Aldous Huxley was a humanist author whose writings have been influential even among those who haven’t even read them.
He helped shaped culture (I would say misshaped it) through his writing that some cultural elites adopted into their worldviews.
The cultural elites, in his time were educators, politicians, philosophers, public thinkers (newspapers).
Now they are athletes and actors and online influencers, they then pass their worldviews on to cultural consumers.
It’s passed on now through songs, movies, (sound bites) slogans, online.
Os Guinness defines culture as a “way of life lived in common.”
So, the elites define the common life (culture) for the masses.
God’s design is that culture is built (using Scripture as the basis) from the family and the church then moves outward to shape the larger world.
The common life of a culture is built around a worldview…apart from the Bible, it is not one that is able to be coherent or consistent.
It is a Frankenstein worldview… pieces sewed together in attempt to make a life that works…but it ends up being a monster.
I said Huxley was a humanist.
Humanism is a worldview that puts humans at the center of all things…while often failing to actually care for real people.
Humanism is not synonymous with humanitarian…humanism deifies humans without actually caring about individual people.
He was the grandson of Thomas Huxley, who was called “Darwin’s bulldog.”
He applied Darwinism everywhere (biology, politics, meaning) …and he fought with anyone who disagreed.
So, a big part of his family heritage was that humans are the products of chance and time.
Therefore, we have no actual meaning…no transcendent (larger) purpose.
Huxley was honest about what is most often true for those who hold the humanist worldview.
That is, he had a personal motive for believing what he believed.
It was true, because he wanted it to be true.
“I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; and consequently, assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics (beyond the merely physical world, transcendent meaning). He is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. ― Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means
Today we are in Deuteronomy
Pay careful attention to the first verse, it explains the entire book.
“These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel (from) across the Jordan in the wilderness.”
Deuteronomy consists of three sermons delivered to the people by Moses.
The first sermon is found in chapters 1 to 4. The second is the heart of the book, chapters 5-28. The third is the shortest, chapters 29 to 30.
Deuteronomy is the Old Testament book most quoted by New Testament authors, and the book most quoted by the Lord Jesus himself.
The title means “second law”, it repeats some laws from Leviticus and adds some that are new.
The thrust of the book is to move the hearers to a decision to fully obey God’s laws…to do better than their parents did.
These laws were not given as a burden, they were God’s gift of guidance for his people to thrive in the land he was giving them.
They do impose God’s morality on humans…which Huxley found inconvenient…and to his own dark despair and ruin he denied that morality and built his life on his own immorality.
As Moses speaks to the people it has now been 40 years since they left Egypt.
Those who were listening to him were the children who had grown up in the wilderness.
Their parents were gone, kept from the promised land by their own unfaithfulness.
Now Moses is casting vision for this generation to have more faith than their parents did.
Faith is revealed in obedience to God’s revealed word.
Moses’ first speech is a summary of the Exodus and why it took them 40 years to get there.
As Moses gives the sermon they are on the border of the promised land, he knows he won’t get in… but he cares about them and the glory of God.
*Let me add a brief aside here:
Many of those in the earlier generations of Americans lived for the generations that would come after them, rather than merely for their own lives.
They often endured great sacrifice for a better future for their children and their children’s children.
This wasn’t true, of course, for everyone…but it was often true.
This was true in fact, for my own mom and dad.
Sometime in the last century, this long-view began to diminish, and people began to live largely for their own times, their own pleasure, their own good.
Again, this isn’t always true…but most often is.
Retirement became the long goal for most people…not a multi-generational good that extends far beyond their own lives.
I knew a couple who made a lot of money, retired very comfortably…moved to Hawaii…far from family…kids, grandkids…far from friends…they played at life for a few decades then they died.
Nothing wrong with retirement or living on an Island…but their lives have always been a symbol of emptiness for me…live for self…then die.
This change in the long view is partially tied to a loss of biblical theology concerned with God’s glory to the ends of the earth to the ends of time.
My meaning in life is to be tied to something much larger than just my life on earth.
Now, it is rarer to find someone who is living consistently and practically with the generations in mind, rather than their own lifetime.
We should be those rare people…who live with that long view…Moses was.
He didn’t say…”Do what you guys want…I’m not getting in the land anyway…my life is done…what happens next is not my problem.”
He didn’t say that…because he cared about God’s glory…and he loved these people, he cared about the future generations.
That should describe us…we should live with a long-time horizon…one that is longer than our own lives.
Look at verse 2 and 3, they tell the sad story.
Verse 2: It should have taken 11 days to travel from where their journey started to where they were.
Verse 3: In the fortieth year Moses got them ready to enter the land.
An 11-day trip took 40 years…why?
Because they didn’t do what God had instructed them to do…that is why Moses is repeating God’s word to this generation.
God had been faithful; their parents had been fearful and unfaithful
Moses himself had not been fully faithful, and so his leadership was being transferred to Joshua.
Moses would glimpse the land, but he would enter it.
Moses had gone up Mt Sinai (40 years earlier that could have been 11 days) and brought down the law
God gives his word; man receives that word and is responsible to obey it…they failed.
Now Moses stands before the next generation about to go in the Land and reminds them that this law came from God, and they must not deviate from it.
Now, let’s read our passage for today.
Deut 6:1-9, it is the beating heart of Deuteronomy
“This is the command—the statutes and ordinances—the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, so that you may follow them in the land you are about to enter and possess. 2 Do this so that you may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life by keeping all his statutes and commands I am giving you, your son, and your grandson, and so that you may have a long life. 3 Listen, Israel, and be careful to follow them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly, because the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey. 4 “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one., 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. 7 Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead., 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.
It is important to notice that “Command” is singular.
The individual statues and ordinances are about a comprehensive worldview…a unified vision of life.
What God gave his people are not random, disconnected rules but they are all part of a complete and coherent system.
It’s not merely…”Thou shall, and thou shall not…because I told you so, that’s why!”
On the one hand, that is correct…we don’t have to understand to obey…he is God, he good, and he is smart.
On the other hand, we need to understand this…that his will, as he has given it to us in his word is the way to the good life…life with him, life as originally designed…is the only way for human thriving.
So, “Command”…singular, again…is about a unified vision of life…a comprehensive worldview.
The many “laws” flow from that unified vision of life…a life lived in relationship with God.
Let me give an example from our family…in regard to how the “rules” fit into a unified vision of life
A high value for our family was time together.
Why? Your time is the stuff your life is made of…if you don’t spend time together, whatever else you are doing…you are not living a shared life together.
So, in line with this value, we planned and protected family time…the value had to show up on our calendar, in our actual choices…or it wasn’t really a value.
As our kids became older and busier this became more challenging.
We had a rule, a law if you will…Thou shall have at least one protected night per week where we sit and eat together.
We had other times together, but this shared meal was foundational.
When they were young, this was simple…it was most nights.
As they got older…this became challenging…we had to often negotiate week by week when it was going to happen…but not “if” it was going to happen.
But the “rule” was not arbitrary, it was tied to a larger value or “good.”
The rule was not a burden to carry but an important part of our joy as a family.
So, someone could say, “I feel sorry for Terry’s and Christy’s girls, they had to live with those rules”
*Obviously we had even more rules than family dinner.
But if they thought this they were missing the point of the “rules”…they served our values, they served our family…they served our common good…they built our family culture.
A life lived in common.
Our girls would sometimes invite friends to our family dinners, sometimes their friends would ask, “What was the occasion?”
Our girls would say, “The occasion was dinner.”
Their friends thought they had been invited to a special event…because their families did not share this value or have the corresponding “law”
*One more thing…if you are going to have “rules” to build a common life together…make sure you do it in a way that is actually fun and fosters joy.
*If you are a grumpy, rules focused parent…you may not effectively teach your kids that God’s commands are not a burden but a joy.
*You will build a culture, but it may not be a healthy one.
You must have rules but make sure that you make clear that they serve your larger vision, and that vision is a good and joyful one.
So, the individual laws are not random…they are part of building a common life, a culture of life together thriving under God’s blessings.
Obey what the Lord has given you so that you and the generations to come will thrive.
These commands are for the common good of the family of God.
They are building a common culture.
They were actually called by God to build a civilization, a nation that would shape the nations.
OS Guiness, said, “A culture is a life lived in common.”
A “civilization” he says, is a “culture that rises high enough, spreads far enough, and lasts long enough to merit the term civilization”
A civilization is essentially a culture that has reached a significant level of development and influence across a large area over a sustained period of time
This was God’s desire for Israel…it is the larger goal behind the many commands.
Let’s go on in chapter 6.
Starting in verse 4, we find what is called the “Shema”…which is a Hebrew word that means…Listen or hear.
The “Shema” is very difficult to translate because there are no verbs supplied in Hebrew.
It simply reads “Yahweh our God Yahweh one.”
This could be a statement of the “unity” of God (God is one) or it could be an assertion that Israel has no other gods (Yahweh only is our God).
It is probably both…. the one true God is our God.
But the application is not just to believe in the factual reality of one God but that this reality requires full heart allegiance.
Since it is true that there is one true God…then we are to love him “heart, soul, mind.”
They have been rescued by God, they are to listen to him when he says they owe him, and him only…everything.
Remember that Israel had come from Egypt…where the King was god, and there were many other kinds of gods.
We take monotheism (one God) for granted…so much so, it is hard for us to understand how unique this was in the world at the time.
Imagine Israel in Egypt…so many gods, you couldn’t possible devote yourself fully to one.
If you were going out on the ocean, you better give the sea god his due.
If you wanted to get married, well, give the god of love his due.
If you are planting…better make the crop god happy.
On and on this went.
Then in the midst of this human confusion…comes the one True God who says to Moses, “Tell them, I Am has sent me to you.”
Then this one true God turns all the Egyptian gods, including Pharoah on their heads.
He then gives them a comprehensive worldview…there is one God, creator of heaven and earth.
He isn’t the god of the mountains only, or the ocean, or the God of Canaan, while there is a competing god over in Persia.
He is the God of the whole earth, and of all peoples.
Again, if we don’t realize how counter-intuitive and counter-cultural it was for them, so we will not understand what God, through Moses, is saying.
The Lord our God is one…he alone is God.
Now, love him with all of your heart, soul, and strength.
This is not dividing humans into component parts…it is a way of making a comprehensive statement.
This God of everything must have all of you…every single part.
We talk a lot about a Single-Story life.
We are not to be one kind of person at home, another at church, another at work, another in our private minds.
God is to be our everything…everywhere…all the time.
Then, as Rodney spoke about last week…the only way you will be able to pull this kind of single-story living off is to make the truth of God habitual in your life.
Put his word in your heart.
How?
Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead., 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates…tell this to your children and grandchildren.
Obviously you couldn’t write the entire law on your forehand or forehead…this is a principle that is to become a pattern.
Do whatever you need to do to make this biblical worldview something that is both heart and habit.
Not just habit…but heart as well.
Everyone has a worldview, and everyone lives out of that worldview.
Most worldview are not unified…they are a disconnected hodgepodge of collected items from various religions, philosophical, and cultural ideas…commercials, online posts, emotional desires, etc.
When reality strikes, when the bang happens…it blows up the non-unified, non-consistent, and man-made worldviews.
Reality will always expose unreality…it won’t work.
A Christian worldview is often tested by trouble, but if it is held consistently in line with Scripture…and it is empowered by faith in the Lord Jesus…if it is lived by the power of the Spirit of God…it cannot be blown up.
We may be hard pressed; Paul wrote but not crushed.
Perplexed but not in despair
Only one single worldview is true
The idea that all roads lead to one, all religions are essentially the same, is a single worldview that excludes world views that say all religions are not the same.
There is no way around this…even the most committed relativist is closed minded when it comes to their own relativism.
They are absolutely opposed to absolutists.
The Bible systematically, through story, principles, laws, poems…lays out a comprehensive way of thinking and living that unfolded over many generations and reveals Jesus.
Do you find all this talk of “Law and rules” a burden?
On the one hand it is supposed to feel like a burden.
Because we can’t keep it.
On the other hand, God gave his law to show his people the way to freedom.
Israel, like Huxley wanted to be free to live as they pleased, the result was not freedom but exile and slavery.
This quote is inscribed on the exterior of the Justice Department.
“Where law ends, tyranny begins.”
This is true, except in the case of the Law leading us to freedom in Christ.
Where Law ends, Christ is met, and true freedom begins.
This can be confusing…”So, we are free from the law and now we can do whatever want?”
The fact is, in Christ we are now free to do what God wants…he has, and he is changing our hearts.
We have the power, now…to obey.
Sure, we are to exercise grit…make good things habit.
But even our godly grit…is empowered by his grace.
1 John 5:1
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of him. This is how we know that we love God’s children: when we love God and obey his commands. For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden
New birth brings us into a love relationship with God and others.
New birth means that we don’t find the commands of God a burden but freedom.
We don’t obey in order to be loved by God, we obey because we love God and have been born of his Spirit.
In Gal 3 Paul explains how the Law of Moses fits into God’s redemptive plan.
I won’t read all of it, I will summarize.
- The law identified sin as violations of God’s will.
*Unless God told us we wouldn’t even know that our own sin is destroying us.
“I don’t understand why I have a headache every day.”
“Have you considered that hitting your head against the wall all day may be a factor?”
- The law had a built-in expiration date, until Christ arrived.
The Bible is a single story, it is God’s long plan for redemption.
You don’t read the first part of a book and come to conclusions about the entire book.
God’s plan unfolded through many generations, and the plan finds it finale in Christ.
- The law could not give life, or Christ would not have been necessary…because we are prisoners of sin our hope has always been in Christ not in our ability to keep the law.
- The Law was our tutor, a guardian put in charge to lead us to Christ.
“So, the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.”
So, what do we do with the “law”
The Ten Commandments have all been repeated, except for “Keep the Sabbath”, in the New Testament.
The Sabbath is kept, ultimately by “resting in Jesus”…being born again…he is our Sabbath.
We don’t keep the Commandments to be saved…we obey God’s word because it is what life in the Kingdom looks like.
The civil laws were tied to Israel as a nation…we are the church, we don’t keep them.
American is not the new Israel.
The ceremonial laws all found their fulfillment in Christ, they have been fulfilled we are not required to keep them.
The moral law is now how we live out this shared common life, as God’s people.
It is what love for God and others looks like in practice.
Jesus said this sums up the entire Old Testament Law,
“Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
We obey God because we love him…we want to thrive in relationship with him and others.
To the teen who wanted to hang out with her friends on a Friday night and felt sorry for my girls because they have to keep “my rules”…family dinner may have looked like a burden not freedom.
That same teen, grown up…in slavery to sin and estranged from loved ones does not experience freedom.
This is by way of example…I’m not saying family nights are going to save our nation…though they might.
You get the point…God’s commands are an invitation to life with him.
They feel like bondage to those who are not in Christ…and freedom to those who are.
In fact, they can feel like bondage to Christians, until they are actually tried, then we experience them as the freedom they are.
“Defer to your spouse, quit trying to get your own way.” Can feel like an oppressive burden until you do it…then you find it is freedom.
Deference is freedom, selfishness actually proves to be an oppressive burden.
“Share the gospel, live missionally.” Can feel like a burden until you do it, then you find it is joy.
Philemon 1:6 “I pray you will be active in sharing your faith then YOU will experience all the good things we have in Christ.”
Testimony:
I first began to walk in obedience to Christ when I was 19.
I still remember that summer very vividly.
For me it was walking from bondage to freedom…it happened in a fairly short period of time.
Not total life transformation, that is still ongoing…but it was nearly a total perspective transformation in short time.
His word, his commands, obedience to Christ…it suddenly looked and felt like freedom to me.
What I had done before, doing things my own way…looked like the slavery that it was.
It was like the blinders were off.
I would still venture off into doing things my own way…but it has never felt like freedom when I do.
Obedience to his commands have been freedom for me.
For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden. 1 John 5
No, they are not…they are a gift, they are freedom.
Believe the gospel, repent of your sins…move into the freedom of obedience.
It is for freedom, that Christ has set us free.