Don’t Look Back
People often get nostalgic around this time of year. As a new year approaches there is something in our hearts and minds which make us reminisce about the past. Just the other night I turned on the radio to hear the 11.55pm news and there was country and western music on. Now, I hope I don’t offend anyone hear, but country music is not my first choice. You see I grew up with it being played by my dad all the time and if he wasn’t playing it he was singing it. He is a good singer unlike myself. Now the music set my mind racing back through the years to childhood and all the songs I had heard. The next morning when I was preparing this sermon I came across a list of funny titles of country songs – let me share some of them with you – now I kid not these are actual song titles:
May the bird of paradise fly up your nose.
You cant roller skate in a buffalo herd.
I’ve got tears in my ears while lying on my back thinking of you.
Keep forgettin I forgot about you.
If the phone don’t ring, baby you will know its me.
Fell in a pile of you and got love all over me.
There is another great country song and it was written by George Jones, not the guy from radio Ulster. In March 1999 he had a bad car accident and was almost killed, it transpired he was drunk at the wheel. After he had recovered he wrote a song and the title was this:
I’m living and dying with the choices I made.
Now that in my opinion is an excellent summary of the passage which I read to you from Deuteronomy 30. Turn to it now if you would. Let me set the context of this passage for you. The people of God are standing on the banks of the river Jordan. On the other bank lies the Promised Land. Moses is addressing them for the final time, just before they step into and over the Jordan to claim the inheritance promised to them by God. Moses can see the promised land but he is forbidden because of his sin to enter it. The people of God have wandered in the wilderness for a generation, 40 years, as punishment for their sin in not taking the land the first time they stood on these banks, but now they are back again and this time they will cross and enter the land flowing with milk and honey.
They stand before Moses as he outlines to them the choices they have to make. Friends those choices are still the same many millennia later. As we stand on the banks of time and look over to another new year we are faced as individuals and as the people of God with the same choices. So let us look at what God through Moses says to the people of Israel and what He would say to us today through His Word here.
Verses 11-14 It is not that difficult.
Do you remember as a child telling your parents ‘I can’t do that’ and they would not let you give up? Do you remember how frustrated and angry you could become over something that you just could not do? Moses has just given the Law of God to the people of God and now God through Moses says to them – don’t tell me I can’t do that. Moses says to them listen this command, this Law, this Word from God is not locked up in heaven, it is not many miles away – you do not have to go a great distance and spend lots of money to receive it. It is not unintelligible, it is not impractical, it is not impossible to obey, it is not unknown to you. In fact it has been spoken by God to you in your own language and the knowledge of it is so close to you that it is in your heart and on your lips. Look at the verses closely and see what God is saying to his people here. Verses 11-13 it is not difficult, it is not beyond your reach. God says to them look I have revealed my Word to you, I have made it plain and simple, I spoke it in your language so that you would understand. You cannot use as an excuse for your disobedience and sin that you do not know, you do not understand or you have not heard. Friends if the people of God standing on the bank of the river Jordan were without excuse before God for their disobedience what makes you think you or I have a legitimate excuse this morning for our disobedience of his Word.
Verse 14 God says it is near you – it is on your lips and in your heart for this reason and this reason alone – that you would obey it. God did not give them the Law as a burden – since when has God ever placed a burden on someone. Was it not Christ who said ‘come to me all that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest?’ Did he not also say ‘take my yoke upon you for my burden is easy and light?’ Now we know that God is the same yesterday, today and forever so therefore the Law of God is not a burden. Yes it convicted man of his sin and his need of forgiveness but is that not what Jesus came to do and to fulfil the law so that we might be redeemed? God says to his people as they are about to enter the promised land – obey my Word to you. Do not be like the nations of the lands you are about to enter? It is not impossible to obey, it is not unknown to you, it is not unintelligible – I have made it clear and plain, I have put it in your heart and on your lips – it is part and parcel of who you are as my people – therefore as my people obey it.
Verses 15-20 Live or die by the choices you make!
Do you remember the Dirty Harry films with Clint Eastwood? Do you remember the famous line: ‘Now ask yourself did he fire five or six. Feeling lucky punk. Go ahead make my day?’ The criminal had a choice to make and that choice would decide whether he lived or died. If he went for the gone he would die but if he remained still he would live. Well the people of God are handed a choice here by God. God does not force his will upon them – he gave them a choice. Just as he has been doing since the beginning of creation. Adam and Eve – you can eat of all the trees in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat of it you will die. He gave them a choice and they disobeyed and so sin and death entered creation and we have lived with the consequences of that disobedience ever since. Brothers and sisters – remember that – sin has consequences and you may have to live with those consequences even after your sin has been forgiven.
Well let us turn again to chapter 30 and verse 15. Here is the choice:
Life and prosperity or death and destruction. Some choice. One positive and one negative. They are both conditional upon obedience or disobedience. God says here is your choice – life or death? Prosperity or Destruction? Now you choose.
Verses 16-17 If obedience is your choice then I will bless you and you will prosper in the promised land and you will enjoy the blessings of that land all the days of your life. Note will you that it is love of the Lord God which is at the heart of obedience and blessing here. Love is the soul’s devotion, the mind’s decision and the will’s actions and it all flows from faith in the grace of God and the faithfulness of God to keep his promise of blessing and prosperity. Do you see what God is saying to them and to us? Your love for me is shown in your obedience and out of your obedience will flow my blessing. Friends do you understand that this morning. God will not bless disobedience. He will not bless you this morning if you are living in sin, and I don’t just mean living with someone who is not your wife or husband. I mean living in your sin. God will not bless you if you continue to disobey his Word. No excuses this morning are acceptable to him. They were not acceptable to him as the people stood on the banks of the Jordan and he has not changed. His Word is clear, it is simple, it is easily understood and he commands we obey it so that he might bless us. Do you hear? Are you going to be obedient now and in the new year ahead? Do you want god’s blessing on you, on your family and on this church? Then the only way for blessing to flow is if you, I , we all obey His Word.
Verses 17-18 Disobedience leads to death and destruction. There is no alternative to obedience other than disobedience. We hear a lot of nonsense talked today about ‘the middle way’ – there is no middle way or third way when it comes to God’s Word. Friends this morning you are either being obedient or you are being disobedient – there is no half way house. Read verses 17-18 – not a nice cosy picture. God spells out plainly for the people of Israel the consequences of disobedience. He warns them that when they enter these lands their hearts will be tempted to stray after other gods. He warns them that they will be tempted to stray from his commands and to disobey as they see those nations around them disobey. Friends it is a timely warning to us all. When we look around us today we see idolatry run riot. We see the endless pursuit of pleasure, of wealth, of fame and position and we are tempted to chase after it ourselves. God says to you and to me this morning your heart belongs to me and I will have no other god in residence there but me. God says to each and everyone of us this morning – death and destruction is where they are headed, death and destruction are the eternal consequences of disobedience. Death of your relationship with me, with each other, of this fellowship will be the result of disobedience. Destruction of your life, of your family life, of your church life will be the consequences of disobedience. Let us be honest here – disobedience of the Word of God brings destruction on relationships and on people and places. Here the people are warned when they enter the promised land, the land God swore to their forefathers, they will be tempted to disobey but they have to make the choice before they enter the land. Before they set one foot into the Jordan to cross over they know, they know obedience will bring blessing and life, disobedience death and destruction.
Friends listen to me, before you, we take one step into 2003 know this – obedience will bring blessing and life, disobedience will bring death and destruction – to your life, to my life, to the life of our families and to the life of this church. Now choose?
Well God summons the heavens and the earth to bear testimony, witness to this covenant that he has set before his people. He calls on the two permanent features of creation to bear testimony everyday that the people of God have entered a covenant with God – where life and death are dependent on obedience or disobedience. And once again God urges them to choose life and blessing for themselves and note will you for their children.
Finally verse 20 this sums it all up. Love God, listen to his voice so that you will live. Why? Because God is your life. Do you see that phrase in the middle of the verse? There friends is the key. The Lord God is your life. As Paul many thousands of years later would say: For me to live is Christ. God declares to his people I am your life. I am the very air you breath. I am the creator of life. I am the sustainer of life. I am the restorer of life. I am the redeemer of life. I am the prolonger of life. I am the Life – said Jesus. To these people about to enter the promised land God reminds them he is their life. He is the very core of their very existence, without him they would not and could not exist. Without him there is only death and destruction but with him is life and prosperity.
Friends can I ask you this morning is the Lord God your life? Is the Lord Jesus your life? Can you say as Paul did: for me to live is Christ? If that is true then obey him, obey his Word and receive life and blessing. If you are one of his people today then why would you not obey him? If you belong to him why would you neglect time with him? Why would you not be deep in his Word drinking from the fount of life? Why are you walking in sin? What has stolen your heart? What diverted your gaze from Jesus? What gods have entered your heart and brought death to your soul?
If you are not one of his this morning, no in fact I think all of us need to make this commitment this morning, not just those who have never come to Christ. This morning I want to lay before you a covenant – as an individual and as a people here – a covenant of commitment for the year ahead, in fact for the rest of our lives. I want you all to bow your heads, close your eyes and listen.
I set before you today Life and Death, Blessing and Destruction. The way to Life and Prosperity is obedience. The way to Death and Destruction is disobedience. You choose.
Heavenly Father I choose life and prosperity this morning. I confess to you that I have been disobedient and walked in the paths of sin. I beg your forgiveness this morning. I repent of my sin and disobedience and I open my life, all of my life, to Christ Jesus. Come into my life as Lord and Saviour. Holy Spirit fill me with love for Jesus and for God my father. I covenant here today to walk in obedience to your Word. I covenant for myself, for my family and for this church to be obedient that I, my family and this church might know life and prosperity according to your Word. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Now a final word – go out and obey and watch God be faithful to his promise to you and me for life and prosperity.
