DEUTERONOMY 30 REMEMBER THAT GOD IS ROOTING FOR YOU2021 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Deuteronomy 30 Remember That God Is Rooting For You

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2021. Well, I've titled the message this evening, Remember that God is rooting for you. Remember that God is rooting for you.

The book of Deuteronomy is really a book of remembrance where Moses addresses the nation. It's the second generation right before they're about to enter into the promised land. And he says, guys, remember what you've learned. Remember the things you've seen. Remember the things that the Lord has said. Remember, remember, remember. And here again, we see this exhortation to pay attention to the reality that God is on their side and is rooting for them.

for them. Now, this idea, this concept maybe isn't explicitly said or necessarily obvious, but it's what stood out to me. It's the things that were impressed upon me as I was reading through this chapter in preparation for tonight, that we need to be reminded that God is rooting for us. He wants us to win. He wants to give us victory. He wants to pour out blessings in our lives and

And Deuteronomy, here in these last few chapters, really kind of...

climaxes here in chapter 30 where God says, I want to, I've given you, you know, the options and the choices, and I want you to choose the option that I have for you, which is for your good and the best for you. It's your choice. You have to make the choice, but choose right, choose well, and let me bless you and work in your life.

I don't know if you spend a lot of time thinking about how much God is rooting for you, but I pray that as we work our way through this, you would allow the Lord to just stir up in your mind and get a little bit of an understanding. God is saying to you, I'm

I'm rooting for you. I want to do something amazing in your life and through your life. And so there's four points we'll look at to help us remember that God is rooting for us. Point number one here found in verses one through four is that God makes a way of repentance. Here's the first and kind of easy way that we can identify and understand that God is rooting for us.

Because he provides the path. He creates the avenue for repentance. Again, verses 1 through 4, it says, Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you,

And you return to the Lord your God and obey his voice according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you and from there he will...

Here, Moses says, when it comes to pass, all these things come upon you. He's referring to this block of chapters that we've been reading this week, chapters 27 through 30. It's a kind of a long exhortation from Moses. And every time I get back through this portion of scripture, I always look forward in Deuteronomy to chapters 27 through 30.

Because there it's so clear. God lays out very clearly, here's the blessings, here's the curses. If you love me and follow me, here are the things that I will do for you as a nation. If you reject me and disobey, here's the consequences of that. And he just lays out with incredible clarity in the chapters that go before this.

And so now he kind of is summarizing. He's wrapping up this message that he's been delivering to them. And he says, when all this comes to pass, when all these things come upon you, the all these things is referring to the blessings that he promised, but it also refers to the curses that he promised. In Deuteronomy 27 through 29, God promised blessings and explained how those blessings will come upon them.

They were blessings that would come from obedience. And so when all these things come upon them, part of that was they were going to be blessed. God was going to do amazing things with their nation. He was going to establish them and build them. They were going to experience the blessings from obedience. And you can look at chapter 27 and 28 and see this.

The blessings that God said, how they would be provided for, how they would be strong in battle, their enemies would run from them. And he goes on and lists like all these different ways that he's going to bless them. And God says, you're going to experience that. When all of these things come upon you, including those blessings, you're going to experience my work in your nation, in your life. And of course, we see the nation of Israel go through

from this time in Joshua and then later on in Judges to the peak of the nation under the leadership of David and Solomon. And you can see that they experienced these blessings. You can walk through and see these things were fulfilled in their lives. And so he says, "...when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse."

And so they weren't just going to experience the blessings that God promised. God also laid out the curses for disobedience. And how will those curses come upon them? Well, very simply by them disregarding the word of God, throwing out what God says and taking their own course and doing what they want to do.

And it goes on as you read through chapter 27, 28, and 29. It's the exact opposite of all the blessings. Instead of the enemies fleeing from you in battle, you will flee from your enemies in battle. Instead of having an abundant crop, you will have no crop. And your crop will be taken from you. Instead of having blessings, you will have curses. And that was God's promise to them for their disobedience or their disregard of him.

And so here, as we start out in verse 1, God's saying, look, both of these sides are going to be fulfilled in your life. The nation of Israel is going to experience the blessings of God and the curses because of their obedience to God and then later on their disobedience to God. God knew in advance that they were going to reject him and turn away from him. God knew in advance their rebellions and how they would fight against his rule in their life.

God knew in advance that it would result in their bondage to foreign nations. The blessing and the curse, he says, which I have set before you. When all of this happens, and then you remember.

Check out verse 1 again. And you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you. Here's what God's saying. God's saying, you're going to experience my blessing. Then you're going to experience the curses to the degree, to the point that you will be conquered by a foreign nation. You will be scattered to other nations outside of your territory, outside of your land, and

But from there, if you will remember these things that I have said. When all these things happen, when all these things unfold. And I think this is so important for us to consider because God is saying in advance, He knows what's going to happen to them. And He's giving them an opportunity from that place of being scattered to repent.

He knows in advance they're going to rebel. He knows in advance they're going to disobey. He knows they're going to experience these curses. But even in this disobedience to God and their correction in that, God is not saying, that's the end, it's over, you don't get any more chances. He is saying, I know I'm going to get to bless you. I know I'm going to have to discipline you.

But even though you're going to end up in this place, in this spot, I want you to know, I want you to remember, to think back and understand that you have an opportunity to get right. That I'm not done with you, that I've not given up on you, and it's not too late to experience God's blessings in your life. Verse 2.

And you return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. According to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul. God says, here's what you can do. When you find yourself there in the pit of despair, I just said it because it rhymed. When you find yourself there in the pit of despair, you find yourself having been scattered, having your life just filled with curses because of disobedience to God.

We could easily have this idea, have this perspective that God is enjoying the laying out of curses, right? And I'll show you to disobey me. And I'll, you know, we could imagine God having pleasure in the punishment, but here God is expressing and declaring that's not his heart. That's not what he wants. Instead, he's rooting for you to come back. He says, you have opportunity to return to the Lord, your God. You need to come back now.

He's clear about it. He's setting standards. He's not just saying, well, just kind of give me a little fake show of love or adoration. He says, look, with all your heart, with all your soul, turn back to me and love me and obey me, but you have the opportunity. It's not too late now.

Even in the midst of curses, to the degree that you are scattered to various nations, you're in bondage and captivity to these other peoples, it's not too late to turn back to the Lord, to return to the Lord, which he says how to do that, to obey his voice with all of your heart. And notice what God says in verse 3, that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity. God says the result is,

Even when you have disobeyed to the point of this harsh correction, this driving out of the land, God is saying, I'm making a way. I'm providing, even in the law, even in the announcement of blessings and cursings, I'm providing a way for you to recover from that rebellion, to recover from that disobedience.

The Lord will bring you back from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. And the idea there of being gathered from all the nations, it really speaks about the completeness of their desolation. It's not just that they were, you know, conquered and

picked up and moved, but the idea of them being scattered to all the nations really speaks of the completeness of their destruction. It's not just like a little destruction. It's not, you know, a simple destruction. It's just they lost one battle or one war. But the idea of them being scattered to all the nations really...

lays out the point that this was a devastating loss. They have been pressed. They have been squeezed. There's a few of them here, a few of them there, scattered in all the different nations, right? They're not just like, okay, the group of Israel now living in a different location. They are individuals, families,

Maybe there's a couple of them together, but they've been scattered. They've been squeezed and pressed so hard as a result of their rebellion that they're just here and there in pockets. And God says, even from that state, from that complete pressing, that complete scattering, it's not too late. You can return to me and I will bring you back from captivity. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says the purpose of chastening is restoration.

not ruination. God knows what his people will do. So he makes provision for them to repent and return. He has done this for his people today. This is the way that God works. He still operates in a similar fashion. He brings discipline. He brings chastening. I shared this, I forget exactly when, within the last couple of weeks, Hebrews chapter 12, where the author of Hebrews makes the case, if God doesn't discipline you, then you're not his child.

He disciplines us when we're out of line, when we are not walking with Him. And we experience the pressing. And hopefully, we don't resist to this degree.

The interesting thing about this, the blessings and the curses, the promises, and all of these things that we're looking at here in Deuteronomy, you don't have to wait until rock bottom to turn back and return to the Lord with all your heart. That's not a requirement that God says, okay, you've disobeyed, so now I'm going to push you, and you're just going to have to wait until you hit rock bottom, go through all the curses, and that's just it because you disobeyed one time. That's not the way that it works.

Confession is an opportunity for us at any point to come back and be repentant. And it's the shortest route to restoration, to recognize we're on the path, to recognize we're experiencing the discipline, the chastening. We're experiencing the conflict as a result of our disobedience to God. And so we can turn then. We don't have to wait to the end of the road. We can turn at the beginning of the path.

the first outpouring of discipline or curses upon our lives, we can turn back and return to the Lord with all our hearts. And God promises to restore, to bring us back from captivity. He always is seeking to do that. From the very beginning, he wants to bring restoration, as Pastor Warren Wiersbe said, not ruination. He's not out to get you. He's out to restore you, to bring you health and to bless your life.

Of course, we have a good example of that with the Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 5 and 2 Corinthians 2. There's the guy involved in such sin, not even the pagans around them would put up with or look upon that sin favorably. Paul says, you need to deal with that. You need to put him outside of the church exercise, church discipline. You are the agent of God, church discipline.

To bring on some of the pressure, to allow the guy to recognize where he's at, to come back to the Lord. And then later on in 2 Corinthians 2, Paul says, okay, it's time. Reaffirm your love to him. Bring him back into the fold. The process worked. He has repented. He's turned back and received forgiveness from the Lord. It's time to receive the restoration of fellowship as well.

God makes a way of repentance. He knows we're going to blow it. He knows we're going to disregard him. He knows all of these things about us. But here's how you can tell that God's rooting for you. He gives you a path back, a path of repentance, a path of restoration. He makes sure that you still have opportunity, no matter how low you go. Even if you're scattered so much that you're pressed so hard, there's just bits and pieces of you all over the place.

There's still the opportunity to come back. As it's often been said, no matter how far away you run from God, he's always one step back. And the thing that I would encourage us in is we don't have to wait till we've run so far away from God. But even when you've just taken two steps away from God, he's always one step back. He makes a way of repentance because he's rooting for you. He wants what's best in our lives.

Well, moving on to verses 5 through 10, we get the second point to consider this evening, and that is God promises to do a new work for you. He makes a way of repentance. He makes sure you have an opportunity to come back and recover, but then he goes on to give promises. And just try to stop and think about that and what that means. God gives some incredible promises here in verses 5 through 10.

This is a people that have rebelled against God to such a degree that he has been forced to bring the Assyrian army. And you guys remember perhaps the cruelty of the Assyrian army and the way that they treated their captives and the way that they would deal with the nations that they came against. It was not God's ideal choice of discipline, but their insistence on rebelling was

Brought God to the place where he would use the nation of Assyria to take out the northern kingdom, the northern part of the nation of Israel. And then the southern kingdom, which after the nation had split, the southern kingdom lasted a little bit longer. But they also resisted God and rebelled against God and refused to listen to God so that God had to bring the nation of Babylon down.

To conquer them, to take them out of the land. So then the land is left desolate. The land is left without inhabitant because of the discipline that God had to bring upon his people. And we would not fault God if he says, that's it. You had your shot. You rebelled to the point I had to take you out of the land. That was your last chance. I gave you several hundred years to repent and turn back and you didn't do it. That was your last chance.

We would not fault God if he had that approach with the nation of Israel. But you know, here's what God says. Listen.

I'm going to bless you and do good works in your life, and you're going to forget that it was me who did it, and you're going to turn against me, and you're going to bring about curses upon your life because of disobedience, and I'm going to call you to repentance, but you're going to resist, and you're going to resist, and you're going to resist for several hundred years. You're going to resist me. You're going to spit in my face. You're going to hate what I say. You're going to kill the messengers that I send to call you back. You're going to fight against me every time I try to work in your life, and you're going to experience...

the full judgment as a result. But from there, if you'll turn back to me, I will do a new and exciting work in your life. I promise, God says. Check out these promises in verse 5 through 10. Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it.

He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. And 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 soul that you may live. Also, the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. And you will again obey the voice of the Lord and do all his commandments, which I command you today.

Verse 1.

God here lays out promises, incredible, crazy promises when you think about it. Because again, he knows from the get-go, going back to verse one, you're going to experience all these things, God says. You're going to experience the full extent of my blessings, and then you're going to experience the full extent of the curses of disobeying me and running from me. But even still, even when you fight against me that hard, here's some promises. When you return to me,

God says, I'm going to bring you back into the land in verse 5. I scattered you out of the land. I had to bring other nations to drive you out because of your rebellion. But it's not over. That was your last chance to be in the land that I promised to Abraham. I'll bring you back to that land. I'll replant you in this place and allow you to be established there. You shall possess it, he says.

And I'm going to prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. Like, I'm not just going to bless you, but I'm going to bless, bless you. I'm going to doubly bless you, abundantly bless you. I'm going to do a radical new work in your life. And we could say, why? Why would God promise to do even better things for them after they had experienced the blessings of God and knew better, but still rebelled against him?

God doesn't provide that answer, but we know the answer. It's because of God's grace and his mercy towards us. He doesn't deal with us according to our sin. He doesn't relate to us according to our sin. When we turn to him, he forgives us. He washes us and we stand before him just as if we had never sinned. And so he says to his people, I'll bring you back into the land and you will possess it. I'll prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. Then notice he goes on in verse six to say, I will circumcise your heart.

The idea there is the cutting away of the sinful nature. I'm going to help you to stay on track with me is what God is saying here. I'm going to help you to stay on track. I'm going to help you to stay away from sin. I'm going to help you to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live. A lot of people wrestle with back in the book of Exodus when Pharaoh hardened his heart, Pharaoh hardened his heart, Pharaoh hardened his heart, and then God hardened Pharaoh's heart. And it's like, whoa.

Did he take away Pharaoh's choice? No, he confirmed, he reinforced Pharaoh's choice. But God also does that same work for his people when they turn to him. Because going back to verse 3, if they turn to the Lord with all their hearts and all their soul, then God says, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to circumcise your heart to help you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

I'm going to strengthen you in your decision to walk with me, in your decision to follow me. In verse 8, he says, and you will again obey the voice of the Lord and do all his commandments, which I command you today. I'm going to help you be obedient, which is, of course, something that we are going to need. The nation of Israel was going to need help. They ended up in the place that they were in because of their stubborn rebellion. And so coming back to a place of obedience is

It was going to be hard. They were stubborn and rebellious. But God says, look, you turn to me with all your heart, and then I will help you. Now listen, the enemy loves to play with our minds, so we give up before we even start, because...

All right, well, maybe I could turn to the Lord right now, but I'm thinking ahead to all the situations I'm going to have to face and all the things. There's going to be so many challenges ahead, and I'm not going to be strong enough to resist those temptations. I'm not going to be strong enough to be, you know, able to follow through with what God is saying here. And we're thinking about what's happening down the road. And so I can't do that. So I might as well just give up now. Here's what God says. No, no, don't worry about down the road.

You decide right now with all your heart, with all your soul to love me and return to me, to obey me. You do that right now. And then I will help you to do all those other things. I'm going to carry you down that path and I'm going to work on your flesh to bring you to the point that you're able to walk with me and be obedient in the things that I've called you to. God says, I'm going to put curses on your enemies. All those who have come against you and persecuted you and hated you,

You know, even though the Lord used the nation of Assyria and the nation of Babylon, he also charged them with wrong. They were God's instruments of discipline, but they also took it too far. And they didn't just do what God had allotted for them, but they did so with hatred and with persecution. And so God dealt with those nations as well because of that.

As opposed to the nation of Israel, when they first went into the promised land, they were also God's instrument of judgment, right? The inhabitants of the land, God says, I'm giving them 400 years to repent. They didn't repent. So God says, go in and you're my agents of discipline in their life. That doesn't mean that Israel had to hate those people or persecute them or come against them in that way. But they did have to be obedient and do and follow the instruction that God had given to them.

God said, all of these enemies have come against you. They've hated you. They've persecuted you. And I've allowed it because, well, of your status, your position of disobedience. They took it too far. It wasn't right the way that they treated you. But you needed the discipline, so I allowed it. But when you turn back to me, all that hatred that has been extended towards you, all that persecution that has come to you, I'm going to be turning that back upon them, and they're going to experience it.

the judgment, the discipline, because they have been out of line in their attacks against you. And then God says in verse 9, you will abound in your work. I'm going to make you abound in all the work of your hand, the fruit of your body, the increase of your livestock, the produce of your land. Everything you do is going to be blessed when you return to me. Now, God promises all these things. It's important to note, it's not an unconditional promise.

Because in verse 10, he says, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep his commandments and his statutes, which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, God says, here's the requirement. Here's what I ask of you. I'm going to do all of this. And he lays out this huge package of great benefits. You are just going to be so incredibly blessed. Here's what I ask of you. Full allegiance. You follow me wholly.

You turn to the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul. You put all your attention, all your focus, all your adoration, all your passion upon me, and I will work in your life. The nation of Israel experienced all the blessings that God had described. They experienced all the curses that God had described in the previous chapters. They have not yet fully experienced all of these promises. They have experienced somewhat of a regathering.

If you remember the history of the nation of Israel, again, it was split into two. The northern kingdom conquered by Assyria, the southern kingdom conquered by Judah. They're in captivity for 70 years after Babylon conquers, but then they come back. There comes a time, there comes a point, there's a group that heads back to rebuild the temple. We have a good record of that in the book of Ezra.

And then a little bit after that, there's another group, another time where the Lord's stirring up hearts and Nehemiah leads a group back to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And so we have a record of that regathering of them being put out of the land and then being replanted in the land of Israel. But it wasn't the fullness of what these promises describe in that return back to the land of Israel.

Then later on, a couple hundred years later, Rome conquers Israel once again, and now they're dispersed. They are scattered all around the world, and it's kind of a previous generation for us, right? Not many of us got to see it, but Israel has returned to the land, and it was a big deal back in the 40s when Israel returned, the people of Israel returned to the land, and

But at the same time, the spiritual side of the promises, they are blessed in many ways and they're established, but the spiritual side of these promises have not yet been fulfilled. And so it seems like this passage is really talking about something yet future, but

Where in the middle of the tribulation period, the nation of Israel will recognize that Jesus is the promised Messiah and they will turn to him. And then the fulfillment of these things will be the return of Jesus and the millennium and all of those blessings that God promises to them as a result. And so you can kind of see God like laying out their whole history for them here in these chapters.

several thousand years before they were going to unfold. Well, as we look at these, though, and we understand these promises to Israel, we also understand these are promises to us in a spiritual sense, where God says, I'll do the same thing for you. I will bring you back to the place that I have you.

And I will reinforce your decision to follow me when you return to me from that place. I'll circumcise your heart. I'll help you to love me and to obey me. I'll fight against your enemies. And the enemy that comes against you, the one who hates you and persecutes you, I'll turn their curses and their persecutions back upon them. And you'll abound in your work. And you can think about, you know, spiritual gifts and abounding in the work of the Lord, but also in your life. That God says, I'm going to work in your life.

God promises to do a new work for you. And so again, remember that God is rooting for you. Even though he knows you're going to fall short, even though he knows perhaps you're going to rebel and run from God and experience rock bottom, God says, still from there, turn back to me with all your heart and listen, I can do incredible things. And I promise if you will turn back to me, I will do a new work for you.

exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we could ask or think. Moving on to verses 11 through 14, we get the third point to consider this evening, and that is that God makes His Word accessible to you. And I did a little bit of a typo there. I apologize for that. God makes His Word accessible to you. Let's read verses 11 through 14. For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off.

It is not in heaven that you should say, who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it. Nor is it beyond the sea that you should say, who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it. But the word is very near you in your mouth and in your heart that you may do it.

God kind of anticipates the person who is at rock bottom, the person who has experienced all of this trouble and desolation, he anticipates that person is going to reach for an easy excuse. How am I supposed to know what God wants? It is too hard for me to figure out what God wants. You know, look at the disaster. Look how much damage has been done. There's just no way to understand what must be done at this point. And God says, that's not true.

Again, he's designed and fashioned the way of repentance. He says, the commandment that I give you today, it's not too mysterious for you. It's not far off. Going back to verse 10, if you obey the voice of the Lord, you begin to respond again to what God has said. You turn your heart to the Lord and God says, I will do this for you. This command, which I command you today, it's not too mysterious. It's not too mysterious.

It's not too far out of reach. It's not so strange that you're not going to be able to remember it or understand it. It's not going to be some weird thing that you can't figure out, which is important because when we're involved in sin, our understanding is darkened. We become dull in our spiritual senses and dense in our thinking capacity. We are affected by sin. But even still, God says, the command that I'm giving you today,

You may wrestle with things and make excuses and say all kinds of things about how hard it is to return to the Lord and you can't figure out what God wants. And God says, it's not mysterious. That's your heart making excuses. That's your sinful nature seeking the easy way out and not returning to the Lord, seeking to hold on to its control of your life. You need to understand it's not a great mystery what you should do or how you should return to the Lord.

He says it's not in heaven in verse 12 that you should say, who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it. It's not like some great thing in heaven where you have to go visit some guru who has some understanding of these high things to bring down this mystery to a level that you can understand. Someone has to ascend into heaven and find out so that we can then hear it and do it. God says, no, that's not necessary. It's not necessary.

Now, I'm not saying or trying to discourage anybody from seeking out advice or counsel or anything like that. But at the same time, it's not a great mystery what you need to do when you're in that place of devastation from rebellion. It's not a great mystery. You need to return to the Lord with all your heart. You need to return to Him. It's not a great mystery that you have to ascend into heaven to figure it out. And then in verse 13, it's not so deep that you have to go beyond the sea.

who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it. You don't have to cross over the ocean. You don't have to reach the depths of the ocean. You don't have to go so far, go so deep. You don't have to run around the earth or do 17,000 push-ups or anything. It's not some great feat or some great mystery. He says, the word is very near you. Everything that you need is very near to you. It's in your mouth and it's in your heart that you may do it.

Now the Apostle Paul quotes from this passage in Romans chapter 10 in regards to salvation. In Romans chapter 10, verse 6 through 9, Paul says, The righteousness of faith speaks in this way. Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith speaks

which we preach. Notice how he applies it. Verse 9, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Paul says, look, when it comes to salvation, it's not a great mystery.

What must I do to be saved? It's not some strange thing and you have to climb some high mountain or go across the sea or go to the depths of the abyss. It's not some strange, it's right. It's right there in your mouth. It's right real close to you. Confess the Lord Jesus. Believe in him, that God has raised him from the dead and he says you will be saved. Now salvation, that's of course our greatest need. Everything after that, even salvation,

recovering from a state of rebellion and devastation from disobeying God is a lesser need, a lesser salvation than our salvation from sin. And so here's Paul's point. It's not a great mystery. It's not like some great feats of strength have to be exhibited before you can receive these promises from God. God makes his word accessible to you. Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus.

Believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead and you will be saved. F.B. Meyer puts it this way, the love and grace of God are not concealed as hidden mysteries might be. There is no need to undertake a long and dangerous journey. We have only to lift the heart to him in simple faith and confess him as our Savior and Lord. And we are assured of salvation from the penalty and power of sin.

God makes his word accessible to you. He gives us everything that we need. It's right there within our grasp. And of course, speaking about his word, right, that it's the gospel, but it's also the scriptures. Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

God says, here, I've made it right here for you. It's accessible, right here, near to you. It's in your heart. It's on your lips. It's in your hand. You have everything you need to be equipped for every good work in the scriptures because I'm rooting for you because I want what's best for you and I want you to experience my blessings in your life. Well, we'll finish it up in verses 15 through 20 for point number four this evening and that is that God gives you a clear choice.

Here's another way that you can tell, you can understand. God is rooting for you because he doesn't give you a great variety of things where you have a good chance of getting it wrong. He defines for you a very clear opportunity. He gives you the freedom to choose, but it's not a great mystery what you're choosing or which one you're choosing or if you're choosing the right one. You get to choose, but you know abundantly and clearly the choice that you are making.

Verse 15, see, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. Verse 16, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes and his judgments, that you may live and multiply and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. Moses lays out the truth for the nation of Israel. He says, see, I have set before you today life and death.

Good and evil. Here's your two choices. And these are the same two choices that all of us have, any of us have, all the time. We can choose life or death. Good or evil. Moses says, here's the choice of life. Love the Lord your God to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments. Love God. The choice is clear. If you want life, if you want good, then love God.

If you don't want to love God, then you're choosing death. You're choosing evil. Verse 17. Here's the choices. They're clear.

When Israel starts down the path of rebellion, it's not because they thought they were serving God. They were trying to serve God and oops, they accidentally picked the wrong route. Listen, that would be cruel for God to set things up that way so that you wouldn't know until 20 years down the line whether that was the right choice or not, right? No, God makes it clear that

He gives you a clear choice because he wants you to have the best opportunity. And so he declares the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now choose. He doesn't say, all right, you can follow this religion or you can follow that religion. You can follow that religion. Here's 14 different religions. I'm not going to tell you which one's right. I'm not going to tell you which ones lead you to hell. Just pick one and you'll find out eventually. That would be cruel.

That would be unclear, right? But instead, Jesus tells us in John chapter 3, he who believes in Jesus is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he's not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Two choices. Believe in Jesus or don't believe in Jesus. Not condemned or condemned. Very clear.

Two choices, two options. It's a very clear decision or choice that God gives us to decide. Verse 19, I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life that both you and your descendants may live. Again, the choice is clear. He reiterates that.

And it's so important. He says, look, I call heaven and earth. Heaven and earth will witness against you when you stand before God. And heaven and earth itself will say they were given a clear choice, life and blessing or death and cursing. Whichever one you experience, it's the one you choose. And it's not a great mystery. It was your choice. You had a clear choice and you made your choice. And that's the consequences or the results of your choice. And so God says, therefore...

Choose life. Why? Because he's rooting for you. He wants you to have life and blessing. Verse 20, Choose life, he says in verse 19. How do you do that? Love the Lord your God.

Obey his voice. It's clear. There's no mystery here. It's not some great hidden thing. God lays it out for you. And some people have a hard time with the idea of what Jesus said in John 14. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And some people resist that. Oh, it seems so restrictive. It seems so narrow. It seems so minded. But another way to understand that is it's so clear. It's so clear.

As I was reading through this, I know it's kind of silly, and probably some of you haven't even seen it, but that scene in Indiana Jones where he's got to select the right cup. The cup isn't the right word. There's another word, but...

It's not goblet either. Anyways, so he's got to select the right one, right? And then the other guy selects it, and he dies in a gruesome way. And so he's got to pick the right one, right? Like, that would be cruel for God to base your restoration or your salvation upon something like that. Instead, God says...

There's two choices. I'm going to tell you which one's which. I'm going to label them. There's going to be clear signs, warning signs over the one that will destroy you. It's going to be easy for you to discern which one's which. You get to choose, but you know what you're choosing. It's not a mystery.

Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 2, there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. In case there's any mystery about which Jesus we're talking about, the one who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time, the one who died for us, that Jesus is the one mediator between the one God and all of humanity. One God, one mediator, it's Jesus. It's very clear.

Beyond that choice, beyond that initial, you know, salvation and believing in Jesus, we also have the walk with God. And again, God still makes it very clear. Paul tells us in Galatians chapter 5, the works of the flesh are evident. The works of the flesh are evident. And he goes on to list a bunch. You can tell. There's no big mystery about what the works of the flesh are. And then the fruit of the Spirit. That's evident. There's no law against these things. These things are good.

You walk in the Spirit and you bear this fruit, it's clear. There's no mystery. It's not ambiguous. You walk in the flesh and you bear that fruit, it's clear. There's no mystery. You have a clear choice. And your heart may lie to you and try to tell you that the choice is not clear, right? Your sinful nature might scream at you and try to drown out and pretend like it's not clear. But God says there's life and there's death. You only have these two choices. And you know which one's which.

So choose life. God is rooting for you. Remember that. Again, God tells the nation of Israel, when you find yourself, you're in captivity in a foreign land because of your long and stubborn rebellion against me, then call to mind these words. Remember, I'm rooting for you. There's a way of repentance. I've made sure that you've had that opportunity.

And I promise, if you turn back to me and you repent, I will do a new work in your life, an even greater work than I did in the times of blessing that happened before. It's not a great mystery that you can't reach or you can't understand or figure out. My word is accessible to you. Seek me and you will find me. God says, I'm giving you a clear choice.

You can turn to me and experience my blessing. You can surrender to me and experience all that I have for you, life and good. Or you can reject me. You can deny me and experience the curses and the evil that will come from a rebellion against God. God says, I don't want to do that. That's not the best. That's not my choice. My choice is to choose that you would choose life. You get to choose.

But let me make it clear, God says, one is life, one is death. I want you to choose life. Let's pray. Lord, I pray that you would help us tonight. Lord, as we wrestle with things in this life and as we face battles in our day and temptations around us, Lord, the enemy does the best that he can to try to bring confusion to the clarity that you've provided, to try to make it seem like it's a mystery, to try to make it seem like it's too hard to

Why? Because he can't take away from us what you have for us. All he can do is try to convince us to give up ourselves and to not follow the word that you've given to us. I pray, God, that you would help us to see through the deception and the lies.

Lord, bring clarity. Lord, even though you've already made it clear, Lord, we pray for even more clarity, God, that we'd be able to see through the deception of our sinful nature, the deception that the enemy wants to bring against us, but that we would see clearly. You want what's best for us. And so you've laid before us life and good, promises to bless. Lord, teach us to hold fast to you.

to respond to your word, and to love you with all of our hearts. You want what's best for us. Help us, Lord, to walk with you and receive it. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.