I invite you to turn with me this morning to Deuteronomy chapter 6, Deuteronomy 6, we'll read together the first 15 verses, considering verses 4 through 9, a familiar portion which includes the summary of the law of God. Deuteronomy chapter 6, reading together verses 1 through 15, after Moses had given a second time God's instruction with His commandments. Hear now the Word of God. These are the commands, decrees, and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. so that you, your children, and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all His decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. When the Lord your God brings you into the land, He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you a land with large flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant. And when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Fear the Lord your God, serve Him only, and take your oaths in His name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you. For the Lord your God who is among you is a jealous God and His anger will burn against you and He will destroy you from the face of the land. May God add His blessing to the reading and consideration of His Word. Well, beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, we live in a day in which much time and effort and money is dedicated to our children. And I'm not talking about just with regard to the necessities of life, but all kinds of extras. For example, through music lessons or athletic teams or science clubs or any sort of things of those nature, and as well as special camps to strengthen and to improve their skills. We try to give the best resources and tools to our children to equip them for life. Also, maybe with the hope that maybe they will gain an advantage in some way towards a college scholarship. Indeed, we desire to give to our children the best. We work hard to give our children instruction that will benefit them, that will help them into this life. And all of this is wonderful. All of this has its place. But on this day, today, on the occasion of this baptism of this covenant child, And on the occasion of these professions of faith by these covenant young people, I believe it's good for us to be reminded. I need to be reminded. It's good for us to be reminded of the instruction, the training that exceeds all else apart from which this life is meaningless. Instruction that we do not want our covenant children to leave this life without. Instruction promised by parents to give to their children when they present them for baptism as Wes and Jody have done this morning. It is instruction of the One of whom the people sang, Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna, save now. It is instruction of Jesus Christ. Of His redeeming love. And instruction in living in grateful obedience to Him. as this text teaches us that we are to be giving covenant instruction. Covenant instruction, first of all, that is treasured by parents, treasured by the covenant community, believers in the church who themselves confess and believe the content of this covenant instruction because of their love for the Lord. Their love for the Lord who revealed Himself. In verse 4, Moses says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Now that is known as the Shema. Shema, the Hebrew word for hear. It's one of a few particular texts quoted often, recited often by the Jews. He revealed Himself as one God. He is not made up of many gods. Indeed, we know that He is three persons in this one God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. but He is one divine being, one divine essence, who is independent from all else, who is infinite and eternal. He is self-sufficient and self-existent. He is perfect and holy. He has revealed Himself as one God, but also as the only God. He is the one and only living and true God, the one and only sovereign God. No other god exists in reality. We know that throughout history and even today, many other gods are acknowledged by people. But no other god exists in reality. The false gods are made up by people. He is the One who has revealed Himself and also He is the One who redeemed His people. We know that God gave His commands to Moses after delivering Israel from Egypt. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. He delivered them, then He gave His commands. Before the people then would enter Canaan, the promised land. He demonstrated His love for Israel whom He called My Son. He rescued them from bondage and now He was preparing them for life in the land that He was to give them. A land in which there were many false gods. there were many false gods in Egypt. In Canaan, there would be many false gods. And just as He had demonstrated that the gods of Egypt were nothing, He would demonstrate as well that the gods of the Canaanites were nothing. Yet, they were to remember that they had one God. And to them, He gave them His law. He gave them His law to bind His people to Himself. He gave them His law that they might understand what is pleasing to Him. He gave His law to them that they might know how to live in the land differently than the pagan nations and instead to live in fellowship with the Lord and with each other. He gave them His law for their good, for their protection, as the Bible passage says, that they might enjoy long life in the land, that it might go well with them in the land, and that they might demonstrate love for the Lord. He is the God who reveals Himself, who redeemed His people, and also who rejoices in the love of His own people. Verse 5 says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. This one God, love Him. We recognize these words as the summary of the law of God. The greatest commandment, as Jesus said, along with the second, like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love Him. You see, the pagan nations served their gods out of fear, out of a terror-filled fear. Terror of making their gods angry. Or being scared that they would not be able to gain the favor of their gods. But not so the covenant God, the true God with His people. The covenant God has established a relationship with His people. He loves them. And He delights in their love for Him. Their love with their entire being, not just with a tongue, but with sincerity of heart, with their thoughts and words and actions and emotions and motives. He loves their love of unreserved devotion to Him with every aspect of the Christian's life and being and personality. God calls His people, Hear, O Israel, you are My people. Hear Me. He calls His people with whom He covenants, He calls them to treasure Him and to treasure His redeeming work and to demonstrate that treasure through love for His law. Verse 6 says, These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Love the Lord your God. These commandments that I give to you today are to be upon your hearts. Love for His law with an obedience that grows out of love for God. You see, it is not obey or else. That's the way it was with the pagan nations. But with us and our God, it is obey because. As Jesus says in John 14, verse 15, if you love Me, you will obey what I command. As if to say it's natural. And in verse 21, whoever has My commands and obeys them, He is the one who loves me. That's a demonstration of love for God. Obedience to Him. Beloved, the law of God reflects the holiness, the holy character of God. It shows what pleases Him and it positively puts God first. And love for His law is to be a vital part of the believer, not simply a head knowledge of it, not simply giving a lip service, being able to recite the commandments of God, but it is to be a true treasure because God leads and protects His people through this life with His law. It is a rule of life by which we demonstrate gratitude for His redeeming work. By which we reflect fellowship with Him and reflect the holiness of Him. And that law upon the heart will determine the thoughts and the words and the conduct of God's people. Our beloved love for the Lord and love for His law means having a desire towards Him. Having a delight in Him. Having dependence upon Him. And being entirely devoted to Him. And this is the content of the covenant instruction which is to be in the second place then taught to children. You see, God did not just bring adults out of Egypt. But He brought families with children. Many children. Whom He said are a part of My covenant relationship that I make with My people. And all of them, the children weren't going to be left behind, all of them would be brought into the land of Canaan. And His desire was that His redeeming work and His commands to govern His people in the land, His desire that these things be taught from generation to generation to generation. Why? Notice again verses 1 and 2. These are the commands, decrees, and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess so that you, your children, and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all His decrees and commands that I give you and so that you may enjoy long life. That they may fear Me. Not a terror-filled fear, but a love, a reverence kind of fear. Which again is demonstrated in keeping God's law. Godly parents, the covenant community, was to introduce the children to the Lord. To teach them of His redeeming work. To teach them of His law for life. That law which would distinguish them from the unbelievers in the nation. And that covenant instruction is to be taught to our children constantly. Verse 7 says, Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Impress them on your children. Now that word impress has a dual idea. On the one hand, scar, image, imprint, impression. And alongside of that, repeating, saying again and again. And therefore, they would always be speaking the Word of God and teaching of obedience that pleases Him with the result that like a scar from an injury or from a surgical incision, that the Word of God would become a part of them penetrating their minds with God's truth. Impress it upon them by speaking constantly in all places, at home or on the road, at all times, whether morning or evening, with every opportunity, applying the Word of God to every situation of life. Just as Paul says of prayer in 1 Thessalonians 5, pray continually. And Paul, he was not saying, well, we are to be on our knees with our heads bowed and eyes closed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That's not what he was talking about. But prayer was to be a part of life. In the same way, covenant instruction is to be a part of daily life throughout the day. We keep repeating it because we are slow to remember and we are quick to forget. Impress it, keeping the commands of God alive in the everyday thoughts and lives of children. Teaching it constantly. Teaching it comprehensively. Notice verses 8 and 9. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. Now, Moses was not speaking literally. We know that later the Jews did do this literally. As Jesus says in Matthew 23, speaking of the religious leaders, everything they do is done for men to see. They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long. Now, phylacteries were small leather containers that were tied to the forehead or to the left arm with this passage and other select passages of Scripture written down and placed inside. Now, originally, it was probably simply meant to remind them of the whole law of God that was to be observed because they didn't have the Bible like we do. They didn't have multiple copies. We have a number of them right here in the pulpit. But they needed to write down certain passages of the law. which no doubt stood to remind them of the whole law. But it turned into legalism. The size of those little containers became the measure of man's piety. It was a part of their work's righteousness. Moses is speaking by way of metaphor. We are to take this symbolically. Like in Proverbs 3, verse 3, let love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. We know that you cannot literally bind love and faithfulness around your neck or write it on your heart. But as if to say, instead of a necklace of gold and diamonds, have a necklace of love and faithfulness. Or Proverbs 7, verses 2 and 3, speaking of the commands of God, guard them, the writer says, as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers. Write them again, he says, on the tablet of your heart. Have them as it were always at your fingertips. Moses says, tie them on your hands. The commands of God are to be practiced all the time everywhere with all that we do. Bind them on your foreheads, he says. All of life, beginning with our thoughts, are to be controlled by God's law. The Word of God is to be applied to all situations and all circumstances of the believer's life, asking, is this according to God's revealed will? Write them on your door frames and on your gates. The Word of God is to be the foundation of our homes and it is to be obvious to all who observe us that we are governed by the Word of God alone. This covenant instruction is to be taught to our children constantly, comprehensively, but also caringly. Why do we teach our children? Because as believers, as a covenant community by the grace of God, we love Him. Because He is the God of our salvation. And by the grace of God, we understand His redeeming work and we love Him. We know His law. We know that it's for our best. We know that it's for our protection and for our care. With it, He governs, leads us to walk in holiness throughout this life, keeping us from that path of sin. We teach our children because we love Him. And you know, that is what our children ought to see, isn't it? As parents, as leaders, as teachers. Boys and girls, you ought to see the love of your parents for the Lord. You ought to see the love of your Sunday school and catechism teachers for the Lord. At a baseball diamond, I saw a board on the screen behind home plate that said, parents, remember, your children are watching you. Even as you're watching them play, your children are watching you, watching what kind of fans you are. I needed to see that too. Our children, the children of this congregation, are watching us as adults. as professing believers. As professing believers, Julianne and Adriana. We teach them because we love the Lord and we teach them because we love them. We desire that the instruction in the Lord become their treasure in the third place toward a relationship with Christ. That's our desire, isn't it? The Israelite parents and the Israelite nation was called to teach their children in order that they too might have a relationship with God. Verse 2 says that they may fear the Lord again, that they may fear Him, love Him, and keep His commandments. Teaching them of the Redeemer. Teaching them how to live before Him in the Promised Land. In fact, if you read the last verses of that chapter, Moses goes on in the future when your son asks you, what is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees, and laws the Lord our God has commanded you? What gives here? then tell them. Tell them about Egypt. Tell them about Pharaoh. Tell them about the might and the power of God and our deliverance. Tell them what He has done for us. And that He has blessed us by showing us how to live before Him. And then interestingly, Moses closes this chapter in verse 25 with these words, and if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us. That will be our righteousness. Indeed, the law of God was to be their standard for life. Yet we also know that our God gave to His people the sacrificial system, didn't He? A vivid and a visible reminder that their righteousness was inadequate. That it was imperfect. That it was completely defective. In fact, we know that the generations turned away from Him and they lost the land. All of these things are a vivid reminder that they needed another. We teach our children this covenant instruction, the law of God, because the law of God shows our sin. Heidelberg Catechism question 3 asks, How do you come to know your misery? And it rightly answers, The law of God tells me. Paul taught in Romans 3, verse 20, through the law we become conscious of sin. And in chapter 7, verse 7, I would not have known what sin was except through the law. When we measure ourselves against the holy law of God, we cannot help but to see just how far short we fall of the perfection that is God's and the perfection that He desires. As parents, as Sunday school and catechism teachers, as leaders in this church, as elders and deacons and pastors, we teach our children from a young age, whether they understand or not, we teach them the difference between right and wrong based on the standard of God's commands. And we need to correct them over and over and over again, don't we? But we teach them about God. We teach them about the truth of Him. We teach them that God created man good, but that man sinned and that we are all sinful. And because of our sin, each and every one of us by ourselves is an enemy of God. And we teach them that our sin reminds us that we can do nothing to earn God's favor or eternal salvation or the heavenly promised land. Not one thing. But there is one. Because the law of God not only shows us our sin, the law of God points to the Savior. Indeed, reminding us that perfect righteousness is needed, that no sin or disobedience is allowed, and that there is One who gave that perfect righteousness. We teach our children of their baptism as parents first, but also as a church community who know that salvation by the grace of God and who love the Lord. We teach them of their baptism. We teach them that they were given the sign of water. Boys and girls and young people, you were given, just as little Catherine, you were given the sign of water. Again, that very understandable sign that just as water washes dirt off your body, that water points our eyes to the blood of Jesus Christ. that blood alone that washes away all of our sins. We teach our children because they need a Savior too. They do not just need a church to attend. They do not just need a catechism or a Sunday school class to be a part of. They do not just need a Christian school. These are all tools of instruction, but none of these things saves. They need a Savior. because they are sinners before God. They are hopeless in themselves. Now boys and girls, that may sound kind of nasty to be told that you're a sinner. That you have no hope in yourself, that you cannot do anything to please God. It may sound kind of nasty, yet as you think about your baptism, you must understand that you are blessed by God. how blessed you are. That God has separated you from children of those who do not believe. It doesn't mean that you don't have neighbor friends that you play with who are unbelievers. You might very well have that. Or that it doesn't mean that all of the kids in your class believe in Jesus. It doesn't mean that either. But God has separated you from children of unbelievers by giving you two and by giving to you Christian parents who love the Lord. And they have been given a very important responsibility to teach you the truth of Jesus, to give you instruction that is more important than any other instruction because this is eternal. I'm not saying, don't go to school. That instruction is important too. But this is most important. And they have the responsibility to introduce you to Jesus, the only Savior, the one that you don't want to leave this life without. You have been given the sign of water and with that sign of water, you have been given, you have been given the promise of God. He made you a promise that if you repent of your sins and believe in Jesus Christ alone to save you from all of your sins and give your life to Him that all of your sins are washed away by Jesus Christ who entered Jerusalem that day to go to the cross to suffer the punishment of God that I should have had that you should have had and to pay for our sin and His payment, the payment of Jesus was received by God the Father as if we had made that payment and His righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus, His sinlessness, His never ever being disobedient, all of that has been given to us as our very own. Our beloved, those who treasure God and His Word and have joy and confidence of salvation love the souls of covenant youth too and desire this treasure for them and delight in teaching them. Trusting the Holy Spirit to give the increase, to bring them to faith with the desire to claim, as we were privileged to witness this morning, to claim the promise of God that yes, all of my sins are washed away by the blood of Jesus, I believe. Trusting the Holy Spirit to write God's law of love on their heart, as Jeremiah 31 says. And as children embrace the Word of God and Jesus Christ by faith and delight in His commands, they respond with love to God through obedience from grateful hearts. Psalm 127 says, Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. Did you hear that? Not your career. Not your good name in society. Not your possessions. That's not your heritage. But children are a heritage from the Lord. If God should give you and me children or place them under our care in some way in the church. There is the saying, you can't take it with you. You cannot take your earthly goods with you. But in a sense, you can take one thing with you by God's grace. The children who put their trust in Jesus Christ alone by grace through faith. And beloved, may God continue to bless us and to equip us as a believing community to be used of Him to make the instruction of our covenant youth in the Lord first priority. And may He continue to enable the children with faith to claim His eternal promises. Just think. as believers, we get to introduce our children and others to Jesus Christ. The very best. The only one who can bring us to the glory of heaven. Amen. Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, as we consider Your redeeming love, we cannot help but to consider it in all of its fullness. That You have saved us from our sins, that we are safe in Christ Jesus, both now and forever. There's nothing that we can do that could ever change that. We praise You for that, Father. Because we continue to struggle with sin. Be it also you have given to us your law in a new light, in the Gospel light, by which you equip us and enable us by your Holy Spirit to live for you. To live in obedience, to show forth our gratitude to you. By which you keep us from the path of sin. Father, thank you for the truth of Jesus Christ. Help us more and more to be faithful stewards of that truth to teach it here in this place to our children, to all with whom we have contact. And that by the work of Your Holy Spirit many might come to knowledge and saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, hear our prayer for Jesus' sake and in His name we pray. Amen.