Deuteronomy 29

I have used the preacher's outline and sermon Bible commentary to prepare the sermon today. Today we're going to go back to an old friend. We're going to go back to the book of Deuteronomy. So if you've got your Bible out there, let's put a book marker there in chapter 29. As I mentioned last time, I'm not going to be going through each and every chapter in Deuteronomy. Last time we were together, we went through chapter 27. We're skipping chapter 28. Chapter 28 is the Blessings and Cursings chapter. I think that's relatively self-explanatory, so I'm not going to go through that. But we do want to go through chapter 29. Chapter 29 is of interest, brother, because it is like a one-chapter summary of the whole book of Deuteronomy. The various lessons that are learned throughout the book can very easily be sponded in that one chapter. So I wanted to hit that chapter before we move on. Right now it looks like the next project for us is going to be the book of Daniel. As I have mentioned in the past, the book of Deuteronomy is a series of messages preached by Moses. Moses is coming to the end of his life. As soon as the children of Israel, or shortly after the children of Israel, cross over the Jordan River into the Promised Land, God is going to allow him to die. He is going to allow his mission to be done. That is going to be the end of Moses. He is very much wanting to talk to the second generation of Israelites as they are about to enter, conquer, and possess the Promised Land. He is wanting to get them ready. He is wanting to speak to them from the heart, to learn lessons from the past, and move forward in a very positive way. There is a historical purpose to the book. The historical purpose is to learn from the past. I want you to think about something. The people that he is talking to here, in the 40 years wandering, those people who were over 20 years old and up in age, they died in the wilderness. The only ones that Moses is talking to were the people who were 19 years old and younger who left Egypt. There are some of them there, but those are the oldest 59 years old. A great many of the people that Moses is talking to never knew Egypt, other than knowing Egypt through their parents. Here he is talking to a group of people. They have been wandering for 40 years. He wants them to learn from the past. He doesn't want this group going over into the Promised Land and repeating the same mistakes. Now, from a spiritual purpose, Deuteronomy has written to teach people how to be victorious in their lives. That's one of the reasons why we want to discuss this as New Testament New Covenant Christians. We want to be victorious in our lives. And secondly, Moses wrote this whole book to stir people to rededicate their lives to God, to renew their commitment to God.

So, a time of rededication, a time of renewal, of commitment.

Now, this book, or this chapter, I've divided it as I've looked at it into five sections. Let's take a look now, starting at the very first verse. Let me get over here to Deuteronomy 29.

The first section is just one verse. It's verse 1.

Deuteronomy 29, verse 1.

And I'll give you a heading for each of these five sections. Verse 1, if you're outlining this, the way I've outlined it is, The Parties of the Covenant. Who's the covenant involved? Who's involved in this covenant?

Verse 1, These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel, in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. Besides the covenant. Now, that's an important phrase to appreciate. So what we see here are the parties involved, God, the Israelites, and Moses as a mediator. Moses as a mediator. God appointed Moses to share the terms of this covenant with the Israelites, and as a mediator of the covenant, he is very much a type of Jesus Christ. Christ was the mediator of the new covenant of grace. Moses is the mediator of the old covenant.

Now, it says here, this is besides the covenant which he made there in Exodus 20.

Now, one of the great differences is, this is another generation. In terms of the mechanics of the covenant, they're virtually identical in terms of the laws and so forth. There's no differences there. But what we're looking at here is church kids, if you will. God is making a reiteration, a covenant, what God calls a separate covenant, a covenant besides with the kids. Here's a covenant for you. It's not just mom and dad's, it's not just grandfather and grandmother's church, it's your church kids. And we want you to make sure that you appreciate that. This covenant has been called a lot of different things, but typically we in a church have referred to this as the land covenant. The land covenant. As context, you do have chapter 28. When people obey God, they are blessed in the land. When they disobey God, they are cursed in the land. Now, there are those people who maybe haven't thought that there are a number of covenants that God has made with this people. But just in the book of Exodus, you've got three different covenants that are spoken about. In Exodus chapter 24, you've got the old covenant. Exodus 24, that's the last portion of it, where the book of the covenant is ratified. Exodus 24, you've got a special covenant in Exodus chapter 31. It's the Sabbath covenant. How many times have we talked to people and people say, well, you know, the old covenant's done away, and we've used the argumentation, well, God's law isn't done away because the old covenant's done away. But in addition, besides the Ten Commandments which still stand, you've got the special covenant in Exodus chapter 31. Where God says that the people of God, for all time, need to be keeping the Sabbath. It's not just a Jewish thing. It's a thing for humans that the Sabbath was made for man. The Sabbath was not made for Jews. It was made for man. And in Exodus 34, there's yet a third covenant spoken up in the book of Exodus. Exodus 34, it's a covenant where God says He promised to work mightily through Israel.

So verse 1, then, is the parties involved in a covenant. God, Israel, and Moses as mediator. Let's go to the next section. The next section is from verse 2 through verse 9. Verse 2 through verse 9. And what we have here is a bit of a subheading. Why the covenant was needed.

Moses, as I outline it, Moses gives six different reasons why the covenant is needed. Let's take a look at these one by one. Verse 2 and 3 is the first reason that the covenant was needed, and that was to show God's power to act in their behalf. To show God's power to act in Israel's behalf.

Or another way of phrasing that is to show God's grace to act on their behalf. We see that in verse 2 and 3. Moses called all Israel and said to them, You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all of his servants and to all his land, the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, those great wonders.

So here we have the people who had gone through and who actually lived back in a day, who are close to 60 years old and older. That people had actually seen God's hand in the plagues of Egypt. And of course, those people who were born subsequent to that, their parents, their grandparents, taught them about what took place. And of course, one of the things that God says he wants people to remember, and this is for you and I today, not just for this X number of thousands of years ago, is that God extends his power to us today.

As believers, we are to remember God's power to act on our behalf, God's power to act with grace on our behalf, God's power to intervene on our behalf, God's power to perform mighty miracles, if necessary, on our behalf. And those are things that God very much wants them to appreciate as he delineates this covenant. Okay, we go down to that second reason for this particular covenant.

We see that in verse 4. The people have a hard heart, and God says, you know, I've got to work with your heart. I've got to soften that heart. And again, brethren, for you and I as Christians, we don't have soft hearts to begin with.

We're born out of the womb. Satan is broadcasting to us from a time we are just taking our first breath. As sweet as little babies are, you know, when we as little kids, you know, we want to grab this person's candy or grab that thing or grab some other thing. You know, Satan is alive and well, and he starts right from the crib. But the covenant was to show the people they have need of a softer heart.

Verse 4 is the second point. Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear to this very day. God realized that too many of them would not choose the right way. So God says, I'll call them spiritually at a later time.

I want them to learn a lesson that I'll give them my laws. I want them to keep them physically. If they do that, they'll be physically blessed. But the people couldn't even do that. They couldn't even do that. Where Christ told us, you know, we shouldn't hate somebody, that's a form of murder. All these people had to do was refrain from murdering somebody.

And you got that example of all ten of the commandments, but they simply could not do that. So the second point here shows an ongoing need for repentance. An ongoing need for God to soften our hearts. The third reason for the covenant we find in verses 5 and 6. And that was that the people needed guidance.

The people needed a God to provide for them, to provide and to guide them. Verse 5, And I have led you forty years in the wilderness, your clothes have not worn out on you, your sandals have not worn out on your feet, you have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or similar drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. Now, there's a lot being said in these two verses. Verse 5, I have led you forty years in the wilderness.

Now, you appreciate the fact that the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire were there. They didn't move unless that pillar of cloud or fire moved. When it got up from the tabernacle, it was time for them to get up and start packing it ready to go. When that cloud or that pillar started moving in a certain direction, that's the direction the Israelites went. And of course, you and I need to be very sensitive to the fact that, just as that pillar of cloud and fire is a type of God's Holy Spirit, we need to be led, you know, Romans 8.14, we need to be led by God's Spirit of Power.

When that Spirit of Power tells us to get up, we need to get up. When that pillar of cloud or fire would just descend upon the temple and sit there, we don't move. God tells us when to move, what direction to move, you know, where we need to be going. Now, this next part, there is some debate on.

Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet. Now, what's the debate there? Well, the debate is, since we didn't live there, what does that mean exactly? As we talked about last time, God, the Hebrew people speak in word pictures. Now, there are two different thoughts of what may have happened here, and one thought is that, you know, let's say you've got a young baby, and the young baby's got his waddling clothes, and as this baby is growing through life, God miraculously changes what he's wearing through his life.

You know, he goes to bed, he gets up in the morning, puts on his clothes, and all of a sudden the clothes are bigger. And they fit? Well, God makes them to fit. And all through their life, there's a miraculous changing of the clothes. That's one theory. And that's one theory for the sandals.

The other thought that we see here in this second section of verse 5 is that, you know, the word picture, you know, your clothes have not worn out, your sandals have not worn out. The word picture here is that God's people weren't walking around in rags. God's people were not walking around with big holes, gaping holes in their sandals. But, you know, just as they had artisans that were capable to make fine things for the tabernacle, that there were people who were good at making clothing.

There were cobblers there that were good at making sandals. And the word picture here at the second part of verse 5 is that they were people who were well clothed, had good shoes on their feet and so forth, and God provided that for them. Years ago, there was a fella, he was not a married fella, but there was a fella in the church who didn't want to sew, probably didn't know how to sew.

And so whenever something tore, he would just take one of those pins and kind of pin himself up. And, you know, we kind of teased him for a while, but we could tell when he was coming because there was kind of like a little jingling, jangling. Whenever he'd be walking into an area because of all the pins that were there. But that wasn't true for God's people.

They weren't walking around in tatters. They didn't look like hobos. God made sure they were well provisioned. Verse 6, You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or similar drink. Now, again, a word picture there is that those are things that, you know, society, people would provide for themselves and they'd go out and earn their daily bread. They're going to make sure they get their wine, which is the staple of the household.

But what did Israel have? Israel was provided manna. Israel was provided water out of the rock, wherever they went. God provided water and he provided manna, quail. God provided for them. He provided them clothing. He provided them the sustenance of life. And so one of the reasons why God's got this covenant is he wants to show people he will guide them and provide for them. Verse 6 is one of the capstones here. That you may know that I am the Lord your God.

I'm going to do these things for you. You're not going to do them for yourself. You can't get water out of a rock. There are so many beautiful analogies here. In the New Testament, that rock is Jesus Christ. From Jesus Christ flows his spirit. In the Old Testament, you've got water coming out of a rock. In the New Testament, you've got Christ the rock and the spirit coming from him. God is the ultimate teacher here. He's teaching them valuable lessons and teaching us valuable lessons. So the third reason for the covenant is to teach them that God will guide and provide. That's true for us, too. What do you need in your life right now for God to provide you?

Is it something physical? Is it something spiritual? Is it something relational? Is it something economic? What is it that God needs to provide for you? God can do that for you. If it takes a miracle, he'll do that, just as he did with them. God is no respecter of persons. He's no respecter of faces, as the Scripture says. Now, the fourth reason, we see in verse 7 here, the fourth reason is God wants them to be victorious.

He doesn't want them to be losers. He's called them to be winners. He's called them to be overcomers. He's not called them to be victims. Verse 7, And when you came into this place, Sheon, king of Heshbon, and Ah, king of Beshan, came out against us the battle, and we conquered them. We conquered them. You know, they were mighty kings of mighty armies.

We were a bunch of people that had come out of slavery. We really didn't have a trained military, but God fought for us. God gave us victory. And once again, brethren, the same thing is true for us in our walk with God today. God will give us the victory. If we follow the covenant He's made with us. Verse 8 is the fifth reason for the covenant. Verse 8, Hope, I mean, yeah, verse 8 shows Hope. It's the fifth reason.

We took their land of those two kings and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, to the Gabbites, and to the half-tribal Manasseh. So before they entered the Promised Land, some of the tribes get their reward. Some of the tribes get their inheritance. They get it on the other side of the Jordan River. Now, what does that do, though, for the tribes who have not gotten their inheritance? That gives them hope. That says, well, you know, the Gabbites, the people of Gad, the people of Reuben, Manasseh, they've gotten their property.

They've gotten their inheritance. And all the rest said, well, it's just a matter of time before we get ours. And so it gave people who were wandering in the wilderness for 40 years a great deal of hope. And when you're in that kind of a situation, you need hope.

And brethren, whatever the situation you find yourself in right now in your life, God can give you hope. You've got to ask for it. You've got to be looking for it. God may provide it in a way you don't think. He may have a series of events take place in your life that you would never put into action.

But the end result is going to be that God will give you hope. In verse 9 we see the last reason for the giving of the covenant. Verse 9 is God wants His people to be obedient. Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do. Now, prosper doesn't mean that if you obey God you're going to have a great bank account.

There's not that many of us who've got great bank accounts. Those of us who once had great bank accounts, something typically happens in their life where, Bye-bye! That money goes! Dollar bills don't look like it, but they've got wings on them. They fly out of the bank and they go to creditors and all sorts of folks. But God gives us spiritual blessings. He gives us all sorts of blessings. The fact that we've got loving relationships with our family. What kind of a blessing is that? It's a tremendous blessing. The fact that we know God.

Those of you who've watched the video that I sent out a couple of weeks ago, that hour and 25 minute documentary, and you see the great awesome power of our Father. And you think, that's my Dad. And you know how kids are. If there's a bully in school or something, they would like their big strong Dad to come to school with them. Protect them. They stand behind Dad. Look out behind his leg at the bully. Go get him, Dad. Sick him. I was on Bing Sports.

They always have these picture collages of various things. And one of the picture collages was a group of sports stars and their children. And you had some different types of sports figures. You had some that were men, some that were ladies. You had them interacting with their kids. And they had nice little photos. There was a really classic photo I liked of LeBron James. Now, LeBron James is a 6'9'' basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He's a huge man, muscular, extremely talented.

But the picture of LeBron was him walking at court side with his son. His son was, I don't know, 5. And he had his son by the belt and was just kind of carrying him around. And the kid was just enjoying it. The man's got a hold of him. He got a belt. He was just walking like a piece of luggage or something. The kid was enjoying it. Big smile on his face.

LeBron, big fellow that he was. And just enjoying his son. That's the relationship our father has with us. Big, strong daddy. And he'll take care of us. And he loves us. He loves you. And he says, Jesus Christ, our elder brother came to die for us. They love us so much. So those are the reasons why the covenant was given.

Now, the next section, verses 10 through 15, give the purpose of the covenant. The purpose. Let's start this on verse 10. All you stand today before the Lord your God, your leaders, in your tribes, in your elders, in your officers, all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, the stranger who was in your camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water.

So our God is an all-inclusive God. Whether you're a famous person, whether you're infamous, whether you don't have any fame at all, whether people don't know what your name is, whether you be man or woman or child, all the millions of Israel stood together and they made this covenant with God. I'm sure it was an awesome scene to behold. You know, the reading of this covenant, the discussion of this covenant among themselves, and you know, telling God, yes, we're going to do this. Verse 12, that you may enter the covenant with the Lord your God and into his oath, which the Lord your God makes with you today.

There was an exchanging of oaths. We appreciate the fact that God and Israel were married, correct? There was a marriage ceremony. In a marriage ceremony, you have the exchanging of oaths, an exchanging of being faithful to one another. God says, I'm going to be faithful to you, but you need to be faithful to me. We see that now in verse 13. Verse 13 is the crux. This is the purpose of the covenant.

That he may establish you today as a people for himself, and that he may be God to you, just as he has spoken to you, and just as he has sworn to your fathers to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The purpose of the covenant is for them to be their God, and for the people to be his people, reciprocal, faithful, both ways. God has to be faithful. When we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, and we mess up and we sin, we rely upon the faith of God to forgive us of our sins when we repent.

We would not have a God we could trust if God somehow said, well, you know, you have repented, you've got a broken heart, I know you don't want to do it anymore, but you know what? I'm not going to forgive you. I'm not going to forgive you. No? God says, I'm going to be faithful and just to forgive you, and to forgive you from all of your unrighteousness. The same is true. Just as God is faithful to us, we need to be faithful to him.

And this is what God is so concerned about. This is what Moses is so concerned about, because he remembers his generation, the older generation. He remembers the people he was with there in Egypt. He remembers those 40 years of wandering, and how they murmured and complained, and how they would drop that, seemingly, go after other gods. Moses realized, this is not good for you. You need to be faithful. If you're going to go into this beautiful country, God is giving you, be faithful to him. Verse 14, I will make this covenant and this oath, but not with you alone, but with him who stands here with us today before the Lord our God, as well as with him who is not here with us today.

You know where this is interesting, brother? And this is where you, when you take parts of the Bible and you see the dynamics that are there, here we see where God says, the covenant of God with you is not only for you, but for future generations. Do you remember what it says there in the book of Acts? Let's turn there for a moment. Put a finger or something here. So to Acts 2. Acts 2.

Peter gives an inspired sermon on Pentecost, and here's how some of the people respond, verse 37. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? We want to do something about this. Then Peter said to them, repent and let everyone be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for their mission of your sins. So two things that are being said here. We need to repent. We need to believe. Baptism is a symbol of belief. It's a symbol of our faith. It's a token of our faith. Notice verse 39. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call. And to all who are far off. That's the same thing that was said there in Deuteronomy chapter 29. The covenant is with you and future generations of Israelites here in the New Testament. This new covenant is with you in a church and with future Christians as their generations come up. Beautiful thing. Pause here for a couple of moments. Let's take a look at some overarching lessons to be learned. From the first 15 verses of Deuteronomy 29. Lesson number one. God keeps His promises. God keeps His promises. Every promise He has made, He will fulfill. How He fulfills them, when He fulfills them, that's His prerogative. Every promise God has made, He will fulfill. He will not fail us. He is faithful to us. 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 19. Therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good. Just like it talked about in Deuteronomy, we need to commit our souls to God. We need to do good. Notice the end of verse 19 there in 1 Peter 4. As to a faithful Creator. As to a faithful Creator. God is faithful to us. A major lesson for us to always keep in mind. Second lesson we learn. We must be faithful as well to keep our promises to God. When we were counseling for baptism, hopefully the minister told you that you are making a tremendous vow. Between you and the great God. Not a promise, something as strong as it gets. You are making a vow to your Savior. You are entering into a covenant with Jesus Christ and God the Father. What you are saying that you are going to do is you are going to give your life to them. You promise to obey. You promise to follow no matter what. Matthew 7, verse 21. Matthew 7, 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father in heaven. It's easy to say, Lord, Lord, it's easy to talk the talk. It's easy to have good intentions.

But Christlike talk, without the Christ, without the obedience, good intentions without Godly follow-through, are meaningless. We can say all the spiritual sounding things we want, but unless we do the will of God, roll up our sleeves and do it, intentions don't get us anywhere.

The third major lesson, after we appreciate that God keeps His promises, secondly, we need to keep our promises, the third major lesson we see from these first 15 verses is that we as believers are accepted by God as His people. You know, I keep on going back to that video that I'm very thankful that Diane sent that to me and I watched that.

I just keep on going back to there's one portion of that video where they show our sun. They show the earth, the earth in relation to our sun. And the sun looks like a beach ball and our earth looks like a pebble. And then they take our sun and put it next to the next biggest star, and our sun looks like a pebble compared to a beach ball. And they keep on doing that through, I think, four different segments until you get to the biggest star that we can see is 1500 times larger than our sun. 1500 times larger. And we think about the greatness of our God and that He's our dad. And as I said last week, how many times I was watching that video and they're showing the birth of what's happening in the mother's womb to children. When you see the God of creation, there's one segment there when they talk about snowflakes and how beautiful they all are and how individual they all are. I can create messes. If I'm really lucky, I can create dirt. But our God created... I forget where it was, but they were showing... Here's what it looks like in nature. I don't know if it's a snowflake. It was enough snowflakes. So here's what a snowflake looks like in nature. Here's what an artificial snowflake looks like. I can make man-made snow. The snowflake God creates is all beautiful and shiny and gorgeous. And the one man could just sound like this narrow... It was ugly. It was hideous. It was hideous. So we worship that great God. 2 Corinthians 6, verse 17. 2 Corinthians 6, verse 17 and 18. Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. Well, that's the story right there of the book of Deuteronomy, isn't it? Don't touch what is unclean. I will receive you. I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

Okay, let's move on to the next section of the book here. It's a little sobering from this point on. Verses 16 through 19 is the next section. And this is a warning against breaking the covenant and against hypocrisy. God hates hypocrisy. Verses 16 through 19.

Deuteronomy 29, verse 16. For you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt, and that we came through the nations which you passed by, and you saw their abominations and their idols which were among them, the wood and the stone, the silver and the gold. So Moses here is taking them back in time, says, Remember all the garbage we saw, all the things that people thought should be worshiped? Remember how ridiculous and foolish all of that was? We can't break the covenant of God to worship wood and stone, things created by man's hand. Verse 18. So that there may not be among you, man or woman. Notice how God starts to bring this down to the individual. He's not just talking about whole nations doing wrong, although that would be included. He says, you know, if you've got one man or one woman, you know, you've got the situation after they crossed into the Promised Land, they're going to take Jericho, and you've got Achan, and they were told you don't take the things of the people there, just leave it be. But Achan decided he was going to take the accursed thing. He grabbed some gold and some other things. He took it back to his tent, and he hit it under his tent. And the next time that they went out to battle, the nation of Israel lost their battle. God said, why? Because of the sin of one man. Remember how that worked out? Well, who did this, God? Well, it was taken by tribes, and we singled out a tribe. Then we went by families and clans and got down to the individual. Now, this is pointed for you and I, brethren, is, are there issues in our household? Is it me? Is it the other person? Is it us, all of us, together? We need to get our act together. So there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and to serve the gods of these nations. That there may not be among you a root-bearing bitterness or a wormwood. So the idea here is the fruit of idolatry is bitter. The fruit, we're talking about the wormwood, the fruit of idolatry is bitter. It's poisonous. Remember the book of Revelation? It talks about the great thing that entered into the water. It was like wormwood. It soured everything. It poisoned everything. Idolatry is the same way. What you see here is a picture of something that permeates. It will permeate the household. It can permeate the society. We must not have those things in the family or in the society. Otherwise, the society is going to come crashing down. Verse 19. And so it may not happen when he hears the words of this curse that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace even though I follow the dictates of my heart, as though the drunkard could be included with the sober. Now, I may mention that as good as that documentary is, I don't agree with all the theological standing in that documentary. One of the things that I strongly disagree with is they intimate on several occasions, especially toward the end of the documentary. But God gives us, He implants in our minds, all human beings, a godly conscience. I don't buy that for one moment. Our consciences have got to be taught by God and His Word. Hitler had a conscience. Stalin had a conscience. Kublai Khan had a conscience. Do we want a pattern? Our conscience has had this. Was that handed down by God? Of course not.

There are theological reasons why they take that stance. I won't get into that here and now. But here we see where we've got an individual who thinks he's okay. He's deluded. He's self-deceived. He's doing things that are wrong. But in his conscience, since his conscience has not properly been educated by God, he says, well, I'm all right. I'm just like the guy who's sober, even though I'm a drunkard. No, he's not. There's hypocrisy there and it's going to be dealt with.

Let's move down to the last section here, verses 20 through 29.

Again, this is more sobering. Moses realizes, just like Paul was writing there to Timothy, Paul realized his life was coming to an end. Moses realizes his life is coming to an end. Shortly after they cross the Jordan River into the Promised Land, Moses is going to be no more.

And so here you've got a situation with a man who's desperately trying to reach out to people he loves and say, you know, I want you to have the very best. I can go with you into the Promised Land because I sinned. Even though I've repented, God wants to make an example of me.

Moses repented. It wasn't that God didn't forgive him. God did forgive him. Moses is going to be a great man in the world tomorrow. But, you know, sin has its consequences. People can go and do all sorts of sexual sins today. God can forgive those people of those sexual sins. But if they have an STD, well, that's the consequence of your action. God has forgiven you spiritually, but there's a consequence. And there's a consequence for Moses' action. It wasn't that God was being hard-hearted. God was actually being merciful to say, look, stay away from those kinds of sins and you won't have to be like Moses.

Okay, verse 20-21. The Lord would not spare him for the anger of the Lord in his jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him. The Lord would blot out his name from under heaven.

Now, we understand that the people who live back in Moses' day are going to be in the second resurrection. God was dealing with them only physically. But the idea for you and I today is very real. If God has called us and we reject that calling, if we walk contrary to God and we don't repent, there is a sin unto death, there's a sin not unto death. As it says in 1 John 5, the sin unto death is one we don't repent of. The reason we are going to be in a turn of the lake of fire is because we wouldn't repent, not because God wouldn't forgive.

Verse 21. And the Lord would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law. So I would just say there in verses 20-21, go back to chapter 28, read the section on the curses that come to the people when they are not obeying God. Verse 22. So that the coming generations of your children who rise up after you and the foreigner who comes in from afar land would say, when they see these plagues in the land and the sicknesses, I wish the Lord is laid on it. The word pictured behind verse 22 is plague upon plague, sickness upon sickness. Just waves and waves of both of those. Why? Because of sin. And you take a look at what's happening to our nation today, in the nations of the world today, it breaks your heart when you see little children in different lands in this country as well. Where because the parents lived a certain lifestyle, they both died of AIDS. And you've got whole populations where many, many orphaned children as a result of that.

Verse 23, the whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning. It is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah. You know, brethren, people in our country think it can't happen here. The American empire will last forever. Well, if you are any kind of a student of history, what empire has ever lasted forever? Babylon has Persia, has Greece, has Rome. Mary and I enjoy going down to Mexico for vacations. Are the Aztecs still running the show down there? The Maya? The Inca? In Latin America? Are they still really big down there? No. Not at all. Same thing as... You know, it seems to me when you take a look at these tremendous empires, how do they start? They start with people who work hard. They're diligent. In many ways, they're a religious people. They may have the wrong religion, but they've got certain standards, and they adhere to those standards, certain types of morals, and certain kind of fortitude. And they build an empire, and they work hard. And then the empire thrives. And then there comes a point where, you know, those same people begin to... The next generations inherit all that wealth, and they kind of go on coast. And then the mores of the society start to crumble. And then it's the downward spiral. Well, today in this country, we're in a downward spiral. This last Thursday, the three Michigan pastors, myself, Mr. Murray, Mr. Joseph, met with Steve Shafer and Melvin Rhodes. We had lunch together. Melvin was talking about a book that's recently been put out by Ann Coulter. Now, if you don't like Ann Coulter, don't read the book. Ann is a conservative, a very vocal conservative and a University of Michigan graduate. But she was talking about how the left in this country is turning this nation inside out. From, you know, even liberals now are talking about how this whole idea of politically correct speech. That, and abortion, and the rights for all these people who aren't even American citizens. Now, I'm a son of an immigrant. I've got no problem with people immigrating to this country in a proper way. But when we start taking millions upon millions of people in with all of their issues, we're turning this country into something we're losing our country. We are losing our country. And that's exactly what we see happening right here. Verse 24, all nations would say, why has the Lord done this to this land? What does the heat of this anger mean? Well, has God done this? Or has God said, you know, I could have given you just as easily blessings, but you chose the way of cursings and I'm going to be faithful and give those to you. You need a spanking, and so I'm going to have to give it to you. Verse 25, then people say, because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them up of the land of Egypt. For they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they did not know, that He had not given to them. And as you remember, brethren, a number of years ago, many years ago, I gave, I think, a three-part series talking about our American idols. I wasn't talking about the TV show. I was talking about the kinds of things that we in this country, whether it be the big house, the nice car, the great job, the fat bank account, the various things that we as Americans want to, you know, we idolize.

Verse 28, Now, we appreciate the fact that Israel and Judah went into national captivity, and brethren, we better realize that's heading our way. And we better realize we better be on the straight and narrow. Every one of us, no one in this room, is exempt. Better be what God wants us to be, because hard times are coming. Verse 29 Again, here we see something that we have here in the Old Testament. We see the same thing in the New Testament. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul talked about the mysteries of God. Well, once Paul talked about them, they were no longer mysteries. The mystery was, we're going to be where the sons of God. We're going to be in God's family. That's the mystery. It's no longer a mystery once Paul elucidates it. Same thing is true here in the Old Testament. Moses talks about the secret things belong to our Lord. What's secret things? Well, if you disobey God, your nation is going to crumble, and you're going in national captivity. It's no longer a secret.

Brethren, one final scripture for today. Let's turn to Matthew, chapter 25.

Matthew 25, verse 31 through 33.

And so, brethren, you and I have got to ask ourselves deeply in our hearts, are we a sheep or are we a goat? And if we don't like the answer to that question, then we need to be doing something about that. And God is merciful enough. If you and I are sitting in this room and we're breathing, as far as I can tell, all of you are still breathing out there, God has been merciful enough to give us time to change that. We don't like the response to that question. So, as I said, Mary and I, next weekend, we're going to be out of town. The weekend after, we'll be out of town again over in Windsor, but we'll catch you in about three weeks.