Good morning! Today we are in Deuteronomy 30. The theme is Israel’s disobedience and banishment, but then an amazing promise of restoration and blessing. It’s one of the most important chapters in the Bible about Israel’s future, AND the hope of changed hearts. It gives us the first hint of the New Covenant which will come through Jesus Christ.  

The new covenant is the ultimate solution to human rebellion! Under the New Covenant the Spirit of God is poured into our hearts; we become new people.  That’s what is PROMISED here! Verse 6 “The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.”

Many think of being a Christian as the ultimate self-help project! Or they think of it is as one GIGANTIC New Year’s resolution! But we need help from OUTSIDE ourselves! We cannot change ourselves. We cannot save ourselves. We need a change inside us that ONLY God can do!  The story of Israel shows us that faithful, loving, joyful obedience to God, will NEVER happen unless God Himself transforms our hearts. 

We are teaching on the big story of the Bible. So I want us to keep the big picture in mind. In the beginning God created human beings to live in blessing and beauty and fellowship with God. Sin ruined that and got us kicked out of the Garden. But from the beginning God promised a Deliverer who would crush Satan, remove the curse, and restore us to God’s blessing. That promise was given more clarity 2,000 years later, when God appeared to Abraham and said, I will bless you, and make you into a great nation. God promised the land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants forever. And God said, through you, I will bless ALL the peoples of the earth. 

By the time we come to Deuteronomy 30, PART of that promise WAS fulfilled. Abraham’s descendants had become a great nation. But they’re NOT in the Land God promised. All the nations of the earth have NOT yet entered God’s blessing. And Israel keeps sinning rebelling and bringing disaster upon themselves.

And God tells them through Moses, they will be banished and scattered among the nations. Verse 1 predicts a time “When they will call to mind the blessings and curses which have come upon them, “in all the nations to which the LORD your God has BANISHED you”. Or driven you. 

Deuteronomy 31:16 The Lord said to Moses: “These people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them.” 

So Deuteronomy ends, preparing us for a long history of failure that is yet to come, predicted by Moses and the Lord Himself.  Adam and Eve had failed.  The whole world had failed in the time of Noah.  Israel would fail. So what is going on! God’s plan to bless all the peoples of the earth through Abraham, SEEMS to be running off the rails. Disobedience dominates, EVEN God’s chosen people.  Human logic would say the problem must be that God’s commands are too hard to understand or too difficult to obey.  

*God anticipates this line of reasoning, and inspired Moses to tell them in verse 11 "This commandment I give you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12It is not in heaven, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’ 13And it is not beyond the sea, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’ 14But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may obey it.”

*So the problem was NOT that God’s commands were too difficult or mysterious, or hard to find. The problem was their hearts.

*So WHY did Israel’s failure and disobedience go on for SO long!  And why didn’t the law of Moses and the promise of blessings and curses fix things?  The answer is that Israel and the whole human race had to learn a lesson, that we human beings stubbornly resist. That is, we need Someone OUTSIDE ourselves to heal us! We need a Savior. We need God to change our hearts. And God used the law AND Israel’s FAILURE to keep it, to reveal their need of a Savior. 

Gal. 3:22 “But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, (leaving no loop-hole of escape) so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.” To receive God’s salvation you have to be brought to an end of yourself and trusting in yourself. 

ONLY when you are hopeless in yourself, will you look to Someone else to save you!  So God had to give the law before He gave us the Savior.

The giving of the law was not a waste of time. The people had to see their own sin and failure in keeping that Law. That was essential to move His creation plan forward. Paul called the law a school master to lead us to Christ.

Tim Mackie from the Bible Project wrote this: “The conclusion of the Torah is kind of a downer and Moses’ speech is somber and his prediction is grave. However, the whole point of this story is that humans cannot achieve the new creation on their own. We are in desperate need of help in the deepest way, which is precisely what Jesus came to offer us.  He did for us what we could never do for ourselves. The Ten Commandments, all the laws of the Torah, Israel’s failure and rebellion, it all points to the future new covenant of God transforming the hearts of his people. This is the only way that our old humanity and this broken creation will be ushered into a new future.”

Thankfully disobedience and disaster is NOT the end of the story!  God tells them what will happen in the distant future AFTER their disobedience, after being scattered among the nations. Verse 6 “The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.”

This is the first time in the Bible anything like this has been mentioned!  It will repeated again by the prophets. Jeremiah 24:7 “I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.”  

After Israel’s massive and persistent failure, God will transform their hearts so that they can become what God has called them to be. God has always desired a people who would love Him and obey Him and live under His rule and under His blessing. And He Himself will bring this about! The New Testament apostles taught this promise of a new heart takes place through Jesus. And called it’s called the New Covenant.

Here’s the astonishing truth in these verses in Deuteronomy 30: In spite of the certainty of Israel’s sin and failure, God graciously promises to heal their hearts.  Although Israel has been like an adulterous wife, the Lord said in Hosea 14:4 “I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them.”  That’s grace and that’s God’s mercy and compassion! And THAT is the degree of grace and mercy and compassion that God has for YOU. 

God ALSO said He would regather them to the land, and restore His blessings upon them. Verse 2 “when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today, 3then He will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you from all the nations to which the LORD your God has scattered you. 4 “Even if you have been banished to the farthest horizon, He will gather you and return you from there.!!” 5 “The LORD your God will bring you into the land your fathers possessed, and you will take possession of it. He will cause you to prosper and multiply MORE than your fathers.”

This promise of restored blessing to Israel, is all through the OT. But it can only come with spiritual salvation and a new heart.  Ezekiel 36:26,27 The Lord says “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” 33This is what the Lord GOD says: On the day I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be resettled and the ruins to be rebuilt. 34The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through. 35Then they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden.”  

Christians differ on how and when it will be fulfilled. But it will be! Note the resolve of God to do this! 30:4-6 Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back.” You can’t be scattered so far that I won’t bring you back!  Verse 9 “Then the Lord your God will prosper you abundantly.. and the Lord will again rejoice over you for good.”

MANY of the prophets pick up on this hope. Hosea 3:4 “The Israelites must live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar.. BUT “Afterward the people of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They shall come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness in the latter days.” 

About 1400 years after Deuteronomy. The Messiah (Jesus) came and we all know Israe  largely rejected Him.  Yet Paul looked into the future said, In Romans 11:26 “Israel WILL BE saved! As it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.’” Spiritual repentance and salvation through Christ is coming yet to Israel.

But the main point of all this, and the point Paul makes in Romans 11 is that God shows mercy to disobedient people! He has consigned all to disobedience that He may show mercy to all! 11:32  “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Israel is God’s platform to teach the whole world His mercy and goodness and grace. In spite of the certainty of their disobedience, God promises to circumcise their hearts so that they will love God so they will live, and be restored to all the blessings He has promised them.   

We also see that God is a faithful God!  Not one word of God will ever fail. The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable! Every promise God has made to us will come to pass. Christ WILL return! We will be resurrected.  We will live together with Him on the New Earth! We will see His face. We will serve Him.  It’s all going to happen! 

I want to address this phrase, “I will circumcise their hearts”.  It’s something powerful because THAT is what will enable them to love God with all their heart and soul.  Jewish circumcision was an outward sign that Israel was set apart for God. Circumcision of the heart means an operation upon the human heart to CAUSE it to belong to God. In Colossians 2:11-13 Paul calls this change “circumcision of the heart.” 

“In Christ you were also circumcised, in the putting off of your sinful nature, with the circumcision performed BY CHRIST and NOT by human hands. And having been buried with Him in baptism, your were raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.” You WERE dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, BUT God MADE you alive with Christ.” BSB

First this is done BY Christ! Not by you or anybody else. You must come to Him to have this performed! Your part is “faith in the power of God”. What does it do?  Paul said “It’s the PUTTING OFF of your sinful nature”.  *It’s equated with your sinful nature being buried. Paul said, “You were dead but God made you ALIVE with Christ!  When a person comes to Jesus, those things happen!! And that’s what Deuteronomy 30 foresees in the circumcision of their hearts. 

                           ***Take away***

*If anyone is not sure that this transformation has take place in your heart. Put your faith in the power of God who raised Jesus from the dead. If He raised Jesus He can raise you to new spiritual life too!  No matter what you’ve done in the past, no matter how deep your sin, come to Him for forgiveness and a new heart. You can’t earn that. You can’t make it happen yourself.  You can only receive it as a free gift of God.   

*If you are a Christian you must believe in the reality of the new covenant work in your heart.  Paul said, “God is at work in you, giving you both the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.” Phil. 2:13 NLT. Do you believe that!?

Hebrews 13:21 promises that God Himself will “equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ”. You can trust in that! That changes the Christian life from being an unbearable burden to what Hebrews calls a place of rest, ‘the rest of faith”. Of course, we walk that out but God put it there!

If you belong to Jesus, there ARE changes taking place in you, from the Holy Spirit. He is moving and stirring in your heart, taking you into new ways of thinking and living that now will please God and free you from the broken, fallen, sinful old person you used to be! 

*The complete fulfillment of the NC promise will be experienced when Christ comes again. John said, “When we see Him we will be like Him.”   Paul said, in Phil 1:6 “He who began a good work in you will COMPLETE it at the day of Jesus Christ.”  That good work is to make you perfect, like Jesus.  The day of Jesus Christ is the day He comes again for us. On that day and forever after you will be a perfect sinless, without ANY fault or flaw forever!   

*You need to start actually believing God’s promise of a circumcised heart.  We don’t deny sin when we sin. And James said we all stumble. But to talk about sin as though you are helpless to resist it, is NOT the Gospel!  Some Christians emphasize the wickedness of their heart more that the promise of a new heart. In doing that we discredit the gospel! We should be lifting up the tremendous New Covenant blessing we are promised in Christ.

Randy Alcorn’s FB post: Is Sin Inevitable in the Christian Life. He said “Many ignore that John says, “I write these things to you do that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One.”  We will not be without sin until we are in Christ’s presence. And we should confess our sins.  But there is a danger in repeatedly affirming (or emphasizing) that we still sin, (as though it is inevitable) Sin is not inevitable. His divine power has give us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.”  2 Peter 1:3

NO, we haven’t reached perfection yet. But the way we grow in godliness is by putting our faith in the power of God to raise us up in newness of life! It’s putting your faith in the promise of circumcised hearts.

Andrew Murray said, “With most Christians there is not even the intellectual belief that God means his (New Covenant) promise literally.  They are so sure that their views...of the necessity of always sinning are correct that the teaching of God’s word in regard to (the New Covenant) can never enter their mind”. 

Whatever sin or temptation you deal with, the  good news of the New Covenant is that you can walk in freedom! You can love and obey God! Not just reluctantly, but with all your heart and soul! The way that is expressed in Romans 8 is that God sent His Spirit into our hearts crying Abba Father! He put within us the love of a child for his father.  He gave us a loving attachment to God as our Father! That’s the NC that Jesus died to bring you into.