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Colin Smith: Will you spend the rest of your life blaming what is wrong on other people and end up ultimately under the wrath of God? Or will you embrace what God offers to you in Jesus Christ?

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith. And Colin, just hearing that little bit right there, I have a number of people that already come to mind. I'm like, you know what? Quit blaming your past. You're not the victim here. Let's figure out how to move on. And it sounds like you're saying we can do that through Christ.

Colin Smith: Yeah, that's right. And this comes straight out of the book of Deuteronomy where we are in this series. Here's a younger generation of people who have grown up in the desert because their parents didn't have the faith to get into the Promised Land. And all of the parental generation died in the desert, we're told in the scriptures.

So here are younger people who might have spent the rest of their lives blaming their parents. But how does that move them forward? It doesn't move them forward at all. And the challenge that Moses brings to them is that they must not simply live in the past with recriminations over the failures of others.

They have to take ownership of obedience and faith in their own lives and recognize that the same impulse to unbelief that resides in others also resides in us. And it is only by the grace of Jesus Christ that we can move forward. I hope that this series is going to be a real help to many to engage in the power of a new beginning. We are in Deuteronomy chapter 1. So I hope you'll grab a Bible and join us there as we continue a message called, "Change the Future by Owning the Past." Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: So let me offer to you from the scriptures here six impulses that are in you as they are in me by nature. They are all right here in front of you in the scripture. Number one, verse 26, by nature I rebel against God. Second, by nature I treat God with contempt.

By nature, what we do is that we hold back praise to God for His goodness and we apportion blame to God whenever we experience evil. By nature, I treat the abundant goodness of God with contempt.

Number three, by nature I blame others, verse 28. Notice what they say: "Our brothers have made us lose heart." It's always the brother's fault, isn't it? They say that the people are stronger and taller than we are. The reference here, of course, is to the spies coming back and the spies who brought this negative report and brought discouragement to the people.

And now the people are saying, well, it's all the spies' fault. They are the ones that discouraged us. Not my fault, it's the spies. By nature, you recognize this, I blame others for all my problems.

Number four, by nature I resist the truth. Look at verse 29. Here is Moses speaking to the people and they're afraid. He says, "Now don't be terrified. Don't be afraid of them," that's the Canaanites. "The Lord your God who is going before you will fight for you just as He did in Egypt and in the desert. Haven't you seen how God bears you up as a father carries his own son?"

And Moses is pleading with the people here. They're full of fear and so what does Moses do as a prophet? He pours the word of God into their lives. But it makes no difference. They resist the truth by nature.

Number five, by nature I refuse to believe, verse 32: "You did not trust in the Lord your God who went ahead of you." This is the reality of our fallen condition. By nature, I am suspicious of God. By nature, we are unwilling to believe.

And that leads to the sixth thing here, by nature I am under the wrath of God. Verse 34, it is so clear. When the Lord heard what you said, He was angry and solemnly swore, "Not a man of this evil generation will see the good land that I swore to your forefathers," and none of them did.

What this is telling me is that by nature I am alienated from God and by nature I am justly under His wrath. There is a heaven, but folks, by nature it's not for me, and by nature it's not for you either. By nature, I have no basis on which to enter into the land of promise that is full of God's good things.

And Moses is saying so clearly here, now folks, understand this. All of this was in your parents, but don't think it stopped there because all of it's in you. That's the message. Now this raises an obvious question.

If everything, think about it, if everything that kept your parents out of Canaan is also in you, if everything that kept them out is also in you, then what hope is there of you ever getting into the Promised Land? That's the question, isn't it? If all that kept them out now is also in me, what hope is there of me ever getting in?

Let me tell you what won't help you very briefly and then what will. First, what won't help you. Turning over a new leaf won't help you. And the reason I mention that today is simply because of verses 41 to 46 that you can look over or read later that tell us that when the people realized how badly they had messed up, their response was, "Hey, we can sort it out. All we need to do is turn over a new leaf. We said we weren't going up to Canaan, now all we need to do is change our minds. We'll go up to Canaan."

And so they decided they're going to go up to Canaan after all. But verse 42, God said to them, "Don't go up because I will not be with you and you will be defeated by your enemies." But they weren't listening to God. They were sure they could sort out their own problem. Nothing that I've messed up that I can't fix. And so they went up to Canaan and you'll read from the story there they were completely and utterly routed and defeated.

See, the problem is that turning over a new leaf doesn't change what is in you by nature. All that happens when you turn over a new leaf is that what's in you gets written on a new page. Have you discovered that in life? So what hope is there for these people? If it's not turning over a new leaf, where's the hope?

Turn with me over perhaps a couple of pages in Deuteronomy to Deuteronomy chapter 5. Would you do that? Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 1. Moses summoned all Israel and said, now look at what he said in verse 2 and watch out for what's strange and surprising here. "The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb."

You see what's surprising about that? How many of us are under 40? Were we even born at Horeb? No. How many of us are between 40 and 58? Do we remember much about Horeb? God made a covenant with our parents, didn't He? But you see what Moses is saying here.

It's the same issue as we have right back there in chapter 1. Moses is saying to us, "The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb." I think I would be saying, "Wait a minute, Moses. I know you're over 100 and I know when you get over 100 it gets a little difficult to remember things. But please, Moses, can you remember that the covenant that God made at Horeb, most of us weren't even born, the rest of us who were can't even remember it? That covenant was made by God with our parents, not with us."

And Moses would say, "Now you just listen. I'm telling you that the covenant God made at Horeb when most of you weren't born and those of you who were can hardly even remember it, I'm telling you that God made that covenant with us. And if you think I'm making too much of that, look at what he says in verse 3. 'It was not with our fathers that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.'" You see what he's saying?

God has made a covenant before you were born and it is truly for you. And I'm here today to say from the heart and from the Bible that God has made a covenant of grace before any of us were ever born and it is for you.

And that covenant is that He will redeem sinners who are locked in unbelief and contempt for God and rebellion and blaming others and under the wrath of God. That covenant is that God has determined to redeem people like us through His Son Jesus Christ.

And this covenant, folks, was not written on tablets of stone. This covenant that God sealed before you were born is sealed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So I want you to stand today, in your mind right now, to stand not at the foot of Mount Sinai with all of these Israelites, but at the bottom of another mountain that is called Calvary.

And as you look up to what is going on there, you see that there is a man hanging on a cross and He is the Son of God. His body is being torn and His blood is being poured out. And He says, "Now My body is given for you, and through the shedding of this blood I'm sealing a new covenant in which your sins and all that is in you is to be forgiven."

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith. We have to pause right here, but we'll continue this message, "Change the Future by Owning the Past," in just a moment. Our message is part of a larger series called Take Two: The Power of a Fresh Start. And if you ever miss a broadcast in the series, come and listen online. Our website is openthebible.org. You can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. You can also listen through the Open the Bible app. You'll find that for free at your app store and it's a great way to stay connected with Pastor Colin's teaching. Back to the message, here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Folks, think about this. Two great events that shape your life, two great events that shape my life, and they happened before any of us were ever born. What's in you by nature goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. And what is yours by grace goes all the way back to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why the title of this message is that you change the future by owning the past.

And owning the past of what is mine by nature is what the Bible calls repentance. I need to own what is in me by nature. I need to be absolutely clear about what I'm up against in living this Christian life. Lord, by nature I am a rebel who treats your kindness with contempt and blames others and resists your word and refuses to believe and deserves to be under your righteous judgment. Owning what is in you by nature is where repentance begins and how it continues.

As long as you're trying to tell yourself what a great and good person you are, you can never make progress in the Christian life. And owning what is mine by grace is what the Bible calls faith. I need to own what is mine by grace to know who Jesus Christ is for me and what it is that He has done for me and what He offers to me.

By grace, God has made a covenant for you. He sent His Spirit to empower you as His Son has come to redeem you. And faith looks at all that Jesus Christ has accomplished for our forgiveness and all that the Spirit brings by way of power for a new life and faith says, "This is mine. It's mine."

So repentance begins when I own what is mine by nature and faith begins when I own what is mine by grace. This is the very heart of the Christian life right here. And so you see the drama of this moment. This new generation, nobody over than 58 or thereabouts, are standing there on the verge of Jordan and Moses is now speaking with great passion to these people. Moses remembers well, better than most of them can, how their parents had turned back and how unbelief had wasted a whole generation and brought such pain and such tragedy to them all.

And now the question that Moses holds before them in the book of Deuteronomy is, what are you going to do? You're going to face all the same fears, all the same struggles, all the same temptations that are in human nature. Are you going to follow what's in you by nature, or are you going to receive what is yours by grace? That's the question.

That's the question for you tonight. Will you follow the impulse of unbelief that is in you? Really. Will you follow the impulse to hear God's word but let it be water off a duck's back that never really changes you? Will you follow the impulse that is in you to treat God's mercy towards you with contempt and to turn away?

Will you spend the rest of your life blaming what is wrong on other people and end up ultimately under the wrath of God? That's the question. Or will you embrace what God offers to you in Jesus Christ?

The covenant that was made before you were born, but it was made for you. Will you turn from your unbelief and from your rebellion and from your pride and trust this savior who loves you and gave himself for you?

And one more thing to say before we wrap up here. I know that whenever the preacher uses the words repentance and faith, there are many of us who immediately draw the conclusion, "Ah, he's talking now to unbelievers. He's now talking about what unbelievers need to do in order to become Christians." And that's true, but there's more to it than that.

Repentance and faith, owning what is in you by nature, owning what Christ offers to you by grace, repentance and faith are not only what unbelievers do in order to become Christians, repentance and faith are what believers do to live as Christians. That is fundamental to understanding the Christian life. Otherwise, what you have is simply a decision that leaves you unchanged.

God calls us to a life of repentance and of faith. A life, folks, in which we sustain the ongoing struggle against the impulses of what is in us by nature by laying hold of what Jesus Christ gives us by grace. There is no other way to live the Christian life.

So if I am to live the Christian life this week, if you're to live as a Christian this week and do it well, you need to be absolutely realistic about what is in you by nature. By nature, Lord, I'm a rebel who treats your kindness with contempt and blames other people for my problem and resists your word and refuses to believe. All this is in me and so every day I have a fight on my hands. Do you experience that?

And if I am to live this Christian life and to engage in that struggle, I need to lay hold of all that Jesus Christ is for me. The Son of God loves me, He gave Himself for me. He reigns in heaven, and what that means is that nothing that happens in my life comes to me except through His loving hands.

And I certainly do not understand all that He allows and all that He brings in my life and all that He does in my life, but honestly I do not expect to because God is sovereign in heaven and sees eternity and I'm just a man here on the earth in a little capsule of time.

But I do know that I am forgiven. And I do know that I am not under His wrath. I do know that I live in His mercy. I do know that I am never alone because He walks beside me. I know that I can trust Him because the Son of God has given Himself for me and He's triumphed over death in His mighty resurrection and He's for me even in my darkest hour. Folks, that's faith.

And honestly, you know, it is possible to be a Christian atheist. A Christian atheist is a guy that goes through life saying I believe in God but lives as if He didn't exist. You say you believe but you don't actually trust Him in anything that's actually happening in your life. That's what happened to this generation that died in the desert.

It's possible to go through life bearing the name of Christ, receiving the provision of Christ, hearing the promises of Christ, to profess faith but not actually to trust Him. And that's the battle I'm going to face this week, and that's the battle you're going to face this week. To live by faith and to own in what I face this week who Jesus is and all that He is for me. He's my Lord, my redeemer, and my savior who walks every step of the way.

Just this week, I had the joy of sharing an evening in a home with a very small group of pastors. There was someone there from Moody. There were a couple of marvelous guys, pastors who are serving in the city, and a few others. We had gathered to meet privately with an archbishop from Africa.

The conversation ranged as we spoke about the challenges of ministry in America, you know, the whole deal of the cultural tide that is against us, the shallowness of faith in so many churches. We heard about the kinds of pressures that our brothers and our sisters in Christ in Africa are so often facing.

And Lon Allison was there. And as the conversation had been going on for a while, he jumped in. He said, "You know, you guys are making me feel quite miserable. It seems like you guys have forgotten that Jesus Christ rose from the dead."

Now I reckon it takes a little bit of courage to tell a group of pastors you've forgotten that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. But I'll tell you when he said that and then from there he kind of launched into speaking of the risen Christ who has never failed His church and never will, the whole conversation lifted.

Faith. And my prayer is that even now God would breathe into your soul faith. That you would see that in all of your battles and in all of your struggles and some of them may be indescribably intense, Christ is for you. That you would embrace him with faith for everything that you are facing today and this week and that you by God's mercy would be able to say, "If this God is for me, then who can be against me?"

Steve Hiller: Pastor Colin Smith with a helpful look at how repentance and faith are not only what unbelievers do to become Christians, but repentance and faith are what believers do to live the Christian life. You're listening to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "Change the Future by Owning the Past," part of our series, Take Two: The Power of a Fresh Start. And if you ever miss a program in the series, you can always come and listen online at openthebible.org.

Well, Open the Bible is listener-supported. We're able to bring you Pastor Colin's teaching because of your generosity. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you a copy of Pastor Colin's new 30-day devotional book called Grow in Faith. And Colin, who's this book for?

Colin Smith: Well, it's for everyone who wants to grow in their faith and hopefully that's every Christian believer. You know, the disciples at one point said to Jesus, "Lord, increase our faith." And they'd been following Jesus for some time when they said it. They'd left everything in order to follow Him, but they came to a place at one point where they realized, we're going to need to grow in faith.

And I think every Christian comes to a place like that. I've been trusting Jesus for some time, but now I'm facing circumstances where I'm really going to have to trust Him. Lord, increase my faith. So this 30-day devotional book is designed to help and encourage growing in faith. I have loved working on this and am very excited about the opportunity of sharing it with you.

Steve Hiller: Well, we'd love to share a copy with you as our thank you for your financial support this month. You can give online at openthebible.org or when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365 or openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time.

Open the Bible Weekend is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible. Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." God's word is the food that will nourish your soul. You need it every day. And Open the Bible Daily is a daily devotional that will open the word of God and lead you to Jesus. It's available for free on our website openthebible.org. For more information, visit openthebible.org/daily. That's openthebible.org/daily.