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Deuteronomy 29-30:8

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6/26/1997
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Deuteronomy 29-30:8
Deuteronomy 29-30:8
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05 Deuteronomy - 1996

The book of Deuteronomy is the giving of the Mosaic Law to a new generation of Israelites at the end of their wanderings. Skip Heitzig tells the story of God's continuing grace to His people.

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All right, let's turn over the Deuteronomy, chapter 29, this evening; Deuteronomy, chapter 29. "These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb [or Sinai]. Now, Moses called all Israel and said to them: 'You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all of his servants and to all his land---the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders.' " One of the greatest privileges that we have and one of the greatest powers we have is the power of choice. We get to exercise that power every day. We choose what time we're going to wake up. You say, "No, my boss chooses that." Well, to an extent.

You could still choose to sleep in and pay the consequences. You do make certain choices: you choose what you're going to wear, you choose the people you're going to hang out with, you choose what you're going to do in your leisure time. One of the great moments of choice in the Old Testament happened when the children of Israel---not this generation, but the forefathers of this generation that Moses is speaking to---arrived at an important place two years after the Exodus from Egypt. It was called Kadesh Barnea. While they were there, twelve men were sent out to spy out the hand and bring back the report. God promised them the land, a place flowing with milk and honey, and they were so excited as they went to find out what kind of a land it was and bring back some of the fruit.

They went in and what they saw blew their minds. It was a beautiful place, vines around the southern part where Bethlehem is, big grapes in the valley of Eshcol by Hebron. But in scouting out the land from the north so the south they saw that the cities were walled, huge walled cities, villages, and they noticed that there were the sons of Anak that dwelt there, the Anakim, the giants. So they came back to the children of Israel, to Moses, two of them, Joshua and Caleb, didn't care how hard it might seem, how big these guys were, because they saw through the eyes of faith how big their God was. And they just saw the giants were big targets, easier to hit. But ten of these men had a bad report, and in seeing the giants they lost sight of their God, and they convinced the rest of children of Israel not to go in.

On one hand, Joshua and Caleb say, "Man, let's go up at once. God's given us the land, let's do it." But the ten said, "Oh no, you don't know how bad it looks, and it's just impossible. It'll never work. They'll eat us alive." And so because ten had the bad report and only a minority had the good report, most people like to sort of take a census and see what the majority says. And since the majority had the bad report, they went with the majority, and they decided not to go in and take the land. Now, what happened at Kadesh Barnea? That choice was a choice of disobedience that had repercussions for an entire generation. That generation, twenty years old and above, all died out in the middle of the tullies. Their bodies were strewn all over the Sinai Peninsula. That generation is over. It's gone. It's all past history.

Now the children of Israel are on the brink of entering the land again. This is a new generation. They are not like their forefathers. They're going to go in. They're anxious to go in. They have seen what God has done. They know how that two and a half tribes have already started to occupy east of the Jordan River, that God has overthrown two of the kings in these kingdoms, and they're anxious. But now they're on the verge of another choice. This is not a decision of a day or a month, but this is a decision of a lifetime, of a pattern of living. They're about to enter into a covenant to obey God as a lifestyle. God has made a covenant with them, but now it is their choice to perpetuate the covenant by obedience. And so here they are in the plains of Moab looking down over the Dead Sea area toward Jericho, looking out over that land, and they have to make the choice.

So Moses rehearses their history and looks to their future that they might be God's people in obedience. If you would just look back for a moment in chapter 28, in verse 9, Moses says, " 'The Lord will establish you as [leám qadosh] a holy people." That's their banner. That's what they're to be known as. " 'A holy people to himself, just as he swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways.' " So this is a commitment, a choice they are called to make as a lifestyle of obedience to God. Now, if Kadesh Barnea represents a hinge of making a choice in the Old Testament, it was a hinge upon which an entire generation would swing, and they swung the wrong way. There is sort of an equivalent of making a choice or a hinge in the New Testament, not at Kadesh Barnea, but this time at Caesarea Philippi.

We read that Jesus took his disciples twenty-five miles north from the Sea of Galilee to a high mountain to the regions of Caesarea Philippi. And while he was there under those beautiful fig trees and banyan trees up near the mouth of the Jordan River, one day as they were walking together Jesus asked a question. Now he had been with them for a few years. He had displayed his miracles. He had disclosed his person and his teachings. And this was sort of like a test to see if they understood who he really was. The first question---and the test only had two questions. The first question was easy and it really wasn't a pass or fail question, but the second one was. He said, "Hey, who do people say that I am?" That's an easy question. You just have to think of what you've heard lately about what they have said about Jesus and tell him, so they did.

"Hey, some say you're John the Baptist, others say you're Elijah, others say that you're Jeremiah or one of the prophets." Second question: "Who do you say that I am?" And can you believe it, of all the apostles, Peter got it right? [laughter] And perhaps some of the others even knew answers, but, you know, Peter wouldn't let them speak. As soon as he knew he had it, he just jumped right in: "You're the Messiah, the Son of the living God." That's the answer. Now, all of us know that answer. We have entered into a covenant, a deal with God. We trust in him. We've committed our lives to Christ the Son of the living God. But that's just the beginning. That choice is to be followed by a choice of a lifestyle, a commitment to obedience. Right after that Jesus said to them---you know, they got the answer right.

They're all hyped and jazzed that they got it right. Jesus said, "If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself . . . and follow me. And whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses it for my sake and for the kingdom will find it." That is a choice to commit yourself to a lifestyle of obedience. Kadesh Barnea was a failure. Now at the plains of Moab they have that chance to enter into a covenant of commitment. And as Jesus reminded the disciples as Caesarea Philippi, it's the same covenant of commitment that we as Christians in the New Testament are called to keep. Commitment then determines destiny, as we see in chapter 29, as we have already seen in some of the previous chapters. Now, chapter 29 is a review of a review. I know that sounds goofy. Deuteronomy is a review.

It's a recap of the law: Genesis, Exodus---mainly Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Deuteronomy sort of recaps that. Moses gives several speeches, four speeches to the children of Israel. Chapter 29 and 30 is a summary of the review. They've already heard the lengthy review and several speeches, and probably now a few days after 28 is over, Moses gathers them again and gives a brief summary on where they've come from and where they're going: "Remember what God has done," in brief; "know what you're about to get into." And then right after that there's a leadership change. Moses has a few last words, he kicks the bucket, then Joshua will take over to lead the children of Israel into the land. So, we get to the fourth speech of Moses, which is the covenant.

That's the main theme: what God will do for them through what is called "the covenant." And I put the Hebrew name in there, berith, covenant, which means an agreement, a binding agreement. It can be done between nations, usually it's called a treaty, it's seen as a treaty. It can take place between individuals. It's a contract that would be drawn up. It also can be done between rulers and subjects: "These are the terms of you being my servant and I being your king; these are the terms of government." And then Moses lays out in brief the terms of the covenant by which they occupy the land that God has given to them, the land that God swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, the berith, the covenant. And that's the theme of this chapter. Now, in the review he calls all of them together in verse 2 and says, " 'You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes.' "

Now, although he's going to tell them to obey and to make the right choices, there must have been some part of Moses that was frustrated while he gave this speech, because God has already revealed to Moses and Moses has already told the children of Israel that they're going to fail. So on one end he goes, "Okay, you guys, let's all get together here. You saw what God did. You know what God promised to do for you. Now obey him. Love him. Keep this berith, this covenant." At the same time God has just told him, "Moses, these people are going to blow it time and time again, and they're going to be taken out of their land into a land of captivity. They're going to fail." There you have the weakness of the law. Remember, Paul talked about in Romans that the law was weak because of the inability of man to keep the commandment.

You have this great covenant that God draws up: "Do this and live," God said. But the flaw of the law of Moses is that it was predicated on man's faithfulness. "Do this and live the law commands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. A better word the gospel brings, it bids me fly and gives me wings." The new covenant, the covenant based on Jesus Christ is not predicated on what you and I do, our performance, but on what Jesus Christ has done already by his death on the cross. It's predicated on his faithfulness, not my faithfulness. So when you say, "God doesn't deserve to bless me today, I haven't read the Bible as much. I haven't been as obedient. I don't deserve anything. I probably won't get it," that's the law. Of course you don't deserve it. Did you deserve his Son pouring out his life on the cross?

David said, "Lord, if you should mark iniquities, who could stand?" If you're going by what you deserve, you'll have some good days and bad days, mostly a whole lot of bad days, if you gave an honest evaluation of yourself, better yet, if somebody else gave the evaluation of you. And so, "The law came by Moses," said John, "but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." One is predicated on man's faithfulness to obey or disobey; the other is predicated upon the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. "Now Moses called," verse 2, "all of Israel and said: 'You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, to all of his servants, to all of his land---the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders.' "

Now, he's talking to a new band of folks here. Not all of them were born in Egypt. Many of them were born out in the desert and had to be told where they came from: "Our forefathers were in Egypt." You know, they're born in a tent in the middle of nowhere on this migrating journey in Bedouin tents on the way to the Promised Land. That's how many of them were born. Some of them, however---remember at Kadesh Barnea it was everybody twenty years old and younger that would be spared from the death out in the wilderness? So some of them left Egypt at eighteen years of age, arrived at Kadesh two years later. They were twenty years of age, so they remember full well what Egypt was like. They remember leaving Egypt. They saw the Red Sea open.

And so the average age here is between thirty-nine years old at this point and fifty-six years or so, right around there is the average age of this generation. They had seen some pretty awesome things. Some of them saw the Red Sea open. Others didn't see that, but they saw manna fall from heaven and they remember getting up every morning and seeing that weird white stuff out in the desert, and how that made their daily meal and evening meal, and they had it day after day after day. Some of them remember what it was like to see that cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night leading them through the wilderness over the tabernacle. Some of them remember the earth opening up and swallowing the dissenters. They saw the great trials. They saw water come out of the rock.

So Moses isn't telling them stuff they haven't seen, or that they've seen secondhand or heard about secondhand, but stuff they have seen firsthand. "You witnessed it. You saw it. You know firsthand what God can do." It's a personal relationship. It was a personal experience. Imagine what it would have been like to be Peter, John, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, and hang around Jesus. Now, at first you just think, "This guy is amazing. I don't know who this is, but, boy, he can do some pretty cool tricks with fish and bread and wine, and water and how he can walk on it." And then through the process of all that coming to know this is the Son of God, indeed God in human flesh. How would you describe it? You'd probably sound a lot like John did when he wrote 1 John.

And he wrote it this way: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have gazed steadfastly upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the word of life---the life was manifested, and we saw it, and we bear record, and we declare unto you that eternal life which is from the Father that was manifested to us." You know, it dawned on them: "We saw the one from the beginning. We heard the words of God. We touched God"; to realize when Jesus touched a leper, that's God touching suffering humanity; when Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount, that's God speaking his very heart to people. They saw it. They heard it. Or you'd sound like Peter when he said, "We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty."

"We saw him. We heard him." John was the one who put his head on the bosom of Jesus; Peter was the one who denied Jesus and restored personally by Jesus after the resurrection. And so there was this personal encounter here that they had, there was a personal encounter here that the children of Israel had, and there's a personal encounter you've had. Now, I don't know where you are tonight, and perhaps some of you are even a little bit disenchanted with your Christian life. It hasn't been what you thought it would be. You are called to look back before you look ahead and remember what God has done for you. I know people who say, "Gosh, I kind of miss the world." "Oh really? Well, what do you miss about it?" "Well, my friends, my friends were so cool. They were so accepting. They were so loving, man, and I had such a good time."

"Funny, I remember when you came to Christ how disenchanted were with the world, the stories you had about the parties that were not fulfilling, the hangovers you had in the morning, how you lost so much of your money on drugs." But the devil will blind you to the truth. You'll look back selectively and you remember certain little high points. Of course, he'll embellish them and make them look bigger and brighter than they ever were. The truth is you were empty, and your eyes have seen, your ears have heard. You've seen changes. You've had an encounter with God, and based on that he will tell them how they ought to walk. Verse 4 is fascinating now to me. After saying, you saw and you heard: " 'Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive and the eyes to see and the ears to hear, to this very day.' "

The miracles that they saw, the things they heard about, what their eyes have witnessed, didn't make a lasting impression on them. Whenever we look back, we can have---there is a problem with reinterpreting history, leaving out some of facts, revising history, rewriting it. And I think that our history books, as I said last time, are filled with revisionism. Instead of talking about our forefathers' desire to break free from the tyranny of the old country and have the freedom to worship God, it's a glorying in and free enterprise is what made our country great, instead of giving any glory to God, which our forefathers did. The history books are very clear on that. And so the history books are written and given to your kids, revising it.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn from the Soviet Union said, "If you want to destroy a people, first sever them from their roots," the rest is easy. And so though they had this great heritage, they saw and they heard, it says you don't understand, "to this very day." Remember when Jesus would speak things to his disciples and he'd say things like, okay, "He that has ears to hear, let him hear!" Why did he say that? You know, I'll tell you why: there can be two people sitting side by side hearing the same thing, and one is in tune to it spiritually and picks up on it and is fed and is nurtured and nourished, and the other it just goes right over his head, "Huh?" They are dull to the same truth. And so when Jesus gave parables, he would often say this: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

Because though you can see, you can still be blinded to the truth behind what you see. Though you hear, you can be deaf to the truth behind what you're hearing audibly. Turn with me to Matthew for just a moment, chapter 13. Let's see how this truth is played out under the new covenant. Matthew 13, after finishing the first parable in verse 9, he says, " 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear!' And the disciples came to him, they said, 'Why do you speak to them in parables?' He answered and said to them, 'Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given . . . but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.

" 'Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: "Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. And their eye and ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears." ' " He's quoting Isaiah, chapter 6, which is a prophecy about the deterioration of the people of God, the nation of Israel. And he's saying, "This is fulfilled in them, these leaders, these Jewish Pharisees, scribes, and people who are listening to what I'm saying, but their eyes and ears are---they're insensate to the truth behind it."

The same sun that melts ice hardens clay. The same truth that will melt a heart and bring it close to God can harden another heart. That's why truth is a dangerous commodity. It's dangerous to hear it without being open to obey it and to apply it. The more you hear with the determination not to really hear it, the worse off your heart gets, a callous develops over your heart. You become hardened like clay. And so it's dangerous to hear, even as these religious leaders, these people who were brought up in the Bible heard truth after truth, but their hearts were hardened to it. " ' "Lest," ' " the end of verse 15, " ' "they should understand with their heart and turn, so that I should heal them." But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear.' "

I heard about a tourist who went to Italy---and I don't know where in Italy, I've only been there once, but some little out-of-the-way town---and stayed in a quaint inn. And when he came into the inn he noticed that the floors looked really dirty, and it really bothered him, being a Westerner. He thought, "You know, these people take no pride in their country. They ought to clean this place up." So he was about to go to the manager and either say that they should clean up the inn or say, "Could I please have a broom, I'll do it for you." And as he was going up to the front desk, he took a little closer look on the floor and noticed that it wasn't a dirty floor, but the floors were dirt. And that if you were to sweep the floor, you'd just make it worse, not better. You'd stir it up.

In some people's lives the truth is like a broom. It doesn't really help, it just stirs things up a little bit. It doesn't really clean things up. Now, it could be that some of you have said, "Boy, I wish God would speak to me. I wish God would really reveal things to my heart. God has never really revealed anything to me personally." Could it be that you've just said no to obeying the little things that come your way, and so that God really can't proceed any further. Because what you've seen and what you've heard is like, "I don't get it. I don't get it because I won't apply it and obey it in my life." And so when you hear the truth, you get stirred up, but that's it, dust settles back down. Remember Jesus said to his disciples, "I have many things to share with you, but you can't bear them now."

I wonder how often that would be said of us? "I've got to much so share with you, so many truths, but your eyes don't see, your ears do not hear." So, verse 5, chapter 29 of Deuteronomy---oh, by the way, before we get into that, there's another lesson that I saw here. When was the last time you heard somebody say "Well, if I could just see a miracle, then I'd believe"? Hello!? Forty years of miracles in the desert, they saw things you'll never see. They heard things you'll never hear. And a whole generation didn't believe, but complained against God, time after time. "Oh, but if God would really prove himself, then I know . . . ." No. Remember the rich man and Lazarus? And the rich man had died and goes to Hades and Abraham is comforting Lazarus in his bosom.

The rich man cries out and says, "Hey, would you send somebody as a representative to speak to my brothers? Send Lazarus to go speak to my brothers. They're still alive, I don't want them to come to this place." Abraham said, "They have prophets, and if they don't listen to the Word of God and the prophets, they won't be persuaded though one rise from the dead." The children of Israel saw so much and yet heeded so little. Verse 5, speaking again of what God has done for them in the past: " 'And I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your cloths have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet.' " That's quite a statement. That's amazing to have clothes and shoes that are that good. I'll tell you, they don't make them like they used to. [laughter] This shoe is guaranteed for 40 years!

Now, as wonderful as that is, I'm sure that people were frustrated with that, no change of fashion. And so you can hear the conversation: "Honey, could we go down to the tent mall and get me a new dress?" "Oh, but darling, it looks brand new." [laughter] And it did look brand new. It was brand new. And the shoes didn't wear out. God's provision for them. " 'You have not eaten bread, you have not drunk wine or similar drink that you may know that I am the Lord your God.' " In other words," God has given you what you needed in the manna. You didn't have to the grocery stores, but God provided for you while you were out there." Now, look at your life. Has God provided for you? Well, here you are, you're alive. I guess, yes, he has, right? You say, "Yeah, but there were times where things were pretty slim." Here you are, remembering.

You've gone through it. You're out the other end of it. And I bet if we could hear you give testimonies tonight, each one of you would have a great story about times that God has taken you through very, very lean seasons of your life. I remember a few. I remember the time when I was living alone, I was in college, my rent was $99 a month, furnished house. And I was studying radiology, and there was times when I bought groceries, hoping that I'd have enough for next pay check. Groceries ran out. I had some guests that week and all I had left was no vegetables, but Hamburger Helper. It's easy. I had a pound of hamburger and the mix, add water, it was from the faucet. So I had a meal for a few nights. And it was enough. I made it through.

But then the Hamburger Helper ran out and I still had a few days before the pay check would come, no money. But I had a jar of peanut butter, no bread, just a jar of peanut butter. Skippy peanut butter, of course, that's the only kind. [laughter] So I took a spoon and that was my dinner, a few spoons of peanut butter. It's all I had, but I made it. You've made it. You're remembering tonight that God has led you through and provided everything you need. God will provide your needs. God doesn't have to provide your greeds, just your needs. And sometimes God will bring you through that season, so that I might learn to trust. " 'And when you came to this place' "---what place? The plains of Moab, that's where they were standing. They were on the plains of Moab looking out down over the Promised Land.

" 'When you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, and we conquered them. We took their land and gave it as a heritage to the Reubenites, to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh.' "---just remembering in their recent history what they would have seen, how that they marched up the east side of the Dead Sea and came in contact with these two kings. First of all, they would meet Og the king of Heshbon. Now, Og had a huge army, a well-trained army, a well-equipped army. The children of Israel were vagabonds. They were wandering Bedouins in tents, no real weaponry. And, yet, God conquered this insurmountable army. Against all odds they conquered the land.

We know that Og was a pretty big king himself. Previously we read that he had a bed that measured nine cubits in length. If a cubit is eighteen inches, that's a bed that is thirteen and a half feet long. That was his bed, thirteen and a half feet long. See, a king size bed. [laughter] Well, he was a king and it was a big bed, maybe that's where they got the idea. Certainly it's not a new concept at least. And then going up they would come to Bashan, which is the present-day Golan Heights, and would have taken that over. And it was fresh in their minds; they remembered it. Verse 9, " 'Therefore keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.' " What's the best way to prosper in all that you do? Obey.

What's the first commandment God gave in Deuteronomy 6? "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." What's the second commandment? "Love your neighbor as yourself." That sort of sums up the law. Do that, obey that, you'll prosper in all that you do. Is there a New Testament equivalent to that, by the way? Matthew 6, "Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you as well." Keep the first thing the first thing, the most important thing first, seeking God, and he'll add what you need "that you may prosper in all that you do." Verse 10, " 'All of you stand today before the Lord your God: your leaders, your tribes, your elders, your officers, all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives---also the stranger who is in your camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws the water.' "

Now I want you to notice the word in verse 10, "you stand today." He's about to say that, "I'm making this covenant not only with you, but people who come after you, but I'm talking to you today." He says, "You stand here today." The covenant is already in place. God has already established this deal, this covenant of the land and of the law with his people. But you stand here today to make a covenant with God, to make a choice, to make a commitment. And the emphasis is on the word "today." He's calling them sort of into a public accountability of making this choice to obey God, to commit to him. When it comes to salvation, when it comes to making a commitment to God, when it comes to making a choice, the Bible word is "today," it's "now." "Today is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation."

Instead of saying, "Well, if you feel like it, you must be born again later on, think about, you know, negotiate it. You've got plenty of time to talk about it among yourselves." Today. Maybe some of you are toying with the idea of committing your life to Christ, maybe some of you come from a religious home, maybe you've come to church here with friends, but you've never made a commitment of repentance and faith in Christ. You've never done that. You thought, "I'll wait. I'll wait to see what this is all about first." Okay, but if you were contemplating a choice, there's no better time than tonight. Now, you might have the excuse, "Well, I understand that, but I know this is a big commitment. And, you know, I'm a busy person. And I don't know if I'm ready to make the commitment.

"I don't think it's fair to God for me to make the commitment, being so busy, and not being able to follow through with it." [laughter] If God tells us to make the commitment, don't you think God would provide the strength for you to follow through? Again, the new covenant is based on his faithfulness. He's provided everything you need. Now, he just says, "Take this." "Well, I don't know if I can take that or not, I'm too busy." "But it's free. It's eternal life. Ask me for forgiveness, I'll forgive you tonight. I'll wash away your sins. I'll make you my child." "I don't know if I can do that or not." I've known people like that. My brother Bob was one of them. He died in a motorcycle accident instantly one evening, and two weeks before I begged him, "Make a commitment tonight."

You know what he said? "I have time, I've got plenty of time to think about it. I'm busy right now, but I'll have the time in the future." And I got a phone call one evening from my dad---the time was up. There's no better time than now. Today as you stand here or as you sit here, if you're thinking about a covenant, make it. " 'All of you stand today before the Lord your God: your leaders, the tribes, the elders, your officers, all the men, even the little ones.' " It's for every one: small, big, young, and old. " 'That you may enter into the covenant with the Lord your God, and into his oath, which the Lord your God makes with you today, that he may establish you today as a people for himself, that he may be God to you just as he has spoken to you, and just as he has sworn to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' "

"Do it today," he's saying, "God has made a covenant, enter into it. Be his people today." There's a story about---and it's a legend, of course---about a leadership conference around the leadership table in hell. And the devil was presiding, and all of the chief bigwig demons were around the conference table. They were coming up with a strategy: what should they do on earth to deceive people? One demon said, "Hey, I know what to do. We'll tell people there's no God." The devil said, "That's stupid. You'd have to be stupid to believe that one. I mean, after all, you look around and you see the evidence of design. And if you see the evidence of intricate design, people will infer there's a Designer behind the design. So some people will buy into that one, but, by and large, most people believe there's something else."

So that was rejected. Another demon said, "You know, I got a cool idea. We'll tell people there's a God and stuff, but, like, there's nothing after death, you just cease to exist." The devil said, "Boy, that's so lame, because then people will say, 'Okay, if there is a God and God made everything, why did he make people if only to cease to exist?' That's not a complete plan. That's not logical." Another demon finally stood up and said, "Let's go down and tell them there's a God, there's a heaven, there's a hell, there's a Christ, there's a devil, but let's tell them there's no hurry." And it was accepted unanimously. "That's it! Tell them they've got plenty of time, wait on it." Moses said, "You've seen it, you've heard it, you're here today, do it." Like the Nike commercial says, "Just do it!" Today. "

'I make this covenant and this oath,' " verse 14, " 'not with you alone, but also with him who stands here with us today before the Lord our God, as well as with him who is not here with us today,' " future generations, " '(for you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt, that we came through the nations which you passed by, you saw their abominations' "---notice what he calls other people's gods that are not the true God, the only one true God. He doesn't call it alternate lifestyles or religions. " 'Abominations and idols---wood, stone, silver, gold); so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve other gods of these nations, that there may not be among you a root of bitterness or wormwood.' "

Now "wormwood" is a plant that is a very dark, bitter plant. It yields a dark green oil, an absinthe. The Greek term wormwood is apsinthos. It's that bitter, dark oil that comes from this Near Eastern plant. The idea is the bitter end of something. To say something is wormwood means---here's the basic idea: when you decide to do wrong, you plant a seed that will eventually spread and poison everything. And so, again, the whole idea is making the right choices here. " 'There may not be among you a root of bitterness or wormwood. And so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, 'I shall have peace, even though I walk in the imagination of my heart'---as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.' "

Remember in the book of Judges that famous phrase, "And everyone did what was right in his own eyes"? That's what he's speaking about. "Do this," and if somebody comes along and says, "No, wait a minute, I don't have to do that. I can decide how I will worship God or believe in God or live my life and I'll have peace. I'll walk in my ways and God will bless my life." You know, there are people---we, first of all, as humans have an infinite capacity to rationalize. I think you probably figured that if you know yourself well enough. You can talk yourself in or out of just about anything if you want to. And it's speaking here about a person who would come to a choice, choose the wrong way, and the result would be bitterness and wormwood.

And he would say, "I will have peace, even though I walk in the imagination of my own heart---" ' notice what God says, " ' as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.' " Some people I meet think that there are rules, there are absolutes, there are God's laws, there are biblical principles, but for some reason there's an exception clause for them. "It works for everybody else, this applies to everybody else, but I'm different. I can get away with this. Yeah, I know, 'Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap,' but not with me. Somehow I'll get by with it." God is warning them of this mentality that could come in the future.

Verse 20, " 'The Lord would not spare him; for then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the Lord would blot out his name from under heaven. And the Lord would separate from him all the tribes of Israel for adversity, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of the Law.' " I think if I were to sum that up with a salient principle, it's speaking about a person who would say, "Personal rights are more important than the corporate good"; personal rights are more important than the corporate or the national good, in this case, the nation of Israel. "I'm different than them. I'll do as I please. After all, I have the right."

You know, the interesting thing about choices, we think the more choices we have the more freedom we have. Sometimes the more freedom we have---well, definitely when we make choices away from God's will, and we call that freedom, there's only bondage. The more you do as you please, the less that you are pleased with what you do. It's a bondage, it brings---it's a terrible taskmaster. And God tells the curses that would fall upon that person. Now, I'm not telling you anything new. We live in a generation that, by and large, our society in America now, this is post-Christian America. I hope none of you are under the delusion that we live under a Christian guideline principled country. That's long gone. This is post-Christian America.

And the polls indicate that only 13 percent of Americans believe in the Ten Commandments; 40 percent believe in five of them the polls say. [laughter] And the book that I read says basically people are a law unto themselves. They are the final arbitration of the truth. They decide which laws of God are relevant or irrelevant, thus which ones they'll obey or not obey. They make up their own law, their own rules: "It's my personal right." " 'So that,' " verse 22, " 'the coming generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the Lord had laid on it: "The whole land is brimstone, salt, burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and his wrath." ' "

It's interesting, if you go to this area, which is the Dead Sea, they're speaking about Admah, Zeboim, Sodom and Gomorrah, if you were to stand today on Mount Nebo, which is in present-day Jordan, you cross the Allenby Bridge, go up the road, take a right, sweep up to the top of the mountain, look down, you're looking over the Dead Sea, the Jordan River that comes into it out toward Jericho. You'd look at that and go, "That's the Promised Land?" I mean, it would even make the west mesa look lush, [laughter] if you can imagine that. There's just---it is the Dead Sea. It's parched and white and just rocky and nothing grows there. But we are told in some of the ancient writings that before the overthrow of these cities, before the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, it was a well-watered plain.

That's what attracted Lot as he looked down toward Sodom and looked over the well-watered plains. It was beautiful at one time. The land is desolate in that area now. There's other parts of Israel that are lush, beautiful. You look at it and go, "Wow! That is a land flowing of milk and honey." But this area is still parched. And we also know that at different times in history when the Jews were cast out of their land and other people took it over, for instance, the Turks have as policy come in and denuded the land, cut down all the trees, so that when you do that you have a high erosion rate and the land becomes barren. And so that's why there's a massive reafforestation push in Israel today where they've planted millions upon millions of trees.

And you can drive through parts of Israel and you're driving through thick groves of pine trees, every single one planted by hand. And in planting them by hand---they were trees that could grow in an arid climate, there was a certain kind of pine tree. But in planting that many trees, and adding the oxygen into the air, and adding moisture by virtue of the chlorophyll that's in the plants themselves, they have doubled the annual rainfall since the time they took it over in the early part of this century. But there was that problem as judgment of being sold into other nations that their land would be eroded, it would not produce, and that would be---people would look at it and go, "Man, what happened here?"

" 'And all nations would say,' " verse 24, " ' "Why has the Lord done so this this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?" Then men would say: "Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt; for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they did not know, that he had not given to them. Then the anger of Lord was aroused against this land, to bring on it every curse that is written in this book. And the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day." ' " Then there's an interesting close to this chapter.

" 'The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.' " God has not revealed everything to us. There are mysteries. There are questions we have. Number one, God's doesn't owe us an explanation, because he's God. Number two, we have finite minds and it's absurd to think that the finite could comprehend the infinite. That's like saying to your little son when you go to the beach, "Son, go down to the water and put the whole Pacific Ocean in your little pail, and bring it back home." Impossible---a little pail, big ocean; finite, infinite. And so God hasn't revealed everything that we can know. Besides that, it's unnecessary to know everything.

God has given us enough information that you can pass down to your children and your children's children to let them have a covenant with God and walk in obedience and serve him. I should probably add to that that there are certain things in the Old Testament that have been revealed since the New Testament, right? Didn't Paul talk about mysteries? One is the mystery of God in Christ in us; the mystery of God manifested in the flesh in Christ; the mystery of the church that was kept hidden in the Old Testament but now has been revealed; that God would take Jew and Gentile and make them one body of Christ instead of separate. Now chapter 30, " 'Now it shall come to pass' "---what a great, great chapter of restoration.

" 'Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among the nations where the Lord your God drives you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey his voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul.' " He talks about returning to God. That's what the chapter is about. It's the covenant. He said, "You're going to disobey, but you're going to come back again." Why? God's faithful. There is a biblical term for turning your back on this berith, this covenant. The biblical term is "backsliding." The picture is graphic: imagine, you know, you're sort of---you're sliding on your back, you've lost control, you've made certain choices, but now you're descending, you're backsliding.

There was a man by the name of Robert Robinson. When he was twenty-three years of age, he heard George Whitefield the great evangelist preach out in the open fields, and Robert Robinson gave his life to Christ. It was an amazing conversion, because he had a real sorted past. Robert Robinson wrote one of the most famous hymns of the church: "Come, thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace; Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise." Beautiful, beautiful hymn. He strayed after he wrote that hymn from those streams of God. And he went back into a very, very carnal lifestyle, and very lonely, and he was very miserable. One afternoon he was riding a carriage. That was the transportation in those days.

And as he was riding in the carriage, he happened to be sitting next to a young lady who was reading her little book, and he didn't know, but in the book was his hymn. And she was just reading it to herself, and she came to a spot, not knowing who the man was, wanting to witness to him: "Excuse me, sir, have you ever heard of this hymn, 'Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing'?" And then she read that little phrase that he wrote: "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love." And she said, "What do you think about that, sir?" [laughter] The very words he wrote. He said, "Madam, I am the poor soul that wrote those words many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to get the feeling that I once had back." No matter how far you've wandered from God, there's always a way back.

No matter what sin you're caught in tonight, there's always---the door of forgiveness is open. You can come back. This is a chapter of restoration speaking to a people God knows will fall into idolatry. The door is open for restoration. When you come with " 'all of your heart and all of your soul,' " verse 3, " 'the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you. Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. And he will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.' "

God said, "You're going to blow it"; God said, "I'm going to bring you back." Now, this is all part of something I'd like you to remember. It's called the "sin cycle." This is not a motorcycle or a bicycle, this is a sin cycle. It's a cycle that happened often in Israel's history and we see it most graphically in the book of Judges. Let me just review it. There were four phases to the sin cycle. And it's not just happening once, it's happening continually through a lot of their history, and each time it gets lower and lower. One generation does worse than the previous generation. And whatever their fathers did, they sin---they, you know, it's like, "Okay, you know, you raised me five, I raise you ten." Phase one, rejection. They weren't happy with who they were as God's people.

Judges 2:13, "They forsook the Lord and they served Baal and the Ashtoreths. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel." Phase two is God's response. He lets them have what they want. "So he delivered them into the hands of the plunderers who despoiled them; and they sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies," Judges 2:14. Rejection of God, after that came oppression. The third phase of the sin cycle, repentance. Now, they're in a foreign country or in the land of some other people group, like the Philistines, and they start crying out to God: "O God, help us! We've sinned." "The Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them."

And the final phase, deliverance, restoration. "The Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them." Now, after that cycle, it was all over, right? It wasn't all over. There's another verse: "Yet they would not listen to their judges, but played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the Lord." That's the sin cycle: rejecting God, sold into the hands their oppressors, crying out in repentance to God, and then being restored back to the land. God is willing to restore. God said, "He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers." See---amazing grace.

" 'And the Lord your God,' " verse 6, " 'will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all of your soul, that you may live. Also the Lord will put all of these curses on your enemies, on those who hate you, and who persecuted you. And you will again obey the voice of the Lord and do all the commandments which I command you today.' " I think we're going to close with these verses because of time. Listen, I could go on and I could finish the book, but we don't have the time. But verse 6, just capture the thought for future meditation: " 'The Lord will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all of your soul, that you may live' " I believe those verses anticipate the new covenant, the New Testament.

I think those verses go way beyond the law, the 1,500 years in which the law was active as a covenant in Israel, all the way to the time of Christ. It's predicting a new covenant. You may remember Jeremiah 31, the classic prediction of the new covenant, where God says, "And the days are coming says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt, a covenant which they broke, even though I was a husband unto them, says the Lord. I will make a new covenant where I will put my law in their minds and I will write it on their hearts." It won't be something that is kept outwardly, it's something that is kept inwardly.

It's not written on tablets of stone, it's not kept by rote and ritual, it's kept in the heart and in the soul. It's part of the fiber and of the commitment of the life. It's a covenant whereby a man or a woman will not feel smug, saying, "I've gone to church this Sunday. I've gone to synagogue this Sabbath. I've done this. I've dotted the I's and crossed the T's." It's one where "God lives in my heart. The very fiber of my being is committed to him. It's the choice that I've made. It's the new covenant." That's the covenant God has called you to. And when you come to Jesus Christ, Jesus who lived the perfect life fulfills the law, and then he says, "The law is summed up in this: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself."

And there are times when it is hard to even keep that law. And let me say, you can't do it. With the new covenant comes the new provision, and that provision is the Holy Spirit living inside of you to fulfill God's plan for your life. So next time you're out of strength, you're out of energy, you're out of go and oomph, stop right there and say, "God, I'm out. My tank is empty. Fill me with your Spirit. Fill me with the power to be a servant of yours, to live in obedience to you, to serve you with all of my heart, that I might prosper in all that I do."

For more teachings from Calvary Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig visit calvaryabq.org.

Additional Messages in this Series

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12/22/1996
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Deuteronomy 1:1-33
Deuteronomy 1:1-33
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12/29/1996
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Deuteronomy 1:34-3:29
Deuteronomy 1:34-3:29
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1/5/1997
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Deuteronomy 4:1-49
Deuteronomy 4:1-49
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1/12/1997
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Deuteronomy 5:1-15
Deuteronomy 5:1-15
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2/2/1997
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Deuteronomy 5:16-6:9
Deuteronomy 5:16-6:9
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2/9/1997
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Deuteronomy 6:8-8:11
Deuteronomy 6:8-8:11
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2/16/1997
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Deuteronomy 9-10
Deuteronomy 9-10
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3/2/1997
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Deuteronomy 11-12:13
Deuteronomy 11-12:13
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3/9/1997
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Deuteronomy 13-14
Deuteronomy 13-14
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3/16/1997
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Deuteronomy 14:22-16:8
Deuteronomy 14:22-16:8
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4/6/1997
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Deuteronomy 16:9-17:20
Deuteronomy 16:9-17:20
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4/14/1997
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Deuteronomy 18-20
Deuteronomy 18-20
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4/20/1997
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Deuteronomy 20-21
Deuteronomy 20-21
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5/4/1997
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Deuteronomy 22-23
Deuteronomy 22-23
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5/25/1997
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Deuteronomy 24-25
Deuteronomy 24-25
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6/8/1997
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Deuteronomy 26-27:3
Deuteronomy 26-27:3
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6/11/1997
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Deuteronomy 27:4-28:20
Deuteronomy 27:4-28:20
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6/18/1997
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Deuteronomy 28:15-68
Deuteronomy 28:15-68
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7/2/1997
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Deuteronomy 30:10-31:8
Deuteronomy 30:10-31:8
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7/9/1997
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Deuteronomy 31:9-32:22
Deuteronomy 31:9-32:22
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7/16/1997
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Deuteronomy 32:23-34:12
Deuteronomy 32:23-34:12
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There are 21 additional messages in this series.
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