Rodgers, Bruce: Timeless Truths ~ Deut 30

Could we look together in Deuteronomy chapter thirty? Deuteronomy chapter thirty. And what I have in mind is what we could describe as being timeless truths. Principles that are true in the Old Testament and true in the New Testament as well. Unchanging principles in our own dealings with God. Now, to give you the context of the passage from chapter twenty seven to chapter twenty nine, he has presented, this is Moses, uh, presenting to Israel just before they go into their inheritance, commandments, blessings, and cursings. And he warns them that if they will not listen to God's voice, they will experience the power of God, not for blessing, but for discipline. Now that's not too popular a thing to think about today, and we tend to minimize that aspect of God's dealings with us as Christians, but it is a reality. There are principles of blessing, and there are principles under which the power of God is not for us, but against us. And so chapter thirty begins then, and it says, and it shall come to pass when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations whither the Lord thy God has driven thee. Now remember, they haven't even got into the land yet, and he's already foretelling their future, that they are ultimately going to be driven out of their inheritance. And this is still, some of this is still looking forward to the future. Thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations whither the Lord thy God has driven thee, and shall return unto the Lord thy God, and shall obey his voice, according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, with all thy soul, that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations whither the Lord thy God has scattered thee. And he promises a series of blessings that will restore them to what they once knew. And verse six says, and the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. Now I want to, to notice with you especially that connection where it says, that you may live. Further down the chapter, verse fifteen, he says, see, I have set before thee this day life and good and death and evil, in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply, and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou will not hear, but shall be drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I denounce unto you this day that you shall surely perish, and you shall not prolong your days upon the land whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live, that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, that thou may cleave unto him, for he is thy life and the length of thy days, that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to give them. Now this passage presents to us a very graphic contrast, and to really get the impact of it, you really would need to read the previous chapters. They're powerful. Of all the good that was in his heart for his people, all the intention of blessing that he had within him for them. And yet the recognition that despite all his good intention for them, they would experience instead his discipline. They would miss out on so much. They would not enter into all the fullness of what he had for them. Now, each one of us who are here are at various stages of our own spiritual life, aren't we? Some of us may have just entered into our inheritance, and there may be some of us here who have already known the bitterness of being driven out of our inheritance, of losing the blessings that belong to us as Christians, and experiencing instead the wretchedness of the power of sin in our life. One of the things I want to impress upon you, and I really want to just take this as a background here, that there is life, and there is death set before each one of us. There is blessing, and there is cursing set before us. God's principles will not change for you or for me. I want to take you into the New Testament because, really, what could not be fulfilled in its completeness in the old surely has more potential in the new. Let's turn to Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight. Now the Apostle Paul has been presenting the challenge from Romans chapter six through to this section, the question of how shall we then live? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Can I permit, can I indulge myself, can I tolerate something that is wrong, something that is evil, and escape the consequences. Does the grace of God eliminate the issue of consequences for my choice? Let's read what it says. Back in chapter seven, it mentions there being a law, a law of evil, a power of evil. But chapter eight begins, there is theref- therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law, and that's referring to the old covenant, for what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that, this is a purpose clause, in order that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Now he emphasizes in verse nine, but you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. If anyone has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead, and that's the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Verse twelve: therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. And there's reference made to the spirit of adoption or the spirit of sonship, which you have already heard about this afternoon. Now, what I want you to, to think about in this passage is that we are really being presented with the equipment by which we can overcome sin, not be dominated by it, not be controlled by it in our present Christian experience. Now, I don't know how you feel about your sin, your own sins. I get desperately sick of it. I don't know why so often we can't see ahead. Why do we have to go through the same thing again? By all laws of logic, when we fail in a certain way and we finally get back on our feet, we should never have to fail that way again. We shouldn't. And yet how many of us have had to come back flat on our face before God and acknowledge that we have failed again in exactly the same way. God has given to us, now there's a contrast with the old covenant and the new covenant here in this passage. He mentions that God has imparted to us his spirit, and the spirit of God has a capability of overcoming the power of sin. He uses the expression, the law of the spirit, and he uses the expression, the law of sin and death. Now, I don't want to be complicated, but there's a difference between a law as a commandment and a law as an operating power. A law as a commandment commands you to a certain behavior. That's the character of the Old Testament law. But what it says here is, the law could not accomplish what it was aiming at because it was weak through the flesh. In other words, the law commanded us as natural human beings to love God and to serve God, to be obedient to him, and we couldn't do it. Because what the flesh is in itself. Self is opposed to God. It is a rebel. And what is called the law of sin is the operating law under which what the the flesh is called here operates. What I mean by an operating law? Well, it simply describes the way it works. Think of a law of gravity. Now we all, we all are affected by the law of gravity. We have to live with it every day. It is an operating law. You see, sin is more powerful than you are. Chapter seven expresses the frustration of someone whose mind has been renewed, who now longs to please God, and yet finds a resistance, a hindrance, a power within him that opposes, a power that takes over and corrupts what he would like to be for God. We've all experienced it, and we still struggle with it. But what I want to draw your attention to is this. Instead of it being as it was in Deuteronomy, where it is a commandment external to ourselves, a charge laid upon us. Look, this is the way of life. And I want to tell you that in all of my experiences of life, I know that when I am in love with God, when I am yielded to him and my heart is true to him, I'm experiencing life. I'm enjoying life. Life is blessed. That is the pathway of life. But how do we overcome? And what will enable us to overcome? Well, what we have as we look at this is that there is something new that was never given to those under the law in the same way, and that is God himself indwelling us. And I want to lay it before you very simply. If God is in you, do you not believe, can you not rise in faith towards him, that he can overcome sin in your life? It doesn't mean that sin disappears. The presence of sin will be with us until our bodies are changed. But I have actually no excuse now as a Christian to live in bondage to any sin. Now I am saying that despite the reality that we are living in a totally polluted atmosphere. There is so much that would stimulate you, that would attract you to sin. And unfortunately, we so often respond from that flesh which is within us. What is the secret that is given here? Well, first of all, there is, there's a truth to lay hold of, to hold on to. That there is someone indwelling me who can suppress the influence of evil that exists within me. But what I want you to see here in verse two is not just the presence of the Spirit of God and the capability of his power, but the principle upon which he operates. The law of the Spirit is really describing the operating principle on which he works within us. It's described here in this way, the law of the spirit is life in Christ Jesus. Now, what does that mean? Well, the secret is back in Deuteronomy chapter thirty, as well as in this passage. In Deuteronomy thirty, the Lord, through Moses, appeals to them. He says, I am appealing to you to cleave unto the Lord. Now, what kind of language is that? To cleave unto the Lord. Well, that's marital language, isn't it? For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and he shall cleave unto his wife. He shall be joined unto his wife. So the secret is in a relationship. And you've already heard that God himself has created you in Christ into a new relationship with himself. And the law of the spirit is life lived in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what does that mean on a, on an everyday level? Well, it means, in the first place, that everything that you are doing, he's involved with. You cannot have a religious and a secular part of your life. He is part of your life. You are joined to him. And I could take you to First Corinthians chapter six where it emphasizes again using marital language, he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. And on the deepest level of my being, I have been united eternally with the Lord Jesus Christ. And it dawned on me some time ago in looking at this passage, as well as other related passages, to realize this, that the Lord Jesus Christ inhabits my body as much as I do. First Corinthians six takes up that thought and says that shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? That's the challenge to keep our bodies as a sanctuary for his presence. Very simply, I do not possess the right to do with my body what I want. I possess my vessel in union with the Lord Jesus himself. So the great challenge for you and for me is your love, my love. If you take care of that, everything else will be in control. And you will experience the operating law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and you will know the blessedness of living, not under the control of evil and its deceptive lusts, but in the joy of true spiritual life that will give to you a beauty that is Christ-like in every way. We have heard a lot at the conference, and probably most of us are pretty well packed out in our brain cells. As you get older, it seems to take less to pack us out. But I want to just leave you with this challenge and the recognition from Romans chapter eight. There is something that has not changed and never will change. There is a pathway of life. There is a pathway of good, of blessing. There is a pathway of death, of catastrophe. And we make the choice. That is why he says in verse twelve, is it? Therefore, brethren, we are debtors. Not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. Because if you live after the flesh, you shall die. No, we won't in the ultimate eternal sense, but we will experience the effect of the road of sin. What's the alternative? If you, through the spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. You see, despite all of the awesome power of God resident within me as an individual, that is fully capable of counteracting, of suppressing every movement of evil within me. I still must choose. God will still honor the will that I possess to yield to him, to respond to him, to recognize him for the blessing of my life. As Deuteronomy thirty says, he is your life. So cultivate your relationship. Make him your chief goal, to know him, to enjoy him, to experience life in harmony with him, and you will know the wonderful blessing of life, of good, of all that God in all his greatness is capable of pouring into your being. May God bless his word.