Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell. Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. PT Forsyth said that it is the duty of every man to find not his freedom But his master. We all serve. The question is who will we choose to serve?
In Deuteronomy twenty eight, God presents the people with two choices to follow and serve the Lord their God, and find life and peace or to find their master in something else. in which death and misery would find them. Let's listen as Pastor Ridge unpacks the Mosaic Covenant in this message titled, I have set before you to-day life and good. Death and evil. Be reading God's word this morning in Deuteronomy chapter 28.
Deuteronomy 28. Verses 1 through 10, if you want. Follow on the scripture or read on the screen. Yeah. Let's read God's word.
And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God. Being careful to do all his commandments that I command you to-day. The Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city.
And blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb. and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle. the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
Blessed shall you be when you come in. And blessed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way. and flee before you seven ways.
The Lord will command the blessing on you and your barns and in all that you undertake. and he will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. The Lord will establish you. as a people wholly to himself. As he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God.
and walk in his ways. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord. and they shall be afraid of you. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Father, we thank you this morning for your great mercy and grace.
We thank you for your word. The truth. And Lord, we pray today. We come to you today. with bowed hearts and minds and wills, to the God of the Ages.
We pray as the Word of God is preached this morning. Lord, they will speak to our hearts, Lord, that we will be ready. hearers of the Word of God. The most important thing that we will ever hear or obey. This morning, help us to listen to what you have to say.
We pray for the Word of God as Rich preaches this morning that your Word will speak to our hearts. And, Lord, if there's someone here this morning, who does not know you. has never been born again. Lord never trusted in Jesus as their Savior. We pray you'll speak to their heart today for you.
What you have done is the greatest thing that can be done to any human being. We thank you for the gospel. In Jesus' name we pray. Yeah. Okay, so Deuteronomy chapter 28 is where we are studying the Word of God.
We're going to cover the whole chapter. I know some of you are looking at it, there's 68 verses in their chapter, and like, how on earth is Rich going to do this? Yeah. Well, we're gonna do it. Chapter 28.
And it begins, and the chapter begins with the word and, which means it's a continuing thought. It started in chapter 27. Actually, started in chapter 26. Actually, started in chapter 1. No, never mind.
After he gives the law. And this is Moses. Let's give context, historical context. This is Moses speaking to the people of Israel, the second generation of the people of Israel, after wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, now they're in the plains of Moab. And Moses is talking to this generation, and Deuteronomy means the second law.
He's giving them the law another time. He says, You're going into the land. This is your charter because God is holy. This is, you are His people, and this is what He expects of you.
Okay.
Now why is this important? We read some of this and some of this we might frankly find surprising like Okay, what does this mean for us today?
Well, I'm glad you asked that because we're going to talk about that, okay? But why is this important in history? Because The Old Testament Points to Messiah. I agree with you. And it is in this land The children of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
Coming into this land. And it will be end up in the children of Judah in this land. It is through this family and in this land. that Messiah would come.
So all of this is God's purpose. That Messiah, the Redeemer of humanity, would come and he would live a perfect life and die a sacrificial. Substitutionary death. and rise again and ascend to the Father all of it from this land, and he will yet come again. to this land.
That's why this is important. This is God carrying out his purpose through history. And there would be no explanation for it apart from God.
Okay.
That's why it's important that we study this. All of this points to Christ.
So we have that now as our context. And so God, through Moses, is speaking to the people of Israel. And the title for today's message comes, I'm pulling it from chapter 30, because all of these are in the same vein here. And it is this: I have set before you today life and good. death and evil.
That's the Lord's words. I've set this before you. In other words, He says, Okay, here you go. You are God's people, you're going into His land, the land that He's promised you. I'm setting this before you have two choices.
You can follow God. or not. Here's what's going to happen if you follow God. Here's what's going to happen if you don't. Life in good.
Death and evil. Let's remember we keep that in the context of this conditional covenant.
Okay, this is a conditional covenant. for a limited time to a specific people. Very, very important that we understand that.
So, what he is saying, he says, if you obey, look at chapter 28, verse 1 now, and if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God. If you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God. What am I going to pull out from that? One thing. Listen and obey to the voice.
In other words, the people are following not a creed. Not a philosophy. They're following a person. They are following God. Jehovah the God of Israel.
who revealed himself to them. and is leading them through the human agency of Moses.
Okay.
If you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God. He is saying, You will, as my people, you will thrive. And flourish because, as we found in chapter 26, it is God's purpose for his people to thrive and flourish. Remember, let's keep this in context here, okay?
So, as he says this, continue reading with me if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments. that I command you to day, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth, and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God. Interesting what he does here. The blessings are personified, like they will overcome you and overtake you. Yeah.
Go to the story of the prodigal son, and when the prodigal son returns. What does dad do? He runs.
Okay.
And it says he falls on his neck and kisses him. That's... Hebrew language, okay. His son overwhelmed him with affection. He fell on him.
Probably were a pile on the ground when his dad ran to him and tackled him. And the blessings that God promises his people are kind of personified in this way: they will come upon you and overtake you.
Now, I'm going to summarize these, all right, because it takes us through the first. Fourteen verses. of Deuteronomy chapter 28. The blessings For God's people to thrive and flourish as a people, the blessings that will overcome them will be blessings in the city, blessings. in the field.
Yeah, I think. They will flourish in the fruit of the womb. They will be grow the families growing growing flourishing The fruit of the land. the fruit of their herds. which were chief measurements of wealth.
And also the fruit of their kitchen. Their kitchens would be very productive. I love a productive kitchen. Andrew's been awesome the last couple of days, and we still have another thing to do today.
So there's a anyway. Let's not get distracted. All right. But not only that, they will be blessed in the sense that though they're surrounded by enemies, their enemies will be defeated and scattered. Their enemies will come together and they will invade and then they will be scattered.
and set abroad. If you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God. God says you will be a leading nation politically and economically. All the other nations will look up to you. you will be lending to other nations and you will not have to borrow from any of them.
Nation. God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
Now, here's the key point. There's a conditional word. What is it? It's a two-letter word. If you obey, if you keep my commands.
Verse 1, verse 2, verse 9, verse 13, verse 14. Listen to me clearly. This is not an unconditional covenant. This is a conditional covenant. And here's the condition.
They're flourishing. as a people and the longevity in the land is contingent upon their obedience. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace Mission.
Is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good. and your deepest satisfaction in Him. the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
