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A Matter of Life and Death |
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Written by Pastor Darrell Cooper
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Sunday, 08 March 2009 16:34 |
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Deuteronomy 30:15-20
March 8, 2009 - Lindsborg Cov.
“A Matter of Life and Death”
(Loving [Obeying] God)
Sermon
Well, if you have been here the last few weeks, then you know that our church is on something of a journey, a journey through the Bible, starting with Genesis and going through Revelation. Today we come to the end of the fifth book of Moses. We know it as Deuteronomy. If you have not been here recently, let me take a couple of minutes to catch us all up to speed.
In the beginning, when God created the earth and all that dwells on it, He created a man and a woman, named Adam and Eve. He put this first couple in a garden because He wanted to have a relationship with us. His desire was that we would be His people and He would be our God.
But there was a problem. The problem was that we rejected Him. We rebelled against His authority and disobeyed His will. When we sinned, we became sinners and effectively cut ourselves off from God.
But God still loved us and did not want to be cut off from relationship with us. So, He pursued us. He chose a particular descendant of Adam named Abraham and told him that He would make him into a great nation. He told Abraham that his descendants would be his very special people, and He would be their God.
But there was still a problem. This special nation, known as Israel, was not holy. How can a Holy God dwell together with an unholy people? He cannot. The only solution was for God to make Israel holy, which He did.
First, He gave them an entire sacrificial system. If one of the people sinned, he was to bring a certain kind of animal to the priest, who would sacrifice it. The blood of the slain animal would cover their sins so they could be forgiven and restored to a right relationship with God.
Also, through His servant, Moses, God gave the people a series of laws. These laws were an expression of God’s nature and character. As long as the people obeyed God’s law they could dwell together with Him in peace.
That brings us to where we are today. The last few weeks we have been reading all about the sacrificial system and the laws of God. If you are reading along in the Daily Bible, then yesterday you should have read Deuteronomy chapter 28. This is a very important chapter. In fact, it is foundational to understanding everything else in the rest of the Old Testament.
Part of the reason chapter 28 is so significant is because in this chapter God predicts the future. He prophesies about what will happen if the people obey Him and what will happen if they disobey Him. To summarize the chapter, if they obey God He will bless them and if they disobey God He will curse them. Contrasted with the blessings, there is a long list of specific curses. It is very depressing to read.
When we come to chapter 30, we almost immediately encounter a form of what we talked about a couple of weeks ago - the Shema. If you were here a couple of weeks ago you might remember discussing the Shema. The Shema is the central creed of the Jewish faith, and therefore the central creed of our faith as well. Last time we tried to memorize it, but it has been a couple of weeks, so let’s review. Say it with me, if you can.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)
Very good! In our passage today we twice have a retelling of the same command, once in verse 16 and again in verse 20. Verse 16a says, “For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws.” And verse 20a says, “Love the LORD your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him”. So again, we see here that the very heart of the Jewish faith, and our faith as well, is to love God.
What is interesting and perhaps a bit surprising about today’s passage is the motive God offers us for loving Him. And by the way, when I say the phrase, “love God”, what are you translating that to in your mind? (Pause for response) Right. Obey God. We can translate “love God” into “obey God” because Scripture teaches us that they are the same thing.
But Moses offers us a motive for loving (obeying) God that might surprise you. He essentially argues that loving God (obeying God) is a matter of self-interest. Remember, those who obey are blessed and those who disobey are cursed. To jump quickly to a modern-day application, if you don’t love and follow Jesus for His sake, you might want to consider loving and following Him for yours!
Look with me at Deuteronomy 30:15-18 (I will be reading only parts of this passage.)
See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then . . . the Lord your God will bless you . . . But if . . . you are not obedient . . . you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
There are two things I want us to see from today’s lesson. The first thing has to do with the choice itself, and the second has to do with God Himself. Let’s look first at the choice God gives us.
God clearly lays before us two choices: obedience and disobedience; life and death. But then He practically falls onto His knees and begs us to choose life. God is not indifferent to our choice. He has a vested interest in the outcome. He desperately wants us to choose life because He loves us and it is win-win.
Listen to the urgency in God’s voice as we read again Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (Again, only parts)
This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and . . . the Lord your God . . . will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Can you hear the longing in God’s voice for us to obey Him and live. But you know what? As much as God wants us to live and to know Him and to enjoy His love and companionship, He will not force us to choose life. God does not coerce, nor does He manipulate. God will not override your will, nor will He violate my freedom. He allows us to freely choose, even if we break His heart and choose death.
So, if you decide to reject Jesus and disobey God and walk down the road of rebellion, He will let you go. But you know what else He will do? He will follow you. God will follow you all the way to the end of that road. And you know what God will be doing the entire time He is behind you? He will be calling out your name, begging you to stop and turn around, warning you of the painful separation which lies ahead, and inviting you to come home. But you know what He will not do? He will not stop you. If you choose to ignore His warnings, if you choose to reject his pleading, if you choose to plunge over the cliff into the abyss of darkness, He will not catch you. He will simply let you go. He will let you fall all the way to your death, not because He does not love you, but precisely because He does.
For example, I can choose to drink this poison if I want to. (Hold up glass of green liquid) God does not want me to do it, and it might very well kill me, but I still have the freedom to drink it if I choose to do so.
What would you think if I drank this whole pitcher of antifreeze and ended up in the hospital, and then, when you came to visit me, I was angry and bitter and blamed other people for my suffering? You might not say it to my face, but wouldn’t you be thinking, “You know what? It is your own dumb fault! You were warned. You knew better, but you did it anyway.” Wouldn’t that be true? I did something really foolish and then blamed other people for the consequences of my own choices.
Now, have you ever heard someone say, “If God is really so good, if He is really loving and compassionate, then why does He allow all the evil and suffering in the world?”? Be careful now. What are we implying when we ask such a question? Are we not indicating that God is to blame? But is it really God’s fault? Were we not warned? Didn’t God tell us not to sin? Did He not warn us that if we sinned we would bring death and destruction on ourselves, but we did it anyway? Isn’t all the evil and suffering in the world a consequence of our own foolish behavior? Do you think God ever wants to say to us, “You know what? It is your own fault!”
But you know what? He usually doesn’t say that to us. Instead, He is busy trying to fix what we have broken. He is at work restoring what we have destroyed. He doesn’t seem to spend a lot of time and effort defending His reputation, perhaps because He is more concerned for our safety and well-being.
So, God places before us a simple choice: life and prosperity or death and destruction. If we obey God He will bless us. If we disobey God He will curse us.
Now, I need to pause for a moment to clarify a couple of things that could be confusing. The first thing I need to clarify is that when I talk about blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, I am not promoting the prosperity gospel. I am not saying that if you do good only good things will happen to you. I am not saying that if you follow Jesus faithfully you will never be sick or that God will make you fabulously wealthy. That is a false gospel and that kind of theology it is an affront to God. I wish I had the time to explain this further. Suffice it to say for now that I flatly reject this kind of heretical teaching.
The other clarification has to do with the timing of these blessings and curses. Perhaps you have been wondering, “Is he saying that if we obey God we will be blessed in this life, or is he saying that if we disobey God we will be cursed in the next life, like we won’t be saved?” Actually, I am talking about both. The Bible does not seem to make any fine distinction between these two things.
Please hear what I am NOT saying. I am NOT saying that we have to keep all of God’s rules so we will be good enough to earn our own salvation. Not only is that not possible, it would make a mockery of the cross of Jesus Christ. That would empty the cross of its power and purpose. Salvation is always a free gift of God’s grace.
What I AM saying that faith without works also makes a mockery of the cross of Jesus Christ. You can have good works without saving faith, but you cannot have saving faith without good works. You can obey God without really trusting Him, but you cannot trust Him without obeying Him. If your life is not characterized by a radical obedience to the commands of Jesus, then you neither love Jesus nor do you trust Him and you probably are not saved. So, I will not make any false distinctions here between being blessed in this life or blessed in the next because both of them require trusting obedience right now.
There is one other thing I want us to see from this passage and it has to do with the nature of God. I think we can observe two attributes of God’s character in this passage. We see that God is holy and that He is loving.
We can see that God is loving because He desperately wants us to choose life by obeying Him. We can see that God is holy because He will allow us to destroy ourselves by disobeying Him.
I have noticed over the years that some people think that God is either holy or He is loving, but not both. For example, when I was in college I had a screensaver on my computer. I typed in three simple words: “Jesus is Lord”, one of the most often repeated phrases in the New Testament.
One of the guys who lived on my floor was in my dorm room one night and he saw my screensaver come up. He protested, “Hey, that is not right!”
I said, “What do you mean?”
He said, “Jesus is not Lord. Jesus is love.”
You see, he did not want to be confronted with a holy God, a God who demands obedience and punishes wickedness. He wanted a weak-minded, warm-hearted God who indulges His children and winks at sin. So, some people think of God as being loving to the exclusion of being holy.
Others think of God the other way around, as being holy but not loving. Fred Phelps stands as an easy target here. If you are familiar with Fred Phelps then you know he imagines a God and preaches about a God who is not only angry with almost everyone all the time, but who actually takes great delight in destroying the ungodly. If you believe Phelps and his followers, God hates the disobedient and becomes positively giddy when He anticipates casting unbelievers into the Lake of Fire.
But that is not the God of the Bible. Not at all. One of my favorite passages in the Old Testament is Ezekiel 33:11. Listen closely to the heart of God here:
Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’
Hear the heart of God, the heart of God even for those who heedlessly p
plunge over the cliff into the abyss of darkness. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
So, some people have a lopsided image of God, one who is either holy or loving. Others essentially think of God as being alternately holy and loving. Sometimes God is holy and sometimes He is loving. In the Old Testament He was mainly holy and in the New Testament He is mainly loving. I guess He has moods. “Today I think I am in the mood to be holy.”
No. God is not one or the other and He is not first one and then the other. God is both at the same time. It is really important that we know and believe this. God is 100% holy and 100% loving at the same time, all the time. In fact, I would argue that He could not be one without the other.
Let me attempt to demonstrate this with a parenting analogy. Most of you know that I have two little boys. Let’s say that I decide that I want to be the most loving Father I can possibly be, so I will err on the side of love. In fact, I will be all love and no holiness.
Since I love my children and want them to be happy, I am lax in my rules very permissive in my approach to everything. Basically I allow my boys to do pretty much whatever they want.
OK, what happens when the older one wants to push the younger one down the stairs or throw kitchen knives at him? Clearly, I cannot be loving to my children unless I am also holy. I must establish clear boundaries of righteousness. I will enforce the rules not just because I am being holy, but because I am being loving. My rule that says, “Thou shall not throw steak knives at thy brother”, is an expression of both holiness and love. As a parent, I cannot be one without the other.
What if, on the other hand, I decide that I want to be a holy father, in other words, I want to always do the right thing, so I am going to be all holiness and no love? So, I establish a long list of rigid rules by which my boys are to abide. My only interaction with them is to remind them of the rules and punish them when they disobey. I never hug them, kiss them, or hold them when they get hurt or sick. I never give them anything beyond their most basic and essential needs. I never smile at them or tell them I love them. I simply post the rules and punish the rebels.
What do you think is going to happen to my boys? Well, I bet I can guess. One of two things will likely happen, perhaps both. My boys will either become perfectionistic performers, always striving to earn my love and approval but never receiving it and therefore become deeply insecure and fearful and perhaps resentful and bitter as well. Or, they will become angry and give up completely and simply rebel against my harsh authority and reject me and my rules altogether.
Why? Wasn’t I holy? Didn’t I always do the right thing? No. I did not do the right thing because I failed at the most fundamental point of my responsibility. I failed to meet their most basic need of all. I failed to love them. Again, I cannot be holy, that is, always doing the right thing, unless I am also loving. I cannot be one without the other.
God is like that too. God is not one or the other, and He is not one and then the other. He is both at the same time, and thank God He is! Again, God is 100% holy and 100% loving at the same time and all the time. He could not be one without the other, and, in this passage, we see that He is indeed both
So, God places before us a simple choice. Life or death? Prosperity or destruction? Blessings or curses? He desperately wants us to choose life because He loves us so deeply and because it is win-win. But God will not choose for us. He gives us a genuine freedom to choose and leaves it completely up to us.
So, as I close today I leave you once again with the words of Moses, the very words of God Himself. “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction . . . Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life.”
So what is it going to be today? What will you choose? Hear the voice of your Father calling out your name. Listen to His heart as He urges you today.
“Choose life. Choose life.”
Amen.
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