from this when He says, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. I would just like to suggest that Jesus was thinking of this text. When you have this same... The people say the right words but God comes back around and says, oh that they had a heart. They have the words, but they don't have the heart.

And so God judges His people by exposing their duplicity and their hypocrisy, that they can say the words. They can repeat the message of the Gospel. But the tenderness toward the Gospel is not there. The love that issues an obedience is not there. It's a dead religion.

And so Moses is coming and he's bringing the word of the Lord to respond to the people so that they would have a heart in them. So that he would confront them at the place of their own shortfall. And then the last help that God brings to inflame the hearts of the people of Israel is that he comes back around and really he ends where he began with the vision of victory again in verse 31. But as for you stand here and I will speak to you all the commandments and statutes and judgments which you shall teach them that they may observe them in the land I am giving them to possess." And then verse 32 is critical because this is the transition, This is his last statement to them before he goes on. Therefore, you shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you.

You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess." And so he cast this vision of victory again right here at the end of the chapter. He begins with it and he ends with it. And everything in between helps to explain it. And notice what he says, he says, don't turn aside to the right or the left.

How easy it is to turn aside to the right or the left. How easy it is to turn aside to the right or the left, and to go in the wrong, to let the mind go off in the wrong direction to cultivate something that's not right. You know, one commentator said that this term right and the left is supposed to remind the children of Israel of the Red Sea and how they were hemmed in and they could not turn to the right or the left but to stay in the midst of the walkway that God has planted for them. That they should walk in the statutes and judgments of the Lord, that they should trust Him and not their own way, that they should realize the Lord will fight for you. Just walk, stay in the path, don't get off the path.

There is a narrow way and there's a broad path. But don't turn to the right hand or to the left. Be hemmed in. And so walk, in verse 33, in the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you. And so he comes full circle in this chapter and he begins with this great vision of victory.

And the victory is beautiful. The victory has to do with your prosperity. It has to do with your success, it has to do with every good thing that God desires to anoint His people with. And so in this vision of victory, what we find is a call to this very same thing that George Whitfield discovered. Now if you would if you go and read the book that George Whitfield read, The Life of God in the Soul of Man, you would find that it ends with a very beautiful prayer.

That it really reminds me of the heartbeat and the pulsating message of Moses through this whole section, as he's constantly trying to draw the people's hearts to him so that they would obey from the heart. Here's the prayer that ends the book that brought George Whitfield to his knees and I pray that it will bring us to our knees as well. The final prayer of the book is this, and now most gracious God, Father and Fountain of Mercy and Goodness, who has blessed us with the knowledge of our happiness and the way that leadeth to it. Excite in our souls such ardent desires. Open our eyes, O God, and teach us your law.

Bless us with an exact and tender sense of our duty. Possess our hearts with the generous and holy disdain of all those poor enjoyments which would hold us out to allure us that we may never be able to give our affections or turn our eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken us thou in thy law, and fill our souls with such a deep sense and full persuasion of those great truths which thou hast revealed in the gospel and the influence of it would regulate all of our conversation. This little book that inflamed the soul of George Whitefield has in it the same elements of this book, Deuteronomy, designed to inflame our hearts toward God. That we would have the life of God in the soul of man. That we wouldn't be a dead orthodox people who only deal in intellectual propositions, but that our hearts are warmed, that we would find ourselves like Moses cries out for us to be, oh that they had such a heart in them, that they might fear me and always keep all my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever.

Now I'd like to bring us to some applications here. Now first of all, First of all, it's really just a question. And the question is this. Do you have it? Do you have the warm-hearted, genuine desire?

Do you love the words? Do you love the songs? Or are you just a dead one that's here among us? And let me just say, God has, if you're hearing these words, if you're hearing these words, then just know that God desires something far more. And that if He would give you a desire to love Him, you would know it.

And maybe you have it right now and you haven't had it before and you're saying, oh yes, God, I do desire, I do love you, I do love your words. These are the first signs of conversion of a heart. And, you know, has His mercy genuinely lodged in your soul so that you love Him? And if not, know that you're probably not converted and that you're bound for eternal destruction. And know the terror of God that's upon your life.

The judgment of God is upon you if your heart does not respond. If you are dead and cold, you are an unbeliever, you are bound for hell. Know that for sure. And repent and turn to God. How easy it is to be caught up in religion all your life long and not have your heart turned.

Well because you know the church is a very pleasant, beautiful place with wonderful people, and the rhythms and the relationships are very good, and you can love those and not love God. And then the second is this, the second application. And I think it's perhaps maybe equally as terrifying. And that is, be careful if you think you stand, lest you fall. Notice these people who said all the right words would fall.

They were in the midst of falling, actually. They had the words, but in their hearts, they were building the golden calf. And so I received a note from Charles Churchill this morning. And I just want to read you what he wrote because I believe this should be carefully considered as we go over this text. He says, in Deuteronomy 522-27, Moses is recounting the incidents at Mount Sinai to the children and grandchildren of the men who are actually there.

What strikes me as I read this is this. How many of those who saw the fire and heard the voice from the mountain, who trembled at this great God, would have believed at that moment that in a few months they would refuse to enter the promised land because they feared man more than they feared God." And then I would just like to extend that. Who of those who heard these words in this great gathering perhaps dreamed that they would build the Golden Cap just right? You know, very soon afterwards. So, you know, be careful.

Be careful if we think we stand lest we fall, that we should probe our hearts for any sin that would cause that fall. And we wouldn't think, oh, these stupid people. But we would think, oh, no, how much more am I? No, how much more susceptible am I? Rather than rising up in pride and thinking how foolish these people were, them is us.

That's the truth of it. That's the truth of it. And then for the person who is converted And perhaps might have lost or be losing this thrill of the heart, this genuine response toward God. I'm going to pick up a term that we learned from Whitfield. He says, are you just part of the Manners Brigade?

The Manners Brigade. People who are just concerned about morality and the great issues of the day. We often think of ourselves as nice people. We often think of ourselves as having good manners, but in reality our hearts are dead toward God. And that's really absolutely the most important thing in the world.

And so this text has so much appeal for delight in God that there would be hearts inflamed. And this I really believe is the heart of Moses' appeal. And as I said before, I want you to continue to see this. When we move into chapter 6 next week, and 7, and 8, and 9, Moses, he just keeps on the same appeal. It's a long speech, and he repeats himself over and over again in the speech.

You'll find the same words being used. Don't be wearied of it, because God has brought us to this text for a purpose. I often have wondered if Moses somehow did not inspire David in Psalm 119 because Moses is doing many of the same things that David does in Psalm 119. If you look at Psalm 119, you'll see that it's all about delighting in the law. And Moses is constantly appealing us to delight in the law of God.

And in Psalm 119, you see how David feels about the commands. He delights in them. He trusts in them. In 119, 74, he hopes in them. In verse 86, he longs for them.

In verse 97, he loves the law. In 1.03, he says, how sweet are your words to my taste. You see how he feels about it. You see the same tenor in Moses in Deuteronomy. He lists the qualities of it in Psalm 119, and Moses does the same thing.

He lists many, many qualities of the law for what it does. David says that it's righteous in verse 7. In verse 86, all of his commands are faithful. In verse 90, they continue. In verse 96, they're exceedingly broad.

In verse 98, they are ever with me. You also see the results of obeying God. Verse 49, they give hope. They give comfort. Verse 50, they give life.

Verse 92 says, if your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. They help me understand more than the ancients. I get understanding. The law of God does many things. Moses is doing the same thing.

He's saying the law of God does all these things economically, emotionally, relationally. Moses is making all these arguments. As we go forward, just mark the mark. All the economic, relational, and emotional results of obeying the law. David does the same thing in Psalm 119.

And what does David do with the commands? He does the same things that Moses appeals to us in Deuteronomy. I think there's a beautiful parallel between Psalm 119 and Deuteronomy. I would like to go through and just make the connections. They definitely are there.

In verse 8, He keeps the commandments. In verse 52, he remembers the commandments. In verse 54, he sings them. In verse 55, he remembers them in the night. In verse 55, he keeps the law.

In verse 59, he seeks the law. In verse 61, he does not forget. In verse 66, he says, oh, teach me, oh, Lord. In verse 78 he meditates. In verse 94 he seeks.

And of course, he loves the law, for he says, oh, how I love thy law, in verse 97. So there are some real parallels here between Deuteronomy and Psalm 119, because they all appeal for the same thing. Delight in the law, obedience, and then the fruits of it. That's the book of Deuteronomy. That's the whole book of Deuteronomy summarized.

And that's why Moses says, Oh, that they had such a heart in them, that they might fear me and always keep all my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, Lord, I thank you for what you have done by giving us Moses and his testimony, how he appeals to inflame our hearts in love toward you. And Lord I pray that you fulfill this prayer of Moses in us.

In Jesus' name, amen.