[0:00] Go with me in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy, the book of Deuteronomy. We finished up Sunday evening the book of Numbers. We looked at multiple chapters together to finish up the book of Numbers, had a look at the last three chapters, really to get in this right context.
[0:21] And we know we're transitioning in those final three chapters of Numbers. Moses is kind of mid-instructions or mid-discourse, and he's preparing the nation for his imminent departure.
[0:35] He knows he is about to leave. And these are the things the Lord is impressed upon him to tell the nation or to prepare the nation, and we take everything in its right, proper historical context of where it's at.
[0:50] And it leads us straightway into the book of Deuteronomy. Every time we open up a new book, I like to take a moment just to kind of, or I like to take the first time we get together and look at it, and kind of do an introduction or an overview of the book.
[1:05] So that's kind of where we'll be at this evening, looking at the book of Deuteronomy as a whole, kind of stepping back from it just a little bit, and then seeing at a wide distance or a wide angle this book.
[1:17] So we'll skip through it just a little bit to pick up some verses here and there. And then, as the Lord leads, we'll start Sunday night really just going through the text one by one and taking our time.
[1:30] So we'll do some page turning this evening, but we'll all be within the book of Deuteronomy. Of the books of the Old Testament, Deuteronomy has probably been one of my favorite ever since I came to Christ, and really, you know, I've shared with you for years my favorite verse came out of the book of Deuteronomy, but really I was just kind of drawn to it.
[1:55] It is the last book in the Pentateuch, or the law, as according to Moses, referred to in the New Testament as the law of Moses, or the law. It is the most often quoted Old Testament book in the New Testament.
[2:10] Of the 27 books of the New Testament, 17 of them contain quotations from the book of Deuteronomy. Jesus himself quoted the book of Deuteronomy a multitude of times, namely, and probably, supremely, in the time of his wilderness trials and temptations of Satan, we know of the 40 days of trials, the 40 days of temptation, the three culminating ones in which we have.
[2:37] Jesus answers Satan's culminating temptations with quotations from the book of Deuteronomy. And he therefore has given it, if you will, a place of importance or a place of precedence.
[2:51] Not that we ever want it to rise above any other portion of the Old Testament, but we see at least the weight that New Testament authors and New Testament believers and the early church gave to the book of Deuteronomy.
[3:05] Some individuals, and we're going to look at the first five verses in just a moment. I'll give you this introduction first, and then we'll get into it. Some have compared the Pentateuch, that is the first five books of the Old Testament, with the first five books of the New Testament, and therefore find the correlation between the two.
[3:22] Mainly, Jason Lowe Baxter and his book, Explore the Book. By the way, if you haven't ever read that, and you want to do some Bible study, Explore the Book is a great one. I believe it was Billy Graham who said if there was one other book that he could have with him on an island other than his Bible, it would be Jason Lowe Baxter's Explore the Book.
[3:39] Kind of what it is, is just overarching theme of every book of, it's kind of like a survey class of the entire Bible. But Jason Lowe Baxter really compares the first five books of the Old Testament with the first five books of the New Testament, and says the Book of Deuteronomy is to the Old Testament what the Book of Acts is to the New Testament.
[4:01] And it makes perfect sense, if you look at it that way, mainly that it is a transition book. We are moving from the law, now into the historical writings, the poetic writings, the prophetic writings, all these things that are transitioning.
[4:18] Much like in the New Testament, in the Book of Acts, we transition into the pastoral epistles, and the historical writings of the New Testament, mainly the Book of Hebrews, and in the prophetic writings of the Book of Revelation.
[4:32] What Deuteronomy seems to take place in the Old Testament, the Book of Acts feels in the New Testament. And it's kind of a recapitulation of the things that went before it. The Book of Acts kind of combines everything that you have seen in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and then begins to put it into practice.
[4:50] The Book of Deuteronomy does much the same thing. The truths that have been introduced to us in Genesis through Numbers are now implemented, or put into practice in the Book of Deuteronomy.
[5:02] The truth of God as Creator in the Book of Genesis, God as Deliverer in the Book of Exodus, God as Holy in the Book of Leviticus, and God is relational that we have in the Book of Numbers, He knows His people.
[5:14] All that is put into practice in the Book of Deuteronomy. And we see here what we really have, and you'll see it in just a moment when we read it, is one big, long, extended sermon of Moses.
[5:30] You guys thought I was long-winded. This is his final sermon. Throughout history, some people have doubted the authorship of Moses to that, even though, as we have said, every New Testament writer attributes Moses to writing it.
[5:46] Jesus Himself attributes Moses as the author of it. And that is enough to settle it for me. We do know He did not write the last chapter because it's of His death. Okay? I mean, He did some important things, but He didn't write about His death.
[5:59] So more than likely, a scribe comes in and writes that final short chapter, just kind of an addition or an addendum to this great work, which is very common.
[6:10] You need to know this, too. Because sometimes we think, and I know I'm giving you a lot of historical meaning, but it's okay because we want to interpret it right. Right? I was counseling. There was a young man who has been preaching some and kind of been interacting with me.
[6:26] I don't know why. It's not like I have a whole lot to tell him, but I guess I'm, you know, he's hearing me. I was talking to him today, and he was like, Hey, I'm going to be preaching here in the Old Testament. And he said, What about this reference to the New Testament?
[6:37] I said, Oh, that's great. I see the application. But I just really cautioned him. I said, Never impress the New Testament text upon the Old Testament text. Right? Because every part of the Word of God has an authority on its own.
[6:51] Right? We don't have to validate or prove anything. If it's there, it matters. And we need to let it stand on its own two legs, if you will. But the book of Deuteronomy is written much like the things that Moses would have been familiar with.
[7:07] Okay? Moses is a very well-educated man. We seem to think that everybody we run across in the Old Testament is uneducated and unintelligent. Moses is a very educated man. As a matter of fact, he was probably one of the most educated men because he was educated in the courts of Egypt.
[7:20] Right? He was skilled in warfare. He was introduced to probably one of the largest libraries in the known world at that time. Probably some of the greatest schools of that time. And therefore understood political dealings.
[7:32] He understood all these things. And you say, why does that matter? God uses people where they're at. He puts people there. Moses wasn't put into a basket, laid into the river now, and just found by someone by chance.
[7:48] Right? God appointed someone to find Moses and to raise him in a highly educated place. Because before he was knit together in his mother's womb, God knew what he was going to do with him.
[8:02] He had a good 40-year education. And then he had a 40-year abandonment. And then he had a 40-year practice. And he understood these things. So he's putting into practice now things he learned.
[8:12] What we have in the book of Deuteronomy would have been common in the Near Eastern world or of that time of Moses of what ruling powers would have written to those under or subject to them.
[8:29] It would have been like a contract. Much like Egypt would have written to the provinces they ruled over. We're going to take care of you and this is how you're going to live.
[8:40] This is how you're going to act. And there seems to be this great parallel. Now, I know in your mind you're saying, well, God says it. It's the word of God that settles it. I understand. But again, the nation of Israel is a theocracy or was to be a theocracy.
[8:59] Not a monarchy. They become a monarchy and they get problems, right? But a theocracy. A theocracy is theo, God ruling over them. So God is making this covenant with him.
[9:10] I'm going to be the God who takes care of you and this is what it's going to look like as we live it out. That's what the book of Deuteronomy is. A lot of practical things.
[9:21] A lot of application there. A lot of power. Now, let's read Deuteronomy chapter 1 verses 1 through 5 and then we'll try to take a very quick overview because we have not.
[9:32] That's just an introduction to the overview. Then we'll try to do an overview. It says in Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 1. These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan, in the wilderness, in the Araba, opposite Soth.
[9:50] That would be like Jericho. Another name for Jericho. Between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Bishab. It is 11 days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.
[10:03] In the 40th year, on the first day of the 11th month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had commanded him to give them. After he had defeated Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and Edri, across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law saying.
[10:26] Now, side note, we'll get to this Sunday night. I hope you caught that. It's an 11-day journey to get to Kadesh Barnea.
[10:39] So, when they left Egypt, it would have taken 11 days to get to where they needed to be to go take possession of the promised land. 40 years later, they're finally there. What should have taken 11 days has taken 40 years, and God's got something he wants to say.
[10:57] And he's got a man appointed to say it, and that man is Moses. These are the words of Moses. This literally is an introduction to his sermon.
[11:10] Okay, so what I want you to see tonight is the word of Deuteronomy. What it tells us, as an overview, and then we'll break it down as we go through it. The word of Deuteronomy. What it is saying to the people then, and what it is saying to God's people now.
[11:27] Now, understand. What should have taken 11 days took 40 years. And the people who heard the word the first time are now dead. Right? So, Moses is preaching the word again.
[11:41] He's just declaring what has already been declared. And I love this where it says, and we'll get to it in just a minute. He is expounding this law.
[11:53] He's opening it up. Every time we go to scripture, we want to expound scripture. That is, to make it clear. We want to understand it. We want to come to a better comprehension of what it is God is saying.
[12:05] So, they could have, at any moment, looked at the Decalade, the Ten Commandments. But here we have Moses' God-authorized exposition of the law.
[12:16] If there's nothing else that makes us stand up and take notice, it's this. This is what the Lord God told Moses to say when he started to expound the law.
[12:27] This is an anointed sermon of what the law really means. And what it means clearly to God's people.
[12:40] And we see he's doing it at a very location. He's doing it right here. Just as we left the book of Numbers, the northern Sihon and Og, they have fallen. They're in the plains of Moab.
[12:50] They're camped beside the Jordan River, opposite Jericho. They're getting ready to go in. It's time to go. God says, you've got one more message you need to preach. He preaches this message at the end of the book of Deuteronomy.
[13:02] He ascends Mount Pisgah, and he dies. This is his last word. As we have said before, we often pay attention to the last words of individuals, what they have said in their dying moments.
[13:16] We call special attention to those in the book of John. John chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17. Because you have the final words of Christ right before he went to the cross, right before he went to the garden, right?
[13:26] We know what he told his disciples at that last hour, literally. Here, we know what Moses is telling the people of God right before he leaves. And I want you to see the word of Deuteronomy.
[13:37] Number one, the word of Deuteronomy is it's a word of calling. It's a word of calling. Okay, it shows us that God's people are a called people.
[13:50] We're not going to take time to go through all the verses, but what we see throughout all of it is God is the initiator. God took them out of Egypt. God is bringing them into the promised land. God has called them to himself.
[14:01] The theme of the book is probably one of the most important themes in Judaism, and it is probably one of the most important themes in early Christianity, and unfortunately, we have kind of slid away from it, and it is the Shema in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 and 5.
[14:18] Deuteronomy 6, verses 4 and 5 say this, Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
[14:30] That's the theme of the book of Deuteronomy. But it is also a calling to the people. Hear, O Israel. Now, some people would say, there are some who say, well, we can use this verse to prove that God is not triune, because it says the Lord our God is one, and I can't remember exactly which exposition I was reading of it, but it's amazing.
[14:48] When you look at the original language, that word one there does not mean one singular. It means one as a multitude, the original word. So it's one as a unit, and it is the Lord our God.
[14:59] That is Elohim, which is the plural of El. So even here, just as in the book of Genesis, we are introduced to the concept, at least, of the Trinity before we come to the full revelation of it in the New Testament.
[15:10] I know that matters to you, and I know you probably caught on to that, so I wanted to throw that out there in case you were scratching your heads later thinking on it. I know a lot of, just throw it against the wall, see how much sticks, right? But here's the calling.
[15:22] The Lord our God is one. He is our God. That's the covenant name, right? He is one. We're not serving a multitude of other gods because they're getting ready to go into the nation where there's a God for this land, and a God for fertility, and a God for agriculture, and a God for rain, and a God...
[15:38] What he is saying is, we are called to worship one God. We are called to serve one God, and we should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
[15:50] Here's the calling upon God's people to understand who he is and to understand their obligation to him. They are to love him. Deuteronomy 6, 23 says, he brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land in which he has sworn to our fathers.
[16:04] He has called us forth in order to bring us in. Deuteronomy chapter 10. I know I'm throwing a lot of verses at you. Deuteronomy 10, verses 12 and 13. You should have just underlined everything.
[16:16] I've already underlined in Deuteronomy. It would have been a lot better for you, but Deuteronomy 10, verses 12 and 13 says, Now Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and love him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and to keep the Lord's commandments and his statutes, which I am commanding you today for your good.
[16:39] What Deuteronomy does is it reminds us God's people are a people of calling. God has called them to himself, and that calling brings responsibility.
[16:58] They did not choose God. God chose them. And the love that they are to display back to him is not a love of initiation.
[17:10] It is a love of response. He chose you and called you out and is bringing you in and has entered into a covenant with you.
[17:21] Therefore, love him, serve him, obey him. Friend, listen to me. That's not just an Old Testament principle. His people throughout the ages have always been a people of calling.
[17:40] We are not called according to the Abrahamic promise, but Jesus Christ himself says no one comes to the Father lest he be drawn to the Father.
[17:52] And no one comes lest he come through me. He calls us to himself, right? He draws us. The Bible says through the Spirit we are drawn and we are called by him.
[18:04] Think about that just for a moment. Let that truth sink in. The first thing Moses is reminding them of, God chose you. How then should you love him?
[18:20] Unfortunately, what happens in our churches today is we think we chose God. And if we chose him, then we have the right to treat him how we want to just like if we chose a pair of clothes or chose a pair of shoes.
[18:34] Listen, the God of glory, the Lord God Almighty Almighty in Christ chose us. How then shall we love him in response to that calling?
[18:53] See, the manner in which we see that is always going to dictate the response of our love. Because he is so big and so grand and so great, I can never choose him.
[19:10] But the glory of the fact that he chose me, then that reminds me he called me. I need to love him with all of my soul, all of my heart, all of my mind, with all of my might.
[19:23] We see here it is a word of calling. Secondly, we see it is a word of caution. It is a word of caution. Because just as much as he called you, we cannot separate the one who called us from the God of Leviticus, right?
[19:39] Be holy as I am holy, says the Lord. So we need to be cautious. We're reminded over and over again that he dwells in the midst of his people.
[19:50] Deuteronomy 4, verse 9 says, only give heed to yourselves and keep your soul diligently so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life, but make them known to your sons and your grandsons.
[20:04] He says, be careful. keep your soul diligently because he to whom much has been entrusted, what? Much will be expected.
[20:17] He says, God has shown his wonders. He is proclaiming this on the heels of two victories which they should not have won. It is not just the God who could deliver in Egypt.
[20:27] It's also the God who can defeat Sihon and Og. It's also the God who can overcome any enemy that's present. He says, so be careful. He is a strong and mighty God today, so be careful to keep your soul diligently.
[20:42] My favorite verse, Deuteronomy 4, 24, for the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. And it's okay.
[20:54] Jealousy is not bad. Right? Every time I do pre-marriage counseling, I have a couple before me. I tell that couple, you need to be jealous for your spouse.
[21:10] I didn't say be jealous of. I say be jealous for. You don't want anything to take your place in their life. You don't want anything to come between you and your love relationship with them.
[21:23] Now that's something I constantly have to work on myself because busyness creeps in and all those things, right? But you want to be that jealous. You don't, I tell them, I say, I don't want a wife or a spouse who said, well, I could care less what he does.
[21:35] I don't want that. I want someone who's jealous over me. They guards that. The Lord our God is a jealous God and that's a good thing. We look at it like it's a bad thing, but it's not.
[21:49] He loves us so much, he doesn't want us falling for anything secondary. He doesn't want us falling for anything peripheral. He doesn't want us being carried away by anything he's jealous over our devotion. He wants us to be devoted to him and to him alone.
[22:02] This is why all throughout the prophetic writings, he tells the people that they're committing spiritual adultery. When they ask for a king, he tells Samuel, he says, I don't think that they're sinning against you, Samuel, they're sinning against me because the Lord, their God, is to be their king and now they want a king like the rest of the nations.
[22:18] He says, Samuel, they're not doing anything to you, they're doing it to me. They're committing adultery against me. We'd rather have man ruling over us.
[22:29] We see how that worked, right? Saul looked good on the outside, was not so good on the inside. So this is a word of caution over and over and over and over and over again.
[22:40] We're reminded, Deuteronomy 12, 5 says that his people ought to be cautious to seek the Lord, their God, seek the Lord, their God in the land they go in wherever he causes his name to dwell. It says, go to him, have a place of meeting.
[22:51] Deuteronomy 13, 4 is a cry to follow the Lord completely over and over and over and over again. God is calling his people, be careful how you walk as a people of calling.
[23:04] There's a word of caution because he's reminding them, listen, they've just been on a 38 year long death march. If anybody thought God did not take sin seriously, all they had to do was look behind at the trail of graves they left behind for 38 years.
[23:26] Be careful. One of them in the audience didn't hear it. It was Achan. Right? Because they said, hey, when you go into Jericho everything is devoted to the Lord.
[23:38] Achan saw it, it looked good, he took it, he brought it home and he hid it. Be careful. Be careful. We see that. It is a word of caution.
[23:51] Number three, it's also a word of community. It's a word of community. It says these are the words of Moses to all of Israel.
[24:04] This wasn't just a word for the elders, it wasn't just a word for the leaders, even though the very first thing we're introduced to, the Lord allows us to, we'll look at it Sunday night, was the fact that there were leaders raised up from among them, that there were people who raised up around Moses and helped him.
[24:18] This wasn't a word for them, this was a word for all of Israel. We are reminded throughout the book of Deuteronomy that while God calls the individual, he always calls the individual in connection with the corporate body.
[24:33] Okay, this is a great danger in today's time especially. And I know it kind of gets me in trouble and I don't, maybe it's the way I say it, so I need to be careful how I say it. I believe in the reality that Jesus personally saves.
[24:50] Let me preface it with that. He is my personal Savior. He has called me as an individual, he has called me to himself.
[25:02] But what we do not find in the New Testament is that phraseology personal Savior. He is the Savior.
[25:16] He saves individuals, but it's always individuals that are immediately connected with a corporate body.
[25:28] See the danger. When I begin to isolate and set Jesus aside as my personal Savior, it's like my personal phone.
[25:40] my phone doesn't have a lock on it. You can go look at it all you want to. A lot of people have passcodes or thumb prints or whatever. Mine doesn't have that for one because I would forget it.
[25:51] Number two, I just don't have time to do it. It's wide open. A lot of people believe in protecting their security and that's fine. I get that. When you pick up somebody's personal item, you can't get into it because it's not yours.
[26:03] It's mine. It belongs to me. We have a fool isolates himself.
[26:21] Because in the book of Deuteronomy we are reminded that God called, he most definitely called individuals out of Egypt. He knew their name. We see it all throughout the Pentateuch.
[26:31] God knows them by name. He knows the name of the people who can work on the ark of the covenant. He knows the name of the people who have the silver smithing jobs. He knows the name of the people who are going to count. He knows the name of the people who are going to distribute the land.
[26:44] He knows the name of the people who are going to help Moses in leadership. He knows names that we don't know how to pronounce and he has them recorded. And he tells Moses exactly who they are. They are individuals. But every time those individuals are mentioned, they are mentioned in belong to one another.
[27:15] This is why we have such a distancing from the church. It's because we've tried to make faith personal like everything else in our life.
[27:32] But in the New Testament that's not there. When Christ redeems and saves and sanctifies and washes the sins away, those people are immediately connected with the body of Christ.
[27:49] Immediately. The book of Deuteronomy tells us God's people are a community of people. Listen, these applications are just rampant throughout it.
[28:01] He tells them in Deuteronomy 13.5 that the community is to be purged from evil to be kept holy. He says if a false prophet arises among you, Deuteronomy 13.5, kill that man so that he doesn't make the rest of the body unholy.
[28:20] Sounds a whole lot like 1 Corinthians where Paul says let that man be handed over to Satan so that the rest of the body may remain pure. Right? We don't do that in church very often. That gives us some trouble. We just look and say, I'll tell you what we ought to do.
[28:31] We ought to give that person over to Satan. Just let Satan have his way with him for a little while. That way the rest of us can maintain our purity. I know somebody's going to leave here and go post something that the pastor said we're handing people over to Satan and I didn't say it, Paul said it, right?
[28:43] But Paul said it because just in Deuteronomy 13.5, if an unholy man rises up above you, the community is more important than the individual so purge the individual from among you to maintain the purity of the community.
[28:59] That's what church discipline was all about second time the church is ever mentioned in the scripture. First time is Matthew 16, it's the profession of Jesus Christ. Second time the church is ever mentioned in the scripture is Matthew 18.
[29:10] We don't talk about that a lot. That's church discipline and that's when someone in the body started doing something wrong. Then the body began to purge that to maintain the purity of the body.
[29:22] What about those people who fell down dead right there in front of Peter? To maintain the purity of the body because the body of Christ is important. Just like the body of the people of Israel was to be important.
[29:37] The nation of Israel was to show a watching world what God looks like. What does the church do today? It is the billboard to show the world what God looks like when you're living in a fellowship, perfect fellowship with one another through the sanctifying, preserving work of Jesus Christ.
[29:52] Right? And then we go on. Deuteronomy 15, 11 calls on individuals to care for the least of these among them. Deuteronomy 15, 11 tells us that we ought to care for the least among us.
[30:03] Sounds a whole lot like the one another's in the New Testament, right? And then again in Deuteronomy 16, 17, it reminds us that every individual should give as they could to help for the provisions of the poor among them, which, by the way, did not only include the nation of Israel, but also included the aliens and the sojourners among them.
[30:24] Every individual should come. Sounds a whole lot like the New Testament practice in the book of Acts, right? How did Paul end up in trouble? Reading the book of Romans, right? Some of you are reading it too. What did it say today? Paul says, I'm coming to you on my way to Spain, but first I have to go to Jerusalem because I have to bring this gift that has been given through the saints to the needy in Jerusalem.
[30:44] He never made it to Spain because while he was in Jerusalem he ended up getting arrested in the temple, but why was he going? Because the believers that were prospering in other areas could give to help the believers that were in the middle of a famine in Jerusalem.
[30:55] We see in the book of Acts as well. Sounds a whole lot like Deuteronomy 16, right? And then we are introduced in Deuteronomy 17 and 18. The members of the community were to care needy widow sounds a whole lot like the New Testament church.
[31:18] What we see is this is a word about community. God's reminding them when you go and get your land and you build your houses, actually you're not even building your houses, you're going to live in houses you did not build and eat from gardens you did not dig and drink from wells you did not dig.
[31:35] Guess what? Don't forget about one another. They do. That's one of their sins. As a matter of fact, what we find in the book of Deuteronomy are three tithes.
[31:49] Three tithes. Every Jewish person was to give three tithes. The first tithe was to be a gain of crops. It was to go to the temple for an act of worship. The second tithe was to go nationally to work.
[32:03] It was a monetary gift. And then every seven years they were to give a tithe of their income and a tithe of their produce for the provisions for the poor. This is a practice.
[32:14] Some of you may remember it. I've spoke to people who remembered this some years ago. This is why I always said when you're harvesting your fields don't go all the way to the edge of the field.
[32:24] Leave the edge of the field unharvested. Why? Because there are other people who need to come take food. There are people who need to eat. They were reminded it wasn't just about them.
[32:34] This is a word of community. Number four, we're pressing on. I know it's warm in here. I'm not getting hot at all. I just have water leaking out of me. It's a little bit warm in here. It's a word of community.
[32:45] Number four, it's a word of commandment. It's a word of commandment. The very title we have in the Jewish scripture, this book was called The Word because of that very first phraseology, the words of Moses.
[33:00] They literally refer to it as the word. In the Septuagint, that name begins to be changed. That's a Greek translation of the Old Testament. It kind of bled over into the English translation. The way we get our word Deuteronomy is from a two words, Deuteros and Onami.
[33:15] It makes sense, right? It literally means second law. Second law. What we need to understand is this is not a second law giving. This is not another law.
[33:27] This is a second telling of the law already given. We have in Deuteronomy five, I believe it is, the Ten Commandments for the second time, the Decalogue.
[33:39] Just say it out there. But, as we've already read in the introduction, Moses set out to expound the law. The bulk of the middle of the book of Deuteronomy is Moses' exposition of what it is to do the law.
[33:54] How to live out the Ten Commandments. What does it look like to worship no other God but the one true God? What does it look like to keep the Sabbath? What does it look like not to commit murder?
[34:06] What does it look like not to commit adultery? What does it look like? All these things. He's expounding it. So this is a book of commandment over and over and over again. We are given these commands. We are given these commands and he is giving it to the generation who either A, heard it when they were so young they didn't really understand it, or B, weren't alive when it was given the first time.
[34:26] Because we know that everyone who is 20 years and old and upward is dead by this time. So some of them were hearing it afresh, but they needed to know that the principles which had guided them across the wilderness are the same principles that are going to maintain their life when they settle down.
[34:39] They are about to have a huge life change. All of their life pretty much they have been sojourners or wanderers in the wilderness fighting battles and doing all those great things. Now they are about to go lead a very sedimentary kind of agricultural lifestyle.
[34:53] They are going to go live in houses and they are not going to live in tents anymore. They are going to eat from gardens. They are not going to eat manna anymore. They are going to drink from wells and cisterns. They are not going to have to have rocks split open anymore. Things are about to radically change but the one thing that does not change is the standard that God has for his people, the commandments.
[35:14] It doesn't just change when they cross the Jordan River but it also doesn't change ever. Jesus Christ said, I did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. That is still the standard, right?
[35:28] God is always speaking commands to his people. We understand this. God has a word of commandment for us. As his people, he has called us to love him and to adore him and to follow him and to be mindful of him and we have it here before us, this word of commandment.
[35:46] Number five and finally, the book of Deuteronomy is a word of consideration. It is a word of consideration. It will be some time before we get there.
[35:58] But Deuteronomy chapter 28 is the great high point that Moses is getting to.
[36:08] He's preaching his sermon. It is the apex of his sermon. We would call it the invitation. Right? Someone asked Billy Graham one time, one of the greatest quotes I've ever read from Billy Graham.
[36:22] Someone asked Billy Graham one time, how many points does a good sermon have? Billy Graham looked at him and said, at least one. You need to have a point. There has to be a reason you're preaching.
[36:36] The point of Moses' message is Deuteronomy 28 and following. And it is the blessings and curses.
[36:48] It's the thing he's calling them to consider. they were to set the two mountains up. Right? When they went into the land they were to have a rock and they were to write clearly the law. The word clearly is the same word expound.
[36:59] They were to make it clear for everybody to understand and everybody to read. And then they were to have the two mountains, a mountain of blessing and a mountain of curses. And Moses says, if you do these things, if you do everything I've just commanded you to, if you do everything God is calling you to, these things will happen.
[37:14] It's the mountain of blessings. If you don't do them, this is what is happening, this amount of curses. And then Moses goes so far, he says, and I know you won't do them. Moses was a prophet.
[37:25] He says, you're not going to do them. It actually ends right there in chapter 28. He says, you're not going to do them. You're going to be led away into captivity. Even though I've told you here's the blessings and here's the curses, I know what's going to happen. You're going to fall.
[37:39] You're stubborn. And that shouldn't surprise but what he's doing is he gives them the opportunity to at least consider the outcome of their actions.
[37:52] If you do this, then God will do this. And it was a time to pause. This is the standard that God has given.
[38:05] Now consider how then you're going to live. Really, Deuteronomy 30 starting in verse 15 and going to the end of the chapter summarizes it all up. Deuteronomy 30 starting in verse 15 says, this is what Moses is saying, See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, blessings, and death and adversity, curses.
[38:29] In that I command you today to love the Lord your God to walk in his ways and keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments. That you may live and multiply and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it.
[38:42] But if your heart turns away and you will not obey but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it.
[38:56] I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live and your descendants by loving the Lord your God, by obeying his voice and by holding fast to him.
[39:12] For this is your life and the length of your days that you may live in the land that the Lord has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give them. It's a call to consider.
[39:27] It's an invitation. Consider what your response to God's love for you, because he reminds them all throughout the book, you've wandered around but the sandals on your feet didn't wear out, the clothing on your back didn't go away, the manna was there every day.
[39:45] Look at how God's provided for you here. Look at what God's giving you. Look at how God's delivered you. Look at how God sustains you. Now stop. Just consider how you're going to live the rest of your days.
[40:02] Friend, I'll be honest with you. That's a call every born-again believer today needs to look at each and every day.
[40:16] We are eternally blessed in Christ. But, that does not remove us from the discipline or the chastening, as we'll get to in the book of Hebrews, it says, of this life if we don't stop and consider the outcome of our decisions.
[40:45] God uses Moses to give them a word, a word of calling, a word of caution, a word of community, a word of commandment, and a word of consideration.
[40:58] Just stop. And think what it's going to look like if you love him, you follow him, and you obey him. And then think what it'll look like if you don't.
[41:10] I'm going to tell you, the church today, worldwide, would be radically different if every person who professes the name Jesus Christ would make that consideration.
[41:26] You know why? Because history has shown in those places where believers are forced to make that kind of consideration, the church looks different. Radically different than it does when we don't stop and consider the outcome of our faith.
[41:46] Deuteronomy, it is a word to the people, and it's a word to us today. Thank you, brother. Thank you.
[42:03] Thank you.
[43:02] Thank you. Thank you.