John 1:1-5 | God's Word as a Light in the Darkness

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

I said this after the we sang that song in the first service, and I'm I feel the same way now.

It makes me want to ditch my notes for this morning and preach from Ephesians 1.

That's what we just sang as Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

So great to sing God's word together and hear it from voices that mean it.

So thank you for singing.

I know Webb said that last week.

I'm saying it this week.

Thank you for singing.

It's a wonderful experience together.

Well, I encourage you to take your Bible this morning, if you have one, your copy of God's Word in whatever form, and find your way to the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy.

We've been here for the last several weeks, and as you're finding your way there, I'll take this time to share some exciting news with you.

For several months now, my search team and I have been processing dozens of applications for our discipleship pastor position.

We've prayed, we've evaluated resumes, we've listened to sermons.

I've lost count of how many sermons I've listened to.

We've conducted interviews, and by the Lord's grace and in his own time, he has shown us the man that he's chosen for us.

And we would love to introduce to you via picture at this point in time Anton von Stratten and his wife Mariki.

If those names sound strange to you, they're Dutch origin by way of South Africa to America, and their two daughters, Naomi and Olivia.

This photo was taken a short while after Mariki finished cancer treatments a little over a year ago.

We have spent many hours of interview time with Anton over the last couple of months.

And last this last week we had them here on-site for a lengthy on-site interview for several days, and they were exhausted after the first day.

So those are asked Jeremy what that's like.

We put him through the rigors too.

He can explain what that's like.

The Van Stratten spent time with our staff, and they spent time with representatives of various parts of our discipleship ministries.

They spent time with our elders, and through all of that, it became clear to us that the Lord designed Anton and Mariki to be a fit for our ministry, and they've come to believe the same.

And they have accepted our offer to come and serve with us.

In spite of the snow.

Anton and Mariki have spent the last 15 years in California.

And this last week, while they were here, it was the first time in their lives that they've ever driven on snow.

And they still said yes.

If you are on our church email list, uh if you're not, you can uh let us know in the church office tomorrow and we'll get you on this list.

Uh this afternoon, we will be sending out an email to you with some more information about Anton to give you a little bit more of an introduction.

And then we are going to bring the Van Strattens here the weekend of December 15th.

So you can write that note down.

On December 15th, they will be here for the weekend so that we can introduce them to you in person.

And Lord willing, they will be moving to Grand Forks a couple of weeks after that.

It's only by God's amazing grace that we've had uh two successive, that we will have had two successive pastoral moves in successive years in the middle of winter.

Um praise God for that.

I want to thank publicly my team for the time and effort that they've put into this this process.

Uh that's uh Chad Williamson and Web Gering, Joyce Folson, and Joe Hogberg.

They've been an invaluable help in this search.

And if you have any questions, we'd be glad to speak with you.

Thank you for praying with us and for us through this whole search.

We're just incredibly thankful for the Lord's leading and excited for what's ahead.

So now we would ask that you pray for the Van Stratton family as they pack up and transition to our North Dakota winter.

Why don't we do that together right now?

Lord Jesus, thank you.

Thank you for your work.

Thank you for guiding us each step of the way.

Even when we can't see your hand of guidance, we know that you are working.

Thank you for Anton and Mariki and Naomi and Olivia.

We ask your blessing on them today.

Ask that you would encourage them and be gracious to them, lift them up, give them strength as they finish packing up and arranging things in California to be able to come and join us in serving you together.

And we look forward to that time and ask that you would bless it immensely.

And now, Lord, as we open your word together, we ask that you would bless us immensely through it as well.

We ask that you would speak to us through your word, that you would take my words and make them clear to our people this morning, that you would be glorified and honored with what you cause me to say this morning.

In Jesus' name, we pray these things.

Amen.

All right, to the book of Deuteronomy, I want to thank Webb and Jeremy for working with me on sort of team teaching these last several weeks through some passages in Deuteronomy.

If you've not listened or had a chance to listen to one or more of the last three weeks of sermons, I encourage you to visit our church website where you can listen to those.

They all tie together, they all fit together like pieces of a puzzle.

And we've covered three texts in the book of Deuteronomy, and each text and each sermon has reached the same conclusion.

Very specifically, and that's what we've named or titled this miniseries, that remembering God's Word is at the heart of our obedience to Him.

And we've seen each step of the way that although these passages were written directly to ancient Israel, they apply very clearly and directly to us today.

So where have we been?

We started almost a month ago now in Deuteronomy chapter 4 and chapter 5.

Deuteronomy 4 · chapter mention

There we saw this image of our God as utterly unique.

There's no one like him.

Says that he is God and there is no other.

Well, how do they come to be on our hearts?

How do we get them on the inside of who we are?

Well, we ingest them, we consume them until they become a part of who we are.

We heard that as they're consumed, God's words are to be passed on.

Not kept back for ourselves, but to be communicated to the next generation.

And remembering God's words are key to that action.

For how can we ever communicate what God says or pass on God's history if we do not listen and remember in the first place?

Then last Sunday in Deuteronomy chapter 8, Webb very clearly displayed for us that God speaks.

Deuteronomy 8 · chapter mention

That God speaks.

And we are to remember what God has said.

We are to remember what God has done.

And as we do so, as we remember what God has said and what he's done, we are then able to see who our God really is.

And when we understand what he said and who he is and what he's done, we must be careful to not forget.

We believe then in a unique God who has given us his word to remember, to obey, to pass on, and by which we come to know him, by which we come to love him.

Now, our goal today is to show how all of this carries forward to the New Testament and not just to the New Testament, but to all of us.

We're going to begin in the Old Testament and end up in the New Testament, Lord willing, showing how all of this links together and how God has told us over and over again that remembering his word is the key to obedience.

We're going to do this through the general pattern or path of command, inability, and provision.

We will see how God gives a command, how we are unable to fulfill that command, and yet God still steps in and provides.

So we will begin then in Deuteronomy chapter 12.

Deuteronomy 12 · chapter mention

And I apologize in advance for my swift speaking.

We've got a lot to cover, and I know you want to eat.

So we're going to move fast over several passages of scripture.

I hope your fingers are limber.

We're going to turn our pages of our Bibles or your device several times.

Deuteronomy chapter 10, beginning in verse 12.

Deuteronomy 10 · chapter mention

The scriptures say, this is Moses communicating to Israel.

And now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you?

But to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of Yahweh, which I am commanding you today for your good.

And now, if your Bible or your translation doesn't include that, that's a literal translation of the Hebrew word.

And now.

And it's important for us to notice because it's used in the book of Deuteronomy only three times to introduce a new section, specifically a new section of communication.

Of those three, this is the middle one.

This is the second time this word is used.

The first time is back in chapter four, verse one, where we were told, and now listen.

Listen.

So we've heard in chapter one, two, three, four, five, all the way up to chapter nine, what God has done.

What God has said.

And after all that God has said, what does God expect of his people?

Well, it's very clear here.

We don't really have to struggle at what God intends for us to do after listening to him.

Fear, walk, love, serve, and keep.

He lays it out very clearly there, doesn't he?

Very, very simple set of instructions.

And these are the results of remembering what God has said.

They are the intended fruit of remembering.

That means that we can safely assume that if we do not see these five elements in our lives, we are not listening, remembering, and obeying as God intends.

Let me say that again.

If we do not fear the Lord our God, if we do not walk with the Lord our God, if we do not love Him, serve Him, and keep all of His commandments, if those are not evident in our lives, then that displays to us we are not fulfilling the expectation to listen, to remember, and to obey.

Now, as we go on, verse 14 says, Behold, to Yahweh your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.

Yet in spite of that, Yahweh set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.

Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.

For Yahweh your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe, and it goes on to explain what he is like.

Now, what do we see here?

We see exactly what Webb presented to us clearly from chapter 8 last Sunday.

We see right here in these four or five verses here, what God has done, what God has said, and who God is.

It's laid out very clearly for us.

Remember, he says, what your God has done.

He set his heart in love on your fathers, he chose your people.

He executes justice for the fatherless, verse 18.

Love for the sojourner, and verse 19.

Remember who your God is.

He is God of gods.

Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome God.

There's no one like him.

And then right in the middle of that, right in the middle, Moses says, Here's what you are supposed to do in response to this.

When you hear what God has to say, and when you when you know what he's done and you know who he is, here's what you ought to do in response.

Surgically change your heart.

Circumcise your heart.

He says, Change your heart.

You need to have a change, a total change in your inner being, in your heart.

What does that look like?

Well, we can see that in verse 1 of chapter 11.

You shall therefore love Yahweh your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments.

When we have a heart change, we listen, we remember, and we obey.

That's what happens.

The first and now, in chapter 4, verse 1, commands God's people to listen, remember, and obey.

Now the second and now reminds God's people of the fruit of listening, remembering, and obeying.

Now Moses is about to die.

We don't know exactly when he finished writing Deuteronomy, but it was near the end of his life.

He's going to die, and Joshua will lead the people the rest of the way into the land of Canaan to fulfill God's promise.

They're going to take with them the recently completed Torah Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

That's their scriptures.

They will take that with them as well as anything that they have listened to and remembered.

And Moses tells them, listen to what God has said.

Remember what God has done.

Know who your God is and obey.

How do we do that?

Look over with me at chapter 18.

God gives a promise.

So they are going to go over into the land of Canaan with the first five books of our Bibles and everything that they remember.

In chapter 4, verse 1, we are told to listen to God's speech, to his words.

We're told to listen, to remember, and do them.

And now Moses tells the people listen, God's going to keep leading you, God's going to keep communicating with you.

Chapter 18, verse 15, Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, like Moses, from among you, from your brothers.

It is to him you shall listen.

Verse 18, I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him, and whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.

Moses says that God is going to send a prophet like Moses.

And then he says, It is to him you shall listen.

That's astounding.

How could God be so insistent in chapter 4, chapter 6, chapter 5, chapter 8, and so on?

How could God be so insistent on his people listening to his words, but now say the time is going to come when we will need to listen to a prophet like Moses?

How could God change like that?

We're supposed to listen to what God has to say.

Now we're supposed to listen to someone else when he comes.

What's going on here?

This is God's response to Israel's fear of hearing his voice.

If you remember, back in chapter 5, Moses was recounting the nation of Israel being at Mount Sinai, where the where Moses went up on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, and it was covered with fire and cloud, and out of that cloud God spoke.

And as God spoke, the people thought they were gonna die.

And they said, Moses, we don't want to hear God's voice anymore because we don't want to die.

Therefore, you talk to God, and after you talk to God, you come down and tell us what he said.

And God told them, Listen, that's that's good.

That's wisdom, that's showing reverence for who I am, that's understanding my holiness.

So that's a proper way to think.

So God then communicated through Moses so Moses could speak to Israel and they would not die.

But God gives more grace.

He's a gracious God and he gives more grace.

Because the time would come, God promised, when his people would hear his voice once again, without fearing death.

It would be as though they were hearing God speak on the mountaintop, hearing his voice, but not fearing death.

In a sense, it was God restoring his world.

When was the last time in Scripture, besides God speaking with Moses?

When was the last time before that that God spoke audibly with a human being?

Might have to work in your brain a little bit.

I'll give you a hint.

It's Genesis 2.

It's with a man named Adam and a wife named Eve, who walked and talked with God in the Garden of Eden.

So God is here promising a future time when it's going to be as if God has restored things.

To hear the voice of God and not fear death because of our sin.

He says that here that there would be a Jewish man in whom would reside the words of God, and God's people must listen to him just as they listened to Moses in the desert.

Why?

Why would they need to do that?

Well, he tells us here.

Verse 18.

The promised one would speak God's words.

And if people did not listen to that person, there would come judgment.

Listen, remember, and obey.

Don't forget.

Instead, be careful to do everything that God has said.

Remember what God has said.

Remember what God has done.

And remember who He is.

Allow that to infiltrate your entire being until it begins to produce fruit of obedience in you.

Change your heart.

Perform heart surgery on yourself.

But how do we do that?

How do we change our hearts?

It's interesting.

If we look over at Deuteronomy chapter 29, we see what at face value could be a very concerning passage of scripture.

Deuteronomy 29 · chapter mention

This is after Moses has completed his review of the law that God gave his people.

So he'd spent a whole bunch of time reviewing with the second generation who hadn't heard this before, saying, here's what God wants you to do, to hear, and to obey.

So in verse 1 of chapter 29, it says, These are the words of the covenant that Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel.

Look down at verse 2.

Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, You have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and those great wonders.

So we've been told here yet again what God has said and what God has done.

We see that repetition coming into play.

Verse 4.

But to this day, Yahweh has not given you a heart to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear.

Remember the commandment in chapter 10, verse 16.

Change your heart.

Change your heart.

You need to have a change of heart in order to be receptive to God's words and be obedient.

You have to have a change of heart to be able to listen, remember, and obey.

If you question that, all you have to do is look at some passages of Scripture.

Speaking of humanity in Genesis chapter 8, this is after the flood.

Genesis 8 · chapter mention

God says the same thing before the flood, chapter 6.

But in Genesis chapter 8, verse 21, God says, the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.

Genesis 8:21

That's our nature, that's who we are.

Evil sinfulness resides within us as human beings.

We can't escape it.

That's who we are.

That's why Jesus Himself would say in Matthew chapter 15 in the New Testament, for out of the heart come evil thoughts.

Matthew 15 · chapter mention

Not just evil thoughts, but murder and adultery and sexual immorality and theft and false witness and slander.

He says, That's who we are as human beings.

You don't have to wonder what you're like without God.

He tells you.

This is it.

This is what's on the inside of us.

That's why Jeremiah would put it very succinctly.

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.

Who can understand it?

It's unfortunate that I need to stop at that point to make my at that verse to make my point because the next verse answers the question.

Who is able to understand it?

God can.

God can understand the heart, but it's deceitful and desperately sick.

Beware of following your heart.

Beware of following your heart.

That's something that we hear a lot in our society.

If you are a college student or a high school student or still seeking your way in life, people will tell you, oh, just follow your heart.

Please don't.

Please don't.

Following an unchanged heart will only lead a person away from God's word, away from listening, away from remembering, and away from obeying.

There is only one kind of heart, only one kind of heart that can be trusted in any way.

And that is the heart that has been recreated by the power and the will of God, that has been filled with the Spirit of God, that has been enthralled with the Son of God, and that has been molded by the Word of God.

Because natural human beings, unchanged hearts will not listen, remember, and obey.

Sin.

Because they are slaves to sin, the voice of God produces fear, not love and obedience.

Israel displayed this.

What other people, Moses said in chapter 5, what other nation on the face of this earth that has ever existed ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the fire?

Answer.

Big old zero.

None.

No one, no other people group.

And yet they could not obey.

Well, God tells us right here in 29, 4, God had not yet given them new hearts to understand, new ears to hear, and new eyes to see.

They were so accustomed to their slavery to sin that they could not even see their need for God's action to make them into brand new beings.

Beloved, our hearts, our ears, and our eyes are so distorted from our own sin that we cannot appropriately respond to God's words.

And yet the command is still present.

Listen, remember, and obey.

And he tells us that the time would come when God would speak again.

God would speak again.

How then could God's people ever listen, remember, and obey if they cannot change their own hearts, ears, and eyes?

We don't have to wait long to find out how that can happen.

Chapter 30, verse 6.

And Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.

You can't do it.

But God can.

God can.

Israel's history would reveal a repeated refusal to listen, remember, and obey over and over and over again, so that the time would eventually come when God would say, All right, enough is enough.

I'm sending you off into captivity.

So Jeremiah, the prophet Jeremiah, would remind the people in Jerusalem, in essence, as King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian armies were surrounding the city of Jerusalem, Jeremiah would remind God's people of his promise.

In Jeremiah chapter 31, God says, I will put my law within them.

Jeremiah 31 · chapter mention

I will write it on their hearts.

How do you remember God's word when he begins to write it on your heart?

A little bit later, after the people were carried off into captivity to Babylon and its environs, the prophet Ezekiel ministered to God's people.

And Ezekiel reminded them of the same thing.

In Ezekiel chapter 11, verse 19, God said, I will give my people one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them.

Ezekiel 11:19

There's that recreation, that heart surgery that only God can do.

He is granting something brand new that we cannot do.

How does he do that?

He says, I'm gonna take out of your body the heart of stone that cannot respond to me.

Hearts of stone can't listen.

Hearts of stones can't remember, and hearts of stone don't obey.

Later on, he speaks more of that in Ezekiel 36, beginning in verse 26.

He says, I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.

I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

The next verse he says, I will go further than that.

I will put my very own spirit within you and cause you.

I am going to be the cause within you, so that you can walk in my statutes, that you can be careful to obey my rules.

How do we listen, remember, and obey?

I'll tell you how.

God does it.

Because we can't.

If you want to follow this great and awesome God, you first have to come to the end of yourself.

To realize I can't do it.

But God has promised.

God has promised and God will do it.

The end of this section in verse 36, Ezekiel says to God's people, then the nations that are left at that time all around you shall know that I am the Lord.

I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate.

I am Yahweh, I have spoken and I will do it.

Do you see what we have there?

We see what God has said, what God has done, and what he will do, which reminds God's people of who he is.

I am Yahweh.

Listening to what God has said in such a way that we remember it and do it helps us understand who He is.

Command is listen, remember, and obey.

The inability is we don't have new hearts as natural human beings.

But God has given us a promise, actually, two of them.

He has given us a promised person, someone who will speak God's words.

Then he's given us the promise of divine work, of a recreation of dead hearts.

God will do the surgery that we cannot do.

Now in Scripture, God expresses himself, that is, tells us who he is in two ways.

Hopefully you know them by now.

By what he says and by what he does.

That's how God expresses himself.

But humans have dead hearts, humans have deaf ears, and humans have blind eyes.

How then can we listen, remember, and obey?

We're unable to truly receive God's expression of Himself in our own nature.

So the only hope is trust in God's promise of one who speaks the words of God and does so with the power of God to give life to dead hearts.

Let me say that differently.

God promised a person who spoke the words of God with the power of God to change your life.

We see that fulfilled in Matthew chapter 17, moving over now to the New Testament.

Matthew 17 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 17, perhaps a familiar passage to many of you.

Matthew 17 · chapter mention

Beginning in verse 1, we read, and after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

That's speaking about Jesus.

And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him.

And Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it's good that we're here.

If you wish, I will make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.

He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them.

And behold, a voice from the cloud said, This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.

Listen to him.

Note Matthew's emphasis in verse one.

Four people went up the mountainside, right?

He lists them by name.

But then he goes a step further and he says, by themselves.

Nobody else, just these four people.

But then when they get up on top of the mountainside, there are suddenly two more people.

Elijah and Moses.

Then there's a cloud and a voice speaking from the cloud.

When was the last time that there was a voice, the voice of God, speaking from a cloud with Moses present?

You got it.

Mount Sinai.

That exact same situation that Moses is repeating to God's people in the book of Deuteronomy.

What did Moses write in Deuteronomy 4, verse 1?

Deuteronomy 4:1

Listen to the statutes and the rules.

What did God say in Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 15, and promising another person?

Deuteronomy 18:15

He said, It is to him you shall listen.

There would come a time when listening would not be to Moses or to Moses' words, but to someone new.

And now we have Moses plus a cloud plus a voice equals this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.

Listen to him.

Understood within the history of the nation of Israel, there's absolutely no confusion.

God the Father identified the one to whom Moses pointed.

With Moses present.

Listen to him.

Case you need further clarification, it can come from Hebrews chapter 1.

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

The very beginning of that passage, it says, Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets.

But in these last days he has spoken to us by his son, the same son that he's appointed heir of all things, and through whom he also created the world.

That son who is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

So the spoken words of God are now heard from Jesus.

Listen to him.

Remember what he says.

Obey.

Do not forget.

Why should we listen to Jesus?

Because Jesus speaks the words of God.

Jesus does the works of God.

And what he says and what he does point to who he is.

The exact imprint of God's nature.

This is God in the flesh.

We see the fulfillment of God's promise.

Israel looked to Moses to repeat what God said, but God promised a time when his people could hear from him directly, yet again.

And here it is, all laid out for us.

Actually becomes clearer from the book of John.

I've laid this out for myself and thought I would share it with you.

It's somewhat small on the screen, so if you'd like a copy of this later, I can give it to you.

If we start at the top, we have Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 15, where God said, A prophet like Moses is going to come.

Deuteronomy 18:15

It's interesting that in John 5, Jesus says to his disciples, Did you know that Moses wrote about me?

So we start there.

There's a connection.

Then in Deuteronomy 18, 18, God said, I will put my words in his mouth.

What does Jesus say in John chapter 8?

John 8 · chapter mention

I speak just as the Father taught me.

Then a little bit later in his high priestly prayer in John 17, he says to the Father, I have given them your words.

This is the guy.

Deuteronomy 18, God said, It is to him you shall listen.

Matthew 17, God said, Listen to him.

It all comes down to that bottom square.

In Deuteronomy chapter 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

Deuteronomy 4 · chapter mention

God said over and over again, listen.

Remember, don't forget.

Obey.

Then a little bit later in Deuteronomy chapter 30, he says to God's people, choose life.

Deuteronomy 30 · chapter mention

Love Yahweh your God, obey his voice, hold fast to him.

Why?

Because he is your life.

It's fascinating then that Jesus says in John chapter 6 to all to the 12 disciples, when he's losing disciples by the droves, they're just ditching him.

John 6 · chapter mention

Jesus looks at the 12 and says, Hey, do you guys want to go too?

Peter looks at Jesus and says, Well, where else would we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

Later in John chapter 3, Jesus would say, He whom God has sent utters the words of God.

John 3 · chapter mention

That's speaking of himself.

Whoever believes in the Son has the life that God has promised.

Whoever does not fulfill this does not have life.

This is the fulfillment of God's promise to speak.

But how is that all possible?

How does that come to pass?

Well, we look, we look to see that in John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

Specifically the first 14 verses.

And again, we're just we're just flying through this to help you see connections.

John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through him, and without him was not anything that was made.

In him was life, the life of God, the life that God promised in Deuteronomy.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Verse 11.

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, or the will of man, but of God.

There's that recreation, that divine promise of divine work, of doing the heart surgery on your behalf.

And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

There's the incarnation, there's Christ, the word of God taking on flesh, dwelling among us, and we have seen his glory.

Glory is of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

God expresses himself in what he says and what he does.

What has God said?

Here's my word.

What has he done?

He's wrapped his word in flesh.

The word is God, and God is the word.

God is very clearly identified with his speech, with his word.

That's why author John Frame, he's a theologian and a philosopher, says in his book, Salvation belongs to the Lord.

And I quote, where God is, the word is, and vice versa.

It is the very presence of God in our midst, he says.

So then when we see Jesus, when we hear Jesus, when Jesus speaks, God is speaking.

This is the word that God has promised from the very beginning.

When God speaks, he reveals himself.

He shows who he is.

You cannot separate the word of God from God Himself.

That's why Israel was commanded to listen, remember, and obey, because when they listened and they remembered and they obeyed, they were receiving and obeying not just the words of God, but God Himself.

To listen to and to call to remembrance and to obey is not the reception of some characters on a page put together to form words that form sentences.

No, it's actually much more than that.

It is actually hearing and receiving and obeying the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who is the word of the living God.

When the word became flesh, the promises in Deuteronomy were fulfilled.

But something changed too.

Before, Israel only heard the voice of God from the cloud.

They heard what God said through Moses.

They listened to God in that way.

But in Jesus, the word came to live among human beings.

God's word has come to be personally with us, John Frame says.

God is present in his word, in his speech, with his people.

Remembering God's word is at the heart of obedience.

What's the command?

Listen, remember, and obey.

What's the inability?

We don't have new hearts.

By ourselves, we we have no ability to listen, no ability to remember, no ability to obey because we have stone hearts, we have deaf ears and blind eyes.

That's why Jesus would say to Nicodemus just a couple of chapters later in John chapter three that you have to have a new kind of birth, a birth that comes from above, where you are given a new heart, a new spirit that longs to love him and obey him.

Because when God does that work, he gives you A heart that listens, he gives you ears that hear, he gives you a heart that remembers and wants to obey.

Let me show you how this works out.

John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

You remember how Deuteronomy chapter 30, God said, Choose life.

Deuteronomy 30 · chapter mention

Choose life.

I'm gonna give you that life.

Well, in John chapter 5, verse 21, Jesus says, For as the Father has life in himself, as he's the one who raises the dead, in the same way, the Son gives life to whom he will.

John 5:21

God says, Choose life.

How do you choose life?

Come to Jesus.

The Son has power to give life.

That's why he would say just a couple of verses later in verse 24, truly, truly, amen, amen.

I say to you that whoever hears my word and believes in him who sent me has, possesses right now, this moment, eternal life.

Maybe you're hearing this for the very first time and you're wondering what's going on inside of me.

It may be God saying to you, I want you to believe I'm changing your heart so that you can hear for the very first time.

Trust Jesus.

Let him change you from the inside out.

Let him give you that new heart.

Open your ears and your eyes to see.

Because new life, new life that comes from Jesus, gives to dead people new hearts, new ears, new eyes.

And when you have a new heart and a new ear and a new eye, guess what you can do?

You can listen, you can remember, and you can obey.

Not because of anything that you've done.

No glory to us.

It's because of what God has done.

Chapter 8 of John.

Verse 43, Jesus interacts with Pharisees and he says to them, Why are you so ignorant?

Really, why are you ignorant?

Why don't you understand what I'm saying to you?

God is speaking.

Jesus is God in the flesh.

God is speaking to you.

Why can't you hear it?

Why can't you understand it?

It's very simple.

You cannot bear to hear my word because you're still enslaved to your former master.

You're still there where you were.

But a little bit later in verse 47, Jesus flips it around and he says, But whoever is of God, whoever has received this new life, whoever has the new heart, who is of God, hears the words of God.

Do you see that?

That's the fulfillment of God's command.

Listen, remember, and obey.

Whoever is of God hears the words of God.

The reason why you do not hear them is you don't have the changed heart.

You are not of God.

Alright, let's wrap this up.

I know you want to go to lunch.

How is it possible to listen, to remember, and to obey the words of God?

Very first step is believe in the promised Son, who is the full expression of the Word of God.

In Jesus, God speaks.

In Jesus, God has spoken.

Look to him, hear what he has to say, and entrust yourself to him holy.

And once you've done that, consume the words of God with that new heart, those new ears and those new eyes.

Take it in, let it enrich you.

Bathe yourself in the words of God and the actions of God, what he has said and what he has done, so much so that it begins to spill out of you to other generations of people.

And then begin to grow in an understanding, a deeper understanding and a broader understanding of what God has said, of what God has done, and in who Jesus is.

Because as God's word is present within you, as the word of God is present within you, God Himself is present, producing the fruit of obedience.

Isn't that what Hebrews 4.12 tells us about Scripture?

For the word of God is living and active.

If you are consuming the words of God, it's not just sitting there like a dumb thing down there in your stomach.

It is living and it is active.

Why is it living and active?

Because it's a person.

It's not just words that come out of the mouth of God, it's the person of the Lord Jesus Christ affecting change in your heart and your mind and your life.

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege with Tim Bartell of standing beneath the statue of John Huss.

John Huss was a Bohemian reformer martyred in Prague in 1415.

John Huss said, and I quote, faithful Christian, seek the truth.

Listen to the truth, learn the truth, love the truth, tell the truth, and defend the truth even to death.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, do not let a heart leave this room unchanged.

Affect the power of your grace and your will by opening blind eyes, giving new hearing to deaf ears, and hearts of flesh and hearts, place of hearts of stone.

And we all cry out to you that we need your help, we need your grace, we need your mercy to be your people.

We give praise to you for who you are, we give praise to you for what you've done, and we give praise to you for speaking, to show us who you are.

In a moment, Lord Jesus, we will lift up our voices to you, proclaiming your praise because of your mercy given to us, and that the word of God took on flesh and dwelt among us.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.