No, it's amazing. Isn't it amazing love just sing that fourth verse really lift it up. No condemnation
Sing it everybody and what's that fast Baptist Church? Great to see everybody here
If we can go ahead and find our seats, we will get started once you found a seat grab a hymnal and together
We'll sing song number four hundred and thirty nine hundred thirty nine. You're blessed number four hundred and thirty nine
Let's all sing that out together tonight. Let's name them one by one of you so much
We just thank you so much for this great church these great songs. We get to sing unto you, Lord
We just ask now that you help us and fill us with your spirit and help us sing out unto you tonight
And it's in Jesus name. We pray amen all right for our next song
We're actually gonna go to our binders should have a black binder nearby with some laminated sheet music inside towards the back
You'll find rejoice in the Lord Joyce. I'm gonna couple times this week, so I hope you've had some practice
It's a great song rejoice in the Lord. Let's all sing it to be here evening
Thanks to the guys who helped this is on Sunday visiting anchor Baptist Church your anniversary service
Draws is doing a good job up there and it's spirit. It's always fun to visit
It's even more fun to come back there on the inside of our service times our soul winning times
Also our church stats and then on the right we have a list of several expecting ladies
Please continue to pray for our expecting ladies our children's choir practice should
Resume the Sunday evening services is our practice down below
We have the note about a turkey bowl that we have planned this Saturday. I guess it is still a little bit weather dependent
I don't know. It could be could be rained out or may adjust but just check our group chats for that put them ourselves
Also leading you can follow up with him, but we'd love to have you join us for this
Upcoming events ladies Christmas party also December 5th. That's gonna be here at the church. I believe isn't there a sign-up sheet here in the foyer
No, not yet. Okay. What time is that event? Is it like do we know yet?
All right, we'll figure it out ladies Christmas party is December 5th
It's a it's a dinner party probably around 6 or something like that
We have Christmas caroling December 8th, then also children's choirs are December 21st
That's gonna be the performance that Sunday morning cookie bake-off that evening Christmas candlelight service December 24th
And then our men's preaching and pizza for the last day of the year on the back is a list of our prayer list
I didn't just read through this. We're continuing to pray for the Carlson's for their parents health
Please pray for it. Mrs. Miller's friend's mother who's experiencing cancer treatments
We're continuing to pray for Brother Horace and Miss Grace and for their health issues. Please continue to pray for Brother Tony's recovery and health if you pray for
Mrs. Marnett's dad who's experiencing kidney disease
We're praying for him also the major inges were asking prayer for their daughter Vanna and then also friend Martha
Who's also having some health issues?
If you'd also pray for Miss Weathers and brother Paul and then also if you pray for brother
Goodwin for his sister-in-law, Miss Jen Jen G's husband had passed away so pray for her and their family
We're still praying for miss Lola and Phoebe who lost their husband and father and then if you'd pray for brother Wallach's aunt
For their family since his aunt had passed away
Also, please pray for a brother Joe who's still experiencing health complications
It's the Burns's brother and then also if you'd pray for the Warner family and then pray for brother
Jamison his father also has some health issues. So several prayer requests there and
We'll just say a quick word of prayer as a church family. Thank you only father so much for steadfast Baptist Church
Thank you so much for all these ladies who are expecting in our bulletin. I pray that you just please bless them
Please help them with their pregnancies. Thank you so much for those that recently given birth
I pray that you continue to bless them
I pray that you'd also just be with our church family friends and and loved ones are struggling with these these very serious illnesses
The the cancer and kidney disease and other serious ailments. I pray it possible that you would just give them recovery
I pray that you please give them health. Please help them make the wise decisions
I pray that you would give them comfort during this time of difficulty
I pray that you would continue to bless our other church family and friends that need help with either work or with their job or with their
Other illnesses. I pray those that are temporarily sick that you just please give them a speedy recovery
So they could just get back into church and we just thank you so much for all that you've given us
I pray that you would just bless this week and that we'd all be very thankful for
The gift of your son and what he's done for us and it's in Jesus name. We pray. Amen
We're gonna go ahead and sing our third song of the evening. It's gonna be Psalm
139 so it's in our special handouts. It is our psalm of the week psalm
139 sing it out nice and loud psalm 139. All right, that was psalm
139 black binder for your King James Bible psalm number 139. Let's all sing it out together
Pastor go and open your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy chapter number nine. It's Deuteronomy chapter number nine
On me nine the Bible reads here
Oh Israel thou art to pass over Jordan this day to go into possessed nations greater and mightier than thyself
cities great and fenced up to heaven a people great and tall the children of the
Anakim's whom thou knowest and of whom thou hast heard say who can stand before the children of anac
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 drive them out and destroy them quickly as the Lord hath said 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 drive them out from before thee
Not for thy righteousness or for the uprightness of thine heart. Does 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 then he may perform the word
Which the Lord swear unto thy fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob
Understand therefore that the Lord thy God give it 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 to wrath in the wilderness
From the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt until he came under 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 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 written with the finger of God 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 40 days and 40 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
For them 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 mound and the mount burned
With fire and the two tables of the covenant were in my hands, and I looked and behold
Yet sinned against the Lord you're gone 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 40 days and 40 nights
I did neither eat bread nor drink water
Because of all your sins which he sinned in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger
For I was afraid of the anger and hopped this pleasure wherewith the Lord was wrought 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 the same time and I took your sin the calf
Which he had made and burnt 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 Taberah and at Massa and at Kibroth Hattava ye 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
You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you
Thus I fell down before the Lord 40 days and 40 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 oh 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 nor to their sin
Lest the land whence thou brought us to south say because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which 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 brought us doubt by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm. Let's pray father God
We thank you for Deuteronomy 9 and all the lessons and spiritual truths that are contained to this chapter
I pray that you help pastor Shelley to expound on the chapter
Tonight and give him the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit as we go through the text of scripture this evening
We love you. And in Jesus name, I pray amen
And man in chapter 9 Moses is giving an admonition to the children of Israel here. Oh
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 now the greater and mightier
Would most likely in this particular verse being referenced the fact that they're larger in number
There's just more people than the children of Israel
They're facing a foe that is outnumbering them in verse 2 though
It says a people great and tall the children of the anachems
Whom thou knowest and of whom thou hast heard say who can stand before the children of Anak now
Why does it say whom thou knowest?
Because 40 years prior when the children of Israel had spied out the land
They had recognized that the anachems are there and they described them as being giants
So the Bible calls the anachems giants. They said wow, these people were like grasshoppers in their sight
Which is obviously an exaggeration
But in general, that's just how they felt they scared the children of Israel from entering in the promised land
and so they're faced against a foe that outnumbers them and then is literally taller than them and
Physically stronger than them. So they're just outmatched when it would come to a physical battle
It just doesn't even make sense numbers aren't on their side size isn't on their side
You know, it is on their side is God and that's the only thing that matters now
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 and he shall bring them down before thy face
So shout thou derive them out and destroy them quickly as the Lord has said
Under thee so God is trying to encourage them to say look. I'm gonna go out before you. I'm gonna be like this fire
I'm gonna basically just destroy them in front of you
You don't even have to really worry about it. And and that's how God is God
Often is going to just deliver our enemies into our hand. He's gonna do all the hard part
He's gonna do all the work. He just wants us to have the faith. He just wants us to trust in him
He wants us to put our reliance in him
you know you get on that airplane and
The pilot just wants you to sit back and relax and just let the pilot do the work
Let the airplane do the work
You don't really have to do much and in the same way that you trust an airplane
It's how you're supposed to trust in God, you know, we live our lives in a life of trust
We're constantly trusting other people to do things for us
You know women are trusting men to run our entire world and infrastructure and our food sources and everything that we have and
They seem to be getting along fine. Why can't we then also just trust in
God to deliver us right children are trusting their parents to pay the bills
You know my kids aren't coming to me like dad the electric bill is really high this month now. That's real
It's not fun, but you know kids
They're not running around worried about the grocery bill and worried about the electric bill and worried about the water bill and worried about the
Mortgage worried about they don't even understand all of the bills that exist
They don't really understand all the numbers and everything doesn't really make sense of them. They're not really worried about that
They're worried about if they're gonna get to play an extra five minutes before bedtime
Why because they just have so much trust in their parents
They have so much faith in their mom and dad to take care of them
You know my littlest child Adeline
She has a lot of faith and me and my wife where we're holding her
She will just throw her body like trying she's like trying to dive to her own death or something her own peril all the time
But we're just there just like catch her
Because and she just has so much faith in us and it sometimes it scares me because I'm just thinking like wow if I hadn't
Caught you I mean you would have just splat on the ground or whatever
But she just has so much faith in us that she'll just be there
She's just she's kind of like dives her body or whatever while you're holding and you're just think like oh man
You gotta like hang on but you know in the same way that children and babies and infants and women and whatever just have faith
And and even men we put faith in other men to deliver us and take care of us
God just wants us to put faith in him to deliver us and to protect us and destroy our enemies
You know, it's important to trust in God and realize he's the one that gonna give us the victory
He's the one that's going to deliver us against an unmatched, you know an outnumbered enemy
I mean, we're outnumbered. We haven't an unmatched enemy
There's so much bigger and taller and stronger, but we can still win
You know, you could look at America today and you could get blackpilled on our government
You can get blackpilled on a packs influence on our government. You could get blackpilled on the left on Democrats
You could get blackpilled on just you know, all kinds of different issues
But at the end of the day, you know if God before us who can be against us and God can be consuming fire to go
Out and change the course of action, you know
Covid was a pretty blackpilling event. I'll just be honest like it was a pretty dark time and
You know in the life of so many people and even shortly beyond that just with what Joe Biden was doing or really not doing
You know depending on how you want to look at it
It seemed like our country was just in shambles and it seemed like our culture was just heading just off of a cliff and
Really in a short period of time. It seems like we've had a cultural revival
It seems like people are more interested in the things of God again. It seems like the culture is kind of reverse course a little bit
It's not as unpopular to have some of the opinions that we've had in the past
And so, you know things can change quickly God is capable of doing all kinds of miracles and wonders in our life
You know, there's many people in our lives that are literally just walking miracles. You just look at their life
You look at their circumstances, you know, they maybe shouldn't be alive
I kind of told the story a few weeks ago
But I even talked with my dad about it and you know, my mom just went off a bridge one time
just you know full speed off of a bridge and says that angels cop the car and set it down gently or whatever and
My dad said like when he went to see the you know
The event or saw like what it happened said he couldn't even believe it
like it was like didn't he just defied physics and just defied like anything that made any kind of sense and
You know, you have to realize like some people, you know, it doesn't even make sense why they're here why we're alive our
Stances, you know, hey our church being in Cedar Hill doesn't even make sense
like if you had told me five years ago when we're in Sands and Park you're gonna be in Cedar Hill and
That's gonna be like the fifth location. You've had since
Not not really you're gonna go to hearse then with Taga then Cedar Hill and be thinking I'm like am I doing drugs?
They're like, you know, that doesn't even make any sense, you know, but at the same time
It's you know, if you study how the children of Israel went through the wilderness
They're kind of just like a you know, being in all around to their their their journey didn't make sense either
But you know, even just my life circumstances if you said hey, you would be in the pastor of steadfast
Baptist church and be like, you know six seven years ago. I think like that's crazy
That doesn't even make sense, you know for some of you living in Texas would have been like I didn't think I didn't see that five
Years ago. I didn't see that ten years ago
Whatever, you know the person you're married to you might think like I didn't see that coming
You know at all, especially me my wife like when we were in junior high if we had if she had thought she was gonna marry me
She'd been like no, you know, I have a better future ahead of me. Like I'm not I'm not gonna go that low
You know, but you know, hey, I grew so you know what God can perform miracles
You know what I'm telling you like at the end of the day
We should just trust God and his plan and his vision and even if the the future looks like I can't see how we're gonna
Get over there. I can't see how we're gonna win
I can't see how we're gonna defeat these Giants
You know, we just trust God and he delivers us and he is faithful and he's a consuming fire
And you know, we shouldn't doubt God we need to follow him wherever he leads us
Even if it is to face a foe that outnumbers us face a foe that is out matching us is a giant
I mean how many people have to face Giants in the Bible even David specifically has to go and face the giant
But not only face the giant he runs at the giant and he has confidence that the Lord will deliver him
We should have the same attitude when it comes to our foes to the Giants of our day verse 4
Speak thou 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 drive them out from before thee not for thy righteousness
Or for the uprightness of thine heart thus thou go to possess their land
But for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God to drive them out
From before thee and that he may perform the word which Lord swear into 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 now I can keep reading but it's kind of funny
How much God belabors the point that these people are not great?
I mean, it's just like hey, just make it clear. Y'all are not righteous. You're not gonna get the land because you're righteous
You're definitely not coming in because you're righteous
I want you to understand that you're not getting in here because you're righteous
And then again the rest of the chapter is just a continual reminder of how they're not righteous
What what's what's the point of this? He doesn't want them to get puffed up. He doesn't want them to get prideful
He doesn't want them to think that they're special
And isn't that the issue for Jews today that they think that they're special and they think that oh well
I'm just hand-picked and I'm just God's chosen people no matter what you know
God's not a respecter of persons and even in this story
He didn't bring in the children of Israel because of some ethnicity or some particular race
Or because of the fact that they were even great people. He's saying frankly speaking
It's just these people are a little worse. You know, that's really just these people are just so bad
I just have to get rid of them and then I guess y'all are just coming in and it's not even because of y'all
It's it's kind of cuz of your father's it's because of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the promise that I made to them
Because I promised then I kind of just have to it's like he's kind of almost if you really understand the picture
It's like he's reluctantly
Dragging them into the promised land because of the promise he made to Abraham Isaac and Jacob not because of their righteousness
Not because they were great. He even calls them specifically here a stiff-necked people and he's saying these other people
I didn't make a promise to them
I didn't make an oath and because they're so wicked and so evil and I have to deal with them
That I'm just gonna drive them out and I'm bringing you guys back in
But it's only really because of the oath and the promise that I made to Abraham Isaac and Jacob
Why because you are a stiff neck people verse 6 verse 7 remember and forget not
How thou provoked the Lord by God to wrath in the wilderness from the day that thou didst depart at the land of Egypt
Until you came unto this place. You have been rebellious
Against the Lord also in Horeb. He provoked the Lord to wrath
So the Lord was angry with you to have destroyed you so notice in verse 6 their stiff neck verse 7
They're rebellious verse 8. They provoked the Lord notice how he's describing the children of Israel. They're stiff neck
They're rebellious and they constantly provoke God verse 9 when I was gone up into the mount
This is talking about Moses to receive the tables of stone
Even meaning specifically the tables of the covenant was the Lord made with you then I bowed in the mount 40 days and 40 nights
I did I neither did eat bread
Nor drink water. So for 40 days and 40 nights. He had nothing to eat or drink
He has these two tables of stone. He's giving them to God
Says in verse 10 and the Lord delivered unto me two tables of stone
Written with the finger of God 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 now
You know, it's so funny. Like how would the Catholics even read verse 10?
It's like God's handing them handing Moses a table of stone and it says it's written with the finger of God
It's like well, that's a metaphor a metaphor for what? What is he? He's metaphorically
Handing them something. How do you metaphorically hand him these two tables of stone? Now, let's just say you did that
Let's say God metaphorically handed him two tables of stone. How do you then?
Come down with these metaphorical tables of stone and then destroy them look at verse 15
So I turn and came down from the mount and the Mount burn of the fire and the two tables of the covenant
were in my two hands metaphorically and I looked and
Behold you had sinned against the Lord your God and it made you a molten calf
He had turned aside quickly out of the way with 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
How do you metaphorically hold two tables of stones and metaphorically throw them?
Down and break them and people see the tables of stone that you broke metaphorically with your eyes
That's how Catholics read the Bible. So then and then they read it says like hey eat his flesh and they're like not a metaphor
We need to really do that. Okay. I just I just like to point that out because it's just so silly and it's just so stupid
You know
I believe God really wrote on two tables of stone and really handed it to Moses and he really walked down the mount with it
In his hands. He really threw it and broke it. Why because I believe the Bible that's what the Bible teaches
And of course, there's symbolic significance to this as well. We're gonna talk about them in a minute
But it's not like the Bible doesn't have metaphors. It's not like the Bible doesn't have symbolism
It's not like the Bible doesn't have a spiritual layer to this
But I also believe it's literal the Bible is a literal book with literal history with literal characters. There's a literal God
Moses really went on the mount. He really didn't eat for 40 days and 40 nights
He really got two tables of stone. The two tables of stone really had the Ten Commandments written by God
With his finger and God handed the tables of stone to Moses. Moses got the tables of stone now
It's definitely to show how much man screws up. I mean you got to hang out with God for 40 days
He gave you a book that he wrote physically and you broke it instantly
This is what this is like having children, right you you spend all this money for Christmas presents and you give it to him in
Less than one hour. It's already broken and it's kind of funny how Moses does the same thing, right? But this is from God himself
I mean, this is the book of God. This is the Word of God and he broke it just right away
I skipped over a few verses. We'll read in verse number 11 as well
Let's read all verse 10 again
It says in the Lord delivered to them be two tables of stone written on the finger of God and on them was
Written according to all the words the Lord spake with you and the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the
Assembly and it came to pass at the end of 40 days and 40 nights the Lord gave me the two tables of stone
Even the tables of the covenant against specifically the tables of the covenant and it says in verse 12 and the Lord said to 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 the a nation
Mightier and greater than they is it interesting that God is willing to replace the children of Israel in the Old Testament
You know people have this this aversion to the idea of replacement theology. God was ready to
Enact replacement theology right here. He was already ready to just completely
Replace them with another people group because why cuz God against not a respecter of persons
So for God to replace one nation with another is just at his his own will and wish and whim
Now the reason why he wouldn't Moses pleads with them and he'd made covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob
And so of course he is not going to do that for his name's sake not really for these people
But he was willing he was kind of in an attitude and a mindset of hey
I might as well just get rid of these people because they're just I mean in just like a few moments
They they go from following Moses out of the Red Sea
So then wanting to worship a golden calf and then claiming that this golden calf is what delivered them out of Egypt
I could see what God be pretty mad at them
I can see why God would feel like man, you know, this doesn't even seem worth it
You know one thing that's kind of important to understand in the Bible. Do you notice how?
You know the characters in the Bible are so quick to sin. They're so quick and prone to going back to sinning
I mean you see this is every character. I mean we're talking about Aaron Aaron's not like just your run-of-the-mill guy
He was used of God. He was there speaking with Pharaoh. He had great faith
He's helping Moses deliver the children of Israel out of out of Egypt out of slavery and
Moses is his brother. I mean, he's in a great family
He he's a priest but then he fashions a golden calf. That's crazy
The children of Israel saw all these miracles and then they just instantly want to worship this golden calf
Moses gets the Ten Commandments. He walks out. He instantly breaks it
This is what you should realize about mankind is that mankind is a sinner and mankind just continually sucks
You know and look we believe in
sanctification we believe that hey when you believe in Lord Jesus Christ and you start reading your Bible God can sanctify you and can make
You a better person but just in general. It's not like that's just an automatic process
You know, it's more automatic is you just stumble fall go back to your old ways being wicked turning aside doing wrong
It's more common that people that are saved are gonna be like that then they're gonna be a disciple
There's very few that actually end up being like disciples and end up being faithful followers of the Lord Jesus Christ
Most Christians most saved people are gonna end up just being their old selves again
Going back to their old ways being a disappointment turning aside not serving the Lord
The question is where are the nine exactly? Where is the 90% of saved people today?
Well, most of them probably aren't even going to church faithfully. They're not really reading their Bible
They're not really serving God. They're just a giant disappointment. They're back to their old ways
They want to be in Egypt. They want to just continue sinning. They have bad desires
That is what mankind is like and it shouldn't for us invalidate their salvation because again salvation was not by works of righteousness
It wasn't by what we did
So obviously it's not like you get saved
You're for sure gonna be a disciple if only the disciples are saved as far as people that are following Jesus Christ actively
Your heavens pretty small
I mean if you think about it
There's very few people that are actually that faithful and actually dedicated to church and serving the Lord Jesus Christ
And you know our church is not geared towards, you know, like us being here right now
It's not geared towards the unsaved
This sermon is not geared towards the unsaved and it's not geared toward those that want to live a backslidden
You know half in Egypt half in the promised land life, you know
Our church is geared towards people being coming like disciples of Christ being someone that actually cares about the things of God and actually wants
To serve God and actually wants to be baptized and wants to walk in newness of life. You know, we're we're Baptists
We believe in baptism. What does baptism is the first step of obedience a lot of people won't even get baptized in today's culture
Which is kind of is kind of a shame
It's kind of embarrassing that people would be willing to get saved and they can't even get baptized
They can't even come to church once they can't even read the Bible cover to cover once
but that is how apathetic a lot of people are and how people just turn aside so quickly and
Yet God is still not going to destroy them even though his anger
He has anger towards them but because of the covenant that he made because of eternal security
Hey, he's not going to destroy you just like he didn't destroy the children of Israel now
It says here in verse 15
We already read through a little bit here of the skip down to verse 18 and I fell down before the Lord as
At the first 40 days and 40 nights
I didn't either eat bread nor drink water because of all your sins which he sinned and
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 wrought against you to destroy you but the Lord harken unto me at that time also and Lord was
Very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him and I prayed for Aaron also the same time
So it's like hey, I prayed for you guys. I even prayed for Aaron, you know, it's kind of funny
Like he broke the table of stone. He doesn't seem worried about that. He's still worried about them
He's just like well, I was worried about you guys. I was worried about Aaron. I'm worried about everybody else
You know, I was praying that God would not destroy you because he was furious
God was very angry with you and was considering completely replacing you
But because I prayed for you and I did, you know make intercession for you God was merciful and did not destroy them
Says in verse 21 and I took your sin the calf which you had made him burnt 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
Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth Hattifah you provoked the Lord to wrath
Likewise when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Beniyah saying go up and possess the land which I have given you
Then you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God and you believed him not nor hearkened his voice
You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you Wow, that's pretty rough
Moses is saying you guys have been rebellious the whole time
So what's what are we kind of seeing as a pattern in this chapter so far?
Well, hey, you got to just trust the Lord because he's gonna deliver you, you know into the promised land
He's gonna wipe out the these Canaanites specifically even the children of Anak
He's gonna kill these giants and you're just gonna basically go in there
But I want you to remember though when you go in it's not because you're righteous
so that's the whole essence of why he's
reminding them of you've been so rebellious and you've been so stiff-necked and you you were constantly provoking the Lord and you've been doing wrong and
God was even close to just basically wiping you out at one point
And why is he trying to get remind them that so they'll stay humble because they're about to have a great victory
They're about to have great victory and they're about to enter the promised land and he wants them to stay humble about who they really are
So that they don't think more highly of themselves than they ought to think
And this is a tendency that when you start having success in your life that you start thinking you're better than you really are
You start thinking that you're so much wiser and stronger and smarter
And you kind of forget that you're still a sinner and screwed up and have problems and you're still stiff-necked and rebellious and have issues
And you just kind of think like oh, well look everything's going good
You know we can't just allow God to give us victories and then just think how wonderful we are and how great we are
Sometimes he gives us victories just because he hates the other guy more than us
I mean, you know who's been like that where you're rooting for someone to win a game and you don't even like the team
You're rooting for you. Just want the other team to lose like who just like that. Yeah. Amen
I've been like that my whole life, you know right now
I really can't stand the Edmonds and Oilers, you know as a hockey team
And so I just I just root for any team that's playing against them, you know, some people they just can't stand Canada
So they just like root against any Canadian team
Whatsoever, you know, they don't they don't even care if the other team, you know
People just have these like intense rivalries and they just can't like can't stand
I felt like that a lot with like Super Bowls because usually your team never makes it to the Super Bowl
If you're a Cowboys fan virtually never okay. It's been well over two decades, but typically for the Super Bowl
I'm usually just voting for the team that I like it's like the lesser of two evils
You know, it's kind of like voting these days right for the president. It's just kind of like well
I just really can't stand this team
So you just come just kind of like rooting for the other one maybe or something like that in some ways
You have to realize it's like even if they win they win the Super Bowl and they come up to you like
Yeah, we won the Super Bowl and it's like yeah, I don't really care. I just didn't want the other team to win, right?
It's like God just wants to make it clear like hey, yeah, you're in the promised land and they're like, yeah
We're so special and he's like, well, I just really didn't like the other people though
I didn't like the other tenant the other tenant was really bad tenant, you know wasn't paying the bills was his cousin
You know having too many parties wild parties at the house, you know, it wasn't taking care of it
So I just got rid of them and I'm bringing you guys in. In fact, you guys aren't even paying rent
I'm still paying the rent, you know, I'm just bringing you guys in and you better keep this company
You better keep this lease cuz I'll evict you as well and then eventually does of course
But you know at the end of the day, he's trying to humble them. He's trying to remind them
Hey, you guys have problems. You guys aren't perfect
I know these guys are really bad and I know that you know
We went through Leviticus and went through Viticus 20 specifically and we learned how really bad those people were
But you guys are also sinners you guys also have problems, you know, you read Romans 1 and you're like man
That was at the end. You're like, wow, those people are bad being full of all unrighteousness
But then chapter 2 is like yeah
but you also do some of the same things too and you're inexcusable who are judging them and yet you're doing the same things and
So we kind of have to sometimes recognize like hey, I know this guy's really bad
But that doesn't make me good just because someone else is really bad in the world doesn't make you good
You know, we need to stay humble and recognize. Hey, we still have problems. We still have issues
We can still be rebellious against the Lord and we need to really at the end of day take
Responsibility for ourselves instead of worrying about well, at least I'm not as bad as that guy. Okay, but do better
It doesn't matter that you might be better than someone else work on yourself
Trust in the Lord do right and they've been very rebellious
Says in verse 25 thus I fell down before the Lord 40 days and 40 nights as I fell down at the first
Because the Lord had said he would destroy you I prayed therefore under the Lord and said oh Lord God to destroy not
Thy people and thine inheritance which thou has redeemed through thy greatness
Which thou's brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand remember thy servants Abraham Isaac and Jacob look not
Under the stubbornness of this people nor to their wickedness nor to their sin
Lest the land whence thou brought us us out of say
Because the Lord was not able to bring them in the land which he promised them and because he hates
Them he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness yet
They are thy people and thy inheritance which thou brought us out by thy mighty power and by they stretched out arms
So we've covered the the the chapter here
And I kind of want to go back and just revisit some of the themes and thoughts here
But notice, you know this really big emphasis on the fact that
Moses is is kind of interceding for the children of Israel in this particular story
I think there's a couple ways we could look at it one is just in a personal salvation this this chapter
Has a lot of parallels to what personal salvation looks like and how Moses kind of pictures the Lord Jesus Christ
And how he makes intercession for us with God the Father in a similar way
To what he's doing Moses is doing here for the children of Israel. You know if we think about
You know and I want to go to a couple different
Passages go over to Galatians for a moment go to Galatians chapter number two, but if you remember in verses four and five
I mean God stressed in an emphatically stated that they were not going to enter because of their righteousness
He said not for thy righteousness or the uprightness of thine heart. Does thou go to possess their land?
So if we look at this chapter and we make an application about just spiritual salvation as an individual
We can look at the promised land as salvation itself and we're not going to get salvation
By our righteousness in the same way that the children of Israel are not entering into the promised land by their righteousness whatsoever and
Galatians chapter number two
stresses this particular point look at verse 16 knowing that a man is not
Justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ
even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and
Not by the works of the law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified the Bible's crystal clear
That is not by our works that we get spiritual salvation
Just like he's stressing to the children of Israel
You're not gonna enter the promised land because of your righteousness or because of your works
In fact, you're a stiff neck. You're rebellious people that are constantly provoking me and I really just wanted to destroy you
What's the only reason that he didn't destroy them is because Moses makes intercession for them
Moses is making intercession for them. And how is he making intercession?
He's appealing to a covenant that was made with Abraham Isaac and Jacob now
We could think of this that God promises eternal life to those who put their trust in the gospel
That was a promise that was made to who to Abraham God promised to Abraham that those who had put their faith and trust
In the coming seed would receive everlasting life. Look at chapter 3 and look at verse number
7 or let's look at verse 6 even says even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted in Verizon. It's not like
Just those who are the seed of Abraham get saved by faith
Even Abraham himself was saved by faith verse 7 know you therefore that they which are of faith
The same are the children of Abraham verse 8 and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith
Preach before the gospel unto Abraham saying in thee shall all
Nations be blessed isn't it so interesting that people today want to that teach a Zionist type doctrine
We'll say oh you got to you know go back to the promise made to Abraham that God is just you know
There's these special Jews and these special Jews that you just bless them and God's gonna bless you and whatever
What was what does the New Testament say it was the promise made to Abraham all nations would be blessed
How are they being blessed they're being blessed through faith not by giving money to Israel not by donating to the Temple Mount
Foundation no by putting your faith in Jesus Christ
Says in verse 9 so then they would be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham
So, how do I get the blessing of Abraham? It's by putting my faith in Jesus Christ
That's how I get that blessing verse 10 for as many as are the works of the law are under the curse
For it is written cursed is
Everyone that continueth not and all things which are written in the book of the law to do them
Who is that? That's every single person that is not believing in Jesus Christ more specifically and
Especially those who are of a religion that teaches or believes you have to keep the commandments to be saved which again, you know most
Adherents of Judaism don't even really believe the Bible. They'll even say they kind of discount it
They they kind of put their faith more in the oral teachings of the of the Torah of not the trial of the Talmud
I'm sorry
And so again a lot of Jews don't even believe the Bible some do give lip service to it
I've talked to Jews I've debated Jews where they're you know, reading Old Testament scriptures claiming that they believe them
But they obviously are not practicing them. But even if they did let's just give them
Let's just say for just for argument sake they did believe it
Even if they did believe it if you don't keep every single law perfectly, what does the Bible say? You're cursed
It doesn't say you're blessed. And why would I try to bless someone that's cursed? That's cursed of God now
I can bless someone that's cursed by giving them the gospel by offering them the the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ
And if they believe in Jesus Christ, then they'll be taken out from that curse says in verse 11
But that no man is justified by the law on the side of God
It is evident for the just shall live by faith and the law is not a faith
But the man that doeth them shall live in them Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law
Being made a curse for us for it is written curses everyone that hangeth on a tree
So notice that Jesus Christ according the Bible became a curse for us now
I think that you can see some loose shadow fulfillments of this or
Foretelling events of this through Moses if you think about it. Moses is there with God on the Mount
What does the Bible teach? He didn't eat for 40 days and 40 nights
That's exactly what Jesus Christ did in the wilderness, right?
Didn't Jesus Christ not eat for 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness preparing himself for this great journey that he was going
to take. Of course, he descends from the mount showing a
foreshadowing a picture of how Jesus Christ descended and came down and visited his brethren
He was born of the Virgin Mary
But yes
He was in heaven prior to his incarnation because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever and Jesus Christ is from everlasting
The God from everlasting descended down and became man for us
He condescended to men of lowest state just like Moses makes the descent
now Moses breaks the tables of stone and I think what could be foreshadowed there is in the same context of how
He's breaking the law is kind of how Jesus Christ is breaking the law for us
Right. He became a curse for us to redeem us from the curse of the law in the same way that the Ten Commandments
No longer apply to us that are saved in the context of salvation in the context of salvation
I'm not gonna have to stand before God and
account for every time I ever said something false or every time I disobeyed my parents or any time I broke any of the
Ten Commandments, you know praise God my sins are separated from me as far as the East is from the West and
Jesus Christ became a curse for us
why so that he could redeem us from the curse of the law because if Jesus came down from heaven and
Just applied the Ten Commandments to the children of Israel
They would have been destroyed or rather he breaks them and he saves them and delivers them and intercedes for them
and in the same way that Moses intercedes for the children of Israel and
They're delivered and not destroyed is the same way that Jesus Christ went to heaven put his blood on the mercy seat
sits at the right hand of God the Father and makes intercession for us so that we too
Will be delivered and not destroyed and not sent to hell and he ever
Deliveth to make intercession for us is what the Bible says and the same way that Moses is picturing this intercession
That we have in this great chapter here, and he's appealing to the covenant. He says hey you made this promise you made this oath and
People if you break your oath they're gonna say oh you weren't capable of delivering them
You weren't capable of keeping your promise
But it kind of relates if you think about it to the promise of eternal security, right?
We get saved and no matter how stiff-necked or rebellious or bad children of God
We are God's still gonna take us to heaven and he's gonna do it
What for his namesake for his oath sake for the promise that he delivered unto us
We're sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise and the Bible tells us not to grieve that Holy Spirit that we've been sealed with
but we've been sealed under the day of redemption and we will be
delivered and taken unto heaven because of the oath and the promise that has been made unto us and
Hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began now again
He reminded Abraham of that promise and he delivered that promise under Abraham and then we are the seed of Abraham
We are the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ
We are those heathen that was foreseen in the scripture that would believe on Jesus Christ through faith and become the children of God
And yes today we are the children of God
We are the seed of Abraham through Jesus Christ
Now, of course Jesus Christ was the promised seed that was mentioned specifically to Abraham that was coming verse 16 says this now to Abraham
And a seed where the promise is made he saith not and the seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed
Which is Christ. So of course all these promises to the blessing the seed and the seed that was a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ
But we also get to partake because we believed in Jesus Christ verse 26 for you all the children of God by faith
In Jesus in Christ Jesus for as many as you have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ
There's neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither bond nor free
There's neither male nor female for you're all one in Christ Jesus
And if you be Christ then your Abraham seed and heirs according to the promise when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
You become a child of God. You are they true Jew according to the Bible Romans chapter number two makes it explicitly clear
That a Jew is not one that is from an outward circumcision
Outward circumcision is not what is giving you the title of Jew
It's an inward circumcision of the heart
And what is that putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and getting saved that is what actually makes you a true?
Jew and a true child of God and the true Israel the true
Israel of God are those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and those are the ones that are saved and of course once
You're saved you're always saved just like he made that promise to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
And he brought the children visit in the wilderness
even though they constantly rebelled the same way that even a rebellious Christian will be taken to heaven and there's nothing that can stop him from
Being delivered nothing shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord is what the Bible says, you know
You've been passed from death unto life and what a great promise that we have go back if you would and I want to look
At another section here something else that I thought that was interesting in verse number 19 now
I think Moses foreshadows a ton of things about
The Lord Jesus Christ in his ministry. So it's pretty cool
You think about it he ends up going back up to heaven and then he returns again his fight
His face is like glowing right that's the foreshadow how Jesus Christ
Descended death bear and resurrection a sins and then again Christ is going to return and when he returns in returning glory
He's gonna come in a bright bright light his face is gonna be shining. Okay, and so in the same way that Moses did this
Jesus Christ is gonna perform a lot of these same events and the future and so we have a lot of prophetic symbolism here
So again, don't let the the Catholic try to confuse you and like oh, it's matter the Bible's about metaphors and symbols
Yeah, it is but you're wrong on all of them you you deny the carnal truth and spiritual truth in this chapter
Okay, we want to accept both Moses really did get a table of stone from God written with his finger
And yet he also then symbolizes Jesus Christ and foreshadows salvation through faith in Jesus Christ now in verse number 19
He brings up this idea of how he like destroyed
This golden calf says in verse 19 for I was afraid of the anger the hottest pleasure with the Lord is wrought against you
And just to destroy you the Lord hearkened unto me at that time
Also, the Lord is very angry at Aaron to have destroyed him and I prayed for Aaron also that at the same time
And I took your sin the calf which he had made and burnt 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 mountain now the Bible just kind of like explicitly tells us the symbolism here the metaphor here
Is that the calf just represents sin because notice he says I took your sin the calf
It's just kind of like giving you it in a unique language here
Go if you would back to Exodus and I want to look at Exodus 32
It doesn't give us this one little detail, but you know from Exodus 32
I just I'm reminded of something that also happens here because not only the grind up this golden calf and just into fine dust
And then and then put it in the water the Bible actually tells us he made them drink it look at Exodus
chapter 32 and look at verse number 20 and he took the calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire and ground it
To powder and strawed it upon the water and made the children of Israel drink of it
Now, you know, there's so many things in the Bible just think like that's weird, you know, that's crazy
But it happened they had to drink it. So I guess you could you know, I guess it's it's real
Have you seen this I've seen this thing on on Facebook
It's like stupid reels like these rich people eat a burger where?
The bun has like a thin layer of gold like on just like kind of just like
Melted on top of the bun and it's like, I don't know. I don't like $20,000 burgers and I don't know
It's just like something stupid. It's like when you're so rich that food isn't cool anymore
You have to eat gold who's heard of this? Yeah
I believe that there's even alcoholic beverages where people have taken gold or silver or all that they got it
And it's such a fine dust and they sprinkled it in there
Alcoholic beverage or something like that. It's weird. So obviously it's possible to consume, you know
These type of metals and very fine quantities. I'm not recommending it not saying it's cool
I would assume it's it's got to have some kind of a bitter taste because anytime I've ever drank water from a water fountain
At the school, you know, it has that metal taste who knows what I'm talking about
Yeah, you go to the you go to the junior high in the high school and it hasn't been remodeled in 20 years
And you get the water fountain. You're like am I drinking water or metal?
Like this is it feels like I'm just licking a metal pole, you know, I don't know if this is healthy or not
It's kind of it's kind of got a bitter taste a little bit
It doesn't taste as good as just fresh clean spring water. So, you know again, it's possible. Obviously we all we're all still here
I don't know, you know what kind of long-term of health effects this has
But what could this possibly symbolize? I just think anytime there's something really weird in the Bible
Just know there's something like special about it. There's something like spiritual about it, right?
So here's one here's I have three thoughts actually about this
number one is that notice that the dust gets so small go back if you would if you want to read the language of
Deuteronomy 9 we're done with this passage, but in Deuteronomy chapter 9 and verse number 21
He said he had ground it very small
Even until it was as small as dust and they just put the dust in the water
So it's it's kind of like it just disappears if you think about it
It's so fine. It's so small and then it's just put in the water that now it's just kind of dissolve this kind of disappears
It just goes away and think about it. It's your sin
So what is this picture again Moses is picturing who Jesus and it's picturing that what he takes our sin and he makes it
Just disappear and again, he makes it disappear in the water
Which you know water typically is represented often the Bible just the Bible itself of the Word of God
And it's through our faith in the Word of God putting our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that our sins disappear
That our sins are dissolved that our sins are removed from us
So by just taking this in grinding it and just putting it in there now it disappears
You can also look at it this way that it could be representative also of sanctifications process in in a like manner
Because if we think about it, how are we supposed to get sent out of our life?
It's through the washing of the water of the Word
It's by reading the Bible and doing this and by doing this it washes away our sins and makes us more
Sanctified it makes us better and so you could look at this as just one symbol of how Jesus Christ works that he takes our sin and
He makes it disappear a second thing. We could look at is how our sins are washed away through the sanctification process
Here's the third one that I think of that could be related is what I'm referring to is, you know
If I were to drink something like this, I just kind of envisioned it's probably a little more bitter
I think about this if you're saved you cannot go to hell
There's nothing you do to go to hell but if you're trying to serve God and you're reading your Bible the more sin in your life
The more bitter reading the Bible is gonna be because when you're or the hearing of the of God's Word being preached
Because if you think about it when you're reading a passage and you're not guilty of that sin
It just it just tastes sweet, you know, it just tastes good, but you're reading a passage that you're guilty of it's still sweet
It's still water, but it's got a little bit of a bitter taste because of your sin that's been mixed in with it
And so, you know, why is it really important to live a clean life?
Why is it important to try and keep God's commandments?
I'll tell you one reason it makes drinking the Word of God tastes a lot better. It just goes down sweeter, doesn't it?
It doesn't have as much of a bitter
Taste to it, you know, some people don't like coming to church just because they don't like how bitter it tastes for them
They don't want that bitter water and it's it's really just their problem. There's nothing wrong with the Bible
There's nothing wrong with the Word of God and you know, it's not oh, I don't like how the preacher said
It's not me. It's your gold that you're mixing in there that you don't like
It's your sin that you don't like that
You're mixing in there because as soon as you get done hearing me scream and yell
you're gonna go to some football game and hear a bunch of people scream and yell and
Then you're gonna put on some earbuds and you're gonna listen to music where people are screaming and yelling and in
Blasting and then you're gonna watch some movie where people are screaming and yelling and then a lot of them
They're gonna quit our church and go to Steven Furtick where he's screaming and yelling. Look, I don't buy into this
Like I don't like how you preach or you're just you're screaming and yelling but you like screaming yelling
I really like screaming yelling at some point in their life in some context in some way
Or you're just at work and the lazy
Coworker that you have finally the boss rips him a new one screams and yells like get him or you watch Donald Trump do
A presidential debate and he says about Hillary Clinton like I'm gonna put you in prison
You're like, yeah get her then it never happens. It's it's not like you don't like screaming and yelling
It's not like you don't like people getting animated. It's not like you don't have a long attention span
I know you watch Lord of the Rings. It's like three hours
You probably watched so many movies that are like three hours or something like that
You have attention fans or things, you know why you don't like the water because of your gold
That's why you don't like the water
Because of your calf because of your sin because of your idol that you don't want to give up
Because of the issues in your heart that you don't want to get right
That's the reason why you're not liking the water right now. Say man. I don't really like church
I don't like reading my Bible. I don't like hearing the hymns
Well, it must be there's some golden calf in your life that's causing you to not like the Word of God
You know what you need to just drink it
Anyways, you need to grind it up and you need to just drink it and then move on with your life
And then the water will start tasting good again
Isn't that I mean that that makes that sense to me?
But of course what do most Christians do they they turn aside quickly and that's kind of last thing
I wanted to pull out of this chapter and kind of finish on this thought
It's a great chapter in the Bible
But it's also a kind of a sobering reality that we have to realize that hey just because we're saved
Doesn't mean that we're not still a stiff neck and rebellious people like we can look at the world and we could say man
Look how wicked they are. Look how evil they are. Look how feminist they are look how
Apathetic they are look how drunkard they are. Look how much fornication and adultery they commit and look at all the sins
They have okay, but that doesn't mean that you aren't stubborn. That doesn't mean that you aren't rebellious
That doesn't mean that you don't have sin
That doesn't mean that you don't have problems and the children of Israel so quickly turn aside is what the Bible says about them
and verse number
9 it says when I was going up into the mount to receive the tables of stone
Even the tables of the covenant was the Lord made with you then I bowed to 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 written with a finger of God and
On them was written according to all the words was 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
The Lord gave me the two tables of stone even the tables of the covenant and Lord said to 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
So Moses going up to get the word of God for them to hear from God from them to do the whole point
Why were they even leaving Egypt in the first place? What was it that Moses was constantly saying?
Unto Pharaoh why they should leave so they could go to sacrifice to their God on the mount and then he's like
Well, only some of you can go and there's like no we need everybody and it is like, okay
Y'all can go but no animals. He's like no no hoof left behind
We got to take our animals because we have to have something to sacrifice to our God with and then they went through the Red Sea
They journeyed through the wilderness. They've come to the mount. They're finally there
I mean you have to realize that was the whole point and then he goes up and then they immediately
Worship a golden calf just quickly turn aside after the way and nothing bad's happened Moses is up there. He's getting the word of God
He's talking to God. He's about to get two special tables of stone with the Ten Commandments in it yet
They just immediately turn aside. They immediately corrupt themselves. They immediately go bad and
Unfortunately, many Christians are like this
This is what you have to understand about what Christians are actually like there are many Christians that will get saved
They'll get baptized and they'll be in a good church
With a good pastor and then they will immediately corrupt themselves. They'll immediately quickly turn aside
They'll just go back to the world. They'll go back to their golden calf
They'll rebel so quickly so stiff-necked. That is what real Christians are actually like. That's why you see church being a revolving door
That's why you see people coming and going and coming and going and people that were here two years ago gone
And look some people they you know
They kind of come and go some people go and they burn the bridge behind them some people are dancing with the golden calf
As soon as they leave you're thinking like wait a minute
You're now like best friends with the person that stole all the money from our church like what like how do you do that?
How do you go with us?
How do you journey with us from Samson Park all the way to Hearst all the way to Watauga to all the way to here?
And now your buddies with them. What is wrong with you? What is yours? That's weird
You just corrupted yourself and you just quickly turned aside. That's insane. That's insane. Oh, well, I think that
Pastor Shelley is a reprobate and a wolf and I think this guy that has a one in a universe
Lifetime skin disease is actually saved. He's not he's not the one being punished by God the guy
That's just an evil wicked con artist that has the weirdest skin disease known to man
That guy saved but pastor Shelley and all the other people there are cults and not saved where it's like
How does that even happen? How does that kind of stuff happen? Then you read the Bible like oh, I guess that's just what people are
Like there's the Korah's and the Dathans and the Byram's and there's all of these just shady characters
Constra rebellion people making golden cast even Aaron gets mixed up in this nonsense
You know Aaron was part of the new IB and then he's now an ex new IB for a second
You know, whatever come on back Aaron. Come on, you know, don't get taken over there
You know don't get don't get taken aside by that kind of nonsense
You know people are just so easily just turned aside and you know
We need to take heed unto ourselves that we don't do the same thing that we don't get off of the right path
There's there's a lot of passages that I want to go to but look go back just to chapter 5 for a second and we'll see
This being mentioned again. Do you know what I mean chapter 5? Look at verse 32
Ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you
Ye shall not turn aside to the right hand of the left. This is a common theme in your Bible actually turning aside
Many people are gonna just turn aside and what does that mean breaking the commandments turning aside from the command of the Lord the instructions
That God given and breaking God's commandments go to Joshua 23
Joshua 23 will fast forward the children of Israel, of course go into the promised land. They have great victory
God does deliver them and then Joshua is giving them a charge similar to what Moses is giving them here in Deuteronomy
Warning them not to turn aside not to turn aside
Look, there are gonna be so many people in your life
If you keep serving God, there'll be so many people in this church and in your life that will turn aside
Just take you to the bank. It's gonna happen. But you know what? You don't follow them
You don't go with them. You keep staying with the Lord because many people will turn aside
Joshua 23 look at verse 6 be therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses
That you turn not aside there from to the right hand or to the left. Don't go right or don't go left
Just stay straight. I want to go to first Samuel chapter 8 go to first Samuel 8
We're just we're just kind of going through the the Bible and we're just looking at lots of examples here an admonition
Hey, don't turn to the right. Don't turn to the left. Just stay on course. Don't give up Bible reading
Don't skip church. Just keep going by it. Just keep her in your Bible. Keep going to church. Just stay on the path
Just keep going soul winning. Just keep singing the hymns. Just keep, you know, following the commandments
Don't don't turn to the first Corinthians 5 and do that. Don't start railing with the railers
Don't start drinking with the drunkards. Don't go running off committing fornication. Don't get covetous
No, no stay straight on just keep just keep going
But what will some people do first Samuel chapter 8 look at verse number 3 and his sons walked not in his ways
But turned aside after lucre and took bribes and perverted judgment
You know many people are going to quit serving God because of money
Money is gonna be their downfall the love of money is the root of all evils with the Bible says go to first Samuel chapter 12
first Samuel chapter 12, of course, I understand that you know, everybody has free will and you know in that passage when it's talking about
Samuel's sons, you know, I think that he's probably a good father for the most part of me Samuel
He even he gives he basically says hey if I ever done anything wrong my entire life or ever ministry and like everybody says
Like no, it just kind of makes sense that he'd probably been a pretty decent guy. But here's the thing
He still had sons that just weren't that great. They perverted themselves
They went aside took lucre and if you think about the story, it's like Samuel says
Hey, have I ever done anything wrong and no one can testify anything that he's ever done wrong his entire life
And then his two sons just super wicked going after money perverting judgment doing wrong. Okay showing what that you can have generations
That are just once removed and yet wildly different outcomes wildly different outcomes and you know
Unfortunately, that's the reality in the world that we live in now
God willing you and your parents and your children and their grandchildren
You're all gonna just love God and serve God together, and it's gonna you're gonna grow old the other
Okay, but that would be the exception you would not be the rule
You would be the exception not the rule because Jesus came not to bring peace on earth
But rather division but a sword and he made it very clear that there's gonna be a lot of family
Issues and honestly we went around the room and we actually like talk to the people
The vast majority people are gonna have serious family problems and family drama because of church not not just because of other issues
We all have other issues, too
I'm saying even just specifically because of trying to serve God what kind of church you go to what you believe about
salvation not being Catholic or
Not being Presbyterian or not being Church of Christ or just even being Christian in general or just anything
I mean there's gonna be hands all over the room of drama now you little kids your children
You don't really have that yet
You don't experience that yet because your parents are taking to a good church
But you live in a family of eight nine ten eleven twelve kids the chances of all of them just wanted to serve God
And being on fire for God is just so astronomically low
I mean Joseph is one of twelve brethren
We could we could put Benjamin on the sideline and say maybe he's kind of in between on the gray
But you got at least ten ten brethren that just really are really rough
I mean, it's just a consistent theme in the Bible. It's constantly brought up and here's the question
What are you gonna do? Are you gonna serve God or not? Are you gonna turn aside? Are you gonna be like Cain?
Are you gonna be like core? Are you gonna be like the evil wicked brother or you're gonna be the good brother?
Are you gonna be the good son that does right?
Are you gonna be the prodigal son that goes off and just spends all of his money on harlots and riotous living?
Or are you gonna be the son that stays home and just serves his dad and serves with on the family farm?
You know, it's not like
Everybody is it's gonna turn out the exact same and you know, what do God I had can full control of my kids?
Because they would turn out great if I did if I could just press the button and they're gonna for sure turn out good
No matter what I would press that button. I would do everything I could
And I'm doing everything I can to help them to turn out good
But here's the problem. They have free will and just like they have free will I have free will and everybody has free will
That's why even God's children many times don't turn out that great you read the story God
He wants to destroy all of them and Moses has to make intercession. You need we need to humble ourselves
I know you got saved and I know you like the truth
But you may not actually like the truth that much
You know people think like I like heard preaching and then you actually preach against them and they're like you preach against me
I'm gonna leave what do you think was gonna happen?
If you come to this church and you think I'm not gonna get preached against you're an idiot and I'm preaching against you right now
Okay, so now no one has an excuse
Even the person that thought I wasn't I am right now
You are that person because I'm gonna preach against you. I'm gonna preach against everyone
That's the whole point, right?
The whole point is to show up and figure out how we can get better and look this whole chapter is trying to wake us
Up and say hey, you're not as great as you think you are
I didn't get you didn't get saved because you're greater than other people you got saved because I'm great
You got saved because of what the Lord Jesus Christ did you got saved because of him paying for your sins
That's why you got saved
That's what God is communicating in this chapter the children of Israel and we have to recognize
Hey, we can be just like, you know Samuel sons and go aside after lucre go aside after money
Go aside after something evil get led astray Demas half forsaken me having loved this present world
Demas isn't even a bad guy in the Bible. He's a good guy
But then it's like well turned aside turned aside because he just loved this world too much
You know
There's a lot of people that are gonna turn aside first Samuel chapter 12
Look at verse number 19 and all the people said in the Samuel pray for thy servants and the Lord thy God
That we die not for we have added unto all our sins is evil to ask us a king and Samuel said unto the people
Fear not he have done all this wickedness yet turn not aside from following the Lord
But serve the Lord with all your heart and turn ye not aside for then should you go after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver
For they are vain for the Lord will not forsake his people for his great names
Sake because they have pleased the Lord to make you his people. I think it's a good place to finish
I honestly have so many more verses we could look at but what's the point?
He's saying look even if you do screw up and even if you have been backslidden even if you're backslidden right now
Don't turn aside though. Just stay with the Lord
Hey, you know as long as you don't turn aside and you just keep serving God God will often deliver you
Why for his namesake not because of your righteousness again, you know, we stand by faith where we stand by grace
Even beyond salvation that we're still often not getting what we deserve
God's often taking care of us and rewarding us and blessing us and extending more grace and mercy and we still have
Someone seated at the right hand of the father
Constantly making intercession for us as we continue to sin as Christians
But we need to come boldly under the throne of grace to find help in time of need and we need to constantly be seeking
The Lord's favor and seeking his grace if I'm seeking his grace. What does that mean? What does that imply? I'm doing wrong
Because if I'm not doing wrong that I'm Donald Trump, right? He said he doesn't he doesn't have to ask for forgiveness
No, if I'm if I'm not doing wrong, why would I ask for grace?
You know, I'm constantly asking for grace because I'm constantly screwing up because I'm constantly falling short because I'm constantly making mistakes
I'm not saying that sinning is gonna just cause you to just turn aside
We're all gonna sin the turning aside in my mind is more just it's an attitude of giving up. Just don't give up often God
You know can get you through things even when you screw up. Look I've made mistakes. I've screwed up
I've done dumb things, you know in the last, you know, whatever it's been six seven years of pastoring this church
I I can look back and honestly say there's been plenty of things where I'm like, wow
That was a bad decision or wow. I screwed up or wow. I made a mistake or wow
I wish I hadn't done that or you know, whatever but it's like hey God's not expecting me to be perfect and
Many times even through my mistakes. He still somehow turned it into something good and I'm thinking like man
I wonder what would happen if I'd done something good, you know, what he could have done with that
You know if he can make my mistakes turn out this good. What could he do if I did something, right?
You know, but often he often still wants us to just I'm not saying he wants to screw up
But sometimes it almost seems like he's just allowing us to screw up just so he can get even more glory and honor about it
And he can just help us remember like oh, yeah, it's it's him. That's really in control. It's really him. That's leading
It's really him that's guiding. It's really him that's delivering and what is the admonition? Just don't give up
But also, you know when you have successes don't don't give up either
Hey, don't give up and again, if you really think about it
It's more about success than it is anything else in our church is doing really great right now
We had the best soul winning numbers we've ever had we've broken every record you could think of I mean
We've had the highest attendance is we've added the most members
We lost the most people
That we've ever had in the year. We we had the highest every conference day was the highest conference day
We had the most baptisms the most salvations. I destroyed the most conferences. I've ever destroyed
I mean like it was just kind of just like record after record after record after record
I mean just just so many great things
This has been such a great year
We have to realize like it's not because worse like more special than we were a year ago
it's that God is special and it's that when you just when you just trust God and you just get on this program special things can
Happen and God can use you to do great things and we want to make sure that we don't turn aside after we get success
Like oh we did great
Let's just quit or let's give up or let's do something else or or you know
We shouldn't try to fix something that's not broken and we don't want to get a bad heart and a bad mindset
To where we are, you know going after evil things going after wicked things covetousness
Lucre whatever if we sin we screw up if we get back slitting
We just need to get back into church and and just drink that drink that gold water and just say, you know
What the next drink will be better. This one's gonna hurt a little bit. This one's not gonna be fun
You know what? That's what hard preaching is. It's and people that actually love God are gonna drink the better water
They're gonna drink the gold water
They're gonna move on with their life and they're gonna say you know what?
It's better to serve God than to go and worship the golden calf
It's better to drink the golden water than to worship the golden calf
And so, you know, hey come to church and you'll get to drink some interesting drink
But it's better than the alcohol of the Catholic serving. It's better than the Zionist goo
You have to drink or whatever
So, you know and it hey again
Let us not ever be prideful and let us always give recognition to God as the one that gives us our successes
Not by our righteousness goes in prayer. Thank you heavenly father
So for so much of what you've given us and thank you so much for this week
Thank you that we live in such a prosperous country that we get to and enjoy a great church like this
We get to enjoy great meals and fellowship and time and friends
Thank you that we got to have so much fun this year on great missions trips like going to the Bahamas and going to Mexico and
You know all of the other missions trips that our friends put on that many people went to
You know, thank you for the work that's being done in the Philippines
Thank you for a faithful evangelist evangelist or bannock who's working hard in the Philippines and all the salvations that you've given him
Thank you that you've given us so many great soul winners in this church
People that are just zealous for the things of God people that care about the Bible. I pray that we would not turn aside
From the great work that's being done here that we wouldn't turn to the left or the right hand
I pray they would help us to keep our eyes on the prize to help us
Recognize that you're leading the way and that we would continue to follow in Jesus name. We pray. Amen right in closing
Let's go to song number
441 song number
441 great is thy faithfulness song number
441 I'll sing that out together