The following sermon was delivered by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church, Fairfax, Virginia, on July 13, 1980. The sermon is entitled, If You Obey. 

I want to come back to that first reading we had this morning. It was in Deuteronomy chapter 30, if you care to follow along. An incredibly inclusive promise.

A far-reaching promise. Almost to the point of astonishing us. Deuteronomy chapter 30 and starting with verse 9.

It says, Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand. This is God's good pleasure. God isn't grudging and stingy and mean and hard and narrow-minded.

He wants to bless. He wants to fill you with His joy. It's very much in the context of what we were thinking about last week.

It says He will make you prosperous. Not just prosperous, abundantly prosperous. Not just in some of the work of your hands, in all of it.

It says, in the fruit of your body. In other words, among your children, in your family. It says, in the fruit of your cattle, in the fruit of your ground.

In other words, in your employment, in your job, in your living conditions. The Lord God will take delight in prospering you as he did your fathers. Do you believe that this morning?

One does. Billy does, now you know why they call him Bucks. God took delight in prospering your fathers.

God doesn't take delight in punishing you. Sometimes he has to. God doesn't take delight in disciplining you.

Sometimes he has to. Scripture abounds in comments to the effect that as a good father sometimes has to discipline his children, so the Lord, because he loves you, sometimes has to discipline you. But he doesn't delight in that.

What father loves to spank his children? I don't know very many. My father used to say to me, and I never really believed him, this is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you.

but I now know what he means sometimes I have to punish my children I don't delight in it can you delight in punishing one that is the very fruit of your body you look into the eyes of one like Jessica and one hard word and they well up she's got it down to a science there's no fun in punishing her I gotta tell you what Jessica this is irrelevant I tried to work this into the sermon. I couldn't figure out a way of working it in, so I'm just going to give it to you gratis. I'm putting Jessica to bed on Saturday night.

And she says, Daddy, I love you. Jessica is three, okay? I said, Jessica, why do you love me?

Because I like your body. Oh, it's been a long time. How could you take delight in punishing Jessica after that?

God takes no delight in punishing his children, though he sometimes has to. He takes delight in their pleasure. He takes delight in blessing them.

God loves you. That's the message of the scriptures. We get this so twisted.

We've got the idea that God is somewhere sneaking around with a big stick over his shoulder, just waiting for you to do something wrong so he can clobber you. You know, find out what the baby is doing and make him stop it. No. Yeah, God does sometimes have to punish, but he doesn't take delight in it.

God takes delight in blessing your fathers. And God takes delight in blessing you. His pleasure is to make you prosper abundantly in all the work of your hand.

In all the fruit of your body. In the fruit of your cattle. In the fruit of your ground.

God takes delight in your delight. But, the sentence doesn't end there. It goes on to say, If you obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

See, God knows where delight is to be found. God knows where blessing resides. When he gave the law, it wasn't because he's a big meanie.

He knows that in obedience to it, there comes blessing. It's for our own good. Because he loves us.

The things of this world may look attractive on the surface. But if they're contrary to his will, sooner or later they're going to run us into trouble. There's a snare in them.

Adultery may look attractive, may at first seem fun, but sooner or later there's destruction involved in it. God didn't say thou shalt not commit adultery because he wanted to destroy our pleasure, but because he wanted to protect our pleasure. Because real abiding pleasure is not to be found in adultery, but it's to be found in a marriage relationship which begins to reflect and in fact participate in the very love and character of God.

Scripture goes on to say, This commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you. It really isn't. It's not too hard for you. It's not too far off.

It's not up in heaven somewhere where you can't reach it. It's not down in Sheol somewhere. It's not far away in some remote island It's right here It's in your heart It's on your lips As you can speak it So you can do it I want to share a little bit of theology with you Because there are different statements about the law of God That may be confusing on the surface Some of the statements make it sound as if It's so hard that nobody could possibly do it And then we come across a statement like this It's not at all hard The reformers, primarily in the 16th century, by whom I mean Martin Luther, John Calvin, Zwingli, the English reformers, Archbishop Cranmer, Bishop Ridley, Bishop Latimer, some of these people who were responsible for shaping the life of the church during the days of the reformation, they used to speak of three uses of the law.

Why did God give us his law? Why did he give us his statutes? They said it's too simplistic to look for a one answer to that question.

God gave us his law for at least three different purposes. They're related to each other, but they're distinct. The first use of the law, the first purpose of the commandment, is to drive us to Christ.

That as we look at that high standard of holiness, that high standard of righteousness that God expects of us we look at that as into a mirror and then we reflect upon ourselves we say I'm not like that if that's what God requires I'm in trouble because I'm not at all like that you know it's one thing if God grades on the curve then I might stand a chance but if God really means it when he says be ye perfect as your father in heaven is perfect Have you ever heard somebody say, I live by the Sermon on the Mount? I have to say, you never read the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus comes to the end of the Sermon on the Mount, and that's his summary.

Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. And I say, if that's what God requires, I'm in trouble. And the Lord drives me to Christ.

You see, I see my need. If that's what God requires, I'm in trouble and I need a Savior. That's the first use of the law.

Second use of the law has to do with the ordering of society. That God has set down for us the way in which our society, our social life, is going to most flourish. And he's warned us of things that are going to lead us into trouble.

People say you can't legislate righteousness. Nonsense. If you can't legislate righteousness, you better not legislate.

If our legislation is not righteous, what in the world are we doing passing it into law? Now what I think some of them mean is, mere legislation is not going to affect the heart. Granted.

A man may in his heart want to murder me, and legislation isn't going to prevent that. but we can legislate that he better not try it and I'll be grateful for that much. So the second use of the law is to order a society to give us guidelines for the kind of society that will not only bring honor to God but in fact will promote the social welfare.

Most people find the book of Leviticus to be the driest, most awful book that they've ever come across. And the reason is that they try to apply the book of Leviticus to themselves personally, individually, and it was not intended for personal application. But if you want to have an adventure sometime, go back and read the book of Leviticus, asking yourself, how would we apply this to our society?

Not to me as an individual, not to my family. but how would we apply this to our society, to our nation as a whole? Granted, you have to extrapolate a fair distance from the situation in which they were living as a bunch of nomads with flocks and herds living in tents to an urban society today.

But the application can be made without a whole lot of difficulty. And it will give you such a breath of fresh air into our attitude toward our national life, to the hopeless mess that we've gotten ourselves into in the judiciary and in the legislature, it will be absolutely astonishing to you. Do you know, just for instance, that the book of Leviticus divides all crime into two categories?

There are capital offenses. And it says that it's because man is created in the image of God. that we give him the dignity of holding him responsible for certain things that are so destructive to the well-being of the nation and the society that if he regards, for instance, other life that lightly, he forfeits the right to his own.

There is a category, in other words, of crime that is capital offense. If a man is guilty of that, he forfeits his life. There is another kind of crime which is not capital offense, but it's against our neighbor.

If you rob me, according to the book of Leviticus, you are responsible to pay back what you've robbed. Not to pay some fine to the government. You didn't rob the government.

You don't owe the government one blessed cent. You owe me. And in order to pay it back, we don't lock you up somewhere, because how can you pay me back if you're locked up?

We force you to hold down a job. Remarkable good sense to that, isn't there? Sometimes you have to pay it back double or triple or quadruple.

Read it and see for yourself what a breath of fresh air. Second use of the law is for ordering society, that our society might preserve peace and well-being amongst its members. The third use of the law is to direct the conscience of the faithful.

To direct the conscience of the faithful. Now this is not those who need to be driven to Christ for forgiveness. They've already been driven to him.

They've already put their trust in God. That's not to say they've arrived. It's not to say they're perfect.

But they desire to follow him. That is a true expression of where they are. And scripture says that our conscience is only a somewhat reliable guide.

Because we've offended against it. Each one of us has done that. And because society as a whole has offended against it.

And for instance, Paul writing to Timothy speaks of searing the conscience. Do you know what that means? You know, you can stick your hand into a fire and it'll hurt.

But if you hold it there, it'll stop hurting, won't it? Because you destroy the nerve endings. And you can do that to your conscience.

You can destroy the nerve endings of the conscience so that it stops telling you accurately what you ought to do. And so the conscience needs to be directed. It needs to be instructed.

And that's the third use of the law. To instruct the conscience of the faithful. That's what we have in this particular passage.

The assumption is that God is speaking to those who want to be right with Him. Who want to obey Him. Who want to exhibit His righteousness.

And He says to them, This commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you. I can enable you to keep it. It's not too far off.

I send my Holy Spirit to reside inside of you to empower you to do my will. I think that Jesus' parable about the Good Samaritan really can be seen as an illustration of all this. You remember the story, the priest and the Levite go walking on by.

They, of all people, have been instructed in what the law requires. And they could give you a very profound theological answer. But God isn't particularly impressed with theological answers.

He's interested in what you're going to do about it. and the Samaritan does it the priest no doubt had to hurry to Jerusalem to preach a sermon on love and the Levite had to get to a meeting on improving our roads and making them safe for travelers so he couldn't stop either the Samaritan does what the law requires the Samaritan turns out to be the one for whom the commandment is not too high. It's not too far off.

He wants to live it out. I find nothing whatever to suggest that God will ever say to any preacher, well said, thou good and faithful preacher. It's well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Are we excited about doing what God commands? well let me move in one slightly different direction before we conclude because as you look at this promise remember that's the context of the command as you look at it I think you see an insight that will unlock the whole of the scripture if you let it I'd suggest to you that you can hardly find a page in the Bible on which there isn't at least one magnificent promise You might be able to find one, but not very many. Virtually every single page of this book has at least one or more marvelous promise as this one.

God promises to bless, to prosper, to bless you abundantly in everything. But what do you find with it? If.

You're going to find that. Almost without exception. Where there's a promise, there's an if.

I delight to bless. I delight to prosper. I delight to heal.

I delight to forgive. I delight to meet your need. I delight to make myself known to you.

If. You do your part. Some of you I know are having trouble with Bible study.

You know you ought to, you really want to, and yet you never can get into it. This would be a terrific way to get into personal Bible study. I don't care where you start.

Just start reading and look for the promises. And when you find a promise, underline it. You might take a little 3x5 card and write it down and carry it around in your pocket.

When you're driving to work and you come up against a red light, Instead of cursing the red light, pull out your little card. By the time you get to work, you'll have memorized it. Alright?

If you're slaving over the kitchen stove, you might put it up on the wall and you can glance at it. Instead of cursing the stove, you can learn your little verse. Find the promise.

Write it down. Commit it to your memory. And then obey the if clause.

Take God at His Word. He challenges us to do that. The Bible is a book of promises.

Let me just give you a couple of samples. He says, Rejoice in the Lord always, and the peace of God will keep your hearts and minds. You know, we end every communion service with that promise.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds, and the knowledge and love of God, and of His Son, Jesus Christ. How come so many Christians don't seem to be at peace? Maybe because they did nothing about the if clause.

Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say rejoice. And then the peace of God will keep you.

Do you understand what I'm saying? If you abide in my word and my word abides in you, ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you. Say, I asked, nothing happened.

were you abiding in his word was your prayer shaped by his word did you do the if clause or did you just expect God would do his part without you doing your part if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we lack wisdom let us ask bring up a child in the fear and admonition of the Lord and when he's an adult he won't depart from it. You expect that your children are going to be kept by the power of God without you doing anything about bringing them up to know him and love him, to instruct him in his word. Not at all.

Forgive us our trespasses. What? If.

It's really what that says. As we forgive. Jesus makes that very explicit.

He goes on to say, For if you do not forgive, don't expect God to forgive you. So I share a message that has a couple of different directions to it. We need to see the goodness, the love of God.

We need to believe Him for that. Stop seeing God as some mean ogre who's just seeking to punish. God delights to bless.

But there are conditions. He gives us His law. He gives us His instruction so that He can bless.

If and as we walk in it, we'll find Him prospering our way. And allow that to be a key to Bible study. Get into the Scriptures.

Some of you are relying on me pablum feeding you on Sunday mornings. You've got to learn to eat the meat for yourself. Get into the word.

Scripture says, how can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to thy word. Thy word I have hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Hosea laments, my people are perishing for lack of instruction. Paul writes to Timothy, every word of scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness, for training. That the man of God may be completely equipped for every good work.

That's what God gave it to you for. And if you don't know how else to get into it, use this key. Look for the promises.

Believe God means it when He gives a promise. Claim and believe that promise for yourself. Commit it to memory.

Walk in the light of it and fulfill the euth laws. And watch God pour out his blessing in accord with his word. To your delight and his glory.

Let's bow our heads and pray together. Father in heaven, we thank you that you are a God of goodness, of graciousness and love, of mercy and blessing. we would look full in the wonder of your face this morning.

And we would draw near to you. We'd put our trust in you in a new way. We'd ask you for help as we begin again to open and investigate your word for ourselves.

We'd ask you to guide us in that tremendous adventure that you'd give us the gift of faith to believe your promises, to claim them, to put you to the test because you invite us to do so. But make us those who desire to respond, to do the thing you command, that we might experience the blessing you promise for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

Amen.