Well, I see we have some friends that are with us tonight that were not with us on the other evenings when we were together. And so for their sake, as well as our own, perhaps a word of review would be in order. We have been considering what God has to say to us in the opening of his word in the Pentateuch in the first five books of Moses. We found as we looked at the book of Genesis that what God had to say to us had to do with our relationship with him. He told us about where we came from and about the fall of man suffered when he sinned. He went his own way from God. And about his efforts to draw men back to himself in regeneration, re-establish that relationship again. And so the book of Genesis has to do with the relationship that obtains between God and men. And when we are far more occupied with the relationship that we have with God than the relationship that we have with monkeys or with any other animals or with slime in the mud pits. We are not interested in those things. We have something in which to glory. That is the Word of God which tells us we are related to the living God in heaven, the Creator of heaven and earth. And this is something to be glad about. But when there is a relationship like that, we saw the following evening that there follows a responsibility. And so God in the book of Exodus has told us of our responsibility to him, this responsibility that grows out of our relationship to him. What God wants of our cooperation in His great work, His work of recalling men from their bondage to sin, His great word which He gave in the book of Exodus when He gave the law through Moses and His great will to live among His people. We have responsibilities in all those areas. The book of Exodus tells us of our responsibilities in view of our relationship to God. Those responsibilities, when they are summed up, come to two words, and those words are worship and obedience. We saw in the book of Leviticus how God opened the way for our worshiping Him, how He made it clear to us that the greatness of our need is men. the awfulness of sin in the light of His holiness and the provision that He had made for our redemption. He made our hearts to rise in praise and worship to Him as we realized what He was planning and what His purpose was in the saving of men and women from their sin. And so we saw in the book of Leviticus that great exposition of God's plan of redemption. And our hearts were lifted in worship. Last evening we came to the book of Numbers and we saw there the other side of the coin as it were. how we may serve God by obedience to His Word. And we saw that God taught us in the book of Numbers by contrast, by giving us the story of His people in the earth over a period of forty years, when because of their disobedience they spent those forty years in a wild and terrible wilderness outside of the will of God. And a whole generation of blessing was lost because of their disobedience. And in this God was saying to you and to me how important it is that we obey His Word, that we walk with Him. We come tonight to the fifth book of Moses, the last book of the Pentateuch, the book of Deuteronomy. We are in a book that does a review of all that has gone before. Here we are going to see the progress of Moses in the knowledge of God, a wonderful thing revealed to our hearts. We are going to enter into a new atmosphere all together in the book of Deuteronomy than we have seen in these other books. So let's turn to the first verse of the book of Deuteronomy, chapter one and verse one. Then we will turn to the last statement in the book. The first verse is this. These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness. in the plain over against the Red Sea between Peron and Tofo and Laban and Hazaroth and Dishahab. There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir on Kadesh Barnea. This is the opening of this. These are the last words of Moses. Now turn to the end of the book. And there in chapter thirty-four, in verses ten through twelve, we read this, And there arose not a prophet since in Israel, like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. In all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel, whom God knew face to face. The Book of Deuteronomy consists of the last words of Moses. And the end of the book of Deuteronomy is a long way since he fled away from Egypt. Now we're going to have to go back for a little bit to think about Moses and his fleeing from Egypt. You remember how that Moses was born in Egypt? in a poor family, a slave family. We all remember, and some of us were reviewing this morning, how his mother hid him for three months and then committed him to the river and to God. God undertook for him and the princess found him. She took him home and raised him as her own son. And she hired Moses' mother to be his nurse. That was the beginning of the story of Moses. He had a mother who knew God. as his nurse when he was a little boy. His mother was pouring into his ears the story, the stories of the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Those stories that we've been occupied with each morning this week in the morning studies, great stories of God, the God of these men. And Jacobed was telling these stories to Moses when he was a little boy. And then she had to send him off to school. And he was sent to the schools in Egypt, the great schools in Egypt. Egypt was the greatest nation in the world in those days. It had the great centers of learning, the great universities at Memphis and at Karnak. I think one of the great thrills of my life was to go to Karnak and stand at the end of one of the long halls of columns there and see them reach up into the sky, these red granite pillars, and look up at the top and see how they flared out and see the beautiful paintings on the top. And as I stood there, I was overwhelmed with the idea that Moses walked this hall. Moses saw those paintings. Oh, it was a great school when Moses was there. It was a great school when Plato was there, too. Plato, the Greek, went to that university a thousand years later after Moses. That was a great Moses went to school in Egypt and he was trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, we're told. He learned well. They trained him in organization and in administration. And Josephus, the historian in writing of these days, says that Moses was mighty indeed and mighty in word. He was a great man in Egypt. We are told in the book of Hebrews that he chose not to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, but rather to suffer affliction with the people of God. And he took his place with the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. He began his work for God. He began his way, and he blundered. As a consequence, he went out into the desert. And for forty years, he lived on the backside of the desert with Jethro, his father-in-law, and his family. Out there he was gazing on the wonders of nature. touching the fringes of the force of God, bearing his soul to the influences of God's great majesty. And he must have had in his heart the same feelings that David expressed later in the eighth psalm when he said, When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon, and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him? or the Son of Man that thou visitest him. Moses learned about God in the backside of the desert as he looked upon all his great works. But God spoke to him in more direct visions and revelations and showed him his might diffused through the mountains and the plains and the storms and the calms and the stars and in the stones until at last. in one solitary scrub bush gleamed a glory that he had never seen. And he heard the voice of God. And God revealed himself to him as Jehovah, the one who is essential in his being, but the one who becomes all his people need. And so he revealed himself to Moses. Look at Exodus chapter thirty-three. Verse eighteen. comes somewhat later. Moses is talking with God. And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. and will show mercy, on whom I will show mercy. God revealed His glory and His goodness to Moses. And in forty years out there in the wilderness, Moses learned of the throne of righteousness and judgment. They marked God's patience. They learned God's heart. God called him to his work. And Moses was faithful in all his house. And now we come to the last words of Moses. This book of Deuteronomy is composed of six discourses. Two of these discourses look back, two of them look in. and two of them look forward. But in these discourses of Moses there is a new note. There is a new atmosphere altogether. Something new has been added to all that we have been told before. And that new thing is that all that has gone before has grown out of love that God had for men. Sovereignty of God insisted on the obedience of men. And in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses repeats old things. Now love is mentioned in Exodus. It is mentioned once where it says that God shows mercy to thousands of them that love Him. It is mentioned once in the book of Leviticus in the nineteenth chapter where the instruction is given that man is to love his neighbor. But the idea that love, that God love men is set forth first in the Word of God in the book of Deuteronomy as Moses reviews the way that God has led them. Carol Lawrence, the actress, was brought to the knowledge of Christ just a few years ago. And in an article that she wrote about her experience in coming to know Christ, she said, All my life I was taught about my responsibility to love God. I was taught the law said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. but nobody ever told me before God loved me. And that's what the Book of Deuteronomy is for, is to tell us that God loves you and me. Now the theme of the first and the second of these discourses that are in the book of Deuteronomy is this. God's love is the motive of his government. And I would like to dip into these with you. Deuteronomy chapter seven and verse seven. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh, King of Egypt. This was the reason for all that God had done, because God loved you. And here we have in this discourse a resume, if you will, of the history of the people for the forty years that Moses has been leading then. And in this resume, the most important thing is that it all happened because God loved them. Now turn to chapter ten. and verse twelve. Now this is from the second discourse. And this second discourse is a resume of the laws that Moses has given to the people. And it contains this statement, and now is real. What does the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God, with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes which I command thee this day for thy good? Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's thy God. The earth also, with all that therein is, only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them. And He chose their seed after them, even you, above all people, as it is this day. And so the reason for the word of God coming to the people was, that God loves them. He wanted them to know of His will. Now will you turn with me to chapter thirty-one, and we'll look into the fifth discourse. Chapter thirty-one, the last verse in the chapter, and then we'll read right on through the fourth verse of chapter thirty-two. Thirty-one-thirty. And Moses spoke in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song until they were ended. Now Moses is going to give these people a love song. Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth, My doctrine shall drop as the rain, My speech shall distill as the dew as the small rain Upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass. Because I will publish the name of our love the Lord. Ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the rock. His work is perfect. For all his ways are judgment. A God of truth and love. And without iniquity, just and right is he. And this song goes on to develop the theme of the love of God. Go down to verse forty-three of this same chapter. Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants and will render vengeance to his adversaries and will be merciful unto his lamb and to his people. And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people. He and Joshua the son of none. And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel. And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day. which ye shall command your children to observe to do all the words of this law, for it is not a vain thing for you, because it is your life. And through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it. Moses teaches the people this great love song. so that they can forever remember that all God's work among them was out of his love for them. And this was to remain in their hearts through all the evil days. God's triumph, God's faithfulness in all their unfaithfulness. Then the last discourse is a blessing. Chapter thirty-three, verse three. Yea, he loved the people. All his saints are in thy hand, and they sat down at thy feet. Every one shall receive of thy words. Yea, he loved the people. Now this is an interesting thing. This word loved the people here in this chapter is in the same tense that the statement by Malachi is made at the end of the Old Testament, at the end of the history, the end of the prophecy. The first four words of the book of Malachi are this, I have loved you. And those words are in such a tense that they mean, I have always loved you. I love you now, and I will always love you. God insisting on his love for his people. So God's love is the motive of his government, and as Moses said, reviews the past with the people here in the book of Deuteronomy. What he is doing is telling them all, going over with them, all the things through which they have passed. And he is saying to them, the reason for all these things is that God loves you. I want to stop there. Because there's no use just knowing these things intellectually. There's no use just revealing these things and then forgetting them. What I want you to ask yourself this evening is this. Do you realize that all the way God has brought you, all the circumstances through which he has led, are because of his love? He has brought you hitherto. exactly as he has brought you, because he loves you. And he says to you, who are his people, just as he said to his people back in those days through Moses, I have loved you, I have always loved you. I love you tonight and I will always love you. There is no way that we can escape His love. God's love is the motive of His government. I would like to suggest to you that the book of Deuteronomy teaches us that man's love is the motive of his obedience. Our love is the motive of our obedience. Now let's go back to chapter six. And we will do the same thing in connection with this as we did in connection with the other Subject God's love. Chapter six, verse four. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might. and these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. Chapter seven, verse twelve. Wherefore it shall come to pass if ye he hearken to these judgments and keep and do them? that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he swear unto thy fathers. And he will love thee and bless thee and multiply thee. He will also bless the fruit of thy womb and the fruit of thy land, thy corn and thy wine and thine oil and the increase of thy kind and the flocks of thy sheep. in the land which ye swear unto thy fathers to give thee. Thou shalt be blessed above all people. Chapter eleven. Verse one. Therefore, thou shalt love the Lord thy God and keep his charge and his statutes and his judgments and his commandments. Always, verse thirteen, and it shall come to pass if ye he hearken diligently unto my commandments, which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn and thy wine and thine oil. Verse twenty-two, for if thou shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you to do them to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and to cleave unto him. Then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves. Every place where on the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours, from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea, shall your coast be. and there shall no man be able to stand before you. Wonderful words, aren't they? Great promises these. You know why they're associated with love and what God will do? Because love is the only motive that will bring us to obedience. God wants to bless us, and he will bless us as we love him. And our love is to be expressed in our obedience to him. God's laws are the expression of his love, because God is loved. and because man needs government, man needs control, and God provides it, and he provides guidance in his word. Man's obedience is the expression of his love, and man will not obey God apart from loving God. so that the measure of our love is told in the measure of our obedience. The book of Deuteronomy calls you and me to a new commitment to the love of God, to a new realization of the fact that He has led us hitherto out of His love, and that all He has for us in days to come are the expression of His love. He has prepared for you all that perfect love can conceive and perfect power provide. Isn't that great? Isn't that great? If you have somebody you love very much, isn't it a very great joy to be able to do something for that person? To be able to get an especially nice gift, to go on a particularly nice holiday? Isn't it just a joy to do that? Well, God is the same way. He loves us, and He rejoices in the opportunity of doing good for you and me. But He has a hungry heart, and He wants you and me to show some evidence of the fact that these hearts of ours respond to his love, and he asks for that evidence in our obedience to his word. Couldn't nearly say it all when you say that. With the saying of this, Moses was finished. He had finished what he had to say. This is the last of his words. Tell us that all that is gone before is out of the love of God. Now it's very interesting to me that this evening, as I was going to speak on this general subject, without my suggesting at all to him, Ernie gave out hymn number five hundred and twenty-five. You all sang of this great love. O love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee. I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depth its flow may richer, fuller be. O light that followest all my way, I yield my flickering torch to thee. My heart restores its borrowed ray That in thy sunshine's blaze Its day may brighter fairer be. O joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to thee. I trace the rainbow through the rain and feel The promise is not vain. that mourn shall tearless be. O cross that lifts us up my head, I dare not ask to fly from thee. I lay in dust life's glory dead, and from the ground there blossoms red life that shall endless be. Isn't that great? Oh, may God give us a new sense tonight, having reviewed the way that God led his people in another day, and then left the record for us to read. We have reviewed it, and may he impress upon our hearts his readiness to bless, his will to bless, that all his dealings with us come out of the fullness of his love for you and for me, a love that will not let us go. Let's live in the light and in the warmth of that great love. Shall we pray? We have not deserved this, Lord. With thy servants of old, we confess to thee that we have not deserved this. But we thank thee that thou delightest to take the things that are poor, even the things that are not. to glorify thyself through what thou art able to do with poor material. We thank thee, Lord. We can read this book of Deuteronomy. We can rejoice in the assurance given us through thy servant. with all thy blessings, all thy ways with us, our ways of love. So we would commit ourselves to thee afresh tonight. We thank thee for thy word. We thank thee that thou dost speak again and again and again to our hearts and call us to thee. We thank thee for what we have seen, the progress in the life of thy servant Moses, in the knowledge of thyself, until thy word tells us that he knew thee face to face. Give us this experience. We would pray his prayer tonight. Show me. We pray in Jesus' name.