Man, well we're back here in Deuteronomy and we've been obviously gone for a
while because I've been on the road trip, but I'm just gonna jump back in. I'm not
gonna review or anything because these chapters in the early part of
Deuteronomy, they pretty much just stand alone. They're almost just like sermons
in and of themselves, but just to give you a little bit of the context, just
remember that we're on the verge of going into the Promised Land, right? The
children of Israel, they've wandered in the wilderness 40 years, they're right
there, they're on the verge of going into the Promised Land at the beginning of
Deuteronomy chapter 1, right? That's where they are and these are the final words
of Moses as he's giving them teaching and preaching to prepare them to enter
in. It says in verse number 1 of chapter 6,
Now these are the commandments, the statutes and the judgments, which the
Lord your God commanded to teach you that you might do them in the land
whether you go to possess it. That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God to keep
all his statutes and his commandments which I command thee thou and thy son
and thy son's son all the days of thy life that thy days may be prolonged. And
so what we see here is that God has commandments for the children of Israel
to do and obviously today in the New Testament God has commandments for us to
do. Christ has commanded us many things and of course the New Testament is
filled with commandments. We should still be following the morality that's taught
from the Old Testament commandments and why do we do those things? Well first of
all Jesus said if you love me keep my commandments. So because we love God we
show our love for God by keeping his commandments but a big part of keeping
God's commandments is actually for our own benefit and for our own good. It says
at the end of verse 2 there that thy days may be prolonged. If you follow
God's commandments you are going to be blessed physically in this lifetime
you are going to live a better life now than you will if you disregard God's
commandments because the Bible says whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. He talked to a lot of people that are
unsaved and in fact just a couple weeks ago I was out soul winning and talking to
this Mormon guy and I gave this guy the entire plan of salvation and he pretty
much said well if you just believe on Christ and that's all you have to do to
be saved then why even do anything? Why even follow the commandments? What's the
motive to even you know if you could just believe and you're just saved? You
know that sounds like it's coming from a wicked heart right there because
he's an unsaved unregenerate man he can't grasp the concept of loving God
and wanting to do what's right not just oh I'm only gonna do what's right
because I'm scared of going to hell like what about just because you want to
what about just because you love Jesus Christ what about just because it's out
of the goodness of your heart and I'll often ask people that when I'm out
soul winning you know so do you only do the right thing when you're being forced?
Is that how you live your life? Of course not and so obviously we should want to
do the right thing because we love God but even aside from that I told this guy
I said well look God has other ways of hurting you besides just sending you to
hell okay I mean what about this lifetime right now look I'm glad that
I'm going to heaven and that's the most important thing is to be going to heaven
and not going to hell that's the big one because that's eternity but I don't know
about you I want to enjoy my life between now and then I wouldn't want to
live a miserable messed up horrible life for years or even decades and then go to
heaven no I want to be blessed now and then go to heaven and this is not to say
that the Christian life is going to be without pain or without problems all
Christians are going to go through pain suffering problems I mean look at Job he
went through horrible things and he was literally the most righteous man in the
entire planet according to God but yet he went through all kinds of things but
consider the end of Job okay first of all God blessed him a lot before that
and then God blessed him a ton after that he did have this dark episode
didn't he it was extremely dark episode well what does the Bible say many are
the afflictions of the righteous but out of them all the Lord delivers him mark
the perfect man the end of that man is peace okay if you want to get to the end
of your life and like the way that your life turned out well then you better be
serving God because otherwise you're gonna get to the end of your life and
you're not gonna like the way it turned out and along the way even when we go
through those dark times even if as Peter said we find ourselves in
manifold temptations and trials yet even through those dark times we rejoice with
joy unspeakable and full of glory so even when things are bad even when
things are in the dark times we have the consolation of Christ we have the Holy
Spirit giving us joy so that even the Apostle Paul freshly beaten can be
sitting in a prison cell singing praises to God at midnight okay why was
he up at midnight because they always keep the lights on in jail all night so
I know that from experience so the lights are always on and so the Apostle
Paul's in there so that's why he's up at midnight saying I'm just kidding that's
not really part of the story but the point is yeah I just that's fresh in my
mind because when I was in the hospital it took me like 24 hours to get a room
so for the first 25 hours I was in a hallway and the lights are on everybody's
like talking and everything only noise canceling headphones saved me and
allowed me to sleep that night but anyway sorry about the digression my
you know my back's kind of hurting so these things are just popping into my
mind all right but anyhow you know why can Paul and Silas be singing and
praising God because here's the thing for the Christian even the suffering and
the pain and the problems and the tribulations that we go through are
meaningful they mean something right we know that weeping may endure for the
night but joy cometh in the morning we know that the trial of our faith is more
precious than gold when it is tried and we know that all things work together
for good to those that love God but here's the thing unsafe people worldly
people they're going through pain and suffering too but you know what the
difference is a lot of its meaningless there is no light at the end of the
tunnel there is no all things work together for good all things might just
work together for bad it might just go from bad to worse they might end up at
the end of their life and look back on their life like King Saul and say I
played the fool as opposed to the Apostle Paul who could say hey I fought
a good fight I finished my course okay notice he fought a good fight so he's
still struggling he's still going through stuff but he can look back on it
with admiration and joy and he's glad that he took that route and even in the
midst of those trials we see him enjoying and rejoicing and praising God
so it's not this health and wealth prosperity gospel that says hey if
you're living for God you're never gonna get sick you're never gonna throw your
back out you know you're never gonna go through any kind of pain or persecution
or suffering you're never gonna have a financial catastrophe or whatever no
Christians are gonna have financial problems relationship problems work
problems health problems many are the afflictions of the righteous but out of
them all the Lord delivers him and through those hard times we are blessed
and so it's not that Christianity is just avoiding suffering necessarily
because we do have to suffer for Christ the difference is that our suffering is
meaningful and we can find joy in the trials but also I believe there's just
an objective thing here your days are gonna be prolonged you know you hear
about wicked people it seems like they're constantly dying young now
obviously there are exceptions this you could have righteous people dying young
and you're gonna have ungodly people living to be a hundred or something but
if you notice that in general though a lot of wicked people seem to be cut off
at a young age and then you see a lot of godly righteous people being blessed
with a longer life in general that is the case not to mention just the quality
of life you know even if my life were cut short if I died tomorrow I would
still be thankful and blessed for the wonderful life that God has given me and
I wouldn't regret following Christ and using my life for soul winning and so
forth but you know I believe that what he's saying here your days will be
prolonged you know that obviously he's talking to the children of Israel that
they're gonna be able to stay in the promised land longer but also I believe
that this goes for the individual as well because if you remember when we
were reading the Ten Commandments if you honor your father and mother that's the
first commandment with promise and in the New Testament he's telling you this
promise is still a thing in Ephesians 6 in the New Testament that it may be well
with thee and that thy days may be long on the earth how you treat your parents
could literally lengthen or shorten your life I believe that from the top of my
head to the bottom of my feet you know you're constantly seeing these wicked
people dying young celebrities dying young all the time it's constant right
says in verse 3 here therefore Israel and observe to do it that it may be well
with thee that you may increase mightily as the Lord God of thy fathers have
promised thee in the land that flows with milk and honey and again he says
that it may be well with thee the Bible tells us in Hebrews that our earthly
parents chastened us after their own pleasure but that God chastens us for
our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness so it's for our profit it's
for our benefit it's in our best interest to do the commandments of God
and not to say oh I'm saved I can do whatever I want yet you're saved and you
can theoretically do whatever you want you will still go to heaven because it's
impossible to lose your salvation but your quality of life is going down and
you're going to make a fool of yourself you're going to ruin your life you're
going to suffer meaninglessly and you don't want to go down that road be wise
and follow God's commandments so that it could be well with you so you could
prolong your days and he gets into this most famous passage here what what Jesus
Christ reference says the greatest commandment in the law here Oh Israel
the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might and again that's the
big motivation for serving God after you're saved that this Mormon didn't
understand is because you love God that you want to because you love him that's
the big one but then also that it may be well with thee that thou mayest prolong
thy days so Christ said this is the big one in the law not only do Christians
acknowledge this as the big one but also Jews for Jews this is their big one but
they say it differently than the way it is actually stated because they've
twisted the meaning of this now if you would keep your finger in Deuteronomy
chapter 6 and let's go to Mark chapter 12 I'm not going to do a super deep dive
on this but I have done a super deep dive on this in the past there's there's a
video somewhere out there I know brother Kevin's got it and you know some other
people might have it somewhere but I did a deep dive where I defended the King
James Bibles translation of this which is the traditional rendering of this in
English you know where it says the Lord our God is one Lord right and that's a
traditional rendering that we've had in English for hundreds and hundreds of
years but nowadays your modern Bible versions are changing this to the Jewish
version of this which is not correct it's not accurate okay and I did a deep
dive where I go back into the Hebrew and the Greek and I prove that the King
James Bible has translated this accurately most of us here we just
believe by faith that the King James Bibles the Word of God without error we
don't sit around second-guessing the King James Bible we believe that God has
given us the word preserved in our native language and that we've got the
perfect Word of God and we don't need to learn Greek or Hebrew to understand it
but there are people out there and that obviously you know they want to see the
evidence and they want to see the proof so I did do a deep dive where I analyze
with the Hebrew and the Greek and here's why the Greek comes into play is because
this is quoted in the New Testament and maybe Jews don't care about that but
guess what we believe the New Testament is the Word of God every bit as much as
Deuteronomy is the Word of God and so the way it plays out in Mark is
meaningful but even without doing the linguistic deep dive right here just
with your English Bible in front of you you're gonna see that the English in the
King James is right and that the modern versions and the Jews are wrong because
what they want to say is instead hero Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one
and they claim that this is a statement about the oneness of God the Lord our
God is one whereas it actually says hero Israel the Lord our God is one Lord okay
what's the interpretation of this is this a statement about the oneness of
God or is this a statement about the fact that there is only one Lord Jehovah
God there is only one well let's look at Mark chapter 12 and let's see if the
Judaizers are right or if the King James Bible is right look down at your Bible
in Mark chapter 12 verse 28 it says in one of the scribes came and having heard
them reasoning together and perceiving that he'd answered them well asked him
which is the first commandment of all verse 29 and Jesus answered him the
first of all the commandments is hero Israel the Lord our God is one Lord and
that's the operative phrase right and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart and with all thy soul with all thy mind with all thy strength this
is the first commandment and the second is like namely thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself there's none other commandment greater than these now watch
what the scribe says in response to prove that the King James has got the
right idea here okay scribe sending him well master thou has said the truth for
there is one God and there is none other but he and to love him with all the
heart and with all the understanding and with all the soul and with all the
strength and to love his neighbors himself is more than all whole burnt
offerings and sacrifices and when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly he said
unto him thou are not far from the kingdom of God and no man after that
durst ask him any questions so we see that Jesus likes this guy's answer how
does this guy interpret the Lord our God is one Lord here's how he interprets it
verse number 32 there's one God and there's none other but he that's the
correct interpretation there's only one no other God God exists alone but is God
a oneness kind of God no but see the Jews they take this statement the Lord
our God the Lord is one which may be on its surface you could say okay you could
still interpret that as meaning that there's only one God but what they've
done is they've said that that's the great statement of the oneness of God
and they literally chant that every day very devout Jews will actually recite
this daily okay well here's the thing about the oneness of God it's not a
thing because of the fact that God exists eternally in three persons the
Father the Son and the Holy Ghost which is why he said let us make man in our
image after our likeness okay so we don't want to get mixed up about what
the Bible is saying here it's saying that there's only one God okay it's not
saying that God only exists as one person because God exists as three
persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost but the thing that bothers me
about this though is that here we've got the English translation ensconced
in the King James Bible and the previous Bibles that came before it we've got an
English traditional translation the Lord our God is one Lord why all the sudden
do you see the modern versions moving to this other translation they got it from
the Jews because the Jews say the Lord our God the Lord is one it's not for a
linguistic grammatical reason and again I did a deep dive on that it's because
of the fact that they think oh the Jews can tell us what Deuteronomy really
means you know because they're Jews and so they can really interpret it for us
but you know the Bible tells in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 that when the Jews
read the Old Testament they have a veil over their face and that that veil is
only taken away when they turn to Jesus Christ so when the Jews believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ their Savior then they're not Jews anymore now they're
Christians and now all of a sudden the veil is removed now they can understand
the Word of God so why would I ask mr. blindfolded guy to explain to me what
the Bible means I'm gonna tell him what it means I don't need him to tell me
what it means he needs me to come tell him what it means but people literally
today will go to the Jews to get a deeper understanding and I'm constantly
getting this garbage in my Facebook feed I don't know why Facebook thinks that
some reason Facebook lately thinks that I believe in UFOs because it's
sending me all this UFO junk and I'm like don't show me this it's irrelevant
and then why does Facebook think I want all this judaizing stuff but it's
probably just it heard me talking about Hebrew or read it heard me reading my
Hebrew Bible out loud or something and it's like oh you know and it's just like
and it starts sending me like you know oh you know English doesn't tell us what
Abraham's name really me oh really that's funny because I was reading my
English Bible and said that he's a father of many nations I mean literally
the English Bible is literally telling you half the time why they're being
named that why Jacob is being named it why oh he's gonna be called Israel right
and it explains they you know oh he's a prince with God and you know he wrestled
with God he you know he grabbed his brother's heel in the womb you know oh
he's red all over let's call him Edom I mean it's literally explaining to you
where these I mean as Rachel and Leah are giving birth to their various
children Oh God's gonna add to me another son his name's Joseph so yeah
now we all know what Joseph me it has to do with adding right you know and and we
could go on and on with all the different examples where the Bible
literally tells you he's called this because this and then I get some stupid
thing in my feed you know oh if you speak English you don't even understand
you know the true meaning of the name Adam or the true meaning of Abraham and
then you click on it some Christ rejecting rabbi is gonna teach you the
Bible then you click on the comment section and it's all these Christians
like oh please teach us special holy elect ones and it doesn't make any sense
we should be going to spirit-filled Christians to teach us the Word of God
not to people who reject the Lord Jesus Christ and they according to the Bible
they are blinded so who you gonna believe that we're blinded because we're
reading it in English or that they're blinded because God said they're blinded
because they don't believe in Jesus because they don't the Holy Spirit I'd
rather read it in English with the Holy Spirit I'd rather read it in Spanish
with the Holy Spirit than to read it in the original Greek and Hebrew unsaved
unregenerated in darkness and so back to Deuteronomy chapter 6 just want to make
sure we understand that this statement has to do with the fact that there is
only one God and that we're to love the Lord our God and keep his commandments
and keeping his commandments shows our love for God and then it says in verse
7 of Deuteronomy 6 thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shall
talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way
and when thou liest down and when thou risest up you know the Word of God
should dwell in us richly right we should spend time daily reading our
Bible and if we're reading our Bibles if we're going to church and listening to
preaching well then out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh and we
cannot help but speak the things we've seen and heard and so biblical
references should flow in our lives because it's just something that's in
us it's part of who we are and so this is something we should talk to our kids
about and tell them Bible stories and make reference to scripture quote
scripture mention biblical characters you know when we see something in the real
world we we could look at that and say hey you know what this reminds me of
such-and-such the Bible story right that's a good moment to teach your
children say hey you see what's going on over here that's sort of like this Bible
story over here and obviously the Bible stories are very relevant today and
there's nothing new under the Sun and so the same kind of things that were
happening in the Bible days are the same kind of things that are happening now we
should make those connections and tell them to our children and point out to
our children parallels between what we see in the Word of God and what we see
in our lives and you know sitting around the house walking by the way lying down
rising up just you know all the time just in the day to day every day at our
houses let's talk about biblical stuff right let's not be shy about mentioning
the Bible and even you know even this can often even be appropriate at work
and places you know well you know not necessarily always appropriate to just
start preaching a sermon at your job or something but you know there are a lot
of times at your job when it could be appropriate to make reference to the
Bible and and you know I remember when I used to work at Round Table Pizza I
would sometimes just tell Bible stories to my fellow workers while we made pizzas
just to pass the time and they this one guy was not saved had no interest in
being saved net and totally unchurched and he I tried to give him the gospel
he didn't want to hear it but he would ask me tell me another Bible story and I
would just tell him I'm just like going through the whole book of Genesis just
telling them stories and and you know sometimes it can even be appropriate
even at work to even just mention biblical stories and sometimes you can
actually be a good influence on people in that way and maybe start planting
some seeds in their mind that later maybe who knows maybe that guy saved now
because that was you know 25 years ago I sure hope so make a better story but who
knows but the Bible says here that you're to talk to your children about
them and he says in verse 8 thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand and
they shall be as frontless between thine eyes now again mr. blindfolded Jew you
know what he does he literally straps the Bible to his forehead in a little
box who knows what I'm talking about who is net put your hand up put your hands
down who has never seen it and they don't know what I'm talking about the
box strapped to the forehead okay yeah so most people in our church know about
these things but there are some people that oh well for those who won't know
they literally like I'm talking a headband with a little black cube
strapped you know frontlets between your eyes amen and then I can't do that
rocking motion because my back is injured so I can't bend over at all so
you know I'm just gonna kind of do this because I can't move my back so this is
kind of something like this you know but they do that rocking with that thing on
their head and they literally strap these things to their hands strap these
things to their head now obviously it's totally illegible it's not a whole
Bible you know they're not just like put the whole Bible on their head so
it's like on microfilm or whatever and by the way you go to the houses of Jews
when you're out so many they have that little wasp nest on their on their door
frame that weird little canister that's hanging there diagonally and that thing
has the Bible inside of it to where you can't read it on microfilm it reminded
me of another thing Facebook was trying to sell me the other day of like the
entire Bible printed on like a little centimeter square using nanotechnology
but you can't read it it's too small to read but it's the whole Bible I guess
you just have to kind of believe that by faith or put it under a some kind of a
magnification device but you know that's perfect for the Jews I'm not down on it
if anybody's wearing it you know it's cool okay but I'm just saying that's not
what God meant God's not saying hey strap it to your head strap the Bible to
your hand what he's saying is that you want to keep the Bible in front of your
eyes like cuz you're reading it like you're reading it or like have it at
your fingertips like there's always kind of a Bible nearby or you got maybe a
flashcard in your pocket with some Bible verses or you got a New Testament in
your pocket or something that's what he means and he says write it on the door
post of your house on the walls of your house he's talking about what Christians
do cuz see Christians actually understand the Bible so here's what
happens when you walk in a Christian home in a Christian home you have a
little embroidered thing on the wall as for me in my house we will serve the
Lord you have a little thing on the wall rejoice in the Lord all way and again I
say rejoice you have a little thing on the wall for God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish but I've ever last night that's what God wanted he wanted the Word of
God mounted on the walls and in it at our fingertips in front of our eyes he
wanted to be something that we think about that we see that we talked about
that we put out there that's kind of decorations he was talking about he
didn't say hey put it in microfilm and then hide it under a bushel right but
again everything it's it's the Nicodemus mentality taking everything super
literally Oh born again I got to enter into my mom's womb again and be born
it's that same mentality Oh stick it between my eyes yes sir it doesn't make
any sense and so what he's saying here is in verse 9 write them upon the posts
of thy house and on thy gates he's saying have decorations that include
scripture and you know these are nice things to have around right I mean you
know right over here we we have a Bible verse printed upon the wall we have a
Bible verse printed upon the window over there you know those are the type of
decorates is that a Bible verse I see back there holding fast the faithful
word as he had been taught all right just passed my eye exam being able to
read that from here and so yeah we've got Bible verses on the wall who here
well I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands probably almost everybody has some
kind of a decoration somewhere in your house I might have a Bible verse up and
look if you're too poor to decorate your house then just print out a Bible verse
on an eight and a half by eleven Times New Roman blow it up a little bit and
just pin that sucker to the wall and then you're in compliance doesn't have
to be anything special doesn't have to be fancy you don't have a printer get a
Sharpie and a piece of paper and a thumbtack and you're in compliance
you're ready to go you know put the Word of God in front of you you know have a
Bible on the coffee table right have a Bible by the bedside have a Bible at
hand at your fingertips in front of your eyes he's just saying that he wants the
Word of God to be integrated into our lives on a daily basis and and even
throughout the day that we would meditate upon God's Word day and night
not some kind of a legalistic checking of a box that we have a literal box you
know talk about checking a box they strap a literal box to their head it's
not normal it looks weird it's it's it's weird and then like what is that what
are they doing does anybody know what they're doing with those leather cords
that they strap around their arms does anybody know none of us know and we've
all been reading the Bible and many of us here have been saved for decades and
we still don't know what they're doing we've never read that verse back oh
that's why that Jewish guy is strapping a leather court but we saw this guy at
the airport and he's just like wrapping a leather strap around one arm and he's
just like making a mummy out of himself at the airport and we thought that the
guy was literally mentally handicapped Paul Wittenberg and I'm not joking right
now do I look like I'm joking this is not a joke this guy we thought he was
mentally we were helping the guy we're literally like hey can we help you and
it's not cuz we're like the old IFP just anything we can do for the Jews you know
but we were just like we were literally Paul and I were like we felt bad for
this guy cuz we thought he's mentally disabled because he was doing all kinds
of weird stuff and and he was he was mumbling and muttering and peeping and
rocking and and whatever but these he was like wrapping himself in this weird
court and we felt like the guy was gonna miss his flight and he was literally he
had this little Hebrew book it wasn't the Bible but it's some I don't know if
it was just some prayer book or the Talmud or what it was some some book but
he's holding like this far from his face I'm just and it was just real weird
because the guy's just you know we thought the guy was kind of crazy or
something and so we're we're like helping the guy we're like hey buddy you
know just so you know you know the flights boarding now cuz he seemed like
he just doesn't know what's going on around him so we're like the flights
boarding now you know just want to make sure are you are you going to you know I
think it was when we were going to Amman Jordan I'm like hey you know are you on
this flight to Amman cuz you know oh yeah yeah you know and he's just but
then but then we see the guy like an hour later like acting totally normally
and then we decided like this guy's not handicapped but what is with these
religious practices that make you look like a freak isn't it funny that when
you go to a Bible believing church there's nothing like weird right I mean
if you look if I bring an unsaved visitor to an independent fundamentalist
church there's nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed of there's nothing weird
going on nobody's gonna be falling on the ground and flopping around or all
kinds of weird tongue speaking craziness and I'm not talking about what the Bible
says about speaking with other tongues I'm talking about the the charismatic
movement so-called speaking in tongues you know I'm just thankful that when my
for example you know the first time my wife stepped into an independent
Baptist Church who'd been raised Catholic you know she loved it and
there's nothing I wasn't embarrassed to bring her to church I still love
bringing my friends to church why because there's nothing weird going on
there's nothing crazy going on nobody was like wrapping themselves up and
leather straps and you know rocking themselves and strapping things to their
head and it was just folks God's not the author of confusion okay God doesn't do
these weird things you know the stuff that we do makes sense and yeah the Old
Testament had a lot of ritual killing of animals and everything but you know what
that all made sense it was nothing weird about that it made total sense it made
perfect sense it all was explained it meant something it signified something
not just these crazy things that aren't even in the Bible okay because you know
what at least if somebody did come to an independent Baptist Church and thought
something was a little weird I'd be able to pull out a Bible and say well no it's
not weird because here's here's what the Bible says right here well what are
you gonna show me to defend that guy's behavior at the airport where does the
Bible say when thou readest the Bible thou shalt hold it less than one hand
breadth from my face right and thou shalt rock back and forth have you know
we you know 60 revolutions per minute or something it doesn't say anything like
that so let's get back to the text here it says thou shalt write them upon the
post of the house where in verse 9 on thy gates it shall be that when the Lord
thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers to
Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob to give thee great and goodly cities which thou
buildest not and houses full of all good things which thou fillets not and wells
digged which thou diggits not vineyards and olive trees which thou plantedst not
when thou shalt have eaten and be fold and beware lest thou forget the Lord
we'll come back to that so here's how we would apply this in the New Testament
first of all the literal interpretation they're going into the land of Canaan
and people have already lived there Canaanites the Parisites the Hivites
Jebusites they've already lived there meaning that they've already built
cities houses they already have infrastructure roads are in place wells
have been digged agriculture is in place they're coming in wiping those people
out and they're taking over some of that infrastructure meaning that they
don't have to start from scratch they're not just coming into wilderness and
jungle and having to build civilization they're actually getting to inherit some
stuff that's already done okay now Jesus Christ says in the New Testament that we
when we go out soul winning other men have labored and we are entered into
their labors so sometimes when we knock on someone's door we don't have to start
from scratch they know who Jesus is they know what the Bible is they know
the basics and we're able to now build on that foundation water that seed
that's been planted and when that's all to Christ and so it wasn't just our work
alone it was a series of people who did work that led to that person getting
saved but not only that I think an important application for us in the New
Testament of this is that we need to understand that the things that we
receive in life and the things that we achieve in life are not just due to
ourselves alone we can't just say you know I have done all this through my
hard work and my wisdom and my goodness you know we have actually been blessed
with things that God has just put in our lap you know we we have been blessed and
God has given us everything that we have every good gift is from above and
coming down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness neither
shadow of turning so every good gift is from above and so therefore you know if
I achieve anything in the business world or if I achieve anything with a job or
whatever you know God he tells us in Deuteronomy later on is the one who
gives us the power to get wealth he gave us the knowledge he gave us our brain he
gave us talents and abilities and skills he also gave us opportunities and put
us in the right place at the right time because there are a lot of people in
this world that are talented people but they're not achieving their potential
because they just haven't found the opportunity right because the talent has
to meet with the opportunity and not everyone is being used to their full
potential in this world God blesses us by allowing us to be in the right place
at the right time to get the job to get the opportunity to get the customer to
get whatever and so we need to always make sure that when it comes to our
possessions and our achievements that we always give God the glory and not look
at the oh this is the house that I earned no no this is the house that God
has blessed me with well I earned it myself no no God bless you with that
house God bless you with that vehicle God has blessed you with your wife or
husband God has blessed you with your children and don't have this attitude
that you somehow have earned everything and you picked yourself up by your own
bootstraps you know what it just isn't true okay especially not for me because
I grew up in a Christian home and guess what growing up in a Christian home is a
privilege and a blessing and people out there that are not growing up in a
Christian home and those of you that are in here that didn't grow up in a
Christian home you know what you've had an uphill battle to get where you are
more so than I have it's a lot easier for me to be up here preaching the Word
of God having grown up in a Christian home with parents that drilled sound
doctrine into me my entire life you think that's an advantage over the
person who grew up Muslim Hindu Catholic Mormon that well the Mormon they just
wouldn't even be here right I mean realistically let's face it anybody out
here that was born and raised Mormon in the altar all right we got one it's a
miracle it's a literal miracle folks so but hey guess what he was born and
raised Mormon would you rather been born and raised an independent fundamental
Baptist yeah I mean why not you know because you know what he has literally
defied every statistic to be here right and so he you know I'm glad he's here
but he had to swim upstream to get here I swam downstream to get here okay
because my parents already put me on the right path they already put me on the
right course they already put the Bible in my hand and sent me in the right
direction from day one I was hearing good preaching from day one I grew up
with the Word of God from day one hey that's a blessing that's opposed I'm not
gonna get up here and say oh I achieved I didn't achieve anything except for the
fact that I had Christian parents God on my side God blessing me live how about
just being born in America even if you're born Mormon you're still born in
America right I mean that's a huge that's a huge advantage is being born in
America I mean if he would have been born in the heart of hardcore Hindu
India Veron's defying a few statistics tonight as well you know if you're born
in Iran or born in North Korea or born in some of these places right hey why
don't you just thank God every day for everything that God has given you and
put in your lap and you're living in houses that you didn't build you're
eating from vineyards that you didn't plant you're drinking from a well that
you didn't dig and that's actually literally true of all of us who
physically built your own house yeah one who here built your own car from
scratch that's gonna be nobody who here you know dug the well from which you
drink on a daily basis no you know we're drinking from the you know the the
the municipal water supply or you're buying bottled water or whatever right
we are eating fruit we didn't grow all our own food we're eating something
that somebody else grew and you know God has blessed us greatly and we live in a
land of milk and honey you wanna talk about line of milk and honey you know
what the children of Israel their situation was less opulent than ours
like when you read all these descriptions oh man you're going into a
land of milk and honey we're there we're literally there do you really think
there was more milk and honey in the in the land of Israel 3,500 years ago than
there is in America right now I guarantee you we have more we could just
we could go down and buy so much milk at the grocery store it would make Moses
blush how much milk we could come home with and and how much milk I can put
away in one day would make Moses blush all right and so we need to always be
thankful for all of the things that we've been given and beware lest we
forget the Lord verse 12 which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from
the house of bondage the Bible says thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve
him and shall swear by his name why fear God because what God has given God can
take away God has given you good health he can take it away God and can put you
flat on your back anytime he wants to trust me he can put you on your back
that fast and you can't just be like well I'm just gonna do it anyway you
can't move when he puts you on your back you can't move all right and so God
gives and God takes away blessed be the name of the Lord and so yeah God has
given you this land of milk and honey and all these blessings but you know
what if you if you don't fear the Lord if you don't serve the Lord with fear
and rejoice with trembling if you forget the Lord who gave you all these things
he can take away your wonderful job that you're so proud of he could take away
your wonderful house that you're so proud of he could take away your family
that you're so proud of you know what you got to be thankful for those things
all the time to God and acknowledge him and fear the Lord and keep his
commandments so that it can be well with you and you can be blessed in the land
of milk and honey that we live in known as the United States you should not go
after other gods verse 14 of the gods of the people which are round about you
for the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you lest thou anger or sorry lest
the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee and destroy thee from off
the face of the earth you shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted
him in Massa now what does this mean when it says don't tempt God now
obviously we know that the Lord cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth
he any man but every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and
enticed so God doesn't tempt people to sin and God can't be tempted to sin
that's not what we're talking about what we're talking about when we say don't
tempt the Lord is we're saying don't try his patience don't test him to see if
he's really gonna punish you have you ever heard people say this like hey
don't test me or they might say hey try me and see what happens they might say
the opposite either don't try me or go ahead and try me what the Bible saying
is don't tempt God meaning don't test God to see if he's really gonna punish
me if I go whoring after other gods let's go whoring after other gods and
see if anything bad happens let's go out and get drunk and see if anything bad
happens you know God commit fornication see if anything bad happens don't tempt
God because something bad is going to happen don't test him because he'll show
you what happens and so he says don't tempt the Lord your God don't test him
don't try him you shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God
and his testimonies and his statutes which he had commanded thee and now so
do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may be well
with thee and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lord
swears unto thy fathers to cast out all thine enemies from before thee as the
Lord has spoken and I like this part the end it says when thy when thy son
asketh thee in time to come say what mean the testimonies and the statutes
and the judgments which the Lord our God hath commanded you then thou shalt say
unto thy son we were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt and the Lord brought us out of
Egypt with a mighty hand and the Lord showed signs and wonders great and sore
upon Egypt upon Pharaoh and upon all his household before our eyes and he brought
us out from thence he might bring us in to give us the land which he sware unto
our fathers and the Lord commanded us to do all these statues to fear the Lord
our God for our good always that he might preserve us alive as it is this
day and it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments
before the Lord our God as he had commanded us so what the Bible is saying
here is that when the kids ask you know what what is what does this all mean why
why why why do we serve the Lord why don't we serve this other God or why do
these commandments why not live a different way why not live the way other
people around us are living you know what all the cool kids are doing why why
do it this way the answer to that question for them in the day of
Deuteronomy was well you know God's the one who saved us and brought us out of
Egypt and brought us into this good land and we're keeping God's commandments so
it can be well with us and that we can prolong our days in the good land which
the Lord God has given us so think about the New Testament version of this why
keep these commandments because we're saved right just as they said you know
well because God brought us out of Egypt it's like well because and he said we're
in bondage hey because we were in bondage to sin God has forgiven our sins
saved us through his blood given us a home in heaven we've been born again
we're children of God we're saved therefore we're gonna keep God's
commandments so we don't keep God's commandments to get saved we keep God's
commandments because we already are saved and notice he doesn't say to them
you know hey you know we got to keep these commandments or we're gonna be
we're gonna be enslaved in Egypt once again or something you know no because
here's the thing they've left Egypt God has other ways of punishing them but
you know what's interesting is that God had all these other ways of punishing
them right where he could send famines he could send enemy invaders and so
forth but he didn't he didn't send the whole nation to be enslaved in Egypt
again you know it's like once you're saved you're saved and obviously that's
just a picture of salvation obviously everybody who came out of Egypt wasn't
literally saved in a spiritual sense because that was in their heart whether
they believed on the Lord called upon the name of the Lord or not just like
being in faith for Baptist Church doesn't make you saved it's what you
personally believe in your heart about Jesus Christ that makes you saved and so
here's the thing we're saved we could never become unsaved God has given to
us eternal life we shall never perish we've been passed from death to life but
because we're saved we should keep his commandments and if we say okay God
saved us from hell well the least we could do is love the Lord our God and
love our neighbor as ourself and keep the Lord's commandments that it may be
well with us and so that's what the Bible saying here is that because God
saved us from Egypt we're gonna serve him we're gonna do his command we could
say the same thing you know because God saved us from our sins because God saved
us from hell we're gonna follow him we're gonna keep his commandments so
that it will be well with us for our good always and it'll be our
righteousness if we do these things and so for you kids today if you want to
know why you need to continue being a Baptist going to church serving God
following the commandments living a Christian life and not just go out and
become just this worldly person just like everybody else like a heathen
living like a heathen you know why it's hopefully it's because you're saved and
if you're saved if you believed on Christ well then you're not your own
you're bought with a price so glorify God in your body and in your spirit
which belong to God you should be doing that you should be doing that because
your body and spirit are gods right they belong to God and so you should love the
Lord want to do what's right and if you have a few brain cells to rub together
you should know that God is gonna mess you up big time if you grow up in a
Christian home and go out there and live like the devil don't test him don't try
it because you should just already know it's a guarantee and you know what if
you say well I saw a Christian young person that grew up in a Christian home
and went out and lived like the devil and they're doing great the price is not
saved that's number one maybe they're just not saved because whom the Lord
loveth he chases and scourges every son who may receive it maybe that person is
not a child of God so they can get away with whatever or number two maybe their
judgment just hasn't shown up yet because God's chastisement doesn't it's
not like a this little shock collar every you know you do a sin and it's
like you know you do a sin and then you just collapse you know in pain you know
it doesn't work that way it you know then everybody would would believe in
God if every time they sinned they were just instantly lightning bolt instant
punishment and every time they did something good it's like oh there's a
hundred dollar bill on the ground wow you know every time you do anything good
or right that's not the way it works is it you reap what you sow but guess what
when you sow seeds in a field do you reap the harvest the next day do you
reap it the next week you reap it months later maybe even in the case of fruit
trees years later you plant a fruit tree you're not getting fruit up the tree for
years well guess what if you see somebody out there who lived a Christian
life and as a child you know they grew up in a Christian home and they're
presumably saved and then they have forsaken that and gone out to live like
a heathen and you don't see first of all you usually just see the bad things
happening that's the more likely scenario and it's gonna be like whoa
take notes don't do that but even if everything's going great for that person
I promise you that either they're a not saved or B the punishments are on their
way and it's just a delayed reaction but I'll tell you one thing that I know for
sure is that if you serve God and keep his commandments you are gonna be
blessed you are gonna be happy with the way your life turns out even the dark
times are gonna be bright for you and you are going to live a better life now
look nobody's life is ever gonna be perfect and you're like whining like oh
my life you know yeah but but you know how much worse your life would be if you
weren't serving God obviously all of life it contains some suffering am I
right nobody's just living on easy Street I don't care you know how they
try to portray it to the world everybody goes through problems and hard
times if you think your life's hard serving God wait till you see what your
life could be like when you're not serving God because the Bible says the
way of transgressors is hard and believe me they out there that are living a
worldly sinful life are living a hard painful miserable life and even if it's
going good in the short term it's the pleasures of sin for a season God has
put them in slippery places and they will fall suddenly let's borrow words
enough word of prayer father we thank you for this chapter Lord and that it's
still relevant to us 3500 years later approximately Lord is still relevant and
these things are just as relevant today as they were then help us to apply them
to our lives Lord and be wise about following your commandments and Lord
most of all just help us to have the right love for you and and for our
brothers and sisters in Christ and and to love our neighbors ourself in Jesus
name we pray amen