Deuteronomy chapter 31. We said last week that this was
these last few chapters here. The whole book really of Deuteronomy
is the last words of Moses. And this is basically the very
last words of Moses. Just a short time after this,
he is taken up to the mountain and he dies. The Lord buries
him. But this is the last words of
Moses in giving instructions and giving comfort to Israel. They needed both. They needed
instructions and they needed comfort. And one of the things
I did not mention last week, but I want to take up here this
week, that Moses always held before the face, the heart, the
mind, the imagination of the children of Israel was the character
of God. that God is a holy God, and therefore
He hates sin. And He's a just God, and therefore
He'll punish sin. He always held this before them. And He does it here in verse
3. Look back in verse 3, what He mentions. The Lord thy God,
He will go over before thee, and He will destroy these nations
from before thee, and thou shalt possess them, and Joshua he shall
go over before thee, as the Lord hath said." Now, you read the
history of the Jewish nation, and boy, you see these two things.
You see salvation, and you see damnation. You see redemption,
and you see destruction. And in those two things the character
of God is revealed. He is going to destroy these
nations. While He delivers you and He
will be with you, He is going to destroy these nations. We
go back down to the land of Egypt and you remember there in Exodus
chapter 12 when the Lord told them to put the blood of that
lamb over the door and on the side post. And here is what He
said. The blood shall be to you for
a token upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. And the plague shall not destroy
you when I smite the land of Egypt." There we see the very
character of God, His redeeming character. I am going to pass
over you. but His holy and just character,
I'm going to smite the land of Egypt. And they sang about this,
didn't they? When they got across the Red
Sea, they stopped and wrote a song about this. Here's a portion
of what they said. I will sing unto the Lord, for
He has triumphed gloriously. The Lord is my strength and my
song, and He has become my salvation. And then they said this. in the
greatness of thy excellency, thou hast overthrown them that
rose up against thee, thou sendest forth thy wrath, and consumed
them as stubble." There we see salvation and there we see destruction. The character of God, the very
nature of God. And he reminds them here in verse
4 of our text of what God has already done. He brings this
out. Look at that. And the Lord shall do unto them
as he did unto Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and unto
the land of them whom he destroyed. Moses reminds them what God has
already did. It was probably 400 years before
this or so that the Lord was talking to Abraham. And He said,
Abraham, I'm going to give you the land of Canaan, the land
of promise. It's yours. I've given it to
you. And you wonder why He didn't give it to him then. He was in
the land then. But He said, your seed, your
children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren, they're
going back down into the land of Egypt And they're going to
be there in bondage. They're going to be there for
400 years. And one of the reasons, he said, I'm not giving you the
land now to let your seed go into it now, was for this reason. He said, the iniquity of the
Amorites are not yet full. In other words, there's a cup,
he said, and I'm going to let them fill it up, and then I'm
going to destroy them. Here was these two kings and
their nations and their ancestors. They had experienced the long-suffering
of God, 400 years. And now they had experienced
the destruction of God. Finally, He destroyed these people. And as we follow this nation
through the Old Testament, right into the New Testament, we see
the nature of God held before that nation. God's holiness and
God's justice. God saving the righteous and
God destroying the wicked. We don't hear much about that
today, do we? But He hasn't changed. He's still holy, so He hates
sin. He's just and He will punish
sin. And when the history of the world
is read in the clear light of the last day, this will still
be seen, the character of God. the holy nature of God. We go
all the way back to the beginning, to the fall of man. By the offense
of one, judgment came. Judgment came upon all men to
condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men to justification of life. That will be clearly seen in
that day. And you and I see it now, don't
we? And that's what Moses stressed to the children of Israel always.
The sentence of God went out against the old world. This is
what the Lord said to Noah. I will destroy man whom I have
created from the face of the earth, man and beast and creeping
things and fowl of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made
them. Man is God's creation. And as such, he belongs to God. And he's responsible to God,
and God will judge him. God will judge him. And God said
unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth
is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy
the earth. And we see this all through the
Old Testament, here upon top of that water. those waters of
judgment, you see this ark floating along upon those waves with those
eight souls inside, saved, saved from the judgment of God. Then
down under those muddy waters are multitudes upon multitudes
that no man can number under the awful, awful wrath of God. So He tells them here at the
same time that God will destroy These nations, He's saving you. He's going to be with you. And
that last day, the nature of God will be revealed when the
Lord Himself says, Come ye blessed of my Father, and depart ye cursed. And these shall go away unto
everlasting punishment, but the righteous unto life everlasting. And the Lord Jesus told us about
this then. He said, Don't fear them which
kill the body. They've got nothing else that
they can do. They can't kill your soul. But fear Him, which
after He has killed the soul, has power to destroy the body.
Yea, I say unto you, fear Him. And that's the God that Moses
always set before the children of Israel. I'm amazed how frequently
these writers mention this whole concept of God judging people.
They mention it all the time. Everywhere you look, it is there
is. And what sometimes is amazing, how easy they talk about it.
How easily they integrate it into their conversation. Here
Moses is just talking, and suddenly he says, the Lord is going to
destroy these nations. Just like He destroyed those
Amorites, Sihon and Ahon. As they were talking, it just
came out so easy. not just destruction of the soul,
but their bodies, and body and soul in the day of the resurrection. And I think this, knowing this
and being confronted of this, is what makes these promises
of God to Israel so comforting, so necessary, and so reassuring. The Lord will go before Boy,
that means something, don't it? That means something. He's going
to destroy these other nations just like He's already destroyed
these two nations. But He will be with you. He's going with you in verse
6, that He will go before them. They were to live their lives
by faith upon this covenant God and not fear their enemies. That's what Moses is telling.
He told them there in verse In verse 6, Be strong, and of a
good courage. Fear not, don't fear your enemies,
don't be afraid of them. For the Lord thy God, He it is
that doeth go with you, He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Now we saw that last week. But
I tell you, when you consider the holy character of God, the
nature of God, His justice, Boy, it becomes precious then when
He says, I'm going to be with you. I'm going with you. And
they lived by faith upon these promises. The only thing this
people was to fear, the only thing they were to fear is they're
leaving Him. Their slothfulness, their neglect,
they're being led astray from the commandments of God, from
the way that they were to walk. That's what they were to fear.
Look what he says in the last two verses of chapter 30. Look in verse 19. I call heaven and
earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you
life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life,
that both thou and thy seed may live. that thou mayest love the
Lord thy God, that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou
mayest cleave unto Him. For He is thy life, and the length
of thy days, that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord
sware unto your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob, to give
to them." That was to be That was to be what they thought upon
and meditated upon and did. Cleave to the Lord. Love Him. He's your life. Don't be led
away with these other nations and their idols. Be careful,
be sober, and be vigilant. That was their part. And the
Lord would take care of the promises that He made. And you know this,
we see the same thing in the New Testament. I want you to
turn over here to whole Deuteronomy there for just a minute and turn
over to Acts chapter 11. Acts chapter 11 verse 22. We find the same language in
the New Testament that is in the Old Testament. Here is where
the persecution had risen against the Church. they left Jerusalem
and went up to Antioch and other places preaching the Lord Jesus.
And these people received the Gospel, they were saved by it,
and they sent Barnabas up there to preach to them and to see
what was going on. And look in verse 22 of Acts
11. Then tidings of these things
came unto the ears of the church which was at Jerusalem. And they
sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch.
who when he came and had seen the grace of God, and was glad
and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave
unto the Lord. For he was a good man, and full
of the Holy Ghost, and of faith, and much people were added unto
the Lord." That's the same thing Moses told the children of Israel,
wasn't it? Cleave unto the Lord. You and
I are surrounded with enemies just like they were. We've got
enemies within us, haven't we? And we've got enemies around
us, spiritual enemies, just like they had. And we've got promises,
just like they had. The same thing He told them,
He tells us, I will never leave you nor forsake you. I'll go
with you always to the end of the world. That's what He tells
us and what precious promises they are to us. And here, Barnabas
tells us, just like Moses told them, cleave unto the Lord. Love
Him. He is your life. Cleave to Him. Look over in Colossians chapter
1 and another place. I was thinking about all the
instructions as we read the Old Testament. All the instructions
that is given in the Old Testament. What to believe. how to live,
how to think, how to act. But you know, when you come to
the New Testament, it's just as full as the Old Testament
is. And you look at those things
that Moses instructed the children of Israel to do, but then when
you come to the New Testament, these apostles instruct the church,
us, just like those prophets of old instructed the children
of Israel. And here's a good example of that. Look in Colossians.
Look in Colossians, go back to chapter 3 and look in verse 1,
Colossians 3 and begin there in verse 1. If you be risen with
Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits
on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth, for you are dead and your life
is hid with Christ in God. when Christ who is our life. Now that's the same thing He
told them wasn't it? Cleave unto the Lord because
He's your life. Well here He tells us, set our
affections upon Christ for He's our life. And when He shall appear,
you shall also appear with Him in glory. And now look at all
the instructions He begins to give us in light of this. Mortify
therefore, put to death your members which are upon the earth,
crucify them, Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate passion, desires,
uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, evil desires,
covetousness, which is idolatry. Paul said, don't even let these
things be mentioned in Ephesians 5. For which things sake the
wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, in which ye
also walked some time when ye lived in them. But now ye also
put off all of these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication
out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing
ye have put off the old man with his deeds. You put on the new
man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him, where there is neither Greek nor Jews, circumcision, uncircumcision,
barbarian, scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in
all, put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved,
vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering,
forbearing one another and forgiving one another, If any man have
a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgive you, so also do
you. And above all these things put
on love, charity, which is the bonds of perfectness. And let
the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also you
are called in one body, and be ye thankful. Let the word of
Christ dwell in you richly, and all wisdom teaching and admonishing
one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
with grace in your heart to the Lord. And on and on and on he
goes, instructing us as believers just like Moses instructed the
children of Israel. You know, there is a sense which
things have not changed at all. They were surrounded by their
enemies. God had destroyed a bunch of their enemies. He was going
to destroy the rest of them. You and I are surrounded by enemies,
and I'm telling you, the same God is going to destroy our enemies. And He's given us these precious
promises and all these instructions, and we need them, don't we? We
need the promises and we need these instructions. We look back
on the children of Israel and we wonder, how did they err us
so bad? And we look at ourselves and
we have to say, why are we in the condition we're in? What's
happened to us? It's not easy, is it? That's
why we need these instructions. We need these in Promises. We
need to be taught. But he said right here, and this
is why I wanted to read especially this verse, Let the words of
Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Another place he said, The Word
is given by inspiration of God, and it's profitable. For what?
for doctrine. We learn doctrine. It is profitable
for reproof. It corrects us. Correction for
instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works. So the Old Testament
is full of instructions and the New Testament is too. But the
reason I wanted to read this, let's go back to our text in
Deuteronomy. The reason I wanted to read that last verse there,
let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom,
because Moses is going to tell the children of Israel the very
same thing. Look back in our text in Deuteronomy 31 and look in verse 11. Moses is going to instruct God's
people of old in reading, hearing, learning and observing the Word
of God. Now look how He says this in
verse 11. When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord
thy God in the place which He shall choose, thou shalt read
this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people
together, men, women, and children, and thy stranger that is within
thy gate, that they may hear, that they may learn, and fear
the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law. And that their children, which
have not known anything, may hear and learn to fear the Lord
your God, as long as you live in the land, whether you go over
Jordan to possess it." And as soon as Israel got over into
the land Canaan. They began to do this. And you
see it in the history of the Jews when they had a revival. They'd gather the whole congregation
and sometime they would read out of the Scriptures for hours.
Now I want you to look at some places with me. I want you to
take your Bible. We're talking about reading. One thing that
bothers me when I don't hear pages turned. When I say turn
to this and somebody is just sitting there, I think, did you
hear me? that turned to so-and-so. So
we're talking about reading. And let us look at some places. Look how they felt about the
Word of God. Look in Joshua chapter 8 and
verse 34. Just over to your very next book. Joshua chapter 8 and verse 34. Now this is amazing. Moses instructed
them to do it. And when they got over to the
land of Canaan, that's exactly what they began to do. In chapter
8, and look in verse 34, Joshua chapter 8 verse 34. He had been reading the blessings
and the cursings here between these two great mountains, Gerizim
and Ebal. In verse 34, And afterward he
read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according
to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not
a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before
all the congregation of Israel, with the women and the little
ones and the strangers that were living conversant among them."
He read. But let me show you something.
I don't know how long he read. But let me show you another place
or two. Look over in II Kings. Look over in II Kings chapter
23. 2 Kings chapter 23. This is where
a young man was king, Josiah. It began to rain when he was
just eight years old. And they found the book of the
law in the temple. The country was in such a bad
shape that they hadn't even been reading the Scriptures. And they
found the book of the law and they brought it to this king
and he was so convicted, he repented and sought the Lord. And look
what he did then in 2 Kings chapter 23. And look in verse 1. 2 Kings chapter 23 and verse
1. And the king sent, and they gathered
unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. And the king
went up unto the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah,
and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, the priest and the
prophet, and all the people, both small and great, And he
read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which
was found in the house of the Lord. And this is so interesting,
if you read all of this passage, you will see what a great revival
they had. How they began to throw down
their altars of Baal and they swept the house of the Lord and
cleaned it up, restored the priesthood and the Lord blessed these people
with a great revival. But look at another amazing place.
Look over in Nehemiah chapter 8. Right on to your right. Nehemiah chapter 8. Go past the
book of Chronicles and Ezra and you'll find Nehemiah chapter
8. This is where Ezra was preaching to the people and they were rebuilding
the walls, the temple. Look here what Ezra did in his
day. In verse 1, Nehemiah chapter
8 and verse 1. And all the people gathered themselves
together as one man in the street that was before the water gate.
And they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the
law of Moses which the Lord had commanded to Israel. And Ezra
the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men
and women, and all that could hear with understanding upon
the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before
the street that was before the water gate from the morning until
midday. Now, ain't that amazing? From
the morning until midday. And they say that's six hours.
That's what the commentators tell us, six hours. He got up
early that morning, gathered all of them together, and he
read. Before the men and the women and those that could understand
And the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book
of the law. And look over in chapter 9 of
this book. Look in chapter 9 and look in
verse 1 here. Now in the twenty and fourth
day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with
fasting and with sackcloths and earth upon them. And the seed
of Israel separated themselves from all the strangers and stood
and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
And they stood up in their place and read in the book of the law
of the Lord their God one fourth part of the day and another fourth
part They confessed and worshipped the Lord thy God. Now there are
twelve hours in a day the Lord said so that means here probably
they read for three hours out of the book and then they confessed
for three hours. And this is something you see
even in the New Testament with the Jews. They continued to read
the scriptures. Every Sabbath day they read.
I know it got to the point where it didn't profit them because
they didn't believe them, they didn't understand them, they
didn't abide by them. But you can't help but see, these
passages I've read unto you, the emphasis that's put upon
the reading of the Scripture. Read the Scripture. Paul wrote
to Timothy, the preacher, and here's what he said to him, Till
I come, till I come and see you, Give attendance to reading. To reading. Give your attention
to reading. Some fellow was asked one time
to give instructions to preachers, and he said, I've got three things
to tell you. He said, it's very simple. Read, read, and read. That's good instruction, isn't
it? Read, read, and read. But not just for preachers. My
soul is for everybody, isn't it? A child of God will never
experience the knowledge of Christ that he could experience, the
love of Christ, the knowledge of the grace of Christ, and the
strength of Christ, and the assurance and comfort and instruction and
youthfulness. He will never experience these
things as he could if he neglects reading the Word of God. I put this down so I'd be sure
to say this to you. No reason in our day, there's
no excuse that in our day, each of us that's gathered here could
not read the Word of God one hour every day. I mean, we've
got everything at our fingertips. We can come and go so quickly.
And if we can't set aside one hour to read God's Word, And
you know, brothers and sisters, we're too busy. We're just too
busy. The Word of God is being neglected
to our own hurt. Here's what the Lord Jesus said
about neglecting of the Word. He said, The cares of this life...
I've noticed this in myself, and you have too, and this is
why I'm emphasizing this. The cares of this life choked
the Word and it became unprofitable. The cares of this life, we will
get so busy in the cares of this life that it will choke our time
from even having time to read the Word. And the lust of other
things will choke us from meditating on the Word when we have read
it. And then the pleasures of this present world will choke
us from obeying what we have read and have meditated upon. When we read, I'm talking about
getting along with God's Word and setting a time that you can
read and meditate upon it and believe it and obey it. Did you notice how Moses said
that back here in our text? Here's the way he said it. He
began with reading. In verse 11, read this law. Read it for yourself. Read it
to others. Then He gathered the people together,
the women, the children, and strangers within by gates, that
they may hear and may learn to fear the Lord and observe to
do all the words of this law. So there you have the reading,
you have the hearing, you have the learning, and you have the
doing. That all must go together. Worst statement I think I ever
heard in my life anybody say that I can't understand the Scripture.
Please don't ever say that. That's the worst statement that
anybody could ever make. I don't understand the Scripture.
Now, if you think that, go home tonight and read the Gospel of
John. Start in verse 1 and read through
all 21 chapters and come back this Sunday morning and come
up to me and say, Bruce, I read that whole book and I don't understand
a thing you said. And you know what I'll tell you?
You probably need to be saved. You probably need to be saved.
You probably need the Spirit of Christ in your heart Because
when God saves a man, He gives him the Bible for his instruction
as to what to believe and what to practice. I cannot believe
that He'd give us a Bible and then not give us sense enough
to understand it. Can you? I believe He does. I believe He does that. He gives
us the Spirit to guide us and lead us. We can understand the
Scriptures. Now we go over to the book of
Revelations, we go over to someplace in Daniel, and those places will
come away as confused maybe as we can be. And when we go to
the commentators, they'll confuse us even more. But I'm talking
about when we come to the general portions of those Scriptures
where it talks about who God is, who we are, and the way of
salvation and redemption. Paul said this to Timothy, from
a child you have known the Holy Scriptures. which have made you
wise unto salvation through faith that's in Christ." He had a grandmother
and a mother, Lois and Eunice, that read the Scriptures to him
when he was a baby. And he started reading them himself
when he was able. And Paul said, from a child you've
known the Holy Scriptures. Brothers and sisters, I would
encourage all of us, all of us, take time to read. If you let
the words of Christ dwell in you, there are so many of God's
children. They're saints. They're believers.
But they don't have the assurance that they could have. They don't
have the instructions that they could have. They're not used
of God as they could be used. And one of the chief reasons
is this. They will not take time to fill their hearts with God's
Word. I've read. I don't know anything
about this myself, but I can say this, and this ain't bragging.
And my wife will bear witness to this. When the Lord saved
me, I mean, I devoured this Bible. I wore out Bible after Bible
after Bible. And I would stay up late at night
before having to get up to go to work. And I'd be asking God,
Oh, don't let me get sleepy. Don't let me get sleepy. I just
devoured this and filled my mind and my heart. I know what it'll
do for you. I know what it will do for your
thoughts and give you instructions and assurance. The Lord said we don't need anything
else but that. Is that what He said? That the
man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And I can tell when a preacher
has not been reading, and you probably can too, the Lord ain't
going to bless these preachers if they don't read. And He won't
bless His children like He would if they don't read. That's important,
isn't it? But it's not just reading. It's sharing and learning and
observing to do. David said this, and this is
what the Scripture will do for you. Thou art my hiding place
and my shield. I hope in Thy Word. You want your hope to be more
lively? Want it to be manifest more of the reality? Get in the
book. Study His Word. Read His Word.
The Word will comfort us in our affliction. This is my comfort
in my affliction. Thy Word hath quickened me. It'll help us realize what the
Lord's got laid out for us. It'll rejoice our hearts. Listen
to what David said, I rejoice at thy word more than they that
find great treasure. Gold. Can you imagine how a man
would feel if he was digging back in an old bank and he found
a stream of gold that thick and maybe a foot deep and he could
not see the end of it? Can you imagine? You would hear
him shouting, wouldn't you? That is the way a man feels in
his soul. When He reads and finds these nuggets of gold, He rejoices
as they that find great spoil. It corrects us when we go astray.
Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now have I kept Thy
Word. It keeps us from going astray.
Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against
Thee. Read it. Look in verse 13 again. "...And their children, which
have not known anything, may hear and learn to fear the Lord
thy God." The children who have not known anything. A man is not born into this world
knowing God, is he? He is dumb, as they say, as a
box of rocks. He does not know nothing about
God. He does not know about God's way of salvation. He does not
even know who He is or what kind of person He is. He knows nothing.
Ain't that a good way to describe children when they're born? They
know nothing. They know nothing. How long does it take us to lose
the gospel? You can take this generation
that are just as clear on the gospel as they can be, and if
they don't teach the generation that's coming after them, we
lose the gospel. Because the generation coming
after us, they know nothing. They know nothing. Kids aren't
taught by some process of osmosis. They have to be read to. They
have to be taught. They have to learn. And boy,
they don't want it. I'm telling you, take a little
lost kid, and they don't want the gospel. My little old granddaughters,
I'm telling you what. Bobby, I just can't understand
what the Bible is saying. Bobby, I can't understand what
you're preaching. I got a good one for them though. I get them
sometimes. I come up with a good one. I said, you can't understand
the Bible? No, we can't understand it. I
said, okay, let's try this first. This is a faithful saying, worthy
to be accepted of everybody. Jesus Christ came into this world. I said, can you understand that?
Do you believe that? Do you know that Jesus Christ
came into this world? Do you believe that? Yeah, yeah,
He came into the world. I said, where did He come from?
And sometimes they'll tell me and sometimes I'll have to tell
them, but I'll learn them. He came from heaven. He came
down from heaven. Why did He come down from heaven?
The Father sent Him. Now do you understand that so
far? Are you with me? Yeah, we can understand. I thought
you couldn't understand it. Yeah. They can understand more,
see. They want to throw us off, you see. They're smart. God sent
Him. How did He come into this world?
How did He get into this world? Did He just suddenly appear?
Are we told how He came into this world? He was born of a
virgin. He was born of a woman that was
a virgin woman. What did He do while He was in
this world? He did everything right. He did everything that
was good. He pleased His Father in everything
that He did. Even when He was tempted, He
never sinned. He had no sin. He could not sin. How did He
die? He did die. You realize He died. Yeah. How did He die upon a cross? Why did He die on that cross?
As a substitute? What's a substitute? Now wait
a minute. You know what a substitute is. My little girl came in the
house yesterday and she said, we had a substitute teacher today.
They know what substitution is. They just don't want to hear
it from the Bible, you see. What happened to him then? Did he
stay dead? He died? No, he rose up and went back
to heaven to his Father and is seated there on the right hand
of God. Why did he do all of that? Why did Jesus Christ come
into this world? To save sinners. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ come into this
world to save sinners. Save them from what? Their sins. Save them from the guilt of their
sins. Save them from the love of their
sins. Save them from the penalty of
sin. Save them from the wrath of God.
Save them from death. Save them from the devil. Why
would He do that? See, He's just teaching this
to little children. And they say they don't understand it,
but they understand. They learn more than you think
they can learn. Why would He do that? because
that was his purpose from the very beginning. He didn't come
into this world on accident. But why would he do that even
after he purposed it? Out of great love. Great love
for his people. No man has any greater love than
this, to lay down your life for your friends. So that's the way
we teach children, isn't it? And they know, they can learn
even though they say no. No, we can't learn. They can
learn. They can learn. That their children, which have
not known anything, may hear and learn. And if we don't teach
them, I'll tell you who's going to. I'll tell you who's going
to. We know who's going to, don't
we? It's either God's people are going to teach their children,
their grandchildren, and other people's children, or the devil
is going to use his people to teach them his ways. That's important, isn't it? That's
important. Lord, help us. Lord, give us
grace to desire His Word for ourselves and then to teach others.