Deuteronomy 29, Who Are You?

Deuteronomy chapter 29 Hear the word of the Lord These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded

Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab besides the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb and Moses summoned all

Israel and said to them you have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt To Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land the great trials that your eyes saw the signs and those great wonders

But to this day that Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear

I Have led you 40 years in the wilderness Your clothes have not worn out on you and your sandals have not worn off your feet

You have not eaten bread and you have not drunk wine or strong drink that you may know that I am the

Lord your God And when you came to this place Sihon the king of Heshbon and all the king of Bashan came out against us to battle and we defeated them

We took their land and gave it for an inheritance to the Rubenites the Gadites of the half -tribe of the Nassites Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them that you may prosper in all that you do

You are standing today all of you before the Lord your God The heads of your tribes your elders and your officers all the men of Israel your little ones your wives and the sojourners

Who is in your camp from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water?

So that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the Lord your God Which the Lord your God is making with you today that he may establish you today as his people and that he may be your

God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob it is not with you alone

That I am making this sworn covenant But with whoever is standing here with us today before the

Lord our God and with whoever is not here with us today You know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed and you have

Seen their detestable things their idols of wood and stone of silver and gold which were among them

Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is

Turning away today from the Lord your God to go and serve the gods of those nations beware

Lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit One who when he hears the words of this sworn covenant

Blesses himself in his heart saying I shall be safe though. I walk in the stubbornness of my heart

This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike The Lord will not be willing to forgive him

But rather the anger of the Lord in his jealousy will smoke against that man and the curses written in this book

Will settle upon him and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven and the

Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity and accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law and The next generation your children who rise up after you and the foreigner who comes from a far land will say

When they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the Lord has made it sick

The whole land burned out with brimstone and salt Nothing sown and nothing growing where no plant can sprout and overthrow

And overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah Adma and Zeboam Which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath all the nations will say

Why has the Lord done this to this land? What caused the heat of his great anger?

Then people will say is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord the God of their fathers

Which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt and went and served other gods and worshipped them gods

Whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them Therefore the anger of the

Lord was kindled against this land bringing upon it all the curses written in this book and the

Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath and Cast them into another land as they are this day the secret things

Belong to the Lord our God But the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever

That we may do all the words of this law And the

Lord had his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well, who are you?

We're tempted first, I guess to respond with our name. You know, I am John Carpenter I've heard of parents giving their children two first names

One for their first and the other for their middle and then letting them choose when they get a little bit bigger Which they'll be called by Why do you think they do that What's going on in their minds what's going on with parents who think that they shouldn't impose a name on their children or now even a gender

But I don't mean your name. I mean, who are you? You might think well you are whom you've chosen to be you have made

Yourself, you've chosen to be called by whatever name you've chosen to do what you do because you want to do it

You've chosen your family your nation your relationships your roles your work

You even have chosen your gender You believe the modern slogan you can do whatever you set your mind to do.

And so you have become who you want to be Recently a

Christian philosopher named Karl Truman published an interesting book that I have to admit I haven't read it yet, but I've heard a lot about the rise of the modern self in which he argues that the sexual revolution which

Christians are often concerned about the sexual revolution is merely a symptom of the cultural assumption that our

Identities are endlessly pliable They feel like liquid that we can pour ourselves into any container that we choose

We can make ourselves be Whatever we want to be the idea that anyone or anything outside of us would limit us is intolerable today individuality must be

Expressed so what he calls it Expressive individualism and so we can now live he says this is a modern opinion live

Unencumbered by any restraint that would limit the fulfillment of my desires

So, who are you? Well, the modern Western culture says anything you want to be

I am whom I choose to be. I want to be a woman even if I have a

Y chromosome in every cell in my body and have everything that anatomy gives to Males and we're all supposed to affirm that expressive individualism now put like that We see the problems with it particularly more conservative

Christians who say wait But the attitude has really been around for a long time even if it's just recently started to be applied to sexual identity

How many times have you heard? You could do anything you set your mind to There's posters with that on it.

I mean most of our schools have some variation of that all over the place We've had generations of kids are now raised in the stew of such slogans now

You do you? Live your truth It's supposedly good advice these days is don't let anyone tell you that you can't be anything you dream to be

And of course, there's pseudo Christian Variations of the same idea. I feel

God has called me to And the assumption is that no one has the right to say

Maybe not I'm going to be a missionary to China Wait, but you can't speak

Mandarin you hate rice and you refuse to take your shoes off at the door. Never mind I'm gonna be a missionary to China and then we're supposed to give such a person our money in order to go

There are women who insist that they are called to be pastors Who are you to tell them any different? It gets harder.

There are men who plainly have no gift for public speaking and yet they insist that they are called

To preach are you gonna tell them? No, no. No, that's not your calling What makes them think that they can do anything?

They set their mind to no matter what Scripture says no matter whether or not they have a gift to do it

What makes people think that they can do something just because they want to do it.

I would like to play in the NBA It pays very well. I and I can

I think I can do the Endurance part I I'm gonna play in the

NBA even at age 56 Even though I had no basketball skills, even when I was young and now

I have a worn -out knee I'm gonna set my mind for starting for the LA Lakers. I'm gonna be there side -by -side with LeBron James I'm gonna get him to the finals me

John Carpenter, and I want you to affirm that my expressive individualism I want you to say go for it

John. You could do anything you set their mind to do You say no, if not, why not what makes people think they could do something just because they want to do it

You could do anything you set your mind to No, you can't.

Oh Maybe in the conservative kind of ghetto where we're holding out against the latest cultural onslaughts

They'll scorn the idea of a male who thinks he can become a female or vice versa They ridiculed that kind of expressive individualism, but they still think for themselves that they can

Become whoever else They want to be they can be a preacher even if they can't speak effectively in front of more than one person

They can be a singer even if they're perpetually off -key like me They know they can they know they can be these things because they feel it deep down That's what they want to do.

And what higher authority is there than that? What else defines us?

What else shows us who we are than our own desires Than our own will who are you?

Well, we see that here in Deuteronomy chapter 29 in four parts First you are a or should be a seer you are a

Swearer that is swear to a covenant. You are a safety seeker

But be careful and finally you are a sharer not a speculator and The first nine verses we are to be seers would be the people who who see

What God has done who see God's hand at work in verse one. These are the words of The Covenant may be referring back to chapter 28 or maybe to the entire book of Deuteronomy Either way, we see that our identity who we are is described by our covenant with God our covenant makes us

We are not whoever we set our mind on being we are who we are in Relationship to God as described by his covenant.

We are who he has set his mind for us to be Now remember a covenant is a formal relationship.

We can live under that That relationship that God has given to us

We can live under it and we get the blessings described in the first part of chapter 28 Blessed when we go out and blessed when we come in Exiting and entering and everything in between or we can try to express our individualism

Be who we set our mind on being and be cursed. I wonder

When we're eating our babies like in chapter 28 Will we will it dawn on us that we made a mistake somewhere along the way?

Or maybe here in our culture when our babies have grown a little bit and They're shooting us in our schools.

Well, we stop and say wait we did something wrong in this society What sign will it take?

to open our eyes Or do you see the problem? Are you still asking yourself? What do you mean? I can't be anything

I want to be if it's not my will my desire making me Determining my identity then then who does

Oh God, of course, it was about okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the that's the easy game That's a Sunday school answer. But but I know what

God made me by what I want to do Who I want to be God put that feeling in my heart.

My feelings express my God -given identity. Well, maybe That can be the first step to finding your identity or it could be just your expressive individualism

It could be that you are using God talk Pietism I feel

God has called me to be a missionary to China Even though I can't learn Mandarin. I hate rice and I won't take my shoes off of the door

But to cover using that talk about God to cover your expressive individualism that your claim to be a preacher or a singer or a pastor or missionary is is as rebellious

Just as much expressive individualism as other people claiming that they are of the other sex

Your desires of what to be your feelings about who you are are

Not the Supreme Court of who you really are You're in a covenant with God in and his people now, do they see?

The gifts and the call do they see that identity? Who are you

You're supposed to be a a seer that is someone who sees and not just recognize sights with your eyes

Like you see a man and a woman or stars, but that you see you understand what it means

You see a man or a woman and you see not just gender supposedly a social construct But you see something

God created you see the stars and you see God's glory in verse 2 Moses tells Israel that they have seen all that the

Lord did Before your eyes notice that in verse 2 notice this strange emphasis in those first few verses

You've seen usually we would just say you've seen but he said you've seen with your eyes What God did in the land of Egypt then in verse 3 notice the emphasis you've seen the great trials that your eyes

Saw once he said your eyes, of course your eyes saw them. Well, they saw signs and wonders

They saw miracles, but the problem is they only saw them with their physical eyes notice verse 4 but to this day

The Lord has not given you art Lord has not given you a heart to understand our eyes to see or ears to hear

It's a key verse. They're interesting verse. I never seen it before except for the past two weeks the

Lord has not given you a Heart to understand our eyes to see our ears to hear they saw

It's all these miracles these plagues these you know quails coming out of nowhere water from rocks

They saw but they didn't see and then the Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter 13 verse 13 seeing

They did not see What didn't they see? They didn't say

God. It is he is glory. I didn't see his holiness his magnificence his kingdom. They saw sights

They saw amazing sights But they didn't see what they they meant

Why didn't they see Here we get to our key idea because our instinct even my reflex you think why didn't

I say well They didn't see because they closed their eyes Right by answering like that. We show how soaked we are in this philosophy of expressive individual

Individualism that I create my own identity by choosing to be who I want to be that my choices make me who

I am by assuming that my choices is ultimate and Theology it's at least as old as Arminian ism

It's just about 400 years ago or before that in Pelagian ism was like twelve hundred fifteen hundred years ago

Well, the ultimate choice is ours God chooses us

Because we we think often God chooses us because he looks ahead in time and he sees us choose him

So it's our choice That creates God's choice they say so it's our choice.

That is the ultimate Choice that our choice is ultimately in control of who we are

It's expressive individualism applied to our identity as God's people

To why we're God's people or not And so we should be surprised if that's what we're teaching That other people take that same assumption and apply it to their sexual identity, but but why don't they see here?

Why don't they say according to this passage? Well verse 4 Moses says plainly in verse 4

Right there right here is he tells us in a way that knocks the foundation out from our

Expressive individualism you've seen what God did he tells him in the Exodus You've seen the signs and the wonders the miracles.

Some people think that if only they could have Only we got miracles people miraculously healed or Whatever spectacular miracle that we could do that then would people then people would believe they see a miracle

They would believe for sure. They couldn't deny it Yeah, they would they definitely would they still wouldn't believe even if they saw miracles

Even if someone was raised from the dead People are without God's grace darkened in their understanding says in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 17 darkened in Their understanding they can see things with their eyes, but they can't understand what they mean

They can't see even if they can see with their eyes. So doing a miracle for them is like doing a

Miracle in front of a blind person. I just created enough bread to feed 5 ,000 people.

Can't you see? No, they can't They're blind in their hearts, even if their vision is 20 -20 here these people in verses 5 to 8 besides Seeing the miracles in Egypt when they were young I Have seen all their lives that they were led through the desert

They saw that their clothes didn't wear out that the sandals are somehow still holding together. They've seen manna provided every day

That's how they got their sustenance from the manna. They've seen water come out of Springing up from rocks. They've had these miracles done right in front of them in verse 6

So that here's the here's the purpose for those miracles that they I saw

So that you may know that I am the Lord your God That's what they should have seen

They just recently saw the Lord give them a miraculous victory over two kingdoms and yet they still didn't really see it

Seeing they did not see understand every human being is blind is hard Unable to see

God even when the heavens declare his glory even when miracles are done right in front of them before their eyes and Tell God first gives them eyes to see

They don't see any of that Why don't they see Well the answer in verse 4

Is not because of them They don't see yet He says because God has not yet given them eyes to see unless God does that They remain darkened in their understanding.

They remain blind Oblivious no matter what happens in front of their physical eyes their identity as seers

Depends on God giving graciously them eyes to see our identity as people who see

God at work Who believe in Jesus? depends not ultimately on our will

Our choosing, you know, I'm gonna pour myself into the container of a believer. I'm gonna make myself a believer by my decisions

No, that's not what it depends on. It depends on God's mercy God has to give us the new heart the seeing eyes the hearing ears

Our identity depends completely on God Who are you

Are you a Swearer that is you someone who has made a commitment sworn to a covenant

People today their minds filled with slogans about how they can be whoever they set their mind on being Hate to be tied down To commitments.

This is one of the features of modern particularly American culture They just hate to be tied down to some kind of commitment

If you go online, you can find professed Christians claiming often hysterically That a church asking you to agree to a covenant like we

Decided earlier that that's a sign of a cult It's a bit it's abusive because it's restraining you and we cannot tolerate

Anything outside of us restraining us people full of expressive individualism would coil at the idea of being restricted

Even even by a commitment that they swore to earlier Here in verses 10 to 15.

The Lord calls his people to swear To a covenant to be covenant keepers not just consumers

Expressing their individualism You're all here all these people together all of Israel Moses says in verse 12

So that this is the purpose why they're assembled that you may enter into the sworn

Notice that notice that in verse 12 the sworn modifying covenant

That they were called to make an oath there's swear to a commitment the sworn covenant of the Lord your God The individualists will read that and think okay.

I'm gonna swear a commitment to the Lord, but it's just me and God Right. There's two only two sets of footprints in the sand their feelings their expressive individualism defined for them

What it means to be in a covenant with the Lord, they don't swear to anything outside of their own minds

But that's exactly What Moses here is is telling the people of Israel to do swear to something

Outside of you they are swearing that is making an intentional pledge to this covenant, which is spelled out here in Deuteronomy enter into a sworn covenant expressive individualists rebel against covenants because they can't tolerate anything outside of them impinging on their

Self -identity, which they might change tomorrow They wanted to remain free to pour themselves into another container if they feel like it

And so the idea of something outside of them like a covenant like like the needs of a body anything restraining their choices is

Intolerable here Moses calls us to enter into a sworn covenant. So that in verse 13

God may establish you today as his People your identity as God's people

Depends on his covenant with you So swear to it

Now something the Israelites here were God's people simply because because of their ancestry that's kind of inherited it

They were born Israelites and that makes them one of God's people But here we see that that's not true to be one of God's people even in the

Old Testament. You need to be in a sworn Covenant with him to commit to him and he defines

What that covenant means he hands it to you and you sign it with your life So that in verse 13, this is the purpose

You are called to swear this covenant that he may be your God as he promised you otherwise

If you're not gonna swear the covenant you kind of do your own thing Maybe you'll fool yourself, but you know my feelings define the covenant for me not something outside of me

But otherwise if that's the way you're gonna be Just being whatever you want to be maybe whatever sex you want to be whatever part of the body you want to be then

It's you who is your own God? It's not it's not the Lord. It's you your feelings

Your expressive individualism that that is really your God if you want him to be your

God You have to swear to his covenant and that his covenant define you

Well, the covenant he says in verse 15 is not only with us with all the Israelites assembled here

But with whoever you notice that Interesting idea coming here in the

Old Testament. Whoever is not here today Well, you know all Israel is there what does he say whoever's not here today

What's like Jesus say said to his Jewish disciples in John chapter 10 verse 16 Okay, I've assembled you he says but I have other sheep

Who are not of this Jewish fold and I'm gonna go out and get them and here the covenant is not just with ethnic

Israelites, but with all God's people and he's calling them all Calling you if you're one of his people

Just swear to him Let his covenant answer that question

Who are you? Who are you? third you are a safety seeker, but be careful be careful of the dangers of safety and Verses 16 to 28.

We see the people by nature. We see that people by nature seek safety

Including safety from God. They've they've seen in chapter 28 Remember all those curses so long about four times longer curses than blessings that they've seen there that outside of Christ God is terrible and they want to be safe from that terribleness

They've heard that there is judgment that there is hell. There's curses grievous and lasting and they want to be safe from them

Now many people probably most people are willing to give up a little something For safety, maybe some money some time

Even some of their own identity. They'll say okay. I say I'm a believer I'll say I'm a Christian I belong to that religion or that church or or say that they belong to God to Jesus there

They're willing to give up some things for the promise of Safety like you might be willing to pay for life insurance.

I'm willing to give up some money for some assurance That your family will be taken care of or in case your your house burns down You're willing to give up some things for that aren't you for the assurance of safety protection coverage?

So too people will seek safety from God But they're not seeking the kingdom of God Here starting verse 16, you know what

God he says, you know what God took us out of Took us out of slavery Took us out of slavery to sin

You know what the world around us is like Little idols serving themselves with that what

Moses here calls detestable things as their idols in verse 17 You you know all that that's where you've come from So because of that beware be careful in verse 18

Be careful that no one among you has a heart that turns away from God and that begins to seek

Those detestable things those other things Maybe sexual immorality maybe living for money serving mammon covetousness

Living above all this for wealth, which is idolatry Maybe living for ego having to be the big man rather than being part of the body being who

I choose to be Unencumbered by anything outside my mind beware

Beware That desire for something else first instead of for God that desire for pleasure for success for prominence for doing what

I want to do expressive individualism is a he calls it a root of bitterness this phrase occurs later in the book of Hebrews and often

Christians today kind of Psychologize that in the way they interpret it They make it to be you're bitter at something

Someone has done something bad to you and you harbor unforgiveness and you need to get rid of that by forgiving Here, it's totally different than that The root of bitterness is a root in your heart that bears bitter fruit and that root

Inclines you toward idols and today that could be the idol of money Immorality of ego, but anything that takes you away from the

Lord Loving him first now you can mow down the stalk You can throw away the fruit

But if you don't deal with the root Seeking first something else besides the kingdom of God.

It will sprout again. It'll come out in some way and There'll be more poisonous and more bitter fruit.

The root in our heart has to be dug up The bitter root will bring on us the curses the disaster the judgments that we saw last week in chapter 28

But here's a trick people play Particularly religious people Especially the expressive individualists who think that they can make themselves into anything

They want to be that they can be they can be greedy people. They think they can be living for the dollar They can be sexually immoral people or they can be egotistical people too proud to submit to the to the body

They think they can Hold on to those sins Maybe make them look a little respectable

They can fool God or maybe they can pay him off with a little religion They can fool

God into giving them safety while in their heart They're still greedy or lustful or arrogant

They think they can use religion. They can use the Covenant to get God to confer his protection on them while in their heart

They're still not seeking him first Remembers Deuteronomy tells us to love the Lord your God with all your heart and your mind and your strengths and here's people

We're not gonna do that. They're gonna love their money. They're gonna love whatever else instead of the

Lord and somehow They think they can cover that up with a little religion and here

God is saying be careful of that root that out They are safety seekers

Not kingdom of God seekers and unless God gives us a new heart

That's the way we all are going to be That's the way all religious people are that's what they're being religious for that's why they're going to church and Praying and getting baptized and giving money and putting plaques with Bible verses on their walls

They're not seeking God to rule their lives They're seeking the protection his covenant provides like we ask an insurance company to cover us

Here God says beware of that be careful beware of the dangers of safety

In verse 19 the one who hears the words of this covenant and he blesses himself notice that in verse 19

He blesses himself. He says good things about himself Assures himself that he's okay that he has

God taking care of He's paid his premiums the one who who does that and says to himself.

I Shall be safe Do I walk in the stubbornness of my heart? Others I'm not gonna change my sin what

I love. I'm gonna keep living the same way, but I'm safe because I did this religious thing I kept chasing the dollars or the skirts or my dream to be whoever

I Want to be that person that safety seeker instead of the kingdom of God seeker that person

God says here will be swept away in the judgment in verse 20 The Lord will not be willing to forgive him.

He used God. He used God's covenant as an excuse to stay in sin

But rather God says but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will will smoke against that man

The curses we read last week will settle upon him The Lord will blot out his name from under heaven the safety seekers

Won't be safe notice here the balance between the individuals and The community the parts and the whole first in verse 21 the one who who tries to use

God's promises to feel safe You know, he's he's heard the promise.

He's said the prayer He's gotten baptized and he thinks that makes me safe to continue in sin. He's using

God's promises to stay in his sin Keeping his idols such a person

Thinks he's safe because of his religion Such a safety seeker said the verse 21

Will be singled out The Lord will single him out for calamity and accordance with all the curses of The Covenant all those curses we read about last week in chapter 28.

The Lord will single him out Individuals will be held responsible for their sin Now while we often criticize individualism because we live in a hyper individualistic culture in the end

We believe that we will each individually stand before God we either are justified through our individual faith in Christ Not through mama's faith

Not through daddy's faith Not because of the church's faith We the justified through our individual faith or we are held individually responsible for our sin

We believe in individual responsibility but It also shows us here in another individual sin affects me affects you

Remember the command in verse 18 You talk to dust beware lest there be among you

Among your people in your assembly a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit

Beware the roots and other members of the body The fruit can affect the whole

Sin is not isolated is self -contained a little yeast infects the whole lump of dough

That's why the judgment that comes from the bitter fruit at the end of verse 19. He says sweeps away

Notice that First he said he'll single out The one who seeks safety to use

God's covenant to cover his sin and feel safe. He'll single him out But it did at the end of verse 19

When the one person sin that fruit bears that that root bears bitter fruit He'll sweep away all moist that is alive

Like a tree that is moist and green and dry alike the alive and the dead so we all better Be careful

Now the old -time religion is about conferring assurance of salvation You say this prayer or you get this baptism and then we'll assure you

That you're safe from God's judgment no matter how you live after that Right.

That's the exchange many people around us in this culture have gone through They think they've got assurance safety from God because they did some religious thing

They said the repeat after me prayer or they got baptized. Whatever. God's covenant. The gospel is different from that It's about making disciples that is people with new hearts who tear out the roots that bear bitter fruit

That bitter fruit of seeking to live for other things Giving false assurance to people that is telling people you're safe now

You're safe from God's judgment Because you you you repeated that repeat after me prayer you are you got baptized?

Whatever you're safe from God's judgment even if you haven't done dug out the bitter poisonous roots giving false assurance is a hindrance to the gospel

Through evangelism trying to really reach those people Jonathan Edwards the great Puritan said that true conversion is a rare thing but that men are brought off from a false hope of conversion after they were once settled and Established in it.

In other words settle and established in a hope of that They were really saved and have continued in it for some time

Is much more rare such people will be judged as Described in verses 20 to 28 knows how he dwells on that on the judgment that is coming people.

He says people like upcoming generations They will look at them and say

I Don't want to be like them Look what the Lord did here to their land maybe now to their life.

I don't want to be like them They've destroyed they've been destroyed and they've been destroyed in verse 25 because they abandoned the

Covenant They thought that they could make their relationship with God serve their will their expressive individualism serve themselves

Keep them safe from God's judgment while they continued in sin Therefore in verse 27 because of their self -will the anger of the

Lord was Kindled it caught fire judgment came

Judgment they thought that they were safe from but they weren't So in verse 28 because they wouldn't uproot that bitter poisonous

Root that love of money or a pleasure Overall or of ego because they wouldn't uproot that bitterness

The Lord uproots them Well finally in that last verse

Who are you? Are you a sharer? Or a speculator

You share the truths Share them with God's people that have been revealed. They've been uncovered

Has that been shared with you? You can see them Because God has given you a heart to understand

He's has given you eyes to see and ears to hear do you share those uncovered truths with other of God's people?

You have and you hold them in Common you share them and Then you share as in teaching them passing them down to your children or to other people's children the next generation

Do you share what has been revealed? Or do you prefer speculating? about secret things about abstract theology

Maybe the the order of God's decrees and eternity past anyone want to debate that let's get together after the service and debate

Superlapsarianism or is it ever lapsarianism or is it Molinism? debates About the maybe debates about the end times

But that's not so much a reform thing reform people do other kinds of debates from people are bad about loving to speculate about theology

Rather than sharing what has been revealed. It's not the Bible. Is it big enough? It's enough here to keep you busy

What's been revealed? Speculation though about the secret things things that you won't even know the answer to No matter how long you read or you think about it how many debates you go through you're still gonna

Speculation is a way of avoiding what we're to do And so it's really just another fruit of Expressive individualism.

I'm gonna do what I want to do. I'll think about what I want to think about and Debate endlessly about it instead of doing what

I'm told to do Here finally in this chapter. We're told do

Don't speculate Well, who are you? If you think you can you can be whoever set your mind on being you've missed the point

You know You're the creature Not the Creator You're made to be in a covenant

You're made to be one of his people and he defines What you are the

Creator does and what you should do he's given you signs and wonders and creation and the gospel about who he is and Who you are in relation to him.

He's disclosed truths to you He's disclosed enough already to keep you busy.

No need to spend your time speculating. Can you see them? Well, if so, that's only because the

Lord gave you Graciously the ability to see he gave you a new heart

So that you could understand now Do you still have bitter roots in your in your life in your heart?

They're attempting you to use God for cover From judgment while still living for whatever idol catches your eye the money

God The sex God the ego God, maybe that root has it sprouted yet You look good enough so far.

Maybe as it sprouted yet, but you need to do what you can now to root it out

We all need to do what we can to help each other Root out says poisonous roots or we'll all be swept away

That's why he called us to covenant Together. Can you see what

God has done? Can you see that God was at work in Christ on the cross?

Reconciling you to himself so that he wouldn't have to curse you if you can

If you can see that Thank him He gave you that sight.

Thank him by doing What he's revealed if you can't see that yet Ask him