Thank you.
179 such love.
Give them the 179
that God should love
a sinner such as
I.
Such love
The chosen seed
Of Israel's grace
The ransom from the fall
Hail him who saves him
By his grace
And round him
Lord of all
Hail him who saves him
By his grace
And round him
Lord of all
Let every wind
Let every time
On this terrestrial home
To him all majesty
A strike
And round him
Lord of all
To him all majesty
A strike
And round him
Lord of all
We'll join the everlasting song and crown him, Lord of all.
Lord of all.
All right, this time we'll be doing our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high, we'll get to you with one.
On the inside, we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 10 30 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at 6, Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study, tonight we're in Deuteronomy chapter number 9.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below as well as salvations and baptisms.
Across the page is the note about the missions conference,
November 8th through 12th.
FWBC Tucson is gonna celebrate their five-year anniversary
coming up on Sunday, September 3rd.
There'll be a potluck after the service.
Everybody's welcome to drive down there and attend.
It's on kind of the closer side of Tucson,
so it's like less than an hour and a half from here
if you're interested in going down there.
On the back, we sponsored a Toronto Soul Winning marathon
and they had 36 soul winners come out,
187 salvations, and so praise the Lord for that.
They had a great day of soul winning in Germany
with five soul winners, 11 salvations.
We got a missions trip coming up to St. Lucia.
I think that the Caribbean is one of the best
mission fields for us right now.
I mean, it's just such a no-brainer
because it's close, it's receptive,
there's not a lot of jet lag.
It's only a couple hours different.
It's cheap to get there and they speak English.
I mean, it literally just checks all the boxes
for what you would look for in a great mission field
and so I'm looking forward to seeing
what God allows us to do September 17th through 23rd
at St. Lucia, so if you can go yourself, great.
Talk to Brother Raymond Cooper for more details.
Otherwise, just pray that the trip is a big success.
Also pray for our pregnant ladies
that they will have a safe and healthy pregnancy
and delivery and then other upcoming events.
The young soul winning trip, you don't have to be young.
It's just, it's a city called Young.
Actually, it's not a city called Young.
It's a town, a very small town called Young.
It's kind of a cool area though.
It's definitely a beautiful drive
so it's kind of a neat place.
So that is coming up on September 2nd,
small town soul winning and then there's the trip
to the Navajo reservation on the 8th and 9th
and then there's also a Dominican Republic mission trip
happening at the same time as the St. Lucia trip
so that's for Spanish speakers if they wanna go
and preach the gospel in Dominican Republic
which I believe is the other side of the island
that contains Haiti, right, Hispaniola.
It's got Haiti on one side,
Dominican Republic on the other side.
So that's about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning
from the past few days.
Going back to Monday, anything from Monday?
Okay, got it?
Okay.
All right, how about Tuesday?
Anything from Tuesday?
All right and then today, I know we had two for the van.
Anything outside of the van today?
Very good, keep up the great work on soul winning with that.
Let's sing our next song, come lead us.
All right, you can find the insert
in the front of your hymnals of the song
How Great Thou Art.
If you don't have an insert, please raise your hand.
We'll get to you with one.
How Great Thou Art.
Oh, my God, when I hear awesome wonder
Let's hear all the words thy hands have made
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
I howl throughout the universe displayed
And sings my soul, my savior, God to thee
How great thou art, how great thou art
And sings my soul, my savior, God to thee
How great thou art, how great thou art
When through the woods and forest plains I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze
And sings my soul, my savior, God to thee
How great thou art, how great thou art
And sings my soul, my savior, God to thee
How great thou art, how great thou art
How great thou art
And when I think that God his son not sparing
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in
That on the cross my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin
And sings my soul, my savior, God to thee
How great thou art, how great thou art
And sings my soul, my savior, God to thee
How great thou art, how great thou art
When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, my joy shall fill my heart
When I shall bow with humble adoration
And there proclaim, my God, how great thou art
And sings my soul, my savior, God to thee
How great thou art, how great thou art
And sings my soul, my savior, God to thee
How great thou art, how great thou art
How great thou art
My Jesus, I love thee, I know thee
Thou art mine, for thee, all the follies of sin
I resign, my gracious redeemer
My savior art thou, if ever I love thee
My Jesus, this now, I love thee
Because thou hast first loved me
And purchased my pardon on Calvary street
I love thee for wearing the thorns on my crown
If ever I love thee, my Jesus, this now
I love thee in life, I will love thee in death
And praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath
And say when the dead do my soul on my crown
If ever I love thee, my Jesus, this now
In mansions of glory and endless delight
I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright
I'll sing with the glittering crowd on my brow
If ever I love thee, my Jesus, this now
Deuteronomy chapter 9, the Bible reads
Hear, O Israel, thou art to pass over Jordan this day
To go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself
Cities great and fenced up to heaven
A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims
Who thou knowest and of whom thou hast heard say
Who can stand before the children of Anak
Understand therefore this day that the Lord thy God
Is he which goeth over before thee as a consuming fire
He shall destroy them and he shall bring them down before thy face
So shalt thou dry them out and destroy them quickly
As the Lord hath set unto thee
Speak not thou in thine heart after that the Lord thy God
Hath cast them out from before thee saying
For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land
But for the wickedness of these nations the Lord doth dry them out from before thee
Not for thy righteousness or for the uprightness of thine heart
Dost thou go to possess their land
But for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God
Doth dry them out from before thee
That he may perform the word which the Lord swear unto thy fathers
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
Understand therefore that the Lord thy God
Giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness
For thou art a stiff-necked people
Remember and forget not how thou provokes the Lord thy God
As thou didst in the wilderness
From the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt
Until ye came unto this place
Ye have been rebellious against the Lord
Also in Horeb ye provoked the Lord to wrath
So that the Lord was angry with you to have destroyed you
When I was gone up to the mount to receive the tables of stone
Even the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you
Then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights
I neither did eat bread nor drink water
And the Lord delivered unto me two tables of stone
And on them was written according to all the words which the Lord spake with you
In the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly
And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights
That the Lord gave me the two tables of stone
Even the tables of the covenant
And the Lord said unto me
Arise, get thee down quickly from hence
For thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt
Have corrupted themselves
They are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them
They have made them a molten image
Furthermore the Lord spake unto me saying
I have seen this people
And behold it is a stiff necked people
Let me alone that I may destroy them
And blot out their name from under heaven
And I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they
So I turned and came down from the mount
And the mount burned with fire
And the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands
And I looked and behold ye had sinned against the Lord your God
And had made you a molten calf
Yet turned aside quickly out of the way which the Lord had commanded you
And I took the two tables and cast them out of my two hands
And break them before your eyes
And I fell down before the Lord as at the first forty days and forty nights
I did neither eat bread nor drink water
Because of all your sins which ye had sinned
In doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger
For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure
Wherewith the Lord was wroth against you to destroy you
But the Lord hearkened unto me at that time also
And the Lord was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him
And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time
And I took your sin the calf which ye had made
And burned it with fire and stamped it and ground it very small
Even until it was as small as dust
And I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount
And at Tabura and at Massa and at Kibroth Hatayvah you provoked the Lord to wrath
Likewise when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea saying
Go up and possess the land which I have given you
Then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God
And you believed him not nor hearkened to his voice
Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you
Thus I fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights
As I fell down at the first
Because the Lord had said he would destroy you
I prayed therefore unto the Lord and said
O Lord God destroy not thy people and thine inheritance
Which thou had redeemed from thy greatness
Which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand
Remember thy servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
Look not unto the stubbornness of this people
Nor to their wickedness nor to their sin
Lest the land whence thou brought us out say
Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land
He promised them and because he hated them
He hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness
Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance
Which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power
And by thy stretched out arm
Father in heaven we thank you for your son Jesus
And your King James Bible Lord
We ask you to bless Pastor Anderson's sermon tonight
Fill in with your Holy Spirit
And Lord we love you
It's in Jesus' name we pray
Amen
Men in Deuteronomy chapter number 9
We're continuing this preaching that Moses is doing
Right on the verge of entering into the promised land
And this is a pretty negative chapter
Where Moses is bringing up a lot of the bad things
That have happened over the last forty years
And a lot of the sins that the nation of Israel
Has corporately been guilty of
And he tells them not to forget these things
And one of the things I want to point out
Is that when it comes to our own individual lives
I don't believe that we should sit around
Meditating upon the sins of our past
Because in the New Testament the Bible tells us
Forgetting those things which are behind
Reaching forth unto those things which are before
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus
And we know that if we confess our sins to God
He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins
And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness
And there are so many verses about being forgiven by God
And that as far as the east is from the west
So far has God separated us from our sins
What I believe is going on in this chapter
Is that when it comes to a nation though
It's good for a nation corporately
To remember the mistakes that they've made
Throughout history
And the sins of their past in general
Obviously we don't want to beat ourselves up about personal mistakes
As long as we've repented and gotten those things right
The Bible says he that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy
It really doesn't do any good to dwell upon the mistakes of the past
You just move forward in the Christian life
But as a nation though
It is good to remember history
Because those who forget the past
Are doomed to repeat it when it comes to history
And so I believe that that's what's going on in this chapter
He wants them to remember their sins as a nation
Because they're about to enter the promised land
And he really doesn't want them to mess this up
Because remember 40 years ago they messed this up
And it cost them 40 years
So he doesn't want them to goof this up again
So he's really impressing upon them
Look, don't make the mistakes of the past
Don't do what you did 40 years ago
Don't do what you did these various other times
And so it makes sense in that context to bring up these sins
We just want to make sure that we don't get the mistaken idea
That preachers are all about dragging out your old sins
And beating you up for your past
And reminding you of bad things that you did
You know David says in the book of Psalms
Remember not the sins of my youth
And you know Job talks about how
You know his three friends would try to bring up something from his youth or something
You know it's never right to pull out people's sins from their past
That they've already moved on from
They've already confessed and forsaken those things
Once someone gets it right
Let it go
It should be forgiven and forgotten
I hate the fact that in our society
People carry around a criminal record for the rest of their lives
It isn't right
It isn't biblical
People who have committed a crime
Once they've served their time
Once they've paid the punishment for that
It should be totally forgotten and never brought up to them again
Now you say well you know what about these you know
Pedophiles and you know sex
They should be dead
No criminal record needed
Because they're dead
And you don't need a record
Anything that's not worthy of death
We should be able to live it down
Let's say somebody stole
Oh well you know this guy stole 20 years ago
So his employer has the right to know that
Really?
Because I would say it's time to let that guy live it down
Let him that stole steal no more
But rather let him work with his hands right
And I forget how the rest of the verse goes
But it's a great verse and it's in Ephesians 4
So Deuteronomy chapter 9
Let's jump into this with those things in mind
It says hero Israel thou art to pass over Jordan this day
To go into possessed nations greater and mightier than thyself
Cities great and fenced up Devon
He's just saying look let's just get this out of the way
Because last time you guys seemingly were under some illusion
That you're going to do this through your own strength
And so then when the 10 spies came back and said
Oh man they've got chariots of iron
The Anakims are there
They're so tall and they're these great warriors
He's just saying look let's just skip the spies
And let's just get this out of the way
Yes you want to know how high the walls are?
They're walled up to heaven
Any questions?
The Anakims are there
The tallest people ever
And by the way there's a saying out there
You know who can stand before the children of Anak
It says at the end of verse 2 there
I feel like Moses just kind of getting this all out there
Saying look of course they're stronger than you
Of course you can't defeat them in the flesh
Of course they have all the weapons, all the munitions, all the technology
But God is the one
It says in verse 3
Understand therefore this day that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee
As a consuming fire he shall destroy them
I mean God's just going to come through like a forest fire and just destroy them all
Don't rely on yourself
Don't trust in yourself or you might as well just turn around right now
It's the Lord that's going to be that consuming fire
That's going to go before you
He says in verse number 3 there at the end
So shalt thou drive them out and destroy them quickly
As the Lord hath set out of thee
And of course the entire conquest
Obviously the children of Israel did not carry out the conquest perfectly
The way that they were supposed to
But even so it still only took them a total of seven years
To complete the conquest of the land
It says in verse number 4
Speak not thou in thine heart
For the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee saying
For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land
But for the wickedness of these nations the Lord doth drive them out from before thee
Not for thy righteousness or for the uprightness of thine heart
Dost thou go to possess their land
But for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee
And that he may perform the word which the Lord sware into thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
So God is killing two birds with one stone here
He's fulfilling his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by giving the land to their descendants
And also he's destroying some really wicked people that he wanted to wipe out anyway
And if you remember God even tells the patriarchs that the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full
They hadn't really got wicked enough to where it was justified to just totally wipe them out
But after 400 years in Egypt they are really that bad to where God is just so done with them
And so he's wiping them out
Now the interesting thing about this is that he's saying it's not your righteousness
But it's rather their wickedness why you are dispossessing them of their land
Because he says you're not really that righteous
You're a stiff-necked people
You know you've done all these wrong things in the past
Now if we think about our own country the United States of America
Obviously America historically has been a Christian nation
Now America has never been perfect
It's never been as godly as we would have liked for it to have been
But yet relatively speaking it has been a lot more Christian and a lot more godly than a lot of other places out there
And so just as God would look at Israel and say you know you're a stiff-necked people
You're not as righteous as you think you are
But yet these people are way worse
God also looks down from heaven
And yes all nations in his sight are nothing and less than nothing
And obviously he sees the whole world as being a sinful place
And every nation is sinful
But yet it does matter which nations are worse than others
So don't get this attitude of just well all sin is equal and all nations are equal or whatever
Well no because there are some nations that are worse than others
And a nation that is relatively righteous or at least somewhat righteous or at least kind of righteous
God can work with that
And God can give them space and God can give them grace
Whereas a nation that gets as bad as these Canaanite nations just gets wiped out
They get punished severely
And so we see here that the children of Israel, they're sinful in general
But they're not near as bad as the Canaanites
Now here's the thing about that is that this is probably one of the best crops of Israelites in the history of Israel
I mean the first batch 40 years ago were pretty bad
That's why they had to wander in the wilderness, they didn't get to enter the Promised Land
This is actually one of the better groups
And he still says to them, don't get puffed up, you're not as righteous as you think
Because guess what, even people in this world that we look at as pretty righteous
In God's sight it's not good enough, right?
We've all sinned and we've all come short of the glory of God
So even when Israel is doing right in the sight of God, they're not that great
Now here's the implication of that
Is that throughout Israel's history, whenever they're doing right in the sight of the Lord
It's only because they have a right leader
And as soon as that right leader's gone, then things go bad
Well here's the thing, if the nation were really that righteous
Having a bad leader wouldn't just cause everything to just fall apart
They would just get rid of the bad leader, get a good leader, and keep moving forward
Or how many of us are serving God right now with an ungodly leader
I mean do we have some godly leader in the White House politically
Or some godly leader at the helm of the state of Arizona or whatever
Here's the thing, we're going to do what's right no matter what
Now here's the thing, you say well you know but in church
We have Pastor Anderson and you know he's preaching the Bible and teaching the right things and so forth
But here's the thing, if I started just preaching heresy
Or let's say I just quit or died or whatever
This church wouldn't just fall apart
It would keep going, it would keep thriving, it would keep serving God
And let's say I died tomorrow and let's say the guy who replaced me
Ended up being a bad guy and a bad leader
You guys aren't all just going to start worshipping the golden calf
You guys would get rid of the bad guy and you would keep moving forward
Because this is a solid group of people
Because the local church is superior to the nation of Israel
As an institution
Because see the nation of Israel, they get a bad person at the helm
And it's just you know, yeah obviously there are going to be some individuals that are serving God
But in general the whole thing kind of just goes to pot
And the majority of people go the wrong way
And just the very fact that they only do right when they have a strong leader
Really pushing righteousness shows that across the board they're not a spiritual bunch across the board
Which makes sense because if you just take an ethnic group of people
And just say okay these are going to be God's people
These are the chosen people
I mean let's face it, human nature being what it is
And the fact that broad is the way that leads to destruction
And many there be which go in their act
Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leads them to life
And few there be that find it
You know it's no surprise that the nation of Israel is usually not serving God throughout their history
And even when they are serving God
It's just because of a couple of prophets or a king or somebody
That's really pushing them and motivating them and making them do it
And as soon as that guy's gone everything falls apart
Whereas the local church is not ethnic or hereditary
It's people who are choosing to join together
People are choosing to come together because of their love for Christ
Because of their dedication to the truth
And so it's a stronger body
It's a stronger institution
It's a superior system to have churches be God's people
And God's unit of getting his work accomplished
And so nations are obviously never
Even when a nation is a Christian nation
Or serving God or whatever
There's still going to be a lot of ungodliness in every single nation
It could be relatively better than others
But people are sinners my friend
And so that's what's going on in this passage
It says here in verse number 6
Understand therefore that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness for thou art a stiff-necked people
And being stiff-necked simply means that they don't take correction well
The Bible says he that being often reproved
Which means like corrected
He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck
Shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy
So the hardening of the neck is not taking correction
It says in verse 7 remember and forget not how thou provokest the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness
From the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt
Until you came unto this place you have been rebellious against the Lord
Also in Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath
So that the Lord was angry with you to have destroyed you
When I was gone up into the mount
And now he's going to recap the story
About going up into the mount and receiving the Ten Commandments
When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone
Even the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you
Then I abode in the mount
Forty days and forty nights I neither did eat bread nor drink water
Now a couple things
We already talked about this a few weeks ago so I'm not going to review this
But the tables of the covenant
The Ten Commandments are the Old Covenant
They're used synonymously
They're like a cliff's notes version of the Old Covenant
Obviously the Old Covenant is also more than that
But the Ten Commandments are definitely Old Testament
Old Covenant
They're the tables of the covenant
And they were written with the finger of God
The Ten Commandments on two tablets of stone
When Moses was in the mount
For forty days and four nights he did not eat bread or drink water
This is not humanly possible
This is a miracle
This is a supernatural event
Now Elijah did the same thing
Where he did not eat or drink for forty days and forty nights
This is not humanly possible
This is something that is a supernatural thing
So don't try this at home
Because after like a week with no water
You will be dead
And tomorrow you will probably be dead tomorrow
Okay without water
But it is humanly possible
And I'm not recommending this
Don't try this at home either
But it is humanly possible to go forty days and forty nights without food
If you're drinking water
Now there is one person in the Bible who did that
And that's Jesus
And the reason that I would say that Jesus drank water
During his forty day and forty night fast
Is because of the fact that it says
Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights
He was afterward unhungred
And so if you're not eating or drinking
You're thirsty not hungry
And so I believe that Jesus actually fasted
Not supernaturally
But rather just actually naturally
Just fasted for forty days and forty nights
Without any kind of a miracle or divine intervention
Because that is humanly possible
There are even human beings
That have done that in modern times
Baptist preachers who have lost their reward
By talking about it
And bragging about it
Imagine going through that and then losing your reward
What a bummer
I believe Gandhi did some forty someday fast or whatever
But the point is
That this is a supernatural event
He doesn't eat or drink
That's not possible without a miracle
But he's up in the mount
He's communing with God
And he doesn't need to eat or drink during that time
And so the Bible says in verse number ten
And the Lord delivered unto me two tables of stone
Written with the finger of God
Oh that's right God the Father has body parts
I remember now
And on them was written according to all the words
Which the Lord spake with you
In the mount
Out of the midst of the fire
In the day of the assembly
I came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights
That the Lord gave me the two tables of stone
Even the tables of the covenant
And the Lord said unto me
Arise get thee down quickly from hence
For thy people
Which thou has brought forth out of Egypt
Have corrupted themselves
They are quickly turned aside
Out of the way which I have commanded them
They have made them a molten image
Isn't it interesting how God
Isn't really claiming them at this point
You know this reminds me of when
My parents will sometimes do this like
You need to go have a talk with your son
Like even a married couple has kids together
You need to have a talk with your son
About blah blah blah
Like when they're doing something bad
It's the other person's child
Because they're taking after them
And so here God is not really owning
The children of Israel
He's saying well your people
Which you brought
And here's what's funny about that
Is that people today have this idea
That Israel is just God's people
No matter what they do
No matter how bad they get
No matter what they do
They can hate Jesus
They can be unsaved
They can deny Christ
But you know they're still the elect though
They're still the chosen people
I mean here's the thing
In the New Testament
That's not even close to being true
But even in the Old Testament
He's disowning them at times
He's ready to totally disown them
In fact he's ready to kill them all
And he says here they're your people
That you brought out and everything
And then Moses has to step in
And intercede
Let's just quickly go through this
But he says that they've corrupted themselves
And so forth
And then it says in verse 13
Furthermore the Lord spake unto me saying
I've seen this people
And behold it's a stiff necked people
Let me alone
That I may destroy
Let me alone
That I may destroy them
And blot out their name from under heaven
And I'll make of thee a great
A nation mightier and greater than they
So I turned and came down from the mount
And the mount burned with fire
And the two tables of the covenant
Were in my two hands
And I looked and behold you had sinned
Against the Lord your God
And had made you a molten calf
He had turned aside quickly
Out of the way which the Lord had commanded you
And I took the two tables and cast them out of my two hands
And break them before your eyes
To me this is one of the most surprising things in the Bible
Why would you throw the tables on the ground
I mean can you imagine you just spent 40 days and 40 nights
Up in the mountain
You come down with tables of stone
Written with the finger of God
And then you throw them on the ground
I mean I don't care how mad I was
I just can't see myself throwing down the ten commandments
And breaking them
I mean has anybody else thought the same thing
It's kind of a crazy thing to do
Like wow
Like you're that mad
Like you just spent 40 days and 40 nights with no food
And no water
To come down with these two tablets
And it's written with the finger of God
This irreplaceable item
The value of it you can't even grasp
And you're just like
Dang it
Just throw it
But he just throws them on the ground
But here's the thing
That he throws them
It's such a strange thing to do in my opinion
But I don't think that God didn't see this coming
And like you know Moses is throwing them down
And God's like whoa whoa you know
Have a little respect buddy
I believe that it was God's will that he throw them down
Now he might have just thought that he was losing his temper
And throwing them down
Because he is a hothead at times in the story
But I believe that God wanted him to throw them down
Because it's symbolic of the breaking of the old covenant
Or the destruction of the old covenant
Because what you have to understand is that the tablets of stone are the tables of the covenant
They represent the Old Testament
Why was the old covenant broken
Because of the sins of Israel
It ends up getting destroyed
And here's what you have to understand
The old covenant was never an eternal covenant
It was never meant to be an eternal covenant
It was never planned as an eternal covenant
Because guess what
God always planned for Jesus Christ to come
And die on the cross for our sins
And be risen again
And to bring in a new covenant
The new covenant is not God's plan B
The new covenant is prophesied all the way back in Genesis
It's always been the plan
The old covenant is not designed to last forever
God knew the old covenant is only going to last for about 1500-1600 years
That's all it was designed to last for
I think that if it were meant to last forever
Some things about it would be different
Because it was only designed for that period
And God always knew that
And so ultimately the old covenant ceases to be enforced
It ceases to exist
That's what I'm saying today
In 2023 the old covenant is not a thing
There's only the new covenant
Now there are people out there that are wrong on this
And they will try to act as if
The old covenant and the new covenant are both side by side operating
And that is a false doctrine
In Hebrews chapter 8 verse 13 it says
In that he saith a new covenant
He hath made the first old
Now that which decayeth and waxeth old
Is ready to vanish away
What is it that is decaying and waxing old and ready to vanish away
It's the old covenant number 1
The old covenant is done away in Christ
It's replaced by the new covenant
But not only that
The nation of Israel itself
Went away and ceased to exist
Now when is the book of Hebrews written?
We don't really know exactly when the book of Hebrews is written
It's written sometime during the first century AD
But people could debate about whether it's written before the destruction of the temple in 70 AD
Or after the destruction of the temple
And these different things
I would say it's probably written before the destruction of the temple
I think that's clear in my mind
But the thing about that is
That after Christ died on the cross
The veil in the temple is ripped in half
And that was the veil that separated the holy of holies
From the holy place
And so that veil is rent and twain
And what that symbolizes right there
Is that now we have access directly into the most holy place
Through the blood of Christ
We can go boldly to the throne of grace
And find grace to help in time of need
And we have one mediator
Jesus Christ
We don't need the high priest
We don't need the priest and the levite
It's all, like at that moment
Spiritually, I mean God in heaven knows
It's over, it's done at that point
But does the whole world know that at that point?
Not even Jesus' disciples fully understood that at that point, right?
So it's going to take people a while to figure that out
Especially the diaspora
People that are living, Jews that are living thousands and thousands of miles away
Because you have Jews all over every nation under heaven
Devout Jews and they're believing in the Lord
It might take them a while to even hear that Jesus came and died on the cross
Because they don't have TV and telephones and satellite and everything
And so it's going to take a while for word to spread and everything
So what you have is you kind of have this transition period
Where as far as God's concerned
It's over, we don't need animal sacrifices
Once Jesus dies on the cross you never need another animal sacrifice again
But it just takes people a while to figure that out
Animal sacrifices are still going to continue going on for a while
A lot of the disciples are going to be a little bit confused sometimes
Some of the apostles are going to be confused at times
And participating in those type of rituals and things
Because they don't fully grasp the difference between Old and New Testament
Like we have the luxury of just having a copy of the whole New Testament, 27 books
Obviously in the first century they don't have that
They're trying to figure things out
They're learning, they're growing as they go along
And plus I believe that a lot of people are kind of grandfathered in under the Old Covenant
As the Old Covenant's kind of moving out
And the New Covenant's kind of coming in
And so I think that's why he says
That which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away
It's going to soon vanish away
Because when Hebrews is being written it seems like it's still
We're still kind of seeing the Old Testament is decaying
And it's on its way out in that sense
So there's kind of that overlap, a little bit of overlap or transitional period there
But once the temple is destroyed in 70 AD
That was tantamount to the nation being destroyed
And if the nation wasn't totally destroyed in 70 AD
It was 100% destroyed in 135 AD
Because in 135 AD the Romans defeated the Jews again
In what's called the Bar Kochba Revolt
And at that time they made it to where not a single Jew, not even one
Is even allowed to enter the city limits of Jerusalem
They can't live in Jerusalem
They can't even go to Jerusalem except once a year on the 9th of Av
And they could go and do their little thing with this kind of number
And cry about it
But the thing is, the nation of Israel was destroyed
Totally destroyed
You have a diaspora of Jews
And here's the thing about that is that the nation of Israel was completely destroyed
And it just wasn't a thing anymore
You have, now you say, well you know, they stayed together and banded together in communities
And they kind of kept things alive and interbred and kept their culture going on
But what was it as they were scattered into all nations in the first and second century AD
What was it that kept those Jews of the diaspora
What was it that kept them together
What were they united around?
A religion called Judaism
Am I right?
That's what it was all about
And it was a brand new religion
Because it's not the religion of the Old Testament
Because the religion of the Old Testament involved animal sacrifices
And in Jesus' day, what are the Jews doing?
They're doing animal sacrifices
But then they came out with this new portable version of Judaism
That they could take it on the road
That didn't involve Jerusalem because it's illegal to even go to Jerusalem
Look folks, it was God's will that Jerusalem be destroyed
And that it be illegal for Jews to go to Jerusalem
Because he's trying to basically let them know it's over
Old Testament is over
Old Covenant is over
The New Covenant
But then you've got these stubborn, stiff-necked, hard-hearted, Christ-rejecting Jews
Who just want to keep being Jewish
And not accept Christ as their savior
Not accept their Messiah
And so they say, well, we're just going to replace the animal sacrifices with prayers
We're just going to pray
And then they started teaching, well, you know, if you read about
If you read about doing stuff in God's law, it's like you did it
So like even though we're not actually doing any of the stuff that we read
In Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
You know, we're not doing these things
But if we read about it, it's like we did it in our mind
Like we did sacrifices
We did these different rituals and feasts and things
You know, because we read about it
Now this isn't biblical at all
It's just a made-up, false religion
And it's a Christ-rejecting religion
It's a reaction to the Messiah
Saying we will not have this man to rule over us
And why did the Jews not want to have this man to rule over us
It says that his citizens hated him
So they didn't want him to rule over them
And so that's what's keeping them together
So throughout history
Throughout 2,000 years of history
You've got the Jews rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ
During that time
But obviously biologically, ethnically
They're mixing in with whatever people they're living amongst
And they were living amongst every nation under heaven
But the main group that we would think of today as Jews
Are European Jews
Also known as Ashkenazi Jews
And so the Ashkenazi Jews
Looks like 90% of the Jews in Israel or whatever
Are the ones that are in Europe
And if you look up who Ashkenaz is in the Bible
He's a Gentile guy
And these are Jews from Europe
And they're white people
I mean let's face it
They're white people
They're whiter than I am
Okay, I mean you go over there
And they've got red hair, freckles, blonde hair, blue eyes
I mean they're as
It's like you might as well be in Norway or something
When you're around a lot of these Jews over there
Okay, so
It's not that they're ethnically Israel
And that they're, you know, they're the descendants of Abraham Isaac
No look, in the first century AD
You still have an ethnic Israel
You have James writing to the 12 tribes
Which are scattered abroad greeting
You have the Apostle Paul saying
You know, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
Is that they might be saved
They're my kinsmen according to the flesh
I'm related to these people
I'm an Israelite
I'm of the tribe of Benjamin
But here's what's funny
Is that people will try to take those passages
And try to put that into 2023
Like we still have the 12 tribes scattered abroad
As the kinsmen of the Apostle Paul
After 2,000 years of diluting
And mixing and intermarrying
And turning into white people
Cause look, if you get a time machine
And go back to the time of Christ
You know, the Apostles aren't going to be a bunch of blonde-haired, blue-eyed guys
They're going to be a bunch of brown dudes
Okay?
Sorry Black Hebrew Israelites
They're not going to be black though, okay?
They're going to be of a darker complexity
They're going to be probably looking like
What we would look at today
As Arabs or Egyptians
Or people, you know
People in that part of the world
That's what they would probably look like
You know, if we look at the old
If we look at the Egyptian artwork
You can see a bunch of brown people
And the Israelites and the Egyptians
Pretty much look the same
I mean, look
Somebody in the New Testament thinks the Apostle Paul's an Egyptian
He's like, aren't you that Egyptian guy?
No, he thought he was an Egyptian
Cause he looks like an Egyptian
Joseph looked like an Egyptian, right?
Moses was, you know, mistaken for an Egyptian
All throughout the Bible
The Egyptians and the Israelites
They don't look that different
They live close together
And they're not a bunch of Nordic, Celtic, white people
They're just not
And so the point is
That the nation of Israel
Was destroyed in the first century AD
It's gone, it's over
It's not a thing
It was scattered to the four winds
So right after it's scattered
Yeah, you could talk about different tribes being scattered
Right after that happened
You could talk about your kinsmen
And Paul could show up and be like
Oh, I'm gonna go to the synagogue and see the Israelites
But 2,000 years later
It's just white people
Who've been rejecting Christ for 2,000 years
They have nothing to do with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
And you have as much DNA
From Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
Well, it's not about DNA
Then what is it about?
What is it about?
Then what makes them special?
Oh, just because they reject Jesus?
Because they believe in a messiah other than Jesus?
Because why would that make you chosen?
Oh, you reject Christ?
I was thinking like
What do I have to do to become the chosen people?
Renounce Christ and put on a funny hat?
And now I'm the chosen people?
That's garbage!
I'm already the chosen people
Because if you believe in Christ
Red, yellow, black, and white
You're the chosen people
And so the Old Testament
Gets done away with
In the first century
And the nation of Israel itself
Gets done away with in the first century
What do we have over there in the Middle East?
Not the nation of Israel
In the end times
We're gonna have something called the Antichrist
What does anti mean?
It means in the place of instead of
You have an Antichrist
Well guess what?
You have an anti-Israel
That is a fake Israel
That's getting ready for a fake Antichrist
For a fake millennium
That's what we're heading into
Fake Jews
Fake Israel
Fake Christ
That's what we're heading toward
So don't be deceived for one second
To thinking that that nation over there
Is somehow a godly nation
That is spiritually Sodom and Egypt
That's what the Bible literally says about it
In the New Testament
It calls it Sodom and Egypt
And of course they're the queerest nation
In the entire Middle East
Second place is nowhere near
There's not even a second place
It's just a first place
Israel
And so okay
So I wanted to just kind of explain that
I believe that when he threw down the tablets
That this covenant isn't necessarily built to last
Because eventually it's going to be destroyed
Eventually it ends
Why? Because God wasn't faithful?
No, because the people of Israel have sinned
And so that breaking of the covenant there
The breaking of the tablets
Is a foreshadowing of the fact
That the Old Testament's not going to last forever
It's going to come to an end
After the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ
There's kind of an overlap period
But by the time you reach 70 A.D.
Or 135 A.D.
These things are just totally gone
And so today there's only one program to be on
My friend
Christ's program
There's Christianity and that's it
So let's hurry up and finish here
With the chapter
So he broke them before their eyes
Verse 18
I fell down before the Lord
As at the first 40 days and 40 nights
I did neither eat bread nor drink water
Because of all your sins which you sinned
In doing wickedly on the side of the Lord
There was anger and hot displeasure
Wherewith the Lord was wroth against you
To destroy you
But the Lord hearkened unto me at that time also
So here's what's going on
Moses
And especially if you read the account in Exodus
Because this is just kind of a quick little recap
You can go back to the book of Exodus
I believe it's chapter 33
You can read through the story back there
Whatever chapter it is
But in Exodus
When you read this
It's like when Moses talks to the people
He's talking to them
He's rebuking them
He's preaching hard
He's being really negative
But then when he goes to God
He's kind of singing the opposite tune
Because now he's pleading with God
To be merciful
To his people
So to them it's like, look what you did
You're wicked
Busting up their idol
Putting it in the water
Making them drink it and everything
But then he goes up into the mountain
He's afraid of what God's going to do
I'm afraid for the Lord's fierce anger
And then he goes up and he says
Oh God these people have sinned a great sin
But please forgive their sin
And he's interceding
He's begging God to be merciful
And you know what that shows me
Is that just because somebody's rebuking you
Just because somebody's preaching hard against sin
Just because somebody is being negative
It doesn't mean that they don't love you
Because Moses is a loving guy
And he's behind the scenes
Praying for them
He's not making some big show
Publicly praying for God to be merciful
He's doing that privately on his knees
But publicly he's preaching the rebuke
That people need to hear
So the preacher who loves you
Is going to preach against sin
He's going to rebuke what needs to be rebuked
And the guy who just says only positive things to say
Well he's probably also not the guy
Who's loving you behind closed doors
And praying and caring about you
He's more just interested in being popular
Or whatever
And so that's what I take away from this story
Is that Moses is acting one way toward the people
And one way toward God
When he's talking to God
He's wanting to play up
You know Israel's repentance
Or that you know God should forgive them
Or that you know
He should be merciful
But then when he's talking to the people
It's just you know
It's just a lot of wrath and doom and gloom
And it's really taking to the people
What they need to hear
Not that he doesn't love them
It's what they need to hear
Even though it's negative
And so it says in verse number 20
The Lord was very angry with Aaron
To have destroyed him
I prayed for Aaron also at the same time
So remember Aaron had a part in making the golden cap
And so God's ready to kill Aaron too
And so Moses intercedes for Aaron
And this is a good example for us
That we should be praying for God
To be merciful to our brothers and sisters
When we see a brother or sister
That gets out of church
Uh you know
Starts going down a dark path in life
Starts getting into drugs or alcohol
Or fornication or whatever
We should be on our knees interceding
And saying God be merciful
You know give them space
To come back
Give them space to repent
And we should be an intercessor
Like Moses
And so he uh you know
He breaks the cap and so forth
So let's talk about that
Let's just jump down to verse uh 25
Thus I fell down before the Lord
Forty days and forty nights
As I fell down at the first
Because the Lord had said that he would destroy you
I prayed therefore unto the Lord and said
O Lord God destroy not thy people
And thine inheritance
Which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness
Which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt
With a mighty hand
Remember thy servants Abraham Isaac and Jacob
Look not unto the stubbornness of this people
Nor to their wickedness
For the Lord was not able to bring them into the land
Which he promised them
And because he hated them he had brought them out
To slay them in the wilderness
Yet they are thy people
And thine inheritance
Which thou brought us out
By thy mighty arm and by thy stretched out
Or by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm
Now one of the great things we can learn from this
Is a lesson about how to pray
Because these are pattern prayers
I mean this is Moses
Who was effective at praying
For the children of Israel
So when we think about interceding
For other people
Then these are the type of things
That we could bring up to God as well
We could remind God of some of his promises
I don't think there's anything wrong
With praying to God and reminding him
You know God you said that you would do this
So do it
You know it's like Elijah saying
Where's the Lord God of Elijah?
And so when we pray sometimes
We could quote scripture to God
And bring some things to his remembrance
And say hey remember
Like he says here remember thy servants
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
We could pray and say hey remember
What you said over here
Or remember this person has served you in the past
This person did soul winning in the past
This person has done works for you
And I know now they're going down a dark path
But be merciful unto them
And you could pray that God would restore them
And you know you could even pray
Something along these same lines
Where Moses says well what are the other nations going to think
Right?
We could pray and say you know what
What are other people going to say
When they see this godly Christian
Continuing down this dark path
Lord restore them so that their testimony
Could be restored so that other people
Could see and be saved
Because ultimately what matters the most
Is God's program
The gospel of Christ going around the world
People getting saved
Right?
His kingdom
His agenda
That's more important than any of our own personal goals or ambitions
Right?
We all have our own personal goals
For family or for our job
Or just athletics
Or whatever our goals are
And it's good to have those goals
And we work on those things
But at the end of the day
What really matters most is God's program
God's agenda
God's will of God
Or pray in a way that pleases God
Is to get on God's agenda in our prayer life
And say well God
You know please
Do thus and so for me
So that I can keep serving you
You know
Please be merciful to this person
And restore them
So that they can get back into soul winning
And then more people can get saved
You know if we're constantly bringing it back
To the things that God is interested in
The things that God wants
Right?
Oh God please give me thus and so
Because it'll be more fun for me
You know it'll make me happier
Now God does
Do a lot of nice things for us
You know to enjoy
But when we're praying
It's better if we're praying according to God's will
And it's going to be more effective
To bring up scripture
And bring up the things that
That God is going to benefit from this
And how the gospel is going to benefit
And how unsaved people are going to hear the gospel and so forth
Now at the end of the day
You say well you know God already knows
Everything anyway
You know why would I tell God
But by that logic you might as well just never even pray then
Because there's obviously
There's nothing you could ever tell God
That he doesn't already know
Because he's God
The Bible says your heavenly father
Knoweth what things you have need of
Before you ask him
But yet he still says you have not
So God does want us to talk to him and pray
Because of the fact that
Going through that process of asking for something
If you don't ask
You're not going to receive
I'm not one of these people that think
That prayer is just some exercise that we go through
That doesn't mean anything
No prayer changes things
And I do believe that when we pray
If we ask not
We're not going to get it
If we ask then we're going to receive
Praying makes a difference
We don't need to repeat the same thing
Over and over again
Because God already knows what things we have need of
Before we ask
So we shouldn't use vain repetitions or redundancy
When we pray
But God does want us to say these things
And express these things
Look if somebody did wrong to me
And I know that they're sorry
I still want to hear them say
I'm sorry
Well you already know
Look if my wife loves me
I don't want to just be like
Well I already know that she loves me
I still want to hear her say
I love you
She wants to hear me say
I love you
Not just well you know
I told you that when we got married
And if it changes I'll let you know
If anything changes I'll let you know
Otherwise just assume that I love you
Look we want to hear that
Don't we?
We want to hear people say they're sorry
If they're sorry
We want them to talk to us
And when our children talk to us
They're not always laying on us
A bunch of wisdom that we've never heard before
But we still like to hear our children talk to us
We still want to hear these things
Come out of their mouth
Why?
Because we're made in the image of God
And so if we want to hear from our children
God wants to hear from his children too
And so when Moses is saying
Hey remember Abraham, Isaac, Jacob
Obviously God's not like
Oh I totally forgot
I was wondering what I was doing
With these bunch of stiff necked Israelites
That's right it's for Abraham
Obviously God already knew that
But yet that is still the right way to pray
And so what's wrong with us saying
Hey God remember how you said
Seek ye first the kingdom of God
And his righteousness
And all these things will be added unto you
Hey Lord I'm seeking you first
I need some help right now
Please help me out with us and so
Or even better interceding
For other people saying
God be merciful to so and so
Help them out and praying for our friends
Praying for the people that are backslidden and so forth
That's an effective prayer
To remind God of his own promises
And also to bring it back
To what it's going to do for the kingdom of God
Because that shows God
That our heart is in the right place
That we want what he wants
We want the church to succeed
We want people to be saved
We want Christ to be glorified
And that's what inspired us to have a word of prayer
Father we thank you so much for your word Lord
And we thank you for the new covenant
And Lord we thank you that we're not under the old covenant
The old covenant is completely done away in Christ
And Lord God I pray that we would
Not be stiff necked
But that when you correct us
We would take that correction
As we see things in the word of God
That we need to change about our lives
And Lord help us to love and care about other people
And help us to love and care about your program
And your agenda
So that we can pray according to your will
And be blessed accordingly
And in Jesus' name we pray amen
Amen if you need the psalm book
For I will sing of the mercies 195
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever 195
I will sing, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord
With my mouth will I gain hope
I gain bliss, I gain bliss
With my mouth will I gain hope
I gain bliss to all generations
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever
I will sing, I will sing
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever