Deuteronomy 6:1-5 Bible Study | Episode 864

January 30, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Deuteronomy 6:1-5   Bible Study | Episode #864

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. 

Please follow us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church

Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life.

Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life.

I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up.

His word to you and allow you.

To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus name.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We're in Deuteronomy, chapter 6, Deuteronomy 6. And really one of the critical passages for the Old and the New Testament, it is the, it is a defining passage.

And, and I waited till we got here to tell you that, that this really is in, in, in a real sense for Deuteronomy. It is the key verse in the, in the book of Deuteronomy.

And, and the key verse, not just because it's singular here, but because Moses keeps going back to it from, from this point on as he's telling the story to the children of Israel, as he's telling them what, what he wants them to do is he's going through this story.

He, he gets to this point and this is the preeminent. Well, this is the spot. This is the place where God reaches down and, and, and gives them the clear understanding of his.

His law. And how, how the context really, by which they can walk in it. And, and it is, it is the Old Testament context by which they walk in it, but really it is the summation of the New Testament.

In fact, Jesus says of this that all the law and the prophets hang on these two meaning this one and then the one we've already gone over in Leviticus. Love your neighbor.

Love your neighbor as yourself. And so he, he defines in the New Testament the law of what we call the law of love, the law of the Spirit.

It is, it is the, the, the law that everything goes by. It is, it is ultimately, even though it starts here in Deuteronomy, it's ultimately the commandments of Christ. If, if, if you said, what are the commandments of Christ, you, you wouldn't go to the Old Testament to the ten Commandments, but you would go to the Old Testament because he quotes the Old Testament and he would say to love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.

And then he says in Leviticus, and the second one is like unto it, meaning they're inseparable. You can't take them apart. Love your neighbor as yourself. Now, that is the commandment of Christ, okay?

And then he says, he says, all the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments, meaning everything else in the Old Testament hang off of those.

They are supported by. They are. They are the. The spot by which we begin and really the spot by which we end. And so when we get to Deuteronomy 6, Moses makes sure that he builds up to this in telling the story.

And he. He is really, really clear that, that, that the law of love in the New Testament, which is really the law of relationships, love is the character of God.

Love is the defining character of God. It is. If you said, okay, let's define the character of God with one word, you wouldn't use any of the Ten Commandments. You would use love.

Love is the character of God.

Love. And, and we have a whole chapter in, in first Corinthians that tells us what love is and is not. But we, we know that that is the ultimate intimate part of who God is.

God is love. And so when he says, when he says that they're to follow this commandment, this is the greatest commandment.

It's not the one, it's not one found in the Ten Commandments.

And I find that really an interesting point to just ponder as you think through things, that the Ten Commandments can't be really. You can't sustain them without this.

And then Jesus says, you can't sustain them without loving your neighbor as yourself. He says, now this is the commandment, verse one.

And these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you. What was in chapter five, by the way, there aren't chapters when he's writing it.

That you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you fear the Lord your God, that you keep all his statutes and all his commandments.

These are. That you keep these things. This is, this is the whole point of it. That you fear the Lord your God. You keep all the statutes and commandments which I command you, you and your sons and your daughters, your grandsons, and all the days of your life, that your days may be prolonged.

He says, therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you what he's saying is observe these laws that you might walk in blessing, that you might be a blessed people, that you might be a long people, that you might meaning long life, long serving.

And by the way, even though we, we could easily say that Israel did not do it well, we could come up with all kinds of reasons to say they didn't do it well.

They have been a long sustaining people. They've not been in the promises of God, they've not walked in all the blessings of God, but they still here. And for as far as a people group is concerned, a long living people group, the Jewish people are easily the longest that have held together as a people, even though they haven't had a place to live, a homeland for.

Well, they didn't have a homeland for almost 2,000 years.

Not quite 2,000, but almost 2,000. And yet still together, still a large people group in the sense that there's almost.

Even after the Holocaust, there's 15 million of them, about half of them living in the United States and half of them living in Israel, but a sprinkling of them all over the world.

Otherwise they are, they are a long surviving people. And he says, he says to be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, that you may multiply greatly as Lord your God.

Your Father has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey. Now he's talking about the promises of God, the goodness of God. And this is, this is the, this is the most important thing that he's going to say to them.

He says, I want you to follow this statute first, foremost, the most. This is the most important. And obviously Jesus concurs with this. And you go, well, does Jesus, does the Old Testament need Jesus to concur with it?

Well, yeah, because he is the word made flesh. He's the full revelation of God. He is the Lord God. Okay? And it says, hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is.

And we translate it one.

It's easily translated. In fact, the is is not even in there. It would be the Lord our God, the Lord alone, meaning no, nothing else, nothing separate from him, the Lord our God, the Lord alone, or the Lord.

One doesn't have a. Is there, there's not a, there's not a verb. It says the Lord our God, the Lord alone.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

And those, that, that understanding those ideas are saying that you're going to love him with everything that you have and, and you're going to love him with your passions, which is your heart, the intimate part of who you are in the Old Testament, that is the seed of the emotions.

He says, with your soul, which is. Which adds to the heart your. Your thoughts, your. Your mind, your. Your thinking, your understandings. And then with your strength, with your physical body, with your.

Your. With the flesh.

And you will you love the Lord your God with your. With your whole heart, with your soul, and with your strength. And the. The. Jesus said, this is the first and greatest commandment.

It's the number 1 1. You say, well, Pastor, it's not the first because we got the Ten Commandments before. It's not the first. In, In. In chronological order, it is the first.

In primacy, it is the primary commandment. It is the one that matters the very, very most. Love the Lord your God with all your heart.

And then in the New Testament, it is translated with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. So you have your soul there, and you have heart and mind on both sides, so that they're defining that understanding of the soul.

With all your heart, passion, with all your mind, your intellect, your thoughts, with your whole soul, all the internals of who you are. You love him, and then you love him with everything you do.

With the strength of your body, with the. With the power. Power of your body. You love him with everything you have.

Very difficult commandment, but very relational, Very relational.

And, and all the other commandments definitely have aspects of relation to them. How do I relate to God? How do I relate to my parents? How to relate to other people?

How do I relate to myself by not coveting other things, not allowing my heart to head in different directions.

But, but this one is intimate relationship. It talks about the very intimate character of God. And Jesus later on would say, if you love me, you'll do what I say.

You'll keep my commandments, you'll keep my precepts, you'll. You'll keep my heart. You'll do the things that my heart desires. And what are those things? Love God, love each other, love your neighbor as yourself.

And the third, third commandment that Jesus says, He says, I give you a new commandment I give you. It's not one in the Old Testament that you love each other.

With my type of love. Now you go, why is that not in the Old Testament? Well, it's not in the Old Testament because it's not played out on the world stage.

They had sacrifices, but they did not have human sacrifices. They had a foreshadowing of it with Abraham and Isaac. But, but there that, that foreshadowing didn't have its full understanding until we see it in Jesus Christ that he is the final sacrifice.

He is complete sacrifice. He is the complete sacrifice on the cross. And so once that's played out, they then are able to understand him saying, love each other as I've loved you.

That is a, that is a self sacrificial love. It's a desire to see the very best and the very highest and most important things happen in someone's life.

They, it is, it is a powerful commandment. It's a powerful, a statement of God's promises and God's work and the things that God is going to be doing and be about in the world.

Love me and I am going to love you and love the world through you.

Wow.

Powerful. Love your neighbor, love each other. Love me. If you love me. I'm going to be able to take that character, that heart that I have for everyone else and you're going to be able to love your neighbor as yourself.

You're going to be. It's really the golden rule. Do love in action. Do unto others as you would have them do it unto you. Love them with as, as you would want to be loved.

Do give grace as you would want to be great given grace.

Look for opportunities to serve. Look for opportunities to build up, to strengthen, to honor. Look for those chances and then, and then, and then love each other self sacrificially. Be willing to give what you have.

Be willing to place those things before others so that, so that they can experience life and so that they can have a land flowing with milk and honey, a land flowing with promises, a land flowing with good things, a land flowing with life.

So you can have those things. And, and as you, as you, as you do those things. See, not only are you, are you embodying the, the commandments, but you are beginning to take on the very presence and power of God.

You are the heart of God in the world because you take the love you have for God and He, he showers you with that love and then he begins to, well, he begins to change the world with you.

Your, your neighbors are, are beneficiaries of your love. Your, your, your, your other believers are beneficiaries of your love. Your heart is, is, is the heart of God and, and, and then you can add to that truth and understanding and life and wisdom and, and all the other things.

But, but primarily we start with, we start with self sacrificial for someone's best interest.

Love And God says he wants us to love, love him with everything because he loves us with everything. And that is, that. That's a very heavy New Testament concept. And oftentimes when we talk about the law and talk about living by the law and talk about the Old Testament, the Old Testament laws, and especially those who want to detract from it and to take away from it, they, they, they rarely ever do you hear people talk about the law of love that begins in the Old Testament, the law of love your neighbor as yourself in Leviticus.

And then, and then Moses brings the people this law of, of love as they're getting ready to go in the promised land. Now, I want you to notice, because this is kind of a side note.

We'll, we'll say this is. Put this on the side and, and think about this. He didn't tell this to the, to the people that first heard it on the mountainside.

He didn't give them this command. First place. First place it's mentioned.

So why didn't he?

Well, because they'd already proven that they didn't want to love God.

They wanted him to go talk to God.

They didn't want to have a relationship with God.

So there's no use in telling them to do something that they're quite clearly incapable of doing.

H.

You mean he didn't tell the children of Israel before they rejected going to the promised Land to love him with everything they had? Nope. Look it up. It's not there.

Why?

And because they'd already made the decision before they ever even heard the Ten Commandments. They weren't going to love God with their heart, soul, mind and strength. They weren't going to love him with their, their inner being.

They weren't going to love him with their lives.

They just weren't.

They didn't want to. They didn't desire it. So no use in doing that with them.

Interestingly, he does say it to the children of Israel going in the promised land.

Huh?

Remember, God gives you revelation as you're capable of receiving it and living it.

Remember that if God has revealed something to you in your life, and for every believer, he's revealed a whole lot. But if God reveals something to you, he's not going to reveal the things that you're just wholly incapable of doing.

You're just, you're just never going to do. Why do that? What does it, what, what value does that have?

He reveals to you what you are capable of walking in.

He does.

And so if you have a revelation from God, he reveals that to you. He makes it known and you're able to walk in it. And so what a great encouragement that is.

If God has spoken to me about something, then he knows because he is omnipresent and eternal. Meaning he's everywhere at one time, but he's also in every time at one time.

He knows that you're capable of walking that out.

So when God reveals something to you in the back of your mind, you need to always remember he does not reveal that which I cannot walk in otherwise he'd reveal everything at once.

He just reveals where I'm to go with him and my relationship with him because I love him. Because he loves me, he reveals that which he wants me to carry out, what he wants me to experience so that I might live in a land flowing with as you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his.

Face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.