414: Martyn Lawrence - Choose Life

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:03

   Welcome to good Christophian talks. Thank you for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help us get the Bible. In our daily. News Feed Each week we post a talk that we previewed from suggestions sent in by listeners from around the world. Then we record a short intro beforehand as a personalized recommendation to you on why we are sharing the talk.

2. 0:26

   And now let’s talk more about this week’s talk. Welcome to the good Chris Adelphian Talks podcast. This is brother Brian. This week’s talk is a one off class by brother Martin Lawrence from the Cleckheaton UK ecclesia. And I’ll say it again, Cleckheaton, because I’m sure he would be thrilled that we Americans paid attention enough to pronounce it correctly.

3. 0:59

   Or perhaps I’ve just reinforced the stereotype. His class was entitled Choose Life, and it was the opening talk of last year’s Mid-Atlantic Shippensburg Bible School. Brother Martin frames the volume of choices that we’re bombarded with each day as a threat to our spiritual stamina, whether we are aware of it or not. Choices of what to purchase on Amazon, what drink to buy today from Starbucks, what bank to use for our portfolio. And it makes a clear point that we have perhaps become numb to the simplicity of what God has ordained for us, the basis of our free will.

4. 1:56

   One choice, one God to follow and obey, or not to choose his life. In our modern society, we become sometimes paralyzed to making many critical decisions because we’re just already bogged down by the overabundance of very trivial decisions that we’ve already had to make each day. Brother Martin didn’t say this, but as I was listening to it, it reminded me of a very millennial problem of having 50 unread emails on a Monday morning, taking all day.

5. 2:42

   And when you finally clear the stack, you realize that the most important urgent, time sensitive one was at the bottom, and that was the one you’re going to put off until tomorrow.

6. 2:56

   Brother Martin, make the connection to how God Himself is a choosing and a very particular being. Deciding for the Israelites what type of foods they could eat, where they could worship, what they could offer, and all this so that the only choice they actually had to make was the most important one. Hopefully, it’s a choice that you’re making to choose what he said was holy and right, to choose life over death. So as always, we hope that this strengthens your faith and brightens your day.

7. 3:44

   Brother Martin Lawrence, choose life. How many exhortations, brothers and sisters, have you heard this week? How many exhortations have you heard this week? I don’t mean can you remember what the speaker said last Sunday. I don’t mean did you listen to anything as you made your way to Bible school yesterday. I mean, how many other exhortations have you heard this week?

8. 4:19

   Maybe you heard the Amazon exhortation that the best choice you can make is to buy more stuff. Or maybe you heard the social media exhortation that the best choice you can make for life is to see it through a lens to to self curate your own authentic experiences and share them with a bunch of people you’ve never met and who have never heard of you. Maybe you heard the corporate branding exhortation. They said the best choice you can make for your future and where you sell, where you keep your money and and who looks after your your Social Security is to put it into a bank that will have your best interests at heart. Or maybe you heard the health and well-being exhortation that said that’s somewhere, somewhere if you look hard enough, there is a supplement or a fitness influencer or, or a workout regime that has your name on it and only yours. And, and just to fend off any potential questions afterwards. I’m not saying don’t work out.

9. 5:31

   I’m not saying don’t eat healthfully, and I’m not saying don’t put your money safely in a bank. I’m not saying those things. But these exhortations come at us quietly because we don’t think that they’re exhortations. Brother Steve’s going to give us our memorial exhortation in a little while. It’s on the program. You know what time it is, you know when you have to be here.

10. 5:55

    And I presume you’re going to sit respectfully and listen to him and take it all in. I mean, I’ve not been here before. I don’t know how that if that’s how it works. But I’m presuming that, you know roughly how a memorial exhortation goes ahead. These other exhortation surprise us because they sneak on up on us without us knowing that they’re there.

11. 6:12

    And I might sit there thinking, well, you know, I don’t get the doctrine of mortality from going to the gym, do I? And I don’t understand the doctrine of grace from Disney, do I? And yet just piece by piece, brothers and sisters, just step by imperceptible step, all of those things that we mentioned at the beginning are are shaping our very outlook on our discipleship.

12. 6:44

    Whether it’s the workout regime telling me that I don’t need to grow old gracefully no matter what my son tells me. Or whether it’s Disney telling me to follow my dreams and be my very best, my own authentic self, and not to let anybody else tell me how to chart my course. Or whether it’s Starbucks telling me that yes, I really do deserve the latest multi multi calorie mega 20 oz drink.

13. 7:10

    All of these things are just subtly working on my understanding of the world and God be praised that we are not helpless to respond to all of those. God be praised that in our discipleship, we’re encouraged to elevate not those other issues, but those of Almighty God and of his Son and to drown out the voices that we hear around us. Can you join me if you’re not there already in Deuteronomy? We’re going to start in chapter 29 and then make our way up to the verse that’s from which our our entire week is is taken. Deuteronomy 29 is is Israel, of course, camped on the the shores of the Jordan where where the same sorts of issues existed. They may not have couched them in exactly the language that I just did, but the same sorts of issues existed. Now you will know the book of Deuteronomy and you will know what’s going on, but just in case little bit fuzzy around the edges with it.

14. 8:04

    They were in the 40th year of the wilderness journey. It’s the 11th month, so the entire process of coming out of Egypt is nearly at an end. And Moses is giving this speech on his 120th birthday. And with the exception of Joshua and Caleb and the Levites, everybody who is listening to him is 59 years or younger because the entire first generation that came out of Egypt has gone.

15. 8:36

    They’ve fallen like carcasses in the wilderness. And this now is the second generation to whom Moses is speaking who are going to go into the land and inherit it. And this is Moses handover speech, if you like. Now, we’ve heard an awful lot about handovers in recent months and years, an awful lot about transitions of power, he says nervously. Whether it’s the papacy and the handover from 1 Pope to another, whether it’s the notion of peaceful transitions of power in the White House.

16. 9:05

    Whether even you go back a couple of years to the death of Queen Elizabeth in the UK and the instantaneous constitutional switch to the to the next monarch as somebody came out on a balcony and he announced that the queen was dead and Long live the king. And this is a different kind of handover. And Moses is passing over, isn’t he, to this new generation who will, who will take over from him and go into the land after he dies?

17. 9:32

    Might like to think about other handover words, last words, if you like. That Scripture has the Lord’s words in John 17, where he where he gives his disciples to his father. He’s going to the cross. He’s finished the work that his father’s given him to do, and he places his disciples into the hands of his father before he goes to the cross. Or maybe you think about the words of Paul when he’s there on the beach at Myelitus and he speaks to the Ephesian elders and, and tells them that he’s going to Jerusalem and he’ll never see their face again.

18. 10:07

    I, I feel convinced that he’s expecting not to survive the journey and he is, as it were, handing over the chance to them. Lots of threads actually that connect up those words of Paul in Acts chapter 20 with this section of Deuteronomy. But we’re here in chapter 29, and this is a, this is an enhanced covenant, a new covenant, chapter 29 and verse one that the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. And goes on to articulate what has happened over the last 39 1/2 years or so.

19. 10:47

    Come down to verse 10, chapter 29. You stand this day, all of you before the Lord your God, your captains of your tribes, your elders, your officers, or the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives. They, they came, my brothers and sisters in their families to listen to Moses. It might be a bit of a stretch to say that it was like a Bible school, but they came from different parts of the camp to listen and they came with the service committee as well. Verse 11, the Hewer of wood and the drawer of water. Maybe that’s the maybe that’s the catering staff at the college.

20. 11:30

    I don’t know how far I’m pushing that verse, but they came. Verse 12 that you should enter into covenant with the Lord your God and into his oath, which the Lord your God makes with you this day that he may come establish you today for a people to himself and maybe to your God, as he said to you and as he swore to your Father’s, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.

21. 11:52

    It’s a covenant anchored in the promises made to the father. It’s not based on the law of Moses. We’re we’re, we’re stretching back even further and it’s going to be established. Verse 14 says not just for the generation going into the land, but for the future generations as well. Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath, but with Him that stands here with us this day before the Lord our God, and also him who is not here with us this day. So much of chapters 29 and 30 actually is about how how the future generations will pick up the message, how future generations will react to the promises that God made to the fathers that they should show their faith not so much in the Lord of Moses, but in in the Abrahamic promises which have been laid down much earlier.

22. 12:44

    Just keep a finger here or or the the digital equivalent. If you have an iPad, come over to Psalm 78 and we’re going to go in and write at the beginning. It’s a chapter all about the exodus and the wilderness journey. We’re only going to read from the beginning, but just cast an eye all the way through when it and it catches every moment of the journey that they took.

23. 13:03

    Verse one of Psalm 78 give ear O my people to my law, incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable, utter dart saying sayings of old which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us we will. And this is the issue of the the message going to the next generation.

24. 13:27

    We will not hide them from their children, showing to and just mark this expression, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength and his wonderful works which he’s done for. He established A testimony, and Jacob appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children that.

25. 13:53

    And here’s the phrase again, that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children on the message goes down through the generations to make sure, just as when you come to a Bible school, not just that you sit there and learn and enjoy what’s being said and marvel at the Scriptures, but that you make sure that you pass it on to your children and to your grandchildren.

26. 14:15

    That this isn’t just some moment which is fossilized forever and is recorded and you go back and listen to it and there it is set in time. But that this is something that goes on down through the generations. And as Moses stood there almost within sight of the promised land and re established this promise with his people, with God’s people that he had been leading.

27. 14:39

    Yes, it was for them, but by the grace of God, it was for those who would come after. And we’ve already touched on it in the last few hours when we’ve been here. We we don’t know how many Bible schools there will be until the king is here again in the earth. But if in some way he tarries, we come together for ourselves to learn and to enjoy our fellowship and to be with each other.

28. 15:04

    And how marvellous those things are. But we come to so that the generation which should be born should declare them to their children, that they might set their hope in God and not forget his works. That that phrase is hooked right out of Deuteronomy 29, the generation to come. We’re just going to go back and see if we can find it. Just drop back with me to Deuteronomy 29, brothers and sisters, because God has been articulating, hasn’t He in the book of Deuteronomy, what will come upon the nation if things do not work out as He has promised or has He has commanded them?

29. 15:49

    Where do we finish? I think we finished in verse 15. We were going to skip out the section where the brackets come to verse 18 and chapter 29. In case there should be among you, man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turns away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of the other nations in case they should be among you.

30. 16:07

    A root that bears gall and Wormwood. And it shall come to pass when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his social media account and in his corporate business statement and in his Instagram exhortation and shall say, I have peace in my heart. I’ve added a few words there, but you understand what I’m trying to get to. I shall have peace, though I walk after the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst. The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses written in the book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out His name from under heaven. We’re not going to go back into chapter 28 and look at those cursings, but they are.

31. 16:44

    They are framed around the Exodus journey. All of the things that God is saying will come upon them if things do not go as He’s commanded are a reversal of the Exodus. They’re going to be taken to slavery, but nobody will buy them. They’re going to go back in ships across the ocean almost in a reverse of the Exodus when they came through the sea.

32. 17:04

    And, and systematically God is going to unpack the work that he did through the Exodus because of their unfaithfulness. So that verse 22. And here’s the expression that we took right out of Psalm 78. So that’s the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, when the stranger that shall come from a far land shall see the sickness and the plague upon the land. And they shall say, why has the Lord done this? What means the heat of his great anger? I wonder how Israel felt when they heard Moses words, when he’s just told them that he’s bringing before them a new oath and a new promise and a new covenant. Scripture works like that sometimes, doesn’t it? When we, we’ve read something that seems so encouraging, so uplifting, we’ve, we’ve seen something that is well, in the words of Genesis chapter 1, very good. And, and here they are about to enter the land of promise. And we look at this covenant that God is making and say, well, surely this will fix it.

33. 18:08

    This will be the moment. This will resolve the issue of human sinfulness once and for all, because the old generation is gone and we don’t have to worry about their temptations anymore. And and then suddenly Noah gets drunk, or Abraham goes down into Egypt, or David sees Bathsheba bathing on the roof, or or Peter hears the cock crowing and goes out and weeps. And we realise that that things are still broken, that things are not yet resolved, that there has to be something bigger, something better, something, something even more that will come to God’s people.

34. 18:52

    And perhaps that’s why in the book of Deuteronomy, God is the one who takes so much of the initiative. God is the one who who shapes their not only the way that they worship, but their very existence. Come with me to Chapter 7 in Deuteronomy because all the way through the book of Deuteronomy and and you perhaps have these references marked. God is a choosing God.

35. 19:17

    He’s not only brought them from Egypt, not only LED them with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, but he is the one who is going to shape their very existence as they come into the land. Deuteronomy Chapter 7 and come to verse 6. You are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a special people to himself.

36. 19:43

    The Lord did not set His love upon you or choose you because you were more in number than any people, because you were the fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you and because He would keep the oath which He sworn to your Father’s. You know, if we extend those verses to ourselves, you know, it’s, I often feel it’s quite a leveler.

37. 20:02

    You know, we’re not chosen because we’re bigger or taller or more clever or more articulate or richer than anybody else. Which is fine, and we can probably appreciate that. The problem is, all of those exhortations that we listed out at the beginning have a habit of telling us that we are bigger and stronger and more articulate and cleverer and richer than everybody else.

38. 20:18

    And suddenly we come to this verse and say, Hang on, Lord. What if my secular exhortation is telling me that I am better than this and we suddenly have to sit here and go hang on a minute. Maybe God is the great one and I’m the one who has to bow before him.

39. 20:36

    He is, to use the words of verse 9, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy with those who love him and mercy to 1000 generations. God is the choosing God. God is the one who shapes their world. Just come on to chapter 12, because not only is he the God who chooses His people, but He’s the God who will choose where they worship. Deuteronomy chapter 12 and come to verse 5. You shall come to the place which the Lord your God shall choose to put His name there out of all your tribes, even to his habitation, and there you shall come and offer your burnt offerings, and eat before the Lord, and rejoice before him. Seven times in chapter 12, God speaks of the place that He shall choose that you would come and worship, bringing the people to a central part that they might come and worship before Him.

40. 21:28

    He chooses them as a nation. He chooses the place that they will worship. If you come on to chapter 17 and verse 15, He’s going to choose more even than that, because when they come into the land which the Lord gives them to possess and they want to set a king over them.

41. 21:49

    Verse 15, whom the Lord your God shall choose, chosen the nation, chosen the place, chosen the king. Chapter 18 and verse 5, when the Levites are appointed, the Lord your God has chosen him out of all of your tribes, chose the people, chose the place, chose the king, chose the priests, gods shaping their very existence as he leads them towards their promised land. It’s a key theme throughout the book of Deuteronomy. In fact, for those of you that like counting these kind of things, I think it’s 30 times in the book of Deuteronomy that God is the one who is choosing God is the one who is, who is shaping their existence.

42. 22:44

    He’s in control of where they live, of how they worship, of what they do, of what they wear. Even you might think of the words from Job that that marvellous speech where Job comes, as it were, to his senses at the end of all those experiences, and understands more about God than ever did he did before. Have you entered the springs of the sea? Have you entered the storehouses of the snow? Did you give the horses strength? Did you show the eagle how to mount up in his wings? No, but the God who chooses, He’s the one who did. And we were in DCA couple of years. A couple of days ago, we went to the Air and Space Museum. There’s that Apollo 8 exhibition with Jim Lovell putting his thumb over the earth.

43. 23:31

    You will perhaps I was going to say, remember, those of you who were around in December 1968 will remember. The rest of you will have to have to go to the museum. And he comes up over the horizon and puts his thumb over the earth and says, all that I ever knew, every person I ever met, every experience I ever heard SAT beneath my thumb.

44. 23:53

    The earth on the other side of it. He said, that’s how small we were. God is the choosing God. God is the creator God. God is the one who is shaping our very existence. The earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof. And as he paints this picture for them about their future in the land and that of other generations to come, it almost seems if you’re in Deuteronomy 29, that the battle is too difficult, too hard, because, well, something will go wrong.

45. 24:24

    Something won’t work. The the people themselves will not be able to keep faith. And it’s only when we come into chapter 30 that it’s as if the scales flip and God begins to talk in more positive language to tell us about what repentance looks like, what coming to the the Father actually sounds like.

46. 24:48

    Let’s come into Deuteronomy 30. I’m conscious I’m jumping things just to keep the well, to keep the time as much as anything else, but just just to make sure that we keep the flow going. Let’s go into to chapter 30 and verse 1. So come to pass when all these things that come upon you, the blessings and the curse which I’ve set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord has driven you. And you shall return to the Lord your God and obey his voice which I command you this day, you and your children with all your heart and all your soul.

47. 25:21

    But then the Lord your God will turn your captivity and have compassion upon you. It’s, it’s Hosea language, isn’t it? Hosea’s going to paint this picture of the of a nation who will return that the prodigal son is going to be, is going to be ripped through with this sort of language of a, of a son who goes out on his own initiative and lives the high life out in another land.

48. 25:43

    And only when he comes to himself, only when he realizes that a return from exile has to be done on his initiative, that he’s the one who has to take the first steps back. And then the father comes running to him, does his life begin to make sense again When he realizes that in the father’s house the bread of life is to be found.

49. 26:04

    Then the Lord turns their captivity and has compassion on them and they will return, I suppose, twice over to the to the Lord and also to the land. And we could paint a whole picture about what this means in the life of the nation of Israel. But but just for us at the beginning of our gathering together this week, we’re going to think about how these how these verses apply more to us.

50. 26:29

    Not to suggest that it is an important tool to to think about the Israel focus, but just to capture ourselves as we, as we walk through our Bible school together, because it’s not easy, but it is within our grasp. Come to verse 11 of Deuteronomy chapter 30. These were the words that we read together. This commandment which I command you this day, it’s not hidden from you.

51. 26:55

    It’s not far off. It’s not in heaven that you should say, who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it to us that we may hear and do it. It’s not beyond the sea that you should say, Who shall go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear and do it, But the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

52. 27:20

    I suppose it explains why so many of the curses are framed around the Exodus journey, because God is saying, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians. These things are very near to you because the consequences for sin are not a surprise. You know what God does to those who break covenant. You know the consequences of sin and you know the impact that that will have on you as a people. It’s not hidden from you.

53. 27:47

    It’s not far off. Paul captures that in Romans, doesn’t he? Since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal purpose and divine nature have been clearly seen. Well, yes, they have. But how does how does Deuteronomy 30 help us to understand our faith? Well, of course, that’s the phrase that Paul picks up in Romans chapter 10.

54. 28:10

    And I just asked you just to hold those two verses open so we can look at them both together. Come to Romans chapter 10. And if you can see Deuteronomy 30 as well, it will be helpful.

55. 28:34

    And having asked you to do that, I’m now just trying to work out how I’m going to do. I’m going to use a bottle of water and see if I can keep a marker. There we are Romans chapter 10 and of course the focus in one sense is Israel. Here Romans 10 and verse 5, Moses describes righteousness, which is of the law that the man who does these things shall live by them talking about salvation through faith, of course, and not by law.

56. 28:57

    You could spend an entire week in this chapter and and not really scratch the surface, but let’s just see whether we can capture this quotation from Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 6 of Romans 10. But the righteousness, which is of faith speaks like this. Say not in your heart who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above, or who shall ascend into the deep, which is to bring Christ to gain from the dead. But what does it say?

57. 29:25

    The word is near to you, even in your mouth and in your heart. There’s a difference there. I don’t know whether you’ve clocked it. You may have written notes in your Bible alongside this, that the fact that Paul has under inspiration just just very subtly shifted the language from from Deuteronomy in the second part of that quotation.

58. 29:44

    What does he say in Deuteronomy 30, verse 12? It’s not in heaven that you have to go up and get it. So we have to hear it and do it. And then he goes on to say that it’s not, it’s up to 30, verse 13, beyond the sea. Well, that’s not what Paul says in Romans 10, is it?

59. 30:03

    He says, verse seven, who shall descend into the deep, and it doesn’t look very different, but it is different. Rather than going beyond the sea, he’s talking about going down into the depths. And he’s obviously framing this around the Lord Jesus Christ because he’s added that for us already. Paul has taken us on a little diversion as we travel from Deuteronomy to Romans, and he’s just asked us just to stop off somewhere, asked us to stop off in the prophecy of Jonah. The man who voluntarily went into exile voluntarily when given that commandment to go to the Ninevites and preach, said you must be kidding, and went in the opposite direction and got on a boat.

60. 30:44

    And to use Deuteronomy language went beyond the sea. Only he didn’t get as far as beyond the sea because when he was now to use Roman’s language on the sea, they threw him overboard and he went down to the depths and for three days Jonah was dead. Whether he was really dead or whether it’s just picture language, you can decide for yourself. And of course, you know the significance of that echo, the way in which that’s picked up for us as a resurrection picture.

61. 31:08

    And Paul has just taken us via Jonah and said, well, this was the man who went, who tried to go off beyond the sea and take himself into voluntary exile, and instead went down into the depths and emerged as a picture of what the work of the Lord Jesus Christ would be like. It’s not like the law, verse 5, which you do. The man who does these things shall live by them. Salvation, Paul says, is near to us because it’s been shown us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he continues his quotation to tell us about the one who ascended to the heavens to be with his Father, the one who went down into the grave three days, the one who, if you like, put himself.

62. 31:47

    Can I use this language? I think we can. Into voluntary exile for his people in order to come back and lead them. And who is now Romans 10 and verse 8 near to us. In fact, just track the way in which Paul is picking up these words. If you go into Deuteronomy 30 and verse 14, the word is very nigh unto thee in thine mouth and in thy heart.

63. 32:18

    That’s what Paul says. And then he adds it adds to it for us. So we understand what he means. It’s the Word of Faith which we preach. And if we’re in Deuteronomy, we’re just waiting for the bit to land, which is the very end of verse 14 that says that you may do it. And we’re looking for it in Romans chapter 10 and wondering where that bit is.

64. 32:37

    And then we realise that what Paul’s Paul’s doing through inspiration is saying that the bit that says where you do it is verse 9 where he’s talking about faith, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you shall be saved.

65. 32:56

    This is the doing bit of Deuteronomy 30, verse 14, because with the heart man believes to righteousness and with the mouth confession is made to salvation. For as the Scripture says, whoever believes on him shall not be ashamed through faith in the one who went into exile, went down into the depths and came out because it was not possible, my brothers and sisters, for the grave to hold him. Well wasn’t reserved for mythological fantastic beasts. It wasn’t reserved for for people who could do great miracles.

66. 33:31

    It was God’s coming close to every Israelite coming close to us in the person of His Son. And you would not expect Paul in Romans, when talking about faith as opposed to works, to come back into the law and to pull language out of the law of all places to articulate what righteousness looked like through faith. And yet, of course, Deuteronomy chapter 30 is full of this issue.

67. 33:57

    Just come back to Deuteronomy 30 with me and see how many times he talks about what your faith is to be in your heart.

68. 34:07

    I think we touched upon it before in verse 2 of chapter 30, the words that I command you, you and your children, with all your heart and all your soul. It’s in verse 6 of Deuteronomy 30. The Lord your will circumcise your heart and the heart of your sea to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

69. 34:27

    And it’s in verse 10, isn’t it, that you will turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. The Lord wasn’t mechanical. It always contained faith and love. It’s Paul in Romans again, isn’t it talks about the law as being good and right and true. And of course it was because it came from the creator of all life and, and what Deuteronomy seems to be commanding them and the generations to come. And therefore, I think by extension, you and I this morning to take that nation upon ourselves, to take the history of God’s promises into our hearts, to make it part of the very fabric of our being, to reflect upon it when we wake in the morning and when we go to bed at night. God is giving them life because He is life. And that perhaps helps us to understand this great commandment that comes a little further down in chapter 30. Let me bring you there if I can.

70. 35:31

    Verse. Well, let’s go to verse 17 of chapter 30. If you’re heart, there it is again turns away so that you will not hear, but should be drawn away and worship by the gods and serve them. I denounce to you this day you will surely perish. You will not prolong your days upon the land where you go over Jordan to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I’ve set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life 30 times in the book of Deuteronomy, brothers and sisters, God chooses he chooses where they live.

71. 36:10

    He chooses their his people, he chooses their king, he chooses their their priests. One place, one place only we are asked to choose and it’s here. Choose life that you and your seed may live. God is the God of all power and all creation, and he is making this command to us because it’s an extension of his own character.

72. 36:32

    And you could look at it and go, well, you know, it’s, they’re not particularly equally balanced choices, Lord, are they? I mean, it’s not like he might compare this with Mary and Martha, where where Mary is sat at the Lord’s feet and Martha is cumbered about serving. And of course, Martha has to be chided and told that there is one thing that’s more important to come close to the Lord and listen. But she wasn’t being told that serving was wrong, just that her priorities need a little bit of of adjusting. This is not that case.

73. 37:03

    I have said before you, life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life. It’s pretty obvious, brothers and sisters. You could survey 1000 people who were not here as as part of the gathering and say, which would you like? Pick one. You can have life or you can have death. And even in the murky world of assisted dying laws, not many people are choosing top option #2 you know, any doctor will tell you that the patient who wants to live is easier to treat than the patient who has given up.

74. 37:29

    Does not guarantee success, but it certainly tilts the balance in the right direction. We are choosing one choice. We are not used in this world of of secular exhortations. We are not used to one choice. Have you tried shopping for toothpaste? I mean, I hope you have. If you’re sat near me, please tell me you’ve been shopping for toothpaste. But have you tried it?

75. 37:50

    There’s like 5 lanes of it. Or mineral water. Or sat in a hotel room and gone. I’ve got 999 channels and I have and you work your way through and go, well, they were all rubbish. There’s nothing there at all. How on earth can we create so much rubbish to put onto ATV screen? That’s why there’s that’s why there’s so much money spent on perfecting the online shopping experience because we live in this multi choice world where if it takes more than two seconds to achieve something, you’re going to go somewhere else. And the most money is spent by the biggest companies to make it as easy as possible to buy the stuff I need or to bank with the bank that I choose or to pick the the gym equipment that I need to have.

76. 38:33

    And we get to the point where life is so frictionless that we don’t even need to talk to a person. So if I want coffee, I’ll order it ahead of time and go in and, and just take it off a table. I don’t even need to talk to a person because why add more friction into my existence than I need? Which is fine until we get to relationships. Because relationships need friction. Whether it’s your relationship with your your husband or your wife or your boyfriend or your girlfriend, or with your kids or your grandchildren, or your relationship with Almighty God and His Son.

77. 39:15

    You and I know instinctively, even if we’re not married, that a world without friction is a world without lasting relationships. You know instinctively that marriages need friction because marriages that work through trouble become stronger, and marriages that avoid that issue become weaker and tend to fall apart. The law is about choices, every aspect of those complicated laws in the book of Leviticus that you’ve read through and you’ve gone. Why is the Lord bothered about the clothing that they wear? What’s wrong with that particular animal? And the way it’s hoof is cloven and what the Lord was doing was, is setting up an entire fabric of existence that they could make choices.

78. 39:59

    When I when I choose what I’m going to eat this day, am I going to be holy like God or unholy like the world? When I get dressed and I put the a particular kind of fabric on that day, am I going to be holy like God or unholy like the world? When I when I go through my bodily hygiene processes, am I holy like God or unholy like the world and every single aspect of their life is structured and set up in a particular way to make the right choice.

79. 40:26

    That’s why the Lord has given them just one option to say in a multi channel, multi plurality world, you’ve just got 1, so make the right one. Come with me to Proverbs Chapter 7. Proverbs 7. I’m conscious of the clock, but there is a young man in Proverbs Chapter 7 who’s got a choice to make.

80. 41:05

    And as you come to Proverbs 7, you will notice that although it’s not directly quoting Deuteronomy and the verses that we’ve been in, it’s, it’s the same theme, the same language as here. My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments with you. Keep my commandments and live. And my law is the apple of your eye.

81. 41:20

    Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablets of your heart. It’s Deuteronomy language, isn’t it? Very stuff that we’ve been talking about, Say to wisdom. You’re my sister called understanding your kinswoman, that they may keep you from the strange woman, and he’s going to paint us a picture of a young man that makes a bad choice because it looked like a really good choice. And let’s go to to verse 6.

82. 41:43

    At the window of my house I looked through my casement and beheld among the simple ones I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding, passing through the street near her corner. He went the way to her house in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night, and they met a woman with the attire of a harlot and subtle of hearts. She caught in verse 13 and kissed him and with an impudent face said, I have peace offerings. I’ve paid my vows.

83. 42:15

    I came to meet you, to seek you. I found you. It’s the whisper of of 21st century life, isn’t it? I came to find you. Your search history is is yours and yours alone. Your choices are yours and yours alone. I came to find you. This world is created just for you to be your own perfect, authentic self. I’ve decked my bed with tapestries, carved works. Finally in and of Egypt.

84. 42:40

    We’ve got another Exodus echo there. It’s so seductive you could almost read it through and go. Well, of course he’s fallen for it because all of the way in which that picture is painted for us makes it almost inevitable that that’s the direction he’s going to go.

85. 42:57

    And the choice is wrong. Even though she’s painted it up for him, she’s perfumed her bed and calls him home because the man of the house is not there. And there he goes as a bird. Verse 23 goes to the snare. And just come to verse 24 because it just sums up where we’ve been going in our session.

86. 43:19

    Listen to me now, therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not Deuteronomy chapter 30, let not your heart decline to her ways or go astray in her paths, for she’s cast down. Many wounded, strong men have been slain. Her house is the way to hell. It’s so easy to make the wrong choice, brothers and sisters, even though God is really only laying before US1 obvious 1.

87. 43:52

    I don’t know what you brought here with you this week. I don’t know what kind of issues you’ve had in your in your faith, in your families, in your eclizes that you carried with you here and that just still sit on your shoulders as you’ve been looking forward to the Bible school. But may it be as we, as we share this week together, that we strengthen our faith, strengthen our fellowship, strengthen our resolve to fight against temptation and realise that in this this world that is always competing for our attention and always demanding that we have something more, that we make the right choice. I have a theory and I have a lot of theories and come and tell me that I’m wrong later.

88. 44:40

    But I have a theory that our, our community is in the third stage of its existence. So when, when it began 160, seventy years ago, it was all about debating truth. We, we discussed about the immortality of the soul and what happened when you died and the issues about the Trinity and the Kingdom and, and, and all of the things that you and I would term first principles. And we took the message out there and people said you’re wrong.

89. 45:15

    And then as time moved on, we moved into a second stage. I think this was the 1960s and 70s. But again, you can tell me whether that kind of guess is right, where it became less about specific doctrines, not that they were not important, they always have been, but but the focus shifted and it was less about individual right and wrong and more about whether anybody cared at all that religion wasn’t so important anymore because social issues shifted amongst us, below our feet almost.

90. 45:46

    And we looked around and said people don’t care about the immortality of the soul and the Trinity and the devil. They care about, you know, just having a good life and getting on with things. And so we moved from being told you’re wrong to being told who cares.

91. 46:02

    And now I think we’re in a third stage where to hold any kind of definitive faith, anything that you and I might term as truth

92. 46:15

    and defend it against something else that therefore must be error. It’s not just an issue of you’re right and I’m wrong. It isn’t an issue of who cares, do what you want. It’s an issue of you are actively dangerous to hold to those things. Who are you to say that that person can’t be with that other person? Who are you to say that that person doesn’t feel the way they say they feel?

93. 46:45

    Who are you to say that I’m not allowed to do what I want to do? And we’ve moved to a third stage. We’ve gone from you’re wrong to who cares to you’re dangerous and making the right choice. Well, I’m not going to say it’s harder now than it’s ever been because Deuteronomy 2930 say it was pretty hard then. But suddenly the truth needs to be articulated in a way that deals with those issues too.

94. 47:10

    And it’s the great challenge that we face in in this day and age to be able to say the right things, to stand for truth against everything else, and to make the right choice. So may it be, my brothers and sisters, as we thrill together in our week, as we enjoy our fellowship, as we sing and read and pray and meditate together, that we do come closer to the King, close to the great promises that God has laid down to the fathers, and resolve, no matter what comes before us, to choose life. Thank you for.

95. 47:55

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96. 48:23

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97. 48:39

    You can send a suggestion using the Contact Us tab on our website or messages on any of our social media accounts. Thank you for listening. God bless and talk to you next week.