Sermon Tone Analysis

It Was Always About Christ (Part 2)

Introduction

Open our Bible if you would to Number 30 verse 6.

We left off last week at Numbers 30 verse 6 and that is where we will start this evening.

This verse is if a pivotal point in the first 10 verses.

We need to remember that God is presenting a convent of works to the people of Isreal.

This is why last week saw that Moses said, when you find yourself scattered and cursed.

Human are possessed with a sin nature that is contrary to the things of God.

Every human is opposed to the will of God, not that God’s law is unreasonable or un-keep-able, on the contrary next week we will see that God’s law is in fact completely good and whole and the distortion is not in God’s law but in humanity as they are prisoners to sin.

We are going to be in Deuteronomy Chapter 30 for at least 2 more weeks.

Tonight, however, we need to consider who it is that the Lord takes “delight in prospering.”

(Dt 30:9, ESV)

Lets Read Deut 30:6-10

May God bless the reading of His Holy and Infallible Word

Lets Pray

Transition

I am thankful again to start with verse 6 because it is a pivot point for this section of scripture and there is a lot we can get into that we did not last time.

Last time we looked at several explanations in the New Testament of who the people of God, the Israel of God really are.

Lets take a look at verse 6 and this time we will reference Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

Body

The Sign of the New Covenant (1)

Text

Exposition

“circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring”

Exposition

Last week we pointed-out the connection between the external sign of the covenant and the internal fulfillment God promises here.

This week we will taking a deeper dive into what that looks like.

Turn to Jeremiah 31 and we start looking in verse 31.

God is addressing the current destruction of Israel.

Remember Jeremiah is that prophet that lived right before and into the exile.

So as Isreal is being carried away into captivity God sends this message.

Jeremiah 31:31-34.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.

And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD.

For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

(Je 31:31–34, ESV)

Turn to Ezekiel 36 and we will start looking at verse 16.

Ezekiel is also a a prophet that lived right before and into the exile again as the destruction is happening God sends this message.

Ezekiel 36 starting in 16

“16 The word of the LORD came to me: 17 “Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds.

Their ways before me were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity.

18 So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it.”

(Eze 36:16–18, ESV) .... skip to verse 24 -26 “I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.

25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.

26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.

And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

(Eze 36:24–26, ESV)

Application

Some people say that interpreting the Old Testament the way the apostles do is wrong.

These people say that Apostles and the New Testament are about something else and Jeremiah and Ezekiel here are only talking about the physical nation of Israel.

For me, it seems abundantly clear that this New Covenant in Jeremiah and this New Heart in Ezekiel only make sense when understood as the regeneration of the Sprint to faith in Jesus that leads to justification.

Therefore I would conclude (not the sermon just this point here) that, just as the outward sign of circumcise was only an picture of the the inward circumcision of the heart.

The viable nation of Israel is only a picture of the real people of God.

The land of Canaan is only a picture of the eternal city that God’s elect will inherit.

We are establishing a way of understanding scripture here and it is vitally import.

All the promises of God find there yes in Jesus. 2 Cor 1:20

Transition: all that to reinforce where we were last time.

The idea of the new covenant in Jesus is not only found int he new testament, it exists through the whole Bible.

“you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul”

Exposition

The sign of the new covenant is those that as the text says “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul”

“I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.”

(Je 31:33, ESV)

“And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

(2 Co 3:3, ESV)

Paul doesn’t say look you’ve been baptised, or look you joined your local church (both things you should do).

Paul says look you have the Law of God written on you heart and that is the testimony, the sign, you are of God’s people.

Application

The sign that someone is of God is, what Jesus said, if you love me you will, what?

Keep my commandments.

(John 14:15).

The sign of the new covenant is that a person in the new covenant loves God more than sin and is willing to battle the sin nature every day as hard as needed because of love for God.

Brothers, beloved ones, we fail at sin every day.

But we are all ready to get up the next day and fight it.

That is the sign that we are God’s and God has begun that work in our hearts the he will complete.

Transition

I hope you are as amazed as I am at the depth of the word of God.

That we can go over verse 6 again and that there is so much there still after we already talked about it last week.

This is why you see Gabe and I put so much emphases on the Bible reading plan.

You are going to be able to read your Bible over and over and over and I don't care if you have read it a 1000 times you can read it again and still get something out of it.

So lets glean what we can from verses 7 and 8 this evening.

The Curse is a Blessing (2)

Text

Exposition

“God will put all these curses on your foes”

Exposition

What curses,

Deut 28:15-68 has the whole list.

The short list goes like this.

Dt 28:15–19

“15 “But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.

16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.

17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.

19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

(Dt 28:15–19 ESV)

The theme is not only in Deut Malachi 2:2 says.

“If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the LORD of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings.