So, I have a question for everyone this morning, and I want you to answer this question very, very honestly. Are you ready? When you see a store sign that says store closing, everything must go, what's the first thought that comes to your mind? Now, quickly turn to the person next to you and without thinking or overthinking, tell them what you just thought. Did they Did they believe it? Did they believe what you said? Very honest. I was uh like a good husband. Wanted to go and help out my wife and buy um milk and eggs for our home and walked into Costco and bought my milk and eggs. And for some reason they keep it way at the end. So you have to walk through every other aisle. And on the way as I was walking out u just before I could cash in I saw this aisle which had toothpaste. And I remember we need toothpaste. I mean uh we have very conflicting personalities in our home. I like to use toothpaste that are full or semif. But there's someone else in our house who can use a toothpaste um even after it's completely depleted. um can make miraculous sleep paste still come out of it and and live with it. So I I I I don't have that gift. So, I needed I remembered, oh, we need to buy toothpaste and you know, Costco always has these mega packs and I thought I'm helping and bought this big pack because it said it's on sale and I will save $9 if I buy this jumbo pack and took that and I was expecting that I will receive a lot of appreciation. And then I was reminded of why I had to buy such a jumbo pack. Because we will only use one tube a month and this will last till Jesus comes again. That's the power of marketing you know and they the marketing guys use various strategies. This is uh this is uh called a strategy they used on perceived value and anchoring bias. Anchoring bias works like this where it tells our brain when something is advertised at a discounted price, our brain compares it to the original anchor price and thinks and it convinces us that we need to buy this product. Even if the anchor price is inflated, it feels deal too good to pass up. And it's also because when you do that, your brain convinces you to think that you have accomplished something. It gives you a sense of control and accomplishment that you saved, you know, $9. But then when you step back and think about it or someone points it to you, you realize it has two lies. Lie number one, that was probably an exaggerated cost to begin with, not the real cost. No one's going to sell you stuff for free or at a loss. And number two, you actually did not do any work to earn that discount. It was not because you were smart. You know, that's how bargains work. And in our culture of consumerism, our brain is so wired into falling for bargains all the time that we sometimes import that bargain mentality into our spiritual lives. So I have titled our sermon today as not for sale. Blessed by grace, not by bargain. and a gospel call to repent uh repentance and restoration because we do this with God too. God is on sale it looks like sometimes isn't it? because we want the best deal from God by giving just enough amount of obedience to get the blessings that we read but not so much that it is uncomfortable but sorry to break it to you God's blessings aren't based on sales or savings you know the text we read we have come to the final chapters of the pentetuk. Uh we're finishing the first quarter of the Bible. Uh it's called Deuteronomy where Moses is reiterating dut means two and no no Moses is lost. So he's reiterating the ten commandments and giving a great sermon as the book ends. And here he is addressing what are some of the uh claims of the old covenant that God has given them. And this chapter opens with one of the most commercialized passages in the entire Bible. Everybody loves these verses. You perhaps have received some cards or greetings or or people write to you uh of how God is going to bless you abundantly through these verses. And some of you may even have these verses in your homes um put up somewhere of how God is going to bless you. You're going to be made the head and not the tail. You're going to go up and not come down. And all of those things. So the exhaustive list of blessings reveal a deep human longing for flourishing in all areas of life. And there is nothing wrong about that. We all want to flourish in our work. We want to flourish with our family. We want to flourish in our land that we own or homes or we want to have protection. Everybody desires these. But what is different is how everyone pursues after these. How we pursue these blessings will tell a lot about us. It will tell a lot about our view of God. What is it that we truly believe in? And it will also impact how you and I relate with God and one another. There are only two ways in which people pursue blessings or are motivated to get these blessings. I want to categorize these two ways as moralism and bargainism. You know, moralism says simply, I will earn blessings by being good based on performance. You can be an atheist, you can be an agnostic, you can be professing any religion and sadly even many times people inside the church can fall into this performance mindset. Bargainism on the other hand has this simple oneline message which is this. If I try hard enough, God owes me and that's manipulation. That again is the hallmark of many world religions. So we keep drifting between performance mode and manipulation mode to pursue these blessings in our life. They dictate how we relate with God. And whether you believe it or not, you will definitely 100% certainity apply the same thing in how you relate with everybody else. So this part of the Bible, God is showing in redemptive history what happens to a nation who desire these blessings and go about trying to get it mostly through bargainism. But the religious elite among them pursue this through moralism. These are the ones who later on are called the Pharisees. And the first point I want to make is this that you will also have in your bulletins uh the last page that what we are going to look at here is how this is only something that leads to bankruptcy. God's blessings are not for sale. They expose the bankruptcy of bargain religion. God is saying, "I'm going to bless you by doing this, this, and this." It looks like something great, but it's through this he is going to expose to them that a bargain mindset will going is going to leave them absolutely bankrupt. That's the first point. We are going to look at it in more detail. Sometimes you can be a Christian for several years and not know really how you operate. not know really that deep within you, you're fundamentally operating with God and others either through a performance mindset or through a manipulation mindset, a moralism, legalism mindset or a bargainism mindset. You know, it's important therefore that we don't read texts like these in isolation. And that's why I was okay for us to lead a lengthier text because I wasn't very convinced how many of you even read the book of Deuteronomy and especially these passages. And perhaps many of you would have stopped reading after verse 10. And what you can see here is if you followed the reading, it was gory when it talks about curses. The blessings are only six, seven verses because that's part of the covenant God gave to Moses. And the curses are a mirror image of the blessings. That's a reciprocal of that. But Moses is spending, he's preaching a sermon basically to the Israelites. He's not dwelling on the blessing. He's almost 10 times he is unpacking what will be the curses if you don't obey and follow. And if you look at the blessings, which is what we're going to look at in this first part of how comprehensive these blessings are, you see that there are several themes that emerge. The first is it is a blessing that's given to nation with an international perspective in mind. There is an international emphasis of how God is going to raise this nation and bless its people in the light of other nations and there is also an internal blessing of God on his people how he's going to take care of them and the blessing of God if you look at it is going to extend to every sphere of Israel's life it's going to extend to the urban life says I will bless you in the city it's going going to extend into the rural life. I'll bless you in the field. It's going to ex extend to fertility in man, in the ground, and in animals. It says, I'll bless the fruit of your womb, fruit of your ground, fruit of your cattle. It extends to the provision of household necessities like food, you know, your basket and your kneading bow. It extends even to the daily activities man might undertake when you go out and come in. So comprehensive, extremely comprehensive and it also extends to what happens on the international scene as a nation as he's going to bless them in all these ways in their own life. He's also going to protect them from enemies who are going to attack them. He says, "But the reason I'm blessing you is so that all people of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall rever you, or rather rever the God behind them." And the verses that I shall make you the head and not the tail. You shall only go up and not come down, not down is a summary that Moses gives when all these blessings come true. And of course they are with tied to the condition that if they obey all the commandments of the Lord and if they are careful to do them do not turn aside from any of the words that he commands them to the right or the left or go after other gods to serve them. And if they do the curses follow and we'll go into it which are a mirror image of the blessings. Now, when someone reads this, it looks like, "Wow, this God looks so bad. Is it a bait and switch? He says he's going to bless you and give you this and give you that." But then there is always this catch like these bargain deals. The catch is if you read the fine print, he says, "Oh, I have spent 27 chapters explaining to you how you should live your life, how you should treat one another, how you should worship, and if you mess up in even one thing, the curses are going to be unleashed." Now, that's what'll happen if we have a very narrow vision and zoom in only on these blessings. But the reason he highlights this short list of blessings is to demonstrate something about who he is, the nature of God, and where and how he is involved in your life and my life. This is to show the Israelites and to you and me that our God is a God who is actually deeply involved in and in control of all these areas. He's involved in your personal life and my personal life. He's involved in your family life. He's involved in in your jobs. And he has power and control over everything that happens there. He's involved with your health. He has power and control in everything that happens there. He is deeply involved in our nation and in politics and geopolitics and what happens everywhere. And he has absolute control over all these things that happen in these realms. Politics, economics, agriculture, business, architecture, nutrition, medicine. That's the range of fields that these blessings cover. And he is the lord of all these spheres. Theologians call it sphere sovereignty of God. And he orchestrates these things all as a god. And so if you and I are alive today, we are able to go out and come in. That's because God has blessed you and me. So the question to ask is did Israel get these questions these blessings and now how do you and I actually get these blessings. Now what would become very quickly obvious is that Israel actually did get these blessings not because of their moralism or not through their bargainism which were bankrupt but in spite of all of them already we saw they could never keep all the laws. They had always broken them. They broke most of it even before Moses could tell this. But still God enabled them to get these blessings because they are actually they had already defeated two kings. They are going to defeat many more nations. They are going to enter into the promised land. They're going to get their cities. They're going to get the land flowing with milk and honey. All the while still having these tendencies and expressing these behaviors before God. So, how does this work? God did not bless them because they were good or because they were good at bargaining, which they did repeatedly. Well, they said to God before and many of us tend to do it with God every day. God, you should just bless us because we came out of Egypt, because we follow you. That's the essence of bargainism. God, you should just bless us. I'm trying hard enough. I'm coming to church. I'm even reading the Bible and it's so hard. You know, once a week I read. My life's busy, but I still take time to pray two minutes in a month. Why can't you just bless me? Why do you give me a hard time, God? When a crisis comes, that's bargainism. Moralists go even a step further. Hey, I don't hurt anybody. I live a good life. I'm being good, right? Why are you not giving me these things? Tim Keller has a wonderful quote. He captures the essence of this. He says, "If you think you are saved by your obedience, then your obedience is not for God. It is for yourself." You know, if you're caving in to moralism or bargainism, the reason you're so caught up in the cycle of either bargaining with God or trying to legalistically please him and be in this performance mode, the the undercurrent of both springs from one root cause and the root cause of that is a very exalted self-glorifying view of ourself where we think we should be the point of worship. It sounds nice to say, "God, I'm sorry I couldn't obey. I disobeyed you. But can you take this small obedience of mine and bless me? Make me the head and not the tail." But the root of that is selfexaltation and self- glorification. But still God does, he can and he does intervene in all these areas of our lives and blesses us not because we are great at bargaining or not because we are great at performing but purely because of his covenantal love for us and especially for his covenantal people and for his glory. Now, if you are someone who does not believe in God, if you're an atheist or an agnostic, you need to ask yourself the question, who controls the world and what's your solution to the chaos in this world? Who are you going to appeal to fix that? You do see that you're experiencing pain and suffering in your own life. You see there is pain and suffering and evil in the world, but you don't believe in God or religion, which is fine. But what's your solution? Who is going to fix these problems in your life? Something for you to think about and explore. See, but the reason God is blessing the nation of Israel in spite and despite of all these is so that all nations will fear him. And the blessing gets realized at first in the life of the nation of Israel. But then we see as we continue to read the Bible, a decline sets in. And these curses actually do come true in history until at last the history of this nation is terminated with the curse of exile from the promised land as we read in Deuteronomy 28:36. And the sad story is captured here so that you not for you and I to sit in judgment on the people of ancient Israel. But it serves as an illustration for ourself of our own nature, the nature of man. The reason therefore these blessings are given is not for us to use it and claim it is to reveal to us the bankruptcy of how we seek to relate with God and others. That these blessings will never be yours or mine through performance or manipulation. They are eventually going to be given from God's grace as a gift and we are going to look at that later. So God's blessings point number one are not for sale. They expose the bankruptcy of bargain religion. Second point we're going to look at is the curses. God's curses are universal. They reveal our helplessness and our desperate need for grace and leave those curses. Verses 15 onwards. But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket and your netting ball. Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground. The increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Cursed shall you be when you come in and cursed shall you be when you go out. You know, if you're listening to some of these popular televangelists, wherever they are, they all sound the same. Whether in America or India or any part of the world, they have these mega multi-million followers. You will never hear them read this. It's the exact same chapter just a few verses below the blessing chapter. Why is that? Well, it doesn't fit their theology, isn't it? Because their theology is based on a false gospel, an anti-gosspel at the end of the day that diminishes the work of Christ by exalting people to strike this bargain religion. And it's a false god and a false prophet they are. So why would God pronounce curses? Is he like a horrible God? Is the curse of God being inflicted because he gets some pleasure in just cursing and giving people a hard time, making you and I go through a hard time? No. But these curses, God doesn't have to do anything at all. It It's the inevitable outcome of a life that is lived regardless of God by rejecting a relationship with a God whose essence is love. And in the old covenant as God is progressively trying to teach people who he is all these blessings are given on a conditional basis. None of them or none of us can meet these conditions. So in one sense not just the nation of Israel anyone and all of us are right and ready only for these curses. They're universal for all people at all time. And if you read the whole book of Deuteronomy before this, he gives a lot of civil laws. There are so many laws. You know, there are approximately 662 or 90 laws in the Old Testament. And you have to ask yourself, why would God have to give so many laws? Why does man need so many laws? You know if you ever moved from India or another country to try to take a driver's license test in this country you will realize in India basically may I think maybe they do have laws but I don't think anyone knows what they are and even if you know I don't think anyone follows those rules. The stop sign and red lights are just very beautiful fancy decorative pieces on the street. It's a suggestion. You can follow if you want or uh try going the other way and you may actually end up safe. But you're a shock when you come here and they say, "Oh, you have to write this test. There are 30 questions in this test." I don't know what the exact number is. You can't fail or be wrong more than three or four questions. You need to clear that. And even after you clear that you have to sit behind a wheel and show you can drive without making errors and they have different levels of errors. Uh we I've found out the hard way helping some people get their licenses. Some are called critical errors and to me it doesn't look like a critical error. You know if you're trying to park your car and if you gently hit the curb that's not a critical error. We drive over curbs in where we come from and we are still okay. And you ask yourself, why are there so many laws? Why do why does DMV make life so miserable and so hard to get a license? Because they know if they don't impose those laws, you're going to be driving around hurting people. You're going to be driving around potentially even killing some people, isn't it? And that's the reason God gave these enormous civil laws because left to himself, you and I have this tendency to exploit one another for our own selfish good. Everybody does this to one another. Nations do this to one another. People, groups do this to one another. And that's why we have racism and tribalism and castism and classism and all the isms. God knows that if you and I are left to ourselves, this is exactly what we will do. Don't you experience this even in your places of work? You blink and someone else jumps to take credit for your work, isn't it? I got back to uh coaching baseball this past week after a long break. I've missed that. And uh you know, one of the first things I observed, it's been a break, was to see it's a new team. PE guys are just getting to know one another. It it's it's sometimes interesting to see how kids pick on one another. It's usually the quiet kid who gets picked all the time. Someone who can't stand up for himself or herself. Or have you ever wondered why relationships or friendships are also so hard? Isn't it? People say things and you get hurt and you either pull back or you go fight all out. Or even in marriage, why go outside? Why is marriage so hard? Two imperfect people are trying to get what they want more than give what the other person wants. That's our inherent nature. We are by nature all are lawb breakakers. We you and I if you're honest can say we have broken any or all of these laws. Even if you have created a law of your own conscience without the Bible. So the laws were given purely an act of grace of God first to restrain our bad actions as a deterrent. To have a civil society or civility in your home, you need some rules, isn't it? But that's all it can do. Laws don't change hearts. Consequences or punishments don't create better kids. Someone who follows all the laws and displays great behavior, is a wonderful kid to their parents and everyone says is a great person may not be a great candidate for marriage after all. And in fact, if you go to the New Testament, Jesus magnifies the law even more in the sermon on the mount. He says, "If you get angry at your siblings, kids, are you listening?" He says, "You've committed murder." So what are the consequences? The consequence are that you're only destined for these huge list of curses upon yourself. So when you see this and you feel this, what it needs to lead is the other use of the law, which is to show our helplessness. And you will experientially know this when you try to fix your spouse or your kids using the law. You know it does not work. When you try to even fix yourself using a law, you know it will not work. If this is the only way for me to become a better person or for the world to become a better place, then really there is no hope for the world, isn't it? It only reveals our helplessness and our need for grace. Someone who would help me knowing that I would fall, knowing that I will fail and not judge me and leave me there in this cursed situation. Have you had that experience in your life? That thing that you and I need is called grace. And and Moses doesn't stop. The book of Deuteronomy doesn't end with chapter 28. He writes a few more chapters. And we read Deuteronomy 30:es 1-10. And that's the third point I have for us today. God's restoration is by grace alone. Christ took the curse to give the blessing. You know, the path to experiencing the blessings rather than curse in the new covenant is through a newer and a better mediator, Jesus Christ. This new path to receive the blessings is now opened by a new covenant mediated not by Moses but by Christ himself. Moses could only warn the Old Testament people about the blessings and curses. He had no more power. He could not do anything to help them avoid these courses as history shows us. God wanted them to experience the futility of their natural self and nothing has changed even till now. In verse six, we read it says, "And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live." And here's the grace of God. He's not going to come after and unleash curses knowing that you and I can't do it. He's going to come and circumcise our hearts. In the new covenant, God takes the first step in restoration knowing you and I can never do that. The first blessing he gives is we read in other places like in Ezekiel 36 26 he says, "I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and move you to follow my decrees and he will circumcise not just our heart but our offspring. You know covenantal blessings are not just for the nation of Israel but for the church too and our children as well as covenant children. And you see the repeat of all the blessings that are listed here, the same things because God knew and we all know now from this side that Israel failed. Israel could never keep these commandments. And in in one sense, Christ is the true Israel. Only he obeyed. So only in the name of Christ are all these blessings available and only in the name of Christ shall every knee bow and he will be lifted up. God initiates this regeneration in our hearts and grants us repentance and restores us by his grace. He's not waiting for us to give him a great deal or a bargain. He need not have done any of that. But still, he chooses to do that. He's going to cause you and me to love him. Isn't that such a relief and joy? No one can live perfect lives when all of us are cursed except Jesus Christ. He lived the perfect life. You know the darkness of the picture given by the emphasis on the curses in Deuteronomy is illuminated by the words of Paul in the book he wrote to Galatians. He he actually quotes Deuteronomy 27:26 which says everyone who does not abide by everything written in the book of the law comes under the curse. And the paradigm of ancient Israel finds emphatic expression in Galatians 3:10. He says, "For it is evident that no man is justified before God by the law. Where then is hope to be found? How can man be redeemed from the curse of the law?" Paul provides the answer by quoting Deuteronomy once again and applying the passage to Christ. If you have your Bibles, turn with me and read Galatians 3:13. It says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree." He's quoting Verbatam from Deuteronomy 21:23. Isn't that magnificent? Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the blessings of God may be set forth before man once again. And when Jesus came and lived on earth, he illustrated this beautifully whenever he encountered someone who needed grace. William Blake the poet has this magnificent poem which is titled the everlasting gospel. And listen to me and read it. He it's only he can write this. so poantly in his unimitable size style. Jesus was sitting in Moses's chair. They brought the trembling women there. Moses commands she should be stoned to death. What was the sound of Jesus's breath? He laid his hand on Moses's law, the ancient heavens in silent awe, written with curses from pole to pole all away began to roll. You know exactly who this poem is talking about, isn't it? The adulterous woman who was brought to Jesus, people ready to stone her to death because that is what the law said. If someone is caught in adultery, you have to stone her to death. But what did Jesus do? He literally prevented her from all of those curses and told her, "Go and sin no more." The way to receive this restoration is repentance. He did the same to Zakius who had wronged so many people in a different way. Not in a relational or a sexual way but financially exploited people by the law. He was cursed too. And everyone would curse him as a tax collector but not Jesus. He goes and dines with him in his house. And just that gracious presence is enough for Zakius to give away everything. When you and I go to Jesus, he promises blessings far beyond what we read in Deuteronomy 28. Ephesians chapter 1 unpacks the blessings you and I have in Jesus. He says, "You and I were chosen in Christ before the foundations of the world. We were justified in Christ. We were glorified in Christ." And goes on and on and on. Or if you wanted to be more explicit, if that was not enough, journey with me to the new heavens and new earth where all of these blessings will come 100% true for everyone who is in Christ, where in the new heavens and new earth, there is no sickness, there are no enemies, there is no pain, there is no death, and Christ is seated on the throne. and we are going to be reigning together with him. And we get a graphic description of that, the better blessings than the blessings of Deuteronomy 28. I want to close by reading this. Turn with me to Isaiah 60 verses 1 onwards. You hear the blessings that await for those who are in Christ. says, "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thickness and and thick darkness the peoples, but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you, and nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around, and see, they all gather together. Who are these all you and I? They come to you. Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on the hip. Then you shall see and be radiant. Your heart shall thrill and exalt because the abundance of the sh sea shall be turned to you. The wealth of the nations shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you. The young camels of Median and Epha. All those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense and shall bring good news. the praises of the Lord. And it goes on and on and on unpacking way, way more of these blessings that you and I will absolutely receive one day. So come to Jesus, my dear friends. Repent, experience restoration. If you're a functional mor moralist, even if you have been a Christian for a long time, but you're operating on a moralistic paradigm with God, it's about time to repent. If you're a functional bargainist and if that is how you have established your relationship with God or one another, come to Jesus today. And I have some practical applications for us. Trade performance for repentance. Stop trying to impress God or bargain with him with your good behavior. Come honestly with your failures and repent. He's more than ready to forgive than you are to confess. And if you're married, you have a family with children, reflect grace in your home. Don't parent or love by performance. Parent with grace and not legalism. Don't model conditional love for your kids. I love you more when you behave or do this. Teach them discipline. Yes, but let them feel loved even when they fail. Just like our father does. Children often tend to think they are good when they do chores or get good grace. Teach them that obedience is good, but it flows from knowing they're already loved, not to earn your love. Secondly, let go of bargain Christianity, please. Have you ever thought if I do this right, maybe God will bless me with a raise or a spouse or a healing? Would you please stop treating your obedience like currency? Obey because you love him. And if you're young and you're in this Silicon Valley trying to navigate your path and your career, reject, hustle, faith. God is not your boss. He's your father. And for children, God loves you not because you're perfect, but because of Jesus. Thirdly, let it affect how we worship. Worship with thankfulness and not transactionalism. Don't sing or serve God in order to get something from God. Worship because Christ gave us everything. Instead of asking after a Sunday service, did I enjoy worship? Was the music great? Were the people who sang great? The quest, was my worship Instagrammable? Rather, the question we need to ask is, did I bring my heart in gratitude to the one who took my curse away? And lastly, and most importantly, preach the gospel to yourself daily because we often tend to revert to self-righteousness or self- condemnation. Preaching the gospel to yourself reenters your heart on grace and not on performance.