Thank you.
Tell it to Jesus.
He is a friend that's for all.
You've no other son or friend or brother.
Tell it to Jesus, O Lord.
Do you fear the gathering cause of sorrow?
Tell it to Jesus.
Are you anxious?
What shall we do tomorrow?
Tell it to Jesus, O Lord.
Tell it to Jesus.
He is a friend that's for all.
You've no other son or friend or brother.
Tell it to Jesus, O Lord.
Are you troubled at the thought of dying?
Tell it to Jesus.
You're quite stunning.
Think of what you're signing.
Tell it to Jesus, O Lord.
Tell it to Jesus.
He is a friend that's for all.
You've no other son or friend or brother.
Tell it to Jesus, O Lord.
Let's bow our heads together.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for giving us the opportunity to be in church on this Wednesday night.
Thank you for the safety you've given to each and every one of us to be able to be here.
We ask that you please have your blessing upon the song service tonight.
Help us to be edified and help us to lift up our voices unto you in praise.
And we ask that you please just have your blessing upon our pastor as he comes and preaches to us this evening.
Please help our hearts and ears to be opened and receive the message tonight.
And that everything that's said and done would give you the honor and glory that you deserve for it.
Thank you for it. In Jesus' name, amen.
356.
Hymn 356, I must tell Jesus.
Hymn number 356.
356, I must tell Jesus all of my trials.
Hymn number 356. Sing it out together.
I must tell Jesus all of my trials.
I cannot bear these burdens alone.
In my distress he died, he will help me.
He ever loves and prayers for his own.
I must tell Jesus.
I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus.
Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
I must tell Jesus all of my troubles.
He is a kind, compassionate friend.
If I but ask him, he will deliver.
Make up my troubles quickly and then.
I must tell Jesus.
I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus.
Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
Tempted and tried, I need a great Savior.
One who can help my burdens to bear.
I must tell Jesus.
In all my cares and sorrows will share.
I must tell Jesus.
I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus.
Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
Oh, how the world to evil abhors me.
Oh, how my heart is tempted to say.
I must tell Jesus and he will help me.
Over the world of victory to win.
I must tell Jesus.
I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus.
Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one.
On the inside, we have our service times.
Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at 6.
Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
Tonight will be in Deuteronomy chapter number 30.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below,
as well as salvations and baptisms.
On the inside is a list of all the birthdays and anniversaries in February.
Bridal shower already happened, but the wedding is still coming up for Anselm and Eileen.
That is this Friday, just two days away, February 9th.
2 o'clock in the afternoon right here.
Everybody's invited, so don't be shy about coming down for that.
Cake and punch will be served after the ceremony.
And then congratulations to the Delgadillo family on the birth of baby Elijah,
as well as the Oates family on the birth of baby Eric.
Thank you to those who went out to San Jose, Arizona and went soul winning,
had six people saved, knocked every door in San Jose.
A couple of other small town trips are coming up, as always.
And we have the details and signup sheet over here to my right for those.
And then there's a baby shower coming up on February 17th for Amanda Coleto.
So that is about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and add up the soul winning from the past few days.
So going back to Monday, is there anything from Monday?
Okay.
All right.
And then what about Tuesday?
Okay.
And then how about today, Wednesday?
Okay, four for the van.
Anything outside of the van?
All right, very good.
Keep up the great work on soul winning with that.
Let's sing our next song.
Come lead us.
I should find the answer in front of your hymn, all of the song, rejoice in the Lord.
If you don't have an answer, please raise your hand.
And we'll sing it on that verse together, God never moves without purpose or plan.
God never moves without purpose or plan.
When trying his servant, then, oh, be the man.
Give thanks to the Lord, though your testing seems long.
In darkness he given the song.
Oh, rejoice in the Lord, he makes no estate.
We know at the end of each path that I take.
For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as Lord.
I could not see through the shadows ahead.
So I looked at the cross of my Savior and said, I bow to the will of the Master that day.
Then peace came and tears went away.
Oh, rejoice in the Lord, he makes no estate.
We know at the end of each path that I take.
For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as Lord.
Now I can see testing comes from above.
God's strength is his children and burdens in love.
My Father knows best and I trust in his care.
Through purging or through thy will there.
Oh, rejoice in the Lord, he makes no estate.
We know at the end of each path that I take.
For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as Lord.
We know at the end of each path that I trust in the Lord.
Jesus, Lord of all nature,
O thou of God and man the Son.
He will I cherish,
He will I honor,
Thou my soul for rejoice now.
There are the meadows,
There still the woodlands,
Long in the blooming dark of spring.
Jesus is bearer,
Jesus is purer,
Who makes the woeful heart to sing.
There is the sunshine,
There still the blue light,
And all the twinkling starry holes.
Jesus shines brighter,
Jesus shines purer,
Then all the angels then can boast.
Beautiful Savior,
Lord of all nations,
Son of God and Son of man,
Glory and honor,
Praise and praise shall now and forevermore be thine.
All right, this time we'll quickly pass our offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 30.
Deuteronomy chapter number 30, as we always do.
We'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number one.
Follow along silently with brother Hester as he reads.
Deuteronomy 30, starting in verse number one.
Deuteronomy chapter 30, the Bible reads,
And it shall come to pass when all these things are come upon thee,
The blessing and the curse which I have set before thee,
And thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations,
Whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee,
And shall return unto the Lord thy God,
And shall obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day,
Thou and thy children, with all thine heart and with all thy soul,
That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity,
And have compassion upon thee,
And will return and gather thee from all the nations,
Whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee.
If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven,
From thence will the Lord thy God gather thee,
And from thence will he fetch thee,
And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed,
And thou shalt possess it,
And he will do thee good and multiply thee above thy fathers,
And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed,
To love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul,
That thou mayest live.
And the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies,
And on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.
And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the Lord,
And do all his commandments which I command thee this day.
And the Lord thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand,
In the fruit of thy body,
And in the fruit of thy cattle,
And in the fruit of thy land, for good.
For the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good,
As he rejoiced over thy fathers.
If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God,
To keep his commandments and his statutes,
Which are written in this book of the law,
And if thou turn unto the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul,
For this commandment which I command thee this day,
It is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.
It is not in heaven that thou shouldst say,
Who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it unto us,
That we may hear it and do it,
Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldst say,
Who shall go over the sea for us and bring it unto us,
That we may hear it and do it.
But the word is very nigh unto thee,
In thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
See, I have set before thee this day life and good,
And death and evil,
In that I command thee this day,
To love the Lord thy God,
To walk in his ways,
And to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments,
That thou mayest live and multiply.
And the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land,
Whither thou goest to possess it.
But if thine heart turn away,
So that thou wilt not hear,
But shall be drawn away,
And worship other gods and serve them,
I denounce unto you this day,
That ye shall surely perish,
And that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land,
Whither thou passest over Jordan to go and possess it.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you,
That I have set before you life and death,
Blessing and cursing.
Therefore choose life,
That both thou and thy seed may live,
That thou mayest love the Lord thy God,
And that thou mayest obey his voice,
And that thou mayest cleave unto him.
For he is life and the length of thy days,
That thou mayest dwell in the land,
Which the Lord sware unto thy fathers,
To Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
Father in heaven, thank you for this day,
and thank you for your son, Jesus Christ.
His blood has washed away our sins.
And Father, I pray that you please bless Pastor Anderson
with the fullness and the power of the Holy Spirit
as he preaches the word
so that we, your children that are present here
and that are not present here
would be edified in the word Lord,
and we would grow in grace
and the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Amen. Deuteronomy chapter number 30,
the Bible reads in verse number 1,
and it shall come to pass
when all these things are come unto thee,
the blessing and the curse which I have set before thee,
and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations
whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee
and shall return unto the Lord thy God, et cetera here.
Now, this is a really interesting chapter
because he's actually talking about something
that's not going to be applicable
until way in the future, centuries later,
with the Babylonian captivity.
Or, of course, it could also be applied
to the earlier Assyrian captivity
of the ten northern tribes.
But God obviously knows the end from the beginning,
and so Moses is prophesying about the fact
that way down the road in the future
the nation of Israel is going to get so bad
and the nation of Judah is going to get so bad
that God ends up bringing all those curses upon them
that we read about in chapter 28,
and they will actually be scattered
into all nations of the world.
And he's saying that when that happens to you,
when you have disobeyed the Lord,
and when you have been cursed by God
and you're spread out all over the world,
remember these words, call this to mind, right?
Thou shalt call them to mind, it says,
halfway through verse one there,
among all the nations where the Lord thy God
hath driven thee and shall return unto the Lord thy God.
And so one of the things that we can use this for today
in our Christian lives is to understand
that sometimes the things that we're hearing,
the preaching that we're hearing,
or maybe the Bible that we read this morning
isn't something that we need today,
but it's going to be something that we need in the future.
We want to make sure that we're constantly reading our Bibles
and listening to preaching
because we're getting all of this teaching
from God's Word in our mind,
and we don't know when we're going to need it.
Even if it's not relevant today,
it's going to be relevant tomorrow.
And in fact, it's better to learn things too early
than too late.
You know, you'd rather hear preaching about marriage
or child-rearing when you're a child
or when you're a teenager,
even if it doesn't apply to you right then.
Well, down the road, it is going to apply.
So you should never think that something
that you're hearing is irrelevant
because everything from the Bible is relevant.
And if you're hearing something from God's Word
that isn't relevant now,
well, it might be something that you need later,
or maybe it's going to be something
that you're going to need to explain to someone later.
Even if you're never going to be in that situation,
you could still use that information
to help other people.
And the other thing that we see here
is that it's encouraging as a pastor
that if I'm preaching and teaching God's Word,
and sometimes I just feel like people just aren't getting it,
or maybe you see young people
and they've heard all this preaching
and they've been in church
and their parents have raised them,
and then they just go out and do stupid things
and you just wonder, man, is anything getting through?
But this is kind of encouraging
because God's describing a situation
where people have heard the Word of God,
they've not followed it, they've not obeyed,
they've consequently been cursed by God
and been scattered into all these nations
where they're being punished,
and then they think back
and they remember the teaching that they got earlier,
that teaching that they had disregarded in the past,
it's still in there.
So even if people hear the Word of God
and don't obey it and don't hearken to it,
they still heard it, it's still in there,
and you can pray and hope
that someday when they hit rock bottom, so to speak,
that they will call to mind
the things that they've been taught
and eventually that teaching and that training
is going to kick in,
and then they will actually turn back to the Lord.
And that's what we see here happening.
The curse has come upon them,
they've been driven into all nations,
and it says in verse 2 that when they call this to mind,
thou shalt return unto the Lord thy God
and shall obey his voice
according to all that I command thee this day,
thou and thy children,
with all thine heart and with all thy soul,
and he's saying when you do that,
that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity
and have compassion upon thee
and will return and gather thee from all the nations
whether the Lord thy God had scattered thee.
And so again, let's say you are the one
who ultimately gets away from the Lord,
gets backslid and goes out into sin,
when you remember the preaching that said,
you know what, my life is messed up,
it's just the way Pastor Anderson preached it would be,
it's just the way the Bible had said it would be,
it's just the way my Christian friends warned me it was going to be.
You know, when you remember those things,
don't forget that it's never too late
to turn back to God and get things right.
If you are saved, then God is not through with you, period.
If you're a saved Christian,
it's never too late to get your life back on track
and start serving God again.
If God were through with you, you would be dead
as a saved Christian, right?
You'd just be gone, God would just bring you home.
If you're here on this earth,
and you're saved and you're breathing air,
then God has a plan for you,
God has work for you to do,
God wants you serving him.
And so, remember that.
When you, years from now, perhaps,
and hopefully everybody here just stays in church
and stays serving God,
and this just becomes totally unnecessary for you,
but maybe you could use it to help someone else.
But the point is that, you know,
realistically there are some people in this room
who are going to go out and make stupid decisions
and mess up their lives,
and hopefully they're going to remember,
hey, Pastor Anderson said that it's not too late to come back.
Hey, remember the book of Deuteronomy talked about
people who were under the curse of God
for so much sin in their life,
that if they remembered these things
and turned back to the Lord their God,
that he would turn again their captivity,
he would have compassion on them.
Look at verse 3.
It says,
The Lord thy God will turn thy captivity
and have compassion upon thee,
and will return and gather thee from all the nations
whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee.
If any of thine be driven out unto the uttermost,
outmost, I should say, parts of heaven,
from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee,
and from thence will he fetch thee.
And so, again, the idea here is that as a Christian,
as one of God's people,
no matter how far out there you get,
if you want to get right with God, you can,
and God will bring you back home.
God will bring you back to his house.
So whenever we're reading the Old Testament
and it's not necessarily a one-for-one equivalency
with living in the New Testament,
because this is obviously the Mosaic law,
Old Testament, nation of Israel, and all that,
we don't ever want to think that this isn't relevant
because what you do,
and I'm going to show you this later in the chapter,
is you just repurpose it for the Christian life.
These things are written for our admonition
upon whom the ends of the world are come,
and that is the right way to read the Old Testament.
The right way to read the Old Testament
is to always read it in light of the New Testament
and always be repurposing it toward modern Christian life.
That's the right way to read it.
But you know what's funny is that there's a trend
in Bible scholarship and in theology
of a Judaizing of the Old Testament,
and they have this attitude that says,
well, you know, let's try to read it
like from the perspective
how people back then would have read it.
Folks, that is a worthless exercise,
and let me tell you why.
Because they saw through a glass darkly
and we see face to face.
Hey, maybe we can look through a glass darkly
and, you know, read it that way.
You know, why don't we just read it
with a big spotlight on it
called the New Testament.
You know, I mean, you have these people.
I mean, I saw the dumbest thing the other day
when the Bible says Satan in the Old Testament, right?
And it'll say, you know, Satan, you know,
provoked David to number the people.
Or, you know, Joshua the high priest
is standing there in Zechariah chapter 3,
and Satan is standing at his right hand.
Or in Job, right, when the sons of God
are presenting themselves before the Lord,
and then Satan came also among them,
and Satan accuses Job.
You know, people are saying, that's not Satan.
You know, what it is, and they're claiming,
well, you know, if you go back to the Hebrew,
then, you know, what it says is the Satan.
You know, and so therefore, it can't be a name,
but here's what's so funny is that also,
if you go back to the Hebrew,
the word God also has the in front of it a lot.
We wouldn't say the God about God Almighty, would we?
But yet it says the God and the Satan.
Just other languages, sometimes they just work differently,
and the definite article just works differently
in other languages.
But let's just say for a second it did say the Satan.
Well, here's the thing.
In the New Testament, in the book of Revelation,
it literally says, and the dragon was cast out,
that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world,
what is God telling us in Revelation chapter 12?
He's saying these are all the same person,
the serpent in the garden, the Satan,
if you want to put a the in front of it,
the Satan of Job, the Satan of 1 Chronicles,
the Satan of Zechariah, and the great dragon of Revelation
are all the same entity, the devil.
I mean, he literally just spells it out to you.
The great dragon was cast out.
The old serpent, the devil, Satan.
Well, you know, I think it's just a different Satan.
There's just this other Satan in the Old Testament,
and then they'll try to claim that the Satan
of the New Testament is never mentioned.
Folks, basically what you're saying is
I don't believe the book of Revelation at that point.
You're basically just saying the book of Revelation
is not my final authority.
Well, let me tell you something.
Every page of scripture should be our final authority,
and the clearest teachings that we should base our doctrine on
are found in the New Testament,
especially a book that's called Revelation.
It sounds like it's really opening things up for us.
And so if Revelation says the serpent and the devil
and Satan and the dragon are all the same entity,
then that's what they are.
Okay, but you get all these bozos.
They want to go back to the Hebrew
because they're trying to find some cute, new angle.
They never want to defend the traditional text.
They never want to defend the traditional readings of scripture
because in order to make it as an academic or a scholar,
you have to come out with all these cute, exotic, new, wild things
because there's no money in saying, yep, Satan is Satan.
It's got to be some new angle or something.
You know, people are like the Athenians on Mars Hill
just looking for some new thing.
Okay, and so what did that have to do with anything?
What are we talking about here?
Somebody explain to me how we got out.
Oh, yeah, yeah, the New Testament
is the lens through which we read the Old Testament.
So once we read Revelation 12 and it tells us
the serpent, devil, Satan, we should never be like,
well, let's try to read pretending we didn't know that.
We already do know that.
Like, we don't need to read Genesis 3
trying to push that out of our mind or something.
It's kind of silly, but that's the trend
is this kind of Judaizing of the Old Testament
trying to decouple it from the New Testament or something like that.
And, folks, we need to do the opposite.
We need to bring more New Testament into the Old Testament.
We need to just saturate our thinking with the New Testament
and then just go to the Old Testament
with our minds just bathed in the New Testament
to where we can't help but see Jesus Christ on every page.
That's the right way to say the Old Testament.
And, by the way, there's nothing wrong
with taking something from the Old Testament
that was originally intended differently
for the original recipients of the Word
and repurposing it for Christianity.
In fact, that's exactly what the Apostle Paul does
with this very passage in Romans chapter 10,
and we're going to get to that in a moment.
But it says right here in verse number 4,
If any of thine be driven out
unto the uttermost parts of heaven,
from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee,
and from thence will he fetch thee.
We don't care about some physical nation of Israel
and physical diaspora of a certain nation.
Folks, we're in the New Testament.
That's over. That ship has sailed.
The New Testament, it's not a physical nation of Israel.
It's a spiritual nation made up of all believers.
We are the elect. We are the chosen people.
We're a peculiar people. We're the chosen nation.
We're the royal priesthood.
And so, you know, we don't get physically scattered
from a certain center because in the New Testament
there is no Mecca that we pray to.
There is no Jerusalem that we make a pilgrimage to.
We can worship God anywhere
because what did Jesus say in John chapter 4?
He said, well, the time's coming.
You're not going to worship God in Jerusalem,
and you're not going to worship God in this mountain.
It's not going to matter where you worship God
in the New Testament.
Now, there was a time when you were supposed to worship God in Jerusalem.
There was a time when the Samaritans wrongfully thought
that they were supposed to be worshiping God in Mount Gerizim.
But the time's coming, Jesus said,
where that debate's going to no longer even matter.
He says, first of all, the Jews are right.
It's Jerusalem.
But the time's coming when it's not going to matter.
Because in the New Testament we don't worship God in Jerusalem.
We worship God in Phoenix, Arizona, or anywhere else in this world.
So the scattering now becomes spiritual.
Being scattered to the uttermost part of heaven
is a picture of being away from the Lord, away from church,
away from spiritual things, right?
And just like people who are geographically far from Jerusalem
in the Old Testament, we could be spiritually far from God,
far from church, far from our Bible reading or soul-winning
or whatever we are supposed to be doing as New Testament Christians.
The Bible says in verse 5,
And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land
which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it.
And he will do thee good and multiply thee above thy fathers.
And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart
and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God
with all thine heart and with all thy soul,
that thou mayest live.
And the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies
and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.
Now let me ask you this.
In the New Testament, will God curse those who persecute us?
Absolutely.
I mean, those who persecute Christians,
those who persecute God's people are under the curse of God.
God will bless those who bless us.
He will curse those who curse us.
We as Christians are under the divine protection of God.
And when the Bible said in the Old Testament,
Touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm.
Every single saved Christian in the New Testament
has that anointing of the Holy Spirit.
We are kings and priests unto God and our Father.
And so God, just as he rebuked kings in the Old Testament
regarding Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or people like King David,
in the New Testament we have that same divine protection as God's children.
When we're out doing the work of God, then God will protect us.
And when people do persecute us and curse us and revile us,
you know, the Bible says we should just rejoice and be exceeding glad
when people lie about us and attack us and criticize us
because great is our reward in heaven.
And that's what they did to the prophets which were before us.
And so the Bible is saying here that, you know,
God will put those curses that are on the disobedient.
He'll put those on our enemies when we're serving God
and doing right and following the Bible like we should.
You know, he'll curse our enemies.
And this is why we don't need to avenge ourselves.
What does the Bible say in the book of Romans?
Brethren, avenge not yourselves, right?
Give place unto wrath.
Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.
I will repay.
We let God take care of that,
and we don't have to actually physically take vengeance on anyone
no matter what they do to us
because of the fact that God will curse those people.
We just have to have the faith to believe
that God is going to plead our cause and take care of our enemies.
And, you know, we may pray some of those imprecatory prayers
from the book of Psalms,
but at the end of the day it's up to God to do that.
And he will put those curses upon our enemies
and on those that hate us, which persecute us.
Verse 8.
Thou shalt return and obey the voice of the Lord
and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.
And the Lord thy God will make thee plenteous
in every work of thine hand,
in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle,
and in the fruit of thy land, for good.
For the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good
as he rejoiced over thy fathers.
And so God, again, this is reiterating
what we saw in chapter 28 with the blessings
that God will bless us when we obey his voice.
And also it says that he will rejoice over us.
So God actually cares about whether we do right or wrong.
And when we do right, he rejoices.
The Bible says also that there's joy in the presence
of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
Right?
So there's rejoicing in heaven.
God rejoices over those who do right.
Just like it says in 3 John,
I have no greater joy than to hear
that my children walk in truth.
Obviously that's a human being talking there.
But also God is the same way where he also
takes great pleasure and delights in his servants
all throughout the book of Psalms.
He talks about delighting in and rejoicing
over his servants.
God does care whether we do right or wrong.
We grieve him when we do wrong,
and he rejoices when we do right.
The Bible says in verse 10,
If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God
to keep his commandments and his statutes
which are written in this book of the law,
and if thou turn unto the Lord thy God
with all thine heart and with all thy soul,
for this commandment which I command thee this day
is not hidden from thee,
neither is it far off.
So remember, let's get the original context here.
We're talking about the nation of Israel.
They're on the cusp of entering into the promised land.
They've wandered in the wilderness for 40 years,
and the idea here is that as a nation,
if they serve the Lord,
they're going to be blessed as a nation.
If they disobey the voice of the Lord,
they're going to be punished and cursed as a nation.
And that's what we're going to see throughout their history
in the book of Judges
and in the books of the kings and so forth.
But then also, the individual is being addressed here
and saying, look, in your personal life,
if you obey the voice of the Lord in your personal life,
you're going to be blessed.
You're going to live a better life
than if you're disobeying the Bible.
You're going to have more problems
and God's going to punish you and chastise you and curse you.
And of course, this applies to New Testament Christians as well
because the Bible says,
when the Lord loveth, he chasteneth
and scourgeth every son and he receiveth.
But he says here,
you have no excuse for not obeying these rules
because the commandment is not far off.
It's not hidden from you.
You don't have to wonder what God requires of you
or what God expects of you.
It's right here in front of you.
It says in verse 12,
it's not in heaven that thou shouldest say,
who shall go up for us to heaven
and bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it.
Neither is it beyond the sea that thou shouldest say,
who shall go over the sea for us and bring it unto us
that we may hear it and do it.
But the word is very nigh unto thee
in thy mouth and in thy heart
that thou mayest do it.
And so the word of God is available
and we know it's available in the United States of America.
It's everywhere.
I mean, every single store is selling you a Bible.
Churches are filled with Bibles.
Our houses are filled with Bibles.
Probably an atheist house has a Bible on the shelf.
I mean, the Bibles are everywhere.
You don't have to go over the sea.
You don't have to go up to heaven.
You don't have to dig in the earth.
It's there, my friend.
Now let's keep our finger here,
but let's go to Romans chapter number 10.
Romans chapter number 10,
it's really interesting what the apostle Paul does
with this scripture from Deuteronomy chapter 30.
And it goes back to what I was saying
about taking the Old Testament scriptures
and applying them to New Testament truths
and New Testament doctrines
because they're always going to be relevant.
So it says in,
I mean, let's just start at the beginning of the chapter
because it's just such a great chapter.
It says, Brethren, my heart's desire
and prayer to God for Israel
is that they might be saved,
for I bear the record that they have a zeal of God
but not according to knowledge.
You know, a lot of people might be really religious,
go to church a lot, do a lot of things,
but, you know, sometimes that's a zeal without knowledge
and they're not saved.
He says, look, these people are zealous for God
but they're not saved.
Why are they not saved?
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, verse 3,
and going about to establish their own righteousness
have not submitted themselves
under the righteousness of God.
And isn't that where a lot of Christians
are at right now out there in the world?
And when I say Christians, I mean so-called Christians
because I'm talking about unsaved people
who they're ignorant of God's righteousness,
which is by believing in Jesus,
and they're going about to establish their own righteousness.
You knock on their door and ask them, you know,
what do you believe a person has to do to go to heaven?
And, oh, live a good life, be a good person,
keep the commandments.
They're going about to establish their own righteousness.
It doesn't matter how hard they work.
And you know what?
The Roman Catholics can go to Mass every single morning.
They can go to Mass every morning
and then they can go through all the rituals
and they can take that super long hike across Spain
and they can, you know, go crucify themselves
in the Philippines or whatever they want to do.
But you know what?
At the end of the day, they're not saved
because they're going about to establish their own righteousness
and they've not submitted themselves
under the righteousness of God.
And watch this, this is key, verse 4.
For Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth.
Everybody who believes on Christ
is not relying on the law to save them whatsoever.
Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth.
Meaning that once I have believed on Christ,
I'm not relying on thou shalt not kill,
thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal,
thou shalt not bear false witness.
I'm not relying on, hey, I'm not doing that stuff
so I'm going, you know, I'm going to heaven
and if I screw it up, you know, I'm going to lose it.
No, no, no, my friend.
Salvation by faith is eternal.
Once you're saved, you're always saved.
And so Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth.
For Moses described at the righteousness
of the law that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them.
And we're going to see that a little bit later
in Deuteronomy chapter 30.
But here's the thing about the law.
If you follow God's law, you're blessed in this life,
in this world.
You will live by them right here and now.
Okay, it's not, the law is not a faith
because you just, you follow the rules
and you live a better life right here and now.
Okay, it's not about getting to heaven.
Getting to heaven is through faith.
Getting to heaven is through the blood of Jesus.
Following the rules is about blessings on this earth,
living a good life on this earth and so forth.
The Bible says that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them.
But the righteousness which is of faith
speaketh on this wise.
So he's saying, okay, I'm going to show you
the difference between the righteousness
that comes by following the law
and the righteousness which is by faith.
Now, when he said that the man which doeth these things
shall live by them, that's what Deuteronomy 30
is going to go into a little later.
Now he's kind of backing up a little bit
in Deuteronomy 30 and he's going to virtually
directly quote Deuteronomy 30 and say,
say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven.
Now, in Deuteronomy 30, say not in thine heart
who shall ascend into heaven was about fetching
the commandments of God so that we can follow them
and please God.
You remember that?
Deuteronomy 30 was about finding the rules
so that we could follow them.
Fetching the commandments of God
so that we could do the commandments of God.
But here, this is not about doing the commandments of God.
This is about the righteousness which comes by faith.
So instead of going up to heaven
to fetch the commandments, it becomes
say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven.
That is to bring Christ down from above.
That's a different way of using that statement
than what we saw in Deuteronomy 30.
Or who shall descend into the deep?
Instead of digging up commandments,
now it's descending into the deep
that is to bring up Christ again from the dead.
But what sayeth it?
The word is nigh thee, even in thine mouth
and in thine heart.
Now in Deuteronomy 30, that's what it said
about the commandments of God.
It said the commandments of God are in your mouth.
They're in your heart.
You know what they are.
They're readily available, just like they are today in America.
The book is readily available, but you've got to get it
in your mouth and in your heart, right?
You need to do the reading and do the meditation
on God's word.
But he says it's in your mouth and in your heart,
but then he clarifies that is the word of faith
which we preach.
He's saying, you know, we're not talking about the Mosaic law, though.
We're talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The gospel of Jesus Christ.
We don't need to go to heaven.
We don't need to dig down into the earth, dig down into the deep.
No, the word is nigh thee, even in thine mouth
and in thine heart.
That is the word of faith which we preach
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth, confession is made.
Confession is made unto salvation.
And so we see here that salvation is right there.
Salvation is available and right there
for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus
and believe in your heart.
He said, look, the word, it's in your mouth and in your heart.
Originally, that was about God's commandments,
about doing the law so that you could be blessed on this earth.
But now it's being repurposed to mean,
well, no, it's the same for salvation.
Right?
The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart,
because if you confess with your mouth
and believe in your heart, you'll be saved.
And so Christ is not just only limited
to his station in heaven at the right hand of the Father.
Jesus Christ is, of course, seated at the right hand of the Father.
But you know, someday people who are burning in the lake of fire for all eternity
will be tormented in the presence of the Lamb, the Bible says.
You know, so God's presence transcends one location.
We don't have to go searching for Christ up in heaven,
down into the deep, because in reality,
where two or three are gathered together in Christ's name,
there he is in the midst, the Bible says.
And so sometimes when I'm out soul winning,
I will go through the whole gospel with somebody
and explain to them salvation and how it's by faith,
what Christ did for us, what we have to do to be saved.
I'll go through the whole thing with them.
And once I explain the whole thing to them
and they say that they believe it,
I will sometimes say to that person,
if Jesus were standing here with us right now
and you asked him to save you, would he do it?
And then I tell the person, well, you know,
Jesus isn't physically standing here,
but he practically is, because if you just open your mouth
and pray right now, he will hear you.
You know, the word is nigh thee.
It's right there.
Salvation is right there.
You can reach out and take it.
You don't have to go out on some quest
in order to achieve salvation.
And so this is the Apostle Paul taking something
in Deuteronomy 30 that's about the law of God
and then repurposing it and using it for the gospel.
Now, is Paul taking the Bible out of context or what?
Well, here's the thing.
Technically, he is taking it out of context,
but in a good way, because he still is teaching the spirit
of what's being taught, and the Bible is deep.
There's more than one way to interpret the Bible.
There's more than one way to use the Bible,
and he's using it to teach good doctrine
and good right teaching.
And so there's nothing wrong with taking something
from the Old Testament and using it in a way otherwise
than it was originally intended,
because if there's something wrong with that,
well, then Peter's in trouble, and Paul's in trouble,
and John's in trouble, because they constantly do that
throughout the entire New Testament.
So I'm going to constantly do it in my preaching, too,
because of the fact that I believe that the entire
Old Testament is supposed to be pointing us to Jesus Christ
and that nothing in the Old Testament is irrelevant today,
because even things that have been done away,
like, say, animal sacrifices, are still relevant
because they're pointing us to the Lamb of God,
Jesus Christ, who is the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.
So back to Deuteronomy 30, and we'll finish up here.
But the Bible reads,
For this commandment, verse 11,
which I command thee this day,
it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.
It is not in heaven that thou shouldst say,
Who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it unto us,
that we may hear it and do it.
Neither is it beyond the sea that thou shouldst say,
Who shall go over the sea for us and bring it unto us,
that we may hear it and do it.
But the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart,
that thou mayest do it.
See, I have set before thee this day life and good and death and evil,
in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God,
to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments
and His statutes and His judgments.
Why?
That thou mayest live and multiply,
and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land,
whither thou goest to possess it.
Keeping God's commandments is not going to get you to heaven.
It was never going to get anyone to heaven.
It never will get anyone to heaven.
But keeping God's commandments will cause you to be blessed
and prosper and thrive on this earth.
Now, obviously, the priesthood being changed,
the Bible tells us in Hebrews 7,
there's made of necessity a change also in the law.
There are portions of the law, the meats, the drinks,
the divers' washings, the carnal ordinances,
that were only imposed upon them until the time of reformation.
But Christ being come, we now have a New Testament, a New Covenant.
Obviously, the morality of the Old Testament
is still the same morality that we would point to today.
God obviously is still teaching us about right and wrong in the Old Testament,
although we are not under the law but under grace.
Obviously, stealing, killing, murder, adultery, cross-dressing are all still sins.
They're all still wrong.
And if we want to be blessed on this earth,
we would follow the rules that God has given us in the New Testament
and also the moral laws and the teachings of the Old Testament as well.
You know, Christ said, if you love me, keep my commandments.
He didn't say keep my suggestions.
He said keep my commandments.
So Christ does have commandments for us.
And we are commanded to do certain things.
And if we do them, we will live in them.
We will live well on this earth, okay?
Or we can completely destroy our lives on this earth
because God is punishing us for disregarding what he has showed us in the Bible.
But when it comes to heaven and hell, it's not about keeping the commandments.
And that's what Paul and others in the New Testament are constantly reminding us of,
that the man that doeth those things shall live in them.
And that's what he says here.
I'm setting before you this day life and good and death and evil.
He's saying, how do you want your life to turn out?
And he says, if thine heart turn away, verse 17,
so that thou wilt not hear but shall be drawn away and worship other gods and serve them,
I denounce unto you this day that you shall surely perish
and that you shall not prolong your days upon the land,
whither thou passest over to Jordan to go to possess it.
Notice the emphasis on in the land, in the land,
because we're talking about on this earth.
We're not talking about heaven and hell.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you
that I've set before you life and death, blessing and cursing.
Therefore, choose life that both thou and thy seed may live.
And, you know, you've probably heard the phrase choose life in a pro-life context, right?
When it comes to people who are against abortion,
which is just basically normal, sane people
who aren't whores and whoremongers and devil worshippers, okay?
But people who believe that abortion is murder, because it is,
they have the slogan choose life, right?
And that's a pretty popular slogan.
And if you think about it, it's a very appropriate slogan
because it says choose life that both thou and thy seed may live, right?
So that your child lives too.
So, again, a little bit out of context, but I'll allow it because guess what?
Obviously, the Bible is most importantly and primarily read in context.
But, you know, taking verses out of context
can sometimes still provide profitable teaching and profitable instruction.
So, obviously, there are people who abuse verses.
They take things out of context to teach lies.
They take things out of context to teach false doctrine.
They take things out of context to twist them and make them say something else.
But taking something out of context per se is not wrong
because some things can be taken out of context
and still have a profitable biblical teaching
that matches up with what the Scripture teaches in general.
So we don't want to go overboard in saying,
well, everything has to be in context all the time.
Okay, well, when you get to heaven, you're going to have to explain that
to Peter and Paul and James and everybody else.
But he says choose life.
You have the choice.
I mean, look, you choose.
Do you want to die young?
Do you want to be, you know, laying dead in a field somewhere?
Do you want to be killed in an alley somewhere?
Or do you want to live long and be blessed and prosper on this earth?
It's up to you.
Because if you disregard the Word of God, if you go out there and live a wicked life,
you know what?
Your days are going to be shortened
and the days that you do spend on this earth are going to be miserable.
Whereas if you follow the Lord, you're going to have a much more blessed life.
And that is not just only a Deuteronomy 30 Old Testament.
No, no, this is a New Testament phenomenon as well.
And the New Testament reiterates these things.
The Bible says in verse 20 that thou mayest love the Lord thy God
and that thou mayest obey His voice and that thou mayest cleave unto Him
for He is thy life in the length of thy days
that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers
to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give them.
Did you notice how many times this idea of love the Lord your God came up?
I mean, it just kept coming up.
We didn't stop and talk about it.
But all throughout this chapter, he keeps coming back and saying,
Love the Lord your God.
Why? Because loving God is the key to keeping His commandments.
That's the key to becoming an obedient Christian is to love the Lord, right?
How are you going to be a good parent?
You've got to love your children.
How are you going to be a good child?
You've got to love your parents.
How are you going to be a good husband?
You have to love your wife.
How are you going to be a good wife?
You have to love your husband, right?
How are you going to be a good friend?
You have to love your friends.
And here's the thing.
You can go through the motions and just do what's expected of you,
but you know what?
You're not going to do as well as the person who's actually doing what's right from a heart of love.
There's doing what's right because you love God and you're sincere and you want to do what's right,
and then there's going through the motions when in your heart you really don't care about God.
You don't care about the Bible.
Well, you know what?
You're not going to get very far in the Christian life.
You need to work on your heart, loving the Lord your God, loving people,
loving God, loving your neighbor, loving your family, loving your friends.
This is going to make you a better person, not just following rules,
but rather loving God and then your following of rules is driven by love.
And in fact, love worketh no ill to his neighbor.
Your love is the fulfilling of the law, the Bible says.
The Bible says this is the love of God that we keep his commandments.
And so he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law, the Bible says.
A loving person just isn't out there doing all this harmful stuff.
And if we would get our love right, we wouldn't even have to think as much about the commandments
because we would just be automatically doing the right thing.
And then we would look back and say, yeah, that is what God told me to do,
but I did it because I love.
And so we want to make sure that we're not just slavishly following a set of rules.
And this is where the Pharisees got it wrong.
They just thought, oh, here's how to be more righteous, make the rules stricter.
Just keep making them stricter, just keep tightening it up.
And they thought that made them more righteous.
But then they're just constantly looking for loopholes to screw people over.
They're devouring widows' houses.
And for a pretense making long prayer, he said, you're going to receive a greater damnation.
And so they're just going through the motions.
They didn't love God, they didn't love their neighbor.
Jesus said, this people draws nigh to me with their mouth, but their heart is far from me.
And so they thought righteousness is just in going through the motions.
No, my friend, do what's right from the heart
and you'll find that it's a lot easier to do what's right
when you actually have the right attitude about it.
And not just, well, yeah, okay, whatever, I guess I'll do it.
I don't want to get cursed by God.
I don't want to get all those diseases in chapter 28.
I want my enemies to get those diseases, right?
But you know what, that's great.
You know what, whatever gets you doing the right thing is great.
But at the end of the day, though, the goal is to move toward love and love the Lord God.
And, you know, come to church and enjoy church, enjoy the Word of God.
Enjoy your Bible reading and pray to the Lord
and ask him to give you a heart to love him.
Ask him to increase your love and, you know, work on it.
You know, work on your attitude.
It's not like it's just like, well, you know, you either love God or you don't.
No, that's not true, my friend.
This is a command.
The greatest commandment in the law is love the Lord thy God.
If there's nothing you can do about it, then how is it a commandment?
I mean, is God going to tell you to do something
and you have no power to do it or not do it?
It doesn't make any sense, does it?
Now, if he's telling you love the Lord your God,
if he's telling you husbands love your wives,
wives should love their husbands, love their children,
if he tells us as Christians to love the brotherhood,
we must be able to do that.
So let's do it.
Spire eyes and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this great chapter.
Lord God, help us to put it to practice in our lives.
Help us to never think that books like Deuteronomy are expired or outdated or irrelevant, Lord.
But help us to just repurpose them to the Christian life
and read them in light of the clear teachings of the New Testament.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen. Take care of hymnals, please.
Go to 129, hymn number 129, Rock of Ages, hymn number 129.
Rock of Ages, clap for me. Let me hide myself in thee.
Let the water and the blood from thy food inside this load
be of sin the double cure.
Saved from wrath and aching cure,
could my tears forever flow,
could my zeal no languor know,
please for sin could not atone.
Thou must save and thou alone,
in thy hand, O Christ I reach,
simply to thy cross I cling,
while I draw this fleeting breath,
when my eyes shall close in death,
when I rise to worlds unknown
and behold, beyond my throne,
Rock of Ages, clap for me.
Let me hide myself in thee.