I want to begin by just reading
this chapter. It consists of 25 verses, and
this is where we've come to in the study, our Bible study. And I want to
read it, Deuteronomy chapter 6. I want to take time just to
read this. I want to look at it tonight
maybe in a general way, not get so specific. and look at each
individual verse, but I want to look at some things in general. Let's begin in Deuteronomy chapter
6 and verse 1. Now these are the commandments,
the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord your God commanded
to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you
go to possess it. That thou mightest spew the Lord
thy God to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I
command you, Thou and your Son, and your Son's Son, all the days
of thy life, and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear, therefore,
O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee,
and that you may increase mightily, as the Lord God of your fathers
has promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, And thou shalt
love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all
your soul, all your strength, is the way the New Testament
says it. And these words which I command thee this day shall
be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy
children, and shalt talk of them when you sit in your house, when
you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon your hand, And they
shall be as frontlets between your eyes, and you shall write
them upon the post of thy house and on your gates. And it shall
be where the Lord your God shall have brought thee into the land
which he sware unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to
Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities which thou buildest
not, and houses full of all good things which you fill not, and
bales dig which you dig not, and vineyards and olive trees
which you planted not, when thou shalt have eaten and be full,
then beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth
out of the land of Egypt from the house of Bondi. Thou shalt
fear the Lord your God, and serve him, and swear by his name. He shall not go after other gods
of the gods of the people which are round about you. For the
Lord your God is a jealous God among you. Lest the anger of
the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off
the face of the earth. Ye shall not tempt the Lord your
God, as ye tempted him in Massa. Ye shall diligently keep the
commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies, and
his statutes, which he has commanded thee. And thou shalt do that
which is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may
be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the
land, the good land, which the Lord sware unto your fathers,
to cast out all your enemies from before thee, as the Lord
hath spoken. And when your son ask thee in
time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes,
and the judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded you?
Then shall you say unto your son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen
in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of
Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and
wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon
his household before our eyes. And he brought us out from tents,
that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore
unto our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to
do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good
always. that he might preserve us alive
as it is this day. And it shall be our righteousness,
if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord
our God, that he hath commanded us. You and I have looked through
the book of Deuteronomy, we went through the book of Numbers,
and we went through the book of Leviticus, looking at some
highlights in it. One of the things we have to
be careful about as we read these books, especially the three books
that I just mentioned, as we read them, we have to rightly
divide them. If we don't rightly divide the
word of truth, we can get our minds so confused and confuse
others. These books contain the covenant
of works. Now, as you read these, You find
these two covenants in this book, in Leviticus and Deuteronomy
and others. The covenant of grace and the
covenant of works. The covenant of law and the covenant
of works, the covenant of grace. The covenant of works is in this
book and the gospel is in this book. When you and I study this
book, one of the things we see in this book is the gospel in
prophecy. Remember when Moses said, A prophet
shall the Lord your God raise up unto me, up unto you, like
unto me? Who was he talking about? Jesus
Christ, wasn't he? That's the gospel. It's there
in pictures, it's there in type, it's there in shadows, and it's
mixed in here with a covenant of works. There's excellent instructions
in the chapter six that I just read to you for believers. And
we'll probably see that next week. Excellent instructions
for Christians written in this book. But there's also a killing
letter written in this book. That's what we've got to be careful
to distinguish between. This book teaches that there's
life for a look, a look of faith at Jesus Christ. You find that
in the book of Numbers, where Moses took the serpent, remember
that? And he hung him on a pole, and
the scripture says, everybody who looked lived. And the Lord
Jesus said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whosoever believeth
in him shall not perish, but have life. There's life for a
look at the crucified one. This book teaches that. the book
of Deuteronomy teaches that but the book of Deuteronomy also
teaches us something else it teaches us that a man has life
by what he does a man has life by what he does look here at
Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 33 chapter 5 and verse 33 you
shall walk in all the ways which the Lord
your God hath commanded you, that you may live." Now, what
is that? That's a covenant of words, isn't
it? You do and you shall live. Is that grace? What does grace
say? Live and do, doesn't it? Can you imagine how confused
the early church was, the Gentile church? When Paul came preaching
the gospel of Jesus Christ, they believed it. They were saved
by it. But these Jews, these legalistic
Jews, came and began to preach law to those young Christians. Imagine how confused they got.
And they couldn't rightly divide. They had no New Testament to
go by. They couldn't rightly divide between law and grace.
So they came and said, well, look here. The Bible says, God
says, you have life as you do. As you do. You remember when
that rich young ruler came to the Lord Jesus in the New Testament. He said, good master, what must
I do to have eternal life? What good thing can I do to have
eternal life? And remember what Christ told
him. You've heard the commandments. You've heard the commandments.
You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness.
Love your neighbor as yourself. Honor your father and mother.
This do, and thou shalt live. Now what is that? That's the
law of teaching, isn't it? That's the law of teaching. That's
where you and I have to be careful. As we study this book, it's important
to rightly divide the word of truth. One thing that will help
us is to remember certain principles. I've often said this in our Bible
studies. that I would rather have a principle
given to me than sometimes just plain English as to what I should
do in certain situations. You give us principles to live
by, principles to believe, and we can work our way through these
things. Here's what I mean. Here's principles of the covenant
of works and the covenant of grace. The covenant of works
teaches us to work that we may live. This do and you shall live. Grace teaches us we work because
we have life. You don't work to get life. You
work because you're alive. The covenant of works teaches
us that there's a righteousness due to a perfect life lived. If you will do this thing, you'll
be a righteous man. That's the law. Grace teaches
us there is perfect righteousness The instant we believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ. The covenant of works has us
working to obtain the blessings of God. But grace has us working
because we're already blessed of God. And that's the difference. In the covenant of works, everything
follows our doing. This do, this do, this do. That's what works has always
commanded us. The covenant of works is saying,
do this, do this, do this. But that salvation that's in
the Lord has grace going before everything we do. You don't do anything except
by grace. Grace goes before everything.
You don't do anything to obtain grace. You obtain grace and then
you do all. because you obtain grace. Under
the gospel, God commands a man to repent. Does he not? God commands all men everywhere
to repent. What does grace do? It grants
repentance. It grants repentance. Then have
God to the Gentiles granted repentance. There's a great difference between
God commanding repentance and giving repentance. Grace gives
repentance. The gospel demands that we believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace gives us faith. Apollos helped them much who
had believed through grace. When Jesus Christ said, My grace
is sufficient for you, he means it's sufficient for every aspect
of the Christian life. Grace is sufficient to regenerate
you. Grace is sufficient to forgive
all your sins. Grace is sufficient to clothe
you with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Grace is sufficient
to lead you. Grace is sufficient to give you
hope. Grace is sufficient to keep you
when you're trying, when you're faced with the heartaches of
this life. Grace is sufficient when you're attacked by the gates
of hell. Grace is sufficient to keep you
hoping, praying, endearing, overcoming the world, glorifying God, even
to the end of your life. My grace is sufficient for you."
Now, what the law commands, the law does not encourage us to
do. What grace demands, grace supplies. See that? You say,
Bruce, is it that easy? I'm not saying, I am not saying
that grace comes to us and makes it easy for us. But grace works
with us in our difficulties that we overcome through grace. I
tell you, I'd go as far as to say this. Believing in Jesus
Christ as the Savior of your soul is impossible apart from
grace. Is it not? Facing the gates of
hell and overcoming it is impossible apart from grace. Now, is it
tough when you face the gates of hell? Haven't you sweated
on your knees as it were great drops of blood? Haven't you been
shut up in your mind, wondering which foot to put in front of
another? But what got you through? What is it that gets you through?
It's grace, isn't it? It's grace. My grace is sufficient
for this. In all of these things, grace
goes before. In each and every thing. to bring about our victory in
all that we do. But works, the covenant of works,
first requires our obedience. And it precedes everything we
do. You be obedient. You be perfectly
obedient. Then you'll make it. Then you'll
make it. Let me give you an example. You're
in chapter 6 of Deuteronomy, verse 4 and 5 is what I'm talking
about. Here's the example of principles. This is what I want
you to think about, the principles, the difference in law and grace. If we ever get this principle
in our heart, the difference between law and grace, then we
can distinguish between law and grace as we read it in these
Old Testament books. Here's an example. Look here
in verse 4, chapter 6 and verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord your
God is one Lord. Thou shalt love the Lord your
God with all your heart, all your soul, and with all your
mind. Now, this is a law of commandment.
This is a law of commandment. This is the covenant of works.
Now, how do we know that? Because there was a man who came
to the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament, and he asked him
this question, What is the greatest commandment in the law? So this is the law, because the
Lord Jesus quoted these two verses there. Jere, O Israel, the Lord
our God is one Lord. You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And that's
the greatest commandment, he said, in the law. This is required
of every son of Adam. to love God supremely from the
cradle to the grave, to honor Him, to adore Him, to serve Him,
to worship Him above everyone and above everything. That's
obligatory on every man. And this love is initiated, it's
generated by the heart. Love Him with all your heart,
out of your heart. It's not a love that can be infused
in your heart. It's a love your own heart must
generate. Adam could do that good. Can
you imagine what a man Adam was when God created him? And looked
upon him and said, what a man. How good. He's good. He's upright. He's holy. I've
created him in my image. And Adam looked up to his creator
and said, I love you with all my heart. I adore you, I worship
you." And he was a brilliant man. But what happened? Sin entered
into him. And sin not only corrupted Adam's
heart, but it alienated his heart from God. And then what happened? That heart that was full of love
for its Creator turned to hate. He began to love darkness rather
than light. And here's the fix that you and
I find ourselves in. This commandment comes to us.
And it comes to all of God's human creatures and says, here's
what God requires of you. To love Him, just like Adam before
the fall. But here's our problem, isn't
it? We're sons of fallen Adam. We're sons of fallen Adam. We
cannot love God. We love darkness rather than
light. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. When you say, Bruce, don't we
love God then? I tell you, you'll love Him to
this degree and in proportion as you see and know and realize
what God in Christ has done for you in saving you. Now that's
it. As we come into this world dead
in sin, we cannot love Him. We can only love Him and only
love Him in proportion as we realize that He has saved us
from sin and our eternal misery. I want to show you two scriptures
to prove that. Here's the difference between
law and grace. What the law commands us to do, loving God with all
our heart, He gives us mobility. When God says, I'm going to make
them love me. And what does He do? He reveals
His Son to us. He reveals the Savior. He forgives
us. He watches us. I want you to
look at two scriptures. Cold Deuteronomy. And look over
in Psalm 116. This is a very familiar passage
to us. I want to look here at Psalm 116 and Luke chapter 7
right quick and look at this. We know the believer loves the
Lord. The Christian loves the Lord. But he only loves Him in
proportion as he sees and realizes what the Lord has done for him.
David says that. Now look at this in verse 1.
Psalm 116 verse 1. I love the Lord. I love the Lord
because. See that? Because. I love the
Lord because. I wasn't born loving Him. This
love wasn't natural in my heart. This love is not regenerated
in my heart until God caused it. I love the Lord because He
hath heard my voice and my supplication. He has inclined his ear unto
me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. Look at
the kind of condition he was in. The sorrows of death can
pass me. The pains of hell got hold on
me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of
the Lord, O Lord, I beg you, deliver my soul. Gracious is
the Lord, and righteous, yea, our God is merciful. The Lord
preserved of the simple, I was brought low, and he helped me.
Return unto your rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully
with thee, for thou hast delivered my soul from death, my eyes from
cure, and my feet from call." I love him for it. I love him
for it. See the difference? The law says
you better muster up this love with all that's in you, all the
heart, Well, grace comes, and grace said, they'll love me when
I'm finished with them. And He shows us our sin. He shows us
our ruin. He shows us that we're ready
to perish. And then He saves us. We cry,
Lord, have mercy, and He saves us. And then we say, we love
You. Always love You. Look in Luke chapter 7. I think
it's even more clear on this point that we love Him in proportion
as we see what he's done for us, that we realize the sin that
he's forgiven, the misery that he's saved us from. In Luke chapter
7, and look in verse, where we began there in verse 37, you
remember when the Lord Jesus came into the Pharisee's house,
and he was sat in there, and this woman brought this precious
box, this expensive box of perfume, and began to pour it on his feet,
and she She was crying, she was weeping, and she dried his feet
with the hairs of her head. And this is what the Lord Jesus
said in verse four. Tell me therefore which of them
will love him most. Now this is the principle I'm
talking about. You're going to love the Lord as you realize
the number of sins he's forgiven you, the miseries delivered your
poor soul from. Simon answered and said, I suppose
he to whom most was forgiven. And the Lord said unto him, thou
hast rightly judged. Now read on. And he turned to
the woman, the Lord did, and said unto Simon, See this woman? I entered into your house, and
you gave me no water for my feet. You don't love me. But she hath
washed my feet with tear, and wiped them with the hairs of
her head. You gave me no kiss, because you don't love me. But
this woman hath not ceased to kiss my feet since I came into
this house. My head with oil you did not
anoint, because you don't love me. But this woman has anointed
my feet with ointment. Wherefore, I say unto thee, her
sins, which are many, are forgiven her. For she loved much, but
to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." See that? And that's so in every sinner's
life. It's no wonder to us as we As
we've seen people, some of the open and profane sinners, some
that just knew that hell was their home, they weren't raised
around the gospel, they weren't raised in religious homes, they
weren't raised with any mortals, they were open and profane sinners
ready to perish. And the Lord has saved those
people and they love Him with all their hearts. Why? Because they've seen what He's
delivering. Can you imagine how that Gadarene
loved the Lord Jesus Christ? Had that legion of devils in
it. Couldn't be tamed. And the Lord saved that man from
those demons. No wonder he said, Lord, I want
to be with you. I don't want you out of my sight. He loved
him, didn't he? He loved the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what we're talking about here. Somebody said we should
love God for who He is. Well, we do. He's our Savior. We should love him, and we do,
as we grow in grace and knowledge, as we realize more of his greatness,
of his immensity, that he fills the heaven and the earth, as
we come to know him better in his divine and eternal attributes,
we adore him and we worship him, but I'm telling you one thing,
we'll never get over this. We'll never love him anymore. that as we know Him as our Redeemer
and our Savior. Now, somebody said, that's all
for selfish love, but we're selfish people, aren't we? We're selfish
people. Earth's coming today, I know.
We'll love Him more for who He is. But right now, we love Him
because of what He's did for us. I love Thee because Thou
hast first loved me and purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree. I love Thee for wearing the crown
on Thy brow. If ever I love Thee, Lord Jesus,
dismount. There's a song in our book. George
Crowley wrote it. Spirit of God, descend upon my
heart. That's the name of the song.
He says, Spirit of God, descend upon my heart. Wean it from earth. Through all its pulses move. to my weakness, mighty as thou
art, and make me love thee as I ought to love. Teach me to
love thee as thine angels love. One holy passion filleth all
my frame, the baptism of the heavenly descended dove, my heart
and an altar, and I love thee." What's this man saying? He said, there's a difference,
there's a distinction between the law and grace. The law commands
us, and justly so, to love. But Mr. Crowley says here, there's
nothing in me but utter weakness. I cannot love. And then, in his
utter weakness, he lifts up his eyes to a gracious Christ and
says, stoop to my weakness. Stoop to my weakness. Now that's
grace, isn't it? Stoop to my weakness. You commanded
me to love you. Now stoop and give me grace to
do what you command. Wean me. Teach me. Make me love thee. As mighty
as thou art. Then what happens? Oh, my heart shall be the altar. And flame will be disloved to
thee. And that's why grace is so wonderful
for you and us. The law can't help us. It only
points out our utter, utter weakness. But grace comes. And it does
all. And it must go before anything
we do. The Lord Jesus said, without me you can do nothing. You can
do nothing. But with me, you can do all things. When you and I consider the principles,
of how law and grace works, then we can better understand Deuteronomy. The covenant of works requires
obedience first, and then the gifts. Obedience first, and then
the blessing. But grace intervenes and promises
the blessing and gifts first. He comes and blesses us first,
and then says, live as obedient children. But what happens when
the preachers get in the pulpit and they hit the cart before
the Lord? That's dangerous, eh? When they preach law instead
of grace. When they preach, you've got to do this, because you've
got God's hands tied. You've got to do this to release
grace. Turn back over one more time
and look at Deuteronomy chapter 6, and we'll close with this.
I'll try to focus in my heart to get back to 30 minutes on
Bible study. He says here in verse 10, this
is grace. This is grace. Because this has
that good principle about it. Now, you'll recognize this principle
in verse 10. And it shall be when the Lord your God hath brought
thee into the land which you swore unto your fathers, to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities which
you built." Now, see the grace? Tell the difference, getcha.
Here are two things, two things. You had nothing to do with it. I gave you these. I gave you
these cities. You don't even know how to use
a saw. I'm not asking you to take your hammers. You don't
need any nails. It's all there, my gift, that
I promised. Ain't that great? See the difference? And houses full of all good things,
which you never built. And whales dig, and you never
put a shovel. and vineyards and olive trees
which you never planted. Everything's given. Oh, that's
it, ain't it? That's great. See the difference?
See the principle there, then? And God has promised us a kingdom. And who's he promised it to?
Those who love him. Ain't that amazing how the Lord
does things? He comes and he shuts us up and he makes us miserable
in our conscience, makes us own our sins, He forgives us, we
love Him, and He turns right around and says, I promise you're
king, because you love Me. Because you love Me. Well, why
do I love Him? Because He first loved me. But
that's grace, isn't it? That's grace. And He said over
here in verse 20, And when your sons ask you in time to come,
when your little child asks you, Ain't it a shame that there are
a group of people in our country, religious people, that say we
shouldn't teach our children? You really shouldn't teach your
children. You should let them along. You don't want them to
come to the knowledge of the truth. They'll be lost. Ain't
that silly? Teach your children. When they
ask you questions, why do you folks come up, why do you folks
partake of the communion? Why do you drink of that cup
and eat of that bread? What's that all about? Tell them!
When you baptize someone in your shawl, say, what do you do that
for? Tell them! Educate your children! Teach
them! And I tell you, one of the things
the Holy Spirit emphasized here was verse 20. You be sure to
tell your children that. Verse 22. Verse 21, look in verse 20. Then you shall say unto your
son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen down in Egypt, and the Lord brought
us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Don't you dare tell your
children that you're not a sinner. Don't you dare try to present
to your children that you've been a good person all your life,
and you never was in trouble or anything like that. Tell them
what you were. Tell them you were in bondage
to the devil. You were a slave to Satan. And
when you learn, when the Lord in His mercy and grace caught
up and saved you, tell them that. And tell them in verse 23. Tell
them that He brought you out, that He might bring you in. That's it. He brought you out. that He might bring you in. And
I tell you, you've got no reason to believe He's going to take
you to heaven if He hasn't brought you out of your sin. He saves
us from our sin, Jay, that He may take us to glory.