Amen.
Tonight I'm giving an overview of the book of Deuteronomy, which these overviews I like
to do because sometimes we look so closely at the Bible, maybe we're looking at a few
verses or even a chapter, but it's good to back up and get a big picture on what's going
on in the Bible.
One time I did a sermon that was an overview of the entire Bible, and I've done overviews
of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus numbers, and tonight I want to give an overview of the
book of Deuteronomy.
Now, the title of the book Deuteronomy literally means second law because a lot of it ends
up being a recap or a review of things that we already read about in Genesis through Numbers.
In fact, if you were to just remove the book of Deuteronomy and just go, you know, Genesis
through Numbers, you know, you're practically at Joshua anyway, right?
So why do we have the book of Deuteronomy 34 more chapters in between?
Well, it ends up a lot of it being a recap and a reiteration of things that have already
been given, but the Bible often does this because it's very helpful to get things from
a different angle.
For example, if we're reading the New Testament, we've got Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
God could have just given us one story about the life of Jesus Christ and just told us
everything in one book, but yet he chose to give us four different witnesses to the life
of Christ and by comparing them with one another, we can get different aspects of the story.
And so Deuteronomy can be compared with things in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and it can
help us by comparing spiritual things with spiritual to come to a greater understanding.
But the big difference between Deuteronomy and the other books of Moses is that Deuteronomy
a large part of it is actually Moses speaking in the first person.
So instead of just being a third person narrative, it's actually Moses saying, I did this and
I did that and I told you this and so forth.
Look at verse number one of Deuteronomy chapter one.
If you flip back to the beginning of the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter number
one says in verse one, these be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this
side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the red sea between Paran and
Tofel and Laban and Hazaroth and Dizahab, there are 11 days journey from Horeb by the
way of Mount Seir unto Canesh Barnea.
And it came to pass in the 40th year in the 11th month on the first day of the month that
Moses spake unto the children of Israel according unto all that the Lord had given him in commandment
unto them.
Now notice here at the very beginning of the book of Deuteronomy, we are already 40 years
into the wandering in the wilderness.
Do you see that?
Because it says in verse three, it came to pass in the 40th year in the 11th month.
So the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness after they left Egypt for 40 years.
We're there.
I mean, it's the 40th year and they're ready to enter the promised land.
And this is what I mean about Deuteronomy starting at a point where you're already practically
at the book of Joshua, but yet we have this second giving of the law, this review, this
reiteration of what's already been given.
And so Moses spake, it says in verse three, unto the children of Israel in that final
year toward the end of the year, they're about to go in and Moses is going to preach to the
children of Israel.
That's what the book of Deuteronomy is and that's why so much of it is in the first person.
He's reiterating things and giving laws and so forth, but a lot of it is verbal.
A lot of it is being preached.
It says in verse four, after he had slain Sihon, king of the Amorites, which dwelled
in Heshbon and Og, the king of Bashan, which dealt in Asheroth in Edrei.
Verse five, on this side Jordan in the land of Moab, so they're right there on the Jordan
River about to cross into the promised land, began Moses to declare this law saying, the
Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb saying, you've dwelt long enough in this mount and
on and on.
Now what does Moses begin to do here in Deuteronomy chapter one?
He gives a review of the history of the children of Israel after they've left Egypt and he
goes through all of the wanderings in the wilderness and all the different things that
they experienced.
So the first three chapters of Deuteronomy are just a recap of the children of Israel
failing to enter the promised land and wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.
Okay.
Then, and right now I'm just going to give you kind of a quick overview of the book.
So chapters one through three is kind of the historical recap of the last 40 years.
Then we get to chapter four, we enter a new phase in the book of Deuteronomy where Moses
is really just pleading with the people to obey God's commandments and to worship only
the Lord.
Don't get sucked in by the false gods that are around you, other false religions that
are out there.
In chapter five, which we just read before the service, he goes through the 10 commandments
and then in chapter six through 11 he just continues with more general exhortations to
obey God and basically preaching a sermon to the people.
Like I would get up in church and preach a sermon, pleading with people to obey God,
pleading with people to keep his commandments, talking about the blessings that will come
to those who follow the Lord and the curses upon those who forsake the Lord.
It's really a book of preaching up to that point.
Chapters one through 11, then there's sort of a shift in the book of Deuteronomy because
when we get to chapter 12, we enter a phase of really specific laws and so chapters 12
through 26, it's a pretty big chunk of the book of Deuteronomy, like 15 chapters of kind
of the nitty gritty of God's laws where it's actually specific laws, do this, don't do
that, and just going through those laws for like 15 chapters.
And again, a lot of that overlaps with stuff that we already have in Exodus, but it's worded
differently, it's given from a different angle, and by comparing it with Exodus, you
can get a full understanding of God's intent with those laws.
So then after we get through all of those laws in chapter 27, and if you would flip
over to chapter 27, there's the commandment given to write down the laws of God plainly
when they enter the promised land.
So if you would look at chapter 27 and verse number eight, it says, and thou shalt write
upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly.
Now in the context here, he's telling them that once they cross over the Jordan River,
once they enter into the promised land, they are to write down the words of this law plainly.
So this goes to show that the laws found in Deuteronomy were already written down in
the time of Moses because of the fact that Moses is saying, look, you're gonna take this
book of the law and you're gonna cross over the Jordan, and when you get there, you're
gonna engrave it in stone, you're gonna write it in stone clearly so that there'll be like
a monument where anybody who wants to can come and see what the laws of God are and
see what the word of God is.
Now flip back if you would to chapter three of Deuteronomy, chapter three of Deuteronomy.
So the question becomes, and sometimes this can be a controversial question for people,
but I think that the importance of this question is really overrated in my mind of, you know,
did Moses write the book of Deuteronomy, right?
And a lot of people get really hung up on did Moses write Genesis?
Did Moses write these first five books of the Bible?
Let's look at some of the evidence now and see what the Bible says and talk about why
that isn't really the big issue.
Look at Deuteronomy, chapter number three, verse number, let's see here, let's start
reading in verse number nine.
It says, which Herman the Sidonians of Sirion and the Amorites call it Shener and the cities
of the plain and all Gilead and Bashan unto Salcha and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of
Og and Bashan, okay, this is not the right part, I wrote down the wrong thing, I'm sorry.
Jump down to verse number, what in the world have I done?
Is that what I'm looking for?
No, that is not what I'm looking for.
All right, folks, smartphone to the rescue, all right?
What in the world did I write down here?
All right, it's okay, just think about what we've talked about so far for a moment.
All right, let's see, Moses wrote.
Okay, so I was way off.
Deuteronomy 31.9, so I just left out a little one there, all right, there we go, no big
deal.
Yeah, that makes a lot more sense.
Okay, Deuteronomy 31.9, sorry about that.
So Deuteronomy 31.9 says this, it says, and Moses wrote this law and delivered it unto
the priests, the sons of Levi, which bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord and unto
all the elders of Israel.
Okay, now when you look at that, you could just say, hey, case closed, Moses wrote this
law.
Done, Moses wrote the book of John, but it's not really that simple, is it?
Because it says Moses wrote this law and delivered it unto the priests, the sons of Levi, which
bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord and unto all the elders of Israel and then Moses
commanded them, yada, yada, yada.
Jump down if you would to verse 19, it says, now therefore write ye this song for you and
teach it the children of Israel, put it in their mouths that the song may be a witness
for me against the children of Israel.
And then if you jump down to verse 22, it says Moses therefore wrote this song the same
day and taught it the children of Israel.
And then it says in verse 24, and it came to pass when Moses had made an end of writing
the words of this law in a book until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites,
which bear of the ark of the covenant of the Lord saying, take this book of the law and
put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there
for a witness against thee.
But here's the question though, did Moses actually write in that book that he wrote,
Moses wrote all this law?
And the answer is obviously not.
He did not write, Moses wrote this law, okay?
The law that Moses wrote, that's what Moses wrote.
And another author is saying, Moses wrote this law that we've just been giving you all
these commandments and chapters and chapters full of commandments.
That's what Moses wrote.
But Deuteronomy in its final form was not written by Moses.
I'll prove it to you.
Look at Deuteronomy chapter 34.
Of course, Deuteronomy chapter 34 records Moses dying.
So it's not like Moses is sitting there and Moses died.
That's bad news.
I guess now, spoiler alert, I'm about to die.
Now obviously that's possible, but it would be bizarre and it's unlikely.
But now I'm going to prove to you beyond a shadow of a doubt that Moses did not write
this chapter because look what the Bible says in verse 10, and there arose not a prophet
since in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knew face to face.
Now how could Moses write that sentence?
Because if it says, hey, never since Moses did there arise a prophet like Moses, a long
time would have to go by.
Does anybody understand that?
Because let's say this is written like by Joshua.
A lot of people will say, well, Joshua tagged on this last chapter, but why would Joshua
like a short time later say there, there arose no prophet since in Israel.
There just never was another prophet like, but it's like, well, excuse me, it's been
five years, you know, give it a little time.
Obviously it's being written hundreds of years later, hundreds of years later, someone's
taking the law that Moses wrote and putting it into a book called Deuteronomy that explains,
hey, here's what Moses preached when they were on this side of the Jordan.
Here's the law that Moses delivered and then he was told by God to write it down.
So he wrote it down and it was preserved and then they wrote it over here and blah, blah,
blah.
So basically there is a framework that's written way later.
The book of Deuteronomy is way later, but it records the words that Moses preached verbally
and it records things that Moses did write down, namely the statutes and commandments
that form the meat and potatoes of the book of Deuteronomy.
Now here's the thing that matters.
The thing that matters is that all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
That's what matters.
And when it comes to the authorship of the Bible, we are told that holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Now that's all we really need to know.
We don't necessarily need to know the names of the authors because the majority of the
books in the Bible are anonymous in their human authorship.
Who wrote Judges?
Who wrote Ruth?
Who wrote first and second Samuel?
Who wrote first and second Kings?
We don't know.
And not only that, it doesn't matter.
And if it mattered, God would tell us.
Okay.
At the end of the day, all that we need to know is that all this scripture is given by
inspiration of God.
So if Moses wrote part of it at the time, someone else came along later and added to
it and built upon it and put it into a story, either way, God was working through that process
and that holy man of God who wrote chapter 34 was writing as he was moved by the Holy
Ghost.
It doesn't have to be a famous Bible character.
Sometimes people will try to say, well, I think Jeremiah wrote it or I think Isaiah,
you know, they just want to grab some big name author.
It really doesn't matter who the author was and he doesn't have to be a big name guy to
have credibility because at the end of the day, our faith and trust isn't in Moses or
Jeremiah or these human beings.
At the end of the day, our faith is in the God who inspired the word.
I mean, why do I believe the book of Mark?
Is it because the book of Mark is written by Mark and Mark is just such a trustworthy
guy?
I mean, if Mark says it, I believe it.
That settles it.
Who is Mark?
You know, I mean, maybe it's Peter's nephew.
It's not one of the 12 disciples, but you know what?
The book of Mark is the word of God.
How do I know that?
Because God's word has power.
God's word is self authenticating.
God's word is unlike any other book that's ever been written and so God's word proves
itself to be God's word because people have tried to write imitations and they can't.
And so God's word is God's word because it was inspired by God, not because it was written
by a certain individual or people will demand that Moses wrote all of Genesis.
Again, not important because it's not like Moses was there witnessing the creation, was
he?
But Moses was there hanging out with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and writing a firsthand account.
He lived hundreds of years later.
So who cares if maybe the book of Genesis was written a few hundred years after that?
And look, let me give you some evidence on that.
Go to Genesis 36 31.
And again, I don't want to spend a long time on this, but I do want to just touch on this
point because I think it's important that we have a right understanding of the inspiration
of scripture and that we understand that it's not based on how cool the guy was who
wrote it down or how big of a name he was.
At the end of the day, what matters is that it's divinely inspired and that the human
authors are often anonymous and that's okay.
And if someone comes along and says, Hey, I've got proof that Moses didn't write part
of Genesis.
I've got proof that Moses didn't write part of Deuteronomy.
I would just be like, I don't care.
So what?
What we know is that Moses was there at Mount Sinai.
He received the 10 Commandments from God written with the finger of God.
And he did receive a book of the law, probably Exodus chapters 22 through 24.
That's the part that he got from God on Mount Sinai on that first visit.
And then later on, he gets more from God.
He speaks more on the Jordan River.
They write more of the word of God down.
It goes into the Ark of the Covenant, but it's not like in the Ark of the Covenant was
like Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
Never since arose a guy like Moses is what it says in there.
That doesn't make any sense.
Okay.
Look at Genesis chapter 36 and look at verse 31 and I'm not going to belabor this point,
but there are all kinds of little things like this that I could show you that indicate the
fact that it's obviously written way later.
It says in Genesis 36, 31, and these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom before
there reigned any king over the children of Israel.
That statement wouldn't really make a lot of sense being written by Moses before they
enter the promised land, would it?
Like, hey, these, all these kings reigned in Edom long before there was ever a king
in Israel.
If there'd never been a king in Israel, that statement wouldn't really make a lot of sense,
would it?
Now again, that's not to say that part of the book of Genesis, a lot of the book of
Genesis wasn't written in the time of Moses.
Obviously the first five books are the books of Moses.
They all go together into one narrative, they, you know, Genesis flows into Exodus, Exodus
flows into Leviticus, but it's all put together much later.
But guess what?
That doesn't matter because it's inspired by God and whoever put it together, whoever
wrote it down was inspired by God and it's God's word.
Not because Moses said it, but because God said it.
Okay.
And so it's important that we understand that otherwise skeptics will come along and try
to use this to somehow debunk that the Bible is legitimate or that it's God's word because
I mean if it wasn't really written by Moses, I don't care who wrote the Bible, whoever
it was was inspired by God as proven by how amazing the text is.
So we want to make sure our faith is in the right place.
Our faith is in the power of God's word.
Our faith is in the inspiration of God's word, not in a human being, even if that human being
is Moses.
You know, Moses is not my savior, right?
Jesus is my savior.
God is the author.
Moses was not some genius who came up with all these wonderful laws.
Moses is a guy who went up on the mountain and had the laws handed to him.
Okay.
He was the law giver, but he received the law from God.
He didn't dream up these laws on his own.
And so he gave the law, but a lot of the story part of it is obviously written much later
or at least there are layers of it that are written much later.
And so I just wanted to make that point once again, and I don't want to spend too much
time on it.
Okay.
So back to Deuteronomy, okay?
So we've got the book of Deuteronomy chapters one through 11 are a lot of preaching.
He gives the history.
He gives some general pleadings with God's people to do what's right.
Chapters 12 through 26 are the specific laws.
That's probably what was written down by Moses and put in that Ark of the Covenant for sure.
All those specific laws of how they were to live and so forth.
Then when we get into chapter 27, we saw the part about how the law was to be written in
stone in Israel so that anybody could walk up and see it.
Because obviously if God's gonna hold people accountable for laws, they have to know what
those laws are.
I mean, how would you like to be held accountable to laws and you have no way to look them up
and even see what they are.
That wouldn't be fair, would it?
So God wanted everybody to know what the rules are, what the laws are, and so it was written
in stone publicly.
Now go if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 28.
And Deuteronomy chapter 28 is one of my favorite chapters in the book of Deuteronomy and it
really encapsulates in many ways the message of Deuteronomy in general.
Because if we were to just summarize what is the message of the book of Deuteronomy
and just give it to you in a nutshell, it is that if you obey God, you are gonna be
blessed and things are gonna go well for you.
And if you disobey God, things are gonna go very badly for you.
You're gonna be cursed and you're gonna be doomed.
And the nations of Canaan are doomed because of their wickedness and Israel will only succeed
if they obey the Lord, if they worship him alone.
That's the big message of Deuteronomy from start to finish.
I mean, that's what that sermon and preaching in chapters one through 11 are all about.
He's just hammering that.
And then after the 12 through 26 chapters, the specific commandments, he again just goes
back to just hammering this truth that you have to obey God if you want to be blessed
in life.
And in Deuteronomy 28, he goes through all the blessings that will overtake you and come
upon you if you obey God's commandments and all of the cursings if you don't.
Now a lot of people would say, well, these are laws that are of the Old Testament.
And so that's for the children of Israel back then.
It doesn't really apply to us now because we're living in the New Testament.
We're under grace.
We're not under the law.
And of course, there's truth to that because we are in the New Testament.
But here's what you have to understand is that the same principle applies that if we
obey God, we will be blessed and if we disobey God, we will be cursed.
Even as Christians, even as saved, born-again children of God, even though we could never
lose our salvation, we could definitely be cursed on this earth.
We can definitely reap what we sow in this lifetime.
I mean, if we are saved Christians and just disregard God's laws and do whatever we want
and just go out and live a worldly life, do you actually think that there are going to
be no consequences for that?
You say, well, I'm going to heaven no matter what.
Amen.
If you've believed on Christ, nothing can separate you from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus, your Lord.
You shall not come into condemnation.
You've been passed from death to life.
But let's not forget that whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourges every son whom
he receiveth.
And you know, scourge is a pretty strong word, isn't it?
Scourging is to be beaten with a whip.
He scourges every son whom he receiveth.
And so therefore, if you disobey God, expect God to whip you in this life.
And if you obey God, expect God to bless you and expect things to go well.
Obviously, there are always going to be trials and tribulations.
But in general, if you obey God, things will go well for you in life.
And you know, so many people, they just they keep failing in life or having problems in
their life and everything's going badly and everything goes wrong and they just can't
seem to get ahead.
They just can't seem to succeed or prosper in their life.
But yet these same people aren't really necessarily giving a lot of attention to obeying the Lord.
Now if you want things to go well in life, you need to take heed unto God's word and
take heed to do all things that Christ commanded us.
Sure, this is specifically about the old covenant.
But in First Corinthians chapter 10, it says that all these things were written for us,
for an example unto us upon whom the ends of the world are come, Deuteronomy is written
for us, because we're supposed to be preaching the gospel to every creature, baptizing people
in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
And what else are we supposed to be doing?
Teaching people to observe all things that Christ commanded us.
So if we're supposed to be teaching people to observe all things that Christ commanded,
sounds like we got some commandments to deal with, even in the New Testament, don't we?
Or are we living in a time of no rules?
No rules, anything goes, just follow your heart, go as the Spirit leads.
Hey, I'm for following the Spirit, but the Spirit's gonna talk to you through this book
and this book's gonna tell you about some rules and the Spirit's gonna tell you do those
things that Christ commanded.
Re-fornication, don't kill, don't steal, don't commit adultery, don't covet, right?
We are to observe those things.
And if you are dissatisfied with the way that your life is turning out, and you feel like
everything you do is failing, and you're not prospering, you're not succeeding, you're
not getting where you wanna be, then ask yourself, are you obeying God?
Are you living for God?
Is God a big part of your life, or is he just kind of in the back burner, check it off,
you go to church every once in a while, and it's all about you on Monday, it's about you
on Tuesday, it's about you on Wednesday, it's about you on Thursday, oh, I don't understand
why things are not going well for me.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God, Jesus said, and his righteousness and all these things
will be added unto you.
And that's really the message of the book of Deuteronomy more than anything else.
And then in the historical books that follow, because Deuteronomy rolls right into Joshua
and Judges and all the books of the kings and so forth, in those books that follow,
there's a strong message telling you, look, this is what happens when you don't obey God,
and bad stuff happens, and then here's what happens when you do obey God, and it goes
well.
It's a very strong message of the Bible.
And it's not like in the New Testament that all of a sudden changed and now all of a sudden
your life is just a roll of the dice how things are going to go.
No, the path to God's blessing is through the door of obedience.
And so he says here in this chapter in verse number one, and you tell me if this is still
relevant to us today in the New Testament, and it shall come to pass that thou shalt
hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and to do all his commandments
which I command thee this day, that the Lord will set thee on high above all nations of
the earth, and all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken
unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of
thy cattle, the increase of thy kind, and the flocks of thy sheep.
Look, everybody wants this.
I want to be blessed when I go in the city.
I want to be blessed when I go in the field, right?
I mean, I want to be blessed when I'm doing my urban city-type job, right?
If that's electrical or you're a computer programmer or you're an architect or whatever
it is that you do in the city of Phoenix, Arizona, you go into the city.
Hey, you want whatsoever you do to prosper.
And God says, hey, hearken unto me, do my commandments, and I'll bless you in the city.
Now most of us don't really do much in the field, okay?
But let's say we did.
Let's say we were farmers or something like that, which obviously most Americans are no
longer farmers because most farming is now done by machines.
But if I were a farmer, hey, I would want God to bless me in the field and make sure
that it rains at the right time and that the pests are kept at bay and so forth.
And so really, you could sum this up in verse three, being blessed in the city and blessed
in the field is being blessed at your job.
You're being blessed at work is what that's saying.
Because the field or the city is your work, depending on what you do for a living.
The cattle, the fruits of the ground, again, this has to do with your job, your livelihood,
the stuff that you do for a living, whether you're a shepherd or a farmer or whatever
you do.
And again, remember, historically, 90% of people have been farmers.
Whereas today, because of machines, it's a lot less than that, okay?
But you just apply this to your job, whatever your job may be.
And then the Bible says, blessed shalt thou be, verse six, when thou comest in, blessed
shalt thou be when thou goest out.
The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face.
They shall come out against thee one way and flee before thee seven ways.
The Lord shall command blessings upon thee in thy storehouses and all that thou set aside
hand unto.
There are people out there that want to do us harm, that hate us, that are enemies.
We want God to just slap them upside the head.
And not only that, we want it to happen before our face because it's fun to watch, okay?
So it says, the Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before
thy face, right?
Hey, they come against you, God will destroy them.
They will be wiped out.
No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.
God will protect his children who are living for him.
The Bible says in verse nine, the Lord shall establish thee and holy people unto himself
as he had sworn unto thee.
If thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God and walk in his ways and all
people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord and they shall
be afraid of thee.
And what's the Bible saying here?
People will see you and realize, hey, this guy, this gal is a real Christian.
This is someone whom God is blessing.
And the Bible talks about how in the New Testament we should let our good works shine forth so
that people could see our good works and glorify our father, which is in heaven.
And when it says they shall be afraid of thee, he's saying, you know, people are gonna be
afraid to mess with you because they realize that you're a godly Christian and they don't
want to mess with that.
They don't want to get some kind of curse of God on them for messing with someone whom
God is blessing.
The Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods.
Verse 11, in the fruit of thy body and in the fruit of thy cattle and the fruit of thy
ground in the land which the Lord swear unto thy fathers to give thee, the Lord shall open
to the, his good treasure, the heaven to give rain unto thy land and his season and
to bless all the work of thine hand and thou shalt lend unto many nations and thou shalt
not borrow.
Let me tell you something.
If you wake up in the morning and just jump right into work, you just wake up, it's just
jump right into work and you're just working and just, it's all about your job.
It's all about doing that work and you're not stopping to read the Bible, you're not
stopping to pray unto the Lord, you're not stopping to sing praises to his name.
You're not going to be as productive as if you take that time to first seek the kingdom
of God.
So even, let's say I burn up an hour, let's say I'm super busy and look, I've been super
busy at my, cause I used to work, right now I'm only a pastor full time, but I used to
work a secular job in addition to pastoring and the way that my business worked, it was
feast or famine.
So there were times when work was slow, but I lived, when it came to my business, I lived
for the months of March and April because I would get hit with hundreds of jobs that
all had to be done during that time and brother Scott remembers those days because he helped
me out on those times and we worked like, we would literally be out in the field for
like over a hundred hours a week and he was there and he was driving the car and he talked
my ear off, but anyway, we'd be driving around and doing all these fire alarm calls and I
was in the back of the car doing paperwork and we would just eat, drive, sleep, work
and I would literally just fly back and preach at Faithful Word on Wednesday night and fly
right back to work.
I mean it was intense during those months of March and April and I made like half my
money for the whole year during those two months.
The other 10 months I just had to kind of get by because those two months basically
made my whole year.
So I had to work like over a hundred hours a week, but you know what I did?
Even when everything was just going crazy and everything was so busy, obviously we turned
on the audio Bible.
Obviously we got the Word of God in, we got prayer in, but here's the thing about that
though is that on Sunday I just dropped everything on Sunday, even though I have work coming
out my ears, so much money to be made, I just dropped everything and I went to church on
Sunday morning, spent the afternoon on Sunday afternoon soul winning, went back to church
on Sunday night and it was just seeking the kingdom of God and in fact that's in those
days is when the Sunday soul winning time was invented because I've never been to a
church that had soul winning on Sunday before.
I went to church to do soul winning on Saturday or maybe a weeknight.
The Sunday soul winning time was invented because that was the only day that I was consistently
here and I'm like well I know I'm here on Sunday so I'm just going to go soul winning
on Sundays, okay?
Because that was when I knew I was here.
And so I guarantee you that if I would have stopped reading my Bible during those months
and said hey, ain't nobody got time for that, I got to get all these jobs done.
And if I would have been skipping church services, skipping Bible reading, skipping soul winning,
I don't think I would have been more productive, I think I would have been less productive
because when God sees you stop everything and serve him, he's going to bless you, you're
going to be more productive.
I'll put it this way, let's say you have 16 waking hours in the day and you spend one
hour with the Lord first thing, you're going to get more done in the 15 hours than you
would if you had the whole 16.
Because you know and I know that there are those days where you're just spinning your
wheels and getting nothing done.
I mean how often do we waste a full hour on something stupid?
We waste two hours, you know we're at work and we have a problem and it just eats up
three hours, just four hours on something stupid.
You know you're trying to fish one wire down that wall and it just takes hours.
But I could have read my Bible during that hour and then God could have just allowed
that fish to just go right into the hole.
Just first try, you just shove the snake down and it's like it's already there.
I believe that from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, that if you seek first
the kingdom of God, you will be more productive in the time that's left.
And look, just take a few moments, whether you feel like it or not, and open that Bible
and read it.
Pray, go to church, go sowing.
When Scott and I were doing all that work in those years, you know what I did for Scott
is when Scott would be stuck in California, because I'd fly back to Faithful Word, he
didn't necessarily fly back, I said, hey, here's a church for you to go to Scott.
And I sent you to church in Fresno, California and he'd go to Baptist Church on Wednesday
night.
I was making sure that I was in church and then I wasn't telling him, well Scott, I got
to go back and preach because I'm the pastor, but you just got to push through buddy.
I was like, no Scott, you have the right to stop and go to church too, here's a church
for you to go to.
And Scott went and he learned all about the pre-trib rapture and it was great, but the
bottom line is, you know, that both of our butts were in church.
No matter how busy work was, no matter how crazy things were, it was like, hey, stop,
let's read our Bible.
You know, hey, and if we're driving down the road, turn on an audio Bible, let's kill two
birds.
You say, I'm just too busy.
Well, you know what?
Do you drive to work?
How about you shut off all those brain dead talk shows and turn on the word of God and
then you can say, you read your Bible that day and then God spoke to you that day and
then you actually got some spiritual meat and so it is so important to understand what's
being taught.
Yes, in Deuteronomy 28, but really this is the whole message of Deuteronomy.
You want things to go well, you want to prosper, you want to be blessed, you better be right
with God because God has the power to make things go great for you and he has the power
to make you crash and burn.
Now we get into the crash and burn because actually the blessings of this chapter are
verses one through 14, the curses are, you'd expect them to be like 15th or 28, but they're
not 15th or 28, they're 15th or 68, okay?
Because God used a little bit of carrot at the beginning of the chapter and now a whole
lot of stick for the rest of the chapter.
And so he says in verse 15, but it shall come to pass if thou wilt not hearken unto
the voice of the Lord thy God to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which
I command thee this day that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee.
And some of this is analogous to what we already saw, you know, cursed shalt thou be in the
city, cursed shalt thou be in the field.
So a lot of this is just the opposite of what we saw.
But then he also says, specifically in verse 21, the Lord shall make the pestilence cleave
unto thee.
Now what is, pestilence is disease.
Until you have consumed thee from off the land, whether thou goest to possess it.
The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption and with a fever and with an inflammation
and with an extreme burning and with the sword and with blasting and with mildew, they shall
pursue thee until thou perish.
Now some people can be so foolish to think, you know, I don't see how God could mess with
me because my life is so secure right now.
Like I don't really need God's help right now.
I'm fine.
You know, I'm, my job's going good, my life's going good.
I got to, but you know, that's what happens to the children of Israel over and over again
in the historical books that follow Deuteronomy when things go well, what do they do?
They forget the Lord because things are going well and then God punishes them for forgetting
the Lord.
And so this attitude of, well, I mean, what's God going to do to me?
Well, how does an inflammation sound?
How does an extreme burning, how does an itch and a scab and a pestilence sound?
Let me tell you something.
God can snap his fingers and have you just writhing on the ground in extreme pain, in
the fetal position, in total pain.
You know, we're so tough and so proud and you know, so big and strong and you know,
maybe you're super physically fit, but here's the thing, you know, God can just take that
away from you like that.
You know, I remember last year I was doing a lot of exercise.
I was in really good shape, but then all of a sudden I just woke up one morning and my
back was like, you know, and that's, you know, who's ever had that happen before?
Yeah.
A lot of people.
Right.
All the old people.
Okay.
And I'm not even old.
All right.
But I mean my back just, it was nothing, nothing even happened.
It wasn't like I was lifting a piano or something.
I literally just got out of bed, bent over to pick something up and it was just like,
ah, okay.
So I tried to go about my day as usual and I got a couple hours into the day and I found
myself on the ground in public.
Now that's a little embarrassing when you're on the ground.
So I'm like, you know, trying to, trying to get into a chair or something so that I could
look how, you know, I'm like, you know, and I get into a chair and super awkward, super
embarrassing because I was in a public place and I had to call my wife.
Oh yeah.
And it started raining on me.
So it was just like pouring rain and I'm just like on the ground trying to get up.
I finally get in a chair under like an umbrella.
I had to call my wife to come pick me up and like slither into the back of the van and
I'm like, bring me a pillow honey, you know, come pick me up and bring me a pillow.
And then I'm just like laying in the back of the van on a pillow and I was messed up
for a couple days and here's what I found out.
It turns out that your back is connected to every single thing in your body.
Every single muscle and body part turns out is connected through the back.
Turns out like if your body's a wheel, your back is like the spoke of that wheel and nothing
happens without your back.
So I mean just every movement hurt.
Just trying to use the bathroom, just it's things you take for granted of just going
to the bathroom.
Well, you know what?
Going to the bathroom was difficult.
Thankfully I figured out how to do it on my own.
Otherwise I would have been really humiliated.
But you know what?
Hey, I'm just saying, and look, I'm not saying that God was cursing me or something because
I had a great year, everything was fine.
But whenever things like that happened to me, here's what I think about though.
How God could just do that to me or worse anytime.
So that's why I fear God because I know that God could keep me healthy or he can put me
through pain.
God, and look, you say, well God sounds mean.
Hey, God loves me.
God loves you.
God chastens us for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness.
You know, I thank God for all the pain that I've gone through in my life because you know
what?
We've all gone through pain in our lives, haven't we?
We've all gone through pain, but I thank God for all the pain that I've endured because
pain is a tool sometimes that God uses to make us a better person.
We have to go through suffering to be purged and also just to humble us because again,
when those type of things happen, it causes you to think about life and think about how
fragile life is and you know, you start feeling so high and mighty until you're struggling
to get to the toilet.
Now you're not such a tough guy, right?
You see these big tough guys walking around with their chest out and everything, you know,
but when you're crawling to the toilet, just praying and begging God, please God, let me
use this toilet without having to get help because I don't want somebody to have to come
help me use the toilet because I want to use the toilet by myself because I want to have
some dignity as a human being.
Hey, you know, you don't forget to pray that day.
Other days you forget to pray, but when you're crawling toward the toilet, all of a sudden
prayer is at the top of your list of things to do that day.
And so you don't want God to have to do things like that to you to get your attention or
to teach you, hey buddy, you need me.
I sustain you.
You live on this earth to serve me.
You are not your own.
You are bought with a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
Hey, I belong to God.
So what if I'm just going through life, just always doing my own thing, only caring about
myself, only serving myself, not doing anything for God.
God might have to just go boing and say, hey buddy, remember me and, and get your attention
and get you relying on him.
And again, I'm not saying that every time you get sick or get hurt, that that's God
messing with you, but can God do that?
Of course.
Did he say that he would do it?
He said in Deuteronomy 28 that he's got all kinds of inflammations and burnings and scabs
and all kinds of things lined up that can be deployed if necessary.
Now again, sometimes you strain your back cause you strained your back.
Sometimes you got a cold cause you got a cold.
You know, I'm not saying that all of these things are divine intervention and you say,
well, you know, pastor Anderson, why do you got to make it all spiritual?
Because you know what?
I'd rather, you know what?
I probably just hurt my back just from overdoing some exercise or something, okay?
But okay, but is there any harm in me falling to my knees and saying, oh God, oh God, please
help me because you have total control over my body and, and you know, I can be just completely
debilitated at your hand.
You know, me interpreting it as, hey, God's showing me who's boss or something.
Hey, that's not going to hurt anything to think that way.
I want to go through my whole life thinking that way.
In fact, every day of every year I want to think to myself, my destiny is in God's hand
because then I'm going to live my life differently than if I think, well, it's all up to me.
No, no, no.
I better get God on my side.
And you know, the temptation is there sometimes to just, you know, reach for those car keys
or reach for something else instead of reaching for the Bible first and saying, hey, let's
spend all the time with the Lord first or turning that dial to something other than
the word of God.
You know, if you haven't read your Bible yet today, you've no right to be just listening
to the radio.
If you haven't read your Bible yet, you know, if your Bible readings out of the way, that's
one thing.
But you know, if you haven't read your Bible yet, hey, time to pull up that Bible app and
listen to the word of God.
If you haven't read it yet, seek first the kingdom of God.
You don't want these curves.
I mean, these are scary things and you say, well, you know, is fear a good way to motivate
God's people?
Well, you know, the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
So I fear God.
And he goes on to say, uh, that verse 23 thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass.
The earth that is under thee shall be iron.
The Lord shall make the reign of thy land powder and dust from heaven shall it come
upon thee until thou be destroyed like a dust bowl.
Right?
And look at the history of the United States.
Did we have a dust bowl incident in our country?
Isn't it interesting that we have the great depression, the, the stock market crash of
1929, the dust bowl, and you know what, by the way, obviously the stock market crash
of 1929 was catastrophic, but did you know that it also coincided with natural disasters
that happened coincidentally at the same period.
So it was like, first you have the economic collapse and then a few years later you have
natural disasters come through.
Okay.
And so it created a perfect storm of multiple things going wrong and it actually had an
impact all over the world.
Okay.
But I wonder if it's a coincidence that all of these horrible things happened in the early
1930s following the decade that is known as the Roaring Twenties.
Now it's not called the Roaring Twenties because preachers were roaring forth the word of God.
The Roaring Twenties, a bunch of drinking and partying and wild times.
And you know that guy's not going to bless that.
By the way, you look at Germany in the 1920s, Germany in the 1920s was worse than the United
States in the 1920s.
Germany in the 1920s was super wicked.
I'm talking sodomites, perversion, wickedness, I mean really bad.
Really bad.
So then they were blessed with what?
I mean look, by the time World War II was over, that country had been really destroyed.
I mean, there was like a whole generation of young men just dead.
Okay.
In fact, my wife was listening to some historical preaching from Germany and the preacher was
talking about how there was just that whole generation of young men that were wiped out.
So there were like too many women for how many men there were in the country because
just so many men had been killed and then it was leading to moral problems of adultery
and all kinds of things and everything like that.
Because look, by the end of World War II, the German army was literally conscripting
teenage boys and elderly people into the army because just so many people were dead.
So things did not end well.
But is it a coincidence that all these bad events happened in the United States in the
1930s, all these bad things happened to Germany and everything?
After a period of sinfulness and decadence and wickedness, God's not going to bless that.
Okay.
And so God has said that he would say in the Dust Bowl, we had the Dust Bowl in the United
States, after the Roaring Twenties, we get the Dust Bowl.
And on and on we go down here, verse number 27, the Lord will smite thee with the botch
of Egypt and with the emerods and with the scab and with the itch whereof thou canst
not be healed.
The Lord shall smite thee with madness and blindness and astonishment of heart.
And it goes on and on and on, all of the horrible things that are going to happen.
It says in verse 37, thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb and a byword among
all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee.
You say, man, you know, why are people so negative about the Jews all the time, right?
I mean, what is the deal?
Why is everybody always hating on the Jews?
Because isn't that what God said would happen in verse 37?
He said, if they disobey the Lord, they're going to be a proverb and a byword.
What's a byword?
A byword is like when somebody says like, hey, don't be such a Jew.
That's a byword, right?
It's when somebody uses your name as a derogatory term.
That's a byword.
Somebody's going to make you a reproach, an astonishment, a byword.
Why are people negative toward the Jews?
Why were they kicked out of so many countries?
Why have they been so persecuted and cursed over the centuries?
Because God said that if they did not obey the Lord, that they would be astonishment,
a proverb and a byword among all nations whether the Lord would lead them.
When they went into captivity, when they were dispersed in the diaspora, they became a byword
and a curse and an astonishment and a proverb.
You know what it means by a proverb?
Like hey, let me give you some advice.
Don't be like the Jews.
That's what he means by a proverb.
Okay?
Hey, let me give you some advice.
You don't want to end up like this country, like this state, like this group of people.
That's what it means here.
And you don't want your name to be inserted there like, hey, the last thing you want to
do is end up like Steven Anderson ended up.
You'd hate for somebody to say something like that about you, wouldn't you?
Where your name just, like think about people's names who've become a byword and a proverb.
Benedict Arnold.
Most people in this room probably couldn't really articulate the story of Benedict Arnold,
who he was, what he did, how he ended his life.
They don't know the details.
They only know one thing about Benedict Arnold, just only one thing.
He's a traitor.
It's like, hey, I don't know anything about Benedict Arnold.
Who would say the only thing I know about Benedict Arnold is pretty much that he's a traitor?
Be honest.
All right.
Yeah.
Because that's all he's known for.
You know, and you could, you could name other people that are sort of just known for one
thing and it's something bad.
Okay.
And so therefore you don't want to be someone whose life is such a disaster that it just
becomes an example, a bad example.
I got to hurry for sake of time because this chapter is such a great, you know, you could
spend, you could spend several sermons just in this chapter, all the blessings and cursings,
but we're trying to give an overview of the whole book.
But the reason I spent extra time here is because I feel like this chapter really gives
the whole theme of the entire book because that, that, you know, chapters one through
11 are really hammering the point that's made in Deuteronomy 28.
So let me get into chapter 29 and there's more of an exhortation to just keep the law,
worship the Lord.
Chapter 30 is the famous passage about how the word is nigh thee and it says in verse
11 of chapter 30, for this commandment, which I command thee this day, it is not hidden
from thee, neither is it far off.
It is not in heaven that thou shouldst say, who shall go up for us to heaven and bring
it down unto us that we may hear it and do it.
Neither is it beyond the sea that thou shouldst say, who shall go over the sea for us and
bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it.
Watch this verse 14, but the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart
that thou mayest do it.
And of course that's talking about how the commandments of God are written down, they're
engraving in stone, everybody knows what they are and so forth.
But the apostle Paul, he quotes this in Romans chapter 10 and applies it to the gospel and
says that when it comes to salvation, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in
thy heart.
That is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in that heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved.
So just as the law was near unto the children of Israel, the gospel of Jesus Christ is near
unto us, it's readily available in the New Testament.
So Paul takes Deuteronomy 30 and applies it in the New Testament.
And really, that's what we need to do when we're reading this book.
Instead of saying, oh, it's obsolete, it's Old Testament, no, no, you apply it, you adapt
it to the New Testament, okay?
If God's telling them keep the law so you can be a blessed nation, then you could apply
it as keep the commandments of Christ so that you can be a blessed Christian.
And obviously all of these things still apply.
And then he has of course the wonderful passage from verses 15 through 20 exhorting you to
choose life.
I set before you this day life and death, blessing and cursing, choose life.
And again, if you choose the blessing of God, you're choosing to serve the Lord with your
life because if you ignore God, bad things are gonna happen.
Chapter 31, we have the discussion of Joshua taking over for Moses after he's gone and
Joshua is gonna be the successor of Moses.
Chapter 32, we have the song of Moses, which is something that they would remember even
if they forgot the Bible, they'd remember the music, they'd remember the song.
And so it's again, teaching them spiritual truth through song.
Chapter 33, we have an individual blessing for each tribe going through with Reuben and
Judah and Levi and Benjamin and Joseph and Zebulun, all the different tribes are getting
their blessings in chapter 33.
And then as we said before, chapter 34 is the death of Moses and it records how Moses
doesn't get to go into the promised land, he gets to look over and see it with his eyes,
but not enter.
And let's just wrap up with the end of the book of Deuteronomy and get kind of some closure
here.
It says in verse five, so Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab
according to the word of the Lord, and he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab
over against Beth Peor, but no man knoweth of a sepulcher unto this day.
And Moses was 120 years old when he died, his eye was not dim nor his natural force
abated, and the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days, so the
days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands
upon him, and the children of Israel hearkened unto him and did as the Lord commanded Moses.
And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to
face, in all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt
to Pharaoh, and to all his servants and to all his land, and in all that mighty hand,
and in all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel.
And of course you roll right into the book of Joshua chapter 1 verse 1, now after the
death of Moses the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua
the son of Nun, Moses' minister sang.
And then we get into the book of Joshua.
So all that say this, okay, Genesis through Numbers gives us the entire story of the children
of Israel, you know, creation of man, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Exodus, wandering in the wilderness
for 40 years, at the end of Numbers we're ready to enter the Promised Land, I mean we're
right there.
That's why Deuteronomy chapter 1 starts with, hey, it's the 40th year, it's the 11th month,
and it's just one final sermon or preaching or pleading from the man of God, you know,
going back and reviewing the laws of God, explaining them from a different point of
view, explaining them in different detail, and really it's just a lot of preaching admonishing
the children of Israel, please don't destroy yourselves by forgetting the Lord and following
these pagan gods and ignoring his commandments, you've got to obey God if you want to be blessed.
And so Deuteronomy is a great book of preaching.
Genesis is a great story, Exodus is a great story, and then it turns into a lot of laws,
Leviticus is a great book of laws, Numbers, a lot of laws, a lot of stories, a lot of
counting, but what sets Deuteronomy apart is Deuteronomy is a book more than any of
those other four, it's a book of preaching.
It's a book of preaching.
It's really a book appealing to you, passionately exhorting you, do what the law says.
You know, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers are telling you what to do, and then Deuteronomy
is sort of just begging you to do it and just trying to scare you into doing it, telling
you look, you don't want to go down this dark path of disobeying God.
And so it's a really great book to read in your personal life, just in your own personal
devotions, right?
Waking up in the morning and reading a few chapters of Deuteronomy, it really puts you
in a frame of mind of, hey, you know, I need to be obeying the Lord if I want God to bless
me in my life.
And I understand we're not living in the Old Testament, I understand we're in the New Testament,
but commandments are still a thing, the fear of the Lord is still a thing in the New Testament.
God's blessings and cursings, God's chastisement, and God's rewards are all still a thing.
And so Deuteronomy is a great book that speaks to our heart about loving God, keeping his
commandments, and not forsaking the right way.
And by the way, the books that Jesus quotes the most, Jesus quotes the Old Testament,
but which books does he quote the most?
He quotes the most from Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Isaiah.
So apparently, Deuteronomy is pretty important to our Lord Jesus Christ, and not only that,
he said the greatest commandment was from Deuteronomy, love the Lord thy God, he quoted
Deuteronomy.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, and specifically for the book of Deuteronomy,
Lord, help us never to think of it as something that is irrelevant or something that's relegated
to the Old Testament only, but Lord, help us to read this book and apply it to our lives,
and Lord, help us to have this Deuteronomistic philosophy in our lives, where we believe
that we will be blessed for obedience, and where we believe that our disobedience is
going to lead to failure and catastrophe upon this earth.
Lord, thank you that our salvation is not tied up in our obedience, because we would
all lose our salvation, because we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Thank you for the free gift of salvation through Jesus, but when it comes to our daily lives,
help us to live our lives in a way that Deuteronomy would advise, and in Jesus name we pray, amen.