05 February 2009
In Deuteronomy, the leader of God's people, Moses, reminds them where they've come from. Of what God, in his goodness, has done for them, and how they've answered his generosity with grumbling and dissatisfaction.The following quote is from a sermon preached on Deuteronomy which gets to the heart of the issue of sin, the need for judgement, and the offer of God's love.
In all of this you begin to understand what a personal matter sin is - to the one sinning and to the God against whom we sin. It is... a short simple sharp message to God, "I don't like you, I would rather have these things than you, they provide me with what I want." Friend, every time you sin, that's what you are saying to God.Mark Dever, Capitol Hill Baptist Church
If you can hear my voice I pray that you come to understand that you have not yet experienced the most important meeting that you most certainly will experience. You will not miss it... you will be there and you will be there on time.
The day is coming when you will stand before the God in whose image you have been so fearfully and wonderfully made, and you will give account to the one who is more holy and more loving, more righteous and more pure than you or I can even imagine. And at that meeting you will find no help. None. From your connections in this life or from your money. You'll find no help from your good deeds or your family.
No, that ever lengthening line of actions and attitudes... your past... will come following closely behind you and they will finally fully assemble with you, known fully as yours in the presence of Almighty God. And there my friend, there you will be asked to justify them before Almighty God. That is the meeting that you will have. There will be a day and there will be that meeting.
You have committed sin. Do you doubt that?
If sin is so personal, if it is so intimately and unavoidably attached to us, so truly expressive of us, and so clearly directed at God and our dissatisfaction with him - and it is - it's also true on the other side that the choice to follow God is presented in Deuteronomy as being equally personal.
One of the most striking things about this book... is all the language about love... We don't tend to associate that with law and rectitude and rightness, but it's all there.
This book in many ways is the marriage covenant between God and his people. The choice that God's people are called to make is a choice to love. Love the Lord your God will all your heart and all your mind and all your strength.
Do you pray about the choice that faces you when you're tempted to sin? When you do, how do you pray? Do you pray simply that God will protect you from that sin? I want to encourage you to keep praying that. But there's more you can pray.
Consider also praying that God give you a heart to love him more. So don't just build your life as one great fortress against sin, one great negation... but friends, positively pray that God would give you a great love for him.
