Deuteronomy 3 Gives Key Spiritual Insights in Our Journey to the Kingdom!

Every Wednesday at 10 o'clock in the morning, Beloit has a Bible study. It's a Zoom Bible study for those who are attending the church there. We typically have between half and a third to a half of the congregation in Beloit, tuning in for that Zoom Bible study. We've gone through the Book of Mark, we've gone through the Book of Acts, and now we're going through the Book of Deuteronomy. I'm thinking that I would like to go through the Book of Deuteronomy in a Bible study, either in-home Bible study or a Zoom during the day for Chicago, and perhaps also in a Zoom Bible study in the evening, or again in-home, if you would like that. Just to give you some thoughts on that, this last week as I was going through Deuteronomy chapter 3, I thought there's an awful lot of things happening in Deuteronomy chapter 3 that would make for a good sermon. So if you would, turn over to Deuteronomy. I want to give you a little bit of background to the book before we actually get into it. There's more I will give when we actually get into this come fall. But the author of the book is Moses. Internally, it says that in Deuteronomy chapter 31, verses 9 and 24. Deuteronomy 31 verses 9 and 24. The church has set the date, as far as we can determine, somewhere between 1450 and 1410 BC. The book of Deuteronomy is written at the end of the 40 years wilderness wanderings, right before the children of Israel went into the Promised Land. The book was written to two groups of people. It was written to the second generation of Israelites who were poised to enter the Promised Land. We see that in Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 1. But also, Deuteronomy was written to all of us, to all mankind, and we've got it in the scriptures. We see that in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 15 through 17.

The book of Deuteronomy is organized around three sermons that Moses gave. Now, you think maybe sometimes we're long on our sermons here?

If you could take that whole book and realize it's three sermons, those sermons were quite involved, weren't they? The first sermon goes from chapter 1 through chapter 5. And that section talks about what God has done for Israel.

The second sermon goes from chapter 5 to chapter 26. Long sermon there, chapter 5 and chapter 26. The theme for that section is what God expects of Israel. The third sermon goes from chapter 27 to the end, chapter 34. And the theme there is what God will do for Israel.

Now, the reason I feel the book of Deuteronomy is so important is the doctrinal or spiritual purposes behind the book. There are two, two major doctrinal or spiritual purposes. Deuteronomy was written to teach God's people how to live victorious lives, how we can actually better conquer all spiritual enemies, better handle our trials or temptations that confront us on a regular basis.

The book of Deuteronomy covers that kind of material. Secondly, the book of Deuteronomy was written to stir God's people to rededicate their lives to God. And this is something that we always need, to be able to rededicate our lives to the great God, to renew our commitment to obey Him and to keep our covenant with Him. In this way, the book of Deuteronomy is a timeless message and is one of the most quoted books in the New Testament, along with Isaiah and Psalms. Now, before the Israelites could cross over the Jordan, and right now they're poised just east of the Jordan, as Moses is teaching them, but before they can go over and claim the Promised Land, they must be prepared.

And so Moses is giving these three sermons to prepare the children of Israel. They needed to be spiritually prepared, not just physically prepared, but spiritually prepared. And spiritual preparation, some would say that is the major thrust of the book, spiritual preparation. And certainly, brethren, we are heading for our Promised Land, the Kingdom of God, and we must be spiritually prepared as well. So let's now, let me turn over to the book of Deuteronomy myself, and we'll outline this as we go.

The first 11 verses, and I guess you, as you would read this, you might organize the material a little differently than I have done. But the way I've outlined this is chapter 3 here, verses 1 through 11, chapter 3 verses 1 through 11, which is, The Believers March to Victory. The believers march to victory. And of course, they're going to do this through the power of God.

You know, they weren't the greatest people on the earth. They weren't the most numerous people on the earth. They weren't the most talented people on the earth. But they had God, the great God, as their God, who was going to lead them and guide them and direct them, who was going to give them tremendous laws, statutes, and judgments so that they can be an example to the nations around them. So let's start here in chapter 3, verse 1. Then we turned and went up to the church, and we were going to be in the church.

Then we turned and went up to the road to Beshan, and King Enad, King of Beshan, came against us. He and all his people to do battle at entry. And the Lord said to me, Do not fear him, for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hand. You shall do to him as you did to Shion, King of the Amorites, who dwelt in Hejban.

Now chapter 2 talks about this Shion, King of the Amorites, and his defeat. We're not going to get into that. But here we see in verses 1 and 2, where God gives his people assurance of victory. And that's important for us as well. We have assurance of victory from the great God over a very powerful enemy. Now this Aag was an interesting individual. Let's look at verse 11. Chapter 3, verse 11. For only Aag, King of Beshan, remained of the remnant of the giants.

Indeed, his bedstead was an iron bedstead. Is it not a rebba of the people of Ammon? Nine cubits is its length. Four cubits is its width, according to the standard cubit. So God is telling the people here, don't worry about this great king who is a giant. How big a man was he? Well, verse 11 gives us an indication. It says here, his iron bedstead. Now a lot of people, as they're translating this, would translate the word coffin or sarcophagus. And as it says there, in verse 11, is it not in the rebba of the people of Ammon?

So that sarcophagus or coffin was someplace being shown as an artifact as to how large this man was. The sarcophagus or the coffin was very large. Six feet wide and 13.5 feet long. He was a big guy. He had to go to the big and tall shop.

He was a big guy.

These people that they're going to conquer, they are quite an interesting bunch in terms of all that's going on in their kingdom. Let's read on here. Verse 3. So the Lord our God also delivered into our hands, King of Bayshian with all of his people, and we attacked him until he had no survivors remaining. So again, a spiritual principle here. God is not a spectator as you and I head for the kingdom of God. God actively intervenes. He takes care of business. As we follow him, he helps us. He's there every step of the way. And that's an important thing for us to appreciate. We're not on our own. We have him to be with us. Verse 4. And we took all the cities at that time. There was not a city which we did not take from them. Sixty cities, all the region of Argub, the kingdom of Og, in Bayshian. And all these cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars besides the great many rural towns. So obviously, as they were looking at what God was asking them to do, this was a tremendous undertaking. Sixty cities, a number of rural towns. The king, who was this great giant of a man. And perhaps some of the people were as well. But again, the challenges were great. But our great God was even greater than those challenges. And again, something for us to remember as we were heading to the kingdom of God, that no matter what the challenges we are going to face, our God is greater than those challenges. And we are going to be facing, if we are the generation that is alive at the return of Jesus Christ, as you know from prophecy, as you know from Scripture, we are going to be facing tremendous challenges. Tremendous challenges ahead. But again, God is going to be there with us. Verse 6, And we utterly destroyed them, as we did the scion king of Heshban, utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city. Now God wanted them to do this. Now you and I and people today, as we look at the Scriptures, people say, what kind of God are you worshiping, who would have you kill little children?

Well, this was the direction that God gave for both of these cities, for both of these kingdoms, I should say, both of these kings. As sinners, we all deserve death. There's no doubt about that. But also, brethren, it was almost like Sodom and Gomorrah. God is able to resurrect all of these people. They may have, they did die, men, women, and children. The society in which they were living was godless. Society in which they were living was being printed on their hearts and minds. It was God's will that they sleep in the dust until the time of their resurrection. God is loving God. God loved them. God still loves them. God looks forward to resurrecting them. But again, total victory is what we see here. Total victory. In verse 7 through 10, we see the blessings, if you will, of obedience. But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as booty for ourselves. And at that time we took the land from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites, who were on this side of the Jordan, from the river Arnon to Mount Hermon. The Sidonians called Hermon Syrian, and the Amorites called it Sennear. All the cities of the plain, Gilead, all Bayshaun, as far as Salcha and Edri. Cities of the kingdom of Aghanbayshaun. Again, we read verse 11.

Here you've got a tremendous lesson for us to think about, to contemplate, to meditate on.

What problems do you have in life right now? What problems do I have in life right now? What challenges do we have? Any of us. We see here that God is going to conquer what stands between us and the kingdom. If we're close to God, this is a lesson to be learned in these first 11 verses. If we are close to God, we obey God, we honor God, we worship Him, we stand in all of Him, that God will help us conquer whatever stands between us and the kingdom of God, our promised land.

Let's take a look at Philippians. Put a marker here and go to the book of Philippians.

Philippians 4, verse 13.

Philippians 4, verse 13. Very encouraging Scripture. For I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

I'm not going to turn there, but in your notes, you might want to jot down Romans, verses 35 through 39, where it talks about how through Christ we are more than conquerors. More than conquerors. Through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ overcame the world, and we have the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God, inside of us. And so we can conquer whatever stands in our way with God's help, with Christ's help. That's an important thing to remember. Let's go back to Deuteronomy chapter 3.

And as we're outlining Deuteronomy chapter 3, this section that I've put together in terms of an outline, verses 12 through 20.

Verses 12 through 20 is a warning to the children of Israel about being complacent. A warning about being complacent. I'm not going to read verses 12 through 17. Verses 12 through 17 show how the land east of the Jordan was divided among the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the tribe of Manasseh. So we see where that's all taken care of. But I want to start here. Let's go over to verse 18 of chapter 3. Verse 18. And again, an important lesson to be learned here. Then I commanded you at that time, saying, The Lord your God has given you this land to possess. All you men of valor shall cross over-armed before your brethren, the children of Israel. So even though these three tribes, Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, were given their allotment of land, they were told, don't stand down. There are things you need to do to help the rest of the family.

You need to cross over the Jordan and be there for them. Verse 19. But your wives, your little ones, and your livestock, I know that you have much livestock, shall stay in your cities which I have given you. So the armed men are to continue on with the fight. The families are to stay behind. Until the Lord has given rest to your brethren, as to you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God is giving them, beyond the Jordan, then each of you may return to his possession, which I have given to you. So once again, we're seeing here, it's a clear picture that the believer must not settle down, must not be complacent, must not be at ease. There's things yet to do. There are many things yet to do. The task was not completed fully. Oh, you know, Ruben, Gattam, and Asa, they got there, so to speak, but they were part of a family, and more needed to be done. Once they crossed over and conquered the territory, they would be able to return when everything was done. Victory, they had victory in part, but not total victory. And again, brethren, this is something for us to contemplate. As you and I go through life, we may have victory here and victory there. It can be easy for us to rest on our laurels, but God wants us to have total victory, not partial victory. Total victory, not partial victory. A lesson to be learned is we need to live a life of total commitment. God demands total conquest. We must never stop short. Never stop short. We want to avoid the Laodicean attitude in life, where people think, well, you know, I've got all these things, and I'm okay. Well, not really. Let's turn over to Hebrews 12.

Hebrews 12.

Verses 1 and 2. Verses 1 and 2.

Therefore, of course, as you know what that means, you're thinking about the material that came just before, and in this case, it's the faith chapter in chapter 11. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, those people in chapter 11, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. We're not in a sprint. We're not in a short race. We're in a long race. We need to make sure we lay aside every weight and keep on moving, not being complacent.

Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. And what is our motivating factor? What do we look into as the target here? Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of her faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising his shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus Christ had to live a full sinless life. That was very, very important. Had he not done that, the crucifixion would have been meaningless. He had to run the full late race. He had to make sure he did exactly what God's bidding was. Let us turn to 2 Peter chapter 2.

2 Peter chapter 1, 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 10.

2 Peter 1.10. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things, you will never stumble. Make your call and election sure.

Don't be complacent. Don't think you've got yours. Don't think you've done everything you're supposed to do. Just because you've had a partial victory. Can we go back now to Deuteronomy chapter 3?

Deuteronomy chapter 3 verses 21 and 22. Very short little section here. As I'm outlining this, I simply call this the commissioning and the encouragement of Joshua.

The commissioning and the encouragement of Joshua.

Verse 21.

I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. So will the Lord do to all the kingdoms through which you pass. You must not fear them, for the Lord your God himself fights for you. Fights for you.

There's an interesting, I feel, an interesting story for us here. Right after distributing the land east of the Jordan, God is telling, and God knows, and God has told Moses, He can't go into the Promised Land. Somebody has got to take over. Somebody's got to keep on going with the children of Israel as they fight their fights and do the things that are pleasing God's sight. So Moses here does two things with Joshua. Moses here gives Joshua strong assurance that God is going to be with him. Every good leader is going to do that. Work with his people. Make sure his people realize they can succeed. And of course, in this case, they can succeed because God is with them. God will give them victory. Moses also issued a strong charge to Joshua, not to fear anything because God is with him. So strong assurance, a strong charge.

And again, brethren, we must realize that the work of God goes forward. We've had great leaders in times gone by, and many of those leaders are no longer with us. We can't just sit around and say, well, I wish we had the days back when so-and-so was the pastor, or so-and-so was the pastor general. You know, we loved those men. Those men were great men, great teachers, great leaders. But we must move forward. We must move forward and keep on going, keeping the faith, keeping the faith, being true to what our leaders taught us, you know, teaching as we have been taught, and so forth. Let's go to Isaiah 41.

You know, we in God's church have had some really great leaders. But again, some of them have gone. They've died. They've passed on. And of course, if they were to be resurrected right now and stand before you, they'd say, Keep on going. Don't give up. God will be with you. Isaiah 41, verse 10. Fear not, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Always keep that in mind. Hebrews 13, verse 6. Hebrews 13, verse 6.

Let's start in verse 5. Hebrews 13, verse 5. Let your conduct be without covetousness, be content with such things as you have. For he himself has said, I will never leave you or forsake you. So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what can man do to me?

So again, as you and I are staring down the barrel of various trials and tests and difficulties, we realize and appreciate what has come before us, but we must still keep moving forward. Keep moving forward. The last section here, verses 23 through 29, as I have outlined it in my mind anyway, Moses is not being allowed to enter the Promised Land. And we need to take a good look at why that's the case. Moses is not being allowed. He's one of the greatest men in the Bible who has ever lived, who did so much, who put up with so much, is not going to be allowed to enter the Promised Land. Now, again, analogies only go so far. Moses was not going to be allowed to enter the Promised Land. We typically think of the Promised Land as a kingdom. Well, we know Moses will be in the kingdom. So it's not like as though he's not going to be in the kingdom of God. He will be. And they have a very fine position in God's kingdom. But there is a price to be paid for sin. There's a price to be paid. There's consequences that are meted out. And even if you're a person who's been in a church 20, 30, 40 years, Moses was a man who was such a tremendous servant of God. But even so, tremendous servants of God, if you and I don't do what God wants us to do, there is a price to be paid.

Verse 23.

Moses here speaking to God. Then I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying, O Lord God, you have begun to show your servants your greatness and your mighty hand for what God is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like your works and your mighty deeds. I pray, let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, those pleasant mountains in Lebanon. So here he's saying, you know what? God has said, I'm not going in. But I've done a lot of good things. What's it going to hurt? What's it going to hurt if I try it right here and say, God, please let me go? Let me enter the Promised Land.

Now, what exactly did Moses do?

That God said, you can't go over. Let's go over to Numbers, chapter 20.

Take a look at this.

Numbers, chapter 20.

Verse 1.

Numbers 20, verse 1. Then the children of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zinn in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh, and Miriam died there and was buried there. Now, there was no water for the congregation, so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron. So we see, to begin right here, we see that these people, they didn't have a perfect heart. They were the people who were the people who were dividing the congregation because of the way they were thinking. And the people contended with Moses.

Now, I'm bringing out those points for a specific reason we'll see in a moment. And the people contended with Moses and spake, saying, if only we had died when our brethren died before the Lord, why have you brought us up to the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness that we and our animals should die here? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is not a place of grain or figs and vines or pomegranates, nor is there any water to drink? So the people here, obviously, are not righteous people. They have tremendous spiritual issues.

Verse 6, So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and they fell on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. And then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take the rod. There are going to be three things that God wants them to do. Take the rod, you and your brother Aaron, that's the first thing, gather the congregation together, that's the second thing, speak to the rock before their eyes, the third thing, three relatively simple things for them to do. And it will yield us water. Thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock and give drink to the congregation and to their animals. Verse 9. So Moses took the rod, so far so good, from before the Lord as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, again, so far so good. Then he said to them, he was supposed to speak to the rock, symbolic of us talking to God in prayer. He spoke to people. He was going the wrong direction, as opposed to talking to the great God represented by the rock. Here now you rebels must we bring water for you out of this rock. So again, you see a situation where not only are the people rebellious, the people have their issues, Moses here is having some tremendous issues. He's taking the honor and the glory for himself. Must we bring water for you out of this rock? Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice. He was told to speak to the rock. He struck the rock twice. Now, by analogy, what do we see in 1 Corinthians 10? The rock that followed them, that rock was Christ. The rock that followed them, that rock was Christ. The water that came out of the rock is the water that comes from Jesus Christ, the living waters. So instead of talking, by analogy, talking to Christ, he basically took a couple of whacks at Jesus Christ. Verse 11, Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod, and the water came out abundantly and the congregation and their animals drank. So we're seeing a lot of sin here. We're seeing a lot of bad attitudes here. But we're also seeing water coming out of that rock. Now, there's a lesson to be learned in this. We'll get to that in a little bit. Verse 12, Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe me, because you didn't have proper faith, and hallow me. And this is the second thing that wasn't done. They had not honored God. They did not hallow God before the people. Because you did not hallow me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given to them. This was the water of Maribah, because the children of Israel contented with the Lord and was hallowed among them.

So here we see tremendous pain that's going to be inflicted upon Moses, a man who had served so faithfully for so many years. And again, brethren, you have served faithfully for so many years, and let us not think that this same sort of thing couldn't happen to us. I'm not saying that we wouldn't be in God's kingdom. Moses went into the kingdom of God. But perhaps we will suffer tremendous loss in this life, even as faithful old Christians, because of an attitude that we can have even as older members of the church.

Let's take a look at verse 26 here. Going back to Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 3, verse 26.

Deuteronomy 3.26. But the Lord was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me. So the Lord said to me, Enough of that speak no more to me of this matter. Deuteronomy 3.26. When you take a look at the original language, it says here at the beginning of verse 26, but the Lord was furious, as some translators translate this, the Lord was furious with Moses. He wasn't just mildly annoyed. He was furious with Moses because of what Moses had done. And Moses, you know, it also shows to some degree the relationship between God and Moses. They were able to speak to one another as friends. They were able to communicate and talk and reason. Moses had done that with God on many occasions where God wanted to obliterate the children of Israel. But God and Moses had a conversation, and God changed his mind. So Moses thought he can do this one more time. But on this particular point, God was really hot. He says here, He was furious with Moses and would not listen. So the Lord said to me, Enough of that. Speak no more to me of this matter. Verse 27. Go to the top of Pisgah and lift your eyes around to the west, to the north, to the south, to the east. Behold with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan. I want you to see what you could have had, but you're not going to have it. Again, brethren, we need to be careful in our lives as we want to make sure we always have faith in the great God and honor the great God. That we don't do things that will cause us a great deal of harm and hurt in this physical life.

Verse 28. But command Joshua and encourage him and strengthen him, for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see. I'm sure that really hurt. After all Moses had done, that really hurt. But it was just punishment for Moses. Verse 29. So we stayed in the valley opposite Beth Peor.

Brethren, I feel there are certain lessons to be learned with this section, verses 23 through 29 here. Certain various lessons I feel that I wanted to discuss with you.

Number one. I've got four lessons here I want to leave you with. Number one.

Stockpiled hurts, not dealt with, can come back on us with a vengeance. Number two. Stockpiled hurts, not dealt with, can come back with a vengeance. Moses had worked with these people and worked with these people for years and years and years, for decades. And there was a tremendous amount of hurt. And he wasn't, you know, he was able to somehow maybe get through it. But was he getting through it the way he should have? Or were these hurts just building up and building up and stockpiling to the place where he blew up before the people?

We can ask ourselves, are there things happening in our, is there somebody in our life or a number of people in our life where hurts are piling up and piling up and piling up? And you kind of ignore them, you overlook them, but they're still there and we're really not taking care of them. Well, Moses, I believe, was in that situation. Let's turn over to Ephesians 4.

We see a remedy here. Ephesians 4, verses 26 and 27.

Ephesians 4, verse 26. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. I think, unfortunately for Moses, he was doing just that. The sun went down on his wrath over and over and over and over again. And Satan was using that as a wedge. Satan realized what he was doing. But these things are piling up. And Satan could use that to take advantage at some point. Verse 29. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth. Did a corrupt word proceed out of Moses' mouth? A bunch of them proceeded out of his mouth. But what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers? Was Moses imparting grace to the hearers there in Numbers, chapter 20? Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were a seal for the day of redemption. Was Moses grieving the Holy Spirit by his actions? Yes, he was. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God and Christ forgave you.

So again, brethren, we need to ask ourselves, are we stockpiling hurts?

Over the course of my years in the ministry, and there are plenty of fellows who have been in ministry longer than me. I've been in ministry now 42 years. But so many times when people leave the church, you know, we had the big exodus back in 95 over doctrine. But apart from that, so many times when I've seen people leave the church, it's because somebody's been offended. Somebody allowed the hurts to stockpile and just build up, and they weren't able... And they just, you know, after a while, the pressure blew, and they left.

I've seen people leave the church over the smallest little matters, because they were so angry with somebody. A second lesson to be learned. The four that I have with you as we end. Blessings are a sign of God's mercy and grace.

Not always a sign of God's approval.

Moses had a wrong attitude. The Israelites had a wrong attitude. There were a lot of sinful attitudes cropping up here in Numbers, chapter 20. God didn't approve of any of that, but God gave them the blessing of water. Because God is a God of mercy and grace. And again, brethren, we must always look at ourselves and say, why is God blessing me? Is every blessing because I'm doing what's right, or because of God's graciousness to me? I think so many times God is very, very gracious to us. Let's look at Psalm 103.

Psalm 103, verse 10.

There's a principle here. Psalm 103, verse 10.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.

There are times. Now, obviously, if we live a life like this, we're certainly going to be punished. We certainly will not be in God's kingdom. But there are times where a good Christian can do some things that aren't right, but God will, in His loving kindness and mercy, say, well, I can give them a blessing, but I'm going to be teaching them down the road as well. I'm going to be teaching them. Let them know that they're not being blessed because of their wrong actions. You're never blessed because of the wrong actions. You're blessed because of God's mercy.

Third lesson. God is no respecter of persons. God is no respecter of persons. Moses sinned. He was punished by not being allowed to enter the Promised Land. He was forgiven. He will be in God's kingdom. But He was punished. Let's take a look at 1 Peter 1.

1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1.

Verse 17. Verse 1 Peter 1.17. And if you call on a Father who, without partiality, judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear. Call on a Father who, without partiality, judges according to each one's work. God is no respecter of persons. Whether you've been in a church for six months or 60 years, God is no respecter of persons.

Going over to chapter 4 of 1 Peter. 1 Peter 4. Verse 17 through 19.

1 Peter 4.17.

For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. And if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? We are being judged. God is looking at our hearts. He's looking at our minds. He's looking at our our lifestyle. He's looking at our fruits and works. We are now being evaluated. If you want to use the word evaluated in terms of the word judged, we are now being evaluated by God. Verse 18. Now if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will be the ungodly and the sinner appear? Therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in doing good as to a faithful creator.

Those who suffer. Those who've got to chastise. Those who've got to teach, to correct.

Making sure we are following him. And lastly, number four. Sin has its consequences. Sin has its consequences. We reap what we sow. Sin produces suffering and pain. It separates us from God. It leads to broken relationships. In this situation, it led to the suffering and pain of not realizing a dream of entering the Promised Land. A dream that they had for a generation well, for a generation for 40 years, where Moses had helped them leave Egypt, guided them, directed them, counseled them, was there with them in one-on-one situations, helped them in so many ways, but he was not allowed to go over. Final scripture over here in Galatians chapter 6.

Galatians chapter 6, verses 7 and 8. Galatians chapter 6 verses 7 and 8. So for today, brethren, we've taken a look at Deuteronomy chapter 3. And Deuteronomy is much like when we were going through the book of Daniel. We can tend to think of Daniel as being a book about prophecy. And as we saw as we went through that book, we saw that the book of Daniel was a book about prophecy. And as we saw as we went through that book, there's a tremendous amount of Christian living. Same thing is true with the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy does talk about God's laws and so on and so forth, and rightfully so, and beautifully so. But there's an awful lot of Christian living in this book. And that's why, come fall, I'm looking forward to starting a series of either in-home Bible studies or Zoom Bible studies with all of you regarding this book. So, let's start with the book of Deuteronomy. So, let's start with the book of Deuteronomy.