Deuteronomy and chapter 30. A couple of points before we begin. I disagree with all English translations. It's an opinion. I think it's a good opinion, but that's why I'm telling you about it. And let me give you my reasons, but if you disagree with me, that's fine. You may have in your copy of God's Word a division at the head of verse 11. I use the New King James for the preaching. And at the top of verse 11 in chapter 30, it says, the choice of life or death. Now, you may have something different there. All you may have is a paragraph break. But I think they put it in the wrong place. I think the break is actually between verses 14 and 15. And so point 1 of the sermon is going to be verses 1 through 14. It will be longer than point 2, but point 2 will be verses 14 through 20. And I think what has happened is that they have mistranslated a word that's not there in verses 11 through 14. The word that's not there is is. Many languages don't use that word because it's not necessary in some places, in some contexts. So you have to supply it when you translate that language. Hebrew is the same way. So they supply is throughout verses 11 through 14, and I think it should be will be. These things will be. And so that's how I'll be reading it. The whole context from verses 1 through 10 all the way up to verse 11 is the future. Moses is telling Israel what will happen after the curses that we read about in chapter 28 come upon them. So why switch all of a sudden at verse 11? I think it's better to switch at verses 14 and 15. Verse 15 seems like a better place to shift. The word see in my translation, behold, look, pay attention, here's something different, that idea, I think is a much better place to see that shift. There's also this statement in verse 14, that you may do it. It's a very encouraging statement. God's gonna do something and they'll be able to keep the law. It's very different than Moses' assessment of Israel up to this point. What has he been calling them all the way through Deuteronomy? Stiff-necked, obstinate, slow to receive the instruction that you've heard, slow to trust on the promises that God made to the fathers. Now all of a sudden Moses says, you can do this? I think he's saying that after God restores, after all the curses come upon you, after what takes place between verses one and 14, then you will do it. Then you will keep the commandments. And then finally, my last reason for reading Deuteronomy this way and chapter 30 this way is that Paul uses verses 11 through 14 to describe the gospel age in Romans chapter 10. when God works in the heart so that his people can obey. Now, not perfectly, but more and more in this life. And then finally, when Christ comes, we will have no more sin. And we will obey. We will do every single commandment perfectly for the rest of our existence, which will be forever and ever. That's where we're going in the sermon, by the way. And that's why I think it's proper to read it this way. So Deuteronomy chapter 30, verses 1 through 20. Let's give attention to God's word. Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice according to all that I command you today, you and your children with all your heart and with all your soul, that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you. Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live. Also, the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. And you will again obey the voice of the Lord to do all his commandments which I command you today. The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers. If you obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in the book of the law, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, for this commandment which I command you today will not be too mysterious for you, nor will it be far off. It will not be in heaven that you should say, who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it. Nor will it be beyond the sea that you should say, who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it. But the word will be very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, and that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth, as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live, that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days. and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them." So far, God's word. Let us go before him in prayer and again ask his blessing on the preaching. Our gracious God and Father, we bow before you and we ask for your help. We are easily distracted. We are sinners. We are reading your word which you gave to your people many, many centuries ago. Father, please help us to understand. Please help us to hear your word as it is preached today. Please give us grace to receive it in our hearts. Put it upon our lips. May it enter our ears and rest in our hearts. Father, we use human language to talk about something that must be done by your spirit. And so, Father, we ask that we would be hearers of your word, that we would worship you this day. and that we would live our life in this coming week as doers of your word. We're confident, Father, to ask these things because of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And so in his name we pray, amen. Let me begin with a quote. Any old woman can love God better than a doctor of theology can. Any old woman can love God better than a doctor of theology can. This is a quote by a medieval theologian. You may have heard of Thomas Aquinas. This was a fellow professor with Thomas Aquinas, if you will. His name is Bonaventure, if you want to look him up later. He's not denying the importance of theology. That's what he gave his whole life to, is the study of God, of knowing God. But what he's getting at here is the idea that there's a simplicity to theology, a simplicity to learning more and more about God, knowing him through study. There's a simplicity to the gospel. And it's this very simplicity that often trips us up as human beings. We want something that's a little bit complicated. Something that we can sort through and put together and figure out so that we can have a sense of accomplishment and pride at the end of figuring out this God, figuring out this salvation. But it's this very pride that the gospel wars against. The gospel clearly states that we can do nothing to save ourselves. We must simply trust God to save us. We must simply trust him to deliver us from sin, to save us from our sins and from his wrath, and then it's in salvation. that we find all kinds of wonderful things to learn about God and to be doing in service to Him and in service to those around us. But the salvation itself we cannot do. God must save us. Chapter 30 here swings, if you will, it's like a door. It swings on the hinge of 29 in verse 29. That statement of the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may do all the words of the law. Israel is not to focus on the things that they don't know, the things that they might be curious about, the things that they want to speculate about. They're to focus on this covenant, on the commandments that God has given to them. And so chapter 30 swings on that hinge. Moses begins to move from looking at the present covenant that they are under to looking forward to the rest of the book and the rest of what God will do for Israel. The second generation has the covenant. They are in covenant with God. They have agreed to this covenant. And now they must cross over the Jordan. They must enter the promised land. They must do this with an understanding of the seriousness of the covenant. That's what we've been looking at in chapters, the end of 26 and 27 and 28 and 29. The curses must be allowed to weigh on them. But Moses here in chapter 30 tells them what God will do. What God will do. He tells them this so that they don't give up hope, so that they don't lose heart. And we need that same encouragement. We need that same encouragement from day to day, week to week, month to month, and year to year, to not give up hope, to not lose heart. Without something attainable held out before us as a goal, something to work for, something to look forward to, We often lose heart and give up. It's a temptation that we face. We need new hearts. We need new hearts. Without new hearts, this is impossible. Without new hearts, we cannot obey. There is nothing that we can do that is acceptable to God without a new heart. But knowing what God will do, what he will accomplish, now that we're in this gospel age and the new covenant, knowing what God has done, so they were looking forward to Christ, we get to look back to Christ. Gives us a reason for hopeful obedience, hopeful obedience. So point two, two points, one and two, God saves and God commands. God saves and God commands. How do we obey in hope? How do we obey in hope? Verses one through 14 then. We obey in hope by trusting that God will save. We obey in hope trusting that God will save. Trusting that he will do what he said he will do. There's a prophetic element that shows up here, demonstrating here that God will save. Now, there is a simple logic to this passage. We know the nature of the covenant, all right? It has to be kept perfectly in order for Israel to stay in the land. Plus, we know the nature of the people, that they break God's law constantly. Add that together and what do you get? Israel will have the curses fall upon them. This is going to happen. It's going to take place. Moses doesn't need a crystal ball to figure out that this is what's going to happen to Israel. Israel shouldn't have even had the need for Moses to tell them this. They should have been able to figure it out. But Moses moves beyond simple logic here in this passage to his function and his role and his office of a prophet of God to Israel. Verse six here in chapter 10 answers a problem for us. You're welcome to flip back if you want, or you can simply listen as I read. I'm gonna move through this quickly, but chapter 10 and verse 16, Moses gave them a commandment. Therefore, circumcise the foreskin of your heart and be stiff-necked no longer. Stop being so obstinate. Stop pursuing your sin headlong. Stop running away from God's commands and God's covenant. So this is their problem. They have uncircumcised hearts. Now, skip back up to verse, excuse me, chapter 29, which is where we were last week. What did we hear in verse four? The Lord has not given you a heart to perceive. and eyes to see and ears to hear to this very day. This is Israel's problem. There's something wrong with their hearts. Now, we hear heart in the modern age, and we think your emotions, the seed of what your desires and what you want to do. Throughout scripture, it's more this idea of the heart and the mind, all right? So we might use that language as a translation, the heart and the mind, your whole being. Their whole being was to be devoted to the love of God, to the keeping of His law, and yet, There's something wrong with their hearts. They don't work right. They need new hearts. So verse 6 answers the problem of chapter 10 and verse 16 and chapter 29 and verse 4. The problem of their hearts that the Old Covenant cannot fix, that the Old Covenant cannot correct. And verses 11 through 14 then describe the new covenant people. What will these people be like? They will be a people who obey God's law. So there's a prophetic element to this passage. It teaches us that God will save, shows us this clearly so that we can obey in hope. The prophetic language also shows that God will save. So what do I mean by prophetic language? If it is true that Moses is looking forward past the return from the exile, right, so Israel is going to go into the land, they're going to conquer the land, they're going to live there for many years, God's going to keep them in the land for a while, finally he's going to cast them out of the land, they're going to go to Babylon and other places of the earth, and then God's going to draw them back. If you've read through your Old Testament, you've read through this story and how this works out. God will bring them back. What we find is that when they come back from exile to the return and they're in the Promised Land, they keep grumbling and complaining. Moses is looking past that to the New Covenant. So if Moses is doing that, why do we have these descriptions here in this chapter in verses 1 through 14 that look very much like Old Covenant language? What's going on with that? Moses is starting something here that's going to pick, excuse me, I can't talk. Moses is starting here something that's going to be picked up by the prophets of the Old Testament going forward. They're going to use this same technique, if you will. If you do not repent, so this is before the exile, the prophets speaking to Israel. If you do not repent, God will cast you out of the land for breaking the covenant. Then there's prophets that God sends to Israel after the exile. The reason you're in exile, Israel is sitting here wondering, remember they don't do what God commands. They don't read their law. They don't read their covenant and keep it in their heart. So God sends them prophets to tell them in the exile, the reason you're exiled is not because it just happened to happen to you. The reason you're exiled is because you've broken the covenant with God. That's what we see in verse one here in chapter 30. These things will come to pass. These curses will come upon you. The reason the return is not as great as you expected, the reason they're still grumbling and complaining after they come back to the promised land, is that God is going to do something more than simply bring a group of people from one place on earth to another place on earth. Moses then is using this technique of Old Covenant language to describe the New Covenant. Old Covenant language to describe the New Covenant. Verse five, prosperity and growth. But what kind of growth? What kind of prosperity? More than your father's. Verse six, this language of descendants. Verse 7, this removal of curse. Verse 8, an obedience that's characterized by hearing the voice of God. Verse 9, an abundance of food and animals. Moses uses what was great about the Old Covenant to describe the New Covenant. Okay, so let's see this worked out. Where do we see this? You're gonna see it all over the Old Testament. If you keep this in mind, that there's this technique that the prophets use, where they use Old Covenant language to describe the New Covenant age, you'll see it everywhere. But let's look at a few of them. Hosea, So Hosea is the first of what we call the minor prophets. So if you're running into Ezekiel and Daniel, you should hit Hosea next. Now, I know some of you can go through your tablet and your phone. Anyway, Hosea chapter 2 and verses 14 through 23. Now, Hosea is one of those prophets who's speaking to Israel before the exile. And so this is what he says, verse 14 of chapter 2. Now, Hosea is one of those prophets who's speaking to Israel before the exile. And so this is what he says, verse 14 of chapter 2. Therefore, behold, I will allure her. There's a winning, a wooing, a drawing her back. I will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfort to her. I will give her her vineyards from there and the valley of Achor as a door of hope. She shall sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. So there's something that God's going to do that's going to be similar to the Exodus. And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, that you will call me my husband and no longer call me my master. For I will take from her mouth the names of the bells, and they shall be remembered by their name no more. And that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the creeping things of the ground. Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth to make them lie down safely. I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in loving kindness and mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. And it shall come to pass in that day that I will answer, says the Lord. I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth. The earth shall answer with grain, with new wine, with oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, God will sow. Then I will sow her for myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy. Then I will say to those who were not my people, those who were not my people, you are my people, and they shall say, you are my God." Hosea is talking about the new covenant. He's talking about the time that will come when God will take Jew and Gentile and make one people who are not the people of God, but who are now the people of God. But what was the language that we heard beginning in verse 14? What did he use to describe what God's going to do in the new covenant? oil, wine, growth, all this language that speaks of things in the Old Covenant. He's using Old Covenant language to describe something greater that's gonna come in the New Covenant. Isaiah chapter 11, he does this as well. This is verse six. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. When is this going to happen? And that day there shall be a root of Jesse. He's speaking of Jesus Christ. He's speaking of the Messiah, the one who's coming, the one who is promised in the Garden of Eden, who shall stand as a banner to the people, for the Gentiles shall seek him, and his resting place shall be glorious." Language of the creation order, language of the Old Covenant, used to describe the glories of the New Covenant. God will bring a salvation to his people after their rejection of him that will be better than the Old Covenant, better than the Old Covenant. Turn back to Deuteronomy chapter 30. So we have this prophetic expectation, we have this prophetic language here that demonstrates why we should have a hopeful obedience, because God will save. So now we have a prophetic response that shows that God will save. This kind of starts off in verse 10, but it really picks up, it really comes to the forefront, if you will, in verses 11 through 14. There's language here of ascending to heaven, crossing the sea. When Paul quotes it in Romans, the language of going down into the sea, into the abyss. This is language of great effort, work to get your salvation. And Moses is saying, no, that's not how the new covenant is going to work. Rather, in the new covenant, the commandment will be in the heart. And the member of the New Covenant will obey. This idea of the heart from verse 14 with verse 6 gets developed in the Old Testament as we move forward. These are passages that we're familiar with. Jeremiah chapter 31, verses 23 through 34. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, they shall again use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities when I bring back their captivity. The Lord bless you, O home of justice and mountain of holiness. And there shall dwell in Judah itself and in all its cities together farmers and those going out with flocks. For I have satiated the weary soul and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. After this I awoke, Jeremiah speaking, after this I woke up and looked around and my sleep was sweet to me. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast, and it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy and to afflict, those curses of chapter 28 in Deuteronomy, so I will watch over them to build and to plant. This is what God's going to do in the new covenant. In those days, they shall say no more. The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." So this was Israel's complaining. Our fathers disobeyed. They broke the covenant, and we get the consequences. But in the new covenant, everyone shall... This is a little bit odd. Everyone shall die for his own iniquity. What's that? That's language of justice. Pay for your sins, or Christ pays for them for you. Every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord, but this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord. That's what you had to do in Israel. You had to teach your neighbor. For they shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. I will remember no more. This is the new covenant that God makes through Jesus Christ. There's old covenant language there to describe the new covenant, and what's this crucial element, this new element of the new covenant, this new thing, the forgiveness of sin. God forgives sin. Ezekiel 34, verses 22 through 30. We had this for our gospel reading this morning, our reading of the gospel. In the new covenant, God will give new hearts to those who are in this covenant with him. Let's turn over to Romans where we find this passage in the New Testament. Romans chapter 10. Again, we're seeing that God will save. Romans chapter 10. Let's begin in verse one for context here. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness. have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law. That doesn't mean he gets rid of the law. That means the law is pointing us to Christ. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law. The man who does these things shall live by them. But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way. Do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven. That is, to bring Christ down from above. Or, who will descend into the abyss? The sea. That is, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith which we preach. That, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. This is the gospel. This is the new covenant. This is the hope that we need in order to obey God. Paul says that the new covenant is here. This day has arrived, it's no longer something that's off in the future, it's now. You don't save yourself, you trust in Jesus Christ to save you. How do you do this? You call out to God, you cry out to him, simply trusting in Jesus Christ for you. So then, those who are in the new covenant obey God. They do the commandments. They do what God says to do because they have new hearts and their sins are forgiven. This is point one. How do we apply this to ourselves from Deuteronomy chapter 30? As Paul says elsewhere, the last days have come upon us. We are living in the time after Christ. The new covenant is here. We must repent of our sins and believe in Jesus Christ. And secondly, if you're in Christ, rejoice. You're not in the old covenant. Now God has saved you. He's given you a new heart now. More and more and more and more you can work at obeying God. Not to earn God's favor, not to get salvation for you, but because it's already been given to you in Jesus Christ. We trust that God will save because he says he will. This makes our obedience a hopeful obedience. Secondly, then in verses 15 through 20, this is the rest of the chapter, We obey in hope, trusting what God commands, trusting what God commands. Let me get back to the passage here. Moses lays out before Israel two options. There's only two options. On the one hand, God offers his commands. And on the other hand, all we can do is disobedience. All we can do is disobey. There's no other option. We don't get to make for ourselves a third way. All other ways are a failing to live up to what God requires. That's failing to obey him. All other ways are a crossing over against God's law that's breaking God's law, transgression. If we do not obey God, if we are not obeying God, then we are obeying someone else who is not God. There's two results here then. Disobedience will result in death. Disobedience then is the way of life. Israel stands on the plains of Moab. like Adam stood in the Garden of Eden, confronted with two choices. Here are the options, life and death. Obey God and live, or trust yourself and die. The simple choice remains today. Hear the call to trust in Jesus Christ, receive righteousness from him, and life everlasting, or reject that call. Trust yourself and receive only God's everlasting right and good anger and wrath. In conclusion then, because God will save, we must obey. We trust him to save. We trust his commands for us. the salvation to come, and the salvation that is ours now in Christ. What does this do? It leads us on to a life of obedience, an obedience in hope, hope because we know that God saves, hope because we know that God brings life. God has said that he will save all those who trust in him. Hearing that, with ears that trust in Jesus Christ. We obey the commands of God. The work of Jesus Christ then is foundational. It's foundational both for our obedience now and for our hope to come, our hope for the future and the world that will come. It's only in resting on Jesus Christ that we can do this. Jesus brings the reality of His work to us by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit. Because of this, the dominion of our sin is conquered by Jesus' death. We died with Him. We were there on the cross with Him. We bore the judgment of God with Him. The power of sin is broken. By His going up into heaven after He rose from the dead, we are brought safe into the presence of God so that we may look forward to His return. Because Jesus died, we have life. Because Jesus died, we have life. What does an obedience in hope look like? It looks like love. to quote from Paul in 1 Corinthians, it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. It's an obedience that continues in love when times are good and when times are difficult. It continues in obedience when the circumstances are confusing and hard. It continues in obedience all the way up till death. It continues in obedience because of God's unconditional love. Why do we obey? Because God will never stop loving us. This hopeful obedience also looks like faith. It's an obedience that trusts God more than my feelings. It's an obedience that loves others when everyone around you is unlovely. Why? Because God loved you, God loved the unlovely, and so from that, loved those around you. It looks out for the return of Christ and the well-being of others. It prays, your will be done, and how long, oh Lord, even so, come. It prays both of those things. Your will be done now, and Christ, come quickly. and it prays every day that God's will would be done and that Christ would return and take us home. If you are not trusting in Christ today, this same choice stands before you now, today, here, a choice between life and death, a choice between good and evil. God will save his people, and he will judge all sinners. So what will you do? What will you do? Today, while you can still breathe, while your brain is still functioning, pray to God. Ask him to save you. Ask him to give you life and good instead of death and evil. Tell Him that you have sinned against Him. Tell Him that you have broken His law. Ask Him for mercy, and then trust in Jesus Christ to have died for you, for you. And God's promise still stands now, even as it did back then, and as it always will until Christ returns. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Behind this chapter, behind this prophecy that Moses makes is God, an eternal God, a God without beginning and without end. Our God makes his plans and he brings them to pass, and no one can stop him, and no one can hinder him, and no one can take you out of his hand. There is no possibility of failure. God has also revealed himself perfectly in Jesus Christ. There's no need for doubt. There's no need for worry or anxiety in the face of Jesus Christ's revelation of God to us. All we are waiting on now is for Christ to return. It's the last great thing to take place. We also see in this passage God's character and his faithfulness, his faithfulness. He continues to teach through the Old Testament. We have learned about God saving us by reading a chapter in Deuteronomy recording Moses speaking to the people of Israel on the plains of Moab centuries ago. And yet God continues to teach through the Old Covenant. He continues also to require obedience in the New Covenant. He continues to require obedience in the New Covenant. And he continues to be faithful to his promise to us in Jesus Christ. Our God is a God who saves sinners. Our God is a God who saves sinners. Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we bow before you and rejoice in what you have done for us. We cannot save ourselves. The law condemns us and we see the law, in the law, the seriousness of our sin and our rebellion against you. Our rejoicing and our hope this day is not in ourselves. It's not on what we have done or what words we have spoken or how well we have prayed or how well we have repented. Our hope is in Jesus Christ. Our hope is in what he has done and your promise to us and him that when we trust in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation, turning from our sin, we have life and life abundantly and life forever. Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would work in us to increase our rejoicing all this week. that we would have a greater and growing sense of our position in Jesus Christ, that we are saved and delivered in him, that we might praise you forever. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.