All right. Thank you, Chair. All right, back to Deuteronomy. This is the last of the five
books, as we said. And this book is full of laws,
commands, warnings, promises, prophecies, and reminders. A book of remembrance. I couldn't
help but think of that verse in Malachi 3, let me look it
up real fast and read it for you. It's good. It says, They
that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord
heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them
that feared the Lord, that thought upon his name. A book of remembrance
to remind us who our God is, what we are, where we came from,
and where we're going. So we're looking at tonight,
a book of remembrance. And that's what Moses is going
to do. He's going to remind everybody what they were, where the Lord
found them, how the Lord called them, led them all the way, and
how they sinned against the Lord, and how the Lord had mercy on
them over and over and over again, and reminded them that we're
going into the promised land. So this book is just as relevant
today as it was thousands of years ago when it was written.
Chapter 8. Chapter 8. Are you with me? If you'll gather yourselves,
you'll get a blessing. I promise you. Because all we're going
to do is look at God's Word. Chapter 8. We've looked at this
chapter before. We went through the whole chapter
together. And I started looking at it again and just about didn't
think it's chapter 9. But I won't make that mistake
right now. But it says in verses 1 through 3, the commandments
which I command thee this day shall you observe to do that
you may live. God's word is life. We just sang it. Break now the
bread of life. That's what he says in verse
3. Verse 2, thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy
God led thee these forty years. Forty years. How about you, John?
You fifty-nine? Sixty. Sixty years. Sixty years. Forty for some,
thirty for others. Twenty. All the way. He says, remember? Can you look
back and see how the Lord led you to where you are now? In these forty years in the wilderness,
what was everything all about? What? Everything in our lives. for 60 years, 40 years. What
was it all about? Verse 2 says to humble here.
Everything in this life is meant to humble the believer. Why? Because God dwells with the humble.
He won't dwell with the proud. Proud sinners, He's going to
abase. But the humble, He's going to exalt to be with Him. To humble. And to prove that faith that
He gave. Verse 3, And he so humbled thee.
First thing God does to us when he deals with us in salvation
is to break our heart over our sin. That's the first thing he
does. To show us that we're nothing.
And then it says to make us hungry. He makes us hungry. And then
he feeds us. What with? That's what manna
means. What is it? It's a mystery. And God feeds us with the gospel,
the mysteries which were kept hidden before the foundation
of the world. Manna, which thou knewest not, he said. You didn't
know anything about it until God fed you with it. So that
you may know, look at it, verse 3, that man does not live by
bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth
of the Lord. You're going to find, we found out, that Christ
is life, that we were dead without Christ. He that hath the Son
hath life, and Christ is the bread that cometh down from heaven.
Remember when Christ said, Moses gave you that bread from heaven?
He said, I am the true bread, which giveth life. He that eateth
of me shall never die. So we live by faith in Christ.
Christ is life. Verse 9 and 10. He says, you're
going to go into a land. Verse 7. The Lord's going to
bring you into a land. Verse 9, a land wherein thou
shalt eat bread without scarcity. You're going to get all of this
bread that you could ask for. Just open your mouth and it'll
help you. These pitiful people loved
that light bread, didn't they? Well, now chapters 9 and 10. Look at verse 4. Don't forget
this. Verse 4 in chapter 8. All these years, that righteousness
of Christ is still coming. Neither did your foot sway. Paul
talks about being shod with the preparation of the gospel. Has
the gospel worn thin? No. It doesn't wear thin to God's people.
It gets like a comfortable pair of shoes is what it gets like,
and you're not willing to trade them in. All right, chapters
9 and 10. We're going to look at these
chapters tonight. Verse 1, chapter 9, Hear, O Israel. I could not
help but think of Peter on that day of Pentecost, where he said,
Ye men of Israel, hear, hear these words. Faith comes by hearing. And would to God we would hear
what he said. Great peace, great comfort, great
joy. Here, O Israel, verse 1, Thou
art to pass over Jordan. This time. You're going over
Jordan. Moses didn't say, God didn't
say. Maybe, we hope so. If everything
goes right, there's a great possibility, if you'll, you're going over. this hour at the Passover, this
day. Well, just as God had promised
40 years before that, God made this promise 40 years earlier,
okay? When God called those Israelites,
when they were in bondage in Egypt, dead in sin, and called
them and sent a man to live there. Forty years, before he said forty
years ago, he promised, you're going in the promised land. He
didn't say who, but he did say some of the children were going
in the promised land. Forty years earlier, God had promised that.
And now it's time. It's time for them to go in.
And so he said, you're going in. And just as our Father promised
us that all who trust in Christ, I don't know when it was when
the Lord first began to deal with you. Ten, whether it was
ten months ago or fifty years ago. It's real soon now. Real soon now. Some of our brethren
are back. They're back. And so, and Paul
says over and over again, Time is short. The time is short. You're getting ready to go into
the promised land. The promised land. That is, God promised. And it's going to be just as
He promised. Just as He promised. All who trust Christ will go
into the promised land. But first, look at verse 1. But first, You're
going to go in to possess a nation, but first you're going to be
confronted with a people, giants in the land. Verse 2, great,
tall, children of the Antichrist. You know, you've heard it said,
who's going to stand before this? You're getting ready to go in,
but first you're going to be faced with some mighty foes,
seemingly insurmountable obstacles, difficult foes, formidable foes. And our Lord said to us, you
must through much tribulation. He never promised us an easy
path, did He? Never. He never did. He promised
us that we'd go in. Trust Him and we'll go in. But He said, you must through
much tribulation, did He? Through much tribulation. And
there are giants in the land, there are difficult obstacles,
mountainous problems to overcome, but now you understand that.
You need to understand this, verse
3. Understand that the Lord thy God is he who stoweth over before
you. The Lord your God already went
through everything you've gone through in the morning. No amount
of sorrow. Have you gone through what the
Lord didn't go through a hundred thousand times before? No amount
of difficulty, no amount of temptation, no amount of trouble. But our Lord didn't go through
infinitely more. He's already gone before you. Gone before you. And He's leading. Leading. Understand that now.
We need to understand that. for our comfort, that the Lord
thy God is he which goeth over before thee. Verse three, and
he's a consuming fire. He shall destroy them. He shall
bring them down before your face. He's going to show you how that
he, he's able to do all that. He said, be of good cheer. I've
overcome the world. Oh, but I'm going to be overcome with this.
No, you're not. Just wait and see. Just wait and see. When he was taking that sin upon
himself, he said, Father, it would be possible. It's not like he was just about
overcome with that, does it? He said, but here's help. Nevertheless,
not my will, but thy will be done. And so immediately God
sent an angel. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. Submitted, and the Lord sent an angel. Now understand that. Who it is
that called you, who it is that leads you, who it is that promises
these things, who it is that went before you, who it is that
guards you and guides you and leads you and protects you and
keeps you and provides for you. Who it is. Remember. Who art
thou? God said to Isaiah that you should
be afraid of a man who is a worm of these things which are but
a vapor. Verses four through six. He said,
now, don't speak in your heart after the Lord has got you through
something or whatever that you don't say, for my righteousness,
the Lord has done this. No, no, no, no. Don't say that. Verse five, not for thy righteousness,
but for the uprightness of thine heart, lest thou go to possess
their land. No, no. God didn't save us because
we were good folk, and God's not going to keep us because
we're good folk. God, when God found us, we were dead in trespasses
and sin. And how does he find us now?
Sinners. Not dead, but sinners still. And just before we entered the
promised land, how's he going to find us? We're going to be
sinners. But thank God he finds us in
Christ. In Christ. It's not for our righteous. Understand, verse 6. Understand,
therefore, Here's saving faith and understanding. The Lord's
thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy
righteousness. No, we're going to enter the
promised land because of the righteousness of somebody else. He said, we're a stiff-necked
people. We are, aren't we? I wish old Brother Stephen was
here to illustrate that. He kept joking with me about
that. That's what we all are, stiff-necked. That's what He
said. We're not going in because of
our righteousness. We're just a stiff-necked bunch of people. Stiff-necked. We're going in
because of His covenant. Verse 5. We're going in because
the last part of verse 5 is that God's going to perform the Word
which He swore unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Word which
He swore unto His Son. Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we're
going to notice Moses here throughout this chapter in the next as a
mediator. Moses, the mediator. Moses, the
intercessor. Moses, who keeps praying for
the people. Moses, who scripture says, spoke to God as a friend,
speaks to his friend. God spoke to him. And God always
heard Moses. And God answered Moses as their
friend. And the Lord kept them, did not destroy the people for
Moses, because of Moses. Now, why do you reckon that is?
Because Moses represents Christ. Moses wrote of me, Christ said. They are they which testify me.
In the volume of the book, it's written of me. All right. Verse 7. Now, remember, he says,
and forget not. Forget not how you provoke the
Lord thy God to wrath and to wilderness. From the day you
departed out of the land to the day you came to this place, you've
been a rebellious people against the Lord. Remember that. Do we
know that? Yes, we do. Every believer in
here, this is the thing that we remember and causes us grief. It's our sinful life. How that
we've been sinners from the day the Lord found us. Now, this is important. The Lord says here, remember
and forget not. Remember and forget not how you
provoke the Lord and how you've been rebellious from the beginning.
Remember and don't forget. What he's telling us is, don't
forget where I found you. Don't forget the pit from which
you were dug. Don't forget Never lose sight
of the fact that you're nothing but a sinner saved by my grace
and by my power. Never lose sight of that. And
that's what the Holy Spirit does, Brother John. The Holy Spirit
convinces of sin, righteousness, and judgment. It's not a one-time
thing. It's a lifelong thing. Convince
us of sin, righteousness. Sin because we don't believe
Christ. Righteousness because He goes to the Father. Judgment
because our sins have been judged by Christ. And so, but now here's
the good part. Our Lord doesn't remember our
sins. Our Lord doesn't remember. Our Lord who cannot forget forgot.
Our Lord who cannot forget doesn't remember our sins. There are
sins and iniquities I'll remember no more, he said. He says the
iniquity of Israel shall be sought and we won't find it. Because
our sins were taken by a fit man out in the wilderness. Laid
on the head of that escape goat and taken by a fit man. Like
Brother Jack said, God's not go hunting. God's not out to
go hunting. He's forgotten our sin. But he
tells us, don't you forget them. See that? See, the world, the
religious world, forgets. It's as if, you know, they were
sinners, now they're saints. Isn't that right? Isn't that
what you hear out of the mouths of self-righteous religious people? Oh, I was a
sinner. Now I'm a saint. Well, you're not going into heaven
now. You don't forget what you are,
where you came from. All right. And so the Lord's
mercy is that we're not concerned. His mercies are new. When? Why? Why every morning? Because we
wake up sinners. All right. And we need a Savior
every day, every hour of every day. We better be leaning on
him. And so the Lord's mercies. God does have mercy. And God
is long suffering. Why? Look at verse eight and
nine. He said, You provoked the Lord to wrath, so the Lord was
angry. He would have destroyed you. Verse 9, I went up into
the mountain, he said, and received the tables of stone, the tables
of the covenant, which the Lord made with you. And I abode in
that mount forty days and forty nights, and I neither did eat
bread nor drink water. What a picture of Christ, Augustine.
Christ has received the law on our behalf. Moses said, I went
up into the mountain, And I received the commandments concerning you,
verse 10. And the Lord delivered unto me,
let's read now through verse 15. The Lord delivered unto me
two tables of stone written with the finger of God. And on them
was written according to all the words which the Lord spake
with you in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, the day
of the assembly. And it came to pass at the end
of 40 days and 40 nights, the Lord gave me the two tables of
stone, even the tables of the covenant The Lord said unto me,
Arise, get thee down quickly from hence, for thy people which
thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves.
They are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded
them. They have made them a golden image. Furthermore, the Lord
spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people. Behold, it
is a stiff-necked people. Let me alone, that I may destroy
them, and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will
make of thee a nation mightier and greater than that. So I turned
and came down from the mountain. The mountain burned with fire.
The two tables of the covenant were in my hand. That's a picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ who was with the Father in the beginning.
Was with our God who's a consuming fire. To receive all the law. To receive the covenant concerning
us. That God gave him a people. See how he said to Moses, your
people. God gave him a people. God gave
Christ to people and he came down here because we corrupted
ourselves. We corrupted ourselves. We were in sin and misery. And
Christ brought that law down here. Came down because of our
sin. Look at verse 17. Verse 16. I looked and behold, you'd sinned
against the Lord your God, made you a molten calf. You were an
idol worshiper. You turn aside quickly out of
the way which the Lord has commanded you. And I took the two tables
and cast them out with my two hands and break them before you're
out. One of the first things our Lord
did was he went up into that, up on a hill and sat down and
it says the people came and he sat down and taught them. Sermon
on a mountain. Okay? One of the first things
he did in his public ministry. What did he teach on that Sermon
on the Mount? What did he teach? The law. What did he teach about the law?
That we've broken it. That we've broken it. That's what
he did. When the scripture says Christ magnified the law, it
means he blew it up to When you magnify something, you bring
it up in a larger view. And our Lord showed us how to
think evil is to break the law. And so he showed us, just like
Moses brought that law down from the mountain for the people and
dashed it on the ground and said, you've broken this law. That's
what our Lord did in that Sermon on the Mount. You've broken the
law. You've broken the law. That's
what He did. All right? Now look at, even
so, that's what Christ did. Verse 18. And then He says, I
fell down before the Lord, is that the first? Forty days and
forty nights. I did neither eat bread nor drink
water because of all your sin, but you sinned and do it wickedly
in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger. Our Lord, one of the first things
He did when He was 30 years old, one of the
first things He did was go out into the wilderness. It says
He fasted for 40 days and 49. Now, what did He do those 40
days and 49? Well, the account in Matthew
says that After 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry, and then
the devil came and tempted him. He wasn't being tempted of Satan
for 40 days and 40 nights. After that, in his weakest state,
then Satan came, after the 40 days and 40 nights. What was
he doing at 40 days and 40 nights? Well, he was receiving the covenant.
He was memorizing the law. Every jot and dill in the law.
As a man. Like Joshua. Over in Joshua.
You want some good reading? Start reading Joshua chapter
1. How the Lord said, now you be
well versed in this law. Because you're going to have
to keep it all for the people. You're going to bring them in.
You're going to bring them in. And you're going to have to know
every word of it. Be well versed in it. So I believe our Lord
for 40 days and 40 nights, as a man, was receiving instructions
from his father, every step to take, and so forth. All right, now look at verse
19. He said, I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure
wherewith the Lord was wroth against you to destroy you. But,
he says, the Lord hearkened unto me at that time also. Every time
Moses prayed, the Lord heard him. For the people's sake. Every
time. that Moses prayed on behalf of
the people the Lord heard. And I thought of our Lord when
He said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me, and
I know that You always hear me. Because of the people which stand
by, that's why I said that. That they might know. They might
believe that You sent them. I'm their intercessor. I'm their
mediator. Verse 20. The Lord was very angry
with Aaron. He would have destroyed him.
I prayed for Aaron also. Aaron was his right hand man,
wasn't he? Aaron's seen him pray. Who's
Aaron remind you of? Peter? Satan, if desired thee, you're
going to deny me. You're not going to sanctify
the Lord. You're going to deny that you ever knew me. But I
pray for him. Why does this all happen? Picture
a crowd. He prayed for Aaron. You see
how the best of men, man at his best, takes all the good of man,
capable of great sin. Verse 21, this is the greatest
verse in the whole chapter, and I took your sin. I prayed for you, and I took
your sin. I took your sin. Christ took
our sin, and it says here that Moses grounded the powder, and
remember when he cast it in the brook? Our Lord took our sins
and cast it behind His back. Christ was made sin for us. He
took our sin on His shoulder. God had made Him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin. Now, these next few verses of
chapter 9, beginning with verse 22, He goes back again and reminds
them of where they came from. He's not going to let them forget,
Dan, what wretched people they were,
so that they might glorify God's mercy, you see. He's not going
to let them forget what horrible, wicked, foul people they were
on every hand, so that they'll never forget the Lord's mercy
and grace to them. Let's read it. Verses 22 and
23. Taborah, and Mastah, and Kippurah. You say that. He provoked the Lord to wrath.
Likewise, when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea, say,
go up and possess the lamb, I've given you your belt against the
commandment of the Lord. You believed him not, nor hearkened
to his voice. You didn't pay any attention to his word. Verse 24, you've been
rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you. So, verse 25, I fell down again. I fell down before the Lord 40
days and 40 nights like I did the first time. Because the Lord had said He
would destroy you. I prayed for you again, verse
26, unto the Lord and said, O Lord, God, destroy and not thy people
and thine inheritance, which, Lord, mine are thine and thine
are mine. God said, These are your people.
And Moses said, Are they your people? You gave them to me. You gave me to them. They're
yours. You save them. You keep them.
Father, Lord, God, keep them. Our Lord said in John 17, I manifested
your Word unto them which thou hast given me. Father, keep them
through thy Word. Thy Word is true. For their sakes
I sanctify myself, that they might also be sanctified. Father,
I will. I will. Moses said, Lord, I want
them to be. I want them to go over and possess
the land. And Christ said, I will, that they be with me where I
am. Interestingly, I never thought
about it, Moses had to die before the people went in. He not only represents the law,
he represents Christ there, too, doesn't he? Christ had to die
before we could go in. He said, I pray unto the Lord,
O Lord, God, destroy them not. Now Christ, our mediator, our
intercessor, prayed often and always for his people. He ever,
even now, ever lives to make intercession for us. Why? Because
we're so simple. And right before our Lord went
to Calvary, it says there that, verse 25, that Moses fell down.
Matthew gives the account of our Lord in the garden there,
and it says when he walked several places, he fell down before the
Lord. Literally. Prayed in the garden.
Fell down and said, Oh, Father. Oh, Father. Verses 27 and the
end of the chapter. Remember thy servants, Abraham.
Remember your covenant. Remember your word, your promises,
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Look not unto the stubbornness
of this their people, nor to their wickedness, nor their sin.
Don't look upon them. Look to your covenant. Look to
your promise. Look to your word. Lest the land which thou broughtest
us out of say the Lord was not able to bring them into the land. which he promised them, because
he hated them. He brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.
Now, verse 29, they are thy people and thine inheritance, which
thou broughtest out by fire. And he concludes this discourse
to the people. Chapter 10. It says in verse
1, Now at that time the Lord said unto me, Cue thee two tables
of stone, like unto the firm. Come up unto me into the mountain,
and make an ark. Now you remember the law was
broken. Moses came down with the first two tables and said,
You broke it. And then the Lord said to Moses,
Come up here. Come up. We're going to write
this law where it's going to never be broken again. And we're going to make an ark.
And we're going to put this unbroken law in this golden chasm. Never to be broken again. It's
going to be kept there for safety. Ah, boy. Verse 2. It says, I'll
write on the tables the words that were in the first. Just
exactly what was written the first time. Every jot and tittle.
The handwriting of ordinances, every word that thou breakest,
the ones that the children have broken, and you're going to put
them in the ark. And so what does Moses say? Now,
let's look at all this. Moses says, so I made an ark.
I did this. I hewed two tables of stone.
I did this, Moses said. And I went up into the man. I was lifted up. I had the two
tables in my hand. Understandeth what thou readest? This is Christ going up to Mount
Calvary. And the Lord delivered unto him and said, You come up
unto me and keep the law. And we're going to nail this
hand by the Lord. That's a gift thing. We're going
to nail him to your cross. And it's unbroken law. The law
has been kept and fulfilled by Christ. Christ our ark. Christ
our ark. It's written on the tables of
his heart to be kept forever on our behalf. On the behalf
of sinners. Christ did this. He said, I did
this. Christ said, I did this. He didn't. Nobody did. Did anybody
go with Moses? Anybody? Nobody. Moses did this all by himself,
and that represents the work of Christ. Christ is all. In
verse 4, he wrote on the tables, according to the first writings,
the ten commandments which the Lord spake unto you in the mouth,
out of the midst of the first of the fire, and in the day of
the assembly. The Lord gave them unto me, and I turned myself, and I came
down. I went up, and he came down. came down and put the tables
in the ark, which I had made, and there they be. There they be. There they be. That's the Lord
had commanded me. You know, those tables stayed
in that ark until, what happened to the ark? Nobody knows. I know NDS Jones
wasn't looking for it. He didn't find it. You ever thought about that?
You know, the first ark never found. They tried and tried and
tried to find it. Never found a stick of wood.
Why? And that Ark of the Covenant, they'll never find it either.
I know where it is. There it be! And if you look
inside of it, you'll see the unbroken lock. fulfilled complete
law, complete in the ark. There it be. You know, from that
day forward, Lord Moses made this ark. And from that day forward,
every sinner on the face of the earth, until Christ came, their
hope was in a box. Their hope was in an ark. All
the worship of God, everything centered around that ark. So
many stories, always in the Old Testament, stories about the
ark, the ark, the ark, the ark, the ark. A box? All the hope of all of heaven
and earth depending on a box? A little vessel? Well, that represents Christ. He's all the hope of every sinner
that's ever lived. And I've got good news for you.
There he be. There he be. You ever wonder
where old Saint-Lucky came from, Barbara? Why, there he be. There it be. That's where it
came from. Where's the Ark? I don't know
where it's at. And you'll find the completed
kept log in Christ our mediator. All right, stand with me. Our Father, we thank you for
allowing us to open up this The golden casket has been signed.
This book is just like that ark. It's full of your law, your word,
Christ. Christ is all. All the mysteries
that are within this book speak of Christ, our law keeper, our
mediator, our intercessor, our savior, our redeemer, our all
and in all. We thank you, Lord, that you've
made him known unto us. You've opened our eyes to behold
wondrous things from your law. You've opened up the mercy seat
to show us what's in the ark. We see a rod that buds, a pot
of manna, and an unbroken law. Christ, our ark, our mediator. We're so thankful that he ever
lives right now to make intercession for us because we're a sinful
people. Christ is all our plea, not for our righteousness, not
for works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to
your mercy, you've saved in Christ. And so it's in his name we gather
here tonight and pray this prayer. Amen.