FBC Daily Devotional – July 9, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Friday to you. Here we are at the end of this shorter work week, probably, for most of us anyway, and finishing up the first full week of July, and looking forward to the weekend.

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I trust you are. As I've mentioned many times, I always look forward to the Lord's Day, gathering together with God's people and sharing the

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Word together, singing together, worshiping the Lord together. It's the highlight of the week, and so something to look forward to.

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I hope you are on this Friday, just a couple of days before we gather together, and encourage you to do that.

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This Sunday, I'm having Bible study at 9 .30, and I've been looking in the adult study in our church at the subject of holiness and sanctification.

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What is that? What is it? And why should I be concerned about it? We're dealing with that.

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And then, in the Sunday morning service, I've been preaching through the book of Judges, and after guest speaker last

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Sunday, we're getting back into the book of Judges this week, Judges chapter 3. And then, in the

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Sunday evening service, I've been in the gospel of Mark. So, if you can make it for those services in person,

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I encourage you to do so. Something providentially keeps you from it. You can always watch online, and so that's available for you as well.

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Well, in the book of Deuteronomy, I think I mentioned this to you before, but the book of Deuteronomy came about as Moses is rehearsing to the children of Israel the law,

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God's law. That's what the name Deuteronomy means, second law. And it's a rehearsal of what was given on Mount Sinai about 40 years later, 30 some years, 38 years later.

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The children of Israel are on the east side of the Jordan River. They're about to cross over.

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Moses is going to die before that happens. And before he dies, and before the people go into the land,

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God wants Moses to give this law again, just a reminder of all that he's asked and expects of them.

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And in that giving of the law, here in chapter 28, we read for today, is an interesting exercise that the people are supposed to do.

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They're going to get into the land, and they're going to find this geographical feature with two mountains.

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And mountains, I guess, if you grew up in Colorado with the

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Rocky Mountains or in the northeast with the Green Mountains in Vermont, you know, we were familiar with, these would qualify more as like huge, huge hills, perhaps.

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Well, anyway, there were two of these, Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebel, and they stood opposite one another with a valley in between.

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And the Lord said, divide people up and put half the people on Mount Gerizim and half the people on Mount Ebel.

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And the people on Mount Gerizim, they're supposed to pronounce blessings. The people on Mount Ebel, they're supposed to pronounce curses.

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And here was the idea. The one group is going to announce blessings for obedience.

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The other group is going to pronounce curses for disobedience.

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And the point of this exercise is to remind God's people that there are consequences to how we live.

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There are, whether or not I obey the commandments of the Lord. And, you know, we don't have all of the

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Mosaic law that we have to obey. You know, the sacrifices and the civil law that was required for the governance of the nation of Israel.

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But the moral law is still incumbent upon us. And so many principles of God's commandments are incumbent upon us.

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And there are consequences as to whether or not I live that way. God declares from one mountainside the blessings of obedience.

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Obedience is blessed as my response to God's grace. And that's what it is.

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My response to God's grace is one of loving submission to his word.

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God doesn't want our obedience to earn his grace, to earn his favor.

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He has been gracious to us, those of us who know Christ as our Savior. He has been gracious to us.

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And as a response to that grace, he wants our obedience. And the same was true with the

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Old Testament Israelites. He didn't want them to fulfill these commandments, obey these commandments, in order to earn

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God's favor. They were the recipients of God's favor. These commandments are the ways to live that will please him.

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And out of gratitude for God's grace, they should want to do so, just as we should want to do so.

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Well, God promises blessing for that kind of obedience.

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As I respond to his word with loving submission, I respond to his grace with loving submission to his word.

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The Lord blesses that kind of love -based obedience. And we see that in verses 1 to 14 of chapter 28.

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But then the rest of chapter 28 is a warning, really. If I spurn the love of God, I thumb my nose at it,

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I disregard his wondrous grace, I abuse it by willful, stubborn disobedience, disregarding his word, saying things like,

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I know God's word says that, but I want to do this. This will give me pleasure, rather than what God says. I'm going to do what

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I want to do. Well, if I do that, I can expect heartache.

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I can expect hardship that's going to come from it. This is the point of chapter 28, verses 15 and following.

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The Lord warns his people. I can expect a measure of bondage, and not the freedom that I think

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I'm getting. I crave that freedom from having to do what God wants me to do.

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That's why I disobey. That's why I thumb my nose at his requirements.

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Because I want my freedom. Well, I pursue that, and I find out I end up in bondage when

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I go off doing my own thing. I can expect, with that kind of an attitude, affliction, distress, and misery.

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Because if I'm really one of God's people, he's not going to allow me to enjoy a life of willful disobedience.

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He's not going to do it. Really, if I'm one of God's people, really one of God's people,

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I won't be able to pursue that kind of path of disobedience and enjoy it.

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It isn't going to happen. It's not going to happen. So, my friend, if you have snubbed your nose at God's word, and you don't care anything about it, and you're doing your own thing, thinking you're getting freedom by it, and you feel like,

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I'm perfectly fine. I'm doing just fine. I don't have a worry in the world. I'm enjoying my life of sin and whatever.

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Then the likelihood is you're not really a child of God. And I would implore you, turn in repentance to Christ and trust him.

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If you are a child of Christ, then you know, you know what distress, that decision to disobey

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God, you know what it brings upon you. You know the heartache of it. So, repent of it, turn from it, and don't go there.

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This was the warning that this little exercise was to communicate in the land of Israel.

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Great blessings for obedience. Eh, not so much if you snub your nose at God's word.

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So, let's be encouraged to obey by this today. Thank you,

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Father, for your word, and thank you for its encouragement to find out what you are like, and what you like, and to respond in love to you by living accordingly.

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May we do so. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, well have a good rest of your

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Friday and a wonderful weekend. And I trust especially God will bless you as you gather with his people on the