I'm really at a loss as to where
to start reading. I trust that you'll take time
during the week sometimes to read these chapters that we're
studying. It really helps. It'll help me
in teaching to you and help you to understand better. As we read,
as we approach Chapter 12, I trust that you'll be mindful of that
and read that chapter two or three times if you get an opportunity
to. But here in Deuteronomy chapter 11, let's just begin in reading
here in some verses. Let's begin here in verse 8 and
read some in this chapter. It's good sometimes just to read
the Lord's Word. Deuteronomy chapter 11, let's
begin in verse 8. Therefore shall you keep all
the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be
strong and go in and possess the land, whether you go to possess
it, that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord
sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed,
a land that flows with milk and honey. For the land where thou
goest in to possess it is not as the land of Egypt from which
you came out. For thou sowest thy seed, and
waterest it with thy foot as a garden of herbs. But the land
whither ye go to possess it is a land of hills and valleys,
and drinketh water of the rain of heaven, a land which the Lord
your God careth for. The eyes of the Lord your God
are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto
the end of the year. And it shall come to pass, if
ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandment, which I command
you this day, to love the Lord your God, to serve him with all
your heart and with all your soul. that I will give you the
rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the
latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn and thy wine
and thy oil. And I will send grass in thy
fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full. Take
heed to yourself, that your heart be not deceived, and you turn
aside and serve other gods and worship them. And then the Lord's
wrath be kindled against you, and He shut up the heaven, that
there be no rain. and that the land yield not her
fruit, unless ye perish quickly from off the good land which
the Lord giveth you. Therefore shall ye lay up my
words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign
upon your hands, that they may be as frontlets between thine
eyes. And ye shall teach them your
children, and speaking of them when you set in your house, when
you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
And thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of your house and
upon your gates, that your days may be multiplied in the days
of your children in the land which the Lord swore unto your
fathers to give them as the days of heaven upon the earth. For
you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command
you to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His
ways, and to cleave unto him. Then will the Lord drive out
all these nations from before you, and you shall possess greater
nations and mightier than yourselves. Every place whereon the sole
of your foot shall tread shall be yours. From the wilderness
and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto
the uttermost sea shall your coast be. Thou shalt no man be
able to stand before you. For the Lord your God will lay
the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that
ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you. Behold, I set
before you this day a blessing and a curse, a blessing if you
obey the commandment of the Lord your God, which I command you
this day, and a curse if you will not obey the commandments
of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I
command you this day to go after other gods which you have not
known. And it shall come to pass, when
the Lord your God hath brought thee into the land, whether thou
goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon Mount
Gerizim, and the curse upon Mount Ebal. Are they not on the other
side, Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land
of the Canaanites, which dwelt in the Champagne over against
Gilgal, besides the plains of Mori? For ye shall pass over
Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God
giveth you. And ye shall possess it, and dwell therein. And ye
shall deserve to do all the statutes and the judgments which I set
before you this day." As you and I read the Scriptures, as
we read, especially in the Old Testament, but also in the New
Testament, one of the things that becomes very, very evident
that the Lord bestows his blessings upon obedience. That's very clear as we read
that, isn't it? That his blessings are never
given apart from obedience. But you and I have to be extremely
careful when we look at the Old Testament especially. We have
to be very careful not to err in this. matter of obedience
and blessing. It's not our personal obedience. Now listen to this very carefully.
This is so important. It's not our personal obedience
that merits the blessings of justification and forgiveness
of sins and eternal salvation and life everlasting. It's not
our personal obedience that merits these things. But we don't have
these apart from obedience. But whose obedience is it? It's
Christ's obedience, isn't it? We've got to be very careful
about this. I want you to hold this passage here in Deuteronomy
11. I want you to look at Galatians.
I say that because I read to you here, I set before you this
day a blessing and a curse, a blessing if you obey the commandments
of the Lord your God which I command you this day, a blessing if you
obey, and a curse if you don't. So look over here and let's compare
this with the New Testament Scripture in Galatians chapter 3 and look
in verse 5. The blessings of justification,
and when I say justification, I mean to stand before God cleared
of any and all charges. That's a blessing, that's a real
blessing. To have all our sins forgiven,
every one of them, all the sins of our thoughts, all the sins
of our mouth, all the sins of our youth, Willful sins, sins
of ignorance, to have all our sins forgiven us. Now, that's
a blessing. What a blessing that is. That's
why we're afraid to die. That's why we're afraid to face
God because of our sins. But to have all sins forgiven
is a blessing. But you know, we can't merit
that by our obedience. But it comes through the obedience
of somebody else. And look what he says here in
Galatians chapter 3. Look in verse 5. He therefore
that ministers to you the Spirit, and works miracles among you,
does he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God,
and it was accounted to him, it was imputed to him, for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which
are of faith The same are the children of Abraham. And the
scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through
faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee
shall all nations be blessed." God is going to bless all nations,
but on what grounds? Look at what he said in verse
9. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God is evident. For the Bible says,
The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth those things shall live in them. Listen
to this now. Look in verse 13 and 14. Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now, He was obedient to death,
wasn't He? Even the death of the cross. Why? Why was He obedient
to death? Why did He redeem us from the
curse of the law? Verse 14 tells us, look at this,
that the blessing, the blessing God promised to Abraham might
come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit by faith. Blessing. That's a blessing. Somebody had to be perfectly
obedient. And you know it has to be perfect
to be accepted, doesn't it? That's what's wrong with our
obedience. It's flawed. Even we can see flaws in our
most perfect obedience, can't we? How much more can God? But
there was no flaws in the obedience of our Lord and Savior. And the
Bible says, through one man's disobedience, many were made
sinners. Through the obedience of one,
shall many be made righteous. So we're not made righteous.
We're not justified. We can't be saved apart from
obedience. But it has to be His obedience,
His suffering, His death on our behalf. When we read this year
about Mount Gerizim, I love to think of Christ, that being Christ.
Because on that mountain was the blessing, you see. When they
went into Canaan, they would have this group of men up on
Mount Gerizim, and they were to pronounce the blessing. On
the other side was Mount Ebal, that was cursing. What is that?
That's Moses in the law, isn't it? Cursing and blessing. Cursed is everyone who continues
not, but blessed is everyone for whom Jesus Christ died and
who believe in Him. Again, we have to be careful
of this. We have to be so careful about everything, don't we? We
get in the ditch on one side or the other. Boy, we're always
bad for that, aren't we? We get to watching. That fellow
over here in the ditch on the left, and here we are getting
in the ditch on the right. Again, we have to be careful. The personal
obedience of those who are justified, who are forgiven, who do possess
the Holy Spirit, has a great deal to do with their sweet communion
with the Lord. Our personal obedience cannot
have anything to do with the Lord justifying us. with our
obtaining forgiveness. That has to be so free, based
upon the obedience, the perfect obedience of another, bless His
holy name. But our sweet communion that we have with Him, our daily
walking with Him, it has much to do with our personal obedience,
doesn't it? He said, Grieve not the Holy
Spirit by which you are sealed unto the day of redemption. Don't
grieve Him by your unbelief. Don't grieve Him by your disobedience. Don't grieve Him by your laziness,
spiritual laziness. Why? Because this communion that
we have is the communion of the Holy Spirit. It's the love of God, the grace
of the Lord Jesus, and the communion of the Holy Spirit. And it has
much to do with our sweet, sweet communion that we have with the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, on one side, We have those
folks that tells us this, and you probably have people that
confront you with this, when we talk about we must be justified
by the obedience of Jesus Christ alone. We must not ever add anything
to that. And they tell us, oh, you guys
believe that Christ did everything, and all you've got to do is believe
in Him and you're justified, and then you just go and live
like devils. Did you ever have anybody teach
you that? That's what some on the other side will teach us.
And then we've got some on the other side, the hyper-Calvinists
that we call them. They say this. When we talk about
our obedience has a lot to do with our communion with the Lord
as we walk with Him, then they come out and tell us this. Oh,
you fellows are so self-righteous. You're trying to earn your salvation.
You're a bunch of legalists. Is all that you So what do we have to do? We
have to stand guard on those against the one side and those
against the other side, don't we? Obedience is commanded. Christ's obedience saves us.
His obedience justifies us. Our obedience, after we're justified,
after He saves us, has so much to do with our communion, the
sweet communion with the Lord. as we walk with Him. Both of
these views are dangerous, aren't they? We must be justified and
accepted wholly by the personal obedience of Jesus Christ, for
it must be perfect. And Paul was so dogmatic about
this, here's what he said. If you be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. If you're trying to lift one
hand to justify yourself before God, then Christ will profit
you nothing. That's His work alone. You must
simply believe in Him for it. For I testify to every man that's
under the law that he's a debtor. To what? To do the whole law.
Do the whole law. Who can do that? That's a big
demand, ain't it? On the other side, those who
are justified and saved and forgiven, though they be so imperfect and
they know it. God knows it, doesn't He? Well,
we put on a front, and I'm glad we do. I'm glad we do. You come
to my house, and I tell you if I know you're coming, I'll get
out the vacuum cleaner. I'll hide the dishes, sweep stuff
under the rug. There's things about me that
I don't want you to see. I don't want you to know. You
call it a hypocrite, if you will, hypocritical, but God knows,
doesn't He? He knows that we are not perfect
people. We're justified. We're saved.
We're forgiven. We have eternal life in Christ
Jesus the Lord. But I tell you, we're just not
perfect people. Yet, the Scripture exhorts us in perfect people. It encourages us and it even
commands us to be obedient children. Listen to what Peter said. as
obedient children, not fashioning yourself according to former
lust in your ignorance, but as he which has called you is holy,
so be you holy in all manner of conversation. In your thoughts,
seek to be holy. Take time to be holy. And the
song tells us how, doesn't it? Speak all with your Lord. In
the words that you speak, your conversation, let no corrupt
communication proceed out of your mouth. In your walk, in
your service, all that we do as obedient children. Now you say, Bruce, if the Lord
knows we are so imperfect, why? Why does He command this? Why
does He exhort us? Why does He encourage us to be
this way? Well, we'll look at it here in
a minute. If you've been on your way, this
Christian way, very long, there's something that you've experienced.
You've experienced this sweet communion with the Lord. You
know what it is, don't you? You know what it is to walk close
to the Lord. You know what it is to have this
rain from heaven, this rain of grace come down upon your soul,
showers of blessings. You know the sweet communion
that comes out of that. And it comes out of this close
walk with Him. It comes out of being diligent.
It comes out of being careful, doesn't it? You know that. And
I'll tell you something else you know if you've been on the
way very long. You know the bitterness of when that sweet communion
is not there, don't you? And you know almost always why
it comes. Willful neglect. Willful disobedience. or willful spiritual laziness. We know this by experience, don't
we? There are some words associated with a Christian life. There
are many words associated with a Christian life. Watchfulness,
soberness, diligence, cleaving, laboring, wrestling, fighting,
running, enduring, perseverance, And there's a reason for all
these words being associated with a Christian life. It's not
always easy, is it? There's a fight. There's a warfare.
And therefore, the Lord exhorts us to seek in everything to be
obedient to Him and to His Word. Now, notice along this line.
I want you to look how the Holy Spirit here, back in our text,
I want you to look at How he puts this to them in this chapter.
Look how he stresses their need of obedience to the Lord for
their continued well-being in this land. Now, they were utterly
dependent upon the Lord to give them this land. They were utterly
dependent upon Him to bring them in this land. They were utterly
dependent upon Him to keep them in this land. They were utterly
dependent upon Him for their well-being in this land. They were utterly dependent upon
Him for everything. And therefore, in the light of
this, Moses tells them they are to hearken diligently to the
Lord. Look what he says here in verse
15. Look how he says it in our text,
Deuteronomy 11. Look in verse 13 and verse 15. And it shall come to pass, if
you hearken diligently unto my commandments, which I command
you this day, to love the Lord your God, to serve Him with all
your heart, with all your soul, that I will give you the rain
of your land in His due season, the first rain and the latter
rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, in thy wine, in
thine oil, and I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle,
that thou mayest eat and be full. See how His continued blessings
was connected to their obedience to Him? You serve Me. Don't be turned aside. Serve
Me diligently. And as you do, My blessings will
be upon the land. My rain will be from heaven.
I'll put grass in your fields for your cattle. And look in
verse 16 and verse 17. He tells them something else.
Take heed to yourself that your heart be not deceived, and you
turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them. And then the
Lord's wrath be kindled against you. And he shut up heaven, that
there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit, unless
ye perish quickly off the good land which the Lord giveth to
you." Boy, this is a hard statement, ain't it? I tell you, verse 17
is a hard statement. And Moses knew it was going to
be a hard statement. Then why did he make a hard statement
like this? If you're disobedient, if you
turn from the Lord and begin to worship other gods, here's
what's going to happen. Why did he tell them that? Because
he knew that they need to be stirred up to watchfulness. The way they were going to have
to go was a difficult way. They had nations of giants to
fight. They had walled cities to scale. This was going to be difficult.
And to take these places, they were going to have to be watchful.
They couldn't be neglectful and spiritually lazy to take this
land. And therefore He warns them of
this. But He also uses words to tender
their heart at the very same time. And right here in the last
portion of verse 17, look what he says to them. I love how he
does this. Lest ye perish quickly from all
the good land which the Lord your God giveth you. Yeah, there's warnings. Absolutely
warnings. And boy, they were awakening
things. But what did these warnings do?
It stirred them up to be careful. not to risk losing this good
land. See how he puts that out there?
This good land. What's these warnings for? It's
for your good. The Lord is warning you for your
good because He has given you this precious, precious land. Therefore, this warning was not
just to awaken them, but boy, when they considered it was for
their good. What did it do then? Why, it
stirred them up to be appreciative, didn't it? That the Lord would
love them so much that He had warned them. If you've got a
child that you love, you've got a son that you love, and you
live just a short distance from a high cliff, what are you going
to do to your young son? He plays out in the yard. And
you love Him. You don't want Him to get hurt.
So what do you do? You take Him down there to that
cliff and say, Son, listen. You stay away from this place.
You look over the edge. You hold His hand. You let Him
look over the edge. Look at that, Son. Can you imagine
what would happen to you if you fell over this? And why does
He warn His Son? Because He loves Him. He doesn't
want to be hurt. Why does He warn these people?
He's given them this precious, precious gift. And He knows the
danger in the land they're going to. So what does He do? He warns
them, doesn't He? He warns them. I've given you
this gift. Be careful that you keep it with
all your heart. And when the Lord calls us out
of darkness into His marvelous light and gives us, saves us
by grace and gives us this salvation, does it offend you Or does it
endear your heart to Him when He warns you of the dangers around
you? And to keep this precious gift. Keep it. Be careful. Be sober. Keep this gift with all your
heart. That endears your heart to Him, doesn't it? That He loves
you so much He didn't warn you. Even though it is a harsh warning.
Well, it's a harsh warning. The Lord deals harshly with us,
doesn't He? But you know what He does? He keeps us for these
warnings. We get very slothful, very neglectful. And the Lord keeps us sometimes
by putting this fear in us. Do you fear leaving the Lord?
If you ever get the thought in your heart of leaving Him, does
that make you afraid? That scares me to death. But you know what
He does to His people? I will put my fear in your heart
that you shall not depart from Me. The thing they were to fear
is this, leaving Him. The thing where they were to
fear more than anything else is turning aside to idols. Man, I fear that, don't you?
A man that don't fear that is a man that has no spiritual sense,
I'll be honest with you. And you know, that's about where
we are today in the church world. You run into the religious people
all the time, and they don't have any fear at all. They can
believe anything, think anything, do anything, and they just don't,
they just think God, well, He doesn't care, you know. He loves
us, and He's so good. Well, I tell you then, when He
comes this, and He warns us, don't you leave Me. Don't you
turn aside here. I've given you this precious
gift. Oh, and you fear, and you tremble. Serve the Lord with
fear, and rejoice with trembling. I'm afraid of Him. I'm afraid
of what He can do. I'm afraid of Him. Two things Moses does in this
book of Deuteronomy, and he does it here in this chapter, and
he does it over and over and over again. He constantly reminds
them of their motives for being obedient to the Lord. Their motives. must not be out
of a self-righteous motive. They must not serve the Lord
diligently out of a legalistic spirit. It's not a slavish motive. It's not a motive that a slave
has toward his master that if I don't do it, he's going to
whip the dickens out of me. I don't want to do it. If I could
get out of it, I would, but I'm afraid if I don't do it, he's
going to whip me. That's not the motive Moses gives them here
for serving the Lord. But their motive is a humble
obedience out of an attitude of love. That's the way we diligently
serve and follow the Lord. He says it over and over. Look
here three times. He says it in this chapter alone. And you
see it several times in this book. Look in chapter 11, verse
1. I want you to notice how the Holy Spirit puts this down. Therefore
thou shalt what? Love. the Lord thy God, then
keep His charge, His statutes, and His judgment, and His commandments.
Look in verse 13, And it shall come to pass, if you shall diligently
hearken unto my commandments, which I command you this day,
to love the Lord your God, and then what? To serve Him. Love
Him first. and then serve Him. Look what
He says on verse 22. If you shall diligently keep
all these commandments which I command you to do them, to
love the Lord your God and walk in all His ways and cleave unto
Him. See how love goes before everything?
Why does He say that? Because that's our motive. That's
our chief motive for diligently serving and obeying the Lord. If you love Me, Can somebody
quote the rest of that? Keep my commandment. If you love
me, keep my commandment. You know one of the saddest things,
and I think we're all guilty, I'm guilty of it as the pastor.
Trying to get people to serve the Lord who don't even love
Him. I tell you that always ends in disappointment. Trying to
get somebody to be a Christian before God makes a Christian
out of them. It never works, does it? Because
love is the motive. And the difference in the love
which the law requires and which grace requires is this. Now get this. We know the law
of Moses, the Ten Commandments, requires us to love God. God
requires that of every man. The commandment comes to every
man without any exception and says, Thou shalt love the Lord
your God with all your heart, all your soul, your mind, and
your strength. And that's reasonable for God
to command that. And it's just for God to command
that. But you know something? It's not an impossibility. It's
not an impossibility. There was a time when humanity
could love God that way. Back yonder in the garden, when
Adam and Eve came from the hands of their Creator, they could
love God that way, and they did. They communed with Him. They
were perfectly obedient out of love to Him. But you know something? We're not like we were back there
in the garden. Humanity failed. And now it's utterly impossible
for a man who is dead in trespasses and sins, who loves darkness
rather than light, to love God. When we see cows out here jumping
over the moon, then we'll come back and consider how a lost
man can love God. He can't, can he? The carnal
mind is enmity against God. Now, will God hold him accountable?
You better bet He will. You better bet He will. The books
were opened, and what is that? The books of the law. And the
dead were judged out of those things which were written in
the book. You say, why would God require
man to do something he can't do? That's God's standard. Why can't a man do it? Is it
God's fault? No, man's weakened himself, isn't
he? Man's weakened himself, man's
ruined himself through his willful sin back yonder in the garden.
And now all of us are sinners. Let a man say he'll do it, but
say it and do it is too difficult. God looks on the heart. But the
law of God commands it. It commands to love him with
all your heart. But I tell you what, let the
law command what it will. Man cannot do it. Man cannot
do it. My dad, bless his heart, he was
such a self-righteous fellow. And I asked him one day, I said,
do you keep the Law of Moses? Because he's all the time talking
about, you know, keeping the Law, keeping the Law, keeping
the Law. I said, do you keep the Law of Moses? Do you love
God with all your heart? Well, I knew better than that
because I knew him. I knew him. Well, I try. I said, that's not what I asked
you to ask. I ask you if you do it. Do you do it? Do you know what he finally had
to confess? No. I've come short. Yeah, you've
come short. Way short. All have sinned to come short
of the glory of God. And I tell you where we come
short. I tell you where every man that's born of Adam comes
short. Love to God. Love to God. Men love darkness
rather than light. God is light. God is love. The love that grace requires
is so different. Grace comes to a poor, perishing
sinner and says to him, you poor, miserable wretch. That's the way grace begins with
us. Grace doesn't come to us and
say, oh, I'm so proud of you. No, grace comes to us and addresses
us just like we are. You poor, miserable, wretch. Look at the trouble and look
at the sorrow that you're in. The pains of hell have got hold
upon you. Death is gaping upon you. You're
ready to fall. And right where I've found you,
I'm going to save you. I'm going to deliver your soul
from hell. I'm going to deliver your feet
from falling. I'm going to deliver your poor
soul from death. I'm going to deliver your eyes
from the tears. I'm going to save you. I'm going
to give you life eternal. And what does the poor soul say?
Lord, I love you. Lord, I love you. Ain't that
the way it goes? Why do you love Him now? You
never loved Him before. I love Him now because He saved
me. He saved me. That's the difference
in grace, isn't it? That's the difference in the
law. What the law commands, it gives nothing, nothing to enable
us to love Him. But oh, when grace comes and
said, if you love me, keep my commandments, Lord, I love you.
Why do you love me? Because of what you've done for
me. That's why I love you. Peter, do you love me? Do you
really love me? Lord, you know I love you. Why
do you love me, Peter? Well, Lord, look what you've
done for me. You found me. You called me. You forgave me. You gave me life. That's why
I love you. Then feed my sheep. Feed my sheep
if you love me. That maniac of Gadara had 2,000
devils. 2,000 devils he had. Was naked. Can you imagine what
that man looked like? What he smelt like? in the tombs,
cutting himself with those rocks, left his family. They tried to
chain him and tame him. The Lord came across that Sea
of Galilee. We looked at that Sunday morning.
The boy fought, fought that wind, fought that storm, fought those
devils in that man, told them to come out of him, washed him,
put clothes on him. They come there and saw that
poor maniac, and he wasn't a maniac anymore. He was clothed, sitting
at Jesus' feet, and in his right mind. And the Lord told that
fellow, you love me. You love me. Now, he didn't really
ask him that, did he? But I bet he may have. Because
he said, Lord, let me go with you. And the Lord said, you go
tell your friends. You go home to your friends.
You go home to your community. Just watch you run crazy now
for all these years. And you tell them what great
things the Lord has done for you, and listen to this, and
has had compassion on you. You think that man could not
go? You think he could rebel against such love? Why do you
think he went? He was so full of love for the
Master. He went and spread abroad his
fame, the Bible says. Everywhere he spread abroad what
Jesus, his God and Savior had did for Him. That's the motive,
brothers and sisters. Love. It's love. If you're talking about obedience
out of the motive of trying to buy a blessing, I don't know
anything about that. Trying to impress God or put
some stars in your crown, forget about that. But if we're talking
about obedience out of love and gratitude and thankfulness for
Him who has saved us, done so much for us. And that's the right
motive. And let God command what He will.
Let Him command of us what He will. If you'll fill our hearts
with love for Him, then we'll seek to do it. The heart that
loves Him will. There have been men who left
their home, left their family and went off into foreign lands,
Gather in to spread His fame. Give every penny they had. Those
Jews that crucified the Lord, you know what they did? Every
one of them started selling their homes and giving to the poor,
didn't they? Why'd they do that? They loved Him. They loved Him. And along this same line, I want
to show you something else and we'll close quickly with this. Look back in Exodus chapter 10
or Deuteronomy chapter 11. You can find this if you've got
a pencil or something to write this down. He does this, too.
He does it all through this book of Deuteronomy. What he does
here in chapter 11 and verse 10, he's always telling them
to compare the place they came out of to the place where they're
going. He's always doing that. Now,
this is so necessary for you and I to think about this and
make a distinction between where the Lord brought us from, where
we are now, and where we're going. Because when we think about this,
it puts so much liveliness in our hearts to serve Him and obey
Him. And here's what He tells us.
You want to look in chapter 8, you know, if you don't write
it down like over there, sometimes you'll see it there, and you'll
see it in chapter 6 and verse 10 through 12. Here he tells
us in chapter 11, verse 10, "...the land whither thou goest in to
possess it is not as the land of Egypt, from which ye came
out, where thou sowed thy seed, and watered it with thy foot
as a garden of herbs." Then he goes on to tell them the difference
between that land and the land they're going to. Big difference, isn't it? He's always calling the land
of Egypt The land of bondage. The land of bondage. Where they
sighed. Where they were whipped. Where
they lived as slaves. That's the kind of land they
came out of. What kind of land were they going to? A vast difference,
wasn't it? A vast difference. They were
to consider this. And you and I, brothers and sisters,
one of the reasons that we get so lifeless in our souls sometimes,
I'm afraid, And so spiritually lazy, we forget. We don't consider. We don't distinguish where the
Lord brought us from. Where did He bring us from? You
think this Egypt was a bad place. Where did we come out of? And
where are we now? And where are we going? My goodness. When you think of that, that
puts you to serving Him I want to turn you over to Ephesians
chapter 2, and we'll close with this. I promise we'll close with
this. You start teaching, you folks, and I don't know where
to stop. Ephesians chapter 2. Look at this. Ephesians chapter
2. Look here in verse 11. Where
were we? When the Lord came to us, where
were we? Ephesians chapter 2 and look in verse 11. Wherefore remember,
see that? Remember that you in being in
time past, time past, don't forget that. Always be revisiting the
past. Not because you long to go back
there, but to see where you were. In time past, where were you?
What were you? You were Gentiles in the flesh.
who were called the uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision
in the flesh made by hands, at that time, in the past, ye were
without Christ." Boy, let that send a chill down in your heart.
Without Christ. Being aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having
no hope, and without God in the world. Remember that? Remember
that? No hope? Without God? Without Christ? He tells us there
in verse 5, you were dead in sin. That's where you were. Where are you now? Verse 13. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye
who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. You are nigh God's heart. You
are near to heaven. My goodness, you have the company
of those just spirits made perfect. Whatever in the world that means.
But we are nigh to God. Nigh to the heart of our Savior.
What about the future? Look in verse 6 and verse 7 of
this chapter 2. He raised us up and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages
to come the eternal ages, He might show the exceeding riches
of His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. I'm telling you folks, we're
headed for a land much better than the land of Canaan. We're
headed for where Christ Himself in our glorified humanity dwells,
the Father's house, heaven. And we're going to sit there
at His feet and He's going to teach us things that we long to see
in no year. the depths of His mercy and His
grace and His kindness. That's where we're going to.
Think about that. How does where you were compare
to where you're going? No comparison, is there? You and I are provided with the
greatest and best motives to seek every day to serve our Lord
Jesus Christ with everything that's in us Serve Him with everything that's
in you. And lest this be your chief motive,
love.