Deuteronomy chapter 4, and I
want to begin reading a few verses for us. In verse 31, and I want to look
at verses 32 really, down through verse 40. So let me read that
to you first. Let's begin though in verse 31.
Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 31. For the Lord thy God is a
merciful God, He will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor
forget the covenant of thy fathers, which ye swear unto them. For
ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee,
since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from
the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been
any such thing as this great thing is. or hath been heard
of like it? Did ever people hear the voice
of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard
and lived? Or has God assayed, as He attempted
and done it to, to go and take Him a nation from the midst of
another nation by temptations and signs and wonders and by
war and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by
great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for
you in Egypt before your eyes? Unto thee it was showed that
you might know that the Lord, He is God. There is none else
beside Him. Out of heaven He made you to
hear His voice, that He might instruct you, and upon earth
He showed thee this his great fire, and thou heard his words
out of the midst of the fire, and because he loved your fathers,
therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee
out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt, to drive
out nations from before thee greater and mightier than you
are, to bring you in to give you a land for an inheritance
as it is this day. Know therefore this day, and
consider in your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven
above, and upon the earth beneath, and there is none else. Thou
shalt keep therefore His statutes and His commandments, which I
command you this day, that it may be well with thee and with
your children after thee, and that thou mightest prolong thy
days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee forever. This book is written by Moses. Of course, it's written on the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The first five books of the Bible
are written by Moses. And they're just as critical
to be believed as any other book in the Bible. They're just as
critical for us to read and believe as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
or any of the epistles of Paul or the other apostles. Some that
have professed Christianity have denied that these first five
books of the Bible are the literal Word of God. They have this term they used,
metaphorically. They say this is written in a
metaphorical sense. It's not real. It's not actual. It's not literal. It's meant
to teach us something. It's meant to represent something
to us. People call themselves Christians
and say they believe that. If Deuteronomy is not literal,
then the book of Joshua is not literal. Because the book of
Joshua begins where the book of Deuteronomy left off. Listen
to how the book of Joshua begins. After the death of Moses. So
if Moses writings are not real, and Moses isn't real, then the
book of Joshua is not real either, is it? And if the book of Joshua
is not real, then the book of Ruth is not real. The book of Judges isn't real.
You know how the book of Judges begins? When Joshua had died. And Joshua does. See how they're
linked together? The book of Judges isn't real
if Joshua's not real. And if the book of Judges aren't
real, then the book of Ruth, the next book, isn't real because
you know how the book of Ruth begins? In the day when the judges
rule. And you just go on and on in
that way. And if you eliminate the first
five books of the Bible, we have to eliminate some more books
of the Bible also. There's three places I want to
quote to you from the New Testament that proves the books of Moses
are real, that they're true. You won't have to turn there.
Let me quote them for you because they're very familiar to you.
You remember in Luke chapter 24 and verse 27 when the Lord
had risen from the dead and they didn't know it yet. They didn't
believe that He had risen from the dead. And the Lord appeared
to those two on the road to Emmaus and talked with them. And here
is what He said to them when He called them fools and slow
of heart to believe. And then He said in verse 27,
Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them
in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself. Jesus Christ believed that the
writings of Moses were true. And listen to what he said in
verse 44 of that chapter. These are the words which I have
spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must
be fulfilled which is written in the law of Moses, and in the
prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me. The law of Moses. Listen
to the second place in Luke chapter 16, verse 29 and 31. This is
the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Remember when the rich
man asked Abraham to send Lazarus from heaven back to his brother? If one rose from the dead, he
said, they'd believe him. And here's what Abraham told
him. They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. You wonder
why we study Moses? This is why. We need to hear
him. If they hear not Moses and the prophets, Neither will they
be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." If we won't receive
Moses' word, then I'm telling you, we won't believe though
somebody rose from the dead. And listen to John chapter 5
and verse 45 and 47. This is probably the most important
one. The Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees
and scribes, Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father.
There is one that accuses you, Moses, in whom you trust. But if you had believed him,
you would have believed me, for he wrote of me." And then he
made this statement, "'But if you believe not his writings,
how shall you believe my words?' How can people call themselves
Christian and say they don't believe this is real? They don't
believe in Moses' writings. How can they believe in Christ
if they don't believe in Moses, who wrote of the Lord Jesus Christ?
There are many reasons. There are many things in the
book of Moses that represent to us spiritual things. I know there are many types and
shadows and pictures in the first five books of Moses. There's
the ceremonial law, the priesthood, the blood that they took into
the holy place and sprinkled on the mercy seat, the scapegoat.
All of these things represent to us some spiritual truth. We know that. But these things
are literal. When they wrote of these things,
they're real. They were pictures of things
to come, but when they wrote of them, they were real. When the children of Israel stood
there before that Red Sea, and it opened up, was that real?
That really happened, didn't it? That really happened. When
they came in to the wilderness, And they woke up every morning
and there was manna on the ground for them to eat and sustain them.
That was real wasn't it? Now that was a picture of some
spiritual truth that was to come, but that literally happened.
When that water, when that rock of flint was cut in the middle
when Moses spoke to it and smote it, and rivers of water gushed
out, that was real. That was real. Mount Sinai shaking,
all this fire and this smoke and this voice being heard from
it, it's real. It literally happened. It's not
a bunch of metaphorical writings to teach us other things. First
and foremost, it's real. These books are denied for different
reasons. The reality of it is denied for
different reasons. Some have got an agenda behind
them. denying the writings of Moses. And I'll tell you what it is.
If you can convince people that the first five books of the Bible
are not true, that they're not real, then soon the rest of the
books will fall. The rest of them will fall. Some
don't believe in the God that the first five books of the Bible
reveal. They don't like this God. You
have a bunch of sissy professors, to be honest with you, that don't
like this God. They say He's too stern. He's
too bloody. He's too just. He's too vindictive. When people ask them, for instance,
in this chapter that you and I have been studying, how can
God, a loving God, a merciful God, instruct Moses and the children
of Israel to go attack these two countries These two kings,
Sihon and Og, and kill them and kill the men and women and children. How can God be God and do that?
So they reject it. They reject that. I tell you,
the same God instructed Moses to do that. That's the same God
that destroyed the old world with the flood. He's a just God. He's a holy God. And I'll say
this about it because we've studied this before, but I will say this.
When God brought judgments upon those nations, they deserved
the judgment that He brought. They were sinners against God. Some don't believe in the miracles
that they see in these first five books of the Bible. There's
a lot of miracles here. And you either have to believe
they're real and literal, Or you've got to explain them away.
And they're miracles. They're things that can only
be done by the miraculous power of God. I was watching a documentary
one night, and you had a group of men, smart men, thanking men. They're thankers, you know. And
they were trying to explain how the children of Israel got across
the Red Sea without it being miraculous. They went across
where it was about knee-deep on a bunch of rocks. Can't you
see that? Can't you see about a million
and a half people slipping, sliding on a bunch of rocks crossing
the Red Sea? But here's the problem. Here's the problem. God grounded
the army of Pharaoh in the same sea that Israel went across. I can't see them grounding that
mighty army in ankle-deep water. Can you? It's a miracle. It's a miracle. The manna came
down. It was miraculous. Them spending
40 years wearing the same shoes and the same clothes on their
body and never growing old or decayed, that's miraculous. And the only way to get around
it, if you don't believe it, is just to say it must be speaking
metaphorically. It must not be literal. It must
not be real. And here the Holy Spirit makes
this statement in verse 32. He's put this in here. And if
you read your Bible slowly, instead of reading chapters or verses
and read words, you'll find the Holy Spirit has, he's got these
little nuggets stuck all through here that just jump out at you.
And you've been thinking about it, maybe you've been in doubt
about these things, and you're seeking some assurance to what
really happened. I want to know what really happened.
What if this jumps out at you? I've been studying science now,
and I don't know any more about it today than I did 15 years
ago. Science confuses me to death. I love to study it. I love to
read about the outer space and what's going on and what they
say about how the world was created and how everything come into
being. And half of the life of me can't get a hold of how they
come to some of these conclusions. And I was reading this verse
just the other day, and there's a place in verse 32 that just
jumped out at me. How did this world come into
being? How did you and I, how did humanity
come into being? And science tells us we started
out as a little cell, and over 300 million years we were swinging
from trees like monkeys, and then we started walking on all
fours, and then we developed this language, then we started
setting around the campfire and sleeping in graves and caves.
They just come up with all kinds of this stuff. Well, this couldn't
have happened in a million years. Well, take 300 million years.
Look in verse 32. For as now of the days that are
past, which were before thee since the day that God created
man upon the earth." The day. When God began to speak to us
in literal terms of days, He spoke to us in terms that we
could identify with. Twenty-four hour period. That
made up the day. The evening and the morning were
the first day. The evening and the morning were
the second day. Right on through the seventh
day, and on the sixth day, this one day, God created man upon
the earth. You don't know anything about
science? Well, join a lot of the rest of us. And since I don't
know anything about science, I can't refute science. But I
can believe God's Word. And I'll leave the refuting of
it to Him, and He'll clear it all up someday. Who made man? God did. When did He make him? Did He evolve him? Did He start
out a cell and man evolved? No, He made him in one day. One
day. Look at us. As fallen as we are,
aren't we miraculous? Aren't we fearfully and wonderfully
made? And God did it in one day. One
literal day. Brothers and sisters, I can't
emphasize it enough. Believe God's Word. When we read Moses, when we read
this chapter, look at it as literal. It literally and actually happened. Can you imagine reading your
beginning in verse 32 down through verse 36? and all of this deliverance and
all of this fire on the mountain and God's voice speaking out
of it. Can you imagine reading this
and somebody coming to you and saying, well, that's not literal. If you just read this, if you
were just, if you were Remy's age and you just opened this
up and read this, wouldn't you say this really happened? And
if somebody came to you and said, well, this didn't literally happen
now, you know something, if somebody could convince me this didn't
really happen, that would be offensive to me. I can't help
from saying this, that would be repulsive to me. I would be
offended at God. I'll be honest with you. What kind of God would do this
to us? What kind of God would mock us?
What kind of God is He? That He's a pretend, a wannabe
God that will set Himself up like this to say He delivered
these people and He done these mighty things? Then turn around
and say, no, that didn't literally happen. I didn't really do that. I like to have done that. Don't
take me lit. Wouldn't that offend you? Brothers and sisters, this is
real. This is real. This is literal. Moses is relating
this history to these people as a reality, as it literally
happened. And because it was literal and
real, it's calculated to stir up in them a holy reverence and
a trust and a love and obedience to the Lord their God. But how in the name of all that's
honest and all that's true can it stir up these things in anybody's
heart if it's not literal, if it really didn't happen? What was it about all this that
was to capture their hearts and fill them with awe and put them
upon the path of duty and obedience and doing God's will. It was
this. God's dealings with them wasn't a common occurrence. Nothing like this had ever happened
before. Since the foundation of the world,
Moses said, you've never heard of anything like this. Israel was this small nation.
They were in bondage to a numerous people. The Scripture says they were
in this iron furnace. They were slaves. They were captives. They worked for Pharaoh and his
people. They whipped them. The army was
strong that kept them in bondage. They cried under this bondage. They sighed by the reason of
their servitude. They couldn't get out, they couldn't
get away, and God, the eternal God, intervened in their situation. Through great signs, through
great terrors, through these great miracles, He humbled this
mighty nation, brought its army out in the Red Sea and drowned
them, and delivered the children of Israel, fed them and kept
them for 40 years, and brought them into the land of milk and
honey. And Moses said, has anything
ever like this been heard of since the foundation of the world? And your God and your Lord who
is God of heaven and earth, He's did it! He's did it! I tell you
what no common occurrence was. Oh, it was something wonderful.
It was something new and it was something miraculous. And Moses
rehearsed it that way too. And isn't this the history of
your redemption? Isn't this the story of your
salvation? Brother David was asking me about
the good news we got Monday night down at the nursing home. I told
some of you a while back. about the poor lady that was
there, and how she lived in utter despair. Gail told me about her,
and I went back and talked to her. And I've never in my life
talked to a lady that was under such conviction of her sin. And she just knew. She was convinced. She was beyond all hope. She
said, The Lord won't forgive me. She said, Preacher, you don't
know. You don't know what kind of person I am. You don't know
what I've done. And she went on and on. And her
eyes were bloodshot and her countenance was fallen. And you could tell
she was living in utter despair. I left there. I left. I cried. I wept before the Lord. I said everything that I could
possibly think of. to point her to the way of salvation. I told her everything, every
scripture I could think of about the Lord Jesus Christ and how
God was satisfied with Him and how tender the Savior was and
all manner of sin and blasphemy was to be forgiven. I told her
everything I knew. And boy, I left her thinking,
the devil has captured her mind. She's bound. Well, we went back
last night and she showed up at the service. And after the
service, she said, I need to talk to you. She said something
like that. Me and I heard her say, I need to talk to the preacher
or something. But she had busted her little arrow holes and had
to go back. And I went back the next day. Gail said she told
her the Lord had saved her. The Lord saved her. And I tell
you what, I told Joe, I said, buddy, in the morning, I'm going
back down there. And I did. I went back the next
day. And I never found her walking the halls. I couldn't remember
her name. I went into her room, and she was so sick. Had her
oxygen on, but she sat up in bed, and I said, I said, I said,
what's happened with you? She said, the Lord saved me.
She said, the Lord saved me. And I said, well, tell me about
it. And she said, well, she said, I went to Him. And I told him
how bad I was, and I told him about my sins. And I asked him
would he forgive me. And she said he did. And I said,
how do you feel? She said, it surprised me. It
surprised me. And you know what she said? She
said, oh, the difference in her, the difference in her, that torment's
gone, the despair's gone. And she said, now I'm just waiting
and I'm just praying that when I die, He'll take me to heaven
to be with Him. That's what she said. Here was
a woman that was so depressed and so overwhelmed with her sins,
Satan had oppressed her and bound her, and she couldn't anymore
get out of that spiritual bondage than the children of Israel could
deliver their Savior. But I tell you, the Lord intervened.
He intervened. He broke the chains. He drove
Satan from her heart. He shined, not from a mountain
that shunned in darkness, but from the cross of Calvary. Not from justice demanding what
He told her to do, that she couldn't do anything for a thing but despair,
but mercy. in forgiving all her sins. And
I tell you, you ask that woman now. You ask that woman now. And she'll tell you she's never
heard of anything like that in her life. In her experience,
there's never been anything like that. It was miraculous. It was wonderful. And that's
what she'll tell you. This here is the story of our
redemption. The Lord intervening. The Lord
redeeming us. The Lord bringing us out. And it's a wonderful thing. It's
a marvelous thing. I was listening the other night.
Brother Larry has had me at different times. He's told me about these
professors, Richard Dawkins and John Lennox. Ain't that the other
one, Larry? They're both professors of Harvard, I think. But Richard
Dawkins, he's one of the big atheists of our time, and John
Lennox, he's a professed believer. And they were debating about,
you know, how life began and evolution and God created and
all things. But the atheist, he made this statement. He said,
he said, you Christians, he said, this is what gets me
about you Christians. He said, if God is who you say
that He is, that He's the eternal God, and that He made this universe
out of nothing by the word of His power, and He holds it all
up and He rules it all, and if He's who you Christians say He
is, He's a glorious God. And what's He doing coming down
to this earth, dying on the cross to redeem sinners? Why is he
concerned about something like that? But isn't that the wonder
of it? Isn't that the marvel of it all?
Since the beginning of the world, nothing like this has ever been
heard, that the eternal God would take to Himself our humanity,
and in great love, by His own life laid down, redeem us from
such bondage. That is an amazing thing. And
I tell you, it's so wonderful. You just won't believe it, apart
from the working of the Holy Spirit in your heart. Oh, you
look at the Word of God, and you call it the Word of God,
and you say, it's made, it's full of miracles. Yes, it is.
It's amazing. It's amazing, isn't it? Redemption
is amazing. Look what he says in verse 37. I guess you could say here's
the cause of all this, because look at this. And therefore He
loved thy fathers. And because He loved your fathers,
therefore He chose their seed after them and brought you out
in His sight with His mighty power out of Egypt. He mentions
three things here to them. One, His loving them. Look over
here in chapter 7. Not that He always wanted the
children of Israel to know. I've done this for you because
I loved you. That's why I did it. I love you. Look what He
says in chapter 7. But He wants them to know why
He loved them. Did you notice how the Holy Spirit said that? Because He loved your fathers.
In other words, He didn't love them for their sakes. Ain't that
a good, humble way to put it? He wanted them to know that.
I don't love you for anything I saw in you. It's not for your
sakes I love you. And he tells them that again
here in chapter 7 and look in verse 6. You are an unholy people
unto the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen
you to be a special people unto Himself above all the people
upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love
upon you, nor choose you because you were more in number, than
any people. You were the fewest people. Why
did He love you then? Why did He choose you? Why did
He redeem you? Because the Lord loved you. The
love wasn't found in Larry Baker. The Lord saved you, Larry, and
He chose you because of love. You trace it back to that, but
the love wasn't found because it wasn't found in you, was it?
It's in the Lord. Because I loved you. That's it. That's it. What's
the cause of His loving us? Who knows? But Him? The cause
and the reason is found in Him, isn't it? Because the Lord loved
you and because He would keep the oath which He has sworn unto
your father, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and
redeemed you out of the house of bondage and from the hand
of Pharaoh. He did everything for them, and
He didn't do one single thing because of them. He didn't love
them, He didn't choose them, and He didn't deliver them for
anything found in them. Ain't that amazing? That's a
humbling thing, ain't it? Well, when we come to that, that's
a humbling thing, but I tell you what, you talk about assurance.
You can get so much assurance in that. If He didn't love me
because of anything He saw in me, Love me for His own namesake. If He didn't choose me for anything
He saw in me, and He didn't redeem me and save me for anything in
me, then He ain't going to quit loving me for something He doesn't
see in me. And He ain't going to unchoose me and let me become
unsaved. Ain't that wonderful? Let's hurry and finish this.
Look in verse 39. Know therefore, know this, I
want you to know this, I want you to recognize this, I want
you to grasp this, discern this, that's what that word know means,
to really see it. Know this therefore this day
and consider it. You know, we know things, then
we just don't go on forgetting them. This word consider means
to return to it. to return to. It's what Brother
Larry's been telling us in the book of Peter so many times.
I call you to remember. That's what this is. Always calling
to remember. Thanking upon this. Meditating
upon this. Coming back to this. Know this
and consider it in your heart. Now here's this great man's confession
of faith. Look at it. That the Lord, He
is God in heaven. He's God in heaven. And He's
God upon the earth. here beneath. And there is none
else. I saw a license plate on a sticker,
a bumper sticker on a lady's car while I was out on the road
a few months ago. And it said, God is too big for
one religion. And I never talked to her. I'd
like to have stopped her and asked her, but I just know what
she meant by that, you know. But you know what she meant by
that. Yeah, we know what she meant by that. God is the God
of Ishmael. God is the God of Jehovah Witness.
God is the God of Mormons. You know, no matter what your
religion teaches, no matter which God you, it's the same God. You
know, that's what they say. But see, when we come to realize
and know and believe that God is God in heaven above, and He's
God in the earth beneath, the next thing is this, there is
none else. When we know that He's God, there's
room for no other God. There's just one Sovereign, isn't
there? One Creator, one Savior. I am a just God and a Savior,
and besides me, there is none else. That doesn't mean we have to
agree on everything, but we agree there's one God, don't we? John
Gill said something about this, and I'll read this and I'll close.
Here's what he said. He said this is what this verse
teaches us. The Lord is God in heaven above,
and He's God in the earth beneath, and He gave these six things,
and here's what he said. If he's God in heaven, he's God
upon this earth. The Lord is the creator of both. If he's God of heaven and God
of this earth, then he's the creator of both. And he is, isn't
he? In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. Secondly, he said this. They're both his. If he created
them, they're both his. Heaven is mine, for it's my throne. The earth is mine, it's my footstool. They both belong to Him. Thirdly,
that He fills them both. Do not I fill heaven and earth,
saith the Lord? Yes, He does. There's no place
that you'll go or can go that God is not there. The inhabitants of both are His. All that is in the heaven is
mine. All that's in the earth is thine. The earth is the Lord, and the
fullness thereof. Everything in heaven belongs
to Him. Angels, that's holy. Everything
in hell belongs to Him, the fallen angel. Everything in this earth
is His. the bodies and the souls of men,
all souls belong to Him, every animal that walks upon the earth,
every little creeping bug on the earth and every fowl that
flies through the air, heaven and earth and all its inhabitants
belongs to the Lord. He is God in heaven above and
in the earth beneath. And Gil said this, Heaven and
earth are under His authority. It's under His rule. And He made
this statement. You may have to think about this
a little bit. And He does with all as He pleases, and He disposes
of all according to His sovereign will. Boy, that's a mouthful,
isn't it? That's a mouthful. Oh, my goodness. You know, if God is like this,
if He's God of heaven above and in the earth beneath, you know
all you can do to a God like that is bow to Him. If God is not sovereign, then
go on about your plans. Go on with your daily life. Treat
Him with indifference and contempt. But if He is such a God as this,
then bow to Him. Believe Him. Trust Him as He's
revealed in His Son. And live day by day for His glory. If God is not God, then we're
not responsible. But if He's God, then He's our
God. Somebody says, your God is not
my God. Oh, yes, He is. You may not own Him. You may
not profess Him, but He's your God. He owns you lot, stock,
and barrel. And listen, in the end, He will
dispose of you according to His own just and sovereign will. Now, I tell you, I'm afraid not
to that end, aren't you? Listen to these passages of Scripture.
Daniel chapter 4, verse 35. All the inhabitants of the earth
are refuted as nothing in His sight. And he doeth according
to his will among the inhabitants of the earth, and no man can stay his hand." No man can stay his hand. Or saying to him, what are you
doing? What are you doing? This is Revelation 4.11. They
are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for
You have created all things, and for Your pleasure they are
and were created." All of them. Everybody, everything for His
pleasure. Yes. Turn to one Scripture, and I'll
close with this. You don't even have to comment. Look at Psalms
135. Psalm 135. Speaking of the very same thing
that you and I have been looking at in Deuteronomy 4. Look in Psalm 135, verse 1. Praise ye the Lord. Praise the
name of the Lord. Praise Him, O ye servants of
the Lord. Ye that stand in the house of
the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God, praise the
Lord. for the Lord is good. Saying
praises unto his name is pleasant. For the Lord hath chosen Jacob
unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure. For I
know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all
gods. Whatever the Lord pleased, that
did he in heaven and in earth, and the seas and all deep places. Here's some of the things He's
done. He causes the vapors to ascend from the end to the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain. He brings the wind out of His
treasure. He smoked the firstborn of Egypt. Oh, my soul! He was pleased to
do that. He has done whatsoever He pleased.
He smote the firstborn of Egypt, both man and beast. He sent tokens
and wonders into the midst of thee, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh and
upon all his servants. He smote great nations and slew
mighty kings, Sihon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan,
and all the kingdoms of Canaan, and gave their land for an inheritance
unto Israel his. people. Thy name, O Lord, endeareth
forever, and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations. Why did He do it? Because it
pleased Him. I tell you, all you can do is
bow to Him, ain't it? And when you think that you've obtained
mercy in His sight, and He saved you like He did that poor woman
in the nursing home, I tell you, it will surprise you to death.
It will thrill you. And then we can say, Lord, just
do with me what you want to, as long as I've obtained mercy.
As long as you love me and you've chose me and redeemed me, do
with me what you will.