#3 Deuteronomy 5-6 by Chuck Missler

father we do praise you and we thank you for this evening we thank you for the privilege that you've given us to gather together in freedom and in safety to open your word to our hearts and lives we thank you father we do not take that for granted we thank you for the heritage you've given us that allows us to this freedom and father we also solicit your Holy Spirit to open your word to our hearts and lives and and help us father to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as we commit ourselves and this evening and this time into your hands in Jesus name Amen ok we are in the book of Deuteronomy we are in the third session and we'll be looking at chapters five and six in Chapter five we're going to first of all we're going to discover that the whole book of Deuteronomy is actually a series of sermons we always think of the New Testament is having the Gospels which are historical and we have including acts I would treat acts like a fifth gospel sort of and then we have all these letters by Paul which are interpretive and our guides they sort of answer the so what questions all these things happen great what do they mean as Paul helps us for that in the New Testament in the Old Testament we tend to look at the Torah the five books of Moses as historical books and indeed they are but we overlook the fact that one of these books particularly the book of Deuteronomy is actually a collection of servants by the most venerated prophet in the Old Testament you could say in the Bible but you don't want to exclude Christ as a prophet he's a prophet too among as many many roles and they keep those but Moses of course is incredibly venerated and we have here at the end of his life he spent 40 years growing up and in Egypt he spent 40 years in the backside of the desert and Midian getting ready for the Exodus then he spent through the whole Exodus experience and then he spent another 40 years with these guys in the wandering in the wilderness because they didn't have the guts to go forward when God taught him so he's 120 is near the end of his days God's told him by the way you're not gonna have to promise man after all laughs you're not gonna make it cuz he offended God I'll talk about that but we have here a series of sermons by Moses his first sermon is the first four chapters pretty much we've talked about that so far his second sermon will start it starts at the end of 44 and goes on until chapter 20 it's the most of the book because he's recounting all of their history and the third sermon is from chapter 29 to 30 and then the last days much of which was probably upended by Joshua but or some appropriate scribe as he has this very unusual ending and it's more unusual and most scholars have been able to figure out because for some weird reason Jude brother of Jesus Christ alludes to something as if we knew about it but we don't that Michael fought with Satan over Moses body what's that all about well we're talking about that when we get late I want to get to that but let's just jump in chapter 5 chapter 1 Jimmy verse 1 chapter 5 verse 1 Moses called all Israel we're gonna hear that alone all of Israel's in view here and said unto them hear o Israel now that's a indicates that what's coming is not incidental it's very very it's a way of underlining it in read if you will hear o Israel the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day that ye may learn them and keep them and do them boy there are four verbs that are admonitions to every one of us let's try I realize this is familiar ground and I realized well this is the Old Testament or the New Testament here all that we're running through our minds let's recognize that God has this here for you and I Paul tells us in Romans 15:4 that whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning so that we've through the comfort and patience of the Scriptures might have hope so everything is here for you and I you know cut in some context where you understand that but we need to learn them we need to keep them and do them so we need to hear learn keep and do anyway the Lord our God made a covenant with us Erhard at Horeb and Sinai are synonyms for our far as we're concerned for what we call mouth Mount Sinai is what the scripture says but don't confuse that with the traditional Mount Sinai in the Senate after which the peninsula is named because recent discoveries have pretty much confirmed the reality that the Mount Zion is actually in Arabia where Paul said it was in Galatians and that's a whole nother thing that we'll get into but just let's be alert that many of our Bible helps are still victims of the traditions when in fact there's some recent discovers they're really quite exciting anyways he God made a covenant with these people and this is easily said and familiar to most of us but let's realize this is rather weird rather surprising rather strange here's the ruler of the universe the Creator God who singles out a group of people to make a special covenant with him and we're going to find that these people are stiff-necked troublesome their problems and as we look at them let's realize they're go ourselves let's recognize that they will look to us on many occasions because we're seeing this all editorialized of course from God's point of view and nevertheless we look at them and we all sort of smile at them how can they be that way and we got a look in the mirror and realize we're the same way and let's just stipulate that now and we'll watch as we go but Nicki's Lorna God made a covenant with us in Horeb the Lord made not this covenant with our fathers but with us even us who are all of us here alive this day he speaking of his forefathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob see that was long ago in other words there was her ancients to these people God made the Covenant over there with the coven he's talking about is a covenant he made with him at Horeb the law Decalogue the Ten Commandments all of that and we'll be getting in it he knows us in this summary the book of Deuteronomy is going to recap all that and try to put it in perspective and so it's interesting that ancient treaties between rulers and their subjects have a format as we go through our archaeology and we find these documents we discover that there was a fairly standard format and it had certain elements it typically had a prologue that would review the relationship with the ruler and his people and then it would typically have some basic stipulations the general principles that were to guide behavior by both parties then there were some detail stipulations expanding on the rules that would guide the behavior of both parties and then there'd be a document clause typically calling for ratification by the subjects themselves the ruler made certain commitments and expected certain commitments in return and then there B typically blessings and cursings the benefits that the ruler would grant if they're if everything's going well and the curse things or the punishments whatever of those that would violate the treaty stipulations and then of course there's a recap or a summary at the end that's a pattern that we see in all kinds of ancient documents and what's fascinating that's the same outline that we're finding in the book of Deuteronomy the prologue is the first few chapters we went through last time the basic stipulations we're going to go through chapters 5 through 11 we'll go through several of those than this session next and then the detail stipulations for another dozen chapters or so then there's some document issues and the blessings and curses are recounted and in chapters are all equal sized but the the part is they they follow this classic structure not a big deal but it's I think useful to have in mind so we saw the prologue last time and we're going to be pretty much in the basic stipulation and kind of area tonight so that's where we're headed moving on Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 4 the Lord talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of fire now recognize see Moses is talking to his people and he's reminding them of things that happen roughly 40 years ago and he said the Lord talked with you face to face his eyes stood between the Lord and you at that time to show you the work of the Lord for ye were afraid by reason of the fire and when I went not up into the mount I can't blame them you know when you see the Mount Jabal al lawz in Arabia it's a huge mountain and the top 2/3 has been melted externally it looks dark and you take a piece of granite and break it open you discover it's been externally heated from intense pressure it's amazing it's startling to see this tough stuff went on anyway saying anyway they heard saying I am THE LORD thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage and we're going to see that this as we go forward here God is going to be dealing with this covenant relationship we're going to see that the Ten Commandments the Decalogue as it's called it's not just a moral code it is the text of a covenant and it exhibits the pattern of a treaty because it has the preamble and the historically it goes right through the whole whole structure and it was given it was never given to them to for justification it always has been granted just always freely through faith the law was never designed to give people salvation the law was not given to them to give Redemption these Pete let's keep this in mind these people to whom this is all gonna be recounted are people who have been redeemed out of Egypt so the context is they're already redeemed these are just the expectations God has going forward and and he goes and then Moses goes through and recounts that which we usually associate with Exodus chapter 20 the famed Ten Commandments and so let's go and the whole idea by the way is it calls for a submission of each of the people to in every area of their lives this is a ruler expressing his requirement that goes far beyond it preempts anything else in their lives thou shalt have none other gods before me that's where it starts and the other gods of course is that in a sense a technical term for those pagan concepts which have existed both the form of idols and also existed in the minds of the worshipers you and I may say G we don't have idols we don't have these stone or wood things that only worship but we do have concepts that we yield to that run our lives other than God they become idols it could be various forms of materialism it can the other forms of ambitions it can other forms of submission that we submit to that are or can't run the risk at least of being other gods thou shalt have none other gods before me God does not want to be number one on the list of ten he wants to be number one on the list of one and that's really what he's saying here I believe so thou shalt not make the any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the waters beneath the earth so it's interesting that he goes on I shall not bow down myself he's not he is by the way this is not a prohibition against art this is a prohibition against making graven image er art that they worship - there's no there's don't misunderstand thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them nor serve them for I the LORD thy God Emma what anyone a jealous God and that doesn't mean jealous in the sense that he's he's envying something that he's not entitled to that's not that term jealousy we use that term a little differently this is a God that guards that which he is entitled to imma Joss God visiting the iniquity of the father's upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me oh boy now we get there's a big debate that comes out of this way not showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my Commandments visiting the iniquity of the father's upon the children and a third and fourth generation this does not mean that the children are being held accountable for the sins of the fathers it simply means that when you have generations that hate God it tends to produce offspring that would hate God also that's really what he's saying and that also is the experience in life so I don't want to get into this whole generational sin debate but there's a very very real dynamic for those that have studied demonology in terms of those that come from a background of the occult that there's some very very serious things to be aware of to be renounced explicitly you know it's very interesting the ancient the early church had a procedure that if you accepted Christ part of the procedures that still embodied in some of the more traditional denominations is an explicit renunciation of Satan Allah's works in all his ways now we have we have sort of a different style in our culture come down the Saudis trail accept Christ and give them a Gospel of John and boy that's yeah that's it's done it's not that simple first of all there needs to be a real recognition of the sin problem there has to be a real repentance but in the case where people have a background in the occult there we've discovered painfully that there needs to be that has to be dealt with very explicitly and that's why if there's any background or even suspicion to the background that's worth taking that before the throne of grace and renouncing it and there's a whole area to get into that will take the time here but just realize that there isn't a lot of study that might well be done in that direction and yet showing mercy into the thousands of that love me and keep my Commandments that's the Sun of the redemption do you love God do you keep his commandments and so the this whole idea of prohibiting other gods is intensely urgent before God and before Moses because these people are going to be moving into a cultural background that is very systematically opposed to everything they stand for we need to understand what Canaan was really like and God was beginning right now to set a foundation so that they wouldn't be enamored with or entrapped by these sinister forces prevalent in the pagan religions of that region so he doesn't want them contaminated with idolatrous forms of worship and he wants to make sure they really understand that God is sovereign God is sovereign and thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless the taketh his name in vain now to misuse God's name means literally to lift up or attach it to emptiness see you don't have to be swearing to be all you need to do in any way is to demean the majesty of that name the significance of God's reputation etc this command of course forbids profanity but it goes far deeper in concept than it is that and it's a directive against using God's name in any manipulative way and so like used in magic or something like that it's it's and so it's if you used God's name flippantly or falsely attribute to God a wrong act is you've broken this commandment it's it's something that again I make it work and again do a whole study carefully of the Decalogue but if as I assume that's that should be well traveled around but it's something each of us needs to take seriously and undertake a personal study in each one of these then we get to this interesting one keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee six days thou shalt labor and do all thy work and not on egos you know it's interesting that this issue of the Sabbath day is not a simple issue many Christians say well gee Sunday's our Sabbath day and that's fine and that's that's okay except it it doesn't really deal with the issue because the Sabbath day is the seventh day God ordained the seventh day now does that mean we shift over and become make that a fetish like the 70 address where that's a big litmus test somehow what about the Sabbath day what is it well first of all you need to understand the Sabbath day was not instituted in the Ten Commandments it was reminded and it was made part of yes but it was instituted and Eden went with Adam and Eve it's to dunedin it was observed before the law was given when you get to the law was given in Exodus 24 chapters earlier they're out in the wilderness and God feeds them with Annagh when you read Exodus 16 they were not to gathered on the Sabbath day there wouldn't there be some for six days but the Sabbath day would be twice as that there be that there would be twice as much the seventh day there wouldn't be any and and if they tried to store it and stuff it wouldn't you know the whole the whole thing there in Exodus 16 what everybody misses they were observing the Sabbath day and that was not instituted at Mount Sinai this is long before it was his student Eden it became a major symbol a signature of God's covenant with Israel but it doesn't make it is Israel's thing only and what really blows you away you say okay well we're now in the New Testament period so that's different we'll talk about that a minute but when you we're gonna have a millennium Jesus gonna come back and Institute that was near rain right and Isaiah 66 you'll discover that all nations will go up to the temple to observe guess what the Sabbath day the seventh day and in Ezekiel 44 and 46 we discovered the temple the Millennial temple isn't open except on the Sabbath day and new moons I'm in certain festivals so the Sabbath day hasn't gone away say wait a minute Chuck are you saying that we as Christians should be observing the Sabbath day no I'm not wait a minute what are you saying here so you remember what Paul tells us in Romans 14 and Colossians 2 that the Sabbath is it not enforced and it's not enforced in New Testament let no man judge in the keeping of any holy there any Sabbath day Paul tells us why because we have perfect freedom in Christ are we are not under the law Jesus Christ is fulfilled in our behalf so we have Liberty in Christ that's not license but we have Liberty now so so is Sunday we has been a tradition in the Christian community to honor Sunday in recognition of the Lord's resurrection and that's great but don't confuse that with the Sabbath institution in the Old Testament that doesn't mean we're under the law that doesn't mean all those rules that they established applies to us because we're free of that Paul makes that very clear but at the same time say gee check well how do you reconcile that I don't know no sir seventy-eight Chuck you become seventy evidence no I don't haven't because I don't believe we're under the law on the frets we're the people that started getting into this thing started getting in under the law and and so forth I'm gonna get another lawyer got real problems firstly I get more lodging more rules than you really want to get into but secondly you're missing the point of Jesus Christ who has fulfilled the law on our behalf so what does that well gee Chuck what do you do for the Sabbath when I try to do when Saturday comes around it's the seventh day we try to do three we have three rules first as we do whatever we're going to do deliberately whatever it is take a trip or do camping or whatever so we do whatever we can do deliberately we do it together and the third thing is there no other rules and because we travel or other things we don't make a big thing of it we try to acknowledge that today it's a special day Lord set aside we spend most of our time on Saturday anyway because we're trying to get some publishing deadlines you know studying the Word of God because we're all writing something or preparing for something so we spent a lot of time doing that but we make it we set it aside a special day and see you and I have an advantage we're not in a Constantine who codified all the worship on Sundays because he had three different groups of Sun worshipers plus the Christians he was trying to unify his empire so he made Sunday a holiday which is a big deal for the slaves they didn't have a day off until then and so but you and I have a big break we have two days off we have Saturday and Sunday use it as you like if sunday is especially great praise God for a Christian every day special no problem with that those of you the field Chi you know I kind of like the idea of honoring the the ancient tradition of Shabbat praise God do it just don't get into the law don't get put yourself under the rules that Christ freed us from because you're in doing so you're denying the completed work of Christ Paul hammers away on that that's what the book of Romans deals with chapter 14 Colossians 2 and most of the Galatians you don't you can go through it so so much for this prickly subject but let's move on verse 14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God and it thou shalt do no work thou nor thy son nor thy daughter nor thy manservant nor thy maidservant nor thy ox nor that ass nor any of the cattle nor any door that stranger that is within gates that was Revere a foreigner visiting you still had to observe it and you do when you're in Israel I come to that that died Mac mate man certain and I made servant may rest as well as that now when you go to what makes it colorful is they've gone to such extremes that it is strange if you are in a hotel in Israel and Saturday on Shabbat you'll discover the elevators have every other floor already pushed B there's a path elevators because they feel pushing a button to go to floor three would be doing work so they have Sabbath elevators for the Orthodox you try to find one that's not a Sabbath elevator if you can so he can get to floor seven if you need to without stopping at six floors in the way or whatever it's your vomiting sometimes they'll abadan even so they have these all pre-pro you know if you get you go through this these rules that have gotten in the way of what God really intended but in any case clearly God did sanctify the seventh day and he made it a special sign for his covenant people Israel so don't this I don't misunderstand me the Sabbath was observed before Israel was a nation but it becomes among the the identity things of the Jewish community just like circumcisions Israel is not the only nation that circumcised but it is nevertheless a sign that was ordained of the Covenant and Moses bizarreness is remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt and that the LORD thy God brought the out vents through a mighty hand and a stretched out arm therefore Lord that God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day so see God has a pattern God works he accomplishes his purpose and then he rejoicing he rests that's what he did in the creation when fact when the Sabbath was established that's also what he did you know in in Exodus chapter your problem by the way about Sabbath day it's Exodus 20 verse 11 actually the problem people have you know do you believe Genesis 1 was the world created in six days you getting that big debate are they six eras are they literally six days and Elisha you got all kinds of people say I think I just sort of feel it those six days or thousand-year periods or something well that's fine see a problem is not Genesis one you promise exodus 20 verse 11 because their God clearly expects us to understand that he did in six days I did in six days and rested seventh you're gonna work six days in the rest of the seventh he's deliberately building that parable parallel expecting us to understand that they were six days so the twenty Exodus 20:11 is your problem if you're getting into the creation debates in our land but anyway the present patient in Exodus 20 verse 11 puts the Sabbath in the context of the creation here it's a little different verse 15 of Deuteronomy 5 presents it as the consummation pattern manifested in the redemption of the nation out of Egypt little different parallel but again God establishing the same pattern you got it did it work didn't reject they did it work they should West and so X is 20 levels the creation Deuteronomy 5:15 Redemption same pattern the seventh day is set aside the sanctified by God Himself then we get to this one why don't I father my mother as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee that thy days may be prolonged that it may be go well with me in the land which the LORD thy God giveth II this is the first commandment with a promise it's not my editorializing that's what Paul mentions in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 2 this is the first commandment with a specific blessing attached to it and of course this command was critical to the existence of the nation the word you hear in both places is plural that you will be that the things were well with V or with you it's plural and not just individually but collectively as a nation and so also what the what the under underlying thought here and it's going to show up all the way through Deuteronomy is that it's the parents especially the father's rather than the religious leaders that are to pass the Covenant to their children the children are to learn about the covenant relationship from God from the parents not from the Levites although they're don't believe it's they would instruct and teach all it but the responsibility for the children's religious education was the parents if that shoe pitches don't play me that's what cuts us that's okay dunno why 5:17 thou shalt not murder you say what's this chair we mean that says thou shalt not kill the word and he was rush which means to murder to slay in that sense to kill and so since man was created by God in His image man should not take another human's life apart from divine permission or ordinance and this commandment does not prohibit capital punishment nor does it prohibit engaging in war why do I say that because the Torah deals with both those topics explicitly they did have capital punishment they did stone for all kinds of offenses so this does not this has nothing to do this commandment has nothing to do with the issues pro or con about capital punishment it also has nothing to do with the war which the Torah deals with separately we could talk about that but understands two different company this is not topic here and so uh so it's a it's important to understand many people misunderstand up shalt not kill thou shalt not murder and speaking specifically as a Slayer and to call about a prohibited form of murder and so by the way you talk about capital punishment I want to point out something to you do you realize that ancient Israel had no prisons think about it they had no prisons you know you were committing adultery they took care of that rather promptly you were stoned to death and I suspect that I still suspect those adultery but I suspect it wasn't widely advertised or promoted as we have in our culture I just got back from visit to the Louisiana State Penitentiary they had five thousand inmates on an 18 thousand acre Penitentiary that's around three sides by the Mississippi River it's actually larger an area than that yeah in Washington DC five thousand inmates 85% of them will die there Louisiana hands it hands out a hundred years sentences that parole for rape and so on and there's a lot of guy in fact that by one estimate one of the officials there probably over half the men mates don't belong there but they're not in the jurisprudence business that's hell they've done by the state and other other officers you know that parole board something the penitentiary is very well administered it's become a showcase for the whole world the warden is a born-again Christian and they have a sixteen hundred fifty five thousand are born-again Christians they have a 200-person seminary within the grounds and so forth it was very extreme visited but the point is it's interesting we have this huge penal establishment they didn't have one in Israel they had things called an Avenger of blood the goal is our kinsman redeemer but he's also you Benjamin blood and there's all administer we will get in that as we go but but anyway let's move on neither shalt thou commit adultery and this is pretty straightforward the marriage relationship should reflect the believers relationship to God and of course extramarital activities were of course were prohibited now though the seventh commandment here does not explicitly refer to premarital sex the Pentateuch does prohibit it elsewhere it's prohibited in Genesis 2:24 Exodus 22 16 the Deuteronomy 22 will deal with it when we get there so the idea is that an Israelite that was unfaithful to his or her partner would also be unfaithful to the Covenant of God and would be inclined to go with other gods so that's that's I'm not the only but one of the dynamics in mind here neither shalt thou steal now this can refer not just the tangibles it can refer to opportunities it shocks me as a businessman to get into the so-called professional Christian community I've spent 30 years in the corporate boardrooms of America and enjoyed a higher ethic among those businessman that I have enjoyed or seen observed in the so-called professional Christian community people think nothing of dishonouring intellectual property they think nothing of diverting diversion of corporate opportunities they think of nothing of breach of fiduciary duty those concepts some of that just due to poor training but it's astonishing to realize that this concept thou shalt not steal involves more than just tangibles than many opportunities and such by the way this commandment that has another implication you should think through it endorses the idea of private ownership many people miss that this is a socialism is a a mechanism to plunder the productive by the unaccountable and it's very foreign to the whole concept that undergirds the the Old Testament economy but I'm not going to get into politics here but beware it recognize that this whole concept that you and I are beneficiaries of as a heritage a private enterprise private ownership understand your freedoms are directly linked to the property the laws that were guarding the property as you see the laws of property get clouded or softened or muddied up that's it that's a an attack on your personal freedom and your freedom of worship that they're linked to strange enough do your homework understand that well now we get to another one neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbor you know this sounds like it's a commandment has to do with a courtroom it's phrased the way we would imagine it that way but I think there's much more involved here I love to ask an audience what is the most painful sin in the list of all the sins you can think of what's particularly of sin has probably caused more pain than any others even more than murder beg pardon gossip you bet you lot lying is a dream form we don't want I'm gonna get it can't be more subtle than that it can be simply gossip now it's a how much the Bible has to say about this I won't go through all these verses those of you that haven't heard me off this tirade before I may want to jot these down and and and and go through them yourselves but it's astonishing to realize how tale-bearing murmuring behind someone's back how injurious that is it's a form of betrayal that is prevalent everywhere and strangely enough also widely prevalent within the Christian community for and I don't have statistics to suggest it's worse there than elsewhere but it's there's no evidence that's any better and so I'm reminded of course there were three pastors that were having a they would meet regularly every week for prayer and sharing their burdens each from three different churches but they they had a fellowship and they were sharing the one guy said you know guys I really need some prayer because I've got a real problem with pornography I've got it script into my life and I got to get mad I need prayer I got a master I got to be rid of this bondage and the second guy says gee as long as you're being so candid I have to tell you two I've got a problem in my stewardship of finances I've been skimming off the offering plate and compromising a number of the things and I covered your prayers there and the third guy says gee as long as you guys are being so candid I'll tell you my problem is gossip and I can hardly wait to get out of here yeah whenever Guiness I'm reminded of a poem that I usually work in at this place and since this is a relatively short chapter off so I'll sneak it in now there's a poem by Barbara young that I hear it said last night my friend he said he's my friend came in and questioned me I hear it said that you have done this and that I've come to ask are these things true a glint was in his eye of small distrust his words were crisp and hot he measured me with anger and and flung down a little heap of facts that had come to him I hear it said that you've done this or that suppose I have are you not my friend and are you not my friend enough to say if it were true there would be reason in it and if not I cannot know the how or why still I can trust you waiting for a word and if no word no word if no word ever come it's friendship just a thing of afternoons of pleasuring one's friend and one's dear self greed for sedate approval of his pace suspicion if one take a little turn and upon the rod one flight into the air and has not sought you for a yay or nay no a friendship is not so I am my own house Oh ever near my friend may draw unto my soul there is a legend hung above a certain Street and there away it says dear friend you hear you may not enter I would that the time is coming it is not when men shall rise and say he is my friend he has done this what is that to me thank you that I have a check upon his head or cast a guiding rain across his neck I'm his friend and for that cause I walked not over close beside him leaving still space for his silences and space for mine barber young 1936 it's best love poems American people always runs through my mind when I talk about this sort of thing moving on let's move on good around me five verse 21 neither shalt thou does Iyer they neighbor's wife neither the Shelf out covet thy neighbor's houses fielders manservant or as maidservant his ox or his ass or anything that is thy neighbor's to covet that's to lust for somebody else's property this is different than all the other Commandments because this is not enforceable in a court of law this deals with intent it's the only one in the of the ten all the others are explicit you can sort of bring in evidence before a jury is Daisy guilty or not guilty this is something that happens inside the heart and Jesus makes it clear in Matthew five that it's in the heart that all these others have their birth and they all start in a sense with lust not just an adultery thing all these have have the root of ambition of some kind somebody else's property what have you see the main thing about all of these things is to realize that this last commandment is the most forceful of all because it demonstrates something that most people to this day still have not learned and that is that it is impossible to keep the law perfectly the law was not given to a sure perfect conduct one of the things you want to do in your Christian growth is do a careful study of the book of Romans some people call it the Gospel according to Paul but it is the definitive statement of Christian doctrine and you'll discover some shocking insights out of chapters four and five of them book reading but the first half a dozen chapters really deal with the law and it'll shock you to discover that the law was given so that you might send more completely or to say it another way as we Paul mentioned it it is to reveal to you that you are sinning you can be sinning and not realize it without the law the law shows you the sin I remember what Walter Martin wants speaking to a very denominational church one time and he says you know the law he's going through all this and saying the law is like a like a mirror it shows us our sin but the law doesn't save us because I'm shaved by grace and you know I'm laughed like I did the straight lights denominations were really quite offended they thought that was you know sort of little off-color that was he had no water he was just mischievous but but it's true that law is to show us our sin and law does not save us a law so this our need for a savior and that's but anyway the Animus is this ten commandment that demonstrates this because there's no way any one of us in this room can can raise their hand say I've never coveted I suspect there's none of us in this room that can raise their hand being free of any one of the ten especially this one in one way or another we need the law was given for us to recognize our need for a redeemer and that's what it's that's really what it's that's it's all about let's move on we're 22 these words the Lord spake unto all years since remember this is all Moses recounting to them that was should be familiar to them these words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount of the midst of the fire of the cloud of the thick darkness with a great voice and he added no more he wrote them in two tables of stone and delivered them unto me you all remember that you also a Charlton Heston with those two tables of stone Xander's her they came to pass when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness for the mountain did burn the fire that you came near to me even all the heads of your tribes and your elders and he said Behold the Lord our God hath showed us his glory and his greatness and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire we have seen this day that God death talked with man and he liveth Wow now therefore why should we die for this great fire will consume us if we hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore then we shall die or who is there of all flesh that have heard the voice of the Living God speaking out of the midst the fire as we have and lived go down here and hear all that the Lord our God shall say and speak thou unto us all of the Lord our God shall speak unto thee and we will hear it and do and the Lord heard the voice of your words when he when you spake unto me and the Lord said unto me I have heard the voice of the words of those people which they have spoken unto thee they have well said all that they have spoken in other words the whole idea the they requested for Moses to be a mediator between the Living God and themselves and that was their request but God approves it understand that the whole experience at Horeb or Mount Sinai is impressed on on them a sense of their own moral inadequacy and their mortality the fact that they are all going to die one way there and their responsibility to obey God there's there is there is a very real awareness at that time and Moses recounts this now they're going to quickly forget that and that's what he's leading up to here but this is oh that there were such a heart in them that they this be God speaking to Moses oh that there was such a heart in them that they should fear me and keep all my Commandments always that it might be well with them and with their children forever the way this is expressed even in the English translation you get the sense that God is recognizing you here it an acknowledgement in the underneath the text here that he knew they would fail oh that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always that it might be well with them and with the children God wants them to be Abie to listen and to be obedient for their sakes not God cities that their lives will be well it's it's sin that destroys their lives people have all kinds of problems here our world is full of sickness and in silt and all these dark things yes that's all derivative of sin and Satan both anyway so God says to says go say to them get into your tents again and so a lord approved of the people's response and he hinted though that he knew they wouldn't carry out their good intentions verse 31 but as for thee stand out here by me God speaking to Moses but Moses returning to them and I will speak under the all the commandments and all the statutes and the judgments which thou shalt teach them that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God of command you shall not turn aside to the right or the left we shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God have commanded you that you may live and that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days in the land which I shall possess so again the divine origin of the laws is is stressed here and they were they got their Ten Commandments and they were dismissed to their tents now we're going to see that what Moses is about to tell them all chapter 6 is forthcoming here is also from the Lord just as were the Ten Commandment Ten Commandments isn't the whole ball of wax there's more coming but the obedience to all that Moses was about to teach them was critical for the prosperity in their land for their endurance as a nation to survive as a nation and so we thus close chapter five and go to Deuteronomy 6 and we're going to talk about a number of other commands and warnings in here and we're gonna come across the most frequent verse in the entire Bible it's not John 3:16 let's move on chapter 6 verse 1 now these are the commandments the statutes the judgments which the Lord your God commanded to teach you that you might do them in the land whither you go to possess it that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command thee thou and thy son and thy son son all the days of thy life that thy days may be prolonged so the the whole the whole chapter 6 through chapter 11 is going to deal with these warnings and Commandments and implications and the obedience to these commands will be their demonstration that they really love God and Jesus himself laid down a very similar condition for Christians in John 14:21 and elsewhere and let's move on here therefore o Israel observe to do it that it may be well with thee that she may increase mightily as the Lord God of thy father's is promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey so it's a law in effect one of the thing aspects the law the law was given because it gave them way to express reverence to the creator and the need to obey these laws is really stressed all the way through the book of Deuteronomy also it part of what gets associated with that is keeping the law will be their mechanism for prosperity individually and as a nation and again and again the things may go well with you so it'll be in effect in effect self-fulfilling they keep the law things will be better for them they'll be better off now we get to a passage of Scripture that is the most frequently reproduced passage in the entire Bible it's not John 3:16 even though I'm sure it's more that's very familiar to each of us in Deuteronomy 6 verses 4 & 5 here o Israel the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy might familiar to all of us of course if for no other reason than Jesus quotes from this for what he calls the greatest commandment what's the greatest commandment it's not one of the Ten it's this one and so it's interesting now this is one reason I say it's the most frequently promoted Scripture is that it is the it is the basic confession in modern Judaism in fact the verse simply means that the Lord Jehovah or however you want to pronounce it is totally unique he alone is gone and so this would give the Israelite since there is a going to land a sense of security because there's all different kinds of gods and so forth that the feel find all kinds of tribes progeny of all kinds of weird ideas they can take the security that all that nonsense our Lord is unique alone and there's none other we take that for granted but that's not a tech things we're taken for granted and just because someone please in one God shouldn't confusion the more the Muslims were worship Allah has one God but not really but even Allah as it's presented in the Quran is the opposite of the God of the Old Testament and the god of the Old Testament is a God who likes he takes light in making and keeping promises Allah is presented as unknowable capricious he can do anything he doesn't have to keep his promises you know they're young and promises to keep so you'll discover as you understand the attributes of God as he's presented in the Bible and the attributes of Allah as its presented Quran our opposites know there's one God the God and the Living God of the Bible and they're actually believe it or not opposed and that fiction that they're that that they're the same or similar on the Islam as a religion of peace is one of the tragic falsehoods that pervades their society and it's going to man will reap the world wind because of it anyway here o Israel the Lord our God is one Lord now there are it's interesting that the word this is called the word here is Shema hear o Israel and because of the first word here this whole passage is known as the Shema it is if you go into any Jewish house even apartment building you'll notice on the right side of the doors you go in there's a little case sometimes wood metal whatever little decorative case inside of which is a piece of Scripture usually not always but usually this one come on you notice it an Orthodox Jew will go touch with his fingers into his lips and as he goes and comes and that's a mezuzah and this is the passage so every threshold of every dwelling throughout the world that's Jewish will have this passage on the on the doorpost and so that's why I make the case in other words sure mom means here now the word I've had here o Israel the Lord our God is one Lord people save you I thought we believe in the Trinity that's people don't understand what the word if God means it means one in the sense of being unified in fact in Genesis in chapter 2 verse 24 Adam and Eve are spoken of as a cod one they're still separate but they are one they're unified the Word of God means one but it means one in the sense of Union or unit and it's interesting that every place you see the word Elohim the name for God Elohim it's a plural by the way if you know enough about Hebrew you know that many certain classes of nouns have IM endings cherub cherub in serif seraphim L o Elohim Elohim is a plural word it's interesting that in the Hebrew text when you see the word Elohim it's a grammatical error because it's treated as a singular noun but it's a plural noun so you already got a hint even in the Hebrew structure in the first verse of the book of Genesis 1 and so forth you know Bereshit bara Elohim in the beginning God created God who them that those guys and you see that in English let us make man in our own image who is he talking to had made yet let us we know it's the triune God see you and I can't imagine 3 separates and still have you can't imagine plural the plurality in the absence of unity we only see it in the absolute unity the idea of plurality and unity together in one thing is a concept that we need to embrace to understand what we're talking about when talk about the Trinity that so we have in the Shema here Oh God meaning one or unit and Elohim God which is plural so strangely enough in the Shema you have buried in the in the vocabulary of the structure and handedly of the Trinity and if you haven't gotten in so we have a briefing on the Trinity if you or do you want to get into this that deals with Old Testaments well as new it's amazing other trainees all through the Old Testaments not just a New Testament concept but let's move on and these words Moses which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when I walk us by the way and when thou liest down and when thou rises up now he is not making ceremonial requirements here it's amazing how we like to substitute rules or form rather than substance the idea was that we'd may be sharing this all the time not making a ritual out of it once you make a ritual out of it loses its impact and so the whole idea is that the Lord would be a constant focus of concern and for the good pleasure of them and so again you'll find that the parents will be here thou shall bind them for a sign upon thy hand and they shall be as frontlets between nine times and the Orthodox Jews this do it very deliberately a little thing by little other boxes they put the Hebrew name right put it around their forehead and all their hands with me when they're in worship they literally they take this very seriously they put them on their hands and little front lips on their eyes and I can remember nan and I were in many decades ago we were in Israel and those days the Rabbinical tunnel was it was an off-limits place and we had an arrangements to go see it and Rabbi Yehuda Getz was there we see was but he hadn't finished his worshipping it first time I actually seen as he finished he was unwrapping his phylacteries these boxes office thing and to get ready to receive us and so forth and I remember when we had the tour of the rabbinical tournament those days that he had a yacht it's a silver little blonde with a finger on it little hand of the finger and when they read the Torah they never touch it they used the Yad to follow did you go through and he ripped it on his team gave it to us as a gift we haven't living them now as a gift from him but it's a they have if they take given their credit they take these things very seriously and yet it's interesting how as you get you can take this thing so seriously that you lose the meaning behind them they become rules and ceremonies rather than in their heart and so and thou shalt write them up on the post of thy house and upon thy gates and that's where they hit this issue a masseuse masseuse is the word means doorpost and you can find all different kinds of mezuzahs there's most Jewish stores we'll have all kinds of some ornate simple made of everything can imagine some wood some stone some silver whatever and but inside the idea is inside there's a little parchment typically with doing only six verses four five that's be one and tell me when the lord thy god shall have brought thee into the land which the sort of thy father's to Abraham Isaac and Jacob to give thee great and goodly cities which thou build us not and houses full of good things which thou Philistine and wells dig which thou dig is not and vineyards and olive trees which they plants not when thou shalt have been eaten in before that then beware see when you're prosperous he says let's don't forget thee then beware lest I'll forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage you're one of our biggest threats to our spiritual walk is when we prosper well we've lost our job and everything is really serious we've got with medical problems or whatever boy then we turn to the Lord on our knees but then man you know we score a little bit and the things start to go pretty well and we're starting to enjoy that you know the good life and then it's amazing how we seem to lose our priorities and if we get the Lord the very lord that brought us that prosperity thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve Him and thou shalt swear by his name and that's the highest form of it see again that's that's that's constructive when it's a evidence of an allegiance and a fear of God you shall not go after other gods of the gods of the people which are round about you the LORD thy God is a jealous god among you unless the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee and destroy thee from off the face of the earth he's saying it individually and collectively and he's going to go to prayer here shortly we'll see you'll talk about it ye shall not tempt the Lord your God as he tempted him in massa in massa you may recall that's when they were without water and and they were anyway they were one of the cases in the many cases in the wilderness wanderings when the people were murmuring and and challenging God in many ways so seeking proof of his presence and so forth and it's interesting here it says he showed by the way you realize that when Jesus was tempted in Matthew 4 Luke 4 you all know the temple of three temptations of Christ Satan attempt so it's interesting that each one of those three temptations as we call them of Christ were met with the Word of God from Deuteronomy Jesus quote in each time from the book of Deuteronomy one of which is about temple Lord thy God God says you will not put me to the test but you know I can't go through this without highlighting to you an exception to that it may shock you to realize that there is an exception to this general sit thou shalt not temple LORD thy God and we find that in Malachi 3:10 in the book of Malachi chapter 3 verse 10 God says do you Rob God see wherever we remember you in the Tison offer he says bring me all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house and guess what he says and prove me now herewith God saying I dare you to dare me prove me now herewith saith the Lord of Hosts if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it this verse is one of the strangest in the entire Bible to realize that the ruler of the universe has put himself in a box he has dared you to challenge him prove me now herewith bring the tithe and see if I will do what in response open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing how big that there shall not be room enough to receive it Wow this verse is the answer to any financial problem yet problems financially check out Malachi 3:10 God dares you to put him on the spot the interesting passage continuing Deuteronomy 6 verse 17 you shall you shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God as testimonies and statutes which he hath commanded thee and thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may be well with thee that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD hath swear to your father's and to cast out all the enemies before thee and when thy son ask a feed-in time to come saying none of us it's the son asking of the father see it was the undercurrent through this whole thing is the parents not to the Levites it's the parents responsibility teach the kids when thy son asks the fee in time to come saying what mean these testimonies and the statutes and the judgments and I won't get in the technicalities what's the statute what's a testimonial it's a judgement they're all ordinances of various kinds which the LORD thy God have commanded you then thou shalt say unto thy son we were Pharaohs in Egypt and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand what you noticed by though it's something that is missed by many people this whole context is among people that were redeemed already we're not talking about conditions for salvation here they're already redeemed they've been brought out of Egypt and so understand the the obedience is should is intended to be a response to that gift of God in could be with the father sister son and the Lord showed us signs and wonders great and sore upon Egypt upon Pharaoh and bought all his household before our eyes and he brought us out from thence that he might bring us in to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers Lord command us to do all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for good always that he might preserve us alive as it is this day that's the father's response to that son's question and it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these Commandments before the Lord our God as he hath commanded us now this verse does not promote a works principle for salvation many people try to build a cause for salvation I think cuz they take another context and the whole idea is that the laws functioned to provide a standard undocked which is righteous in God's sight as our response and to his love not to merit the grounds for that state in the first place so that ends the session why don't we take a 10-minute break I say keep it to 10 minutes for this reason we'll start at 20 after and that means we'll finish at 20 after a night we'll get you out here if we if the break takes too long that just delays your departure a lot of people do in a long way got one couple here all the way from Turkey they got to get going here let's take a break and have a cookie

Channel: NarrowPathMatt714

Views: 20,393

Rating: 4.8076925 out of 5

Keywords: Chuck Missler (Film Actor), Deuteronomy

Id: ETHR2hw6Oek

Length: 60min 46sec (3646 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 14 2014