Men, the title of my sermon tonight is, A Stiff-Necked People.
Look at Deuteronomy chapter 9, verse 13.
Furthermore, the Lord spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and behold, it is
a stiff-necked people.
Twice in this chapter, he calls the children of Israel a stiff-necked people, and throughout
the Bible, he says the same thing.
Now what does it mean to be stiff-necked?
Well, I think Proverbs gives us the greatest answer when it says,
He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that
without remedy.
What does it mean to be reproved?
It means to be told that you're wrong.
So when someone comes to you and shows you from the Word of God, or preaches to you,
or tells you, you're wrong.
And instead of being tender to that, or receiving correction, or getting things right with God,
having repentance, if you kind of bristle at that, and stiffen at that, and harden your
neck, and refuse to take that correction, that's what it means to be stiff-necked.
And the Bible says, He that, being often reproved, I mean, over and over again, he's told, you're
doing wrong, and he hardens his neck, he shall suddenly be destroyed, that without remedy.
Meaning that you can go on and think you're getting away with it, getting away with it,
and then just suddenly you're destroyed.
And that without remedy, meaning that there's no second chance at that point.
There's no going back.
You're doomed.
Okay?
So that's what it means to be stiff-necked.
Let me give you some scriptures on being stiff-necked.
You don't have to turn to these, I'm just going to blow through these.
Exodus 32, 9, and the Lord said unto Moses, I've seen this people, and behold, it is a
stiff-necked people.
Exodus 33, 3, unto a land flowing with milk and honey, for I will not go up in the midst
of thee, for thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee in the way.
What's the Lord saying?
He's saying, I have to keep my distance from the children of Israel, because if I'm around
them too much, I'm just going to wipe them out.
I'm just going to destroy them, because they're a stiff-necked people.
Isn't that what it said?
He said, I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff-necked people,
lest I consume thee.
By the way, just on the way there, I may just end up consuming you, because you're stiff-necked.
Verse 5 of the same chapter, for the Lord had said unto Moses, say unto the children
of Israel, ye are a stiff-necked people, I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment
and consume thee.
Therefore now, put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.
Get your stupid ornaments off, I need to figure out what I'm going to do with you, is what
he's saying there, right?
Exodus 34, verse 9, and he said, if now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let
my Lord, I pray thee, go among us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity
and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.
And then, Deuteronomy 9, verse 6, where you are there, understand therefore, that the
Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness, for thou
art a stiff-necked people.
Deuteronomy Chronicles 30, verse 8, said, Now be ye not stiff-necked as your fathers
were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord.
See the opposite of being stiff-necked is to yield, right?
Not to bristle and stiff-neck, but to yield to correction.
He says, yield yourselves unto the Lord, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified
forever, and serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away
from you.
Okay, go to Acts chapter 7.
Acts chapter 7 is a New Testament mention of this idea of being stiff-necked.
Acts chapter 7, then we're going to come back to Deuteronomy, but this is where Stephen
is preaching, and I love Stephen's sermon here in Acts chapter 7, because he starts
out preaching, and I think everybody likes his sermon up to a certain point, because
if you look at the sermon, the first like 50 verses of the sermon, he doesn't really
offend anybody.
He's just preaching through the Bible, he's just preaching through the stories, but it's
at the end when he makes application, you know, when he takes the word of God and he
applies it to them.
That's where you get in trouble as a preacher, is when you actually bring the application,
where the rubber actually meets the road, but that's what we need to do as preachers.
So Stephen, when he gets to verse 51, it's like up until verse 50, he's a nice guy, and
he's preaching along, everybody's listening, and then he just all of a sudden just starts
ripping in verse 51, and they get mad.
Look what it says in 751, ye stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do
always resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did, so do ye.
Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted, and they have slain them which
showed before of the coming of the just one, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and
murderers who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
So think about this, like 90, if he would have just preached 94% of that sermon or so,
and just left out those last few verses, everything would have been fine, but then he would have
been a compromiser.
You know, you've got to preach the whole counsel of God, you've got to preach the truth, you've
got to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.
So when he preaches this, it says when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart.
It hit home because it was true, and it says they gnashed on him with their teeth, but
he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory
of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens
opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.
Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with
one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down
their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.
I mean, these people are stiff-necked, you know, they hear the preaching, they hear the
word of God, and instead of being cut to the heart and saying, Men and brethren, what shall
we do?
Right?
Because there is actually repentance there.
They're cut to the heart, plug their ears, run toward him, and kill him, right?
So this is the opposite reaction of the day of Pentecost, where they were also pricked
in their hearts, but they had the right response.
Go back to Deuteronomy chapter 8.
So that's just an overview of the idea in the Bible of being stiff-necked, what it means,
a stiff-necked people.
And in Deuteronomy 8 and 9, they are being rebuked for being a stiff-necked people.
The children of Israel are being preached to.
Now while you're turning back to Deuteronomy chapter 8, let me just kind of give you a
quick understanding of what the book of Deuteronomy is about, just quickly.
So the book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the law, those first five books of Moses,
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
And what's really different about this book than the other books is that Deuteronomy is
Moses preaching.
It's basically giving everything from Moses' perspective.
So even though a lot of this story you've already heard in Exodus and in Numbers, and
a lot of these laws you've already gotten from Exodus and Leviticus, what's the point
of having this book of Deuteronomy?
The very name of the book of Deuteronomy means the second law, because Deutero means second,
nomo means law, and so it's the second law.
So it's basically a recap, it's a revisiting of what's already been told, the stories that
we've already heard, the laws we've already heard, but the big difference is that it's
from Moses' perspective.
So we get to hear not just the Lord said unto Moses, but we get to hear Moses said unto
the people.
It's basically Moses preaching to the people.
So this is where we just find a ton of Moses preaching.
So we hear what it was like when he preached to the people.
So this is probably the book that really helps you get to know Moses a little bit and see
what his preaching was like.
But if you would, look at Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 10.
The Bible says, When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God
for the good land which he hath given thee.
Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his commandments and his judgments
and his statutes which I command thee this day.
Lest when thou hast eaten and art full and has built goodly houses and dwelt therein,
and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied
and all that thou hast is multiplied, then thine heart be lifted up.
And thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the
house of bondage, who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were
fiery serpents and scorpions and drought, where there was no water, who brought thee
forth water out of the rock of flint, who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which
thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, and to
do thee good at thy latter end.
And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this well.
But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get
wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers as it is this
day.
And it shall be, if thou do it all, forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods,
and serve them, and worship them.
I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish, as the nations which the Lord
destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish, because ye would not be obedient unto the
voice of the Lord your God.
What's he saying?
He's saying, look, when you get into the promised land, things are going to go good for you.
I mean, it's a land that flows with milk and honey.
You're going to have cattle that's multiplying.
You're going to have gold and silver.
And you're going to have peace and comfort and prosperity.
You're going to eat.
You're going to be full.
Don't you dare forget that it was God who gave you everything that you have that brought
you here.
He's the one who gave you the power to get wealth.
Don't think this foolish, wicked thought, oh, well, it was my righteousness, or it was
my wisdom, or my idea, and I'm just such a great nation.
That's why I got all this.
But you know what?
That's what we should think of in America about the prosperity that we have.
Is it because we're just so great?
You know what?
The conservative talk radio will tell you all day long.
They'll talk about American exceptionalism.
Who's ever heard of that term?
Put up your hand.
All over the building.
American.
Like, we're special because we're American.
American exceptionalism.
And then, you know, they'll criticize anyone who doesn't believe in American exceptionalism.
I mean, can you believe somebody actually thinks that we're the same as everybody else?
Don't they know we're better than everybody else?
Just because we're Americans.
It doesn't matter whether we're lazy, or whether we're wicked, whether we're atheist, or Christian,
or hin- just because we're Americans, we're awesome.
Doesn't matter whether we're late to work.
Doesn't matter if we go to church, don't go to church, I mean, we're Americans.
We're the best.
And everything.
Just because we're American, right?
No.
The only reason that America has any of the things that we have is because of our ancestors
honoring the God of the Bible.
And look, I know you can look at the founding fathers and a bunch of politicians who rejected
Christ, and I know Thomas Jefferson's burning in hell right now.
I get all that.
But you know what?
The people of the United States were a God-fearing people at that time.
I'm not saying the government was ever righteous.
If the government was ever righteous, they wouldn't have made Washington DC a big upside
down star unto Satan.
They wouldn't have made it a big Satan symbol.
They wouldn't have put a bunch of pagan idolatry everywhere.
They would have honored the Lord at the capital of our nation.
And we talked about that in Babylon USA quite a bit.
But the point is, the people of the US, though, historically, I'm not saying necessarily the
leadership, but the people have been a God-fearing people, a Christ-honoring people, people that
by and large respected the God of the Bible, they respected the Lord and His word, and
they based a lot of their practices and lifestyle on the word of God.
That's why our nation has anything that we have.
And if you have any blessings in your personal life, remember that every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no
variableness neither shadow of turning.
And God is the one that gives you personally the power to get wealth, or me the power to
get wealth, or America the power to get wealth.
And if we don't thank God for what He's given us, and if we think this wicked thought that
it's just because we're exceptional people, it's because we're so great, you know, God
is going to consume us as He consumed Israel.
And I love what he says at the end here in verse 20, as the nations which the Lord destroyeth
before your face.
You know what he's saying there?
You're not special.
And look, if anybody would have been special, it would have been Israel, since they're the
chosen people, right?
I mean, these are God's chosen people.
Now they're not anymore, but back then, they were God's chosen people.
So if anybody would have been special, it would have been them.
But he said, you know what?
I will wipe you out.
Look, I'll wipe you out just like I wipe the Hittites out, just like I want to wipe out
the Jebusites and the Hivites and the Perizzites, the Canaanites.
You know what?
You're no different.
If you're wicked, if you worship other gods, if you don't honor me, you will be destroyed.
And you know what?
If he'll wipe out them, he'll wipe out America.
He'll wipe out Israel.
Why?
Because he's not a respecter of persons.
And so he says, if you go down the road that they went down, you're going to wind up at
the same destination on the receiving end of my wrath.
And so that's what he's teaching there in chapter 8.
He says in verse 19, it shall be if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God and walk after
other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall
surely perish.
Now let's look at chapter 9.
Chapter 9 is a powerful chapter in the Bible.
We just read it earlier right before the sermon.
But it says, Hear, O Israel, thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess
nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven.
He's trying to get them to understand that it's not their might or power that's going
to win them the victory.
He's just telling them right out of the gate, look, the people that you're going up against
are stronger than you.
They're mightier than you.
They're more powerful than you.
In your flesh, you will lose.
You can only win with the Lord on your side, is what he's telling them.
Verse 2, a people great and tall, the children of the Anakims whom thou knowest and of whom
thou has heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak?
Understand therefore this day that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee
as a consuming fire, he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face.
So shall thou drive them out and destroy them quickly as the Lord hath said unto thee, Speak
not in thine heart after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying,
For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land, but for the wickedness
of these nations the Lord hath dried them out from before thee.
What's he saying?
He's saying, look, it's not because you're so good.
It's just because these other people are even worse than you.
Isn't that what he's saying here?
He's saying, look, it's not because Israel is so righteous.
It's because the Hivites and the Parissa, they're even worse.
They're so wicked.
I'm going to consume them.
I'm going to wipe them out.
I'm going to use you to do it.
But don't get high minded and prideful and think like, oh, we're so righteous, we're
so much better.
He's telling them, no, that's not why.
Verse 5, not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart dost thou go
to possess the land, but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God, that dried
them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the Lord sware unto
thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Understand therefore that the Lord thy God giveth not this good land to possess it for
thy righteousness, for thou art a stiff-necked people.
Remember and forget not how thou provokest the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness.
From the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt until ye came unto this
place ye have been rebellious against the Lord.
Also in Horeb ye provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry with you to have
destroyed you.
When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the
covenant which the Lord made with you, and I abode in the mount 40 days and 40 nights,
I neither did eat bread nor drink water, and the Lord delivered unto me two tables
of stone written with the finger of God, and on them was written according to all the words
which the Lord spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of
the assembly.
And it came to pass at the end of 40 days and 40 nights that the Lord gave me the two
tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant, and the Lord said unto me, Arise, get thee
down quickly from hence, for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have
corrupted themselves, they are quickly turned aside, out of the way which I commanded them,
they have made them a molten image.
Furthermore the Lord spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and behold it is
a stiff-necked people.
Now watch verse 14 carefully.
Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven, and
I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.
Now stop right there and pay close attention to verse 14.
Here's your replacement theology right here.
Now this is long before the New Testament.
God's already ready to replace them.
I mean is he not in this scripture saying, I'll just replace them right now?
I mean do you think he's just kidding when he said that?
I don't think God is playing games here when he said, let me alone, that I may destroy
them, and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make of thee a nation mightier
and greater than they.
What's he saying?
Well Moses is a son of Abraham, Moses is a son of Isaac, Moses is a son of Jacob.
He can wipe out the majority of the wicked stiff-necked children of Israel, he can wipe
out the majority of them and do what?
Just take Moses and just make him a great nation.
Just keep the righteous people and he can still fulfill the promises to Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, right?
By making Moses into a great nation.
Okay, well stop and think about this.
What about in the New Testament when the Bible says in Romans 11, what then, hath God cast
away his people?
God forbid.
For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin.
God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.
Why?
He says, even so then at this present time also there's a remnant according to the election
of grace.
As long as he doesn't wipe them all out, he kept his promise.
Because as long as there's a remnant, that is still his people.
So in the New Testament, there's a remnant of Israel that believes on Christ.
And Paul's saying, I'm part of that remnant because I'm of Israel.
I'm of the tribe of Benjamin.
And think about Peter, James and John.
What are they?
They're Jews.
Right?
They're of Israel.
So there were a lot of Israelites in the New Testament who believed on Christ and they're
God's chosen people.
But you know what?
God rejected the vast majority of Israel because they rejected Jesus.
So when they rejected Jesus, he rejected them and he told them, he looked at the scribes
and the elders and the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the people who followed them
which was the majority and he said, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to
a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
So he gave those promises to a new nation and it's not a certain nationality.
It's not just the Greek only.
But he said it's made up of all believers whether they be Jew or Gentile, whether they
be bond or free, Scythian, barbarian.
He said that if they're in Christ, they're Abraham's seed.
If they're in Christ, they are that holy nation, that peculiar people.
So you know, people just get so hung up on, like, how could God replace Israel with Christians?
Well, he's ready to replace them with Moses and his people.
You know, it was Moses' intercession that spared them.
And in the New Testament, God has replaced the stiff-necked nation of Israel with his
chosen people, Christians.
Now are some of them of Israel?
Of course.
I mean, back then, for sure.
I mean, read it in the New Testament, right?
And you know, thousands of years later, we're all so mixed, it's not really even relevant
to talk about it.
That's why we're to avoid genealogies because it doesn't even matter.
We don't even care anymore.
Two thousand years with no genealogy, and it doesn't matter, right?
So let's jump back in here.
That's a pretty profound verse there in Deuteronomy chapter 9, verse 14.
So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire, and the two
tables of the covenant were in my two hands.
And I looked, and behold, ye had sinned against the Lord your God, and had made you a molten
calf.
What's molten mean?
It's just melted metal.
It's just talking about fashioning it out of metal.
He had turned aside quickly out of the way which the Lord had commanded you.
And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and break them before your
eyes.
And I fell down before the Lord, as at the first forty days and forty nights.
I did neither eat bread nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing
wickedly in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.
Now here's an interesting thing about Moses.
Moses was a great man of God.
If you don't believe that, you don't know the Bible very well.
Moses was the meekest man upon the face of the earth.
Moses was called the friend of God.
Moses was faithful in all his house.
The Bible is constantly praising Moses as being a godly man, a great man, a man of faith.
He's one of the most important characters in the whole Bible.
So let's just think about this man Moses.
And like I said, I feel like the book of Deuteronomy lets us get to know Moses more than any other
book, because we're hearing out of his own mouth.
And obviously it's inspired by God, but we see the man through the scriptures as well.
And so, as we read the book of Deuteronomy here, we see that Moses preaches pretty hard.
Right?
I mean, he's rebuking them, and listing off all the times they provoke God, and telling
them how they're stiff-necked, and he's a hard preacher, right?
Not only is he a hard preacher, I mean, he comes down from the mouth with those two tables
of stone.
And he just throws them on the ground and shatters them.
I mean, that's pretty dramatic, right?
Then what about when he ground up the golden calf, and then strewed it upon water and made
people drink it?
So I mean, this guy's hardcore.
Now, when we, when we see a preacher like that today, oh wait, we don't see preachers
like that today, but if we saw a preacher like that today that preached really hard
like that and rebuked like that, you know what people would say about him?
He's not loving.
Wouldn't they say that?
Oh, he's a hate preacher!
He's so hateful!
He's not loving!
But you know what's funny?
When he's alone with God, is he loving?
Because God's telling him, I'm going to wipe all these people out and make you a great
nation.
Why doesn't he just say, good idea!
Let's do it!
Okay!
Wow, really?
Great!
What does he do?
He falls on his face and begs God to spare him.
So did he have real love or not?
He has so much love that he didn't eat for 40 days and 40 nights and prayed for people.
I mean, that's an extreme amount of love.
But yet, what would people say about him?
They'd say, oh, he's not loving because he threw things.
He's not loving because he broke stuff.
He's not loving because he raised his voice.
He's not loving because he preached too hard.
He preached too mean.
He's nothing like Christ.
But yet, Christ is compared to Moses.
Okay?
And here's the thing.
Christ is obviously much greater than Moses inasmuch as he who hath builded the house
hath more honor than the house.
But that's what it tells us in Hebrews chapter 3.
But the point is, though, Moses was a godly man.
He was a great preacher.
He preached hard.
He ripped some face, but he had love in his heart.
And how can anyone dispute that?
I mean, he even asked God at one time to blot him out of his book if he won't save
the people of Israel.
And God tells him, no, that's not how it works.
You know?
He explains that to them.
But just the fact that he blurted that out shows that he cared about people.
He still loved people, right?
So the point is, don't look at hard preaching and say it's not loving.
Because that's a lie that the world's going to tell you.
Actually, hard preaching is love.
Okay?
According to this.
Because the meekest man.
And here's what they'll say, too.
When somebody preaches hard, oh, he's prideful.
But yet the Bible says Moses is the meekest man on the face of the whole earth.
So we need to make sure we get our understanding from the Bible here.
So he now look, obviously it's not humanly possible to not eat or drink for 40 days and
40 nights.
Supernaturally sustained by God.
But he still did not enjoy any food or drink during that time.
Just because God gave him the ability to do something supernatural, he still had to do
it.
Right?
He still had to skip all those meals.
And so he's fasting, he's praying, he cares about people.
And he goes up into the mount and he intercedes.
Okay?
He broke the two tables.
It says in verse 16, I looked and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God and
it made you a molten calf.
You turned aside quickly out of the way which the Lord had commanded you.
And I took the two tables and cast them out of my two hands and break them before your
eyes.
And I fell down before the Lord as at the first.
40 days and 40 nights, I did either eat bread nor drink water because of all your sins which
he sinned.
And doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger.
For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure wherewith the Lord was wroth against you to
destroy you.
But the Lord hearkened unto me at that time also.
And the Lord was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him and I prayed for Aaron
also at the same time.
I mean, Moses is probably the greatest example in the whole Bible of praying for people.
Of intercessory prayer.
Praying for others.
What it talks about in 1 John chapter 5.
If any man see his brother sin, a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask and he shall
give him life for them that sin not unto death.
There is a sin unto death, I do not say that he shall pray for it.
All unrighteousness is sin, there is a sin not unto death, right?
And it talks about praying for the one who sins a sin not unto death that God would be
merciful to them.
Okay.
Well, all sins equal.
Well, there's a sin unto death, there's a sin not unto death.
But that's another sermon.
The Bible tells us here that he prayed for Aaron.
He's interceding for the children of Israel, he's interceding for Aaron.
And I took your sin, the calf which he had made, and burnt it with fire and stamped it
and ground it very small even until it was as small as dust and I cast the dust thereof
into the brook that descended out of the mount.
That way they would have to drink out of it.
And at Tabara, and at Massa, actually I'm going to pronounce it the way that Brother
Dominique pronounced it to make it a little more, at Mesa.
You provoked the Lord in Mesa!
Right?
Make it a little more relevant to people who live in Phoenix, right?
He said, at Massa, and at Kibreth HaTayvah, you provoked the Lord to wrath.
Likewise when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land
which I have given you, then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God,
and you believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.
You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you!
Thus I fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights as I fell down at the first.
I mean, just over and over again, just praying, because they keep screwing up, I mean, years
are going by.
See, he's condensing, you know, long periods just into one chapter here and explaining
this.
And as I fell down at the first, because the Lord had said he would destroy you.
I mean, God just wants to wipe them out over and over again, again and again.
I prayed therefore unto the Lord and said, O Lord God, destroy not thy people and thine
inheritance which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth
out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin,
lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the Lord was not able to bring
them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought
them out to slay them in the wilderness.
Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power
and by thy stretched out arm.
So as we study this chapter, we see that there are a lot of reasons given why God is continuing
to use the children of Israel, why he's not going to destroy them.
And some of the reasons given are the fact that even though they're wicked, the nations
of Canaan are even more wicked.
So he's going to use them to dispossess them of the land.
Another reason given is because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
So because he loved Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because he had a covenant with them, he extends
grace and mercy unto the children of Israel for the Father's sakes.
They're beloved for the Father's sakes, as it says in Romans 11.
And then thirdly, it's given that he doesn't want people to look at it and say, oh, God
wasn't able to bring them into Canaan.
So at the end of the day, he's bringing them into the land, not for their righteousness,
but for his own glory and for the wickedness of the inhabitants of the land.
And I think the message that he's really trying to get across in this chapter is you're on
thin ice.
And if you read the whole book of Deuteronomy and get the whole context, that's basically
the message that just comes through strongly in the book of Deuteronomy is like, look,
you have messed this up so many times.
You've been this close to getting wiped out.
You know, you're on thin ice.
You better just mind your P's and Q's.
And you better keep these commandments.
You better not turn away from the Lord at all.
I mean, you'd better realize that everything you have comes from him and that he gave you
the power to get wealth.
He brought you into the land.
It's not by works of rights as we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us.
And he's just driving that in in Deuteronomy and preaching a hard sermon to serve the Lord
with fear and rejoice with trembling.
And so we need to take this preaching and apply it unto us.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that all of these things in the law of Moses
about the story involving the stiff-necked people and the children of Israel provoking
the Lord with their idolatry, with their fornication, with their other sins, it says that these
things are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.
Why do we have the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy?
It's a warning unto us, lest we should lust as they also lusted.
Lest we should commit fornication as they committed fornication and were slain of the
Lord.
What?
Twenty-three thousand in one day.
Lest we would think the same evil thought that our success, our prosperity came from
our own strength or our own power.
No, we'd better take heed unto this because you know what?
Deuteronomy chapter 10, or Deuteronomy chapter 9 rather, is a sermon that Moses could literally
get up behind the pulpit tonight if he were here.
He could preach this sermon and it would be relevant even to us.
And instead of just looking at the children of Israel and saying, man, they're stiff-necked.
And these people are idiots.
And sometimes when you're reading Exodus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, you feel that way,
right?
I mean, I know I felt that way just like, what is these people's problem?
What a bunch of idiots.
What is wrong with them?
But when you stop and think about it, though, if you really look at the stories, what they
said and what they did and how they acted, you can find parallels in our own lives.
And say, wait a minute.
What about this story where they went a few days without food and they're getting all
hangry at the Lord about it.
But what about times where we go through lean times and start complaining and murmuring?
That's the same situation where the fire of the Lord is burning.
You say, well, but yeah, they, you know, they saw that, you know, they, they crossed the
Red Sea though.
You know what?
I might as well have seen the Red Sea parting because I know it happened.
You know, you said, well, yeah, but I mean, they saw the Red Sea part.
Well, you know what?
So did we, because if you have faith, then you saw the Red Sea parted because faith is
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
So we have evidence that the Red Sea was parted in God's word.
So you know what?
We've seen through the eyes of faith, everything that they've seen.
So you know, just sit there and say, oh, but they, after they saw that, they still complain.
Well, after you saw that, you still complained.
I mean, how could they commit fornication?
How can you commit fornication?
You know, how could they do, why did they forget the Lord?
Why did you forget the Lord?
Why did you go Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and just totally forget the Lord
out of your mind?
And that's a slippery slope.
Next thing you know, you're not in church.
Next thing you know, you're not reading your Bible.
Next thing you know, you're just living a carnal, worldly life, and it takes you down
the wrong path.
And you know what?
We need to take heed unto this and say, let's not be stiff-necked.
You know, if we go to church and the preacher rips on something, you know, let's yield to
what the word of God is saying.
And when we open our Bibles in the morning, let's yield to what it teaches, let's yield
to what it says.
I mean, think about how many doctrines today, people, you show them in the Bible and they
just won't accept it.
Stiff-necked.
They need to yield to that, right, and say, you know what?
If that's what the Bible says, I'm going to adjust what I believe.
And we need to take heed unto this not to be stiff-necked, but rather to get up every
morning and thank God.
I mean, these people, it's easy for us to sit back and judge them and say, you know,
these people were slaves in Egypt.
They ought to just be thanking God every day that they don't have those taskmasters whipping
them instead of just whining about their food.
But you know what?
Why don't we thank God every day that we're not going to hell?
And why don't we thank God every day that we're not a drunk and that we're not on drugs
and that we're not out living a worthless existence?
You know, why don't we thank God for the fact that we're saved and thank God for the
fact that we're in church and that God has given us family and friends and a church and
that he's given us good food to eat and a roof over our head?
You know, why don't we just thank God for those things every day and just wake up every
morning and fear him and honor him?
And you know what?
We all need to have that healthy fear and respect of God where we kind of sometimes
feel like we're a little bit on thin ice with him.
I mean, isn't that kind of a good healthy attitude to have somebody that's like, hey,
I better watch myself, that the Lord be pleased with me, right?
I better mind my commandments here and not just go through life living a sloppy kind
of life, doing whatever I want, you know, because what if the Lord gets displeased with
me?
What if he gets sick of me slacking off and what if he gets sick of me missing church
for dumb reasons like the Super Bowl or whatever?
I didn't even know that it was a Super Bowl until I went home and I think I first heard
it when I tuned in and kind of caught the tail end of Pastor Jimenez's sermon on the
live stream and he was yelling about how you need to go to church, you know, don't
stay home for the Super Bowl.
I was like, Super Bowl?
It is the Super Bowl today, right?
Don't you be checking for updates on your cell phone?
Vanity of vanity, sayeth the preacher.
I don't even know who's playing.
I don't even, let alone both teams, I can't even name one of the teams.
Why?
Because it's not important to me.
You say, well, but I love football, but you know what though?
Church is more important, so we don't want other things in our life to become an idolatry
where it becomes the church of the NFL, you know, or whatever the sport.
You know, I remember my dad, God bless him, my dad, you know, he loved racing motocross
and he had all kinds of trophies, you know, up in a box in the attic, you know, because
vanity, right?
But he had all kinds of trophies because he raced dirt bikes and he's really good at it.
And you know, I asked my dad one time, you know, why, why didn't you go further in dirt
bike racing?
Because you're good at, he said, well, because to be a pro, you got to race on Sunday.
And I needed to go to church on Sunday.
And you know what he said?
So I raced on Saturdays because Saturdays was the amateur racing.
And on Sundays were the pros.
And I remember my uncle saying, I wish I were a Seventh-day Adventist so that I could go
pro.
That's what my uncle said.
But you know what?
My dad never said that.
You know, my dad just said, hey, you know, I went to church and I didn't get real into
motocross racing because then guess what?
I wouldn't be in church just Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, I'd be riding dirt bikes.
You know what?
Thank God.
I'd be standing here preaching right now if my dad would have just been racing dirt bikes
every Sunday instead of having his butt in church where it belonged.
If he would have made an idol out of motocross racing or whatever the sport.
And you know what?
A lot of sports are like that where they do it on Sundays, right?
So, oh, well, the team has a little chaplain that comes in.
No, you get in a real church.
Get in a real church.
You know, if I'm going to miss a church for something, it ought not be a sporting event.
You know, we need to have our priorities right.
And you know what?
I'm for playing sports because of the fact that I'm for exercise and being healthy.
I'm not for sitting on your butt and cheering on other people, but I'm for actually participating
in sports.
I think it's good and healthy.
But you know what?
If you can't find a sport that happens on Saturday, then you need to just find a different
sport.
You know what I'm saying?
If you want to run a marathon, run a marathon on Saturday.
You know, there's no, you don't have to run it on, well, I want to run the New York marathon.
No, no, no.
Be in church on Sunday.
Don't let those things take over your life.
Okay.
Don't be stiff neck.
What did that have to do with the sermon though?
Oh, that's when I heard it was the Super Bowl, listening to Pastor Amen in his sermon where
he was, and now I'm sounding like him a little bit.
But what, how did I get off on that?
Nobody knows.
Yeah, just how we need to wake up every day and realize that the Lord is the one who gave
us everything, brought us to where we are, to this, and look, a lot of us, the way that
we live our lives, it's like a promised land.
I mean, you've got all kinds of milk and honey in your cupboards, buddy.
And we live in comfort.
We live in prosperity.
We have joy.
We have the church.
I mean, look, we might as well be in Canaan right now, the way things are going so good
for us.
So we better serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling and not get lackadaisical
or apathetic or complacent or just thinking to ourselves that, oh, well, I'm smart.
That's why I have money.
That's why I'm succeeding.
No, no, no.
God is the one who gave you all that and gave you the power to get your wealth.
So we need to every day fear the Lord and every day get on our knees and just thank
God and just ask Him for mercy in our lives and just to bless us in spite of our weaknesses
and our faults and just be ready to yield to what He tells us when we open our Bible
every day, be ready to yield to that and not be, what, a stiff-necked person who's just,
I don't know, nobody's going to tell me what to do, you know.
That's just his opinion or whatever, you know, well, not if it's from the Word of God, though.
So let's apply this to ourselves and not be stiff-necked.
What's Byron's number?
Word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for everything you've given us, Lord.
I mean, we could just spend hours just thanking you for our food, our clothing, the freedoms
that we have in America, just transportation that we have, air conditioning, a heater,
we have nutritious food, we have a great church where we just have all kinds of great friends
and people to talk to that love you and that can edify us and sharpen us and build us up.
Help us never to take it for granted, Lord, and help us not to be stiff-necked and help
us not to be like the Hivites and the Canaanites, Lord, because if you wipe them out, you're
not going to go easy on anybody, Lord.
And so help us all to mind your commandments and your word and to take your word seriously
and serving you seriously, Lord, and to read the book of Deuteronomy and to be filled with
fear and dread of your judgment and to be filled with love and awe for your magnificence.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.