We have been looking at the 30th
chapter of Deuteronomy now for the last few weeks. But these
are the last words of Moses. It was not long after this that
the Lord called him up into a mountain range that we know as Mount Nebo. particular mountain that they
call Pisgah. We think about that sometimes,
don't we? From Mount Pisgah's lofty heights I view my home
and take my flight. Well, that's where Moses was
put to sleep and the Lord buried him there somewhere in that mountain
range. And this is the last word here
in chapter 30 and the end of this book that he instructs the
nation of Israel concerning so many things. In verses 1 through
verse 14 that you and I looked at last time, he was speaking
about what was going to come upon this nation in the years
to come because of their disobedience that was going to be taken captive
by other nations. And when they came to themselves
and realized the curse that was upon them, they turned to the
Lord in faith and kept His commandment He said, I'll turn your captivity.
I'll bring you back to your land. And then eventually He punished
their enemies. And then here in verses 11 through
verse 14 that we also looked at, which I enjoyed, He talked
about the chief commandment, that essential commandment. And
that was the commandment of faith in the Son of God. It wasn't
up in heaven that you had to go pull it down. It wasn't down
into the deeps you had to bring it up. It was near you. Remember,
we studied on that last time. In your heart, that is the word
of faith which we preach. The Apostle Paul quoted this
passage of Scripture over in Romans chapter 10, and I love
the way he did that. In Romans chapter 10 and verse
5, he described the righteousness which is of the law. And this
is the way he described that. He said, Moses said, The man
that doeth those things shall live by them. By doing them he
hath life. And then Paul went ahead in verse
6 of Romans chapter 10 and said, But the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on this wise. And then he quotes verses 11
through verse 14. And then he says this, If thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in
thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved. And he already told us why Christ
died. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. So Paul said if we believe him,
we believe the record God gave of His Son, we shall be saved.
And then he went ahead and quoted some more and he said, for with
the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with a mouth
confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek, For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And then he says, How
shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how
shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? So gospel righteousness is the
righteousness that comes by faith. And this faith comes by hearing,
the Apostle Paul said, and hearing by the Word of Truth, the Word
of God, the Gospel. The last time we went down to
the nursing home, and this has happened now for about the last
six months, there are two new ladies down there. And when I
start talking about saved by hearing, are saved by imputed
righteousness, it just disturbs those two ladies to no end. One
of them would just turn her head sideways and the other would
just get this awful look on her face. And they did that last
time. I remember I was preaching on
here and your soul shall live. And I said there's no life apart
from hearing the gospel. There is no righteousness apart
from urine and believing. And boy, they got all cringed
up in their faces. And I emphasized to those two
ladies, I looked right at them, and I said, Listen, you don't
believe this gospel. You don't hear this gospel and
live. you'll perish in your sin. And
I emphasize that to them. And that's what verses 11 through
verse 14 of this chapter is about. It's not about that water baptism. Sure, that's commanded. Sure,
that's required of the believer. It's not about giving. It's not
about church membership. But the first and most essential
commandment, and without this, nothing else matters, is faith
in the Son of God. as He is revealed in the Gospel
of God. And until a person believes in
Jesus Christ, he has no life, he has no righteousness, he has
no sins forgiven. And all of that comes to us by
faith in Him, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what He says
here in verse 15 of this chapter. Look how He says it here. See,
I have set before thee this day life and good. Now that's the gospel, isn't
it? Life comes by hearing the gospel. Hear and your soul shall live.
And all the good that God has prepared for poor believing sinners,
it comes through hearing and believing the gospel. Life and
gospel. Life and good. And look at this.
and evil. He said this is what I have set
before you. The wages of sin is death and
the gift of God is eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then he comes here to verse 17 and verse 18. Look how he
says this. 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 that you shall not prolong your days upon the
land, whether thou passest over Jordan to possess it." A warning. What would happen to them if
they turned away and would not hear the gospel? Because if you
don't hear, you can't believe. If you don't hear, you'll never
live. If you don't hear, you'll never be forgiven of your sins. And you know what? That nation
as a whole, they didn't hear, did they? The leaders of the
Jewish people, they didn't hear themselves. The Lord said, You
won't go in yourselves, and them that would go in, you hinder
them. And they said of the Lord Jesus, and this is what the Pharisees
and the scribes told the common people. Why do you hear Him? He's mad. He has a devil. Why do you hear Him? Why do you
hear Him? There's no life apart from hearing
Him, is there? There's no righteousness apart
from hearing Him and believing Him. There's no forgiveness of
sins apart from hearing the Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't believe
that I am He, you shall die in your sins. That's what He said,
buddy. That's what He said. So he tells them here, Moses
warns them about this commandment that he's given you this day.
And that was the commandment of faith in the Son of God. And
he said if you turn away and you won't hear, you'll perish. You'll perish. I want you to
look in a couple of places, the whole chapter 30 because we'll
be coming back to that. But look in a couple of places.
Look in Acts chapter 28. This is the last words for sure
that we hear of the Apostle Paul. He's in Rome. He's bound. He has his own hard house. He
sends the message out for some of the Jews that live in Rome
to come so he can talk to them. And they come there to Rome.
They're in Rome. They come to his house. And look
here what he says to them about hearing. In verse 22. Acts chapter 28 verse 22. They
were talking to Paul and said, We desire to hear of thee what
thou thinkest. For as concerning this set, we
know that every word is spoken against. And when they had appointed
him a day, there came many to him in his lodging, to whom he
expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning
Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets
from morning till evening. And some believed the things
which were spoken and some believed not. And when they agreed not
among themselves, they departed after that Paul had spoken one
word. Well spake the Holy Ghost by
Isaiah the prophet saying unto our fathers, saying, Go unto
this people and say, you shall hear and shall not understand,
and see and you shall see and not perceive. For the heart of
this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing,
their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their
eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart,
and should be converted, and I should heal them. Be it known
therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles,
And look at this, and they will hear it. Now here's the amazing
thing about this, isn't it? Here you've got these people
that professed a righteousness and they bragged about their
righteousness. I thank God I'm not as other men are and so on.
And they appeared to the world to be righteous people and yet
they perished in their sins. And here you have a Gentile world
that was led away into dumb idols, lived for the most part in open
and profane sin, had no righteousness, and for the most part they knew
it. And yet they heard the gospel and believed it and obtained
this righteousness and now they're in heaven with the Lord. Now
ain't that amazing? That's amazing. And it was all
because the Gentiles heard and the Jews didn't. They heard and
believed the gospel and the Jews didn't. Look here how Paul says
in Romans chapter 9. Look in Romans chapter 9 in verse
30. That's the very thing that he's talking
about here. Look at it. Romans chapter 9
in verse 30. What shall we say then? That
the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained
unto righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, the nation of Israel,
the Jews, which followed after the law of righteousness, they
have not attained to the law of righteousness. They perished
in their sins. Wherefore, why didn't they attain
it? because they sought it not by
faith alone, but as it were by the works of the law." At best,
they sought it partly by the works of the law and partly by
faith. We believe, they said, we believe
in Christ, but we believe He has to be circumcised too and
keep the law of Moses. Why did they do that? because
they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written, Behold,
I lay inside a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. They will not be confounded. They will not be confused. And
I tell you, I am not confused about the way of righteousness.
Are you? I am not confused why the Son of God hung upon the
cross until He died. I'm not confused about where
He is now, what He's doing. I'm not confused about what I
am. I'm not confused about my hope, are you? And I'm not ashamed,
and you're not either, because we believe in the Son of God
who loved us and gave Himself for us. So that's what Moses
did here. He warned these people, If thine
heart turn away, so that you will not hear. And that's why
we keep preaching today. That's why we keep witnessing
to people and teaching to people wherever we can at a McDonald's
or wherever we're at. We teach people because we want
people to hear because there's no salvation apart from hearing. Hearing those who turn away and
will not hear. I don't care how moral they may
seem, how much righteousness they seem to perform and want
to perform and desire to perform. It does not come that way. Here
and your soul shall live. Believe the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now back in our text again, I
want to spend just a few more minutes on verse 19. Deuteronomy chapter 30 and verse
19, 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." Now this little phrase, choose
life, therefore choose life, well that's a little sound bite. that we hear often used today,
choose life and live, or choose Christ and live, or someone would
say, I chose Christ as my personal Savior, and now I'm saved. We
hear this little statement quite often in our day, don't we? And
you know it's been used in a way that the Scriptures don't use
it. And I fear that it's being used to lead a lot of people
astray. Because this statement is made
as if they are fully persuaded that a mere mental choice they
make has indeed saved them. It has even regenerated them
and given them a new birth. Now, I want to say two or three
things about this. and most of it, this right here
is negative. What's wrong with using this
phrase in this way? Choose Christ. Choose Christ. What's wrong with the way it's
being used today? First of all is this. The way
this statement is being used today ignores the whole context
this phrase is used in in our chapter. It's being used today
as though a single choice, a single action, will save a person. When Moses doesn't use it that
way in this chapter, it's not a single act that he's talking
about choosing here, but it's a lifestyle. It's a lifestyle. The definition of this word choose
means to test, to try, to select what is acceptable. To choose
life means to choose the way of life. God's way of life that
He's revealed in His Word. That is to believe Him, to obey
Him, to follow Him, to cleave to Him no matter where He leads. It's a way of life, not a single
choice of one action. Now look here in verse 16 and
verse 20. Look in verse 16. Moses says
here in verse 19, he said, I've set before you the way of life
and death. And here's what he did in verse
16, look at that. 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 judgment. Now that's
not a single choice, a single action to do one thing, is it?
That's a way of life. Choose you God's way, and keep
His commandments, His statutes, and love the Lord thy God, and
walk with Him. And look in verse 20. Look what
He says in verse 20. That thou mayest love the Lord
thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou
mayest cleave unto Him. So see, it's a lifestyle. It's
choose you. Choose you. Choose life and live. Choose the way of life, the road
of life. There's a man who came to the
Lord Jesus one time and he said, Lord, I'll follow you wherever
you go. Now he hadn't thought about that
much, had he? He thought, Lord, I've chosen to follow you. So
that's pretty much it, ain't it? And the Lord said, you've
not made a wise choice. Because your wise choice hasn't
been tried. You haven't thought anything
about this. You're not capable of making a choice. If you choose
to follow me, listen. Tonight, when the little birds
have nests to get in, I don't have a place. When the foxes
have holes in the morning to go get in the rest of the day,
I don't have a hole to get in. You still choose to follow me?
He turned to a multitude one day that was following Him. He
said, if any man take not up his cross and follow Me daily,
he's not worthy to be My disciple. He looked at another group one
day and said, listen, except you hate your father and your
mother and your wife and your sister and your brother and your
houses and your land and your own life also, you can't be My
disciple. So it's not just a choice, is
it? It's a way. It's a way. I have set before
you these two ways, Moses said. The way of life, what does that
consist of? It starts with believing God,
obeying God. It starts with following Him.
It continues to cleave to Him. And this way is a narrow way,
isn't it? It's not always an easy way. Sometimes it's a way
that you sorely tried and tested, but it's the way of life. It's
a way of life. And there's this other way, Moses
said. It's pretty much a way of self-will. It's pretty much
a way of do as you please. Make your own way. It's a wide
gate. It's a broad road. And most of
the time it's pretty easy. But it ends in death. It ends
in all that's evil. Here's the two ways. It's not
just a single choice. It's a lifestyle. Which road
will you choose? That's what he's telling us.
Here's God's way. And here's the way of flesh.
Here's the way of the world. And here's the way of death. I have set before you these two
ways. Choose. But it's not a single
choice of one action. It's a lifestyle. It's a lifestyle. Secondly, that's the first thing
I see wrong with this. If you keep it in its context,
he's not talking about, I'm going to choose one single thing. It's
a lifestyle. And secondly, here's what's wrong
with this little phrase the way it's used today. Today the way
it is used, it reveals a great degree of pride. Pride in oneself. Pride in one's power. Pride in
the power of one's free will. Pride in one's wisdom and ability. It goes something like this,
I am what I am because of the choice that I have made. And
if everybody else would choose like I did, then everybody else
would be like me. It's pride. It's to deny or ignore the work
of God, the work of grace that first and foremost must take
place in the heart before we can do anything with the proper
motives. He said here in verse 19, choose
life, Notice how he says this. Let me read it to you again.
Look in verse 19. I called heaven and earth 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. And look in verse 20. That thou
mayest love the Lord thy God. Now whoever made a choice to
love God. Our love for God, a choice, is
not our ground. It's not the reason for our loving
God. The reason for our loving God
is found in what He's did for us. We love Him because He first
loved us. We love Him because, David said,
He hath heard my prayer and my supplication. I called upon Him
and He delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and
my feet from falling. And I love Him because of it.
Nobody ever loved God because they chose to love Him. And I
tell you, nobody ever loved the Lord until a new birth takes
place. Now that's so. Look what He said
in the same chapter. Look what He said in chapter
30 and look in verse 6. 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, all your strength.
The choice is not the ground. That is not the reason that we
love God. There has to be a work of grace
taking place in the heart. before anybody will believe,
repent, or love the Lord God in heaven. I love the Lord because
listen to those who are using this phrase and then see what
they know about their own ability. They brag about their ability
and see what they know about their inability. They know very
little or nothing about their inability They know little or
nothing about the necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit in
their heart. Brothers and sisters, listen,
all they talk about when they talk about being saved, I chose
Christ. I chose Christ. And it eliminates
repentance. It eliminates hearing. It eliminates
conviction. And all it reduces down to is
their choice. I chose for Christ. You and I know better, don't
we? We can't do anything unless He works it in us to will and
to do it. Listen to how Paul said it in Philippians 2.12.
Work out your own salvation with fear and tremor. Yes, we do that. Every day of our life we do that.
But we don't stop there, do we? He said in the very next verse,
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of
His good pleasure. And the Lord Jesus said, Without
me you can do nothing. The cry of those who truly have
chosen the Lord and His ways, this is their cry. Let by hand
help me, O Lord. Let Thy hand help me, Lord, help
my unbelief. Help me to repent. Help me to
follow, for I have chosen Thy precepts. Let Thy hand help me,
Lord, for I have chosen Thy precepts. And when we look at these ways,
these two ways, and we say, I'm going with the Lord, I'm going
His way, I tell you, we'll from there on be crying, help me,
Lord, help me. For I have chosen thy precepts. That's the second thing. That's
the second thing. It seems to me to be a way of
bragging that know very little necessity of the Lord working
in their hearts. And then along this same line,
number three, the way this phrase, choose life and live today is
being used, one will never choose with proper motives what he doesn't
delight in. what He doesn't love or fill
His need of. If we have a choice, we'll never
choose what we hate. We'll never choose what we detest,
but what appeals to us. Men chose the way of darkness.
They choose the way of darkness every day. Why? Because men love
darkness rather than light. Here's what Isaiah said, they
have chosen their own ways. and their soul delighteth in
their abomination." Why do they choose the way of darkness? They
love it. They love it. They hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord. Why don't unregenerate
men choose to fear God? They hate knowledge. They hate
knowledge. And then you put the shield on
the other foot with the righteous, what does he choose? He chooses
light, doesn't He? He chooses to walk with the Lord. Why? Because He loves Him. He
delights in Him. Here's what David said. Thy testimonies,
Lord, have I chosen forever. Why, David? For they are the
rejoicing of my heart. Don't you delight in the Lord's
ways? That's why you choose Him. No man will ever choose his ways
until God gives him a heart to delight in. Here's what Joshua said and we
hear this quoted so much and I won't turn over there and read
it. But it's in Joshua 24 and verse 15. Here's a good example
of what I'm saying. If it seem evil unto you to serve
the Lord, then choose you this day whom you shall serve. Now
people are abusing that passage so much And it doesn't say what
we've been told, it says. Choose you this day whom you
will serve. If you say, I'm not serving the
Lord, I don't want to serve Him. That's evil to me. Then choose
who you're going to serve. Here's your choices. He gave
them two choices. Whether the gods which your father served
on the other side of the Jordan, the other side of the flood,
or the gods of the Amorites and whose land you now dwell. Choose
your false god, whichever one you love and delight in most,
choose him. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. We are going to serve the Lord. So what was Moses laboring to
do in our text when he says choose life? What was he laboring to
do? Israel was going over Jordan to the land of promise to make
war on their enemy. to fight on one hand and to enjoy
the Lord and His blessings on the other. And to do this, they
needed to be brought to a settled choice, a clear and bold decision,
total resolve. That is what he was laboring
to bring them to. This half-heartedness, indecision,
hauled in between two opinions would prove their eventual downfall. And brothers and sisters, that's
one of the things that's wrong with the professing church today,
is it not? Is it not? David said this, I
have chosen the way of truth. Thy judgments have I laid before
me. I have chosen. This is something
I have thought about. I have meditated upon it. I know
what I see. I know what I believe in the
Scriptures. I deliberately, I willingly, by the grace of God, choose the
way of truth. God, give every one of us that
resolve. Give us that resolve that we won't be halted between
two opinions. We won't have to wait until we
get there just to see for sure which way I'm going to go. Say
this with David. And God gave us grace to hold
to it. I have chosen the way of truth. That's what Moses was
laboring to bring them to. He wasn't telling them, you have
this great power of free will and you need to decide this.
He said, here's where you're going. This is God's way. And you better settle it beforehand
because you're going to be tried. You're going to be tested. You
better choose the way. And here's the way of God. Here's
the way of life. And here's the way of death.
And here's the way of evil. Try these things, think upon
them, and make this deliberate choice by the grace of God. That's
what he was doing. One more passage now I want to
read to you over in the New Testament in closing. In Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10. A very familiar passage. Luke chapter 10. And look in verse 38. And it came to pass, as they
went, the Lord and His disciples, that they entered into a certain
village, and a certain woman named Martha received Him into
her house. And she had a sister called Mary,
who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. But Martha was
cumbered. She was distracted. about so
much serving. And came to him and said, Lord,
dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Tell her, therefore, that she
help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha,
thou art worried, you're troubled, you're careful about many things,
but one thing is needful. And Mary has chosen that good
part which shall not be taken away from her." Every day you
and I make choices, don't we? You'll get up in the morning
and you'll make some choices. All the day long you'll be making
choices. You'll be making choices either the things of the flesh,
temporal things that's going to soon pass away, or you'll
be making choices concerning spiritual things. things that
will feed and nourish your soul, and things that will never be
taken away from you. And those choices will begin
probably tonight when you get home. You'll have to choose. We all make those choices, don't
we? Mary made this choice. I'm not going to be troubled.
I'm not going to be cumbered about those temporal things.
Not right now. There's a time for that. But
here is my opportunity to feed my soul. So she chose to sit
at Jesus' feet and here is word. Nothing to matter with that kind
of choice, is there? We need to be encouraged. God's children
need to be encouraged every day to pray about your choices. I'm
going to sit, get up early, I'm going to get up early enough
to seek the Lord. Boy, that's a good choice, ain't
it? I know what it is. You have to
get up early. I used to get up early, and in the wintertime,
I had a little furnace room, and that's where I'd go, seek
the Lord, because it's warm in there. Boy, I'm going to get
up early enough in the morning, I'm going to read a portion of
the Lord's Word. Boy, that's a good choice, ain't
it? I'm going to quit worrying and being so cumbered about these
temporal things that I've got no control over them anyway.
I'm going to set my heart towards spiritual things. Boy, that's
a good choice. That's a good choice. Mary has
chosen the good thing which shall not be taken away from her. So
we do have choices, don't we? We're not going to let these
free willers run us out of these passages like this because they
glory in the perversion of choosing. But there is choices. God help
us. God give us grace to make the
choices that's good for us and for His glory.