Our text for this morning finds Moses is speaking to the children of Israel. They are getting ever closer to the time when they are going to go into the Promised Land. He knows that when they’re in the Promised Land, they are going to have many things to distract them from God and His Word. Maybe they will even forget about God and His Word. You and I know that in the history of the children of Israel, they pretty much did just that. They turned to other gods.

Moses comes to them and says: Pay attention—pay attention to what the Lord God is telling you. Our text begins by saying, ‘Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and just decrees that I am teaching you.’ Moses wanted them to remember the commandments that God had given them. In the first four chapters of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses gives a brief history of the children of Israel. He reminds them time and time again how God was faithful to His promises to them. Then he has to remind them sadly how time and again the people were unfaithful to God and His promises.

Now he asks them once again to listen. Here are the laws and decrees of God. They are there for a purpose. They are there that you might appreciate God’s wisdom. He explains that they need to do what God had commanded, so that they may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving them. He didn’t give them the commands, the laws and the decrees just to give them. He gave them for guidance and direction.

Then Moses tells them why. They are going to be a benefit for them as they live in the Promised Land. He reminds them that it is the God who made the promise of this land, this inheritance, to their fathers. It is that same God who is giving these laws to them. Now they are about to enter into that Promised Land.

The statutes and decrees are so important and so valuable, that Moses gives them some additional directions; they are not to add to the word or take away from the word God had given them. God’s commands are good enough and there is nothing more to add. God’s laws are good enough we don’t want to take anything away from them either.

God in His wisdom gave the people of Israel the Ten Commandments. Before that time, the law had been written in man’s heart, in his conscience. Now God wrote down the things that would set Israel apart from the pagan nations around them, not just the Ten Commandments, but decrees about Hebrew servants, personal injuries, protection of property, social responsibility, laws of justice and mercy, and the three annual festivals they were required to celebrate.

We remember Moses going up on the mountain and coming back with the Two Tablets of the Testimony, inscribed on both sides, and written by God’s own hand. Moses was only gone for forty days, yet he came from the mountain and found the people worshipping the golden calf. In anger, Moses broke those first tablets of stone.

Now, you and I are removed several thousand years from that giving of the Law. We seem to have come to the natural conclusion that certainly in all those years, we might be entitled to add or to subtract to what God said. Surely by now, things have changed and we know a little bit more than God Himself.

Isn’t that the society in which we live? People have put themselves in the place of God. They think they can determine their own destiny. They are the masters of their own fate. They add to what God’s word has to say. It’s an age-old problem. We find ourselves wondering about God’s people, if they are hearing what God had to say.

That will always be a question to the very end of time. Will God’s people listen to and do God’s word? The prophet Jeremiah wondered "To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the Lord is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it."

In our day and age, we find many who close their ears. They shut off their hearing to that precious word of God that gives eternal life. Yet you and I know as we gather together today, that that is not the reason that God gave His word, so that people might reject it. God wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. God wants His word preached so that hearing that message might save some.

Why do people reject what God has to say? Maybe it doesn’t seem that important, after all, it’s just an old book. The Lord says that’s part of peoples’ sinful nature. From the book of Acts we read: "For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them." Even though mankind would try to reject God and His word, He still invites them, still wants them to come to Him and find salvation.

It might not seem that important that some might add to God’s Word or they might subtract from God’s Word. Yet when we come to the end of the Bible to the book of Revelation in the last chapter, John writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, I anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city.

There are churches that add to God’s word. Sometimes, there are places in Scripture where it seems difficult to understand. It doesn’t make sense, so their human reason adds to God’s word what makes sense for them or they subtract from it. One prime example is the fact that our salvation is a gift of God by grace through faith. That seems just too good to be true. So they add a few rules, a few things we can to do help ourselves along.

The Lord warns us not to add to it or subtract from it. He tells us instead to do God’s word, not adding or subtracting from it, but appreciating God’s wisdom.

That is what Moses wants to remind the people of as he reminds us this morning. God in His wisdom gave all of His word that you and I might believe for generations to come. Keeping the Laws and statues that God had given the people through Moses, would make the people around them say; "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."

Remember the children of Israel were going to the Promised Land, a land that already had people living in it. They would drive most of them out. Some would stay. Other nations would see that the children of Israel, who followed these laws and decrees, at least for a while, were a nation of wisdom and understanding.

This would be a testimony to God’s wisdom and understanding. Other nations who didn’t have any law and order would find that Israel’s laws and their order was part of God’s wisdom again. The unbelieving nations talked about and worshipped a multitude of gods. We know there’s just one God. Moses reminded the people that of the foreign nations that were among them and their false gods who were far off, and in reality non-existent, couldn’t help them.

Our God is a god who is not a God who is far off, but He’s a God that is near each one of us. In fact, in the New Testament, the Lord God reminds us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. God dwells within us because of and by faith. Imagine that! Christ is a part of our lives. The psalm-writer reminds us: "The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth."

Just like Moses said, He’s near to each one of us when we pray to Him or turn to Him, and He’s never far from each of us, even though we might forget that from time to time. We appreciate God’s wisdom, His word that reminds us of His closeness.

How close is He? He’s as close to us as the Word, which reminds us that you and I, even though we are sinners who ought to be condemned to hell, are saints who are saved by the precious blood of Christ. We are sinners as God’s word proclaims by His law, but we are believers who are saved by God’s gospel as He proclaims it. Through Christ’s blood we have redemption and forgiveness of sins.

How close is the Lord? He’s near to us in His very body and blood when He says in the bread and wine, ‘This is my body, this is my blood.’ Listen to what Paul wrote to the Corinthians; "It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption." The Lord is our holiness, righteousness and redemption. These gifts from God have made a difference in and changed our lives, haven’t they?

We live in a world that is darkened by sin. We live in a world that as you turn on the television, seems to have gone wild. There’s nothing normal about being normal anymore. How sad that is. In a sense, you and I lead protected and sheltered lives by not being in the mainstream of this crazy mess. But we still are called and reminded to be shining lights in this sin-darkened world.

You and I, by hearing God’s word enjoy the precious blessing of knowing that there is a future and a hope for us. In this world that lives the way it wants to live, where it places man in the place of God, many only find disappointment and sadness. They find despair. When something bad happens or when their plans don’t work out, they have no place to turn to and no one to help them except themselves. They always fall short. You and I have the Lord on our side. We know that no matter what happens in this life, it is for our good.

It is according to God’s purpose, and so we can look the future in the eye with boldness and confidence and be shining examples. Paul writes to the Ephesians and encourages us to take up the whole armor of God, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the Gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

Without the Word of God we cannot put the world on the right track, because we cannot put ourselves on the right track. It is beyond us to put away the sin in our own hearts. We cannot save ourselves, let alone the whole world. Sin permeates all that we think, feel and do; like a shadow, sin pursues us wherever we go.

Those in rebellion against God have no terms of peace to offer that are acceptable to God. Only God Himself can make peace, and this He has done that through the atoning sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Through the merits of Christ’s life and death we are offered full and free forgiveness. Beautiful, ethical precepts cannot save us, but Christ can. When Christ comes into a life, He revolutionizes it so that the person becomes a new creation. This, and this alone, is our hope. When we have genuine faith in Christ, a change takes place. We will have a new kind of relationship with our families, our employers, our employees and even our enemies. God gives us His Word as He knows we can take it and put it to use in our lives.

The Word of God is a book that contains 66 smaller books, written by more than 40 authors over a time period of 1500 years. Yet it reveals one message. This is the only book that is written by many men but has only one purpose. It was written to show us the wisdom of God’s plan of salvation in Christ Jesus. Amen.