There!

Deuteronomy 12:1-14

There!

These are the decrees and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess—as long as you live in the land.  Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains and on the hills and under every spreading tree where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods.  Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.

You must not worship the LORD your God in their way.  But you are to seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling.  To that place you must go; there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.  There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the LORD your God has blessed you.

You are not to do as we do here today, everyone as he sees fit, since you have not yet reached the resting place and the inheritance the LORD your God is giving you.  But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety.  Then to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name—there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice possessions you have vowed to the LORD.  And there rejoice before the LORD your God, you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites from your towns, who have no allotment or inheritance of their own.  Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings anywhere you please.  Offer them only at the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribes, and there observe everything I command you.

t is a fallacious idea that one may worship the Living God in whatever manner one may choose.  The concept is so common among our contemporaries as to reign virtually unchallenged in the finest thoughts of social thinkers.  Indeed, this concept that one may worship God as one wishes has been prevalent in society since the days of Cain and Abel.

I am reminded of an incident which occurred while visiting during a period when I was overseeing a church restart in the Lower Mainland.  I encountered a woman who expressed this concept in a rather humorous fashion.  When I inquired whether she had a church connection, she replied that she was a member of the United Church of Canada.  “Oh, your husband previously informed me that you didn’t go to church,” I responded.

“That’s right,” she replied, “we don’t go to church, but we are members.  I just couldn’t go to any church other than the United Church.”

She went on to relate that the family was just too involved with their beach property in Birch Bay.

Since we were contemplating initiating a Friday evening service, I invited her to consider joining us in worship during an upcoming evening.  Upon inviting her, she replied, “Really, I am not interested.  I worship God in my own way.  I believe, ‘Do unto others as you want them do unto you,’ and I want to be left alone.”

Though she likely had not given the matter much thought; she was voicing the concept that God is a luxury—a convenience.  She was restating in modern tongue an ancient fallacy.  You cannot serve God as you choose!  You cannot be “master of your own fate” and have a viable and vital relationship to God.  You must serve God there.

THERE is a Specific Place — You are to seek out the place the Lord your God will choose [verse 5].  You error if you attempt to restrict the place of worship to physical parameters.  Perhaps you recall the dialogue between Jesus and the woman of Samaria whom he encountered at the well of Sychar?  After the Lord had confronted her with the demand that Messiah was coming and was to be worshipped, she responded with growing awe.

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.  Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.  Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.  God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” [John 4:19-24].

These words which Jesus spoke have become the definitive statement on worship.  Every heart may be a sanctuary.  Every body may be a temple.  Every home may be an altar.  Every workbench may be a pulpit.  All that is required is the presence of the Lord in that place.  All that is required is that the Lord be present.  The true believer knows the promise, but the experience of worship will yet be dependent upon each individual’s response to life.

Listen to the words of the Living Christ.  Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age [Matthew 28:20b].

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me.  Because I live, you also will live [John 14:18, 19].

On Patmos, John stated, I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me.  And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.  His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.  His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.  In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword.  His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.  Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid.  I am the First and the Last.  I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever!  And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

“Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.  The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches” [Revelation 1:12-20]. 

We have a need to cultivate the attitude which will perceive the presence of the Lord wherever we may be.  We must so live that our Lord Christ is welcome regardless of where we may find ourselves.

A Specific People are to be THERE — There, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families shall eat and rejoice [verse 7].  These words were addressed to the children of Israel.  They were the purchased from slavery in Egypt.  They were and are the chosen people of God.  They are precious to God.  This nation was chosen on the basis of love.

You are a people holy to the LORD your God.  The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.  But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt

[Deuteronomy 7:6-8].

This has ever been the basis for selection by the Lord God.  People imagine a cruel old man sitting up yonder, looking for an opportunity to take away peoples’ fun or to injure innocent people.  That is not the God I serve, nor is that an accurate picture of God.  Here is a more accurate picture still.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.  And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory [Ephesians 1:3-12].

Peter observed, You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy [1 Peter 2:9, 10].

There demands a specific people, then—you and your families.  It is not the responsibility of the church nor of the preacher, nor of the Sunday School to bring my family to the knowledge of the love of God.  I am responsible!  Each man and woman bears awesome responsibility before God.  The church, the preached Word, the Sunday School—each are given by God to assist in bringing our families to the Faith, but we must assume responsibility for our own families.

The Philippian jailer believed the promise of the Lord and he acted on that promise, introducing his entire family to the Good News of Christ.  Paul and Silas replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”  Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.  At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptised.  The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family [Acts 16:31-34].

God has always been concerned that His grace should reach the families of those who call upon His Name.  Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.  Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates [Deuteronomy 6:4-9].

Again, listen to God’s instructions to the people of Israel to assume responsibility for their own children.  Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.  When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.  And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’”  Then the people bowed down and worshiped [Exodus 12:24-27].

As a husband and as a father, I am responsible to ensure that my family is brought into the presence of the Living God.  I bear responsibility for those who are in my family to bring them into the presence of the Lord God.  Mothers are responsible to bring their children into the Faith of Christ the Lord.  What an awesome responsibility!  What a precious privilege!

We Have a Specific Procedure which is to be Practised THERE — We often imagine that worship must be restricted to that period when we can escape to a church building, and for the most of us, the building we escape to must be a certain building, bearing the proper name.  How foolish we are!  According to the Word of God, all of life is to be marked by an attitude of worship.  The text says you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to [verse 7].

Do you ever imagine that God is uninterested in your activities or your daily walk?  Are you ever tempted to believe that the Master is unconcerned about what you consider the minutiae of living?  God is very much concerned about the smallest details of your life.  God desires that your every action prospers and thus glorifies His Name.

Every aspect of life has received the blessing of the Lord.  Not one portion of life has failed to receive His blessing.  It is the will of God that you so live that the whole of your life glorifies Him.  Listen to the Word of the Saviour in Matthew 6:28-34.

Why do you worry about clothes?  See how the lilies of the field grow.  They do not labour or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.

My first priority, then, is to seek God’s glory.  We turn this around and then wonder why God fails to honour His Word.  The reason He does not honour His word is that there is no promise that He will care for our daily needs and then free us to honour Him.  Honour Him first!

Jesus exalted and honoured work forever in that He was the carpenter’s son.  Moreover, He Himself worked at that profession.  He chose men busy in the everyday affairs of life to follow Him.  Peter and Andrew, John and James were busy at their nets when called to follow the Master.  Levi was busy at the collection of customs.  All were busy at the humdrum of life then the Master called.  God will not use, nor will He prosper that individual, who is content to rest upon the promises of the government.  Neither will God call to a position of prominence that individual willing to let another do the work.  In everything I do, I am responsible to glorify the Name of the Lord. 

Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him…

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men [Colossians 3:17, 23].

Those Who are THERE have a Specific Motive — …because the Lord your God has blessed you [verse 7].  Are you blessed of God?  Do you know whether you have received the rich blessings of our Lord?  It is greatly to be regretted that much of modern Christendom does not know what it is to be blessed of God.  I should know if God, the Living God, has given to me His blessings.

Perhaps one major reason that most people do not know whether or not they have received a rich blessing from God is that most people do not know what a blessing is.  In the passage before us, the word which is employed is a very common word in the Hebrew language.  There are two words which may be translated bless.  This word used in this place is the more common of the two.  The word originally meant to kneel as when in receipt of a bountiful gift.  The meaning conveyed receipt of a bountiful gift.  The blessed of the Lord are blessed with all solid and permanent felicity of every kind.

The LORD remembers us and will bless us:

He will bless the house of Israel,

he will bless the house of Aaron,

he will bless those who fear the LORD—

small and great alike.

May the LORD make you increase,

both you and your children.

May you be blessed by the LORD,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

The highest heavens belong to the LORD,

but the earth he has given to man.

It is not the dead who praise the LORD,

those who go down to silence;

it is we who extol the LORD,

both now and forevermore.

Praise the LORD.

[Psalm 115:12-18]

This same word was translated in the Greek translation of the Old Testament by the word eujlogiva, which simply means well spoken.  To bless another is to speak well of them.  Later, the word eujlogiva came to describe a generous gift.  If we are blessed of God, we have received a generous gift, although the term was not necessarily restricted to material gifts.

To be blessed of God is to receive His commendation, which is a precious gift indeed!  Therefore, the terms bless, blessing, or blessed have reference to receipt of a generous gift or gifts.  It was elevated to a new level of meaning through its employment by the Holy Spirit to speak of a state of joy, peace, power or happiness resulting from spiritual union with God.  Permit me to underscore this great truth in your mind.  When we are blessed by God, we have received from Him a state of joy, of peace, of power or of happiness because we have entered into spiritual union with Him.

God does not pour out His blessing on the unrighteous.  I am conscious that He causes the sun to rise on the just and the unjust.  I know that He causes His rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous.  I am aware that the atheist profits from the morality of the godly, whether the atheist acknowledges that benefit or not.  I am aware that unbeliever living here in Canada has benefited from the goodness of God.  Nevertheless, I am certain that God does not bless—that is give joy, give peace, or give happiness to—the unbelieving.  One must be a child of God in order to receive such good from the Living God.

Listen to the testimony of our Lord Christ. To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone.  How can you say that we shall be set free?”

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.  Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  I know you are Abraham’s descendants.  Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word.  I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

“Abraham is our father,” they answered.

“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do the things Abraham did.  As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.  Abraham did not do such things.  You are doing the things your own father does.”

“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested.  “The only Father we have is God himself.”

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here.  I have not come on my own; but he sent me.  Why is my language not clear to you?  Because you are unable to hear what I say.  You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire.  He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.  Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!  Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?  If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?  He who belongs to God hears what God says.  The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God” [John 8:31-47].

The testimony of the Master’s Apostle is similar.  You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus [Galatians 3:26].

There is one conclusion to this matter, then. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.  This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.  But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God” [John 3:16-21].  Amen.