Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.wartracebaptist.org/sermons/60537/deuteronomy-111-12/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] We're in Deuteronomy chapter 11. We'll be looking at verses 1 through 12 this evening. Just a reminder, it's just a continuation of Moses' sermon, really his final sermon.

[0:13] The book of Deuteronomy is the grand last teaching of Moses before the nation of Israel goes into the Promised Land. So it's their final message of preparation. We know at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses climbs Mount Pisgah.

[0:26] He goes there and he sees the Promised Land. And it is there that he dies. And as Scripture tells us, no man knows where he's buried. God buried him. Nobody knows, which I think is intentional as well because it would have been a site of veneration, a site of people would have visited that site.

[0:43] One thing you find about Christianity, Christianity has no holy sites, right, because we serve a risen Savior. So we don't go to the sites of any dead people. We don't go to the sites of any graves because the only grave we can walk to is one where people think that Jesus might have been.

[0:57] But he's not there anymore because we have a risen Savior. But same manner, Moses is preparing the people and he's getting them ready to walk in and inhabit the land.

[1:09] The question of would they get entrance into the land is never really an issue. Because as Moses speaks to the people, it's always when you go take possession of the land.

[1:21] When you go take possession of the land. When you go take possession of the land. I know I'm kind of jumping right into it, but I think it sets it up for us. So it is always this emphatic, you are about to go lay hold of what God has promised you.

[1:34] The time of preparation. The time of discipline. The time of waiting is over. Now is the time of fulfillment. And it is there that he is calling them to faithfulness.

[1:46] He's calling them to obedience. And he's calling them really to respond in love. Now, before we really get into it, you know that in the last couple of chapters, Moses has really been reiterating this whole obedience issue.

[2:02] And it is really the theme that runs throughout the book. In Deuteronomy chapter 5, we have the second telling of the Ten Commandments. It's where we get the title, Deuteronomy, because it literally means second law.

[2:16] So it's the second telling of the Ten Commandments or the Decalogue. The Ten Great Sayings of Yahweh, his expectations, his standards for his people.

[2:27] But he didn't expound it. Deuteronomy chapter 1 says he sought to expound the law, to make clear the law. What he didn't do in starting to make the law clear is he didn't start out with, okay, let's look at number one.

[2:41] Now, now that you know what number one is, this is what you should do, this is what you should do. Now, let's look at number two. He didn't do that, right? In expounding the law, he began by reiterating the fact that God didn't choose them because they were worthy.

[2:59] God didn't choose them because they earned it. God didn't choose them because of their faithfulness. God wasn't going to give them the promised land because they deserved it. But God was extending his grace and mercy and love and compassion on them through a covenant relationship.

[3:17] These things matter. And they matter. Because this is what the entirety of Scripture is built upon. This is the reality of, it's more, we're looking at more than just the story of a group of people referred to as Israelites going in and taking possession of a land called Canaan.

[3:36] Right? We're looking at the interactions between God and his people. We're looking at the interactions between God and his expectations of his people and their obedience.

[3:47] So that's kind of where we're at. That kind of sets the stage. Let's pray, then we'll get right into the text. Lord, I thank you so much for this evening. I thank you, Lord, for just a great opportunity we have coming together and fellowshipping.

[4:00] We're coming together and looking at your word. Lord, we pray as we come now to the reading and the hearing of your word, Lord, that you would speak to our hearts. You would speak to our minds. Lord, you'd help us to see it with clarity.

[4:12] You'd help us to see it in simplicity. Lord, you'd also help us to see it with the willingness to obey you and to follow you completely. For your glory, your honor, and yours alone. We ask it all in Jesus' name.

[4:24] Amen. Deuteronomy chapter 11, starting in verse 1. I'm going to go back and read to you because it's in connection. This is still the same line of thoughts.

[4:35] Right? These chapter and verse breaks that we have in Scripture were not in the original writing. So Moses would not have said the things that were recorded in chapter 10, and then they'll come back the next day and he'll say what's in chapter 11.

[4:48] It was one discourse, but it's kind of on the same vein of Deuteronomy 10, verse 12 and 13. Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in his ways and love him, 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.

[5:12] So there's a requirement, right? This is the expectation and the challenge of God to his people, to fear him, to have a reverence for him, to stand in awe of his holiness and his worthiness, to love him, to obey him, to be faithful to him, all these things.

[5:31] And he's realizing that God's not just saying this because he has a God complex. He's not saying this because he's me. He said, you should fear me, love me, obey me, and follow my commands because it's for your good.

[5:46] Right? It's for your good. So now we're going to kind of begin to flesh out. How are you going to do this? Deuteronomy chapter 11, starting in verse 1. You shall therefore love the Lord your God and always keep his charge, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments.

[5:59] Know this day that I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm, and his signs and his works, which he did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, to all his land, and what he did to Egypt's army, to its horses and its chariots, when he made the water of the Red Sea to engulf them while they were pursuing you, and the Lord completely destroyed them.

[6:25] And what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place, and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, to the sons of Eliab, the sons of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, among all Israel, but your own eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord which he did.

[6:46] You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, so that you may prolong your days on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

[7:05] For the land into which you are entering to possess it is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it with your foot like a vegetable garden, but the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, springs water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares.

[7:24] The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year. Deuteronomy chapter 11, verses 1 through 12. I want you to see this evening the foundations of a personal response.

[7:41] Foundations of a personal response. Now, personal response is the response to the challenge. What does the Lord your God require of you? What does the Lord your God require of you?

[7:53] So, we would say that Moses is bringing it to the application now, right? And more than that, he is bringing it down to the personal instead of the general, because it would be really easy.

[8:05] You remember one of the highlights that Moses gives that helps to demonstrate God's love and compassion and presence among his people is the fact that they went into Egypt, they went in 70 persons in all, and now they are a great multitude of individuals.

[8:22] Many biblical scholars estimate the number of the Jewish people was somewhere around 2 million at this time. Okay? So, they went from 70 to 2 million. And it would be really, really easy to be in a multitude of 2 million people and to say, Well, Moses isn't speaking to me.

[8:39] Moses is talking to us as a group. Moses is talking to us in generalities. And now Moses goes from talking to the congregation to really what we would call meddling and getting a little closer to the corn, if you will.

[8:51] He's playing a little closer to the role. He gets personal. He starts bringing it down to the individual and says, Here's the foundation as individuals you're going to stand on to respond to the charge that God is giving you to walk faithfully.

[9:05] Because we know, because we're on this side of the completeness of Scripture, we know that an individual can have a dramatic impact on the corporate body. All you have to do is look at Achan, right?

[9:17] All you have to do is look ahead and look at the judges and look at the rulers and see the sins of the individual, which have a dramatic impact upon the corporate body.

[9:27] So, it has to begin at the individual level. We have to start at the personal level. What motivation or what foundation can the individual stand on to respond personally to the charge that God gives?

[9:42] Because it's not enough to say, yeah, we need to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind, and all our strength. We need to bring it from the we down to me, right?

[9:53] I need to love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, with all my strength. And when I do that, and you do that, then all of a sudden we do that as a corporate body.

[10:07] So, we see here this foundation of personal response. Number one, the first foundation stone Moses lays, and we lay here, is the deliverance which they had experienced.

[10:21] The deliverance which they had experienced. He said, you shall therefore love the Lord your God and always keep his charge, his statutes, and his ordinances, and his commandments. So, he reiterates or repeats the charge that God gives, right?

[10:34] Love is combined with action. He doesn't just say, love the Lord your God. He said, you shall love the Lord your God and keep all his commandments, his statutes, his ordinances, right?

[10:47] Because love is not a vague generality here. Love is not just some term that we throw around. Unfortunately, it gets thrown around a lot in today's culture. And in turn, even when we begin speaking of God is love, it kind of gets thrown around in ways that really aren't biblical.

[11:02] But love is not some abstract feeling. And what he is saying is that if you love him, then you will do something in response to that love. Because love in scripture always has action connected to it.

[11:15] Right? Love in scripture always has something responsive connected to it. It's not enough to say, well, I love God. Because God says, it is, I love him and this is what I do.

[11:28] But James would later say, what good is love that does nothing, right? Because love without works is dead. Because what good is it to say to your brother, go and be warm and not give him anything to warm?

[11:39] You cannot show me your love with inactivity, but I can show you my love through what I do, right? This is really Joe's paraphrase of the book of James, by the way. Because love without works is dead.

[11:50] And all throughout scripture, we see this reality that love has something it does. It is not just something it is. And that is on the personal level.

[12:02] So he repeats here the charge that God gives. Love me and obey me. Now, what is going to move them to do that personally? And then he goes on, he says, and know this day.

[12:15] Now, know this day. You need to know this is what he's saying. Pay attention to this. Grasp this. Know this day that I am not speaking with your sons who have not known.

[12:28] And then he goes through this great listing. And he goes all the way down to verse 7. But he finishes that sentence. But to you who have seen it with your own eyes. So there's this reminder.

[12:40] Know this. I'm not talking to your sons who have not seen this. I'm talking to you who have seen this. Now, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

[12:51] A multitude of people were born. And at 40 years of wilderness wanderings, a multitude of people were there. We know that those 20 and upward died. That were able to serve in the military.

[13:01] We know that they died because of the refusal to enter into the promised land. But we also know that there were a multitude who were under. That were 19 and under. Who had experienced the very things that Moses speaks of here.

[13:13] But again, he is bringing the experiences of others to application in individuals' lives. This is another biblical principle we see. And I know in our society, it kind of, we don't really, let me get my wording right here.

[13:29] We don't really translate this into our society as well. But in the Jewish culture, because they were so united, they really didn't celebrate individuality. They celebrated community.

[13:40] You have Daniel putting the sins of the fathers upon himself when he prays, says in the book of Daniel, Lord, we have sinned. I have sinned.

[13:51] And I have done this. You have Nehemiah confessing sins, which we know Nehemiah didn't do. Because he takes the actions of others and he puts it upon himself. He identifies with these things.

[14:01] Because, again, it is this body of God's people that the individual is a part of. And whatever has been done by any or experienced by any is also applied to the individual.

[14:14] But we see that Moses is speaking here in particular to those who knew. Know this day. I'm talking to you, is what he's saying. Right?

[14:25] This is your responsibility. It's not the responsibility of your sons. It's not the responsibility of the generation after you. It's not the responsibility of someone else. This is your responsibility.

[14:36] And he is laying these foundation stones. And the first one he lays is the deliverance which they had experienced. Because he begins to remind them of what God had done. He says his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm, and his signs, and his works which he did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land.

[14:56] What is he doing? He's reminding them how God delivered them from slavery. Right? He's reminding them of what God did to demonstrate his greatness, his might, his strength, his awesome wonders.

[15:11] He is reminding them of the display of God's magnificence among them in their deliverance. He's reminding them that what they saw was they could not deliver themselves.

[15:23] They had to have someone greater than them deliver them. Because the individual's deliverance is the first foundation for personal obedience. I think one of the greatest tragedies that ever takes place in the church is when an individual gets over their salvation.

[15:39] When we get over the reality that we have a deliverer. That we have someone stronger and greater and mightier who displayed his strength.

[15:55] Do you understand? I mean, and I hope we all do. I don't think we really get a grasp for it. Because I think it radically changes our lives when we do. I think we take salvation like, oh, yeah, all I had to do was say a prayer.

[16:09] No. All you did was accept. But he died for your deliverance. He was beaten beyond recognition. The hair of his beard was plucked out.

[16:21] His body was marred. They didn't just beat his back because that's what they did. They beat his back for our chastisement. Right? They beat. He was scourged for our penalty.

[16:32] He was crucified in pain because of our deliverance. He died our death. He faced hell because that was our destination.

[16:43] And he rose with our victory. See, it is the deliverance of the individual which is the chief foundation for personal obedience.

[16:54] And what Moses is doing is reminding them of the God who delivered them. He took them from a place that they could not take themselves.

[17:06] He delivered them from one mightier than them. He delivered them from one more powerful than them. He delivered them from one that they were subject to. He delivered them from one who suppressed them.

[17:17] He delivered them from one whom they had no power and strength to resist. Listen, an Israelite by himself could not resist Pharaoh. But when God chose to deliver his people, Pharaoh could not resist God.

[17:31] And the reality is this. The application is this. We don't like to say it because there is the biblical truth that greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.

[17:42] Right? But on our own, apart from he who is in us. Friend, listen. We have no authority to deliver ourselves from Satan.

[17:55] We have no authority to set ourselves free. We have no authority to tell Satan to leave us alone. Because as Jesus said, unless one stronger than the strong man comes into the house, you're still held captive.

[18:11] We had to have one stronger than the strong man. And Jesus says we're either a slave of God or we're a slave of Satan. And it took him to deliver us because we couldn't do it ourselves.

[18:24] And the deliverance that the individual experiences, the deliverance that the individual realizes that he has been set free.

[18:37] He didn't just walk out. He was delivered. Now, we take it to the other side of the cross when we get to speak of redemption.

[18:48] Deliver is the right word for the freedom found out of Egypt because they were led. Again, redemption is a correct word for us. We are delivered from sin and redeemed by the Savior.

[18:59] Because redemption carries with it the price of purchase. Right? So we were bought with the blood of the Lamb. Slain before the foundation of the world. So we have been delivered and redeemed.

[19:11] And I think when individuals begin to forget the deliverance they've experienced, then they fail to walk in loving obedience. But when we realize, when we realize what he did, then why would we go back?

[19:30] Why would we choose to look back? It is the deliverance they experience. Number two, also there is the foundation of the discipline they had witnessed.

[19:42] Of the discipline they had witnessed. And I love how Moses says this. And what he did to you, he starts speaking of what God did to the Egyptians, right? And he says, and how the Red Sea engulfed them and how they were drowned in the Red Sea.

[19:56] And it's just this vivid reminder of how they went through on dry land, but the Egyptians were engulfed in the Red Sea. And then he transitions because I'm sure at this moment they're like, yes, amen, amen. This is good stuff, right?

[20:06] This is good. Way to go, Moses. Good motivation speech. And then he kind of changes subject here. He says, and what he did to you throughout the wilderness. And what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place.

[20:19] Now, now all of a sudden we would go from the victory of the Red Sea to the 40 years of wilderness discipline. Like that. I used to love listening to Adrian Rogers preach.

[20:30] I can still go back and listen to Adrian Rogers preach. One of my favorite all-time preachers. When I came to Christ, I know you guys had the opportunity to go hear him in person. I didn't, okay?

[20:41] Sorry, I wasn't from Memphis like some of you rough people. That was a little too rough for me. But those of you who don't know, Brother Rodney and Miss Tricia are from Memphis. So they had the opportunity to be there, to hear him.

[20:53] But when I came to Christ is when Adrian Rogers was really, Loveworth Finding ministry was really big. I got to hear Dr. Adrian Rogers preach so often. No man can turn a sermon so quick than Adrian Rogers.

[21:07] He can have people so excited in a moment, make the whole 30,000 member congregation just go quiet. I think that's what Moses did here, right?

[21:19] Remember the Red Sea? Yes, I remember the Red Sea. Yes, glory, hallelujah. I can almost hear every, I know my brother in the balcony has heard it, but go listen to S.M. Lockridge's greatest sermon ever preached.

[21:31] That's where he preaches, That's My King. That 18-minute message of That's My King is really a part of an hour and 20-minute sermon, right? But in That's My King, you can hear the congregation around him going to town and getting quiet.

[21:43] That's what I envision here, like, yes, the Red Sea, amen. I'll come on now. You know, get a little carried away, and he goes, and remember what he did to you in the wilderness. Now we go from victory to discipline, because the 40 years of wilderness wandering was not a pleasant time.

[22:03] It was only supposed to take a couple of weeks. It was going to be an 18-month journey because you had to hang out for a little while at Mount Sinai to get the Ten Commandments.

[22:14] You had to hang out for a little while to get the instructions of the building of the tabernacle. You had to hang out for a little while to build the oracles that went in the tabernacle. And then you only had to travel seven days to get to Kadesh Barnea.

[22:27] But think of what he did to you in the wilderness. Because, see, while we can rejoice in the deliverance, we need to also recognize the discipline. We need to recognize that the deliverance is great, but the discipline is necessary.

[22:42] Because not too long after deliverance, they had to be disciplined. They were just on the other side of the Red Sea when God had to bring them to bitter water, right? They were just on the other side of the Red Sea when they went from singing songs of the rejoicing to grumbling murmurings of complaint.

[22:59] And we need to understand, as the book of Hebrews tells us, He whom He loves, He disciplines. And sometimes that discipline seems excessive, but it is necessary.

[23:15] And just to get their attention, of all the things Moses could have talked about, I mean, of all the things, there's the fiery serpents, there's the first time they complained at the waters of Merah where they had nothing to drink, there's when the quail came and they ate so much meat they got sick, there's when they took the manna when they weren't supposed to on the seventh day and it rotted in front of them, and Moses said, see, God told you not to get it, you didn't listen.

[23:44] There's all these things He could have said. There's, after they denied going into the promised land and they thought they could go win the victory and they ended up being defeated and having been run down about a hundred miles away, of everything He could have done, of 40 years of examples, He chose one.

[24:05] He says, and remember all that took place in the wilderness until you came to this place. And then He says, and what He, that's God, and what He did to Dathan and Iberium, the sons of Eliam, the son of Reuben.

[24:20] Now, do you remember what that was? That's when Korah's rebellion came up. They decided that they didn't need to have these leaders.

[24:31] They didn't need to listen to Moses. They didn't need to listen to Aaron. They didn't need to, they didn't need to go what they did. They weren't the only people that God speaks to. God could speak to anybody. And here were some, some Levites who they called around them and said, come on, we can, we can all be prophets.

[24:45] We can all hear a word from God. We can all do what we want to. We can all choose. And they brought those fire pans. Remember those fire pans that they brought out and they laid them out there? And they, they had the, the rod where Aaron's rod is the one who butted.

[24:58] And, and then all of a sudden just to, for their rebellion, in the midst of their rebellion, they said, we don't want to go to Canaan. Let's go back to Egypt. And if you remember, Dathan and Iberium were the ones who called Egypt a land flowing with milk and honey.

[25:11] That should get your attention. Because God always referred to Canaan as a land flowing with milk and honey, which is a reference of a place of prosperity and pleasure. And they said, where we came from is better than where we're going.

[25:23] And they were looking back to where they came from. And just for God to show the severity of the situation, he commanded Moses to tell everyone to step back.

[25:35] So everyone stepped back. And those who were rebelling were right there in the midst of the camp. And the, Moses made this declaration. He says, if you are of the Lord, let your death be natural.

[25:49] But if I am true, let God do a new thing. Let you descend alive into the depths of Sheol. Sheol would be the netherworld. Now, again, this is Billy Joe's interpretation, not interpretation, but this is Billy Joe's translation.

[26:03] So don't go back looking for verse by verse of this. You can read the account, right? This is kind of my cliff notes of what happened. He says, let God do a new thing. Let you descend alive into the depths of Sheol for your rebellion.

[26:14] And it says, and at that moment, the ground opened up. And they went down alive screaming. Them, their households, their children, their tent, their belongings, everything that they owned went into the depths of Sheol.

[26:29] And then the ground closed. And everybody's looking at a dry piece of dirt. And at that moment, everybody realized the God they served was not a God to be mocked.

[26:43] The God they served was a God of holiness and reverence. And the leaders he appoints were those that they were to listen to and to follow.

[26:57] And the commands he gives are not commands to be toyed with, but they are commands to be obeyed. See, what God did to these individuals was more about discipline in the corporate body than just chastising the individuals.

[27:11] And Moses is highlighting for them a very memorable event. Because while deliverance is great, discipline is necessary.

[27:27] Because just like that hymn, O come thou fount of every blessing. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. I dare say if we were to go across the congregation and ask, was that reality present in our lives?

[27:44] Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. If we were to be in a moment of honesty, each one of us would have to say, yeah, I have that prone tendency in my life.

[27:56] Bind my wondering heart to thee, O Lord. How do you? Through discipline. Through discipline. And discipline, the discipline which we witness, serves as a foundation for personal obedience.

[28:17] One more account, and then I'll go to the third and final one. Going back to Dr. Adrian Rogers. I remember I went through the pastor training institute with Adrian Rogers. I was able to go through it right after he passed away.

[28:29] I did not have the opportunity to go through it right before he did. So I went down to Chattanooga and went through it with Mr. Avery, who was like his co-pastor that was there. And in that, Adrian Rogers tells the account of hospital visitation and the holiness of God and the place of the church.

[28:50] And he's told this account of a time where he took a deacon with him into the hospital. And this individual that they were going to visit was in the hospital. And the individual was a church member. But he had lived in sin.

[29:01] He went into sin. And it was a known sin. He didn't tell us what it was. But it was a known sin. And Adrian Rogers knew of the sin. So he went into the hospital room. Again, just that pointedness, right?

[29:12] And he told that man he needed to repent of his sin. And the man refused to repent of his sin. He wouldn't give it up. He wouldn't turn from it. He wouldn't leave. He just said, I'm not going to do it.

[29:24] And this was a well-respected church member. And Adrian telling the account says, As soon as I stepped out of the hospital room, I told the deacon that was with me, he said, mark my word, God will not allow this man to live with unrepentant sin.

[29:39] Because evidently his sin had brought mockery to the church. It had brought mockery to the Christian life. Within three days, that man died. I can only imagine that that deacon who was there, while witnessing the discipline of the Lord, probably lived his life a little bit different.

[30:02] Probably said, oh, wow. God's not a God to be messed with or toyed with. And this is what Moses is doing. He's reminding them. Those things we witness.

[30:16] They're there to serve as motivations for personal obedience. Third and finally, there's the deliverance they had experienced. There's the discipline they had witnessed. And the reason he chooses these two in particular is because it leads to this third part.

[30:28] There is the dedicated land to which they were going. There is the dedicated land to which they were going. Again, these are foundation stones for personal obedience.

[30:39] Why am I going to love the Lord my God and obey his commands? I'm going to do it because he has delivered me. I'm going to do it because he disciplines me. And I've seen what his discipline has been upon the lives of other individuals, right?

[30:52] It is a motivating factor. I remember growing up as a kid, I had an older brother. Me and my brother would get in trouble quite often. Thankfully, my brother was older than me and I was the second one. He would get spankings first.

[31:02] When I saw him get a spanking, my whole attitude changed, right? Because when I saw the discipline he got, all of a sudden got a lot better. I'm no fool. I can figure some things out, right? Sometimes I start crying while he got a spanking because that got me less of a spanking.

[31:15] You may call that manipulation. I call it just being a smart kid, right? You cry loud enough while your brother's getting a spanking, you don't get one as bad. His discipline hurt me. But so we see the discipline that we witness changes us and it motivates us.

[31:28] But the third thing is the dedicated land to which they were going. That is the destination ahead of them. Because he transitions. He said, you shall, there in verse 8, you shall therefore keep every commandment, again, obedience, which I'm commanding you today so that you may be strong.

[31:46] It's not that you can go in and take it. It's so that when you go in and take it, you may be strong and go in and possess the land into which you are going to cross and possess it. So that you can go in and be strong while you're possessing it, right?

[31:58] He said, you are going in to take it and possess it so that you may prolong your days on the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers, swore to your fathers to give to them and their descendants.

[32:10] Length of days on the land was a sign of God's blessings upon the individual. All throughout the Old Testament, this is why we see when they were removed from the land, it was a clear sign of God's curses upon the individuals, right?

[32:23] It was a clear sign of God's disciplinary action. To be removed from the land was to be under the curse and the discipline of the hand of God. And so he says, if you are obedient, then you will remain on the land.

[32:36] You will remain there for a length of days. You will prolong your time there. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. For the land into which you are entering to possess, it is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it with your foot like a vegetable garden.

[32:50] Literally what they would do is they would sow their seed and since the land of that area was all watered by the Nile River, they would dig these trenches in the land with their foot, water it with their feet, right? They would dig these canals coming out of the Nile and when this plot of ground had enough water, then they would cover that canal back up and they would go dig another canal with their foot.

[33:08] So literally, they were watering it with their foot. What he's telling them, the place where God's taking you is nothing like where you've left. The place where he's taking you is so much better because it is a land with hills and valleys.

[33:20] It is a land flowing with milk and honey. And he says, it is a land which the Lord God looks at with his own eyes and he sends the rain. He sends the care and concern and needs.

[33:32] That's important. Hold on to that in your study of Old Testament because there's this God, lowercase g, that the nation of Israel is going to end up serving.

[33:43] Elijah is going to have a showdown on Mount Carmel with him. It's Baal, right? Remember? Elijah's showdown with the prophets of Baal.

[33:54] You know what Baal was considered the god of? Baal was the god of rain. Moses tells them before they go in, it is the Lord your God who sends the rain.

[34:06] You walk in obedience to him and you will have the rain. Your land will be cared for, your harvest will grow. What happens when they get into the land? They start sinning. They start rebelling.

[34:17] God withholds the rain. So they go find another god to try to manipulate the sin in the rain. So God sends a man named Elijah and says, tell it not to rain. And it didn't rain. Because it is God's land.

[34:29] It is he who looks over it. But what he's doing here, because I just kind of jumped way ahead. I jumped several hundred years ahead in Old Testament history there. But what he's doing is he's showing them, walk in obedience because where he's taking you is so much better than where he took you from.

[34:48] The place ahead of you is so much greater than what's behind you. Now that doesn't take a large leap into the New Testament to make that application to the believer.

[35:00] The believer's destination is so much better than what they've left behind. We understand that.

[35:13] Right? The land he's leading us to is so much greater than what he took us from. And that foundation of personal obedience is realizing this.

[35:29] The best is still ahead. The best is still waiting. And I'm following and I'm trusting.

[35:43] Because the very best thing God's ever going to give me or do for me is that which lays ahead of me. I don't have to look back with regret. I don't have to look back with longing.

[35:56] I don't have to look back with desire. I don't want to go back where I came from. Because where he's taking me is so much better than where I've been each and every day.

[36:11] And it is that land of destination. that place that God had promised them. And Moses is telling them as individuals this is a place you want to live.

[36:26] This is a place you want to be. This is a place that God's eye never departs from. He cares for it. He tends it. This is his place. This is where he wants you.

[36:39] Faith. Because God is always leading you to the best. always leading you.

[36:49] Wherever he leads you is always better than where he took you from. Now in eternity absolutely right? My interpretation of the end times could be a little bit different than others and that's okay.

[37:07] My personal interpretation if I was to die right now die tonight if my body would quit breathing I would go to paradise. I'd go hang out in paradise. Paradise in the Bible it's like the inner courtyard of the king.

[37:21] It's hanging out with the king in paradise. And I get this because Jesus tells the thief on the cross today you will be with me in paradise. Right? And he's going I'm going to be there I'm going to know him and I'm going to live with him in paradise and I'm going to hang out with him and then there'll be this day where he says okay we've been hung out in paradise long enough and the angel blows the trumpet and then my body comes and meets my soul in the air and so I shall ever be in the flesh with my lord no longer in paradise but then in heaven reigning in heaven and then coming and reigning and ruling with him upon the earth because heaven and earth come together and the new Jerusalem and the new earth and all these things and then I'll walk around see I don't get this picture of hanging out on clouds.

[38:04] I mean there's there's a marriage supper there's food there's things to do it's going to be awesome and there must be so much enjoyable to do people rightly said there's going to be work to do because he says that we will labor for him in the kingdom he's going to give us something to do but it's not going to make us tired we're not going to need to sleep and we're not going to be wore out right there is no night that's awesome it's always day he is always there wherever it is we're going to be in his presence and we're going to be with him and that's eternity but even in the personal application that if I'm following him today where he's taking me today is better than where he took me from yesterday and where he leaves me tomorrow will be better than where I'm at today because that which he has determined to take me to is always better than what he took me from but unfortunately we forget that and we think that it used to be better back there we say it all the time if we are accurate in our memories the good old days wherever they are in our lives the good old days my good old days are different than some of your good old days right

[39:17] I was born in 1980 okay so my good old days are everybody's wearing those ugly sunglasses and real bright colors and you know starting to dress like they are today again I don't know why it's coming back but whatever hair was big and all this crazy stuff you know those good old days and you know go back to childhood but then if you really stop and you think about it it wasn't really all good right it's just because our minds remember the good stuff we want to cling to that what we need to understand accurately is where he's taking us is always better than where we left and that should motivate us to obey him that should motivate us to follow him if I really believe he's taking me somewhere better I would be foolish not to love him and obey him because that in essence is me saying I would rather go somewhere worse than where you want to take me and here we see these foundations of personal response those individuals who knew and those individuals who were to respond personally to the charge thank you gentlemen

[40:38] Deuteronomy chapter 11 so Thank you.