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. This is part three of a message first preached on October 20th, 2024.
Now he can make a contrast there because he calls them continually to follow him and to be thankful. The Lord says over and over again, as you teach your children and as you come before me to worship, you shall rejoice in the Lord your God. How many times does he say that in the whole book of Deuteronomy?
So he's making a very stark contrast implicitly in this verse right here. And it's a contrast for mint. Which leads to an outward focus. Grateful contentment leads to outward focus. In other words, when one is satisfied in God's goodness.
that person will be thankful and generous. He will be grateful and generous. Think of A hospitable neighbor. That's a word that very much describes a New Testament believer. A hospitable neighbor.
Grateful contentment leads to outward focus because you are satisfied in God's goodness. And so, Israel, because of the abundance of all things, God warned them. He said, Listen, you're going to go into a land flowing with milk and honey. What he means by it, it's a prosperous land. And you will do well there.
You are going to live in houses you didn't build. You are going to glean from vineyards you didn't plant. Beware lest what? You forget me. What is it about the human heart that when we feel sufficiently supplied, we so tend to forget God?
As if he had nothing to do with it. God warned him. He said, listen, be careful.
So, Israel with abundance of their things, they were called to a grateful contentment, but instead. He says, if you manifest instead of grateful contentment, you manifest complacent cravings. Complacent cravings. lead us to self-ward focus. Self-word focus.
It's all about me. What I need, what I want, what I demand. What I deserve. Those are complacent cravings. Complacent cravings are.
When we are dissatisfied and ungrateful with a disposition of entitlement, entitlement is being focused on what I deserve and my problems are all because of somebody else. Therefore, they need to take change so that I can be better off. Entitlement. I said, under grateful contentment, think of a hospitable neighbor. For complacent cravings, think of a couch potato.
wanting only what makes him comfortable. You know, Sunday afternoons can become that way for me, watching the NFL.
Okay. Give me some more chips. I need a drink. Yeah, yeah. Why is my team doing so bad?
I confess I'm a Cowboys fan. Just I'm sorry. Yeah. It's an embarrassing year. Particularly after last week.
Complacent cravings. Dissatisfied and ungrateful with a disposition of entitlement. And he says, what this will lead to. If you're going to be self-word-focused in your complacent cravings, even though you have so much. This is going to lead to you looking to other objects of trust for your security and your satisfaction.
Other gods. Other gods of wood and stone. You think maybe the Lord through Moses is talking kind of tongue-in-cheek there. Other gods of wood and stone, I am the infinite creator of the universe, and you. Forsaking me are going to turn to things that man has whittled.
and painted on wood and stone. Doesn't make any sense, does it? And yet And yet, before we become judgmental of the people of Israel, this is not an Israeli problem. This is a human problem. They're no different than us in this.
We were just like them. And this is where the law fell short. Because the law couldn't change that. That's why we desperately need Jesus Christ. Desperately.
He says, You forsake God, you will turn to other gods of wooden sea. He says it twice: verse 36 and verse 64. And what that looks like, if you turn to other gods, these created things, it will result. Look at verse 65 with me towards the end of the chapter. Verse 65, and among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your feet.
But the Lord will give you there a trembling heart, and failing eyes, and a languishing soul. A trembling heart. Life on high alert. If God is not your object of security and satisfaction, you will live life on high alert. Why?
Because you have to take care of you. Yeah. Failing eyes. If God is not your object of security and satisfaction, you'll have failing eyes. You'll have a lack of light to see reality for what it is.
But the psalmist said in Psalm 36, In your light we see light. And you'll have a languishing soul. That's despair. No sense of the future at all. How can you?
If God the Lord is not your God. He is not your object of security and satisfaction. And then he says in verse 66: Your life shall hang in doubt before you, night and day, you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life. He's hitting the nail right on the head, isn't he? If you have forsaken God, Your life will be one of dread, a struggle to make it through.
No assurance for life, endless obstacle course of self-preservation and self-redemption.
Now you might say, Rich, I know a lot of people who don't believe in God, and they seem pretty happy and well satisfied in life.
So far.
So far.
But let me tell you this. That's what you see on the outside. You don't know what's going on inside. And I don't say that glibly, I don't say that with any delight at all. But a life with no assurance of life, it's an endless obstacle course of self-preservation and self-redemption.
And that's just a natural human way of thinking: is that we have to redeem ourselves. And so these people might be very involved in doing all sorts of really good things. But they're doing it because they feel they have to redeem themselves. But all this, why? Because we are worshiping an object of trust other than the infinite sovereign creator, the benevolent sovereign.
The Redeemer. And we're worshiping gods of wood and stone. And I would just conclude this by saying this Section right here. I would just conclude this by saying what the psalmist says in Psalm 135. You become like what you worship.
Gods of wood and stone, they have They have no ears. The ears are painted on them, but they're not really ears. Are they? Their eyes are drawn on them, but they're not really eyes. They don't see anything.
They're sense they don't have any sense. They're not relational. They have no power. Rocks can't think. That's the definition of nothing, what rocks think about.
Rocks can't think. Let alone do anything for you. You become like what you worship. Think about that. What are you worshiping?
That circle that represents your life, at the very center, is the hub, that place of preeminence. Whatever is there is what you worship. Because whatever is there is what you devote yourself to. It is what, it is the lens through which you see everything else. in that circle.
And everything else in the circle is pursued and lived in pursuit of what is ever at the center of the circle. Worship. Let me just conclude today. With an overarching biblical principle I want to have you turn with me to Romans chapter 2, if you would, please. This has been.
It's been hard to listen to, I think, probably, hasn't it? It's not an easy chapter. The Lord's making a very, very, very clear point here. Romans chapter 2. The overarching biblical principle.
Romans chapter 2. Let's begin it. I'm going to read, beginning at verse 4. Or do you presume? on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.
But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works to those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality. It will give eternal life, but for those who are self-seeking, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness. There will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil.
the Jew first and also the Greek. But glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. 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.
