- Good afternoon everybody and welcome
to Steadfast Baptist Church.
It's great to see everybody here tonight.
If we can go ahead and find our seats,
we will get started with tonight's service.
And once we've all found a seat,
let's go ahead and grab a hymnal.
And tonight, our first song is gonna be 147.
Song number 147, "Everlasting Arms."
Song number 147.
Let's all sing that out together tonight on that first.
♪ What a fellowship, what a joy divine ♪
Everybody open up the service together
with a word of love you
and we just thank you so much again for this church.
Thank you so much for everybody gathered here tonight
unto you.
We just ask now that you help us sing unto you,
fill us with your spirit.
Sing this in Jesus' name, amen.
All right, for our next song, let's go to our binders.
Laminated sheet music here.
Sing, "Be Thou My Vision."
Be Thou My Vision, favorites.
Let's all sing that out together on the first.
Be Thou.
Church can come by and get you a bulletin.
On the front, we have our new Bible memory passage, Psalm 53.
So if you can quote that to a non-family member, you can get a prize.
On the insides, our service and soul winning times, our church stats, also our expecting
ladies list.
We have several ladies to be in prayer for.
Coming events.
So this upcoming, what is it?
Is it Friday?
All right.
I'm just trying to make sure I get it right here.
This Friday is our Texas chili cook-off, and so there was some instructions put in
one of our group chats.
If you have a question about it, you could see me or my wife after the service, but it
is a Texas-style chili, no fillers, needs to be here by 6.
We will have prizes for that, and then we should have some of the extras like chips
and cheese and stuff like that, but we're excited to have another great night of fellowship.
If you'd like to bring any board games or cards or something like that to play, you
can, isn't it?
Oh, if you want to bring a dessert, you can bring a dessert too.
Chocolate's always the best.
Faithward Baptist Church's Admissions Conference, November 5th through the 9th.
I'll be preaching that 6th.
Choir practice for our kids' choirs is November 9th.
That's when it's going to start.
It's going to be immediately following the evening services.
I believe it was like ages like 4 to 18, so there's going to be two different groups,
though.
There'll be a younger group and an older group.
I'm going to be preaching at Anchor Baptist Church November 23rd, and that's their one-year
anniversary.
Turkey Bowl the 29th, Ladies Christmas Party the 5th, Christmas caroling December 8th.
Our kids' choirs are going to be performing on that Sunday, that morning service, December
21st.
We have a cookie bake-off that evening, December 21st.
Christmas candlelight service, December 24th, men's preaching and pizza, December 31st.
On the back is our prayer list, we'll go over that quickly, just continue to pray for the
Carlson's parents' health, also Mrs. Miller's friend's mom who is struggling with cancer.
Please pray for Brother Horace and Miss Grace for their health issues.
We're continuing to pray for Brother Tony, also the Foley's dad, please pray for his
kidney disease.
Please pray for the majoring's daughter and also friend.
Also continue to pray for Brother Paul.
Pray for Brother Goodwin's sister-in-law, whose husband passed away.
Also just continue to pray for Miss Lola and Phoebe Rowe.
We're praying for Brother Wallach's aunt, who had passed away in their family.
And we're praying for, this is a special prayer request just put in today, but the Burns,
we're asking for prayer for their older brother Joe.
He's come to our church several times.
Just pray for his health and pray for his mental state.
So we're just praying for lots of different people there.
We'll go ahead and say a quick word of prayer as a church family.
Thank you, Father, so much for our church.
Thank you so much for this evening.
I thank you so much for all the ladies are expecting in our church.
What a blessing.
I pray that you please just help them with their pregnancies.
I pray that you'd also give them a timely birth.
Please also just allow those that are sick or have illness right now to recover
so they can get back into church.
We have several friends, family members, church members who are struggling
with chronic issues, with serious health issues.
I pray if possible, Father, you would just give them healing.
You'd give them patience.
You'd give them comfort during this difficulty.
I pray that you could also just help bless our friends and family that need favor
with one of their jobs or with their life situations.
I pray that you would also just please help our upcoming events,
the things that go successfully, that we would have a good time.
And I pray that you would just bless the end of this year.
It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
So all I have as far as announcements, we'll go ahead and sing our Psalm of the week.
It is 67, so it's in our special binders, Psalm 67.
Psalm 67, Psalm 67, let's all sing that out together.
Singing everybody, now as the offering plates are being passed around,
go ahead and open your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter number five.
That's Deuteronomy chapter number five.
Chapter number five reads, "And Moses called all Israel and said unto them,
'Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day,
that ye may learn them and keep and do them.
The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.
The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers,
but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.
The Lord talked with you face-to-face in the mount out of the midst of the fire.
I stood between the Lord and you at that time to show you the word of the Lord,
for you were afraid by reason of the fire and went not up into the mount, saying,
"I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have none other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above,
or that is in earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them.
For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them
that love me and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work.
Thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates, that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.
And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out of thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm. Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.
Honor thy father and thy mother as the Lord thy God commanded thee, that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Thou shalt not kill, neither shalt thou commit adultery, neither shalt thou steal, neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbor, neither shalt thou desire thy neighbor's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor's house, his field or his manservant or his maidservant, his ox or his ass or anything that is thy neighbor's.
These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire of the cloud and of the thick darkness with the great voice.
And he added no more, and he wrote them in two tables of stone and delivered them unto me.
And it came to pass when he heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, for the mountain did burn with fire, that he came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes and your elders.
And he said, Behold, the Lord our God hath showed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire.
We have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth.
Now therefore, why should we die?
For this great fire will consume us.
If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we shall die.
For who is there of all flesh that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire as we have and lived?
Go thou near, hear all that the Lord our God shall say, and speak thou unto us, all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee, and we will hear it and do it.
And the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spake unto me, and the Lord said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee, they have well said all that they have spoken.
Oh, that there were such in heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever.
Go say to them, Get you into your tents again.
But as for these stand out here by me, and I will speak unto thee all the commandments and the statutes and the judgments, which thou shalt teach them,
that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it.
You shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God commanded you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
He shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God commanded you that you may live and that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days in the land which you possess.
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for allowing us to be in your house.
Thank you for all the souls that have been saved, Lord.
I just pray that you'd be with Pastor Shelley, filled with your Holy Spirit, to preach unto us, help us make applicable changes to our lives, Lord, and I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen. Deuteronomy chapter 5, we're kind of getting into some of the actual commandments that Moses is going to be reiterating.
Again, Deuteronomy is kind of the idea of the second time the law is given.
Now, it's not given directly, it's given as a reminder.
God's not actually redistributing this to Moses in a sense.
He's just reminding them what has happened, even in your Bible, means specifically.
So what's really interesting about this is this is 40 years past when the law was given,
and that whole generation had died.
But this new generation is who Moses is saying the law or the covenant was being made with.
Now again, the covenant is the idea of them entering into the promised land, and that
being their habitation, that being their country, as long as they are abiding in the covenant.
You can think of this, and I use this illustration several times, is it's kind of like a lease
agreement.
You're entering into a lease agreement, you're agreeing to abide in this house, and as long
as you abide by that lease agreement, you're going to stay in that particular land.
Now I think it's interesting though that he said that this other generation, it was not
with them.
Why was it not with the first generation?
Well let's look at some New Testament revelation on this.
Go to Acts chapter number seven, go to Acts chapter number seven.
The Bible recounts some of these stories in the New Testament.
In Acts chapter number seven, we have Stephen giving just kind of a long history recap of
the children of Israel.
He covers a little bit of this in Acts chapter seven, look at verse 35.
This Moses, whom they refused, saying, "Who made thee a ruler and a judge?
The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel, which
appeared to him in the bush.
He brought them out after that he had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and
in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for 40 years."
This is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel, "A prophet shall the Lord your
God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me, him shall ye hear."
This is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the Mount
Sinai and with our fathers who received the lively oracles to give unto us to whom our
fathers would not obey but thrust him from them and in their hearts turned back again
into Egypt saying unto Aaron, "Make us gods to go before us for as for this Moses which
brought us out of the land of Egypt we will not what has become of him and they made a
calf in those days and offered sacrifice unto the idol and rejoiced in the works of their
own hands."
Now it's giving us a little bit of a clue here but the children of Israel are not obeying
Moses they're not believing in the Lord and really what is it that they're kind of trusting
in here well it's mentioning in verse 41 they rejoiced in the works of their own hands and
this first generation is going to be rejected because they did not believe in God but rather
they trusted in themselves verse 42 then God turned and gave them up to worship the host
of heaven as it is written in the book of the prophets oh you house of Israel have you
offered to me slain beasts and sacrificed by the space of 40 years in the wilderness
yet he took up the tabernacle of bullock and the star of your God Remphan figures which
you made to worship them and I will carry you away beyond Babylon now this is what's
interesting to me notice in verse 43 here he says in the star of your God so is he referring
to them even as his people he's actually saying you're not I'm not your God your God was this
Remphan and of course it says the quote star of Remphan you know we never have in the Bible
the star of David being mentioned anywhere in scripture but we do have a star of Remphan
that's being mentioned here and you kind of wonder did it look like the Israel flag and
I have no idea but it's probably more likely that it looked like the star of Remphan than
the quote star of David which is just not found in the Bible whatsoever and of course
that's following a false God of false religion not the God of the Bible modern state of Israel
today is not following the God of the Bible but is following a false God and which ultimately
represents Satan so why the New Testament says that the synagogue of Satan because that's
who is leading them it is the most antichrist ungodly religion in the world it is the most
satanic religion in the world is Judaism and the religion of Israel and it's really
not any different than if you think about this first generation that is being mentioned
here where they completely reject God they're wandering out in the wilderness worshiping
this false God this false religion not really caring about what Moses said not caring about
God's commandments think about it they didn't believe in Moses and you know today many Christians
are deceived they think that Jews today believe Moses but the Bible says if you'd believe
Moses you would have believed me for he wrote of me so actually modern day Jews today they
don't believe Moses either so in the Old Testament that first generation didn't believe Moses
had a false God today Jews don't believe Moses have a false God and of course the Jews smack
dab in the middle with Christ they also did not believe Moses and essentially didn't have
God the Father as their God they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and they crucified him
so it's really kind of in a sense no new thing under the sun why is this first generation
being rejected though it's because they did not believe in God and as a result of unbelief
they're going to be rejected go to Hebrews chapter three go to Hebrews chapter three
and I want to spend a little time in Hebrews as well but the first generation did not believe
now it kind of culminates in a specific story where they get to the edge of the promised
land they're supposed to enter in they're afraid of the Giants they don't believe God's
going to deliver them and so they kind of just complain and and belly ache and and moan
and then God just says fine then you're not going to enter it then they kind of try to
enter themselves and then they fail and then they just die in the wilderness never had
their heart right they never believed they never trusted in me right what is he saying
he said they do always err in their heart they've never known his ways there was not
a point where they knew it and so he says therefore they're not going to enter into
my rest why would he reject an entire group of people that he's he's spent so much time
and effort and energy on right there at the promised land because God wants to send a
very important message that salvation is by faith and if you do not believe in him he
will not save you so he set this huge example of this giant group of people that he's done
a lot of stuff for and then they just totally are going to die and waste away in the wilderness
because the vast majority of humanity will die and go to hell the vast majority of humanity
who God created in the mother's womb gave them birth gave them life gave them parents
that had enough of natural affection to at least feed them and clothe them and give them
an opportunity to survive a God that rained on them a God that gave a lot of them decades
maybe even 80 90 years to live on this earth all these things that he's done all this effort
all this energy is poured into their lives and yet because they did not believe they
will not enter into his rest they will die and they will go to hell the vast majority
of people are going to die and go to hell and that's kind of what's being illustrated
here why is the first generation rejected because of unbelief because they did not believe
in the Lord look at chapter four verse one let us therefore fear lest the promise being
left us of entering into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it for unto us
was the gospel preached as well as unto them but the word preached did not profit them
not being mixed with faith and them that heard it what is the Bible saying here it's saying
they didn't actually believe it verse three for we which have believed do enter into rest
as he said as I have sworn in my wrath if they shall enter into my rest all of the works
are finished from the foundation of the world now again we can't always just run with metaphors
but these metaphors have general truths what's the general truth the congregation as a whole
did not believe in the Lord so therefore they kind of represent unsaved people not entering
into heaven not entering into his rest because of their unbelief but not all of that generation
had unbelief Joshua did believe and Caleb did believe and they did enter into rest because
everyone that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ goes to heaven even if your entire generation
is terrible even if everybody around you is terrible look even if you are saved and you
go to a Catholic Church you'll still go to heaven I mean there's some people that go
to the Catholic Church that are saved albeit it's got to be very few that are saved there
are saved people that don't do anything they don't really go to church they hardly do much
for the Lord and they're still going to go to heaven why because salvation is simply
by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and the reason why the people that did not make
it in didn't make it in is because they did not believe and notice what the Bible said
here did you notice it in verse 2 for unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto
them you know I was listening to an old video of the church that I used to go to growing
up and the pastor Jimmy Evans and he said in the Old Testament there was no gospel
wait a minute what does the Bible clearly say the Bible says that the gospel was preached
to the children of Israel in the wilderness so who are you going to believe are you going
to believe this nom the nom pastor driving a Rolls Royce or are you going to believe
the Bible and at the end of the day hey the gospel is the everlasting gospel that goes
in both directions folks it doesn't just go in one direction and look salvation's
only been by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ obviously in the Old Testament they're looking
to Christ in the New Testament we're looking back to Christ to say which one makes more
sense is kind of a silly vain question anyways is it easier to believe that someone's going
to come in the future and and pay for all your sins or is it easier to believe that
somebody already paid for all your future sins arguably it's probably just as difficult
to believe either i would even say it might even be harder to believe that he already
paid for your future sins because people always are mixed up on that right this is what's
even funnier to me about the timeline of events you talk to people and they think that jesus
has paid for their past sins but not their future sins i'm like bro he died 2000 years
before even your past sins started what why would jesus's death have paid for your sins
just a few days ago but not a few days from the future like how does how does that even
make any sense you know obviously jesus christ was a once-for-all sacrifice and he paid all
of our sins and so therefore it's by believing in jesus that gets us into the rest gets us
into the promised land now i want to make it clear though while what i'm saying in hebrus
three and four i believe is completely true the greater point that's being drawn out in
hebrus chapter three and four is more from the christian perspective and so we can look
at the story of the children of israel wandering in the wilderness and we can apply it to unsaved
people and just salvation as a process we can also just apply it to the process of the
christian life in general you know you can look at the Passover as a picture of believing
in the lord jesus christ you put the blood on the door post and the death angel passes
over you you've been passed from death onto life now you're saved of course they walk
through that red sea and that's a picture of baptism where they have water on all sides
they have the cloud over the head they have the water on both sides it's a picture of
baptism them walking through the red sea and then the wilderness is essentially the christian
life you're going to have all kinds of trials and temptations and ultimately the goal is
to die as a faithful christian so that you enter into heaven which is a picture of entering
into the promised land so i believe that both of these analogies are used in the bible and
are fitting so we want to make sure that when we're interpreting these you know stories and
whatever we're having the right perspective we're using the analogy consistently but at
the same time i also want to make it clear that the reason why this first generation
was rejected as a whole is because of their unbelief in god now if you notice here in
hebrews chapter four it says let's keep reading just a little bit more of this okay it says
uh for he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise and god did rest
the seventh day from all his works the seventh day is a picture of the sabbath the sabbath
was a picture of salvation that we enter into jesus's works we enter into his rest in the
sense that he worked now we just enter into his rest god rested as a picture that we should
rest and we rest because salvation is rest you say what is it what is rest doing doing
no works rest literally means no works just like grace means no works why because we're
saved by grace not by works and we enter into his rest but in verse 3 if we back up again
as i have sworn on my wrath if they shall enter into my rest all of the works were finished
from the foundation of the world now it's interesting kind of how this is worded but
but keep your finger go back to psalm 95 go to psalm 95 that's where this is actually
being quoted from psalm 95 psalm 95 will give us a little bit more context to what is being
described here psalm 95 and I'm not going to read the entire psalm start in verse 8
heart and not your heart as in the provocation as in the day of temptation of the wilderness
when your fathers tempted me proved me and saw my work 40 years long was I grieved with
this generation and said it is a people that do err in their heart and they have not known
my ways unto whom I swear in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest so we actually
go to the Psalm that's being quoted you'll actually notice that it's being quoted in
chapter three and it's being quoted in chapter four here so he's saying hey I said that they
always were erring I was grieved with them the entire 40 years why because they were
never saved as a whole we're talking about just a big picture there's not saved they
didn't believe they don't have the faith and as a result you know as a result of this God
is going to reject them now again I'm trying to explain a couple difficult concepts here
Hebrews is a difficult book if we think about these analogies I still believe that both
can be applied where we talk about a Christian going through the Exodus or a non-Christian
how do we how to explain Passover from the non-Christian perspective what did the Jews
scream vehemently whenever they wanted to crucify the Lord Jesus Christ his blood be
upon us and on our children right so here's the thing the blood was spread on all the
doors over all these unbelieving children of Israel in the wilderness okay so just because
that's a picture of salvation doesn't mean that every single one of those people actually
believed in the Lord but they were part of the sacrifice process they were all there
to kill the Passover what does that symbolize the Jews killed Jesus Christ the Jews and
then they the kind of the spreading the blood on the door kind of pictures how they are
taking the responsibility of the blood of Jesus Christ upon themselves but by and large
this group was not saved they did not believe in the Lord they always were grieving him
in his heart yet he drags them through the wilderness he gives them the law they have
the law and then he just totally is going to discard them why well what did he say here
at the end of this verse undo my swear my wrath that they should not enter into my rest
meaning what they're not going to go to heaven because salvation and going to heaven is not
by ethnicity God's chosen people is not about a physical group of people it's not being
a physical children of Israel the entire first generation is rejected the entire first generation
as on there's exceptions I'm just saying as a whole basically he's just rejecting this
entire group of people as a whole and even said explicitly the covenant was with not
with them who is the covenant with the next generation so what does this lead into what
does this mean this is meaning that the physical nation of Israel was not who the covenant
was really with it's the spiritual nation of Israel who the covenant really is with
the promise because God was promising that the next generation was going to enter into
the promised land they weren't even born yet many of them many of them hadn't even
been born they're the promised seed that's going to come and they're going to enter
the promised land just like in the new testament hey israel is replaced by the spiritual children
of God and he rejects that physical nation and he replaces it with a spiritual nation
and they are the people of God and that's who the covenant is for and this is what's
interesting is that these those old testament promises and covenants were not given to that
first generation they're given the second in the same way that the bible does not apply
to unsaved people it only applies to the saved people the entire old testament and the new
testament applies to us and it's written for us it has nothing to do with christ rejecting
jews it's not for them they have no covenants in the bible some people think like oh there's
like dual covenants like we have our covenant and then jews have their covenant they have
zero covenants and we have the covenants we have the covenants through christ and through
believing in the lord jesus christ they have zero covenants all the all the words of god
are for us it's not for them they don't even believe in many ways what would be the point
of saying hey moses is for these uh people in the middle of the middle east right now
in israel and none of them believe it you know who believes it though bible believing
christians fundamental baptist and we actually used the book of moses to learn how to live
a godly christian life because it's written for us go if you went to first corinthians
chapter number 10 go to first corinthians chapter 10 look you have to understand that
the bible is written to believers it is not written to a physical group of people how
can this let deuteronomy 5 sink in deep into your minds and your hearts the law of god
was not given to just the physical nation of israel because the first generation were
rejected it wasn't even given to them the bible says the covenant was not for them it
was for the next generation which pictured believers which pictured those who actually
trusted in the lord because those who did not trust in the lord died in the wilderness
now again we understand that through time the physical nation of israel is constantly
a mix of believers and unbelievers but really the bible is just applying to believers consistently
in the old and in the new testament and these things were a foreshadowing of what would
happen how the gentiles would become the people of god and how they would replace the physical
nation of israel this is the great mystery that's revealed in the new testament that
great wall of partition being broken down between us and there's no more jew and gentile
we're all one in christ jesus first corinthians chapter number 10 the bible says in verse
number one moreover brethren i would not that you should be ignorant how that our fathers
were under the cloud and all passed through the sea let's let some of these words sink
into our brains for a second moreover brethren who's talking paul we're gonna get real simple
here who's talking the apostle paul who is the apostle paul he's a benjamite who is he
talking to the corinthian church who is the corinthian church i mean this is just like
a crazy mix of gentiles i mean all kinds of random gentiles he's calling them brethren
and then notice what he says i would not that you should be ignorant how that all our fathers
were under the cloud and all passed through the sea how how are these people hits their
fathers because it's a spiritual understanding this is a spiritual book he's saying these
people are our fathers they're the fathers of our faith it's father abraham it's not
about an ethnicity it never was it never will be hey you know what jacob is our father
just as much as the people in the middle east in fact he's more a father because he's saved
and we're saved you know they're of their father the devil is what the bible teaches
you know how can you how can you read this book and come across and think that paul thinks
you know oh being physical israel is more special he's he's talking a bunch of gentiles
and saying you guys this is our fathers our fathers they were all baptized into moses
in the cloud in the sea and all did eat the same spiritual meat and all did drink the
same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that
rock was christ who are they following in the wilderness jesus christ and doesn't that
fit with the bible saying that the gospel was preached under them but by and large that
first generation it did not profit them why because it wasn't mixed with faith it never
it never had the combination of the gospel and faith it's not a mix of faith and works
it was a mixture of the gospel and faith and when you do not put your faith in the gospel
it does not profit you there's plenty of people that have the gospel and are not saved
i mean the catholics have the gospel and they're not saved many evangelical churches they have
the gospel and they're not saved why because it's not mixed with faith 1st Corinthians
15 talks about people that deny the resurrection how it's no profit under them how it does
not benefit them how they're believing in vain believing the facts of the gospel does
not get you into heaven it's putting your trust in the gospel that gets you into heaven
and these things are two different things it says in verse five but with many of them
god was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness now these things were our
examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted you
also understand this about the bible most of the bible is typically written well beyond
when things actually happen they're not very often being written in a present tense sense
obviously the apostle paul's letters are pretty present tense in some of those cases but for
the most part a lot of the bible is recording things that already happened so the book of
moses is not written for moses it's not written for the children of israel it's somebody that
wrote it way later after all those things have happened and look how many things you
think have happened in a couple thousand years of history a lot of things that happen why
did god choose to write these certain things down in the bible he wrote them for us he
wrote them for the corinthian church the corinthians are getting these stories and god cherry picked
little stories out of history to put in scripture obviously you know obviously the bible's eternal
so i don't understand how all that works i'm just saying in general these particular highlights
in the bible are for a specific reason for a specific purpose for corinthians and for
a corinthian church and this one's so funny to me you'll get up and you'll preach a sermon
and you'll start calling people kora dathan and abiram and they'll be like how dare you
just apply these you know these biblical characters the situation well it was written for us literally
it wasn't written for kora it was written for the corinthians that's who it was written
for it was written for us in this present time in this present hour to understand all
the biblical characters because that's what people are like in general they follow these
same general patterns and these same attitudes and these same spirits and you know what they're
just npcs for the devil and it's the same devil so that's why it's the exact same playbook
that we're constantly reading and seeing throughout and he's saying hey they're going through
all these problems and all these issues what are we supposed to do well it says that we're
supposed to take these things as an example for us why in the intent that we should not
lust after evil things as they also lusted neither be idolaters as some of them as it
is written the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play neither let us commit
fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand
neither let us tempt christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents
neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer now all
these things happened unto them for in samples and they are written for our admonition upon
whom the ends of the world are come so the bible is saying that the old testament examples
in the law and everything that was given was given for us why so that we would not follow
in their example do you notice a pattern in first corinthians chapter number ten though
here's a pattern that i noticed did you notice in verse number eight and fell and one day
verse nine and were destroyed of serpents in verse ten and were destroyed of the destroyer
do you notice that there's a pattern where it's like they did this and died they did
this and died they did this and died they did this and died so what's the point the
point is in keeping god's commandments it keeps you alive what is the point of the old
testament of the old covenant of the ten commandments like what is the whole point
for a new testament christian it's for you to stay alive physically now look if you believe
in jesus christ you will enter into his rest you will go to heaven once you are saved you
are always saved keeping his commandments determines how quickly you get there and look
there's a lot of teaching today that minimizes the commandments of god acts like god's not
mad at you for any reason that you don't we all get the same rewards in heaven no matter
how you live how you act god doesn't really care about the old covenants and the old law
that's old testament no it's literally for us how could anybody read this and then try
to downplay deuteronomy downplay numbers downplay leviticus downplay exodus it sounds like someone
that's trying to get you killed let me tell you something we need to be a church that
emphasizes these books of the bible not downplays them because the bible says they're written
for us and you know most churches today are not preaching these things most churches will
not touch these books they will not talk about these laws they will not talk about these
stories and you know a lot of people are dying as a result of not following God's commandments
go view it back to deuteronomy chapter 5 I want you to hear all that so that when we
read this you actually take it seriously I don't want you to just oh yeah this is what
you said back then okay no no it's for us just like he said hey that first generation
this wasn't for them it's for you and the same way I want you to realize that this is
not for a bunch of Christ rejecting Jews in the Middle East it's for you this book is
for you these chapters are for you these verses are for you these commandments are for you
that's the attitude we should take says in verse 4 the Lord talked with you face to face
in the mount out of the midst of the fire now again it how in the world does the Lord
talk to you face to face if he doesn't even have a face pretty obvious that it's talking
about the fact that he does right now what is the picture and I've talked about this
a lot but essentially God I believe this is talking about God the Father came down and
was on the mount but he can't be seen and lived no one can see his face and live so
he's just clouded and fire and smoke and just all kinds of stuff and the children of Israel
as described in this particular chapter heard God's voice Moses is obviously there too Moses
though gets to go really close Moses gets to go up on the mount and interact with God
he didn't actually see his face the Bible describes for us at some point God kind of
put him near some kind of a cleft of a rock and passed by him and just kind of covered
his face so he could only see his back part so Moses never saw his face either because
no man can see his face and live that's just a clear thing the Bible is basically describing
God the father coming down from heaven and preaching the word of God to the children
of Israel himself preaching the 10 commandments and them hearing it that is what's being described
here it says I stood between the Lord and you at that time to show you the word of the Lord for you
were afraid by reason of the fire and went not up into the mount saying now anytime there's a
parenthetical statement you can take it out and the sentence should still make sense so you kids
that are in school if you can if you take out the pair the parenthetical statement and the
sentence doesn't make sense you did something wrong okay now let's let's let's just take it
out in a reading to kind of pick up because a big parenthetical statement let's kind of take it out
for a second just kind of get what was it saying it says the Lord talked with you face to face
in the mount of the midst of the fire saying so it's God talked to you what did he say I am the
Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage thou shalt have
none other gods before me so this is our first commandment that we have mentioned in the Bible
God spoke to them he said I'm the one that got you out of the Egypt and hey you should have no
other gods before me verse eight thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness
anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the waters beneath
the earth thou shalt not bow down thyself to them or bow down thyself unto them nor serve them for
I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children under
the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and showing mercy unto thousands of them that
love me and keep my commandments. So the first commandment is you just shouldn't have any other
gods no matter what. Now the second commandment is kind of a is a little bit different but it
goes along with false religion. Not all false religions has idolatry necessarily. I mean
the religion of Islam is a false religion with a false god but they are very anti-graven images.
Now they have their little game cube or whatever their black pill cube or whatever
in the middle east somewhere. I don't know where it is exactly. Where is it at? Does anybody know?
Mecca? What is it? I don't know how you said that but whatever. Al-Aqsa mosque or something.
I don't know if that's right. It's somewhere over the middle east where nobody cares but
they don't really practice idolatry. So the first commandment applies to Islam very very clearly
but not necessarily the idolatry. But let's take a religion like Hinduism.
They not only have a false god or false gods they also indulge and in an extreme way into idolatry.
Now what is the bible saying? That you shouldn't make the idols and you shouldn't bow down and you
shouldn't worship them. You know you kind of have like Islam is over here no idolatry. Then you have
Catholicism which kind of has some idolatry. Some of them are kind of bowing down they're kind of
praying to them a little bit. I don't know if they're worshiping it like in a praise way but
they're worshiping it by by kneeling down. And then you kind of have like Hinduism over here
where it is just like full-blown worship of graven images. I mean they're pouring milk on these like
graven images mouth to feed it. Like they're preparing all this food while they're starving
setting it out and giving it to false gods and not eating it feeding it to the little statues
and whatever. I mean that is just crazy it's just crazy okay. When you're saved and you have the
knowledge of the Lord this stuff is insane. Obviously to them many many young people they're
just there they don't know any better they've been lied to but but here's the problem with this.
Did you notice what God said he's going to do to you? He says if you continue doing idolatry
and worshiping false gods I'm going to do something really special to you and it's not what you want.
He says he's going to visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth
generation of them that hate me. It's like God has a compounding hatred towards idolatry. It's
like not only are you going to be punished for this if your fathers did it it's like a double
punishment and if their fathers did it it's like a triple punishment and if their fathers did it
it's going to be a quadruple punishment and what it just seems like nations and countries and areas
that are majorly indulging in this kind of false religion God is just like quadrupling the punishment
on these nations quadrupling the punishment on these people and and just making it their miss
their lives miserable now all of that purse can be broken in a single moment if someone will just
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and get saved because did you notice what he said next he said
not only will he do that though but he said in showing mercy unto thousands of men that love me
and keep my commandments at any point if someone believes on the Lord Jesus Christ and gets saved
and quits the idolatry drops the idolatry God is a very merciful God he's a very gracious and
long-suffering God and he can allow people to still be blessed even though they may in the past
have been engaged in horrible idolatry horrible false religion so you know that's great news that
you could switch religions and immediately be right with God isn't that pretty cool I mean you
could be practicing a really bad false religion engaged in horrific idolatry but you can get saved
today drop your idols like a bad habit and be right with God the the same moment basically and
that's the power of the gospel that's the power of God's grace and mercy but you know what you're
not going to be right with God if you continue engaging in idolatry even if you're saved God is
going to punish you God has been mad at you there's there's many people in the Bible that you can look
to that are saved they're engaging in idolatry here's one that I think of is Rachel you have
Rachel and Leah Rachel's engaged in idolatry she steals her father's idols and Rachel dies young
do we know why I don't know but the Bible does say that in keeping his commandments it's going
to prolong your days upon the earth is it a coincidence that Rachel's engaged in idolatry
Leah it doesn't mention that and Leah outlives Rachel you know don't don't think like oh we
live in America it's not a big deal you know I can I can do some you know Catholic stuff
and I can hang out with these idols and I can hang out with you know Hindu idols and whatever
it's not a big deal I'm safe no no no God is very angry about it and God will punish you for
engaging in idolatry I don't want to engage in idolatry I want nothing to do with it I want to
stay super far away from it I want no graven images you know I'm not going to hide them in
my house somewhere and pull them out you know I want no graven images we should not have them this
is the second commandment sorry Catholics this is not the first is the second and I'm gonna I'm
gonna pick up that point again in a minute but number one commandment thou shalt have no other
gods number two you're not supposed to make any graven image or bow down to worship it number
three commandment mentioned in verse 11 thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy god in vain
for the lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain that's a that's a strong
warning he says hey i'm not going to just allow you to get away with using my name in a vain way
what does vain mean meaningless a meaningless way so what what would be blasphemy i believe it's
using god's name in a way that has no purpose you're not like talking to him you're not talking
about him you're using his name that does not fit the context and if you think about it this is how
many people you know cuss or curse in today's society that they'll hit their thumb and then
they'll say the lord's name but why would you do that like has nothing to do with you hitting
your thumb it has nothing it's just you're just angry and then you're just using his name as just
kind of some like derogatory thing it's almost like you're blaming him or something that's
blasphemy and the bible says that god will not hold him guiltless that uses his name in vain
something bad happens to somebody and they just use god's name in vain and is it any surprise that
when unbelievers jews whoever you want to pick they need to cuss they use jesus christ's name
they don't use muhammad's name i mean are we supposed to believe that jews are at war
with with islam like isn't that their worst enemy isn't that who they're fighting the hardest isn't
that who they have the most animosity towards then why when they stub their toe do they say
jesus christ and not muhammad let me tell you why because muhammad is a pedophile burning in hell
and they don't care about him but jesus christ is the lord god and they know that he's the real god
inside their hearts and their minds and so then when they want to actually blaspheme god they have
to use his real name so that's why they do it why is it that you go and watch a movie and there
aren't people blaspheming other religions and other gods and other things they're not saying thor and
zeus and whatever weird hindu gods exist nobody even knows who they are water goo goo or whatever
right why do they say jesus christ because it doesn't have any power when you use these false
god's names but boy you know it irks me you know i'm not someone that's like squeamish around words
but using the lord's name in vain will piss me off pisses me off it makes god mad god's very angry
this, you know, we should not be someone who does this because God will not hold them guiltless.
Verse 12, keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it as the Lord thy God has commanded thee.
Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the
Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son nor thy daughter nor
thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy ox, nor thy ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor
thy stranger that is within thy gates, that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest
as well as thou. Now here we have a commandment for rest. Now again, the Jews, they kind of
just ruin everything. Their idea of the Sabbath, especially when Christ comes, is kind of perverted.
It makes God very angry. It makes Jesus very angry at their view of the Sabbath. And if
you have the biblical view of the Sabbath, you wouldn't think of it as a burden because
basically the Sabbath is just basically saying, "Hey, everybody has to take a day off." I
mean, if you went to work and your boss said, "Go home. I don't want you to work today,"
you'd be like, "Man, this is just a curse. Man, what a terrible thing that I have to
do. I don't have to work today." I mean, if you kids go to school tomorrow and your
parents are like, "No school today. Do whatever you want." Oh man, what a curse. No. And again,
why is it using all these different people? Because he's saying, like, he doesn't want
some rich person to make it to where some poor person still has to work on the Sabbath
and they don't have to. So that's why he's saying, "Nobody." Not your animals, not anything.
You know, and again, animals working, animals are kind of stupid. If you have animals working,
you're probably going to have to have a person to help manage it. And even if that stupid
animal is not working, it still might fall in the ditch. And then the Bible is literally
bringing up that story. Jesus, like, brings up that story, like, "Hey, even if your animal,
like, your ass fell in the ditch on the Sabbath, would you pull it out?" And it's like, "Yeah,
you would." Because the Sabbath wasn't saying you can't do literally any work. You know,
today's Jews, when they go to a building, they can't even press the button for the elevator
because that's work. So they have to get what they call a Shabbos Goy, okay? This is their
Sabbath. Goy means Gentile. Shabbos is kind of like their Sabbath. So they have, like,
they have a shadow Gentile that walks around and he has to do all of their work for them
on Saturday. So they have a guy that literally is there just to press the elevator button.
I mean, you buy certain appliances, it'll literally have Sabbath mode. Does anybody
ever seen this? Oh yeah. It exists. Like, there's just all these weird things. It's
like, that is not what God was intending with the Sabbath anyways, okay? So don't think
of the Sabbath as like this over the top, like God is just trying to make your life
hard. That's what Jews are doing. They're trying to make your life hard. And think about
it. Salvation. Was salvation easy or hard? Easy. It was great. You did nothing. And look,
the Sabbath is what they do. They do the same thing. The Sabbath was great. It was
easy. It was fun. And then the Jews made it horrible and awful, like you can't even flip
on a light switch. Like think of how inconvenient your life would be if all of a sudden, one
day of the week, you couldn't even press an elevator button. You couldn't even flip a
light switch on. You'd be like, man, this day sucks. Like this day is so confusing and
so difficult and so hard. It's a burden. And look, that's what the Jews do to the gospel.
They make salvation by works. They make it impossible. And look, if you can literally
do no work whatsoever on the Sabbath day, you're doomed. Your heart's going to beat
without you even trying. You're going to breathe. I mean, like, how extreme are you going to
take this? But the Jews, they try to create these really weird manmade rules to try and
make it seem like they keep the Sabbath. They didn't even keep the Sabbath according
to their own view. In the same way that salvation was a free gift, it was easy. Look, the Sabbath
was a blessing. It was like, hey, we just have this day off every, every day of the
week. We're just not going to do work. And even when they were in the wilderness, they
didn't even have to gather food on that particular day and their food just stayed good for an
extra day. Was that hard? Was that difficult? No, that was a blessing because the Sabbath
was a blessing. The Sabbath is a good thing. Now in the New Testament, the Bible teaches
the symbol of the Sabbath was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. That Jesus Christ is our Sabbath,
spiritually speaking, and that when we get saved, we're entering into his works. So we
cease from ours and we're saved. The salvation was of not of works. It's a free gift. Once
you're saved, you're always saved. So in the New Testament, we don't have to, we don't
have to honor a physical Sabbath anymore. We don't have, I don't believe that we can't
work on Saturday because of this particular statute. So you say, well, how do you observe
this commandment in the New Testament? You get saved. Some Christians will say, well,
you need to take a day off in the week. And I'm like, some Christians are like hardcore
about this. They think like it's real, like you have to literally do this to be right
with God. I don't think that's necessarily true, but at the same time, it's not necessarily
like a bad idea. Obviously taking a day off on a week to just do some fun stuff, not necessarily
work. Hey, that's a great idea. You know, how about Sunday and go to church? But the
Bible did say six days without labor. You know, in America, it's like five days. So if you
think about it, like many people aren't even working six days labor. They're only working
five days labor. And yet God was prescribing six days of labor. So, you know, at the end
of the day, like don't look at the Sabbath as a negative thing, as a positive thing.
I don't think you have to keep a physical Sabbath in the New Testament. I think that
that's wrong. I think that the Sabbath is observed by believing in Jesus Christ and
getting saved. But is there anything wrong with taking a day off? No. I think that's
probably a good idea in a lot of cases. Is there anything wrong with working seven days
a week? If you can do it, go for it. I can't say you can't do that. I mean, I don't know
that I ever get to take a real day off either. But at the end of the day, it's like sometimes
I take a week off, sometimes I take time off. Time off is good for us. Obviously, God made
it to where we sleep. But at the end of the day, I'm going to work till Jesus comes. That's
kind of my principle, right? He says in verse, let's go to the next one here, verse 16. "Honor
thy father and thy mother as that Lord thy God has commanded thee, that thy days may
be prolonged and that it may go well with thee and the land was the Lord thy God giveth
thee." There's kind of this promise attached to this particular commandment, but all the
commandments in general keep you alive longer. But this one especially is really important.
If you want to live the longest life God's going to give you, prolong your days, then
it's by honoring your father or mother. How could Calvinists even read this verse? From
a Calvinist perspective, they don't even believe you have the free will to make your decisions.
Why would God even say your lifespan is going to be based on you keeping commandments, but
you're going to do whatever I want you to do anyways, no matter what? It sounds like,
from the text, it's the clear, plain reading of the text, that your lifespan is actually
in your hands, that you have some decision in how it's going to go. You know why? Because
it's real. You really do have free will. And the decisions you make as a child are important.
If you obey mom and dad, you'll live longer. If you disobey mom and dad, you will not live
as long. That's what the Bible promises. That's what the Bible teaches. Now you kind of look
at the first five commandments, they kind of have like an overlap, like they're all
about God kind of in the first five. And the next five are kind of like all about man.
But the fifth one is kind of like a transition one. Because if you think about it, okay,
we're supposed to honor our father, mother, but who's our most important father? It's
our heavenly father. And it's by keeping his commandments and honoring him that's going
to prolong our days, as well as honoring our physical parents, our physical mom and dad.
And that's really, really important. It's really important to obey your mom and dad
to be a good child. Verse 17, thou shalt not kill. That includes abortion, by the way.
Verse 18, neither shalt thou commit adultery. Verse 19, neither shalt thou steal. Verse
20, neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbor. And some of these are
pretty simple, but they need to be stated. Obviously, committing adultery, depending
on what type of adultery, has the death penalty attached with it. But even if it doesn't have
it, it's just wrong, number one. And number two, God could just kill you anyways. I mean,
if God's killing people for fornication in the Bible, if God's killing 23,000 people
in one day because of fornication, how much more adultery? That's to be something no one
should ever be engaged in. And if they are, they need to immediately quit and beg God
to be merciful to them. We shouldn't steal from one another. And look, all these things
are pretty much as harming someone else. You're killing someone else. You're committing adultery
and harming somebody else. You're stealing from someone else. And verse 20 is also geared
that way. Bearing false witness against thy neighbor. Now, I believe the Bible teaches
that lying is wrong, period. But this this statue is not really like just lying. It's
kind of a specific kind of lying if you think about it. Notice what it's saying. Bearing
false witness against thy neighbor. This isn't necessarily like just some kind of a selfish
white lie. This is like you're you're like attacking somebody by saying something evil
against them, harming someone, lying about someone, you know, slandering someone. And
look, this is very destructive to society. We have to understand that these 10 commandments
that are being written, I believe that they are very core principles to society, having
long perpetuity and being healthy. If you have a society where people can just steal
with no consequence, it's going to really damage society. If you have rampant adultery,
it's going to really damage society. If you have rampant killing, it's going to really
damage society. If you have rampant disobedience to your parents, it's going to destroy society.
If you have rampant idolatry and false religion and people just taking God's name in vain,
you're in serious trouble as a society. Society, a nation, a country, cannot be violating these
Ten Commandments and have a chance. I mean, they have to get these things under control.
And another one is slander, where you're just falsely witnessing against other people and
lying about other people. If you just allow that to go rampant, you're just going to destroy
yourself. That's why it's important. These should not be happening in a church either.
We cannot allow for people to just be railing and slandering against people because it's
such a destructive and harmful environment. We must, must not allow people to bear false
witness against their neighbors. It's evil. Here's the last one. "Neither shalt thou
desire thy neighbor's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor's house, his field
or his manservant or his maidservant, his ox or his ass, or anything that is thy neighbor's."
This what's funny to me is from the Catholic perspective, when they do the Ten Commandments,
they combine verses seven, eight, nine, and ten into one commandment, okay? And then in
verse 21, which is one sentence, they make it two commandments. So it's like you have
like multiple sentences that are obviously differentiated, one commandment, then you
have one sentence with the exact same thought and it's two different commandments. And again,
the count is by God saying 10 commandments. Now he doesn't say explicitly commandment
number one and commandment number two, but you know, anybody that has the spirit of God
can pretty much just read, figure it out, understand that there's not two different
commandments in verse 21. You look at a Catholic list of the 10 commandments, they will have
number nine as coveting your neighbor's wife and number 10 coveting your neighbor's house.
It's like, it's just bizarre. You know, it's just bizarre. Why? Because they want to have
Mary statutes. They want to have Mary statues and their idolatry and bow down to them and
worship them and do all of their pagan nonsense. But what you also notice in verse 21, as we
talk about this actual commandment, did you notice that everything's about thy neighbor?
Now the word covet is a synonym with desire. That's all it is. Covet can be a positive
or a negative mention. The Bible says to covet, covet to prophesy in the New Testament. That's
covet the best gifts. That's another verse in the New Testament. There's nothing wrong
with desiring good things. What is the Bible saying though? The Bible's saying you're not
allowed to desire things that are your neighbor's. It's also, you know, we want to make sure
we understand this verse. It's not saying that you can't desire things. It's saying
you shouldn't desire your neighbor's things. It's like, hey, you can desire a house. Don't
desire your neighbor's house. Hey, you can desire an ox. Don't desire your neighbor's
ox. You can desire a wife. Do not desire your neighbor's wife. Why? Because it's off limits.
It's not something you can have. It's not yours. It's theirs. Therefore, you're not
allowed to have that desire. You're not allowed to wish and want for that. It's not yours.
You can't have it. Quit wanting to have it. I'm not going to read much of the rest of
this chapter. I want to go to two other places and we'll finish. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter
2. I just want to finish on this point. In some ways, this is what people would say,
"Well, how can I control my desires? It's just my desire." That's a bad attitude. You
can't control your desires. We should not allow ourselves to always desire anything
our flesh wants, our flesh desires. We have to sometimes say no. We have to sometimes
cast down imaginations is what the Bible says. So sometimes we have to bring our
mind into subjection to God's Word. We have to bring our heart into subjection
to God's Word and we have to change our desires. You know, you can change your
desires positively or negatively. I want to look at a verse here and then we're
gonna go to Lamentations. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 2 verse 10. The Bible
says, "And whatsoever my eyes desired I kept not from them. I withheld not my
heart from any joy for my heart rejoices in all my labor and this was my portion
of all my labor." Solomon never said no to himself and then in this chapter and
he's saying like I despise life. Says he hated life. Giving yourself everything
you think you want will not end in a good way. You know people think like oh
if I just had everything I want I'd be happy. Wrong. There's many desires we
should say no to. There's many things that we think we want that we should say
no to. And of course the grass is always greener on the other side. You always
think like oh man I wish I had his wife or his her husband or I had his car his
house or his job or his life or his kids or whatever. You know what? Usually it's
not even it's not even real. If you actually swap places you'd want to go
back. Don't they have lots of movies like that? It's like people like literally swap
minds and swap bodies and it's not real obviously. I'm just saying even in the
movie they're kind of like I want to go back. They think it's one way but it's
really not even that way. But let's just say for example's sake someone genuinely
had something better than you. It's still wrong. You know you should just be happy
for your neighbor having something good in his life. Why is it like is it bad if
your neighbor has an awesome wife? Praise God for him. Or has an awesome husband?
Praise God for her. Or has a cool house? Awesome for him. Or has a great car? Great
for him. You know if you actually love people, you would want them to have
great spouses, great houses, great work, have money, be blessed if you actually
love people. What does the covetous person act like? He's mad that you have a
good wife. He's mad that you have a nice house. He's mad that you have a sprinter
van, you know, or whatever. And look you just kind of notice there's all these
people that just get so mad at whatever you have. And it's like it's what's so
funny to me is the things that people envy the most especially in my life I'm
thinking like I don't even want it that much you know like I'm not even that
into it it's just so funny like you're so into it or whatever. You with your 1.2
kids why do you need a 12 passenger van? Do you really want to you really want to
buy diesel over gas anyways? You know do you really want to pay $400 for an oil
change? Do you really want to pay the insurance that I'm paying? You don't even
want to know. It's like you think that it's so great or whatever it's like okay
but you with your 1.5 children you probably don't even need that. And look
people they're just constantly just always wishing they had someone else's
life or spouse or money or whatever. They don't even realize that many times
it's not even all that it's cracked up to be. It's not even what you think it
really is. But let's just say it was better. Why can't you just be happy for
them? You know I'm not sitting over here like if someone came to church and they
had this awesome cool truck or car or whatever. I'm not like oh man why does he
get that and I don't. I'm thinking like that's awesome I hope he's not a flat
earther so he can take me to drive every once in a while you know. I mean like why
can I not be excited for my neighbor? That's the right attitude. The wrong
attitude is no I want it. You can't have it. I want to take it. You know to be
selfish right? And Solomon was somebody that just anything I want I just take.
Just taking, taking, taking, taking. Go to the Lamentations chapter 3. In fact
David he was so covetous that he couldn't even let Uriah have that one
wife. That's she but he had to take her for himself too. Is it interesting the
guys that have to just keep taking wives they never stop after two or three. Why?
Because having lots of wives isn't gonna help you with your life. You know if
fornication was all it's cracked up to be then then why do these guys just
constantly have to go to the next hookup? They're not satisfied with these things.
They're not getting any kind of real joy out of these things. Well if divorcing
getting remarried was all it's cracked up to be, why do these people get divorced
at a higher rate? Why do they get the third wife more likely and the fourth
wife? Look you can sit here and just covet all day long and desire all these
things you don't have but in reality you should be content with the things that
you have. And if you want something that's not off-limits, save money, time,
effort, energy and get it. I'm not an ascetic. I believe hey if you want a nice
house, get a nice house. If you want a nice car, get a nice heart. If you want an
awesome spouse, get an awesome spouse. I'm all for you. But you know what? Do not envy
somebody else's stuff. And if you start having that thought, you start having
that idea, you start having that desire, well you need to quit that that thought
immediately. You need to shut it down. And here's something that's important, it's
kind of an important lesson I think. Look what it says in Lamentations chapter 3.
Now it's not how this verse is being used but I just want to use it anyways.
Lamentations chapter 3 verse 51, "Mine eye effect is mine heart." Now in this
passage he's seeing something terrible and it's causing him to cry. That's how
it's being used. But I believe that this phrase is the right phrase and just
understanding that your your emotions and your desires are often triggered by
your eyes. Hey if there's something that you're struggling with envying, quit
looking at it. Quit thinking about it. Quit you know dreaming about it or
whatever. You know let it go and think about something else. Because if you just
sit around all day thinking about your neighbor's wife, well it's gonna affect
your heart. If you just sit around all day wishing you were in the new IFB, you're
gonna become a bitter ex-new I beer. If you just sit there and just think about
something. I mean we all know how it works. That's why advertising works. They
just want you to sit there and just think about that burger or think about
that shirt or think about that whatever. Because just eventually over time your
heart will be affected and then you'll eventually want it. And you say hey I
don't know how to change my desires. Well whatever you're looking at. Say I
don't really like church. Okay we'll start coming to church more and looking
at it and you'll start liking it more. I don't really like the Bible. Okay we'll
start looking at it more and you'll start liking it more. Have you ever
noticed enough this is a phenomenon and I'm not gonna raise the hands okay. Here's
the thing. Maybe when you're dating you remember this. Sometimes you like you
maybe your spouse. At first you weren't even that interested in them. At first
they weren't even that attracted. Now for me my wife was gorgeous all the time
all right. Don't hear me wrong. I'm just saying isn't it there's that that person
in your life that you were kind of like eh but the more you looked at them the
more they just started becoming attractive to you. The more they just is
just like man there's a stuff you know just they grow on you. That's how life
works. You just kind of start you know that ugly dude that you were dating all
of a sudden becomes a handsome dude you know whatever and it's like you just
kind of when you're around somebody you kind of just start to like them more. Now
obviously if they have a horrible personality and whatever sometimes you
can start to like them less and I get that sometimes they open their mouth and
you're like wow it's over but I'm just telling you as a general phenomenon you
know why does so many people that work together end up committing adultery
because when you're just around somebody long enough and you constantly looking
at them it affects your heart it affects your mind it affects your desires that's
why it's dangerous men should not have close relationships with other women
women should not have close relationships with other men shouldn't be
just constantly always engaging with that because it's a it's a dangerous
thing to be around you know whatever music you're listening to whatever shows
you're watching whatever things you're doing it will affect the desires of your
heart the people that go to church three times a week love it people that come
every once in a while kind of dread it I'm just telling you how it is the people
that love it the most are the ones doing it the most you know distance makes the
heart grow fonder sometimes you can really miss somebody let me tell you
something hanging out with your spouse is what's gonna make you have a closer
connection with them seeing them and talk to them you say hey man my I feel
like my heart is not towards my spouse or I feel like we're not connecting then
you just need to spend more time together more intimacy together more
anything whatever your whatever desire you need to have just start looking at
that more and having it more whatever you do not need to have a desire towards
stop looking at and stop being around really really important lesson again
these things are important for God's people to do go back if you would I'm
not I'm just I'm not even read it you can read the rest of it verses 22 to 27
they were afraid to hear the rest that God was gonna give them we actually read
the if you read the chapter they heard the words they just didn't see God they
heard the words of the Ten Commandments and then they're like we're afraid to
hear anymore and God says what they said is good go to your tents and I'll
deliver you Moses the rest and then you're gonna go teach them and I think
one of the examples there you could learn is this like they recognize as
they needed a mediator they needed to go between between them and God which is
foreshadowing how we need Jesus Christ to be a mediator for us to go in
between and then verses 28 through 33 is what I've been hammering all night is
that if you do these things it's gonna prolong your days keep these ten
commandments it'll prolong your days keep your desires in check don't kill
people don't commit adultery don't steal things I don't care how don't
steal anything God is not gonna bless that return it give it back don't take
things don't blaspheme we should get far away from idolatry we should always
honor our father and mother should not have any other gods you know this is
what's important for America America needs the Ten Commandments again and you
know shame on pastors that are getting away from the commandments and getting
away from the Old Testament what an embarrassment and a joke of a pastor we
need pastors to preach the Ten Commandments let's close in prayer thank
you heavenly father so much for your word thank you for these great
instructions thank you for giving us an opportunity to prolong our days thank
you for the life that you've given us I pray that we can be content with the
things you've given us I pray that we could have a stronger desire for the
things that are right for the things of God I pray that any of us that are
having bad thoughts or having bad desires or drifting in a wrong direction
they would help us to correct they'd help us to take our eyes off of that and
put our eyes back on the things of God on the godly things thank you for
blessing us with so many blessings that we have I pray that we would be
thankful and grateful for those and we wouldn't envy others and Jesus name we
pray amen let's go song number 415 song number 415 victory through grace song
number 415 sing that out together
this evening Isaac is coming for baptism have you trusted Christ as your
Savior that I baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost buried in
likeness of his death praise to walk in newness of life make sure to
congratulate our baptism God bless you're dismissed