"The Everlasting Covenant (Deuteronomy)" - Lesson 3 - Pastor Mike Thompson

the church is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] your true [Music] is [Music] amen let's bow our heads and pray together heavenly father we know when we praise your name because we know that you are in heaven are rather interceding for each of us praise your name we are glad that we can be together fellowship one more holy day on your sabbath let us learn to rest and continue learning about you and jesus i pray amen this morning will be given by our pastor mike thompson may you be richly blessed and happy sabbath so lesson number three the everlasting covenant this is really got echoes very strong echoes of the sabbath school quarterly we had like six months ago it was on about the covenant the covenant promises and this ties right in with that but nonetheless on sabbath afternoon's page i want to read the memory text it's from genesis 17 and verse 7 from the new king james god speaking says and i will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after their generations for an everlasting covenant to be god to you and your descendants after you i want to read the couple of introductory paragraphs on sabbath afternoon's page uh beginning here with a quote from revelation chapter 14 then i saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach to them who dwell on the earth to every nation tribe tongue and people that's the first angel well part of the first angels message and it says on the page here notice the everlasting gospel everlasting as in always existing you know we sometimes look at um children of israel in the wilderness we think oh that's when god delivered his covenant no no no he didn't the covenant actually was was established even before the earth was made jesus god the son and god the father they had clasped hands and a solemn and sacred vow that should this new race of beings come into existence who are going to be uniquely made in the image of god then jesus it was a greedy would come and be surety for us that was the everlasting covenant that was already agreed upon in heaven and you get a glimpse of that after the fall and genesis 3 15 god says you know i'll put enmity speaking to the serpent between you between her seed and the seed of the woman and you will bruise his heel but he will bruise your head that there was also a glimpse of this covenant this plan that god had to redeem the human race and so as we progress from there we see we get a bigger picture of what this covenant is all about and so anyway let me move on here it says hence it's no wonder that the bible talks at other times about the everlasting covenant because the essence of the gospel is covenant let me explain that a little bit uh we speak about the gospel the gospel is the good news that we're saved through faith in jesus christ when you become a christian but let me say this a christian is somebody who has entered into a covenant relationship with god you get that so a christian is somebody who has entered into a covenant relationship with god and that is a covenant is an agreement between two parties the sinner well first of all god takes the initiative in the covenant he says i'm merciful you've sinned i owe you nothing but i love you nonetheless so i have a plan to save you here's my son who was crucified died on a cross he took your sins and died in your place i've made this provision for you that's my part of this covenant agreement between two parties that's me and you now your part is if you want this covenant to be affected and you want to be redeemed then you have to accept him by faith as your savior and then not only that through the strength he gives you you need to walk in obedience to my laws and my statutes and my commandments and if a chris if a new person coming before the cross says lord forgive me god says i forgive you what is your lord i ask forgiveness i believe jesus died for me and i want to walk in your ways and i ask jesus to come into my heart and through the fulfillment of the new covenant promise to write your law upon the tables of my heart that i will walk obediently to you then you have an agreement when that is formed god has your heart he has your mind and then he can go and do what he longs to do in the final fulfillment of this covenant which will be when jesus comes he'll have a people standing upon this earth who reflect his his character just perfectly so uh that wonderful plan that wonderful provision that wonderful outworking of god's will all started in eternity so when we get to the jews in the wilderness it's wrong sir oh god made his covenant then no no no he he took them especially under his wing for a purpose but that was not really a something new it was part of what had begun in the days of eternity anyway that some of that was in the lesson some of it i just thought i'd say that okay it says no wonder that the bible talks at other times about the everlasting covenant because the essence of the gospel is covenant and that's where i broke off and said if you want to be a christian you enter into a covenant relationship with god because the essence of the gospel is covenant and the essence of the covenant is the gospel they're inseparable god out of his saving grace and love offers you a salvation that you do not deserve and cannot possibly earn a new response loving back with all your heart and his quoting here jesus quoted from the old testament but in mark 12 30 it says you love him back with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind and with all your strength a love that is made manifest by obedience to his law and one john 5 3 for this is the love of god that we keep his commandments i guess i really needn't have said everything i did because they'd crystallize it all right here but it says this week we will look at the idea of the covenant as expressed in the book of deuteronomy where the covenant and all that it entails is made manifest another term for deuteronomy is a second reading of the law you know you've got two duo uh deuter and onomy on us namas is the greek for law so it's a second reading of the law anyway let's move on to sunday the covenant and the gospel and i want to read the top paragraph and it again it echoes what we've already looked at all through the bible the covenant and the gospel appear together though the idea of covenant existed before the nation of israel and i explained that you get to the time of noah as well and there was a covenant there with noah you know and though the covenant promise was made before the nation of israel existed and we understand that is the point it was expressed prominently through god's interaction with his people starting with their fathers the patriarchs did you get that so it existed but it was especially prominently mentioned when we get to the patriarchs the first one being of course abraham and we'll go to genesis 12 in a minute and we see there where god really kind of fleshed this out this uh this covenant and it says at the top and even from the start the central truth of the covenant was the gospel salvation by faith alone don't miss that because faith abraham exercised faith as part of entering to entering into this gospel like this covenant experience with god um okay the second paragraph it says read genesis 12 and genesis 15 and romans 4. the question is this i'm going to ask the question then i'm going to look at some of the verses here what was the covenant promise made to abraham later abraham and how is the gospel revealed in that covenant promise so i'm going to read genesis chapter 12 and verses 1 through 3 and we'll see how it all starts to come together here genesis 2 3 verses sorry 12 1 through 3. i usually like to get them the text photocopied and stuck in my notes but um didn't have time this week so let us look here genesis 12 verses one through three now the lord had said unto abram get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house into a land that i will show you verse 2 and i will make of you a great nation and i will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing and i will bless them that bless you and curse him that curses you and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed so here he's um he's bringing give him a bit more detail here to this to this uh so the covenant and there's three things i think we should notice here that god spoke to abraham about promised him number one he said he would give him a country get up off you go i'm going to give you a glimpse of the country i'm going to give you actually it was given to him in kind but it was actually his his ancestors that uh that inherited it so god promised him a country secondly god promised that from him his descendants would comprise a great nation and third of all the third and last of all and all nations of the earth would be blessed because of abraham in as much that from him from his line the long promised messiah would come to redeem whoever from every other nation would accept him as their personal savior so god told him this off you go i'm going to make you a great nation and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed that was god's part but there was still a part that abram had to play in this covenant what was that he needed to go right unless he had gone god could not fulfill it so there was his part very kind of small but it was still his part there was an agreement god said you guys said okay i'll go. friends asked him where are you going he said i really don't know but god told me to go so i'm going so that's what we have that's what we have there then about nine years later about nine years later god spoke to abraham again not merely to repeat his promise as in genesis 12 but this time to actually take it and really frame that promise within an official covenant that he made with abraham i want to say it already made an agreement with him but in genesis um uh 15 here there's that part there where god actually condescends condescends to come down and enter into this ceremony which in the culture of abraham people did in those that if you made an agreement you would set these pieces of flesh on these rocks and both parties would walk through them but they did some strange things they probably think we do strange things as well the great god of this unit has condescended to do that to this tiny little earthly man who like me was far far from perfect but uh let's have a look at that genesis 15 and verse 5. and actually i want to uh let me go to the whole thing here i want to read a bit more than what i've written in my lesson here genesis 15 verse 5 and this is what we read actually i'll start from verse 4 and behold the word of the lord came to him to abraham again saying this shall not be thine air he's talking about ishmael here of course there was this issue of when am i going to have a son you know we've tried this other little thing here but it didn't turn out very good with with the hagar but god promised him that he would have have a son and behold the word of the lord came to him saying this shall not be thine um but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowel shall be thine actually he did that thing later on he's talking about the fact the only eliezer of damascus born in his house he was a servant he was the nearest one he could think of that could be his heir but god said no no it's not him you shall have a physical son yourself then in verse five god god god promises this in verse five let's read this and he brought him forth outside and said look now toward heaven and tell the number of the stars if you can and he said unto him so shall thy seed be well it says can you count the stars you know i think it's said by the naked eye and a clear knight you might be able to count up to 5 000 something like that a few thousand and abraham probably thought well that wouldn't be bad five thousand children but if he had a hubble telescope he would have he would have seen an awful lot more uh but nonetheless god gave him a glimpse and it obviously satisfied him oh stars yeah god says you'll have children like stars but the next verse which we'll read is very significant for it relates to the question and there's a question here in in the in the lesson up on sunday again what was the covenant promise made to abraham and how is the gospel revealed in that covenant promise remember we read that then we read the verses i'm just reading that question again what was the covenant promise made to abraham and how is the gospel revealed in that covenant promise okay promise okay well in verse five god made him that made him the promise but then in genesis 15 6 we read this and he that is abraham believed in the lord and god counted it to him for righteousness did you get that so you see we're dealing with the covenant here but it's also a picture of the covenant is how god saves us god saves us through the gospel and the gospel is we enter into covenant relationship with god by faith and through the savior we have eternal life so abraham god says all these stars yes your children will be like that and abraham said i believe and it says that god counted that exercise of his faith unto him for righteousness in other words by faith abraham believed that god would do what he had promised he would do for him and abraham put no confidence in his own ability to bring that purpose to pass now he listened to his wife later on and she said you know you need to go in the tent with hagar and he shouldn't have listened to his wife but anyway he did but nonetheless not not blaming wives for when things go wrong but but at this point he believed and what he was saying was lord i believe that you can do this without anything being done on my part okay i know it depends upon me to father a son but putting that aside i believe it's all going to be an outworking of your grace so that act of simply but decidingly decidedly believing by faith was accounted unto him for righteousness while abraham understood he wasn't righteous in himself and although and even though as an act of believing in god in the act of believing there was no merit in that either you know there's no virtue in faith you realize that don't you we sometimes think if i have the faith god will do this and so god does something we might think god did it but i had the faith the same thing ellen white says there's no virtue in faith faith is just the means that you reach out and you lay hold of the virtue that is in jesus so you can have faith to move a mountain but don't get a big head because there's no virtue at all in that faith it's just the means through which you access the grace of god that's where all the glory and all the praise lies not in faith now god gives us and apart from that faith is a gift right through the spirit so god gives you the ability to have faith in the first place so no trumpets no tooting your own trumpet no none of that there's no place for it um so yeah it's solely an outworking of divine grace so here is god uh so here is god officially establishes his covenant relationship with abraham again we we get a glimpse of faith and justification imputed justification through faith in god and um i don't want to get too much off track but a lot of people today believe righteousness by faith you believe in god by faith and he forgives you and you're legally forgiven what we call forensic and they leave it at that but there is also an imputed righteousness that god gives to us when christ comes into our hearts and we're born again he lives there and so this there's the imputed righteousness we we are declared forgiven but god also makes us what he declares is he makes us righteous when we have the new birth christ lives in there and under the new testament covenant promise he writes his law there so it's not just a legal justification not not not by not by any means and even though we speak about being justified on one hand and sanctified on the other through imparted righteousness uh we we separate them for for reasons to explain what they are they're actually part of one experience you fall on your knees before the cross you're a sinner you're covered in stains lord forgive me and he forgives you at the same time as you open your heart he forgives you at the same time as he comes in and he not only declares you righteous he makes you what he declares you he makes you righteous gospel is a wonderful thing isn't it look what god has done for us okay um yeah so i will move on now because um excuse me licking my fingers here let's move on to monday the covenant and israel so um i want to read this here sunday uh sorry monday the covenant in israel i want to read the top paragraph there well actually it's it's a it's a bible verse um deuteronomy 9 verse 5. and it says this this is god speaking it is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land god speaking to them here about going into into canaan it's not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you're going to possess their land but because of the wickedness of these nations that the lord will drive them out before you and that he may fulfill the word which you swore to your fathers to abraham isaac and jacob okay now there's a question underneath there in bold how is the reality of the covenantal promises made manifest in this verse that we just read here okay how how is the reality of the continental promises made manifest in this verse well the reality of this is made is made very clearly it's cleared it's pictured very clearly here it was and i say again a work of divine grace from beginning to end verse makes very clear that by no means were the promises fulfilled toward the israelites because they were deserving because they were worthy because they were the offspring of abraham oh where the offspring of abraham meant nothing didn't give you any worthiness didn't cause god to owe you something well actually he was faithful to the ones he gave the promise to so yeah in faithfulness to them but it was nothing nothing to boast about all because for some reason you feel that you had merited some special favor from god god owed them nothing same as he owes us nothing now notice why he did what he did in that verse again it is not because of your righteousness or the righteousness of your heart that you go in to possess the land it was only god's goodness in other words the israelites were as undeserving to go into the land of the canaanites as the canaanites were undeserving and had no right to stay there did i explain that properly yeah did that makes okay i mean and the canines knew no better they did not to be deserved to be there so god said i'm getting rid of them but understand it's not on any righteous at your part you don't even deserve to go in but i made a promise i made a promise to your fathers abraham isaac and jacob and because i'm a a god who keeps his covenant promise with his sons and his daughters you're going in um [Music] so yeah god uh in his mercy permitted the hebrews to enter because he was fulfilling his pledge now still on monday's page there there is another uh question in bold it says read exodus chapter 2 24 exodus 6 8 leviticus 26 42 it says what is being said here that helps show how the continental promises work all right let's sell what is said here that helps show how the covenantal promises work exodus 2 verse i'm going to read verse 23 and 24 and it came to pass in the process of time that the king of egypt died and the children of israel sighed by reason of their bondage and they cried and their cry came up unto god by reason of their bondage remember they were slaves here you know they'd gone into egypt a little over 400 years before and everything was good you know joseph was the prime minister of egypt and pharaoh welcomed them in and it was just a great situation they lived in the land of goshen but you know that pharaoh died and others came in and so they were pharaoh came in that didn't care for where these people came from he didn't care about the history he says they're more numerous than we are make them slaves before they rise up and so you know the rest of the story and so here we are here in exodus 2 24 that their cry comes up before god says they cried and their cry came up unto god by reason of their bondage and god heard their groaning and god remembered his covenant with who abraham isaac and jacob god would not break his promise given to his three sons he's three boys there a little later when god sent moses into egypt to meet with his enslaved people and declared that god would deliver them we notice again his reason for doing this exodus chapter 6 verse 8 that's one of the verses here we're supposed to look at god's speaking and i will bring you into the land concerning which i did swear to give it to abraham to isaac and to jacob and we'll give it to you for an inheritance um you know all the patriarchs are not perfect we know that uh but their offspring 400 years down line here who were in bondage it's to be hoped that they appreciated the faithfulness of their great great great great great great grandfathers right that god is honoring his word uh to them yeah just a little party you know as christians um we're born into we still have religious freedom here i mean it's getting eroded we know that but it's only the generations of faithful christians who've gone before that have built the foundation that we rest on today the the the founders of adventism you know they were involved in um in the fight for religious freedoms as well so we can be thankful for their faithfulness that today god is honoring what he said he would do for them through them through us as well so i'm thankful for our pioneers you feel the same so here's god with his faithful promise i want to read um further down on the page on to uh the third paragraph we're going to read the third and the fourth together actually and comment a little bit uh the exodus from egypt the great symbol of god's saving grace also is based on the covenant the lord had made to their fathers and we just read that of course that is even before the beneficiaries of the covenant were born that's this generation before they were born uh even before the beneficiaries of the covenant were born the promises were made in their behalf thus again through no merit of their own to say the least they receive the promised deliverance which god did for them through the miracle miracles and the events of the exodus you know the plagues coming down in egypt and the opening of the red sea that was all based on god's faithfulness to fulfill his promise to them and it says of course things didn't end there they went from egypt where to sinai and what happened at sinai god renewed his covenant with them right so exactly what happened and there they were stood at the bottom of sinai mount sinai and it was all covered with cloud and thunder and lightning and they heard the voice of god like thunder and the trumpet blowing and they all retreated backwards and they said to moses you speak with us but not god fear his voice will just destroy us it's too bad a few days later they were dancing around the golden calf but still but nonetheless god renewed that covenant with them from egypt to sinai but it says this and central to that covenant was gospel and the law the ten commandments which they were called upon to obey what did god do he spoke the ten commandments and he brought them with his own finger on tables of stone and delivered them to moses and when he came down you know they said all the lord has promised we will do but in doing this they were called upon to obey to maintain a saving relationship with god who already had redeemed them hence again and again in deuteronomy they were called to obey that law as part of the covenant which had been ratified at sinai okay god says i will bless you you go into this land what is my is what you need to subscribe to here's my law you keep it you will be blessed and you read in deuteronomy we're not going to today but there's a list there are blessings and cursings you read them right there in deuteronomy and god said if you do this you will i'm using my own you're right upon the high places of the earth i'll bless your crops your offspring your cattle your sheep your goats you'll be a wonder before all the world i will bless you then on the other and and moses read this to them on the other list uh this is the cursings if you forsake me if you don't do this if you don't do that and your crops will fail and the enemies will come and they'll take you captive and all this kind of stuff it was very very clear to their understanding and they should have really i can't pin it all on them we can be just as stubborn can't we we can be just just as bad so i'll i'll cut them some slack here but there's a question at the bottom of monday it says what role should the law of god play in our lives today we who have been saved by grace and why is that law so crucial to our experience with god well we're not saved by keeping his law we're saved by grace right but if you really appreciate what somebody has done for you you want to please them right jesus said if you love me keep my commandments so we want to be obedient to god's law not legalistically so we can earn merit i want to express my appreciation and thanks to god you know god you love me so much i thank you that jesus died so i know i'm still not perfect but i want to make you happy today lord i want to walk and do the things that please you is there anything legalistic about that he's my father i want to make my daddy happy right and it's an expression of my thanks and appreciation and when the sabbath comes round some people oh the sabbath oh oh i can't watch the television you know oh i can't do this and i can't oh when will the sabbath be joel spoke about that counting the clock down until sundown so they could go sell that fish in their corn again and all that kind of stuff to me the sabbath i look forward to it why because i get to spend the day an even closer relationship with god and i don't want to sound flippant here but he's my daddy i'm his little boy he's my daddy i got to spend the day with my daddy you know i love to come to his house and listen to his word and sing and pray and then and meet everybody you know i just love shaking people's hands and stuff and and then i go home and then i kind of crash a little bit but well that's all right you know it's a beautiful day so what was that question what role should the law of god play in our lives today um why is the law so crucial to our experience with god it's an expression of appreciation that he saved me through his grace and also as well remember this god's law it's a hedge god's law is not there just because he wants to know that once you know i'm the boss you do as i tell you god's law is there as a hedge of protection if you stay in that hedge you won't finish up in prison for stealing right so it's good to stay within that hedge and not steal i'm not just staying there because you i really want to steal but i won't no if you love god you don't want to steal anybody's stuff anyway i won't i won't wreck some marriage by committing adultery with somebody else's wife or my wife won't break my heart by running off with somebody else so it's for our protection and it's for our happiness and our well-being and when we do that we keep in that love relationship with god and he can bless us and as he wanted to do for ancient israel let people look on and say why are these people so different why are they all so happy why is everything that they do with it you know their their flocks their herds they're they're prosperous what is it with these people so it was god's purpose that people will go to the israelites and ask them tell me about your god wide open door to witness right and same with us if we if we love lord and the love of the lord we we should be full of it and people hey what about this church you go to you know oh let me tell you about it and not just the church we go to the person who lives in my heart i need to move on here let's go to uh tuesday the book the book of the covenant uh is it yeah choose the book i want to read the top little section here uh though the book of the covenant and it's got a hebrew term there for covenant though the idea of covenant to describe god's relationship with his people is found all through the bible this word appears so often in deuteronomy that deuteronomy has been called the book of the covenant remember i said one name for it is the second reading of the law but also it's called the book of the covenant because the covenant is woven all through it there then we've got a question again it says look at deuteronomy 5 1 through 21 we're not going to look at all those verses but the question is this what is happening here that helps to show how central the idea of covenant is to the book of deuteronomy and i'm going to go to deuteronomy chapter 5 verses 1 through 5. bear with me here deuteronomy five verses one through five what do we have here what's the question again what is happening here in this verse i'm going to read what is happening here that helps to show how central the idea of covenant is to the book of deuteronomy 5 1-5 okay and uh and moses called all israel and said unto them hear o israel the statutes and judgments which speak in your i speak in your ears this day that you may learn them and keep to do them the lord your god made a covenant with us in horeb that's where mount sinai is the lord our god made a covenant with us in horeb that's like 40 years ago you remember that because this is a new generation but there would have been babies at that time which were in this present one the lord made not this covenant with our fathers but with us even us who are all of us here alive this day god is making renewing this covenant with you today the lord talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of fire so insulating both experiences then and even now it says in verse 5 i stood between the lord and knew at that time to show you the word of the lord for you were afraid by reason of the fire and went not up onto the mount we already spoke about that right they were just scared to death of the flames and the voice of god and everything else so here again moses directs the minds of the people of fresh to the importance of their covenant relationship with god which their fathers had pretty well broken but god didn't cast them off but still they they they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years but now this new generation is now ready to enter the promised land and it was time for them now themselves to clearly understand that respect for god and his law was the condition that must be fulfilled in order for their covenant relationship with god uh to to fulfill that agreement that they're one with god there's agreement on both sides that they could go in to the promised land into the land of cain i got a bit tongue-tied there trying to read my own notes sorry about that and um and then in deuteronomy 5 verses 6 through 22 which we don't have time to go to moses declares to israel again the ten commandments as god himself had declared them to their fathers and mothers forty years before at sinai except there's a different rendering here of the fourth commandment and actually i do want to read this uh deuteronomy 5 verses 12 through 15. i want us to notice this in the previous verses you've got all the ten commandments again as the covenant has been renewed but look at the change well the covenant the sabbath commandment isn't changed but there's a little different nuance here verse 12 through 15 says this keep the sabbath day to sanctified as the lord thy god has commanded thee six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord thy god in it you shall not do any work you nor your son or your daughter your man servant maid servant or your your cattle use the ass you strange within your gates and so on and so forth verse 15 and remember that you were a servant in the land of egypt and the lord thy god brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm therefore the lord thy god commanded thee to keep the sabbath day now you notice here we we already understand that the sabbath is a memorial of god's six day creation he rested on the seventh day but here as he's renewing the covenant with them um we've got that we've got the sabbath which is the memorial but also it is to be a memorial of how god delivered them as well from egyptian bondage so the sabbath for us is a twofold memorial it's it's a memorial of creation but it's also a memorial of redemption as god delivered the israelites from egyptian bondage so god is able to deliver us from the bondage of sin and satan and set us free so the sabbath is a memorial of creation and redemption and it's interesting isn't it what did jesus do on the sabbath after his crucifixion he rested we often point to that fact the sabbath you know jesus rested on the sabbath he rested he was resting after he'd completed our redemption by dying on on the cross on the sixth day um okay i need to move on here um we we note that in the previous chapter deuteronomy chapter 4 that moses recounted of how god had laid down the conditions of the covenant and that israel needed to uphold them if they were to receive his blessing and that is mentioned i want to read this here from tuesday paragraph free and um i was thinking i might not have enough material this week but um i'm only on tuesday so we won't get through the rest of the lesson i'm afraid uh it says here uh one two third paragraph down yes the lord was going to fulfill his covenantal promises to them now though they are obligated to uphold their end of the deal so he declared to you his covenant which he commanded you to perform the ten commandments and wrote them on two tables of stone that's in deuteronomy 4 13. he did it at sinai and now he was doing it again in moab just before they were to take the land promised to them through the promise made to their fathers centuries earlier a manifestation of the everlasting covenant that preceded even the existence of the world and then there's a little statement here really white from desire of ages before the foundations of the earth were laid the father and the son had united in a covenant to redeem to redeem man if he should be overcome by satan they clash their hands in a solemn pledge that christ should become the surety of the human race amazing isn't it yes indeed that's in zechariah that council of peace as we often call it well let's see if we can get a little bit of um wednesday here just a few minutes his special people i'm reading at the top part it says it's hard for us today to grasp much of what the ancient world was like at the time in which israel was wandering in the wilderness if all empires had come and gone with only ruins remaining what can we know about the many smaller pagan nations that lived in the same area as israel did well not a whole lot it says but we do know one thing these people were steeped in paganism polytheism many gods polly many and some utterly degrading practices which included child sacrifice can you believe try to imagine just how degrading an evil a culture and a religion would be that god would do that that sorry they would do that to their own children and do so in the name of some god you know i i read that and we we kind of think how could they do that and be so dismissive about it and yet how many people a day you know we we bought little babies in the womb it must grieve the good lord but it says anyway god warned his people not to practice the things that the nations around them were doing it says when you come into the land which the lord your god is giving you you should not learn to follow the abominations of these nations deuteronomy 18 9. why because god had called them out for a special purpose god had called them out to enter into a covenant relationship with him and to be a witness to the onlooking pagan barbaric nations of what the true god of israel what it was like to serve him and it's really sad isn't it that there was this wonderful glorious opportunity that god gave his people and instead they wanted to copy the other nations you know it's um we're a lot of work aren't we we're an awful lot of work anyway really quick let's see if we can find something on thursday yes thursday speaking of other images it makes the point that as we perhaps might uh picture god hear him commanding his people speaking forth the commandments with a voice like thunder on the top of sinai it's easy to get the picture that you know it sounds very cold and very clinical in some respects though god isn't like that god doesn't like that he's a just god is it just god and justice has to rule i mean there's got to be an end to sin and god will one day pour out his wrath upon this earth but it's going to be loathe to do it because behind all that majesty and glory and a voice like thunder there is a god whose heart is so soft and so kind and so compassionate you know if how could a cruel god make little babies you know um you look at little children you look at little birds little chipmunks you look at flowers how would a cruel tyrant make things like this why would he even bother and so in deuteronomy we find some other passages that speak of god and i'm going to have to just paraphrase here as a father there's certain passages here in the lesson i don't have time to turn them but he speaks of himself presents himself as a father and refers to them as his children and that's exactly how that relationship is and he wants it to be like that now for each one of us well i'm going to go to uh friday uh actually before i go to friday just at the very end of thursday that last big paragraph at the bottom um speaking of the idea of family god being the father and we being his children the last little part it says um speaks of an example he says even as the resurrected christ even as the resurrected christ jesus referred to the disciples as my brethren an example of love and grace that flows from love for those who certainly didn't deserve it that's essentially what the relationship between god and humanity has always been grace and love given to the undeserving and i'll finish with this here on friday from desire of ages before the foundations of the earth were laid the father and the son had united in a covenant to redeem humanity if they should be overcome by satan they'd clash their hands in a solemn pledge that christ should become the surety of the human race this pledge christ has fulfilled when upon the cross he cried out it is finished he addressed the father the compact of being fully carried out now he declares father it is finished i have done thy will oh my god i have completed the work of redemption if thy justice is satisfied i will that they also whom thou has given me be with me where i am beautiful isn't it well we're so glad you could uh tune in today and join us for central study hour just want to remind you you can have a free copy of today's presentation on cd or dvd if you contact us and ask for offer number c 22142 22142 call us at one 916-457-6511 or you can email us at csh at sac central dot o r g c s h sec central dot o r g glad you could join us god bless you and we'll hope to see you again next week for central study hour god bless you

Channel: Daily Hymns

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Length: 54min 29sec (3269 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 06 2021