About this sermon
After Israel’s sin with the golden calf, the Lord had Moses cut new tablets and wrote the Ten Commandments on them again, and Moses placed them in the ark. Aaron, though he had sinned greatly, was forgiven and his son succeeded him as priest, and the Levites were set apart to carry the ark and to bless in the Lord’s name. The restored tablets in the ark were a reminder that God remained faithful to his covenant. The Lord’s Supper is a similar sign of his faithfulness, and the humble and contrite are invited to his table.
Sermon transcript
I invite you to turn with me this morning in the word of God to Deuteronomy chapter 10. Deuteronomy chapter 10. Be reminded once again that this is the inspired and living word of the true and living God, our Savior. Deuteronomy chapter 10. At that time, the Lord said to me, cut out for yourself two tablets of stone like the former ones and come up to me on the mountain and make an arc of wood for yourself. I will write on the tablets, the words that were on the former tablets, which you shattered and you shall put them in the arc. So I made an ark of acacia wood and cut out two tablets of stone like the former ones and went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. He wrote on the tablets, like the former writing, the Ten Commandments, which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. and the Lord gave them to me. Then I turned, and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made. And there they are, as the Lord commanded me.
Now the sons of Israel set out from Be’eroth b’nei Jaqan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried, and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his place. From there they set out to Gadgadah, and from Gadgadah to Jadbathah, a land of brooks of water. At that time, the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord, to serve him, and to bless in his name until this day. Therefore, Levi does not have a portion or inheritance with his brothers.
The Lord is his inheritance, just as the Lord your God spoke to him. I, moreover, stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, like the first time. And the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord was not willing to destroy you. Then the Lord said to me, Arise, proceed on your journey ahead of the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
Now Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and love him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord’s commandments and his statutes, which I am commanding you today for your good.
Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Yet on your fathers did the Lord set his affection to love them, and he chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples as it is this day. So circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer, for the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe, He executes justice for the orphan and the widow and shows his love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and cling to him, and you shall swear by his name.
He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you, which your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt, 70 persons in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven. Thus ends the reading of God’s holy word.
Let us pray together, shall we? Our father, let it be our great joy to be here among your people today. Let us be eager and ready now to hear and by the grace of the spirit made able to hear the word of God and to lay it up in our hearts and to bring forth the fruit of us of it. We thank you for your great love and affection as you have shown it to us in your Son, Jesus Christ, and we pray that in turn we might love you, O God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and may we love one another with that love with which we have been loved in Christ. And may you bless this day that in all things Christ might have the first place in our hearts, in our lives, our minds, our wills, that to Him would be the glory and the praise and the honor, both now and forevermore. And we do pray, Father, that you’ll give grace to the preacher as he opens the word of God today, that we might receive it from his mouth as it is the word of God with understanding and grace and power and that power coming from above by the working of the Holy Spirit. And this we do pray now in the name of our Savior Jesus and for his name’s sake. Amen.
As we turn to Deuteronomy 10 this morning, we see that Moses had continued to speak to the people Israel about the sad events of 40 years earlier at Mount Horeb, that is at Mount Sinai, when the people, by making the image of the golden calf, their fathers before them had grieved the God who loved them.
The sins of infidelity and ingratitude had seriously damaged the covenant relationship. Moses, their sacrificial intercessor, however, was concerned both for God’s honor and the people’s salvation. Moses had, as it were, stood in the breach between an angry God and a sinning people. Their iniquity was passed over and the relationship was restored, and the renewed community could then continue their journey towards the promised land, facing the future with gratitude and confidence in their God.
Moses did not tell the story to the children of the offenders simply to open up sore wounds. He was using their history as a warning device. God can use even our worst sins for our good. God’s kindness in forgiving sin is offered not to harden us in sin so that we can go on sinning, but that we might repent and turn from it independence upon him all the more. In years to come, that grim apostasy at Mount Sinai would be recalled both in the Old Testament and in the New, not simply to condemn the idolaters that they were, but to warn later generations of similar dangers. God is generous in his love and mercy. Although Moses uses the incident to alert the waiting people to similar dangers awaiting them in Canaan, they are not left in any doubt concerning the dependable, forgiving love of God.
In the teachings here of chapters 10 and 11 of Deuteronomy, you’ll see that love is the central theme. God’s love is the central theme of these chapters. And this extended passage of chapters 10 and 11 brings Moses’s historical review to a close. Back in chapters 8 and 9, he has been reviewing the history of Israel, the history of the wilderness trek. And so as we come to chapters 10 and 11, we’re coming to the end of that historical review. And the people must not be left simply with a depressing account of human sin, but with a reassuring exposition of God’s love.
As this main address then moves to its conclusion, Moses refers to God’s love for his people. Look at chapter 10 verse 15 and of his love of their love for him. Chapter 10 verse 12, which will carry us all also over into chapter 11 where you might note particularly in verses one, 13 and 22 that also speak of love. Moses also describes God’s love for the alien, chapter 10, verse 18, and the consequent responsibility of the Israelites to love the alien as well, chapter 10, verses 19 and 20.
The people who are about to enter Canaan are therefore reminded that God’s love is patient. While Moses has been recalling the Horeb story, the Sinai story, he speaks to the congregation about God’s patience and his forbearance that had been shown to Israel’s people, to Aaron’s family particularly, and to the tribe of Levi.
In verses one through five of our chapter today, Moses makes sure that the people remember how God told his servant to chisel out two more stone tablets like the former ones. You will notice that this observation is made four times in as many verses in verses one to four, like the former ones. The New American Standard Bible uses that word former, while several other versions prefer the translation first. The two tablets of stone Moses was to cut out were like the first ones, the former ones which he had shattered when Israel had so terribly broken the covenant by creating the golden calf. Although the first tablets had been broken, the Lord, here we are told and reminded, invited Moses to make a new record of the agreement, and the freshly made tablets were to be placed in the Ark of the Covenant.
Although the people had sinned, and dramatically breaking the commandments of God, even in the very face of God, as it were, God was giving them an entirely new beginning. They did not deserve to be pardoned, to have their sins passed over, but it is the nature of God’s love to forbear, to forgive, and to do so fully, completely, and immediately. Those repeated words, like the former ones, are a striking reminder of God’s generous pardon. God graciously dealt with Israel in accordance with Moses’ intercession on behalf of the people.
But those words, like the former ones, are also instructive in pointing us beyond Sinai to the need for a new and better covenant. It would appear that the prophet Jeremiah is setting forth the promise of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31 verse 31 and following, particularly picking up on the need for a new covenant when he says that this new covenant will not be not like the covenant which the Lord made with the fathers of Israel in the day when he took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant, which they broke. In the New Covenant, the Lord would put His law within His people and on their heart, and would He write it. And He, as He promises according to that New Covenant, He will be their God and they will be His people. This is the covenant which the Lord has made in the power and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And while I recognize here in saying that that I’m leaping well ahead of the story in Deuteronomy. Nevertheless, I want to remind you that these things beloved about Israel in Deuteronomy were written for our instruction, a people upon whom the ends of the ages have come. First Corinthians 10 10 11. So let us return for a moment to Deuteronomy 10 verses six and seven.
And there we are reminded that Aaron, the priest that God had appointed, had sinned. There was no doubt about that. The first two commandments had made it clear that the Israelites were to have no other gods, nor were they to make any graven image. But the people had said, come, make us gods, Aaron. And in response to their demands, Aaron’s own hands had fashioned the golden calf.
The prohibition against idolatry plainly said that those who rejected God’s love by worshiping images would encounter the wrath of a jealous God who would visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations. But notice there in the text how Moses reminds the people that in God’s mercy, Aaron was permitted to assume, reassume his leadership responsibilities again. And after his death, even his son Eliezer ministered as priest in his place. Verse six, the sins of that particular father were not visited. It appears upon his children. Aaron’s great transgression was met with God’s forbearance and forgiveness and love.
The new tablets on which the commandments were written were preserved in an ark, a wooden box created according to divine command. And it was made with poles so that it could be carried on the journey by a specially appointed family of priests from the tribe of Levi. The ark was overlaid with gold, and its lid was known as the mercy seat. When the people sinned, the sacrificial blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat to make atonement for the sins of the people.
Moreover, the ark was to be a visible reminder to the people of God’s presence in their midst. It was there at the ark in the tabernacle that God met with Moses. Images or representations of God were strictly forbidden, for the Lord knew that the people would be helped, but the Lord knew that the people would be helped by the symbols of outward signs of his presence and power. The Lord also knew that his people could easily lose their spiritual and moral values.
So a particular tribe, the Levites, were set apart to become God’s ministers to remind them of holy things along the way. As the Levites carried the ark on the long pilgrimage across the desert, they were witnessing to the fact of God’s presence there in the midst of the people, and God’s word, the two tables of the law, and remind them of the law and of God’s mercy. The tribe of Levi was in itself a symbol of the importance of spiritual realities and the generosity of God in making such rich provision for their basic human needs. In addition to carrying the ark, verse eight, They were that is the Levites were to serve the Lord.
They were to stand before the Lord to serve him and to bless his name and to pronounce his blessings on the people, making them aware of the things which mattered most of all. The Levites were not to be given an allocation of land like the other tribes in the promised land. Instead, they were to be supported by the people. If they gave themselves wholeheartedly to their teaching, pastoral and intercessory ministries among the Israelites, divine resources would always meet their daily needs.
The devoted priest was God’s messenger to the people. The Lord himself undertook to be the priest’s special inheritance. Verse nine, as you know, the Levites, given no inheritance in the land, were nevertheless were told that the Lord himself, Yahweh, is your portion, your inheritance. And the Lord would be as generous to the priest as to all the other tribes. They would certainly not suffer any deprivation because they had put God’s work first.
In a brief description found in verses 10 and 11 of his intercessory ministry on the mountain, Moses reminded the people of five important aspects of the Lord’s gracious patience. First, he reminds them that the Lord heard my prayers. The Lord listened to me, Moses says. And secondly, he says the Lord was not willing to destroy you.
And thirdly, the Lord urged Moses to arise and proceed upon his journey ahead of the people, providing guidance and assuring the people, fifthly, that they would go in and possess the land, the land which he had sworn to their fathers to give them. And thus it is appropriate at this point to pause and to take stock of this particular redemptive historical moment in the life of Israel. Rather than having been destroyed by the Lord’s wrath at Mount Sinai, through the intercession of Moses, the Lord had relented of the destruction of this stiff-necked people, and their wilderness journey had continued instead. And so it was, even on that very day that Moses was speaking these words of Deuteronomy 10, the people of Israel now stood by the Jordan River on the brink of the promised land. God had proved faithful to them over those years. The outcome of Moses’s historic intercession on Mount Sinai is made clear by the report of the renewed covenant here in chapter 10, verses one to five, and the renewed journey that had brought them to this point 40 years later.
The rewriting of the Ten Commandments and the continuation of the priestly ministry were evidences of the Lord’s covenantal mercy to Israel. This is pictured very graphically for Israel. In verse five, Moses could point and say, there they are. They’re referring to the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the two tablets of the law.
In this visual phenomenon was represented the very presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel, who remained in their midst as he had promised in the light of all that had come to pass between the beginning and the end of their 40-year trek in the wilderness, Israel indeed should be now a chastened people about to move into the promised land, a people with every confidence in their God, but with no illusions about themselves, certainly having no grounds for claims of self-righteousness. Thus, the preacher Moses had returned to some familiar themes as he recounts the historical survey of God’s dealing with his people And we might recall for a moment that again, the Book of Deuteronomy has the format or the form of a treaty of the great of the great treaty that God made with his people. And we would recall that mere Eastern treaties of those days frequently began with an account of earlier relationships between the two parties in making the agreement. The historical prologue to the treaty was usually followed by some general principles, a description of qualities and attitudes which were to govern the relationship in the years ahead. Notice in verses 12-15 of our text, 12-15 and following, how the language of love was given a prominent place in the covenant renewal that God makes here with his people through Moses.
The Lord is the creator, the sustainer, and the ruler of the entire universe. He is the sovereign, the suzerain who is making treaty with this, making covenant with this people. And he is the creator, sustainer and ruler, the sovereign Lord. And yet that sovereign Lord we see in these verses chose one very small nation, that nation of Israel to be the recipient and the instrument of his special purposes in the world.
The people are told that. Though that there were so many other nations that He might have used, the Lord set His affections on Israel’s fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, above all peoples, verse 15. In other words, the Sovereign Lord could have done what He wanted to do, but He chose among the nations Israel and the seed of Israel to be His people. And the covenant relationship was based on the Lord’s commitment to love them. not on their decision to follow him. The initiative was with God and it, of course, still is with God.
And as we think in terms of New Covenant context, the Apostle John shared the gospel expression of this idea in New Covenant terms when he writes in 1 John, for example, 1 John 4, verse 10, This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. As Moses could point to the ark containing the two tablets of the law, and in so doing, remind the people of the Lord’s covenant faithfulness and love.
So I do today also pause and for a moment ask that you would place your attention upon the communion table that is set before you. Here is a visible sign and reminder of the Lord’s covenant faithfulness and love to you, beloved. Here we are once again reminded of Christ’s supreme intervention and intercession on our behalf. For as often as we eat this bread and do drink this cup, we do show forth the Lord’s death until he comes. To be sure, we are also reminded in the supper that the body and blood of Christ are not corporally or carnally present in the bread and wine. Rather, Christ is spiritually present to the faith of those who receive the sacrament. But as surely as one sees and tastes and feels the elements, just as truly and really are the body and blood spiritually present for us. Those who worthily receive this sacrament do receive and apply unto themselves Christ crucified and all the benefits of his death.
Are we not also reminded here that our salvation is not something we ourselves have done? It is all of Christ doing. It is what Christ did. Even as Moses could point to the ark and to the tablets that were before the people of Israel, reminding them how God had renewed covenant with them and remained faithful to his covenant commitment to them. So we can come to the table today and be reminded that this is all of what Christ has done for us.
Let us consider earnestly together this morning our great need of having our comfort, our strength so renewed in this, our earthly pilgrimage and spiritual warfare, that it is through Christ alone that we are nourished and sustained on the way. And it is through Christ alone that we shall reach our blessed heavenly final destination, the great heavenly promised land that is prepared for us. God, in other words, does not simply love in word. His love is practical. It’s not merely theoretical.
It is expressed in his everyday relationships with his people. And thus Moses expounds the visible outworking of God’s love in human experience. The divine love was manifested not simply in Israel’s election, but in his constant protection throughout the years. The Lord their God, the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, executes his justice and extends his love not only to the vast community, but also to the bereaved family, in his providential care, as we’re told here, for widows, for orphans, for aliens. He does not show partiality, nor does he take a bribe, but he shows himself the God of love to all manner of men, to women, and to children as well. And he disciplines those whom he loves.
God’s love for his people is the foundation of his covenant. And the initiative is with God. And although the initiative is with God, there are two parties to the agreement. Israel must respond to God’s love by loving him in return. Moreover, as the Lord demonstrates his love in his practical deeds, so too must they do the same.
The covenant requirements are undeniably explicit. And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you? I think this is verse 12. But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes.
The Lord stipulates that his people are to give expression to their love for him and their commitment to his covenant. People will know that they love God because of their reverential worship, by holy living and by their willing obedience, their active service and their wholehearted devotion to Yahweh.
And notice, as we read of this covenant in Deuteronomy, that these are not tyrannical rules, oppressive regulations designed merely for God’s pleasure, but for human pain. But neither are they merely outward ceremonies. The Lord is specially concerned about those things that cultivate the inner life of the believer and the covenant community to which they belong. This is the stuff, beloved, also of the new covenant.
As Paul says in the book of Romans chapter 8, what the law could not do, God did. Nothing less than new hearts with the commandments written upon those hearts would do. Nothing less than the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Nothing less the propitiation of divine justice would satisfy. Nothing less than the powerful sovereign working of the spirit in regeneration, working faith and repentance, producing sanctification and glorification.
Yes, we love because God first loved us. He did not merely command, but he also gives what he commands. He gives the Holy Spirit to his people. And the sins that he had previously passed over In the manifestation of his forbearance and forgiveness in the fullness of the time, the Lord summarily atoned for those sins in the death of his own begotten son, his only begotten son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the promised seed of the covenant.
He is our praise and he is our God who has done these great and awesome things for us, which we have now seen by faith. We are that alien people whom God has loved. We were once no people, but now we are the people whom he has made to be his people. He is ours and we are his. He is our great inheritance. May to God alone be the glory among the people of God. To God alone be the glory in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen. Let’s respond to God’s word as we sing together hymn number 188. Hymn number 188. Let’s stand together as we sing, shall we?
There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel’s veins. And sinners part beneath that flood. Lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty stains. And sinners plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day, and there have I as my own. as He washed all my sins away. Washed all my sins away. Washed all my sins away. And there have I as vile as He washed all my sins away. E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream, the flowing woods of life, redeeming love has been my feet, and shall be till I die.
♪ And shall be till I die ♪ ♪ Redeeming love has been my theme ♪ ♪ And shall be till I die ♪ ♪ Dear dying man, thy precious blood ♪ ♪ Shall never lose its power ♪ Be safe to Syndamore. Be safe to Syndamore. Be safe to Syndamore. Till all the ransomed Church of God Be safe to Syndamore. Please be seated.
The words of institution of the Lord’s Supper this day come from Matthew chapter 26, where we read, while they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, hey, eat. This is my body. And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, drink from it, all of you. For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sin. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new. with you in my Father’s Kingdom.
We must understand the nature of the feast of which we are about to partake. Our directory for worship explains it this way. The Lord’s Supper is an ordinance instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ. Until His coming again, it is to be observed for a perpetual remembrance of the sacrifice of Himself on the cross. The physical elements representing a broken body and the shed blood of the Savior are received by true believers as signs and seals of all the benefits of His sacrifice upon the cross. They signify and seal remission of sins and nourishment and growth in Christ and are a bond and pledge of communion of believers with him and with each other as members of his mystical body. As signs and seals of the covenant of grace, they not only declare that God is faithful and true to fulfill the promise summon us to all the duties of the children of God, and call us to renewed consecration in gratitude for salvation.
But who may come to this feast? Our book continues. It is my solemn duty to warn the uninstructed, the profane, the scandalous, to innocently live in any sin, not to approach the holy table, lest they partake unworthily, not discerning the Lord’s body, and so eat and drink condemnation to themselves. Nevertheless, this warning is not designed to keep the humble and contrite from the table of the Lord, as if the supper were for those who might be free from sin, On the contrary, we who are invited to the supper, coming as guilty and polluted sinners, and without hope of eternal life, apart from the grace of God in Christ, confess our dependence for pardon and cleansing upon the perfect sacrifice of Christ, base our hope of eternal life upon His perfect obedience and righteousness, and humble ourselves to deny ourselves crucify our old natures and follow Christ, and become those who bear His name. Let us therefore, in accordance with the admonition of the Apostle Paul, examine our hearts and our minds to determine whether such discernment is ours, to the end that we may partake to the glory of God and to our growth in the grace of Christ. Let me just be very, very clear. This supper is not for those who have not sinned. Do not let sin keep you from this supper.
However, if you have sinned and refused to repent of it, then it would be best to let these things pass by. If you have not made a public profession in a Reformed or Evangelical church, then it would be best for you to let these pass by. And if you have not made a profession of faith in a Reformed or Evangelical church, then I would invite you to do so. If you believe the gospel, if you are trusting in Christ, then confess him before the church that you might partake of these things.
But for those who are members here or members elsewhere, please partake of this, for this ought to give us great joy. This is a picture of union with Christ, of having Christ in us, for we have a good God. who saves his people. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, cause us all here to examine ourselves if we would repent of our sin, if we would believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior, that we are part of the bride. first loved us. We ask, O Father, that your grace would be upon us, that we would see this supper, not making it a work, not making it our works, but that we would see this as your grace to us. For it is only by your grace that we would partake of this holy meal. In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the same night in which he was betrayed, having taken bread and blessed and broken it, gave it to his disciples, as I, ministering in his name, give this bread unto you, saying, take, eat. This is my body, which was given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Now we’ll read from Psalm 50, John.
Be gracious to me, O God, according to your love and kindness. According to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight. so that you are justified when you speak and blameless when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden heart you will make me know wisdom.
Purify me with hissa. And I shall be clean washed, and I shall be whiter than silver. Take, eat, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Our Savior also took the cup, and having given thanks, as has been done in His name, He gave it to His disciples, saying, This cup is a new covenant in my blood, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Drink ye of it. Make me to hear joy and gladness. Let the bones which you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins, and block out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart of God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will be converted to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation. For my tongue will joyfully sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips. that my mouth may declare your praise.
For you do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it. You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Oh, God, you will not despise. By your favor, do good design. build the walls of Jerusalem. This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which was given for the remission of sins. Drink ye all of it. Let us pray.
Joy, unspeakable joy, that is what you have given to us, O Father. Not just happiness, but joy, for our sins are forgiven, We walk in a newness of life, not according to the principles of this world, not according to the darkness that we used to walk, but we walk according to the light, to the glory of Jesus Christ, because he has shown his love to us. Cause us, O Lord, to take joy in you. Even as we look to this week ahead, in Jesus’ name, amen. And now we will have our deacons offering.
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