Deuteronomy chapter 5 now as
most of you probably know I text you and asked you to read chapters
5 through 14 It was a lengthy a lengthy read I understand,
but you had two weeks to read it So if you didn't then shame
on you because you had plenty of time But I definitely of course
will not read the whole chapter, but I will read several portions
from those chapters now consider Consider the list of statutes
and judgments, but before we look at a few of them Let me
read just one verse chapter 5 and verse 1 this is vital Now Moses
is now going to start into The law in particular now he's dealt
with the law up to this as well, but in chapter 5 he starts going
through specific statutes and judgments that's what he calls
them and And I'm not suggesting that statutes and judgments stop
in chapter 14. They continue on. But there are
some things I want to begin to cover in detail in chapter 15
on. This I'm going to cover in general,
all of these 10 chapters. But consider what is said here. Deuteronomy 5 verse 1, and Moses
called all Israel. Now, think of this. This was
a massive group. Now there are some that suggest
there may have been two, three million people. I do not know.
But this was a large group. And how all of this group heard,
I do not know. I just do not know. But it says,
and Moses called all Israel and said unto them, hear, O Israel,
the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day. Now notice the phrase, that ye
may learn them. See it? First of all, you gotta
learn them. That ye may learn them. Then
second, and keep Do you see it? And then another statement, because
most of the time when we think of the word keeping, we equate
that with actually doing something, right? That's not what it says,
is it? And Moses is not being redundant, that you may learn
them and keep and do them. So Moses is commanding all Israel,
hear these words and learn what they're saying. And as you learn
what they're saying, hold them in tight. But don't just hold
them in tight and forget about them, do them. Now when it comes
to the law, the law is do, do. Do, or on other cases, it is
do not do. Do not do, do not do. But one thing is sure, even according
to Moses in his own book here that Moses wrote, we know Moses
wrote it because Christ said Moses wrote it. Picking among
these statutes and judgments is forbidden. Now you understand
what I'm saying. When we hear the law of God,
it is a whole. It's not the laws of God. There
are statutes, plural, and judgments, plural, but it's never called
the laws of God. It's always called the law of
God because it is one unified whole. And it is forbidden to
pick and choose certain parts of the law that you want to learn
and keep and do, and then reject other parts of the law that you
don't care to learn and to keep and to do. This is clearly stated. Chapter four, you don't have
to turn there, but in Deuteronomy chapter four, if you wish, and
let's just look at verse two. Deuteronomy four, verse two. Ye shall not add unto the word
which I command you. You see it? Neither shall ye
diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the commandments
of the Lord your God, which I command you. Do you see that? And also,
in our text chapters, in chapter 12, excuse me, in verse 32, chapter
12 and verse 32, this is reiterated again. Last verse of chapter
12. What thing soever I command you,
observe to do it, thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish
from it. Remember my question that I asked
you when I sent the text informing you of my chapters to read for
this Sunday? It was the question. And if you
read just this part, just these 10 chapters, there are more commands. Past these chapters, but if you
read just these chapters, I've thought of this. If I had to
do all of this, just in these 10 chapters, Matt, if I had to
do all of this to stay in my home, how soon would it be before
I am homeless? Now, I know that's just a simple
illustration. Maybe it's an oversimplification. I don't think so, but even if
it is, I think maybe you get the point. If I had to do all
this just to have a roof over my head, how long would it be
before that roof is taken away? Proud rebels say exactly what
the proud Israelites said in Exodus 19, the first part of
verse eight. When they first began to hear
these statutes and judgments, sounded forth from Sinai, all
that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And they were lying
through their teeth within moments. When Moses delayed, at least
in their eyes, when Moses delayed from coming down from the mount,
what did they do? They had Aaron make them a god
that they could worship with their eyes and with their hands,
and then begin to party and dance and play naked before that god. Yeah, consider just a few things.
Look at chapter five, verse seven. Here's one of these commands.
Here's one of these statutes. Here's one of these judgments.
Thou shalt have none other gods before me. None! Not your wife. Not your husband. Not your children. None other
gods before me. Most of religion thinks and is
taught that this is just creating some statute. No, that's another
command. You don't create any graven image and bow yourself
down to it. This it says, thou shalt have
none other gods before me. I failed that miserably. I have failed that miserably
and so have you. Look at another one, chapter
five, just the next couple verses, verse eight and nine. Thou shalt
not make thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that
is in heaven above or that is in earth beneath or that is in
the waters beneath the earth that thou shalt bow down thyself
unto them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous
God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. So one
thing, to make you some kind of graven image and bow yourself
down to it is to hate God according to the law. And yet men and women
literally do this. They still do it today. There
are men and women and boys and girls who make images and bow
themselves down to these images. God says those people hate me. And I will visit their iniquity
upon them according to law. You hear me? According to law.
But you know what else we do? We make a little cross. And sometimes
we put a little Jesus on it. What is called a Jesus on it.
And we hang it around our neck on a chain. Or we have some picture
of some angel. Or something people say represents
Jesus. And we hang it on our wall. and
men and women have convinced themselves, but we don't bow
down and worship those things. Go tell them to take those things
and throw them in the trash and you see what happens. Tell them
to take that little crucifix or a cross, either one, from
off their neck and throw it in the trash or maybe melt it down
and make something else out of it. You see how they react. Tell
them to tear that picture of Jesus down off the wall and burn
it and see how they would react. I don't think it's possible,
but find the actual cross that Jesus Christ died upon. Somebody
said they've sold enough pieces of the cross to build New York
City. I don't want to go there. But if you could find that cross,
I'm telling you, there would be people that would worship
that cross. More than one has said it, but
as one faithful pastor gone on to be with the Lord now, Brother
Henry Mahan said, if I could find that cross, I'd burn it.
I'd burn it because men would worship it and say, preacher,
that just can't be true. They worshiped a thing called
nehushtan. You remember that? Was it hezekiah? Ground that thing up into powder.
And it was made of what? Brass. That's not too healthy.
Throwed it on the water and made the people drink it. Isn't that
what he did? You know who nehushtan was? It
was that brazen serpent that God commanded Moses to put upon
a pole. It had its use in its day. But
what do rebellious men and women do? They will worship the very
things of God that God says are temporary and symbolical only. We, by nature, do not want to
worship God. Now, we want to worship. There
are people who actually think that if they'd have been at the
cross and got some of the blood of Jesus on them, they'd have been okay.
You know, there are people who actually think that. You could
have been soaked when they pierced his side and forthwith came that
blood and water. Mason, maybe it gushed out, I
don't know exactly, but you could have been soaked if you were
under that cross. You could have been soaked in
that blood and that water and it would do nothing for you.
Chapter five, look at this. How long could you stay in your
house if you had to do this? Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify
it. Now the Sabbath day was not a
day of gathering. The Jews did start to gather
on Saturdays, the Sabbath day, did they not? Later on, but this
is not about when you gather, Mason. Somebody said we ought
to gather on the Sabbath day to worship God. We ought to worship
God every day. This is about keeping the Sabbath
day. Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify
it as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee and here it is here's where
we pick and choose a 40-hour week shalt thou work and then
on the Sabbath day sanctified and keep it holy Is that what
it says? Now don't pick and choose what
part of this Sabbath day law you want God says work how many
days How many days? Six days. Not five eights and
then take two off and one of them be the Sabbath. Now you
see, are you getting a little bit of what I'm saying? Men and
women boast. Unregenerate men and women boast
in their law keeping and as Christ told some of the Jews, you do
not keep the law. As a matter of fact, there's
two commands given in the law. that overlapped and contradicted
one another. Now choose those words deliberately. One, remember the Sabbath day. Sanctify it and keep it holy.
Another one is to circumcise a male child on the eighth day.
Our Lord brought this subject up. So if a child was born seven
days before the Sabbath, and the eighth day, the day of that
child, bell child circumcision, fell upon the Sabbath day, then
which way are you gonna keep the law? What's that law do? It shows
me how bad I am. It shows me the impossibility
of the fallen sons and daughters of Adam to appropriately learn. We don't even learn them, we
just hear them said and we think we got it. But to learn them,
and to keep them, and to do them. Let's look at another one, chapter
six, verse five. Chapter six, verse five. And
thou, oh, look at this one. Our Lord said this is one that
sums up all of the others. There's another one. Both of
them are similar. Look at this. And thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy might. Now if you think you've ever
done that, you are deceived. You are deceived. Yet there are
thousands of people who say, well, maybe I haven't done it
strictly, but I put forth my best shot. The law ain't about
our best shot. It ain't about our best shot.
Well, but we got Jesus where we fail. Jesus is not here to
patch up the holes of our legal righteousness. Mm-hmm. He is made unto us for things
at least and one of them is what? Righteousness he's not here to
patch up the filthy rags of our self-righteousness says He is
here to provide himself as our righteousness, let's look at
another one chapter 6 verse 16 Ye shall not tempt the Lord your
God as ye, wait a minute, you've already done. You see that? That's
what it says, doesn't it? Ye shall not tempt the Lord your
God as ye tempted him in Massa. You've already broken it. Ye
shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his
testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee,
do you see it? And thou shalt do that which is right in the
sight of the Lord, not what's right in one another's sight.
Well, our church does it this way. This ain't about how your
church does it. The law is about what God says. what God says, thou shalt do
that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that
it may be well with thee and that thou mayest go in and possess
the good land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to cast
out all thine enemies from before thee as the Lord hath spoken. In other words, make sure your
enemies are put under your feet. That's a command of the law. Yes or no? Yes or no? Let's look
at two more. Chapter seven, verse five. Chapter
seven, verse five. Talking about these enemies.
But thus shall ye deal with them, ye shall destroy their altars.
Not preach against them. Not warn them about them. Is
that what it says? No, it's not what the law says,
does it? About these enemies. But thus
shall ye deal with them. Ye shall destroy their altars
and break down their images and cut down their groves and burn
their graven images with fire. If we were under the law today,
both the government and society would be against us because we
would have to take them to task. Do you hear what I'm saying?
Mason, we would have to come belligerent. These Israelites
did not do this by peaceful persuasion. When they marched into the land,
they did so under the banner of war. That's the law. Now, don't pick and choose. Well,
we just can't do that in this country. No, what you ought to
do if you're going to keep the law, move over to Jerusalem and
do it there. Because this is about that possession
of land over there, is it not? Here's another striking, turn
to chapter 10 if you're following along. There's one more here.
And as I read through these chapters, this one hit me. Look at this
command, chapter 10. Work your way down through the
numbers and go to verse 16. Here's a command given under
the law. Circumcise therefore the foreskin
of your flesh. Is that what that says? This
is what the law demands. This is what God demands under
law. Here's something we're to learn
and to keep and to do under law. And remember, don't add to it,
don't take away from it. Look, circumcise therefore the
foreskin of your heart. Now how you gonna do that? How
you gonna do that? No man or woman ever was, has
ever been able to, nor shall ever be able to keep this command. God doesn't even tell us how
to do it. He just says to do it under law. Circumcise therefore
the foreskin of your heart and be no more stiff-necked. And yet, a faithful gospel preacher
came along and told some law keepers now, don't you know,
that you who are uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always
do what? Resist. Always resist. Always what? Resist. Who is it
that can actually circumcise the heart and make us no more
stiff-necked? Who is it that can do that? None
other than God Almighty himself. But God under law commands us
to do it for ourselves. Do you get a little bit about
the severity of this law, yeah, the impossibility of this law
because of our fallen natures before God. This makes me cry
out. The more I read this law, this
has made me cry out in my heart for the past weeks and longer
than that, of course, but this has been in the forefront of
my mind lately. Oh God, I cannot do this. I'd love to be able to do this. We don't hate God's law. We're
not against God's law in that sense, but we are against God's
law as justification before God. Because the law's not there to
show us how to be justified. The law's there to show us that
we can't be justified by learning, keeping, and doing the law. And
a man who doesn't preach the law in that manner is being dishonest
against God's law. The law is there to slay and
kill. Slay and kill. I cannot do this. This is the
cry of the regenerate. Now the unregenerate world are
still under them blinders. Are they not? They go about thinking,
well, I'm keeping the law, or I'm giving it my best shot, and
God's a loving God after all, and where I mess up in the law,
Jesus will patch up the holes. That is not the truth of God.
That is not the gospel of God. That's not even masonly the law
of God. The law of God doesn't say give
it your best shot. It said this do and live. This do and live. But the truth is God says live. But I'm still not gonna enable
you to do the law. The law has to be fulfilled according
to Romans chapter eight. The law has to be fulfilled in
us. It cannot be fulfilled by us. It was fulfilled by one man. And that's the man Christ Jesus.
And in him, I am legally righteous. But I have even more than that
legal righteousness. We are made to be the very righteousness
of God in him. In him, oh God. I read this. I cannot do this. I'm not going
to read it. It's quite lengthy. Go back and
read Daniel's prayer. Daniel 9 verses 3 through 15
sometime. Do we not account Daniel as a
faithful man? Do we not figure that Daniel
was a man that loved God's law and his statutes and commandments?
I even figure Daniel strove on occasion to keep that
law. But go back and read what he
said in this prayer. And remember, Daniel was now
under the Babylonian captivity. And he don't say, oh, Israel's
so bad, they've sinned so much. He says, oh God, we have sinned. We have sinned, Acts 15, turn
there. Here's what, regenerate men.
This is what regenerate men say about the law of God. Oh, yes,
one wrote, the law is holy, just, and good. And it is. And it is. And with our minds, we serve
the law of God. But in what capacity? What capacity
do we serve the law of God even in our minds? What capacity?
We honor the law for what it is, a glorious condemnation of
death. It defines to me what sin really
is. And if I step over that line
or I refuse to even meet the line, I have broken God's law. James puts it so much that if
we offend in one point, we're guilty of the whole thing because
it's one law. If I don't love the Lord by God
with all I am, I'm not gonna love my neighbors myself. And
if I'm not going to love the neighbors myself, I surely ain't
going to worry about whether I'm coveting something of my
neighbors. And Mason goes right on down the line, right on down
the line. And we can hold up a good front for a while, but
the problem is it's deeper than just out here. It's in here. Because covetousness is something
that takes place down in here. When you reach out to take it,
it's called theft. So there you've broken another
of the statutes or judgments. Here's, listen, Acts 15. Are
you there yet? I'm not. Acts chapter 15. Listen to one
verse. Here's what a regenerate man
says. Verse 10. This is Peter speaking. And this
ain't a suggestion from Peter. This is the truth. Peter's preaching
this. This is the truth. Now therefore,
why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples?
And oh God, we can't keep that yoke. I can't do it. Look at it. Which neither our
fathers nor we were able to bear. And somebody says, well, they
were just dealing with circumcision. No, they were not. Circumcision
was the guys they were using to bring in to try to establish
the whole law of God upon God's people. Because if you pick up
circumcision, you gotta pick up the Sabbath. If you pick up
the Sabbath, you gotta pick up loving God with all your heart,
mind, soul, and strength, you see. Circumcision was the ruse
to bring the law back into sway. And men say, well, we know we're
saved by grace, but we're sanctified by keeping the law. Then you're
never sanctified, because you still ain't keeping the law.
But thank God, one of the other four things that Christ has made
into us is what? Sanctification. Now yes, we are
to try to walk in sanctification, separation before God, but I
need an absolute sanctification to ever stand before God. That
I find only in my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to
it, this man, and I cannot call this man a regenerate man. John
chapter seven. As a matter of fact, this man
was the regenerator, we might say. The regenerator. John chapter seven, verse 19. Did not Moses give you the law?
That's rhetorical. Yes, right? Did not Moses give
you the law? And yet none of you keepeth the
law. Why go ye about to kill me? And then they basically said,
well, you're crazy. You've got a devil in you. It's the same
thing people do today. When we tell them what God's
law really says and who Jesus Christ really is, they want that
message wiped out. They'll listen to any other message
except that message. They'll accept a mohabbatin before
they will the gospel of free reigning grace. Why? Because nobody keeps the law.
That's what Christ said and we take his word no matter what
we think about ourselves. We better conform our thinking
to him because he's the one that, right, here's another one, John
chapter five verse 45. John 5, 45. Do not think that
I will accuse you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you. Eve and Moses, in whom you trust. They're trusting in an accuser.
Oh, what a message there. Huh? They're trusting in an accuser. Moses wasn't building them up.
He was tearing them down. Moses was giving them God's law
so that they might see, so that they might see what right and
wrong really is and that they cannot attain unto it according
to law. But the problem was there's a
veil over their face. There's a veil over their face
so that they cannot learn. So therefore, they don't even
know what the law's really about. They pick and choose little parts
that fit their particular denomination, or their particular faith, or
whatever it might be, and they pick and choose little parts,
say, boy, we're Seventh-day Adventists, or we're Baptists. Yeah, that's
the law nowadays. We're Baptists. Here's another
one. Turn to John, or John. Turn to
Romans chapter seven. Here's a regenerate man. Here's
what he says about the matter. Romans 7 verse 13. What then
was that which, what then, I'm sorry, was then that which is
good, that's the law, made death unto me? God forbid, but sin,
that's the problem. The law's not the problem. The
problem is the sin in us. Christ Jesus, a man, kept the
law. But he didn't have any sin in
him. Was then that which is good made death to me? God forbid,
but sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that
which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly
sinful. For I know that the law is spiritual,
but I am what? Carnal. Sold. You see that word, sold under
sin. For that which I do, I allow
not. For that which I would, that
I do not. But what I hate, that do I. This
is a regenerate man talking. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent under the law that it is good. The law is not
the problem. Look, now then it is no more
I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me,
that is in my flesh, and he don't just mean in your body, though
that is true, but he's talking in our old Adamic man. that which we have from our parents
Adam and Eve. For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." Now look at it. For to
will is, not was, he's not talking about something back yonder,
he's talking about something that existed as he was writing
these inspired words. Look at it. For to will is present
with me, But to perform, now say how, it don't destroy it,
but it's not, but to perform. It's not just a matter of how.
It's not a how-to book. The law is not a how-to book.
The law is a you can't do it book. But to perform that which
is good, I find not. So if I think I'm keeping God's
law in any way, I am deceiving myself even as a believer. Even as a believer. Yes, man's
depravity is seen in his fornication. in his adultery, in his idolatry,
in his homosexuality, in killing young children in the womb, in
his drunkenness, in his partying, in his theft, in his covetousness,
in his extortion. Yes, man's depravity is seen
there. Don't misunderstand me. These things manifest our depravity. But a man's blindness is seen
in his inability to acknowledge the law's true character and
our absolute corruption. in the flesh. You see the blind,
the thing that is Israel's problem when it comes to the law is that
there is a veil over their eyes so that they can't even learn
what it is. And in that text, Paul says it's a glorious, glorious
condemnation of death. And Jack Meadows, that's what
God intended it to be. And that's when we truly honor
God's law, when we declare that the law says we are dead in trespasses
and in sins. And yet, man's blind ego and
pride persists to proclaim his ability. And we use it, why I
keep the law. No, you don't, you don't even
hold it in here. How many people do you know go around talking
about why I love God's law? I want to just talk about the
law today. Let's look at all those great
commands that we are learning, keeping, and doing. There was
someone asked, she's a writer, it doesn't matter, she answers
questions from other people and she is of the Jewish faith. And
someone asked her one time about the love of God. What do you
think about the love of God? She said, I don't have time to
consider the love of God. I've got 600 and some commands
I'm trying to keep. One thing about it, she understood
that God's law was more than 10 commands. But sadly, she didn't
see what that was all about. You understand what I'm saying?
Man is so depraved and so blind. Yeah, he'll go out to the whorehouses
and all of that stuff and abuse drugs and abuse alcohol and rob
and cheat and steal. But he'll also sometimes find
the muster to clean himself up on the outside. and start presenting
himself or herself as really decent, upstanding folks in the
community, but inside we're still shot full of hell. God says about
us that in his sight we are nothing but wounds and bruises and rotting,
putrefying sores. And how much of us are we that?
From the top of our heads to the sole of our feet. And yet,
blind, man's blind ego persists. Why am I, I'm a law keeper, and
another, as I said, another comes along, so I know I'm not perfect,
but Jesus will fill in the gaps. Jesus ain't a gap filler, he
is the gap. He's the one that's got to stand
in the gap. Paul preached that just a few
moments ago. Christ has to lay his hand on
God and not be consumed. And he has to lay his hand on
a man or a woman and not be defiled. And he's got to be able to bring
the two together to where the holy God will accept the unholy
man or woman. And how does that happen? In
himself. in himself, in himself. Man has not even learned the
law, let alone kept and done his statutes and judgments. Moreover,
they insult Christ's person and work by their attempts at law-keeping
as righteousness before God. Do I have the right to say that?
Yes. Turn to Hebrews 7. I'm about to close down. Hebrews 7, verse 11. If therefore perfection were
under the Levitical priesthood, and ain't that what we're, we'll
look at some of this Levitical priesthood in Deuteronomy. We
really see it in Leviticus. If therefore perfection were
under the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received
the what? The what? The law. The law. What further
need was there that another priest should rise after the order of
Melchizedek? and not be called after the order
of Aaron, for the priesthood being changed." Now who changed
it? Moses? No, Moses got no right
to change it. People of Israel? No, they got
no right to change it. Pharisees and Sadducees? No,
they got no right to do it. The churches? No, they got no
right to change it. For the priesthood being changed,
there is made of necessity a change also of the law. For he of whom
these things are spoken, that is this Levitical priesthood,
pertaineth to another tribe. of which no man gave attendance
at the altar. The only people who could serve
God in the Levitical system were the Levites. For it is evident,
he says, that our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe
Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. And yet it is far
more evident, you see that? I like, I think this was Paul
writing it, but whoever it was, God really just laid the Spirit
upon him and made him breathe out the truth. Neither he nor
I could figure out how to say this right. But he says it right,
right here. It is yet far more evident, for
that after the similitude of Melchizedek, there arises another
priest, which is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment,
but after the power of an endless life. For he testifies, this
is of Christ, thou art a priest forever, not after the order
of Levi. but after the order of what?
Melchizedek. For there is verily, now listen
to what it says, a disannulling of the commandment going before
for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof because, or that is for,
the law made, what? What's those next two words?
The law made nothing perfect. So Jesus can't come to patch
up a hole. Few little holes. He got to patch
up me. And he is the patch. He said,
look, for the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in
of a better hope, and here the word did certainly is sufficient.
It what? It did. Not it might, if you
believe. Not it might, if you repent.
No, it did. And that's why men repent and
believe. The bringing in of a better hope did by the witch. We, all the we, we. You, me, some of you out there,
we, we do what? Draw nigh unto God. Which do you want? Law or grace? Law or grace? Take your pick. Yeah, go ahead, take your, choose.
Choose you this day which one you gonna serve. God's law or
God's grace. You know what? There really is
no choice. Was it Joshua that said, choose
ye this day whom you serve? Was it Joshua that said that,
Matt? Choose ye this day whom you serve. There was no choice.
If Baal be God, serve him. If God be God, serve him. There
is no choice. Baal was a figment of men's imagination.
Might as well believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. Right? The men said, well, God knows,
or Joshua gave him a choice. No, he didn't. No, he did not. Because if you choose Baal, you
choose anything other than Jesus Christ and him crucified, you
are deceived. You are deceived.