Deuteronomy chapter 11. That's
where we've come to in the book of Deuteronomy in our study.
We looked at just a portion of chapter 11 last week. We finished
up chapter 10, but I want us to begin tonight by simply reading
the first seven verses, okay? Deuteronomy chapter 11, and let's
begin reading the verse seven. Now see how far we can go tonight. I'll try not to keep you very
long. Verse 1, Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God,
and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments,
and his commandments always. Now when you see statements like
this and sentences like this that adds all of these together,
the statutes and the judgments and the commandments, Just think
of that as a collective way of saying His Word. There's just
a slight distinction between the definition of these words,
statutes, and command, and charge, and so on. But they're all overlapping
in the definition. So just think of it when you
read that. They had ceremonial laws that they had to keep. Remember,
all the priesthood and the bringing of the sacrifices. They had that. They had the civil law. How one
man treated another man. If you barred something off someone,
you broke it. They had a law that regulated
what you were supposed to do. Then, of course, they had the
moral law, the Ten Commandments. These things were all included
in what he says here, statutes and judgments and commandments.
So just think about it as the entirety of God's Word is commandments. And know ye this day, for I speak
not with your children, your little children, which have not
known and which have not seen the chastisement, the discipline
of the Lord your God, His greatness, His mighty hand and His stretched
out arm, and His miracles and His acts which He did in the
midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh and the king of Egypt and unto all
his land. And what He did unto the army
of Egypt and to their horses and to their chariots, how He
made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them, as they pursued
after you, and how the Lord hath destroyed them unto this day,
and what He did unto you in the wilderness until ye came unto
this place, and what He did unto Dathan and Abiram the sons of
Eliab the son of Reuben, how the earth opened her mouth and
swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents,
and all their substance that was in their possessions, in
the midst of all Israel. But your eyes have seen all the
great acts of the Lord, which He did." I think probably an
appropriate title for this book. It's not the official title,
but it's the title that many have put on this book. It's a
book of remembrance. Because that's what Moses is
doing here in these first seven verses and what he does often
in this book to remind them. And basically, that's what he's
doing all through these chapters of Deuteronomy. They're right
here on the edge of going over Jordan into the land of Canaan. The Lord's done told Moses, you
can't go over. He's going up to Mount Nebo.
The Lord's going to put him to sleep and bury him there. But
he's rehearsing. He's rehearsing what the Lord
had did for them. Went all the way back to Abraham.
where the Lord promised Abraham that his seed would be as the
stars of heaven. So this is really a good title
for this book. It's one of remembrance. And
here in verse 2, Moses reminds them that he's not speaking to
the little children. Now the ones mainly that he was
speaking to here is probably these men and women who were
50 or 60 years old. Because the old generation that
came out of Egypt have died now in the wilderness. They're all
dead. Just Joshua and Caleb is the only two that's gone over.
These people here were 20 years old or 10 years old when they
came out of the land of Egypt. So they saw many of these things
that Moses was reminding them of. All the miracles in Egypt
and so on. And he tells them here that they
saw it with their own eyes. And one of the things he tells
them that they saw was in the last verse of chapter 10. Thy fathers went down into Egypt
with threescore and ten persons, and now the Lord your God hath
made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude. Now this is one
of the things that they had seen. They had experienced now for
themselves. They had heard about the promise that God made to
Abraham some 400 years or so before this. And now, They're
standing there, probably close to this tabernacle that Moses
had set up. And as far as they could see,
all around him were tents, armies of people, a multitude that they
couldn't even hardly number, as the stars of heaven. Down
in Egypt, when they were in bondage, when they were in slavery, the
Lord just continued to multiply. They came out here in this wilderness
where most people, you know, would have said, well, we don't
want to have any children out here. You know, we don't even
have proper food or proper drink. Life is tough. Let's not have
any children here. But not these people. They kept
multiplying and multiplying, and finally Moses said, look
around you. Who but God could have done such a thing to make
you as the stars of heaven? And he reminds them there that
they've seen this. And here in verse 3, he reminds him of something
else. The miracles, he said, the acts,
which he did, which the Lord did in the midst of Egypt upon
Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and upon all the land. And you and I have studied about
the plagues. You went through the plagues with the children,
didn't you, in the Sunday school class? The ten plagues and what
humbling things they were. The frogs. He sent frogs and
got in their beds, got in their cooking, got in their ovens.
He sent the lice among them, the flies, the hail that came
down with fire and burnt some of the crops up and what was
left, the locusts ate. Then He sent the plagues of darkness
that you could feel. The Bible says you could feel
the darkness. And then the death of the firstborn. Remember that? That was a plague, wasn't it?
They woke up and all the firstborn were dead. They were gone. And
that's what he reminds them here. And Pharaoh, how he humbled this
great king. Pharaoh said this. He said, Who
is the Lord? Who is the Lord? I don't know
the Lord. Who is the Lord that I should
obey Him? I will not let the children of
Israel go." But I'll tell you what he found out. And this is
what Moses is reminding them here. Pharaoh found out that
he was helpless to resist the judgment of God. He could not
resist the judgment of God. He calls it here, the mighty
hand and the outstretched arm. You can't resist that, can you?
God is irresistible when He's pleased to be. And here Pharaoh
stood with his firstborn in his arms. He calls for Moses and
begs him to take the children of Israel and leave the land
of Egypt. I tell you, God can humble a
man, can't He? He can bring a man low. I wonder if they'd forgot
this. This is what Moses was reminding
them. Don't forget this. As you came
out, you young men came out of Egypt and you young ladies looked
around. Remember how barren it was? Remember
you saw all the trees burned up? You saw the cattle bloated
out in the pastures? The Lord left that place desolate
when He brought you out of there. He humbled that nation. And then He goes on here in verse
4 and look what He says. Now it reminds them what He did
to the armies, not only to Pharaoh, but to the armies. And what he
did unto the army of Egypt, unto his horses and his chariots,
how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they
pursued after you, and how the Lord hath destroyed them even
unto this day." The mightiest army, no doubt upon earth at
that time. Pursued after these people. Went
into the Red Sea after them. Going to give them and no doubt
make the example out of many of them, but probably slaughter
them. Take them back and make slaves out of them again. But
what happened? What happened to this mighty
army with all their chariots? I mean a mighty army. We don't
know how many soldiers they had. The foot soldiers, the soldiers
on horses, the soldiers in the chariots. What a mighty army.
The Bible says it was a mighty army. And boy, in one hour, The
Lord destroyed that whole army. The waves come back together
and the burst of those waves, some of the bodies went flying
through the air, hit on the beaches, bursted their bodies, no doubt
poured them to pieces upon some of the rocks. And what was left,
He took them down to the bottom of those waterways. The men,
the soldiers, the horses and the chariots and all their weaponry,
He drowned them in the Red Sails. Don't forget this, He said. Don't
forget this. This is what He's doing. Reminding
them of what the Lord God did to them. And He says there in
the last portion of verse 4 that they still hadn't recovered.
Forty years. They still hadn't got the army
back together again. After forty years, they still
hadn't rebuilt their chariots and got their horses back. Still
devastated after forty years. Let any individual and let any
nation take heed who tries to oppose the eternal purpose and
counsel of the Most High God. Pharaoh, in his pride and in
the hardness of his heart, did it, and all he did was meddle
with his own destruction. Any man who supposes that he
can fight against the eternal God and win You take this man
here and his army as an example. Will a man fight against his
maker? He may, but you can't win. And that's what he's teaching
them here. God has sworn with that oath
that he will bless Abraham and his seed, and no power of earth,
no power of hell can make that oath void. And those who stand
against God, who stand against the Son of God in His own time,
He'll deal with you. He'll deal with you, just like
He did this nation here. I want you to hold that and look
over here. You translate this over to the New Testament. Look
over in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. You know, as you read some church
history, you look back over some of the times and places, that
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ has suffered. And down
through the ages, boy, I tell you, there has been an untold
number of the Lord's people that have been slaughtered. You can
read it in Foster's Book of Martyrs and other religious history books. And this world, there has been
times when this world has hated the church. And when it read
of it, slaughtered it. You and I have never experienced
much of the hatred of this world, have we? I wonder sometimes,
brothers and sisters, how much of that we hold to our unfaithfulness. But we never experience much
of it, have we? But there have been the children
of God who have experienced persecution. They did in the early church.
They have ever since. We may before it's over with.
We may. But look here what he says concerning
that in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, and look here in verse 4. so that we ourselves glory in
you in the churches of God for your patience and faith and all
your persecutions and tribulations that you endear, which is a manifest
token of the righteous judgment of God that you may be counted
worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer. You
suffer within, sometimes you suffer without, but you suffer.
Sin, it is a righteous thing with God, to recompense tribulation
to them that trouble you. They trouble you. They persecute
you. And to you who are trouble, rest
with us. When the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flame and fire,
taking vengeance on them that know not God, that obey not the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory
of His power, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints,
and to be admired in all of them that believe, because our testimony
among you was believed in that day." When Pharaoh lifted his
hand against Israel, I tell you, he was lifting his hand against
the apple of God's eye. God loved those people. And He
had chose those people and brought them out with a mighty hand. And there is a church in this
world today that's called the Bride of Christ. And you better
not mess with His bride. You better not mess with a man's
bride. He's jealous of His bride. The church is His loved ones. It's His brothers and sisters,
His blood-bought ones. And woe be to an individual or
a nation that treats his bride in an unjust and hateful and
persecuted way. He'll take vengeance on them.
That's what he said. He'll take vengeance. Look back
over now in our text again. Back over in Deuteronomy chapter
11. Something else he reminds them
of here. I read to you in verse 6. Now there's a reason that
he's reminded them of this. I want you to see it here in
just a minute. Look in verse 6, here's something else that
he reminds them, not only what the Lord did to Pharaoh and all
his land, not only what he did to his army and drowned them
in the Red Sea, but he tells them what the Lord did in their
own midst. The judgment of the Lord that
came upon those in the midst of Israel. In verse 6, "...and
what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the sons of
Reuben." Remember their rebellion? They rebelled against Moses and
against Aaron. "...How the earth opened her
mouth, and swatted them up, and their households, and their tents,
and all the substance that was their possession in the midst
of all Israel." They went down, remember, alive into the pit
screaming because of their rebellion against the Lord. He mentions
these two brothers, Dathom and Abiram. Now if you read the account
of this over in Numbers 16, there was a man by the name of Korah.
And he was a very renowned man. He was a Levite. He was the one
that got them together and tried to get them to overthrow Aaron
and take more power unto themselves. But Moses doesn't mention him
here. He mentions these two brothers. Korah was of the tribe of Levi,
that prominent tribe that took care of the sanctuary there and
everything, all the offerings and everything like that. These
here were more or less just ordinary men out of the tribe of Reuben. Why does Moses do this? Why does he not mention the name
of Korah? renowned man that was a Levite
and mentions these two men here that were mainly just mere men. Well, here's why I think he does
that. He wanted this congregation to
know that you didn't have to be someone of privilege. You
could be just a common person among the congregation, but you
best be careful You best be careful when you profess the name of
the Lord and join yourself to His people. You best be careful
because the Lord not only brings judgment upon those who are renowned
and have a reputation, but He brings judgment upon common folks. Just common folks. Somebody might
say, well, I'm not a pastor, I'm not a preacher, I'm not a
teacher, I'm not even much of a help. So really, it don't matter
how I act. It doesn't matter what kind of
attitude I have because I'm really nothing anyway. Yes, it does. As you and I sat here this afternoon,
it matters, doesn't it? It matters with me. I'm the pastor.
Sure, I'm the most prominent one here as the pastor, as the
position. But you know, God looks upon
each heart. Not just the pastor's heart.
Not just the deacon's heart or the teacher's heart. But He looks
upon all our hearts, doesn't He? And He tries our hearts and
He examines our hearts. And when we profess His name
and join ourselves to His people, we should do it sincerely and
honestly. Ananias and Sapphira, you remember
those two people there in Acts 5? We never heard of them before. We don't know who they were.
Basically, they were probably nobody. Just two members of the
New Testament church. But look what a mess they got
themselves into. They lied to the Holy Ghost.
Sold some land. Nobody ain't going to know. We're
nobody anyway. We're not apostles. We're not
teachers. We're nothing. Nobody's going to know what we're
doing. And they lied. But the Lord knew, didn't He?
I think that's what Moses is teaching here. If you're in the
church, be careful. Be careful. God is watching. The Lord is watching. We had a couple that left the
church. I had no idea they were leaving.
They went on vacation and they were killed in a violent car
accident on the way back home. And one of you came to me and
told me that they'd come to you and told you, we won't be back. We're not coming back here. Well,
I knew there was some difference in what we were preaching and
what they believed and so on. But they didn't come back. They
didn't come back to this worship. They didn't come back. That's
the truth. They didn't come back. So we best be careful, haven't
we? We best be careful. Now look
in verse 7 and verse 8. Here's why he's been rehearsing.
all of what he's rehearsing. We're told why he brought these
things to their memory. In verse 7 and verse 8, it was
to impress upon their hearts and their minds the sense of
the importance of their obedience to the Word of the Lord. That's
why he's reminding them. He wants to impress upon their
minds and their hearts the importance of unqualified, unconditional
obedience to the work of the Lord. See how he says it? Look
here in verse 7 and verse 8. But your eyes have seen all these
great acts of the Lord which He did. Therefore, therefore,
in the light of this, as you hold this in your memory, therefore
shall you keep all the commandments which I command you this day,
that you may be strong and go in and possess the land where
you go to possess it, and that you may prolong your days in
the land which the Lord swore unto your fathers to give unto
them and to their seed a land which floweth with milk and with
honey." See what he did? He started back there when the
Lord swore to Abraham. to increase His seed as the stars
of heaven. He brings them right on down
to the Lord humbling Pharaoh, drowning his army in the Red
Sea. All the Lord did for them there
in supplying their manna from heaven, the water from the rock,
the judgment that fell upon these men. He went back through history
and brought them all the way up to this present time. And
He said, now I'm telling you all of this to impress upon your
mind The absolute need of your obedience to all the commandments
of the Lord. You know the New Testament uses
this word remembrance. If you want to go and study on
it sometime, just get in your concordance and look up the word
remember or remembrance. Peter wrote almost a whole epistle,
Larry, on writing to bring you to remembrance, to put you into
remembrance. And this Word in the New Testament, as well as
the Old, is meant to stir us up to obedience, to watchfulness,
and encouragement, and the exercise of our faith. It's meant to stir
us up to these things. Let me give you two or three
examples quickly in the New Testament. You'll remember these, so I'm
not going to ask you to turn there. In Matthew Chapter 16,
the disciples have forgotten to take bread. They'd forgotten to take any
bread. And the master had had a run-in with the Pharisees and
he told his disciples, beware you of the leaven of the Pharisees. And they said, oh no, we've forgotten
to take bread. He's mad at us. He's upset with
us. That's what they thought. We
should have brought bread and now we're going to be hungry
and he's going to be hungry. And you know what he said to
them? Don't you understand? Don't you remember the five loaves
and how many baskets you took up? Don't you remember the little
handful of fishes and the 5,000 that I fed and how many baskets
you took up? Don't you remember? I'm not talking
about bread. If we're hungry, I can turn stones
to bread. I'm talking about the doctrine
of the Pharisees, the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. They needed
to remember. If they had remembered that the
Lord had supplied 5,000 men and women with food without any effort
at all, they'd have never been confused about that situation.
Here's another place in John chapter 15 verse 20. Remember
the Word that I said unto you. Boy, we need to remember that,
don't we? If you forget the Word, I'm telling
you what, you're going to come into some darkness in your mind.
You're going to come in some trials and heaviness? Remember
the Word. That's why we should read and
meditate in it, that we may remember it. Let the Word of Christ dwell
in you richly. Remember the Word that I said
unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they
have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. I bet this
helped them in the book of Acts, didn't it? When they laid the
whip on their back. and persecuted them, I remember
what the Master said. They did it to me. They'll do
it to you. I remember what a comfort that is. Remembrance is very
good. In Luke chapter 17, he said this,
Remember Lot's wife. Boy, that's a warning to us,
isn't it? You remember the context of that? The very next sentence,
Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it. You often
wonder why she looked back And the Lord tells us here, her life
was back there. Her life, her house, her furniture,
the things she had. That's where her heart was. She
was going out in her body, but her heart was inside of her.
Remember Lot's wife. He that seeks to save his life
shall lose it. He that loses his life for my
sake, the same shall save it. Remember. Get your concordance
sometime and go through the New Testament alone and look at the
place that word is used. Moses reminds us here of the
Apostle Peter. He reminds you of Peter. This was Moses' farewell speech,
and he rehearses to them all of these things that you and
I have been looking at. And he does this to impress upon
them the basis of the Lord's claims upon them. The Lord had claims upon these
people. That's what Moses is telling them. You're the Lord's.
Look what He's done for you. He's given you these great and
precious promises, and He's fulfilling these promises. Look what He's
done for you. He's delivered you out of the
house of bondage. Pharaoh's army was ready to kill
you, and the Lord slew them, every one. He's fed you in the
wilderness. He's protected you. Your shoes
haven't grown old on your feet and your clothes, wearing the
same clothes for 40 years. You're the Lord's. He loves you. He's chosen you. He's redeemed
you. He's got claims on you. That's
what He's telling them. That's why He's reminding them. They belong to the Lord. And
brothers and sisters, if you're here tonight and you're in Christ,
if you're in the Lord Jesus Christ and you preach then He has claims
on you. You're His. You're not your own
anymore. You're bought with a price. A
great price. The greatest price anyone could
ever imagine. The price of His own precious
blood. God spurred not His own son.
We're His, aren't we? We're His. He loved us. He chose
us. He redeemed us. He's called us. We're His. He has a right to
us. And in the light of this, we're
to yield to Him our unqualified, unconditional obedience. Obedience unto the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now look here in verse 8. In
verse 8 I read to you, and I want you to notice this. This is very
important. We'll start winding down here in just a minute. But
look in verse 8. Moses links these two things together. And
here's the importance about obedience. Therefore shall ye keep the commandments
which I commanded you this day, that you may be strong. See how he links those two together?
Keep all his commandments that you may be strong. Obedience and strength really
cannot be separated. They go hand in hand. Obedience
and strength. Moses knew, because he tells
him here in verse 8, that they were going into the land of Canaan.
And he knew this. They could not scale those walls,
they were too high, unless they were strong. They could not fight
with these giants and whip them and fall them unless they were
strong. They could not take this country
unless they were strong. And the only way to be strong
was by obeying the Word of the Lord. That's what he tells them. Obey all the commandments of
the Lord. All His commandments. Notice
how he stresses that. All the commandments. And Moses knew that if they began
to neglect the commandments of the Lord, Or if they begin to
pick and choose which one they would obey and which ones they
would not obey, then they would be greatly weakened and therefore
apt not to take the land of Canaan. True obedience must have an eye
to obeying the Lord Jesus Christ in all things. In all things. Listen to what He said in 2 Corinthians
2. Paul said, to this end, I write
unto you, that I might know the proof of you, whether you be
obedient in all things. That's the believer's goal, isn't
it? That's our aim. That's what we should press to
in our daily lives, is to be obedient in all things. Obedient without reservation. And out of that and through that,
we're made strong. We're made strong. And as we
begin to be laxed in obedience, what happens? We get weak. Haven't we been there? Haven't
all of us been there? I mean, we can look at other
people and judge or whatever. We've been there, haven't we?
This is experience. We know that when by His grace
we obey Him and follow Him closely, that's when we're strong. But
when we stray, Who was it, one of those kings? Was it Shahan
or Og, one of those kings over in Bashan? It says, when they
came against Israel, they slew those that were in the outer
part of the camp. I don't want to be there, do
you? I want to be right in the center, boy. I want to be as
close to that tabernacle as I can be to see His Shekinah glory
up under the cloud and see Him depart. That's where I want to
be. I want to be strong. The only way to be strong, as
Moses said, obey His Word. Hold that there just a minute
and look right quickly over in Colossians. I think we can find this so clearly
taught here in the New Testament. Colossians chapter 1. Look in
Colossians chapter 1. And look in verse 9. Crossing chapter 1 in verse 9. For this cause we also, since
the day we heard of it. Verse 4 tells us the day he heard
of their faith and their love. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
loved all the saints. Since we heard of that, we do
not cease to pray for you and desire that you might be filled
with the knowledge of His will and all wisdom and spiritual
understanding." Now, look at this, "...that you might walk
worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." Walk worthy of the Lord unto
all pleasing. I tell you, the Lord is pleased
with us when we walk in His will, isn't He? When we obey Him. We
can please Him. And we should seek to please
Him. Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. That's the
first thing. Look at this. Being fruitful
in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Now
there's obedience. There's our walk. And look in
verse 11. Strengthened with all might according
to His glorious power unto all patience and longsuffering with
joyfulness. See how those things go together.
walking well-pleasing unto Him, doing those things that please
Him, honor Him in our hearts, in our lives, and then strengthened
with all might by His Spirit. See how they go hand in hand?
They go hand in hand. You and I have many blessings,
brothers and sisters. Well, the Apostle Paul said in
Ephesians 1 that God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places. And you know how we lay hold
upon these blessings. You know how we come to possess
these blessings? Through the strength of faith. Through obedience. That's the
way we do it. That's the way they were to possess
this new land. Obey all His commandments that
you may possess this land. But what happens if we don't
obey them? I'm just about sure you're not going into that land.
I tell you, them giants, you can't handle them. Them walls
too high. Ain't but one way to make it. Obey Him. Trust and
obey. There's no other way. Trust and
obey. Look back over at our text right
quickly again. Look in verse 9. Look in verse 9. Something
else. Obedience and strength would
prolong their stay in this land. Not only get them in there to
possess it, But He will keep them there. Look what He said
in verse 9, "...and that ye may prolong your days, obey all His
commandments, that you may be strong and possess the land,
and now that you may prolong your days in the land which the
Lord sware unto your fathers to give unto their seed." Prolonging
your days in the land. You're going to stay there. You're
not only going to overcome your enemies, You're going to keep
them beat down. It's not that I just want to
overcome this old flesh one time. I just want to keep him beat
down, don't you? Just keep him crucified and keep
him down. Keep the world outside. And just
keep on growing and enjoying the things of the Lord. One of
the saddest things is when Joshua died. Joshua went in here and
he was their general. But when he died, remember what
happened when he died, and you get into the book of Judges,
every man started doing that which was right in his own eyes.
And then what happened? Hard to lose them, didn't it?
Hard to lose them their land. And they started coming into
bondage. The Lord raised them up a Savior, a Judge, and boy,
sent a revival. And there they obeyed the Lord,
and they'd get their land back. And what would happen? They'd
start doing that which was right in their own eyes. The best example I could give
to apply this to the New Testament church is probably the seven
churches of Asia. The Lord wrote seven letters
to those seven churches. And boy, they were all full of
them. Be watchful. Be careful. And where are those
churches at now? You know what religion now
occupies that whole area? the worshipper of Allah, the
God of Israel. And they hate Christ. They hate
Christianity. I tell you, if we're going to
keep the Gospel, if we're going to keep it in its purity, we'll
have to be sober. We'll have to be careful. We'll
have to live by faith. We'll have to live in obedience
to the Lord and His Word. If we don't, we'll lose the Gospel.
Now, somebody might say, well, as long as everything's all right
in my day. Well, that's selfish, isn't it? I just don't care as
long as everything goes well in my life. What about our children?
What about the next generation? What about them? Let's be strong. Let's follow the Lord. Obey Him
in everything and stay near Him and try to train the next generation,
our children, that they'll know the Gospel. They'll know what
it is to serve the Lord. Important, isn't it? One last
thing and this is it. We'll look at this perhaps next
time a little bit closer. Look back over in our text in
Deuteronomy 11 and verse 10 and 12. This is a wonderful thing.
For the land where you go into possession, the land of Canaan,
is not like the land of Egypt from which you came out, where
thou soweth thy seed and watereth it with your foot as the garden
of Ur. But the land where you go to
possess it is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water
of the rain of heaven. The land which the Lord thy God
careth for, and the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon
it from the beginning of the year until the end of the year."
Boy, there's a contrast between Egypt and Canaan in history.
Then in Egypt, what was it? Human effort. That's all it was,
human effort. Their own resources. You see
them out there building their little dams and trying to irrigate
the place, and they're always looking down and trying to make
ditches with their feet to get the water down to water their
plants. How did the land of Canaan get its water? From heaven, didn't
it? It came down from heaven. You
and those poor Egyptians, they were always looking down at your
feet. In Canaan, you always looked up to heaven. That's the difference,
ain't it? We don't manufacture our blessings,
do we? They come to us through Jesus
Christ our Lord. We get grace, not from our efforts,
not from any merit on our part, but it comes freely from His
heart, like the rain down from heaven. Oh, there's a vast difference
in where you and I came from and where we're at now. When
we were in nature and the kingdom of men, Our old religion, I bet
every one of us in here was religious before the Lord saved us. I've
told you so often, I've baptized twice. I'm ashamed of that. But
I tell you, there's a vast difference now. The four words, my efforts,
my merit, my goodness, me, me, me, and that's just looking up
to Him. And that's where the blessings
come from. That's where grace comes from. Lord bless His Word.