One of the things that you learn when you are taught how to write a paper or how to give a speech is the importance of conclusions. I remember the first time that I had a term paper to write. This was a multi-week assignment or maybe even multi-month assignment when I was in junior high and going through all the work of writing the body. of that paper, and then the introduction and the conclusion, and understanding that the conclusion is so important. Without the conclusion, you are left without really everything being firmed up in your mind and the complete relevance being made clear to you. Same thing when you give a speech, how important that conclusion is. We come this morning to the conclusion. to the requirements section of Deuteronomy. This is the largest section of Deuteronomy. We've been in both the general requirements and then the specific requirements for just over a year now. Chapter 5 began the general requirements of God's covenant, general requirements for His people. He's speaking in broad terms. And then he got very specific in chapter 12 through our chapter, chapter 26, on the specific requirements, how the broad requirements are to look in the details of life. And today we come to the conclusion to all the requirements that are given to God's people in the book of Deuteronomy. It's not the conclusion of the book, but the conclusion to this very important section. It is a critical passage for us to understand, perhaps, as we were going through some of those miscellaneous laws, some of the other stipulations, perhaps you were a little bit lost. Here it all comes together. I hope the Spirit will use this text of Scripture in a great way in our lives. So I'm going to read the 26th chapter to us. Please stand in honor of the Word of God. When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, and have taken possession of it and live in it, You shall take some of the fruits of all the fruit of the ground which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you. And you shall put it in a basket and you shall go to the place the Lord your God will choose to make his name to dwell there. And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us. Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall make response before the Lord your God. A wandering Aramean was my father, and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. Then he cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers. And the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil and our oppression. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the fruit, the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me. And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you and the Levite and the sojourner who is among you. When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, give it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so they may eat within your towns and be filled. Then you shall say before the Lord your God, I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. I have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God. I have done according to all that you have commanded me. Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel, and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey. This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared today that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes and His commandments and His rules and will obey His voice. And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised. This is God's holy word. Please be seated. To understand this chapter, you do have to understand how it is related to the previous chapters. This chapter does, as I said before, conclude the stipulation sections that began in chapter 5. I want you to go back to chapter 5 to see how the general stipulation section began. Chapter 5, verse 1. We want to tie this all together today. Chapter 5, verse 1, And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, while I stood between the Lord and you at that time to declare to you the word of the Lord. For you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain. He said, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. And he goes on, and he reminds Israel of all of the Ten Commandments. And he goes into the other general stipulations. So this whole section of requirements was introduced to us by going back to Mount Sinai, where the Lord established His covenant. where the Lord reminded his people that he had redeemed them out of slavery in Egypt. And so his redeemed people have been brought into covenant with the Lord. And because they are in covenant with the Lord, he has requirements for how they are to live. And so he has preached those requirements. If you go forward to chapter 12, chapter 12 was the beginning of the specific stipulations, the specific requirements, chapter 12. Notice in verse 1 how the specific stipulations began. These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days that you live on the earth. You should surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their ashram with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. You should not worship the Lord your God in that way. But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households in all that you undertake. in which the Lord your God has blessed you." So the specific stipulations here began with requirements for worship. You are not to worship the Lord in the way that the Canaanites worship their gods. You are to destroy all the Canaanite worship. This is how you are to worship the Lord. And it spoke about bringing offerings and tithes and so forth to the place where the Lord would make his name to dwell. Worship is also what we just saw was the beginning of the general stipulations. That first commandment was, you shall have no other gods before me. What's the second commandment? It was, you shall have no idols that you make. You should not bow down to them or serve them. The general requirements began with worship. And so the specific stipulations also began with worship. And now if you come to chapter 26 of Deuteronomy, this last chapter of the stipulations, we see that this whole section concludes by taking us back to worshiping the Lord with offerings. We read of that in chapter 26, verses one through 11. the offerings of the first fruits. Yet, it's not simply just repeating what we learned earlier in this section of Deuteronomy about bringing offerings to the Lord's dwelling place, but we're gonna see here that we're taught the mindset. in which this worship is to be given to the Lord. Then he talks about the tithes and another way that the Lord was to be worshipped. So in this way, Deuteronomy frames all of life that's been spoken of throughout the specific stipulations, Deuteronomy is framing all of life with worship. God's requirements began with worship, God's requirements end on the note of worship, framing all of life with worship. This contributes to the message of Deuteronomy that all of life is to be worship. Why do we as Christians begin our week with corporate worship? That's what we're doing right now. We are on the first day of the week gathering together to worship the Lord corporately. Why do we as Christians begin our week with corporate worship? Part of the reason is to set the tone for the rest of the week. That the tone would be set for a whole week of worship to God. And similarly, the instructions that we find in Deuteronomy at the beginning and the end of the stipulation sections are meant to set the tone for all of life. God's people have been redeemed, are to do everything in life to the glory of God. Everything is to be worshiped to Him. So let's jump into the first third of our text in Deuteronomy 26. This first third of the text concerns the vertical dimension of worship. The vertical dimension of worship. And each of the three sections that we're going to see in this chapter has to do with worship. Look closely at verse 1. When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, and have taken possession of it and live in it. You shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you. And you shall put it in a basket and you shall go to the place that the Lord your God will choose to make his name to dwell there. And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, I declare to the Lord, I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us. Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God." Stop right there. We see here in verses 1-4 that after the Israelites were to take possession of the promised land, which they were to do shortly after Deuteronomy was written. After they were to take possession of the promised land, they were to gather some of the first fruits that they would harvest from the land. And they were to present the first fruits, whether it be of barley or of olives or of grapes or whatever crops that they would grow on the land that the Lord was giving them. They were to gather some of the first fruits that they harvested and they were to present them before the Lord's altar in the central sanctuary. At first, that would be the tabernacle. Later on, the tabernacle would be replaced by the temple, the central sanctuary. Now, back in chapter 18, verse 4, Moses already gave instruction regarding the firstfruits. And back there he taught that the firstfruits were to support the priests and the Levites who served at the central sanctuary. So you as an Israelite, you would bring the first fruits to the Lord's dwelling place, you would present them there before the Lord as worship to Him, and then He would use that to supply for the needs of those men who dedicated themselves to leading the worship there at the central sanctuary. So the presentation of the first fruits was to be an act of worship to God. Now, what we see in our text, which goes beyond what we saw back in chapter 18, is that God's people were to make this offering with a specific mindset. It is with the mindset of worship. I want you to observe how verses 1 through 3 emphasize something. Verses 1 through 3 emphasize that the land was given to them by the Lord. Look at verse 1. When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. Look at verse two. You should take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Look at verse three. And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, I declared today to the Lord your God that I've come into the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us. This great emphasis put on the fact that this land in which Israel would live was a gift to them. It was given to them by God in fulfillment of the promises that He had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And giving the first fruits of the land to the Lord was to be a recognition that the Lord had given them the land in His grace. That the Lord had given them the land in His faithfulness. And so in verse three, we see that, that the worshiper was to articulate these words. I declare today to the Lord, your God, that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us. And in the following verses, we see more of the mindset that the worshiper was to have. Continue in verse five. And you shall make response before the Lord your God. A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number. And there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. The worshipers were to be mindful of where they came from. Just as you and I, brothers and sisters, as we worship God, we are to be mindful of where we came from. The nation of Israel was named after their forefather, Israel, whose name originally was Jacob. Now, Jacob's mother, Rebecca, was an Aramean. Jacob sojourned for 20 years in Aram with Rebecca's brother, Laban. And so Jacob, the forefather of the nation of Israel, is referred to in verse 5 as a wandering Aramean. A wandering Aramean was my father. That refers to Jacob, then called Israel. He's called a wandering Aramean because he did not possess any land. God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their descendants, the land of Canaan. But it was not in their lifetime that God gave them the land. Jacob was a wandering Aramean. He sojourned in different places. He did not possess any land. And in God's providence, Jacob eventually sojourned in Egypt. which is declared here in verse five. At first, few in number there in Egypt. But then the worshiper is to articulate how in God's providence, Jacob eventually was multiplied by the Lord in Egypt. Egypt is spoken of here like an incubator. The Lord, in his providence, brought Jacob's family down to Egypt at a time of famine. In God's providence, that was where he was going to multiply them and make them into a great nation. It served as an incubator. They became a nation great, mighty, and populous in fulfillment of the Lord's promise to Abraham. The words of the worshiper continue in verse six. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt. with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders." We see here that the Egyptians had treated the Israelites well until Israel became a mighty nation. At that point, the Egyptians turned against the Israelites and enslaved that nation. But when the Israelites cried out to the God of their fathers, the Lord delivered them by His great and awesome might. The worshippers words continue in verse nine. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Notice the words again. The Lord gave them the land, the gift from him. Verse 10. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground. which you, O Lord, have given me." There's those words again. You have given them to me, the firstfruits, a gift from you. And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. They were to make this proclamation declaring what God had done for them as a nation, where they came from, How God had multiplied them. How God had delivered them, redeemed them. How the Lord had fulfilled His promise to them in faithfulness and given them the land. And then now He has given them the produce of the land. And they are to, having said these words, they are to worship. We see it in verse 10. They are to worship before the Lord their God. Or the NIV actually here is more literal, bow down before the Lord. This is one of the main words for worship in the Old Testament. And the literal meaning of this fundamental word for worship is to bow down before God. That is what we are to be doing this morning in corporate worship is in our hearts, bowing before the Lord. That is what we are to do all throughout the week, is in our hearts, in our lives, in all of our decisions, bow before the Lord. To give homage to the Lord as our great King. It goes on in verse 11, Notice again, those words, has given you. You are to rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you. So the offering of the first fruits to the Lord was to be a worshipful acknowledgement of the Lord's great grace of making them into a nation, saving them out of terrible bondage, giving them a land in which to dwell, providing for their needs, all in faithful fulfillment of the Lord's gracious promises to their fathers. The offering of the first fruits was to be an expression of heartfelt gratitude to our gracious Lord. Now, if God's people had obeyed this law from the heart, and if they could continue to do so annually, what do you think it would have kept Israel from doing? It would have kept them from forgetting what the Lord had done for them. It would have kept them from idolatry. Why did the Canaanites worship their idols? The Canaanites worshipped their idols so that their agriculture would be fruitful. They believed that if they worshipped and served and appeased the gods, they worshipped their false gods, that those gods would bless their agriculture. What do we see Israel do? Do they continue? to from the heart carry out this instruction? No, they do not. The next generation in the promised land will forget what the Lord had done for them. They will go from forgetting the Lord then into idolatry. Listen to what Judges 2 verses 10 through 11 say about this. It says, and there arose another generation after them. We're talking about the second generation living in the promised land. There arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that He had done for Israel. It's an amazing statement. Think about the glorious redemption that the Lord had given to the nation of Israel. Think about all the instructions in Deuteronomy about not forgetting and about doing certain things like what's prescribed here with the firstfruits, articulating as you present the firstfruits, where you came from, what the Lord had done for you. In spite of everything that Deuteronomy says that was meant to lead the Israelites in continuing to remember what the Lord had done for them, we read that the next generation did not know the Lord or the work that He had done for Israel. The next sentence says, And the people of Israel did what was evil in sight of the Lord, and served the Baals. Forgetting what the Lord has done for you comes first. And then idolatry inevitably follows, forgetting what the Lord has done for you. Worshipping yourself, worshipping created things instead of the Lord, your Redeemer. The first step of rebellion against God is a failure to give him thanks. We see this in Romans chapter 1, which speaks about the fall of mankind into rebellion against God. It says in Romans chapter 121, For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened." So the first thing that Romans says that man did in the fall was, even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. What did that result in? They became futile in their thinking, their foolish hearts were darkened, and the following verses talk about how they engage in idolatry. The first step of rebellion against God is a failure to give him thanks. He gives his blessings to us that we might give thanks to him, that we might praise him. His gifts to us are fulfilled in the return of thanksgiving to him. He has created us as worshipers to live dependently upon him, giving him thanks and honor and praise for all that he gives to us. If you are one of God's people. You are to continually recognize that all that you are and all that you have you owe to God. At one time, brothers and sisters, you and I were outside the kingdom of God. You and I were enslaved in the slave house of sin. We were under the just condemnation of a holy God. But God, in His great mercy and grace, redeemed you, brother, redeemed you, sister. God delivered up His own Son for your trespasses. God raised His Son for your justification. Having chosen you before the foundation of the world, God brought the gospel home to your heart. Brothers and sisters, remember when He did that. Remember how He did that. He gave you His Spirit to dwell within you. He gave you a new heart. When you believed, He forgave you of all of your sins, past, present, and future, because Christ had paid for them at the cross. And by grace, when you believed, God gave you the very righteousness of Christ. He gave you the gift of eternal life. He gave you citizenship in the kingdom of his beloved son. He gave you every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Understand, brothers and sisters, that your salvation and your relationship with the Lord are owing entirely to his grace. This means that your growth in Christ is owing entirely to God's grace. Every spiritual victory that you have, brothers and sisters, is owing to God's provision, God's grace, God's saving work in your life. The privilege that we have, brothers and sisters, of serving Christ is a gift to us from our Lord. The abilities that you have, that you use for serving the Lord, those abilities are gifts to you from your Lord. And the fruit of your service to Christ, all the fruit of our ministry, all the fruit of our service, all the fruit of our labor, that is a gift to us as well from the Lord. Additionally, every meal that is on our table, every meal that we eat is a gift of God's grace. Every breath that we breathe, the ability to work, every paycheck is a gift from our God. Acts chapter 17, verses 24 and 25 say, the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. Everything good that we have is a gift to us from God. And because this is true, your life and my life are meant by God to be lives of continual thanksgiving to God. Our lives are meant by God to be continual worship to Him, continual rejoicing in the Lord, who has given to us. Let me ask you, do you believe what I am saying? Do you believe that everything good you have is a gift to you from the Lord? Do you believe that your standing that you have before God, that every victory you experience, that every fruit from your labors is a gift from God? Do you believe these things? Do you regularly have the mindset that's laid out in our text, a mindset that's set on God's graciousness to you? Do you have a mindset where you remember where you came from and what God has done to rescue you? Do you have that mindset? Do you continually offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving to God? Understand that this starts with being saved. It starts with the Holy Spirit bringing the gospel home to your heart. After bringing conviction of sin home to your heart. And the Spirit removing the heart of stone that is a heart of rebellion against God and replacing it with a heart of flesh. It begins with the new birth. It begins with being born from above. It begins with the forgiveness of your sins. being made right with God by the grace of God received through faith in Christ. And after you are saved, you must begin to cultivate the sort of mindset that we see in these verses by renewing your mind with what the Bible says about these things. So let me ask you, brothers and sisters, does your daily Bible reading leave you thanking God for what you have seen in His Word in that sitting? Does it leave you thanking God for what you've seen in His Word about who He is? Does it leave you thanking God for what you've seen in His Word about what He has done for you? What He is doing for you? What He has promised He will do for you? If you are a Christian, but reading the Bible rarely leaves you thanking God, then brothers and sisters, you need to change the way that you are reading the Bible. Because if we are reading the Bible rightly as Christians, then we are going to be reminded in so many different passages of Scripture. about what God has given to us in salvation. We'll be reminded of what He currently is doing for us, what He has promised to do for us. And if we are being affected in a way that we ought to be affected by the Word of God, then it's going to be producing within us a growing thankfulness to God, a growing rejoicing in the Lord, rejoicing in our Savior, rejoicing in our Redeemer. May we be people, brothers and sisters, who by God's grace are ever mindful of what he has done for us. May we, by God's grace, be a people who are continually offering up the sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. So far, we've been talking about the vertical dimension of worship. Giving things to God is part of the vertical dimension of worship. There also is a horizontal dimension to worship. And it is the horizontal dimension of worship that is brought out in the next section of our text, verses 12 through 15. But before we look at verse 12, I want to ask you, back in verse 11, Did you notice who was to join an Israelite in giving thanks to the Lord? Look closely at verse 11. And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you and the Levite and the sojourner who is among you. So when you as an Israelite brought the first fruits to the sanctuary, along with you were coming some Levites. along with you were coming some sojourners. And the Levite and the sojourner were rejoicing with you before the Lord as you gave thanks for God's provision. Why would you have Levites and sojourners joining you and giving thanks for the yield of the harvest? Well, because every third year, you were to give a tithe. A tithe was 10% of your produce. Every third year, you were to give a tithe for supporting the Levites in your area. Supporting the Levites with the tithe enabled them to focus on the work of the Lord. And with that tithe, you also were giving some to help the sojourners and the other poor in your area. So you would take what the Lord blessed you with And you would use that to provide physical sustenance for the servants of the Lord, the Levites. Provide physical sustenance for the poor in your midst. And all of you together were to go to the Lord to present the first fruits. So we studied this tithe back in chapter 14, but now in our text, further instruction is regarding this tithe. Look at verse 12. When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled, then you shall say before the Lord your God, I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, And moreover, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. I have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God. I have done according to all that you have commanded me. Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey." So this was to be done every third year. In the first and second years, the tithe was to be brought to the central sanctuary as worship to the Lord. But in the third year, the tithe was to be given to support the Levites and help the poor. The Israelite who had given that tithe for those individuals was then to go before the Lord, we see in these verses, and state two things to the Lord. The first thing we saw that the worshiper was to state to the Lord was that he had given, quote, the sacred portion. to the Levite, the sojourner, et cetera, quote, according to all your commandment. So he's already done this. Now he goes before the Lord and tells the Lord what he has done. He took the sacred portion, sacred means holy, set apart unto the Lord, belonging to the Lord. He took the portion that belonged to the Lord and he gave it. to the Levite, to the sojourner, the fatherless, the widow, according to all of the Lord's commandment. In other words, it's being stated very clearly that the giving of the tithes to those individuals was an act of worship. It was done in obedience to God. It was giving to them what belonged to the Lord, and the Lord had instructed the worshiper to give to these individuals. It was just as worshipful to give the tithe to the Levites, the sojourner, the fatherless, the widow. It was just as worshipful to give them the tithe as it was to bring the tithe to the central sanctuary on the other two years. Just as worshipful. Because the tithe was the sacred portion, it had to be kept ceremonially clean. And so the worshipper, as he came before the Lord and made this declaration, he was to state a second thing to the Lord. He was to state that he had kept the tithe ceremonially clean in obedience to the Lord. He talks here about how he had not eaten of the tithe while he was mourning for a loved one who had died. You see, if you're mourning for a loved one, you're going to touch the dead body as you prepare the body for burial. That makes you ceremonially unclean. If you then turn around and you touch the tithe, now you've made the tithe unclean. The worshipper was to say that he had kept the tithe clean. He had not eaten of the tithe while he was mourning for a loved one. He had not moved the tithe while unclean. He had not offered any of the tithe to the dead. The worshipper we see was then to ask the Lord for his continued blessing upon the land's productivity. Look at verse 15 again. Look down from your holy habitation from heaven. This is the perspective of worship. A worshiper looks up to God. Look down, O Lord, from your holy habitation from heaven. Though the Lord made his name to dwell in the tabernacle and later in the temple, Israel understood rightly that no earthly temple could contain the Lord. That not even the universe can contain the Lord. That the Lord who is holy is high and exalted. That he looks down from his heavenly throne, he looks down upon the universe. from His holy habitation. He is majestic in holiness. Like Isaiah saw the Lord in that vision. He saw Him high and exalted, seated on the throne. In worship, we recognize the exalted position of our God. And we are humbling ourselves before Him. In verse 15, look down from your holy habitation from heaven and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us. It's very similar to the petition in the Lord's Prayer, give us this day our daily bread. Why are we to pray for our daily bread? Even when we have money in the bank, even when we have food in the refrigerator, why are we to pray for our daily bread? Because we are to depend upon the Lord for everything. And see everything that we enjoy as a gift from him. We are utterly dependent upon the one who is high and exalted. Every good and perfect gift is from him. And so the people were not to take for granted that their fields were going to produce the next year. They were to pray, oh Lord, bless your people Israel. Bless the ground that you have given us. Now, what was Israel to learn from this law? And what are we to learn as well? We are to learn that worship of our holy God has a horizontal dimension. Part of how Israel was to worship the Lord was by giving the tithe every three years. to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, the widow. They were to do so as worship to God. God's teaching that the worship of Him includes a horizontal dimension of showing loving care for our neighbors. And if done with a worshipful attitude, it is just as worshipful to give financially to a needy individual in the church as it is to put an offering in the offering box. Just as in Israel, it was just as worshipful to give to the Levite, the sojourner, the widow, just as worshipful as it was to bring the tithe to the tabernacle. James chapter 1 verse 27 tells us, religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. And chapter 2 of James verses 15 through 17 says, if a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. And the apostle John also says in 1 John 3, verses 16 through 18, by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. It's clear in the epistles and James and John, that true religion, true worship of God has a horizontal dimension of loving our neighbors, especially those who are in the household of faith. In our text, the focus of verses one through 11, in the instructions regarding the firstfruits, was the Lord's faithfulness to His people. As they presented the firstfruits, they were to set their mind upon how faithful God had been to them. And now in verses 12 through 15, with the instructions for the tithe to the Levite and the needy, the focus is on the faithfulness of the Lord's people to Him. Because in those words, that the worshiper is to speak before the Lord. It's, I have done this for these people in obedience to your commands. I have kept it ceremonially pure in obedience to your commands. I have been faithful to what you have required of me. This order is significant. First, the faithfulness of God, and then our faithfulness as the redeemed to the Lord. The Lord's faithfulness to us enables us to be faithful to Him. We couldn't be faithful to Him apart from Him first being faithful to us. His faithfulness enables us to in turn be faithful to Him. We see here that worship is a response to the Lord's faithfulness. Worship encompasses then faithfulness to the Lord. So worship is a response to His faithfulness and encompasses a response of faithfulness to God. All that we have belongs to the Lord. And what we do with it, especially what we do with the first portion, shows what we worship. Do you use the things that God has given to you that ultimately belong to Him, especially the first portion? Do you use it for your purposes without regard to his will, or do you use it for his purposes? It's a question that all of us need to carefully consider. It's one thing to hear the word of God and go, yeah, that sounds nice, but are we living it out? Are we truly, in the day-to-day moments of life, are we truly recognizing that everything we have is a gift from God and ultimately belongs to Him? It's been entrusted to us to use for His worship. And so, are we using what God has given to us for our own will, apart from consideration of what God's will is? Or are we seeking to use what He's entrusted to us for His purposes, for His glory? This is part of worship. May we be people who, by God's grace, worship Him by being faithful to do His will, of showing love and care for our neighbors, especially for those of the household of faith who are in need. Well, why have the first two sections of this chapter focused on the Lord's faithfulness to His people, and their response of faithfulness to do his commands. It's because this reflects the Lord's covenant with his people. It reflects the Lord's covenant with his people. And that's what we see in the last section of our text, the covenantal context of worship. The covenantal context of worship. The requirements about the first fruits and the tithes were the last stipulations in the requirement sections of the book. How does Moses bring to a point the specific requirements section, and at the same time, the preceding general requirements? Look at verse 16. Here's how he brings it all to a point. This day, the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. He talks about these statutes. and rules. Think of all the statutes and rules that we have studied. We began, I looked back on my computer and I saw, we began studying these statutes and rules on January 27, 2019. That was almost a year ago. Almost every Sunday since then, we've been studying these requirements in Deuteronomy that God had for his people. And now, He says, this day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes. We've seen the Ten Commandments. We've seen what Jesus called the greatest commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. We've seen specific commandments that have to do with corporate worship, have to do with sexuality, that have to do with family relationships, that have to do with business transactions, that have to do with really all the areas of life. And now he says, this day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. In other words, each of the Lord's commands was to be carefully done with all of one's being, not in a superficial way, not in just some way of marking it off a list, but to be done from the heart, with all of one's soul, with all of one's might. Similar to what Jesus talks about when he says that true worshipers will worship in spirit, worship from the heart, not just outwardly. He continues in verse 17. You have declared today That the Lord is your God and that you will walk in his ways and keep his statues and his commandments and his rules and will obey his voice. And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made. And that you should be a people holy to the Lord, your God, as he promised. He's talking here about the covenant relationship the Lord established with his people. And we see here that the covenant relationship the Lord established with his people has two elements. Each element of the covenant relationship is signified by the word declared. Notice that word declared in verse 17. You have declared today that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in his ways and so forth. Look at verse 18 for the second declared. And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession. as He has promised you, and that you are to keep all His commands, and that He will set you in praise, and in fame, and in honor, and so forth. So, you have declared, you as the people of God, who have renewed the covenant with the Lord, you have declared something. And the Lord who has made His covenant, He has declared something. There's two elements to the covenant. Let's consider closely the first element in verse 17. In verse 17, we have a solemn vow being spoken of that was made by the Lord's people. They had made this vow to the Lord back in Exodus at Mount Sinai, 40 years before when the Lord established his covenant with Israel. And now when Deuteronomy is being written, they are renewing the covenant. The second generation is renewing the covenant before entering the promised land. Deuteronomy is a covenant renewal book. It was written on the occasion of the renewal of the covenant. And here is the solemn vow that Israel was making before the Lord by renewing the covenant. That they were declaring today that the Lord is their God. That they will walk in His ways, keep His statutes, His commandments, His rules. They will obey His voice. In other words, this is a pledging of one's allegiance to the Lord as one's God, vowing that they will obey him. The second element, found in verses 18 through 19, is a solemn declaration made by the Lord. First of all, the Lord declares in verse 18, he declared that Israel was a people for his treasured possession. You see that in verse 18, the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession. At Sinai, he had vowed that they would be his treasured possession among all the peoples. And now 40 years later, he declares that they are his treasured possession. A people chosen by his grace, for his pleasure, for his glory. The Lord also declared that the privilege of being his treasured possession brought with it the requirement of keeping all his commandments. You see that in the second half of verse 18. his treasured possession as he promised you and that you are to keep all his commandments. All throughout the Bible, the privilege of having a relationship with the Lord always brings with it the requirements for how a person or how people are to live. God created Adam and Eve. The Lord was committed to Adam and Eve. He placed them in a beautiful garden that he had made. He was committed to providing for their needs and he had a requirement for them. You shall not eat from this one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Think about God's covenant with Abraham. God comes to Abraham and says, go to a land that I will show you. I'm going to bless you. I'm going to multiply you. The Lord established his covenant with Abraham as a covenant based on grace. And the Lord had requirements for Abraham. Abraham was to obey God. And that would be tested when God would call Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham demonstrated his faith by obeying God. By fulfilling God's requirement that Abraham would obey him. God made the covenant with Israel. We're studying here in Deuteronomy. By grace, the Lord redeemed them. By grace, he established his covenant with them. And he had requirements for his people. This is how you must live as my redeemed people. Think about the Christian. The Christian has been called by the Lord Jesus Christ into relationship with him. We are in relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ entirely by the grace of God. And Christ has requirements for how we are to live. He said, if you would follow after me, you must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. He made his demands clear in his teaching, what he required of his disciples for living a life for the glory of the King of Kings. Every time God establishes a relationship with people in the Bible, he always has requirements for them of how they are to live. This is due to the nature of God. God is the great king. And as the great king, he requires the allegiance of his people. As the great king who is holy, he requires that his redeemed people would be holy as he is holy. That they would reflect his nature in their lives. It is due to the nature of God that he has requirements for how his people are to live. Keeping the Lord's commandments is how we love the Lord. It's how we demonstrate our identity before a watching world of our identity as the Lord's redeemed people. Keeping His commandments is how we reflect His nature, how we bring glory to Him before the watching world. So the Lord here in our text declared that this privilege of being the Lord's treasured possession brought with it a requirement of keeping his commandments. And then in verse 19, the Lord vowed that he would set Israel in praise, fame, and honor high above all nations. Notice that in verse 19. And that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made. The term all nations that he has made looks far beyond Israel's neighbors to the world as a whole. The Lord will set Israel in praise and fame and honor high above all the nations in the world that the Lord has made. It's a sweeping statement. It speaks of a leadership role that God had for Israel to play among the nations. Back in chapter 15, verse 6, we read of that leadership role when he was talking about the blessings for Israel. In chapter 15, verse 6, it says, You shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you. Now what he's saying here in verse 19 about setting Israel in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations, is that something that we see fulfilled in the Old Testament? No. I don't see that fulfilled anywhere in the Old Testament. But what we do see is that the Old Testament prophets foretell it. And they speak of this having an eschatological fulfillment. Listen to the prophet Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 20. This is the last verse in the book of Zephaniah. Spoken to Israel. At that time I will bring you in. after a time of restoration. At that time, I will bring you in. At that time, when I gather you together, for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth. When I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord. It's eschatological. Why would the Lord do this? Why will he make Israel this place of praise, honor, and fame high above all nations? Ultimately, it's for the Lord's glory. It's part of the grand story of redemption. Do you remember what God has said in this book about what Israel was like at the beginning of their history? About why God chose them? Remember Deuteronomy 7, verses 7-8? The Lord said to Israel, it was not because you were more in number. than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you. For you were the fewest of all peoples. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt." God says, I chose you, Israel, not because you were lovely in my sight. I didn't choose you because you were powerful in the world. When I chose you, you were the least of all peoples. I chose you because I love you. And I love you because I love you. It was a sovereign choice of God's grace to cast His redeeming love on this nation and to use them for His glory. And what we see in Deuteronomy is this nation that God began to work with when they were the least of all the nations. What we see here is He has a glorious future for them. He's going to set them in glory and honor and praise above all the nations unto the glory of their Redeemer. Well, the Lord finally declares in verse 19b, you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God. That's the last note of this great section in Deuteronomy. You shall be a people holy to the Lord your God. That's a weighty declaration. You shall be a people holy to the Lord your God. I think it really encompasses several different ideas that we see taught elsewhere in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. There's a sense in which the Lord made Israel holy when he chose them for himself. He consecrated them to himself for his purposes. There's also a sense in which the Lord commanded his people to be holy as he is holy. And we see both senses in Leviticus chapter 20 verse 26 which says, you shall be holy to me for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples that you should be mine. So I've separated you from the peoples, I've taken you to myself, I've consecrated you, you're holy in that sense, positionally. Now because I've made you holy, be holy in all of your conduct, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy. But I think there's even a little bit more in mind here in this declaration in the covenant. One more part of it is the Lord had also purposed to make his people holy. He didn't simply consecrate them to Himself and command them to be holy, but He purposed, I will make you holy. I think all of that is included here in verse 19. That He will set you in praise and fame and honor high above all nations that He has made and that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God as He promised. As He promised. Well, these last verses, 16 through 19, are a summary of the Lord's covenant. As I said, Deuteronomy was written for the renewal of the covenant. And when we think of the renewal of the covenant with Israel, we can compare that to the renewal of marriage vows. Twice, I've had the privilege of leading two couples in our church in a renewal of their wedding vows here in this room. Renewal. It doesn't nullify the original vows. But it's a renewal of one's heart and mind to be faithful to the vows that have been made. The Lord was renewing the covenant with his people. He was reminding them of his commitment to them. And he was asking them to renew their covenant commitments to him. The Lord's covenant is the context of the worship that the Lord requires from His redeemed people. The Lord's covenants with man were never negotiated. It's not that God sat down at a table with Abraham and said, let's negotiate a covenant. It's not that the Lord sat down with Moses and Aaron at Mount Sinai and said, let's negotiate a covenant. No, the Lord's covenants with man are never negotiated. They're always established by the Lord. The Lord is the one who makes the covenant. The Lord is the one who reveals the covenant. The God that we worship is a God who, in his magnificent grace, has brought us into relationship with himself and has declared his unshakable commitment to us. And the worship that he requires from us is to come from a heart that is committed to him Covenants are about commitments. Commitment is the context for worship. Brothers and sisters, if you ever doubt God's commitment to you, look back to two things. Now, if Israel was doubting God's commitment to them, what they had to look back to was redemption out of Egypt. That would remind them, this God who's brought us in the covenant, he's committed to us. What do we as Christians have to look back to, to be reminded of God's commitment to us? First, there is the cross of our Savior, the cross of our Lord. In Romans chapter five, verses six through eight, we read, for while we were still weak, At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We didn't fix ourself up before Jesus died for us. We didn't reform our lives before Jesus died for us. While we were his enemies, he laid down his life in sacrifice for us. And Romans 8.32 says, he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Brothers and sisters, when doubt enter your mind, is God really committed to me? Look back to the cross, where the Lord died for your sins, where the father handed up his son for your trespasses. Where Christ bore your guilt, He bore your shame. He suffered the wrath of God in your place. That you, by the grace of God, would be right with God. That Christ's righteousness would be given to you. The righteousness of Christ who not only died for your trespasses, but was raised for your justification. Look back to the cross, brothers and sisters. The cross of Christ tells you that God will give you everything that comes with salvation. He's not going to leave anything out in the salvation package. He is completely committed to your sanctification, glorification, the whole salvation. But I tell you there's two things to look back to. Also look back to God's sovereign election of you before the foundation of the world. which we read of in Ephesians 1, verses 3-4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love. The doctrine of election does not say God looked forward in time and saw who would believe, and so he decided he would save them. No, Romans chapters 9, 10, and 11 tells us that God chooses by grace. He chose by grace. He didn't choose by looking ahead and seeing what you would do. He chose you in the same way he chose Israel, by his grace. He chose you in order to magnify His grace in your life. He chose you in order to magnify His saving power and sanctifying power in your life. He chose you because He determined that He would make you holy and blameless unto His glory. Is God committed to you? Brothers and sisters, absolutely. He's communicated to you by telling you, brothers and sisters, that He chose you before the foundation of the earth, not based on anything that you have done or would do, for His own purposes. And since He has chosen you for His own purposes, He will fulfill those purposes, certainly, in your life. Is He committed to you? Look at His election of you. Look at the cross where Jesus died for you. Absolutely, brothers and sisters. So brothers and sisters, let these truths of God's commitment to you, which is at the heart of every covenant that he makes, his commitment, let these truths of God's commitment to you be the conscious context of your worship. We are to worship with the mindset that we are the objects of God's sovereign saving grace. We are to worship as those who understand that I'm not who I am because of anything that I have done. Everything good about who I am now in Christ is all owing to what God has done for me. And be assured that because he's committed to you, He's gonna complete the good work. That gives you reasons to worship God, to thank Him. Even when you're ill. Even when you're going through some of the hardest trials of your life, you have reason to give thanks and glory and praise to God. because of what he has given you in Christ, what he has given you in redemption, what he has promised to you in the age to come when Jesus comes again. All of this makes worship a joyful response to God's grace. Let me ask you, how have you been affected in this last year by our study of the Law of God? We've spent a lot of time on the Law of God. How have you been affected by the Law of God? Has the Law of God shown you that you are a sinner? Has it shown you that you deserve God's curse. You deserve his judgment because you are a law breaker. If the law has shown you these things, then I urge you. Turn to Christ. Turn to the one who made atonement for sin at the cross. Turn to the one who was raised from the grave on the third day in victory over sin, death and the grave. Jesus calls. He says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon me and learn from me, for I'm gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. The one who atoned for sins, the one who rose in victory on the third day. offers rest to the souls of those who are weary and burdened under the weight of the guilt of their sin. Burdened under the law of God and seeing that I have violated His law. I'm guilty before God. And when the judgment comes, I'm not going to stand in that judgment. I'm going to be cast into eternal fire unless God in his grace saves my soul. You are burdened by the guilt that the law speaks of, that the law shows you. Flee to Christ. You can never save yourself. You can never make yourself right before God. No, the only way into a right relationship with God is through the mediator whom God has provided, Jesus Christ, who has obeyed all of the law that we've studied for a year. He obeyed all of it perfectly as our substitute. And he made atonement for all the sins of his people there at the cross. So flee to him. How have you been affected by God's law? If you are in Christ and the law of God has shown you some things that are not right before God, some things in your life that are sin, some areas of your life where you're not reflecting His nature and you're not bringing Him glory, then thank the Lord for His law. Thank the Lord for what He has shown you in the study of His requirements. Because he's been working by his spirit in you to make his will known to you. He's been working through his law to show you what it looks like to love God and glorify him and live for him. So don't think that the changes that the law has shown are needed in your life, brothers and sisters. Don't think that now it's up to you to go off and on your own, make these changes. Jesus said, apart from me, you can do nothing. seeing what the changes that are needed in our life should move us to go to Christ for the power, for the grace, to depend upon the spirit of Christ who has been given to us, to change us from the inside out, from the heart outward, to give us the grace to now live for the Lord in these ways that he has shown us in his will. So be encouraged by the gospel. We don't just look at the law by itself. We look at the law together with the gospel. And together, the law and the gospel point us to Christ and enable the believer to live for the glory of God. As we're seeing today, All of the law has to do with worship. All of life has to do with worship. Let us be moved by what we've seen to offer up our bodies, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which Romans 12, 1 and 2 says is our reasonable, is our spiritual worship. It's not so much ties and offerings that God's looking for. He's looking for your heart. He's looking for your whole life. He says, nothing is your own. I've redeemed you entirely. You belong to me, heart, soul, body, strength, everything. And so the worship that God calls forth. is offering ourself daily as a living sacrifice to the Lord. And Lord, here I am. You've bought me. I'm yours. Use me for your glory. Make me holy as you are holy. Bring glory to yourself through my life. That's the heart of worship. And our text says that should be a response of joy. a response of thankfulness to what God has given to us. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you did not spare your own son, but you gave him up for us all. Oh, you've given us such reasons as those whom you have redeemed to joyfully worship you and serve you. Lord, enable us in the heart, in the mind, in the soul, with all of our being to live lives of worship to you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.