Turn with me, if you would, back
to Deuteronomy chapter seven. Deuteronomy chapter seven. I
have written down some questions, but I don't want these to just
be the intro to the message. Ask yourself these questions. See if you can enter into these
questions. Do you ever become convicted
over yourself? Just think about it. Let me give
you a minute to register that. Do you ever become convicted
over yourself? Do you ever become convicted
over your emotions? The things that you think and
the things that you feel about things, about people, about whatever. Do you ever become convicted
over your anger? You ever become convicted over
your self-righteousness? Man thinks he's not self-righteous. That's one of the most self-righteous
things I can think of. Pride, so full of pride. Do you ever become convicted over
your wickedness? Don't you wish you could stop
wickedness? Sin, just sin, you just know
sin is raging in you. Do you ever become convicted
over how unworthy you are to be a child of God? Really, does
that ever just convict you? Does that just,
everything that is not a child of God, Not at all what a child
of God ought to be. Let me say it this way. Do you
ever get to you? You ever get to you? Sometimes things just get to
us. Do you ever get to you? I ran across this passage of
scripture and it convicted me. It convicted me. It honestly
convicted me. And then It comforted my heart
in a way that I hope and pray I'll be able to convey to you. Moses is the one who penned Deuteronomy. He penned the five books of the
law. And this is a parallel book and
a parallel account to Exodus. He penned Exodus, gave all of
those laws In Exodus, commandments and laws from God to us, concerning
us. You don't have to turn back,
but in Deuteronomy 5, he gives the 10 commandments, just like
he did in Exodus 20. He recorded the 10 commandments. So he gives all of these laws
and these commandments and these exhortations. It's not just 10
of them. It's, I don't know how many,
it's many, many, many commandments and laws for us to do. He says, I want you to do them.
And these other things that he says, don't do them. And He said in verse 6, if you
look at Deuteronomy 7 verse 6, He said, For, that means because. I'm giving all of this to you.
I'm telling you all this. I'm revealing all of this to
you. Because, for, thou art an holy
people unto the Lord thy God. I'm telling you all this, this
is coming from God Himself. I'm telling you this, I'm revealing
this to you because you are a holy people. Now, honestly, do you
feel holy? Really? Do you feel holy? He said you are a holy people. How holy do we feel? If we were honest, if we were
absolutely honest, we would say with John Newton, "'Tis a point
I long to know. Oft it causes anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am I His or am I not? If I love, Why am I thus? Why this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly sure can they be worse
who have never heard His name. Could my heart so hard remain? Prayer a task and burden prove. Every trifle give me pain if
I knew a Savior's love. When I turn my eyes within, all
is dark and vain and wild, filled with unbelief and sin. Can I deem myself a child? If
I pray or hear or read, sin is mixed with all I do. You who
love the Lord indeed, tell me, is it thus with you? Do you feel holy? Or do you feel wretched like
I do? When you turn your eyes within,
and like John Newton did, and like the Apostle Paul did, and
like King David did, like all these men did. We read this in the Word. We
read verses of Scripture like Ephesians 1. We read Ephesians
1 all the time. Everything that God did, it says
they're in Christ. It tells us everything that God
did in Christ in order to make us holy and without blame before
Him. Our response is, I know it is,
my response is, your response is, we talk about these things.
Our response is, I just can't say it. I just can't say it. We read
where God's word says, this is what God's word says. How many
times have we quoted this? As Christ is, so are we right
now in this world. As he is, so are we in the world. Our response to that is, I just
can't see it. I just cannot see it. The apostle
Peter had the same response, exact same response. Turn with
me to Acts chapter 10. Acts chapter 10. Verse 9, it says, On the morrow, as they
went on their journey and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went
up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour. And he
became very hungry and would have eaten, but while they made
ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened, and a
certain vessel descending unto him as it had been a great sheet,
knit at the four corners and let down to the earth, wherein
were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth and wild
beasts and creeping things and fowls of the air. And there came
a voice to him, rise, Peter, kill and eat. Now in our text
in Deuteronomy, one of the commandments that our Lord gave in chapter
14, a few chapters later, he said, there are animals you can
eat and there are animals that you can't eat. He said, these
are the animals that are clean. And he listed them. And he said,
these are the animals that are unclean. And he listed them.
In this vision that the Lord gave to Peter right here, in
this sheet that came down were all manner of unclean animals
that Deuteronomy 14 says, you can't eat them. It's unlawful. They're unclean. In this vision,
God said, rise, kill, and eat. They're clean. They're lawful. All right, Peter said, I just
can't see it. That was his response. Based
on what I'm looking at, all I can see is an unclean thing. Based on what I'm looking at
right now, all I can see is an unlawful, unclean thing. Thank God, things are not as
we see them to be. Things are as God says they are. Aren't you so glad for that?
Things are not as we see them to be. Things are as God says
they are. Verse 13, there came a voice
to him, rise Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, not so Lord,
for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the boy spake unto him again
the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou
common. God said, what I have cleansed,
if I have cleansed it, don't call it unclean because it's
not unclean. Thank God it doesn't matter one
bit what we see or don't see. The word of our Lord shall stand
forever. It's gonna stand forever. What
our Lord said in Deuteronomy 7, that's the glorious comfort
of the gospel. And it's not as we see it, but
it doesn't matter how we see it. It's as God says it is. And
this is what he says it is concerning us. Go with me back to Deuteronomy
7. Verse 6, it says, For thou art an holy
people unto the Lord thy God, the Lord thy God hath chosen
thee. How humbling. How humbling. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee. He went on to say, to be a special
people unto himself above all people that are upon
the face of the earth. Why did the Lord do this? How humbling that is. You talk
about take something for granted. Take a statement, a word from
God for granted. Why did the Lord do this? I asked
that question right now, right here in Kingsport. Why did the
Lord do this? Why did he choose me? You know, man in his flesh is
constantly saying, why me? Why me? Why is all this happening
to me? When God truly reveals what a man is to himself, and
the kindness and mercy of God, his tune is totally changed,
180 degrees, and he starts crying, why me? Why me? Why did he choose me? Why did
he choose you? above all people to be a special
people unto Himself." Why? Well, verse 7 says, the Lord
did not set His love upon you, nor choose you because you were
more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all
people. He didn't choose us because we
were the greatest, We were the least. He didn't
choose us because of any strength in us. We were the weakest. The absolute weakest. He didn't
choose us because we were godly. Romans 5 says we were ungodly. Isn't that what it says? He sure didn't choose us because
we were sinless. Isaiah 1 says, we were sin full,
full of sin, crown of our head to the sole of our foot, sin
full. Therefore, He didn't choose us
because we were righteous in any way at all. Not at all, right
in any way. Romans three says there is none
righteous. No, not one. He didn't choose
us because we were family. You know how you always have
one bad apple in the family. There's always that one bad apple,
but he's still family. Well, we weren't. We weren't. We weren't family. Let me quote
Ephesians 2. This is verses 11 and 12. It
says, Wherefore remember that you being in time past Gentiles
in the flesh, who were called uncircumcision by that which
is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that
at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world. So He didn't choose
us because we were family. He didn't choose us because He
owed it to us in any way. He didn't even choose us because
we were alive. Well, there's something living there. There's
some life there. There's a heartbeat there. Let's take Him with us.
He didn't choose us because we were even alive. Ephesians 2
says, even when we were dead in sins, He quickened us together
with Christ. So why did He choose us? Really? Why did He choose us to make
us a holy, and special people to himself above all people that
are upon the face of the earth. Why did he do that? Verse seven
says, the Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you
because you were more in number than any people, for you were
the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you,
And because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto
your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and
redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh,
king of Egypt. Do you constantly find yourself
asking, why would he save me? Why would he keep putting up
with me? What does he see in me? Well, he doesn't see anything
in you or me at all. He didn't see anything in us
at all. He sees everything in the covenant
that he made with Christ. Everything. Everything. Why would He save me? Why would
He keep putting up with me? Why would He be so long-suffering
and so patient and so kind and so gracious as to keep putting
up with me? Why would He do that? It's because
He swore by an oath to do so. That's the reason why. He said,
I have loved you with an everlasting love. The love that I gave to
you is an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. That's why I've drawn you. He
said, I swear by an oath to redeem you. I swear by an oath to pay
your price with my own blood. I swear. I swear by an oath,
I will raise you up at the last day. He said, I have spoken it,
I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it, I will also
do it. I've spoken it, it'll happen.
If I purpose it, I'll do it. And Hebrew six tells us something
that is so holy to me. This thought is just, It's glorious. It's fearful. It's reverent. This is just such a holy thought
to me. This is one of my favorite verses of scripture. It tells
us that because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. That's so holy. That is so holy. That's so reverent. That is so
fearful. It's so full of awe to me to
think, just to think that God himself said, I swear to the
God of heaven. I swear to the God of heaven.
Now we don't do that. Don't ever do that. You'll hear
people flippantly say, I swear to God, don't ever do that. He
was the only one who could do that and not speak utter blasphemy. We can't do that because we can't
keep our promise. We've never kept one promise. So we don't do that, and we don't
say that. But he could, and he did. And he loved us. And He chose us,
and He called us because concerning our redemption from death and
our perfection to life, it's all because He said, I swear
to God, I'll do it. That is so holy. That makes me
want to put my face in the dirt, crying, holy, holy, holy. I swear to God, I'll do it. Boy, that's amazing. Verse 7
says, The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you,
because you were more in number than any people. For you were
the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you,
and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto
your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and
redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh,
king of Egypt. Verse 9 says, know therefore, because of what Christ did for
you, because of the love, because of the choice, because of the
oath, because of the covenant, because of the redemption, because
of that, he said, know this. Believe this. Cling to this. Find comfort in this right here.
Verse 9 says, Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is
God. If He said He would do it, He
is able to do it. He is God. Things are not as
they seem. Things are not what they look
like. That's what He said. That's what He'll do. Know therefore
that the Lord your God, He is God. If He said, I swear I'll
do it, He's able to do it. He's God. He's able to do it. Verse 9 says, Know therefore
that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God. Boy, that's a great line. If He said He would do it, He
will do it. He's the faithful God. He's able
to do it, and He will do it. He's the faithful God. 2 Thessalonians
5 verse 24, it says, Faithful is He that calleth you who also
will do it. That means rest. That means trust. That means find peace and shelter
in His Word, in His work, in His blood. No matter what things seem to be,
trust His Word. He's able to do it. He'll do
it. Faithful is He that calleth you,
He will also do it. Verse 9 says, Know therefore
that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which
keepeth covenant and mercy. He'll keep His covenant and He'll
keep His mercy. Where is mercy found? The one thing we all need The
one thing we all need, where is mercy found? In the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if mercy was ever in the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, it will forever be in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If it was ever there, it will
forever be there. He keeps his covenant. He keeps
his mercy. Verse nine says, which keepeth
covenant and mercy with them that love him. Do we love him? Do we love him? We sure do. He's given us nothing but reason
to love him. In spite of us, he's been so
kind and we sure do. We love him. Why do we love him? It's because he first loved us. He first loved us. Verse nine
says, no, therefore that the Lord, that God, he is God, the
faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love
him and keep his commandments. Do we keep his commandments? Should I start the message over
and ask if you ever feel convicted about yourself and everything
that you do wrong and all of your sin and all of your wickedness
and every, you just can't, do we keep his covenants? Things are not as we see them
to be. Things are as God says they are.
And he says, we keep his covenants. Where do we keep His covenants?
Where do we keep His commandments? Only in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. One with Him. He is our righteousness. He is
our work. He is our perfection. Everything
He did perfectly. is ours in Him. In Him, God the Father looks
on us and says, well done. Well, that's not how I see it,
but that's how God sees it in Christ. And that's how God says
it is. Christ is the end. That means
the fulfillment, the total perfect fulfillment. The law says, yep,
every T is crossed and every I is dotted and every period's
there. He is the fulfillment of the
law to every soul that the Father placed in Him. And the end of
verse nine says that this promise that He has given to us right
here. This Word that we're holding to, He said, that promise goes
out to a thousand generations. I love that. I love that. That's His promise.
And He said, I'm sending it out to a thousand generations, to
you, to your children, to your children's children. Now that's
kindness because they're just like we are and we're just like
our fathers were. That's kindness. That's mercy.
That's grace. Praise the Lord. That's what
we say to that. Praise the Lord. Praise God for
this covenant. Praise the Lord for his covenant
and for his mercy that he has given to us in the Lord Jesus
Christ. All right, let's all stand together.