[0:00] in Deuteronomy chapter 30. Some powerful verses that we find here. And really just closing up, there'll be some final chapters, some farewells and some kind of songs of mourning and also a song of rejoicing that we'll get at the end of Deuteronomy that kind of closes out the life of Moses.
[0:20] But Deuteronomy chapter 30 brings to a close his exposition or expounding of the law, right? It's kind of closing the covenant of what God has commanded his people to do and how they shall live.
[0:37] If you remember the last couple of chapters, we've been in the blessing and cursing of this time and that thing. I had a brother tell me this morning that he was listening to a podcast and I can't remember exactly where he heard it, but it wasn't a Christian podcast, but World Magazine, that's what it was, World Magazine podcast.
[0:58] And they were doing some archaeological digging around Mount Ebel. If you remember Mount Gerizim, Mount Ebel. Mount Gerizim is the Mount of Blessing. Mount Ebel is the Mount of Cursing. And man, the archaeologists dug up a stamp that is in Hebrew, and it is ancient Hebrew, pre-David, ancient Hebrew, and it's got a curse on it that like you would stamp on a document, the Mount of Blessings and the Mount of Cursing.
[1:27] Remember I told you that's one of the things that historically did take place. We see it in Joshua, the writing of the blessings and the writing of the curses. And I used to have a book, and I can't remember, I don't know, I lost it somewhere between, when I moved out of the office in Normandy and I moved here, I called the Spade and the Shovel, the archaeological evidence for the things of the Bible.
[1:48] So archaeologists have never refuted biblical claims, they have only undergirded biblical claims. And it's amazing when God just kind of opens it up and says, here you go.
[2:01] Anyway, so we've been looking at those very things. And he had happened to be, he was here whenever we had went through those, and he was really just excited. He's going to try to find it and share it with me.
[2:11] But we've been looking at those very things, the blessings and the curses and the result of their obedience. And then we'll kind of bring everything to a close here in Deuteronomy chapter 30 for that section.
[2:23] This kind of closes out that final remarks, if you will, of the covenant, not of the book, but of the covenant as it pertains to the law. And then we'll kind of get the charge of Moses, the song of Moses, the death of Moses, and the mourning for Moses as we finish up the book of Deuteronomy.
[2:41] But let's pray, and then we'll just get right to the text together. Lord, we're so thankful to have the opportunity of gathering. We're so thankful to have the opportunity of digging into your word together.
[2:52] And Lord, we rejoice in each and every chance that you allow us to do that. So Lord, we pray as we read your word this evening, Lord, that it would speak to our hearts. Lord, that it would show us the glory of who you are, that it would, Lord, just resonate within our lives and give you all the praise.
[3:10] And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Deuteronomy chapter 30. It says, So it shall be when all of these have come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you.
[3:30] And you return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and soul, according to all that I command you today, you and your sons. Then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.
[3:47] If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you and from there he will bring you back. The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it.
[4:00] And he will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your souls so that you may live.
[4:12] The Lord your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you and who persecute you. And you shall again obey the Lord and observe all his commandments which I command you today. Then the Lord your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand and the offspring of your body and the offspring of your cattle and the produce of your ground.
[4:30] For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good just as he rejoiced over your fathers. If you obey the Lord your God to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law.
[4:41] If you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. For this commandment which I have commanded you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. It is not in heaven that you should say who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it that we may observe it.
[4:58] Nor is it beyond the sea that you should say who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it that we may observe it. But the word is very near you in your mouth and in your heart that you may observe it.
[5:10] See I have set before you today life and prosperity and death and adversity and that I command you today to love the Lord your God to walk in his ways to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments that you may live and multiply and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it.
[5:27] But if your heart turns away and you will not obey but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it.
[5:40] I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying his voice and by holding fast to him.
[5:55] For this is your life and the length of your days that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them. Deuteronomy chapter 30.
[6:07] I don't know if you realize it or not but hopefully by the time we get through this evening you will realize it. We are reading something that is of historical account but has a future, a reality. You are reading something that will happen, not something that has happened.
[6:20] And we don't get that very often when we get into the Old Testament and you'll see why in just a moment. But I want you to see from Deuteronomy chapter 30 the hope of covenantal living, the hope of covenantal living, that there is hope that is connected with the reality of living inside a covenant relationship with the Lord their God.
[6:37] Now, we do not live in the covenant of the law. We understand that. But we are a covenant people, right? We live in the covenant of Christ's blood and we live in a covenant relationship.
[6:47] He has paid it all. He has done it all. He has really provided it all. He reaches out to us. He is the initiator and the instigator and the extender of the invitation.
[6:59] And we, like the nation of Israel, live within the realm of a covenantal relationship. And there is hope found in covenantal living. There is hope for the Jewish nation because of the covenantal living and the covenantal life which God has called them to.
[7:15] There is hope for the people of God today because of the covenant in which they live. We need to understand as we get into biblical theology, okay? I think while we are the covenant people through the blood of Jesus Christ, there is the covenant that God has made with the descendants of Abraham.
[7:32] He has never voided that covenant, by the way. You will get to that in just a moment. But it is the similarities in that. It is not that this is one of legalistic and this is one of grace and mercy because I don't know if you caught it or not but the repeated theme throughout this book is the heart.
[7:48] The repeated theme throughout this chapter is the heart, right? Not the life, not the doing, sure the obeying but the obeying flows from the heart and the covenant is really, really rest in the relationship an individual has through his heart that affects his life.
[8:06] But there is hope that comes with that and we see it here in a couple of things and there are some things we will clarify even in the New American Standard that I think gives us a better force of it.
[8:17] the only translation that I know that reads it literally and brother you're reading it the legacy translation the legacy Bible really has it right I don't want to say right has it in its original language as it is intended but if you paid attention in the last few weeks you'll get this where it says when you call these two minds let's just say we're on Sunday night okay so if they were calling it to mind we would say they were doing what?
[8:45] they were getting it right in their hearts because when they spoke of mind and the seed of emotions and the seed of intellect was always the heart right so it's when you call it to your heart then you will obey with all your heart it's not that they would just make this mental decision oh yeah we need to change it's that to the very depth of their being to the very core of who they were in their heart of hearts they would find conviction and they would turn to follow him with all of their heart see conviction is not an issue of the mind conviction is an issue of the heart and we see this even in co-ociding but we see the hope of covenantal living three aspects from this that we'll see this evening and we'll be through we'll not be as long but we'll be three three aspects of this hope number one there is a promised restoration there is a promised restoration we take comfort in the reality that even when God is declaring to them the stipulations the blessings and the curses when he declares to them the requirements of the covenant when he declares to them the standard of the law that God is not surprised by the fact that the people fail and the reason we have to take comfort in that reality is that when we find ourselves in that position we need to be comfort with the fact that God's not surprised that we messed up
[10:09] God's not surprised that we're not perfect God's not surprised that we are imperfect beings in desperate need of a holy God and he has called us to live in relationship with the holy God and when he set the standard and he declared to them this is what life looks like he did not tell them this is what life looks like and as long as you live it perfectly we'll be okay because even after declaring that this is what life looks like and if you live in obedience your life will be considered blessed and if you live in disobedience then your life will be considered cursed there are the blessings and the curses and God declares all these things it is what we would call consequences for sin because even today in the covenant of the blood of Jesus Christ when we fail that covenant does not remove the consequences of our sin in this life right there are consequences for our sinful actions Paul speaks of these in writing to his letters that believers die because of their sin right there were consequences because of sin but there is never this expectation that anyone will ever live perfectly there is always the reality that God deals with that when these things come about when you fail and the reason we take comfort in that is that God was prepared in advance for the mess up of man now that's good because God is not a God who responds to man's problems
[11:38] God is a God who is proactive and provides a way before man commits the problem that's a big difference this is why we can say in scripture just as it does in the word of God that before the foundations of the world were laid he recorded names written in the Lamb's book of life but Jesus is also the Lamb slain before the foundations of the world were set God did not respond to what he thought was a perfect creation that messed up and all of a sudden had to come up with another plan and send his son in the flesh God in the flesh to pay the price God made the provisions for the restoration before man ever messed up that's glorious that's wonderful and we see it here he says now he's speaking to the people in the plains of Moab before they've even went into the promised land before they've even had an opportunity to live according to any aspect of the law and the covenant right all the standards have been set and he just looks throughout the future and he says when these things all come about when you have experienced the blessings and when you have experienced the provisions that God has given you because you've been faithful and when the curse has come upon you and they're like wait a minute what are you talking about when he doesn't say if right he says when these things come about then know wherever you're at you're scattered now to the people think about this
[12:55] God is already declaring to them he will scatter them among the nations before they even take possession of the promised land the sign of God's faithfulness was the reality that they were about to possess the promised land right God is blessing them with the land you can never discount or disconnect the land from God's promises and blessings with the Jewish nation God's promises and his blessings are always connected to the land even today still tied to the land we'll see that in just a moment still tied to the land and he says and when you are scattered he says here that when you go there and you call them to mind it says in verse 1 it really is when you bring them up in your heart when they arise in your heart you know what I'm talking about because every now and then there's something that comes to memory and it doesn't come from your intellect it comes from the very depth of your being it comes from your bowels it's something that you remember from the heart not necessarily from the mind and he says and when you get to that place when you've experienced the curses of God so much so that you're scattered amongst the nations and you call them to your heart and you turn and we see this promise of restoration and when you call them to your heart in all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you and you return to the Lord your God and obey him so this is repentance first and foremost we see this promise of restoration genuine repentance is a matter of the heart not a matter of the mind man doesn't decide he needs to change his ways man is convicted to the very core of his being that he needs to turn from his ways it is a heart issue he says and when you call them to your heart and you turn to the Lord your God and you obey him with all of your heart think about this just for a moment and it says then God will restore you look at this promise look at the hope that is in the covenant before they have the opportunity to fail the covenant
[14:50] God declares to them that when they fail there is a hope of restoration that when they fail and they fail to the extent that they are banished there is a hope of restoration now this is a national hope because the reality is that many many of the Jewish people will fall and die and spend eternity separated from a holy God not because there was not a hope but because they didn't respond to that hope and he declares that when they come to your heart and you turn to the Lord in genuine repentance and obey with all of your heart then the Lord your God will restore you and he will call you back from all of the nations that you are scattered abroad and he will call you back and no matter if you are to the very edge of heaven if you are to the depth of the very depth of outer space he will go get you there it doesn't matter where he has scattered you your God is faithful and he will get you and he will restore you and he will bring you back it means you cannot go so far outside the realm of what looked to be God's blessings that he cannot restore you and there is great hope there in that repentance and this by the way is how we know we are looking at a future event because the Babylonian captivity brought this about in part it did not bring it about in full if you remember
[16:05] God's chastisement and rebuke what we would consider his final rebuke to his nation I will get it out in just a moment what we would consider his final rebuke to the nation that we have recorded for us in scripture is the Babylonian captivity the reason they went into Babylonian captivity is because of their multitude of worshipping the multitude that was worshipping idols and false gods and they were an idolatrous people and they were unfaithful so God sent them everything that God says they would do they do King Nebuchadnezzar comes in and he carries off all these people and they go into the Babylonian captivity and they are there 70 years and after 70 years 70 plus or minus one or two years there is a king that arises by the name of King Cyrus Isaiah has already declared his name long before he was born and King Cyrus issues a decree whoever wants to go back and rebuild Jerusalem is welcome to go back remember that now do you also remember that it was only a remnant that went back it was only a remnant only a few and God was calling them and calling them and calling them and it was only a few that went back and historically there are more
[17:09] Jewish people living outside of the promised land today than there are living inside the promised land this restoration has never taken place nationally and the reason it has not is because as a nation they have not turned with their hearts but God declares that there will be a future event where their heart will be turned and he will now some Bible scholars will tell you and I'll say some and I'm not one of these that the church is the new Israel the church has taken the place of the Jewish nation and they are now the Israel of God and one of the great I don't want to say arguments because argument is not a good word but one of the great apologetics against that defense against that reality is the fact that here this promise is directly connected to a land and as God's people the church God has never promised to give us a land in this earth the promises that we have in Christ are not connected to a land but the promises of this covenant are connected to a land which we see by the way still being fulfilled throughout the New Testament so we have to ascertain that at some point in history at some point in the future that it has not yet be that their hearts will be turned and God will bring them back but what we see here is this hope of restoration and he says it is a promised event but I want you to notice that in this restoration it isn't like God just gives you a fresh start right because this is applicable to us as well because we stumble and we fall right even under the covenant of Jesus' blood we all stumble and fall and sometimes those consequences for our sin seem to cast us to the very brink of the nations of the earth but when the heart is broken and when the heart is turned and when the heart is repented
[18:53] God promises to restore us in light of the covenant that he has with us through Jesus Christ and now we are called back to him it isn't like he just gives us a fresh clean slate right a brand new start because it says and when he brings you then the Lord will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand the offspring of your cattle and the body and the offspring of your body the offspring of your cattle and the produce of your ground for the Lord look at this will again rejoice over you for good the restoration also brings with it the abundance of God's rejoicing over you for good just think of this reality that when Christ calls us to himself and enters into a covenant relationship with us through his blood not through a law and we accept him as our Lord and Savior is how we declare it the truth is we enter into a covenant with him through our commitment to him he knows that we're going to fail and he knows we're going to stumble and he knows that we're going to fall and he knows that we'll experience the blessings and the curses but he also declares that in that moment where it looks like the curses have gotten so bad that when the heart is broken and we turn back to him that he will again rejoice over us for good now to me that astounds me that astounds me to the very depth of my being that God knowing that I will fail him he'll still declares to me that there will be a way in which he can rejoice over me for good and I see that as one of the greatest hopes of covenantal living it's not that I can hope that he will be happy with me but that I can know that when my heart turns towards him he again rejoices over me he celebrates me and he pours out the good he just doesn't say okay let's try it again he doesn't say well you messed up that time let's do it again no he comes back and he pours out the blessings again and rejoices because as the word of God tells us his loving kindness is new every morning
[20:52] I'm learning a lot about that Hebrew language and that word loving kindness is hesed and that word hesed really we have I've told you this before we have no good English translation for it and that's why we call it loving kindness sometimes we call it riches and mercies and sometimes but really the truth of it there is no word that captivates everything that word hesed means because it means everything that will ever be for our good which God can do towards us is new every morning or we would read it like this he will rejoice over us for our good and in context that means the blessings that God is pouring out upon them is an oversupply for their good so that they can use it in covenantal living for the good of others and for the good of others and he rejoices and he rejoices we find this when Paul says that your abundance is supplying the needs of others so that later their abundance can supply your needs right God rejoices over his people and that covenant and this is this promise of restoration and I'm thankful maybe I'm the only one that God doesn't have to react to my faults and God doesn't have to react to my mess ups
[22:01] I'm thankful that God has already made provisions in advance for when I mess up and he tells me to turn my heart back towards him and to turn my heart to him that doesn't give me an excuse to mess up by the way that's not a crutch as Paul would say that's a motivator because if he loves me that much then I don't want to let him down that's the hope I have I don't want to fail him I don't want to stumble at that point and we see this promised restoration secondly we see a provided resource a provided resource and we see this here in that they have everything they need all that is applicable to do what is pleasing to the Lord their God it says in verse 11 for this commandment which I command you today this commandment which I command you today again the wording in our language seems a little confusing because it said it's not too difficult for you we would say wait a minute it's impossible for anybody to live completely up to this commandment but it literally means it's not out of reach for you which means you can see it and you can find it not too difficult means that it's not like
[23:16] God has hidden it take it in light of chapter 29 verse 29 the secret things belong to the Lord but the revealed things belong to us what he is saying is this commandment it's not a secret thing right you know it what God has expected of you has been revealed there's a lot about God that we don't know there's a lot about God that we don't understand there's a lot about God that we will never figure out there's some things I think in all of eternity for one I don't think we'll try to figure it out in all of eternity because we'll just be so amazed and mesmerized and worshiping and glorying and celebrating and I'm still confused about the six wings and the four heads and the wheels inside of the wheels and eyes spinning around in the book of Ezekiel and even when someone gives me an intelligent answer to those things it still sometimes confuses me and I still get asked questions about you know well is the Ark of the Covenant present in what is the Ark of the Covenant that is there in the book of Revelations because we know we no longer have an Ark of the Covenant and there's all these questions that we have and our mind kind of wrestles and goes back and forth but one thing that we don't have to wonder is what does God require of us we see this even in the book of Psalms the praise song but what does the Lord of God require of us or who can live in the presence of the Lord our God or who can ascend the hill of God over and over again we have that question being posed and then we have that question being answered he who has a clean heart and he who has a clean hand is broken and contrite over his sins what type of fast does the Lord our God require of us
[24:45] Isaiah 53 I think it is or 54 and he tells us it is not necessarily a fast from food even though it would do this guy good to fast from food every now and then it is not necessarily a fast of sacrificial living but it is having a fast of a contrite spirit and a broken heart and weeping and mourning what does the Lord our God require of us friend listen to this he says these things are not too hard for us it's not like they're in the heavens and we ask we say oh God if you would just send somebody to heaven and bring it down to us or it's not on the other side of the sea where we say oh God we needed to go somebody to go to the other side of the sea and bring it to us he said but it's near to you the great privilege responsibility that we have is that we live in a land in which it is near to us right there are still a few people around the world that these things seem to be very far from them but to us in my office right now I don't even know how many Bibles I have I don't know I mean in studying preparation I read six different translations of the English Bible just today so that I can compare them side by side and I had others in there that I could have read and commentaries and books upon books upon books upon books upon books and all these things these things are not too far from us do we see this this provided resource we know everything that God has required of us to live in a covenantal relationship what is true of God in the Old Testament is true of God in the New Testament right the covenant of Christ and his blood in the New Testament is just an expounding and a living out of the covenant that God has with his people in the Old Testament the sacrifice has been made we're not having to make it anymore right the offering has been provided in Jesus Christ these things have already been done the praises of the Old Testament saints are the praises of the New Testament church these things are right here and it's a provided resource as the book of Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 1 in former times
[26:40] God has spoken a number of ways through prophets and priests and all these things but in these latter days he has spoken to us through Jesus Christ his son we know exactly what it is that he wants of us and this is the greatest resource we have every time I open it I learn something new every time I turn his pages I'm astounded at what I see and every time that we read it and I read it daily and I count it as a great privilege I have the honor of studying it right I have voluntarily re-enrolled in classes so that I'm posed questions that I would never think about again and all these things are there and I'm just amazed at it that this is this reality that these things are true and I'm astounded at the resource that God has provided and then I wonder why so many people living in the covenant don't take advantage of it and one thing the reality is that I have found that people say well I wish I just knew I wish I knew what God wanted me to do are quite often those people who never take advantage of the resource they have and I don't mean that in a mean way
[27:46] I just mean that in a sincere way because the onus is on us because it says right here but the word is very near you in your mouth and in your heart that you may observe it again what does I say we don't observe it because we have a copy of it sitting somewhere we observe it because it's in our mouth and in our hearts now I'm not really good I know some people have told me that I was good at it I'm not really good at scriptural memorization I'm not not good at all at that I'm not really good at chapter book and verse and that's why I say when you read in the gospels and you read I'm not really good at telling you you know the address of certain scriptures I'm not not the best at that I struggle at that I've met guys who could do that but one thing that I have found is that if you're in that resource enough then God always has an overflow that'll spell out when you need it and there's there's this old song
[28:50] I think it was I told you this before I can't remember the quartet that sang it it may have been Gold City I don't know there's this is old southern gospel song called drinking from the saucer some of you may remember it drinking from the saucer because my cup is overflowing and I can't remember who sang that but I heard it right when I came when God was calling me to preach so I made it my commitment then I wanted to preach from the overflow I wanted to preach from the overflow sure I wanted to study and prepare the text but I wanted to preach to come from the overflow of a life lived our life ought to be an overflow of the resource we've been given and when it's near and dear then we have this great provided resource and that's the hope of covenantal living we don't need someone to go out into a field and dig up some gold plates and then go look into a hat and tell us what he thinks it said we don't need a gentleman to go into a cave in the middle of the
[29:55] Middle East and tell us what some vision showed him there God has made it very clear to us what he requires of us and we thank him for his provision for that resource third and finally and we'll stop here the personal responsibility there is great hope in covenantal living because of the personal responsibility God does not create robots but God also does not create people who depend upon someone else for their eternal destiny Moses says for I have set before you life and death and I call you you see this last portion starting in verse 15 all the repetitives you see I have set before you today life and prosperity and death and adversity and that I command you today to love the Lord your God to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments that you may live and multiply and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it but if your heart turns away and you will not obey but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them I declare to you today that you shall surely perish you will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing to Jordan to enter and possess it
[30:59] I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death the blessing and the curse so choose life in order that you may live you and your descendants by loving the Lord your God by obeying his voice and by holding fast to him for this is your life and the length of your days that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to Abraham Isaac and Jacob to give them Moses says you're not dependent upon me it's your choice and that's hope because leaders may fail if we're dependent upon anyone else to maintain our covenant now you say wait a minute does that mean man has the freedom to choose inside that covenant when God has called us into a covenant even through the covenant of Jesus Christ when he's called us in the blood listen friend your faithfulness to Christ is your responsibility and that's good news because your relationship with him is now your choice not someone else's we know this reality and I think it was A.W.
[32:11] Tozer who said it first that I heard water never rises above its source which means if there's an inlet over here the outlet's always going to be below it right the outlet will never be above the inlet water never rises above its source when the greatest blessings and the greatest hope that we have in a covenant relationship is that our source is not found in man your source is not me because when you speak or when you learn speak not with the wisdom of man but with the wisdom of God provided through Jesus Christ he is our head and he is a source that will never run dry and he is a source that we will never exceed or excel it is our responsibility we can always rise above those who we think may lead us or we can always rise above those who we think may be dependent upon because the reality is is now that in the covenant of Christ we all have the opportunity to take personal responsibility for our growth and that's a great thing and the reason it's a great thing is because no one else can hinder that it's our choice you say oh you don't know the people around me and you don't know how hard it is you don't know the struggle and you don't know the difficulty no but I know the
[33:22] Savior who is present and I know the spirit that dwells inside of every believer and I know the one that dwells inside of each one of us in spite of those who are around us and while we may be greatly benefit from the one another's the responsibility does not completely lie upon one another because it is us who has to make a decision I have the great privilege that I can choose to worship and rejoice even when nobody else is and I can't blame that on anybody else because that's my personal responsibility I may be a hindrance to some but all do not have to be a hindrance to me because inside the covenant now the responsibility again has been laid on us he has called us to himself he has redeemed us he has saved us he has declared us clean he has provided us a way of restoration he has given us all the resources we need and now he says now take the responsibility because by taking the responsibility we ensure that this is life and this is living it is applicable to the nation of Israel but it's applicable to the church today as well there is great hope in covenantal living and it is a hope like none other let's pray we thank you so much for this day thank you for the great privilege of your word we pray the truth of it will continue to captivate our hearts and draw us closer to you for may it true it's not the collection of information but will be a daily application to our lives and every word we ask it all in Jesus name amen please so
[36:00] Thank you.