Called to Repent and Believe

What kind of choices are you going to make today? I can say with confidence, there's a choice that we all have in common. Everyone here chose to come to church. Everyone here made a decision, some more intentional than others, some out of habit, but we've all chosen to come to church. And this affected other choices. For some, it really affects what you choose to wear. It affects all the choices of the morning routine of what you're going to eat and for breakfast, what you're gonna do for lunch. It affects numerous other choices. All our choices are interconnected. So choosing to come to church, it affected numerous other choices today. And then we have to think about why did you choose to come to church? Lord willing, I hope it's because at some point you chose to believe in Jesus Christ. At some point, you chose to say, I need the fellowship of other believers. And so you have chosen to come. Life is made up of numerous connected choices. There's really no such thing as one simple free choice. They're all connected. Every choice has other choices connected to it. But I want to press you with today is there's really two choices you have. There's really only two ways to live. You either choose God or you choose sin. You choose God in the blessed life or you choose sin in the cursed life which leads to death. Really every choice is connected to one of these because either every choice is affected by my desire to glorify God where every choice is affected by doing what I sinfully want to do. All of life revolves around either a love for God or a love for sin. This morning we're going to be pressed in by a text that presses on us a choice. We must choose God or we're choosing sin. We must choose to trust and obey God so we might live. We must choose to resist sin so we will not die. We must choose to trust and obey God so that we might live. We must choose to resist sin so we will not die. Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 29. If you don't have a Bible, there's a Bible in front of you, Lord willing, in the pew. If there's not, tap the person's shoulder in front of you. Hopefully there's one in front of them and so on and so on. So page 171 if you're using a pew Bible. We've been in Deuteronomy for some time. To give a brief review, Deuteronomy is made up of four discourses. This is the fourth and final discourse. Before we say goodbye to Moses and his death and his psalm, this is the fourth sermon and it's bringing down the clear decision. Choose life in God, choose death in idols. So our context is he's reminded Israel what God has done. He's told Israel, here's the law. Here's what God expects. Here's the commandments of God. And he's given them warnings, and now he's pressing in, choose. The warnings were in the blessing or the curse. Now he's declaring, choose. I'm going to read this text in its entirety because picking up the whole message is very important. But I want to key you in on a few things to listen for. Here's some things to listen for. Key words. One, today. Today. It's not something we put off. Today. You'll hear that word over and over again. Moses is pressing them. Today is the day of salvation. Choose God. Second, heart. You'll continue to hear the word heart in this discourse. The heart is the place of worship. The heart is where our affections and love come forth. And love is worship. God calls us to love us with all our hearts. God circumcises our hearts. He calls us to worship. The third kind of key category is knowledge, understanding. You'll continue to hear words related to knowledge, understanding, and we'll highlight these things as we walk through the text. Let me give you an outline of Moses' final discourse. There's five points to this final discourse, and therefore five points to our sermon. First, call to trust God's promise. This is chapter 29, one through 15. A call to trust God's promises, verses one through 15. Secondly, there's a warning against idolatry and pride. That's verses 16 through 29, or rather, sorry, 16 through 28. A warning against idolatry and pride, that's verses 16 through 28. Verse 29 of chapter 29, 29, 29, we're gonna treat that separately. Because God's going to tell them, Moses is going to tell them of God's promises. He's going to warn them about what God is going to do to those who continue in idolatry and pride. And it leaves you wondering, how could there be hope? So Moses says, the secret things belong to God, but what has been revealed we have, and it's your salvation. We're pressed to wonder, based upon how we live and God's righteousness, how could we possibly ever be saved? Well, that's the secret. What was revealed is that we are sinners that need grace. Chapter 30, verses one through 10, that's the promise of restoration. So we go from judgment to restoration, verses one through 10, and then chapter 30, 11 through 20. A call to choose. A call to choose. A call to trust God's promises, a warning against idolatry, that intermission, that transition, chapter 29, 29, and then a promise of restoration, a call to choose. A call to trust God's promises. You're gonna hear declarations, now that you know Yahweh is your Lord, therefore keep and obey His commandments. It's a call to be aware of idols. And there's a warning. You're gonna hear very difficult words in 29, 16 through 29. Anger, curses, wrath, fury, sickness, unfruitful, barren, burned. God's anger burns hot. It leaves the land unlivable because of the sins of Israel. It's a frightening section of scripture because it's a warning. We transition to the promise of restoration. When God says he will circumcise our hearts, he will give us new life, then we are pressed with that call to choose. Here are the word of God, 29 and 30 of Deuteronomy, the fourth discourse of Moses. These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel. in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that he made with them at Horeb. And Moses summoned 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 to all his servants and all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and those great wonders. But to this day, the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. I have led you 40 years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you and your sandals have not worn off of your feet. You have not eaten bread and you have not drunk wine or strong drink. That you may know that I am the Lord your God. When you came to this place, Sion the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us in battle, but we defeated them. We took their land and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Benassinites. Therefore, keep the words of this covenant and do them that you may prosper in all that you do. You are standing today all of you before the Lord your God, the heads of your tribes, your elders, your officers, all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who's in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, so that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God is making with you today, that he may establish you today as his people, and that He may be your God, as He promised you as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. It is not with you alone that I am making this sworn covenant, but with whoever is standing here with us today before the Lord our God, and with whoever is not here with us today. You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came to the midst of the nations through which you passed, and you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them. Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart. This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. That's referring to those who are obedient and blessed and those who are disobedient and cursed. Wet referring to blessed, dry referring to curse. The Lord will not be willing to forgive him. But rather, the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven, and the Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law. And the next generation, your children who rise up after you and the foreigner who comes from a far land will say, when they see the affliction of that land and the sicknesses with which the Lord has made it sick, the whole land burned out with brimstone and salt. nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout and overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath, all the nations will say, why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger? Then people will say, It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them. Therefore, The anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book. And the Lord uprooted from their land in anger and fury and great wrath and cast them into another land as they are this day. The secret things belong to the Lord our God. But the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice and all that I command you today. with all your heart, with all your soul, then the Lord your God will restore you. He'll restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. and He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, that you may live. And the Lord your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today. The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand and the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your cattle and the fruit of your ground. For the Lord again will take delight in prospering you as he took delight in your fathers. when you obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this book of the law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul. For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven that you should say, who will ascend to heaven for us to bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it. Neither is it beyond the sea that you may say, who will go over the sea for us to bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it. But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so that you can do it. See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply. And the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse, therefore choose life. that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to give them. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for such a complete word to us today. You remind us of who we were as sinners, who we can continue to be stubborn and idolatry. You remind us that you are the righteous God who burns with anger against sin to warn us of our destiny if we remain in that sin in our pride. And you give us that promise of restoration. If we will only turn from our idols and turn to you, you give us life You give us new hearts. You give us the abundant life. We thank you that in Christ we know we have this life. Call us today to see that this day is sacred because we hear you speaking. Give us the grace to respond with obedience. Help us to hear, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. First, a call to trust God's promises. As I said, there's lots of continued themes of knowing and understanding. Moses begins, I summon all of Israel, you've seen but I did not grant you understanding. There was a certain kind of knowledge they had. They saw what God could do. They saw so many things in the land of Egypt through the trials. What is it they now know that's new? Verse six, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. I wonder if there's something here that this generation, all they knew was the desert. They didn't realize that manna didn't fall from the sky for everybody. I think there could be something here that they've just taken for granted God's special provision over and over and over and over and over again. This generation, they've been in the wilderness and God has continued to sustain them. For 40 years, they had the same pair of shoes. For 40 years, they had the same clothes. They never wore out. God miraculously sustained them. And He's letting them now see so that you may know, I am your God who keeps you. He's reminding them of how good He's been. I delivered you from Egypt. I've sustained you in the wilderness. We conquered anybody who came against us. Look at verse 9. Here's a call to action. Therefore, keep the words of this covenant and do them. What God has done makes it necessary for us to respond with trust and obedience. I want to draw your attention to 10 through 12. You are standing today, all of you. Drop down to verse 12, so that you may enter, that He may establish you, that He may be your God. The Israel is called to stand before God. They're in the presence. They're standing on the other side of the promised land, about to enter into this covenant, that new land, all of them. Notice that verse 11, or 10 and 11, they tell you all of them. Tribes, elders, officers, men, women, children, even the least. Even those servants who have the most menial task, chopping the wood and drawing the water. All of you are standing here today, and all of you are given that choice. Will you enter into the promises of God? Will you believe them, trust them, so that He will establish you, so that God will be your God? Verse 14, this is helpful for us. We're kind of included here. It's not just for everyone standing here, it's for everyone who's going to hear the promises of God. Today, if you hear His voice, enter into those promises. Verse 16, he tells them again what they know. You know how we lived in Egypt, how we came out. Hear Moses' disdain for idols. You have seen their detestable things. Those carved images of wood and stone and gold and silver, these disgusting idols, you've seen them. Verse 18, beware. Be watchful, be alert, be on guard, beware. Lest there be among you a man or a woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turned away today from the Lord, our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware of idols. Now, we talk a lot about idolatry, and I want to make something clear that I'm afraid hasn't been clear. Idolatry is not just the practice of having a carved image and going and bowing before it. That's not just what idolatry is. Idolatry is any time we set our affections of love on something other than God in a way that we worship it, in a way that it determines all the other choices in life. Our love for money means we're going to love to work longer hours and neglect our family and neglect our church and neglect the promises of God. We're gonna be greedy. It's an idol. So when we talk about idolatry, yes, these were carved images. We're idolaters. We may not have a carved image we bowed on before, but we love things that are not God. We need to be aware of this, we need to be careful of this. It's not just some temple you're going to go into to commit idolatry. No, we commit idolatry when we're walking through the mall and we see stuff we love. We commit idolatry when we go to the game and this is the most exciting, most passionate thing we love is a victory for our team. I commit idolatry really anywhere we go. You want to know what your idols are? Where do you spend your free time? That reveals an idol. What do you love and think about and crave? It's tied to the heart. What you serve with your time, money, and energy, there's your God. Whatever you serve with your time, your money, your energy, that is your God. It may be carved, it may not be. Sports can be a real idol. We go to that invest and we invest our time and energy and we get overwhelmed. You would rather worship at John Paul Jones Arena hoping for a victory rather than the risen Savior again with the saints. See, both of those places are places of worship. If you don't see it, you don't have eyes to see. An idol that is prevalent for us in our country is comfort. We work hard to relax. We work for that weekend. We work for that vacation. That's all we care about, that ideal retirement, that easy life, that sacred time that's mine. Don't you dare step into my comfort zone. I will bark and pitch a fit. That's me speaking for myself. Maybe that's you as well. Thank you for your honesty. Maybe the idol's prestige. What do you sacrifice to have a better name? Again, time, energy. Or are you more worried about your status with your coworkers and working hard? Do you shy away from speaking of Christ because of the shame it might bring among you, among your coworkers? We can go on and on. So many idols that compete for our love for God. They're not carved images, but they do have carved images, don't they? That sporting event, you get a trophy. It reminds you of that victory. That vacation, you've got pictures on your walls. It reminds you of the great comfort. That prestige, well, that could be in our house, our car, our clothes. However we present our prestige, it's all over us. We do have images. We have tangible, visible things that represent our idols. These things are all dim shadows of the glory and the rest and the victory we have in Christ. Beware of idols. Look at the second warning. It gets more frightening. Beware lest there be among you a root that's an idol and a love that's so far deep it controls you. It's a self-deceiving idol most likely. lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous bitter fruit. One who, when he hears the words, when he hears the words of this word covenant, he blesses himself and he says, I'm safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart. Those other people, they need to hear that warning because they can't control their sin. They don't know how to contain the idol. I'm good. I'm safe. These are good things in my life. I need them, I like them, they're helpful. There's a pride that says I can handle this particular sin. Friends, this is an extremely scary place. No. I can play with this bomb, it won't go off in my hands. I continue to take sips of this poison and it won't kill me. Just one more hour at work, just one more, just one more. Give me chastity, but not yet. Pretending you're safe while playing with destruction. Friends, this is a great danger. That's what sin does. It makes you think you're in control. It makes you think you have it together. It makes you think this thing is needed for escape when really all it does is enslaves you. It's not safe. How do we get rid of these kind of idols that root down? Well, notice what is clear here is the pride. I'm safe. In the stubbornness of my heart, I'm safe. The way to get rid of these roots, humble yourself before the mercy of God. God resists the proud. He draws near to the humble. Walk humbly with God. Realize that the knotted heart that we have can only be unwound and undone by God himself who applies the mercy. If you think you're safe in sin, be terrified. And if you're not terrified, please continue to read with me. Second half of verse 19. This will lead to the sweeping away of the wet and the dry. Everybody will have to suffer because of these people's sins. Notice, the Lord will not forgive. those who will continue to be proud in their sin. The Lord, his anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man. His name will be blotted out. That is the judgment that God narrows in and single focuses on that man who loves his idols. In his pride, he embraces those idols. God singles out the sinner. But notice also, the whole land suffers. If there's one person who's embracing idols this way, the whole land is burned up with salt and brimstone. The whole land is barren to the point where everybody comes and they say, what happened here? I remember the stories of my grandparents. This land used to be so fruitful. Why is it so cursed? And they'll all say, they chose death. They forsook their God. They turned away from him. And there's something I need to explain here because there was a lot of heavy language in this passage. God's anger, it kindles. God's fire and his anger, it smokes. Something important to remember here. God has many attributes. He's love, he's just, he's righteous. God is not anger. That's not an attribute of God. God is not wrath. That's not an attribute of God. These are actions that come from his righteousness and his justice. God is good and right and just. And the only way a God of goodness and righteousness and justice can act towards idolatry and sin and murder and lies is for His wrath to be kindled. It doesn't have to be kindled. It starts. Our sin deserves the righteous wrath of God. He's good and just. It's our sin that leads to this action. There's verse 20, the name we blotted out from underneath the heaven. There's a lie out there that proposes that the Old Testament God was different than the New Testament God. We're always kind of tempted to believe that, because it's pretty harsh. It's not actually as harsh as what Jesus teaches. You can go to Matthew 5. Jesus says sinners will be thrown into a fiery furnace where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 9, hell is an unquenchable fire. Worms consume and fire consumes. Matthew 8, you will be thrown into the outer darkness. There's just a handful of teachings. The wrath of God is even more real in the New Testament. Jesus, the number one topic he talks about is hell. More than heaven. Hell! We need to see something. We are not righteous. We are under this same judgment. Our name will be blotted out from underneath the heavens if we remain in our sin because God has righteous anger. The beautiful message that we need to hear this morning is that God came to save us from that righteous anger. The father sent his son to live the life we could not live, to live the perfect life so that when he died on that cross, the son suffered the righteous anger of God against our sins if we believe in him. So if you believe in him, God's anger, it's satisfied. We're no longer counted guilty. His wrath is no longer against us. It's been satisfied because now instead of having our names blotted out from underneath the heaven, we are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. That's that roster that Jesus has, that we believe in Him when He dies and purchases us with His precious blood, washing away all our sin. He writes our name in there. And that name's written in His blood and it's sealed with the Spirit and nothing can erase it. Friends, if you're a believer, that is your position. That declaration, it's irreversible. He died to seal us. If you're not delighting in that place, being written in the Lamb's Book of Life, it's because of disobedience. If you're not a Christian this morning, I'm so thankful you're here. You need to hear. Your name will be blotted out from underneath heaven. You'll be cast out of darkness. God's judgment will be upon you for all of eternity unless you believe Jesus Christ came to die in the place of sinners. Unless you believe that he came to die in your place so that your sin is put upon him so God's wrath is satisfied when he dies, his life is given to you. Please do not leave without talking to somebody about what that means. Notice verse 22. The next generation will say with a foreigner, what happened? They see it, the land is scorched, the dry, it's dry, it's barren. The moist and the dry, they're swept away together. Somebody need to realize here, our sin is never isolated. We talked about before, one sinful choice leads to another sinful choice, which leads to another sinful choice, unless we repent, until we repent. It's also not isolated in that we're connected to a lot of other people, and our sin is not ever isolated. Your sin affects other people. Your sin affects those that are closest to you the most. We are tied to others, our family, our church, our friends. There's a bond of unity. So on the Lord's Supper day, after the Lord's Supper, we oftentimes will hold hands and we'll sing, blessed be the tie that binds. You know, that's only blessed when we're actually all coming together, knit together as one body, obediently loving one another. When we're not doing that, we could be singing, cursed be the tie that binds. is this bond because I'm sinning, I'm not loving my neighbor, I'm not repenting of my sin? We can come and bring a curse to the unity. Hear this, your sin affects how you relate to those you love. Your sin weighs heavy on your loved ones. Your sin keeps the body from being complete and growing. Your sin keeps you from being the worshiper God designed you for and Christ purchased you for. Sin is frustrating. It frustrates us and our ability to love God. It frustrates our loved ones. I want you to see the heart of this passage. It's idolatry. It's exchanging the glory of God for the glory in creation. It's exchanging the worship and giving thanks and honor to the one true God and loving something else. And this is the sin that causes a curse. And all that we try to do and in all our relations. What we must do is choose Christ in his life, choose to repent. This passage is weighty because it leaves you wondering, how can anybody be saved from such a wrath that's been kindled? That's why chapter 29, verse 29 is so important. The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. Notice there's two categories. There's secret things. There are things God have not said. There's revealed things. Those are the things that God has said. God has warned them, beware of idols. God has told them, if you repent, I will relent of my wrath. That's a promise that goes throughout scripture for all of God's people. If you repent, I will relent. While we will have to leave chapter 29 wondering how, how could this God with such righteous wrath, how could anybody know him? How could anybody come to be reconciled to God? That's a secret thing of God. What we're told is that his righteous wrath is against you unless you turn to him. That's the mystery that is revealed in the gospel because Jesus Christ is the mystery revealed of how God allows sinners to turn to him is because he punished his son for their sin. Look at the promise of restoration, chapter 30. The promise of restoration. When all these things come upon you, the blessings and the curse, You call to mind, you come to your senses, you come to that understanding that you should have had. In verse two, you return, you obey his voice, the command with all your heart. When you're in that distant land, and this happened to Israel, they were exiled. When you come to your senses and you return, then God will bring about his plan. Then God will act. And notice the actions, remember the actions of God. You can see them in the text. Let me just give a quick list. God will restore you. God will gather you, even from the farthest out. God will bring you into his blessed land. God will make you more prosperous. God will circumcise your heart. God will curse all your enemies. God will make you abundantly prosperous. Notice verse nine. The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous. This is his delight. He created us for life and for blessing. This is his delight. Our passage brings back this theme of circumcision of the heart. In Deuteronomy 10, God commanded Israel, cut off your love for idols. That's what it means to circumcise your heart. Cut off all those things that hinder your love for God. Here, it's not a command to circumcise your heart. It's a promise. that God will do it. This is significantly different. God is saying a day is coming when he will circumcise the heart of every Israelite so that the entire nation loves him. All of the hearts with all their hearts. God himself will cure them of their love for idols. He's saying the blessed will not be punished along with the cursed because everyone will be blessed because everyone will be obedient. Now Deuteronomy is foretelling an exodus that's going to happen to Babylon. Deuteronomy is foretelling God taking them out of the land when they rebelled. In Jeremiah, you can look in 31, he is speaking to that exiled people. And he promises them this. I will write my law on their hearts. That's the same thing. No more need to teach one another because all of Israel will love me with all their heart. I will be their God and they will be my people. Or listen to Ezekiel 36. Again, a prophet speaking to exiled Israel. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all your countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart circumcised. A new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of the flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers and you shall be my people and I will be your God. Notice what's in Deuteronomy, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. I will be your God, you will be my people. That's the covenant formula. God wants to be with us and for us. Here he's promising there will be a day when the entire nation will have a new heart. Israel longed for the day for this promise to be realized, and they never got it. They never became that glorious kingdom of God. Even when they went back in, it was a mere reflection of the glory that they once had. The temple, it's a shack. The glory of Israel had left because it's Yahweh. Now in order to appreciate what's happening here, I need to introduce you to two concepts. There's two ways we can refer to Israel. There's national Israel, that's everybody born in the nation, every male circumcised. Then there's true Israel, that's everyone who believes. Within the nation of Israel, there was the true Israel. Everybody who was born of Abraham is a part of the national Israel. Everyone who was born of the 12 tribes, that's national Israel. Those who have circumcised hearts, those who believe, that's true Israel. It was always a small remnant that was true Israel within national Israel. What I believe Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Deuteronomy are foreseeing is a time when all of national Israel would be true Israel. He's foreseeing a time when there will be, the people of God will all be people of faith. The nation of Israel never saw this day. They were only meant to be a type of something much better. All that Israel was supposed to do was fulfilled by Christ. He now calls his church to be true Israel. Christ calls us to be the Israel of God. Those who have been given a new heart by the washing of the water and the blood, that's John three, Those who are now all committed together to be that holy nation, not made up of those who are by birth, but those who are made up from belief. The church is supposed to be true Israel, not a national church, not a cultural church. Church of Christ together committed to believe and follow Him. This is why we believe in church, regenerate church membership. Everyone must be born again. Church, hear this as the great expectation of what we're supposed to fulfill. We're supposed to be the fulfillment of this promise. Everyone's heart cut off from idols. We're supposed to be the Israel of God that's defined by belief. The Israel of God that's not of one race, but of all nations. In our day, we actually don't need to hear the warning of national Israel versus true Israel. I believe we need to hear the warning that there are cultural Christians versus true Christians. Let me define those two things for you. A cultural Christian sees everyone else's sin. A true Christian sees his own sin. A cultural Christian thinks everyone else needs to repent and believe in Jesus. A true Christian longs to hear the gospel for the comfort and clarity in who or she is. A cultural Christian desires for everyone who comes to church to look like them, to talk like them, to dress like them, to act like them. A true Christian desires for everyone who comes to church to look like Jesus, to be unified in Christ, and to boast in the work of Christ. A cultural Christian thinks they have obeyed enough to please God. A true Christian boasts only in what Christ has given them. Notice a cultural Christian is not a true Christian. A cultural Christian. Someone who just takes the name of Christ but has never believed in the name of Christ. Someone who just takes the name of Christ but never commits themselves to wholeheartedly love and embrace Christ. They're not a true Christian. Repent. Pour yourself out before the mercy of God and say, Christ, save me. Write me in the Lamb's Book of Life and commit my way to following you alone. Friends, the call to follow Christ is a high and lofty calling. We're supposed to walk worthy of the calling of Almighty God who purchased us with His precious blood. It means we pursue holiness because God is holy. We pursue pure worship because He is pure. We pursue to love Him with all our hearts because He is truly lovely and the only one who satisfies. Being part of a church, it's a high calling, but boy, is it a frustrating one. It's hard, it's difficult, it's painful. Trust me, I know. Someone once asked me, on their way to give their testimony to join the church, so I'm meaning to ask you, why shouldn't I join the church? Great question. Everybody should ask that question. I didn't know the answer at the time. I said, oh, nothing, everything's great. Now I would tell you there's 182 reasons not to join this church. We have 182 members. Every single one of them still sinners. Every single one of them capable of hurting, betraying, every single one of them. There's also 182 reasons to join the church. There's 182 members to be knit together with. to pursue Christ together with, to repent together with, to weep together, to rejoice together. Sadly, the church is often known for its difficulties that make it frustrating. Let's seek a church that's known for the love united in Christ. A true church where we all submit to Christ and his word together. Let me be clear, the church is a fulfillment of these promises, but it's not the final fulfillment. See, Christ is gonna come back, and he is going to renew everything. Sin will no longer be in the equation. He's going to destroy it completely and finally. Therefore, our hearts won't be sinful, our neighbor's hearts won't be sinful, and we will then truly rejoice, united as the true Israel of God. But this is what we pursue now. Call to choose, beginning in verse 11. This is pretty amazing. I know it may be hard because we're getting late and it's a little stuffy, but Moses says it's not too hard and they're in the desert, so let's keep going. This is truly an amazing passage. This commandment that I commanded you today, it's not too hard, it's not too far off. Now, he's not saying, hey, here's the Ten Commandments, you should be able to keep all these so you're saved. That's not what he's saying. There's one simple command, turn from your idols, that's it. That's what this whole passage is about. Turn from your idols, turn to worship God. That's the commandment, it's not too hard for you. I'm giving you the grace to do that. It's not far off. Verse 12, it's not so far above you that somebody needs to ascend to heaven to get it. It's not so far off that you need to go find it. No, it's very near. God has spoken. That's the most amazing truth that I hope you're walking away from Deuteronomy with. God has spoken. All that we need to hear, he has said, this is good, it's sufficient. It's clear. You can do it. You can turn from your idols. You can turn to God. What you need to know, God has said, and it's clear. Yes, the Bible is complicated. It's a lot of history. It feels like it's reading from another world, and it is. You're reading about heaven, the things of God. It's clear in all that you need to know to be saved and to obey. It says stop worshiping idols. I find that we like to question the clarity of God's word when we want to protect our sin. If you find yourself saying, ah, it's the Bible, isn't it a little gray there? Maybe you're a little sinful there. Okay, this is a rule. When you start thinking maybe God's word isn't so clear, maybe it's because you're sinful, where you think it's not clear. See, God's truth matters. The very heart of sin lies in these words. Has God said? That's what Satan said in the Garden of Eden. Questioning God's word. We can't question it. We must trust it. It is good. It is sufficient. It is clear. Verse 16 and 17, they're conditional clauses. If you obey the Lord by walking in his ways, by loving him, by keeping his commandments. It's very clear. Choose God, love him, walk in his ways, keep his commandments, or you're going to choose death. Verse 19 is what I wanna focus on. I call heaven and earth to set before you life and death. There is a choice, you have a choice today. You have a choice between life and death, blessing or curse. Notice what God tells you to choose. Life. Therefore, choose life. That you and your offspring may live. He's pleading with you. Choose life. Pray, help my unbelief. Pray, give me the grace to obey. Spirit, give me the heart to choose. Non-Christian, today you have a choice. You can hear the gospel that Jesus Christ came to die for sinners, that you are a sinner if you believe in him. You will be declared forgiven. That is the choice laid before you today. Christian, today you need to hear one thing. Jesus is your savior. He is with you, He is for you. He died to reconcile you, He died to give you the new life. If you hear His voice, do not resist Him, but choose to follow Him and obey Him. This is a radical call to worship. We read in Psalm 95 at the very beginning of our worship service, Israelites, they resisted the Word of God because they went in that land and they said, there's giants. We don't trust God can beat these giants. We don't think that that land is good enough for us to go about fighting these giants. Today, we can look at our sin and we can feel like we are as helpless as those Israelites. We look at that daunting sin that's been our comforting partner, that entangling friend for so long, whatever it is, and we say, how could I ever give this up? It's entangled my heart. You're not trusting the power of the cross. You're not trusting the God who spoke everything into existence. You're not trusting the power of God who can declare the most filthy sinner, you're forgiven. He is able. By hanging on to that sin, you're denying yourself life. By hanging on to that sin, you're choosing death and destruction. Friend, choose life. We must leave the sin and cleave to Christ. One of the key words in this passage was today. It presses in right now, today, you're hearing the word of God, believe in Jesus Christ. Trust him with your sin to conquer it, his penalty and his power. Today, you know what tomorrow is? It's the most important day, because tomorrow, that today, you're gonna have to make a decision, am I going to trust Christ and follow Him? Tuesday, today, am I going to trust Christ, am I going to follow Him? Today, Wednesday, today, Thursday, every day in your life is a day where you're making the most important choice. Am I going to choose to sin, or am I going to choose to worship? Every day is that opportunity to hear, today, worship Him. You see, you don't need a vacation for being a Christian. Christians don't need breaks. Christians don't need rest from being Christians because when you become a Christian, you enter the rest of Jesus Christ. When you become a Christian, you are resting from sin that is destroying you and you desire to be further in that rest. The only way you ever need a break from being a Christian is if you're a cultural Christian and you get tired of keeping up appearances. A Christian desires to enter into that rest further and more fully. If you hear the word of God today, do not resist repenting of that sin he's put in front of you. Go into the rest of Christ. Enjoy the rest of Christ. Will you pray with me? Father, we are thankful that you speak. Lord, we thank you that it's clear that you speak and you communicate with absolute clarity. Lord, forgive us for having problems with our ears that come from our heart that wants to protect the sin that roots in. Do not let us protect our rooted sins. Give us the grace to have a brother or sister come alongside of us to love us through this sin, to love us into repentance, to love us into the rest of Christ. Help us to be a body that's committed to loving one another, being knit to one another so that we are that light to the nations. We thank you for your word that you give us the grace to hear, the grace to obey. Give us more love to you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.