Amen. Deuteronomy chapter four, we're entering something of a new section in the book of
Deuteronomy. The first three chapters were something of a historical overview, kind of
talking about how they had come to that point and about failing to enter the promised land the first
time, wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, being intimidated by the giants in the land and
so forth. Now we're starting to get into a section of the book of Deuteronomy where God is going to
be just in general over the next several chapters, not really giving specific laws, but just in
general pleading with the people to follow God, keep his commandments, etc. In the next chapter,
Deuteronomy chapter five, it's going to give a little bit of a recap of the 10 commandments
and then just kind of give a lot of just reasons why they need to obey the Lord and teach the
commandments to their children, etc. We don't really get into a lot of the nitty-gritty of
technical specific commandments until really like chapter 12. There's just going to be a lot more
recaps of stories and generalizations for the next several chapters, but chapter four is a great
chapter. It has a lot of great principles in it. We're probably not going to be able to get to
everything for sake of time just because it's such a long chapter, but I'm going to get to what I
feel like are the most important points for us today. The Bible says in verse number one,
now therefore hearken O Israel under the statutes and under the judgments which I teach you for to
do them that ye may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers
giveth you. And remember in the New Testament, the Bible makes a point about this, that the man
that doeth these things that are found in the law of Moses, the man that doeth these things shall
live by them. And what that means when it says you shall live by them, we're not talking about
eternal life, we're not talking about going to heaven because keeping the commandments has never
gotten anyone to heaven. If it could have got people to heaven back then, then it could get
people to heaven now, but it's never been able to get anyone to heaven. If animal sacrifices could
get them to heaven back then, it could do it now, but it's not possible that the blood of bulls and
of goats should take away sins. It could never save them. Keeping the commandments could never
save them. The law is our schoolmaster to point us to Christ. So when the Bible says that the man
that doeth these things shall live by them, it's talking about right here and now on this earth.
When he says keep these commandments and live, he's saying survive. He's saying not physically
die. God is saying that if you keep his commandments, if you do right, if you, for example,
honor your father and mother, it will be well with you and you will live long on the earth.
If you honor mom and dad, you're going to literally physically live longer is what the
Bible is saying. Your days will be long on this earth, whereas the wicked shall not live out half
his days. Now, obviously the Bible is speaking in generalities. Yes, there are the exceptions
where righteous people die young or where wicked people live to be very old, but in general,
you are going to live longer, survive, prosper, be blessed if you keep God's commandments.
And if you do the reverse, well, then your life will be prematurely cut short.
The quality of your life will be lower and the quantity of your life will typically be lower as
well. So he says, do these commandments that you may live versus getting killed like your fathers
who died in the wilderness. I mean, think about it. If God killed everybody from 20 years old and
upward in the wilderness, all the men of war from 20 years old and upward. And he did that over the
course of 38 years or 40 years, you know, depending on how you want to look at the last few chapters
that we read. Well, then that means these guys are dying by the time that they're, you know,
60 in some cases, right? Because I mean, if you're 21, then you're dying by the time you're 61.
That's not really a cool lifespan. I mean, most of us would rather live longer than that, right?
And we want God to bless us during the time we have on this earth. So the point of doing God's
commandments, even today for us as Christians, why obey the Bible? It doesn't matter in regard
to our salvation because our salvation is dependent on one thing and one thing alone,
whether or not we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as our savior. But one of the
big reasons to keep God's commandments is that we may live and that we may prosper and that
we may thrive. The path to God's blessing is through the door of obedience as it was then,
so it is now. So this, this admonition is still relevant to us today, even though we're not under
the law, even though we're not living in the old covenant, we have the commandments of Christ. We
have the commandments of the New Testament. And if we do those things, we will live and possess
a good land on this earth. And that's what the Bible is saying here. And he says in verse two,
you shall not add unto the word, which I command you, neither shall you diminish ought from it,
that you may keep the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I command you. This is one of the
many prohibitions in the Bible from adding to or removing from God's word. Of course, God takes
this very seriously because in Revelation chapter 22, we have that famous curse at the end of the
Bible on anyone who adds to or removes from God's word, they're cursed by God. And so I don't want
to be under the curse of God. And you know what, frankly, I don't even want to be around people
that are under the curse of God. I don't want to go to a church that is, is preaching from one of
these corrupted versions of the Bible, because I just don't even want any of that curse to be
around me. Okay. The people who are the architects of these modern versions are cursed by God for
adding to and removing from God's word. Now, obviously, I'm not saying that every single
person who is using them or the pastors who are preaching from them are doing it knowingly,
but the people that are behind it are literally satanic. Okay. It's just that simple. Okay. It's
a bunch of people in Germany that don't even believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
They don't even believe in the virgin birth of Christ. It's a bunch of German academic eggheads
who are going in and changing the word of God and tampering with it every day and changing it from
the Nestle-Aland 28th edition to the 29th edition. They've already got planned all the way to the
32nd edition. So right now, the modern versions, whether it's the NIV, the ESV, or you name the
version, Holman Christian Standard, they translate from the Nestle-Aland 28th edition right now.
But what about when the 29th edition comes out? Well, they change with it. And then those changes
in the Greek text trickle down into the modern versions. And it keeps changing. And they're
making dramatic changes in the 29th edition. And they have already planned what they're going to
change in the 30th, the 31st, and the 32nd. You say, how can that be? Well, it's because of the
fact that they have a whole new way of looking at it now. They've just decided that they're going to
take a whole new approach to textual criticism called the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method.
And so in the 29th edition, they're applying the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method to just a few
books. And then they're going to do a little more in the 30th, a little more in the 31st. Look,
they've already got the next four editions planned. I wonder if it's going to stop there.
I'm sure the 32nd is the final definitive edition. No, because these people don't want to work
themselves out of a job. You see, if you're a textual critic, you've got to keep changing the
Bible. Otherwise you're out of a job. I mean, look, if you're a scientist, you know, you don't
get famous by writing a paper about how, you know, everybody's been right so far and writing a pair.
Hey, Isaac Newton was right. Einstein was right. You know, you're not going to get anywhere like
that. You got to come up with something new and exotic and different. You got to come up with
something fresh. And so these academics that are working on textual criticism, they want to just
change it for the sake of changing it. Do they know that they're under the control of Satan?
No, but let me tell you something. I got news for you. Unsaved people are under the control of
Satan in many cases, whether they even know it or not, because even, well, before you're saved,
the Bible says you end up walking according to the prince of the power of the air. You end up
walking according to that spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. And we're not
just talking about reprobates in Ephesians 2. It even talks about how some of the Christians at
Ephesus, you know, in time past, they're walking according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Obviously some unregenerate,
unsaved, egghead scholar in Germany who is changing God's word, removing, adding,
swapping things out. This guy is under the control of Satan. Okay. Because we don't need to
reconstruct the text of the new Testament because the new Testament isn't broken. And so we don't
need that. We don't need them to go put Humpty Dumpty back together again because he never
fall off the wall. The new Testament text has always been here with us. We've always had it.
We don't need a reconstruction of it. And so I take this thing of the text of scripture
very seriously because God has all these prohibitions and curses on adding or removing
a word from the Bible. And yet you have all these people that are just so flippant about it. Well,
I think it's a pretty big deal. And it's like, well, you know, I know there's 16 verses removed
in the modern versions, but does it affect doctrine though? How about the doctrine of
whether or not God preserved his word? That's a pretty big doctrine. How about a doctrine that
says we actually have the Bible and we don't need scholars to reconstruct it for us. We don't need
them to put it back together. See, the Bible says you shall not diminish ought from it. Don't remove
anything from God's word. Don't add anything to God's word that you may keep the commandments
of the Lord your God, which I command you. Verse three, your eyes have seen what the Lord did
because of Baal Peor. For all the men that followed Baal Peor, the Lord thy God had destroyed them from
among you. But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day.
Behold, I've taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me that you
should do so in the land, whether you go to possess it. So here's what he's saying.
When you get to the end of your life, you're going to be able to look back and look at all
the people who disobeyed God, who lived a wicked life, who did not follow the Lord. And you're
going to see how they end up. And then you're going to look at how your own life and the people
around you who serve God, you're going to see how they ended up. And you're going to be able to see
that the promises of God were true. Now at the time, sometimes we're going through hard times
and we're like, man, you know, is it even better to be a Christian or, you know, humanly speaking?
Because I see the wicked over here prospering and here I am plagued every morning. Here I am
struggling and going through hard times. But when you get to the end though, you're going to look
back and you're gonna say, okay, 40 years later, how'd they turn out? How did my life turn out?
How did the lives of God's people turn out? The Bible says, mark the perfect man for the end of
that man is peace. You know, look at the examples of those who've gone on before us because Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. And so if he did it for them, he can do it for us.
Look at how the people who loved God are still alive and look at how all these people who
forsook the Lord are all dead is what Moses is saying here. And so he says, do the law so that
you may live, so that you may survive, so that you may thrive on this earth in the good land that God
has given you. Look at verse six, it says, keep therefore and do them for this is your wisdom
and your understanding in the sight of the nations which shall hear all these statutes and say,
surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. And so the Bible is saying
that if you follow God's commandments, even outsiders who aren't even saved, even people who
aren't even worshiping the Lord, they don't even believe in the God that we worship, they're going
to look from the outside and they're going to see the wisdom of the way that you're living your life.
You know, they're going to look at the way you're living your life and they're going to see
that you're healthier, you're happier, your life just makes more sense because they don't
see you out screwing up your life like the heathen are. Because let me tell you something,
God's commandments are not arbitrary. God's commandments are for our benefit and for our
protection. The Bible says that when God chastens us, he does it for our profit. He does it for our
benefit. And you know what, even when we chase in our children that we physically have on this
earth, it's not because we just enjoy watching them cry or we just like to hurt them. No,
we punish them because we want them to live a blessed and happy life. We want what's best for
them. We don't want them to grow up and be a criminal. Why? Well, one big reason is because
people who grow up and live the life of a criminal, they're not happy people.
They're not blessed people. They're not enjoying that. They're miserable. People who grow up and
sleep around, they're miserable. Say, oh man, they're having so much fun. No, no, no. Even
in laughter, the heart is sorrowful in these people that are out living that party life,
that sinful life, that wicked life. No, no, no. It's so much smarter. It's so much wiser.
It's so much healthier. It's going to give you so much more prosperity to be a virgin
and then get married and then be faithful to that one person until death you do part.
And you know what? Even, even unsaved people could look at that from the outside and say,
hey, that's a blessing. That's a wise thing right there to just be faithful to your spouse,
just to be married and living that family life and having children and loving your wife,
loving your husband, going to work every day, raising your children, bringing them to church.
You know, people look at that and they are envious of that when they don't have that.
Because they live a sad life, unfortunately, in many cases, because they disregard the
commandments of the Lord and they're out there being whores and whoremongers. That's not,
that's not the blessed life. And even this world knows that living a virtuous Christian life is
superior. Even this world knows that staying married is superior to getting divorced.
Even this, you know, I saw, I saw billboards that were, uh, I think this was in like Georgia or
something. And I saw billboards just saying, Hey, if you are married, you know, uh, you make
this percentage more money than single people your same age. And if you're divorced, here's how much
money you make on average. And they were just trying to basically just promote, like just
getting married and staying married. Now, obviously that's not the reason to get married and stay
married. The real reason to get married and stay married is because God told you to. Okay. But
guess what? You're also going to be happier. You're also going to make more money. You're
also going to have more money because guess what? Getting divorced is not cheap. It's not pleasant.
It's not good for the soul. It's not good for your health. Who do you think is healthier? People who
get married and stay married to the same woman or the one who goes out and sleeps with 20 different
women? Who do you think's got a healthier body? Who do you think's healthier? The one who stays
married or the one who gets divorced? You know what? Even the world could look at that and they
can do a little scientific study and say, yeah, it turns out it is healthier to just get married
and stay married than to do these other things. Okay. And so God's word, God's way is the right
way and it works and smart people out in this world can't even recognize. And you know, they
even see that because you're not drinking and you're not doing drugs, many times they'll admire
that about you. Even if they partake in some of that, they say, hey, I mean, I just had a guy tell
me the other day. You know, I said, oh, I don't drink. There was alcohol and I declined alcohol
and I said, I don't drink. And he said, oh man, that's so great. He's like, I'm so glad that you
don't drink. I think that's great. And then he proceeded to drink a beer. And he said, man,
he literally said, I hate beer. It's disgusting. I don't even like it. I don't even know why I drink
this stupid thing as he's just chugging a beer. And he was literally telling me how much he hated it
while he was drinking the beer. And I kid you not. He's just pouring down a beer, talking about how
much he hates it, you know, because here's the thing people in this world. Yeah, they do things
contrary to God's word. And obviously we as Christians do things contrary to God's word too,
because even though we're Christians, we're still not perfect. We're still, uh, we still have that
sinful nature and we still, uh, come short of the glory of God, you know, in the perspective of our
flesh, you know, we, we every day have to struggle to do what's right and to keep God's commandments.
But, you know, even the world who maybe is going a different direction, sometimes even openly,
they'll tell you, yeah, you're doing it right. Don't change. You know, keep doing what you're
doing. Don't make the mistake that I'm making, but often they will even understand the wisdom
of keeping God's word, doing things the right way, living a clean life, living a God's life.
And God predicted that the other nations would look at the Israelites and say, you guys are
smart. The way you guys are living makes sense. There's a lot of wisdom in these commandments.
I mean, think about the commandments that God gave them in the old Testament. A lot of it had
to do with sanitation. You know, obviously people who are living a really dirty, filthy life,
other nations are going to look at that and say, I don't want to do that. I don't want to live like
that. You know, you think about the Vikings. I was reading a book about the Vikings and there's a
famous Muslim scholar of the day who wrote about the Vikings is, you know, it's one of those
surviving records of, of what the Vikings are like. And he's just talking about, man, the Vikings
are so disgusting. They're so unsanitary. They're filthy. They are not taking a shower. You know,
they'll be with their spouse and then not, and not take a shower afterward. And they'll,
they'll all drink out of the same dish and they're spitting in it, washing their face. And,
and then they pass the next guy. He drinks it, spits in it, washes his face. Just, they're just
filthy. They're disgusting. You know, that's not what the neighbors of Israel would have said about
them in the Old Testament. They would have said, Hey, these people are clean. They're bathing in
their flesh and running water. You know, they're, they're, they're clean. They're healthy. They're
not committing adultery. You know, they're not committing fornication. I mean, if they're
following God's laws, God says that the world would actually admire them. There's always going
to be some reprobate out there, freaking out and telling you how, how bad your lifestyle is. But
in general, Joe unsaved is going to look at the Christian life and see a lot of wisdom in it,
whether he's doing it or not. It's hard not to admire the biblical life. It's hard not to admire
the teetotaler, the one who's clean, the one who is, uh, you know, being a virgin when they get
married, the one who stays faithful to their spouse, the one who goes to work and works hard
and is not stealing, not slacking off, not living a sinful life. Everybody deep down knows that it's
wrong to murder your baby. Everybody deep down knows that abortion is wicked. You know, everybody
deep down knows that, that committing adultery is a sin and that it's ungodly and it's wicked.
Everybody knows that, you know, these libtards out there trying to normalize this stuff deep down,
they know that it's garbage. They know it's wicked. The world knows that. And so why would
we be ashamed of living a separated godly Christian life? Why would we be ashamed when
not only is it most important what God thinks about us way more than what man thinks about us,
but also the Bible even says that living that godly life will even be our wisdom in the sight
of all the nations, which the nations versus Israel is symbolic of the heathen versus Christians
in the New Testament, right? You say, even in the eyes of the heathen, people will say,
surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. You'll hear people in the
media all the time that aren't even Christians say that they admire the Christian worldview
or Christian morality or the Christian faith. You know, sometimes they'll say Judeo-Christian
just because they're ignorant, but what they really mean is Christian. It's what they really
mean because Jews think fornication is fine. Jews are commanded to get drunk once a year.
On Purim, they are required by the Talmud to get drunk. They have to get so drunk that they
can't tell Haman from Mordecai. And I verified that with multiple. I've looked in the face,
in the flesh. I'm not talking about something I read on the internet folks. I'm talking to,
I've talked to the Jews and they said, Oh, we love Purim. We just get whatever faced. And,
and it is just all you have. They said, cause I said, Hey, I asked the guy, I said, Hey,
is it true that on Purim, you know, uh, basically you're, you're encouraged to get drunk.
And he said, no, it's required. He said, it's not encouraged. It's required.
Look it up my friend. Oh, Judeo-Christian morals like fornication. When was the last time you
heard about Jewish people teaching that premarital sex is wrong?
Well, it's sure not what they're teaching and practicing in America. And guess what?
They don't believe it's wrong. That's why they indulge in that freely. Hey,
that's why Hollywood promotes that. Whereas Christian morality says that that physical
relationship between a man and a woman needs to be kept within marriage. Marriage is honorable
and all in the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. That's not Judeo
Christian. That's Christian, but it is Israelo Christian. If we're talking about ancient Israel,
it's Hebrao Christian. It's Old Testamento Christian,
but it's not Judeo Christian, unfortunately.
And so the Bible says, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. Verse seven
for what nation is there so great who have God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all
things that we call upon him for and what nation is there so great that has statutes and judgments
so righteous is all this law, which I set before you this day. Look, this isn't being prideful
because they're not glorying in their race. They're not glorying in their ethnicity.
They're not glorying in anything about themselves. They're glorying in their God.
And the Bible says, righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.
And so if you want to be proud of anything about your nation, you should be proud of
Christianity. You know, proud to live in a Christian nation. I mean, that makes sense.
And that's what we see here because it's because the Bible says, let him that glory glory in the
Lord. So it's okay to glory in your nation if it's all about the Lord, not just what are we
going to glory in George Washington, you know, Thomas Jefferson. Is that the glory of America?
Is that really what it's all about? I mean, Hey, we can, we maybe admire historical figures and,
and try to learn character principles from them. But at the end of the day,
the person that I'm going to thank for everything I have in America is God almighty because that's
who gave us our freedom because he blessed a nation of Christians, a Christian nation.
The Bible says only take heed to thyself verse nine. So notice he says in verse eight, you know,
what nation is there? So righteous with all these righteous commandments and so forth. But then he
says only take heed to thyself. Now that's singular, right? Because when we have the
word ye, you, your in the King James, it's plural. The and thou is singular. So now he's
homing in on the singular because like, if you look at verse four and verse five,
do you see all the, you, your, that's all plural guy. So, you know, ye in verse two, three
starts with your verse four starts with, but ye verse five, behold, I've taught you there,
keep therefore and do them. This is your wisdom. Do you see how it's all plural?
And he's talking about the nation, man. It's a godly nation. It's a righteous
nation. But then he's like, okay, but how about you personally, buddy? You know,
just because you're part of a righteous group doesn't make you righteous, right? Just because
you go to a Baptist church, just because your parents are Christian or you're part of a
Christian home or family or church or nation or area, you know, at the end of the day,
you got to take heed to thyself singular, right? And keep your individual soul diligently verse
nine, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen and lest they depart from thy heart
all the days of thy life. So he's saying, look, it's great that the nation is worshiping the Lord,
but let's make sure that each individual is also right with God, right? You've got to be personally
keeping a lookout on your walk with God. And he says, teach them thy sons and thy sons sons. So,
you know, he's homing in now on the family. You got this nation with millions of people in it,
but hey, how about your specific family? Make sure that you teach your sons the word of God. You
know, it would be such a shame to raise children in your home that they live with you for 18 years
and they get out of the house and someone asks them, uh, do you know for sure you're going to
heaven? And they're like, I mean, uh, I hope so. I don't know. I think so. What does it take
to get to heaven? Oh, you're putting me on the spot. Or how about, how about, you know,
children, they go through your house, they go through your home and they don't know the
Bible stories. They don't know about these stories from the Old Testament or stories from the New
Testament. They don't know the characters. They don't know Peter from James, from John,
from the apostle Paul. They don't know the difference between Hezekiah and Josiah and
Gideon and Jephthah. And, you know, look, I feel like in order for a kid to graduate from my home,
they better know who all those people are. Okay. And here's the thing, you know, I can't control
the decisions that my adult children make once they grow up and they're living their life,
but you know what I can control though? I can control how they're raised and what they're
taught. And I can diligently teach the word of God to my kids. And any kid who comes out of my
home is going to know the word of God. They're going to be trained and taught in the scripture.
They're going to know the gospel like the back of their hand. They're going to know Bible stories
like the back of their hand. Not because I'm running some kind of a military academy at my
house, but because of the fact that that's just who we are. That's what we talk about. You know,
that's what we allude to. That's the references that we make. That's the stories that we tell
and the things that we talk about. And we go to a church where the Bible's preached, where, you
know, large amounts of Bible are covered. And then also when we're at home, right, we talk about
these things. Hey, diligently teach the Bible to your children. And you say, well, I take them to
faithful word. That's your job. Hey, you, Mr. Thou, singular, need to teach these things to your
children. It doesn't say, Hey, get them around the high priest, get them around the Levites
so they can be taught. No, no, it says you teach them. You teach them these things. In chapter six,
he's going to say, you do it when you, when you are at the table, you do it when you're walking
down the road, you do it when you wake up, when you go to bed, talk about the Bible,
talk about the things of God. Hey, you're dating. Why don't you talk to your boyfriend? Why don't
you talk to your girlfriend about the Bible? Talk about the word of God. It kind of blows my mind
when I'll ask young people, uh, some kind of a question like, so, you know, does your girlfriend,
uh, go to church? Yeah. What church does she go to? I don't know. I'm not sure. It's some kind of
an evangelical Christian church. Well, you know what? There's something wrong with that picture
when you're dating for, I was going to say when you're dating for weeks or months and you don't
know what church she's going to, but you know what? Uh, I wouldn't even date for hours without
knowing that, you know, cause that's something that I care about. That's something that matters
to me. That's something that means something to me. When I was a young person and I was dating,
you know what? That's a question that God asked pretty quick.
Are you a Christian and where do you go to church? I mean, that's like,
hi, how are you doing? Are you a Christian? Do you go to church? I mean, that's like,
we're not going anywhere until we figure this out until we know where we stand on this issue.
But it's just kind of mind blowing of, of, of, of dating and not talking about the word of God,
not talking about church. What do you think is going to matter in your life?
What do you think is going to matter 15 years from now? When you're married
and have three kids or something, what do you think is going to matter more?
The movies and the music that you like, the sports that you like, or what religion she is,
you know, and what she thinks about the Bible and what she thinks about Bible doctrine.
You know, that's going to be pretty important. And I'm not saying that you have to be some
hyper spiritual where all you talk about is the Bible. Hey, anybody who's around me knows,
I don't just only talk about the Bible. I'm not a one trick pony over here. I can talk about
other stuff. I can hold my own in conversations about other things. I enjoy talking about other
things, but you know what? Talking about the Bible is a big one. Talking about the Bible is
my favorite subject, you know? And, and, and so if you're going to get intimate with someone,
why don't you get intimate on spiritual matters? Why don't you dig deep on that? Because that's
pretty critical, pretty crucial that you know those things. And so I want to teach those things
to my family. I want to teach them to my kids. I want to diligently teach them to myself every day
so that I can be blessed by God. He says, man, diligently teach these things to your son.
And man, if there's one thing, if there's one thing you got to pass on to your kids,
especially look at verse 10, because it says, especially in our modern vernacular,
that would be especially, okay. Especially the day that thou stood us before the Lord,
thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, gather me the people together and I will make
them hear my words that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth
and that they may teach their children. And ye came near and stood under the mountain and the
mountain burned with fire under the midst of heaven with darkness clouds and, and thick
darkness by the way, and the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire, ye heard the voice
of the words, but saw no similitude, only you heard a voice. He's saying, look, here's the
specially important thing to teach your sons and your son's sons. Like this is the thing that
you've got to emphasize to them is that the word of God was delivered to you at Mount Sinai,
and that you did not see any image of God, but only heard a voice. Make sure that they get it.
No image folks, no picture. You know, it reminds me of I'll be on my computer and I'll turn on
some kind of audio to listen to. And my kids always come running over to go look at my screen
real quick. Say like, what's on my laptop? And I'm always telling them, kids, it's audio. There's
nothing to see here folks. Move along now, because I'll turn on like something to listen to. It's
some kind of a sermon or some kind of an audio podcast, whatever audio book or something.
I'll turn on and they always just come running over and look at the screen and they look at the
screen and they see something like a spreadsheet or a word processor. And I'm just like, kids,
it's a voice only. There's no picture. And he's saying, look, impress this upon your kids that
the word of God, when it came to us, it was delivered only by a voice and there was no
similitude scene. There was no likeness scene. There was no image scene, just a voice. This is
the most important thing to impress upon them about this. Verse 14 in the Lord, actually back
up to verse 13. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform
even 10 commandments. We're going to get those in the next chapter. And he wrote them upon two
tables of stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments
that you might do them in the land, whether you go over to possess it.
Take ye therefore good heat unto yourselves for you saw no manner of similitude on the day.
Now with similitude, don't get freaked out because it's kind of a big word.
Similitude is related to our word similar, right? Similitude means likeness. You know,
if somebody drew a picture of me, the picture would look similar to me. It would not look
exactly like me. Okay. Unless they're really good. It's a similitude. It's a likeness.
It's an artist rendition that is similar to the original subject, but it's not identical.
It's not exact. It's not a photograph. Even a photograph is not identical. And so what it says
here is that you saw no image. You saw no similitude on the day that the Lord spoke unto
you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire. And here's why this is so important because
he doesn't want them to corrupt themselves. Lest you, if you don't remember this, if you forget
this, lest you corrupt yourselves and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure,
the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of
any winged fowl that flyeth in the air, the likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground,
the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth. He's saying, look, do not
create some image to worship because God is not an image that you've seen.
God is a voice that you've heard. And if you want to know who God is, the word of God is the path
to knowing who God is. Okay. You want to look at a picture of God? Close your eyes and listen to
the word of God. That's who God is. That's the only likeness you're going to get. You're not
going to get an actual image ever. Okay. Now here's the thing about the New Testament, right?
Now in the New Testament, Jesus Christ walked on this earth, right? And Jesus Christ is God in the
flesh. People could actually look at him. Whereas no man has seen God at any time.
The son of the, no man has seen God at any time. The son, which is in the bosom of the father,
right? He had declared him the only begotten son. I don't know why I was, I was like trying to
quote that. And the only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father, he had declared him.
Okay. So nobody's ever seen God the father, but we have seen the son of God. Have we not?
Not us personally, of course, but I'm saying human beings in general have seen the son of God.
Now, let me ask you this. Was Jesus pretty popular when he was on this earth, as far as having a lot
of people fall on him? A lot of people come into here and preach. I mean, when Jesus would preach,
tens of thousands of people showed up to hear him preach. His fame went throughout all Judea
and Samaria. Hey, it went all through Decapolis. It went all throughout Syria. People came from
Greece. Greek people came and they're like, sirs, we would see Jesus. We're tourists. We're here to
see Jesus. Jesus was pretty popular in his lifetime. He was very famous in his lifetime,
right? He was a legend in his own time. I mean, he was known. He was famous. His fame, the Bible
used the word fame about Jesus. His fame went abroad. Hundreds of thousands of people laid eyes
on Jesus. And they didn't just look at him like, oh, there's a guy. I mean, they're following him
for days. They're listening to him for days. They're staring at him. They're hanging on
every word that he spoke. Am I right? Okay. So where are the contemporary pictures of Jesus
from his lifetime? Where are the statues that were shaped of Jesus in his lifetime?
Can you show me a single first century AD statue of Jesus? Can you show me a single
first century AD picture of Jesus? Nope. Where is it? I mean, somebody that popular,
somebody that important. I mean, look, there are a lot of pictures of a lot of dudes that
have survived. A lot of statues and a lot of pictures of Roman statesmen and senators and
writers and poets and all kinds of people and their contemporary images that were made, you
know, at the time that they lived. And by the way, if you look at artwork about Jesus from the,
say, really early first few centuries after Christ, right? First few centuries after he lived,
you know, they're way different than what you see 500 years later or 600 years later. And then
they're even different a thousand years after that. And then, you know, they are even different
now. Like contemporary pictures of Jesus are even different now. I mean, you know, you know,
the image of Jesus constantly changing. You know why? Because it's based on nothing. That's why.
Because there's no drawing or painting or picture from someone who actually saw him.
It's just, oh, here's a picture from 300 years later. And it just shows some young, clean-shaven
blonde dude taking care of sheep. And, oh, this is Christ the good shepherd.
I mean, look, there, there were some early, there's some early paintings of Jesus that show
him as just a clean-shaven dude. And he's just caring for the sheep. And he looks exactly like
some kind of a Greek or Roman dandy or something. You know, and then there, and then, and then, you
know, you've got the famous Orthodox image of Jesus where he looks like, like he's got a split
personality. You know what I'm talking about? Where the left side of his face is making a
totally different look than the right side of his face. That's supposedly the, you know, the oldest
picture of Jesus that the Orthodox church talks about the original icon. Of course, it's from
about 500 years after Christ. That'd be like, if I drew a picture of Christopher Columbus based on
of Christopher Columbus based on nothing. Like I don't have any picture of him. I don't have
any physical description in the Bible or in history books, or if I had no clue what he
looked like and I just drew a picture and said, this is Christopher Columbus. Oh, it's so early,
500 AD. But what's funny is that's not the original picture because you have older artwork
of Christ before that, that shows just some clean shaven dude out in with the sheep. Oh,
this is Christ as shepherd. It's just a kid. It's just a guy. And then another picture over here,
it's a guy. They look totally different. The art evolved with just the styles of the art,
how people thought of Christ. Did they think of him as a stern character? Do they think of him as
a gentle character? You know, what aspect of Christ are they emphasizing? Or, Hey, I can't
decide, so let's just split them down the middle. One side's the divine side and one side's the
human side. The God part and the human part. And the thing about that is that there is no image
of Christ. Can I tell you why? Because God didn't want there to be an image of Christ.
God made sure that nothing survived. I'm sure somebody drew a picture.
You think somebody drew a picture of Christ during his lifetime? You think one of those
20,000 people hearing him preach went home, you know, and I'm talking about that once he preached
to 5,000 men, not counting women and children, right? Throngs of people, multitudes. The Bible,
then it talks about him feeding the 5,000 elsewhere in around Luke 11 or 12. It says
he preached to an innumerable multitude in Luke 12. I wonder if somebody went home and drew a
picture. Of course they did. People who likes to draw pictures, who draws a picture at least
like once a month, not a lot of artists out there. Wow. I don't draw. So I, you know, I, I feel that.
I mean, I'm right there with you. I don't draw either, but man, somebody in a crowd that's,
you know, somebody in a crowd that size is going to draw. I mean, look, I'm, I'm just a pastor of
a small church. I've seen like at least like seven or eight drawings that people have drawn of me
where people have emailed me a picture, but let alone all the doodles that people have probably
drawn, you know, maybe some of them not flattering, you know, maybe a few caricatures in there.
But the point is like, I guarantee you that there were pictures, drawings, paintings, sculptures
that were made by some misguided soul who made some sculpture of Jesus. I guarantee you. But
isn't it funny that none of it has survived and you want to, you want to know what else hasn't
survived? No account of the life of Christ from the time that Christ was alive has survived.
No, nobody who actually was there, no first century account of the life of Christ has survived
except the four gospels and the epistles of the apostles. That's it. Why? Because God wants you
to use the New Testament to get to know Jesus Christ, not to use a statue or a picture or some
other like historical document like, oh man, I just wish that some Roman historian would have
just written about Jesus or something, you know, and don't even say Josephus because number one,
Josephus was not even born when Christ was alive on this earth. Josephus hadn't even been born yet.
So don't tell me that Josephus is a contemporary of Christ because he's not.
And number two, the parts where Josephus talks about Jesus are a forgery anyway.
Most scholars agree that's the mainstream view. That's not a conspiracy theory. The mainstream
view is that that's a pseudo Josephus right there that's writing that stuff. And that was inserted
later by misguided Christians who just really wanted some historical corroboration. No, no, no,
there's no picture, there's no image because the Orthodox Church will say, well, in the Old
Testament, we're not supposed to bow down to idols. But now that we've seen Christ, let's bow
down to a picture of Jesus. You're bow down to a picture of a random dude. You're worshiping a
literal rando. It's randolatry. You're worshiping a literal random guy. I mean, I always love this
picture where they show like a picture of Obi Wan Kenobi from the prequel series. And they're like,
yeah, my grandma has this, you know, has this picture in her house. She thinks it's Jesus.
You know, it's a joke. But honestly, you know, Obi Wan Kenobi with the long hair and the beard
is really no different from these other images of Jesus. It's no more or less accurate. Right? And
by the way, when you get to heaven, some Obi Wan Kenobi looking dude isn't going to be there to
greet you. He's going to have a haircut. Amen. But I'm telling you that it is no different. I mean,
if you want to print out a picture of Obi Wan Kenobi and put it above, you know, your little
shrine and light a candle to it and bow down and worship to it, that is no more or less biblical
than what Catholics are doing and what these Orthodox are doing. And you know, you could be
like the Orthodox, you could kiss the picture. Because if you go to an Orthodox church, the
first thing you do is they kiss the icons when they get there. The first thing they do when they
walk in the church, you walk into an Orthodox church, you kiss the icons. 500 million members
of the Orthodox church, they kiss the icons when they go to church. They kiss a picture.
Think about that for a minute. Let that sink in. They kiss a picture. They take a picture,
you know. I'll kiss the Bible. I'll kiss the word of God. They're not going to kiss a picture.
But they literally kiss a picture of Obi Wan Kenobi. They kiss a picture. I mean,
who else, who else do these fake Jesus pictures look like?
Christian Bale? Oh, he played Jesus in a movie. Yeah. Well, I mean, hey, you might,
why not print out a picture of Christian Bale and say, oh, Bale, hear us. Sounds kind of familiar.
You know, I think that's a quote from first King 17. Yeah. They're worshiping Bale.
Oh man. Good one. Keanu Reeves. Oh, he's the new Christ figure now, right?
Got long hair, a little beard, you know? Yeah. Oh, Saint John Wick, hear us or something.
You know, hey, why don't you, why not? Because these guys are just as not Jesus as that dude
that you're looking at a painting of. It's nonsense, my friend. But they said, well,
we've seen him now. Really? You've seen him? No, no, no. You're relying on a picture that
came 500 years later. And God clearly didn't want us to worship an image. And riddle me this,
if God's like, okay, well now that Christ has walked on the earth, now we can have an image
of the son of God. Then riddle me this. Why does God not even tell us what Jesus looked like?
Why is there not any verse saying what color his hair was? Right? Why doesn't it say this was what
his facial hair looked like? This is what, this is how tall he was or short or medium height.
This was his build. Can you give me one physical description about Jesus? I mean,
how do you describe people? Hair color, eye color, skin color, height, talk about the shape of his
nose, right? Talk about his build. Nothing. Literally nothing. And the only physical
descriptions we have are just these, after he's glorified up in heaven, just these,
obviously just these kind of surreal descriptions about his eyes are like fire and he's as white as
snow and his hair's white as snow and his feet are like brass and his voice is like the ocean.
It's obviously just trying to put into words what it's like to be in heaven, seeing the glorified
Christ and just falling on your face like you're dead, right? That John the apostle literally falls
on his face as dead. He's not just going to see Christian Bale or who's the other person
I kept talking about? Obi-Wan Kenobi and he's not just going to fall on his face as dead,
right? But isn't it interesting how we don't have a description of Christ walking this earth?
You want to know why? Because if there was some kind of a physical description, then what do you,
oh, let's, we got to make, we got to draw that. Let's paint that. Let's, let's make known. No,
my friend, we're not supposed to form an image of God to worship. I don't care if it's the son of
God, because the only way to legitimately say that you're actually worshiping the son of God is if
somebody actually took a photograph of the real Jesus and took a photograph and you're like, I
know this is Jesus, but why did God not allow that? Because God doesn't want us bowing down
to any picture, period. No picture, no statue, no image for a reason. And God is not thinking
that this is a small deal because you say, I don't know, Pastor Anderson, you just, you just make it
a big deal out of it. Why are you going to make, especially, he said, especially remember this,
the nations around you, they're all bowing down to pictures and idols. And he says, look,
don't make an image of anything. Don't make an image. And look, you could see how they'd be
tempted to make a, an image of an animal because Jesus is called the lion of the tribe of Judah.
Jesus called the lamb of God. I mean, does that mean that we should have a picture of a lamb
and worship that? How about a graven lamb? And we'll be like, gee, this is Jesus. This,
this just makes me feel close to Jesus. I know he's not a literal lamb, but this just
represents Jesus. Do you think God would be pleased with me having a graven image of a lion,
a lion statue, and I'm bowing down and worshiping a statue of a lion saying,
Jesus is the lion of Judah. Oh, Jesus. You think that that's what he wants?
No, he doesn't want that. All kinds of animals could be used as a picture of Christ. Every
animal that was sacrificed, all those oxen and rams and turtle doves, they all pictured Christ.
Why don't we get a dove and worship it? Why don't we get a, uh, uh, in fact,
why don't we put a metallic dove on the car? Why don't we, I'll tell you what we'll do.
We'll get a molten image of a fish and put it on the car or a molten image of a bird and put it on
the car. And that'll, that'll represent Christ. That's just, it just represents Christ for us.
You know, we, we're not going to worship it. We don't think it's God. It's just a way that we,
you know, acknowledge God is by having this molten fish or molten bird.
He says in verse number 15, take ye therefore good heat under yourselves for you saw no manner
of similitude on that day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire,
lest you corrupt yourselves and make you a graven image. The similitude of any figure,
the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of
any winged foul that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground,
the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth. I just can't figure out how
in the world it could possibly be the will of God for me to put a metal fish on my car with this
versus in the Bible or to put a metal bird on my car, because that's what Christian, those are the
two animal images that people put on their car. They put a metallic dove or a metallic fish.
Is that really God's will? Is God just like, oh yes, another fish on the car.
This is growth, spiritual growth. They're taking, they're witnessing.
They're letting their Christianity be known. You know, I'm sure God's just rejoicing at a factory
in China somewhere that's just churning out metal fish and metal birds. And it's just like,
yeah, say, well, you're just, you're being legalistic, man. Well, God says like,
Hey guys, I'm going to tell you a lot of laws, but just especially remember this one thing.
Don't make a molten image of any animals, not a bird, not a fish. You know, it's like, Hey, no,
why do it? And by the way, you know, putting a million bumper stickers on your car doesn't
increase the value of your car and putting a million tattoos on your body
doesn't make you look better either. Okay. Just a little bit of advice. Okay.
Let's now lift up thine eyes unto heaven. When thou see is the sun and the moon and the stars,
even all the hosts of heaven should just be driven to worship them and serve them,
which the Lord thy God divided under the all nations of the world. I'm not going to do that.
I'm not God. Do you really think just because I've made a lion statue and a lamb statue and
a fish statue and a bird say, you really think I'm going to worship the sun, moon and stars
folks, God said, don't do it. He's like, I don't even want you to be tempted. I didn't want you
to start going down that road of starting to worship things that are not God and, and, and,
and having these images around, you know, well, I have a picture of Jesus in my living room,
but I don't worship it. You have a picture of a random dude in your living room.
Okay. So, but, but here's the thing. What if I had a picture? What if I had a picture of Jesus
in my living room? Right. So-called picture of Jesus. And what if I don't worship it at all?
What if I don't pray to it at all? What if I don't burn incense to it at all? Yeah. But you
know what? Sometimes what we do, we maybe understand what we're doing and then our kids
will take it a different way and our kids will go a different direction with it. So what, what God's
saying is don't even open that door because yeah, you're not praying to it, but then your kids are
going to be like, oh Jesus, help me, Jesus. You know, they're talking to a picture on the wall of
yeah, veil. That's who they're worshiping. That's who they're worshiping now.
He says, and I'm just about done. He says, you know, don't make the likeness of a fish,
wing it foul. Verse 19, lest thou lift up the knives of worship, the sun, moon, star,
you know, Christ is compared to the sun, but we don't want to worship the sun obviously,
but the Lord had taken you and brought you forth out of the iron furnace. Verse 20,
even out of Egypt to be unto him, a people of inheritance as you are this day. Furthermore,
the Lord was angry with me for your sakes. We're just going to go through verse 24
and swear that I should not go over Jordan and that I should not go into that good land,
which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, but I must die in this land.
I must not go over Jordan, but ye shall go over and possess that good land.
Take heat on yourselves lest you forget the covenant of the Lord, your God,
which he made with you and make you a graven image or the likeness of anything which the Lord thy God
has forbidden. He's saying, don't make a graven image and don't make the likeness of anything,
which the Lord thy God has forbidden thee for the Lord thy God is a consuming fire,
even a jealous God. And look, if we actually read the story about what happened,
where do we go to get the story about what happened? We go to the book of Judges,
right? Because in Deuteronomy, they're on the cusp of going into the land. In Joshua,
they conquer the land, right? Over the course of like seven years, judges tells us what happened
after they conquered the land. Judges picks up right at the conquest, right at the conquest
of Canaan and takes us through the generations. And what do they do? They end up serving idols,
making graven images. But you know, what's funny is that when the Bible actually spells out a
specific story about them making a molten image in the book of Judges, and we have a great detail
about this story. And by the way, based on the fact that it's Dan inheriting some of their land,
it's clearly very early in the period of the judges because it's out of order. It's at the
end of the book of Judges, but it's actually talking about the beginning of the period.
Talking about the story of Micah and the molten image that he made with the money from his mom
and everything. You know what? They dedicated that molten image to the Lord, right? I mean,
so when we see this horrible idolatry entering Israel in the book of Judges shortly after
they come into land, so it's literally these people's grandchildren or children,
and they set up an idolatrous cult in Dan that lasts for hundreds of years. You know who they're
worshiping? The Lord. And when I say the Lord, I'm not talking about a lowercase O-R-D. I'm talking
capital L-O-R-D. Look it up. Judges 17 and 18. That's a molten image to Jehovah God.
Now is God up in heaven happy about that? It's idolatry. It's wicked. So the point is,
you don't even want to open that door to teaching people that they know God or commune with God
through an image. Because how many times does the New Testament tell us to flee idolatry?
When it's naming big horrible sins that could even get you thrown out of the church, it's like
fornication, drunkenness, idolatry. Well, that's just when you put anything before God. Yeah,
that's a metaphorical idolatry. Sure. But what about literal idolatry, right? We don't want to
be guilty of literal idolatry. We don't want our kids to be guilty of it. We don't even want to
open the door to it. We're not going to have pictures of Jesus Christ ever in this church.
I can't even count how many times I've walked into an independent, fundamental Baptist church that's
preaching a King James Bible and walked in and seen pictures of Jesus on the wall. Anybody ever
seen it? Can't even count. I'm not talking about Orthodox or Roman Catholic. I'm talking about
the Baptist church, some picture of Jesus on the wall. Folks, we don't want to go down that road.
If you want to know God, go by the voice, the word. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this great chapter, Lord, and help us to flee from idolatry,
Lord, and help us to always lift up your word and exalt your word to our children and to speak your
word to our children and let them know that that is the path to knowing you through your voice,
through your word, Lord. And just as relevant as it was to them back in Deuteronomy 4, Lord,
it's relevant to us today. And in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.