True Religion in the Promised Land

Thank you for opening your eyes. Now I want you to close them

again for just a minute and reflect on this question.

Picture a Christian hero, just for a minute.

In your mind's eye, what is a Christian hero?

A man or woman of God? What do they look like?

How do they live and what kinds of things are they

accomplishing? And you can open them.

And I think Scripture is going to paint a portrait for us this

morning. What our hero, what our heroes

and role models looks like is written for us in the word of

God. They don't look like what we

think they will look like. And we'll take you through a

survey of the of the people that Scripture exalts.

There's a woman named Tabitha, maybe you don't even know that

name, and she's ministering in Joppa.

And she's described as full of good works and charity.

In Acts 936, she makes clothes for widows.

David protects the disabled and politically vulnerable.

Mephibosheth Mephibosheth. Elijah provides for a single

mother and her son Philip, under the inspiration of the Holy

Spirit, has led to and evangelizes and baptizes A

eunuch. Paul defends on this must the

slave, and he advocates that he be received as a son and not as

a slave. Paul organizes a Relief Fund for

the poor in Jerusalem. Boaz marries the poor widow

Ruth. Jesus praises work done by the

prophets among foreign widows and lepers.

And you come to Jesus invents his own illustration.

And what does he want to get across when he says this is what

it looks like to love your neighbor as yourself?

He invents a story of a man, a Samaritan, who goes and binds up

the wombs of a man who fell among robbers.

So here I think you begin to get this picture.

What binds all of these passages together is that the Bible is

exalting, caring for vulnerable individuals in our communities.

That is defined as those who are experiencing legitimate needs

that are going unmet. And all these categories belong

together because these actions reveal through the heart of

Jesus Christ, through the heart of the Scriptures, something

about God himself. And what that is, is that God is

impartial. God is impartial and he takes no

bribe as an attribute of God. We don't think about this very

often. We think of God as holy, and

he's loving and he's just, and we think he's all powerful and

he's omnipresent and we think through these things.

But he's also impartial. And the Bible makes much of his

impartiality. As as you come through Scripture

and you read the story of Scripture at every major point

in redemptive history, the Bible reminds you that God is

impartial. It it starts in Job, what many

people believe is the earliest book of the Bible written.

Job starts by saying he shows no partiality to Princess nor

regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work

of his hands. Moses, when he's giving the law

says this to us. To them you shall see no

injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the

poor or defer to the great. James says the same thing in

that that hinge verse, that critical verse in James 127

where he says this is what pure and undefiled religion looks

like to care for who orphans and widows and their affliction, to

keep oneself unstained from the world.

The very next verse chapter 2 verse 1, he says brothers show

no partiality as you hold to the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ

and salvation when it comes to the Gentiles for the first time,

a a watershed moment in redemptive history, the Holy

Spirit comes on them. They begin to to show the same

signs, the same salvation and Peter exclaims truly now I

understand that God shows no partiality and if you were to

walk out the West doors of this church and look at the

cornerstone of the church chiseled in stone, you would see

Romans 211. God is no respecter of persons.

The ESV translated translates that.

God shows no partiality. And so it's no surprise that

when you're in Deuteronomy 9 and 10, God's people are on the cusp

of the Promised Land. It's another watershed moment in

redemptive history. What does God want to show you?

He is impartial. And the promises and the

blessings of God and the Promised Land are not for the

rich only. They're not for the it's for

everybody. His promises and his covenant

are to be enjoyed by everyone indiscriminately.

The good things for all his people and turn to Deuteronomy

10/20/12 to 22. This is our passage and he takes

the concept of the impartiality of God and he asks Israel to to

see it played out in all of the context of the promised land.

He says you can order your society after this, and he uses

it as an opportunity to expose their hearts and their lives and

to show Israel how woefully short they're, they're coming in

this issue. When God is impartial and they

examine their own hearts, they fall short.

And so he takes this concept of a Christian hero and he says,

today you're crossing this threshold and this is what your

heart should look like. This is what your society should

look like. Let's read it together.

Deuteronomy 1012 to 22 Moses in preaching the sermon says, and

now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you?

But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love

him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with

all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the

Lord, which I'm commanding to you today for your good.

Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of

heavens, the earth and all that's in it.

Yet the Lord has set his heart and love on your Father's and

chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as

you are to this day. Circumcise therefore the

foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of Lords, the

great, the mighty, and the awesome.

God who is not partial and takes no bribe.

He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and

loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the

land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your

God. You shall serve him and hold

fast to him and by his name you shall swear he is your praise.

He is your God who has done for you these great and terrifying

things that your eyes have seen. Your father's went down into

Egypt, 70 persons. And now the Lord your God has

made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

So God's trying to to help Israel to understand that

they're they're coming into the promised land.

They're coming into this covenant has nothing to do with

their righteousness and he actually takes pains kind of

hilariously to make sure they understand this had nothing to

do with you and everything to do with me.

And he shows with rehearsing this history of Chapter 9.

We're in really in in Deuteronomy 9 and 10 today.

Last week we were in verse 8. Chapter 9 is all about

manifesting to them. You guys are faithless.

You're stubborn, you're you're stiff necked, your recalcitrant,

you're rebellious. Look back, turn with me to

Deuteronomy 9, verse 6 and you'll see it.

Deuteronomy 9:6

Know therefore that the Lord your God is not giving you this

good land to possess because of your righteousness.

I think he phrases it that way for a reason.

You're not here because of your righteousness.

And then he goes on and says, for you're a stubborn people.

So it's not because of your righteousness.

And you could have said, OK, Lord, and he says, and and

you're stubborn. I think, well, you didn't have

to say that. I think that's implied.

You need you to understand it's not you.

Go down to verse 13. I've seen this people and

behold, it's a stubborn people. Verse 27 do not regard the

stubbornness of this people or the wickedness of their sin.

And he proves it. Why is Deuteronomy 9 there

before chapter 10? Because he's showing them

historically this has been their life.

It starts at Sinai. Here's this is what the chapter,

just to summarize the chapter, he goes back and he shows the

history beginning on the mountain, beginning at Sinai.

And he says, do you remember how you broke the first 3

commandments before Moses could even come down from the

mountain? Do you guys understand that how

stubborn and stiff necked you were the kind of people that

God's chosen. And then he goes into, he

recalls Tabara and and Numbers 11 where the people complain so

much that God gets frustrated and he brings fire on the

outskirts of the city. And then he goes to NASA, which

was recorded in Exodus 17, where the people claim that Moses LED

them out of Egypt to die and thirst in the desert.

And then he goes to Kibrath Hatava, Numbers 11, where the

people complained. They got sick of his mana and

they said that they wish that they were in Egypt where the

food was better. And then the key rehearses

Kadesh Barnia, which was in numbers 13, you remember, they

come to the promised land and they send out the spies and the

people are big and the cities are fortified and they come back

faithless and grumbling and fearful and complaining.

And so he's, he's showing you stubbornness has been their way

of life for 40 years. When you come to Chapter 9,

verse 1, he says, and now today you're going to cross over this

threshold and you will no longer live like that.

So there's a a wall they're hitting and he's saying now is

the time for change. Today is the time for change.

It's a new location. It's the promised land.

Today you're going to swear yourself to me today you're

going to live by my covenant. And so immediately after

rehearsing this history, the very next verse is our passage,

chapter 10, verse 12. And he says, this is what's

going to characterize your new way of life.

This is how a Christian lives. So a person of God lives.

And he says in verse 12, and now Israel, what does the Lord your

God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God,

to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God

with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the

commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you

today for your good. These five things, you're going

to fear the Lord, you're going to love him, you're going to

walk in his ways, you're going to serve him, you're going to

keep his commandments. This isn't the first time we've

seen these five. It's not the last time.

These are the themes of Deuteronomy, but from a unique

perspective, reminding ourselves of them today.

There's a commentator named Christopher Wright who says that

in all of these verbs, there's overlap, but they're they're

synonymous. They're they're saying the same

thing. He shows kind of the nuance

enemy, He says fear to fear the Lord is to have a, a basic

respect and reverence for the covenant Lord and his promises.

And he goes on, he says, and to walk.

There's a concept in Judaism called the imitatio day.

You could actually imitate God. And so you can.

It's the imitation of Christ, the imitation of God.

You said you imitate him. It's the embodiment of the whole

Old Testament ethic. And then you love him.

It's to have an express covenant loyalty and obedience that are

flowing from gratitude for what he's done.

And then you serve him. And he says serving is virtually

synonymous with loving him, except that he adds the metaphor

of he bought you, you are a servant of God and you belong to

him. And then he says you keep his

commandments. You can give careful,

conscientious, constant attention to the terms and

stipulations of the covenant relationship.

This is all of your life and devotion to God.

That's what these these few verses are saying.

And and so we as readers are meant to see the chasm against

the the present manner of life of Israel as rehearsed in

Chapter 9 with the high standard that they're called to in

chapter 10. And you see, it's night and day.

And so he says no more, no more Deuteronomy 10/12 and now.

And that marks the transition from all this history, Chapter 9

to 1011 to the lesson that we're supposed to learn from the

history, the moral and religious lesson that's to be drawn from

it. And the text demonstrates that

there's a certain logic reflecting even a certain drama

that comes in the text. And it goes like this verse 14.

God is sovereign and he's glorious.

And then you come into verse 15 and he's also gracious and he's

loving and he's merciful, but Israel is stubborn and

rebellious. And So what?

What happens when those two things meet?

He says there's got to be a heart change.

There has to be a change in the part of God's people, which is

where verse 16 comes. The great command of this

circumcise your heart. It's not.

The problem is not with God. The problem is with you.

Circumcise your heart. Something has to be cut off.

Be no longer stubborn. You've been stubborn to this

point. Be no longer stubborn in the

structure of the passage. If we were to draw one and

you're taking notes, you want to kind of have something to kind

of comprehend this passage. There's there's a cycle.

You see it in verses 14 and 15 and 16 where it brings this

message with this application. And then he repeats the cycle

again for emphasis, adding to it.

And these verses are synonymous with each other.

And then you have 17 and 18 and 19.

And so there's these two cycles and it begins in verse 14.

The cycle begins with revelation and a declaration of who God is,

and this is really all God reveals himself to us.

This is the source of all of our obligation and all of our

ethics. It's we have a God who reveals

himself and there's a statement of theology proper in verse 14.

It says, behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the

heaven of heavens and the earth and all that is in it.

As Moses is grounding these commandments to you, circumcise

your heart, He's grounding it in authority.

I have the authority to do this. I am the owner of heaven and and

earth and everything that's in it.

And you belong to me. And so he commands them to

change their heart and he puts it in this unrivaled

sovereignty. Heaven and heavens belong to

him, the earth, that is all and all that is in it.

And then he moves into verse 15. The cycle moves from the

sovereignty of God to his affections, meaning what it what

he loves. What does God love?

Verse 15? Yet the Lord set his heart and

love on your Father's and chose their offspring after them, you

above all peoples, as you are to this day.

So he grounds this command and his sovereignty, and then he

grounds his command and his love.

He says, yeah, I get to command you as your God, whether you

should go to the right or to the left, but I also love you.

And so here's sovereignty with love, absolute sovereignty and

dominion with unconditional love.

And because he carries authority and because he loves them, the

confrontation happens. Moses commands in verse 16.

This is the application to you, the take away, the purpose for

revealing this. He says be no longer stubborn

and circumcise your heart. And circumcision is a, is a

metaphor that that runs in so many directions and it teaches

so many things, but not least of all that something has to be cut

off from you in order for you to truly to belong to God.

If your heart's going to truly belong to God, something has to

be cut off. There's something wrong in your

heart. And so we ask, how can a man

who's not righteous become righteous?

How can an unjust woman just become just?

How can a stubborn man or a stubborn husband become no

longer stubborn? And Jeremiah asked the question

this way. Can the Ethiopian change his

skin? Yes, it rhetorically.

Can a leopard change its spots? What's the answer?

Neither can one who is accustomed to doing evil do

good. And so we know.

We all know the process of circumcision.

If you don't know, ask your parents.

We understand this process is somewhat embarrassing process,

somewhat painful process. But how do you circumcise your

heart? And Romans 229 gives the answer.

Circumcision was never about circumcision of the flesh.

It always reflected A deeper circumcision is about the heart.

This is what Paul says in Romans 2.

Circumcision is a matter of the heart.

How can you circumcise your heart?

By the Spirit, Not by the letter.

You can't circumcise your heart. This is something you rely on

God's Holy Spirit to do. It's by the Spirit, not by the

letter. By the Spirit, the Ethiopian can

change his skin and the leopard can change his spots.

The evil person can become righteous, but he says it's not

your righteousness that by any of this was accomplished.

It's not your uprightness of heart.

By God's Spirit, it's possible. Amen.

And so whose righteousness is it that's accomplishing these

things? Go back to Romans 9, verse 4.

Romans 9:4

This is, he makes this a point and he hits it over and over and

over. Verse 4, do not say in your

heart, it's because of my righteousness that the Lord has

brought me into this land to possess.

Chapter 9, verse 5, not because of your righteousness or the

uprightness of your heart. Verse 6 Know therefore that the

Lord your God's not giving you this good land because of your

righteousness, for you're a stubborn people.

It's because of God's righteousness.

It doesn't say that here, but we go to the new test and we see

it's it's because of Christ's righteousness, because of what

he accomplished is the basis of his blessings and promises.

And we see this is where the power to live a Christian life

comes from. How do you become a Christian

hero and a role model and embody these things?

It's by the power of the Spirit, it's Christ's righteousness as

he circumcises your heart, He takes away your heart of stone,

replaces it with the heart of flesh, and then guess what, you

become righteous and you can deal righteously.

And Moses wants to stress the point, so he makes it again.

We have the cycle a second time. It begins in verse 17.

And I have to admit, these are some of my favorite verses in

the Bible, maybe my favorite verses in the Bible.

When we were doing our our dissertations, it was learning

about Christ and the vulnerable. This was the premiere.

This was chapter 1 for me, Deuteronomy 10/17 to 19.

It summarizes our responsibility and you see the cycle.

It's the second version of the cycle, verse 17.

God is sovereign and glorious. You can read it with me, says

for the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of Lords, the

great one, the mighty one, the awesome God.

And this is the Old Testament foundation for Jesus Christ

titles in the New Testament when he's called King of kings and

Lord of Lords. So here it's saying Yahweh is

God of gods and Lord of Lords, the New Testament says, and that

is Jesus Christ. So all the world belongs to him.

This is his title. He's the great, the mighty, the

awesome one. This is theology proper, pure

theology proper. And he moves on, but beyond his

sovereignty and his, his glorious nature.

And now he moves to his affections again.

He's merciful and he's loving, which is verse 18.

He continues who is impartial and takes no bribe.

He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and he

loves the sojourner giving him food and clothing.

So he says God loves. What does he love?

What is his affection for? He loves the orphan, he loves

the widow, he loves the foreigner and then the demand to

us comes because of who he is. And with this command he gives a

qualification for what it means to have a circumcised heart.

What does your life look like if your heart has become

circumcised? It and he says here it means to

image God's loving kindness to imitate him.

Verse 19 love the orphan, love the widow, love the sojourner,

for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

If you want to know what a Christian hero looks like, it's

one who images God's loving kindness on the earth.

It's one who follows in the righteousness of Jesus Christ

and in his mercy and in his passions.

And as you see this, I want to stop too and show you a

theological point. Because mixed in this he says he

executes justice for the fatherless.

And when we're looking at this concept of justice theologically

in Scripture, that that word means one of two things, and you

see them both going on in this passage.

We talk about biblical justice. There's two categories.

The first one you can write down is what we would call

retributive justice, retribution or rectifying justice.

I think when we think of justice, this is what we think

about. If justice does do somebody, our

minds immediately go to, I want justice served.

I want this person punished for all their wrongdoing and all

their evil. And so we, we see this actually

fuels our hope, it fuels our apologetics when you'll be

talking to people who have not yet come to understand all of

the, the nuances of theology. And they say things like, how

could God allow this injustice and this injustice?

And why is God not doing something about this situation

and this situation? And that's your opportunity to

say the very fact that your heart longs for justice is proof

that there is such a thing as justice.

What your heart is longing for in that moment is this

rectifying justice when the psalmists are are praying

imprecatory Psalms on people, they're saying God bring your

justice on the earth. And so this is this first

category. It's it's flowing out of God and

the pages of Deuteronomy 9 and 10.

God's patience has worn out of all this child sacrifice and all

of this sexual immorality. And so Moses records Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 9:3

9 verse 3 know therefore, today your God is going out.

He is a consuming fire and He's going to execute justice.

That is, he's going to punish and destroy the wicked.

Deuteronomy 94, again, it's because of the wickedness of

these nations. He says you think it's because

of your righteousness. You're tempted to think it's

because of your goodness that you're going in.

It's actually because of the wickedness of the nations that

you're going in to possess this land.

It's his justice, verse 5, because of the wickedness of

these nations. So you see his first element

being worked out on the Canaanites.

And you know in your own heart, you don't just long for the

wicked to be punished. There's another longing that's

in your heart and in your soul. You long that the homeless

individual would come into a home, and you long that the

orphan would come to find a father and a mother.

And you long for the poor to be satisfied and refreshed.

And he says that too is justice. That's where we get to the

second form of justice, which is sometimes called primary justice

there, or retributive justice, not retributive, but

distributive justice where God brings good things to all.

It would be the the rightly ordered society grounded in the

dignity of God. And you come to Deuteronomy 10.

He says he's clearing out the wicked in that element of

justice, and he's bringing this well ordered, righteous, just

society in its place. And you see the second form, it

means being impartial in your dealings, treating people with

dignity and respect, empowering the weak to what Moses wants of

the promised land is why he says in verse 18, God executes

justice for the fatherless and the widow, and he loves the

sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

And so this is what Moses is requiring of you.

He says in light of who God is, this is who God is.

If you're going to image God, if you're going to image Christ,

this is who you are. Be no longer stubborn.

Circumcise the foreskin of your heart.

Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the

land of Egypt. Jonathan Edwards preached a

sermon on kind of this idea of of primary justice and he said,

how is it that rule fulfilled of bearing one another's burdens if

we're never obliged to relieve others burdens, but only when we

can do it without burdening ourselves?

Says how do we bear our neighbors burdens when we bear

no burden at all? Bruce Walke says the righteous

are willing to disadvantage themselves to advantage the

community. The wicked are willing to

disadvantage the community to advantage themselves.

Where our hearts are aimed at justice.

And when you come to the Scripture three dozen times,

seems like every time you see this word justice, it attributes

another word synonymously with it.

Justice and righteousness go together such that they're

almost synonyms. It's what Job says in Job 29.

He speaks these words. He says I put on righteousness

and it clothed me, justice. And it was my robe.

It was my cloak. It was my turban.

And what Job is saying is he says, I am so characterized by

my goodness and charity and justice, my righteousness, that

it's like the clothes I wear. When people see me, this is what

they see. When people think about me, this

is what they see. It's this concept of primary

justice. He wakes up every morning and he

puts on righteousness like his clothes.

He puts on justice like a cloak. He wears it all the time.

It's his lifestyle. It's who he is.

So Moses is saying is, is being a Christian is inseparable from

this kind of goodness and generosity and charity, because

when the Holy Spirit circumcises your heart, you love what God

loves, and you serve who God serves.

Remember Paul's metaphor in Ephesians 6.

He says, put on the breastplate of righteousness.

He says put on charity and righteousness and justice like a

breastplate, a shining, resplendent breastplate, he

said. And Satan's going to throw all

these pangs and all these arrows at you, and it's not going to do

anything. Because when people look at you,

this is what they see. You're protected.

Your reputation is protected. You're so identified with this

that this has become who you are.

You take the armor on and you don't take it off until you take

it off in glory. It's on the whole time we're on

the earth. And then Job even goes on and he

clarifies what he means by justice, what what it means by

righteousness and love of neighbor.

Does love of neighbor mean that when your neighbor comes home,

you wave at him and wish him a good day?

Is that what Jesus is requiring of you?

Is it to, you know, to be friendly, to open doors for

people to wear a what would Jesus do bracelet and have a

positive demeanor? That's not what he's talking

about. Job says I delivered the poor

when they cried for help. Job says I was eyes to the blind

who had none. I was feet to the lame who had

none. I was a father to the

fatherless. I hope that you can say this.

I searched out for the cause of him who did not know.

I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made them drop

their prey from their mouths. That's righteousness, that's

justice. And Moses goes on and in these

11 verses and he reminds us there's there's 2 tablets to the

law. We love God, we also love our

neighbor and so God's obligation for us concerning himself is

clearly in verse 12. I want to remind you, what does

the Lord your God require of you but to love the Lord your God,

to fear the Lord, to walk in his ways, to serve him with all your

heart, with all your soul, to keep the commandments and the

statutes of the Lord, which I'm I am commanding you today.

And everyone says yes, all of life lived in devotion for God.

Yes and Amen. And I want to remind you of a

Timothy Keller quote that connects these two tablets of

the law. Tim Keller says though

righteousness is primarily about being in a right relationship

with God, the righteous life that results is profoundly

social. And so therefore Moses includes

verse 19. Love the sojourner, therefore,

for you were sojourners in the lands of Egypt.

So these verses are pure and undefiled religion from Moses

perspective, Deuteronomy saying this is pure and undefiled

religion in the promised land and they represent the the image

of a faithful Christian and that's his elders.

As we put these core values out, we say we hope that the kind of

the archetypal heritage member will look like somebody who

embodies these core values. And we believe that this is a a

distillation of what Moses is including in these 11 verses,

that you would engage in theological education, that you

would be equipped for ministry, that you would advance the

gospel, that you would love on vulnerable people and seek the

welfare of the city while you live there.

And that when you do this, you would be embodying these verses,

love of God and love of neighbor.

And it's this logic that led Christopher Wright again to say

quote, Deuteronomy 1012 to 22 is unquestionably one of the

richest texts in the Hebrew Bible, Exalted and poetic in its

language, comprehensive and challenging in its message, It

purposely tries to boil down the whole theological and ethical

content of the book into memorable phraseology, packed

and pregnant, rich and resonant of all of the surrounding

preaching. In quote.

This is the summary of the teaching of Moses.

This is the requirement of Israel in the Promised Land.

It's the response to the lessons of Israel's history.

It's the wisdom they need to succeed in the Promised Land.

In 11 verses, that's what you're reading.

It's, it's so important. And what these verses are are an

invitation to move beyond the external signs of circumcision

and fasting into what those signs represent, justice and

righteousness and mercy. True circumcision, a

transformation of the heart. True circumcision, he says, is

permanent. It's a it's, it's a heart issue.

You go through the prophets, they say this about all of these

signs. What about fasting?

We want to fast and the people are fasting.

And he says I would that you engaged in a true fast.

What was the true fast of Isaiah 58?

It was a permanent fast, a life of justice and righteousness and

mercy. These verses are telling you to

put down your songs and to put down your festivals and your new

moons and your Sabbaths and enter the true religion of Amos

Amos 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5. Who says let justice roll down

like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream?

Job says put on righteousness like clothes and justice like a

robe. Your new identity in Christ is

this life, righteousness, and justice because you're it's

God's identity and you are found in Christ.

This becomes your identity. He is sovereign, He is glorious,

He is impartial, and He is loving.

So if you've kind of assumed these external things as your

identity, but you haven't assumed the weightier things

that they represent, then Moses's words are for you.

Circumcise your heart and be no longer stubborn.

This is Moses's message to Israel.

Circumcise your heart. And what are they supposed to do

if priority is not sacrifices and is not fasting and new moons

and Sabbaths Again, MO here, Amos, let justice roll down like

waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream is.

If you do this, then you're not going to go to be like Tabra

again. There's not going to be the

faithlessness at Kadesh Barnea, those places of rebellion.

God's message to the church. The priority is, is not rituals

and obligations. Jesus says this in Matthew 7.

Many of you are going to come to me and say Lord, Lord, did we

not cast out demons in your name?

And did we not do mighty works and prophecy?

And Jesus's response is what? Who are you?

Who are you? I don't know you.

I was naked and you didn't clothe me.

I was hungry and you didn't give me something to eat and I was

thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink.

I don't know you. Who are you?

So what do we do? 5 things representing your

wholehearted devotion to God. The first thing you do is you

devote yourself wholly to Him. You are His bond servant.

He is your love. He is your praise.

Our passage says what does the Lord require of you but to fear

the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to love Him, and to

serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your

soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the

Lord which I am commanding for you today.

That's the first requirement, the first responsibility and the

second is like it. We've seen the connection.

He says you also have to demonstrate your love for your

neighbor. There's a a theologian named

Nicholas Walter Storf who wrote a, a book on justice that if, if

you want to seek this more deeply, you can go and read

that. But he talks about, he has an

illustration that is very powerful about George

Washington. And he says, if you go to Mount

Vernon, kind of his lifelong home, and you were to go and

look at all the houses that are there, he'd say George

Washington's house is not the prettiest house there.

He says. And yet everybody that comes to

visit, they all go to Washington's house.

They all want to go there. Why do they want to go there

when there's other houses that are more beautiful?

There's other estates, he says. And when you go in his house,

it's it's it's not filled with beautiful things.

He said that the houses around are have cooler stuff inside.

So why is it that everybody visits this plantation house?

Why do they go to George Washington's?

And his answer is because we honor the owner of the house.

We honor the house because we go there because that's George

Washington's house and he applies it to to justice and the

people and he says, why do we love our neighbor?

It says because we love God with all our heart and with all our

soul and with all our mind. And so because we love the

person, we love the house because we love God.

We love everybody who's made and his image and we love them

indiscriminately. When we love God, even though

the relationship is primarily with him and his righteousness,

the righteousness that results, Tim Keller says, is profoundly

social. We love our neighbor because we

love God. So God circumcises your heart

that you might forsake the old way of stubbornness and false

righteousness and choose instead the new way of faithfulness and

becoming like God. And let's pray for that end.

Dear Lord, we thank you for this church.

We are a redeemed creation, God. We're not here because of our

righteousness. We'll be here because of your

righteousness. But your righteousness is

social, it moves, it loves the orphan and the widow and the

sojourner. And, and so we pray, Lord, if we

do not have this heart, grant us this heart, circumcise our heart

so that we wouldn't love the things of this world and chase

after the things of this world, but that justice and

righteousness and mercy would flow from us when people would

look at us. And when they would look at

Heritage Church, they would see breastplates of righteousness.

They would see waters and justice rolling down like

waters. Lord, if we do have this heart,

increase it in US. Give us the mind of Christ.

Give us the heart and the compassion of Jesus Christ, and

give us the strength and the capacity and the resources so

that we can do this well. God, we love you so much.

We ask all this in the name of your Son.

Amen. Thanks for listening.

To learn more about Heritage Church or if you'd like to

respond to this sermon, visit our website at

www.heritageshawnee.org.