If you turn to Deuteronomy chapter
10, if you want to hold that, you can. Turn over to Numbers
chapter 26. I wanted to go here just quickly
as a side note. Someone asked me last week after
we had finished our study, how do we know and where does
the Scripture say that the book of Deuteronomy is is to the second
generation of Jews. All the first generation had
died, the generation that came out of Egypt for the most part,
except some of the young children that were very young when they
came out of Egypt. Some of you asked me last week
where that was, when I said that Moses was teaching the book of
Deuteronomy to the second generation. And here is one place, I just
wanted you to mark this if you want to, here in Numbers chapter
26. And look in verse 1. It came
to pass after the plague that the Lord spake unto Moses and
to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest. Now, Aaron had died at
this time. Aaron was dead. Take the son
of all the congregation of the children of Israel from twenty
year old and upward throughout their father's house all that
are able to go out to war in Israel. And Moses and Eleazar
the priest spake with them in the plains of Moab by Jordan
near Jericho, saying, Take the sum of the people from twenty
years old and upward, as the Lord commanded Moses, and the
children of Israel which went forth out of the land of Egypt."
Now over in verse 63 and verse 65, this is where they numbered
this generation. But here is what he tells us
about those who were numbered. Look in verse 63. These are they
that were numbered of Moses and Eliezer the priest, who numbered
the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near
Jericho. Now, where are we studying in
the book of Deuteronomy? They are right there on the border,
ready to cross over. Aaron has died. And verse 64
is going to tell us the whole generation died. Look in verse
64. And among these there was not a man of them whom Moses
and Aaron the priests numbered, when they numbered the children
of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For the Lord had said
of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. And there
was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and
Joshua the son of Nun. Only three guys were left at
this time, three grown men that came out of the land of Canaan,
or came out of the land of Egypt, and that was Moses, and Joshua,
and Caleb. And in the 34th chapter of Deuteronomy,
Moses goes up to Mount Nebo, and he dies there. So the only
two men that came out of Egypt, grown men, was these two men
that were left. That whole generation died except
the young children that came out of Egypt. And someone asked
that question last week and said, where does it tell us that? Well,
you find it there and you can find it in other places too.
And somebody also asked this question last week, then why
does Moses keep saying to this second generation, you've been
rebellious since you came out of Egypt? If they never came
out of Egypt for the most part, why does he keep telling them,
since you came out of Egypt? Well, he's speaking to them as
a nation. He's not speaking to them as individuals. You often
find that in the scripture. The prophets spoke to these people
and blamed them for the sins of the past when they didn't
even live there, but they spoke to them as a nation. Stephen
did this in Acts chapter 7. If you remember when he said,
You are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in your heart, as your fathers
were, so are you. So that's why Moses was speaking
to them as if they had came out of the land of Egypt. He's speaking
to them as a nation. Now look over in Deuteronomy
chapter 10 in verse 1. Let's begin a study tonight.
We won't finish this tonight. It will take too long. We'll
finish at the Lord's will next week, but let's just see if we
can glean some thoughts from chapter 10. Let's begin reading
the first five verses. At that time the Lord said unto
me, Moses speaking, Hew thee, cut you two tables of stone,
like unto the first, and come up unto me and to the mount,
Mount Sinai, and make thee an ark of wood, and I will write
on the tables the words that were in the first tables, which
you break. and you shall put them in the
ark. And I made an ark of shiddom wood, and hewed two tables of
stone, like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having
the two tables in my hand. And he wrote on the tables, the
Lord himself wrote on the tables, according to the first writing,
the Ten Commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount
out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. And
the Lord gave them unto me, and I turned myself and came down
from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made,
and there they be as the Lord commanded me." Now, this is a
book of words, and we've often said this, and I want to repeat
this again. You don't find any sacrifices in the book of Deuteronomy. He spends probably several days
rehearsing the journey that the Lord had brought them Here's
this old man, he's now 120 years old, and he's such a faithful
servant to God. And he wrote this whole book,
34 chapters, rehearsing what the Lord had did for them. The
promises that he had made for them, how he had redeemed them,
how he had led them out of Egypt, the promises of the land of Canaan. He never grew weary of talking
about his Lord. and what his Lord had did for
this nation. 120 years old, and he was still
full of remembrance of the goodness of the Lord. And he writes this
entire book. But he does it for this reason. Not just because it's a bunch
of rules. Not just because it's a bunch
of commandments. But he's in love with the author.
He's in love with the Redeemer, the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You say, Bruce, he never mentions
the name of Christ. Oh, he mentions Him all the time.
When he calls Him the Lord, who is the Lord? That's Jesus Christ,
isn't it? When he talks about God, he's
talking about God the Son as well as God the Father. If you
had believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote
of me. Whether it's examples of the
Lord bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt, by power
and by blood, Moses sees Christ in that. He loves to talk about
that because he sees Christ and the redemption of his church
in that, the deliverance of his people. When Moses writes of
prophecies, he talks about a prophet that the Lord would raise up
unto his brethren. Like unto me, he is talking about
Christ. When he gave the law with all
the ceremonies, the priesthood and the sacrifices, Moses sees
Christ in these things. He's in love with the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's why he doesn't grow weary
of talking about Him. Now, I want you to see this.
I want you to hold Deuteronomy 10 and turn to some passages
of Scripture with me. When you think about Moses' writings,
when you think about his Word, everything he wrote, he had Christ
in his name. Look over in Hebrews chapter
3 and verse 5. Look at some of the passages
concerning Moses and his writings and look who they concern. Look what it was about. Look
in Hebrews chapter 3 and look in verse 5. You have to turn fast. We will
have to hurry to get through this. Hebrews chapter 3 verse 5, And
Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant for
a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after. There was coming a day when Moses'
writings was going to be used extensively to preach the gospel. Christ was coming. And they would
go back to Moses' writings and find where Moses wrote of Jesus
Christ and all His work that He was to do. He was faithful
in all His house for a testimony of those things which were to
be spoken after. Look in chapter 9 of Hebrews
and look in verse 6. Here's some of Moses' writings.
Look what he said in verse 6. He's speaking here about the
tabernacle. We did a study on that. A year or so ago, didn't
we? We had pictures of the tabernacle, the holy place, then the veil
that was there, then beyond the veil was the most holy place.
That's what the writer of Hebrews is talking about here. He got
this from Moses. And look at what he said in verse
6. Now, when these things were thus ordained, the priest went
always unto the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of
God, but unto the second, the second tabernacle, the holiest
of holies, went the high priest alone, once every year, not without
blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people. The Holy Ghost, this signifying
that the way unto the holiest of all was not yet made manifest,
while as the first tabernacle was yet standing." Moses wrote
this down in his writings. He set up this tabernacle. And
he said, as long as this veil is here, between the holy place
and the most holy place, then redemption has not been accomplished. But he said, when that veil is
finally rent, you can know that redemption is accomplished. The
way into God's presence is manifested, not only for the believing Jews,
but for the Gentiles, people all over the world. Well, when
was that veil rent? Remember that? When Jesus Christ
was up on the cross and He says, It's finished. It's finished. That's when that veil that Moses
made, and it made, and hung it himself in the tabernacle in
the wilderness. That veil was rent from the top
somebody over that veil. Rent that four-inch thick veil. It wasn't a man, was it? It was
God. And that showed the way into
God's presence was manifested. It's manifested to some of you.
You know the way into God's presence, don't you? It's through the Lord
Jesus Christ, His blood. Look what he says here in chapter
9 and verse 23 of this thing. It was necessary, therefore,
that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified
with ease, with blood. But the heavenly things themselves
were better sacrifices than these. Those things Moses was writing
about, do you know why he loved to talk about them? Do you know
why he spent 54 chapters talking about them? They were patterns
of heavenly things. And look what he says in chapter
10, verse 1. For the law, having a shadow
of good things to come, and not the very image of the thing,
can never with those sacrifices which they offered, continually,
make their comments that aren't too perfect. But they were shadows,
they were types, they were images, they were pictures of Christ
and the redemption that he should accomplish. Moses saw the glory
of Jesus Christ and these things didn't. All of Israel didn't
see what Moses saw, but that's what he saw. All these things
he saw Christ and redemption was accomplished and therefore
he could not stop talking about it. He kept rehearsing these
things. Moses saw such splendor. He saw
such beauty in the Son of God that he counted it a great honor
to suffer reproach for Christ's sake. I bet you there was a lot
of rich men, a lot of the hierarchy down in Egypt when Moses left
his position. And some say he would have probably
been the next Pharaoh. And I bet you when he left that
position and went out to the wilderness to suffer with God's
people, some people thought, man, this guy is crazy. You give
up all of this? All of the riches of Egypt to
go out and suffer and die in the wilderness? Why did Moses
do that? Look here in the 11th chapter
with us. Look here in the 11th chapter.
And look here in verse 24, it tells us why he did this. Hebrews
11, verse 24, By faith Moses, when he was come to years, come
of age, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach
of Christ. greater riches than the treasures
in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not
fearing the wrath of the king, for he endeared as seeing him
who is invisible. And through faith he kept the
Passover in the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed
the firstborn should touch them." Why? Why did he forsake Egypt? Why did he go out into the desert
to suffer? He loved Christ, didn't he? He saw Christ. He saw that redemption
that was in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he couldn't quit talking
about Him. But you know something? He didn't
go out in the wilderness to die. He went out in the wilderness
to live. If Christ was in the wilderness and Moses went out
in the wilderness where Christ was, that's where Moses' life
was. That's why he went out. He found in Jesus Christ unsearchable
riches. What's these temporal riches,
brothers and sisters? These corruptible, decaying riches
compared to those eternal riches that's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, they can't be compared, can they? If you had said anything
about the riches of Egypt, Moses would have looked upon you with
contempt. He counted them dumb that he may win. Christ. That's
why he kept talking about these things. That's why he spent 34
chapters talking about these things. He loved the Redeemer. He knew the Redeemer. He saw
Christ in his prophecies and he saw Christ in these sacrifices
and the priesthood. He saw the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now back over here in our text, let's look at this just quickly. During these first five verses
that we've looked at, that I just read to you, this is the Ark
of the Covenant. We've heard of that in our day.
We hear a lot about it. I think Harrison Ford made a
movie about this years ago. Remember that? Indiana Jones?
One of his movies was the Ark of the Covenant. And the reason
he made that movie, there's been a lot of interest in the Ark
of the Covenant. They have looked for it for years.
They've got all these fabulous stories about it. But you know
they'll never find it. That thing has been gone for
years. And if they found it, you know what they'll do? They'll
just worship it. They'll worship it. But that thing's worth nothing
now. If you found the Ark of the Covenant,
it's worth nothing. Well, it's worth whatever gold
you can melt it down and get out. That'd be a lot of money.
Mercy's even a pure gold. But other than that, it's worth
nothing. You know what the Apostle Paul called these things? Weak
and beggarly elements. They're worth nothing. But in
this day, it was worth something. In this day, it had significance. And Moses saw the significance
in this ark, and in what he put in that ark. Now, why does he
rehearse, verses 1 through 5, that he went up unto the mountain
and got this second covenant? the second place rocks with the
Ten Commandments and brought them back down and put them in
the ark. Well, can we see Christ in this? Moses wanted to rehearse
this and he did it before, so there was something here that
was wonderful to him. So let's go back over it and
let's look at it this way, set like this. These were shadows
of heavenly things and Moses knew it. And that's why it was
so important to him, and that's why it's so important to us.
Let's look at it like this. There were basically three givens
of the law. First of all, God literally spake
the law out of His mouth. Remember on Mount Sinai? The
mountain was burning with fire, and God spake the Ten Commandments,
and Israel heard Him, and it stirred them to death. They said,
don't let God speak with us anymore unless we die. He spoke it literally. The second time He gave it, He
told Moses to come up into the mount, and you be there with
me, and forty days he was there, and then the Lord took His own
famer and wrote out those Ten Commandments. Thou shalt have
no other gods before me. Don't make to yourself any graven
image. And he goes all the way through the Ten Commandments.
He gives them to Moses after 40 days and 40 nights. Moses
goes back down to the mount. God says they turned quickly
out of the way. They made these idols. This idol,
this calf, this golden calf. Moses goes back down. He sees
it. He sees that cave, he takes these
two plates in his hand, the Ten Commandments, and he breaks them
to pieces. He shatters them right there
before their faces. He takes that dumb cave, he grinds
it up in powder, and he throws it in that little brook that's
coming down out of Mount Sinai. He goes back up into the mountain
when the Lord tells him to come back up. Pleads for mercy for
the children of Israel. Begs God to forgive them. And
the Lord tells him to bring this box. It's what? Forty-five inches
long or something like that. By twenty-seven, I think, by
twenty-seven. And it's made out of Shittam
wood, an enduring wood. And he's to bring this box up
with him. And in that box he puts this
law. puts the law in, Moses brings
it back down from the mount, and he says here in verse 5,
there it is, and he says in another place, and to this day, there
is where it was, in a safe place. Now, what can we learn from this?
Well, let's look at it this way. First of all, when did God really
give the law to humanity? When did He first speak the law? Before it was ever written down,
He gave it to Adam, didn't He? Remember when He said, Thou shalt
eat of every tree, but that one tree that is in the midst of
the garden, you shall not eat of it. Now, that's the law, isn't
it? That's the covenant that God put Adam and all of humanity
under. And he even told him what would
happen if he ate the consequences. In the day you eat thereof, you
shall surely die. When Adam had sinned and disobeyed,
how did he feel? Man, he was scared to death,
wasn't he? He wanted to run and hide. He
didn't have anything written down. The boy's written on his
conscience, wasn't he? He heard the voice of God. You've
broken my law. You've broken my covenant. Now
you're cursed. Now you're condemned. The second
place the Lord gave the law was up on Mount Sinai when he wrote
it down, and Moses came back down and broke them there before
their faces. Can you imagine the pieces shattered,
laying everywhere? If Israel had any hope to be
saved by that law, that hope was just as shattered as those
commandments were. When they sinned against God,
when they committed idolatry, they broke those commandments.
And that's what that verse means to teach us. When he broke the
law, he was teaching the children of Israel, this is your hope. Your only hope, if you were going
to work out a righteousness that God would accept you in, was
to keep these commandments. But now, what happens? They're
all broken. You think they're going to try
to run up there and grab them and piece them back together and
glue them? That would have been useless,
wouldn't it? The all-seeing eye of God. It would have been repulsive
to Him for them to try to put those commandments back together
and say, boy, they're whole again. They're whole again. And that's
to teach you and I something, too, isn't it? If our righteousness
is established upon the commandments of God, I mean the Ten Commandments,
the law of God, then we're standing on commandments that have already
been broken. We're building up our hopes upon
a covenant that's already been shattered. The law has been broken. There's no hope in that anymore.
No more hope in the law. That's what this was meant to
teach them. But here is something I think
that Moses rejoiced in because I'm sure that he saw it this
way. He tells him to come back up into the mountain and bring
this box, bring this ark. And he says, I'm going to write
the Ten Commandments again. I'm going to write my law down.
I'm going to put my law in this box. Why? To keep it safe. To preserve
it. So it wouldn't be broken anymore
like the rest of them was. And that box was overlaid with
pure gold. When Moses got back down there,
the Ten Commandments was in that ark. It was overlaid with pure
gold and it was put into the Most Holy Place and the Ark of
the Covenant that was laid right on top of that box. Now, what's that to teach you
and I? The law is in a safe place. God
has put it in a safe place. He put it in a place where it
would never be broken again. Where did He put it? Anybody know? He put it in Christ. And more specifically, He put
it in the heart of Christ. Now, I want you to see that.
You've got to see that. There are two places this is
mentioned. I want to read the first place in Psalms chapter
40. Look at this. In Psalms chapter
40. And look in verse 6. We know this is speaking of the
Lord Jesus Christ because the Apostle Paul quotes this in Hebrews
chapter 10. And look what he says. Psalms
chapter 40 and look in verse 6. Sacrifices and offerings thou
wouldest not, thou didst not desire. My ears hast thou opened,
burnt offerings and sin offerings hast thou not required. Then
said I," this is the Son of God, "'Lo, I come!' In the volume
of the book it is written of me, I delight to do your will,
O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart." Now, I'd say if the
law is in the heart of Christ, it's in a safe place, wouldn't
you? And the Apostle Paul said, a body has now prepared me. He
added that. Christ came and He came in a
body, a human body, without sin, but it was a real body. He was
a real humanity, and that's what that Shiddim would represent.
His body and His soul, His humanity. God put this law in the humanity
of Jesus Christ. And I'm telling you, He honored
that law. It's preserved there. I want
to show you one more verse in regard to that. Look in Isaiah
chapter 42. And look in verse 1 and verse
21. Isaiah chapter 42. I can't imagine the thrill that
was in this great man's heart when the Lord told him to put
this covenant in that box where it would be kept safe. And he
said, it's still there today. It's still there. I can't imagine
the thrill went through his soul when he saw Jesus Christ in that,
that God was going to put His law in Christ's heart and there
it was going to be kept. When the law was found in the
heart of Christ, Was it broken there? Was it shattered there? It wasn't, was it? And we know
he's talking about Christ because look in Isaiah 42, verse 1. Behold
my servant, whom I uphold, my elect, and whom my soul delighteth,
I put my Spirit upon him, and he shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. So he's speaking of Christ. And
look over in verse 21. The Lord is well pleased For
His righteousness sake, for Christ's righteousness sake, He will magnify
the law and make it honorable. Who did that? Christ did that.
Boy, you and I have broken everything. You talk about bringing dishonor
to God's law. We've done it. We've broken...
James said if you break one commandment, you're guilty of all of them.
You and I have broken all of them, haven't we? If we just
sit down and meditate upon it, I bet you there's not a commandment
out of the ten that you and I haven't personally broken. To our own
shame and utter confusion. Doesn't it then just thrill your
heart to see that someone else has put this law in their heart,
and they're preserved it? They're kept it. They're honored. Look back over their text again.
Let's look in verse 12 and 13 right quickly. Let's see Christ in this. Look
in verse 12 and 13. Deuteronomy chapter 10 and look
in verse 12. And now, Israel, what doth the
Lord your God require of you? but to fear the Lord your God,
to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep the commandments
of the Lord and His statutes which I command thee this day
for thy good." What does God require of you? Then He tells
them, doesn't He? This is what God requires of
you. To fear Him. with all your heart? To love
Him with all your heart? To walk in all His ways with
all your heart? Keep all His statues with all
your heart? That's a big requirement, ain't
it? Augustine said this, he said, let God give grace and then command
what He will. If God will give us grace, let
Him command what He will. But if God doesn't give us grace,
It doesn't matter how little He requires. We won't do anything. Grace goes before our doing anything. If God says, Believe on the Lord
Jesus and you'll be saved, grace has to go before that. Everything God requires of us,
grace has to go before it. Without me, you can do nothing. But let us look first of all
and see Christ in this. Let's see Christ our representative,
first of all, who knew all that God required. You and I don't
know everything He requires of us, do we? We're always seeking
His will. But Jesus Christ knew what the
Father's will was. And He did it with all of His
heart. He reverenced the Father perfectly. He loved Him perfectly. He did
all that God required from the cradle So he lifted up his voice
on Calvary's tree. He was obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. The Scripture says he went about
doing good. Before God, he went about doing
good. Healing all that was oppressed
of the devil. He said, I do always, I do always
those things that please my Father. opened the womb of his mother
until the time he breathed out his last breath, everything he
did was pleasing to God. Always. Always. There is no coldness in his heart.
There is no lack of love. There was no just degrees of
faith. He worshiped God. He served God. He did his will with all of his
heart, all of his mind, all of his soul, and all of his strength.
And the Father looked upon him, and He said, This is My beloved
Son. In Him I am well pleased. He has did everything I required. Everything that I required. If verse 12 is what God requires,
then it must be right for Him to require. He would never require
anything of us that wasn't right, would He? Therefore, these requirements
must be met either by us or by a representative. This is the
very thing that made the Apostle Paul's heart rejoice. He, like
these other Jews, had been attempting to establish his own righteousness
until he saw that his righteousness did not meet God's standards.
And then what did he do? He counted it done. And he said,
I have found in another perfect righteousness. I thought all
along that I was doing what God required me to do. And he said,
I saw my utter failure. I saw I was building my hopes
upon a broken law, a broken covenant. And then he said, I found my
righteousness through the obedience of another, Jesus Christ my Lord. And I've counted all things lost
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." What
kind of knowledge? That He's my representative.
That He met the requirements of God on my behalf. We say that a lot, but we say
it a lot in hopes that somebody will get a hold of it. That's
why I keep saying that. And that's why Moses kept rehearsing
these things. He wanted somebody to get a hold
of what he was saying. Here's what God requires of you.
Can you do it? When we look at ourselves to
fulfill God's requirements, what do we do? If we're honest, what
do we do? We see sin mixed with everything we do. Do we not? And then if we don't look outside
of ourselves and find ourselves accepted in one who has met those
requirements, you know what we'll do? We'll get discouraged. We'll
despair. We will not come into God's presence.
We'll be afraid to. But when we look outside of ourselves
in our utter failure, and we see that someone else has stood
in our place and represented us, and in Him, We are perfectly
accepted in Him who did the work in our stead. Then our hearts
are filled with love. Then we go into God's presence.
We call Him our Father. We look to the blood of Christ
to cleanse us from our sin. And what does God say to us then?
I'll be merciful to your unrighteousness, and your sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. For my Son's sake, that's what
I'll do. You've got sin? I'll forgive
you. You've got this remnant of sin
that remains in you that you'll never lay it aside? It's part
of you? I'll be merciful to you because
of it. Isn't that a wonderful gospel? No wonder Moses just
couldn't quit talking about it. Thirty-four chapters he spent
talking about it. Now, somebody's going to say
this. Oh, representation. I've had people say this to me.
Oh, that's all you talk about. Having a representative. Talk
about imputed righteousness, someone else doing all the work,
and all you do is believe it. God requiring it of you, and
someone else doing it in your stead and in your pleasure. That
leads to antinomianism. That lets you throw off any restraint
and just live after the devil's way and fulfill the lust of the
flesh. That's what people will tell
you when you say you've got a representative. that pleased God on your behalf,
that did the work on your behalf, that which you could not do.
And now, for His sake, God accepts you and forgives you as a merciful
Father to you. And this is the way they say
you live now. And this is the way they said they'd live if
they believed that. I don't know how they know that, because they
don't believe it. They ought to believe it first, then see
how it would affect them. But that's what they say. Consider
this. Does God require this of you?
If you have someone ask you this, and make that statement to you,
then ask them this. Does God require this of you? Does God
require this for you to love Him and to follow Him perfectly? Yeah, He does. They'll tell you that. Yes, He
does. Yes, He does. Yes, He does. Then do it! Do it! Nobody's trying to discourage
you from doing it. Do it! That's what I told my
dad. I said, do you do it? I try. Trying ain't going to get you
where God is. He's talking about perfection. Doing it to perfection. But I'll warn those people of
this. God will not accept a half-hearted fear. God will not accept a service
where there's no reverence and where there's no love. Let your
thoughts stray in prayer but one time. Let your soul have
any lukewarmness in it. Let your love for God wane. Let
your depravity inject itself into your worship and your service
to any degree, and condemned you will be. You say God requires this of
you, and you can do it, you better be sure you can do it. Because
if God requires it, He's going to look to make sure you perform
it. And if there is any defect there at all, he is going to
see it. And this Moses whom men trust will be the very one to
accuse him and condemn him. We can stand up here when we
get awfully religious and high-minded and good and healthy and tell
what we can do. We can do that. But saying and
doing is two different things. This is what God requires. If
a person thinks he has the power and the merit to meet all God's
requirements, then remember this, it must be perfect to be accepted. God requires it, but He requires
perfection, and He accepts no less than that. For a man to
meet these requirements, he must be a perfect man. He must be
a perfect man. And Jesus Christ was that, wasn't
He? And He met everything that God required of Him because He
was a perfect man. And now, for His sake, for His
sake, God forgives us our sins, God is merciful to us, He's a
Father to us, and will never turn us away when we come to
Him for Christ's sake. Now, I love that gospel. And
I'll tell you how that affects you. You won't go out there and
turn loose the reins of your lust and live like the devil.
This man believed that. And for 120 years, bud, and an
old man, he couldn't get it off of his heart. He loved the Savior
so much he couldn't quit talking about it. Paul counted all done
to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness. And how
did he live? Oh, he said, the life that I
now live in the flesh, in this flesh, my day-to-day life, when
I lay down and sleep, when I eat, when I go, when I write, everything
I do in my life, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved
me and gave Himself for me. Next time the devil comes to
you and he says, look how you failed. Boy, your prayer, look
how weak your prayer was. Where is your heart at? Look
how cold your heart is. You're not following God perfectly.
Look at your heart. Most of what you do is just to
show. When He comes to you and tells you that, agree with Him.
And tell Him if there's ever sin or deserving of hell, you
surely must be the one. And then point beyond it to God's
right hand. And say, there is my righteousness. There's the
one that met my requirements. And I tell you, the devil will
tuck his tail between his legs and he'll flee. He cannot stand
before Him. He cannot. He cannot. That's why Moses loved Christ.
That's why he couldn't quit talking about it. Any questions? Any comments? I kept you along, didn't I?